Transforming Global Higher Education : A Feminist Perspective

Has higher education been transformative over the last three decades? Miram David's question is double-edged, based on her educational experience and her social research. What influences have second wave feminists, drawing on feminism as the key social movement of the twentieth century had on the pedagogies and practices in global higher education? As aspiring academics, their aims were for gender and social justice through inclusive pedagogies in higher education or lifelong learning. Ideas about inclusive pedagogies have begun to percolate into forms of mass higher education in the 21st century, linked to widening access and participation in higher education. Yet the expansion of higher education and the knowledge economy has been more about transforming global labor markets than it has been about social or gender justice. Higher education has indeed expanded and afforded diverse opportunities for participation as students and as researchers or academics yet these transformations maintain systemic inequalities.