This is an intellectually lively book with genuine scholarly ambition. McLean outlines the main trends in university pedagogy within the context of academic practices (funding, curriculum development, audit, access etc.) and socio-economic developments. The author: shows how to relate 'macro' issues (e.g. globalization) to 'micro' issues (approaches to teaching); challenges the paradigm of education as a purely 'technical rational' process designed to contribute to economic growth; and argues that the process will not achieve its desired ends and ignores other, more emancipatory, values in education. Whilst supporting an 'evidence-informed' and research-led approach to developing pedagogy, McLean demonstrates that these conceptions need to include a role for action research and reflective practice.

In Pedagogy and the University, Monica McLean has produced an impressive and compelling work of scholarship, in which she develops a robust argument for critical pedagogies in universities Teaching in Higher Education, v12, No 4, August 2007, pp543-550
‘... plenty of passion and engagement in McLean's reading of Habermas, particularly where she describes the kind of teaching that could occur in higher education involving all three realms of interest.' Studies in Higher Education, v32, No 4, August 2007, pp527 -540

Dr Monica McLean is Lecturer in Higher Education at Oxford University. She has published numerous articles in UK and US journals such as: Teaching in Higher Education.