Dr. Pedro Pineda

We explore whether the semantics of diversity appears to be global and universal through computer-assisted content analysis of 2,378 publications. Diversity flows but only in the US and Canada, UK and Ireland, and Europe and is not present in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Diversity acquires different meanings depending on local conflicts. In the US and Canada, it appeared in the mid-1970s and is still linked to race and gender. Diversity flows in the mid-2000s to other English-speaking countries such as UK and Ireland and Oceania in terms of inclusion, gender ethnicity, and gender and cultural diversity; and later in that decade in Europe framed as inclusion and gender. Diversity has not become global or universal.

I analysed 14 interviews to academics and administrators of six public and private Colombian elite universities where collegial relations could be expected to be especially present (see Pineda & Seidenschnur, 2021). I show that collegial structures and procedures in contemporary Colombian higher education operate mostly in some higher education institutions of the public sector and for a minority of the professors. For academics in almost all private sector and most academics (those working under zero-hours-based contracts) collegiality is a foreign idea to their everyday work at universities. I end reflecting on the connection between academic relationships and wider contexts of social violence and inequality.

The first major finding in this study is that academic employment is increasingly segmented. Academics are no longer a monolithic group with different ranges of power (Clark, 1986). The second key finding is that permanent employment for scholars is not associated with universities´ growth of an administrative apparatus engaged in enduring institutional accreditation as performative commitment to educational quality. Our third contribution was in showing that, as higher education expands, the labor market for academics becomes segmented. Universities, especially older, public universities outside the US and Chile, better funded, those with more doctorate graduates and with more prestige seem to maintain faculty stability.

By employing a semi-experimental approach involving Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DID), we find that in the close vicinity (postcode area) where charter schools are established, they more than double teachers’ workload for a comparatively small increase in salaries. We interpret these results in light of the neo-institutional approach to promoting school choice with the main argument being the benefits of competition. We argue that school choice advocates in Colombia have decoupled the presumed benefits of charter schools’ competition from their actual negative effects for teachers. Overall, we contend that the introduction of charter schools in Colombia (Bogota) has led to a general precarisation.

By employing a semi-experimental approach involving Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DID), we find that in the close vicinity (postcode area) where charter schools are established, they more than double teachers’ workload for a comparatively small increase in salaries. We interpret these results in light of the neo-institutional approach to promoting school choice with the main argument being the benefits of competition. We argue that school choice advocates in Colombia have decoupled the presumed benefits of charter schools’ competition from their actual negative effects for teachers. Overall, we contend that the introduction of charter schools in Colombia (Bogota) has led to a general precarisation.

This paper aims to contribute to the panel on universities through discussing student evaluation of teaching (SET) as an example of the increasing “managerialization of universities” with respect to teaching. I deviate from the functionalist imaginary and borrow ideas from world society theory to understand SET as a practice that diffuses globally because it gains social legitimacy and not necessarily because of its proven effectiveness. I observe that STE diffuses globally. The embeddedness of a procedure in universities occurs parallel to university bodies in charge of implementing it such as quality assurance offices and teaching and learning centers

Through multilevel regression, we analyze which university characteristics are associated to faculty permanent employment in universities from four countries. Findings show that: (1) Untenured academics represent a vast majority of faculty working in Germany, Colombia, and Chile, while in the US the untenured faculty has increased since 2012. (2) Permanent employment for scholars decreases along with universities´ acquisition of program accreditations and increase of administrative staff.. (3) Older universities, public universities outside US and Chile, those with more doctorate graduates and a higher faculty-student ratio grant more stability to their faculty