Rethinking Knowledge within Higher Education Also available from Bloomsbury Consuming Higher Education: Why Learning Can’t be Bought, Joanna Williams Developing Student Criticality in Higher Education: Undergraduate Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences, Brenda Johnston, Rosamond Mitchell, Florence Myles and Peter Ford Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: Theoretical, Strategic and Management Perspectives, Felix Maringe and Nick Foskett Higher Education and the Public Good: Imagining the University, Jon Nixon International Perspectives on Higher Education: Challenging Values and Practice, edited by Trevor Kerry Rethinking Knowledge within Higher Education Adorno and Social Justice Jan McArthur Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10010 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Jan McArthur, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Jan McArthur has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4411-9633-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this title is available from the Library of Congress Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Norfolk, NR21 8NN Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Adorno and Higher Education 1 1 Knowledge and Social Justice in Higher Education 17 2 Approaches to Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy 31 3 The Importance of Knowledge being Not Easily Known 49 4 Beyond Standardized Engagement with Knowledge 77 5 The Social Implications of Engaging with Knowledge in Higher Education 99 6 Challenging the Theory – Practice Dichotomy 121 7 Towards a Higher Education Transcending Both the Elite and the Mainstream 149 References 161 Index 183 Acknowledgements This book is based on the thesis I wrote as part of my PhD in Educational Research at Lancaster University. The ideas explored are a reflection of the challenge, inspiration and joy of my time on that doctoral programme. I owe enormous thanks to Malcolm Tight, Murray Saunders and Paul Trowler who have each contributed greatly to the development of my work. Special thanks to Alison Sedgwick – the heart of the doctoral programme – and without whom I never would have finished (nor would it have been so much fun). Finally, this work would not have emerged in this form without my supervisor Paul Ashwin. Harnessing my emergent interest in Adorno’s critical theory to become the focus of this work was Paul’s idea. I thank Paul for being, in equal measure, both wonderfully supportive and fiercely challenging as I developed the ideas in this book, and as I wandered down many strange and obscure routes along the way. While writing this book I have been based at the University of Edinburgh and colleagues there have also provided support, encouragement and insightful advice. In particular I would like to thank Charles Anderson, Shereen Benjamin, Dai Hounsell, Jenny Hounsell, Carolin Kreber, Daphne Loads and Pauline Sangster. A lovely aspect of academic life is that one sometimes crosses paths with people as enthusiastic about certain ideas as oneself – and these encounters have provided much needed encouragement and friendship to me. In this spirit I would like to thank Roni Bamber and Jan Parker. My ongoing collaboration with Mark Huxham of Edinburgh Napier University has provided constant challenge to my ideas. The combination of his self-confessed “desiccated empiricism” and my theoretical disposition has made an interesting intellectual partnership, and one to which I owe a great deal. Some sections of this book have appeared in earlier forms in journal articles that I have written, and I would very much like to thank the publishers for their kind permission to use this content again here. Parts of chapter one are developed from the article, ‘Reconsidering the Social and Economic Purposes of Higher Education’, Higher Education Research and Development, 30(6), pp 737–49. Parts of chapter three appeared in a slightly different form in ‘Time to Look Anew: critical pedagogy and disciplines in higher education’, viii Acknowledgements published in Studies in Higher Education, 35(3), pp 301–15. Parts of chapter four are from the article, ‘Against standardized experience: leaving our marks on the palimpsests of disciplinary knowledge’, published in Teaching in Higher Education, 17(4), pp 485–96. Chapter five is developed from an article, ‘Exile, Sanctuary and Disaspora: mediations between higher education and society’, published in Teaching in Higher Education, 16(5), pp 579–89. Profound thanks and love to my parents, Don and Alison McArthur, my husband, Clive Warsop, and the two people who have taught me most about what it means to learn – my wonderful sons, Benjamin Warsop and Christopher Warsop. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of my Uncle John – Dr John Thorne McArthur. Introduction : Adorno and Higher Education This book is a contribution to the literature on the roles and purposes of higher education. It is informed by the perspective of critical pedagogy, which is itself based on two mutually-reinforcing commitments: a belief in the inter- relationship between education and society, and a belief that education should further the cause of greater social justice within society. Acknowledging the importance of diverse perspectives and ‘takes’ on critical pedagogy my aim is to offer one perspective to be considered, not necessarily as an alternative, but in conversation with those in the established literature. Like other examples of critical pedagogy, the ideas outlined in this book are based on particular streams and interpretations of critical theory. In this case, the work of Theodor Adorno is used to ground the major arguments about the contribution that knowledge within higher education can make to broader social justice. A key feature of Adorno’s work was a firm belief that thinking is actually a more effective form of resistance than action alone (Tettlebaum, 2008), and I believe this idea can inform the role higher education can make in contributing to greater social justice. In Adorno’s (2005a) rather modest words, ‘education and enlightenment can still manage a little something’ (p. 204). I suggest that higher education could, and should, be a place in which thinking finds a very special home. This all rests, however, on reconsidering what sort of knowledge we ‘think about’ or engage with in higher education; and the ways we should engage with it and for what purposes. In order for higher education to contribute to greater social justice, within its own realms and within society in general, it can be neither a romantic idyll of learning for its own sake nor an instrumental institution designed to train a willing workforce for the prevailing economic system. In the current climate of commercialization, commodification and the pursuit of a ‘consumer’ culture within higher education it is easy and understandable to reject the association of any economic imperative with the social justice goals of higher education. However, to do so is short-sighted and fails to consider the broader perspective. The problem with current, particularly governmental policy, approaches that seek to link higher education to economic purposes is the narrowness of the way in which the economy is generally conceptualized. In particular, they tend