Everyday life in higher education: demystifying, appropriating and re-enchanting practices and vision through listening, dialogue and reciprocity.
The topic for this year’s PhD course is the rhythms and everyday life of and in higher education. Through the topic we intend to bring forward phenomenological and rhythmanalytical understandings of the self and the lifeworld, of bodies and a vivid present, of time, space and place, of sociality and practice, of community and institution. A central question to be addressed is how we as researchers can contribute in developing meaningful understandings of lived experience of individuals, communities, cultures and societies through our research on and in higher education.
We will address higher education researchers’ room for critically questioning and investigating the changes that are experienced in academia, and the consequences for organization, imagination and implementation of teaching and learning practices, societal aims and impact, as well as the very underlying principles of higher education.
Overarching questions are:
- What understandings of humanity and of knowledge is promoted through higher education practices?
- What kind of society is higher education currently contributing to?
- How can we appropriate and/or create spaces and times for learning and living together, meaningfully and sustainably?
- How can we cultivate practices of deep listening and reciprocity?
- How can we collectively transform and re-imagine the doctoral research process?
In this PhD course we aim to address key perspectives on ideas and practices of higher education in the past, present and future. This means research perspectives that both ask what the university is for and in what ways we can imagine a future for the university (or not), as well as research perspectives that address the actual practices of educating at universities. In this course we bring in national and international scholars and their ongoing research.
Core literature:
Aldridge, D. (2019) 'Reading, Engagement and Higher Education', Higher Education Research & Development 38 (1) 38-50.
Boulous-Walker, M. (2017). Slow Philosophy. Reading against the Institution. London:Bloomsbury publishing.
De Jaegher, H. (2021). Loving and knowing: reflections for an engaged epistemology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 20(5), 847–870. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-019-09634-5
Davids, N., Waghid, Y. (2021). Philosophy of Higher Education and Interpretivism. In: Academic Activism in Higher Education. Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. 1-16 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0340-2_1
Engelsrud, G., Rugseth, G., & Nordtug, B. (2023). Taking time for new ideas: learning qualitative research methods in higher sports education. Sport, Education and Society, 28(3), 239–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.2014804
Grant, Barbara. “The Future Is Now: A Thousand Tiny Universities.” Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education 1, no. 3 (2022): 9–28. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1169726.
Lenzen, D. (2015). On the Genesis of Three Distinct University Systems in the Post-Secondary Sector. In: University of the World. Springer, Cham. 19-21 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13455-0_4
Nyland, J. & Davis, D. (2022). Introduction: Setting the Scene in Nyland & Davis (Eds.) Curriculum Challenges for Universities. Agenda for Change. Springer Nature. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-8582-8
von Humbolt, W. (2000) Theory of Bildung. In Wesbury, I., Hopman, S., & Riquerts, K. (Eds.) Teaching as a Reflective practice The German Tradition, Routledge. (A pdf scan of this chapter will be distributed)
Other sources:
Barletta, V. (2020) Rhythm. Form& Dispossession. London: The University of Chicago Press
Barthes, R. (1976-77) How to Live Together. Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces. (translated by Kate Briggs). New York: Columbia University Press
Dakka, F. (2021) ‘Rhythm and the Possible: Moments, Anticipation and Dwelling in the Contemporary University’, in Inquiring into Academic Timescapes (Filip Vostal ed.), Emerald publisher.
Docherty, T. (2015) Universities at War, SAGE
Hansen, Finn Thorbjørn. “Learning to Innovate in Higher Education Through Deep Wonder.” Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education 1, no. 3, 51–74 (2022). 10.3726/ptihe.2019.03.04
Hansen, Finn Thorbjørn. “The Phenomenology of Wonder in Higher Education.”
In Erziehung: Phänomenologische Perspektiven, edited by Malte Brinkmann, 161–78. Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann, 2011.
Harney S., Moten, F. (2013) The Undercommons. Fugitive Planning and Black Study. Minor compositions
Imperiale, Maria Grazia, Alison Phipps, and Giovanna Fassetta. “On Online Practices of Hospitality in Higher Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 40, no. 6 (2021): 629–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-021-09770-z.
Kelly, Frances. “A Day in the Life (and Death) of a Public University.” Higher Education Research & Development 34, no. 6 (2015): 1153–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2015.1024628.
Lefebvre, H. (2016) Metaphilosophy. London: Verso.
Lefebvre, H. (2004 [1991]) Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. London: Bloomsbury.
Lefebvre, H. (2014 [1947,1961, 1981]) Critique of Everyday Life. London: Verso.
Lyon, D. (2018). What is rhythmanalysis? London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Masschelein, J. (2011) ‘Experimentum Scholae: The World Once More...But Not (Yet) Finished’, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 30:529.
Masschelein, J. (2022) With Time. Regarding pedagogical forms. Notes for a lecture (valedictory lecture)
Practical information:
To be admitted to our PhD courses, you must have completed your master’s degree or equivalent education.
NTNU students and PhD students admitted to PhD programs at NTNU apply for admission by registering for class via NTNUs studentweb.
Applicants who do not have a study right at NTNU, need to apply for this to take research courses at NTNU.
PhD candidates at NTNU who want to register for courses that are not included in their education plan, should also apply as described here.
You can apply for admission to research courses through NTNU's Søknadsweb:
- Sign into the application web, create an user account and upload relevant documents.
- Send an email to hege.f.lie@ntnu.no when you have created an account and we will assist you.
Deadline for registration in NTNUs søknadsweb: 30 October
Deadline for Compulsory assignment: 30 October
- Draft paper (approx. 1000 words).
- Please send this by e-mail to dagrun.engen@ntnu.no
Contact information:
Hege F Lie
Advisor Ph.d.
Department of Education and Lifelong Learning
Dagrun Astrid Aarø Engen
Associate Professor - University pedagogy
Department of Education and Lifelong Learning
Marit Honerød Hoveid
Professor of Pedagogy
Department of Education and Lifelong Learning