Academic culture and citizenship in transitional societies: case studies from China and Hungary

Katalin Szelényi,Robert A Rhoads

doi:10.1007/s10734-013-9614-z

Abstract

Through organizational case studies conducted at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in China and Central European University in Hungary, this paper examines academic culture and citizenship in societies transitioning from communist to market-driven social and economic structures. The article presents a new model of citizenship, representing types of citizenship along the dimensions of locally informed to globally informed and individualist to collectivist. Implications emphasize the hybridization of academic culture and a reinterpretation of cosmopolitan professional identity in faculty life, expanding the concept from Gouldner’s focus on disciplinary loyalty to commitments in a global sphere.

Highlights

The establishment of colleges and universities focusing on global engagement as their core mission is an important trend among internationalization initiatives in higher education (Altbach and Knight 2007)
Globally engaged universities, providing higher education in an academic culture infused with internationally oriented values and practices, represent innovative forms of higher education in any societal context, globally engaged institutions hold special significance in countries transitioning from communism to capitalism
This paper addresses this gap in the literature by responding to the following research question: What forms of academic culture and citizenship characterize globally engaged universities in the context of national shifts from communist social and economic structures to those associated with more market-driven perspectives? By ‘‘academic culture,’’ we refer to the norms, values, beliefs, and practices associated with the working lives of faculty members at higher education institutions (Clark 1987a; Tierney and Rhoads 1993)

Summary

Introduction

The establishment of colleges and universities focusing on global engagement as their core mission is an important trend among internationalization initiatives in higher education (Altbach and Knight 2007). High Educ (2013) 66:425–438 responsibilities capable of addressing the opportunities and challenges of globalization and major social and economic transitions Despite their importance, little is known about the academic culture of globally engaged universities in transitional societies, along with the types of citizenship they engender among faculty. Participation in international scholarly communities with the goal of establishing networks to advance one’s career is an important example here This model, that we use to guide our analysis of faculty views and values at the two universities, presents a novel understanding of citizenship in the higher education literature that rarely addresses both citizen rights and responsibilities in a coherent framework and remains mostly concerned with the citizen responsibilities of universities in the context of particular nation-states (Bringle et al 1999; Kezar et al 2005). As Teichler (1996) noted, ‘‘comparative research is a gold mine for the early stages of conceptual restructuring’’ (p. 463), an advantage clearly reflected in the model of citizenship we propose

Background and site selection

Conclusion