Chapters in Books (Curriculum Studies)

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Afterword
(SUN MeDIA, 2012) Leibowitz, Brenda
Earlier this year I attended a conference in Götenburg, Sweden, on integrating language teaching into the disciplines – nothing overtly to do with social justice or the public good. One evening after a long and tiring day mulling over the conference proceedings, a group of conference goers, including two from South Africa, one from Spain and one from the United States, settled down for a drink and a (hopefully) frivolous conversation. The conversation soon became serious. We talked about South Africa and apartheid and the past; about Spain and its right-wing dictatorship; and about the United States and resistance to the Vietnam war. Each of us expressed our strong feelings about the injustices in our own countries that we had to endure and grapple with somehow. We found ourselves comparing our attitudes towards these ‘pasts’ with those of the younger generation that had been born after these periods of extreme injustice. Some of our children or students were interested in what we had to say, but sometimes they resisted this ‘harping on’ about the past. In South Africa the term ‘born frees’ has been coined to discuss the lives of young people born since apartheid ended.
Challenges for curriculum in a contemporary South Africa
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2011) Le Grange, Lesley
INTRODUCTION: Curriculum is a complex and contested terrain that is variously described based on disparate philosophical lenses through which it is viewed. When the word ‘curriculum’ is used it is generally understood as applying to school education, that is to the prescribed learning programmes of schools or more broadly to the learning opportunities provided to school learners, rather than to higher education. A survey of articles published in prominent curriculum journals such as the Journal of Curriculum Studies and Curriculum Inquiry, for instance, shows that very little space is given to articles on higher education. Ironically, the term was first used in relation to higher education rather than school education. It was Ramus, the sixteenth-century master at the University of Paris, who first worked on ‘methodising’ knowledge and teaching. It was in Ramus’s work, a taxonomy of knowledge, the Professio Regia (1576), which was published posthumously, that the word ‘curriculum’ first appears, referring to “a sequential course of study” (for more detail see Doll 2002:31). According to Doll (2002:31), Ramus’s idea of a general codification of knowledge (curriculum) flourished among universities that were strongly influenced by Calvinism, ostensibly because of their affinity for discipline, order and control.
Critical professionalism: a lecturer attribute for troubled times
(SUN MeDIA, 2012) Leibowitz, Brenda; Holgate, David
Introduction: This chapter describes the research-based project, Critical Professionalism, which gave rise to several of the chapters in this volume. We suggest that the concept of critical professionalism, with its strong valueorientation, makes a foundational contribution to approaches to professional development for teaching for the public good in South Africa and other parts of the world. We use data generated from this project to tease out some of the characteristics of critical professionals, as well as some of the key ingredients necessary to support the emergence of academics as critical professionals. We begin by setting the scene for the study and explaining why, in the present era, academics’ sense of agency, criticality and professionalism might be threatened – to a fair degree by the rise of the audit culture and a strong managerial and prescriptive approach to steering the direction of higher education.
Developing doctoral research skills for workplace inquiry : using an integrated methodology
(SUN MeDIA, 2016) Plowright, David
INTRODUCTION: The role of academic and scholarly research, including that undertaken for a postgraduate research degree, has changed in its emphasis. It is no longer restricted to the production of inward-looking disciplinary scholarship but to useful, instrumental knowledge that can be put to good use to address workplace issues and real-world problems. Indeed, Weber (2011:526) points out that in the knowledge society, even “scholarship must serve the requirements of the national economy in becoming more globally competitive”. Thus, research will inevitably suffer from “[t]he dominant global narrative of neoliberalism [that] underpins what has become known as the knowledge economy, where knowledge is valued for its economic worth rather than its intrinsic good” (Le Grange 2012:1133). This, of course, raises important questions about the role played by universities in the knowledge society: should they be concerned primarily with, on the one hand, the reproduction and transmission of knowledge and culture or, on the other, the transformation of that knowledge for the benefit of society (Delanty 2001)? It is a distinction that is currently a pressing issue for universities in South Africa where “[b]oth reproductive and transformative tendencies can be identified in varying degrees” (Reddy 2004:42). Indeed, at the time of writing, the current student unrest across the country reflects the pressure on higher education to play its role in social and democratic change. At a more micro-level, there is a need for rigorous, well-managed and effectivelyexecuted research, both inside higher education and in the public, private and not-forprofit sectors.
