"This book challenges the notion that static principles of inclusive practice can be embedded and measured in Higher Education. It introduces the original concept of postdigital positionality as a dynamic lens through which inclusivity policies in universities might be reimagined. Much is written about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) based on an assumption that such principles are already 'established' in educational institutions, to ensure fairness and opportunity for all. In this book, readers are asked: what does an airing cupboard have in common with 'cancel culture'? This opens a provocative debate concerning the disconnect between EDI policy agendas and the widespread digitalisation of society. Written as Covid-19 has converged with existing political economic spaces of technology, culture, data and digital poverty, Postdigital Positionality calls for more ecologically sustainable inclusivity policies"--
The logic of 'time' in modern capitalist society appears to be a fixed concept. Time dictates human activity with a regularity, which as long ago as 1944, George Woodcock referred to as The Tyranny of the Clock. Seventy years on, Hartmut Rosa suggests humans no longer maintain speed to achieve something new, but simply to preserve the status quo, in a 'social acceleration' that is lethal to democracy. Political engagement takes time we no longer have, as we rush between our virtual spaces and 'non-places' of higher education. I suggest it is time to confront the conspirators that, in partnership with the clock, accelerate our social engagements with technology in the context of learning. Through Critical Discourse Analysis I reveal an alarming situation if we do not. With reference to Bauman's Liquid Modernity, I observe a 'lightness' in policy texts where humans have been 'liquified' Separating people from their own labour with technology in policy maintains the flow of speed a neoliberal economy demands. I suggest a new 'solidity' of human presence is required as we write about networked learning. 'Writing ourselves back in' requires a commitment to 'be there' in policy and provide arguments that decelerate the tyranny of time. I am, though, ever-mindful that social acceleration is also of our own making, and there is every possibility that we actually enjoy it.
peer-reviewed ; The transition year is a unique year in the Irish education system, which has undergone much change since it started in 1974/5, and is now a well established part of Irish schools, being offered by three-quarters of schools, and taken by over half of the pupils. The transition year is a syllabus-free year, governed by some broad guidelines, unlike the Irish school system as a whole, which is highly standardised and examined. As a small country within the European Union, Ireland is well placed as a base for many science-based industries and science and technology have become a major focus of government policy, and hence science education is becoming increasingly important in Ireland. Like other developed nations Ireland is experiencing low numbers taking the physical sciences, but has disproportionately high numbers taking the biological sciences. The unique nature of the transition year offers schools and teachers an unprecedented opportunity to offer a relevant, interesting and innovative science programme, free from examination and curricular constraints. The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate the place of science in the transition year. The study consisted of three phases. Phase 1 involved developing a questionnaire to find out what teachers were teaching in their transition year science classroom, and how they were teaching it. This instrument gave a valuable insight into the practices and experiences of transition year science teachers. Phase 2 expanded further on phase 1 and developed questionnaires to examine the experiences of second level pupils and teachers, and third level students. These instruments provided the quantitative data for this study. Given the complex nature of the transition year, quantitative data alone was not enough for a complete view of science and a phase 3 was developed alongside phase 2. Phase 3 used case studies in selected transition year schools to investigate further the place of science in schools that offered the year. The case studies ...
This paper explores relationships between knowledge production and academic publication and shows that the current political economy of mainstream academic publishing has resulted from a complex interplay between large academic publishers, academics, and hacker-activists. The process of publishing is a form of 'social production' that takes place across the economy, politics and culture, all of which are in turn accommodating both old and new technology in our postdigital age. Technologies such as software cannot be separated from human labour, academic centres cannot be looked at in isolation from their margins, and the necessity of transdisciplinary approaches does not imply the disappearance of traditional disciplines. In the postdigital age, the concept of the margins has not disappeared, but it has become somewhat marginal in its own right. We need to develop a new language of describing what we mean by 'marginal voices' in the social relations between knowledge production and academic publication. Universities require new strategies for cohabitation of, and collaboration between, various socio-technological actors, and new postdigital politics and practice of knowledge production and academic publishing.
