Bounds of Democracy

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Epistemological Access in Higher Education The essays in Bounds of Democracy span pivotal years in South Africa's historic democratisation. They provide a trenchant reflection on higher education in transition. Arguably, South Africa's foremost philosopher of education, Wally Morrow, grapples with real concerns in higher education policy-making and practice, from stakeholder politics to institutional cultures, from curriculum transformation to an interrogation of the function of higher education institutions in modern societies. Exposing the tensions between egalitarian principles and the nature of higher knowledge, the essays raise questions without easy answers. With characteristic rigour, Morrow probes the assumptions underlying much of the thinking about these questions, concluding that a failure to sharpen our thinking around Higher Education (distinguished from post-secondary education) is a failure to recognise the epistemic value of academic practice in a developing democracy. Policy-makers, academics and higher education students will find this an enlightening and constructive read.

Foreword

Abbreviations

• Cultivating humanity in the contemporary world
• Varieties of educational tragedy
• Epistemic values in curriculum transformation
• Shifting the embedded culture of Higher Education
• Should a democrat be in favour of academic freedom?
• Entitlement and achievement in education
• Stakeholders and senates: The governance of higher education institutions in South Africa
• Higher knowledge and the functions of Higher Education
• Learning delivery models in Higher Education in South Africa

Index

Professor Wally Morrow’s career as a teacher in South African Faculties of Education stretched from the early 1970s until the end of the century. During these decades, he significantly influenced the students he taught and the colleagues with whom he worked. Professor of Philosophy of Education and Dean of Education at the University of the Western Cape, Dean of Education at the University of Port Elizabeth, and Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Teacher Education, Wally Morrow was one of the most original and distinctive thinkers in South African education over three decades. He was a founder member of the Kenton Conference and established the academic journal Perspectives in Education, which jointly created intellectual space for critical discussion about education during dark times in South Africa.