Trusting in the University: The Contribution of Temporality and Trust to a Praxis of Higher Learning

Description

The world in which we learn is changing rapidly. That rapidity is driven by a range of influences, conveniently, but inadequately, clustered under the rubric of globalisation. . The context in which globalisation and education is often linked is that of progression, progression realisable through technology, the free movement of finances and the optimum utilisation of human capital. To fuel this progression, formal educational institutions have grown, adapted and changed to provide highly skilled ‘outputs’ to satisfy demand. Along the way, I will argue, the questioning, learning, reflecting and worthiness of formal education has been sacrificed for instrumentality, compliance and self-interest. This is seen throughout the educational system but this book concentrates on higher education and, more importantly, higher educational institutions that are known as universities. I will try to argue for a distinctive place for universities that does not resist progression but defines it differently from that allowable by the market. I propose a university system where students and faculty are together allowed to ‘let learn’ who they might become, rather than realise their being as the artefact of economic imperatives. I accept from the very beginning that this might be incompatible with universities being in the world of commerce and industry, in fact, I demand that they are not! However, my text is not a polemic against the capitalist entrapment of education per se but for the development of centres that question whilst engaging with the realities of our existence. Introduction....Pages 1-25 Liberalism, Mass Education and a Loss of Academic Trust....Pages 27-45 The Market Metaphor — A Good Basis for Trust?....Pages 47-69 What Form of Trust Might be Appropriate for Universities to Build a Praxis of Higher Education Designed to Encourage Authenticity?....Pages 71-87 Education in a Culture of Suspicion?....Pages 89-98 If Not the Market Model, then Perhaps a Heideggerian Perspective?....Pages 99-116 A University’s Authenticity is in its Community....Pages 117-129 Trusting in Thinking about Knowing....Pages 131-151 Trusting in Teaching to Let Learn....Pages 153-169 A Trusting Praxis for Higher Education Institutions....Pages 171-188 Reflections....Pages 189-194