Doctoral students' identities : does it matter
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2016) Leshem, Shosh
Introduction: These excerpts depict the sentiments of doctoral students who were at different stages in their doctoral journey and shared their narratives with me. My interest in their narratives started long before embarking on this research. They were staff members in my faculty and knowing of my interest in doctoral education, visited my office to share their experiences, frustrations, delights and quests. I was intrigued by the emotions they expressed, and the powerful influence that these emotions seemed to have on their doctoral journey. My collegial interest transformed into research when one of them stated very ardently that she felt she was in a constant ‘dance of identities’. It immediately captured my inquisitive mind and I wondered about the nature of these ‘identity dances’ and, in fact, why should it really matter. However, I recognized that that these comments accorded with the doctoral journey being highly emotional with students experiencing isolation, alienation, loneliness and distress (Jones 2013). Research also suggests that identity development is a crucial dimension of the doctoral student experience, and yet, few studies have examined the process (Jazvac-Mrtek 2009; Baker and Pifer 2011). I then commenced exploring students’ narratives, focusing on how identities are negotiated and constructed during the doctoral journey.
Equity and access: a curricular perspective
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2016) Leibowitz, Brenda
Introduction: This chapter is concerned with equity and access to the curriculum, which has been shown by numerous analyses of statistics, as well as experience of those of us who are concerned to improve the state of education in South Africa, to be extremely problematic with unequal levels of student success. The view of ‘curriculum’ adopted in this chapter is an expanded one. It proposes the idea of the curriculum as an “active conceptual force” (Le Grange 2016:8). ‘Pedagogy’ and ‘curriculum’ can be plotted on a continuum from design choices at the micro level to choices at the macro level. Clearly the curriculum, even the expanded view, is embedded within a broader ecology of learning and living phenomena. However, for the purposes of this short chapter, the ‘learning’ dimensions are focussed upon. Equity and equality, it is proposed, are advanced within a conceptualisation of cognitive justice, which is itself interrelated with the notion of ‘social justice’ (de Sousa Santos 2014). Fraser’s (2009) description of social justice is extremely useful. She equates social justice with the ability to interact on an equal footing with social peers. In order to achieve this participatory parity in a higher education context, social arrangements would have to be put in place, which would make it possible for individuals to interact on a par with one other. The three dimensions of social justice, which are interrelated and mutually dependent, are: recognition, which refers mostly to the cultural domain and the recognition of the status of groups; distribution, which pertains mostly to the material domain, to resources such as computers, parents’ salaries to finance higher education; and, representation, which is more political, and includes who is regarded as a legitimate citizen, who may participate in political processes, and who is entitled to voice needs.
An evaluative framework for a socially just institution
(SUN MeDIA, 2012) Bozalek, Vivienne; Leibowitz, Brenda
Introduction: Lindi arrived at a privileged South African university from rural Kwa-Zulu-Natal, having been top of her class most of her life. She suddenly found herself unable to participate as an equal in her new environment. This is the situation many South Africans find themselves in when coming to university for the first time, or when starting a postgraduate course at a new university. In this chapter we consider what institutional arrangements would be necessary for students to participate as equals in higher education regardless of – or in fact taking into account – social class, race, gender, sexuality, ablebodiedness, language or religion. We view higher education as both a valuable process and an outcome. But what does this mean in contexts of severe inequality? How do we achieve education as a public good, and how do we know when we are achieving it? To answer these questions, we make use of a normative framework which assists us in examining the values that underpin higher education policies and practices. We regard this as an important stepping stone in building visions of what may be possible in higher education institutions. It allows alternative discursive spaces to be opened up for public debate and policy development in higher education.
Exploring linguistic resources in academic literacy development in isiXhosa printed media texts, within the framework of genre-based teaching
(Casas, 2017) Xeketwana, Simthembile
This chapter explores properties of the influential genre-based approach to literacy development (developed by Australian researchers over the past three decades) regarding its possible application in the South African context. The chapter aims at contributing towards the advancement of literacy in writing in isiXhosa in secondary education, from Grades 6 to 12. The genre-based approach and systemic functional linguistics are utilised to examine media texts which can be included in isiXhosa teaching as possible learning materials. An example of a newspaper article (text type) in isiXhosa is examined with regard to its schematic structure and linguistic resources. Arguments are presented to the effect that, (i) the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement of the Department of Basic Education contains specifications regarding reading and writing in the home language subject which strongly assume teachers’ expertise in using a genrebased approach and the use of printed-media texts; and (ii) to this effect demonstration of printed-media text (newspapers) will be used to illustrate how media texts can be utilised successfully by teachers in the home language class to facilitate academic literacy. In conclusion, the paper argues that analysis of media texts through the framework of systemic functional linguistics could benefit the educators, in order to develop learners’ literacy skills.
