Exploring Teachers’ Dialogic Engagement with Complex Contemporary Issues as a Basis for Meaningful Curriculum Innovation in Higher Education

Author(s):

Nick Clough(presenting / submitting)Eunice Macedo(presenting)Karen Lewis

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments

Format:

Paper

Session Information

20 SES 07 A, Intercultural Learning, Identity and Citizenship

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

17:15-18:45

Room:

B322 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Eunice Macedo

Contribution

This paper analyses Higher Education (HE) teachers’ learning during a new ERASMUS funded Intensive Programme ‘Exploring the application of Intercultural Dialogue (ICD) as global citizens in a changing world’ (2013-2014). Following the ‘European Year of the Citizen’, (2013) the paper addresses the question: ‘What do we learn about curriculum design from engagement as citizens with the complex local and global issues of our times?’. The HE teachers are drawn from 9 different European countries participating in the Intensive Programme. They represent the broad disciplines of education, international development, economics, social work, teacher training, health, psychology.

It is recognised in some regions that a majority of HE students are expecting to be able to learn about the issues of our times during their studies in Higher Education (Drayson R et al, 2013). It is further argued that students are entitled to learning that is ‘future facing’ so that they are supported in their thinking not just about current but also emergent and future situations (HEA / QAA, 2013). This view is supported at the level of wider European policy formulation:

‘HEIs are the focal points for imparting what is known, interrogating what is not known, producing new knowledge, shaping critical thinkers, problem solvers and doers so that we have the intellectual muscle needed to tackle societal challenges at every level necessary...’ (European Commission High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education: 2013)

Cotton et al further provide evidence from a wide range of subject disciplines that ‘future-fit’ approaches to curriculum design are practicable (Cotton D et al, 2013). Thus the enquiry is relevant to an emerging concern that professional development in HE is able to address contemporary physical and social issues that we commonly face.

The current Intensive Programme is an example of a response to this call. Within the programme students are able to experience the ways in which exposure to broader European contexts is significant for learning about complexities that are played out on the global stage and in their own everyday lives. The themes of ‘diversity’, ‘equality’, ‘ecologies’, ‘economies’ and ‘power’ (DEEP) that unfold within the 9 different European regions represented on the programme are exploited as opportunities for dialogue with others who carry alternative ways of seeing the world. The various case study materials that are being researched and collated provide fresh lenses for staff and students alike to explore complexities in their own lives and works. ICD becomes a vehicle for engagement with new world views that emerge (through external dialogues) and for making sense both in personal and professional terms (through internal dialogues).

As indicated above, the key question for this enquiry is how the teaching team envisage the relevance of learning about such complexities for meaningful curriculum making in their own academic and professional disciplines. Thus the enquiry is centred on teachers’ developing ‘identities’, ‘ethical professional sense’ ‘actions’ and ‘civic self shaping’ (IDEAS) and their experience of the power of ICD as professionals and citizens in this process.

The enquiry is rooted in earlier commentaries, reflected in UNECE 2011, about the need to further develop HE pedagogies to include engagement with a diversity of world views , for example through Wals’ discussion of learning through ‘gestaltswitching’ (Wals A, 2010: 25) and through Meziro’s references to ‘communicative discourse’ as a an educational base in HE:

'The purpose of communicative discourse is to arrive at the best judgement. To do so one must access and understand, intellectually and empathetically, the frame of reference of the other and seek common ground with the widest range of relevant experience and points of view'. (Meziro J, 2009: 93)

