Can universities meet their mandate to be socially critical as well as constructive? (original) (raw)
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2014
This paper looks at the relation between universities and human development, first, in terms of what human development thinking-notably the contemporary 'human development approach' led by the United Nations (especially UNDP), Amartya Sen, and the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA)-can contribute to the university; i and second, in terms of how the human development approach can be enriched by thinking about the nature and experience of universities, given their role as important agents of change or brakes on change. Universities have always been concerned with human development in a deeper sense which the UNDP-HDCA work needs to understand better. The paper asks in particular how universities could contribute to promote, support and defend sustainable human development.
The role of universities in advancing citizenship and social justice in the 21st century
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 2006
This article makes the following claims: (1) the goal for universities should be to contribute significantly to developing and sustaining democratic schools, communities, and societies; (2) by working to realize that goal, democratic-minded academics can powerfully help American higher education in particular, and American schooling in general, return to their core mission -effectively educating students to be democratic, creative, caring, constructive citizens of a democratic society. To support those claims, the author provides an historical and contemporary case to illustrate that a democratic mission is the core mission of American higher education. He also identifies Platonization, commodification, and, 'disciplinary ethnocentrism, tribalism, guildism', as major obstacles that have helped prevent higher education from realizing its democratic mission. Drawing on two decades of experience he and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have had developing universitycommunity-school partnerships, he proposes a strategy that involves colleges and universities working to solve universal problems (e.g. poverty, inadequate schooling, substandard health care) that are manifested in their local communities. Highlighting the global reach of the university civic responsibility movement, he concludes by calling on democratic-minded academics to work to create university-assisted community schools as a powerful way to help develop democratic students (K-16) and to contribute to the development of democratic schools, universities and societies. K E Y W O R D S community schools, democracy, engaged university, John Dewey, undergraduate education, university-assisted community schools education, citizenship and social justice It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself is not rightly placed. -Francis Bacon, Novum Organum The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. -Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach (1845-1846 In conception, at least, democracy approaches most nearly the ideal of all social organization; that in which the individual and the society are organic to each other.
Towards a Socially Responsible University: Balancing the Global with the Local aims to analyse the dual responsibilities of universities at local and global level, exploring the potential conflicts and intrinsic difficulties in addressing both the local demands of society based on the race for global competitiveness and the local and global demands to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society (at local and global levels). There is a dual perspective on global affairs: on one side, competition between national and regional economic systems when developing their respective societies still predominates, and on the other, there is the global sustainability of the sum of all these developments, which is gaining momentum. Higher education institutions (HEIs) can be identified as key players from both perspectives and, thus, have the singular responsibility of helping to provide appropriate and adequate responses to both legitimate needs and interests: i) to address the global challenges of the world, which are very well summarized by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ii) to contribute to the social, cultural and economic development and international development of their societies. The current organization of higher education in the world urges universities to compete on the global stage for students, faculty and research contracts. At the same time, they are expected to contribute to the economic development of their localities and to sustainable and inclusive global and local development. From this perspective, it becomes necessary to make the dual engagement of universities explicit: with the immediate needs of our local societies and with the global challenges of the world, of our global society. The study of this duality has been the objective of this 6th Higher Education in the World (HEIW) GUNi Report, ‘Towards a Socially Responsible University: Balancing the Global with the Local’. 86 experts from 28 countries have contributed to a dissection of the topic and the identification of good practices that can help academic leaders and policy-makers to realize the highest purposes of education and research.
2013
This thesis sets out to critically examine the field of higher education development, as one which is focused on socio-economic inequality and welfare, and determines educational purpose in poorer, or ‘developing’, countries accordingly. My question is whether mainstream development approaches to higher education are really contributing to the provision of more equal education services, or whether they risk reintroducing inequality by treating the priorities of poorer countries differently. To investigate whether there are educational values or purposes common to universities globally irrespective of socio-economic imperatives, I begin the study with a historiographical look at their growth in terms of both ideas of its purpose, and how purpose is realised in actuality. I then trace the emergence of the discourse of international development, and the role that higher education has come to play within it, showing how the field of international higher education development has simplif...
Universities, Society and Development: Setting the scene
Universities, Society and Development: African perspectives of university community engagement in secondary cities, 2022
The conception and scope of the broader society in which the university is located depends on many factors including the mandate, resourcing and capacity, locality, and interests of the university and university-based actors. Moreover, the needs and the pressures universities experience may be understood in the context of the forces of globalisation; the emergence of knowledge economies; the fast advancement and uptake of new digital technologies; and the swings in the global political economy, all of which are greatly affecting the functioning of universities (OECD, 2012). Extending Cloete et al.'s (2002) argument, as much as institutional transformation results from complex interactions between state, universities and society, the specific developmental orientations of universities should be understood as a complex interplay between multiple factors, including national development and sectorspecific policy, the perceptions, capacities and resources of university-based actors, as well as stakeholders and communities external to higher education. '… let us be quite clear; the University… has a very definite role to play in development in this area, and to do this effectively it must be in, and of, the community … The University of East Africa must direct its energies particularly towards the needs of East Africa … it's in this manner that the university will contribute to our development … … In this fight the university must take an active part, outside as well as inside the walls'. (Nyerere, 1963, cited in Walters & Openjuru, 2013:143) 1 2017-Community engagement at Rhodes, a manifestation of Ubuntu (ru.ac.za).
Modernity’s University, Social Justice, and Social Responsibility
Educação, Sociedade & Culturas
Centered on the experience of Eduardo Mondlane in three universities in the United States, this article highlights the importance of universities to assume a social responsibility stance that is critical of its philosophical foundation and roots itself on perceptions of human beyond the current cartesian ethos. Conceptually, the article centers its discourse on the divergent conceptualizations of human drawn from humanism and uBuntu, as foundational differentiators of perceptions and practices of justice and social responsibility. Theoretically, it leans on a critique of modernity and humanism by presenting uBuntu and Cosmo‑uBuntu as alternative philosophical and theoretical lenses for problematizing and explaining justice and social responsibility. Methodologically, it draws from reflexivity, hermeneutics (especially, textual criticism), and archival documentary research. Its purpose is to inspire universities to engage in reflexivity about their social responsibility claims and t...
Socially Responsible Higher Education: International Perspectives on Knowledge Democracy
2021
This edited book shares the experiences of a broadly representative and globally dispersed set of writers on higher education and social responsibility, broadening perspectives on the democratization of knowledge. The editors have deliberately sought examples and viewpoints from parts of the world that are seldom heard in the international literature. Importantly, the have intentionally chosen to achieve a gender and diversity balance among the contributors. the stories call us to take back the right to imagine and reclaim the public purposes of higher education