Cultures and Change in Higher Education Theories and Practices

by Trowler, Paul; Entwistle, Noel; King, Roger

• ISBN13: 9781403948533
• ISBN10: 1403948534
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book describes approaches to understanding cultures in higher education and pays particular attention to cultures and cultural construction at departmental level. Implications of cultural characteristics for issues around change initiatives, including the enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment are a key focus of this book.

Author Biography

PAUL TROWLER is Professor of Higher Education and Head of Department Dept. of Educational Research, Lancaster University. He is a member of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Development Committee, and a member of Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Higher Education. He is author of a wide range of academic books including

Prichard, C. and Trowler, P. (eds) (2003) Realising Qualitative Research in Higher Education. Aldershot: Ashgate. (The volume from the Higher Education Close Up 2 conference, Lancaster, 2001)
Trowler. P. (2003) Education Policy: a policy sociology approach second edition. London: Routledge.
Trowler, P. (ed) (2002) Higher Education Policy and Institutional Change. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Preface	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. x
A Note about Audience and Voice in this Book	p. xii
Understanding Cultures in Higher Education	p. 1
Culture at the organisational level	p. 1
Categorising approaches to culture in organisations	p. 2
An inductive approach to categorising	p. 7
The unit of analysis and nomothetic and IDC approaches	p. 10
The multiple cultures in organisations	p. 12
Conclusion - why does it matter?	p. 14
A Sociocultural Understanding of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment	p. 16
Sociocultural theory	p. 17
Sociocultural and psychological approaches: The need for rebalancing	p. 18
A focus on the workgroup	p. 20
Structure and agency in workgroups	p. 22
Relevant dimensions of sociocultural theory	p. 30
The issue of intersubjectivity	p. 30
Tools used by workgroups	p. 31
Domestication of initiatives	p. 38
The physical environment	p. 43
The backstory	p. 48
Conclusion	p. 50
Teaching and Learning Regimes: A Brief Overview	p. 51
Why 'teaching and learning' regimes?	p. 51
Why 'regime'?	p. 52
Teaching and learning regimes: The parts	p. 54
Teaching and learning regimes: The whole	p. 55
Cultures, regimes, and the significance of structure	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 60
Teaching and Learning Regimes Deconstructed	p. 61
Introduction: The nature of the eight moments	p. 61
Illustrating the eight moments	p. 67
Recurrent practices	p. 67
Tacit assumptions	p. 69
Implicit theories of teaching and learning	p. 72
Discursive repertoires	p. 75
Conventions of appropriateness	p. 92
Power relations	p. 97
Subjectivities in interaction	p. 101
Codes of signification	p. 109
Conclusion	p. 113
Organisational Shape and Processes: Learning Architectures, Enhancement Cultures	p. 115
Ways of understanding organisational cultures	p. 116
Learning organisations, learning architectures, and enhancement cultures	p. 121
Learning organisations	p. 121
Learning architectures	p. 127
Enhancement cultures	p. 130
Conclusion	p. 133
Enhancing Teaching and Learning	p. 134
What makes teaching and learning enhancement initiatives likely to succeed?	p. 135
Planning change	p. 144
How to fail?	p. 150
What should we expect when we try to enhance teaching and learning?	p. 152
Conclusion	p. 156
Researching for Change	p. 158
Why research for change?	p. 158
Health warnings	p. 159
Researching for change: Special issues	p. 161
Some potential solutions at the individual level	p. 166
Some potential solutions at the group level	p. 168
Making the normal strange	p. 170
Researching the initiative	p. 171
Conclusion	p. 172
Notes	p. 173
References	p. 174
Index	p. 188
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