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Business and management studies in higher education: the challenge of academic legitimacy
No full textCritics argue that the core values of higher education, including academic freedom and intellectual detachment, conflict with the more prosaic aims and ethos of business and management education. Analyses the isolation of business and management studies within this culture by reference to its epistemological, academic, institutional, doctrinal and professional identity. Argues that the ethos of business and management departments closely resembles an academic culture despite perceptions to the contrary in the wider academic community. However, acceptance of business and management in the academy as a legitimate social profession dictates the need for a broader curriculum which treats humanistic values as a central, rather than peripheral, concern
The Business Studies first degree: institutional trends and the pedagogic context
No full textThis paper focuses on the BA in Business Studies (BABS) drawing on interviews with 31 lecturers across four representative institutions. The first section examines the impact of institutional trends on the BABS degree. Fragmentation and diversification of degree programmes is explained by reference to a post-Fordist analysis of system-wide change across UK higher education. The second section analyses the pedagogy of lecturers who contribute to a BABS degree. Lecturers with disciplinary roots in social science disciplines such as Economics or Sociology argued that their primary goal was to produce ‘critical thinkers’ better able to adapt in a post-Fordist business environment. Other lecturers, who identify with subject areas more closely allied to the business context, such as Accountancy or Information Systems, favour a pedagogy emphasising student acquisition of technical knowledge and skills. These lecturers expect students to synthesise and select from a body of knowledge, rather than evaluate it critically
In search of an identity: lecturer perceptions of the business studies first degree
No full textDespite the growing importance of Business Studies within UK higher education issues concerning its curriculum have received little serious attention. This paper identifies a framework by which to understand the Business Studies degree and reports the results of a national survey into the attitudes of lecturers. The survey analysed the perceptions of lecturers toward the aims and knowledge structure of first degrees in Business Studies. Most lecturers hold divergent views concerning the appropriate aim of a Business Studies degree indicating that the widespread perception that such programmes are ‘vocational’ may be misplaced. There are also differences of perspective concerning the balance between humanities- and science-based knowledge. A range of teaching subjects within Business Studies provides the basis for distinct academic and professional traditions. Differences in the attitudes of lecturers toward both aims and knowledge appear to be closely linked to these traditions, and the institutional setting of such degrees
Refugees, nomads and tourists: an anatomy of business and management lecturers in higher education
No full textBusiness ethics: too little, too late
No full textDescribes the marginal accommodation of courses in business ethics within the business studies first degree curriculum. Focusing principally on the role of law and economics, argues that introductory subject study within business studies degrees plays a significant role in underpinning free-market principles and undermining ethical concerns. As a result students are encouraged to regard business activity as legitimately distinct from society. Concludes that courses in business ethics are under pressure to conform to a vocational rationale demonstrating the market benefits of ethical behaviour rather than encouraging students to examine fundamentally the assumptions and effects of business practice. Also suggests that, as a final-year option, discrete courses in business ethics do little to disturb the market orthodoxy of business studies students
Teaching, integrity and the development of professional responsibility: why we need pedagogical phronesis
No full textWhat does professional responsibility entail in an increasingly insecure, unpredictable and de-regulated world? This is the core question addressed in this text. The point of departure for the various contributions is that professional responsibility is a way of being in the world that includes a particular mandate – to behave in a manner consistent with moral and societal obligations as a professional. Increasingly, however, there is a lack of consensus as to what such mandates imply, and even more dissensus as to what appropriate exercise of responsibility entails. One of the distinctive features of this book is the manner in which it combines normative and empirical dimensions. It moves beyond dualistic perspectives to create a more inclusive conversation on professional responsibility. In the face of increasing complexity of professional work, professional responsibility remains open to further development. The book signals direction for the development of professional responsibility, and while seeking to give direction to ongoing deliberations avoids the pitfalls of performativity.The chapters are grounded in a variety of disciplinary perspectives and traverse various professional boundaries in a self-reflexive manner to create more inclusive, transformative and generative narratives on professional responsibility. This is achieved by:Focusing on normative dimensions of professional work and combining these with a focus on empirical aspects of professional practice in a variety of setting, and Recognising the inevitable tensions between personal trust and responsibility, and largely depersonalised policies and strategies of quality control when normative and empirical aspects of professional responsibility are situated within their policy environments.The concluding narrative moves beyond deconstruction, complexity and critique of these considerations to a construction of new imagined horizons of professional responsibility from theoretical, conceptual and practical perspectives. This text sets out to transform professional responsibility through a re-configuration of its constituent elements in imaginative and creative ways and by indicating the 'real world' import of re-charting the field
Book Review: Macfarlane, B. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed
No full textThis is a review of
Macfarlane, B. 2017. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis
Macfarlane, B. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed
Get PDFThis is a review of
Macfarlane, B. 2017. Freedom to Learn: The Threat to Student Academic Freedom and Why it Needs to be Reclaimed. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis
The significance of subject choice in explaining the first class degree divide between male and female graduates
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