Reesearch On Peer Review In Colleges And Universities From The Perspective Of Field Theory

Peer review is an academic evaluation system within academic community.The pursuit of truth as well as knowlwdge and the maintenance of academic autonomy are supposed to be the fundamental purposes of the peer review system.From the perspective of academic principle,the logic of knowledge and discipline determines that it is irreplaceable for peer review to assume the responsibility of academic evaluation in colleges and universities and from a normative point of view,this kind of evaluation system should not be confined to a scope with administrative features and outcome-oriented nature.In light of this truth,in the current situation of the crisis of rationality college and university peer review being facing seriously,it is obviously urgent and necessary to rationally examine college and university peer review.This paper takes the peer review system being carried out in the process of appointment and promotion of college and university teachers as the specific research object,and uses Bourdieu's field theory combining with the realities of peer review system to construct the research framework.The article first reviews the development of peer review from a historical perspective and outlines the basic institutional constitution.On this basis,shifting the foucus on the field of peer review through the process of appointment and promotion of college and university teachers,abstracting its main features,describing and summarizing the actual operation and situation.Then,based on field theory,the main reasons for its dilemma were explained and illustrated.In conclusion,some ideas are put forward for the design and development of peer review system in colleges and universities.This article believes that the implementation of peer review is universal in the process of appointing and promoting college and university teachers in China.At the same time,there are also some practical barriers such as institutional "suspensions",misconduct of participants,and dislocation problems of the result of peer review,all of which has further led to a phenomenon of alienation of peer review at the value level,including the weakening of ontological function of peer review upon the "efficiency first" principle,the decline of academic power with a tradition of "faculty governance" and a "domination" and "obedience" status within the current peer review field.From the perspective of field theory,actually the operation of peer review is constrained by particular fields.The interaction between the main factors such as “capital” and “habitus” in the field is the underlying causes that creates some barriers to the operation and practice of peer review.Based on what has discussed above,this paper proposes: from the perspective of capital,during the practice of peer review,it is important to confirm a dominant status of cultural capital and appropriately adjust the pattern of the whole capital as well as to resist the invasion caused by harmful capital within the field.From the habitus point of view,all participants should actively cultivate new habitus which are suitable for the development of peer review.This not only requires that academic groups develop a moral and academic spirit of self-discipline,but also call for the administrative departments of colleges and universities to creat a good institutional and power environment for peer review's smooth operation to give full play to the utility and value of peer review in colleges and universities.