This article considers humanities teaching as a vital space where students might develop their capability as ‘practical reasoners’. The importance of this for self-development, but also for society and democratic life, is considered, while the economic purposes which currently dominate higher education are critiqued. An example is taken from the teaching of history to show how lecturers teach and students learn secular intellectual practices under pedagogical arrangements of communicative reasoning and ontological becoming.

Middle Eastern Studies, modern foreign languages and Islamic Studies have been recognized by the UK government as strategically important subjects in higher education. Motivated by government concerns about lack of knowledge about the Middle East and the radicalization of British Muslims, this designation has complex implications for the teaching and learning of Arabic language and Islamic Studies. Factors influencing the teaching of these disciplines in the UK are characterized by connections and disconnections which are historical, political, geographical and motivational.

This article reviews the development of integrative learning and argues that it has an important role to play in broader conceptions of the undergraduate curriculum recently advanced in the UK. It suggests that such a focus might also provide arts and humanities educators with a hopeful prospect in difficult times: a means by which the distinctive value and potential of these subjects might be articulated and promoted. Interviews with humanities students and lecturer case-studies from a UK initiative in integrative learning (...) are used to ground the argument advanced and provide illustrative examples of practice. (shrink)

This account of learning journeys, taken from interviews with a group of adults graduating from a part-time humanities programme, traces one prominent pattern from first enrolment to graduation, prioritising the importance of ‘time out’. Students who had joined a course out of curiosity found themselves travelling in a land of unexpected pleasures, and revelled in their escape from the everyday world. The article identifies three factors which contributed to this experience: the extended nature of the programme, the humanities-based curriculum and (...) the multidisciplinary structure; and maintains that opportunities for unpredictable learning adventures must be respected and protected. (shrink)