Alasdair MacIntyre (2001) ‘Catholic Universities: Dangers, Hopes, Choices’, in Robert E. Sullivan (ed.) Higher Learning and Catholic Traditions. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 1–21. While the essay is most obviously about Catholic universities, MacIntyre makes clear that all universities can learn from some of the Catholic writers who have written about …
I spent an hour or so with a student from Vietnam this week. I could tell from her accented English she was likely to be Vietnamese, but she was quick – keen even – to let me know. In fact, she began our tutorial by explaining that she was attending this writing tutorial because English …
It has become commonplace to describe all sorts of phenomena in positive terms. Take the word community. It is often applied to any group of people with something vaguely in common, however thin or ill-defined that thing might be. To call such a group a community immediately suggests coherence, shared recognition, and solidarity. Curiously, the …
I found my way to this poem via Malcolm Lowry who used a line from it for the title of his book: Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid. The verse that contains that line includes this most remarkably dark image: Henceforth, ye gentle trees, for ever fade; Or your sad branches thicker …
Some Personal Reflections on the Pre-Sessional (Phase 2: Induction + Weeks 1–3) A pre-sessional programme is an academic English course designed to help students develop their language and academic skills before starting a university degree. At the University of Edinburgh, the programme is run by English Language Education (ELE); the six-week phase (Phase 2) includes …
Alasdair MacIntyre (2006). The end of education: the fragmentation of the American university. Commonweal, 133: 18. In this short article about the American Catholic university, MacIntyre makes several claims about both Catholic and secular institutions in the USA. Perhaps the most provocative is in the opening statement: from a Catholic point of view, the contemporary secular …
In Leisure, the Basis of Culture (first published in 1948), Josef Pieper notes the difference between looking as contemplation and looking as observation. With the first kind of looking – as when we look at a rose – we are ‘passive and receptive’, and ‘our attention is not strained’. We are simply looking, open ‘to …
I recently learned of a paper on The Student Voice (likely capitalised, perhaps bolded) that reportedly recommends mandating end-of-course surveys for every course, with completion required in class. Currently, I conclude my courses by sharing the optional survey link, respecting students’ autonomy as adults to choose whether to comment. In-class mandates would likely increase response …
Link to post on BERA blog: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/unveiling-academic-practices-in-the-university-classroom-a-reflection-on-goods-and-virtues Viewing university teaching and academic study as practices – and the classroom as one of their primary spaces – can help reveal some of the internal goods inherent to these activities. This perspective on academic pursuits invites further reflection on the cultivation of virtues. In this blog post, …
Link to post on Teaching Matters blog: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/teaching-matters/unveiling-academic-practices-a-reflection-on-goods-and-virtues/ In this brief post, I turn to the concept of practice as articulated by the Scottish-American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, and draw connections to academic study and the university classroom. I suggest that regarding what we and our students do as a practice – and the classroom as one of …
