Beyond prose: Review of 'Poetic Inquiry for the Humanities and Social Sciences: Voices from the South and the North'
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480817 , vital:78479 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a11
- Description: The 54 authors of this book reflect on the use of poetic inquiry at a time when feminist, decolonial, and post-humanist researchers are raising concerns about the ways in which qualitative data collection and dissemination can silence some and reduce the experiences of others by adhering to the often-arbitrary restrictions of academic texts. Poetic inquiry, the authors of this book argue, should be welcoming, invite new perspectives, and make possible alternative interpretations of the social world. Sadly, as Pithouse-Morgan indicates, poetry is often associated with negative rather than positive educational experiences (p.201). For many of us, poetry is about mysterious meanings that our schoolteachers berated us for being too dense to access. While my own interest in poetic inquiry is in how we can use it to create and disseminate research, many authors in this book, such as Hough, Peté and Ndlovu, suggest that poetry can also be used “to teach complex topics from different points of view, make people more self-aware, encourage dialogue and empathy, grow social awareness, and raise ethical questions” (p.169). Badenhorst and McLeod point out that this can be challenging when working in neoliberal universities that turn us into human capital in service of competition and efficiency over social justice and equity. They suggest that poetry can help us to shift to a world “of senses and feeling [that] can provide a way to resist the tendrils of neoliberalism” (p.126).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480817 , vital:78479 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a11
- Description: The 54 authors of this book reflect on the use of poetic inquiry at a time when feminist, decolonial, and post-humanist researchers are raising concerns about the ways in which qualitative data collection and dissemination can silence some and reduce the experiences of others by adhering to the often-arbitrary restrictions of academic texts. Poetic inquiry, the authors of this book argue, should be welcoming, invite new perspectives, and make possible alternative interpretations of the social world. Sadly, as Pithouse-Morgan indicates, poetry is often associated with negative rather than positive educational experiences (p.201). For many of us, poetry is about mysterious meanings that our schoolteachers berated us for being too dense to access. While my own interest in poetic inquiry is in how we can use it to create and disseminate research, many authors in this book, such as Hough, Peté and Ndlovu, suggest that poetry can also be used “to teach complex topics from different points of view, make people more self-aware, encourage dialogue and empathy, grow social awareness, and raise ethical questions” (p.169). Badenhorst and McLeod point out that this can be challenging when working in neoliberal universities that turn us into human capital in service of competition and efficiency over social justice and equity. They suggest that poetry can help us to shift to a world “of senses and feeling [that] can provide a way to resist the tendrils of neoliberalism” (p.126).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
Neoliberalism constrains academic freedom
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480540 , vital:78453 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a18
- Description: Positioning the university as a public good that serves people and the planet was a central concern for those responsible for shaping post-apartheid education. Unfortunately, the current neoliberal environment has led to institutional risk aversion. This means that universities are loathe to speak out on issues of social injustice and environmental degradation. And academics often forfeit their freedoms by assuming that top management can speak on behalf of the university. In the Commentary 'Should our universities respond to geopolitical conflicts around the world?'1, Chetty questions when and why a university should speak out on global issues. In particular, Chetty refers to the Israeli-Palestinian war. I leave it to other respondents to tackle the substantive issue of South African higher education's silence on this issue. Instead, I home in on what I see as a common problem in the post-apartheid university. Chetty explains that: He thus understands the university as a complex organisation, as indeed it is. But he repeatedly reveals an understanding of the university as one which is controlled by management. For me, one of the most troubling sentences in the article is this: Universities thrive on a diversity of viewpoints, and so imposing a hegemonic view from the top management often leads to problems in a university setting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480540 , vital:78453 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a18
- Description: Positioning the university as a public good that serves people and the planet was a central concern for those responsible for shaping post-apartheid education. Unfortunately, the current neoliberal environment has led to institutional risk aversion. This means that universities are loathe to speak out on issues of social injustice and environmental degradation. And academics often forfeit their freedoms by assuming that top management can speak on behalf of the university. In the Commentary 'Should our universities respond to geopolitical conflicts around the world?'1, Chetty questions when and why a university should speak out on global issues. In particular, Chetty refers to the Israeli-Palestinian war. I leave it to other respondents to tackle the substantive issue of South African higher education's silence on this issue. Instead, I home in on what I see as a common problem in the post-apartheid university. Chetty explains that: He thus understands the university as a complex organisation, as indeed it is. But he repeatedly reveals an understanding of the university as one which is controlled by management. For me, one of the most troubling sentences in the article is this: Universities thrive on a diversity of viewpoints, and so imposing a hegemonic view from the top management often leads to problems in a university setting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
A scoping review of the changing landscape of doctoral education
- McKenna, Sioux, Van Schalkwyk, Susan
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Van Schalkwyk, Susan
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482864 , vital:78696 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2023.2168121
- Description: A scoping review to identify models of doctoral supervision as described in the literature (2000 and 2021) was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-step framework. Four bibliographic databases generated 2102 potential studies. Further screening identified 81 articles for inclusion. The findings highlight that despite differences in terminology, an international move towards more collaborative and structured approaches is identifiable. Benefits detailed in the literature include: better throughput, the mitigation of loneliness and power issues implicated in one-on-one approaches, and the possibility for a stronger research foundation and interdisciplinary work. Concerns were also noted about increasing managerialism whereby support structures focus on efficiencies rather than quality and growing ties between industry and doctoral education without much critique of possible conflicts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Van Schalkwyk, Susan
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482864 , vital:78696 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2023.2168121
- Description: A scoping review to identify models of doctoral supervision as described in the literature (2000 and 2021) was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-step framework. Four bibliographic databases generated 2102 potential studies. Further screening identified 81 articles for inclusion. The findings highlight that despite differences in terminology, an international move towards more collaborative and structured approaches is identifiable. Benefits detailed in the literature include: better throughput, the mitigation of loneliness and power issues implicated in one-on-one approaches, and the possibility for a stronger research foundation and interdisciplinary work. Concerns were also noted about increasing managerialism whereby support structures focus on efficiencies rather than quality and growing ties between industry and doctoral education without much critique of possible conflicts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
AI amplifies the tough question: What is higher education really for?
