Session Information
22 SES 04 C, Academic Work and Professional Development
Paper Session
Contribution
Since the 1980s higher education throughout Europe has been increasingly shaped by economic imperatives. The knowledge economy has become the framework for modernizing the world of higher learning. Moreover, a new steering mechanism has penetrated the classical academy with its ideal of Bildung: the New Public Management. It has introduced the logic or discourse of management and market into the agora of higher learning which itself is characterized by the logic or discourse of professionalism. There are complaints of the loss of professional autonomy and deprofessionalization (Lorenz et al, 2008).
In recent years, there has been simultaneously more attention to the craftsmanship of the educational profession. This is partly a reaction to the dominance of the logic of management and market in the world of professions (Sennett, 2008). Modernization of higher education should (also) include the importance of wisdom and erudition, the role of experience and implicit or tacit knowledge, the growing mastering of the craft of education, personal tutorship of students etc. New complexities in pedagogics, didactics, professions may lead to new types of specialization of lecturers and corresponding tracks of professional development. One may label these developments with the term professionalization.
So far, there has not been that much research on the consequences of both developments for the changing (self-)image(s) of lecturers. Meanwhile, the empirical developments in policies are expected to influence current sociological theories of the professions. In recent years we have noticed e.g. that individual professional autonomy has become rather problematic. Moreover, the complexities of education may evoke new typologies of specialized lecturers. The evaluation of these developments differs among scholars: is this a new phase in the professionalization of education or do we witness a detoriation of higher education which can be characterized as deprofessionalization?
The objective of this paper is to compare the (self-)understandings and (self-)images of lecturers in higher education in European and national (Dutch) policy documents and the current sociological theories of the educational profession and professionalism.
This comparative analysis continues a research project the authors have done on the professionalization of lecturers in the Faculty of Economy & Management (abbreviated: FEM) of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Zijlstra et al, 2011). Our research shows up that the policy documents dealing with higher education have a considerable influence upon the (self-)understanding of educational professionals.
The guiding problem is: Which similarities and differences can be observed concerning the (self-) understandings and (self-)images of lecturers in higher education if we compare recent policy documents with current sociological theories of the educational profession?
The research questions are:
1) How are the role(s) and (self-)understandings of lecturers in higher education been described in European and national (Dutch) policy documents on higher education?
2) How do current sociological theories of the (educational) professions deal with the (self-) understandings and (self-)images of lecturers in higher education?
3) If we compare the (self-)understandings and (self-)images of lecturers in higher education in policies and current sociological theories of the (educational) professions, which similarities and differences can be noticed?
4) What is the influence of the policy discourse upon the sociological discourse of lecturers in higher education?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
David Carr, Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching, London, 2000 Eliot Freidson, Professionalism, the third logic, Chicago, 2001 Frank Furedi, Wasted. Why Education is not Educating, New York, 2009 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford, 1991 Chris Lorenz et al (2008), If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Universiteit, markt en management, Amsterdam Niklas Luhmann, Das Erziehungssystem der Gesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2002 (m.n. Kap. 6 Respezifikation: Profession und Organisation, 142-167) Donald A. Schőn, The Reflective Practioner. How professionals think in action, New York: Basic Books, 1983 Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, London, 2008 Arthur Zijlstra, Frederiek van ’t Hooft & Martha Meerman, The Professionalization of Lecturers in Higher Education in the Netherlands: A Case Study (2010; published on http://www.eera-ecer.eu/ecer-programmes/search-programmes/ and www.ecer-vetnet.wifo-gate.org) Arthur Zijlstra, Frederiek van ’t Hooft & Martha Meerman, Professionalisering van docenten in het Hbo, een gevalsstudie binnen een economisch domein, Amsterdam: Lectoraat Gedifferentieerd HRM, maart 2011 (1) Sorbonne Declaration, May 25, 1998 (2) Bologna Declaration, June 19, 1999 (3) Conclusies van het Voorzitterschap: Europese Raad van Lissabon (the Lissboa agreement), March 23&24, 2000 (4) CAO-HBO, (2006 – 2007) (Collective Labour Agreenment) (5) Bewijzen van goede dienstverlening, WRR (2004) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press [Study of professional services by the Dutch Scientific Advisory Board of the Government] (6) Regeerakkoord voor het kabinet-Balkenende IV, February 7, 2007 (7) CAO-HBO (1 augustus 2007 – 31 juli 2010) (Collective Labour Agreenment) (8) New Degrees in the Netherlands: Evaluation of the Bachelor-Master structure and Accreditation in Dutch Higher Education, Westerheijden e.a., augustus 2008 (9) Leuven Declaration (The Bologna Process 2020: The European Higher Education Area in the new decade of Europe ministers responsible for Higher Education), April 28 & 29, 2009 (10) Boedapest-Vienna Declaration, March 12, 2010 (11) Regeerakkoord voor het Kabinet-Rutte-Verhagen, September 30, 2010 (12) CAO-HBO (1 augustus 2010 – 31 januari 2012) (Collective Labour Agreenment)
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