Knowledge In Higher Education Research Articles

Imag(in)ing the University: Visual Sociology and Higher Education

This study examines the potential of visual sociology to expand our knowledge of higher education through the use of visual data sources and methods of analysis. Photographs and archival material form the basis of the study. The images were analyzed as being part of the initiation and fulfillment stages of the social construction of collective discourse known as an “organizational saga” (Clark, 1972). These stages were coupled with theories and methods from visual sociology to examine the production and reproduction of iconic images central to the organizational saga of the case study university.

Virtualization and new geographies of knowledge in higher education: possibilities for the transformation of knowledge, pedagogic relations and learner identities

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic relations. We argue for the benefits of taking a microsociological approach in order to reflect on the potential of virtualization to bring about new geographies of knowledge production and as a means to identify the ways in which potential transformations are uneven, problematic and contested.

Sharing and Capturing Tacit Knowledge in Higher Education — The Info-Ca-SH

An institution represents the ultimate knowledge organization. The rapid growth of data and technologies trigger the transformation of data to useful information known as 'Knowledge'. To leverage knowledge, institutions need a knowledge sharing network that can meet the demands of changing knowledge. The knowledge sharing network is accomplished by sharing and capturing knowledge among faculty members and students. Info-Ca-Sh is a dynamic web content knowledge portal. The architecture serves as an information exchange of knowledge by using various open source tools. The tacit and explicit knowledge of the registered users are made codified and accumulated as knowledge repository. The various documents uploaded on the portal by the registered users are made share and capture. The implementation creates interests among faculty members to share and to capture information by exploring a social network. The result of social network analysis shows the information flow and degree of knowledge sharing in the network.

Impacts and preferences study for e-HO as a holistic learning environment complementary to e-Learning

We present in this study the significance and impacts of an innovative e-HO as a holistic and horizontal platform complementary to e-Learning to help realize transdisciplinary learning and foster integration of knowledge in higher education. A comprehensive investigation of a survey conducted among 647 university students for e-HO is presented with detailed studies on students’ preferences toward e-HO with respect to various demographic variables including gender, access frequency, grade level, discipline and access route concerning the five scales extracted in this particular survey. No significant gender difference surfaced, whereas access frequency turned out to be the most influential and decisive variable that has resulted in significant differences on all the scales involved, especially the characteristic ‘Leisure climate’. Further significant differences appeared on different scales with distinct natures for different demographic variables other than gender and access frequency, indicating the multidimensional characteristics of the whole endeavor and that care must be taken whenever a learning environment like this is constructed in higher education.

Intermezzo A performative research project in teacher training

In this article we discuss an ongoing project named Performing Knowledge A project to improve knowledge in higher education through a double perspective: Theory and Performativity. This project is situated at the Department of Visual Art Education at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim is to investigate and develop pedagogy and methods through double perspectives, whereby scientific research is joined with artistic practice as different, but compatible forms of knowledge in learning and degree projects in higher education. The research examined how different forms of knowledge appear in learning processes as well as in student theses; focus is equally placed on forms of representation and presentation. The article presents and discusses two different student projects as examples of performative knowledge. In this text we draw upon a presentation held at the 32nd InSEA World Conference, in Osaka, August 2008.

Common Knowledge: Learning Spaces in Academic Libraries

The first iterations of the information commons organized library work space around access to digital resources, with research and computing assistance also available. More recently, however, change in academic libraries has paralleled the reorientation of knowledge in higher education. With further involvement in campus-wide initiatives and an emphasis on the social dimension of learning, the learning commons represents transformative change that extends beyond the reach of the traditional academic library. A review of literature on the learning commons provides case studies that reveal collaborative space, partnerships leading to integrated service, and user-centered assessment.

Educational Consortia in a Knowledge Economy: Collaboration, Competition, and Organizational Equilibrium

In today’s knowledge economy, collaboration and competition are critical in success. New postsecondary organizations have emerged in the higher education landscape, including consortiums and inter-institutional and interdisciplinary partnerships. One new organization is the Higher Education Center (HEC) in which multiple institutions partner to share resources while delivering separate academic programs. In many ways, the HEC can inform our knowledge of higher education as a whole since the HEC is comprised of public and private institutions that must compete and collaborate to ensure organizational survival. In this case study, the authors explored one such center’s internal dynamics.

