The Struggle for Epistemic Freedom: Theoretical Perspectives on Higher Education Reform in Central Africa

The article studies the phenomenon of institutional traps resulting from modern reforms in public sector and higher education in Russia in the context of New Public Management. The research methodology embraces theoretical patterns and approaches of institutional economics. The research methods include interpretative, narrative and content analysis of opinions and expressions of actors retrieved from various mass media. The ideology of New Public Management is viewed as a result of neoliberal discourse which has become increasingly popular in the past few decades all over the world. Neoliberal reforms were first initiated in the United Kingdom and a number of other developed countries in the 1980s – 1990s in many sectors, including the public one. These institutional traps are sustainable forms of the lock-in effect in the context of path dependence theory. The authors focus on primarily two types of them – the metrics trap and the bureaucracy (administrative) trap – and analyse them theoretically and empirically. Within the framework of theoretical analysis, the traps’ relevance is due to social laws such as Campbell’s law and Graeber’s “iron law of liberalism”. These laws illustrate some negative fallout in social and economic activities focused on specific indicators in the public sector. Empirically, we explore these institutional traps using narrative analysis of mass-media reports, interviews and online discussions and citations. It characterizes the way in which the reforms implemented in higher education are perceived. The authors conclude that there is the interrelation between the problems in reforming higher education and the ideology of New Public Management, which causes the need for rethinking the strategy and ideology of modern reforms in higher education.

Aiming at the problem of low confidence in the traditional model of higher education innovation and reform, this paper designs a model of higher education of innovation and Reform Based on hierarchical ordered probity in biotechnology. By mining the data of higher education innovation and reform, deleting the redundant features of higher education innovation and reform data, filling in the data null and noise points, the data preprocessing of higher education innovation and reform is completed. Based on the hierarchical probity, the model parameters are estimated by calculating the core indicators of the model, and the functional relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables in the model parameters is determined. The experimental results show that the confidence of the model based on hierarchical ordered probity is significantly higher than that of the control group, which can solve the problem of low confidence of the traditional higher education innovation model. The rate of return on schooling is steadily falling as social competitiveness heats up. As a result, the positive impact of education on well-being is lessened. This study used a bivariate ordered Probity model under the educational field theory to examine the effect of higher education innovation on social class and residents' satisfaction. Higher education reform and innovation will have an influence on people' satisfaction, according to these findings. People's subjective well-being may be considerably improved by increasing their education level, and there are major disparities between urban and rural areas. This demonstrates the need of educational reform and innovation strategies with best practices.

Despite innovative technological "solutions" to address ongoing water crises in Indigenous communities, significant disparities persist in Canada. Financial investment in infrastructure is necessary, but it is hardly sufficient to address the real problem: entrenched colonialism. One of the greatest challenges in decolonizing research is to prevent that research from reproducing the very categories it is seeking to critique and dismantle. We share findings from thematically-analyzed interviews with academic and community-based researchers who conducted water research with a stated intent to implement Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. Findings revealed that while there is co-learning, ontological and epistemological assumptions carried into these relationships often impede truly integrative practice. Respondents shared how they worked through these persistent barriers of a colonial system.

Indigenous rights, knowledge, and value systems are linked inextricably to the lands, waters, and non-human beings that form the environments of Indigenous Peoples. Across the globe, the rights of Indigenous peoples are being formally recognized and as a result, efforts are being made to include Indigenous Knowledge and value systems in environmental policy and decision making. Scientists and decision makers must not only recognize this reality, but also operationalize these efforts through meaningful changes to create space for the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous values, and sovereignty within the current methods for scientific enquiry and the development of environmental policies. Professionals in the environmental field have a responsibility to ensure that their work has a positive impact on Indigenous Peoples and their environments. In this study, we explore the concept of consultation and informed consent through the lens of the development of environmental policy and decision making. We will discuss these concepts in the context of ecological risk assessment related to a case study focused on contaminated sediment in a harbor within the Great Lakes. We will demonstrate a process that deconstructs the current protocols for risk assessments at sites with localized pollutants in sediment and rebuilds them with elements that recognize both Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. This process includes collaborative fieldwork, relationship building, and informal and formal interviews with participants and community members. By utilizing such approaches, we were able to develop a risk assessment framework that recognizes the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and promotes effective Nation-to-Nation decision making.

