Brave New Worlds, Capabilities and the Graduates of Tomorrow

Agnes Bosanquet

doi:10.5130/csr.v17i2.2001

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v17i2.2001

Keywords:

Higher education, Cultural studies pedagogy, Graduate capabilities, Graduate attributes, Curriculum review, Education revolution

Agnes Bosanquet

Macquarie University

Abstract

In 'What is Enlightenment?' Foucault poses the question: 'How can the growth of capabilities be disconnected from the intensification of power relations?' This article revisits that question by raising critical questions about graduate capabilities. Its aim is to reflect, and to prompt reflection, on the complexities of the definition, implementation and evaluation of capabilities-based curriculum in the discipline of cultural studies and in the higher education sector more broadly. It asks what types of graduates are being ‘produced' by universities and for what purposes? Does cultural studies construct the student subject differently from institutional graduate capability frameworks? What is the role, if any, of higher education in the development of capabilities such as ethical practice or moral standards? What of the principles that are demonstrated in institutional graduate capabilities (sustainability etc)? Are these universal values? What relations of power and processes of normalisation underpin the ‘education revolution’ of capabilities-based curriculum?

Issue

Vol 17 No 2 (2011): Disciplining Innovation: New Pedagogies in Cultural Studies

Section

Disciplining Innovations (Peer Reviewed)

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Author Biography

Agnes Bosanquet, Macquarie University

Agnes Bosanquet is a lecturer in Higher Education Development at Macquarie University. She is an early career researcher, having received her doctorate in Cultural Studies in 2010. Her research Interests encompass academic development; critical theory and difference; feminist pedagogy and research methods; gender and education; higher education governance; and the scholarship of learning and teaching.

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Agnes Bosanquet, Macquarie University