Civitas - Politics and Policies of Education
What’s the ‘use’ in Higher Education?
The ‘usefulness’ of Higher Education is a recurring topic of discussion across the political and social spectra in the UK. Such debates are powerful given that they result in decisions that have pedagogical and economic ramifications. Certain beliefs around usefulness may justify particular faculties and departments becoming the casualties of the precarious financial situations in which many universities in the UK now find themselves.
As student choice threatens to be restricted by these decisions, so too are academic disciplines threatened by their perceived (lack of) utility. However, it is clear that these perceptions have changed over time. Giving the example of our own institution, The University of Strathclyde was established as a place of ‘useful learning’ when it was originally conceived by John Anderson in 1796 and it is worth noting that, in the Enlightenment period in which he lived, usefulness encompassed not only practical and economic benefits but also moral and intellectual development. That Strathclyde now envisions itself as a technological university shows how conceptualisations of use and usefulness are prone to evolving, and it is this evolution, across the past, present and future of Higher Education, that our project, funded by the Society for Educational Studies, intends to investigate.
This project intends to foster interdisciplinary conceptual discussion to interrogate, and reconcile, differing notions of use and usefulness across departments, faculties, and institutions in order to support the building of a strong future for HE in the UK. The reflections that arise from these discussions may offer a more rounded consideration of any perceived ‘use’ in HE that extends beyond the pervasive idea that universities are useful only to the extent that they ensure the marketability of their student body or are able to provide immediate impact through ‘spinning out’ new technologies. In a broader sense, it aims to reconfigure not only this particular perspective of HE, but of the concept of education in general.
After Religious Education
This project attempts to think about the educational representation of religion(s) in the context of rising forms of ‘non-religion’, post-secularism, and recent debates about the place of Religious Education in England and Wales, in particular the 2018 report by the Commission on Religious Education. The project will also explore larger pedagogical questions of educational representation of religion(s), that include representation in schools, but also the media, museums, and other sites of public education.
Towards Policy Philosophy
This project is seeking to identify ways in which philosophy might contribute to an understanding of the nature of education policy. It uses philosophy of agency and Positioning Theory to extend work done on 'Policy as Positioning'.
Scottish education: politics, regions, and international actors
This project is an ongoing series of interlinked seminars, visits, presentations, and publications that explore the changing relationship between Scottish education and international actors (particularly in the Nordic states). To date, work has centred on conceptualising the relationships between the Nordic region and Scotland educationally, and Scottish developments in pedagogy as a response to instrumental and overly, overtly simplified views of pedagogy emanating from Anglo-phonic countries for political purposes and expediency.