i'm certainly, by no means any sort of educational kind of philosopher, but the kind of ambient sense i get, at least, you know, being in school. It seems to me that the idea is, when you're sov like reading a great text, or like your aring latin or something, for example. That seems to be one sort of theory of education to me. Then there's the kind of skills based approach, which this seems to be. Can see certain benefits to that, and in some contexts. Then again, i can see some really big drawbacks, right?
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Last year was a rough one for academia – inauspicious, to say the least. The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on students, universities lurching between open and closed, leaving students strained and uncertain about their futures, and stuck in Zoom classrooms. Meanwhile, mental health struggles soared. Students paid full tuition price for this cut-rate experience. On the research side, there have been at least 72 retracted papers on Covid-19 and a total of 32,000 retractions. And, of course, universities themselves kept alive their long, esteemed tradition of operating like cartels – with a handful of them facing a lawsuit for alleged violations of antitrust law related to the amount of financial aid they paid out.
All of that is bad. But wait – there’s more! In this episode of Darts and Letters, we take two of the most frustrating aspects of the higher education world: endless culture wars around free speech and identity, and the continued corporatization of the curriculum.
First (@7:00), what is an anti-woke, free-thinking academy and who does it serve? Derek Roberston is a writer and contributing editor at Politico. Last November, he wrote about the new ‘free thinking’ University of Austin. He takes us through the tensions, contradictions, controversies, and ideological commitments underpinning the “fiercely independent” new school and its quest for free inquiry–and maybe Elon Musk’s money.
Then (@29:57), purpose-built micro-credentials are en vogue right now in higher-education, leading many to ask: What? And why? Canada is on board, with Ontario investing tens of millions into microcredits alongside several other provinces. Gavin Moodie is an adjunct professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He breaks down microcredits and explains them as an outsourcing of job training built for the hodge podge, ephemeral gig economy – or “gig qualifications for the gig economy.”
——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING——————
Read Derek Robertson’s piece on the new University of Austin in Politico. You can read some of his past work here and check out his website for more. Also, check out the University of Austin’s statement regarding Steven Pinker and Robert Zimmer stepping down as members of the school’s advisory board.
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Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email darts@citedmedia.ca.
Our theme song and music was created by Mike Barber, our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop, and our marketing was done by Ian Sowden.
This is a production of Cited Media. This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It was part of a wider series of episodes about neoliberal educational policies. The lead researcher is Franklynn Bartol at the University of Toronto and our academic advisor is Dr. Marc Spooner at the University of Regina.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples.
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