The impact of COVID-19 on chess in South Africa
(CSSALL Publishers, 2020) Esau, Omar
In this chapter I address the question of the way that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with its new normal and social distancing, impacts the sport code of chess in South Africa. This pandemic has already drastically altered the fixtures of numerous sport codes including the planned events and outcomes of some elite professional leagues. Chess as an Olympic sport code, although more amateur in South Africa, offers benefits across the socio-economic spectrum in terms of administrators, players, coaches and referees (arbiters). I employ an auto-ethnographic case study methodological approach, which enables one to draw on ‘personal and experiential data,’ for example, my own observations and experiences as a chess player and administrator. Amidst the uncertainty of the future and in anticipation of perhaps a large-scale devastation, the COVID-19 pandemic imposes the need for innovative and creative thinking to keep future aspirations of chess alive. Drawing on my lived experiences, I employ an auto-ethnographic approach to inspire hope for the future.
Improvement-oriented evaluation of undergraduate science programmes and the quality of student learning
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2009) Botha, Jan
The quality of student learning is considered by many as a key area in the study of higher education as student learning gain seems to be one of higher education’s critical contributions to society. In this chapter insights gained from the internal evaluation of 17 undergraduate programmes in the sciences conducted by Stellenbosch University during 2007 and 2008 are reported and analysed with a view to the possible impact of these programmes on the enhancement of the quality of student learning. For the purposes of the analysis those improvement plans related to the achievement of student-centred learning and teaching are considered to have the best potential to have an impact on the quality of student learning. The authentic improvement plans devised by lecturers and students in the sciences give an indication of the shift towards student-centred learning and teaching which is gradually taking place. An important conclusion is that the evaluation of formative undergraduate programmes can be an effective instrument to improve student learning, particularly because such evaluations consider the academic activities from the students’ perspective, namely the programme, and not the individual modules of different disciplines offered by different departments.
Inquiring the curriculum in higher education : a limited (South African) perspective
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2011) Bitzer, Eli
INTRODUCTION: This chapter attempts to explore, in a limited way, the concept of curriculum inquiry and to position its applications within the field of higher education studies and research. Obviously, curriculum inquiry is a particular form of educational research addressing different kinds of educational research questions employed, inter alia, to solve pressing educational problems, formulate policies and develop or redevelop programmes and courses. Unfortunately, however, higher education curriculum inquiry is not always performed by educational experts. In fact, curriculum inquiry is mostly attempted by educational practitioners or educational leaders and managers who wish to address a particular curriculum issue in their programmes or courses or solve a particular institutional or systemic problem. As in most research, addressing particular curriculum questions necessitates sound processes and methods of inquiry. This chapter briefly touches on this latter issue, although some of the chapters further in this book will illustrate the point much more clearly. The chapter also attempts to provide some historical or developmental background to curriculum inquiry, including a few glimpses of a vast and relatively unchartered terrain to which the remaining chapters of this book might contribute.
Introduction: Reflections on higher education and the public good
(SUN MeDIA, 2012) Leibowitz, Brenda
There is always a potential contribution that higher education can make to the public good. In the twenty-first century specific concerns that require our attention are sustainability and global warming, human mobility and migration and peculiarly contemporary diseases such as AIDS. These can be seen as contemporary manifestations of protean and oft-recurring social and natural ills such as war and conflict, food insecurity and religious and ideological rivalries – phenomena to which higher education applies its collective mind and know-how. The greater the technological advances we make, for example in health provision and communications technology, the greater the frustration that we cannot do more to make the world a better place. Despite the enormous potential of higher education as an institution to contribute to the public good, it does not deliver on this potential, as Saleem Badat, the vice chancellor of Rhodes University, observes: Higher education holds the promise of contributing to social justice, development and democratic citizenship. Yet, this promise often remains unrealised and universities, instead, frequently continue to be a powerful mechanism of social exclusion and injustice. (2010:6).
