University Teachers’ Conceptions of the University and the Place of Sustainability
Open Access
- 11 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in Sustainability
- Vol. 13 (4) , 1955
Abstract
In this phenomenographic qualitative research, the aim is to learn about the conceptions of university professors about the university. The study was carried out with 20 university professors: 10 from the School of Social Sciences and 10 from the School of Science and Technology of University of Évora with an average age of 54 years and over 20 years of professional activity. The data were collected through open questionnaires and then submitted to thematic and categorical content analysis. The conceptions of the university appear, in the voice of the teachers, centered on two main aspects. The first and more mentioned concerns the conception of the university as a space of production and diffusion of scientific knowledge, which refers to quality factors of higher education. The second brings out the conception of the university as a space of relationship with society together with underlying concerns for human development, cooperation, and the design of a more sustainable world.Keywords
Funding Information
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/CED-EDG/29252/2017)
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sustainable principles: common values for achieving sustainabilityJournal of Cleaner Production, 2011
- Bologna in Context: a horizontal perspective on the dynamics of governance sites for a Europe of KnowledgeEuropean Journal of Education, 2010
- Achieving Bologna Goals: Where Does Europe Stand Ahead of 2010Journal of Studies in International Education, 2010
- The sustainability spectrum and the sciences of sustainabilityBusiness Strategy and the Environment, 2008
- The Bologna Process and the Lisbon Research Agenda: the European Commission’s expanding role in higher education discourseEuropean Journal of Education, 2006
- On the Pragmatics of Qualitative AssessmentEuropean Journal of Psychological Assessment, 2006
- The Purposes of Higher Education and the Changing Face of AcademiaLondon Review of Education, 2004
- Anything goes: Or, how the accommodation of Europe's universities to European integration integrates an inspiring number of contradictionsTertiary Education and Management, 2002
- Supercomplexity and the CurriculumStudies in Higher Education, 2000
- A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal ScalesEducational and Psychological Measurement, 1960