International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education

Critical Thinking for Global Challenges

Jill Jameson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138564343
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351347099
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

There is an increasing pressure for leading universities to perform well in competitive global and national ranking systems. International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education studies the complexity involved in the development and upkeep of good higher education provision. Without taking anything about leadership, management, governance, administration, authority or power for granted, this book draws together international case studies relating to specific instances of leadership to analyse how they relate to critical thinking and global challenges in higher education.

Using a selection of global case studies, this book explores:

• The extent to which critical thinking on global challenges is employed by higher education leaders,
• The potential for an increase in the role of critical thinking in leadership,
• The creative potential for critical leadership thinking to transform institutions and communities,
• The essential attributes of critical thinking, namely cognitive, affective and social dimensions, and
• The possibility for critical thinking to contribute to the global public common good by encouraging enhanced research, teaching and public service excellence.

Responding to the ever-increasing demands of the higher education climate, International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education is a vital resource for anyone occupying leadership positions in higher education institutions and any researchers or students looking to explore the landscape of critical thinking.

Part 1
Global leadership and critical thinking in higher education

This introductory section, in three chapters, outlines current reflections on leadership studies and related professional practice in global higher education, and considers the case for increased critical thinking (CT) about changing global challenges in relation to leadership in both theoretical and practical terms. The three chapters consider the theoretical positioning of leadership, CT and change in higher education in the context of the overlapping and distinctive characteristics of ‘leadership’ alongside ‘management’ and ‘authority’ at different levels. The terms ‘criticality’, ‘critical theory’ and ‘critical thinking’ are discussed with reference to global perspectives on leadership in selected national/regional higher education systems. Interactive, multifaceted relationships of ‘leadership’ with and within the authorities of the state, academia and the market are considered. The contributions of ‘critical leadership’ and ‘critical management’ studies and related concepts of neo-managerialism and new public management (NPM) form a backdrop to this debate, alongside sociological views on critical theory and pedagogic CT approaches.

The section overall provides an overview of some of the difficulties leaders of and in higher education systems face while developing and applying more advanced cognitive and self-reflective capabilities to cope with the supercomplexities of multiple leadership challenges now facing higher education. The chapter considers the extent to which ‘critical thinking’ has been, as Davies and Barnett (2015) assert, ‘abandoned’ (or not) in higher education corporate leadership and management in favour of managerial approaches, combined (or not) with ill-defined, superficially appealing ‘soft skills’. It is argued that there is a need to move beyond any complacency in relying on prior successes and models of leadership of higher education. Global higher education communities must adapt themselves to the pressures and uncertainties facing the university and college sector: the evolution of new forms of highly resilient, stoical problem-solving approaches may be needed at this time.

1

Introduction

Jill Jameson

Background

The International Studies in Higher Education series examines major contemporary developments in international higher education. As part of that examination, this book argues that leadership, as well as its relationship to CT, is a vital topic that strongly needs consideration. This is partly in response to a context in which the global rise of managerialism and NPM in higher education has been the subject of concern around the world and partly as a response to a myriad of related global challenges facing universities and colleges (Deem, 1998; Mok, 1999; Deem and Brehony, 2005; Deem, Hillyard, and Reid, 2007; Trowler, 2010; Lea, 2011; O’Mullane, 2011; Ball, 2012; Lorenz, 2012; Teelken, 2012; Lumby, 2018).

‘Leadership’ interactively engages with related fields of knowledge and practice in the distribution of authority and power, and is sometimes confused with these phenomena in problematic ways, whereby ‘leadership’ is overused, over-glamorised and too loosely undifferentiated, becoming everything and nothing at the same time (Alvesson and Spicer, 2012; Alvesson and Blom, 2018). There is no easy answer to the teasing out of those complex patterns of engagement and no grand one-size-fits-all definition or theory to which we can retreat with relief from this ongoing challenge. The work of attempting to examine this field of knowledge and practice is unfathomably complex, and we need to tread our way carefully. Hence, this book aims to begin to contribute some initial thoughts and findings to the literature, practice and live debate currently considering diverse ways in which ‘leadership’ overlaps with and is also different from ‘management’, ‘governance’, ‘administration’, ‘authority’ and ‘power’ in its relationship with critical thought and action in global higher education contexts. Overall, the book argues that in all contexts, the need for critical leadership thinking in responsive, adaptive and skilful ways is essential to meet new global challenges in higher education.

