Higher education transformation in South Africa, as correctly argued by Petro du Preez,Shan Simmonds and Anné Verhoef, should become more 'fluid ["and"] open-ended'. However, even more fluidity and open-endedness might not necessarily be sufficient in enacting transformation in the higher education realm. Consequently, in this article I…

Too much is being made of educational technology often valorizing it as a savior of pedagogical relations. The reasoning is: If educational technology 'is used' in teacher training, then teachers possessing such capacities and skills could just be the panacea education systems require to respond to the challenges of learning, teaching, and…

In this article we address the issue of why democratic citizenship education should be incorporated more meaningfully into Islamic education discourses in formal institutions in the Arab and Muslim world. In the Arab and Muslim world civic and national education seem to be the dominant discourses. We argue that the latter discourses are inadequate…

After more than a decade of democratic citizenship education in public schools in South Africa, the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) has still not produced sufficiently plausible ways for how democracy and citizenship ought to be taught in classrooms. I argue that the recent "practical guide" on how to cultivate "responsibility…

That the issue of violence sits uneasily on the conscience of higher education is evident in the view that educated people are as likely as uneducated people to participate in violence. The concern of conscience is equally prevalent in the view that the public role of the university is "the responsibility of a community of thinking".…

The euphoria of the recent Arab Spring that was initiated in northern African countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and spilled over to Bahrain, Yemen and Syria brings into question as to whether democratic citizenship education or more pertinently, education for democratic citizenship can successfully be cultivated in most of the Arab and…

I point out that supervising students sceptically might engender moments of acknowledging humanity within the Other (autonomous action or ijtihad), experiencing attachment to the Other's points of view with a readiness for departure (deliberative engagement or shura) and showing responsibility to the Other (recognitp[ion of the other or ta`aruf).…

Nowadays education in the madrassahs (Muslim schools) is constantly being placed under the spotlight, such as being considered as seedbeds for terrorism. This article takes a critical look at some South African madrassahs with the aim to find out what these educational institutions do and whether or not the possibility for radicalisation and…

In this response I argue that smart thinking would not necessarily engender democratic justice in our South African society. I contend that we need to cultivate responsible thinkers and that universities are favourably positioned to do so.

In South Africa there is widespread recognition amongst university educators that the new outcomes-based education (OBE) system can prevent instrumental thinking, particularly in view of OBE's agenda to encourage critical learning. However, what these educators do not necessarily take into account is that many students are not always ready to deal…