Contested cultures of knowledge - identifying challenges to include experiential knowledge into the academy

This article focuses on a case study of attempts at one university in South Africa to widen access to adult learners in a post-apartheid policy of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).It outlines the context of the policy, the ways in which RPL is implemented at one university and the epistemological challenges experienced both by staff and RPL students to argue for the inclusion of diverse categories of knowledge into the academy. The article considers how postcolonial theories of knowledge can contribute to this debate, my own involvement in and qualitative data from a study led by Cooper and Harris (2013) to argue for the continued value of experiential, work, community and political knowledge as important categories of knowledge in themselves.peer-reviewe

Popular pedagogy and the changing political landscape: A case study of a women’s housing movement in South Africa

This paper sets out to explore the relationship between popular education and the changing South African political landscape through case study research of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Development Association. The research took place over an extended period of time from 1992#2003 and discusses how popular education was advocated by the South African Homeless People’s Federation and its parent NGO (People’s Dialogue); how it was implemented, how an increasing disjuncture between teaching and learning occurred, and how pedagogy was shaped by both political and personal factors. The paper discusses the interactions between social movements and NGOs and the limitations of social movements and popular education. It argues for a more nuanced conceptuDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

'Did I say that?' A follow-up study of the shifts in black and women staff experiences of institutional culture in the health science faculty of the University of Cape Town

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Social Dynamics on 11 August 2008, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02533950708628744.This paper is a follow-up study of how women and black staff experience the institutional culture in the Health Sciences Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The original study was undertaken in 2001 and a follow-up of the same participants was conducted five years later in 2006. The study explores, through qualitative research methods, how change strategies have influenced the institutional culture and whether they have contributed to positive or negative experiences for black and women staff. The theoretical framework draws on the literature which focuses on institutional barriers to change in particular for black and women staff, as well as the impact of transformation policies, globalisation, and change strategies on institutional change and the work experience. The study demonstrates the complexity of the institutional culture in a Health Sciences Faculty and makes links between change strategies and cultural change. In so doing it demonstrates that there has been a positive shift in black and women's experiences of institutional culture

Researching transformation at a South African university - ethical dilemmas in the politics of representation

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Higher Education on 18 Jan 2011, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03075070903545066.This article focuses on the complexity of researching institutional culture and the ethical dilemmas posed in representing staff according to race and gender, drawing on three qualitative studies undertaken at a previously white South African university between 2000 and 2007. During the research process, issues of representation became a concern both for participants and the researcher; specifically, some participants contested how they were categorised in interview transcripts and draft articles. Based on the empirical data of the three studies and using critical social theory and constructionist, feminist and post-colonial critiques, this article asks whether researchers can describe the lives of others without violating their reality, and argues for ethical representation that allows for advocacy and empowerment

MATTHEW LIPMAN’S PRAGMATISM AND THE RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN (P4C) TO CHILDREN’S EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

This study aims to seek the connection between Matthew Lipman’s Pragmatism with the “philosophy for children” (P4C) in Malaysia. Matthew Lipman’s pragmatism built and developed “Community of inquiry” (CI) in “Philosophy for Children” (P4C) starting from negative experiences while teaching philosophy to college students in the late ’60s. This research uses a critical hermeneutics method and other critical approaches. This research concludes that the success of P4C successfully becomes part of the solution in the community so it is needed to be developed. P4C is not only a teaching material for children but is also useful as a basic principle in children's moral education. Through the Socratic Method, the children can express opinions and think critically. These abilities are very important in the process of philosophizing. P4C can encourage children to learn to think and make their own decisions without being enslaved by dogmatic thinking or relativism. This ability is very necessary so that children can live in harmony and develop in a pluralistic and democratic society like Malaysia

The Langa enrichment programme : a study of students' perceptions of the performance of the programme, undertaken to improve its functioning