Portraits of peace knowledge in post‐Yugoslav higher education

Using the central concept of peace knowledge, this article suggests that such knowledge is one part of a region’s intangible, intellectual heritage that constitutes its ways of knowing and living, necessary for its own creation and sustainability of a culture of peace. During the sustained fieldwork of the author, peace knowledge was explored in the post‐Yugoslav context of recent war, primarily through methods influenced by phenomenology: dialogue (muabet) and shared lived experiences with students and professors in higher education programs related to peace studies, as well as observations and interactions in their classes. The opportunity exists to learn from those from this war‐torn region whose teaching and learning of peace knowledge in higher education affect their daily, lived experiences of peace.

Introducing indigenous education to University undergraduate students: Feelers from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

The article investigated the perception of OAU undergraduate students of Agriculture offering a special elective course (SEE 001/002), entitled Indigenous education in Nigeria , as regards its appropriateness and curriculum relevance to higher education. The specific objectives were to analyse the socio-economic/ demographic characteristics of the students; identify the course contents and their relevance to the development of indigenous knowledge theory and practice in higher education; and determine the acceptability of indigenous approach to education among students. A purposive sampling of 100 agriculture undergraduate students was carried out with the use of structured and unstructured questionnaires. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics (such as percentages, measures of central dispersion) and inferential statistic (correlation and chi square analyses).The result showed that a positive and significant relationship existed between a student's cultural background (r= 0.225), parent's occupation (r= 0.175) and his favourable perception of the adaptation of indigenous knowledge in higher education.

The Tie that Binds? A Case Study of Student Perceptions of their Recreation-related Majors

Academic departments change to meet university and social demands. The dynamic nature of higher education leads to discourse among park and recreation educators over the unifying purpose that binds the academic field as well as practice. The purpose of this research was to use a case study at one major university to explore how undergraduate students perceived their recreation-related majors and the connections among specialty areas within the department. Analyses of focus groups along with other documents revealed four themes: learning environment, dealing with misperceptions, identification with a specialty, and connections among specializations. Students generally do not perceive connections across their academic specialties, but feel a sense of cultural commonality within the department regarding these themes. Similar to concerns raised about the fragmentation of knowledge in higher education, student perceptions reflected this phenomenon in their recreation-related majors.

Black feminist praxis: some reflections on pedagogies and politics in higher education

This essay takes a personal, reflexive approach to the positioning of black feminism in higher education in the UK. It asks how we might best understand the political economy of black feminist knowledge in higher education. It argues that challenges for black British feminist pedagogies and embodied positionality are best explored through postcolonial paradigms, and coalitions amongst black feminists continue to be of vital importance in contemporary academic sites.

Academic Freedom Discourse in Post-Colonial Africa: A Quest for Transformation and Appropriation of Relevant Knowledge in Higher Education

This article argues that in post-apartheid South Africa, the discourse on academic freedom is conjoined with the African experiences of apartheid and colonialism. The majority of black academics see academic freedom as an opportunity for the total emancipation of the African university from the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid. A symbiotic relationship exists between colonialism and Eurocentric knowledge. The main argument is that it is imperative that transformation is on the basis of the quality of knowledge that is disseminated at African universities. However, it is also argued that those who are against transformation at African universities have appealed to academic freedom to imply that their inherited colonial privileges should never be tampered with. Africa Insight Vol. 38 (2) 2008: pp. 101-114

Language Attitudes of Urban Disadvantaged Female Students in India: An Ethnographic Approach

This paper qualitatively documents and analyses the attitudes and identities of female students from the urban disadvantaged social class towards English and Hindi in the city of New Delhi. These attitudes include not only instrumental views of English but also the impression that it creates a new personality for an individual. English is part of the daily literacy practices of the students. It is a tool with which they access knowledge in higher education. Hindi is important for their identity; thus they make a distinction between ‘personality’ and ‘identity’. They see Hindi as a ‘national language’ linked with Hinduism and the composite culture of a diverse India when in fact this is not the case demographically or politically. The ideologies of status and solidarity are problematic and can be associated with both languages. The data for this ethnography, presented partially through photographic evidence, come from oral and written interviews conducted with 64 Grade 12 students in Hindi and English at the Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, a girls’ high school in a disadvantaged part of New Delhi, India.

