This article considers how students, reflecting on a pedagogy combining academic literacies and critical analysis, emphasised the importance of the learning community it promoted. The pedagogy drew on insights from the work of Theodor Adorno. Through qualitative research, the students confirmed their experience of a vibrant, productive learning…

The transformation of higher education provision by neoliberal values has been well documented. However, recent criticisms and even attacks upon higher education indicate a new politics extending beyond neoliberalism. This article draws on the sociology of conventions to unpick the distinctions at work in these new criticisms of universities. By…

Taking forward the notion of the scholar without borders, "International Environments and Practices of Higher Education" provides a critical review of the teaching practices in higher education in international contexts. Sticky problems and debates about inclusivity, diversity, and cultural representation in the curriculum and classroom…

Purpose: The case studies were examined in the context of a lack of confidence in what constitutes truth and knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: A case study design taken examining specific instances where the emergence of populist political tactics in an unfettered media world has undermined public belief in what counts as knowledge and to…

Higher Education (HE) constitutes a space that calls urgently for new understandings in the contemporary political moment. One way of establishing such an understanding of HE is to consider more fully the work of political theorists in relation to questions of power in the modern nation-state, particularly as these impinge upon the key problem of…

When the newly appointed professor of medicine at the University of Rinteln, Johann Peter Lotichius (1598-1669), delivered an oration entitled "Oratio super fatalibus hoc tempore academiarum in Germania periculis" ("Oration on the pernicious dangers to the universities of contemporary Germany") at said university in February…

This project is a study of the role interpretation has played during a few key moments in a culture war over the role of the university in society. It argues that in these key moments in which a political reflection has been undertaken regarding the way knowledge is produced and distributed, the nature and function of interpretation as such has…

Bourgeois-based approaches to 'critical thinking' are failing to help students develop self-reflexivity and the capacity to think critically about the world. This circumstance has led some Marxist authors to claim that dialectics is the real form of critical thinking, so it should be introduced into teaching/learning activities. This advocacy for…

In this article, we use the zombies as a metaphor for reforms in the Polish academy and a description of how neoliberalism works. According to the interpretation of the production of zombies as a critique of late capitalism, we want to show, by using an autoethnographic method, how subjectivity, relationships with others and the world are changing…

This article deploys critical sociology to examine institutions of higher learning, worldwide, within a context of a more utopian set of possibilities. The article contests the idea of universities as marketplaces -- competition, commercialisation and vocationalisation; the synthetic values of docility, conformity, and image/impression management;…

Are we witnessing the rise of 'global' student protests, in the wake of austerity policies and globalised educational reforms? To answer this question, this article draws on a comparison of the claims, anger, and hope present in three post-2008 student movements: the student movement in Santiago, Chile (2011-2012), the 'Maple Spring' in Montreal,…

In this article, the authors present a qualitative study focused on preservice teachers employing a framework using tenets of critical race theory (CRT)--permanence of racism, experiential knowledge and counter-storytelling, interest convergence, and critique of liberalism--in literature study. Drawing on critical English education, critical race…

This article explores the ways in which social scaffolding and cultural brokering processes within educational spaces engender ideological tensions among predominantly Latinx youth participants and educators within a college and career readiness organization. Based upon data from an 18-month ethnography, they engaged in forms of resistance through…

The recently revised NAEYC position papers and the fourth edition of NAEYC's Developmentally Appropriate Guidelines (NAEYC. 2022. "Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: Serving Children from Birth through Age 8," edited by S. Friedman, 4th ed. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young…

How should those who value reasonable pluralism navigate ethical and epistemological challenges related to speech and inquiry in higher education? We propose the ethical pursuit of public knowledge as a guiding vision for public colleges and universities with the understanding that other institutions will serve different purposes. The ethical…