The common in higher education: a conceptual approach

Abstract

This article provides a map of the three-element conceptual set of the common (the common good, the commons, and the common) in reference to higher education. It does so using a method of political ontology. It discusses the three concepts in reference to the six dimensions of higher education reality (ontology, politics, ownership, governance, benefits, and finance). Thus, it not only presents a systematic view of higher education reality as seen through the lenses of the common but also explains the substantial (and in some cases, subtler) differences between the concepts themselves. Moreover, it addresses briefly the differences between the concepts from the order of the common and those from the order of the public. Finally, the article seeks to offer an insight into what this particular conceptual set may provide the researchers in terms of thinking through, and designing an alternative to the current predicament of higher education.

The Role of Interactive Methods in Presentation of Teachers Competence in Osh State University, Kyrgyzstan.

“…To achieve an effective teaching, higher education faculty members should be awarded of barriers and requirements as a way to improve teaching quality (Shirani et al 2016). For competent teachers, the main idea of the joint promotion (Szadkowski 2019) is a subject of activity which includes three interacting with each other factors such as: listening to the opinion, thinking and making conclusions, resulted in the development of students' creativity shown in the Scheme 3.…”

The future is always-already now: Instituent praxis and the activist university

“…When taken from the perspective of the power on which they stand, both form two sides of the same coin of constituted power, dominating what exists in an uncreative way. In contrast, the common is primary, a non-hierarchical and self-determined social relation that binds us together, a condition for the prosperous development and growth of society and the planet as a whole (Szadkowski, 2019). It needs to be clarified that at least two different interpretations of the common are present in the literature.…”

“…Activist universities based on the logic of instituent praxis are not a matter of pure theoretical invention, and even if this conceptual article may only briefly refer to them, they offer a continuous inspiration for further thinking and acting. There are both historical and current examples of the institutions operating according to the impulses of the common (Erdem, 2020; Pusey, 2017; Szadkowski, 2019). Irrespective of their long-lasting or more ephemeral character, no matter whether they are born directly out of constituent struggles, like the Croatian Occupied Faculty of Social Sciences from Zagreb in 2009 (Bousquet and Drago, 2009), or emerge in a transitory process from bigger institutions, like the Turkish network of Academies of Solidarity established after the repressive actions against academics (Bakirezer et al., 2018; Erdem and Akın, 2019), or whether they are part of a more comprehensive transformative effort from within the regular universities, like the communal and commons-driven Universidad Politecnica Salesiana in Ecuador (Carrera and Solorzano, 2019), these common-based activist universities share some basic structural features.…”

Responsible education: what engages international postgraduate students – evidence from UK

“…The use of theory is imperative to enhancing our understanding of a certain phenomenon or element as it provides a useful basis to describe, explain and predict the phenomena (Hew et al, 2019). At the same time, higher education research is the resultant outcome of many disciplines, and higher education researchers use many borrowed concepts or theories which are then "filled" with content that pertains to the specificity of their research object (Szadkowski, 2019). Learning has traditionally been described as a change in behaviour or cognitive processes, with a focus on demonstrating a unidirectional transfer of a stable body of knowledge (Carvalho & Yeoman, 2018).…”