Paradoxes of Doctoral Studies in Education Sciences in the Czech Republic

Miroslav Dopita; Jana Poláchová Vašťatková

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.17.1.5

Authors

Miroslav Dopita Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5742-0968
Jana Poláchová Vašťatková Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0031-6385

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.17.1.5

Keywords:

Higher Education Policy, Neo-Liberalism, Doctoral Studies, Educational Sciences, Paradox

Abstract

Adequate staffing of university studies with qualified academics was completed thanks to the reimplementation of three-stage university education during the post-socialist restoration of higher education in the Czech Republic. Thus, the doctoral degree of education has been attained by more than four-fifths of academic staff, with over two-fifths of them being aged 50+. The current course of university studies, including doctoral study programs, is influenced by their focus on educational and research strategy. With regards to the regulations for graduating in doctoral studies, doctoral candidates act as homo oeconomicus following neo-liberal educational policy. The conditions for doctoral studies, namely, those in educational sciences, thus lead to paradoxes caused by the current higher educational policy. The objective of the paper is to analyze the neoliberal set-up of the higher education policy of the Czech Republic in the field of doctoral studies in educational sciences in particular and its possible impacts in the area of labor-market integration of graduates and university training of academics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Miroslav Dopita, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic

Doc. Mgr. Miroslav Dopita, Ph.D. graduated from Sociology and Andragogy at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc where he also defended his doctoral thesis in Sociology and later habilitated in the Andragogy major. At present he works as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology, Andragogy, and Cultural Anthropology in the Czech Republic. He specializes in the sociology of education and work. He has participated in the research of the popularity of natural sciences among pupils of primary and secondary schools, in the research of organizational climate of higher education institutions, he has led the research of leaders in educational sciences, et cetera. He is the author/co-author of 8 monographs, he has published more than 80 articles and essays dealing with the issues of sociology of education. For example, he wrote the monograph Pierre Bourdieu o umění, výchově a společnosti (2007, Pierre Bourdieu about Art, Education and Society).

Jana Poláchová Vašťatková, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic

Doc. Mgr. Jana Poláchová Vašťatková, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Palacký University, Czech Republic; Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology, Andragogy, and Cultural Anthropology in the Czech Republic. Her educational background is in education; her dissertation thesis was focused on Self-Evaluation as a Tool of Change to Czech Basic Schools in 2005 and her habilitation thesis dealt with Quality in Czech Schools in 2012. In her research, she focuses mainly on the issue of quality in education and other relevant phenomena, such as the educational evaluation, management, and leadership in educational institutions, et cetera. She is the author of two monographs: Self-Evaluation and Benchmarking at School (2010) and Introduction to the School Self-Evaluation (2006) and the co-author of three other monographs. She is also the author of nearly 90 articles and scientific papers. She has led several research projects and participated in a number of others, both national and international ones.

References

Altbach, Philip G. 2007. “Doctoral Education: Present Realities and Future Trends.” Pp. 65-81 in International Handbook of Higher Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol. 18, edited J. J. F. Forest and P. G. Altbach. Dordrecht: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4012-2_5

Archer, Louise. 2008. “The New Neoliberal Subjects? Young/er Academics’ Constructions of Professional Identity.” Journal of Education Policy 23(3):265-285.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930701754047

Ball, Stephen J. 1994. Education Reform: A Critical and Post-Structural Approach. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Google Scholar

Ball, Stephen J. 2016. “Neoliberal Education? Confronting the Slouching Beast.” Policy Futures in Education 14(8):1046-1059.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210316664259

Baltodano, Marta. 2012. “Neoliberalism and the Demise of Public Education: The Corporatization of Schools of Education.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 25(4):487-507.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2012.673025

Beneš, Josef, Jan Kohoutek, and Michaela Šmídová. 2017. Doktorské studium v ČR [Doctoral Studies in the Czech Republic]. Prague: Centrum pro vysoké školství.
Google Scholar

Burawoy, Michael. 2007. “Open the Social Sciences: To Whom and for What?” Portuguese Journal of Social Science 6(3):137-146.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/pjss.6.3.137_1

Burford, James. 2018. “The Trouble with Doctoral Aspiration Now.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE) 31(6):487-503.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2017.1422287

Burns, Tracey and Florian Köster. 2016. Governing Education in a Complex World. Educational Research and Innovation. Paris: OECD.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264255364-en

Connelly, John. 2000. Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945–1956. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Google Scholar

Czech Republic. 2017. Act No. 111/1998 Coll., On Higher Education Institutions and on Amendments and Supplements to Some Other Acts (The Higher Education Act). Retrieved November 14, 2018 http://www.msmt.cz/areas-of-work/tertiary-education/the-higher-education-act?lang=2
Google Scholar

Durkheim, Émile. 1922. Éducation et sociologie. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan.
Google Scholar

EUA. 2007. Doctoral Programmes in Europe’s Universities: Achievements and Challenges Report Prepared for European Universities and Ministers of Higher Education. Brussels: European University Association.
Google Scholar

Evans, Matthew. 2020. “Navigating the Neoliberal University: Reflecting on Teaching Practice as a Teacher-Researcher-Trade Unionist.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 41(4):574-590.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2020.1748572

Foucault, Michel. 1981. “The Order of Discourse.” Pp. 51-78 in Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, edited by R. Young. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1988. “Technologies of the Self. Lectures at University of Vermont Oct. 1982.” Pp. 16-49 in Technologies of the Self, edited by L. H. Martin, H. Gutman, and P. H. Hutton. London: Tavistock Publications and University of Massachusetts Press.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Gibbons, Michael et al. 1994. New Production of Knowledge: Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Goode, William J. 1960. “Encroachment, Charlatanism, and the Emerging Profession: Psychology, Sociology, and Medicine.” American Sociological Review 25(6):902-914.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2092933

