(By Florencia Vaveluk) “The human sciences are in crisis all over the world,” warned the Israeli professor and philologist Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, who reflected on his innovation proposals for the university curricula “of the future,” with the purpose of that “students are exposed to the greatest amount of knowledge possible to have more digital, cultural and artistic products”.
Bar-Asher is professor of linguistics, philology and director of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), where he directs the “Humanitas” program of innovation of that institution and works to propose a remodeling of university curricula .
During his visit to Argentina, the professor spoke with Télam about “the enrollment crisis in the human sciences” and proposed adaptations aimed at what he defined as “the curriculum of the future.”
“In general, there is a crisis around the world in which fewer and fewer students are coming to the humanities. We live in a fast-changing world, with the prospect of artificial intelligence, and where universities are falling behind, becoming more conservative. Right now, you have to re-establish the relationship,” Bar-Asher explained.
In this sense, the main proposal of the researcher is based on the fact that the “product”, in terms of the production of the human sciences -mainly academic articles-, should be extended to other fields.
“An (academic) article is a product, a very important one, but it has only one form. I think it’s bad if it’s all we have and nothing more,” he said.
On this point, he maintained that it is a time of change with artificial intelligence and the industry. “It is our responsibility to be part of what is happening. If we only think of items it goes in one direction, but if we think of digital, artistic, educational products, we can think of different concepts and forms,” he graphed.
Asked if the application to new formats would be detrimental to theoretical production, he assured that “it is not about replacing it”, but that “an application component should be developed, but it should be an aspect and part of what we do in universities “.
“Today, students make articles, that is the product. But we can have more products. For example, a history teacher can create an exhibition in a museum, others can make a podcast, we can work on a digital application,” he exemplified.
These examples “are different from the products – articles – of the humanities, and what we need to do is try to develop it and that if a student wants to do it, they know how,” he said.
On the official website of the Jerusalem faculty, which carries out the curriculum innovation program, the importance of developing “a culture that is oriented towards delivering practical products from theoretical research, establishing a business community, forge ties with the industry and create the bases for the development of business-oriented projects”.
This model, Bar-Asher assured, puts at stake the link between “the government, the universities and the industry.”
Referring to the “global crisis” that the human sciences are going through, he warned that this is not due to a lack of interest in the humanities or the consumption of their productions, but rather “the problem is that people are not interested in studying them in the universities in a professional way”.
“I do not agree that people are not interested in the humanities, but many are not interested in the university. The question,” he reflected, “is how do we connect with the public, and how do we make it relevant?”
Among his proposals, is the articulation between “industry people and university professors for joint development.”
“What we really want is to have as many people studying the humanities, but not just the humanities, so we also ask ourselves how do we make good developments in all areas of knowledge of the sciences, and how do we update it to what we need now” .
Regarding the teaching role, Bar-Asher maintained that “teachers are not trained to think in terms of products and they do not have the knowledge to do it, and to do it quickly”, for which reason he insisted on articulation with the industry.
“Universities have to do it, but not all professors have to do it. That’s why we need to make it part of the curriculum. I think if someone is a professor in the same way that students write projects, be part of that guide and work together It is a training that must be developed and reformed to find new ways,” he said.
In curricular terms, he considered that both Argentina and Latin America have “the ability to change quickly and are more flexible with the curriculum.”
“The difference between the changes in the curriculum is that you have to have a broader education and make sure that students are currently exposed to as much knowledge as possible,” he concluded.
Source: Ambito
