Exploring New Teaching and Research Perspectives in the Humanities

Jeffrey Kurebwa

Abstract


This study provides new perspectives on looking at humanities discipline. It argues that the humanities have transformative powers making vital societal contributions to academia. Academic research is no longer solely the pursuit of individual intellectual curiosity but is driven by national priorities tied to strategies of economic growth and competitiveness. Its importance derives primarily from the translation of knowledge into new products and services. This instrumentalist environment has created a disciplinary hierarchy in which the humanities have struggled for recognition and appreciation under pressure to demonstrate value and relevance. The humanities have long had a societal mission in the belief that society can only benefit from the pursuit of knowledge and the scholarship that they generate. This study concludes that this certainty faces challenges from the dominant knowledge economic policy paradigm with its strong focus on measurable impacts.


Keywords


Humanities; Knowledge economy; Universities; Curricula; Research; Innovation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Anderson, S., & Blanke, T. (2012). Taking the long view: From e-science humanities to humanities digital ecosystems. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 147-164.

Bakhshi, H., Schneider, P., & Walker, C. (2008). Arts and Humanities Research and Innovation. Arts and Humanities Research Council: UK.

Becker, G. S. (1964). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Belfiore, E., & Bennett, O. (2007). Rethinking the social impacts of the arts. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 13(2), 135-151.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. Retrieved from www.marxists.org. (8 February 2020).

Bransford, J. D. (2004). How People Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy.

British Academy Report. (2008). Punching our Weight: The Humanities and Social Sciences in Public Policy Making. London.

Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (2002). The Social Life of Information. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

DEA. (2007). When Social Sciences and Humanities Research Generates Profit. Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Retrieved from www.hsrc.ac.za (23 January 2020).

Delbanco, A. (2013). The Humanities Crisis. Project Syndicate. Retrieved from www.project-syndicate.org (23 January 2020).

Edwards, P. N., Bowker, G. C., Jackson, S. J., & Williams, R. (2009). Introduction: An agenda for infrastructure studies. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 10(6).

Esfri. (2010). ESFRI Roadmap. Retrieved from www.ec.europa.eu. (10 February 2020).

Gülpinar, M. A. (2005). The principles of brain-based learning and constructivist models in education. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 5(2), 299-306.

Hazelkorn, E. (2013). Making an Impact: New Directions for Arts and Humanities Research. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 1-34.

Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas. (2013). White Paper on the Future of PHD in the Humanities. Australia: McGill University.

Keat, H. S. (2012). Opening Address at the Humanities Educators’ Conference. Ministry of Education, Singapore. Retrieved from www.moe.gov.sg. (27 January 2020).

Moahi, K. M. (2010). Research issues in the humanities and social sciences in Africa in the 21st Century: Challenges and opportunities. Inkanyiso Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2), 78-85.

Nussbaum, M. (2010). Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Owen, M. (2004). The myth of the digital native. Retrieved from www.futurelab.org.uk. (20 December 2019).

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 99(5).

Reiter, C. M. (2017). 21st Century Education: The Importance of the Humanities in Primary Education in the Age of STEM. Published Bachelor’s Dissertation: Retrieved from www.scholar.dominican.edu.

Ruppert, E., Law, J., & Savage, M. (2013). Reassembling social science methods: The challenge of digital devices. Theory, Culture & Society, 30, 22-46.

Ryff, C. D. (2019). Linking Education in the Arts and Humanities to Life-long Well-being and Health. UK: Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Spencer, V. A. (2014). Democratic Citizenship and the “Crisis in Humanities”. Humanities, 3, 398-414.

The Forum on the Humanities in Africa of the African Humanities Program. (2014). Recommendations for Reinvigorating the Humanities in Africa. South Africa: African Humanities Program.

The Nairobi Report. (2009). Frameworks for Africa-UK Research Collaboration in the Social Sciences and Humanities. British Academy and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Wright, L. (2007). The Humanities, Vocationalism and the Public Good: Exploring the “Hamlet Factor”. The English Academy Review Southern African Journal of English Studies, 24(1), 102-117.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13266

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 Higher Education of Social Science

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases:
caooc@hotmail.com; hess@cscanada.net; hess@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Higher Education of Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

HIGHER EDUCATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures