Category: Capacity Building

It has been over fifty years since Ivan Illich (1971) denounced the complicity with which institutionalized higher education (HE) had begun to embody far right consumerist manipulation, ritualization, and mythologization. Illich’s critique was couched within a prescient warning that institutionalized education effected a process of neoliberal commodification, a process concerned primarily with producing a bundle of ‘packaged values’ that would be marketable to ‘consumer-pupils’. In the years since the publication of Illich’s Deschooling Society, scholars within the field of HE have outlined and decried the myriad deleterious effects brought about by the continued neoliberal commodification of the university (Reynolds, 1977; Slaughter and Rhoades, 2000; Whitty, 2002; Davies et al, 2006; Apple, 2011; Ball, 2012; Peters et al, 2012; Burke, 2013; Hall and Stahl, 2015; Connell, 2019). These critiques have undoubtedly served to augment and refine Illich’s initial concern for the neoliberal commodification of HE. However, they have tended to avoid a critical facet of his argument. Namely, a myopic tolerance within the academy of ‘fundamental contradictions between myth and institution’, which he believed resulted in a ‘dull, protracted, expensive and destructive’ institutional process of societal initiation (Illich, 1971, p. 49).

In recent years, critics on the far right have seized upon this stance in order to challenge the continued relevance and utility of the university as a social institution in service to the public good. Rather than representing singularly important Humboltian paragons of free thought, which promote the acquisition of ‘new knowledge’, critics of contemporary HE level the charge that a university education now represents an exorbitant and unnecessary process of liberal indoctrination in primary service to the continuation of the university itself (Hett, 2021).

While globalized isomorphic pressures undoubtedly effect systemic convergence, diversity within both higher education systems (HES) and specific higher education institutions (HEI) s is driven by the uniquely local and national pressures expressed within a given context. Thus, this call for papers represents a renewed effort to ‘demythologize’ the globalized institution of HE, a reflexive, dialectical process wherein scholars are invited to examine the inconsistencies and contradictions between the myth and reality of institutionalized HE. Specifically, by addressing longstanding and recurrent myths surrounding the global institution of he, we hope to engage in what Woodman describes as an ‘out-of-bounds’ process of separating fact from fiction within our ‘socially most prestigious educational institution’ (1978).

Toward this aim, this issue hopes to elicit responses from scholars across China as well as the globe who can speak to the systemic and institutional diversity of contemporary HE. In particular, we welcome contributions from current and recently graduated postgraduate students, as well as more longstanding scholars within the interdisciplinary field of HE. Potential topics of interest include:

The myth of university governance, organization, and management – e.g., how and to what extent have neoliberal educational reforms and policies affected institutional structure and mission, the process of teaching and learning, knowledge production, and student care?
The myth of ideology – e.g., how and to what extent have globalized ideological currents been reflected within departmental guidelines, mission statements, research agendas, teacher selection and training, curriculum design, pedagogy, and classroom management?
The myth of knowledge – e.g., how and to what extent is the process of knowledge production and dissemination either autonomous, defined by societal contribution, or performativity cultures embedded within the institutional or academic context?
The myth of the degree – e.g., how and to what extent does the ritual process of university credentialization convey upon students a mastery of field-specific content, technique, interdisciplinarity, cultivation of informed outlook, and professional retainability?
The myth of the institution – e.g., how and to what extent does the modern university continue to provide benefit to scientific progress, individual advancement, cross-cultural exchange, and overall societal development?

Guest Editor
Dr. Benjamin Green
Assistant Professor,
College of Teacher Education,
Beijing Language & Culture University

Submission Guidelines
If you are interested in contributing a full article (6000–7000 words in length) on a topic which covers the theme of the special issue, please submit (i) your article topic, (ii) an abstract of no more than 250 words, and (iii) five keywords no later than September 1st, 2022 to Dr. Benjamin Green at benbo83@gmail.com.

