Blog | Patrick Blessinger

Education for rehabilitation and rebuilding confidence in war-torn children: Perspective from a Yezidi from Camp Khangee in Northern Iraq

Education for rehabilitation and rebuilding confidence in war-torn children: Perspective from a Yezidi from Camp Khangee in Northern Iraq Enakshi Sengupta The American University of Kurdistan “I want to be educated, it is my only way to fight Daesh” - Yezidi Refugee When the Education for All (EFA) goal was declared at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000, many educators could not have imagined that the world would be so torn by war and conflict over the years since the forum. A large number of the world population is homeless, facing genocide and have been displaced from their home country due to war, political instability, or religious repression. According to a recent press release from UNICEF, it is estimated that more than 14 million children across Syria, Libya and Iraq are now suffering from the escalating conflict in those regions. With the conflict in [...]

Patrick Blessinger2017-03-11T19:22:42+00:00July 9, 2016|Tags: Enakshi Sengupta, Ethics of Care, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, V3A5|

Higher education as a multi-purpose enterprise

Higher education as a multi-purpose enterprise Patrick Blessinger St. John's University (NYC) and International HETL Association Globalisation is a socio-politico-economic phenomenon that, some would argue, has eclipsed post-modernism and post-structuralism as a framework for explaining the development of the modern world over the past several decades. Whereas post-structuralism stresses the instability and complexity of human relations within a historical interpretive framework, the closely related framework of post-modernism stresses the uncertainty and subjectivity associated with interpreting social reality. Globalisation, with its emphasis on increased integration, interaction and connectivity, also provides a plausible framework for explaining the development of global higher education. Globalisation’s impact on the world A nation is a socio-cultural construct and a state is a geo-political construct. Thus, a nation-state is formed when these two constructs overlap. As such, a nation-state can be viewed as a country consisting of a largely homogenous culture under a single government, that is, a state [...]

Patrick Blessinger2018-01-05T14:11:15+00:00May 22, 2016|Tags: Democracy, Globalization, Inclusion, Patrick Blessinger, V3A4|

Afghan students face integrational issues in universities

Afghan students face integrational issues in universities Enakshi Sengupta American University of Kurdistan, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq “We carry our bag full of books and they think we have bombs with us”. “If we wear a hijab (head scarf) they think we are different from them and will not understand their jokes.” “Why do I have to take the initiative of befriending them, why do I need to be nice to them or smile at them?”(Student A, from the Qualitative study). Afghanistan’s nation-wide literacy rate has seen a country wide growth since the year 2008. The youth literacy rates has increased by more than 16% and at present more than 8 million students are enrolled in schools, including more than 2.5 million girls. In 2013, one million Afghan learners are enrolled in schools with the assistance received from USAID. (http://www.usaid.gov/afghanistan/education). With the world opening its doors to Afghan students it is [...]

Patrick Blessinger2016-04-02T14:57:22+00:00April 2, 2016|Tags: Enakshi Sengupta, Human Rights, Inclusion, Multiculturalism, V3A3|

A catalyst for change

A catalyst for change Patrick Blessinger St. John's University (NYC) and International HETL Association The continuing universalisation of higher education reflects the growing democratisation of knowledge around the world. In this emerging paradigm, higher learning is no longer the province of the knowledge elite, but is increasingly available to all. For instance, with the move towards open educational resources, massive open online courses, open universities, and the like, access to higher learning is now available to virtually anyone. In many respects, the continued de-monopolisation of higher learning allows for greater political, social, economic and personal empowerment. Democratising knowledge for all Of course, this is not a new phenomenon. Arguably, the first significant democratisation of knowledge occurred with the advent of the Printing Revolution in the 15th century with the invention of the printing press. The wide-ranging utility of the printing press laid the foundation for future political, social, economic and scientific revolutions such [...]

Patrick Blessinger2016-02-16T14:41:38+00:00February 16, 2016|Tags: Human Rights, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V3A2|

Higher education for a hyper-connected world

Higher education for a hyper-connected world Patrick Blessinger St. John's University (NYC) and HETL Association In many respects the world has become a global knowledge society of interconnected and interdependent human activity that shares increasingly common ways to communicate and interact politically, economically and socially. Yet, at the same time, the world continues to be highly diverse in these areas as well as linguistically and culturally. The world has become more homogeneous at the global level, but still remains highly heterogeneous at the local level. An emerging hyper-connected world The emerging global knowledge society, facilitated mainly by international trade and travel and ubiquitous global communications such as internet and wireless based technologies, is a space of hyper-connected human activity in which people increasingly interact with each other on a regular basis, irrespective of physical space and time boundaries. It is a hyper-connected network where everything is quickly becoming connected to [...]

Patrick Blessinger2017-12-10T12:54:08+00:00January 3, 2016|Tags: Equality, Globalization, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V3A1|

Making Sense of Research

Making Sense of Research Patrick Blessinger St. John's University and HETL Association CLICK TO VIEW PDF OF ERM FRAMEWORK The aim of this article is to provide a brief overview of the educational research methodology framework and how it came into existence and how it might be most useful to higher education faculty, researchers, and students as well as others involved in educational research, inside or outside of academia. The framework may be particularly useful to those in education and the social sciences but it may also have applicability to those in the humanities as well as professional disciplines like business and the healthcare sciences. Key definitions Broadly speaking, research can be defined as the process of systematic inquiry to better understand the nature of a particular phenomenon and the nature of the relationships among certain variables (that are of interest to the researcher) related to that phenomenon. The phenomenon can take [...]

Patrick Blessinger2020-10-13T09:43:14+00:00October 7, 2015|Tags: Framework, Methodology, Patrick Blessinger, Research, V2A11|

Towards an inclusive global knowledge society

Towards an inclusive global knowledge society Patrick Blessinger St. John's University (NYC) and International HETL Association The second half of the 20th century was characterised as a period of enormous expansion of higher education worldwide, especially through opening access by removing long-standing ethnic, gender and class barriers. As a result, the first half of the 21st century of higher education will most likely be characterised by its remarkable heterogeneity in terms of student diversity and institutional diversification. Higher education today reflects a system that has not only emerged into a more democratised system but also into a global power system. Core issues in democratisation The principles of democratisation impact on every part of higher education at both the macro and micro levels – not just access issues but also governance, management, policies, structures, processes and other core functions of higher education. The process of democratisation has led to a diversification of institutional [...]

Patrick Blessinger2015-10-04T18:01:33+00:00October 4, 2015|Tags: Democracy, Inclusion, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V2A10|