Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Permanent URI for this community
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences provides a dynamic and interactive learning environment to its students focusing in particular on preparing our graduates for an ever-growing knowledge-based society and economy.
News
For the latest news click here.
Browse
Browsing Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences by browse.metadata.type "Chapters in Books"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 35
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemThe boomerang : how eugenics and racial science in the German colonies rebounded on Europe and the rest of the world(African Sun Media, 2020) Robins, StevenIn 1936, the British-trained professor of zoology Harold Benjamin Fantham published an article titled “Some Race Problems in South Africa” in The Scientific Monthly.1 The opening section of the article provided detailed “physionomical” descriptions of the “Bushmen” and “Hottentots”, alongside accounts of the other “races” of South Africa.
- ItemBreaking down the binary : meanings of informal settlement in southern African cities(HSRC Press, 2013) Groenewald, Liela; Huchzermeyer, Marie; Kornienko, Kristen; Tredoux, Marius J.; Rubin, Margot; Raposo, IsabelInformality is a ubiquitous characteristic of urban life in Africa and elsewhere. Although the phenomenon of informality is loosely understood as the strategies and institutions that develop beyond the regulatory framework of the state (Abdoul 2005), a rigid distinction between formal and informal sectors precludes the possibility that informal sectors could be complementary to, rather than incompatible with, the institutions and regulations of the state and the formal market (Roy 2005) takes issue with the way in which the dominant frames through which informality is studied equate informality with poverty. Reflections on the tendency to think in terms of a formal-informal binary emerged in the late 1970s, half a decade after the concept of the informal economy was coined (Dick & Rimmer 1980; McGee 1978). In today's urban climate, it may be more useful to think of different interests that shape strategies to compete for resources in cities (Roy 2004).
- ItemCentres and institutes as academic organisational units(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2016) Botha, JanIntroduction: A complex network of factors arise when academic organisational units are established or existing units are changed. These factors include academic values, convictions about the academic standards of disciplines or professional programmes, ideals and sentiments for the future and particular approaches of disciplines and/or professions. Then it becomes significant how power is used in staff appointments and in the allocation of resources, as the custodian of academic reputation plus individual and institutional development processes. In many universities traditions and customs determine how such issues are considered, debated and decided or are transformed into institutional policies and rules.
- ItemThe Complex 'I'. The Formation of Identity in Complex Systems(Lawrence and Wishart, 2010) Cilliers, Paul; De Villiers-Botha, Tanya; PhilosophyWhen we deal with complex things, like human subjects or organizations, we deal with identity – that which makes a person or an organization what it is and distinguishes him/her/it from other persons or organizations, a kind of “self”. Our identity determines how we think about and interact with others. It will be argued in this chapter that the self is constituted relationally. Moreover, when we are in the realm of the self, we are always already in the realm of engaging with and mediating differences – the realm of ethics. The position which will be developed argues that approaching identity as a complex system allows us to resist thinking of identity as an easily identifiable and static entity. Identity is always being constituted within a complex and contingent world, where we have to make choices based on contingent values rather than on universal knowledge or the outcome of rational calculations. As a result, we have to keep in mind that our daily practices always already have an ethical component, and our decisions need to be continually evaluated and re-evaluated in the light of our (and others’) varying identities.
- ItemConceptual clarity, scientific rigour and 'The stories we are' : engaging with two challenges to the objectivity of invasion biology(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010-11) Hattingh, Johan P.See article for abstract
- ItemCritical citizenship and higher education curricula : legacies and prospects(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: In this chapter we explore three related issues. Firstly, we briefly refer to some of the legacies from South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, especially as they pertain to university curricula and student learning; secondly, we point to links between critical citizenship and higher education curricula; and thirdly, we refer to a number of relevant examples where critical citizenship education was recently introduced into core curricula by a number of South African universities.
