tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967881025525384120.post5496473531059207246..comments2024-03-14T01:15:43.142-07:00Comments on Creative Reading: Something Rottenwouterjhanegraaff.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15519965611425366178noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967881025525384120.post-23880965300526487302012-12-31T15:41:00.178-08:002012-12-31T15:41:00.178-08:00These sorts of issues figure prominently at Margar...These sorts of issues figure prominently at Margaret Soltan's <a href="http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?cat=19" rel="nofollow"><i>University Diaries</i></a> blog — research fraud, plagiarism, and professorial misconduct of various sorts.Chas S. Cliftonhttp://blog.chasclifton.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967881025525384120.post-8627252826942601162012-12-19T15:52:02.415-08:002012-12-19T15:52:02.415-08:00Shared it on my Facebook Dr. Hanegraaff... with a ...Shared it on my Facebook Dr. Hanegraaff... with a Persian summary... Nima Ghasemihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014440772009592110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967881025525384120.post-739918075242386572012-12-09T16:21:29.105-08:002012-12-09T16:21:29.105-08:00This is a very interesting and timely "heads ...This is a very interesting and timely "heads up."<br />In the first instance, theoretically at least, we may conjecture about the wonderful opportunities that an open system of further education clearly does offer; but we must also be prepared to negotiate the corollary implications of the constant ratcheting, the exponential scaling up of this institutional potential, and face the ethically hazardous, sometimes counter-productive & increasingly ambiguous issues around funding, endowment and their cognate pressures of performance & production of results, that must lead to profoundly deleterious conflicts of interest. <br />If we accept the premise that universities are microcosms of greater society, then institutions of higher learning can not be exempt from the emergent complexities of dynamic systems and political economies generally.<br />We might do well to recollect the celebrated "PhD Octopus" that William James so presciently foretold. A somewhat under-rated anthology entitled "William James and Education"<br />(Jim Garrison, Ronald Podeschi & Eric Bredo) was published in 2002 by Teachers College Press, NY. Of those ten essays, personally I found the work of Aostre Johnson the most relevant from an esoteric perspective, that explored the "implications of James’s concept of mystical consciousness for curriculum theory and practice."<br />My own experience of academia as a mature student with a deep interest in "alternative" education and esoteric studies, has been conflicted. After being accepted as a PhD candidate at Cardiff in 2005, I followed my then supervisor, transferring to Liverpool Hope where I encountered many challenges; I was eventually allocated five official supervisors. This was completely unworkable, & I found myself compelled to withdraw. <br />I was subsequently accepted by the Senior Lecturer in Classics at Newcastle, NSW, but was misled by their admin. into supposing I might be eligible for a bursary in order to register for the prerequisite two years even though I had already transferred from Cardiff to Hope, completed another year there & had already completed a PGCE at Plymouth prior to my MPhil year at Cardiff. <br />More than a year later I was told belatedly(just after the ASE 2008 conference at Charleston) that I had been misinformed by the administration and offshore students could not receive scholarships. By then I was unable to fund that additional 2 years of prerequisite registration. <br />So, after some ill-health, and other disruptions I strove to continued my esoteric (Thelemic) research independently, and I still propose to begin writing up a formal dissertation within the next year or so.<br />However, I do have some serious misgivings about the wisdom of carrying this forward, as I am now 65, and am quite disillusioned about the standards, protocols and legitimacy of some academic institutions; and also troubled by the general climate that seems to be characterised by intensely competitive scrambling for recognition. Was it ever thus? Or need it be so?<br />So yes, I greatly appreciate the spirit of this blog, and applaud the importance of careful reading, in depth, without constantly having to surrender to the garrulous demands of the commercial agendas of publishers or artificial academic performance criteria set by administrative mandarins.<br />Perhaps it falls to individual faculties and departments to raise the bar, and set a gold standard for ethical research and innovative pedagogy.<br /> david llewellyn fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15307707636729139876noreply@blogger.com