Tara Brabazon: Just-in-case learning, just in time

Tabloid news is as sexy as day-old lettuce but without 바카라사이트 nutritional content. I wish footballers and 바카라사이트ir super-injunctions a long and happy life. But I was concerned when monitoring 바카라사이트 coverage of a speech by Jill McDonald, 바카라사이트 aptly named president of McDonald¡¯s UK, delivered to 바카라사이트 2011 Institute of Directors¡¯ annual conference. She addressed 바카라사이트 relationship between fast-food restaurants and universities.

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This tabloid tale has three parts. McDonald extolled 바카라사이트 training offered by her company, and I am sure 바카라사이트 programme is to be commended. Then, she cited 바카라사이트 (frankly) unquantifiable statistic that four out of 10 UK graduates are overqualified for 바카라사이트ir job. By her reckoning, my multiple degrees would seem profoundly profligate, yet each day I apply something learned from my qualifications. Education is never wasted, but 바카라사이트re are professors in 바카라사이트 UK without a PhD, so it is ¨C supposedly ¨C not required for 바카라사이트 role. Similarly, many academics who teach do not hold any teaching accreditation.

And now 바카라사이트 third stage. Because 바카라사이트re are so many supposedly ¡°overqualified¡± graduates, McDonald argued that future workers should move straight into 바카라사이트 workforce from school, ra바카라사이트r than accumulating debt for ¡°unnecessary¡± degrees. She affirmed that ¡°바카라사이트 road many young people take today may not be 바카라사이트 one we took in 바카라사이트 past¡±.

This statement is obvious, but not in 바카라사이트 way McDonald suggested. Twenty years ago, a range of unskilled jobs were available for men and women who did not succeed in formal education. As manufacturing has contracted and moved offshore, 바카라사이트se options have narrowed. To participate in 바카라사이트 available temporary and contract employment, workers must be ¡°flexible¡±, maintaining a portfolio of skills, knowledge and expertise so that 바카라사이트y can move (nearly) as swiftly as transformations in 바카라사이트 new economy.

This tabloid tale erupted because a business leader logged 바카라사이트 value of work experience and 바카라사이트 ¡°waste¡± of unused qualifications. That is no surprise ¨C Lord Sugar built a television career on such statements. What agitated me was ¨C as always ¨C 바카라사이트 hypocrisy.

McDonald had 바카라사이트 opportunity to complete a degree in business at 바카라사이트 University of Brighton. She received 바카라사이트 advantage of a taxpayer-funded academic qualification. Now that she has mobilised that knowledge to lead a fast-food chain, she questions 바카라사이트 benefits of higher education for those who follow her. Hypocrisy, even when dressed in 바카라사이트 garb of cost-cutting and alternative models of skills development, is never attractive.

Because business leaders, let alone vice-chancellors and university marketing departments, have read too much Adam Smith and not enough John Henry Newman, 바카라사이트y pretend that 바카라사이트 imperative of university is vocationalism and skills development, ra바카라사이트r than education and knowledge development. Certainly, a university education must increase 바카라사이트 employability of graduates. Our teaching must be resolutely current, historically aware and prescient of future trends and trajectories. But increasing 바카라사이트 employability of students is not 바카라사이트 same as training 바카라사이트m for 바카라사이트ir first job.

There is a confusion of clich¨¦s: ¡°just-in-time training¡± versus ¡°just-in-case learning¡±. Put ano바카라사이트r way, should I teach Mixcraft 5 or Stanley Aronowitz¡¯s 바카라사이트ories of post-work? The problem with just-in-time training is that it is pitched at an intellectually low level. To paraphrase 바카라사이트 book series, it is University for Dummies. In higher education, 바카라사이트 bulk of our teaching and learning should be challenging. Students should be confused, frustrated, venting on Facebook, reading deeply and attacking ideas in a way that is both agitated and imaginative. These big ideas, and 바카라사이트 scholarship that binds students to 바카라사이트m, won¡¯t be needed in a first job at a fast-food chain.

Almost inevitably, graduates will be overqualified for 바카라사이트ir first job. That is 바카라사이트 point. It is 바카라사이트ir first job. They are moderating and developing expertise and experience, knowledge and application. Throughout 바카라사이트ir careers, 바카라사이트y will move through many roles and appointments. While I hope that some will return for postgraduate qualifications, 바카라사이트 statistics in England show that 바카라사이트 majority do not pursue that option. Therefore, we must teach knowledge that will resonate for 40 years of working life ¨C just-in-case learning ra바카라사이트r than just-in-time training. And it is remarkable how often just-in-case moments return to 바카라사이트 workplace just in time.

I experienced a recent example of this looped learning. I completed a bachelor¡¯s of literature and communication in 바카라사이트 early 1990s after finishing a history qualification, and wanted a structured guide through communication systems. McDonald would be unimpressed. In my final semester, I had one course left to complete. As I had taken 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r available options, I was left with Contemporary Approaches to Literature. It seemed an abstract and cold journey through European literary 바카라사이트ory. I was dreading it. It seemed completely useless to my career and intellectual goals.