- ItemCritical curriculum inquiry in an undergraduate visual communication design programme : a case study approach through a complexity theory lens(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2011) Costandius, ElmarieINTRODUCTION: The challenge to curricula to encourage socially sustainable ways of living – environmentally, economically and socially – is a global phenomenon. An example is the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations that aim to create a global partnership for development to address poverty, illness, health, education and environmental sustainability (United Nations 2011). The Earth Charter Initiative (n.d.) aims of addressing principles for constructing a just, sustainable and peaceful global society are similar. In South Africa, the Department of Education, in the Education White Paper of 1997 (RSA DoE 1997), as well as in the Report of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions (RSA DoE 2008), aims at addressing the importance of social change and integration. The Stellenbosch University HOPE Project (Stellenbosch University 2010), an initiative of the rector of this university, comprises concrete ways of addressing critical social issues on campus, and also in the broader South African society.
- ItemCurrent realities and future agendas for critical citizenship education(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: What have been established up to this point? Chapter 1 highlighted three main issues that involve university curricula and critical citizenship education, namely elements of the debate on international curriculum challenges, the debate on national (South African) curriculum challenges as well as challenges linked to curricula engaging “outside” communities. Within the international curriculum arena, four pertinent challenges seem immanent: firstly, an apparent lack of common terminology, language and focus to conduct a proper curriculum discourse; secondly, a lack of curriculum leadership at all levels, including levels of leadership at universities; thirdly, a perceived lack of interest and seriousness in curriculum inquiry; and fourthly, a lack in debate that involve underpinning values that higher education curricula need to promote, particularly in evolving democracies such as South Africa.
- ItemCurriculum challenges in higher education(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: A decade ago and 11 years after the birth of a new democratic political dispensation in South Africa, an important contribution to inquiry into higher education curricula saw the light. But, in writing their well-commended book Engaging the curriculum in higher education, Ron Barnett and Kelley Coate (2005) struggled with a problem that they articulated through a number of bothering questions (2005:161‑162), for instance: Should we, in higher education, refer to “the” curriculum or “a” curriculum? Is the concept of curriculum more of an adjective than a noun – meaning that a curriculum represents intentions and hopes rather than an entity? Is curriculum necessarily singular or can one talk about a generic curriculum as a kind of Platonic ideal in higher education? The point made by Barnett and Coate is that if the language of curriculum inquiry is problematic, even more serious are the difficulties in involving “ordinary” academics and students in curriculum matters and their discourse. This is far from saying that academics and students fail to engage with curriculum issues, but it does point to the fact that curriculum constituents may not always know how their direct involvement shapes curricula and, moreover, that they do not necessarily use the “right” or applicable curriculum language. What is therefore needed, as we are reminded by authors such as Barnett and Coate, is strong curriculum leadership at different levels in higher education institutions – leadership that encapsulates imagining a culture of new and renewed curricula that reach out to future demands, that develop conversational spaces and promote the involvement of academics and students. What may also be needed is curricula that create new energies, which is nothing short of involving universities and other higher education institutions in their own core business, namely to educate for an unknown future.
- ItemDisability : the forgotten side of race science(African Sun Media, 2020) Swartz, Leslie; Bantjes, Jason; Lourens, Heidi; Watermeyer, BrianThe impetus for this book was an article, the first line of the abstract of which reads: “Colored women in South Africa have an increased risk for low cognitive functioning.”1 There is no question that the article reproduces racist ideas, and we are in agreement with the authors of the other chapters in this book. There is, however, another side to this article that has been less discussed. What does it mean to describe a group of people as having “increased risk for low cognitive functioning”? In much that has been written about the article, there has been almost no discussion of the social context in which the idea of somebody having, or being at risk of, “low cognitive functioning” is seen, automatically, as a form of insult.
