Some weeks
ago I was asked to give comments to a coming announcement from The Norwegian Centre for Cooperation in Education
(SIU) regarding their UTFORSK-programme.
The programme says that it will focus on strengthening institutional
partnerships by involving both research and higher education activities in the
BRICS-countries[1].
A good initiative and I must say, potentially important step to make research
stronger and more relevant for education and work-life.
However, in
the letter from SIU we were informed that support from the UTFORSK-programme needs
to be linked to ongoing or former projects financed by the Research Council of Norway,
and we learned that it was meant to support activities on PhD- and master’s
levels. Or to speak more honestly; education in this perspective was really
about educating researchers.
In formulating
a response to the planned announcement, I found myself looking for some
ideological foundation or vision regarding the connection between research and education.
As involving students at master’s or PhD-level already is a part of many
projects financed by the Research Council, the announcement seemed to be doing
little more than giving more money to what we already have. So, what did they
really mean about focusing on education, after all?
On the
positive side, this experience made me reflect more on why we should connect education
and research apart from educating researchers. Why do we think it is important to focus on these aspects in
relation to each other?
To me
education and research are two sides of the same coin, one being rather useless
without the other- or to push the analogy further: one without the other seems
like forgery. One might say that the democratic nature of science is put into
practice when the new knowledge that comes from our research influences
what we teach and the content of our courses. By doing this, we can enter in
dialogue with the students, colleagues, professionals and other stakeholders regarding
our research. One “disturbing” consequence might be that we will be bothered by
questions about the applicability of our research, something that in turn might
influence our research.
If we were
to formulate a vision for connecting research and education, I believe that a
vision should perceive education as a molding and preparation for work-life and
careers both inside and outside the academic field. By this I find it relevant
to include all
three levels of higher education when relating teaching activities to
research activities. When practical training and bachelor- and master’s thesis are
being conducted in the same field as the research activities, one runs the risk
employing processes of triangulation, argumentation, reflection, dialogue,
collecting data and supervising, or what we more bluntly might call
processes of research.
SIU will
publish their announcement the 31st of May, and I am excited to see
what their vision for education and research might be. Meanwhile I am happy to
announce that Brazil will be the focus for first year bachelor students in
social work at Østfold University College this fall, when the lecture is about
international comparative perspectives on social work. Our bachelor- and master
students will also be offered practical training in Brazil, and I am more than
willing to supervise and hopefully learn from their experiences and
reflections.
[1] Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa
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