Troy Heffernan – författare

There is a need for constant assessment of an ever-changing leadership landscape, especially in universities, as we move towards the mid-twenty-first century. Decades of university reform has turned higher education into a system of corporate universities led by millionaire executive teams who are accountable to each other, university boards and senates, and governments, but rarely students or academics – with academics being the most disposable component of the equation.

Academy of the Oppressed approaches potential university reform as a system that has gone far beyond institutions being for scholars, led by scholars, driven by the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and separated from the influence of government and business. Heffernan takes Friere’s primary works as a theoretical guide to dissect how university leaders and leadership teams (the oppressors) have slowly eroded the power the academic body (the oppressed) once had in guiding the institution and themselves.

The important insights collated here provide guidance to progress towards institutions where academics possess more control of the policies that guide their careers, the knowledge they create, the knowledge they share, the students they inspire, and the communities they aim to serve.

There is a need for constant assessment of an ever-changing leadership landscape, especially in universities, as we move towards the mid-twenty-first century. Decades of university reform has turned higher education into a system of corporate universities led by millionaire executive teams who are accountable to each other, university boards and senates, and governments, but rarely students or academics – with academics being the most disposable component of the equation.

Academy of the Oppressed approaches potential university reform as a system that has gone far beyond institutions being for scholars, led by scholars, driven by the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and separated from the influence of government and business. Heffernan takes Friere’s primary works as a theoretical guide to dissect how university leaders and leadership teams (the oppressors) have slowly eroded the power the academic body (the oppressed) once had in guiding the institution and themselves.

The important insights collated here provide guidance to progress towards institutions where academics possess more control of the policies that guide their careers, the knowledge they create, the knowledge they share, the students they inspire, and the communities they aim to serve.

This book examines how the higher education sector has approached marginalised student and staff populations. The author highlights how universities were historically, and largely remain, the domain of the privileged, and demonstrates how institutions have implemented systems to enhance access for people marginalised because of their gender, race, sexual identity, disability and/or social class. These efforts have resulted in a numerical ‘marginalised majority’, but have not transferred to equity in terms of student grades, course completions and graduations, or marginalised academics’ chance of gaining continuing/tenured positions, streaming into a research rather than teaching-focused role, and the likelihood of reaching the professoriate or being selected for leadership positions. This examination is carried out through a Bourdieusian lens, which provides the ideal tool to illustrate how privilege manifests in higher education, and essentially taxes the efforts of those from marginalised backgrounds hoping to achieve equitable successes with their privileged peers. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of higher education administration and policy, and social justice in education.