How to be or not to be? A critical dialogue on the limitations and opportunities of academic development in the current higher education context
- Behari-Leak, Kasturi, Chitanand, N, Padayachee, Kershree, Masehela, L, Vorster, Jo-Anne E, Ganas, Rieta, Merckel, Vanessa
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi , Chitanand, N , Padayachee, Kershree , Masehela, L , Vorster, Jo-Anne E , Ganas, Rieta , Merckel, Vanessa
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124217 , vital:35577 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-13671ff578
- Description: In the tumultuous time we find ourselves, debates about pedagogy have taken centre stage once again. Concerns raised by the student protests of 2015 and 2016 have highlighted the urgent need to re-think traditional teaching, learning and assessment practices, as well as the development of decolonised and transformative curricula.Traditional notions of academic and professional development are now being tested and contested, insofar as they are able to respond to student challenges in appropriate, responsive, legitimate and relevant ways. As a professional organisation dedicated to supporting learning and teaching, the executive team of HELTASA responded to the challenge in this article by engaging with perspectives on the purpose, role and conceptualisation of academic development in the current decolonial moment in the South African Higher Education landscape. Critical processes that enable academics to engage, share thoughts and debate epistemological, pedagogical and methodological options to support students and academics are much needed. And the context and spirit in which these debates occur may be as important as the debates themselves.At its annual conference, the executive team facilitated a critical dialogue with conference delegates on the limitations and opportunities of AD in our current context. Given the diverse teaching and learning contexts and institutional differentiation in the sector, this article explores individual and collective theorised observations, reflections and experiences of the seven facilitators who led the CD. These reflections were analysed and discussed against the backdrop of AD as well as the affordances of CD as a participatory learning and engagement methodology. The findings showed that there is dire need to re-imagine, not only AD’s role but alternative forms of critical engagement in the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi , Chitanand, N , Padayachee, Kershree , Masehela, L , Vorster, Jo-Anne E , Ganas, Rieta , Merckel, Vanessa
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124217 , vital:35577 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-13671ff578
- Description: In the tumultuous time we find ourselves, debates about pedagogy have taken centre stage once again. Concerns raised by the student protests of 2015 and 2016 have highlighted the urgent need to re-think traditional teaching, learning and assessment practices, as well as the development of decolonised and transformative curricula.Traditional notions of academic and professional development are now being tested and contested, insofar as they are able to respond to student challenges in appropriate, responsive, legitimate and relevant ways. As a professional organisation dedicated to supporting learning and teaching, the executive team of HELTASA responded to the challenge in this article by engaging with perspectives on the purpose, role and conceptualisation of academic development in the current decolonial moment in the South African Higher Education landscape. Critical processes that enable academics to engage, share thoughts and debate epistemological, pedagogical and methodological options to support students and academics are much needed. And the context and spirit in which these debates occur may be as important as the debates themselves.At its annual conference, the executive team facilitated a critical dialogue with conference delegates on the limitations and opportunities of AD in our current context. Given the diverse teaching and learning contexts and institutional differentiation in the sector, this article explores individual and collective theorised observations, reflections and experiences of the seven facilitators who led the CD. These reflections were analysed and discussed against the backdrop of AD as well as the affordances of CD as a participatory learning and engagement methodology. The findings showed that there is dire need to re-imagine, not only AD’s role but alternative forms of critical engagement in the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
An exploratory study of Heads of Departments' responses to student calls for decolonised higher education
- Grant, Carolyn, Quinn, Lynn, Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Authors: Grant, Carolyn , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123420 , vital:35436 , https://doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i72a05
- Description: Central to the tumultuous student protests of 2015 and 2016 was an urgent call for the decolonisation of South African universities. Existing curricula, including teaching and assessment practices, as well as institutional cultures and structures were challenged. Against this backdrop, in this article we focus on the academic leadership role of Heads of Departments (HoDs) at Rhodes University. In this small-scale project we interrogate how HoDs conceptualised their roles in this uncertain and complex context. From the data analysis a number of tensions emerged in the ways in which they articulated and enacted their roles. The findings indicate that the protests have contributed to the increasing complexity of the role of an HoD. Issues raised during the protests catalysed HoDs at Rhodes University, some for the first time, into considering the implications of the decolonising call from students and into exercising stronger transformative leadership roles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Grant, Carolyn , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123420 , vital:35436 , https://doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i72a05
- Description: Central to the tumultuous student protests of 2015 and 2016 was an urgent call for the decolonisation of South African universities. Existing curricula, including teaching and assessment practices, as well as institutional cultures and structures were challenged. Against this backdrop, in this article we focus on the academic leadership role of Heads of Departments (HoDs) at Rhodes University. In this small-scale project we interrogate how HoDs conceptualised their roles in this uncertain and complex context. From the data analysis a number of tensions emerged in the ways in which they articulated and enacted their roles. The findings indicate that the protests have contributed to the increasing complexity of the role of an HoD. Issues raised during the protests catalysed HoDs at Rhodes University, some for the first time, into considering the implications of the decolonising call from students and into exercising stronger transformative leadership roles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Mapping the field of Higher Education Research using PhD examination reports
- McKenna, Sioux, Quinn, Lynn, Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66669 , vital:28979 , ISSN 1469-8366 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1428178
- Description: Pre-print , The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar’s rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39 examiners’ reports on 13 PhDs produced over a five-year period by scholars from the Higher Education Research doctoral studies programme at Rhodes University in South Africa. Drawing on aspects of Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), this study uses the dimensions of LCT:Specialisation and LCT:Semantics to explore what kinds of knowledge, skills and procedures and what kinds of knowers are validated in the field of Higher Education Research through the examination process. The study found that despite concerns in the literature about the a-theoretical nature of the Higher Education Studies field, examiners valued high-level theoretical and meta-theoretical engagement as well as methodological rigour. In addition, examiners prized the ability to demonstrate a strong ideological position, to use a clear doctoral voice, and to recognise the axiological drive of the field. The analysis showed that examiners were interested in strong contextualisation of the problem-spaces in higher education in South Africa but also commented positively on candidates’ ability to move from troubling an issue within its context to being able to abstract findings so as to contribute to the field as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66669 , vital:28979 , ISSN 1469-8366 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1428178
- Description: Pre-print , The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar’s rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39 examiners’ reports on 13 PhDs produced over a five-year period by scholars from the Higher Education Research doctoral studies programme at Rhodes University in South Africa. Drawing on aspects of Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), this study uses the dimensions of LCT:Specialisation and LCT:Semantics to explore what kinds of knowledge, skills and procedures and what kinds of knowers are validated in the field of Higher Education Research through the examination process. The study found that despite concerns in the literature about the a-theoretical nature of the Higher Education Studies field, examiners valued high-level theoretical and meta-theoretical engagement as well as methodological rigour. In addition, examiners prized the ability to demonstrate a strong ideological position, to use a clear doctoral voice, and to recognise the axiological drive of the field. The analysis showed that examiners were interested in strong contextualisation of the problem-spaces in higher education in South Africa but also commented positively on candidates’ ability to move from troubling an issue within its context to being able to abstract findings so as to contribute to the field as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
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