The intensifying neoliberalisation of HE over the past few decades is all part of a long trend of universities producing who and what the dominant powers in society wish, according to Chomsky. However, the university has always been a contested space with emancipatory possibilities existing alongside domination and oppression. LD, as part of higher education, is also part of that contested space, and the notion of Critical Academic Literacies (CAL) is Gordon’s attempt to reinvigorate and strengthen the critical, explicitly political roots of LD that is focussed on equity, participatory democracy, and social justice. The criticality of LD is not new; CAL is how that criticality might be expressed, and new and emerging Learning Developers are providing cause for optimism in how they’re questioning what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and who they’re doing it for. It’s no longer just about helping students navigate higher education, but now there’s more sense of collectively questioning and challenging the nature of the neoliberal university and the demands it makes on students and staff. As Learning Developers, we are part of that system ourselves, in a position of tension and contradiction (and mindful of the self-care needed to manage that positioning), but we can yet all play a part in working to reshape what higher education could look like, by taking this critical turn. We need to understand the past and the present of the university, in order to genuinely help students understand where they might be going in the future. Students are as subject to these neoliberal influences as staff. We can look, though, for every opportunity to question and challenge, and encourage students to also question and challenge, whether that is the system generally or assessment strategies specifically, for example. AI provides a great opportunity for us to take a critical stance with both staff and students, to use and apply these new technologies well, to challenge, question and resist here too where necessary. Just as universities can be leaders in this arena, so too can Learning Developers provide coherent critiques of new practices, and to help guide the university in an emancipatory and hopeful direction as part of a wider Critical LD movement. Community is central and essential to becoming critically aware and critically literate, in how a field is situated and sharing in the construction of its knowledge. LD is in a great position to push avenues of thought, to connect students and staff, professional and academic, and build these kinds of movements. Are you interested in being a part of it? Get in touch with Gordon! The resources we mentioned Abegglen, S., Burns, T. and Sinfield, S. (eds.) (2023). Collaboration in Higher Education. Bloomsbury Beetham, H. (2024). What price your ‘AI-ready’ graduates? Imperfect Offerings. Available from: https://helenbeetham.substack.com/i/146823705/employers-are-already-falling-out-of-love-with-generative-ai Stephen Brookfield - his website Noam Chomsky - his website Coffey, L. (2023). Majority of grads wish they’d been taught AI in College. Inside Higher Ed. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2024/07/23/new-report-finds-recent-grads-want-ai-be Freire, P. (2014) Pedagogy of hope. Bloomsbury Publishing. John Holloway - author page at Pluto Press Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2021) Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. And the chapter we talked about Asher, G. (2023). Learning Development in, against and beyond the neoliberal university. In Syska, A. and Buckley, C. (eds.) How to Be a Learning Developer in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives, Community and Practice. Routledge.
