How to Mend a University: Towards a Sustainable Learning Environment In Higher Education

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Description

Many contemporary commentators present a damning account of the current state of higher education, to the extent that our universities may be considered to be broken. This book offers an alternative perspective to the dominant neoliberal discourse and provides the conceptual tools to help construct a trajectory of repair for our universities. These ideas are presented within this book as five moves to transform our current pathological situation and develop towards a more healthy and sustainable ecological learning environment.

In this book, Ian Kinchin draws upon a wide range of sources from the philosophy of education, biological and clinical sciences as well as educational research and academic development. This alternative ecology of ideas presents a challenge to university leaders and asks if we care enough about the future of our universities to encourage an evolution of practice that deals sustainably with the wicked problems our universities face in the coming century. It describes a move towards an ecological university.

The book includes a foreword written by Martyn Kingsbury, Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship, Imperial College London, UK.

Reviews

This book presents a trenchant approach to dismantling the neoliberal university discourse. Navigating diverse theories, the author envisions the ecological university, crucial amid societal shifts. Their disruptive ideas and innovative perspectives emerge as pivotal for higher educations transformation. -- Paulo Rogrio Miranda Correia, Professor in the School of Arts, Science and Humanities, University of So Paulo, Brazil
By drawing on biological constructs, and undertaking an institutional natural history, Ian Kinchin offers a fresh and exciting analysis of the ecologically-sick university, and proposes five steps towards an ecological university. Its novel application of health-sciences and biological concepts shines light on how to mend the careless atrophy in the system and is essential reading for all of us who care deeply about our work but increasingly dislike our jobs in higher education. -- Sally Baker, Associate Professor in Migration and Education, Australian National University, Australia

Author Bio

Ian M. Kinchin is Emeritus Professor in Higher Education in the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK.