Towards Teaching in Public: Reshaping the Modern University

<div><em>Towards Teaching in Public: Reshaping the Modern University</em> explores how the contested relationships between policy, curriculum and pedagogy are reshaping the modern university and examines the impact of conceptualisations of teaching in public on this debate in this age of academic capitalism. It traces the emergence of strategies for open access, with particular reference to the contribution of technology and e-learning, to the emergence of teaching in public as a critique of current educational policy. The contributors combine policy analysis with a consideration of pedagogical issues and an exploration of the student experience.<br /><br/><br /><br/>This collection draws together chapters by experienced scholars and practitioners within the field of teaching and learning in higher education.</div>>

'This book is an inspiration. It elegantlycombines historical, sociological and philosophical analysis of the role ofuniversities with an argument for reconfiguring the teacher-student roles andrelationships. Anyone reading it will beconvinced of the both the desirability and feasibility of working foruniversity education for the public good.' Monica McLean,Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Nottingham, UK

 'Unlike many books by groups ofacademics defending universities against government termination of funding forthe arts and humanities while tripling fees in a free market that will lead toprivatisation, Mike Neary and his colleagues are not striking poses to be moreradical than their rivals in publication but are proposing practical waysforward for higher education that will keep inquiry and reason alive in darktimes. They are not doing this in an elite university which will continue toattract rich home and overseas students come what may but in a 'ModernUniversity', where they are pioneering student-centred approaches to researchand scholarship across the arts and sciences and especially in social science,where they build on the precedents of 'reinvention' and revolt, student-ledundergraduate research and Independent Study. Their initiative and example of'teaching in public', detailed in this book, embodies an ideal for contemporaryintellectuality which deserves the attention of students and staff across thesector and also in schools and colleges, as well as of the wider publicappalled at the Coalition government's callous cuts and barbaric disregard ofthe central role of the university in public life.' Patrick Ainley, Professor of Training and Education in the School ofEducation and Training, University of Greenwich, UK

 'A timely book for all who want to step back and reflect on current controversies and debates about the meaning and purpose of higher education. It is a well-informed and wide-ranging exploration of pedagogical issues contextualised in the philosophical question about the meaning and purpose of higher education in the 21st century, and will appeal in particular to all who are committed to learning and teaching in universities and who have ever felt demoralised, demotivated and diminished by current political and economic exigencies. This book challenges the reader to think beyond the current state of higher education to more radical approaches to knowledge sharing, learning and teaching. The authors do not promise an easy route, but they do open up new possibilities for those in academia brave enough to explore them.' Lin Norton, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University, UK

 'We have become so used to theidea that the public value of higher education must be tied to state provisionthat it is refreshing to see a set of authors willing not only to challengethat false piety but also offer some constructive proposals that promise toadvance the cause of democratic education in a world where the state is no moredependable an ally than the market.' SteveFuller, Professor of Sociology and AugusteComte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, UK

Towards Teaching in Public: Reshaping the Modern University explores how the contested relationships between policy, curriculum and pedagogy are reshaping the modern university and examines the impact of conceptualisations of teaching in public on this debate in this age of academic capitalism. It traces the emergence of strategies for open access, with particular reference to the contribution of technology and e-learning, to the emergence of teaching in public as a critique of current educational policy. The contributors combine policy analysis with a consideration of pedagogical issues and an exploration of the student experience.

This collection draws together chapters by experienced scholars and practitioners within the field of teaching and learning in higher education.

Explores the concept of teaching in public, a debate seeking to defend the university as a publicly funded institution, based on progressive public values.

Mike Neary is Professor and Dean of Teaching and Learning at Lincoln University, UK, where he is Director of the Centre for Educational Research and Development. He is the Founding Director of the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning based at Warwick and Oxford Brookes Universities, and is a National Teaching Fellow.

Howard Stevenson is Professor of Education and Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the University of Lincoln, UK.

Les Bell is Emeritus Professor of Educational Management at the School of Education, University of Leicester, UK, and Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Lincoln, UK. Before his retirement in July 2006, he was a member of the Centre for Educational Leadership and Management and Director of the Doctorate in Education programme at the University of Leicester, UK.

Notes on Contributors
Foreword, Mary Stuart
Acknowledgements
Part I: Education as a Public Good (Editor: Les Bell)
1. Teaching in Public: Reshaping the University, Mike Neary and Aileen Morris
2. Teaching in Public: Revolution as Evolution in Nineteenth-Century Higher Education, Angela Thody
3. Teaching in Public: Participation and Access in Twentieth-Century Higher Education, Les Bell
Part II: The Student/Teacher Nexus (Editor: Howard Stevenson)
4. Rethinking the Student/Teacher Nexus: Students as Consultants on Teaching in Higher Education, Karin Crawford
5. The Student as Scholar: Research and the Undergraduate Student, Andy Hagyard and Sue Watling
6. Invisible Publics: Higher Education and Digital Exclusion, Sue Watling
Part III: Teaching as a Public Activity (Editor: Mike Neary)
7. Making Teaching Public: Cracking Open Professional Practice, Aileen Morris and Howard Stevenson
8. Public Technology: Challenging the Commodification of Knowledge, Julian Beckton
9. Open Education: From the Freedom of Things to the Freedom of People, Joss Winn
10. Beyond Teaching in Public: The University as a Form of Social Knowing, Mike Neary
References
Index