University Education, Controversy and Democratic Citizenship

This book explores the role of the university in upholding democratic values for societal change. The chapters advocate for the moral virtue of democratic patriotism: the editors and contributors argue that universities, as institutions of higher learning, can encourage the creation of critical and patriotic citizens. The book suggests that non-violence, tolerance, and peaceful co-existence ought to manifest through pedagogical university actions on the basis of educators' desire to cultivate reflectiveness, criticality, and deliberative inquiry in and through their academic programmes. In a way, universities can respond more positively to the violence on our campuses and in society if public and controversial issues were to be addressed through an education for democratic citizenship and human rights.

Nuraan Davids is Professor of Philosophy of Education in the Department of Education Policy Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests include democratic citizenship education; Islamic philosophy of education; and philosophy of higher education. Recent books include: The Thinking University Expanded: On Profanation, Play and Education (2020, with Y. Waghid); Democratic Education and Muslim Philosophy: Interfacing Muslim and communitarian thought (2020, with Y. Waghid); Universities, pedagogical encounters, openness, and free speech: Reconfiguring democratic education (2019, with Y. Waghid).