- Authors: Kramm, Neil , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482876 , vital:78697 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2263839
- Description: The dominant response within higher education to the emergence of free online text- and graphic-generating software has been a concern with identifying AI usage in students’ work. We argue that this is both a waste of time and neglects our educational responsibilities. A police-catch-punish approach to AI, as with the use of this process in relation to plagiarism, ignores the broader purposes of higher education. If higher education is understood as being a space for nurturing transformative relationships with knowledge, AI can be harnessed to enhance learning experiences. Such an approach would also enable a critical understanding of the limitations and ethical deliberations around AI usage. Those critical academics who emphasise transformative learning over surveillance-driven approaches are likely to foster more meaningful higher education experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
- Authors: Kramm, Neil , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482876 , vital:78697 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2263839
- Description: The dominant response within higher education to the emergence of free online text- and graphic-generating software has been a concern with identifying AI usage in students’ work. We argue that this is both a waste of time and neglects our educational responsibilities. A police-catch-punish approach to AI, as with the use of this process in relation to plagiarism, ignores the broader purposes of higher education. If higher education is understood as being a space for nurturing transformative relationships with knowledge, AI can be harnessed to enhance learning experiences. Such an approach would also enable a critical understanding of the limitations and ethical deliberations around AI usage. Those critical academics who emphasise transformative learning over surveillance-driven approaches are likely to foster more meaningful higher education experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
The conflation of English competence and academic literacy: A case study of three Namibian universities
- Homateni Julius, Lukas, McKenna, Sioux, Mgqwashu, Emmanuel M
- Authors: Homateni Julius, Lukas , McKenna, Sioux , Mgqwashu, Emmanuel M
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482888 , vital:78698 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2251948
- Description: Success in higher education relates in part to competence in the medium of instruction. But the academic literacy literature provides compelling evidence that competence in the medium of instruction is insufficient to ensure success. Crucially, students need to take on the literacy practices of the discipline or field. This study offers a thematic analysis of the mandatory support courses that have been developed at the three universities in Namibia to enhance students’ chances of success. The data comprised course documents, interviews with academics, and classroom observations. In all three institutions the courses introduced to support student success were offered in an ‘autonomous model’. Higher education success was seen to rest on English competence, conceptualised as the correct use of standard grammar. In making a call for better induction we also ask: how might we enable access to practices of the academy while providing space for challenging the norms and values?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
- Authors: Homateni Julius, Lukas , McKenna, Sioux , Mgqwashu, Emmanuel M
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482888 , vital:78698 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2251948
- Description: Success in higher education relates in part to competence in the medium of instruction. But the academic literacy literature provides compelling evidence that competence in the medium of instruction is insufficient to ensure success. Crucially, students need to take on the literacy practices of the discipline or field. This study offers a thematic analysis of the mandatory support courses that have been developed at the three universities in Namibia to enhance students’ chances of success. The data comprised course documents, interviews with academics, and classroom observations. In all three institutions the courses introduced to support student success were offered in an ‘autonomous model’. Higher education success was seen to rest on English competence, conceptualised as the correct use of standard grammar. In making a call for better induction we also ask: how might we enable access to practices of the academy while providing space for challenging the norms and values?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a case study of the nexuses between teaching, research and service
- Muthama, Evelyn, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482899 , vital:78699 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2215182
- Description: Universities attend to multiple demands, making it challenging to identify their particular academic project, which can be defined as how the university understands its key purposes and develops its organisation and activities in service of such. While the three pillars of higher education – teaching, research, and service – are cited as being core to the modern university, it is the nexus between them that provides the particular institutional identity and purpose. While nexuses exist in every university, the form such nexuses take varies considerably across university types, geographical contexts, student bodies, and programmes. We investigate the nature of the nexuses in one South African university through an analysis of observations, interviews, documents, and a survey. The study suggests that several mechanisms strengthen the nexuses of this university, including geographical positioning, institutional history and an explicitly articulated set of values. It cautions however that the nexuses can be constrained by other mechanisms at play. We argue that there is need for reflecting on and strengthening nexuses within universities in the interests of clarifying the specific academic project. Without this, universities can be swayed in any direction and can lose sight of the identity they would like to claim for themselves.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482899 , vital:78699 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2215182
