ISSUE 3: futures

In this Special Issue, staff and students at the University of Exeter (UK) harness the power of narrative to reflect on the ways in which their educational lives are shaped by concerns about and hopes for the future.

The stories that follow foreground a series of encounters with evolving dimensions of educational life – social, financial, familial, medical, technological and intellectual – with which staff and students are now grappling. Some tackle issues of power and privilege in education, the ongoing work of decolonising curricula and practice, and calling out structural racism and transphobia. Some address the problems of determining ‘excellence’ in an educational world whose own future is under re/construction, considering issues around equity, employability, assessment. Some focus on health and wellbeing in global and local contexts, and on the pandemic’s ongoing, uneven impacts on Higher Education. The stories that follow consider the university as a space for teaching about the future, and the possible futures of the university as an educational environment.

As events continue to expose the myriad ways in which national and global transformations are affecting educational perceptions, these narratives navigate the repercussions on staff and students’ lives. Together, the stories reveal how concerns about, hopes for and investments in a socially just educational future are woven into the fabric of the HE environment. With this Special Issue, we hope to join the unfolding conversations around how we deal with the fault lines of institutional life, and how – through care and collaboration – we might envisage futurity differently together.

July 2022

PROJECT LEAD Dr. Natalie Pollard
Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literary Studies, University of Exeter (UK)

CONTACT
For inquiries, questions, collaborations, and to express your interest in submitting a story to Unhoming Pedagogies, please contact Natalie Pollard.