Digital Transformation in the Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Faculty Unions

Abstract

It has long been conventional wisdom among historians and political philosophers to conceptualize technology as the engine of social transformation that has guided societies through the tunnel of history. Understood as a medium or the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, technology is a society-shaping dynamic that constantly changes, and its successive waves of applications affect all spheres of society, including the education sector. While technology has historically been an integral part of education systems, its application in teaching and learning activities has gained significant momentum since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced worldwide educational institutions to undertake an abrupt transition to online delivery of curriculum. The digitalization of education has acted as a double-edged sword for faculty unions. While growing online teaching and learning has generated a wide variety of compelling challenges that threaten to erode the bargaining power of faculty unions, it has simultaneously provided opportunities for them to counter and overcome those challenges, thereby revitalizing their organizational, communication, and mobilization capacities.