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1 – 10 of over 63000Ryan Litsey and Jon McNaughtan
Conceptualizations of university governance have varied over time, with some scholars focused on the structure of stakeholder groups such as faculty, staff, and students in…
Abstract
Conceptualizations of university governance have varied over time, with some scholars focused on the structure of stakeholder groups such as faculty, staff, and students in relation to how institutions make decisions, others focus on the competing spheres of political influence guiding institutional development, and most recently that higher education has adopted business management structures or academic capitalism. Each of these conceptualizations offered new insights into how universities make decisions and evolve. The interactions between the non-profit aspects of higher education institutions and their effects on the internal governance structures have been underdeveloped. In this chapter, the authors propose an urban governance approach to understanding how actors and their institutions make decisions.
In this chapter, the authors dissect these models and propose a shift in perspective described as academic municipalities. Prior models on university decision-making and its impact on institutional constituents all make certain sacrifices when attempting to conceptualize the complex organizational functions of the university. Birnbaum and Tierney in their arguments do not provide enough value to the structure imposed on higher education institutions by virtue of their non-profit status. The corporate concept does not account for the political ramifications to university functions that reach beyond corporate models. Academic capitalism explains the shift of the university to account for changes in the global marketplace but it does not explain the latent functions of the university, such as contributing to the public good, housing, libraries, public services, and other non-market-based activities. What is needed is an explanation that accounts for both market and political forces at play in the university.
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This article employs a system analytic framework to categorize the available research literature on the politics of education in order to explain the inter‐relationship of private…
Abstract
This article employs a system analytic framework to categorize the available research literature on the politics of education in order to explain the inter‐relationship of private and public interests and of different levels in primary and secondary American schools. The objectives are several: to explain and develop the analytical framework of David Easton; to illustrate its heuristic utility by categorizing empirically‐based research within the components of that framework, and to suggest and encourage future research directions in the subject. Education has escaped application of traditional policy analysis in America because educators have convinced scholars and laymen that they are “non‐political,” a label which even most political scientists have accepted without challenge. However, during the 1960s, a few scholars in education and political science began to apply political analytical methods to public school conflict. This research has begun to change perceptions of education and to provide a beginning set of research projects whose data support tentative generalization about the policy‐making process and the total system of public schools. This orientation is bound to increase because of increasing national government intervention in local schools, both through integration and financial policies. These have provoked growing conflict locally over the proper direction of school policies. In this article, we see how such stress is transmitted in the form of “demands” and “supports” into the “political system”, that persistent social mechanism known in all societies in different forms provides an “authoritative allocation of values and resources”. The political system, in this case public school bodies, “converts” such “inputs” into “outputs” of public policy, which in their administration create outcomes which later cause a “feedback” into the political system as the material for new policy demands. For each component of this Eastonian system, this article examines relevant research, providing an extensive annotated bibliography. From this review, it is possible to suggest lines of needed research.
Muhammad Asrar-ul-Haq, Hafiz Yasir Ali, Sadia Anwar, Anam Iqbal, Muhammad Badr Iqbal, Nazia Suleman, Iqbal Sadiq and Muhammad Haris-ul-Mahasbi
Organizational politics has been a topic of conceptual and empirical interest for researchers and practitioners for many years. The purpose of this paper is to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational politics has been a topic of conceptual and empirical interest for researchers and practitioners for many years. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between organizational politics and employee work outcomes in educational institutions. In addition, this paper also aims to assess the moderating role of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
Employee perceptions about organizational politics and its impact on their work outcomes have been assessed empirically with a sample of 270 full-time employees in higher education institutions of Pakistan. The data have been collected from faculty members of five universities of Pakistan using survey method. SPSS and AMOS have been used to analyze the data and SEM has been used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate a moderating effect of social capital on the relationship between perceived organizational politics and employee outcomes, and the most significant employee outcomes are job stress, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings of the study support the view that organizational politics has negative association with employee job stress and turnover intentions.
Research limitations/implications
Higher education sector in Pakistan is facing certain challenges, which affect talent retention. The findings of this study will help the administration of higher education institutions to develop effective strategies to cope with the challenges of organizational politics, such as motivation, satisfaction and retention of their employees.
Originality/value
The study adds to the literature on organizational politics by highlighting and validating its adverse effects on employee work outcomes in the context of Pakistani higher education.
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The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the main features of the outburst of student radicalism at Sydney University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the main features of the outburst of student radicalism at Sydney University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper traces developments in student politics at Sydney University from the 1950s onwards, in both the Australian and international context.
Findings
The rise of the New Left was a moderate process in 1967 but became more energetic in 1969. This was aligned with a similar trajectory with the marches by radical opponents of the Vietnam war. The New Left: provided challenges to the university curriculum (in Arts and Economics) and challenged middle‐class values. Many components of the New Left claimed to be Marxist, but many such components rejected the Marxist commitment to the working class and communist parties.
Research limitations/implications
The investigation is limited to Sydney University.
Originality/value
Although the endnotes list numerous references, these are largely specific. Very few general surveys of the New Left at Sydney University have been published.
