Critical Thinking Pedagogy and the Citizen Scholar in University-Based Initial Teacher Education: The Promise of Twin Educational Ideals

Abstract

Over the centuries, the course of human development has become closely intertwined with the need for concomitant changes in education. International tracking of required changes has invariably focused on issues of access to, equity, equality, quality and relevance of education across the education system. Within the last two decades, significant frameworks that reiterate and reinforce each other have been adopted: Thailand’s Jomtien Education For All (EFA) (1999), the Dakar Framework for Action EFA (2000) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000) and the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda (UNDP, 2015). Within higher education, there have been regional and international agreements such as the Bologna process and Lisbon strategy in Europe, ENLACES in Latin America and harmonisation strategy within the African Union. In spite of these efforts, the narrative of a crisis of education has remained, not just in sub-Saharan Africa education, but globally. Key trends within higher education such as the effects of massification, diversity and its implication for inclusion and exclusion continue to challenge the adequacy and even relevance of teaching, learning and assessment discourse practices (Altbach et al., 2009).