- Description: Universities attend to multiple demands, making it challenging to identify their particular academic project, which can be defined as how the university understands its key purposes and develops its organisation and activities in service of such. While the three pillars of higher education – teaching, research, and service – are cited as being core to the modern university, it is the nexus between them that provides the particular institutional identity and purpose. While nexuses exist in every university, the form such nexuses take varies considerably across university types, geographical contexts, student bodies, and programmes. We investigate the nature of the nexuses in one South African university through an analysis of observations, interviews, documents, and a survey. The study suggests that several mechanisms strengthen the nexuses of this university, including geographical positioning, institutional history and an explicitly articulated set of values. It cautions however that the nexuses can be constrained by other mechanisms at play. We argue that there is need for reflecting on and strengthening nexuses within universities in the interests of clarifying the specific academic project. Without this, universities can be swayed in any direction and can lose sight of the identity they would like to claim for themselves.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
From affirmative to transformative approaches to academic development
- McKenna, Sioux, Hlengwa, Amanda, Quinn, Lynn, Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Hlengwa, Amanda , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426651 , vital:72375 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2119077"
- Description: Much academic development work, whether it be student, academic staff, institutional or curriculum development, is undertaken from an affirmative rather than a transformative approach (Luckett, L., and S. Shay. 2020.“Reframing the Curriculum: A Transformative Approach.” Critical Studies in Education61 (1): 50–65). To be transformative, academic development has to reframe the problem beyond one of poor student retention and throughput. We need to make sense of the conditions from which issues such as poor retention and throughput rates emerge, rather than focusing on mitigating the effects of such conditions within the status quo. Drawing on Fraser’s concept of parity of participation, we suggest that if academic development is to engage in transformative approaches, it needs to adjust the scale of the problem and challenge underpinning assumptions, and thereby review the fitness of universities, curricula and academic development practices for a pluralist society. In sum, a transformative approach to academic development work will entail conceptualising academic development as a political knowledge project.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Hlengwa, Amanda , Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426651 , vital:72375 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2119077"
- Description: Much academic development work, whether it be student, academic staff, institutional or curriculum development, is undertaken from an affirmative rather than a transformative approach (Luckett, L., and S. Shay. 2020.“Reframing the Curriculum: A Transformative Approach.” Critical Studies in Education61 (1): 50–65). To be transformative, academic development has to reframe the problem beyond one of poor student retention and throughput. We need to make sense of the conditions from which issues such as poor retention and throughput rates emerge, rather than focusing on mitigating the effects of such conditions within the status quo. Drawing on Fraser’s concept of parity of participation, we suggest that if academic development is to engage in transformative approaches, it needs to adjust the scale of the problem and challenge underpinning assumptions, and thereby review the fitness of universities, curricula and academic development practices for a pluralist society. In sum, a transformative approach to academic development work will entail conceptualising academic development as a political knowledge project.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
How the Teaching Development Grant was used (and the problem of common-sense understandings of teaching and learning)
- Moyo, Temwa, McKenna, Sioux, Ndebele, Clever
- Authors: Moyo, Temwa , McKenna, Sioux , Ndebele, Clever
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426917 , vital:72400 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i86a07"
- Description: Teachers at primary and secondary education levels are required to hold a professional qualification but, at the higher education level, all that is required is content expertise. This may well contribute to South Africa's low university throughput and retention rates, in response to which, since 2004, the state has provided ZAR5.5 billion in the form of the Teaching Development Grant (now the University Capacity Development Grant) to address poor completion rates. We present an analysis of the use of the grant across the sector using a social realist framework. Every academic and student has themselves been taught and so have developed untheorised assumptions about curriculum and pedagogy. Such common-sense assumptions about teaching and learning often serve to reinforce the status quo, which is particularly problematic in a sector with poor and racially differentiated throughput and success rates. Many initiatives funded through the grant evidenced a reliance on common-sense assumptions rather than on theorised accounts. In particular, student development often took the form of remedial, add-on initiatives that left the mainstream curriculum untouched-and staff development was often generic and short term. We also found that expertise in academic development, which could potentially challenge common-sense assumptions, was unevenly distributed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Moyo, Temwa , McKenna, Sioux , Ndebele, Clever
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426917 , vital:72400 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i86a07"
- Description: Teachers at primary and secondary education levels are required to hold a professional qualification but, at the higher education level, all that is required is content expertise. This may well contribute to South Africa's low university throughput and retention rates, in response to which, since 2004, the state has provided ZAR5.5 billion in the form of the Teaching Development Grant (now the University Capacity Development Grant) to address poor completion rates. We present an analysis of the use of the grant across the sector using a social realist framework. Every academic and student has themselves been taught and so have developed untheorised assumptions about curriculum and pedagogy. Such common-sense assumptions about teaching and learning often serve to reinforce the status quo, which is particularly problematic in a sector with poor and racially differentiated throughput and success rates. Many initiatives funded through the grant evidenced a reliance on common-sense assumptions rather than on theorised accounts. In particular, student development often took the form of remedial, add-on initiatives that left the mainstream curriculum untouched-and staff development was often generic and short term. We also found that expertise in academic development, which could potentially challenge common-sense assumptions, was unevenly distributed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Interdisciplinarity requires careful stewardship of powerful knowledge