Method

The study assumes a qualitative / interpretivist approach and recognises that some teachers / students will find engagement with complex contemporary issues a challenging activity (Schoffham 2013). The BERA Ethical Guidelines inform each step of the research process, e.g.to protect the interests of teachers finding engagement with complex contemporary issues unsettling. Informed consent is a prior condition to participants’ engagement.   Sample Respondents selected from the inter-disciplinary group of 14 teachers. Research instruments 1) Questionnaires, at the outset / end of programme to survey baseline / outcome data about the teachers, sorted re gender, subject discipline, length of service in HE. Use of Likert scales to facilitate comparisons in relation to these categories: i) Experience of drawing on complex contemporary issues to develop HE curricula ii) Identification of contemporary themes including social and environmental categories iii) Awareness of potential barriers / inhibitors to learning as global citizens iv) Value attached to ICD as a learning process v) Static / changing approaches towards teaching and learning vi) Levels of confidence in capacities to develop innovative curricula 2) Narrative interviews (6-9 teachers) about learning / teaching on the IP with respect to: i) The impact of exposure to complex contemporary issues on their capacities for curriculum innovation: ii) The significance of contemporary issues brought from other European contexts for prompting review of own teaching: iii) The impact of the experience of ‘future facing’ pedagogical approaches on their teaching: iv) Awareness of potential barriers and inhibitors to learning as global citizens: v) The significance of intercultural dialogue for developing their teaching capacities: vi) The relevance of learning as global citizens for their own lives and future work in HE teaching. The narrative approach will include the use of artefacts / pictures that have been created / selected by the respondents related to the contemporary issues explored. These will be complemented by short written commentaries which will support the narrative interview process. This facilitates two levels of reflection – initial short reflective commentaries that are then critically explored with the interviewer (Clough 2010). The use of narrative enquiry process is informed by concepts from Stenhouse (1978) (contemporary history), Griffiths and Macleod (2008) (illumination of social context) and Young (2000) (facilitation of voice). The analysis of the narrative data will be based on constant comparative approaches but will also include these broad categories: i) Engagement with other world views (after Bakhtin 1981) ii) Reflection in action, iii) Review of teaching orientations

Expected Outcomes

Earlier responses from the project design stage have suggested that competences associated with intercultural understanding are an essential component of learning to engage with the environmental and social challenges of our times. Findings from this enquiry will now be contextualised within statements of competence for educationalists (UNECE, 2011) and subject benchmarks for higher education in the European region so as to ensure that the analysis, conclusions drawn and recommendations for practice relate to overarching educational aims to stimulate lifelong learning about the promotion of more just, peaceful and sustainable societies. The findings will be important for the different subject and professional disciplines represented as the contemporary issues being explored are raising questions about tensions between fundamental human, ecological, economic, democratic and social values. The findings will provide opportunity to explore the relative power of exposure different complex contemporary issues for promoting teaching and learning that is not only future facing but moreover supports the development of academic and professional toolkits required by graduates who are seeking to make positive contributions as responsible localised global citizens. These findings are significant for HE teachers who are developing their own competences in supporting students to develop as whole hearted, critical , responsible and mindful agents of change in European society. The findings will be of immediate value to this group of HE teachers who will be seeking opportunity to continue their research into HE pedagogy through the new ERASMUS + frameworks that can facilitate the sharing of innovative and relevant teaching practices.

References

Bakhtin M. (1981). The dialogic Imagination: Four essays, Austin: University of Texas Press  Clough N. (2010) In our own words. From actions to dialogue, IN Bathmaker A and Harnett P (2010) Exploring Learning, Identity and Power through Life History and Narrative Research, London: Routledge Cotton D., Sterling S., Neal, V., Winter, J. (2013) Putting the S into ED – Education for Sustainable Development in Education Development, London: Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Drayson R., Bone E., Agombar J., Kemp S. (2013) Student attitudes towards and skills for sustainable development, York: HEA European Commission High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education (2013, June) Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Europe’s Higher Education Institutions, Report to the European Commission Griffiths M. and Macleod G. (2008) ‘Personal narratives and policy: never the twain?’, Journal of Philosophy of Education 42 (s1). HEA / QAA (2013) Education for sustainable development. Draft guidance for Higher Education providers. For Consultation, HEA/QAA Mezirow J. (2009) An overview on transformative learning, IN Illeris K, Contemporary Theories of Learning, London: Routledge Scoffham S. (2013) ‘Do we really need to know this? The challenge of developing a global learning module for trainee teachers, IN International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, Vol 5(3) pp 28-45 Stenhouse L. (1978) ‘Case study and case records: towards a contemporary history of education’, IN British Educational Research Journal Vol 4 no 2 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) (2011): UNECE Learning for the Future: competences in education for sustainable development, Utrecht Wals A. (2010) Mirroring, gestaltswitching and transformative social learning: stepping stones for developing sustainability competence, IN International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11: 4 Young I. M. (2000) Justice and the politics of difference, New York: Princeton University Press

Author Information

Nick Clough (presenting / submitting)

University of the West of England, Bristol

Education

Bristol

Eunice Macedo (presenting)

Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Karen Lewis

University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

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