Entrepreneurialism and critical pedagogy: reinventing the higher education curriculum

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the ways in which UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly commercialised and commodified in the post-1980s. It critiques the strategies adopted by successive UK governments to reinvigorate the relationship between educational and economic life, and to facilitate a more corporate and entrepreneurial spirit within the academy in line with the pressures of a ‘knowledge-based economy’. Arguing for a more critical exploration of teaching and learning within HE, the paper presents evidence from work carried out by the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching in Learning (CETL) which adopts a research-based learning approach to teaching and learning at undergraduate level.1 Within the context of ongoing debates surrounding the relationship between teaching, learning and research in UK HE, the paper advocates a reinvention of curriculum design through an engagement with the broader principles of critical pedagogy, and in so doing, presents a critical engagement with the commercialisation of HE.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their productive comments.

Notes

1. The Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research is a collaborative Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) based between the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick and the School for the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. In 2005 the Centre was awarded £500,000 recurrent over five years, and £800,000 capital funding. The recurrent funding covers staff and running costs. Capital expenditure has covered the design and development of new social teaching and learning spaces at both Warwick and Oxford Brookes. Further information on the Reinvention Centre is available at www.warwick.ac.uk/go/reinvention/. The Reinvention centre covers a range of progressive pedagogies. This article represents the specific views of the authors.

2. For further information on these organisations see: http://www.esib.org/commodification/coco.html, http://www.peopleandplanet.org/tradejustice/pressrelease20030313.php and http://www.eua.be/eua/index.jsp

3. For further information on these initiatives see: www.enterprise.ac.uk; National Council for Graduate Enterprise: www.ncge.org.uk; Entrepreneurial Skills for Graduates: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/Enterprise.htm

4. Funding 74 CETLs to the amount of £315 million over five years from 2005/2006 to 2009/2010, CETLs represent HEFCE's largest ever single funding initiative in teaching and learning. The purpose of CETLs is to promote excellence across all subjects and aspects of teaching and learning in higher education. For further information see http://www.hefce.ac.uk/NEWS/HEFCE/2000/funding.htm. For an example of a Centre of Excellence concerned with enterprise in Higher Education, see www.leedsmet.ac.uk/lbs/enterprise

5. Further information and resources are available from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, at http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/index.asp and the SoTL programme at Indiana University http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/

6. To obtain a copy of Representations, or for further information on any of the Reinvention Centre projects contact the Centre at [email protected]

7. Universities plc? is available for viewing at http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/reinvention/projects

8. The company received a £20,000 grant from the Enterprise and Skills in HE initiative. For further information on the aims of FKUC and further resources offered see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/