Bruce Macfarlane

Professors as intellectual leaders: formation, identity and role

The literature on leadership in higher education is predominantly concerned with the role of formally designated senior managers such as heads of department and deans of faculty. By contrast, relatively little attention has focused on those performing informal and distributed forms of leadership, such as (full) university professors. This article draws on the results of an online questionnaire and interviews to explore the leadership role of professors, primarily in a UK context. Professors feel that there is a mismatch between their priorities and those of their employing institutions and that their expertise is under‐utilised. A number of qualities are identified which may be associated with the role of a professor as an intellectual leader: role model, mentor, advocate, guardian, acquisitor and ambassador. It is argued that new managerialism and performative expectations are reshaping the role of the professoriate, and that institutions need to do more to develop their leadership capacity.

Teaching with integrity: the ethics of higher education practice

This is a book about the ethics of teaching in the context of higher education. While many books focus on the broader socially ethical topics of widening participation and promoting equal opportunities, this unique book concentrates specifically on the lecturers professional responsibilities. It covers the real-life, messy, everyday moral dilemmas that confront university teachers when dealing with students and colleagues - whether arising from facilitated discussion in the classroom, deciding whether it is fair to extend a deadline, investigating suspected plagiarism or dealing with complaints. Bruce Macfarlane analyses the pros and cons of prescriptive professional codes of practice employed by many universities and proposes the active development of professional virtues over bureaucratic recommendations. The material is presented in a scholarly, yet accessible style, and case examples are used throughout to encourage a practical, reflective approach. Teaching With Integrity seeks to bridge the pedagogic gap currently separating the debate about teaching and learning in higher education from the broader social and ethical environment in which it takes place.

Researching with integrity: the ethics of academic enquiry

There is increased emphasis internationally on ethically sound research, and on good training for research supervisors. Researching with Integrity aims to identify what and how research can be undertaken ethically and with ‘virtue’ from initial conception of ideas through to dissemination. It outlines the context in which academics engage in research, considering the impact of discipline and institutional culture, the influence of government audit of research ‘quality’, the role of government and quangos, professional organisations and business sponsors, and examines the effects of the increasing power and influence of funding bodies, university ethics committees and codes of practice. Based on the notion of ‘virtue’ ethics, this book proposes an alternative approach to research, which focuses not only on ethical rules and protocol to avoid unethical research, but encourages academic, professional and character development and allows for the exercise of personal judgement. Themes considered include: Increased competitiveness between academics and concentration of funding in fewer universities Increasingly bureaucratic approval of processes focused on the treatment of human and animals in research Meeting the expectations of research sponsors ‘Taboo’ research topics and methods Exposing findings to the scrutiny of peers, taking credit for the work of others and self-citation Bullying of junior researchers and plagiarism Power and influence of institutional, discipline-based and professional organisations.

Defining and Rewarding Academic Citizenship: The implications for university promotions policy

The concept of ‘academic citizenship’ reflects different interpretations of the civic purposes of the university. However, activities associated with this concept are largely under‐conceptualised and poorly rewarded in academic life. Based on research with an international group of academics, this paper defines the meanings of ‘service’ and ‘academic citizenship’, and outlines the implications for academics serving five overlapping communities: students, colleagues, institutions, disciplines or professions, and the wider public. It goes on to consider how academic citizenship may be recognised through university promotions criteria in the context of an increasingly ‘performative’ academic culture.

The academic citizen : the virtue of service in university life

With increasing focus on excellence in research and teaching, the service role of the individual academic is often neglected. This book calls for greater recognition of this important aspect of academic life, highlighting the importance of mentoring, committee work and pastoral care in the daily running of universities. Drawing from extensive examples from models around the world, The Academic Citizen points to the benefits of effective communication with colleagues in the faculty, across the university and in corresponding faculties across the world, as well as those in maintaining positive associations with the wider world.

Academic integrity: a review of the literature

This article provides a literature review on academic integrity, which encompasses the values, behaviour and conduct of academics in all aspects of their practice. This is a growing area of academic research as a result of the expansion of higher education on a global basis and concerns about standards of professional conduct. The article maps the main strands of research on academic integrity by reference to teaching, research and service using 115 articles derived from both western and Chinese literature. The review indicates that much of the literature is framed in terms of misconduct or academic corruption with research ethics the dominant focus. Researchers investigating academic integrity draw predominantly on multivariate analysis using surveys/questionnaires, documentary analysis and, more occasionally, interviews. While there has been rapid growth in the literature, a stronger focus is needed on identifying ‘ethical’ as well as ‘unethical’ practice despite the methodological challenges in overcoming social desirability reporting.

Prizes, pedagogic research and teaching professors: Lowering the status of teaching and learning through bifurcation

Considerable resources and intellectual attention have focused on seeking to raise the status of teaching in higher education over the last two decades. Initiatives at an institutional level have included the funding of pedagogic research, teaching awards and the creation of teaching professorships. In a broader context, the scholarship of teaching and learning movement has campaigned for a reconfigured and more inclusive understanding of scholarship. However, despite the good intentions of these initiatives, the effect been to lower still further the status of teaching, bifurcating universities between ‘teaching’ and ‘research’. It is argued that efforts should instead be directed at integrating academic practice as a more effective way of raising the status of teaching.

Business and management studies in higher education:: the challenge of academic legitimacy

Critics argue that the core values of higher education, including academic freedom and intellectual detachment, conflict with the more prosaic aims and ethos of business and management education. Analyses the isolation of business and management studies within this culture by reference to its epistemological, academic, institutional, doctrinal and professional identity. Argues that the ethos of business and management departments closely resembles an academic culture despite perceptions to the contrary in the wider academic community. However, acceptance of business and management in the academy as a legitimate social profession dictates the need for a broader curriculum which treats humanistic values as a central, rather than peripheral, concern.

Student Performativity in Higher Education: Converting Learning as a Private Space into a Public Performance.

The paper sets out a conceptual analysis of student performativity in higher education as a mirror image of teacher performativity. The latter is well known and refers to targets, evaluations and performance indicators connected with the measurement of the teaching and research quality of university academics. The former is defined as the way that students are evaluated on the basis of how they perform at university in bodily, dispositional and emotional terms. Specifically, this includes rules on class attendance and assessment (‘presenteeism’), an increasing emphasis on participation in class and in groups as part of learning and assessment regimes (‘learnerism’) and the surveillance of students’ emotional development and values (‘soulcraft’). Student performativity is symbolic of the ‘performing self’ in wider society and is transforming learning at university from a private space into a public performance. This negatively impacts student rights to be free to learn as autonomous adults.

The last judgement: exploring intellectual leadership in higher education through academic obituaries

The literature on leadership in higher education is focused mainly on senior academic leaders with managerial roles. It largely excludes informal and distributed forms of intellectual leadership offered by full professors among others. This article explores the concept of intellectual leadership using academic obituaries. A total of 63 obituaries were collected from Times Higher Education published between 2008 and 2010. These identify the importance of personal characteristics and academic achievements in the formation of reputation. Four elements of intellectual leadership are suggested, linked to academic obituaries: a passion for transformation, possessing a balance of personal virtues, a commitment to service, and overcoming adversity. Despite the limitations of obituaries, it is argued that they provide a valuable and under-utilised ‘last judgement’ on intellectual leadership.