Deliberate subversion of time: Slow scholarship and learning through research

Abstract

The relentless quickening of academic life caused by the neoliberal rejection of traditional liberal educational values dominates contemporary work in higher education. A fresh way of thinking about research, teaching and learning is now called for to help recapture ‘slow time’ to ensure the academic community can engage in thoughtful and worthwhile activities. A slow approach to university research and teaching is required to educate the deliberate professional. Slow spaces will be distinguished by deliberative modes of thinking, learning and deliberate action, and require active resistance by the academic workforce. A short case study is presented to illustrate an area of teaching and learning that embodies the ideas of slow pedagogy and slow scholarship. The program seeks to educate all undergraduate students as authentic researchers to equip them with powerful knowledge. Powerful knowledge goes beyond subject and allows the student access to alternative ways of thinking and to the discourses they need if they are to make a contribution to work and society once they graduate. Such an education empowers students as critical thinkers and gives them deep insight into learning, knowledge and values. It is the same education that academics demand for themselves and have typically reserved for the elite postgraduate student.