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Dualisms in Higher Education: a Critique of Their Influence and Effect
Author(s) -
Macfarlane Bruce
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/hequ.12046
Subject(s) - managerialism , higher education , appeal , collegiality , vocational education , pedagogy , sociology , field (mathematics) , political science , public relations , law , mathematics , pure mathematics
Dualisms pervade the language of higher education research providing an over‐simplified roadmap to the field. However, the lazy logic of their popular appeal supports the perpetuation of erroneous and often outdated assumptions about the nature of modern higher education. This paper explores nine commonly occurring dualisms: collegiality/managerialism, student‐centred/teacher‐centred, deep learning/surface learning, academics/non‐academics; research/teaching, old universities/new universities, liberal/vocational, public universities/private universities and higher education/further education. Illustrated by reference to a range of international contexts, it is argued that over‐reliance on dualisms among higher education scholars has adverse effects including narrowing the possibilities of research design and inhibiting intellectual advancement within the field.