Design Thinking, Collaborative Innovation, and Neoliberal Disappointment: Cruel Optimism in the History and Future of Higher Education

Abstract

The extensive amount of academic labor of minoritized faculty, especially at research institutions, has been well documented in the academic literature. Three tenured associate professors at The University of Texas present the genesis, evolution, and postscript of leading and serving in an initiative to de-silo and encourage collaboration across the university, culminating in a collaboratively taught course. Integrating concepts of teaching in the neoliberal university context, the gendered and raced distribution of academic labor, and slow scholarship, the authors discuss the pedagogically productive process of collective teaching and decision-making, the frustrations inherent when employing radical pedagogy, and institutional shifts that prioritize a customer-service model of teaching, learning, and rapid research productivity. The authors conclude with reflections and recommendations for scholar-researchers similarly placed in institutional contexts where encroachments upon academic freedom and an embrace of business models collide with personal goals of career satisfaction, collective work, and improving pedagogy.

Menjelajahi Tren Design Thinking dalam Pendidikan: Tinjauan Literatur Sistematis dari Jurnal Terindeks Web of Science dalam Desain Instruksional dan Desain Sistem Instruksional

“…Bahkan sebagian artikel mengusulkan pendekatan ini dapat dimasukan kedalam kurikulum di lokasi mereka (Crites & Rye, 2020). Bukti-bukti tinjauan mengungkapkan bahwa pemahaman konsep, peningkatan keterampilan, dan simulasi pola pikir Design Thinking dapat mendorong terciptanya ide dan solusi pada masalah yang tidak biasa (Catterall et al, 2019). Beragamnya fungsi serta manfaat Design Thinking yang diterapkan pada bidang sains, desain hingga non-desain, namun permasalahan mengapa Design Thinking masih menjadi sesuatu yang sulit dipahami harusnya dapat diteliti lebih lanjut .…”

Integrating Critical, Engaged, and Abolitionist Pedagogies to Advance Antiracist Social Work Education

“…While some may argue that these activities fall within one of five functions of faculty jobs -research, administration, teaching, advising, and service -it is also widely recognized that universities do not value or reward these activities equally (Thomas- Davis, 2020). Investing a substantial amount of effort into teaching, advising, and service, which liberatory praxis demands, may harm one's promotion and tenure (Catterall et al, 2019;Stanley, 2020). This tension creates a powerful ethical dilemma for faculty who use critical, engaged, and abolitionist pedagogies, emphasizing praxis.…”

Beyond ‘Aware and Paralysed’: Governance, Research and Leadership at the Nexus of Academic Development and Corporate Universities

“…This article contends that while there is a tendency, amongst those who feel attuned to the struggles and challenges facing colleagues and other academics in teaching/research roles, to feel helpless or disempowered (Kenny, 2018;Pretorius & Macaulay, 2021) that there remains significant opportunity to act as an agent of positive changeto the letter of our position descriptionswhile still creating space for bona fide innovation, excitement, development, possibility and a collective future which sees higher education as a stronger space for its collectivised action. Away from the 'performative' notion of public intellectuality of which blame can be squarely apportioned to vice chancellors (Brabazon, 2021) towards grounded "activism", and away from conceptions of cruel optimism (Catterall et al, 2019) towards a truly possible future.…”