Education as Citizenship: Appropriating a new social space

This article presents a reflection on teaching and curriculum which promotes citizenship education and raises the issue of the purpose of higher education. I embrace a concept of education as action and reflection upon a world in order to change it - or as bell hooks calls it, education as a practice of freedom. I argue for the need to conceptualise students first as citizens, then as employable graduates. My experience involved a shift in focus from what is taught and an emphasis on examinations and essays, to how and what students learn and the process of learning. The article argues, however, that teaching and learning which attempts to balance tensions between values of the market-place and values of education as a practice of citizenship requires more than better teaching and assessment: it requires broader institutional support to be truly effective.