Part One: leadership and critical thinking in higher education

Part One introduces the scope of the book’s contributory response to the current debate on leadership studies and professional practice in global higher education. The three chapters in the introductory section consider the general case for increased CT in relation to continuously changing global challenges to higher education within the current ‘age of supercomplexity’ (Barnett, 2000) in both theoretical and practical terms, before moving on in Part Two to consider leadership and CT in more situational depth in specific international case-study contexts.

The case-study chapters in various ways define, explore and critique differing historical and contemporary definitions of leadership and CT as practised in institutional, regional, national and international settings, drawing from the considerable history of global initiatives in these fields. In several chapters, the focus of leadership processes discussed relates to institutional leadership at a variety of levels in higher education institutions (HEIs), although that focus expands outwards in other chapters into a consideration of regional, national and global higher education leadership and policymaking in other contexts. Theoretical reflections predominate in some chapters, while empirical work is more the focus of other chapters. The length of chapters also varies, dependent on situation and context. This diversity was welcomed, reflecting the differing countries, disciplinary areas and author perspectives involved. A round-up of observations on leadership and CT arising throughout the book is then brought together into Part Three to form the conclusion and recommendations for further research.

Defining ‘leadership’

The book provides a context for and exploration of selected aspects of the overlapping and distinctive characteristics of ‘leadership’ alongside ‘management’, ‘governance’ and ‘administration’ as well as ‘authority’ and ‘power’ at different levels in higher education. At an overview level, one broad definition of ‘leadership’ applied in the conceptualisation of the book is that of Northouse: ‘Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal’ (2004: 3). This definition is built up from the four key elements of leadership identified by Northouse: ‘(1) it is a process; (2) involves influence; (3) occurs in a group context and (4) involves goal attainment’ (Northouse, 2004). This highly generalised, somewhat open-ended definition is sufficiently comprehensive to include numerous locally situated interpretations, as appropriate in the context of the book’s inclusion of international case studies, which are all very different in location and content. However, it is not so broad as to be meaningless, and the book is careful to distinguish also ‘leadership’ from ‘management’ and from ‘group work’, though I do not adopt the hierarchical aspect of the leadership definition put forward by Alvesson and Blom (2018), preferring instead to emphasise the important role of informal, collegial, distributed and collaborative leadership in the specific context of the higher education sector, in which all participants might ideally be either expert critical thinkers already or on their way to achieving at least a basic level of autonomous capability in critical argumentation and analysis (Gosling, Bolden, and Petrov, 2009; Jones, 2014; Clifton, 2017). Alvesson and Blom’s concept of leadership applies to other sectors and in other respects; however, as outlined here:

Leadership is about influencing meanings, values and beliefs in a hierarchical (unequal) relation. It is often confused with management. Management is about planning, budgeting, resource allocation, assignment of tasks, control, policy making, hiring/firing, role specifications in the employment contract, not primarily about meanings, ideas and values.

(Alvesson and Blom, 2008)

The useful distinction here between leadership as an influencing process and management as a coordinated series of organising, planning and controlling functions is helpful, as the book will explore in a range of ways. Throughout, both leadership and management are considered to be essential to the effective functioning of higher education, and I assume that there may be a considerable overlap between the two in the work of positional leader-managers. Aspects of CT, as defined later, are also regarded as essential for both leaders and managers. However, in a rapidly changing higher education environment, this book focusses on multiple dimensions of CT in relation to leadership as particularly vital for the continuing purposeful role of higher education in nurturing sustainable benefits to humanity in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world (Bennis and Nanus, 1985; King and Badham, 2018). This book therefore calls for a renewal of leadership and management mindsets about the need for greater leadership criticality, notably in its higher order manifestations as ‘critical being’ (Barnett, 1997, 2015), to address global challenges. In that wide-ranging call, definitions of leadership from functionalist, interpretivist and critical perspectives are needed (Alvesson and Spicer, 2012), though in this volume the interpretation of leadership tends more towards critical perspectives, as appropriate for the focus of the book.

