Community Intersections
Role of Education in Community Development
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nirupama Prakash
One of the key objectives of Education as an Institution is to instill amongst students sound value system and work towards community development with passion. This is manifested in learning by amalgamation of theory and practice. Course curriculum of Social Work as a discipline includes theory courses on various facets of society along with field work. Areas covered are adult education, working with elderly, women empowerment, community development and health. Traditionally Indian society has had the Gurukul system wherein students stayed with the Sage (guru) in the Ashram and learned all nuances about professional subjects and sensitivity towards local community and society at large. With changing times, contemporary India witnessed erosion of values among youth to some extent and the new waive about inducting community outreach activities as part of higher education learning has picked up in educational institutions of higher learning. This has been extended from social work discipline to all disciplines of professional learning, meaning thereby, students with back ground of social sciences, engineering, Management are required to work for community empowerment as part of their course curriculum. The author has conducted community development projects in field of ICT, health, water management and social issues which has far reaching implications of education in community development.
Role of Self-awareness in the Aesthetic Experience of Contemporary Art
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne-Marie Emond, Pedro Mendonça
Studying the emergence of visitors’ self-awareness contributes to the wave of research conducted by Barrett (2000), Hooper-Greenhill (1992, 2000), Garoian (2001), McLean (1999), Reese (2003), Roberts (1997) and Wallach (1998), who have all sought to develop alternative museum educational practices focused on visitors. From this perspective, scholars such as Degain and Benharkate (2009) mentioned visitors’ self-awareness as one of the benefits that a museum visitor could enjoy, but the authors cited did not supply any empirical support. In keeping with these previous research results, we consider the study of visitors’ self-awareness an important component in the development of innovative museum educational programs especially concerning contemporary art exhibits. Acknowledging the importance of the self in a museum experience and identifying the type of self-awareness visitors verbalize during their interactions with contemporary artworks, we believe will have promising implications for museum education practices. This will inform museum professionals on how visitors behave and interact with contemporary artworks and how those interactions might contribute to evolving visitors’ self-awareness as a source of pleasure. In order to achieve this objective, Morin’s model (2005) of self-information was used as a conceptual framework to study more closely the manifestations of visitors’ self-awareness.
University Academics’ Experiences and Perceptions on the Changing Nature of the University Learning Environment and Its Impact on Student Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sureetha De Silva
Globalisation, knowledge-based economies, new technologies, and global competitiveness have been noted by scholars as the main drivers for rapid transformations in universities worldwide. The impacts of these drivers are reflected in the nature and quality of student learning, matters that are traditionally central to academic identity and self-perception. Academics, correspondingly, are inclined to reflect critically on their experience of the changing nature of the university learning environment, and, specifically, its impact on the quality of student learning This paper draws on data from a current research project exploring experiences of academics in Australian universities related to the changing nature of learning environments in universities. A qualitative research approach is adopted in the study which enables the research to be inductive and open to the potential of generating new theory emerging from the data. The data collection method consists of in-depth, one–on-one, face-to-face interviews with academics employed at public universities located in South Eastern Australia. To accomplish a detailed exploration and analysis of personal meaning and lived experiences of participants, an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) is used in the study. The findings identify diverse learning enrichment for students, as well as concerns about the quality of student learning outcomes arising from rapid transformations in university learning environments. This paper outlines a theme emerging from the data: the effects of increased online teaching; changing academic–student relationships, and the quality of student learning.
