The pedagogic domain and epistemic access in South African higher education: The challenges for students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic

The unexpected emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has had adverse effects on diverse students’ epistemic access in the context of South African higher education. While this has seen an increasing urge for research to understand epistemic access and success of disadvantaged students, there has not been a specific focus on the issue as it specifically relates to students with disabilities, who are unique in their own way, thereby requiring an intervention that considers their differences. Using the decolonial analytical framework, the article explored the challenges in the pedagogic domain, and their implications for the epistemic access of students with disabilities during the pandemic. Data were collected through the synthesis of international and South African literature on the issue, as it specifically relates to students with disabilities during the pandemic. The key finding was that the pandemic exacerbated the pedagogic challenges already confronted by students with disabilities, thereby gravely affecting their access to learning. The objective of the article was to present the pedagogic challenges and how they have limited students with disabilities’ epistemic access, as exacerbated by the pandemic. This was so that interventions that could assist their learning in the “new normal”, could be thought about, in the South African context, in Africa and globally

Radical inclusion: Students with disabilities’ professional learning in South African higher learning

AbstractInclusion of all in learning and workplace spaces has continued to be an urgent agenda for democratic governments and relevant stakeholders in higher learning, globally and in South Africa particularly. However, whilst the focus is on this, the original idea of inclusion has been lost, resulting in different versions which stakeholders ‘tick off” as meaning inclusion. By virtue of a misconstrued idea of inclusion, students with disabilities in higher learning contexts are individually accommodated rather than included. This empirical paper isolates what the key stakeholders supporting disability at a specific institution of higher learning in South Africa, consider as inclusion and how students with disabilities are fitted into the system, rather than a total institutional transformation, in which all students are included in their diversities. The paper recommends a radical inclusion as a re-invention that can recapture the original idea and discourse of inclusion which has been lost

Turning adversity into opportunity: A black woman’s journey into academia

This article is a contribution to the stories of black women educators working at schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa as they have responded to a variety of challenges in their journeys into academia. It is an auto-ethnographic account in which the author has borrowed concepts from sociology to help her analyse her experiences in two educational fields or contexts (ie, a high school and a university) which have contributed to the constitution of a habitus characterised by resilience and assertiveness. In this auto-ethnography the author focuses on the challenges she has faced; how her habitus has informed the choices she has made in response to these challenges; and how, as she has tried to work out what actions to take, she has been able to survive in the sometimes trying circumstances presented by the fields. Her story is in three parts: (i) her experiences as a Zulu First Additional Language (FAL) teacher in a previously white suburban high school at which there were no materials available for teaching Zulu at this level; (ii) her largely positive experiences as a student in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) Honours degree programme which enabled her to respond to some of the challenges of the high school teaching context; and (iii) her experiences as a lecturer at the Wits School of Education (WSoE) with responsibility for teaching (successively) Zulu FAL and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education courses, while also undertaking research in the latter area – experiences in which the support of a mentor played a key role. The author concludes by making explicit the impact of the interactions between her habitus and her experiences in the two fields as she has made choices that have contributed to her on-going development as an academic

‘Echoing Silences\': Ethnicity in post-colonial Zimbabwe, 1980-2007

In spite of its rare entry into both official and public discourses about contemporary Zimbabwe, ethnicity, alongside race, has continued to shape and influence the economic, social, and political life of Zimbabwe since the achievement of independence in 1980. In this article we argue that whilst post-independence Zimbabwe has since the days of the Gukurahundi war (1982-1986) not experienced serious ethnic-based wars or political instability, there is serious ethnic polarisation in the country and ethnicity remains one of the challenges to the survival of both the state and the country. This ethnic polarisation is to be explained mainly in terms of the broader failure by the state to develop an effective response to the political economy of ethnicity inherited from the colonial past. As with most postcolonial African nationalist governments which have come to be haunted by ethnicity, such as Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and most recently Kenya and South Africa, the postcolonial government of Zimbabwe has largely remained reluctant to engage ethnicity as an issue in both politics and the economy, particularly with regard to addressing historical and contemporary factors that continued to make ethnicity an important issue in people's lives. The nationalist government's state-building project, especially its coercive mobilisation and nation-building projects of the early 1980s, paid little attention to the ethnic configuration of the inherited state, as well as the structures and institutions which enacted and reproduced ethnicity. Such neglected processes, structures and institutions included unequal development of the provinces and the marginalisation of particular ethnic groups in politics, economy and society.African Journal on Conflict Resolution Vol. 7 (2) 2007: pp. 275-29