The implementation of neoliberal reforms in higher education coincides with the radical institutional changes in the transition from a planned to a market economy. The modernization of higher education is also connected with the concept of the “entrepreneurial” university that represents a third-generation university with an emphasis on optimization and marketing. However, economic policy aimed at reforming and developing the public sector is based on the import of institutions related to the production of public and mixed goods. In this paper, we show that neoliberal reforms threaten the welfare state in transition economies such as the Russian Federation. In addition to marketing, monetization, and commercialization, all areas of the public sector underwent an optimization policy, which primarily implied a relative reduction in the cost of producing public goods. The rhetoric of the marketing of education represents the modern state’s masked refusal to fulfill a part of its social obligations. Moreover, we argue that market channels intended for financing education are highly dependent on the income level of the population, the availability of institutions and the infrastructure for raising funds, and, most importantly, the development of the educational services market. Within this context, another significant factor is represented by the positive externalities from the prevalence and quality of education. Thence, our results show that insufficient private demand for education, including higher education, can negatively affect the prospects for the country’s socio-economic development in the medium and long run.

This chapter analyses the spread of neoliberal reforms in higher education, with a primary focus on an empirically specific locale in Zambia, a Sub-Saharan African economy. We argue that neoliberal discourses, introduced into mainstream national policy on higher education in Zambia from the early 1990s have profound effects on the character of higher education in general. The reforms have occasioned significant levels of regulation or control over the actors within higher education by using words that frame and constrain, behaviour leading to the emergence of kinds of individuals who are then rendered governable (Bansel & Davies, 2010). The reforms include cutting public expenditures for social services, which include reducing government support to education and healthcare, as well as a trend toward greater participation by private actors in public life, and in higher education provision and finance (Giroux HA, Harvard Educ Rev 72:425–463, 2002; Harvey 2005; Olssen M, Peters MA, J Educ Policy 20:313–345, 2005; Zajda J, Rust V, Globalisation and comparative education. Springer, Dordrecht, 2021). Ultimately, there has been an institutionalisation of entrepreneurial and managerial modes of organising higher educational institutions, stimulated and advanced by promoting business-like relations between the institutions and industry, commerce, and government.KeywordsHigher educationNeoliberal reformsStrategic management principlesSub-Saharan African economyZambia

Iceland is considered to be at the forefront of gender equality. However, when gender equality goals are challenged by other agendas, such as the neo-liberal project, the latter overrides. Recent reforms in higher education in Iceland are in line with international trends with extensive use of performance indicators influencing the allocation of resources. This chapter addresses how neo-liberal reforms and union policies have shaped the management structure and employment in public universities in Iceland. A complex interplay between neo-liberal ideas and particular economic and labour market conditions in Iceland have shaped a system with gender consequences. It maintains gender biases and certain forms of masculinity manifested in the advantage of the male-dominated and ‘masculine’ positions and fields. By not being able to prioritise gender equality and equity issues over political agenda, we conclude that universities in Iceland are entangled in the ‘gender equality paradox’.

Chapter 1. Transformation of Higher Education Institutional Landscape in Post-Soviet Countries: From Soviet Model to Where?; Anna Smolentseva, Jeroen Huisman, Isak Froumin -- Chapter 2. Common Legacy: Evolution of the Institutional Landscape of Soviet Higher Education; Isak Froumin & Yaroslav Kouzminov -- Chapter 3. Armenia: Transformational Peculiarities of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Higher Education System; Susanna Karakhanyan -- Chapter 4. Higher Education Transformation, Institutional Diversity and Typology of Higher Education Institutions in Azerbaijan; Hamlet Isakhanli & Aytaj Pashayeva -- Chapter 5. Belarus: Higher Education Dynamics and Institutional Landscape; Olga Gille-Belova & Larissa Titarenko -- Chapter 6. Inverted U-shape of Estonian Higher Education: Post-Socialist Liberalism and Postpostsocialist Consolidation; Ellu Saar & Triin Roosalu -- Chapter 7. Georgia: Higher Education System Dynamics and Institutional Diversity; Lela Chakhaia & Tamar Bregvadze -- Chapter 8. Looking at Kazakhstan’s Higher Education Landscape: From Transition to Transformation Between 1920 and 2015; Elise S. Ahn, John Dixon & Larissa Chekmareva -- Chapter 9. Institutional Strategies of Higher Education Reform in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan: Differentiating to Survive between State and Market; Jarkyn Shadymanova & Sarah Amsler -- Chapter 10. Latvia: A Historical Analysis of Transformation and Diversification of Higher Education System; Ali Ait Si Mhamed, Zane Vārpiņa, Indra Dedze & Rita Kasa -- Chapter 11. Lithuanian Higher Education: Between Path-Dependency and Change; Liudvika Leisyte, Anna-Lena Rose & Elena Schimmelpfennig -- Chapter 12. Moldova: Institutions Under Stress: The Past, the Present and the Future of Moldova’s Higher Education System; Lukas Bischof & Alina Tofan -- Chapter 13. Russia: The Institutional Landscape of Russian Higher Education; Daria Platonova & Dmitry Semyonov -- Chapter 14. Higher Education in Tajikistan: Institutional Landscape and Key Policy Developments; Alan J. DeYoung, Zumrad Kataeva & Dilrabo Jonbekova -- Chapter 15. The Transformation of Higher Education in Turkmenistan: Continuity and Change; Victoria Clement & Zumrad Kataeva -- Chapter 16. Ukraine: Higher Education Reforms and Dynamics of the Institutional Landscape; Nataliya L. Rumyantseva and Olena I. Logvynenko -- Chapter 17. Uzbekistan: Higher Education Reforms and the Changing Landscape since Independence; Kobil Ruziev & Umar Burkhanov.

