Paul Trowler

Coming to Know in Higher Education: Theorising faculty entry to new work contexts

This research contributes to practice in the induction of faculty staff entering new work contexts and identifies theories that are worth further testing. Lightly structured interviews with 24 new entrants to the academic profession were complemented by re-analysis of transcripts from another interview study with 50 faculty members and by appraisal of data from three North American studies. The account of the processes of socialisation into academic life that was developed from repeated analysis of these data sets leads to some propositions about better induction. As the emerging account was repeatedly tested by appraising it for goodness of fit with the data, it was found that activity system theory and the idea of communities of practice contributed to a fuller and more coherent position. Consequently, it is argued that there is value in treating these two notions as heuristics that can evoke fresh understandings of higher education practices.

Captured by the Discourse? The Socially Constitutive Power of New Higher Education Discourse in the UK.

This paper addresses the extent to which academic staff are ‘captured’ by the discourse associated with the ‘new higher education’ (NHE) in the UK and identifies the factors which condition their ability to displace, negotiate, reconstruct and create alternative discourses. In addressing this task, the paper draws on data from a five-year ethnographic study of an English university, NewU, a single document from NewU published after that study, a comparative study of ‘new’ academics in England and Canada, and spontaneous textual data produced at a conference on higher education. The paper concludes that the dialogical nature of universities means that the impact of NHE discourse on organizational practices is mitigated as it is read and reacted to in varied ways: that academics are not fundamentally ‘captured’ by this discursive form. However, caution is advised in extending this argument too far.

Compulsory Higher Education Teacher Training: Joined‐up policies, institutional architectures and enhancement cultures

A number of countries, including Sweden and the UK, are considering the introduction of compulsory teacher training for higher education (HE) lecturers. This paper assesses whether such a policy is likely to achieve its aims, and the issues that may arise as the policy is implemented. The paper draws on experience with this policy in Norway, empirical research from relevant studies, and on social practice theory to illuminate the processes involved and identify prospects and pitfalls. The paper concludes that while compulsory higher education teacher training may achieve some of its goals, as a standalone policy it is unlikely to achieve them all. Higher education institutions and their staff are involved in multiple games, with competing goals and different rules. Meanwhile higher education policy‐making often lacks coherence, with contradictory outcomes in different areas of policy. If policy‐makers at all levels are serious about the enhancements to teaching and learning that compulsory training is designed to achieve the policy must be prioritized, properly resourced, and measures taken to develop a hospitable environment for it both structurally and culturally. The paper concludes with some specific proposals to aid educational developers in implementing such policies. Bon nombre de pays, desquels la Suède et le Royaume‐Uni, songent à introduire une formation obligatoire pour les enseignant‐es de l’ordre supérieur. Cet article évalue dans quelle mesure une telle politique est susceptible d’atteindre ses objectifs, de même que les questions soulevées lors de la mise en oeuvre d’une telle politique. Cet article s’inspire de l’expérience norvégienne de la formulation et de la mise en oeuvre d’une telle politique; de résultats empiriques provenant d’études sur le sujet; de même que de la théorie de la pratique sociale (social practice theory) pour faire la lumière sur les processus impliqués et identifier les perspectives d’avenir et les embûches. L’article conclut que, bien que la formation obligatoire des enseignant‐es de l’ordre supérieur puisse atteindre certains de ces buts, celle‐ci est peu susceptible de les atteindre tous en tant que politique autonome et isolée. Les institutions d’enseignement supérieur et leur personnel sont impliqués dans divers jeux, reposant chacun sur des objectifs et des règles tous différents les uns des autres. Pendant ce temps, la formulation des politiques d’enseignement supérieur manque souvent de cohérence, produisant des résultats contradictoires dans différents domaines de politiques. Si les décideurs politiques de tous les niveaux sont sérieux relativement à l’amélioration de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage visé par la formation obligatoire des enseignant‐es, une telle politique doit devenir une priorité, elle doit bénéficier de ressources appropriées, et des mesures doivent être prises en vue de développer un environnement qui lui soit accueillant, tant aux plans structurel que culturel. L’article se termine sur quelques recommandations spécifiques visant à aider les conseillers pédagogiques lors de la mise en oeuvre de telles politiques.

Freeing the chi of change: the Higher Education Academy and enhancing teaching and learning in higher education