Defining ‘critical thinking’ and related dimensions of criticality

The terms ‘critical thinking’, ‘criticality’, ‘critical theory’ and ‘critical being’ in relation to higher education, as defined and modelled by Barnett (1997), (2015), Davies (2015) and Davies and Barnett (2015), inform the text at both subterranean and overt levels throughout, with reference to global perspectives on leadership in selected local, national, regional and country-wide higher education systems. The vast literature on CT in higher education is mainly focussed on the teaching, learning and development of CT skills and dispositions in higher education students, with the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) Delphi Report definition of CT (Facione, 1990; Facione, Facione, and Giancarlo, 2001) being amongst the more influential CT models, while there are numerous classificatory schemes, assessment models and training schedules for the development of CT and criticality (Ennis, 1965, 1996; Barnett, 1997; Jenkins and Cutchens, 2011; Flores et al., 2012; Davies and Barnett, 2015). Informed by the aforementioned works, this book explores selected elements of the following dimensions of CT and criticality as they underpin leadership in higher education:

• individual critical thinking skills, argumentation and judgements, including ‘interpretation, analysis, inference, explanation, evaluation, and some element of metacognition or self-regulation’;
• criticality dispositions, character and action as ‘critical being’ in relation to ‘knowledge, self, and the world’, including CT, critical reflection, ethical awareness, critical action and creativity;
• sociocultural aspects of criticality, including critical pedagogy, critical theory, critical inquiry, critical leadership and management studies.

(see Davies and Barnett, 2015 for a fuller exploration and diagram)

Exploring ‘leadership and critical thinking’ in higher education

In the context of the aforementioned dimensions of criticality, interactive, multifaceted relationships of ‘leadership’ with and within the authorities of institutions, the state and wider society in a global context are considered in a variety of ways throughout the case-study chapters. Variable responses to determine and assess levels of CT, or the lack of it, are discussed. The contributions of ‘critical leadership’ and ‘critical management’ studies, complexity theory, critical reflexivity and design-based thinking to this debate inform the case-study responses, alongside sociological and feminist views on critical theory and pedagogic CT approaches.

Underlying this exploration is a recognition of the difficulties facing leaders of and in higher education systems in developing and applying more advanced cognitive and self-reflective capabilities to cope with the supercomplexities of multiple leadership challenges now facing higher education. Throughout, the authors consider the extent to which ‘critical thinking’ has been, as Davies and Barnett (2015) assert, ‘abandoned’ (or not) in HEIs (in the United Kingdom and/or elsewhere) in favour of vaguely conceptualised entrepreneurial approaches, such as ‘teamwork’, ‘leadership’ and ‘communication’, combined (or not) with related ill-defined, superficially appealing ‘soft skills’. It is argued that there is a need to move beyond any complacency in relying on prior successes and models of leadership of higher education. Global higher education communities must adapt themselves to the pressures and uncertainties facing the university and college sector: the evolution of new forms of resilient, stoical problem-solving leadership approaches is needed at this time.

Recent significant changes in government policy, funding, quality and research regimes affecting global higher education across many countries are placing university leaders, managers, governors and policymakers under unprecedented pressures to continue to develop effective HEIs in both elite and mass contexts. It is becoming increasingly challenging for universities to meet the ever-growing demands of competitive global and national ranking, policy and governance systems while simultaneously satisfying multiple goals for excellence in research, teaching quality, financial constraints and student satisfaction, managing staff productively and developing new buildings, digital learning curricula, entrepreneurial knowledge exchange and business initiatives (Bleiklie and Kogan, 2007; Altbach, Reisberg and Rumbley, 2009).

Challenges faced by higher education leadership therefore require recognition of the enormous and accelerating supercomplexities involved in the development and upkeep of good higher education provision. These demands have been exacerbated by the recent rise of political tensions linked to the popularist nationalistic movements, the distrust of elite ‘expert knowledge’, the controversies surrounding ‘fake news’ and the turbulence of competing political tensions across the world in numerous countries but, perhaps most notably in recent years, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, South America and Sri Lanka, to name but a few.

This volume on International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education: Critical Thinking for Global Challenge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Series editors introduction
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Part 1 Global leadership and critical thinking in higher education
• Part 2 International case studies on leadership in higher education
• Part 3 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index