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , de Bie G J
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434487 , vital:73068 , ISBN 9780367518707 , https://www.routledge.com/Enhancing-Science-Education-Exploring-Knowledge-Practices-with-Legitimation/Blackie-Adendorff-Mouton/p/book/9780367518707#:~:text=The%20book%20introduces%20Legitimation%20Code,grasp%20difficult%20and%20dense%20concepts
- Description: This book helps meet an urgent need for theorized, accessible and discipline-sensitive publications to assist science, technology, engineering and mathematics educators. The book introduces Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and demonstrates how it can be used to improve teaching and learning in tertiary courses across the sciences. LCT provides a suite of tools which science educators can employ in order to help their students grasp difficult and dense concepts. The chapters cover a broad range of subjects, including biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics, as well as different curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. This is a crucial resource for any science educator who wants to better understand and improve their teaching.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , de Bie G J
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434487 , vital:73068 , ISBN 9780367518707 , https://www.routledge.com/Enhancing-Science-Education-Exploring-Knowledge-Practices-with-Legitimation/Blackie-Adendorff-Mouton/p/book/9780367518707#:~:text=The%20book%20introduces%20Legitimation%20Code,grasp%20difficult%20and%20dense%20concepts
- Description: This book helps meet an urgent need for theorized, accessible and discipline-sensitive publications to assist science, technology, engineering and mathematics educators. The book introduces Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and demonstrates how it can be used to improve teaching and learning in tertiary courses across the sciences. LCT provides a suite of tools which science educators can employ in order to help their students grasp difficult and dense concepts. The chapters cover a broad range of subjects, including biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics, as well as different curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. This is a crucial resource for any science educator who wants to better understand and improve their teaching.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Neoliberalism’s conditioning effects on the university and the example of proctoring during COVID-19 and since
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426929 , vital:72401 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2022.2100612"
- Description: Neoliberalism has shaped the academy in ways that constrain its potential as a public good. Neoliberalism is based on the assumption that, by submitting to the so-called neutral forces of the market, wealth can be created alongside the achievement of equality and efficiency. Although this assumption is demonstrably false, neoliberalism remains politically powerful. As an example, this article discusses how neoliberalism has enabled the rapid uptake of proctoring software during the covid pandemic and since. ‘Proctoring' is the online monitoring of students’ behaviour as they sit for exams. Many within the academy consider proctoring software to be dehumanizing – essentially legalized spyware. They argue that the software invades privacy and is inherently racist and ableist, amongst other things. It is hoped that by understanding how structural forces such as neoliberalism affect both our agency and university activities, frequently against the common good, strategies can be developed to change these structures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426929 , vital:72401 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2022.2100612"
- Description: Neoliberalism has shaped the academy in ways that constrain its potential as a public good. Neoliberalism is based on the assumption that, by submitting to the so-called neutral forces of the market, wealth can be created alongside the achievement of equality and efficiency. Although this assumption is demonstrably false, neoliberalism remains politically powerful. As an example, this article discusses how neoliberalism has enabled the rapid uptake of proctoring software during the covid pandemic and since. ‘Proctoring' is the online monitoring of students’ behaviour as they sit for exams. Many within the academy consider proctoring software to be dehumanizing – essentially legalized spyware. They argue that the software invades privacy and is inherently racist and ableist, amongst other things. It is hoped that by understanding how structural forces such as neoliberalism affect both our agency and university activities, frequently against the common good, strategies can be developed to change these structures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Plagiarism and the commodification of knowledge
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426967 , vital:72404 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00926-5"
- Description: Universities have put in place various policies and punishments to manage plagiarism and it is an issue of signifcant interest. This article looks at how plagiarism is discussed in the 55 Higher Education articles between 1982 and June 2022 that make some reference to the term. Many of the articles focused on a police-catch-punish approach and imbued a strong moral charge to the issue. In contrast to such articles were those that presented citation as a complex academic practice that needs to be engaged with educationally. Our understandings of and responses to plagiarism emerge from a number of causal mechanisms but I argue that a key mechanism is the commodifcation of knowledge. Where knowledge is a product to be packaged, bought, and sold, then ownership and attribution become more important than engagement and personal meaning making. Instead of our obsession with a police-catch-punish approach to plagiarism, at a more micro-level, we should be inducting students into the many roles citations serve, and at a macro-level, we should be engaging in considerations of the purposes of a higher education and how we might better enable students to enjoy a transformative relationship to knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426967 , vital:72404 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00926-5"
