Framing higher education as a means to address the expectations of society using different frames (of mind)

Abstract

The focus of this article is on higher education seen as being framed differently and its response to the expectations of society at large. The article does not argue for a specific frame to be used. It rather serves as an editorial outer-frame for the individual innerframes published in this special issue – each article being a different frame designed or made; simple or ornate; and so on, by an individual (author) or group (co-authors) of craftsmen and/or craftswomen. As higher education is multidimensional in all aspects, it is complex and each article can only offer a small ‘abstracted visual’ representation of the ‘bigger picture’ (what is currently known) of the higher education world and the world of society in which it exists. Some articles are framed as still lives, some as landscapes, others as portraits – readers may decide. The aim of the article, as the outer-frame, is the initiating of scholarly discourse on the views that readers are offered to see through the different frames with a view to inviting them to engage in the discourse – appreciating what is offered as a painting, other fine art, digital image, quilt, and so on. The author draws on the work of several authors whom he considers scholars of mainly learning and teaching in its widest sense, and scholars of leadership in and of higher education within a societal perspective to underpin the current discourse. The line of thought is guided by the keywords provided for each article.