Jan McArthur

Reconsidering the Social and Economic Purposes of Higher Education.

In this article I seek to reconsider the social and economic purposes of higher education. It begins with the premise that there appears to be a general trend towards governments positioning higher education primarily in terms of the economic role that it can fulfil. Such a trend, however, has attracted considerable criticism. In this article I argue that the problem for higher education is not it having an economic role, but the narrowness of the way in which that role is often conceptualised. Drawing on critical theory I explore the interrelation of economic and social factors within higher education and the wider society in which it is situated. This article argues for a redefinition of the purposes of higher education to ensure that both universities and workplaces are sites of human creativity and that the profound and exciting work within institutions of higher education benefits all members of society.

Achieving social justice within and through higher education: the challenge for critical pedagogy

While the term critical pedagogy embraces a range of writers and literature, a common feature of all is a belief that education and society are intrinsically inter-related and that the fundamental purpose of education is to improve social justice. However there are perceptions that critical pedagogy has been more successful in critiquing educational and social practices than in achieving actual change. In this paper I explore two areas that critical pedagogy can address to move beyond critique: the importance of a movement formed by diverse elements, in which difference and disagreement are harnessed to help drive change; and the use of this diversity to direct change at a range of levels. My analysis draws specifically on literature that challenges managerialist assumptions about change as a simple, technical process, focusing instead on the complexities of the social world and the attendant complexities of achieving educational and social change.

Time to look anew: critical pedagogy and disciplines within higher education

This article explores the attitudes of writers within the tradition of critical pedagogy towards disciplines in higher education. With particular focus on Henry Giroux’s work, it contrasts his portrayal of disciplines as closed, limiting and elitist with an alternative one of disciplines as complex, permeable and contested spaces. Critical pedagogy has a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity, and proponents regard interdisciplinary spaces as crucial to the pursuit of their emancipatory ideals. However, this article challenges the assumption of writers such as Giroux that disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are alternatives, and regards them instead as complementary. More complex understandings of interdisciplinarity, as well as disciplinarity, could also assist critical pedagogy to work through some of the theoretical and practical dilemmas associated with the myriad of ideas that this broad movement contains, and ensure it is better placed to resist current trends that appear to strip higher education of its wider social purposes.

No longer exempt from good practice: using exemplars to close the feedback gap for exams

In this paper, we discuss the anomaly between the increasing interest in feedback in current education research, the continued role of time-limited, unseen examinations as a form of assessment and the dearth of literature on feedback related to such exams. We argue that while exams have long been regarded as different from other forms of assessment, it is not justifiable to exempt them from the good practice that can, and does, inform these other types of assessment. We suggest a solution to providing timely, effective feedback for end of course examinations is to move the feedback emphasis to ‘feedforward’ by implementing exemplars (examples of real students’ work, generally of different qualities). This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether there was a relationship between student use of exemplars before the exam and the final exam grade achieved (n = 520), and to explore students’ and lecturers’ perspectives about the effectiveness of and engagement with exemplars. Quantitative findings suggested that those students who accessed exemplars did score better in their exams than those that did not. Qualitative data revealed that exemplars were received positively by students and lecturers, and we use this to provide practical suggestions on exemplar good practice.

Virtuous Mess and Wicked Clarity: Struggle in Higher Education Research.

This article considers the value of clarity – of theory, method and purposes – in educational research. It draws upon the work of early critical theorist, Theodor Adorno, and particularly his notion of negative dialectics and his challenge to the traditional dichotomy of theory and practice. Using the notions of virtuous mess and wicked clarity, I argue that we need to accept the messy, contingent nature of the social world we research. I further suggest that it then follows that such research can and should influence and change that world. The researcher is necessarily part of the world she researches and, once one accepts that, it is hard to sustain ethical or political isolation; it is hard to ignore the struggle.

Assessment for social justice: the role of assessment in achieving social justice

This article provides a rationale for assessment for social justice, through which a greater focus is given to the role of assessment in achieving the social justice aspirations of higher education. It takes inspiration from work on assessment for learning to propose that as assessment is a powerful driver of how and what students learn, we should also consider its potential to drive a commitment for greater social justice within and through higher education. The article provides a critique of procedural notions of social justice, which I argue have implicitly influenced current notions of fairness in assessment. Greater reflection on the possible flaws in such procedural notions is a starting point for rethinking assessment in social justice terms. I then draw on two alternative conceptualisations of social justice – the capabilities approach and critical theory – to consider the ways in which key assessment issues would look differently through these alternative lenses. The article does not aim to establish a prescriptive list of practices around the notion of assessment for social justice, but rather upon debate and a greater appreciation of the implications of how we conceptualise justice and the attendant influence on what may be considered appropriate assessment policies and practices.

Advances and innovations in university assessment and feedback

This book uses theory and empirical research to explore changing perspectives and innovations in assessment. Our understanding of the purposes of assessment and the nature of assessment practices in higher education has changed markedly over the past 40 years. These changes are a response not only to recent developments in our understanding of student learning but also to the demands a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world places on students. This book collects new perspectives on assessment and feedback provided by world renowned researchers on issues that are currently of great interest to both academic managers and teaching staff, as they try to make courses more effective and more appealing at a time when universities compete for incoming students. This book collects new perspectives on assessment and feedback - issues that are currently of great interest to both academic managers and teaching staff - provided by world renowned researchers. The contributors highlight the links between these innovations, theories and research and offer solutions that are both pioneering and evidence-based. It charts the history of assessment and feedback in universities showing how our understanding of assessment practices has changed. It reports on recent innovations in assessment practices in higher education. It engages critically with recent research on assessment and feedback offering evidence-based conclusions.

Exile, sanctuary and diaspora: mediations between higher education and society

This paper is premised on a commitment to higher educations role in contributing to greater social justice. The goals, values and practices of higher education and those of society are therefore regarded as, ideally, intertwined. To this end I want to suggest a way of thinking about what it means to study, teach or research in higher education that transcends notions of inside or outside the academy. I will use the three terms – exile, sanctuary and diaspora – to capture different moments and manifestations of the relationships among individuals in higher education and between them and wider society.

Against standardised experience: leaving our marks on the palimpsests of disciplinary knowledge

This article is based upon a belief that the ways in which we engage with knowledge in higher education is linked directly to the possibilities for greater social justice. I explore the importance of students being able to engage with disciplinary knowledge that is as rich, lively and vibrant as that which academics hopefully encounter within their own research, and yet still clearly retain their rights as students to not yet know. I discuss the limitations of certainty, predictability and transparency and critique the prevailing trend towards what I call the standardisation of higher education. I then turn to the ways in which students, as students, might engage fully with this complex knowledge. I introduce the idea of disciplinary knowledge as a series of palimpsests and discuss the ways in which students should be given opportunities to leave their marks upon these.

Triple Nexus: Improving STEM Teaching through a Research-Public Engagement-Teaching Nexus.

In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded by STEM research funding can become proxies for the development of similar skills and dispositions essential to good university teaching.