The entanglement of learning spaces, pedagogies, and technologies with the global polycrisis

A manifesto for higher education for good

Abstract

This concise paper emphasises and amplifies the themes of this year’s ASCILITE Conference by elaborating on their importance contributing to higher education’s vital agenda of advancing human rights, democracy, justice and sustainability. We address the conference themes —learning spaces, pedagogies, and technologies— from a macro perspective, considering a range of urgent global issues with which higher education is entangled. These issues shape the possibilities and risks of higher education everywhere, as well as technology enhanced learning in particular. In the paper, we consider a range of challenges posed by the current global polycrisis, present a framework for confronting these challenges within higher education, and offer a set of questions for collective consideration in order to strengthen the higher education community’s ability to cope with a threatening and unstable future.