Although the school natural sciences curricula in South Africa ask for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems in the classroom, it is either done very superficially by providing an example or two, or ignored completely by teachers (Cronje, De Beer & Ankiewicz, 2015). This mixed-methods study (with emphasis on the qualitative inquiry) into the status of indigenous knowledge in the natural- and life sciences classroom in Gauteng, NorthWest, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo provinces in South Africa, once again echoes what Rogan and Grayson (2003) reported: in South Africa the curriculum process focuses too much on the what (the curriculum itself), at the expense of the how (the implementation of the curriculum). Although the progressive curriculum makes it clear that indigenous knowledge should be addressed, it provides very little guidance to teachers on how this should be done. Two problems are specifically highlighted in this chapter: teachers’ lack of pedagogical and content knowledge in addressing indigenous knowledge systems, and their poor understanding of the nature of science (and how indigenous knowledge should be incorporated within this scientific framework). To effectively infuse indigenous knowledge in the school curriculum, effective epistemological border-crossing between indigenous knowledge and Western science is needed in terms of epistemological and ontological considerations, which places demands on teachers’ knowledge and pedagogies. Too often “Western” science and indigenous knowledge are seen as conflicting epistemologies, disregarding the notion of border crossing, or Odora-Hoppers’s (2002) idea of a “postmodern integrative paradigm shift” where indigenous knowledge and Western knowledge systems are seen as complimentary epistemologies. This chapter will elicit the value of indigenous knowledge in the life or natural sciences curricula from the perspective of embodied, situated, and distributed cognition (ESDC). Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) will be used as a research lens (linked to the theoretical framework of social constructivism), in looking at a funded research project, in which natural and life sciences teachers were trained in facilitating border-crossing between indigenous knowledge and “Western” science. This chapter also sheds light on interventions such as Ogunniyi’s course based on contiguity argumentation theory (Ogunniyi & Hewson, 2008), and how such interventions can enhance teachers’ understanding of how the nature of science and indigenous knowledge systems can be better integrated.

This paper presents a perspective on the capacity of colleges and universities during past and present economic shocks. The main argument is that the environment of the global recession—an Asia far more economically integrated than during past economic shocks, with more unified aspirations to be globally competitive and socially responsible—no longer delay reforms in higher education. In fact, the global recession has become an opportune time for higher education in Asia, specifically developing countries in eastern (East and Southeast) Asia, to continue reforming governance and administration, access and equity, internal and external efficiency, and regional collaboration. Economic shocks have accelerated reforms in higher education, especially those for promoting innovation in their economies, though more is needed in improving governance and access for underserved populations. This paper examines the cases of China, Mongolia, and Vietnam as examples of how the global recession and regional integration are growing forces in shaping their higher education reform and development. The paper also identifies a series of measures for increasing the resilience of higher education systems in serving poor and vulnerable populations during economic recessions. Responses to the global economic recession by nations in eastern Asia are likely to improve the global shift in economy and human capital.

The article presents the results of research on the discursive models of academic relationships that come to the fore in the academic discourse on the reform of higher education in Poland. The aim of the research was to capture the ways of formulating knowledge about the reform of science and higher education and its subjects (i.e., academic teachers and students). The research material comprised 17 Polish academic monographs published in the years 2011-2014 (immediately after the introduction of the higher education reform in Poland). The direction of the analyses was emergent and inductive and was in line with the assumptions of post-Foucauldian discourse analysis. The theoretical basis was determined by the set of categories that constitute the phenomenon of the “formation of knowledge.” The main research problem was expressed by the question about what "truths" about the reform of science and higher education, its main subjects (academic teachers and students), and the relationships between them emerge from the analysed discourse. The research has led to the reconstruction of discursive models of academic teachers (traditional professor, docile workhorse, and hopeless practitioner) and students (student sensu stricto, client, disobedient citizen).

