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<\/a><\/p>\nThe first book I would like to feature, is Education, Democracy and Citizenship Revisited: Pedagogical encounters, <\/em>(2010, Sun Press). It is written by Yusef Waghid, Dean of Education at Stellenbosch University. This relatively inexpensive (R120) and slim volume (155 pp) is a useful resource for academics and those wishing to study issues pertaining to teaching and transformation in South Africa. It is a reworking of pieces Yusef has published during his academic career. The chapters combine examples from current history, Yusef\u2019s educational biography and his extensive and thoughtful \u2013 \u201cdeliberative\u201d, to use one of his words \u2013 excursions into philosophical tracts on social justice. He draws on the work of writers such as Nussbaum, Benhabib, Arendt, Gutmann and Callan. Since he writes quite simply, this is an easy guide for those scholars who have not yet dipped into these writers\u2019 works. The book contains some rather unusual ideas, such as the value of \u201cbelligerence\u201d in dialogue, which causes stress, but ultimately, leads to \u201cmoments of ethical conciliation, when the truth and error in rival positions have been made clear and a fitting synthesis of factional viewpoints is achieved\u201d (p. 26). Belligerence, accompanied by compassion, is discussed in detail in the first chapter, and referred to again in chapter eight, where the distinction is drawn between \u201csafe expression\u201d that avoids belligerence, and \u201cresponsible expression\u201d. The latter involves taking risks in dialogue, and does not avoid distress and discomfort.\u00a0 Belligerent dialogue remains responsible, respectful and just. This is an interesting solution to a tension often referred to in discussions about facilitating dialogue in diverse contexts: how to facilitate real exchanges amongst students without, on the one hand, incurring unjust behavior, and on the other, without skating over difference and tension. There are other very finely drawn and nuanced reflections on life in South Africa and on tensions regarding working in educational contexts of difference, which you should read.<\/p>\n I am of the opinion that South Africans have a lot to teach the rest of the world and each other, and it is about time we started publishing more locally, and reading each other\u2019s work – despite the impact this might have on research rating scores and incentivized funding schemes in our universities. This book is a useful contribution to the locally grounded literature on teaching for citizenship and democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the functions I would like this blog to fulfill, is that of a resource page on the kind of teaching in higher education that will engender critical forms of hope in our students. The \u201cresources\u201d link above will … Continue reading