Abstract:

Oftentimes academia faces mounting criticism regarding its alignment with the demands of the business world. Simultaneously, job advertisements increasingly omit formal degree mentioning, signalling a potential gap between academia’s perceived value and real-world needs. From its beginning, Academia had its noble mission legitimately defined. However, with the industrialisation of education and particularly the fast pacing of today's education activity, some may feel a sense of being somehow detached from academia’s mission, regardless of how well they perform as teachers or educational leaders. In understanding and strengthening this idea, the concept of the School of Thought emerges as a valuable framework. For instance, Portugal, a former maritime superpower, is usually referred to as having one of the best maritime navigation “schools of thought” since the fifteenth century; similarly Harvard Business School is usually referred to as one of the bastions when it comes to management’s “school of thought”. Such a concept of a School of Thought helps not only understand and strengthen the mission of the scholarly community but may also help strategize within the education realm. Moreover, it may inform and help education leaders, from deans to high-education department managers, to improve their conduct of such educational units and systems. Using logical thinking as a methodology, this paper analyses and synthesises the subject of schools of thought, clarifying the due necessary conditions and suggesting steps to strengthen academia in delivering its noble mission as an Institutional pillar of society – preparing future generations and assuring a better tomorrow.

Keywords:

Education, Mission, Organization, Schools of Thought.