Dear Gunnar,
First, let me apologize for not yet responding to the questions you
posted earlier. Your questions were quite specific, so I’ve been
thinking and jotting down notes.
It seems to me you have misinterpreted what I wrote.
I wrote: “To say that all knowledge production constitutes research
is not. Research entails a specific range of activities, and most kinds
of knowledge do not involve research.”
You wrote: “What does it do to the future of universities if we limit
them to research-based knowledge? And what does it do to any particular
field when we focus it on (narrowly-defined) research-based
knowledge?”
At no point have I suggested that we ought to limit universities to
those forms of knowledge-production based on research.
The contemporary chrestomathic university – what some label the
“multiversity” – contains professional schools, training and
vocational programs, schools of fine arts practice, design schools, and
many more. Within the sciences, liberal arts, and humanities, the
university promotes many kinds of knowledge other than research-based
knowledge.
This has been a thread about the PhD, and I have therefore primarily
focused on research-based knowledge in the context of this thread.
To meet the needs of today’s world, most forms of professional
practice require that the knowledge-base on which practice rests include
research based knowledge in addition to the other forms of knowledge on
which they have drawn in the past.
Other forms of knowledge remain valuable and important. Research does
not supersede or replace them. What does happen, however, is that
research provides an evidence base that informs practice. Research also
demonstrates that some practices are better than others, that some
practices do not work at all, and that there are issues we can develop
and understand that we can conceivably address simply by practicing our
profession.
In the course of debate, I’ve also been addressing the challenge of
the research-intensive university, a rather small proportion of all
universities, where research is a central focus of the university
mission. The role of the professional school within such a university is
different to the role of a professional school in universities that
conduct and encourage research without being research intensive.
We agree on the value of multiple forms of knowledge. I in part of my
note that you did not quote that there are many forms of valuable
knowledge other than research-based knowledge. The university is
responsible for nurturing and furthering many forms of knowledge.
Most forms of professional practice have specific demands. The
technical arts and sciences or the practices of surgery and law rest on
several forms of knowledge. Research is only one.
This thread has been focused on the role of one form of knowledge and
the degree programs designed to train those who add that form of
knowledge to their repertoire. It asks the question whether the PhD, the
research doctorate, is a threat to the rest of the body of design
education. The rest remains important.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
| Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61
39214 6078 | Faculty
|