Understanding Higher Education Decision-Making and Educational Practice as Interrelated and Historically Framed Phenomena—A Non-affirmative Take

This chapter discusses three historically rooted ideals of decision-making practices in universities (collegiality, democracy and managerialism) from the perspective of non-affirmative theory of education (NAT). Following a discussion on the historical layers of Finnish universities, we analyse how different practices of higher education decision-making are connected to ideas of what a university is and does. Utilising NAT, we reflect on higher education leadership both in terms of its internal character and its object and historical context. The chapter has three starting points. First, we note that contributions to conceptualisations of educational leadership, governance and management need to provide an idea of the object of this leadership—what is being led. Second, we argue that higher education leadership and governance theory needs to say something meaningful about the relation between society and university. Third, we discuss how decision-making is managing the gap between external expectations and conditions and institutional operational culture. We discuss the ways in which both collegiality and democracy recognise each other as free, capable of and responsible for participating in decision-making, either directly or indirectly. From the perspective of NAT, recognition without affirmation creates a space for collaborative reflection and the repositioning of the activities of individuals and organisations. However, the shift from the democratic mode of decision-making to managerialism implies a break with this tradition. Decision-making in Finnish universities in the period after the university law (2009) is characterised by a shift of power from democratically elected bodies into the hands of deans and the rector. Utilising NAT, we discuss how this change influences academics.