Introductory chapter
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2011) Bitzer, Eli; Botha, Nonnie
INTRODUCTION: Inquiry into higher education curricula or, what is sometimes referred to in a broader sense as ‘the curriculum’ in higher education, is a complex business. One important reason for this is that higher education institutions operate in increasingly super-complex environments (Barnett 2000, 2003, 2011) while the very idea of ‘the curriculum’ is unstable and its boundaries vague (Barnett & Coate 2005). Typical questions that arise on the issue of curriculum inquiry include whether the curriculum is merely confined to intended educational experiences and stated outcomes or whether the hidden curriculum should also be accounted for. What are the external and internal forces exerting pressures on the curriculum? Does the curriculum focus on the actual lived learning experiences of students or does it extend outside of the seminar, the classroom, the tutorial, the laboratory, the library or the computer centre? Does the curriculum have boundaries in terms of its geography, allocated time or responsibility? Where does the institutional concern for the curriculum start and end? Where do issues such as pedagogy, teaching, learning and assessment overlap within or across the curriculum? All of these questions and many others make curriculum inquiry a vast and complex field that cannot be even closely addressed within the confines of a single book.
Making sense of research in higher education
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2016) Plowright, David
I was meeting with E about the problems that postgraduate researchers experience when carrying out their research. E was a well-respected and eminent professor from Stellenbosch University. I had known him for about four years. We both had an interest in supervising and supporting postgraduate researchers undertaking masters and doctoral study. ‘You’ve asked a very interesting and,’ I added pointedly, ‘a very important, question. Like all good questions, it raises a whole raft of other questions and issues.’ E nodded thoughtfully. ‘And the answer?’ he asked. ‘Well, the question was about whether or not we can collect qualitative data in an experiment? Of course, as you know, the methodology textbooks will answer that we should collect quantitative data and not qualitative data in an experiment.’ ‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘but I suspect you’ve got a view about that?’
Postgraduate study in uncharted territory: a comparative study
(SUN MeDIA, 2016) Leibowitz, Brenda; Wisker, Gina; Lamberti, Pia
INTRODUCTION: Worldwide many mid-career professionals in a variety of professional occupations now undertake PhDs (Kiley 2015). In the UK for example, the drive for post-1992 universities to be more research-active, and the impetus from the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, and upcoming REF 2020, has put the spotlight on recruiting, developing and motivating researchers, and encouraging academic staff already in posts to complete doctorates. And in South Africa, the achievement of a PhD is seen as a contribution to education for the public good, and an enhancement to the development of the knowledge economy (ASSAf 2010). This focus emphasises the importance of the PhD award for the academic career trajectory, and highlights the drive to encourage research-informed and research-led teaching and learning, with students as co-constructors of knowledge. The move underlines the vital role that mid-career researchers play in research productivity. The requirement that staff obtain PhDs can create pressures (Harley 2002), where staff have to become ‘ringmasters’, juggling the various institutional roles they have to play (Toews & Yazedjian, 2007). It also can lead to ‘creeping credentialism’, where a PhD is seen as essential in academic life but might be a troublesome extra demand on a professional with qualifications in their own profession (Griffith 1995; Harley 2000; Harley & Lee 1997; Henkel 1997; Henkel 2000).
Self study as a mechanism to foster hopeful teaching
(SUN MeDIA, 2012) Gierdien, Faaiz
Teaching mathematics education to pre-service teachers (PSTs) enrolled at university is problematic, due to their lack of agreement about the extent to which they are prepared for teaching school mathematics. Pre-service preparation in South Africa currently occurs in the university, which impacts on the teaching of mathematics education. Noting such a context for teacher education, with its attendant dilemmas, this chapter attempts to present and explore a theoretical basis for helping us to understand what it means to teach mathematics education in such a context. I argue that such a theoretical basis is useful, providing perspectives on the practices of mathematics educators in the light of calls for teaching for the public good. The chapter takes the form of an analysis of selected excerpts of PSTs’ views of my teaching of mathematics education in a four-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programme. There are a growing number of university-based science and mathematics educators who study their teaching; ie they engage in selfstudy. The question considered is: what might teaching for the public good of mathematics education in pre-service preparation at a university be like?
