Understanding Academic Drift: On the Institutional Dynamics of Higher Technical and Professional Education

Autor/in	Harwood, Jonathan
Titel	Understanding Academic Drift: On the Institutional Dynamics of Higher Technical and Professional Education
Quelle	In: Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, 48 (2010) 4, S.413-427 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0026-4695
DOI	10.1007/s11024-010-9156-9
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; Professional Education; Technical Education; Relevance (Education); Educational History; Institutional Characteristics; Educational Change + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Berufsausbildung; Technikunterricht; Relevance; Relevanz; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Bildungsreform
Abstract	"Academic drift" is a term sometimes used to describe the process whereby knowledge which is intended to be useful gradually loses close ties to practice while becoming more tightly integrated with one or other body of scientific knowledge. Drift in this sense has been a common phenomenon in agriculture, engineering, medicine and management sciences in several countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Understanding drift is obviously important, both to practitioners concerned that higher education should be relevant to practice, but also to historians who seek to make sense of long-term trends in knowledge-production. It is surprising, therefore, that although the existence of drift has been widely documented, remarkably little attention has been given so far to explaining it. In this paper I argue that drift is not an invariant universal tendency but a historically specific one which arises under particular circumstances. I outline a model of institutional dynamics which seeks to explain why drift has occurred at some institutions but not others. In the second section I explore the implications of the model for educationists and policy-makers concerned with the reform of higher education in these areas. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10