Disciplinary and professional cultures in higher education and their impact

on curriculum and teaching

Berit Karseth

September 13, 1007

Focus:

The tribes and territories of higher education

Classical text:

Tony Becher (1989) Academic Tribes and Territories (Milton Keynes, Open University Press)

(Second ed. with Paul Trowler )

From Ylioki’s study (2000)

• In summary, the moral order of the sociology and social psychology tribe follows Humboldtian ideals by emphasizing academic orientation and dedication to the discipline as the main pillars of the social identity of the novices: “I’m all the time more and more, to a greater extent a sociologist. My fascination with my discipline or my study field is constantly increasing.” (p. 346)

Cont

In summary, the disciplinary culture of public administration is degree oriented, aiming at good positions in working life. Therefore university studying in itself and the study field as an academic tribe do not get a prominent place in novices’ social identity projects: “I think it’s only a so-called technical matter or a paper so that you have a chance to apply for some jobs, for instance. In this way I don’t consider it as such a big matter.” (p. 349)

• Theoretical orientation, individualism and dedication to one’s discipline emphasized in the culture of sociology and social psychology follow closely the logic of the soft-pure domain of academic territory also found in other studies (e.g. Aittola 1992; Boys et al. 1988; Kleinman 1983; Thomas 1990). Computer science, public administration and library and information science represent the applied knowledge domain and accordingly, they all have professional aims. The reference point of studying lies not in the core questions of the discipline but in the demands of working life.

Research in higher education

Often when we are planning to do research in the field of higher education we create a sample for empirical study which represents different educational programs, or different disciplines. In other words we believe that the field of knowledge make a difference. But how can we then describe the map of knowledge?

Becher: Classifications of disciplines

The classification cannot do justice to the complexity of inquiry processes and knowledge structures in various disciplines, but they do identify useful dimensions for describing disciplinary variations

Pure Applied

Hard Hard- pure

(Physics)

Hard-applied

(engineering)

Soft Soft-pure

(Anthropology)

Soft-applied

(Education)

Urban Rural

Convergent Convergent-urban

Convergent-rural

Divergent Divergent- urban

Divergent – rural

Classifying professional programs

Joan Stark, University of Michigan

Although researchers in higher education recognize the importance of disciplinary differences, few have paid attention to differences among professional field and especially fields that are related to professional program on an undergraduate level

Joan Stark’s article:

1. Purpose that the professional subjects taught to undergraduates in colleges can (and should) should be distinguished from one another as have been done in academic disciplines

2. Offer other distinctions than what have traditionally been presented

3. Propose a new framework4. Review some evidence 5. Suggestions for further research in order to

validate the framework

Typology

• Service and technical role

• Symbol system

• Inquiry Methods

• Values of professionals

• Connections and linkages

What do we learn from Becher and Stark?

• They tell us about the importance of analyzing differences

• They present important analytical dimensions

• We have to be aware of that higher education consists of very different educational programs. With different traditions when it comes to research, teaching and service.

What are the main critique?