Springer Higher Education and the Practice of Hope (Rethinking Higher Education)

This book examines the restructuring of universities on the basis of neoliberal models, and provides a vision of the practice of hope in higher education as a means to counteract this new reality. The authors present a re-imagined version of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to highlight the absurdity of policy trends and decisions within higher education and shock people out of indifference towards action. The authors suggest the ‘practice of hope’ as a way to create a system that moves beyond neoliberalism and embraces equity as commonplace. Providing real-world possibilities of the practice of hope, the book offers possibilities of what could happen if neoliberalism at the higher education level is counteracted by the practice of hope. From the Back Cover This book examines the restructuring of universities on the basis of neoliberal models, and provides a vision of the practice of hope in higher education as a means to counteract this new reality. The authors present a re-imagined version of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to highlight the absurdity of policy trends and decisions within higher education and shock people out of indifference towards action. The authors suggest the ‘practice of hope’ as a way to create a system that moves beyond neoliberalism and embraces equity as commonplace. Providing real-world possibilities of the practice of hope, the book offers possibilities of what could happen if neoliberalism at the higher education level is counteracted by the practice of hope. About the Author Jeanne Marie Iorio is a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University, Melbourne. Prior to moving to Australia, she worked as an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu. While completing her doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University, she began disrupting and rethinking accepted early childhood practices and this continues to inform her research, teaching, and writing. Her research interests include qualitative research methodologies, neoliberalism in higher education, pedagogies engaging with place, and the power of viewing children as capable. Her publications, co-edited with Will Parnell, include Meaning-Making in Early Childhood: Pedagogy and the Personal; Disrupting Early Childhood Education Research: Imagining New Possibilities; and Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education: Implications for Policy and Practice. Clifton S. Tanabe currently is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and is a Professor in the Department Educational Leadership and Foundations at UTEP. Previously, he served as Chief of Staff-Executive Assistant to the Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and held the positions of Associate Professor in the College of Education and Lecturer in Law in the William S. Richardson School of Law also at UH Mānoa. He was also the Director of the Leaders for the Next Generation Program, Co-Director of the Hawaii Education Policy Center also at UH Mānoa, and is the founder and former Co-Director of the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. Dr. Tanabe holds a Ph.D in Educational Policy Studies and a law degree, both from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His scholarly interests include higher and K-12 education law and policy, educational and political philosophy, education access and social mobility.