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national standards for psychological literacy and global citizenship

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this group.<br />

The needs <strong>and</strong> opinions of these different stakeholders were often at variance. Thus, many<br />

Fellowship activities (e.g., APEN Meetings, the April 2012 Summit, <strong>and</strong> APS Conference<br />

Forums) were designed to facilitate exchange of in<strong>for</strong>mation <strong>and</strong> views, <strong>and</strong> discussion of<br />

the issues together. The aim was to keep stakeholders focussed on finding solutions that did<br />

not ignore the fact that most psychology major graduates do not go on to become ‘like<br />

them’, that is, <strong>psychological</strong> scientists/academics or professional psychologists, <strong>and</strong> that it<br />

was to their collective benefit to consider the needs of this group of graduates (in addition<br />

to increasing the <strong>psychological</strong> <strong>literacy</strong> of those “like them”). That is, our aim was to have<br />

stakeholders underst<strong>and</strong> each others’ diverse needs at the same time as encouraging them<br />

to collaboratively progress a future-oriented agenda <strong>for</strong> our students, our discipline <strong>and</strong><br />

profession, <strong>and</strong> our world (primarily through drawing on the concept of <strong>psychological</strong><br />

<strong>literacy</strong>).<br />

Although peak disciplinary stakeholder involvement was critical to this initiative, the speed<br />

at which organisations can react <strong>and</strong> respond to change has limited the progress on some<br />

aspects of this Fellowship. Although some of the stakeholders recognised the need to be<br />

proactive in shaping the change, the diverse needs of psychology as a discipline <strong>and</strong><br />

profession has meant that the consultative process has been slow. In contrast, both <strong>national</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> inter<strong>national</strong> factors indicate that an increased responsiveness to change is required at<br />

this critical time <strong>for</strong> the discipline <strong>and</strong> profession of psychology, <strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong> HE more generally.<br />

As an indication of how rapidly the HE context can change, during the course of this<br />

Fellowship, the abolition of the ALTC was proposed <strong>and</strong> enacted, <strong>and</strong> the Office <strong>for</strong> Learning<br />

<strong>and</strong> Teaching, TEQSA, <strong>and</strong> the HE St<strong>and</strong>ards Panel were established.<br />

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that significant progress was<br />

achieved during this Fellowship, <strong>and</strong> this would not have been<br />

possible without (a) the funding given, which allowed some time out<br />

from normal duties to focus on the Fellowship aims, <strong>and</strong> (b) the<br />

support of the ALTC/OLT infrastructure—both the dedicated<br />

personnel <strong>and</strong> everything else that goes with that unique<br />

organisation. Moreover, it should be noted that without (a) a<br />

passion <strong>for</strong> promoting quality education, in the face of competing<br />

dem<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> resistance, as well as (b) the grounding <strong>and</strong> credibility<br />

af<strong>for</strong>ded by still being educators at the coalface, this Fellowship<br />

would not have been conceived or progressed.<br />

Figure 15: Sue Morris,<br />

co-designer of the<br />

<strong>psychological</strong> <strong>literacy</strong><br />

capstone course<br />

NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERACY AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP 23

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