Relational and Multimodal Higher Education

This book proposes a relational turn in higher education by conceptualizing knowledge and pedagogy as relational and multimodal, analyzed through three dimensions of relationality: social, technological, and environmental.The volume draws on interdisciplinary approaches that make a case for integrating these interconnected and distinct dimensions in higher education theory and practice. Its novelty lies in combining such a variety of perspectives with Peircean semiotics to explore what it means to learn and live relationally. It emphasizes the importance of critical reflection, rooted in an environmental understanding of knowledge and digital media. This approach integrates materiality, place, and space in higher education, positioning caring, critically reflective and imaginative interactions and interpretations as central for knowledge growth. The volume features practical case studies of relational pedagogy through dialogues with diverse higher education practitioners, which embrace expression and creation through more than one dominant modality of communication and being. The book envisions students and educators as relational agents, with relational awareness and responsibility, aware of their multimodal identities. It highlights how a relational multimodal paradigm can serve as a way forward for universities to address global challenges concerning social, (post)digital, and environmental futures.This innovative book will be of interest to scholars, students, teachers, and policymakers in higher education, semiotics and multimodality, as well as postdigital, sociomaterial and futures studies.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: Lacković, Nataša, author. | Olteanu, Alin, 1987- author. Title: Multimodal higher education : digital, social and environmental relationalities / Nataša Lacković, Alin Olteanu. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2024. | Series: Routledge studies in multimodality | Includes bibliographical references and index. |Identifiers: LCCN 2023018972 (print) | LCCN 2023018973 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367725365 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367725389 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003155201 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Education, Higher--Philosophy. | Education, Higher--Aims and objectives. | Modality (Theory of knowledge) | Semiotics. Classification: LCC LB2322.2 .L34 2024 (print) | LCC LB2322.2 (ebook) | DDC 378.001--dc23/eng/20230714 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023018972LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023018973

Nataša Lacković is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK.Alin Olteanu is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Publications Coordinator at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Cultures of Research of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. This research centre is entirely funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research.