Posthumanist ethical practice: agential cuts in the pedagogic assemblage

The New Academics Transitioning into Higher Education Project, known as NATHEP, is part of a national collaborative project in Higher Education (HE), focused on the professional development of academic staff developers who are involved in the induction programmes of new academics transitioning into HE. Using a cascading model of staff development, NATHEP explored structural and cultural opportunities and constraints that inhibited or promoted the emergence of critical induction programmes to respond to new academics’ needs and to the needs of students. Given the complexity and contested nature of the current higher education landscape (UCDP, 2018), new academics face numerous challenges as they embed themselves in disciplinary and institutional contexts. With systemic conditions not being conducive to critical agency and social justice, current induction practices for new academics are inadequate to the task of transformation in higher education (Behari-Leak, 2015), making new academics especially vulnerable (Behari-Leak, 2017). NATHEP focused on developing a national orientation to induction practices and principles across the sector. Twenty academic staff developers from 10 universities were supported to initiate and convene well-theorised and conceptualised induction programmes in their institutional contexts, to address historical and systemic challenges and to contribute to the transformation of higher education. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as meta-theoretical framing and Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, this book offers a theorised account of how academic staff developers, in devising models of induction practice for new academics at their universities, engaged with enabling and constraining conditions at institutional, faculty, departmental and university classroom levels. Through an analysis of institutional case studies, this project explores a range of agential choices exercised by staff developers to conceptualise and contextualise induction programmes, relative to how they, as well as their new academics, mediate contested spaces. A nuanced social and critical account of the material, ideational and agential conditions in HE shows that the courses of action taken by new academics are driven through their concerns, commitments and projects in higher education. A further aim of this project was to see if academic staff developers would be driven by corresponding but different concerns and commitments. Drawing on Margaret Archer’s social realism and Bhaskar’s critical realism, the Seven Scalar Being (2010) was used as a heuristic for both the methodological and pedagogical approach taken. Through this ontological laminar, the project explored and analysed what critical professional development looks like (Kohli et al, 2015) across seven levels of reality. In addition to working from the premise that the positive exercise of agency is a marked feature of new participants in HE despite contextual challenges (Leibowitz, et.al., 2016), NATHEP also explored, if at a conceptual level, the structural and cultural contexts might act as a trigger or dampener for academic staff developers’ agency. Importantly, we needed to know the extent to which contexts would have immediate implications for ways in which professional and academic development programmes are conceptualised and implemented. It was hoped that with an alternative theorisation and creation of conducive conditions for the uptake of critical agency, in both disciplinary and departmental programmes, staff developers would create emergent induction programmes for new academics, that are contextualised, sensitised, responsive and informed. To this end, the creation of a framework to infuse criticality into professional development practices was a highlight of NATHEP’s scholarly work. The CRiTiCAL framework is offered here as the project’s contribution to knowledge generation. Via this heuristic, which was used to embed relevant and contextual practices and values into otherwise generic induction, NATHEP was able to reorientate staff developers and their institutions to their ethical obligation to introduce newcomers to the sector and their institutions in ways that could really help them to “hit the ground running”. Through a collaborative, consultative and inclusive methodology, and based on a cascading model (discussed later) of staff development, NATHEP prepared staff development practitioners to exercise their agency by engaging with knowledge in relevant and generative ways and to create inclusive and participatory teaching and learning experiences that are responsive to institutional, regional and national challenges.

This paper investigates the evolution of software project support for teaching and research projects in higher education. It therefore analyses the results of two surveys conducted with students of the department of computer science of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover in February 2009 and November 2010. The surveys focused on examining the experiences and requirements of the students. Beneath mere technical requirements the surveys also investigate the acceptance of social software elements in project support. Since containing a core of equal questions the answers to the two surveys allow to deduce trends. These trends towards more sophisticated supportive software tools and environments are further investigated not only to allow a better support for projects, but also to make projects more visible and valuable, preserving their achievements and making them accessible for others.

The article analyzes the implementation of Erasmus+ projects in the Republic of Moldova based on the example of a capacity-building project in higher education – Elevate. The comparison of the established objectives and the results obtained of the targeted project, including in terms of their quality and usefulness, is framed in the general context of carrying out such projects in the Republic of Moldova. The analysis revealed the inefficient use of European funds and the need of impact assessments and ex-post evaluations of European Union projects in the field of higher education implemented at the local level.

