The article is aimed at those who are interested in how higher education can deal with the radical changes in professional work brought about by changes in governance (New Public Management, The audit society, Management by distrust, etc). These changes are well researched, both when it comes to how they are manifested and when it comes to their consequences.
How can higher education take in these results and make use of them in education? The article makes the case for a new focus in higher education, but also makes note of the complication that higher education in itself and its teachers are targets of new governance.
The article can be viewed and downloaded on tandfonline.com.
Abstract
In many countries, practice-oriented programs have been recast as university programs, fueling debate on the purpose of higher education. We highlight two ways of talking about the challenges for higher education we think are already familiar to readers. We label them ‘political-worry discourse’ and ‘academic-worry discourse’. We argue for a third position that gives due recognition to the turn in governance. Professional work today is performed in a new landscape where maintaining the conditions for autonomy and discretionary work is more important than ever. This has implications for the pedagogic focus of higher education institutions. The proposed ‘dual learning’ concept addresses this challenge through educating students about governance and allowing students to position themselves in relation to the governance of their professions. By discussing governance, we contribute to a previously neglected field and support the position that higher education may indeed be the best place to provide professional education.