Professor Jan McArthur

Head of Department, Professor in Higher Education and Social Justice

Research Overview

My research interests span two themes: education and social justice, and the nature of higher education. I am interested in inter-relationships between education and society, and between theory and practice. I have explored different interpretations of critical pedagogy, and particularly the ways in which conceptualisations of knowledge impact upon social justice. Much of my work is informed by critical theory, and I have a special interest in the work of Theodor Adorno. My recent work has looked at the nature of assessment and feedback the role of failure in learning including the relationship between conceptions of failure and social justice. My latest book Assessment for Social Justice explores the potential to further social justice within and through HE assessment and draws on the critical theory of Axel Honneth.

Centre for Global Higher Education 2020-2023
12/11/2020 → 31/05/2024
Research

Social Justice and Quality in Higher Education
01/05/2019 → …
Research

Understanding Knowledge, Curriculum and Student Agency
01/10/2016 → 30/09/2020
Research

Assessment for Social Justice
20/02/2016 → …
Research

Embedding simulation in Medical Curriculum
20/02/2016 → 31/10/2017
Other

Graduate Experiences of Employability and Knowledge
01/01/1900 → …
Research

Reconciling the authentic and the artificial in assessment
Invited talk

The Efficiency of Joy and Trust: How Rediscovering Joy and Trust in Assessment Can Support out EDI Commitments
Invited talk

Higher Education Close-Up (HECU) 11
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Higher Education Close-Up (HECU) 11
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Assessment in Higher Education Conference 2024
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Assessment in Higher Education Conference 2024
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Masterclass: Assessment for social justice - finding moments to connect assessment and social justice
Invited talk

Assessment for Social Justice in a changing world: is it beyond our imagination?
Invited talk

Authentic Assessment in Inauthentic times: finding joy, trust and meaning in assessment relationships
Invited talk

The Radical Potential of Recognition: from Honneth to Adorno
Invited talk

Assessment for Social Justice
Invited talk

STEM Teacher perspectives: aims, aspirations and values
Invited talk

Assessment for Social Justice: is it beyond our imagination?
Invited talk

Rethinking authentic assessment for better learning and greater social justice
Invited talk

Authentic Assessment in Law: critical and practical reflection
Invited talk

Transformative teaching, learning and assessment: connecting aspirations and everyday practices
Invited talk

Holistic and authentic assessment: the need to realise the potential
Invited talk

Rethinking Authentic Assessment
Invited talk

Authentic Assessment:Beyond the buzzword and towards transformative change
Invited talk

Putting the joy back in assessment
Invited talk

How do we ensure that academic programmes are relevant to the workplace?
Invited talk

Assessment, Integrity and Artificial Intelligence: is it finally time to resolve some enduring issues in higher education? 
Invited talk

Assessment for all in an age of Generative AI
Invited talk

Re-imagining Assessmentfor joy, learning and achievement
Invited talk

Authentic Assessment: beyond the buzz words and towards transformative change
Invited talk

Re-imagining assessment and authenticity in an unimaginable world
Invited talk

Exploring new and joyful relationships with assessment for staff and students.
Invited talk

Why has it taken so long to connect assessment and social justice?
Invited talk

How to reimagine assessment authentically
Invited talk

Rethinking authentic assessment: towards transformation
Invited talk

Rethinking authentic assessment: can we balance caution and transformation?
Invited talk

Can and should assessment nurture an orientation to society and social justice
Oral presentation

Do no harm: bringing joy, compassion and social justice into assessment
Invited talk

Conceptual research: what on earth do we do without data?
Invited talk

Assessment for Social Justice: from theory to practice
Invited talk

Examining orientations to society in chemistry and chemical engineering
Invited talk

Formation of agency in science students
Invited talk

The efficiency of joy: how rediscovering joy in assessment generates benefits for staff and students
Invited talk

Assessment and society: the nuance and complexity of assessment research
Invited talk

Assessment in Higher Education. 2022
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Towards the Inclusive University: aspirations, tensions and challenges
Invited talk

The efficiency of joy: how rediscovering joy in assessment generates benefits for staff and students
Invited talk

What is a university for anyway?
Invited talk

Assessment for Epistemic Justice: the importance of knowledge fields
Invited talk

#thesisthinkers
Invited talk

Higher education and society: insights from unexpected disciplines
Invited talk

Enabling compassionate assessment
Invited talk

Higher Education and Social Justice
Invited talk

Aspiring through Assessment: Rethinking the role of assessment in programme design and student achievement
Invited talk

Creating Synergies Between Assessment for Social Justice and Assessment for Inclusion
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Assessment for Social Justice: why belonging matters
Invited talk

Education and Social Justice
Invited talk

Graduate attributes and social justice: adopting a critical position between unquestioning adherence and elitist hostility
Invited talk

Understanding Knowledge, Curriculum and Student Agency
Invited talk

Rethinking Authentic Assessment in a Post-Covid World: is it right to hope for change?
Invited talk

Towards Wicked Marking Criteria: the deceptive allure of clarity
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Can and Should Assessment Nurture An Orientation to Society and Social Justice?
Invited talk

Assessment for Social Justice: a philosophical account of students' involvement in assessment
Invited talk

Towards a moral university: critical theory, social justice and a commitment to the vicissitudes of human fate
Invited talk

Beyond the public/private divide: critical theory and the implications of education as a social good
Invited talk

Assessment for social justice: realising the social justice potential of assessment
Oral presentation

Assessment for Social Justice: Insights from Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Invited talk

Assessment in Higher Education
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Letting Assessment Breathe: creating space and movement for learning
Invited talk

Disability Studies Conference 2018
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Higher Education Close-Up 9
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Assessment and Feedback: challenges from the research
Invited talk

Does it matter what you study? Educational Reasearch seminar series
Invited talk

Challenging the Binary of Success and Failure: Connecting Learning, Assessment and Social Justice’
Invited talk

6th International Assessment in Higher Education Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Assessment, learning and knowledge
Oral presentation

Higher Education Close-Up 8
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

International Assessment for Learning Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

International Assessment for Learning Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Assessment for Social Justice: implications of alternative theories of justice
Invited talk

Higher Education Close Up 7 Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

50 Years on from Robbins: the emerging centrality of student engagement and partnership.
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Higher Education As If the World Mattered
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

  • Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation
  • Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education