In countries such as Chile in which a neoliberal economic approach is predominant, higher education systems are characterized by productivity, competition for resources and income generation, all of which have impact on academics' experiences of time. Through a qualitative approach in which 20 interviews and two focus groups were conducted, this…

Criminal justice education is a relatively new program in higher education in many countries, and its curriculum and parameters remain unsettled. An exploratory study investigated whether threshold concepts theory provided a useful lens by which to explore student understandings of this multidisciplinary field. Eight high-performing final-year…

The development of a capacity to engage in critical reflection is central to higher education. However, students vary in this capacity and its development requires students to move from an absolute towards a contextual way of knowing. Using 32 semi-structured interviews, this study identifies the ways of knowing of 17 business and accounting…

Writing in different academic disciplines is not only different in superficial ways but in deeper ways that are connected to the history and characteristics of each discipline. Although many writing theorists now understand writing in this way, little has been written about these connections in specific disciplines, and even less about student…

If a curriculum in higher education is understood to be an educational vehicle to promote a student's development, and if a curriculum in higher education is also understood to be built in large part around a project of knowledge, then the issue arises as to the links between knowledge and student being and becoming. A distinction is made here…

Across advanced industrial economies, programs in higher education are increasingly becoming occupationally specific and universities are being seen as providers of "higher vocational education". With this have come expectations that graduates from these programs will enjoy smooth transitions into professional practice. Aligned with these…

This article aims to address a theoretical question, "what is the relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum structure?", by answering an empirical, context-specific question, "what drives and legitimates the curriculum in one sociology department?", with an emphasis on surfacing the "recontextualising rules" at work in this…

Higher education policy studies over the last decade have addressed the detrimental effects of neoliberalism, new public managerialism and audit cultures on the nature, organisation, form and meanings of higher education at a macro level. This article addresses the micro-practices through which the author, as doctoral candidate and knowledge…

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between students' epistemological beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning. The results showed that the epistemological beliefs dimension "learning effort/process" was positively related to the constructivist conception of teaching and learning, and negatively related…

Scholars such as Kamler and Thompson argue that identity formation has a key role to play in doctoral learning, particularly the process of thesis writing. This article builds on these insights to address other sites in which scholarly identity is performed within doctoral candidature. Drawing on actor-network theory, the authors examine the role…

In this article, the implications of foregrounding ontology for teaching and learning in higher education are explored. In conventional approaches to higher education programmes, ontology has tended to be subordinated to epistemological concerns. This has meant the flourishing of notions such as the transfer and acquisition of knowledge and…

This study examines interdisciplinary differences in final-year psychology, pharmacy and theology students' academic thinking and personal epistemology. The semi-structured interviews (n = 52) were analysed using content analysis to assess students' individual perspectives of the cognitive process of thinking, knowing and reasoning. The three…

The relationship between research and teaching has been the focus of much scholarly debate. Recently, the very existence of such a relationship has been questioned. In addition, government policies are undermining this defining feature of the modern university, creating an ontological crisis for those working in the academy. In order to understand…

This article is a response to a request to consider the following three questions in relation to the recent history of research into student learning in higher education: What do we know?, What do we need to know?, and What might we do about it? A survey of article titles reporting on research into student learning was carried out in three key…

This article discusses the findings of a recent study which demonstrates that generic attributes are highly context-dependent, and are shaped by the disciplinary epistemology in which they are conceptualised and taught. Generic attributes have, for a long time, been viewed as super-disciplinary, and hence as separated from and overlayed onto…