Critical Approaches To Online Learning

Online learning has become an increasing presence in higher education course design, with most courses combining physical real time engagement with asynchronous learning activity. Now, however, there is a greater need for this one-stop guide to critical practice in this area, as we rethink the role of digital in the social practices of university learning and teaching. This book provides a critical and contemporary ‘deep dive’ into the socio-material, technological and pedagogical practices at work in virtual and digital higher education. Examples are drawn from across and between disciplinary pedagogies with a focus on blended and hybrid approaches and the pivot to fully online made urgent by Covid-19 but drawing on existing best practice. The Critical Practice in Higher Education series provides a scholarly and practical entry point for academics into key areas of higher education practice. Each book in the series explores an individual topic in depth, providing an overview in relation to current thinking and practice, informed by recent research. The series will be of interest to those engaged in the study of higher education, those involved in leading learning and teaching or working in academic development, and individuals seeking to explore particular topics of professional interest. Through critical engagement, this series aims to promote an expanded notion of being an academic – connecting research, teaching, scholarship, community engagement and leadership – while developing confidence and authority.

An update to a provocative manifesto intended to serve as a platform for debate and as a resource and inspiration for those teaching in online environments. In 2011, a group of scholars associated with the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh released “The Manifesto for Teaching Online,” a series of provocative statements intended to articulate their pedagogical philosophy. In the original manifesto and a 2016 update, the authors counter both the “impoverished” vision of education being advanced by corporate and governmental edtech and higher education’s traditional view of online students and teachers as second-class citizens. The two versions of the manifesto were much discussed, shared, and debated. In this book, Siân Bayne, Peter Evans, Rory Ewins, Jeremy Knox, James Lamb, Hamish Macleod, Clara O'Shea, Jen Ross, Philippa Sheail and Christine Sinclair have expanded the text of the 2016 manifesto, revealing the sources and larger arguments behind the abbreviated provocations. The book groups the twenty-one statements (“Openness is neither neutral nor natural: it creates and depends on closures”; “Don’t succumb to campus envy: we are the campus”) into five thematic sections examining place and identity, politics and instrumentality, the primacy of text and the ethics of remixing, the way algorithms and analytics “recode” educational intent, and how surveillance culture can be resisted. Much like the original manifestos, this book is intended as a platform for debate, as a resource and inspiration for those teaching in online environments, and as a challenge to the techno-instrumentalism of current edtech approaches. In a teaching environment shaped by COVID-19, individuals and institutions will need to do some bold thinking in relation to resilience, access, teaching quality, and inclusion.

The Handbook of Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education provides a broad overview of educational policy and politics from critical perspectives engaging with both foundational and cutting edge topics. In critical perspectives, educational policy debates and programs for reform are about more than narrow questions of efficacy say to raise test scores or for simply more educational inclusion, fairer school spending, or even cultural responsiveness. Rather, policy and reform debates represent contested visions for schools and society by social groups vying for hegemony. Critical approaches to educational policy and politics see schooling and education more broadly as contested terrain in which competing visions for education are imbricated with the material and symbolic interests and cultural ideologies of different classes and cultural groups. Chapters in this volume are organized into five sections. The first three sections provide a foundational overview to educational policy and politics, covering culture and politics of education, political economy of education, and subjectivity and education. These chapters address longstanding and current policy and political debates as well as foundational theoretical debates. The last two sections are organized around two themes that address some of the most significant recent directions of educational politics and policy: disaster politics and technology.

An essential guide to incorporating critical research into higher education scholarship. Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award of the Post-secondary Education Division of the American Educational Research Association Critical theory has much to teach us about higher education. By linking critical models, methods, and research tools with an advocacy-driven vision of the central challenges facing postsecondary researchers and staff, Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education makes a significant—and long overdue—contribution to the development of the field. The contributors argue that, far from being overly abstract, critical tools and methods are central to contemporary scholarship and can have practical policy implications when brought to the study of higher education. They argue that critical research design and critical theories help scholars see beyond the normative models and frameworks that have long limited our understanding of students, faculty, institutions, the organization and governance of higher education, and the policies that shape the postsecondary arena. A rigorous and invaluable guide for researchers seeking innovative approaches to higher education and the morass of traditionally functionalist, rational, and neoliberal thinking that mars the field, this book is also essential for instructors who wish to incorporate the lessons of critical scholarship into their course development, curriculum, and pedagogy.

Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender provides students with carefully selected readings that examine diverse cultural religious traditions, as well as the intersection of academic religious studies and the practice of religion throughout the world. The anthology explores both mainstream religious traditions and those that are marginalized, applying theories of feminism, sexuality, race, class, and gender across the board to offer readers a broad and comprehensive understanding of global religion. Through selections authored by prolific writers in the field, coupled with insights from the editors for additional context, students learn about critical approaches to religion, the various methods of studying religion, the concept of belief, the connection of myth to ritual, the idea of mysticism, how gender and sexuality factor into religious experiences, and more. Cross-disciplinary in nature, Critical Approaches to Religion is designed to serve as a supplementary text for foundational courses in religion, world religion, anthropology, sociology, and history. Nicole Goulet received her Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, focusing her work on feminist and postcolonial approaches to colonial Hinduism. She is an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Religious Studies. Nixon Cleophat earned his B.A. in English and educational studies from Salem State University, his M.Div. in biblical studies and political theology from Harvard Divinity School, and his Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary. He is an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Foundations of Qualitative Research introduces key theoretical and epistemological concepts replete with historical and current real-world examples. Author Jerry W. Willis provides an invaluable resource to guide the critical and qualitative inquiry process written in an accessible and non-intimidating style that brings these otherwise difficult concepts to life.

This collection re-envisions the academic study of institutional translation and interpreting (ITI), uncovering the ways in which institutional practices have inhibited knowledge creation and encouraging stakeholders to continue to challenge the assumptions and epistemics which underpin the field. ITI is broadly conceived here as translation and interpreting delivered in or for specific organizations and institutional social systems, spanning national, supranational, and international organizations as well as financial markers, universities, and national courts. This volume is organized around three sections, which collectively interrogate the knower – the field itself – to engage in questions around “how we know what we know” in ITI and how institutions have contributed to or hindered the social practice of knowledge creation in ITI studies. The first section challenges the paths which have led to current epistemologies of ignorance while the second turns the critical lens on specific institutional practices. The final section explores specific proposals to challenge existing epistemologies by broadening the scope of ITI studies. Giving a platform to perspectives which have been historically marginalized within ITI studies and new paths to continue challenging dominant assumptions, this book will appeal to scholars and policymakers in translation and interpreting studies.

"Rethinking Online Education" analyzes online educational materials on the recent Iraq war aimed to be used by U.S. educators in elementary and secondary schools. It is suggested that far from being ideologically neutral, these educational materials weave together resources which provide a coherent view of the Iraq war theme, and can thus been seen as constituting a kind of an informal curriculum. Mitsikopoulou argues that the teacher resources adhere to different pedagogical discourses and constitute materializations of two broad approaches to education. A number of pedagogical issues are also raised in the discussion: What is the difference between critical thinking and critical pedagogy? How is the genre of lesson plan realized in different teaching philosophies and how do curricular texts change when they are delivered online? This important book highlights the need to explore the new forms of textuality which emerge from online curricular materials and to develop an understanding of the processes of text composition, distribution and consumption.