The research is aimed at identifying the peculiarities of higher education internationalization in the Republic of Belarus. The research objectives included the analysis of legislative and institutional sides of higher education internationalization and the evaluation of geographical priorities of higher education services export by Belarus. The research into higher education internationalization was initiated by Western researchers, including J. Knight, H. de Wit, P.G. Altbach, B. Leask, S. Robson, and others. However, the research into Belarusian higher education internationalization has started very recently and mostly covers the results of European projects in higher education conducted in Belarus. Therefore, the peculiarities and prospects of Belarusian higher education internationalization have not yet been considered sufficiently. Having analyzed the legislation in higher education, the authors concluded that the export of higher education became the priority of internationalization. Most policy documents set the aim of increasing the number of international students by improving the positions of Belarusian universities in international rankings and networking with foreign universities. Therefore, it may be concluded that Belarusian authorities interpret higher education internationalization from a very utilitarian point of view. Thus, it is not mainly aimed at improving the quality of higher education. Having considered the international students statistics the authors identified three geographical directions of Belarusian higher education export, namely Turkmenistan (the country providing almost half of international students in Belarus), China (the country of origin for most students receiving education abroad in the world), and Uzbekistan (the country that has significantly increased the number of students coming to Belarus recently). The geographical structure of Belarusian higher education export turned out to be very unbalanced because of the dominance of Turkmen students. However, Belarusian export of higher education to this country is now endangered by Turkmen educational policy hindering the outflow of school-leavers. Since Belarusian higher education has a very low ranking at Chinese labor market, the export of Belarusian higher education to China may grow but for a little only. Taking into account that the educational cooperation with Uzbekistan has activated recently, the export of Belarusian higher education to Uzbekistan is likely to increase within the following several years. Thus, the authors forecast the changes in geographical priorities of Belarusian higher education export. However, the advantages that made international students choose Belarus, namely stability and security, are endangered by the current political situation in the country. Therefore, the future of Belarusian export of higher education depends significantly on achieving fast political settlement.

An important aspect of teaching, no matter the target audience or delivery method (though this is particularly important in asynchronous online education because instructors do not have the opportunity to answer questions synchronously about assignments), is communicating requirements, expectations, and grading criteria for assignments. Although this may seem rudimentary for most instructors, there are many who do not provide sufficient information about assignment requirements. As a result, many students struggle with how best to complete assignments.One effort to address the need to better communicate expectations to students is the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education project, which is also known as the TILT Higher Ed project. TILT in Higher Ed is a “national educational development and research project that helps faculty to implement a transparent teaching framework that promotes college students' success” (Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, n.d., para. 1). The project started in 2009 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign but is now hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (see https://www.unlv.edu/provost/teachingandlearning). In 2014, the project partnered with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as part of the association’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning efforts. In addition to offering workshops, research findings, and surveys, TILT in Higher Ed has resources (see https://www.unlv.edu/provost/transparency/tilt-higher-ed-examples-and-resources) for instructors interested in applying “transparent methods” of teaching, one of which is providing transparent assignment descriptions.A transparent assignment description consists of a clearly described purpose, task, and criteria for the assignment, as well as information about the skills students will learn/develop by completing the assignment and ways in which the content and skills learned can be applied in and beyond the course learning. Though these are all of the components, a key feature is describing how the assignment relates to students, beyond the classroom (Winkelmes, Bowles-Terry, Gianoutsos, & Humphreys, 2014). In an online course, this could be a textual description, a screencast, or even a video by the instructor.Building on this framework, below is a checklist that online instructors can use to better communicate the purpose, task, and criteria for their assignments. Note that the “Requirements” are what TILT in Higher Ed would describe as the Task.Other items that can be included are examples of assignments, answers to frequently asked questions about the assignment, specific readings that address content required in the assignment, as well as any other resources that might help the student better comprehend what s/he is to do for the assignment. Finally, inclusion of such information should not only make assignment descriptions more transparent, but also curtail the number of e-mails/ questions instructors receive about their assignments.

Scholarly evaluation practices in learning and teaching projects are under-reported in the literature. In order for robust evaluative measures to be implemented, a project requires a well-designed evaluation plan. This research study describes the development of a practical evaluation planning framework through an action research approach, using primary data from learning and teaching practitioners in higher education. Underpinned by the literature, this framework is accessible to a wide range of disciplinary scholars and is accompanied by a set of recommendations that together contribute to the improvement of the evaluation of learning and teaching innovations in higher education.

