A Postdigital Challenge to the Displacement of Humans in Higher Education Policy

• In Event: 63.068 - Postdigital Science and Education

Abstract

History has taught us that there is a natural tendency for new technological innovations to displace people. Whilst sometimes violently opposed, displacement can occur in positive ways too, for example a variety of household appliances now reduce repetitive tasks. These machines now even respond to our voices and our mobile phones, as such, our lives are increasingly constituted by our digital devices. Some would argue though that automation is about to present our most difficult challenge yet, as widespread technological unemployment appears to be imminent, due to new global advances in artificial intelligence (Aoun, 2017). Whilst authors debate the pros and cons of a fundamental shift away from work as we know it, through the Fourth Industrial Revolution, another issue of displacement of human labour within higher education is worthy of our attention. This concerns a relatively recent phenomenon, where humans are now routinely displaced linguistically in higher education policy. The academic labour of staff and students is frequently discussed in university strategies as if our actions were performed by technologies, documents and institutions, rather than by people (Hayes and Jandrić, 2014)
In this paper I propose that the post-digital presents us with an opportunity to resolve a worrying issue of human displacement in higher education policy. By way of response I suggest we move towards a ‘post policy’ situation in universities. Just as the prefix ‘post’, as applied to post-digital, should be understood as still digital yet also beyond digital, we can regard policy in a similar way (Jandrić et al., 2018). This would enable a critically revised continuation of policy relating to technologies and student learning. Critical amendment of policy for digital learning is particularly important in an era of post-truth, where actuality is often adapted to serve different economic agendas and shape public opinion of higher education. Contradictory statements around social justice risk cancelling each other out, if widening participation and student retention are enacted by projects and technology, rather than staff and students themselves (Hayes, 2018, Czerniewicz and Rother, 2018). In a post-digital society, we can take the opportunity to shed this sham portrayal of technological learning for a more genuine account of academic labour. If we can surpass the digital, then we can surpass policy.

References
Aoun, R. (2017). Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Czerniewicz, L., & Rother, K. (2018). Institutional educational technology policy and strategy documents: An inequality gaze. Research in Comparative and International Education, 13(1).
Hayes, S. (2018). Widening participation and social mobility applies to university staff as well as students. WONKHE. 18 June, 2018. Retrieved from: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/widening-participation-and-social-mobility-applies-to-university-staff-as-well-as-students
Hayes, S. and Jandrić P. (2014). Who is Really in Charge of Contemporary Education? People and technologies in, against and beyond the neoliberal university. Open Review of Educational Research, 1(1), 193 – 210.
Jandrić, P., Knox, J., Besley, T., Ryberg, T., Suoranta, J., & Hayes, S. (2018). Postdigital science and education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(10): 893 – 899.

Author

• Sarah Hayes, University of Wolverhampton