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Objectivity of the subjective quality: Convergence on competencies expected of doctoral graduates

  • Authors: Kariyana, Israel , Sonn, Reynold A. , Marongwe, Newlin
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: South Africa Doctoral students Computer File
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5794 , vital:44645 , https://DOI:10.1080/2331186X.2017.1390827
  • Description: This study assessed the competencies expected of doctoral graduates. Twelve purposefully sampled education experts provided the data. A case study design within a qualitative approach was adopted. Data were gathered through interviews and thematically analysed. Member checking ensured data trustworthiness. Factors affecting the quality of a doctoral graduate were said to be embedded in characteristics of universities and doctoral students. Competencies expected of doctoral graduates included being autonomous researchers and knowledge producers and consumers. Measures to enhance competence of doctoral graduates comprised implementing rigorous institutional mandates and creating doctoral collaborative communities. The study recommends higher education institutions to pragmatically capacitate supervisors and implement rigorous institutional doctoral transformation programmes. Subjects: Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Social Sciences; Education; Humanities Keywords: doctoral graduates; competencies; supervisors; higher education institutions
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Perturbation–Response Scanning reveals key residues for Allosteric Control in Hsp70:

  • Authors: Penkler, David L , Sensoy, Özge , Atilgan, Canan , Tastan Bishop, Özlem
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148195 , vital:38718 , DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.6b00775
  • Description: Hsp70 molecular chaperones play an important role in maintaining cellular homeostasis, and are implicated in a wide array of cellular processes, including protein recovery from aggregates, cross-membrane protein translocation, and protein biogenesis. Hsp70 consists of two domains, a nucleotide binding domain (NBD) and a substrate binding domain (SBD), each of which communicates via an allosteric mechanism such that the protein interconverts between two functional states, an ATP-bound open conformation and an ADP-bound closed conformation. The exact mechanism for interstate conversion is not as yet fully understood. However, the ligand-bound states of the NBD and SBD as well as interactions with cochaperones such as DnaJ and nucleotide exchange factor are thought to play crucial regulatory roles. In this study, we apply the perturbation–response scanning (PRS) method in combination with molecular dynamics simulations as a computational tool for the identification of allosteric hot residues in the large multidomain Hsp70 protein.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Reimagining our missing histories: Eria Nsubuga SANE and Sikhumbuzo Makandula in conversational partnership

  • Authors: Makandula, Sikhumbuzo , Nsubuga, Eria
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145620 , vital:38452 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345
  • Description: While an interview could be described as a view among, between, betwixt, or in the midst of two subjects—from s'entrevoir (see each other); entre (between) and vue (view)—many interviews in art history are hierarchical not only in the sense of an interviewer “authoring” the material received from the respondent, but also in the sense of the theorist or writer shaping the ideas of the practitioner. As discussed in the First Word, “Situating Africa,” there is a tendency for writers in the “north” to theorize the professional practice of artists in the “south,” developing what Gordon Lewis (2006) refers to as a geography of reason. In their book Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data, Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin (2012:7) develop the term “conversational partnership” to describe two or more participants who play an active role in shaping content as they cocreate meaning. This conversational partnership between two artists—one based in Uganda and the other based in South Africa—developed out of the publishing workshop at Rhodes University in June 2016, which aimed to approach the creation of knowledge from the perspective of “sideways learning” (see “Reaching Sideways, Writing Our Ways” in this issue). —Ruth Simbao.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

“[A] ll just surface and veneer”: the challenge of seeing and reading in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s I See You

  • Authors: Dass, Minesh
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142577 , vital:38092 , DOI: 10.1080/17533171.2017.1312749
  • Description: This article considers challenges posed to reading practices and hermeneutics by Ishtiyaq Shukri’s I See You. The content of the novel is at times didactic, and surface reading might seem an appropriate means of analysis, yet the form is experimental: it includes radio reports, characters’ reflections and journalistic work. The connection between these “documents” is not readily apparent, thus one is obliged to study the gaps between them to make sense of the text. Symptomatic reading might seem apposite, but the protagonist’s photographic work reveals the limits of this form of reading, too. I argue that Shukri’s text demands a process that interweaves symptomatic and surface reading in complex ways that require the reader to assess the ideological position from which s/he reads. The novel therefore draws attention to the ways in which reading, like seeing, is a political act.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