A formação do administrador no ensino de graduação: uma reflexão

This article aims at contributing for the critical reflection process on the professional education of administrators in undergraduate courses, based on one of its main empirically observable weaknesses: the teaching fragmentation, with emphasis on the transmission of technical-conceptual knowledge, and the consequent absence of appropriate general and systemic view of an organization/enterprise. In order to better understand the problem, four fundamental questions were posed: the origin of the Administration courses in Brazil, which explains the emphasis on the technique; the organizational complexity as the object of Administration, which raises polemical views on what administration is and what an administrator does; the dominant paradigm in the production of knowledge and how it impacts, until now, on the reproduction of knowledge in higher education; and the pedagogical projects of the Administration courses, approaching the problems related with their premises and practices, as well as the institutional structures for their operationalization. The discussions and analyses performed suggest, as a conclusion, the clear need for new conceptions concerning the education process of the professional administrator

Making the invisible visible: Portfolios and prior knowledge in higher education

This article explores the potential of the portfolio process as pedagogy for adult students to recast themselves as producers of knowledge rather than mere conduits for reproducing dominant epistemologies within higher education in South Africa. The exploration has a purchase wherever universities admit students with prior knowledge and where such knowledge is contested and in some instances subjugated. It explores taken for granted approaches to knowledge, teaching and assessing and argues that portfolio courses have much to offer RPL students in South Africa. The emphasis, in this pedagogy, on individual well-being and respect for experience through education, is a significant change for students who were the recipients of a system of education under apartheid, which undermined learners' sense of self-worth and well-being. In this sense the portfolio may give back to learners what was taken away under apartheid, contributing to what Visvanathan calls 'cognitive justice' (Odora Hoppers 2001, 8).

Walking the Talk: Decolonizing the Politics of Equity of Knowledge and Charting the Course for an Inclusive Curriculum in Higher Education

ABSTRACT In this paper, the authors offer a dramatic presentation regarding questions surrounding the politics of equity of knowledges in higher education. The vignette invokes the perspectives of an anti-racist educator, a graduate student, and a community educator—all of whom are grounded in the academy. Through personal reflection, discussion, and anti-racist, feminist, and anti-colonial theorizing, each grapples with the multi-faceted issues surrounding the politics of the academy and the politics of the coexistence of different knowledges in higher education. Finally, the implications of a non-inclusive academic system are explored, with an emphasis on development education.

Contradictions in Women's Education: Traditionalism, Careerism, and Community at a Single-Sex College

