Twenty-first International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The authors investigate the epistemological, scientific, and socio-psychological problems of a traditional source of knowledge, such as university lecturers’ knowledge, from the perspective of academics. The problem is objectified by the aim to study the academics’ epistemological attitude towards university lecturers’ knowledge. The epistemological attitude concept is a theoretical and methodological prism for studying the problem of sources of knowledge. Developed as an interdisciplinary-oriented theory, it combines holistic constructivism, epistemology, system modelling, particular theories of personality, social and cognitive psychology and sociology. Current research is realized in a quantitative research strategy and survey design. One hundred twenty university lecturers, professors, and researchers from various disciplines and faculties from different institutions of higher education in Latvia are involved. The authors originally developed the research method of two instruments: epistemological attitudes towards sources of knowledge questionnaire and epistemological attitude semantic questionnaire. Data analysis procedures consist of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis. The results of research and modelling the academics’ epistemological attitude towards university lecturers’ knowledge reveal its content and semantic space, the psychosocial construct of the source and its epistemological and socio-psychological meanings. The results highlight academics’ needs for specific forms of knowledge and required qualities. The role of this source is becoming more critical, highlighting changes in interaction specificity and reflecting transformations in cognition by the quality, comprehensiveness and depth of knowledge engagement. Traditional ways of knowledge transfer must remain but, in the same way, must respond to academic, educational, and social demands in contemporary society.