“Not the story you wanted to hear": reading chick-lit in JM Coetzee’s Summertime

  • Authors: Moonsamy, Nedine , Spencer, Lynda G
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/138915 , vital:37685 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1390878
  • Description: J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime has been widely explored – both for its controversy and merits – as engaging in “acts of genre” where the inscription of an autobiographical narrative simultaneously serves as a metatextual and ideological critique of its form. Similarly, this article is intrigued by generic instability, but our terrain lies further afield, exploring how the narrative lapses from the lofty ideals of romance to the baser “truth” of chick-lit. In Summertime, all the female characters besmirch Mr. Vincent, the biographer, for wanting to cast John Coetzee in the role of a romantic hero. Yet, their resistance results in a series of romantic failures which then situates Summertime in the generic ambit of chick-lit. In embodying a spirit that is as playful as it is critical, we suggest that Coetzee offers an opportunity to cast aside a literary critical tradition of suspicion and, in doing so, passes critical comment on how we approach a popular genre like chick-lit.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

A case study of the opportunities and trade-offs associated with deproclamation of a protected area following a land claim in South Africa

  • Authors: Krüger, Ruth , Cundill, Georgina , Thondhlana, Gladman
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67791 , vital:29145 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2015.1065804
  • Description: Publisher version , Reconciling conservation and social justice imperatives is a major challenge facing many postcolonial states worldwide. Where historically disenfranchised communities have laid legal claim to protected areas, the typical resolution has been collaborative management agreements between the state and claimant communities. The real outcomes of such strategies for people and ecosystems have been seriously questioned, although alternative approaches are seldom explored. Here, we reflect on one such alternative that was pursued in a case in South Africa, where the land was handed back to the community and a replacement protected area created. Our objective was to explore the opportunities and trade-offs associated with this approach for communities and conservation agencies alike, and to compare these to typical collaborative management outcomes. Methods included key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household surveys. We find that, surprisingly, this approach created more benefits for the conservation agency than for claimant communities. Indeed, the community experiences bore a striking resemblance to those experienced in collaborative management settings: intra-community conflict, confusion over leadership and serious questions about the boundaries of the “community”. Processes aimed at redressing past injustice in disputes over conservation land, regardless of the approach adopted, must bring with them a strong commitment to building institutional and leadership capacities within communities, and pay serious attention to the ways in which equity and social justice can be fostered after the settlement of a land claim. Settlement agreements are frequently treated as the final step towards social justice, but are in fact just the beginning.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Exploring the nature of disciplinary teaching and learning using Legitimation Code Theory Semantics

  • Authors: Clarence, Sherran
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61314 , vital:28014 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1115972
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  • Date Issued: 2016

From global to regional and back again: common climate stressors of marine ecosystems relevant for adaptation across five ocean warming hotspots

  • Authors: Popova, Ekaterina , Yool, Andrew , Byfield, Valborg , Cochrane, Kevern , Coward, Andrew C , Salim, Shyam S , Gasalla, Maria A , Henson, S.A , Hobday, Alistair J , Pecl, Gretta T , Sauer, Warwick H H , Roberts, Michael J
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124514 , vital:35623 , https://doi.10.1111/gcb.13247
  • Description: Ocean warming ‘hotspots’ are regions characterized by above-average temperature increases over recent years, for which there are significant consequences for both living marine resources and the societies that depend on them. As such, they represent early warning systems for understanding the impacts of marine climate change, and test-beds for developing adaptation options for coping with those impacts. Here, we examine five hotspots off the coasts of eastern Australia, South Africa, Madagascar, India and Brazil. These particular hotspots have underpinned a large international partnership that is working towards improving community adaptation by characterizing, assessing and projecting the likely future of coastal-marine food resources through the provision and sharing of knowledge. To inform this effort, we employ a high-resolution global ocean model forced by Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 and simulated to year 2099. In addition to the sea surface temperature, we analyse projected stratification, nutrient supply, primary production, anthropogenic CO2-driven ocean acidification, deoxygenation and ocean circulation. Our simulation finds that the temperature-defined hotspots studied here will continue to experience warming but, with the exception of eastern Australia, may not remain the fastest warming ocean areas over the next century as the strongest warming is projected to occur in the subpolar and polar areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, we find that recent rapid change in SST is not necessarily an indicator that these areas are also hotspots of the other climatic stressors examined. However, a consistent facet of the hotspots studied here is that they are all strongly influenced by ocean circulation, which has already shown changes in the recent past and is projected to undergo further strong change into the future. In addition to the fast warming, change in local ocean circulation represents a distinct feature of present and future climate change impacting marine ecosystems in these areas.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

