Professional Education, Capabilities and the Public Good

This book innovatively explores how universities might be engines of reform and social change.Using rich case studies drawn from South African research, this book comprehensively provides a myriad of new perspectives on what constitutes a set of appropriate professional capabilities that will translate successfully into social progression. It asks challenges universities to produce professionals who have the knowledge, skills and values to improve the lives of people living in poverty in urban and rural settings. By drawing on an approach that focuses on differing capabilities, this book produces a crucial new framework for the global study of higher education policy.

This book will be of great interest to all scholars of higher education involved in higher education studies, comparative education, and development studies. It will also prove valuable to policy makers, higher education leaders and lecturers and graduate professionals in diverse organizations.

Auteur

Melanie Walker is Senior Research Professor in the Research Institute for Higher Education and Human Development at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Formerly Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Monica McLean is Professor of Education in the School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK.

Contenu

Part I Higher Education, The Public Good and Professionals 1. Higher Education in a Global Context: Working for the public good 2. Capabilities-Based Public-Good Professionalism Part II Context, Theoretical Framing and Methodology 3. History, Inequalities and Context: South African universities 4. Professional Capabilities, Educational Arrangements and Social Conditions: A new research design 5. Dialogic Stages of Public-Good Professional Capabilities Index Part III Applying a Public-Good Professional Capabilities Education Index 6. Participants' Conceptions of Professional Work in South Africa 7. Pedagogical Environments for the Production of Public-Good Professionals 8. Universities and Social Conditions: Constraints on public-good professionalism in South Africa 9. Public-Good Pathways to Poverty Reduction