- Description: Universities have put in place various policies and punishments to manage plagiarism and it is an issue of signifcant interest. This article looks at how plagiarism is discussed in the 55 Higher Education articles between 1982 and June 2022 that make some reference to the term. Many of the articles focused on a police-catch-punish approach and imbued a strong moral charge to the issue. In contrast to such articles were those that presented citation as a complex academic practice that needs to be engaged with educationally. Our understandings of and responses to plagiarism emerge from a number of causal mechanisms but I argue that a key mechanism is the commodifcation of knowledge. Where knowledge is a product to be packaged, bought, and sold, then ownership and attribution become more important than engagement and personal meaning making. Instead of our obsession with a police-catch-punish approach to plagiarism, at a more micro-level, we should be inducting students into the many roles citations serve, and at a macro-level, we should be engaging in considerations of the purposes of a higher education and how we might better enable students to enjoy a transformative relationship to knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Book Review Quinn, L.(ed.) 2019. Re-imagining Curriculum: Spaces for Disruption
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185865 , vital:44441 , xlink:href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.14426/cristal.v9i1.434"
- Description: This book is in some ways a continuation of the conversation begun with Reimaging Academic Staff Development: Spaces for Disruption (2012), also edited by Lynn Quinn. But the 2019 volume takes a much wider viewpoint including, as it does, twenty chapters by forty-two authors who are academics and academic developers across institutional types from Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the West Indies. Quinn and Vorster (2019: 2) state in Chapter One that the purpose of the book is 'to share theoretical perspectives and practical ideas for ways in which academic developers (and academic leaders) can work in partnership with lecturers and students to respond to the urgent calls for curriculum transformation and decolonisation'. This captures the four threads that run throughout the collection.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185865 , vital:44441 , xlink:href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.14426/cristal.v9i1.434"
- Description: This book is in some ways a continuation of the conversation begun with Reimaging Academic Staff Development: Spaces for Disruption (2012), also edited by Lynn Quinn. But the 2019 volume takes a much wider viewpoint including, as it does, twenty chapters by forty-two authors who are academics and academic developers across institutional types from Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the West Indies. Quinn and Vorster (2019: 2) state in Chapter One that the purpose of the book is 'to share theoretical perspectives and practical ideas for ways in which academic developers (and academic leaders) can work in partnership with lecturers and students to respond to the urgent calls for curriculum transformation and decolonisation'. This captures the four threads that run throughout the collection.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Constraints on improving higher education teaching and learning through funding
- Authors: Moyo, Temwa , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185854 , vital:44440 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2021/7807"
- Description: In the midst of massification, targeted funding has been used in various countries to address inefficiencies in teaching and learning. In South Africa, arguments have been made for significant investments to be made and the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) in particular is being used as a driver for improved outputs. Prior to its implementation in 2018, the UCDG comprised the Research Development Grant and the Teaching Development Grant. The Teaching Development Grant was intended to address low retention and throughput rates and ZAR5.5 billion was spent to this end over a 12-year period. The analysis presented here of all Teaching Development Grant budget plans and progress reports from 2007 to 2015 shows that the undifferentiated implementation of the Teaching Development Grant within a differentiated sector limited its potential for system-wide gains. Institutions without adequate resources tended to divert Teaching Development Grant funds to attend to backlogs rather than to address teaching and learning practices and such universities lost much of their allocation through the withholding of unspent funds. This blanket practice addressed the symptoms of underspending but not the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms that led to such under-expenditure. Uneven access to the limited teaching development expertise also impacted on the use of the grant. This call for a context-based approach to funding has been identified as a key success factor in grant interventions in both African and European universities. We recommend a sector-wide response in the form of a national body or plan for the benefit of all universities and investment in financial management enhancement. The study contributes to a better understanding of how government funding interventions can achieve intended goals. The study calls for a more contextualised approach to funding and to greater collaboration across the sector to maximise limited capacity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Moyo, Temwa , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185854 , vital:44440 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2021/7807"
- Description: In the midst of massification, targeted funding has been used in various countries to address inefficiencies in teaching and learning. In South Africa, arguments have been made for significant investments to be made and the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) in particular is being used as a driver for improved outputs. Prior to its implementation in 2018, the UCDG comprised the Research Development Grant and the Teaching Development Grant. The Teaching Development Grant was intended to address low retention and throughput rates and ZAR5.5 billion was spent to this end over a 12-year period. The analysis presented here of all Teaching Development Grant budget plans and progress reports from 2007 to 2015 shows that the undifferentiated implementation of the Teaching Development Grant within a differentiated sector limited its potential for system-wide gains. Institutions without adequate resources tended to divert Teaching Development Grant funds to attend to backlogs rather than to address teaching and learning practices and such universities lost much of their allocation through the withholding of unspent funds. This blanket practice addressed the symptoms of underspending but not the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms that led to such under-expenditure. Uneven access to the limited teaching development expertise also impacted on the use of the grant. This call for a context-based approach to funding has been identified as a key success factor in grant interventions in both African and European universities. We recommend a sector-wide response in the form of a national body or plan for the benefit of all universities and investment in financial management enhancement. The study contributes to a better understanding of how government funding interventions can achieve intended goals. The study calls for a more contextualised approach to funding and to greater collaboration across the sector to maximise limited capacity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Crossing the border from candidate to supervisor: The need for appropriate development