In this paper, we explore the delegitimation of contemporary student protest against market-oriented reforms in higher education. Theoretically, we draw on an extended version of the Public Nuisance Paradigm, a theoretical paradigm that emphasizes the role of mass media discourse in the delegitimation of social protest. We illustrate our argument in a case study of the 2014 student protest against a market-oriented reform in Flemish higher education, that is, higher tuition fees. We identify four specific discursive strategies underlying the delegitimation of this student protest through mass media discourse: authorization, rationalization, moralization and predication. The major contribution of our study is that it extends the Public Nuisance Paradigm that has been introduced in the recent higher education literature focused on student movements, by zooming in on the micro level of analysis.

Since the 1980s, neoliberal reforms in Higher Education (HE) have been widely adopted by governments around the globe because HE was seen as central to knowledge creation, national prosperity and competitiveness. Although the rate of adoption of these reforms varied due to differences in historical and political contexts, they have had a significant impact on HE systems, especially in the OECD countries. A strong focus on efficiency saw clear patterns emerge including rapid growth, reduced government funding and external accountability mechanisms limiting the independence of universities. While universities have become more efficient, this may have come at the cost of their effectiveness. An argumentative review, from a systems perspective, with particular attention to the impacts on the academic profession, this paper advocates that HE reform should focus on effectiveness, as opposed to efficiency and refers to an action research project to test these ideas, using the Australian HE context as a case study. Early results indicate focussing on effectiveness presents significant challenges for key stakeholder groups: government policymakers, university corporate leaders and the academic profession, but may lead to better a better performing Australian HE system, and offer a model for systemic HE reform applicable to other HE contexts.

Dans les universites nord-americaines, europeennes et oceaniennes les gouvernements ont impose aux universites une gestion tres rigoureuse des fonds de provenance publique et une ouverture au financement prive, ainsi qu'une vision de l'universite pourvoyeuse de ressources humaines sur le marche du travail. Les organisations internationales comme l'OCDE ou la Banque mondiale ont vehicule ces modeles de la mondialisation. C'est Roland Robertson en 1985 qui donne la premiere definition du mot mondialisation : un concept qui fait reference a la reduction du monde et a la prise de conscience que le monde forme un tout, cette mondialisation ayant differentes dimensions internationales : economiques, politiques et culturelles. C'est la dimension economique de la mondialisation qui a le plus touche les universites avec ses contraintes de performance et de gestion. L'etude relatee ici sur ces questions des pratiques mondialistes : criteres de performance et gestion universitaires a ete menee de 1994 a 1997 aupres de plus de 250 universitaires en Austalie et aux USA et completee par des entretiens au Canada et en Nouvelle Zelande. Les conclusions plaident pour une forme de responsabilite universitaire qui ne repose pas seulement sur des criteres de performance, la responsabilite democratique ayant ete negligee au profit de la responsabilite financiere.

In the 21st century, knowledge has become the driving force behind societal progress, emphasising the need for higher education to produce contextually relevant knowledge that addresses the multifaceted challenges faced by local communities. It is in this respect that knowledge needs to be generated through one’s position of epistemic location in higher education. However, academics positioned at the pinnacle of knowledge production in higher education find themselves entangled in a global crossroads. On the one hand, they are expected to exercise epistemic freedom by producing knowledge from their centralities and unique positionalities. On the other hand, they are constrained by the pervasive influence of neoliberalism, a paradigm that dictates that knowledge production should be subservient to market dynamics. To interrogate the intricacies of the impediments placed on academics seeking to exercise their epistemic freedom, this article utilises a desktop literature review, underscored by the theoretical framework of Decolonial Theory. The examination elucidates how these constraints hinder the production of knowledge from the centrality of the Global South. The article draws examples from South African higher education as a point of reference, providing examples that underscore the global challenges of neoliberal policies in higher education. Central to the thesis advanced in this article is the contention that, within the existing neoliberal framework of higher education driven by market forces and productivity imperatives, the production of knowledge from the position of one’s centrality is limited and the ability to produce locally relevant knowledge is fundamentally restricted. Consequently, the epistemic freedom of academics within higher education across the Global South is imperilled.Contribution: In response to these challenges, this article engages in an academic discourse on potential strategies for reclaiming epistemic freedom within the prevailing neoliberal milieu of higher education.