- ItemThe Doctorate in South Africa: Trends, challenges and constraints(SUN MeDIA, 2016) Mouton, JohannINTRODUCTION: We have witnessed over the past decade a renewed interest in doctoral education in South Africa. This interest has been fuelled by national as well as institutional policies that have identified the production of doctoral graduates as a matter of strategic priority. The country needs more doctoral graduates both to replenish the academic capacity in the higher education sector and to serve the knowledge economy and its new challenges. The aim of this chapter is to argue that four policy discourses have shaped and continue to shape current debates on the production of PhDs in South frica. These discourses address the need for increased volumes of PhD output (growth), efficiency, transformation and quality. But these discourses are not simply separate and parallel ‘forces’ that have differential impacts on doctoral production in South Africa. These discourses are often at odds with one another; they co-exist – often in tension – and sometimes even seem contradictory when taken together. The pursuit of increased numbers (growth) may, for example, have a negative impact on the achievement of quality and even compromise efficiency. These discourses – and the imperatives embedded in them – operate in a complex (higher education) system of recursive causality (feedback loops) and emergent properties (different levels of impact).
- ItemEngaging curricula through critical citizenship education : a student learning perspective(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: In the previous chapters we have shown that numerous curriculum challenges remain in higher education – not only in South Africa, but worldwide. One such challenge is to provide a critical citizenship perspective to curricula that may contribute to educate for more democratic and sustainable environments. We have also drawn on Giroux’s views on critical pedagogy and engaged curricula as a potentially useful lens to relate critical citizenship to critical pedagogy. Lastly, we have pointed out that in South Africa, although important higher education policy initiatives had materialised after 1994, much work remains to promote critical citizenship in higher education curricula. At least four elements of learning seem to inform critical citizenship education in curricula, namely psychosocial, transformational, socio-political and multicultural learning. One may also refer here to theories of learning, but what we do realise, however, is that the forces interacting and wrestling for power in constructing curricula that engage students on the one hand, but also keep such curricula vibrant on the other hand, are numerous, complex and ever-shifting. This we want to allude to in the sections that follow.
- ItemAn example of critical citizenship education in an arts curriculum(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: If one considers the importance of global and local change and transformation for constructing just, sustainable and peaceful societies globally, initiatives such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (Kindzeka 2014) and The Earth Charter Initiative (2012) feature prominently. As discussed earlier, the need for such kind of transformation in thought and action in South Africa as an evolving democracy is vital, as underlined by several policy initiatives, both in higher education institutions and at a national level (DHET 2014; DoE 1997; NPC 2011). At Stellenbosch University (SU), where we both work as academics, the HOPE Project (see Botman 2011 for details on this initiative) was launched in 2008. Its aim was and still is to find concrete ways to reflect on historical influences on the current South African society and to address the need for change towards a higher education that significantly contributes to society. To correspond with this stated aim, a module called “Critical Citizenship” was introduced for first- to third‑year Visual Communication Design students at the Department of Visual Arts at SU. The case study in critical citizenship that we elaborate on involves the Critical Citizenship module in particular. The case study had as its aim to explore the perceptions and attitudes of students, a group of learners from a township school and two art lecturers who participated in the Critical Citizenship module regarding personal transformation through teaching and learning in the module. As a framework for the study, the importance of considering the emotional dimensions of learning (also see Chapters 3 and 4) was emphasised, thereby implying that students should be understood and treated as thinking, feeling and acting persons.
- ItemHenry Giroux on critical pedagogy and engaged curricula(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2015) Costandius, Elmarie; Bitzer, EliINTRODUCTION: In Neoliberalism’s war on higher education (2014), Henry Giroux refers to neoliberalism as a central organising idea in shaping his critical view of higher education. At the time of its writing, Giroux was Global TV Network Chair in Communications and Professor of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. He portrays neoliberalism as a mode of governance that produces identities, subjects and ways of life driven by a survival of the fittest. This ethic is grounded in the idea of the free, possessive individual and committed to the right of ruling groups and institutions to accrue wealth removed from matters of societal ethics and social costs. Also recently, another of his books, Education and the crisis of public values (2012), questioned the North American education system and the attack on the public school sector. In this work his observations are articulate, to the point and in many circles regarded as accurate. In addition to his vast research and publishing contributions, Giroux has an established international network of collaborators who comment on educational and social issues.