In search of the African voice in higher education: the language question

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: African languages -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Multiligualism , Language and languages -- Study and teaching
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59274 , vital:27539 , http://dx.doi.org/10.5842/49-0-658
  • Description: This article seeks to understand what South African universities are doing by making use of language as a tool or as an enabling voice towards Africanisation and transformation with particular reference to Rhodes University, which serves as a case study. Although many universities now have language policies in place and are part of an enabling policy environment, when it comes to using language as part of transformation and asserting an African voice, there are still policy implementation challenges. It is argued in this article that implementation of policy, including university language policies, is now a key indicator for two levels of transformation; namely the more superficially visible or visual representation transformation, as well as deeper curriculum transformation through appropriate language usage. It is the latter form of transformation that largely eludes the contemporary South African university, whether these are historically black universities (HBUs) or historically white universities (HWUs). With the exception of a few best practices that are highlighted in this article, it is argued that transformation of the curriculum remains a long-term process, in the same way that language policy implementation is an ongoing process and requires commitment at all levels of university managerial and academic culture. The African voice in higher education remains an elusive one; though it is gaining ground, as evidenced by the recent removal of the Cecil John Rhodes Statue at the University of Cape Town. Furthermore, there is evidence of selected ongoing curriculum and pedagogic transformation, as presented in this article.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Louder than the frame:

  • Authors: Podesva, K L , Beasley, M , Kataoka, M , Ntombela, N
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146211 , vital:38505 , ISBN 9783863359140
  • Description: Book abstract. Almost 30 years after the founding of the first curatorial studies program (at the École du Magasin, Grenoble), with the curator remaining a figure of curiosity and fascination in the contemporary art world, a new question has emerged: how do we educate curators? Great Expectations: Prospects for the Future of Curatorial Education explores this question, focusing in particular on the challenges, opportunities and subjects that motivate educators and students. How has curatorial education changed in the past 25 years, and what will the next 25 years bring?.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Mapping epistemic cultures and learning potential of participants in citizen science projects

  • Authors: Vallabh, Priya , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Schudel, Ingrid J
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/128939 , vital:36192 , https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12701
  • Description: The ever-widening scope and range of global change and interconnected systemic risks arising from people–environment relationships (social‐ecological risks) appears to be increasing concern among, and involvement of, citizens in an increasingly diversified number of citizen science projects responding to these risks. We examined the relationship between epistemic cultures in citizen science projects and learning potential related to matters of concern. We then developed a typology of purposes and a citizen science epistemic‐cultures heuristic and mapped 56 projects in southern Africa using this framework. The purpose typology represents the range of knowledge‐production purposes, ranging from laboratory science to social learning, whereas the epistemic‐cultures typology is a relational representation of scientist and citizen participation and their approach to knowledge production. Results showed an iterative relationship between matters of fact and matters of concern across the projects; the nexus of citizens’ engagement in knowledge‐production activities varied. The knowledge‐production purposes informed and shaped the epistemic cultures of all the sampled citizen science projects, which in turn influenced the potential for learning within each project. Through a historical review of 3 phases in a long‐term river health‐monitoring project, we found that it is possible to evolve the learning curve of citizen science projects. This evolution involved the development of scientific water monitoring tools, the parallel development of pedagogic practices supporting monitoring activities, and situated engagement around matters of concern within social activism leading to learning‐led change. We conclude that such evolutionary processes serve to increase potential for learning and are necessary if citizen science is to contribute to wider restructuring of the epistemic culture of science under conditions of expanding social-ecological risk.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Modelling transport of inshore and deep-spawned chokka squid (Loligo reynaudi) paralarvae off South Africa: the potential contribution of deep spawning to recruitment

  • Authors: Downey-Breedt, Nicola , Roberts, Michael J , Sauer, Warwick H H , Chang, N
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125183 , vital:35742 , https://doi.10.1111/fog.12132
  • Description: The South African chokka squid, Loligo reynaudi, spawns both inshore (≤70 m) and on the mid-shelf (71–130 m) of the Eastern Agulhas Bank. The fate of these deep-spawned hatchlings and their potential contribution to recruitment is as yet unknown. Lagrangian ROMS-IBM (Regional Ocean Modelling System-Individual-Based Model) simulations confirm westward transport of inshore and deep-spawned hatchlings, but also indicate that the potential exists for paralarvae hatched on the Eastern Agulhas Bank deep spawning grounds to be removed from the shelf ecosystem. Using a ROMS-IBM, this study determined the transport and recruitment success of deepspawned hatchlings relative to inshore-hatched paralarvae. A total of 12 release sites were incorporated into the model, six inshore and six deep-spawning sites. Paralarval survival was estimated based on timely transport to nursery grounds, adequate retention within the nursery grounds and retention on the Agulhas Bank shelf. Paralarval transport and survival were dependent on both spawning location and time of hatching. Results suggest the importance of the south coast as a nursery area for inshore-hatched paralarvae, and similarly the cold ridge nursery grounds for deep-hatched paralarvae. Possible relationships between periods of highest recruitment success and spawning peaks were identified for both spawning habitats. Based on the likely autumn increase in deep spawning off the Tsitsikamma coast, and the beneficial currents during this period (as indicated by the model results) it can be concluded that deep spawning may at times contribute significantly to recruitment.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Nature and source of suspended particulate matter and detritus along an austral temperate river–estuary continuum, assessed using stable isotope analysis

