GUNI announces the contents of the parallel sessions that will take place during the 4th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education. The presentations have been selected by a Scientific Committee taking into account their quality, innovation and issues such as regional representativity and gender balance. The objectives and main themes of each thematic line are presented below.
A) Ethics and relevance of scientific knowledge: what knowledge for what society?
This thematic line will explore the question of relevance in scientific research to its local and global context, but not only in one direction (the impact of research on its social context), but in a double sense: examining in what way the social needs have to influence or even guide the main lines of scientific research.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Scientific integrity to keep the legitimacy of university research
- Expansion of human capacities through higher education
- Interdisciplinary cooperation between research groups of different regions
- Knowledge and ethics in a democratic society
- The importance of choose relevant subjects of research according to countries needs
This line counts with authors from Spain, Chile, United States, Madagascar, Mexico and Sweden.
B) Knowledge technologies for social transformation
This thematic line will focus on the role of ICT as technologies of and for knowledge, as producers/facilitators/leaders of the dynamics of social change, oriented towards human and social development.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Open source software and its use for the renovation of knowledge creation in higher education
- Open distance education to promote the creation of emerging knowledge communities
- ICT as a tool to foster the new social role of universities
- The use of ICT at university and its impact in teaching and learning methods.
This line counts with authors from Finland, Indonesia, Portugal ,United Kingdom and South Africa.
C) Higher education and gender equity
This thematic line has the objective to deepen knowledge on the role higher education plays or play in the generation, reduction or elimination of inequity between the genders, what it should do about these issues and how these issues can influence in the construction of more or less balanced and inclusive societies.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- The challenge of gender: processes and practices involved in reproducing gendered patterns in higher education
- Academic and professional identities as gendered experiences in higher education
- Discrimination, gender and access to higher education
- Intercultural dialogues on gender
This line counts with authors from Botswana, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine.
D) Higher education, arts and creativity
In this thematic line, we will explore reflections and experiences coming from artistic experimentation and practice; these may relate to arts in higher education and also arts-based research/inquiry in which members of higher education institutions engage. Also, we wish to explore the role that creativity and artistic expression may have as an emergent transversal capability in the higher education learning curricula.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- The pedagogy of creativity
- The art in higher education
- Problems of interpretation of art in and as research in higher education
- Arts Education in the curriculum
This line counts with authors from Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Lithuania and South Africa
E) The role of higher education in peace building and reconciliation processes
In societies, which have lived through periods of violence and violations of human rights, higher education institutions have sometimes played a key role. They can initiate policies ranging from the accusation and persecution of human rights’ violations, from initiatives on historic memory, to a large array of actions, such as their participation in truth commissions or the launch of reconciliation projects. We will examine these questions, based on real cases and from a comparative perspective, and we will analyse actual processes in which higher education institutions have been decisive or in which they have simply participated.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Community Engagement programmes a society recovering from conflict
- The role of higher education institutions in the peace building process
- Higher education for mutual understanding in conflict regions
- Higher education for strengthening national institutions in reconciliation processes
This line counts with authors from Colombia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Pakistan, United Kingdom and Sudan.
F) Higher education for intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism
This session will explore the dynamics caused by migration, transnationalism and the process of globalisation as major challenges faced by humanity in the XXI century and how higher education could help to solve these challenges. Also, the contribution of higher education to the construction of a plural society, where different cultural conceptions and world visions have to fit, along with processes and mechanisms to understand, dialogue and live in a multicultural society.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Intercultural universities
- The role of higher education in the process of integration and introduction of refugees
- The new multicultural reality and the role of higher education in this context
- New challenges for intercultural education
This line counts with authors from Australia, Kuwait, Mexico, Norway, Poland and Russia.
G) Higher education for sustainable development
The transition towards sustainability can be seen as a transforming process of social learning, in which the role of academia is not one of integration of sustainable development, but is one of innovation and systematic change in our institutions, allowing increased social learning.
Education for Sustainable Development implies deep changes, so as to overcome the disciplinary division or to allow transformative learning to take place. Dealing with complexity, structural changes, teaching organisation and pedagogy and the role of research, are the main themes that will be analysed in this session.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Innovative practices on the integration of sustainable development in higher education institutions
- Holistic transformation approaches to sustainability in higher education institutions
- Mobilising higher education for sustainable development
- The cultural mission of the university for participatory and sustainable development
This line counts with authors from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, United States, France, Nigeria and the Netherlands.
H) Higher education and citizenship, participation and democracy
Participatory processes have been identified as one of the most powerful engines to provoke real transformations in contemporary society and in HEIs. They help these institutions and those with whom they engage, face the growing demands and challenges of an increasingly globalised world. Thus, in many places of the world, HEIs have played and can play a very important role as beacons of free thinking and democracy. In this thematic line we will examine these factors.
Some of the issues to be discussed are:
- Knowledge and values for a democracy in higher education
- The civic mission of universities
- University for democracy and democratic university
- Links between higher education and civil society
- The contribution of the university to its local environment
This line counts with authors from Colombia, Croacia, Spain, United States and the United Kingdom.
Blog de Octavio Islas 