In examining the work of the prefix 'post', we aim to contribute to the current postdigital dialogue. Our paper does not provide a rationale for the use of 'postdigital' in the title of this journal: that has been thoroughly explored elsewhere. We want instead to consider the work the prefix might do. We look at 'post', as it appears to 'act' in the terms of 'postmodernism' and 'posthumanism', suggesting that modernism and humanism are in need of questioning and reworking. We also examine what gets 'post-ed', or sometimes 'com-posted'. (Com- is another interesting prefix, meaning 'with'.) We then consider how these inquiries inform our understanding of a 'postdigital reality' that humans now inhabit. We understand this as a space of learning, struggle, and hope, where 'old' and 'new' media are now 'cohabiting artefacts' that enmesh with the economy, politics and culture. In entering this postdigital age, there really is no turning back from a convergence of the traditional and the digital. However, this is not simply a debate about technological and non-technological media. The postdigital throws up new challenges and possibilities across all aspects of social life. We believe this opens up new avenues too, for considering ways that discourse (language-in-use) shapes how we experience the postdigital.
As higher education (HE) has come to be valued for its contribution to the global economy, priorities have been placed on study for a degree to directly meet the needs of industry (Hayes, 2015: p. 125). Furthermore, in UK policy, students have been defined as 'customers' by the government since the introduction of tuition fees (Dearing, 1997; Browne, 2010). Together, these developments have emphasized the role of a degree as a consumer 'product', purchased to secure future employment (Peters, Jandrić and Hayes, 2018a), rather than an experiential learning 'process', that continues well beyond student life (Hayes, 2015 : p. 130). We examine how the student-as-consumer approach in HE policy has recently developed into a strong rhetoric emphasizing 'the student experience' as a package, including leisure, well-being, future employment and other 'extras'. This could be perceived as positive, where all elements of student life are acknowledged. Alternatively, policy discourse concerning 'the student experience' could also be critiqued as a concept that now transcends the notion of a degree as a utilitarian product. A disturbing impression is then generated, where universities are now delivering a packaged experience of 'consumption itself', to students (Argenton, 2015: p. 921). What students would individually experience, such as a 'sense of belonging and pride in the university', is delivered to students, not developed by them. To examine such concerns more closely, we analyse a sample of 20 UK university 'student experience' strategies, via a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Drawing on themes from these texts, we question who 'the student experience' rhetoric really benefits? If a rationalized experience is constructed on behalf of students, then universities as 'cathedrals of consumption' (Ritzer, 2010) align themselves with any other provider of consumer experiences, where the 'production' of academic life has all been taken care of. In such a discourse, students are not necessarily conceptualized as empowered consumers either (Brooks, 2017) but trapped instead within an 'iron cage', even before they set foot in the workplace. Yet, despite a distorted picture that neoliberal HE policy discourse may portray, a postdigital understanding of 'the student experience' could yet offer helpful insights into possible routes of resistance.
In examining the work of the prefix 'post', we aim to contribute to the current postdigital dialogue. Our paper does not provide a rationale for the use of 'postdigital' in the title of this journal: that has been thoroughly explored elsewhere. We want instead to consider the work the prefix might do. We look at 'post', as it appears to 'act' in the terms of 'postmodernism' and 'posthumanism', suggesting that modernism and humanism are in need of questioning and reworking. We also examine what gets 'post-ed', or sometimes 'com-posted'. (Com- is another interesting prefix, meaning 'with'.) We then consider how these inquiries inform our understanding of a 'postdigital reality' that humans now inhabit. We understand this as a space of learning, struggle, and hope, where 'old' and 'new' media are now 'cohabiting artefacts' that enmesh with the economy, politics and culture. In entering this postdigital age, there really is no turning back from a convergence of the traditional and the digital. However, this is not simply a debate about technological and non-technological media. The postdigital throws up new challenges and possibilities across all aspects of social life. We believe this opens up new avenues too, for considering ways that discourse (language-in-use) shapes how we experience the postdigital.
In this paper we discuss how an innovative audio-visual project was adopted to foster active, rather than declarative learning, in critical International Relations (IR). First, we explore the aesthetic turn in IR, to contrast this with forms of representation that have dominated IR scholarship. Second, we describe how students were asked to record short audio or video projects to explore their own insights through aesthetic and non-written formats. Third, we explain how these projects are understood to be deeply embedded in social science methodologies. We cite our inspiration from applying a personal sociological imagination, as a way to counterbalance a 'marketised' slant in higher education, in a global economy where students are often encouraged to consume, rather than produce knowledge. Finally, we draw conclusions in terms of deeper forms of student engagement leading to new ways of thinking and presenting new skills and new connections between theory and practice.
