Developing Transformative Spaces in Higher Education: Learning to Transgress

Higher education has been presented as a solution to a host of local and global problems, despite the fact that learning and assessment can also be used as mechanisms for exclusion and social control. Developing Transformative Spaces in Higher Education: Learning to Transgress demonstrates that even when knowledge may appear to be the solution, it can be partial and disempowering to all but the dominant groups. The book shows the need to contest such knowledge claims and to learn to transgress, rather than to conform. It argues that transformative spaces need to be found and that these should be about the creation of new opportunities, ways of knowing and ways of being. Working in and through spaces of transgression, the contributors to this volume develop frameworks for the possibilities of transformative spaces in learning and teaching in higher education. The book critiques the ways in which Western higher education culture determines the academic agenda in relation to dialogue on social differences, minority groups and hierarchical structures, including issues of representation among different groups in the population. It also explores the personal and political costs of transgression and outlines ways in which transitions can be transformative. The book should be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of higher education, education studies, teacher training, social justice and transformation. It should also be essential reading for practitioners working in post-compulsory education.

Table of Contents:
Table of contents: Preface Sue Jackson Section 1 - Identities and border crossings Section editor: Sue Jackson Introduction to section : Sue Jackson Chapter 1 - Spaces of Identity -Transgressions and Transformations in Multicultural Encounters in Israel Miriam Schildkraut and Mueen Fakhereldeen Chapter 2 - Crossing expected and unexpected borders in the way to higher education: The "Window to the Academy" programme Idit Katz and Hanoch Flum Chapter 3 - Transitional, transformative and transgressive spaces in university education Linden West Conclusion to section 1: Sue Jackson Section 2 - Knowledges, truths and stories Section editors: David Owen and Juliet Millican Introduction to section 2: David Owen and Juliet Millican Chapter 4 - ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The Role of Higher Education within Conflict Societies David Owen, Juliet Millican, Waleed Dallasheh, and Ihab Zubeidat Chapter 5 - Contested Spaces: Power and authority in an introductory undergraduate course Uzi Zevik Brami and Iris Tabak Chapter 6 - ‘Sometimes it’s appropriate to Scream at them’: The University as a platform for Resistance and Free Speech Peter Watts and Ruth Rogers Conclusion to section 2: David Owen and Juliet Millican Section 3 - Transformative pedagogies Section editors: Ihab Zubeidat and Waleed Dallasheh Introduction to section 3: Ihab Zubeidat and Waleed Dallasheh Chapter 7 - The Development of Higher-Order Cognition Skills: the contribution of a teacher training programme in the Excellence track Yaser Awad, Ibtesam Azaiza, Mahmood Khalil and Varda Bar Chapter 8 - Transforming Curriculum: Case studies on International Collaboration for Curricular Reform in Multicultural Education and Cultural Diversity Rhonda Sofer and Hava E. Vidergor Chapter 9 - Transgressing power structures in Assessment: not a step too far, just far enough Maddalena Taras Conclusion to section 3: Waleed Dallasheh and Ihab Zubeidat Section 4 Transgression and transformation: the role of universities Section editor: Maddalena Taras and Roxana Reichman Introduction to section 4: Maddalena Taras Chapter 10 - The university challenge: students' transformation Roxana G. Reichman Chapter 11 - Transformative Spaces in Higher Education: An Epistemological Rationale Nurit Basman Mor Chapter 12 - Telling tales: a transformative space for alternative discourses in research Hazel Reid Conclusion to section 4: Roxana Reichman Final words: Sue Jackson