The Philosophy Of Higher Education

Providing a comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of higher education this book steps nimbly through the field, leading it into new areas and advancing an imaginative ecological realism. Each chapter takes the form of a short essay, tackling a particular topic such as values, knowledge, teaching, critical thinking and social justice. It also examines key issues including academic freedom, the digital university and the Anthropocene, and draws on classic as well as contemporary texts in the field. Composed of five parts, the book travels on a compelling journey: Part one identifies foundations of the field, distinguishing between the ideas of university and higher education, Part two examines key concepts, including research, culture, academic freedom and reason, Part three focuses on higher education as a set of educational practices and being a student, Part four is concerned with the university as an institution and includes the matters of leadership and the spirit of the university, Part five turns to the university in the world, and argues for an ecological perspective. Written in a lively and accessible style, and ideal for anyone coming to the field for the first time but also of interest to experienced scholars, this book offers sightings of new possibilities for higher education and the university.

This revised edition offers college and university leaders an up-to-date analytical perspective for resolving basic academic issues. Brubacher reexamines, refines and extends earlier arguments and other key questions in response to significant new social, economic, legal and educational developments. He discusses the limits of autonomy, the exercise of academic freedom, the desirability of open admissions, prescribed curricula and collective bargaining. He also investigates such emerging new problems as accountability, corporate interests on campus, and the right to confidentiality; expands on ways to promote equal access and specialized education without undermining the criteria for admission.

This book shows the significance of the thinking of philosophers (and other key thinkers) in understanding the university and higher education. Through those explorations, it widens and substantially adds to the emerging philosophy of higher education. It builds on the historical literature on the idea of the university, and provides higher education scholars with highly accessible introductions to the thinking of key philosophers and thinkers, alerting them to a set of literature that otherwise might not be encountered. Until very recently, most of the debate on higher education – both in the public domain and in the scholarly literature – has been conducted with little regard to the philosophical literature. This is odd for two reasons. Firstly, much of the historical literature on the idea of the university – over the past two hundred years – has been written by philosophers and their thinking has largely gone unmined. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, many of the issues in the higher education debate are either philosophical in their nature, or require reflective thinking, and there lies to hand huge resources in the philosophical literature that can help in working through those issues. Issues such as what is to count as knowledge (in the university), wisdom, voice, democracy, culture, what it is to ‘be’ a student or academic, academic freedom, communication, work and disciplinarity cry out for the kind of insights that the philosophical literature – very broadly understood – can offer. This book attempts precisely to do this, to show how the work of key thinkers can help in deepening the higher education debate. Each chapter focuses on an individual thinker, giving both an insight into the thinker in question and accessibly drawing out something of their thinking and showing its significance in understanding the university and higher education. The editors provide a full-length introduction that marks out this large territory and prepares the ground for the reader. The book impressively builds a rich meshwork of careful and thorough thinking around the university and higher education by way of introducing 14 important philosophers on timely subjects such as culture and the university, higher education and democracy, and the role of the university. The volume is a great contribution to the important task of deepening the debate about higher education and the university, through introducing important philosophers in ways that might help the university and higher education work through some of the issues and challenges that it is currently facing. As such, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting to wander and wonder deeper into the core purposes and possibilities of higher education in the good companionship of outstanding thinkers and distinguished academics on these matters. A playground for philosophical thought and adventure.Rikke Toft Nørgård, Associate Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark 'This book is an excellent introduction to a wide range of famous thinkers and what they have to say about the university and higher education today. It goes beyond the contemporary preoccupation with metrics, based on managerialism, and takes a much needed philosophical look at what higher education should be, or should aspire to be.'Assoc. Prof. Stephen Loftus, Foundational Medical Studies, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, USA

This book argues for renewed understandings of academic activism, understandings that conceive of the ideas, arguments and scholarship of the academe as embedded within the practices of what the academy does. It examines why and how a renewed notion of academic activism informs a philosophy of higher education specifically in relation to teaching and learning. The book focuses on the theories and practices of teaching and learning, in particular how such pedagogical actions are guided by social, political and cultural influences outside of the university as a higher education institution. The authors advocate for a living philosophy of higher education that is commensurate with real actions and imaginary fictions of what constitutes higher education and what remains in becoming for the discourse. With a focus on South African social justice education, the book imagines pathways for academic activism to manifest in revolutionised pedagogical actions or actions that bring into contestation what already exists with the possibility for the cultivation of renewal.

This book advances a re-imagined view of caring in higher education. The author proposes an argument of rhythmic caring, whereby teachers hold back or release their judgments in such a way that students’ judgments are influenced accordingly. In doing so, the author argues that rhythmic caring encourages students to become more willing and confident in articulating their understandings, judgments and opinions, rather than being prematurely judged and prevented from re-articulating themselves. Thus, rhythmic caring can engender a different understanding of higher education: one that is connected to the cultivation of values such as autonomy, justice, empathy, mutual respect and Ubuntu (human dignity and interdependence). This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of caring within education, as well as Ubuntu caring through the African context.

Transformation of the University imagines preferable futures for the university, building hope for the institution’s necessary transformation. It transcends old criticisms and presents fresh ideas on how the institution might be conceived, organised and put into practice while safeguarding that which makes it a university – the pursuit of knowledge. This book is divided into three main parts: Part One – ‘Knowledge’ assumes the role of the university in generating knowledge for the benefit of society; Part Two – ‘Cultural Growth’ expands on how the university might contribute to and benefit from the cultural growth of society, with both explicit and implicit connections to social and epistemic (in)justice; and Part Three – ‘Institutions’ focuses on imaginative processes for enacting the university as an institution that meets the unforeseen future challenges facing societies around the world. With contributions from scholars across the world, Transformation of the University is an essential read for all academics, practitioners, institutional leaders and broad social thinkers who are concerned with the future of the university and its contributions to society.

Transitioning Students in Higher Education focuses on the relationship between philosophy, pedagogy and practice when designing programs, units or courses for transitioning students to new educational spaces in the university environment. The term ‘transition’ is used to describe the academic as well as social movement and acculturation of students into new higher educational spaces. This book offers both theoretical perspectives and real-world practical examples that reveal the successes and challenges of implementing philosophically driven pedagogies with diverse transitioning cohorts. Drawing on examples from Australia, New Zealand, US and Canada, it writes through the relationship between philosophy, pedagogy and how it can effectively shape the practice of transition and develop the flourishing student. This book is split into three main sub-themes: Flourishing in Transition, Engaging Diverse Cohorts and Challenges for Educators, and sits at the intersections between philosophy and pedagogy in the practice of effectively engaging and transitioning different enabling groups. This book will be of great interest to postgraduate students, researchers and educators working in the areas of enabling or bridging education, higher/tertiary education, distance learning, and indigenous as well as culturally diverse cohorts.

This book brings together a discussion of educational philosophy, nihilism and humanity to rethink education in times of crisis, with a particular focus on teaching and learning in universities. The book argues that an educational crisis manifests when the value of academic institutions come under attack, looking closely at how higher education practices have been devalued. The book is situated in the context of three intertwined crises; the coronavirus pandemic, economic decline resulting in poverty and unemployment, and the crisis of human migration. It questions what the role of education is, or ought to be, in times of crisis and how our humanity ought to be cultivated during such turbulent times. This novel and timely text will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of educational philosophy, higher education and international education.