Main Content
Session Information
11 SES 16 A, Improving Higher Education With University Social Responsibility (USR)
Symposium
Contribution
Although University Social Responsibility (USR) is not a topic of pure innovation, it has been gaining momentum, as shown by the emergence of USR frameworks and networks worldwide (Dima, 2015; Menezes et al. 2017; Wallace, Resch, 2017). In this paper, we propose a critical analysis of USR frameworks from all over the world. The analysis shows the existence of four distinct natures of approaching the social responsibility of higher education institutions (HEIs). The first nature is ideological, and encompasses personal, social and institutional values, ideologies, and political standpoints, in other words, what is understood as the mission(s) of each HEI. The second nature is rhetorical, and it has to do with the production and dissemination of discourse on USR, the formulation of USR policies and the development of communication devices – to show or report how socially responsible an HEI is. The third nature is practical, and consists of practices, procedures, governance and management, processes and impacts of USR, such as the following: socially responsible extension practices, socially responsible research practices, socially responsible teaching practices, accountability and transparency, rights and fair practices, and environment and sustainability. The fourth nature is epistemological, and regards the production and transmission of knowledge, including the access to knowledge and education. Two different approaches are distinguishable here: (i) externalisation, i.e., knowledge, data and results are shared with the community, and an open access to research is advocated; (ii) internalisation: knowledge is co-produced with and within the community, the participation of under-represented groups in higher education is strongly encouraged, and devices for the recognition of prior learning are developed and implemented in HEIs. These natures are not mutually exclusive, all the four natures are very often present in frameworks but with distinct centrality and intensity. As an example, we can say that the Chilean framework “Universidad Construye País” is mainly ideological, since it takes the principles and values as the “sun” illuminating all the university activities, and the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility – on which several European frameworks, for instance, are based upon –, is mostly practical, as it gives primacy to governance and management, which appear as transversal and hanging over the traditional missions of HEIs. We argue that this analysis is important to problematise the way we conceptualise USR, and also the very distinct ways we are trying to frame or assess it – in very different contexts and HEIs.
References
- Dima, G. 2015. “University Social responsibility: A Common European Reference Framework”. - Menezes, I., Coelho, M. & Amorim, J. P. (2017). Social and Public Responsibility, Universities. In P. N. Teixeira & Jung-Cheol Shin (Eds.), Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer. [DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_361-1] - Wallace, M. and K. Resch 2017. “Guidelines for Universities to engage in Social Responsibility.” www.postgraduatecenter.at/unibility.
Programme by Network 2019
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
Marginal Content
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.