scholarly journals The Age-Friendly University: Theory and Practice in Institutional Transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
Phillip Clark ◽  
Skye Leedahl

Abstract Growth in the network of Age-Friendly Universities (AFU) signals the importance of making higher education more age inclusive. Commitment to AFU principles creates opportunities for universities to develop new initiatives and activities that embody them. However, changing academic culture can present unique challenges as well as opportunities. Theories of organizational change help in developing strategies promoting greater involvement of older adults in communities traditionally focused on younger adults. The University of Rhode Island’s experience in continuing to develop as an AFU illustrates the complex challenge of transformation in institutions typically slow to change. This presentation focuses on the following three elements. First, uncovering and confronting ageism in academic settings is a critical first step in opening up the campus community to students of all ages. Second, identifying champions who can advocate for change in different institutional segments is an essential element in expanding the AFU movement. Third, promoting intergenerational programs helps to build bridges between traditional age and older students, particularly emphasizing the contributions that older adults can make to the academic enterprise. Implications for expanding the AFU network while focusing on individual institutions include the following: (1) using theory to drive practice in an intentional and strategic fashion; (2) identifying factors opposing change, particularly since they are usually hidden and not widely recognized; (3) developing a strategy to address these barriers, especially one tailored to the unique institutional context; and (4) recognizing the larger social, economic, and political forces generally in higher education that establish the context for AFUs.

Author(s):  
Allison Butler ◽  
Martha Fuentes-Bautista ◽  
Erica Scharrer

Through detailed discussion and review of the work done in media literacy in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, including curricular alignment, engaged scholarship, and a media literacy certificate, this chapter shares how faculty, students, and community partners work together to bring media literacy theory and practice to action. The Department of Communication places a high value on media literacy across its programs and curricula and this chapter describes the department's carefully structured approach to media literacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 11-11
Author(s):  
Lauren Bowen ◽  
Nina Silverstein ◽  
Susan Whitbourne ◽  
Joann Montepare

Abstract The first AFU principle is to “encourage the participation of older adults in all the core activities of the university, including educational and research programs.” As this suggests, a crucial goal of age inclusivity in higher education is to resist the siloing of older adults and age-inclusive efforts in age-specific programs and cohorts. In response, the Age-Friendly Inventory and Campus Climate Survey (ICCS) assessment was designed to assess age-inclusivity across seven areas of institutional activity: outreach & engagement, personnel, physical environment, research, services & resources, student affairs, and teaching & learning. By restructuring and expanding the “pillars” of institutional activity outlined by AFU principles, the ICCS presents two key advantages for benchmarking AFU practices: (1) it traces age-inclusivity across many facets of institutional operations; and (2) it prompts participants and report readers to recognize their role in current and potential age-inclusive efforts, regardless of their role or department on campus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-743
Author(s):  
Janina Godłów-Legiędź

Motivation: The crisis of liberal democracy reveals a new dimension to the dispute over the role of the university. Declining trust in elites and the growing uncertainty during the pandemic challenge the belief that the key aim of the university reform should be to subject it to the global mechanism of competition as well as to introduce modern management principles. In the American society, there is a growing belief that the higher education system in the United States is heading in the wrong direction and that universities are politically biased. Despite this, the American system inspires higher education all over the world, including Poland. Even during the pandemic, the attention of the academic community in Poland is focused on the lists of journals constituting the basis for the evaluation of universities and academics. Aim: The aim of the article is to demonstrate the threats posed by a higher education system governed by the dominant economic and political forces. The author evaluates the economic forces behind the parameterisation and ranking system, challenging the rationality of the Polish higher education reforms. The source of the arguments for academic freedom is the political economy that places economic goals in the perspective of long-term universal goals and examines the complex relationships between the economic, political and moral aspects. Results: Academic freedom is not a privilege of the academic world, but one of the foundations of the successful development of a democratic society because science and education cannot be subject to existing patterns of thinking and current economic and political forces. But modern universities are driven to act like firms in competitive market places and they are following trends set by short-term economic and politic interests. Political economy is an effective tool for analysing functioning of higher education operating in quasi-market conditions, imposed by the dominant market players and the state. Understanding the forces underlying the reform of universities requires an analysis of the processes of interpenetration of economic and political processes, which means that the paradigm of political economy is gaining importance. In view of the requirements imposed on universities, dictated by short-term interests, the most important thing is the awareness that the necessity of state financing means that no solution will guarantee autonomy, if there is no responsibility of the academic community and self-discipline of its members.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Violeta Orlovic Lovren ◽  
Marija Maruna ◽  
Svetlana Stanarevic

