Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
PRE_C2, Preconference; Paper Session C2
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-08
13:15-14:45
Room:
C E33
Chair:
Paul Standish
Discussant:
a series of analysis categories were constructed by means of an inductive process Based on the responses received
Contribution
INTRODUCTION
This abstract resumes the main issues of my PhD study on the changing discourse of the humanities and the labour market.
The study is based on a new destination survey of humanist graduates in Denmark. The survey covers all humanist subjects from 2002-2006; the types of jobs the graduates from different educational backgrounds go into, their basic employability skills and a series of other themes that may bring new light to the conference’s discussions on teaching and learning.
The abstract presents the plan and theory behind a study, which is going to be carried out mainly after the conference. It is, however, my hope that by September 2008, I’ll be able to complement the plan with some fresh key findings from the first phase of my case studies.
FIELD OF INQUIRY
Worldwide, governments are reforming universities to make ‘efficiency savings’ and to improve their nation’s competitive ‘effectiveness’ in the knowledge economy. In Europe, for example in the EU FP 7, the process is closely linked to a growing interest on the humanities and its potential contribution to social and economic welfare.
As a result the humanities in Denmark have come under pressure to emphasise an educational policy that is ‘useful’ either to the creation of new products and private sector profits or to the pursuit of labour market agendas. The reforms entail a fundamental shift in the discourse on teaching and learning. The Danish universities are currently encouraged to educate students who are flexible and self-managed learners; the different elements of the curriculum are increasingly directed towards presumed needs of the labour market, and in particular within the in the humanities a series of new instrumental pursuits have become a challenge to the classical Humboltian concept of Bildung.
However, there has been no foregoing empirical investigation on the humanists’ actual contribution to labour market in Denmark, and there is yet a lack of information on the skills required in employment. As a result a major part of the current curriculum strategies are more or less randomly adopted from large scale, international recommendations (OECD, EU etc.) that have no necessary empirical reference to the de facto needs of the labour marked in Denmark.
The study attempts to make up for this deficit by carrying out an in-depth empirical study of the current humanist labour marked in Denmark. The study will be carried out in regard to the changing political discourse and a series of 10-12 subject specific cases studies that carefully investigate the shifting focus from teaching to learning and the curriculum strategies it entails in the different humanist subjects. In this, the study strives at creating a new empirical framework for the ECER scholar discussions as well as future’s educational policy planning; what is to be taught, what is to be learned - and why?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
I. What does the current discourse (OECD, EU, The 2003 Danish University Reform, etc) evolve? And what are its intended effects on the humanities? II. How does the changing discourse encounter the historical and organisational contexts of the different humanist subjects? And how are its key words and provisions perceived and institutionalised in the curriculum? III. How is the relation between the political strategies and the de facto state of employment of humanist graduates in Denmark? And what are the implications of the particular 'traditional' and 'new’ curricula strategies in terms of improving the graduates’ career opportunities?
Method
The study takes off from an interdisciplinary framework that combines theoretical and empirical analysis. The analysis follows three phases: I. DISCOURSE. With a constructivist approach to social and political processes the study investigates the interrelations between the discourse of the ‘knowledge society’ and the ways in which the educational reforms dictate new role models and expectations of humanist on the labour market (Foucault, Rose, Dean and more). The key material consists of reports and policy documents from the Bologna Process in 1999 until today (OECD, EU, The Danish Agency of Science, etc).II. QUANTITATIVE DATA. In its second phase the study will test the key words of the changing political discourse on a new destination survey, covering graduates from all humanist subjects in the period from 2002-2006.In doing so the study addresses the relevance of the current educational policy, and discusses the impact of the reform strategies in terms of the employability skills of the graduates. III. CASE STUDIES. To achieve a better understanding of the field the study finally moves on to a series of 12-15 case studies on different humanist subjects. In this, the study aims at a deeper understanding of how the humanist graduates from different educational backgrounds move on to the labour market, and how specific components of the curriculum are connected to particular career's perspectives.
Expected Outcomes
The key contribution of the PhD study bears on its interdisciplinary framework, and its aims to understand the different components of the study in the context of the others and to explore the links between them. Principally, the study investigates the current political discourse in relation to a set of empirical observations that has not earlier been subject to research. In this respect, I expect the survey material aswell as the case studies to bring a new light to the new ideals of learning that govern the current educational reforms. By further investigating of the gaps between the political discourse and the actual ways in which the humanist graduates contribute to the labour marked, I finally hope to be able suggest some alternative objectives for future’s educational planning in teams of improving graduate employability in Denmark.
References
References follow the final paper.
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