Bruce Macfarlane: "The use and abuse of the word ‘tradition’ in higher education research" (Eng.)
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Bruce Macfarlane: "The use and abuse of the word ‘tradition’ in higher education research" (Eng.)
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About this listen
In this presentation Professor Macfarlane challenges the "extensive use of the words ‘tradition’ and ‘traditional’" in higher education research. He argues that researchers "tend to apply these terms in an imprecise or un-examined way". Drawing on an extensive database of all papers published in Studies in Higher Education between 1976 and 2021, Professor Macfarlane presents a case study which demonstrates how researchers have (mis)used the word ‘tradition’ and its derivatives over the last 40 years. Informed by the theory of tradition (eg Shils, 1981: Alexander, 2016), his study presents evidence to show that despite the intensification of empirical work since the 1970s and 80s, many researchers’ continue to use the word ‘tradition’ as a lazy rhetorical device about students, teaching methods, universities and academic work more broadly. This scholarly sloppiness creates and perpetuates myths and mantras about higher education.
Bruce Macfarlane is Chair Professor of Educational Leadership and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development at the Education University of Hong Kong. His scholarly interests centre on academic freedom, ethics, leadership and higher education as a field of study.