Argumentation in higher education: improving practice through theory and research

Book reviewsoffers three very useful ways of understanding teaching and learning or pedagogies in higher education: pedagogies of consequence (the current dominant approach); pedagogies of construction (linked to struggles for equity and justice) and pedagogies of connection (engagement).Saleem Badat, the Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University in South Africa tackles the issues of 'League Tables'.Bluntly he says, 'No value can be attached to the SJTIHE and the THE-QS rankings.They are incapable of capturing either the meaning or the diverse qualities of a university' (136).Vincent Carpentier's chapter is a well-crafted political economic treatment of the interaction of the market, the state and higher education in the context of international student mobility.Diana Leonard and Maryam Rab share a study the use made by Pakistani women of their UK postgraduate degrees upon return home.They conclude that unless changes are made, HEIs will continue to reinforce dominant patriarchal patterns rather than do much for women and their roles in their society.Juan Carlos Barron-Pastor's chapter persuasively demonstrates the way that higher education in Mexico excludes the rich culture of the indigenous peoples.His piece illuminates and builds on what Allan Luke says earlier in the book.So what is to be done?Melanie Walker posits a pedagogy for becoming and being richly human drawing in part on the work of Amartya Sen's lens of 'capability' and the thoughts of Paulo Freire.She underscores the emergence of a new range of global networks such as the Global University Networks for Innovation.She might well have added the Talloires Network and the Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research.Andrea Abbas and Monica McLean share a study of UK sociologists teaching approaches and make an argument that, 'It should be possible to explore the extent to which in different settings higher education is contributing to transformation in society, rather than to benefitting the already rich and comfortable' (262).Douglas Bourn and Alun Morgan make the links between the worlds of citizen's education and development education and Higher Education.Harry Brighthouse in the final chapter speaks to the need of those of us who work in HEIs that continue to confer unequal benefits to the already privileged to intentionally take up an ethic of individual and collective responsibility.He feels that the liberal conception of higher education is a good starting point for this ethic.The strengths of this book are substantial and the book fills a most useful space in the higher education literature.It should be an essential text in today's HE classrooms.The promise of the editors has been wonderfully fulfilled in the contextualising and describing of the challenge.In terms of the proverbial 'What is to be done' question, I would suggest that readers might well delve into the very rapidly expanding literature on higher education and community engagement as well as to take a look at the web sites of some of the emerging global networks such as GUNI (http://www.guni-rmies.net),Talloires Network (http://www.tufts.