Purpose This purpose of this study is to explore the integration of the sustainable development concept and goals into the curriculum of higher education studies using the example of three faculties of the University of Belgrade. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative content analysis has been applied on two levels: the evaluation of the sustainability of courses starting from the criteria defined using the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (ASHE, 2017), and the analysis of the outcomes defined in the curricula of subjects within the three faculties using the UNESCO learning objectives related to selected sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a criteria. Findings While the largest number of courses were analyzed from the Faculty of Architecture, the highest proportion of sustainability courses was found in the Faculty of Security Studies. Both study areas reflect a stronger interdisciplinary orientation, although it should be strengthened in the case of the Andragogy study program. Based on the experience of the Faculty of Architecture, the courses implemented by linking theory and practice may significantly contribute to achieving the LOs and to implementing the education for sustainable development. At the University of Belgrade, strategic documents are missing that would encourage and oblige the faculties to apply the concept of sustainability. Originality/value This is the first study to apply this type of curricula analysis at the University of Belgrade. It is performed by teachers from the university, coming from different disciplinary fields but oriented towards an interdisciplinary perspective. Although performed in three specific study areas within a single university, the identified gaps and trends may be useful for planning interventions toward accelerating the implementation of SDGs in the higher education curricula.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 204-211
Author(s):  
Huong Tran Thanh

Scientific research is seen as a tool to discover new knowledge and create advanced products for the betterment of society. However, the contribution of research outputs is only valuable unless it is done with the required values and by specific standards. By using questionnaire to conduct a survey on 169 permanent faculty members at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC, the author found out that the respondents had adequate perception to research ethics, however, they inadequately perceived the values of research methods, and relationship among stakeholders and research sponsors. From these findings, some recommendations are proposed to improve the research effectiveness at the university level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P Levine ◽  
Laura D'Olimpio

While some may argue that universities are in a state of crisis, others claim that we are living in a post-university era; a time after universities. If there was a battle for the survival of the institution, it is over and done with. The buildings still stand. Students enrol and may (at times) attend lectures, though let’s be clear—most do not. But virtually nothing real remains. What some mistakenly take to be a university is, in actuality, an ‘uncanny’ spectral presence; ‘the nagging presence of an absence … a “spectralized amnesiac modernity with its delusional totalizing systems”’ (Maddern & Adey 2008, p. 292). It is the remains and remnants of the university.[1]Overstatement? Perhaps. We think many if not most administrators, at all levels, will likely dissent. So too will many if not most teachers and students. Trying to determine whether this is correct, or to what extent, by consulting polls and reading opinion pieces in various education journals and professional papers (e.g. Journal of Higher Education; The Campus Review; Chronicle of Higher Education) is likely to be of little help. In any case, it is the hypothesis (that universities and educational institutions generally are in a state of crisis), along with closely related ones, and concerns about what can be done in the circumstances, that have generated this special issue.This special issue highlights and illustrates that most of the contested issues regarding educational theory and practice central to how universities and schools should be, and how they should be run, are first and foremost questions of value rather than fact. They are questions regarding what we want, but more importantly what we should want, from our universities and schools; about what they should be and what students, teachers and administrators should be doing to facilitate this.[1]    See Cox and Levine (2016a, b) and Boaks, Cox and Levine (forthcoming).


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Miguel-Ángel Marzal ◽  
Jussara Borges

This study describes the premises underlying Voremetur, a project conducted in the context of higher education. It hypothesises the need to support a competence education method adapted to new educational formulas (from e- to m-learning), new educational challenges (e-science, big data) and the convergent competences now characterised as info-communication literacy, which has favoured the transition from edu-communication to multiliteracy. Such competences should be organised into competence programmes, where the assessment of the beneficial results for learners and the university should be included as an essential element. The article discusses an assessment model for new literacies, including its conceptual framework, ideal evaluation tools and conversion into an ad hoc questionnaire. Lastly, the paper describes model application to a target group and analyses the results most relevant to information behaviour.


