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University knowledge, human

development and pedagogicrights

Monica McLean, Andrea

Abbas and Paul Ashwin

April 2013

Summary -Abdullah Bayat

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2 Arguments in the article

(1) that university-level knowledgeacquisition is an important elementof human development andcapability expansion;

(2) that combining the concepts ofhuman capabilities and access topedagogic rights can provide ananalytic framework to evaluateto evaluate

pedagogic effortspedagogic efforts aimed at humandevelopment.

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if we can combine thenotion ofcapabilities and

pedagogic rights wewould have a demanding

and ethical set ofstandards by which to

judge accomplished

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Bernsteins pedagogic rights

the extent to which processes of

teaching and learning in formaleducational systems reproducereproduceor interruptinterrupt social hierarchies

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Capability Approach (CA)

The capability approach (CA) is AmartyaSens (1999) thinking broadly abouthuman development.

The expansion of human capabilities asa social goala social goal is conceptualized asexpansion of the essential means

for individuals and groups to befree to make reasonable choicesabout who they want to be and whatthey want to do.

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What are these CAs

These capabilities are human abilitiesthat exert a moral claim that theyshould be developed; if they are notdeveloped, human action andexpression is curtailed, and that istragic (Nussbaum 2000: 83).

Individual choice is central to the

capability approach: individuals should befree to choose to operationalizeoperationalize

capabilitiescapabilities that they have reason to value

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capabilities and functionings(capabilities-in-action)

capabilities are opportunities forfunctionings that might or might not betaken up.

capabilities and functionings relate incomplex ways

Capabilities are a person's real freedoms oropportunities to achieve functionings. Thus,

while travelling is a functioning, the realopportunity to travel is the correspondingcapability. The distinction betweenfunctionings [realized] and capabilities

[effectively possible] is between therealized and the effectivel ossible

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Expectations- of Universities

Education is now central fororganizations focusing on world-widehuman development.

Universities are seen both as guarantorsof universal values and culturalheritage

for countries to escape from theirpresent treadmills of poverty andunderdevelopment

university education plays a centralrole in producing reasoning citizens

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Higher education andcapabilities a strong case to make for mass higher

education beyond it use-valuebeyond it use-value. higher education a social, public good

contributing to healthy, democraticsocieties by producing critical andcritical and

responsible citizensresponsible citizens, as well ascompetent professionals capability expansion through

university education

universities are sites of socialtransformation (Habermas 1971, 1989)because there is a structural connection

between the learning processes of

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What Universities (can) do(Habermas)

Universities are unique in producing andreproducing the human lifeworld (culture,society and identity) by way ofa bundlea bundleof four functionsof four functions:

1.knowledge generation;2.professional preparation;

3.transmission, interpretation,

development of cultural knowledge; and4.the enlightenment of the public sphere

these four functions can be conceptualized

as enhancing the capabilities ofstudents both to make choices for

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the connection between capabilityexpansion &

university education

three core capabilities to be developedin students (Nussbaum 1997):

1.critical self-examination of

assumptions and beliefs;2.the ideal of the world citizen

whereby the individual student feels tied

to all people globally;3. and the development of the narrative

imagination, that is, for a student to

imagine sympathetically the lives of

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the connection between capabilityexpansion &

university education 2

Walker, Higher Education Pedagogies(2006), draws up a list of eightcapabilities for higher education,

Pedro Flores-Crespo (2007) highlightsthe functionings of universitygraduates, dividing seven

functionings into personalachievements (beings) andprofessional achievements

(doings)

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the connection between capabilityexpansion &

university education 3 Lozano et al. (2012) compare and

contrast the competencies and CAsto higher education showing how the

former is based on a functionalanalysis of what university educationis for, while the latters basis is ethicalnormative.

Andresen et al. (2010) relate the CA tothe German notion ofBildungwhichcorresponds inasmuch as it points tothe formation in the individual of

autonomy and responsibility for self and

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Individual agency and freedomfreedomis emphasised in the capabilityapproach.

special emphasis is put on criticalcritical

thinkingthinking as a means of judgingreasonably what courses of action

are valuable (Nussbaum, 2010)

B t i th b t th

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Bernsteins theory about theequitable distribution of

knowledge three pedagogic rights-three pedagogic rights-The rightsare to individual enhancementindividual enhancement, social

inclusioninclusion and political participationpolitical participation and

can be seen both as driving pedagogicpedagogicprocessesprocesses and as outcomesoutcomes of aneducational process

how unequal distribution of knowledgein formal education systems relaysinequalities in society:

In Bernstein, though, knowledge is

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This is because constraints andconstraints and

enablementsenablements in life arise from therelationship between the outer worldof material conditions and inner

worlds of consciousness andidentities.

