From Teacher-Centred Instruction to Peer Tutoring in the Heterogeneous International Classroom: A Danish Case of Instructional Change

This case study documents a seminar redesign from a teacher-centered instruction format to the collaborative ‘reciprocal peer tutoring’ (RPT) at Aarhus University, Denmark. Departing from Bourdieuian concepts and the notion of “superdiversity” by Vertovec, we argue that teachers have to meet student requirements within Danish Higher Education (HE). This student body is quite diverse, international and multilinguistic with different cultural expectations and knowledge standards.At the same time, the Danish HE tradition with its low degree of formality and an affinity towards collaborative learning, allows for non-traditional instruction styles as an answer to such heterogeneity. The object of our documentation is thus a seminar before and after didactical restructuring in a Danish setting.We document both the in-classroom methods of instruction before and after the implementation of RPT and the methods and instruments used to monitor this change. For this, we provide insight into student group reports, students’ learning reports, a lesson time table, seminar evaluations, focus group interviews, teacher-student communication and course descriptions.Our study contributes on several levels: firstly, we provide course responsibles with a detailed insight into how a seminar redesign to RPT can be achieved. Secondly, we provide a basis for introducing such change by documenting the positive assessment as an outcome of the monitoring. We thereby address diversity and in-classroom heterogeneity on a didactical level

Performance Measurement at Universities: Studying Function and Effect of Student Evaluations of Teaching

This paper proposes empirical approaches to testing the reliability, validity, and organizational effectiveness of student evaluations of teaching (SET) as a performance measurement instrument in knowledge management at the institutional level of universities. Departing from Weber’s concept of bureaucracy and critical responses to this concept, we discuss how contemporary SET are used as an instrument of organizational control at Danish universities. A discussion of the current state of performance measurement within the frame of new public management (NPM) and its impact on knowledge creation and legitimation forms the basis for proposing four steps of investigation. The suggested mixed-methods approach comprises the following: first, thematic analysis can serve as a tool to evaluate the legitimacy discourse as initiated by official SET affirmative documents by government, university, and students. Second, constructs for the SET questionnaire can be developed and compared to existing SET questionnaires in terms of reliability and validity. Third, data from SET can be used to corroborate the relationship between the qualitative (comments) and quantitative (scaled questionnaire) sections. Fourth, it can be investigated if SET actually contribute to teaching improvement by examining how the instrument is integrated into systematic ex-ante and ex-post organizational management. It is expected to find discrepancy between the proponents’ intent to evaluate teaching and the way the performance measurement instrument is implemented.

English as a medium of instruction and internationalization at Danish universities: Status, perspectives, and implications for higher education executives

This paper discusses possible policies to handle English as a medium of instruction for higher education (HE) in Denmark. It summarizes the de-facto status of the institutionalization of English as a lingua franca and EMI in Europe and relates the findings to the status quo of the academic and political discussion about EMI in Denmark. This discussion is classified into three typical approaches: the progressive, the conservative, and the radical conservative. The distinction is supplemented with the results of the author’s own recent study on EMI and the introduction of a fourth perspective: the ‘cautiously progressive perspective’. This perspective supports further introduction of EMI, on condition that careful attention must be given to the way EMI is implemented. Possible lines of reactions, implications, and recommendations are introduced. These are relevant for university teachers that wish to encourage their students to participate in EMI classes and for university management and administration in order to provide the necessary conditions for a reasonable EMI use. They could further provide value for potential employers that support EMI education, especially in the field of communication

Impression management as symbolic capital: an intercultural comparison of presentations by CEOs on social network sites

Social Network Sites (SNS) play an increasingly important role in the European business world, especially with respect to cross-cultural impression management. Departing from the Bourdieusian concept of “capital,” this paper analyzes the differences in the use of two popular business SNS: XING in Germany and LinkedIn in Denmark. We summarize those differences and relate them to different cultural contexts and impression management practices. Our sample consists of Danish Higher Executives (HEs)/managers (e.g., CEOs) and companies that have profiles on both SNS, thus reaching out to both the German and the Danish markets. It is apparent that even business experts operating in both markets could better adapt to the standards and possibilities offered by the German SNS with respect to impression management. We introduce a set of recommendations to foster SNS-related and culture-sensitive impression management

