Higher Education as a Pedagogical Site for Citizenship Education

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-29 - Democratic Citizenship in Education SIG Roundtable Session #2

Abstract

That higher education has both the potentiality and (im)potentiality for violence is evidenced in the reality that educated people are as likely to participate in violence as those who are uneducated. South Africa, for example, has been at a loss in attempting to counter the violence that many consider as the single biggest threat to its democracy. In accepting that the public role of the university is ‘the responsibility of a community of thinking’ (Derrida, 2004: 148), we argue, firstly, that higher education should be a pedagogical space where deliberative, compassionate and cosmopolitan encounters are cultivated; and secondly, that what that is needed to respond to the unexpected challenges of violence is an open, active citizenship education in becoming.

Authors

• Nuraan Davids, Stellenbosch University

• Yusef Waghid, University of Stellenbosch