  • Authors: Dalu, Tatenda , Richoux, Nicole B , Froneman, P William
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68012 , vital:29181 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2480-1
  • Description: Publisher version , Ecologists are interested in the factors that control, and the variability in, the contributions of different sources to mixed organic materials travelling through lotic systems. We hypothesized that the source matter fuelling mixed organic pools in a river–estuary continuum varies over space and time. Samples of the mixed organic pools were collected along a small temperate river (Kowie River) in southern Africa during early and late spring, summer and winter. The C:N ratios of suspended particulate matter (SPM) collected during summer and winter indicated that the lower reaches of the system had similar organic matter contributions. Stable isotope analysis in R revealed that aquatic macrophytes were significant contributors to SPM in the upper reaches. Bulk detritus had large allochthonous matter components in the lower reaches, and contributions of aquatic macrophytes and benthic algae were high (>50%) in the upper to middle reaches. The evaluation of organic matter contributions to SPM and detritus along the river–estuary continuum provided a baseline assessment of the nature and sources of potential food for consumers inhabiting different locations during different seasons. Incorporating SPM and detritus spatio-temporal variations in food web studies will improve our understanding of carbon flow in aquatic systems.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Peer tutors as learning and teaching partners: a cumulative approach to building peer tutoring capacity in higher education

  • Authors: Clarence, Sherran
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61335 , vital:28016 , http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/69
  • Description: Peer tutors in higher education are frequently given vital teaching and learning work to do, but the training or professional development and support opportunities they are offered vary, and more often than not peer tutors are under-supported. In order to create and sustain teaching and learning environments that are better able to facilitate students’ engagement with knowledge and learning, the role of peer tutors needs to be recognised differently, as that of learning and teaching partners to both lecturers and students. Tutors then need to be offered opportunities for more in-depth professional academic development in order to fully realise this role. This paper explores a tutor development programme within a South African writing centre that aimed at offering tutors such ongoing and cumulative opportunities for learning and growth using a balanced approach, which included scholarly research and practice-based training. Using narrative data tutors provided in reflective written reports, the paper explores the kinds of development in tutors’ thinking and action that are possible when training and development is theoretically informed, coherent, and oriented towards improving practice.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Planning adaptation to climate change in fast-warming marine regions with seafood-dependent coastal communities

“A Step Towards Silence”: Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable and the Problem of Following the Stranger

  • Authors: Marais, Mike
  • Date: 2016
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144205 , vital:38320 , DOI: 10.1080/02564718.2016.1249617
  • Description: In this article, I argue that Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable evinces the kind of aesthetic ambivalence that Theodor Adorno, in Aesthetic Theory, ascribes to the artwork’s location both in and outside of society. By tracing the metaphors used in the narrator’s depiction of the act of narration, I demonstrate that this novel self-reflexively articulates and meditates on its ambivalent position in society. Thereafter, I relate the work’s suspicion of its medium, and therefore its estrangement from itself, to its critique of community’s norms of recognition, which are embedded in language. Finally, I reflect on the potential effect of the text’s aesthetic ambivalence on the reader.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

A review of three generations of critical theory: Towards conceptualising critical HESD research

  • Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437136 , vital:73345 , ISBN 9781315852249 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315852249-17/review-three-generations-critical-theory-heila-lotz-sisitka
  • Description: To begin a review of the purpose(s) of ESD research, we must first ask the basic question of the purpose of research generally. Definitions of research normally centre on it comprising sys-tematic investigation which contributes to knowledge or under-standing of phenomena or a problem. A distinction is common-ly drawn between pure or basic research which focuses on understanding phenomena and issues, and applied research where the primary emphasis is on research which contributes to the solution of problems or some systemic improvement ra-ther than knowledge for its own sake. Some commentators see action research as a third category as it is predicated on the researcher being part of the research process which itself is committed to personal or social change. ESD research as an area of interest is perhaps unusual because it accommodates and crosses these categories. It also engages in philosophic research regarding cultural, worldview and ethical dimensions of sustainability education – critically important dimensions of ESD research, but not within the scope of this chapter. Re-search on – say – the relative effect of different pedagogies, or how a learning environ-ment affects learning, may be thought of as basic research, but at another level, ESD research is often purposeful beyond the accumulation of understanding about educational processes.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Cultural values of natural resources among the San people neighbouring Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa

