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Abstract
In this article, we utilise recent theorising on praxis and educational development to explore how academics in universities can foster public, institutional and more personal development, even as they are challenged by what are sometimes described as more ‘managerial’ and ‘neoliberal’ conditions. The research draws upon a variety of sources of data, including publicly available correspondence on the university sector in Australia, interviews with colleagues, and personal reflective journals. These data reflect three instances of educational praxis development in the Australian university context, and at three scales/levels: nationally; unit-wide (university/faculty/institute); and sub-unit/individually. The findings reveal such development in the form of: academics using mainstream media to inform the general public about the nature of university industrial relations and funding at a national level; junior and senior academics collaborating and engaging in mentoring practices to build institutional research capacity at a university/institutional level; and, individual academics meeting to develop individual teaching practice. Through explicating the characteristics and value of educational development for and as praxis, we provide resources for hope for better understanding how the work of universities, including their broader mission to inform the public, might be enacted more educationally.
Notes
1. A national policy goal of 40% of school-leavers having a university qualification by 2025 has come under serious challenge through the federal government budget delivered in May 2014 which argued for a 20% reduction in base funding provided to universities, and deregulation of university fees, with the latter expected to result in significant increases in the cost of a degree. While these changes have been subsequently rejected in the parliament, legislation has been reworked to enable funding reductions to the sector, and it is unclear at the time of writing as to the effects of this continued pressure upon student numbers.
2. The 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure is the latest paper of its type, as indicated on the Australian Government’s federal Department of Education website (http://education.gov.au, as at 26 July 2014).
3. This research draws upon 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
4. Like The Australian, The Conversation is aimed at a broad educated, professional audience, particularly one interested in more elaborated arguments about current affairs/issues and events.
5. In Australia, the traditional, elite, research-intensive universities are colloquially referred to as “the sandstones” – a reference to the preference for this locally available building material in the construction of the facades of the original buildings of the first universities in each of the respective states in Australia.
6. One year into the position, the title was changed to ‘Research Fellows’. This was in an attempt to recognise the varying wealth of teaching and research experience, and industry connections, the Research Fellows brought to the position. The term ‘Research Fellows’ is employed in this article.
7. Only those aspects of the conversation that were pertinent to the research presented were transcribed verbatim.
8. Both academics worked in the School of Education.
9. University Professors are rare and esteemed appointments in the Australian university system, and recognie the contribution of recipients as influential beyond their particular disciplinary area.
10. A reference to the Australian federal government, based in Canberra, and responsible for Higher Education funding. The Australian federal system ensures the somewhat anomalous situation of the provision of universities by state governments, but with most of the public funding provided for their maintenance, renewal and salaries derived from the federal (national) government.
11. Enterprise Bargaining Agreement – a negotiated agreement between employers (universities) and staff (often by unions within the university sector) on salary and conditions.
12. A pseudonym.
13. Australia’s research assessment exercise, which purports to determine the quality of research produced in research institutions receiving public funding.
14. A ‘4’ indicates ‘above world standard’ and ‘5’ ‘well above world standard’.
15. A software program used by the university to reconcile work-focused national and international travel expenses and activities.
16. All names are pseudonyms.
17. This is not to downplay the way in which educational research is also a deeply contested, multifaceted and complex practice in itself, but it is to make the point that the discussion occurring here is readily identifiable by those within the field as ‘educational’ (Carr, Citation2007).
18. A reference to pre-service teachers.
19. Higher Education.
20. At this university, individual subjects were referred to as ‘courses’.
21. At the completion of all subjects/courses at the end of each semester, students are asked to fill out an online evaluation form (‘SECs’ – Student Evaluation of Courses) and the quality of the teaching in that subject/course (‘SETs’ – Student Evaluation of Teaching). These evaluation forms have at least seven items, and the final item is always ‘overall satisfaction’.
22. A colloquial reference to the feeling that academic work had become mechanical, involving ‘processing’ students through homogenised programs, devoid of ‘flavour’ and ‘texture’.
23. As part of the award, academics received a voucher to be spent on a downloadable music selection of their choice.
24. Ayers (Citation2014) research also reveals how senior university administrators at the University of North Carolina deployed convivial and equitable language across ‘diverse and competing voices’ (p. 118), (including to downplay status hierarchy), as part of process of ‘selling’ the need for budget cuts in a series of budget updates to students and staff.