Session Information
13 SES 07 B, Adult Education and the Communicative Ethos
Paper Session
Contribution
During last decades universities worldwide are experiencing a growing pressure of a rather straightforward economic concern. As early as in 1969 this concern was clearly expressed by Peter Drucker: “Education is far too big a cost to be accepted without questioning. To ask whether it is fruitful investment or simply expense is a legitimate question” (Drucker, 1969, p. 313). Yet despite obviously growing responsiveness of university management to the business demands of that kind there is still no coherent vision let alone a sustained methodology of measuring effectiveness of public spending on higher education. We lack clear understanding of both external and internal processes of capital allocation in publicly-funded HEI’s. Although further research of the actual capital allocation procedures in public universities is very much needed I’m going to make a step back and entertain another question: what are the limitations for representing higher education in terms of possible revenues on investments? Unlike many critiques of entrepreneurialism in universities I’d like to demonstrate that those limitations emerge from inside university due to the intrinsic ambiguity of the notion of academic professionalism which reveals immediately after we agree to play with this "investments-and-expenses" language with respect to education.
Academics are obviously being paid as professionals but what they do as professionals? The expected answer might be that they do research and teaching. Universities may well be run as businesses yet unlike private enterprises they claim to preserve a much broader societal mission inspired – at least in Western context – by a Humboldtian notion of the unity of research and teaching (Humboldt, 1792/1854; Bahti, 1987). A youngster attending university according to this conception is supposed to cultivate himself into an enlightened personality through entering a realm of pure science via intensive communication with senior colleagues. This “principled” approach is now shadowed by “governmental” approach emphasizing importance of employability and active civic participation (Simons, 2007). On the other hand doing research today conveys much greater status and funding to particular scientists and disciplinary divisions than teaching. The importance of scientific output is largely out of sight of the student audience which mostly wants just to get a profitable job outside academy after graduation.
De-professionalization of teaching, replacement
of tenured academics by precarious part-timers seems to be the only reasonable
scenario if economic effectiveness of the universities is seriously at stake.
Yet should the re-imagination of the university strive to re-establish the
supposed unity of research and teaching explicitly rejecting prevailing
entrepreneurial discourse? Ironically enough the existence of positive
relationship between research and teaching has never been properly analyzed let
alone proved (Verburgh, Elen, and Lindblom-Ylänne, 2007). It is high time to
challenge the basic assumption of Humboldtian university, the idea that every
university professor is or should be both a professional scientist and a
professional teacher.
Why at all a person might be willing to teach? In a precarious context sketched above it is obviously not the best way to make money. The
other possible explanation is that she or he cares of others good. If I care of
someone who is not my relative she or he might be named my friend. The
wishing and doing good for others inasmuch they belong to the same political
community as oneself represents the essence of civility (Kekes, 1984) thus
being legitimately named civic friendship (Schwarzenbach, 1996; Leontsini, 2013).
The distinction of personal and civic friendship once clearly established is
rather important for political philosophy. This distinction leads to the question of possible foundations of any friendly relationship. In the case of civic friendship
members of political community are actually practicing reciprocity without
being mutually aware of each other.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bahti, T. (1987). Histories of the University: Kant and Humboldt. MLN (German Issue), 102, 3, 437-460. doi: 10.2307/2905581 Baumol, W. J. (1996). Children of ‘Performing Arts, the Economic Dilemma: The Climbing Costs of Health Care and Education. Journal of Cultural Economics, 20, 4, 183-206. doi: 10.1007/BF00153846 Baumol, W.J., W.G. Bowen (1966). Performing Arts, the Economic Dilemma. New York: Twentieth Century Fund. Cooper, J. ed. (1999). Aristotle on the Forms of Friendship. In Reason and Emotion, (pp. 312-335). New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Deem, R. (2006). Conceptions of Contemporary European Universities: To Do Research or Not To Do Research. European Journal of Education, 41, 281-304. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3435.2006.00260.x Derrida, J. (1992). Given Time: 1. Counterfeit Money. Trans. Peggy Kamuf. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Drucker, P. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity, Guidelines to our Changing Society. New York: Harper&Row. von Humboldt, W. (1792/1854). The Sphere and Duties of Government (transl. J. Coulthard). London: John Chapman. Kekes, J. (1984). Civility and Society. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 1, 4, 429-443. doi: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743700 La Caze, M. (2008). Seeing Oneself through the Eyes of the Other: Asymmetrical Reciprocity and Self-Respect. Hypatia, 23, 3, 118-135. doi: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25483200 Leontsini, E. (2013). The Motive of Society: Aristotle on Civic Friendship, Justice, and Concord. Res Publica, 19, 21-35. doi: 10.1007/s11158-012-9204-4 Roberts, K. A. & Donahue, K. A. (2000). Professing Professionalism: Bureaucratization and Deprofessionalization', in the Academy. Sociological Focus, 33, 4, 365-383. doi: 0.1080/00380237.2000.10571175 Ross, D. (1980). Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schwarzenbach, S. A. (1996) On Civic Friendship. Ethics, 107, 1, 97-128. doi: 10.1086/233698 Simons, M. (2007). The 'Renaissance of the University' in the European knowledge society: An Exploration of Principled and Governmental Approaches. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 26, 433-447. doi: 10.1007/s11217-007-9054-2 Tymon, A. (2013). The Student Perspective on Employability. Studies in Higher Education, 36, 6, 841-856. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2011.604408 Verburgh, A., Elen, J. & Lindblom-Ylänne, S. (2007). Investigating the Myth of the Relationship between Teaching and Research in Higher Education: A Review of Empirical Research. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 26, 449-465. doi: doi: 10.1007/s11217-007-9055-1 Young, I. M. (1997). Asymmetrical Reciprocity: On Moral Respect, Wonder, and Enlarged Thought. Constellations, 3, 3, p. 340-363. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8675.1997.tb00064.x
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