Author(s):  
Alison James ◽  
Sue Watling

This book discusses the theory and practice of labyrinth creation and use. From issues of design and cost, to how a labyrinth may be used as a university-wide resource and also be used for outreach to the wider community, it covers labyrinth use: Within disciplines, such as initiatives to deepen reflection and explore contemplative approaches to learning In wider university contexts, such as counselling; chaplaincy; learning and educational development; widening participation and student transition Across the whole university, and reaching out to the wider community of which the university is a part, from the labyrinth as a conference resource (as well as topic), to festival contributions. Learning with the Labyrinth seeks to illustrate, inspire and share ideas that can be taken further by the reader.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. A79-A79
Author(s):  
Student

The professors—working steadily and systematically—have destroyed the university as a center of learning and have desolated higher education, which no longer is higher or much of an education. . . Academic culture is not merely indifferent to teaching, it is actively hostile to it.


Author(s):  
Ivar César Oliveira De Vasconcelos ◽  
Geraldo Caliman

Nos tempos atuais, a educação segue acolhendo crianças, adolescentes e jovens frequentemente sujeitos ao adestramento com vistas à obtenção de bom desempenho em testes padronizados. Vigora o processo educacional que pouco articula aspectos informativos e formativos da educação. Indaga-se: os processos educacionais desenvolvidos na universidade formam ou informam? Investigou-se, por meio de uma abordagem qualitativo exploratória, com grupos focais, a percepção de jovens estudantes a respeito da educação desenvolvida na universidade, visando a compreender como concretizar, cada vez mais, a pedagogia dialógica (FREIRE, 2009, 2011) e, assim, contribuir com a educação para direitos humanos. Segundo declararam, o curso superior oferece acesso a uma vida melhor, não significando isto só ganhar dinheiro, mas também situar cada vez mais o indivíduo nas relações sociais. Percebem priorização de aspectos informativos, em detrimento dos formativos. Para eles, torna-se necessário superar os limites dos conceitos aprendidos, para o que as aulas deveriam ser mais dinâmicas e capazes de facilitar, junto aos estudantes, a vinculação entre teoria e prática, o que, inclusive, contribuiria para a maior compreensão de direitos humanos. Palavras-chave: Educação superior. Direitos humanos. Formação de professores. Juventude. Pedagogia dialógica.ABSTRACTNowadays, education shelters children, adolescents and young people who often are subjected to dressage, aiming to obtain good performance on standardized tests. The educational process that does not articulate informative and formative aspects of education remains as the rule. Based on this, it is reasonable to ask: do educational processes developed at the university environment form or inform? Through a qualitative exploratory approach, with focus groups, it was investigated the perceptions of young students about the educational process developed within the university in order to understand how to reach a dialogical pedagogy (FREIRE, 2009, 2011) and thus contribute to a human rights oriented education. According to respondents, higher education leads to a better life, although it do not means only making money, but also reinforcing individuals' place in social relationships. For them, it is necessary to overcome the limits of the learnt concepts through more dynamic classes, able to provide the linkage between theory and practice, thus enhancing a wider understanding of rights humans.Keywords: Higher education. Human rights. Teacher education. Youth. Dialogic pedagogy.RESUMENHoy en día, la educación sigue aceptar los niños, los adolescentes y los jóvenes son a menudo objeto de la formación con el fin de obtener buenos resultados en los exámenes estandarizados. Forzar el proceso educativo que articule la información y la formación pequeños aspectos de la educación. Pide a sí mismo: los procesos educativos desarrollados en el formulario universidad o informe? Se investigó mediante un enfoque cualitativo y exploratorio con grupos focales, la percepción de los jóvenes estudiantes sobre la educación desarrollada en la universidad con el fin de entender cómo darse cuenta, cada vez más, la pedagogía dialógica (Freire, 2009, 2011) y así contribuir a la educación de los derechos humanos. Según los encuestados, el curso superior ofrece acceso a una vida mejor, lo que significa que no sólo ganar dinero, sino también colocar cada vez más al individuo en las relaciones sociales. Darse cuenta de priorización de aspectos informativos, a expensas de la formación. Para ellos, es necesario superar los límites de los conceptos aprendidos, por lo que las clases deben ser más dinámico y capaz de facilitar, con los estudiantes, el vínculo entre la teoría y la práctica, que incluso contribuir a una mejor comprensión de los derechos humanos.Palabras clave: Educación Superior. Derechos humanos. La formación del profesorado. Juventud. Pedagogía dialógica.


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