- Motshoane, Puleng, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Motshoane, Puleng , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185876 , vital:44442 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1900814"
- Description: Postgraduate education has grown enormously worldwide, which has led to supervisors being expected to take on a supervisor's role immediately upon graduation. But crossing the border from being a doctoral candidate to becoming a doctoral supervisor entails significant shifts in identity and an understanding of postgraduate pedagogy and institutional expectations. This paper argues that supervision development opportunities are crucial, but they need to be contextualised and include critical key agents with some institutional authority if they are to be deemed worthwhile and effect change. An online survey completed by 186 participants from across institutional types and disciplines in South Africa is analysed using Archer's social realism to provide insights into how emerging supervisors are currently supported. The resultant recommendations on supervision development could contribute to more confident border crossing by emerging supervisors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Motshoane, Puleng , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185876 , vital:44442 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1900814"
- Description: Postgraduate education has grown enormously worldwide, which has led to supervisors being expected to take on a supervisor's role immediately upon graduation. But crossing the border from being a doctoral candidate to becoming a doctoral supervisor entails significant shifts in identity and an understanding of postgraduate pedagogy and institutional expectations. This paper argues that supervision development opportunities are crucial, but they need to be contextualised and include critical key agents with some institutional authority if they are to be deemed worthwhile and effect change. An online survey completed by 186 participants from across institutional types and disciplines in South Africa is analysed using Archer's social realism to provide insights into how emerging supervisors are currently supported. The resultant recommendations on supervision development could contribute to more confident border crossing by emerging supervisors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
The politics of postgraduate education: supervising in a troubled world
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434502 , vital:73069 , ISBN 9781991201225 , https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/The_Global_Scholar/KvQ3EAAAQBAJ?hl=enandgbpv=0
- Description: In our rapidly globalising world, "the global scholar" is a key concept for reimagining the roles of academics at the nexus of the global and the local. This book critically explores the implications of the concept for understanding postgraduate studies and supervision. It uses three conceptual lenses - "horizon", "currency" and "trajec-tory" - to organise the thirteen chapters, concluding with a reflection on the implica-tions of Covid-19 for postgraduate studies and supervision. Authors bring their perspectives on the global scholar from a variety of contexts, including South Afri-ca, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Germany, Cyprus, Kenya and Israel. They explore issues around policy, research and practice, sharing a con-cern with the relation between the local and the global, and a passion for advancing postgraduate studies and supervision.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434502 , vital:73069 , ISBN 9781991201225 , https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/The_Global_Scholar/KvQ3EAAAQBAJ?hl=enandgbpv=0
- Description: In our rapidly globalising world, "the global scholar" is a key concept for reimagining the roles of academics at the nexus of the global and the local. This book critically explores the implications of the concept for understanding postgraduate studies and supervision. It uses three conceptual lenses - "horizon", "currency" and "trajec-tory" - to organise the thirteen chapters, concluding with a reflection on the implica-tions of Covid-19 for postgraduate studies and supervision. Authors bring their perspectives on the global scholar from a variety of contexts, including South Afri-ca, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Germany, Cyprus, Kenya and Israel. They explore issues around policy, research and practice, sharing a con-cern with the relation between the local and the global, and a passion for advancing postgraduate studies and supervision.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
A systematic analysis of doctoral publication trends in South Africa
- Van Schalkwyk, Susan, Mouton, Johann, Redelinghuys, Herman, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Van Schalkwyk, Susan , Mouton, Johann , Redelinghuys, Herman , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185826 , vital:44438 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/7926"
- Description: It is incumbent upon doctoral students that their work makes a substantive contribution to the field within which it is conducted. Dissemination of this work beyond the dissertation, whether whilst studying or after graduation, is necessary to ensure that the contribution does not remain largely dormant. While dissemination can take many forms, peer-reviewed journal articles are the key medium by which knowledge is shared. We aimed to establish the proportion of doctoral theses that results in journal publications by linking South African doctoral thesis metadata to journal articles authored by doctoral candidates. To effect this matching, a customised data set was created that comprised two large databases: the South African Theses Database (SATD), which documented all doctoral degrees awarded in South Africa (2005-2014), and the South African Knowledgebase (SAK), which listed all publications submitted for subsidy to the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (2005-2017). The process followed several iterations of matching and verification, including