Bernsteins take on structure/agencyhighlights the extent to which peoplehave the capacity to change thecapacity to change the

inner/outer relationshipinner/outer relationship The capacity to do so is thethe

capacity tocapacity to manipulatemanipulate thethe

discursive gap betweendiscursive gap between

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People are shaped to perceive specific(im)possibilities by the myriadmessages sent within the social

hierarchies into which they are born that is, origins and destinies arestrongly connected but thethe

discursive gap that knowledgediscursive gap that knowledgeopensopens up is a site for alternativepossibilities, for alternative

realisations of the relation between

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Thinking the impossible mightbe termed a capability andcertainly connects to Nussbaums

capability for senses, imaginationsenses, imaginationand thought.and thought.

As a capability, it requires access to

abstract, expert discourses, whatBernstein calls vertical discourse;and also requires seeing

relationships between everyday

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In Bernstein, the degree ofexchange between the twodiscourses dictates whether

communities and individuals havestrategies in horizontal discoursewhich carry the potential to transfer

to new contexts. It is theinterchange between the twointerchange between the two

discourses which is powerful.discourses which ispowerful.

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For Bernstein the..

acquisition of knowledge or

curriculum content iscurriculum content is

prioritisedprioritised,

while in capability-approach-basededucation literature it tends to beseen as one of otherone of other

capabilitiescapabilities, or in Sabine Alkires(2002) term, as a dimension.

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Pedagogic means toacquiring knowledge

a capability approachcapability approach highlightsthe need for student participationand dialogue.

What Bernstein contributes to such aconceptualisation is a way of thinkingabout pedagogic micro-micro-

processes.processes. How pedagogy is framed is the

key to understanding how students

best acquire knowledge.

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Pedagogic means toacquiring knowledge 2

The main issue is the locus(whether with teacher or withwhether with teacher or with

studentstudent) and degree of controldegree of control

over organization, selection,sequencing, pacing, and criteria forassessment, as well as

teacher/student relationsteacher/student relations. Each ofthese aspects can be discretelystrongly or weakly framed.

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Strong framingStrong framing places control withthe teacherteacher, who makes the

boundaries explicit; and, weakweakframingframing places control with the

studentstudent.

Briefly, since it is not the main subject ofthis chapter, although progressiveteachers lean towards weak framing, itcan work to exclude from knowledge-

acquisition working-class students whoare not familiar with academic ways ofthinking and writing.

Ascertaining what pattern of framingworks best is a matter of eda o ical

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The Concept of PedagogicRights

The authors contend that pedagogicrights as conceived by Bernstein

bridge first-generation rights(political and civil liberties)

and second-generation rights(economic and social rights) by

providing educational means toopportunities and capacities withwhich to make choices about life

plans (Nussbaum 2000: 97).

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Bernsteins pedagogicrights

Bernsteins pedagogic rights arefundamentally about how theconstruction of symbolic and real

boundaries in education influences theextent to which people become free toimagine and act.

The question is whetherwhether theeducational process itself is differentiallyand unfairly enablingenabling and constrainingconstraining

studentsstudents to be who they want to be and

do what they want to do.

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PR 1-Individualadvancement

experienced [as] tension points their study revealed how a university

social science education is an experiencean experience

of boundary-crossingof boundary-crossing. students forming a specialised social

science pedagogic identity by way ofthe experience of tension points in theboundaries between abstract disciplinaryknowledge, which in Bernsteins terms issacred expressed and in vertical

discourse, and previously-held mundane

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PR-2

The rite of passage of the socialscience degree invests students withspecialised knowledge

and understanding which benefitssociety by way of theirby way of their

capability for affiliationcapability for affiliation.

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PR3

he students we studied questionedthe status quo and

thought about ways in which societymight be differently arranged.

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3 Pedagogic rights

Combining pedagogic

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Combining pedagogicrights and human

capabilities

Pedagogic right 1: individualenhancement Being able to make well-reasoned, informed,

critical, independent, intellectually astute,socially responsible and reflective choices.Being able to construct a personal life projectin an uncertain world. Having good

judgement. (2006, p.128)

Pedagogic right 2: social inclusion

to be included socially, intellectually, culturallyand personally [including] the right [to be]autonomous (Bernstein 2000: xx).

Pedagogic right 3: political participation

is to participate in debate and practices thathave outcomes in society: to participate in the

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inequality in undergraduate

degrees

Pedagogic right 1: individualenhancement

Students repeatedly report that havingtheir eyes and minds opened about

themselves, others and society by way ofdisciplinary knowledge has changed themforever in ways that they value.

Pedagogic right 2: social inclusion the students were developing the capability

of affiliation as defined by Nussbaum

Pedagogic right 3: political

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Bernstein proposed that the threepedagogic rights set up a modelagainst which [to] compare what

happens in various educationinstitutions to see whether thereis unequal distribution of these

rights (2000, p.xxi ).

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Conclusion

the potential role of studentengagement with universitydisciplines in interrupting social

hierarchies (if powerful knowledge isequitably distributed) and

in producing responsible, critical

citizens, both goals central to human

development.

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As Walker suggests, if we can

combinecombine the notion ofcapabilities (alist drawn up locally discipline by

discipline to prevent normalisation)and pedagogic rights we would havea demanding and ethical set of

standards by which to judgeaccomplished university teaching(Walker 2006: 140)