The Timescapes of Teaching in Higher Education

The chapters in this book grapple in varying ways with Barbara Adam's concept of timescapes, which provides a powerful metaphor that extends the imagery of landscapes to enable an understanding of time as entwined with space, conceptually drawn and constituted experientially. Space-time is deeply relational, contextual and experiential, forming overarching narratives of higher education, its purpose and its future. As timescapes become in/visibilised and subsumed, in various ways and in different contexts, into hegemonic discourses of individual responsibility and choice, new temporal framings must then be carefully re-negotiated and self-managed by students and teachers. The chapters thus draw on theoretical and empirical contributions to examine intersecting pressures and [im]possibilities across different timescapes in higher education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Teaching in Higher Education.

Penny Jane Burke is Global Innovation Chair of Equity and Director of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Professor Burke is UNESCO Chair in Equity, Social Justice and Higher Education. Her personal experience of returning to study via an Access to Higher Education program has fuelled her deep commitment to generating social justice research with impact, firmly located in social justice principles. Penny is co-editor of the Bloomsbury book series on gender and education, was executive editor of Teaching in Higher Education (2010 – 2020), received the Higher Education Academy’s National Teaching Award (2008) and was Expert Member of the Australian government’s Equity in Higher Education Panel (2020-2021) and Equity Research & Innovation Panel (2018-2020). She also holds honorary positions at the University of Bath, Uk, as Global Chair of Social Innovation, and the University of Exeter, as Honorary Professor.

Catherine Manathunga is Professor of Education Research and Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Education and Tertiary Access at The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Australia. She is the Co-Director of the Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre. She is a historian who draws together expertise in historical, sociological and cultural studies research to bring an innovative perspective to higher education research. Catherine has current research projects on doctoral education; academic identities and the history of universities in Ireland, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand.