Author
Jan McArthur
Senior Lecturer
Jan McArthur is senior lecturer in education and social justice in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. Her research focuses on the nature and purposes of higher education and how these relate to practices of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as to social justice.
She has a particular interest in critical theory and in her published work explores the ideas of Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser, applying these to higher education. She has previously published a book exploring how Adorno’s critical theory can inform our understanding of, and engagement with, knowledge in higher education for the purposes of greater social justice: Rethinking Knowledge in Higher Education (Bloomsbury).
Her more recent book uses Honneth’s conceptualisation of mutual recognition to rethink the nature of assessment in higher education, where one is committed to greater social justice: Assessment for Social Justice (Bloomsbury). Jan is a researcher in the ESRC funded Centre for Global Higher Education, and is Editor of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.
3 pieces
Newest first, since March 2021
· Comment
Students must be taught to engage in academic writing, not to fear the Spanish Inquisition of plagiarism detection
Jan McArthur argues that plagiarism detection software is no substitute for teaching students how to engage critically with academic literature
· Comment
Humanities are essential in foreign policy
For Jan McArthur, failures in foreign policy could be prevented by a better understanding of history and culture
· Comment
For assessment to count as authentic it must mean something to students
Stop tinkering around the edges of assessment and be prepared to think radically about engaging with the whole student, urges Jan McArthur.