Storying Pedagogy as Critical Praxis in the Neoliberal University - Encounters and Disruptions

This book examines how teaching and learning and teacher and student identities are being reframed in higher education by neoliberal policies and practices. It shares how teachers perform teaching and learning duties in relation to prescribed institutional policies and how teachers insert dissonant pedagogies as a critical practice.

The book explores narrative pedagogy as a disruptive presence and a space for critique. It interrogates personal/professional experience of educational systems that present educators juggling complexity and meeting competing demands to make learning meaningful for students. Each contribution will act as a counterpoint and provide a synoptic method for comparison. The book re-constructs meaning from the generic narrative of the public face of education, which homogenizes and diminishes collective understandings of teachers and teaching. This book provides a contemporary account of the social realities experienced within the higher education classroom across the globe.

Mark Vicars is Associate Professor at the College of Arts & Education at Victoria University, Melbourne. Mark's research interests interrogate the discourses and pedagogies of social and educational inclusion in and across international educational systems. Following 24 years of working in education in several countries, with 15 of those in higher education, Mark has extensive international, multi-sector experience. He is highly experienced in developing international strategy on teaching and learning in Australia, Asia and the UK, generating international opportunities for collaborative partnerships focused on the teaching/research nexus. He has developed research affiliations and education partnerships internationally.

Ligia Pelosi is Senior Lecturer at the College of Arts & Education at Victoria University and has worked in education for over 20 years, with 11 of those spent in higher education. Ligia's research focuses on Arts-based and narrative methodologies. Ligia's interests in education center on literacy, creativity and narrative research methodologies. Underpinning Ligia's research are the principles of social justice in education, and she is currently Chief Investigator at National Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (NETDS).