Bibliography: p. 104-111.This study focuses on the Langa Enrichment Programme an educational support programme for black students studying under the Department of Education and Training in the Cape Peninsula. The study aimed to determine students' reasons for attending the programme, their perceptions of its strengths and weaknesses and their recommendations for improvements. Student expectations of the programme and reasons for the high dropout rate especially amongst Standard Nine and female students were explored. To contextualise the study and to give further insights into student views a brief summary of the apartheid education crisis is given. Educational support programmes are reviewed as is liberalism's response to the crisis in education and the history and culture of the South African Institute of Race Relations. The methodology used was two-fold: self-administered questionnaires to 126 Standard 10 Mathematics students and a series of focus group interviews with small groups of students. The findings may be summed up as follows. Students were generally positive towards the teachers, teaching methods and administration of the programme. They requested that teachers should teach and complete the syllabus, emphasizing exam questions, revision and scientific experiments, and explore alternative small group teaching with critical discussions. Students also requested a comprehensive career guidance programme, bursary information and increased financial assistance. Students expressed a reluctance to pay fees and this, coupled with increasing requests for financial and educational supp01t, raises the issue of welfarism on the programme. Reasons for the high dropout rate amongst Standard Nines included that they write an internal examination. Social pressures from boyfriends and peer groups and regarding clothes were given as reasons for female students dropping out of the programme. The students appear to determine the direction of the school in that as a result of their demands the programme has changed from an enrichment programme to a compensatory one. Recommendations in the concluding chapter of this study are that the Enrichment Programme should draw up clearer policy guidelines in conjunction with staff and students; liaison with DET secondary schools, tertiary institutions and other enrichment programmes should be improved; career guidance programmes linked to bursary information should be implemented; bursaries and other incentives should be linked to attendance and academic performance on the programme; a full time co-ordinator should be employed

Monitoring of Deformation Behaviour of Unsaturated Soil Slope using Distributed Optical Fibre Sensor

A distributed optical fibre sensing system named Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) is used to monitor the strain development of a laboratory soil slope model. The technology is yet to be fully implemented due to uncertainties of attachment method or the best way to set up optical fibre sensors for geo-structure health monitoring.  The aim of study is to evaluate the deformation behaviour subjected to the development of horizontal strains from Brillouin-based optical fibre sensor of a residual soil slope under loading impact using BOTDA technology.  In this study, a soil-embedded strain sensor placement approach was proposed to be installed in the 1g model of soil slope which was achieved via the horizontal planting of a three-layered optical fibre cable in S-curve forming slope. In this paper, however, only pilot tests result is demonstrated for preliminary data interpretation purposes.  From the preliminary laboratory tests, the results show the soil-embedded sensing fibre arrangement has efficiently detected and measured the horizontal strain deformation due to loading. Therefore, it can be concluded that the sensing fibre was well-responded with the soil movement under loading impact

Possibilities of a Community Centred Pedagogy: A Snapshot of a Reading Project in Cape Town

This article traces shifts in radical pedagogy from the post-Apartheid period to the present (1994 to 2014) in the Programme for Research and Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), an organisation that advocates a bilingual language policy in schools and presently runs a ‘reading for enjoyment’ campaign. Radical pedagogy is included in the paradigm of critical education as it challenges oppressive relations and takes the knowledge of the oppressed as its starting point. PRAESA’s starting point is that children learn and progress better if they first learn in their home language and then become literate in a second language

A poor women's pedagogy' : an exploration of learning in a housing social movement

Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-284).This study examines the critical role that adult education played in a housing social movement whose membership was mainly poor African women in informal settlements. In this social movement women have combined learning with the struggle to obtain social goods from the state. The study explores the interconnectedness between learning, development and social change. The conceptual framework developed from a feminist critique of popular education was applied in the methodology and yielded insights with regard to the learning of VM women. The feminist critique allowed for an exploration of the contradictions within popular education and people-centred development. In addition it provided a vocabulary to explain the learning and agency of VM women. The conceptual framework allowed me to argue that learning is contextual, and to analyse and understand learning in the micro-context (VM and the life changes and learning of VM women) it is necessary to examine the interaction between the macro-- (political, economic and policy context of South Africa) and micro-contexts. The interaction of these contexts has brought political opportunities to mobilise the agency of poor African women who were seeking solutions to their housing problems