Publication Timeline
September 1st, 2022 – Deadline for 250-word abstracts
September 15th, 2022 – Authors notified and invited to write full manuscript
March 15th, 2023 – Deadline for full draft manuscripts
May 1st, 2023 – Deadline for reviewer feedback
June 1st, 2023 – Deadline for final submission of revised articles

References
Apple, M. W. (2011). Education and power. Routledge.
Ball, S. J. (2012). Global Education Inc: New policy networks and the neo-liberal imaginary. Routledge.
Burke, P. J. (2013). The right to higher education: Neoliberalism, gender and professional mis/recognitions. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 23(2), 107–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2013.790660.
Connell, R. (2019). The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Davies, B., Gottsche, M., & Bansel, P. (2006). The Rise and Fall of the Neo-Liberal University. European Journal of Education, 41(2), 305–319. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/3700117.
Hall, R., & Stahl, B. (2015). Against commodification: The university, cognitive capitalism and Emergent Technologies. Marx and the Political Economy of the Media, 65–97. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004291416_005.
Hett, B. C. (2021, November 5). Op-ed: When politicians claim professors like me are the enemy, what are they really attacking? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-11-05/jd-vance-professors-are- the-enemy-politics.
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling Society. Harper and Row.
Peters, M. A., Liu, T.-C., & Ondercin, D. J. (2012). The pedagogy of the Open Society: Knowledge and the governance of Higher Education. Sense Publishers.
Reynolds, P. A. (1977). The university in the 1980s: An anachronism? Higher Education, 6(4), 403–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00132526.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2000). The Neo-Liberal University. New Labor Forum, 6, 73–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40342886.
Whitty, G. (2002). Making Sense of Education Policy. Paul Chapman Publishing.
Woodman, K. (1978). Demythologizing University Education. Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 67, 306–316. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30088136.

Managing editor: Tong Meng

美国比较与国际教育学会2023年会邀请:

兹定于明年2月14-22日召开美国比较与国际教育学会（CIES）2023年度大会。年会主题是“改进教育以致力一个更加公正的世界”。线上Zoom会期14-15日、线下华盛顿DC会期18-22日、会休16-17日。这将是67年CIES史上会期最长年会，也是首次由华人当选会长担纲筹备。会议形式为全场主旨演讲会、全场辩论会、分场辩论会、并行组会、并行专题会、并行圆桌会、海报会展、书展等等。年会官网（https://cies2023.org）及论文摘要提交系统于6月15日上线，已经开始接受论文摘要，提交截止日期：美东时间8月8日（周一）（过期不候）。特别提示：可以用中文参会（只需同时准备英文版摘要及发言ppt）。会议详情请见官网信息（中文征稿启事链接）。会议热线电邮：cies2023@cies.us。欢迎个人及3-5位组团报名参会。期待明春2月18-22日，相约美国首都华盛顿DC！

Welcome to CIES 2023!

Welcome you all to the CIES 2023 website where you will find related information, submission guidelines and highlights for the 2023 CIES Annual Meeting. The meeting will run between February 14-22, 2023, with a break on February 16-17. We are aiming to provide you with an intellectually stimulating and joyful experience.

CIES 2023 is an on-site meeting, with online sessions. On-site, you will experience a full meeting with powerful keynote speakers, plenary situations designed to renew bonds between CIES attendees, social and cultural events, and of course, the main draw of the meeting, concurrent sessions with cutting-edge research being shared by CIES members. The Online Meeting Hub, similar to last year in the city of Minneapolis, is the only platform that is used to allow all attendees (including both on-site and virtual participants) to enjoy all online concurrent sessions. In addition to that, key events, keynote speeches, and CIES State of the Society are to be live streamed.

We are so excited to be hosting on-site sessions in Washington, D.C., and we will draw from the unique and rich regional culture and history of the U.S. Capital, as well as its pivotal place in the current fight for a more equitable globe. We will keep our underlying commitment that is to give all attendees the best meeting experience as we navigate the new directions we are taking CIES in the post-Pandemic era.

Please come back to our website regularly for latest updates of CIES 2023. After your submission, please log into All Academic (our online submission system), review the draft program, read about our highlights and REGISTER, so that you can familiarize yourself more with how to better enjoy CIES 2023!

Call for Submission

CIES invites proposals that respond to the meeting theme and expand the parameters of knowledge production and educational practice. Visit www.cies.us and www.cies2023.org for the latest updates on submission deadlines and guidelines, session format descriptions, review criteria, and more!

Deadline:

The Online Submission System opens on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, and closes on Monday, August 8, 2022, at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. No late submissions will be accepted, nor will any exception be made.

Contacts:

• For inquiries about SIG or Committee-specific themes and calls for submission, please contact related SIG or Committee chair(s), whose contacts can be found by clicking here for SIG chairs and here for Committee chairs.
• For inquiries about your submission and CIES 2023 Program, please write to the Organizing Committee at cies2023@cies.us with a subject line “Submission” and “Program”, respectively.
• For all other general inquiries, please contact the CIES Office of the Executive Director at oed@cies.us.

Managing editor: Lisa (Zhiyun) Bian