The current rate of technological advancement across the globe underlines the importance of higher education institutions incorporating project-based learning into their teaching approaches. This article investigates the capacity of entrepreneurial projects to address the skills gap in the Sub-Saharan African higher education sector. This study was conducted in two rural universities in South Africa and Nigeria. Data were collected from student participants from the two institutions using semi-structured questionnaires. The authors discovered that, despite the involvement of student participants in entrepreneurial projects over a considerable period of time, most participants from both universities still exhibit inadequate skill levels. This result suggests that certain conditions should be met for entrepreneurial projects to be considered effective for teaching and learning in the higher education context. It is imperative to include enabling factors such as high-quality mentoring from industry professionals and an unwavering university support system for student entrepreneurs. These enabling factors are cornerstones that strengthen a university's entrepreneurial standing.
 
 Received: 8 January 2023 / Accepted: 2 April 2023 / Published: 5 May 2023

Extensive research has been conducted in identifying the critical issues and the implementation challenges involved in an ERP project in higher education. But limited studies investigated the implementation issues in the context of higher education institutions. The authors attempt to observe and compare two different higher education institutions in South Africa and India with the objective of bringing out the practical determinants of roadblocks to a successful ERP project implementation and subsequently provide the readers with possible solutions. The findings suggest implementation issues broadly evolve from three major areas, namely, project management issues, which involve the technical as well as the functional aspects; issues concerning the improper application of software development life cycle phases; and human capital issues which involve beliefs and attitudes. The authors strongly believe that the learning received from the case studies significantly contribute to the organizational knowledge concerning technology and business process reengineering.

In this paper, we conduct a collaborative autoethnography to guide our reading of text on collaborative, international online projects in higher education and in South Africa. Our reading reveals patterns that speak to critical considerations for those planning projects in the context or from similar positions within the Global South or other developing contexts. As COIL practitioners in South Africa, we reflect on the literature from the unique situatedness of our learning and teaching environments and broader social context.

Faculty of color are vastly underrepresented in American higher education, a situation that persists despite the fact that diversification of the professoriate is identified as an explicit goal of many colleges and universities. Minority professors represent 17.5% of all full-time faculty in the U.S., with African Americans accounting for only 4.9% of those in tenure-track positions (Pittman, 2012).Diverse faculty make valuable contributions to the academic community by serving as role models for an increasingly diverse student body, counseling and mentoring minority students, and enriching the intellectual climate on campus and beyond (Gasman, Kim, & Nguyen, 2011). At the same time, minority faculty continue to encounter workplace challenges that run the gamut from discriminatory institutional practices and policies (Carr et al., 2007; Kulis, Chong, & Shaw, 1999) to routine, often subtle, insults and invalidations in their interactions with colleagues (Pittman, 2012). Ultimately, these and other forms of racial oppression at work may contribute to low morale, withdrawal, and even leave-taking. Dissatisfaction and departure are, or ought to be, of special concern insofar as institutional efforts to retain and advance talented minority faculty constitute a vital component of the diversity project in higher education and help to promote academic excellence (Barrett & Smith, 2008).In their efforts to understand the issues associated with effectively recruiting and retaining African American faculty at elite universities, researchers have examined a variety of forces, factors, conditions, and experiences. Studies have investigated market wages and their influence on higher education's ability to compete for doctoral-trained African Americans (Ashraf & Shabbir, 2006; Renzulli, Grant, & Kathuria, 2006; Toutkoushian, Bellas, & Moore, 2007); feelings of exclusion, isolation, marginalization, and alienation experienced by minority faculty at predominantly White institutions (Alfred, 2001; Johnsrud & Sadao, 1998; Turner, 2003); the socialization and incorporation of African American and women faculty into schools and colleges (Alex-Assensoh, 2003; Dixon-Reeves, 2003; Kosoko-Laski, Sonnino, & Voytko, 2006); and the contributions of African American faculty to the scholarship of discovery (Antonio, 2002; Yager et al., 2007). Additional studies have focused on the teaching experiences of faculty of color (Mitchell & Rosiek, 2006; Stanley, 2006; Stanley et al.,2003), coping strategies adopted by Black women and minority faculty to succeed in the academy (Thomas & Hollenshead, 2001; Vasquez et al., 2006), representation and equity issues facing Black faculty (Beutel & Nelson, 2006; Moradi & Neimeyer, 2005; Perna et al., 2007), and the role of academic culture in the recruitment and retention of women and minorities in academe (Aguirre, 2000).Conceptual FrameworkBuilding on earlier research by Matier (1985, 1990, 1991), which was grounded in the foundational work of March and Simon (1958) and Flowers and Hughes (1973), the present study focuses on the African American faculty experience and explores in greater depth three sets of factors determined by quantitative analyses to be influential in the decisions of faculty to remain at or to depart from the predominantly White institutions (PWIs) where they are employed. These factors have to do with internal work-related (intangible and tangible) benefits and external non-work related benefits of choosing to remain in a university faculty position (Matier, 1990). Representative variables within each of the conceptual dimensions are displayed in Table 1.Internal Work-Related Intangible FactorsThe importance of developing a workplace culture of collegiality and inclusiveness is widely discussed in extant research (August & Waltman 2004; Hassouneh et al., 2012; Lutz et al., 2013; Turner & Myers, 1999). …