Student and staff portals as support channels for the first-year academy
(2009) Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Pina, Ralph
Introduction: Using technology to support student learning is well accepted, but using technology to support systemic initiatives is a less well-known approach. This paper discusses some of the issues that should be taken into account when designing portals and shares some of the innovative approaches adopted at Stellenbosch University (SU) in order to support the First-year Academy (FYA) initiative. In 2002, SU initiated the Portal Project, an ambitious drive to develop and establish web portals as key infrastructure and tools for campus communities. Since then, three web portals have been developed and rolled out; namely, a student portal (www.mymaties.com), an alumni portal (www.matiesalumni.net) and a staff portal (my.sun.ac.za). The FYA is an academic initiative focused on the success of all first-year students and was officially launched at the beginning of 2007. One of the specific aims identified by the coordinating committee of this initiative was to investigate the use of portals as communication channels to students, lecturers and parents or the persons responsible for the specific first-year student’s account. Timeous and targeted communication with these stakeholder groups on the progress of this group of students is of utmost importance to enhance the students’ chances to achieve success. The coordinating committee felt that the portals, as ‘user-centric’ communication channels, would be ideally suited to fulfil this role (First-year Academy Coordinating Committee, 2006:10). This chapter will firstly provide some background as to how Stellenbosch University identifies a portal. It will then show how the portals specifically add value to the FYA initiative. The chapter will also show how the portals strive to provide student-centric and staff-centric places of work, integrating many useful functions, services and information feeds into a common interface. We will share useful lessons learnt, as well as what we consider to be critical success factors for institutional portals. Finally, we will provide a glimpse of future plans.
Towards a pedagogy of possibility: Teaching and learning from a ‘social justice’ perspective
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2009) Leibowitz, Brenda
This chapter takes the argument of Waghid (this volume) on higher education as a public good as its starting point and sketches the challenges presented in relation to this, by the educational biographies of learners and educators from varied social backgrounds. It considers what education as a public good would be like, especially if higher education were to ensure participatory parity for all learners. With reference to a study on educational biographies of 100 students and 64 lecturers at one South African university, it discusses the three dimensions of social justice posited by Fraser (2009), namely distribution, participation and recognition. It further considers the interrelationship of structure, agency and responsibility, and how this interrelationship impacts on the task of higher education to facilitate the potential for the successful learning of all students. The chapter concludes with a model, depicting the responsibilities of the key role-players for realising higher education as a social good. The model also contains references to research and findings on innovations by researchers and educators, whose work serves as examples of what can be done to realise this pedagogy of possibility.
Towards integrated assessment in South African higher education
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2009) Beets, Peter
Higher education institutions are increasingly challenged to address pressing societal needs. This has led to changes in the nature of knowledge production and the competencies students are required to develop through teaching programmes. One area in which this change is evident is in a shift from Mode 1 knowledge that refers to pure, disciplinary, homogeneous, expert-led university-based knowledge to Mode 2 knowledge characterised as applied, problem-solving, transdisciplinary, heterogeneous and network-embedded. Consequently many teaching programmes now tend to focus not only on the knowledge (foundational) component, but also on the skills (practical) and application (reflexive) components of learning. All these components are necessary to support students to not only acquire memorised factual knowledge, but also to integrate their acquired competencies in different contexts so as to fulfil roles in the world beyond higher education. Assessment that serves as a catalyst for both teaching and learning can play a role in guiding and supporting the processes aimed at the attainment of applied competence. The response of the South African government to this challenge in higher education is to use assessment formatively and summatively in attaining applied competence. This chapter attempts to contextualise the tensions between the current assessment practices in higher education and what policies propose. It is argued that simply embracing these policies is problematic because the priorities of higher education and the state vary due to the different constituencies they serve and their concomitant priorities and imperatives. From an analysis of current higher education assessment practices, ways of mediating this divide are suggested, also serving as pointers for further research in this area.
Trans-disciplinarity and curriculum space in health sciences education master's programmes
(AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2011) Bitzer, Eli
INTRODUCTION: The level of complexity of modern-day challenges demands a wider approach than discipline-specific measures can provide (Max-Neef 2005). These measures no longer suffice when they involve major environmental, human and social challenges. Also, relatively minor challenges such as emerging health issues, how to provide students with powerful learning opportunities and how to facilitate learning in particular social and institutional contexts are difficult to solve at the disciplinary level. Most of these challenges require trans-disciplinary approaches. Ironically, many higher education institutions still maintain mono-disciplinary courses and programmes and expect of students to do the transfer and integration of knowledge among disciplines or fields of study themselves. Moreover, the situation is not solved by creating teams of ‘specialists’ to address complex problems. An accumulation of visions or insights might emerge from each participating discipline, but an integrating synthesis is not achieved through the accumulation of ‘different brains’. Integration and synthesis rather seem to be more productive ‘within each of the brains’ (Max-Neef 2005:5) and thus higher education programmes need to be oriented in ways that make trans-disciplinary knowledge possible. In this chapter the concepts of ‘trans-disciplinarity’ and ‘curriculum space’ are discussed in the context of a cross-faculty coursework and research master’s programme where these concepts are seen as being represented by the possibilities and realities of curriculum integration (Nowotny 2006) as well as by the problem-solving characteristics of the curriculum in question.

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