This article examines recent UK policy initiatives to enhance teaching and learning in higher education in the UK, and the quality of the student experience there. The Higher Education Academy has recently begun to work in this area and the Higher Education Bill (2004) has passed into law. A reflective review of previous initiatives is therefore very timely. The article shows that, while these different initiatives have been explicitly addressed at different levels of analysis, the meso level—a particularly significant one—has been largely forgotten. Meanwhile these interventions have been based on contrasting underlying theories of change and development. One hegemonic theory relates to the notion of the reflective practitioner, which addresses itself to the micro (individual) level of analysis. It sees reflective practitioners as potential change agents. Another relates to the theory of the learning organization, which addresses the macro level of analysis and sees change as stemming from alterations in organizational routines, values and practices. A third is based on a theory of epistemological determinism and sees the discipline as the salient level of analysis for change. Meanwhile, other higher education policies exist alongside those mentioned above, not overtly connected to the enhancement of teaching and learning but impinging upon it in very significant ways in a bundle of disjointed strategies and tacit theories. Of particular relevance here are policies on funding, on research and on widening participation, all implemented in an increasingly managerialist environment in which work intensification and degradation of resources are occurring. Missing in all this is coherence across the policies, and their underlying theories, at the different analytical levels. Because there is disjointedness in various government and other agencies, higher education policies they have tended to obstruct rather than complement each other. Hence our use of a metaphor from Eastern philosophy—the notion of blocked chi. Also missing is a robust theory of change and associated set of policies at the meso level of analysis—the departmental level. We suggest ways in which the latter omission might be rectified, thus freeing the ‘chi of change’.

Angels in marble? Accrediting prior experiential learning in higher education

ABSTRACT After a brief account of the background to the accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) in higher education, this paper elaborates on what are usually seen as two contrasting approaches to it: the credit exchange and developmental models. The paper argues that these should be recognised as poles of a continuum rather than dichotomous approaches and subjects each end of this continuum to critical scrutiny. Practical, epistemological, pedagogical and cultural impediments to successful implementation of APEL are explored, the potential of APEL for deepening surveillance of the individual is highlighted and claims made about APEL and equal opportunities are questioned. In particular, the problems associated with taking inappropriate positions on the continuum and of being unclear about the position taken are emphasised. The paper concludes by mapping areas where further research is needed and identifying the limits of the potential of APEL to broaden access to a mass higher education syste...

Organizational socialization and induction in universities: Reconceptualizing theory and practice

This paper argues that the theory and practice of induction and socialization of new academic staff in universities have been based on a partial, corporatist, perspective influenced by now defunct structural-functionalist theory. We develop a more sophisticated theoretical understanding of organizational socialization and explore its consequences for the practice of induction of new academic staff. These ideas are based on secondary data derived from a number of studies of new academic appointees (NAAs), 27 in-depth interviews we conducted with academics in ten Canadian and English universities, both chartered and unchartered, and a five year ethnographic study of academic staff in a single unchartered English university.

Beyond the Robbins trap: Reconceptualising academic responses to change in higher education (or … quiet flows the don?)

ABSTRACT This article argues that there is an urgent need to emphasise the role of the academic as an important actor in the study of policy implementation in higher education. It asserts that research into higher education is distinctive in adopting an ‘over-socialised˚s conception of men and women. To demonstrate the actors importance in the understanding of change the article draws on the results of an ethnographic single-site case study of NewU, a post-1992 university. The locus of the study was the developing ‘mass˚s model of higher education and curricular characteristics associated with that, particularly the credit framework, the constellation of features related to and facilitated by the assignment of credit to assessed learning, considered in a context of relative resource decline and increasing student numbers. The study highlighted the ways in which academics respond to changing contexts and take actions which have the effect, intentionally and otherwise, of changing policy outcomes. A greate...

Wicked issues in situating theory in close-up research

‘Wicked’ issues are one-off problems that have no algorithms to follow to solutions. They are ill-understood or understood in multiple, perhaps conflicting, ways and are fundamentally complex in character. This paper argues that the term is an apt one to describe many aspects of the relationship between theory and data in educational research, and the decisions that have to be made about theory and its role in relation to data. The paper explores these aspects, focusing on the theoretical choices researchers often need to make. It argues that while there is great benefit in making good, explicit, theoretical choices, there are several traps that lie in wait for the unwary and fundamental decisions about the role of theory in research. In clarifying the dimensions of wickedity in this regard, this paper offers assistance to researchers in thinking through the issues they face.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: mentoring and the socialisation of new entrants to the academic professions

ABSTRACT The induction and mentoring of new academic staff are becoming urgent concerns because growing numbers of vacancies will appear as the ‘baby‐boom’ generation of academics retires. New recruits will have to engage with the new, complex mandates with which higher education institutions are being charged. Evidence from a study of new academics is set alongside recent North American research into mentoring arrangements for new academics. It is suggested that, on the evidence we present, current British practice falls short of North American recommendations. However, it is claimed that whatever attention is paid to mentoring, its impact cannot be detached from the culture of the departments and teams within which academic staff work. By themselves, better mentoring arrangements cannot resolve looming problems in the induction of new academics.

‘A kind of exchange’: learning from art and design teaching

This paper analyses pedagogic practices in four fields in art and design higher education. Its purpose is to identify the characteristics that might be called signature pedagogies in these subjects and to identify their role in student centred learning. In a time of growing economic pressure on higher education and in the face of tendencies for normative practices brought about through mechanisms such as quality assurance procedures the authors seek to articulate and recognise the issues relating to spaces and pedagogies from this discipline that might be made to wider debates about learning in the sector.