Government of the Czech Republic. 2016a. Government Regulation No. 274/2016 Coll., of 24 August 2016 on Standards for Accreditation in Higher Education. Retrieved October 15, 2018 http://www.msmt.cz/file/43798/
Google Scholar

Government of the Czech Republic. 2016b. National Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the Czech Republic (National RIS3 Strategy). Retrieved October 15, 2018 https://www.mpo.cz/assets/en/business/ris3-strategy/2018/6/National-RIS3-strategy-approved-by-the-government-July-2016.pdf
Google Scholar

Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences. 1996. Open the Social Sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of Social Sciences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Google Scholar

Hakkarainen, Kai et al. 2016. “Extending Collective Practices of Doctoral Education from Natural to Educational Sciences.” Studies in Higher Education 41(1):63-78.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.914910

Hancock, Sally, Gwyneth Hughes, and Elaine Walsh. 2017. “Purist or Pragmatist? UK Doctoral Scientists’ Moral Positions on the Knowledge Economy.” Studies in Higher Education 42(7):1244-1258.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1087994

Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1970. “University Reform in Germany: On the Spirit and the Organizational Framework of Intellectual Institutions in Berlin.” Minerva 8(2):242-267.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01553214

Jaspers, Karl. 1959. The Idea of the University. Boston: Beacon Press.
Google Scholar

Kascak, Ondrej. 2017. “Communists, Humboldtians, Neoliberals and Dissidents: Or the Path to a Post-Communist Homo Oeconomicus.” Journal of Education Policy 32(2):159-175.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2016.1257161

Kotarbiński, Tadeusz. 1965. Praxiology. An Introduction to the Science of Efficient Action. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Google Scholar

Mareš, Jiří. 2013. “Neviditelná skupina aneb co s postdoktorandy [An Invisible Group or What about Postdoctoral Students].” Pedagogická orientace 23(1):5-26.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.5817/PedOr2013-1-5

Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. 2018. “Výroční zpráva o činnosti 2017 [Annual Activity Report 2017].” In Výroční zprávy o činnosti vysokých škol [Annual Reports on University Activities]. Prague: Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. Retrieved October 31, 2018 http://www.msmt.cz/vzdelavani/vysoke-skolstvi/vyrocni-zpravy-o-cinnosti-vysokych-skol
Google Scholar

Newman, John H. 1886. The Idea of a University: Defined and Illustrated. London: Longmans, Green.
Google Scholar

OECD. 2019. Education at a Glance. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Google Scholar

Olssen, Mark and Michael A. Peters. 2005. “Neoliberalism, Higher Education and the Knowledge Economy: From the Free Market to Knowledge Capitalism.” Journal of Education Policy 20(3):313-345.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500108718

Pabian, Petr, Karel Šima, and Lucie Kynčilová. 2011. “Humboldt Goes to the Labour Market: How Academic Higher Education Fuels Labour Market Success in the Czech Republic.” Journal of Education and Work 24(1):95-118.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2010.534443

Podgórecki, Adam, Jon Alexander, and Rob Shields. 2014. Social Engineering. Montreal: MQUP.
Google Scholar

Pratte, Richard. 1987. “Schooling and Society: Then and Now.” Theory into Practice 26 (Special 25th A nniversary I ssue, 1 962-1987: Educational Perspectives, Then and Now):469-471.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00405848709543314

Pritchard, Rosalind. 2005. “Education Staff and Students under Neoliberal Pressure: a British-German Comparison.” Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung 27(4):6-29.
Google Scholar

Raaper, Rille. 2016. “Academic Perceptions of Higher Education Assessment Processes in Neoliberal Academia.” Critical Studies in Education 57(2):175-190.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2015.1019901

Raaper, Rille. 2018. “‘Peacekeepers’ and ‘Machine Factories’: Tracing Graduate Teaching Assistant Subjectivity in a Neoliberalised University.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 39(4):421-435.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1367269

Schultz, Theodore W. 1968. “Resources for Higher Education: An Economist’s View.” Journal of Political Economy 76(3):327-347.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/259408

Skelton, Alan. 2005. Understanding Teaching Excellence in Higher Education. Towards a Critical Approach. Oxon: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203412947

Skelton, Alan. 2012. “Teacher Identities in a Research-Led Institution: In the Ascendancy or on the Retreat?” British Educational Research Journal 38(1):23-39.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.523454

Skelton, Alan. 2013. “Positively Transformational or Poisoned Chalice? The Impact of a Course on Higher Education Teaching at a Research-Intensive Institution.” Teaching in Higher Education 18(8):908-919.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.827640

Stehr, Nico. 1994. Knowledge Societies. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Štech, Stanislav. 2011. “Bologna Process as a New Public Management Tool in Higher Education.” Journal of Pedagogy 2(2):263-282.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10159-011-0013-1

Torka, Marc. 2018. “Projectification of Doctoral Training? How Research Fields Respond to a New Funding Regime.” Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy 56(1):59-83.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-018-9342-8

Trow, Martin. 2007. “Reflections on the Transition from Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since WWII.” Pp. 243-280 in International Handbook of Higher Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol. 18, edited by J. J. F. Forest and P. G. Altbach. Dordrecht: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4012-2_13

Trowler, Paul. 1998. Education Policy: A Policy Sociology Approach. Eastbourne: Gildredge Press.
Google Scholar

Walker, Jude and EeSeul Yoon. 2017. “Becoming an Academic: The Role of Doctoral Capital in the Field of Education.” Higher Education Research and Development 36(2):401-415.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1207616