In today’s world, globalization and internationalization of education necessitate new initiatives to catch the new era. Turkey, as a country in between the east and the west, attempts to do so through its recent exchange program in higher education. Interestingly, Turkey’s Mevlana exchange program as an ambitious project in higher education denotes an instance of policy transfer: taking the EU model (i.e., Erasmus) and slightly adjusting it to the national circumstances. This article unpacks Turkey’s Mevlana program to demonstrate the process of policy transfer by focusing on different questions posed within the policy transfer literature. It argues that Mevlana is drawn from Erasmus, and it is created as a tool of soft power that is increasingly exercised by Turkey due to its changing focus within the Turkish foreign policy of 2000s.

Opportunities for marginalized students (such as women, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students, first-generation college students, LGBTQ+-identified individuals, and people/personswith disabilities) to engage in undergraduate research can help increase their persistence in STEM degrees and careers. The incorporation of citizen science projects into higher education provides unique opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in scientific research, yet there is still much to be learned about how students, especially those with marginalized identities, interact with and perceive citizen science in higher education settings. Our goal was to understand student perspectives on citizen science, examine connections between participation in citizen science and student interest and sense of belonging in science, and explore how this varies based on demographic attributes. We did this using a case study with a mixed-methods design: a survey of students at a large predominantly white institution (PWI) (n = 143) and interviews with a subset of citizen science participants (n = 6). Results indicate that participation in citizen science occurred both within and outside of traditional classroom settings. Citizen science was valued most by students with an existing interest in science, and students who participated in citizen science projects reported a stronger sense of belonging in science. Our study uncovered challenges and misconceptions related to citizen science participation within higher education settings, highlighting the need for a commitment to broadening participation. Additional investigations of student perspectives regarding citizen science could allow for broader engagement of citizen science projects in higher education, ultimately helping to retain marginalized students in STEM.

BandLab and Walk Band are two mobile and web-based applications that let users create and record their own songs, providing them with a variety of virtual instruments, samples, loops and drum machines. These applications can be used as educational tools to encourage musical learning and creativity in secondary and higher education students. This article discusses the advantages and challenges of using these applications in education and offers some recommendations for their pedagogical use. The objective is to show how BandLab and Walk Band can contribute to the development of musical, artistic and digital proficiency in students as well as create collaborative learning communities. A literature review on previous uses of multitrack sequencers is also done, and some examples of didactic proposals on music creation and musical arrangements are offered on how to integrate these applications in the music curriculum in secondary education and in interdisciplinary projects in higher education. Finally, some challenges and opportunities are presented for research and educational innovation through the use of these technologies in the field of music creation.

It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this ‘real’ project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of ‘near real life’ educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution’s strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits.

This paper describes an effective methodological strategy that the Consolidated teaching innovation group in Communication and Audiovisual Media (In-COMAV), composed of a multidisciplinary teaching team, has been developing since 2016 within the Audiovisual Communication degree program offered by the University of Barcelona. This strategy consists of promoting service-learning projects within the context of various courses. Here we present the viability criteria established for the acceptance of projects oriented toward collaboration with organizations outside the university, the critical success factors and the results that this initiative has had on students, teachers, the university and society. Such results are perceived positively, yet there are still challenges and limitations to be overcome to ensure the continuity, sustainability and effectiveness of service-learning projects in higher education.