The Construction of a Class with a Sense of Entitlement: A Case Study on Political Rhetoric as Symbolic Violence in Denmark

Taking a Bourdieusian perspective, this paper illustrates how one politically staged TV broadcast on a receiver of benefit payment has triggered political scapegoating in Denmark. The case has challenged the prevailing welfare state discourse and fostered the construction of a low class with a “sense of entitlement” by the media. We show that the media adopted the notion of a “sense of entitlement” originally used by politicians. Welfare state critical phrases and proverbs experienced a revival. We claim that this one-sided rhetoric abstracts from political responsibility and that power, agenda-building and rhetoric act as symbolic violence

Designing the Organizational Future: How German Universities communicate Governance Changes by means of Corporate Design

Purpose: Over the last decades, universities in general have seen an increase in managerial top-down policies, often pertaining to strategic organizational communication. This paper, in addressing such managerial policies, does focus on German universities as they provide an interesting context to explore the rise of strategic organizational communication as a managerial practice. German universities grant full legal autonomy to their chairholders, and thus, faculty compliance with top management policies cannot be exacted. From there, it seems worthwhile exploring how university management tries to initiate compliance by communicative means. One prominent communication strategy pertains to Corporate Design (CD): university administrations disseminate guidelines as to the use of all forms of planned, visual communication. With this managerial practice in view, we explore arguments employed in exemplary CD guidelines. The overall aim is to show how management attempts to initiate faculty compliance via rational and persuasive communication. Frame: This case study combines Bourdieusian field theory with neo-institutionalist and narratological approaches. In order to explore how university leadership tries to assert governance claims, we refer, in particular, to the concepts of field struggles, isomorphic change, and legitimacy. Approach: Our case study concentrates on the attempted implementation of CD in German universities. Our sample comprises 40 CD manuals, most of them with official prefaces by university presidents. In order to detect dominant themes in these manuals we employ thematic analysis. Findings: We find that CD policies are being used, by management, as a strategic marketing instrument for external communication, as well as a soft, internal governance instrument. We identify two dominant themes: First, university leadership argues in favor of CD by referring to external and internal stakeholders (legitimation). With a view to external stakeholders, management argues that CD is an important communication instrument of differentiation in a perceived university ‘market’. As to internal stakeholders, CD is intended to integrate both individual scholars, as well as scholarly sub-units into an overarching organizational structure. In this case, we consider CD to be a specific symbolic mode of communication aiming to have impact on the university’s perception externally and internally. Second, we find different persuasive management strategies supposed to actually make faculty employ the new CD (governance). Here, we identify highly different communication strategies, ranging from direct orders to appeals. The variety in strategic communication reveals the organizational paradox of restricted legal governance options, and the new managerial claim to governance. Implications: We contribute to higher education and organizational communication research by revealing homogeneic rationales for an isomorphic change process that are being described as differentiation. We alert that legal professorial autonomy may slowly be eroded by means of consistent strategic communication

Detecting Green-Washing or Substantial Organizational Communication: A Model for Testing Two-Way Interaction Between Risk and Sustainability Reporting

This paper contributes to the expanding landscape of methodological approaches and tools for investigating organizational sustainability communication. Our method allows for exploring two-way interactions between company risk and sustainability reporting. We present a basic but extendable method, while using only publicly available data. Our method adds additional features to established methods: It covers only risk (not returns), as theory mainly supports risk-reporting relationships and not return-reporting relationships. It tests for reverse causality of the risk-reporting relationship and links complementary explanations to different theoretical schools. Our method tests the model by employing data from a market with mandatory sustainability reporting to avoid self-selection bias

A pragmatic constructivist approach toward Higher Education management policies – The case of English medium instruction at Aarhus University

This paper specifically highlights that discussion on instruction language does not account for stratum specific study strategies. It was presented at the 3rd Actor-reality conference, Aarhus University, October 23-25, 2013