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Francois van Schalkwyk and Nico Cloete
Relations in university settings are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, and gender. In South Africa, transformation imperatives…
Abstract
Relations in university settings are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, and gender. In South Africa, transformation imperatives have radically changed the complexion of the country’s university campuses but have also entrenched political imperatives in its universities. As a consequence, the university is a highly politicised space. This is not new. What is new is a communication environment characterised by real-time, global networked digital communication and the uptake of digital media platforms (including social media platforms). We explore the effects of politicisation and new modes of communication using the case of a controversial article published in a South Africa journal and the ensuing polemic. Drawing on both institutional theory and Castells’ description of the network society, we conceptualise collegiality along two dimensions: horizontal collegial relations which exist for the purpose of knowledge creation and transfer which, in turn, depends on self-governance according to a taken-for-granted code of conduct; and vertical collegiality which describes collegial relations between academic staff and university management, and which is necessary for the governance of the university as a complex organisation. We conclude that the highly personal nature of communication that is propelled by digital communication has a direct impact on collegial relations within the university. The motivations of both university academic staff and management, as well as the public, extend beyond stimulating collective debate in the service of knowledge production to serving individual and/or ideological agendas as the communication of science becomes politicised. While issues pertaining to collegiality in South Africa may at first glance appear to be unique to the country, we believe that in a globally transforming academy, the South African case may offer novel insights and useful lessons for other highly politicised university systems.
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Previous work has conceptually explored the value of the humanities for tourism education and has considered the pressures that likely serve as barriers to its greater inclusion…
Abstract
Previous work has conceptually explored the value of the humanities for tourism education and has considered the pressures that likely serve as barriers to its greater inclusion in curricula. This chapter moves the debate from the conceptual level to the ground, reporting the results of a survey of tourism educators with regard to the role of the humanities in the programs in which they teach. The study explores the prevalence of the humanities as primary and supporting course content at the undergraduate and graduate levels, sheds light on barriers faculty members identify for incorporating more humanities content into their curricula, and offers examples of creative ways some educators are currently engaging with such content.
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Dawn Joseph and Richard Johnson
Although much has been written about international students in higher education in Australia, there is a paucity of research and discussion about international academics…
Abstract
Purpose
Although much has been written about international students in higher education in Australia, there is a paucity of research and discussion about international academics especially non-whites and their lived experience in the workplace. This paper represents the voices of two academics working in metropolitan universities in Melbourne. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of how in spite of all the goodwill and highbrow research, the “corridors of academia” need to be examined in considering the politics of inclusion and internationalisation as the authors still need to address issues of colour as they exist in the academy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use narrative inquiry and reflection to tell the story as both phenomenon and method where the phenomenon is the story and inquiry is the narrative.
Findings
The findings suggest student and staff perceptions of difference are mostly theorised but not practiced within the academy.
Research limitations/implications
The paper includes two voices, a limitation in itself, thus generalisations cannot be made to other academics or institutions. The authors recommend more professional development for staff and students alike to embrace issues of colour, culture and difference.
Practical implications
The authors draw attention to the need for academics to reflect on their behaviour within their own academic communities and be more aware of minority groups in academia.
Social implications
By including and listening to issues facing minority groups (academics and students) can only improve the social cohesion of university worksites.
Originality/value
This is an original work carried out by both authors. It raises concerns that may also be experienced international staff and or students.
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Discusses a recent amendment in Nigerian universities’ law that changed the appointments of university librarians, registrars and bursars from tenured to non‐tenured. Appointments…
Abstract
Discusses a recent amendment in Nigerian universities’ law that changed the appointments of university librarians, registrars and bursars from tenured to non‐tenured. Appointments to these posts which were formerly until retirement at 65 are now for a fixed period of five years in the first instance, renewable for another term of five years at the pleasure of the governing councils and no longer. The background to this development is given and its implications for leadership motivation, continuity of policy, issues of orderly succession and the fate of the former incumbents are explored. It concludes that in the present Nigerian context, the merit of the new order far out‐weighs its demerits in terms of the much desired attainment of full academic status for librarians and leadership motivation. However, care has to be taken to ensure the future of the former incumbents within the organisations if they are to perform selflessly during their limited tenure.
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Temidayo Eseonu and James Duggan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of claims of cultural appropriation in negotiating who has the right to utilise specific racial, cultural or communities' ways of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of claims of cultural appropriation in negotiating who has the right to utilise specific racial, cultural or communities' ways of knowing in research co-production. Cultural appropriation is a claim made against those making illegitimate use of traditions, knowledge and practises that originate from specific racial and/or cultural group. Appropriation helps us interrogate the ways in which rewards and benefits in academia are distributed and shared, denied or hoarded, and by whom.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a dialogue between two researchers in the in-betweens of research co-production, specifically in the negotiation of claiming the right to lead or engage in Afrofuturist work with communities.
Findings
The claim of cultural appropriation is useful in naming, drawing boundaries and creating spaces for negotiation around access and ownership of academic work but must also develop as part of a broader transformative agenda towards racial equality in academia.
Research limitations/implications
In addition to ethical considerations about power imbalances and extractive practises, research co-production should also be concerned with acknowledging and crediting knowledge production practises that originate from specific racial and/or cultural groups.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to explore issues of cultural appropriation in research co-production, and co-production in relation to Afrofuturism. This extends ethical concerns on research co-production beyond academic power imbalances with, and extracting value from, communities to negotiating the relationships between academics and traditions, knowledge and practises developed by specific racial and/or cultural groups.
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