Reviewed by: Contradictions in Women's Education: Traditionalism, Careerism, and Community at a Single-Sex College Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel (bio) B. J. Bank (with H. Yelon). (2003). Contradictions in Women's Education: Traditionalism, Careerism, and Community at a Single-Sex College. New York: Teachers College Press. 197 pages. ISBN: 0-8077-4363-1. $60.00 hardcover, $27.95 paperback. Contradictions in Women's Education is a very comprehensive, longitudinal case study of a nonelite women's college in the Midwest called Central Women's College (CWC). The book follows students from the CWC class of 1995 to see how they and the campus responded to three important contradictions in higher education: gender traditionalism versus gender emancipation; careerism (utilitarianism) versus a liberal arts orientation; and community versus individualism (autonomy). Further, the author explores the ways that CWC simultaneously encourages its students to be successful and fails to take them seriously as women. The book offers no simple answers, but raises some fascinating questions. The study upon which the book is based follows women students who entered CWC in 1991 until their graduation in 1995. The author utilizes several methodologies to paint a clear portrait of CWC. Specifically, the study relies heavily upon the results of a series of surveys. The first survey was of students at all levels enrolled at CWC in spring 1991 (baseline data on CWC's campus climate); survey two was of newly admitted students in summer 1991 (to determine their initial values, beliefs, and goals); survey three was of those same students in spring 1992 (to learn about their on-campus experiences and to reexamine their values, beliefs, and goals); and survey four included those same students (both those [End Page 161] who stayed at CWC and those who transferred to another institution) in spring 1994 (to again determine their experiences, values, beliefs, and goals). The response rate for each of the surveys was phenomenal—ranging from 77% to over 95%. To complement the survey data, the researcher also interviewed a large sample of matriculated students from the class of 1995. Interviews were conducted in the spring of 1992 and again in the spring of 1995. Additionally, interviews were conducted in the spring of 1994 with those students who had since left CWC. The researchers also surveyed the faculty who were at the institution between 1991 and 1995 to determine their perspectives about the institution. Finally, the author complements these results with analyses of institutional documents, including view books, admissions material, and course catalogs. To set the context for the case, it is helpful to understand that aside from its status as a women's college, CWC can be characterized as a typical nonselective, small, residential college. Astin and Lee (1972) would characterize CWC as an invisible college, as it attracts a mainly regional student clientele, has limited financial resources, and has very limited national exposure. The students in the class of 1995 at CWC were mainly traditional of age, came from Christian backgrounds, grew up in the surrounding region, and had an average high school grade point of 2.9. Interestingly, the CWC students believed that the institution was highly selective and CWC did nothing to disabuse them of this belief. CWC's retention rate is not impressive, as 95 out of the 185 who enrolled as freshman in 1991 left the college before graduating. The author explores the experiences and beliefs of those who graduated from CWC as well as those who left the institution. Contradictions in Women's Education makes several important contributions to our knowledge of higher education. For example, the book provides some insight into the college choice process for those who opt to enroll in a nonselective, private college, illustrating once again that the college choice process for traditional-age students is far from rational. The book adds to our understanding of how college affects students over time, demonstrating, for example, that in contrast to prior research, students at CWC did not become more politically liberal over time. Further, the study provides [End Page 162] important information on why students chose to leave CWC and therefore contributes to our understanding of retention. Banks concludes that few students left for academic...

Conceptions of learning and knowledge in higher education: Relationships with study behaviour and influences of learning environments

Research into powerful learning environments has concentrated mainly on general influences on students' engagement and learning. This paper considers a series of inter-related concepts that have been shown to be associated with student learning in higher education including, conceptions of knowledge and learning, learning orientations, and students' perceptions of, and preferences for, different kinds of learning environments. At a more specific level, differences in study behaviour have been described in terms of approaches to learning, and regulation and processing strategies. The paper clarifies the meaning of the various concepts, highlights the interrelationships between them, and considers the ways in which they may affect students' reactions to the learning environments they experience, whether powerful or not.

Appropriation, Appreciation, Accommodation: Indigenous Wisdoms and Knowledges in Higher Education

This paper focuses on differences between the underlying principles of Western science and the knowledges and wisdoms of Indigenous peoples in such places as Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. It notes changing phases in the approaches to Indigenous Wisdoms and knowledges, and highlights the shifts from appropriation to appreciation and then accommodation. Nevertheless, major tensions remain, both within and between Western science and Indigenous knowledges and appreciations. This creates challenges for institutions of higher education, as well as for other bodies.

Open courseware and shared knowledge in higher education.

Most college and university campuses in the United States and much of the developed world today maintain one, two, or several learning management systems (LMSs), which are courseware products that provide students and faculty with Web-based tools to manage course-related applications. Since the mid-1990s, two predominant models of Web courseware management systems have emerged: commercial and noncommercial. Some of the commercial products available today were created in academia as noncommercial but have since become commercially encumbered. Other products remain noncommercial but are struggling to survive in a world of fierce commercial competition. This article argues for an ethics of pedagogy in higher education that would be based on the guiding assumptions of the non-proprietary, peer-to-peer, open-source software movement.