Higher Education Researcher

In the podcast, Dr Tore Bernt Sørensen [https://www.toresorensen.eu/] talks about the roles, ideas, workings and influence of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in global education governance, historically and currently. The podcast draws especially on the special issue Re-reading the OECD and education: the emergence of a global governing complex [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cgse20/19/2?nav=tocList], of which Tore was a guest editor together with Christian Ydesen (Aalborg University) and Susan L. Robertson (University of Cambridge). The special issue was published in Globalisation, Societies and Education in March 2021. Talking to Tore, is Dr Janja Komljenovic [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/janja-komljenovic], a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/research/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation/].

Dr Hemy Ramiel [https://barilan.academia.edu/HemyRamiel] [//]is a postdoctoral researcher in the sociology, communication and political sciences department in the Open University in Israel. In this episode, Hemy talks about his research of an Israeli edtech R&D unit and a startup incubator. He discusses his choice of studying the edtech field through this organisation and the notion of disruption as the primary logic for the units’ activities. Also, the logic of disruption can be understood as a perspective for understanding the edtech industry agenda for educational change. Hemy presents his analysis on how students are framed as digital users in the edtech production; and the implications of this “userisation” framework on the education sector. Finally, Hemy touches on some fundamental traits of the edtech field, such as its technological solutionism and its universal cross-cultural ideas. The episode concludes with the ways we need to think critically about edtech products and policy agendas. The two articles discussed in the episode are: “Edtech disruption logic and policy work: the case of an Israeli edtech unit [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439884.2020.1737110?journalCode=cjem20]” published in Learning, Media and Technology [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjem20/current]; and “User or student: constructing the subject in Edtech incubator [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2017.1365694?journalCode=cdis20]” published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdis20/current]. Talking to Hemy, is Dr Janja Komljenovic [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/janja-komljenovic], a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/research/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation/].

Dr Richard Budd [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/richard-budd]is a Lecturer in Higher Education at Lancaster University [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/]. In this episode, Richard talks about his 3DHEI project [https://3dhei.wordpress.com/]. This research explores how a university’s different dimensions – social composition, organisation culture, and the physical campus itself – mediate students’ experiences. Richard spoke to a diverse group of over 40 students at a UK university about how those elements are perceived by them, and how they impact how it ‘feels’ to be a student there. It became clear in this study that all of those dimensions matter, that they are interrelated, and this suggests that incorporating a broader sense of the local into higher education research could tell us more about how universities compare. Talking to Richard, is Dr Janja Komljenovic [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/janja-komljenovic], a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/research/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation/].

Dr Miguel Antonio Lim [https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/miguelantonio.lim.html] is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Environment, Education, and  Development (SEED) at the University of Manchester. Miguel's research interests include internationalization of higher education, East Asian and transnational higher education, university rankings and performance metrics. He critically studies the institutional strategies of East Asian and Chinese Universities to build ‘World-Class’ Universities, establish transnational partnerships, and improve their reputation and rankings. Talking to Miguel is Olga Rotar [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/olga-rotar], a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/research/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation/].

In this episode, Professor Velda McCune [https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/about-us/staff/profiles/velda-mccune] talks about the wicked problems project. This project is about how teachers in higher education prepare students for wicked problems. Wicked problems are messy real-world problems that lack obvious solutions and often involve stakeholders with contrasting world views. Examples of wicked problems include the climate emergency, conflict and pandemics. Vel and her colleagues interviewed teachers who taught about these problems, asking them what they did in their teaching and what sort of learning they hoped would happen. Wicked problems project website link: http://www.wickedproblems.ed.ac.uk/ Talking to Sylvie is Olga Rotar [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/people/olga-rotar], a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-research/research/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation/].