Call for papers for a special issue for the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Theme: TOURISM, HOSPITALITY & EVENTS EDUCATION: THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES PRESENTED BY LEARNING STANDARDS (THRESHOLD LEARNING OUTCOMES)

Guest Editors:

Dr Naomi F. Dale, School of Management, University of Canberra, Australia, [email protected]
Dr Patrick L’Espoir Decosta, Research School of Management, Australian National University, Australia, [email protected]

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Rationale for the proposal:

The publication in June 2015 of the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Learning and Teaching Academic Standards, as part an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) project, established Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for tourism, hospitality and events (TH&E) higher education in Australia. The project rationalised the need for standards which provide the minimum threshold which would be expected of all graduates for these three fields, with due recognition of the need for contextualisation for each. The Standards identify five learning domains which are crucial to the development of a graduate of either a bachelor or a masters (coursework) degree in tourism, hospitality or events:

• Services and Experience Design
• Interdisciplinary Inquiry
• Collaboration
• Problem Solving
• Professional Responsibility

The TLOs or standards which are derived from these five domains have a broad range of implications for the academic community and other stakeholders including industry practitioners and accreditation agencies. Indeed, the implications are mainly challenges that are not only philosophical or theoretical (as the emphasis is more on minimum outcome standards first rather than merely aspirational) but also practical as schools or departments act to comply with the requirements and adopt a framework that necessitates embedding Assurance of Learning (AOL).

In most cases, the actions require first a paradigm shift in approach to education in general and to pedagogy, learning and didactic in particular. Institutions’ historical and cultural approaches to TH&E education consequently undergo significant questioning and overhaul and the processes involved in such an enterprise are often not recorded or tracked given the notoriety of academic independence which often clashes with the adoption of standards such as TLOs. This change in the teaching, learning and academic environment also has implications for assessment, innovation and engagement.

This special edition offers TH&E scholars, educators and practitioners the opportunity to advance TH&E education through research, work and practice with the standards in institutions both within Australia and around the world. Thus, articles that will contribute to this special edition will critically unpack:

• the theoretical underpinnings and approaches to the implementation and implications of TLOs
• empirical approaches to the implementation of TLOs and their implications for teaching and learning environments
• methodologies for researching tourism, hospitality and events education with special interests in TLOs and standards in general

Key themes to be addressed in the special edition include (but not limited to):

• Case studies of the implementation of TLOs focusing on the challenges and solutions at the level of agency and process (comparative contextual studies are also welcome)
• Discourses on the pedagogy of teaching TH&E in Australia in an era of internationalization of education (papers related to other contexts but relevant to the discourses specified here are welcome)
• Conceptual and theoretical frameworks used both pre- and post-implementation of TLOs
• Theoretical criticisms of the standards at the levels of compliance, assessment, innovation and engagement
• Stakeholder challenges and barriers to the implementation of standards
• Critical study of consequences and future of standards in tourism, hospitality and events education
• Methods of measurement of success of standards as part of the AOL
• The changing teaching and academic environments of higher education in TH&E and their implications for quality assurance in the implementation of standards

Submission Process:

Full manuscripts (between 6,000 and 8,000 words) should be submitted by 1 July 2016 in accordance with the requirements of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Guide for Authors – See https://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-hospitality-and-tourism-management/1447-6770/guide-for-authors

The guest editing team will first review the full manuscripts for suitability for this special issue. Thereafter, suitable manuscripts will be sent for peer review with an expected final acceptance date set for December 2016.

Proposed time frame

• Call for Papers announcement: January/February 2016 (CAUTHE 2016 conference)
• Deadline for submission of full papers: 01 July 2016
• Desk review decision by guest editing team: end of July 2016
• Revisions and Decisions: November/December 2016
• Publishing date: February 2017 (CAUTHE 2017 conference)

Please also send completed manuscripts to Naomi Dale [email protected]

Further enquiries about the special issue should be directed to [email protected] or [email protected]