Fostering Values Education and Engaging Academic Freedom Amidst Emerging Issues Related to Covid-19: 58 (Comparative and International Education: Diversity of Voices)

This volume contributes to the advancement of comparative education in the world, more specifically in expanding understandings of the discourse of comparative education vis-à-vis educational transformation. Throughout the text, three critical elements that reflect comparative education as an open, inconclusive discourse come up: (1) There is sufficient pedagogical space for dissonance. It is always possible to compare one’s own authenticity with the epistemological position others hold dear and argue for. (2) The contributions in this book should not be read as absolute pieces of writing as that would undermine the flexible nature of education. It is important to point out that the opinions of the authors are temporary moments of attachment to persuasive claims. However, these claims are not cast in stone as new views continue to emerge from epistemological (re)positioning. (3) Our own reading of the book corroborates our interest in comparative education as a continuous discourse in the making. The contributions of scholars at the third symposium organized by WCCES provided a platform for them to pursue their knowledge interests. In addition, these interests have and will or ought never to be homogenous for that would be incommensurate with a defensible practice of comparative education.

Yusef Waghid is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is co-author of Towards an Ubuntu University: African Higher Education Reimagined (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2023), and editor of Chronicles on African Philosophy of Higher Education (Brill, 2023).

Zehavit Gross, UNESCO Chair for Values Education, Tolerance and Peace, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University. Her main specialization is socialization processes (religious, secular, feminine and civic) among adolescents. She is past president of the Israel Society of Comparative Education (ICES).