Engaging The Curriculum In Higher Education

by Barnett, Ronald; Coate, Kelly

• ISBN13: 9780335212897
• ISBN10: 0335212891
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

There is greater interest than ever before in higher education: more money is being spent on it, more students are registered and more courses are being taught. And yet the matter that is arguably at the heart of higher education, the curriculum, is noticeable for its absence in public debate and in the literature on higher education. This book begins to redress the balance.Even though the term 'curriculum' may be missing from debates on higher education, curricula are changing rapidly and in significant ways. What we are seeing, therefore, is curriculum change by stealth, in which curricula are being reframed to enable students to acquire skills that have market value. In turn, curricula are running the risk of fragmenting as knowledge and skills exert their separate claims. Such a fragmented curriculum is falling well short of the challenges of the twenty-first century.A complex and uncertain world requires curricula in which students as human beings are placed at their centre: what is called for are curricula that offer no less than the prospect of encouraging the formation of human being and becoming. A curriculum of this kind has to be understood as the imaginative design of spaces where creative things can happen as students become engaged.Based upon a study of curricula in UK universities,Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Educationoffers an uncompromising thesis about the development of higher education and is essential reading for those who care about its future.

Author Biography

Ronald Barnett is Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London where, from 1994 to 2001, he was also Dean of Professional Development. His books include The Idea of Higher Education, The Limits of Competence, Higher Education: A Critical Business, Realizing the University and Beyond All Reason (all published by Open University Press).

Kelly Coate is Research Officer in the School of Lifelong Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests are in the areas of teaching and learning in higher education, the higher education curriculum, and social justice and equity issues.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction	1	(10)
Part 1: The Possibility of Curriculum	11	(56)
1 Curriculum: a missing term	13	(14)
2 Understanding the curriculum	27	(14)
3 Higher education for an age of uncertainty	41	(12)
4 Framing curriculum	53	(14)
Part 2: Signs of Curriculum Life	67	(54)
5 A schema	69	(12)
6 Knowing	81	(13)
7 Acting	94	(13)
8 Being	107	(14)
Part 3: Prospects for Engagement	121	(42)
9 Engaging the curriculum	123	(14)
10 Engaging students	137	(13)
11 Engaging academics	150	(13)
Summary and reflections	163	(6)
Appendix: Selected curriculum development projects	169	(6)
Bibliography	175	(10)
Subject Index	185	(4)
Author Index	189	(2)
The Society for Research into Higher Education	191