Acknowledging privilege through encounters with difference: Participatory Learning and Action techniques for decolonizing methodologies in Southern contexts

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) research techniques can contribute to decolonising methodologies by alerting participants to privilege and marginalisation through encounters across difference. Consciousness of privileges is often obscured and naturalised as part of normative expectations of everyday living. This paper contends that no one is exempt from interrogating their positionality and their beliefs, and that PLA research techniques can provide the means by which people can be confronted with privileges and marginality through encountering the ‘other’. A case study conducted across Higher Education Institutions in South Africa is presented to show how PLA techniques can make a substantial contribution to processes of research. The case study shows how PLA research techniques make it possible to bring people together to confront differential privileges, thus giving people the opportunity to become both insiders and committed outsiders in their interactions across differences.Web of Scienc

Slow scholarship in writing retreats: A diffractive methodology for response-able pedagogies

The corporatization of universities has led to increasing pressure on academics to publish as quickly and prolifically as possible. Writing retreats have been used as one way of ensuring the production of academic articles by providing spaces for academics to write, and pressurizing them to publish shortly thereafter. This article provides an alternative way of viewing and conducting writing retreats – that of Slow scholarship, which foregrounds attentiveness, care, thoughtfulness and quality rather than quantity and production. A ‘response-able’ pedagogy is suggested as a way of enacting a Slow scholarship, using a diffractive methodology for reading and writing and responding to peers’ writing at writing retreats

Foundation provision - a social justice perspective

The article uses data gathered during monitoring and evaluation work at two institutions, policy documents, published articles, correspondence with key role-players at South African higher education institutions and other documents in the public domain in order to present a critique of the existing foundation provision and policy. We argue that foundation provision focuses on a narrow band of students, over a limited time period and that it separates the educational thinking and planning for the foundation students from the mainstream. This is to the detriment of either group of students and lecturers. We suggest questions for further investigation regarding foundation provision, based on the throughput trends across the country and institutional reports, which would shed light on the effectiveness of the present approach. We share two approaches which we believe offer productive alternative ways of thinking about the curriculum and arrangements for learning, for the benefit of all students and lecturers, namely Universal Design for Learning and a Capabilities Approach.Dept of Higher Education and Trainin

Re-imagining socially just pedagogies in higher education: the contribution of contemporary theoretical perspectives

Despite post-apartheid policy intentions to redress the effects of apartheid, inequalities in higher education have remained an endemic problem in South Africa, and continue to have a major influence on students and educators in South Africa. This has recently been foregrounded in student-led protests regarding equitable access to higher education (#FeesMustFall) and requests to decolonise the curriculum (#RhodesMustFall)—reigniting attention towards the enormous disparities that still exist in the South African education system generally, and which includes the higher education sector. Those institutions which were historically disadvantaged continue to struggle with paucity in terms of funding, geopolitical positioning, human and material resources. Student protest movements have resonated and reverberated across multiple higher education contexts internationally as well (for example at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom and the #StudentBlackOut demonstrations planned from Yale to University of Missouri in the United States). Conducting research into issues of social justice in relation to higher education pedagogical practices is thus of crucial importance in the present time and space, which remains plagued by issues of inequity.DHE

Addressing dualisms in student perceptions of a historically white and black university in South Africa

Author pre-print versionNormative discourses about higher education institutions may perpetuate stereotypes about institutions. Few studies explore student perceptions of universities and how transformative pedagogical interventions in university classrooms may address institutional stereotypes. Using Plumwood’s notion of dualism, this qualitative study analyses unchallenged stereotypes about students’ own and another university during an inter-institutional collaborative research and teaching and learning project. The project was conducted over 3 years and 282 psychology, social work and occupational therapy students from a historically black and white institution in South Africa, participated in the study. Both black and white students from differently placed higher education institutions display prejudices and stereotypes of their own and other institutions, pointing to the internalisation and pervasiveness of constructions and hegemonic discourses such as whiteness and classism. It is important to engage with subjugated student knowledges, in the context of transformative pedagogical practices, to disrupt dominant views and cultivate processes of inclusion in higher education.Web of Scienc

Leveraging informal leadership in higher education institutions: A case of diffusion of emerging technologies in a southern context

In the last decade, emerging technologies and transformative practices have diffused into higher education social systems in ways that formal leadership styles are increasingly stretched to both keep abreast of and to manage. While many scholars have argued for the importance of the role of leadership styles in shaping the strategic direction of institutions, there is a paucity of research on the role that informal leaders, and more particularly opinion leaders and change agents, can play in enabling wide-scale adoption of innovations in higher education institutions. This paper focuses on the ways in which leadership in higher education can best extend their influence to accelerate the diffusion of transformational educational practices using emerging technologies by leveraging informal leaders. To illustrate how this could be achieved, we report on a study of 22 public higher education institutions in South Africa involving 259 participants who responded to an online survey. The survey focused on the uses of emerging technologies to transformthe teaching and learning practices and the nature of institutional support such initiatives received.The findings reveal that for emerging technologies to be diffused in institutional social systems, more transformative and less transactional leadership is required. The paper proposes a model for accelerating the diffusion of emerging technologies in higher education institutions and concludes that leveraging informal leadership is particularly critical in accelerating the uptake of emerging technologies practices.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Exploration of the affordances of mobile devices in integrating theory and clinical practice in an undergraduate nursing programme

BACKGROUND: Promoting the quality and effectiveness of nursing education is an important factor, given the increased demand for nursing professionals. It is important to establish learning environments that provide personalised guidance and feedback to students about their practical skills and application of their theoretical knowledge. OBJECTIVE: To explore and describe the knowledge and points of view of students and educators about introduction of new technologies into an undergraduate nursing programme. METHOC: The qualitative design used Tesch’s (1990) steps of descriptive data analysis to complete thematic analysis of the data collected in focus group discussions (FGDs) and individual interviews to identify themes. RESULTS: Themes identified from the students’ FGDs and individual interviews included: mobile devices as a communication tool; email, WhatsApp and Facebook as methods of communication; WhatsApp as a method of communication; nurses as role-models in the clinical setting; setting personal boundaries; and impact of mobile devices in clinical practice on professionalism. Themes identified from the FGD, individual interviews and a discussion session held with educators included: peer learning via mobile devices; email, WhatsApp and Facebook as methods of communication; the mobile device as a positive learning method; students need practical guidance; and ethical concerns in clinical facilities about Internet access and use of mobile devices. CONCLUSION: The research project established an understanding of the knowledge and points of view of students and educators regarding introduction of new technologies into an undergraduate nursing programme with the aim of enhancing integration of theory and clinical practice through use of mobile devices.Department of HE and Training approved lis

USING PERSONA DOLLS AS AN ANTI-OPPRESSIVE TECHNIQUE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL WORK CURRICULUM

The South African Constitution and Bill of Rights (1996) outlaws discrimination on the basisof race, culture, faith, gender and disability, etc. It addresses economic as well as human rights;however, we still live with discrimination, oppression and inequality. Xenophobic attacks havehighlighted the seriousness of the levels of discrimination that persist in our country. SouthAfrica is still a deeply divided and unequal society, where there is “race” and gender privilegeplus deep-seated structural inequalit