Marnie Hughes-Warrington

Systematic review methodology in higher education

Systematic review methodology can be distinguished from narrative reviews of the literature through its emphasis on transparent, structured and comprehensive approaches to searching the literature and its requirement for formal synthesis of research findings. There appears to be relatively little use of the systematic review methodology within the higher education sector. This paper outlines the systematic review methodology, including variations, explores debates regarding systematic reviews from the educational literature and describes particular issues for its application within higher education. We conclude that thoughtful use of the systematic review methodology may be of benefit to the sector.

Exploring historical thinking and agency with undergraduate history students

Recent research on historical thinking has instigated important disciplinary conversations and changes in pedagogical practice. They have, however, largely focused on the primary and secondary school sector, highlighting the gap in corresponding research into tertiary education. It is important to look at the experiences of history students at tertiary level, to assess the impact of perceptions and practices on graduate employment outcomes and transitions to research careers. In 2008 a national scoping study on student and staff perceptions of the nature and purposes of historical thinking was undertaken at 12 Australian universities, involving 1455 student questionnaires and 50 interviews with academics. This article examines student and staff perceptions of the social benefits of historical thinking, highlighting the great potential for transformative learning and civic contribution, and the vital role of agency in this process.

Historical Thinking in Higher Education - Staff and Student Perceptions of the Nature of Historical Thinking

This article provides an introduction to the results of a nationwide scoping study of student and staff perceptions of the nature and roles of historical thinking. In 2008–09, over 1400 students and 50 staff from 12 universities around Australia completed interviews and questionnaires. This research report examines student and staff responses to the second questionnaire item, asking for an assessment of the connection between particular activities and historical thinking. The national data reflected a surprisingly consistent pattern of responses and highlighted at least three things which should be of interest and concern to academics: first, students far more than their teachers associated the handling of secondary sources with historical thinking; second, students drew few connections between online work and historical thinking; and third, there were few discernible differences in the responses of introductory and upper-level students. These findings underscore the need for sector-wide work on promoting primary materials work with students, for developing the opportunities provided by computer-assisted learning and articulating and communicating to students the standards of achievement valued by the profession as marking the development of historical thinking at tertiary level.

Time and history: The variety of cultures

the implications of all these to understandings of the flux of time. Readers will do well to wonder how to change this pre-egological disposition to certain logics and modalities of historical thought since the logics are based on a proclivity. Perhaps historical education at schools, from an early age, could help to change this scenario. The importance of Blum’s findings therefore goes beyond his identification of the twelve logical ways of presenting history. By showing how historical knowledge is predetermined by an individual’s own rational and logical proclivity, Blum questions the Kantian legacy which argues that knowledge is free, thus showing that patterns of mind determine more about one’s perceptions of time and representation of past events than was previously imagined. This is, in itself, a considerable contribution, and one which will not go unacknowledged by historians of ideas/intellectual historians. In conclusion, Blum’s book will interest readers of Rethinking History owing to its radical departure from existing models of understanding phenomenological historiography. The book reviewed here places his voice as original and potentially very influential in intellectual history and philosophy of history.

Coloring Universal History: Robert Benjamin Lewis's Light and Truth (1843) and William Wells Brown's The Black Man (1863)

The idea of universal history is conventionally associated with nineteenth-century writers and the project of imperialism. This article presents an expanded definition of universal history, one that covers unified histories of the known world or universe, histories that aim to illuminate universal principles, histories of the world unified by the workings of a single mind, and histories of the world that have passed down through unbroken lines of transmission. Encompassed in the broader range of this definition are works by authors who are conventionally seen as marginalized by nineteenth-century historiography. Using the works of two African American authors—Robert Benjamin Lewis and William Wells Brown—as a case study, this article highlights the complexities and cross currents of universal history writing by those on the margins, and the importance of voluntary associations in the production and circulation of their texts.

How Good An Historian Shall I Be?: R. G. Collingwood on Education.

Abstract Although many educators have heard of R. G. Collingwood (1889‐1943), few have read more than The Principles of Art and The Idea of History. The aim of this paper is to draw out some of Collingwoods ideas on education by reference to a wide range of his published and unpublished works. Having described his views on the aims of education, the nature and content of the curriculum, and how education is to be brought about, it will be shown that although his suggestions show something of the influence of Idealism, he alone locates the question ‘How good an historian shall I be?’ at the heart of civilisation. When we think of history as merely a trade or profession, a craft or calling, we find it hard to justify our existence as historians. What can the historian do for people except turn them into historians like himself? And what is the good of doing that? It is not simply a vicious circle, whose tendency is to overcrowd the ranks of the profession and to produce an underpaid “intellectual proletari...

The Ethics of Internationalisation in Higher Education: Hospitality, self-presence and ‘being late’

While the concept of internationalization plays a key role in contemporary discussions on the activities and outcomes sought by universities, it is commonly argued that it is poorly understood or realised in practice. This has led some to argue that more work is needed to define the dimensions of the concept, or even to plot out stages of its achievement. This paper aims not to provide a definition of internationalisation for those working in higher education. On the contrary, it seeks to open up discussion on internationalisation by considering Derridas reflections on hospitality and the metaphysics of presence. In so doing, it will be shown that internationalisation is an ethical demand that is as much about being unsettled by thinking about ourselves and others, as it is about mobility programs and online education, and about being ‘late’ rather than surrendering to the space‐time compression of modernity.

Collingwood and the Early Paul Hirst on the Forms of Experience‐Knowledge and Education

Paul Hirsts ‘forms of knowledge’ thesis has been the subject of much discussion and debate in educational circles. Hirsts claim that such forms exist is not original but, as R. S. Peters claimed, his account is distinctive in its application to the school curriculum. This paper calls for a revision of Peterss claim on the grounds that R. G. Collingwoods writings on the forms of experience not only refer to the school curriculum, but also point up an explicitly educational agenda.

Writing on the Margins of the World: Hester Lynch Piozzi's Retrospection (1801) as Middlebrow Art?

Hester Lynch Piozzi’s Retrospection is little discussed in the historiography of world history. This article explores Piozzi’s composition, publication, and repeated reinscription of the work from the mid 1780s to her death in 1821, and locates it within her varied efforts at describing a social index of affinity and cohesion. Drawing out this dimension of the work highlights the opportunity to connect textual annotation with another nineteenth-century textual expression of social relationships—photography—and thereby provides an avenue to expand John Sutton’s research on physical “exograms” through a consideration of desired as well as actual relationships. In this way, Retrospection—and world histories—are seen as opportunities for authors to bind themselves to the “middlebrow” communities of friend-readers, and thus as works of far “smaller compass” than traditional analyses of imperial and national themes would suggest.

Australian media reception histories

As the field of Australian media history expands, so too does the need for a broader and more innovative range of questions, issues and debates. This special issue of MIA responds to that need by considering the sources and research questions raised by media reception historians working on film, radio, television and the press. From print to new media, the papers assembled highlight the ingenuity of Australian historians working to recover the experiences of audiences in urban and regional settings.