Quality in Undergraduate Education: How Powerful Knowledge Disrupts Inequality

Description

Globally, the appetite for higher education is great, but what do students and societies gain? Quality in Undergraduate Education foregrounds the importance of knowledge acquisition at university. Many argue that university education is no longer a public good due to the costs incurred by students who are then motivated by the promise of lucrative employment rather than by studying a discipline for its own sake. McLean, Abbas and Ashwin, however, reveal a more complex picture and offer a way of thinking about good quality university education for all. Drawing on a study which focused on four sociology-related social science UK university departments of different reputation, the book shows that students value sociological knowledge because it gives them a framework to think about and act on understanding how individuals and society interact. Further, the authors discuss how what was learned from the study about how policy, curriculum and pedagogy might preserve and strengthen the personal and social gains of social science undergraduate education.

Monica McLean is Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. She has written Pedagogy and the University and Professional Education, Capabilities and the Public Good. Andrea Abbas is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Education at the Department of Education, University of Bath, UK. Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK. He is the lead author of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education.

This book makes an important contribution to thinking about 'quality' ... Its strength is in the cumulative power of both its theoretical and empirical arguments ... I always felt I was contributing to transforming students' lives and was proud of what we did but this book gives the intellectual arguments for why quality is found in places where the neo-liberal gaze does not expect it. A most impressive accomplishment - it deserves a wide readership. * Higher Education * As a course leader and lecturer who has a sociological studies background, I found this book valuable for me to not only reflect on my course and delivery, but to have the necessary, convincing evidence to make change. This work has offered much to ponder in my own professional development as a higher education worker, and it should do the same for others working in the sector. * Educational Review * A lively and engaging book about the importance of sociology as a subject in undergraduate students' lives and how it might empower such students' futures. It neatly uses Bernsteinian perspectives to enrich the argument about continuing inequalities and qualities in higher education and society. * Miriam E. David, Professor, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK * An important and grounded critique of the simplistic notion that quality is related primarily to university status. The study offers encouraging findings on how, across four very different university contexts, young people experienced higher education as profoundly transformative. Notably, the authors' analysis is able to identify the kinds of curricular and pedagogical arrangements that are making the greatest impact in terms of ameliorating social inequities in students' background. * Jennifer Case, Head and Professor in the Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech, USA * [A]n important book for higher education researchers internationally ... It feels enormously timely given the gloom in many higher education circles about the future of higher education ... If ever there was an example of the adage that there is nothing so practical as good theory, this is it. It gives grounds for hope and is a fillip to people like me who spent the whole of their career in the decidedly Diversity part of the university sector ... A most impressive accomplishment-it deserves a wide readership. * Higher Education *