manual inspection of the data, in order to isolate only those records for which the link was established beyond doubt. Over the period under review, 47.6% of graduates, representing 22 of the 26 higher education institutions, published at least one journal article. Results further indicate increasingly higher publication rates over time. To explore whether the journal article identified was a direct product of the study, a similarity index was developed. Over 75% of records demonstrated high similarity. While the trend towards increasing publications by graduates is promising, work in this area should be ongoing. In spite of increasing trends in publications by graduates, many are not disseminating their work, suggesting that significant bodies of research are potentially not being shared with the academic community and are therefore not contributing to the relevant discipline or field. •This study provides baseline data from which a number of further investigations can be launched, such as exploring the extent to which doctoral candidates who are also academics are publishing their work; the factors that enable or constrain publication; the other avenues of dissemination used; and whether publishing or not publishing can serve as a proxy for the quality of the doctoral work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Van Schalkwyk, Susan , Mouton, Johann , Redelinghuys, Herman , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185826 , vital:44438 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/7926"
- Description: It is incumbent upon doctoral students that their work makes a substantive contribution to the field within which it is conducted. Dissemination of this work beyond the dissertation, whether whilst studying or after graduation, is necessary to ensure that the contribution does not remain largely dormant. While dissemination can take many forms, peer-reviewed journal articles are the key medium by which knowledge is shared. We aimed to establish the proportion of doctoral theses that results in journal publications by linking South African doctoral thesis metadata to journal articles authored by doctoral candidates. To effect this matching, a customised data set was created that comprised two large databases: the South African Theses Database (SATD), which documented all doctoral degrees awarded in South Africa (2005-2014), and the South African Knowledgebase (SAK), which listed all publications submitted for subsidy to the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (2005-2017). The process followed several iterations of matching and verification, including manual inspection of the data, in order to isolate only those records for which the link was established beyond doubt. Over the period under review, 47.6% of graduates, representing 22 of the 26 higher education institutions, published at least one journal article. Results further indicate increasingly higher publication rates over time. To explore whether the journal article identified was a direct product of the study, a similarity index was developed. Over 75% of records demonstrated high similarity. While the trend towards increasing publications by graduates is promising, work in this area should be ongoing. In spite of increasing trends in publications by graduates, many are not disseminating their work, suggesting that significant bodies of research are potentially not being shared with the academic community and are therefore not contributing to the relevant discipline or field. •This study provides baseline data from which a number of further investigations can be launched, such as exploring the extent to which doctoral candidates who are also academics are publishing their work; the factors that enable or constrain publication; the other avenues of dissemination used; and whether publishing or not publishing can serve as a proxy for the quality of the doctoral work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Curriculating powerful knowledge for public managers and administrators
- McKenna, Sioux, Harran, Marcelle, Lück, Jacqueline
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Harran, Marcelle , Lück, Jacqueline
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/187160 , vital:44575 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2019.1652103"
- Description: Public Management and Public Administration are important professions for an emerging democracy such as South Africa. They operate as the interface between state and public and are responsible for enacting many of the government's policies and social initiatives. Concerns about a lack of capacity in the sector suggest that those in these roles may be unable to meet the demands of the workplace. This article reports on a study that responded to calls for the curriculum to address such concerns by interrogating the knowledge structures of Public Management and Public Administration programmes in higher education. Interviews, textbooks and course guides were analysed to illuminate the forms of knowledge being legitimated in curricula. The study found that the focus on knowledge, skills and processes might be at the expense of a focus on the development of particular attributes or dispositions in the knowers. Furthermore, the knowledge level focus was limited in that it was highly contextualised and “light” on theory, raising questions about the acquisition of powerful knowledge needed for good governance and critical engagement in the public sector. The study recommends that both programmes include more conceptual knowledge; exposure to critical powerful forms of knowledge; and the development of particular attributes and dispositions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Harran, Marcelle , Lück, Jacqueline
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/187160 , vital:44575 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2019.1652103"
- Description: Public Management and Public Administration are important professions for an emerging democracy such as South Africa. They operate as the interface between state and public and are responsible for enacting many of the government's policies and social initiatives. Concerns about a lack of capacity in the sector suggest that those in these roles may be unable to meet the demands of the workplace. This article reports on a study that responded to calls for the curriculum to address such concerns by interrogating the knowledge structures of Public Management and Public Administration programmes in higher education. Interviews, textbooks and course guides were analysed to illuminate the forms of knowledge being legitimated in curricula. The study found that the focus on knowledge, skills and processes might be at the expense of a focus on the development of particular attributes or dispositions in the knowers. Furthermore, the knowledge level focus was limited in that it was highly contextualised and “light” on theory, raising questions about the acquisition of powerful knowledge needed for good governance and critical engagement in the public sector. The study recommends that both programmes include more conceptual knowledge; exposure to critical powerful forms of knowledge; and the development of particular attributes and dispositions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Misconceptions and misapplications of student-centered approaches
