Abstract
What is the educational purpose of the university? To train professionals for the future job market? To form active citizens for an endangered world? To help students find themselves and develop personally? To seek knowledge with students as junior researchers?
Currently, this central question seems to be narrowed down in a climate, where economic interests dominate the purposes of the university, while neoliberal discourses colonise most agendas with values-free slogans of ’being better’, ’learning more’ and ’educating efficiently’ (Masschelein and Simons 2018, Shore and Wright 2019). In the late 1960’s so-called reform universities emerged across Europe with promises of departing from traditional and out-dated ways of teaching and researching (Olesen and Jensen 1999). The educational purposes varied, but most centred around societal relevance; that these universities should be useful for society and not hide themselves in Ivory towers. This paper asks what the educational purposes of reform universities are today and for the future. Taking a specific Danish reform university (Roskilde) as a case, which employed interdisciplinary, problem-based education from its beginning in 1972, this study analyses pedagogical texts to learn how educational purposes are constructed in power/knowledge relations over time. Such a genealogical approach (Foucault 1977) seeks to open up our present through historisation, which will enable renewed considerations of educational purposes for the future reform university. The study shows that such purposes are struggled over through four discourses, prevalent at different times and places: a societal-praxis discourse, a student-centred-personal-development discourse, a Humboldtian-scientific discourse and a neoliberal discourse.
The paper finishes with general reflections on the educational purposes of universities, and considers possible futures.
References:
Foucault, M. (1977). Nietzsche , Genealogy , History. In D. F. Bouchard (Ed.), Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Masschelein, J., & Simons, M. (2018). The University as Pedagogical Form: Public Study, Responsibility, Mondialisation. In Past, Present, and Future Possibilities for Philosophy and History of Education: Finding Space and Time for Research (pp. 1–149). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94253-7
Olesen, H. S., & Jensen, J. H. (Eds.). (1999). Project studies - a late modern university reform? Roskilde University Press.
Shore, C., & Wright, S. (2019). INTRODUCTION: Privatizing the Public University: Key Trends, Countertrends and Alternatives. In S. Wright & C. Shore (Eds.), Death of the Public University?: Uncertain Futures for Higher Education in the Knowledge Economy (pp. 1–6). Berghahn Books.
Currently, this central question seems to be narrowed down in a climate, where economic interests dominate the purposes of the university, while neoliberal discourses colonise most agendas with values-free slogans of ’being better’, ’learning more’ and ’educating efficiently’ (Masschelein and Simons 2018, Shore and Wright 2019). In the late 1960’s so-called reform universities emerged across Europe with promises of departing from traditional and out-dated ways of teaching and researching (Olesen and Jensen 1999). The educational purposes varied, but most centred around societal relevance; that these universities should be useful for society and not hide themselves in Ivory towers. This paper asks what the educational purposes of reform universities are today and for the future. Taking a specific Danish reform university (Roskilde) as a case, which employed interdisciplinary, problem-based education from its beginning in 1972, this study analyses pedagogical texts to learn how educational purposes are constructed in power/knowledge relations over time. Such a genealogical approach (Foucault 1977) seeks to open up our present through historisation, which will enable renewed considerations of educational purposes for the future reform university. The study shows that such purposes are struggled over through four discourses, prevalent at different times and places: a societal-praxis discourse, a student-centred-personal-development discourse, a Humboldtian-scientific discourse and a neoliberal discourse.
The paper finishes with general reflections on the educational purposes of universities, and considers possible futures.
References:
Foucault, M. (1977). Nietzsche , Genealogy , History. In D. F. Bouchard (Ed.), Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Masschelein, J., & Simons, M. (2018). The University as Pedagogical Form: Public Study, Responsibility, Mondialisation. In Past, Present, and Future Possibilities for Philosophy and History of Education: Finding Space and Time for Research (pp. 1–149). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94253-7
Olesen, H. S., & Jensen, J. H. (Eds.). (1999). Project studies - a late modern university reform? Roskilde University Press.
Shore, C., & Wright, S. (2019). INTRODUCTION: Privatizing the Public University: Key Trends, Countertrends and Alternatives. In S. Wright & C. Shore (Eds.), Death of the Public University?: Uncertain Futures for Higher Education in the Knowledge Economy (pp. 1–6). Berghahn Books.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | 9 jun. 2022 |
| Status | Udgivet - 9 jun. 2022 |
| Begivenhed | 4th annual Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference: Universities under siege? - Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sverige Varighed: 7 jun. 2022 → 9 jun. 2022 Konferencens nummer: 4 https://www.humsam.uu.se/phec2020/ |
Konference
| Konference | 4th annual Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference |
|---|---|
| Nummer | 4 |
| Lokation | Uppsala Universitet |
| Land/Område | Sverige |
| By | Uppsala |
| Periode | 07/06/2022 → 09/06/2022 |
| Andet | “the crisis of the university” is a familiar topos in contemporary discussions about higher education. It is said that the University is facing untold threats from, inter alia, the anti-intellectualism of populist politicians and authoritarian regimes, the commodification of knowledge resulting from neo-liberal ideas about utility and international competition, the politicization of teaching and learning arising out of identity movements, the fragmenting of the university in response to stakeholder demands, and so forth.<br/><br/>This conference poses the question: Is this really the case? And, if so, what exactly is being threatened? The aim of the meeting is to take a serious look at what is ultimately at stake, among other things, by examining the roots of these developments in terms of our conceptions of what is useful knowledge, why it is desirable and what is required to establish, maintain and develop it through our institutions of higher education. |
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