This article considers the adoption of Western neoliberalism in Taiwan's higher education (HE) governance as a hybridisation process in which the influences of political democratisation, social liberalisation and Chinese cultural traditions intersect with contemporary Western norms and values. The paper draws on data from interviews with senior…

Promoted by the peace process between the Santos administration (2010-2018) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which resulted in the signing of a peace accord in November 2016, peace education at Colombia's higher education establishments and schools is gaining momentum. Educators have seized upon the opportunity afforded by the peace…

With increasing influence of illiberalism, freedom should not be considered or interpreted lightly. Post-truth contexts provide grounds for alt-right movements to capture and pervert notions of freedom of speech, making universities battlefields of politicised emotions and expressions (Peters et al., 2019). In societies facing these pressures…

By 1989, fascism had long been defeated in Europe, and reforms in the Soviet Union appeared to signify the collapse of communist ideology, prompting Francis Fukuyama to famously declare the 'end of history'. Since then, neoliberalism has been rolled out globally. This paper argues that, with regard to higher education, Fukuyama's claim that the…

This dissertation investigates the effect of expanded tertiary education on collective civic and political participation. The expectation is that increased participation by educated individuals would result in increased levels of participation overall. However, studies that examined this relationship have presented mixed findings with no…

This "crucible moment" in which democratic capitalism finds itself does not call for more government mandates to dictate progressive activism in higher education. Rather, this crucible moment calls higher education on its own initiative to focus on the moral foundation that both democracy and capitalism require. The foundation of democratic…

Bernie Ronan's "The Civic Spectrum: How Students Become Engaged Citizens" comes at a critical time in the effort to strengthen the role of higher education in a democracy. In the last 20 years, higher education institutions have begun to pay a great deal of attention to the civic engagement of college students. By now, nearly every campus around…

This chapter examines the principles of shared governance and shared leadership, including the obstacles to achieving those ideals. It then offers examples of deliberation and dialogue in concrete governance challenges. The chapter concludes with a series of questions that a campus might use to assess its own shared governance practices and to…

Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national networks linking academics and deliberative democracy practitioners, hosted a national conference, No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners ("No Better Time," 2010). Over 250 civic leaders,…

This essay explores how the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, especially Richard Rorty's work on social hope late in his career, could be relevant to community literacy. Pragmatism does not prescribe a particular approach to community literacy but, unlike many kinds of critical pedagogy, affirms a role for patriotism and liberalism…

This paper takes a feminist perspective on the UK literature on mass higher education in the 21st century, building on US critiques about marketization, neo-liberalism and "academic capitalism". Concepts of equality and diversity have been transformed by neo-liberalism and how these changes have constrained democratic contributions to UK…

A frequent refrain in Utah County, which prides itself on being one of the most conservative communities in the country, is that its public institution of higher education, Utah Valley State College, should reflect "community values." Generally, the argument goes something like this: local taxpayers, who support the school, should not…

This article reviews Allan Bloom's 1987 book, THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: HOW HIGHER EDUCATION HAS FAILED DEMOCRACY AND IMPOVERISHED THE SOULS OF TODAY'S CHILDREN. Compares Bloom's book with THE HIGHER LEARNING IN AMERICA, a 1930s book by Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins. (JDH)

Examines John Dewey's vision of and concerns for democratic education, arguing that his approach failed to equip students to act effectively in the world as it was (and still is) and that his model of democracy, while extremely useful, is nonetheless inadequate to serve the varied needs of students living in a diverse and contentious society. (SM)

Fundamentalism and democracy are presented as opposing forces in a world in conflict. Fundamentalism is described both as a threat to democracy itself and also to supposedly democratic institutions such as the university. First, fundamentalism is defined in its various guises: Christian, Islamic and economic. Each of these forms is pernicious in…