The Sinister Figure in the Wings: Employability and the Humanities

1
The Sinister Figure in the Wings Employability
and the Humanities

• Dr Helen Day
• Centre for Employability through Humanities
• February 2007

2
We Sacrifice Our Souls on the Altar of
Employability

• Professor Ian McNay in Times Higher, October 2006

3
Was there ever a Golden Age of Humanities?

• Study of Humanities always already ideological

4
Faculty Towers

• Malcolm Bradburys The History Man (1975) The
  defeat of privacy
• David Lodges Changing Places (1975) Newer
  Universities as corporations open to innovation
  and enterprise
• David Lodges Nice Work (1988) Robyn Penrose,
  lecturer in feminist literary theory shadows Vic
  Wilcox, manager of Engineering Company and begins
  to lose faith in academia
• Shannon Olsons Welcome to my Planet (2000) No
  one knows what to do with English anymore, where
  it fits - having a degree no longer enough to
  guarantee students the jobs they want
• Jonathan Franzens Corrections (2001) professor
  tries desperately to get students to recognise
  the cynicism and manipulation in a series of
  adverts they in turn are frustrated that
  academics treat money and success as dirty words.

5

• Trapped between the values of Universities,
  anxious to seek out relationships with the
  corporate world, and students who want to enter
  that world, academics are left struggling with
  the death of the literary, liberal and political
  ideals that have structured their academic
  identities.

6
Is Employability a way to address the crisis in
Humanities?

• Problem in finding a suitable definition of
  Employability
• e.g. A set of skills, knowledge and personal
  attributes that make an individual more likely to
  secure and be successful in their chosen
  occupation(s) to the benefit of themselves, the
  workforce, the community and the economy (ESECT,
  2005)
• e.g. USEM Employability is influenced by four
  broad and interrelated components Understanding
  (subject knowledge and understanding), Skills,
  Efficacy Beliefs (students self-theories and
  personal qualities and belief that they can make
  a difference) and Metacognition (self-awareness
  and ability to reflect on, in and for action
• Understanding is a key outcome of HE and needs
  no further justification here (Knight Yorke,
  2003).

7

• Resistance to the Employability Agenda
• Employability as Troublesome Knowledge
  (Perkins)

8
Ceth Opportunities for students at a Post-92
University

• In 2005, University of Central Lancashire
  designated one of nations Centre of Excellence
  in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and awarded 4.5
  million over 5 years to develop the Centre for
  Employability through Humanities (ceth)
• Realistic Work Environments (RWEs) encourage the
  reciprocal enhancement of employability and
  Humanities e.g. Publishing House, ArtHouse
  Cinema, Media Development, Theatre/Events,
  Museums/Exhibitions and Gallery/Retail
• Examples of Modules Insights into Publishing,
  Community History Project, Food Writing and
  Television, Managing an ArtHouse Cinema

9
Epistemological shifts in the Curriculum

• Traditional Curricula Knowing that
• Emerging Curricula Knowing how
• Ceths Curricula Negotiation between Knowing
  that and Knowing how
• Situated Learning

10
Curriculum Model (Barnett et al, 2001)

• Negotiation of three domains
• Knowledge (discipline-specific competencies and
  aspects of TLA that develop subject specialisms)
• Action (competencies acquired by doing through
  practice and application)
• Self (development of an educational identity in
  relation to subject areas)

11
Humanities Curricula (Barnett et al, 2001)
Knowledge
Self
Action
12
Ceth Curriculum
Knowledge
Self
Action
13
About Humanities and For Humanities

• Food Writing and Television
• Develops literary creative writing skills in
  new areas
• Language and Literature Seminar
• Encourages questioning of choices that shape TLA
  including the nature of Humanities and the role
  employability plays.
• Realistic Work Environments (RWEs)
• Encourage the reciprocal enhancement of
  employability and Humanities (Bid, 2004)
• The University is the ideal type of community
  where work and play are in perfect harmony (Nice
  Work)

14
Thank you for listening

• Dr Helen Day
• HFDay_at_uclan.ac.uk
• Centre for Employability through Humanities