Home - Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Academic Futures: Inquiries into Higher Education and Pedagogy
Editor: iPED Research Network
Date Of Publication: Aug 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-1131-6
Isbn: 1-4438-1131-9
“This is a book of its time, and one for its time.” So says Paul Trowler of Lancaster University, in his Foreword to this edited collection of new work. The book exemplifies the iPED Research Network’s diversity, exposing both the links and the boundaries between the higher education researchers involved, their students and their institutions. But, as Professor Trowler goes on to say, “What all the chapters have in common is the rigorous and grounded approach based on evidence.”

The fifteen contributed chapters are thematically divided into three sections.

• Responding to Complexity: authors from Australia, Austria and the UK consider aspects of academic life as diverse as funding and intellectual pleasure

• Transforming Academic Identities: views from the UK, Eire and Denmark on evolving as an academic.

• Pedagogy and Practice: exemplars of approaches to teaching and learning that use innovative technologies and methods across varying educational contexts.

The Introduction by Professor Paul Blackmore of King’s College London sets the scene. Chapters are supplemented by commentary from critical friends, providing alternative perspectives on the work by educational researchers from different disciplines, institution types or nations.

Keywords are provided to encourage the reader to dip into the book according to their research interests.

iPED stands for “inquiring pedagogies” and encapsulates the idea of higher education research in a multi-media age. The iPED Research Network facilitates research into teaching and learning internationally. Based at Coventry University and peer-led, iPED, aspires to overcome the barriers of discipline, culture, geography, and economic and hierarchic status which divide pedagogic researchers.

Alongside this book, iPED is guest editing a special issue of the International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC) on the subject of web-based research networks and learning communities. More information can be found on its website www.coventry.ac.uk/iPED

"This book brings together a rich collection of work by authors grappling with issues and questions of academic work in teaching and learning, research, leadership and management in higher education and their communities. There is no navel gazing or reference to a golden age of academia in these pages. The authors, each with a commentary from a critical friend, rigorously interrogate aspects of academic work and roles with no attempt to simplify. Academic work is complex but with researchers and scholars working together to tease out some of the complexities and issues as they have in this book, the future looks promising."

Denise Chalmers, Professor; Director, Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL); National Leader for Teaching Quality Indicators Project;

President, Council of Australian Directors for Academic Development (CADAD)

"This book is an important read for anyone who wants to influence the future shape of universities. Scholarly explorations into the student journey, learning as pleasure, pedagogy, technology, academic productivity, collegiality and community take the debate about the future of universities beyond the familiar laments about managerialism or the loss of a golden age."

Professor Glynis Cousin, Director, Institute for Learning Enhancement, University of Wolverhampton

Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

We recommend

Philosophy
After the Postsecular and the Postmodern: New Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion

Language and Literature
Anti-Tales: The Uses of Disenchantment

French Studies
The Black Musketeer: Reevaluating Alexandre Dumas within the Francophone World

Interesting reviews

From Writing Out of Limbo: International Childhoods, Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids

“This terrific and substantial volume is a vital step in clarifying the experiences, gifts, and struggles of those who grew up around the world, or with those who grew up elsewhere. I can’t wait to teach with it.”
– Wendy Laura Belcher, PhD, Professor of Literature, Princeton University

“Well-grounded in classical perspectives and new visions of what it means to live in an intercultural world, the book offers a wonderful array of memoir, research, interviews, theory and even poetry. There’s something for everyone here!”
– Anne P. Copeland, PhD, Director, The Interchange Institute

“The selections here, varied as they are, share the quiet, profound, and rich experiences of people writing on the most innocent years, transcendent of cultural boundaries. Reading this book is a travel across the globe with an impressive group of worldly citizens.”
– Morten Ender, PhD, Professor of Sociology, United States Military Academy at West Point

“I recommend this book to all parents who are creating TCKs; to teachers and professors of TCKs; for general reading and understanding of the making of a citizen of the world; and, finally, to TCKs themselves, who will see that their experiences are shared with many others.”
– Linda A. Garvelink, President, Foreign Service Youth Foundation

“This book is an essential contribution to the discussion of migration and the art of finding a home between borders. In vivid prose, the authors reveal the value of cultural negotiation and the complexity of identities formed on the margins.”
– Neela Vaswani, PhD, Author of You Have Given Me a Country