Business & Economics Collected Works - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemSenses working overtime: locating aesthetics in Higher Education research in times of crisis, uncertainty and disruption(European Educational Research Association, 2022)During 2020-2021, the Higher Education landscape was reshaped by the paradoxical conditions of transformation and survival, with COVID-19 forging an unholy trinity with climate change and political extremism to shape an era of unparalleled existential crisis. Educational researchers have leapt to the challenge, engaging motifs of humanism, sustainability and inclusivity (and allied pedagogies) awkwardly shoe-horning them into the dominant neo-liberal imperative of measurable growth and scalability (Riemer, 2021; Spector, Shreve & Daniels, 2021). Drawing from the broader traditions of aesthetic philosophy, and honed with organisational and pedagogical aesthetic theories, this paper considers three, interconnected areas of educational research that can be enriched during these times of crisis: 1. The pedagogical perspective, or aesthetic pedagogy 2. The academic and the organisation, or organisational aesthetics 3. The learner experience of higher education, or aesthetic learning experience This paper provides both a theoretical framework and applicable strategies to each area to build a better appreciation of how aesthetics can be embedded in future educational research. In doing so it asks the following questions, contextualised for each research area: 1. What is the current gap in the research and supporting resources? 2. Why is it important? 3. What can we do about it? To the pedagogical perspective; this paper observes a paucity of research into the sensori-emotional experience of learning in higher education and practical advice for developing pedagogies that enrich these experiences. It is important to address this weakness in the research as it reinforces the primacy of cognitivist approaches to teaching. This section proposes ways of augmenting current teaching practice with approaches that can enhance the learning experience and associated outcomes. It demonstrates how these enhancements occur and what the improved outcomes mean for graduates and society. To the academic and the organisation, this paper proposes a deeper engagement with the aesthetic experience of the institutions of higher learning, by way of re-energising the post-COVID appreciation of the value of such institutions. Framing the work of OA theorist Antonio Strati to the context of HE organisations (predominantly the university) To the learner experience, the paper recognises the work that has been done that tends to be K-12-centric, taking relevant theory and practice while re-contextualsing for the undergraduate and graduate learner. This is an important action to ensure that there is not something in this literature that educational researchers are missing. From this point, we can discern if, or what strategies have potential for incorporating into curricula or learning spaces and interfaces. This can include a range of matters that affect diversity and inclusion policies (accessibility, sensory) and the located (learning space design) or virtual (LMS interface design) experience of learning. Finally, it presents the ecosystemic conditions in which all three areas co-exist and enable a normative state of engagement with aesthetics