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Quinn, Lynn
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453507 , vital:75259 , ISBN 9780429259371 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429259371-8/misconceptions-misapplications-student-centered-approaches-sioux-mckenna-lynn-quinn
- Description: A 1967 cartoon strip by Bud Blake shows a young boy, Tiger, telling his friend that he has taught his dog, Stripe, to whistle. “I don’t hear him whistling,” says the friend. Tiger explains “I said I taught him. I didn’t say he learned it.” Understanding education in terms of what it is that teachers do at the expense of a focus on how students learn has long been criticized. In 1916, Dewey was calling for more democratic approaches to education which took the student’s context into account. In 1968, Freire called for a major shift away from the “banking model” of education to one that recognized the student’s role in co-constructing knowledge. Despite the long history of such calls, transmission modes of teaching endure. It is thus unsurprising that calls for student-centered learning (SCL) are widespread.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Quinn, Lynn
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/453507 , vital:75259 , ISBN 9780429259371 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429259371-8/misconceptions-misapplications-student-centered-approaches-sioux-mckenna-lynn-quinn
- Description: A 1967 cartoon strip by Bud Blake shows a young boy, Tiger, telling his friend that he has taught his dog, Stripe, to whistle. “I don’t hear him whistling,” says the friend. Tiger explains “I said I taught him. I didn’t say he learned it.” Understanding education in terms of what it is that teachers do at the expense of a focus on how students learn has long been criticized. In 1916, Dewey was calling for more democratic approaches to education which took the student’s context into account. In 1968, Freire called for a major shift away from the “banking model” of education to one that recognized the student’s role in co-constructing knowledge. Despite the long history of such calls, transmission modes of teaching endure. It is thus unsurprising that calls for student-centered learning (SCL) are widespread.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Paul Ashwin Transforming university education, a manifesto: A review
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185886 , vital:44445 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00641-z"
- Description: This book is wide-ranging in its focus. It tackles student-centeredness, graduate premiums, credentialing, quality assurance, big data and rankings, and yet it offers a coherent engagement with these and many other contemporary issues. The coherence is brought about by the consistent application of one central idea throughout the book. That is that the value of higher education for both the individual and for society is that it brings the graduate into a transformational relationship with knowledge that changes their sense of who they are and thereby makes possible their doing all number of things in the world.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185886 , vital:44445 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00641-z"
- Description: This book is wide-ranging in its focus. It tackles student-centeredness, graduate premiums, credentialing, quality assurance, big data and rankings, and yet it offers a coherent engagement with these and many other contemporary issues. The coherence is brought about by the consistent application of one central idea throughout the book. That is that the value of higher education for both the individual and for society is that it brings the graduate into a transformational relationship with knowledge that changes their sense of who they are and thereby makes possible their doing all number of things in the world.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Reimagining academic identities in response to research demands at Universities of Technology
- Gumbi, Thobani, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Gumbi, Thobani , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185897 , vital:44446 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8i1.234"
- Description: In the last volume of this journal, Garraway and Winberg called for a reimagination of Universities of Technology (UoT) within the South African higher education system. This article continues that conversation by looking at the implications that the formation of the UoT had for academics’ identities. Technikon lecturers’ identities were closely tied to workplace expertise, but demands for research in UoTs have changed this. A social realist analysis of interviews with fifteen academics at three UoTs finds that research remains a contested issue. Interviewees understood research to take the form of acquiring postgraduate qualifications, rather than as an ongoing activity tied to their identities. Echoing Garraway and Winberg’s study, the bureaucratic nature of the institutional culture was referred to as a constraint. There was also a view that for this programme, Dental Technology, a demand for research was needed from industry if this was to be a valued aspect of academics’ identities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Gumbi, Thobani , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/185897 , vital:44446 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8i1.234"
- Description: In the last volume of this journal, Garraway and Winberg called for a reimagination of Universities of Technology (UoT) within the South African higher education system. This article continues that conversation by looking at the implications that the formation of the UoT had for academics’ identities. Technikon lecturers’ identities were closely tied to workplace expertise, but demands for research in UoTs have changed this. A social realist analysis of interviews with fifteen academics at three UoTs finds that research remains a contested issue. Interviewees understood research to take the form of acquiring postgraduate qualifications, rather than as an ongoing activity tied to their identities. Echoing Garraway and Winberg’s study, the bureaucratic nature of the institutional culture was referred to as a constraint. There was also a view that for this programme, Dental Technology, a demand for research was needed from industry if this was to be a valued aspect of academics’ identities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020