Preparedness for higher education: What does it mean for today and tomorrow?

Editorial

Mary Gobbi
Editor

doi: https://doi.org/10.18543/tjhe.3065

E-published: May 2024

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” –

Malcolm X, influential African American
human rights activist (1925-1965)

In recent editions, we have discussed how the experience of the hidden curriculum and ‘life from my side’ may cause perceptual and experience differences between students and their academic teachers. When applying Malcolm X’s words, we can see that the extent to which the academic teacher and/or the institution is ‘prepared’ not only for today, but for tomorrow, shapes the experience and nature of that very future. Unpacking what this ‘preparedness’ means for academic teachers and higher education leaders relies upon strategic vision, opportunities for staff development, evidence-based pedagogy, competence-based standards, critical reflection, resources and national infrastructures. Recent papers that explored the impact of COVID-19, demonstrated that the extent to which both institutions and individuals were prepared for a future of blended and technological learning was instrumental in determining the effectiveness and resilience of Higher Education during the pandemic.

However, when viewing the challenges faced by many of our educational colleagues and authors in this edition, we can ask ourselves what does it mean to be prepared for a future that might change suddenly and catastrophically? Did we just miss the signs and winds of change? Are there some events that are too awful to contemplate, or is preparing for such risks a disproportionate use of resource? Whatever one’s conclusion, we still need to address the question, what does it mean to ‘be prepared’ as an academic teacher, organizational leader or institution? Indeed, who determines the competences required for such preparedness?

In this edition, we see examples of various aspects of ‘preparedness’. Papers discuss the organizational, strategic, and practical implications of designing, enhancing, or transforming the pedagogic and general competence of teachers and/ or aspects of the student experience. Whether these transitions are at the institutional or local level, we encounter strategies for improvement, methods of evaluation, and debates concerning the nature of the relevant quality culture itself. Furthermore, these strategies are situated within contexts of war, country development, educational reforms, technological advances, moments of innovation and the impact of socio-economic and historical legacies in higher education. So, readers, as you peruse the articles in this edition, you might like to reflect on whether they have resonance and application for preparedness in your own context.

Editorial Team

May 2024