Toward articulating an academic praxis by interrogating university strategic plans^*

* The order of the authors does not reflect contribution; all authors contributed equally to this paper.

ABSTRACT

Universities are allocated considerable public resources and are expected to fulfil societal mandates through teaching, research and service to local, national and international communities. University strategic plans are public documents that express how university leaders, students, academic and administrative staff are expected to aspire to meet these societal mandates. We suggest that strategic plans can be a point of departure for academic staff and leaders to reflect on their values and articulate their praxes. By praxis we mean the sense-making and purpose academic staff and leaders identify in their practices and how they choose to live out their values. We suggest an approach, using the principles of deliberative communication, intended to help academic staff and leaders articulate their praxis and find ways to live out their values in a liberating or transformative manner.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic development
• identity formation
• organisational development
• organisational culture
• praxis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

* The order of the authors does not reflect contribution; all authors contributed equally to this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd [under grant number 246745/H20].