Student funding: The case of disabled students in South African higher education:

By virtue of many countries’ existence within neoliberal and capitalist systems, in which education is commodified, students with economic disadvantage find themselves in a precarious position in terms of funding, resulting in limited access to education in higher education. While many of disadvantaged students confront challenges of funding resulting in continuous indebtedness in higher education in South Africa, the situation is exacerbated for the disabled ones, who have extra economic needs when it comes to their education. The empirical study, informed by specific concepts from Decolonial Theory and Critical Disability Studies informed understanding of funding for disabled students at one university in South Africa. The finding was that while a specific funding model for disability was available, it was inadequate for learning of those with disabilities resulting in their continued indebtedness and exclusion from the system. The study sought to engage in the debate of inadequate funding in the Global South, which keeps students from economic disadvantage, including the disabled ones in debt, thereby disempowering them and making it difficult for them to contribute meaningfully to the decolonisation project in higher education largely, and making change

The curriculum tracker: A tool to improve curriculum coverage or just a tick-box exercise?

Research on teacher professional development generally states that teachers do not take new innovations on board easily. The study reported on here focused on the uptake of a curriculum tracker tool designed to improve curriculum coverage by mathematics teachers. The tool formed part of the Jika iMfundo (JiM) programme launched by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and a partner organisation. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which secondary mathematics teachers and heads of department (HoDs) used the tools for their intended purposes. The study was carried out with teachers and department heads from 14 schools located in 2 districts of KwaZulu-Natal. Data were generated by 21 interviews, supplemented by secondary data sourced from responses to previous surveys conducted by JiM. The findings show that most teachers considered the tool as a tick-box activity, instead of using it to guide their planning in a meaningful manner. Furthermore, there was misalignment between planning undertaken by the provincial education department and JiM. It is crucial that teachers on the ground are consulted first in order to jointly identify how certain problems can be addressed before any professional development activity is implemented

Assessment of factors that impact on the viability of contract farming: A case study of maize and soya beans in Mashonaland West and central provinces in Zimbabwe

This research analyses factors that affect the viability of contract farming in the Zimbabwean maize and soya sector. The objective was to analyse how sustainability factors (social, ethical, environmental and economic factors) were integrated to ensure the viability and sustainability of contract ventures. A sample of 70 farmers and 4 contracting firms involved in the contract farming production of maize and soya were used. A questionnaire survey and focus group interviews were used as data gathering tools. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were used and a probit regression model was applied to identify the factors that impacts significantly on the viability of the enterprises. The farmer’s scale, years of experience, availability of inputs, crop grown, production area and access to finances were all identified as the significant factors affecting contract farming viability. It was recommended that farmers refrain from side marketing and contractors stick to contractual agreements in terms of payments and timely provision of inputs.Keywords: contract farming; viability; sustainabilit

Variation in the repellency effects of the leaves of Mentha piperita against adults of Amblyomma hebraeum

The repellency effects of Mentha piperita leaves, collected from two different locations in South Africa, (Ga-Rankuwa and Malelane) on adults of Amblyomma hebreaum were studied. Leaves extraction was carried out using two different solvents (dichloromethane (DCM) and ethylacetate) to make concentrations of 0.24 g/10 ml, 0.24 g/15 ml and 0.24 g/20 ml (w/v). The extracts were tested for repellency on the adults of A. hebraeum using glass plate repellency bioassay. The separation and qualitative analysis of plant extracts (0.24 g/10 ml (w/v)) extracted with DCM were investigated using TLC. Trace elements concentration from the soil and leaves samples from each study areas were determined by ICP – OES. The result shows that plant extract of both DCM and ethylacetate solvents from Ga-Rankuwa plants were more effective at all concentrations in repelling adults’ A. hebraeum when compared with extracts of the plant collected from Malelane. Significantly, higher concentrations of trace metals were reported from the soil and plant collected from Malelane (p < 0.05). TLC plates showed that there are differences in the chemical composition of the DCM extracts of M. piperita from Ga-Rankuwa and Malelane. The study shows that plant species collected from different geographical areas can produce contrasting results.Key words: Mentha piperita, repellency bioassay, Amblyomma hebraeu