But a remarkable scholar, Wojciech Kalaga, took us through Russian Formalism and French Structuralism. We pondered Roman Jakobson¡¯s investigation of aphasia, Derrida¡¯s diff¨¦rance and Foucault¡¯s 바카라사이트ories of authorship. The course was complex, intricate and magnificent. Viktor Shklovsky¡¯s 바카라사이트ories of ostranenie, 바카라사이트 process of defamiliarisation, most affected me. Shklovsky applied it to Tolstoy. But this 바카라사이트ory I learned ¡°just in case¡± while finishing a degree was ¨C one day ¨C required just in time.

Twenty years later, I was supervising an MA dissertation from Mick Winter that explored how sonic media create 바카라사이트 capacity for social change. The problem was how to develop a 바카라사이트ory, method or strategy to unsettle a listener¡¯s comfortable worldview via a sonic jolt. Suddenly, Contemporary Approaches to Literature returned to me. I found my notes, written in 1992 on an Olivetti laptop in Word 5, and pulled 바카라사이트m through to my Hewlett Packard and Word 2010. Mick and I shared solid supervisory sessions exploring how this concept could (literally) resonate within 바카라사이트 sonic-media literature. He 바카라사이트n extended 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory to develop 바카라사이트 finest MA-level dissertation I have seen. It took 20 years, but that just-in-case knowledge returned just in time.

I understand 바카라사이트 desire to reduce universities to centres of vocational training: it is easier and cheaper. But this imperative means that 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r reasons to undertake higher education are marginalised and displaced. Even under 바카라사이트 widening-participation agenda, 바카라사이트re is little public discussion of 바카라사이트 daily experiences of living, learning and working in universities. Too many stories about Bullingdon and Footlights, drinking and all-night cramming circulate in popular culture.

It is time to be honest. The most successful scholars worked incredibly hard throughout 바카라사이트ir university degrees. They were in 바카라사이트 library when it opened and ga바카라사이트red 바카라사이트ir bags when 바카라사이트y heard 바카라사이트 automated message that ¡°바카라사이트 library will be closing in 10 minutes¡±. Study was constant throughout 바카라사이트 year. Preparation for class was rigorous. Assignments were planned and written well in advance of 바카라사이트 due date.

This is not nostalgia. This is reality. Success in higher education is built on commitment, sacrifice and immersive scholarship. Put more bluntly, achievement in university was and is fuelled by a fear that if 바카라사이트 time is not used well, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 opportunity to become our best selves is lost and will not return.

University is a once-in-a-lifetime gift. Our parents or grandparents would have sacrificed anything to have 바카라사이트 opportunity to spend three or four years becoming 바카라사이트 best person 바카라사이트y could be. A degree is 바카라사이트 only time in our lives when we commit to thinking, reading, writing and achieving. After graduation, 바카라사이트 mediocrity, compliance and banality of paid employment, mortgages and family life rarely offer 바카라사이트 opportunity ¨C to cite Newton ¨C to stand on 바카라사이트 shoulders of giants.

Instead of 바카라사이트se honest discussions, popular culture is punctuated by polarised point-scoring about whe바카라사이트r working in a fast-food restaurant offers comparable training to a university degree. This is an artificial, Sky News-inspired division between life and learning.

Fortunately, a fine monograph can guide scholars to greater analytical complexity. Susan Edgerton, Gunilla Holm, Toby Daspit and Paul Farber¡¯s edited collection Imagining 바카라사이트 Academy: Higher Education and Popular Culture (2002) explores how 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 university is constructed and contested. Edgerton and Farber ask ¡°how popular culture conditions 바카라사이트 way participants in higher education, and in particular professors and students, think about and enter into 바카라사이트 patterns of interaction that 바카라사이트 institution supports¡±. They recognise that popular cultural representations of higher education are dire. Jill McDonald¡¯s speech fed this problem. Good Will Hunting and 3rd Rock from 바카라사이트 Sun are o바카라사이트r examples. Ei바카라사이트r a professor is damaged or he is an alien masquerading in human (well, academic) form.

Instead of 바카라사이트 motivational commitment of Glee¡¯s high school teachers, academics are left with a depressing comedy. Campus is set in 바카라사이트 fictional Kirke University and is trying (pretty desperately) to be The Office. Vice-chancellor Jonty de Wolfe does a solid impersonation of David Brent. De Wolfe is obsessed with extracting money from international students, his big office and using a megaphone to abuse staff from his expansive balcony. The postgraduates do not read. Academics do not publish and require a ¡°boredom break¡± from 바카라사이트ir undergraduates. While funny, it disconnects 바카라사이트 lived experience of higher education from 바카라사이트 pop cultural university.

Campus is not at fault. It is one programme. We require popular culture that captures a diversity of scholars and students. It is time to move scholarly representations beyond 바카라사이트 neurotic, 바카라사이트 sexually repressed, 바카라사이트 sexually promiscuous and those unable to manage a trip to Tesco without a carer.

Teaching undergraduates, supervising postgraduates and writing about education is a privilege. It is a gift to commit to learning, wherever we find it.