Hospitality and Tourism Education: A Dynamic Lens

Abstract

Commenting on the first two decades of the 21st Century, Beeton and Morrison (2019) note that they had been characterised by rapidity in terms of turbulence, creative destruction, and renewal that confront, blur boundaries, and impact local, national and global environments. More recently, of note is the extremity and speed of change, disruptions across global landscapes (Sharma et al., 2021), and consequential transformations (Chapman et al., 2021). These are in perpetual motion, shaping new and unknowable futures (Shi and Wolfe., 2022). These disruptions continue to interrupt and transform economy, society, industry sectors, institutions, workforce, curricula, pedagogic practices, and students as learner (Chapman et al., 2021). Thus, the context conditions within which Hospitality and Tourism Education (HTE) 'lives' can be described as having been shocked, impacting and unsettling 'normal' ways of operating and practising (Bichler et al., 2020). This combines to extenuate the imperative for HTE to be reimagined, to develop novel educational opportunities, and to uncover innovative curriculum design and delivery (Shi et al., 2022). It also suggests that, as a consequence, while some educational aspects remain constant, others May be challenged and become redundant (Chapman et al., 2021). Further, there is acknowledgement that conventional linear modes and traditional narratives of learning and teaching are outdated (Lugosi and Jamieson, 2017). Within this HTE context, the benefits of applying an integrative frame of reference to aid understanding of the contemporary challenges are explored. The objective is to provide a lens through which to reflect on curriculum design and content, and pedagogic practice therein, towards developing relevant and future focused learning, and with the learner at its' heart. As depicted in Figure 1, it adopts an approach which incorporates the relationship of interconnections at macro-, meso-, and micro-levels (Giannopoulos et al., 2020). These general analytic levels are shown as three interconnected and interactive cogs. It emphasises how each micro-level interaction is nested within the broader settings of macro, and meso. Macro-level does not exist without micro, and meso, and vice versa; all three levels are interdependent (Giannopoulos et al., 2020). Thus, HTE is embedded, interacts, and intersects, in the broader context of the: global world at the macro-environment level; meso- level community of HTE, industry, and professional practices; and the nexus of educator/student learners as co-creators in the educational process at micro-level (Diaz and Halkias, 2022). It represents a complex systems, with accelerated disruption, transformation, and perpetual change as the new norm, and emphasises how small changes in any one can have a ripple effect across all three levels (Sedarati et al., 2021). It is proposed that such a configuration May assist understanding of the range of multi-level conditions of relevance that determine and shape HTE, and is justifiable given the inherent complexity, and unpredictability confronting the lived world of today and tomorrow (Shi and Wolfe, 2022). Furthermore, it offers a holistic perspective that embraces interconnectivity (Hillebrand, 2022); and incorporates a set of external influencers relative to the social, economic, technological, political, and socio-psychological factors that serve to determine the performance of an education system (Diaz and Halkias, 2021). The purpose of Figure 1 is to represent the relationships of a complex system in a straight- forward, yet dynamic way. While there May have limitations in terms of what is represented, and what is de-emphasised, Hillebrand (2022: 523) asserts that: 'when the context is complex, a perspective that acknowledges this is likely to provide more insight than alternatives that ignore this'. The aim then is to provide insight, to engender a better understanding of the influences on, and of, HTE, and alignment of conditions therein. The objective is to develop relevant and future-focused learning, and resultant graduate skills and capabilities. It provides a lens, through which hospitality and tourism educators can view the world awaiting graduates, and inspire and engage student learners through ever evolving pedagogic practices 'in the flow' of emerging phenomena. Importantly, such a holistic approach provides for the eventuality that graduates, as future global citizens, will be positive forces in a turbulent world. These conclusions are tentatively offered in the spirit of what is known today, while leaving the door open for the unknowable of tomorrow.