Pathways to Understanding
The Contribution of University Pedagogy of Teaching-learning Processes in Higher Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Antonia Ramos De Azevedo, Andreia Osti, Joyce Mary Adam
University Pedagogy (PU) is an epistemological field that contributes to the training of higher education teachers through the constitution of pedagogical advisory spaces in universities in Brazil and abroad. The notoriety of the contribution of pedagogical advisors can be assessed by the increasing number of universities committed to quality that has adopted it. The Study and Research Group on University Pedagogy (GEPPU/UNESP/Brazil) researches this field, articulating it with university policy, management, and organization, as well as its connection with language, diversity, representation and humanization of the pedagogical work. Through these research results, it aims to sensitize sectors of the university administration towards the establishment of policies that implement and/or maintain pedagogical advisors in their staff. Based on bibliographic research and the ten years of GEPPU's activities, this study propose actions to implement and expand pedagogical advisors in universities. Thus, we argue that universities should trigger the reflection of professors on their teaching , researching and extensioning towards the university role as a formative institution composed of various pedagogies to be understood and valued. In addition, teaching, research and extension need to be articulated with science, art and culture through interdisciplinary projects. We conclude that, for this advancement, both Brazilian and international universities must establish institutional policies to guarantee the insertion of University Pedagogy as a condition for the humanization of teaching and learning processes in higher education.
Gatekeeping Socialist MBA Degree: A Case Study of Simulated Admissions Interviews in Mainland China View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Qiaona Jiang
The MBA admissions interview is a gatekeeping encounter in which prospective applicants are evaluated on their skills and competencies for entry to a postgraduate program designed to foster entrepreneurial success. While there is little scholarship on this event, most studies take place in Anglophone countries and use survey-based methods to determine what criteria, if any, are used by evaluators to select applicants. The present paper breaks new ground by examining the unfolding interaction in MBA admissions interviews in mainland China, where socialist and nationalist discourses coexist, often uneasily, with those of neoliberal capitalism. Using the tools of interactional sociolinguistics, particularly Robert’s (2021) notion of discourse modes, and drawing on data from 68 simulated admissions interviews, this paper shows how success for individual candidates depends on their ability to seamlessly blend the display of professional competence, institutional objectivity and personal ambition with the pre-eminent discourse of China’s rise and the demands of the country’s socialist-governed market economy. In so doing, the study depicts a dynamic hierarchy of priorities, albeit one with the state in an invariably pre-eminent position. The analysis of data extracts will into these hybrid social and cultural norms, (re)produced by the interview’s participants, and so shed light on Chinese business-management and gatekeeping practices.
Ich habe Folter, sexuelle Gewalt, Menschenhandel und Mord importiert: An Example of “Creative” Effects of Conceptual Metonymy in German Migration Discourse
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ciro Porcaro
The present study aims to shed light onto a specific creative use of metonymy typical of ideological discourse. In particular, it is shown how specific instances of metonymy are capable of generating new contiguities within the conceptual domains evoked by the conceptualizer of the text. In this regard, an example extracted from German migration discourse is analyzed on the backdrop of the conceptual theory of metonymy. The analysis concentrates on the complex interactions between metaphorical and metonymic mappings underlying the expression and illustrates how the metonymy involved is liable to generate a new configuration of the conceptual domain IMMIGRANTS.
