Professor Jan McArthur
Head of Department, Professor in Higher Education and Social JusticeResearch 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.
Current Teaching
I currently teach on the Doctoral Programme in Education and Social Justice and convene the module ED.S851 Understanding Social Justice Internationally: Issues, Theories and Approaches. I also teach on the Doctoral Programme in Educational Research and convene the module ED.S862 Researching Learning, Teaching and Assessment
Career Details
I am Editor of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.
I have previously worked as a Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Edinburgh, but began my academic career many years ago at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
PhD Supervision Interests
I am interested in PhD supervision in the areas of social justice education, conceptualisations of social justice, critical pedagogy, the nature and purposes of higher education, assessment for learning and social justice, educational philosophy and critical theory.
SAVASS - South African Voices in the Arts and Social Sciences
01/03/2025 → 28/02/2027
Research
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 → 12/12/2022
Research
Embedding simulation in Medical Curriculum
20/02/2016 → 31/10/2017
Other
Graduate Experiences of Employability and Knowledge
01/01/1900 → …
Research
Higher Education and Social Justice
Invited talk
Standing our ground: Nurturing the social justice role of assessment
Invited talk
Higher education’s responsibility to nurture political sensibilities
Invited talk
Inclusive curriculum through the lens of justice
Invited talk
Researching social justice in teaching, learning and assessment: what could possibly go wrong?
Invited talk
Injustice in plain sight: reflections on common assessment practices
Invited talk
Reflecting on assessment for social justice
Invited talk
Higher education in decline: is there any point left in nurturing assessment for social justice?
Invited talk
The role of theory in empirical research
Invited talk
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 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
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
HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
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
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