  • Authors: Thondhlana, Gladman , Shackleton, Sheona E
  • Date: 2015
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67699 , vital:29131 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.818950
  • Description: Publisher version , Globally, cultural values of natural resources are increasingly recognised as important for local natural resource management and conservation in and beyond parks. The tendency has been to focus on the direct-use rather than the cultural values and importance of natural resources. The cultural values underlying natural resources (directly or indirectly used) and various natural resource-based activities, and the implications for conservation, remain little explored. Drawing from household surveys, in-depth qualitative interviews, observations and secondary data, we explore the cultural significance of natural resources and different land-use practices among the San people bordering Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa. Our findings illustrate that though cultural values are inextricably linked to resource use, they are not recognised by all community members. Further, cultural values arise from a diverse and sometimes conflicting array of values that punctuate individuals' lifestyles. A better understanding of context-specific cultural settings and the linkages between the cultural and material dimensions of resource use can lead to the development of interventions that can ensure effective conservation of both natural resources and culture.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Cyber Vulnerability Assessment: Case Study of Malawi and Tanzania

  • Authors: Chindipha, Stones D , Irwin, Barry V W
  • Date: 2015
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428558 , vital:72520 , https://accconference.mandela.ac.za/ACCConference/media/Store/images/Proceedings-2015.pdf#page=105
  • Description: Much as the Internet is beneficial to our daily activities, with each passing day it also brings along with it information security concerns for the users be they at company or national level. Each year the number of Internet users keeps growing, particularly in Africa, and this means only one thing, more cyber-attacks. Governments have become a focal point of this data leakage problem making this a matter of national security. Looking at the current state of affairs, cyber-based incidents are more likely to increase in Africa, mainly due to the increased prevalence and affordability of broadband connectivity which is coupled with lack of online security awareness. A drop in the cost of broadband connection means more people will be able to afford Internet connectivity. With open Source Intelligence (OSINT), this paper aims to perform a vulnerability analysis for states in Eastern Africa building from prior research by Swart et al. which showed that there are vulnerabilities in the information systems, using the case of South Africa as an example. States in East Africa are to be considered as candidates, with the final decision being determined by access to suitable resources, and availability of information. A comparative analysis to assess the factors that affect the degree of security susceptibilities in various states will also be made and information security measures used by various governments to ascertain the extent of their contribution to this vulnerability will be assessed. This pilot study will be extended to other Southern and Eastern African states like Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Namibia in future work.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Making room for the unexpected: the university and the ethical imperative of unconditional hospitality

  • Authors: Dass, Minesh
  • Date: 2015
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142108 , vital:38050 , ISBN 9781869142902 , https://books.google.co.za/books?id=49o8rgEACAAJanddq=Being+at+home:+Race,+institutional+culture+and+transformation+at+South+African+higher+education+institutionandhl=enandsa=Xandved=0ahUKEwiPgsa6mpjjAhXNN8AKHbNwAtoQ6AEIKDAA
  • Description: This edited work has gathered together contributions on how to transform universities in South Africa; as many are struggling to shift their institutional culture. In a South African context, transformation means to attempt to change higher education institutions such that they no longer reflect the values promoted by apartheid but rather reflect the values embodied in South Africa's 1996 Constitution. Institutional culture is the main subject for discussion in this book. In order to transform South Africa's universities, the contributors begin by analyzing the idea of what a university is, and relatedly, what its ideal aims are. A second theme is to understand what institutional culture is and how it functions. Moreover, transformation cannot occur without transforming the broader cultures of which they are a part. Related to this theme is a general concern about how contemporary moves towards the instrumentalization of higher education affect the ability to transform institutions. These institutions are being pushed to conform to goals that are outside the traditional idea of a university, such as concerns that universities are being 'bureaucratized' and becoming corporations, instead of a place of learning open to all. In conclusion it can be said that the contemporary South African academic community has an opportunity to recreate itself as the end of apartheid created space for engaging in transformative epistemic projects. The transformation of the tertiary sector entails a transformation of institutional cultures.
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  • Date Issued: 2015
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