- ItemHuman dimensions of invasive alien species in philosophical perspective : towards an ethic of conceptual responsibility(IUCN, 2001) Hattingh, Johan P.How can we find an appropriate language in which to formulate our concerns about, and our policy responses to, the problem of invasive alien species? This question arises from the tensions between our conventional vocabulary and the context within which we have to use this vocabulary. Characterized by both globalization and the so-called postmodern conditon, this context confronts us on the one hand with the homogenizing effects of the dominant ideology of advancec industril societies and on the the other hand with a loss of faith in the grand narratives of modernity.
- ItemInstitutional research in higher education in South Africa : Looking Ahead(SUN PRESS, 2016) Webber, Karen; Muller, Nicole; Botha, JanThe fact that the Southern African Association (SAAIR) is nearing its 25th year, is evidence that Institutional Research (IR) has built a strong presence in South African higher education. Unfortunately, this is not yet evident in other countries in the region. The professional practice that has become known as “institutional research” is, of course, much older than the Association that was established by IR practitioners. Similarly, IR encompasses much more in South and Southern Africa than the activities of the Association. IR continues to widen its areas of influence and support, and IR practitioners are called upon to assist in a myriad of decision-support tasks that will help to make higher education in South Africa and the region only stronger. IR practitioners are valued for their analytic and technical skills and their higher education practices and processes. They are also valued because of their ability to place the issues within the context of the specific institution, cognisant of unique student, staff, or historical and cultural issues that must be considered. As we reflect on the formation and current status of IR in South Africa as evidenced in this book, it is notable that the SAAIR was established in 1994, the year in which the first democratic elections in the country took place. South African society, including the higher education system, changed significantly in the first two decades of democracy. Despite these changes, the student protests in South Africa that erupted in 2015 and that continue in 2016, can be attributed to the students’ experience and their belief that much more remains to be done: huge inequalities remain in the system and in institutions, the demand for study opportunities outpaces the available opportunities, student fees have become unaffordable for most students, and at a deeper level, the curriculum and the ethos of higher education institutions still predominantly reflect Western values, traditions and practices. The transformation agenda that was inaugurated in 1994 remains unfinished. The story of IR in South Africa is closely intertwined with the transformation agenda, both in terms of the gains of the past twenty years, and also of the many changes that lie ahead.
- ItemInstitutional research in South African higher education: Framing the contexts and practices(SUN PRESS, 2016) Botha, Jan; Muller, Nicole; Webber, KarenUniversities are among the oldest social organisations in the world. Few would doubt that universities are crucially important social organisations. The public and private good of universities is generally recognised (and widely debated, cf. Singh 2001). The broad range of purposes ascribed to universities and society’s expectations of the value added by universities add up to form an intriguing phenomenon which is the object of research in a range of academic disciplines and professional practices.
- ItemMaximilien Aue : une homosexualite de rigueur(Open Book Publishers, 2010) Leveel, Eric C. G.; Modern Foreign LanguagesFRENCH ABSTRACT: Il serait vain de réitérer combien le lien entre la sexualité et le Mal a été exploité en littérature, au théâtre et dans les oeuvres filmiques. Il serait vain de nier combien la «souillure» homosexuelle s’agrippe à l’iconographie et à l’historiographie du nazisme, combien la culture masculine de cette idéologie demeure un terreau fertile pour des relations «coupables» au sein du nouveau Volk qu’elle tente de créer, de propager et de renforcer.
- ItemThe meaning of participation : reflections on our study(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2021) Hunt, Xanthe; Swartz, Leslie, 1955-; Braathen, Stine Hellum; Carew, Mark T.; Chiwaula, Mussa; Rohleder, PoulIn Chapter 1 we provided a discussion of participatory research as a method for doing research, and provided an outline of what we did in the research project upon which this book is based. In this final chapter, we reflect back on our experiences of doing a participatory research project of this kind.
- ItemMusic’s "non-political neutrality" : when race dare not speak its name(African Sun Media, 2020) Froneman, Willemien; Muller, StephanusNo abstract available.