Being and Becoming Through Higher Education: Expanding Possibilities

This book focuses on the importance of an ontological dimension for today’s higher education, with critical attention to implications for the student experience, engagement, satisfaction, wellbeing, employability, (dis)embodiment and activism in which students take a stand on their own being and becoming. In accessible language, key philosophical ideas are explored for their relevance to contemporary higher education, integrating philosophical with pedagogical perspectives.

Although much of the material has been published previously, there is value in bringing it together into a single volume in exploring an ontological dimension of higher education as it is embodied. In doing so, the book demonstrates benefits to pedagogy through sustained attention to philosophy and theory, and vice versa, thereby contributing to recent heightened interest in the philosophy and theory of higher education. This book is intended to prompt re-imagining the ways in which higher education is conceived and conducted. An argument is put forward for greater emphasis on expanding possibilities for knowing, acting and being, toward fuller lives of interdependence with others and things in an interconnected world. Through highlighting an ontological dimension in this manner, a hope-filled future emerges for higher education.

Gloria Dall’Alba is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia, as well as a consultant on higher education and workplace learning. She has more than 30 years’ experience in university teaching and research, with over 75 invited presentations in 12 countries. Her research and scholarship integrate pedagogical with philosophical inquiry to inform and re-imagine how we educate. The focus of this research is learning and teaching in higher education and the workplace, with particular interest in the philosophy of higher education and educating for the professions. She has published widely on a range of issues relating to higher education, workplace learning and research inquiry. A strong strand of her research is interdisciplinary, including collaborations with researchers from Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden, the USA and Vietnam from the fields of higher education, business, dentistry, engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics. philosophy and physics. philosophy and physics. philosophy and physics. philosophy and physics.philosophy and physics.