Creating responsible citizenship and professional responsibility through deliberative communication in higher education

• How can higher and professional education contribute to the development of responsible citizenship and professional responsibility? In recent discussions on the role of the educational system, the idea of ”deliberative communication” has been brought into focus. The idea of deliberative communication is closely related to the idea of deliberative democracy (mainly developed by political scientists in US and by Jürgen Habermas) and stands for communication in which different opinions and values can be set against each other in educational settings. It implies an endeavour by each individual to develop his or her view by listening, deliberating, seeking arguments and valuing, coupled to a collective and cooperative endeavour to find values and norms which everyone can accept, at the same time as pluralism is acknowledged. Current advocates of deliberation stress the presence of different views or arguments, which are to be put against each other. Two or more different views on a subject are proposed by persons who confront each other, but with an openness in the argumentation. Deliberative processes especially emphasize socialization to responsible citizenship and that the exercising of a citizenship must be in focus. Within higher education deliberative communication might explicitly be used to develop professional responsibility and analysing consequences of different ways of solving problems. To what extent are and can universities become public spaces for encounters dealing with controversial questions of how to solve different problems and analyse different ways of professional acting? Can universities recreate their selective traditions, “institutionalize dissensus”, and “make the university a site of public debate” through deliberative communication?

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Education

Pedagogik

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Social sciences

Socialvetenskap

Pedagogik

Education

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