The morphogenesis of higher education leadership: a social realist exploratory journey
- Authors: Andrews, Ruth
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Educational leadership South Africa , Education, Higher South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism , Educational change South Africa , Transformational leadership
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442897 , vital:74051 , DOI 10.21504/10962/442897
- Description: The purpose of the study underpinning this thesis was to explore the tensions experienced by university leaders as they balance politics, power and the academic project whilst pursuing their ultimate concerns in the world. Universities are undergoing constant change, particularly in the present time of hypercomplexity, where the discourses of globalisation and neoliberalism condition higher education institutions and their leaders. This predisposes universities to operate as a market economy rather than as a public good. University leaders are under immense pressure as they seek to reposition themselves and exercise their agency in steering their institutions in a landscape fraught with complexity and contestation about the very nature of the modern university. The study was located in a traditional university in South Africa, which added another layer of complexity given the history of Apartheid and, the use of education as a means of discriminating against the black majority population, and the subsequent attempts by the government to transform the system following the first democratic election of 1994. Bhaskar’s (1989) critical realism and Archer’s (1998, 2000) social realism were used to frame the study theoretically. Bhaskar argues for the understanding of the world as an ‘open system’ in which experiences and events emerge from the tendential interplay of mechanisms at a layer of reality not directly accessible to empirical observation. Archer’s (2000) social realism draws on critical realism to provide a set of tools that allows an exploration of the social world in more detail. This study draws on the tools of analytical dualism, or the temporary separation of structure, culture and agency for analytical purposes, and Archer’s (1998) morphogenetic framework, which allows for the exploration of change, or non-change, over time. The overarching goal of the study was to explore how leaders at one South African university were enabled and constrained as they exercised their agency in the pursuit of projects they had identified to address their ultimate concerns about the world more generally and higher education in particular. However, the study also sought to explore the construct of leadership itself in a specific context by using Archer’s (2007, 2012) theoretical work on reflexivity. The study drew on in-depth interviews with senior leaders at the institution, including two vice-chancellors. The interviews were subjected to analysis, and the inferential tools of abduction and retroduction were used to identify the interplay of mechanisms located at the level of the Real, the deepest layer of reality posited by Bhaskar (1978), which led to the events and experiences reported by leaders. A literature review was used to identify additional theories that were used in the processes of abduction and retroduction. The study revealed that change, or rather non-change, is often concealed in cultural rhetoric veiled in leadership practices in acts assimilating past ideology and codified rules and practices with new codified rules and practices. Leaders often draw on powerful relational networks as they reflexively exercise their agency, and these networks can also work to constrain change. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
- Authors: Andrews, Ruth
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Educational leadership South Africa , Education, Higher South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism , Educational change South Africa , Transformational leadership
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442897 , vital:74051 , DOI 10.21504/10962/442897
- Description: The purpose of the study underpinning this thesis was to explore the tensions experienced by university leaders as they balance politics, power and the academic project whilst pursuing their ultimate concerns in the world. Universities are undergoing constant change, particularly in the present time of hypercomplexity, where the discourses of globalisation and neoliberalism condition higher education institutions and their leaders. This predisposes universities to operate as a market economy rather than as a public good. University leaders are under immense pressure as they seek to reposition themselves and exercise their agency in steering their institutions in a landscape fraught with complexity and contestation about the very nature of the modern university. The study was located in a traditional university in South Africa, which added another layer of complexity given the history of Apartheid and, the use of education as a means of discriminating against the black majority population, and the subsequent attempts by the government to transform the system following the first democratic election of 1994. Bhaskar’s (1989) critical realism and Archer’s (1998, 2000) social realism were used to frame the study theoretically. Bhaskar argues for the understanding of the world as an ‘open system’ in which experiences and events emerge from the tendential interplay of mechanisms at a layer of reality not directly accessible to empirical observation. Archer’s (2000) social realism draws on critical realism to provide a set of tools that allows an exploration of the social world in more detail. This study draws on the tools of analytical dualism, or the temporary separation of structure, culture and agency for analytical purposes, and Archer’s (1998) morphogenetic framework, which allows for the exploration of change, or non-change, over time. The overarching goal of the study was to explore how leaders at one South African university were enabled and constrained as they exercised their agency in the pursuit of projects they had identified to address their ultimate concerns about the world more generally and higher education in particular. However, the study also sought to explore the construct of leadership itself in a specific context by using Archer’s (2007, 2012) theoretical work on reflexivity. The study drew on in-depth interviews with senior leaders at the institution, including two vice-chancellors. The interviews were subjected to analysis, and the inferential tools of abduction and retroduction were used to identify the interplay of mechanisms located at the level of the Real, the deepest layer of reality posited by Bhaskar (1978), which led to the events and experiences reported by leaders. A literature review was used to identify additional theories that were used in the processes of abduction and retroduction. The study revealed that change, or rather non-change, is often concealed in cultural rhetoric veiled in leadership practices in acts assimilating past ideology and codified rules and practices with new codified rules and practices. Leaders often draw on powerful relational networks as they reflexively exercise their agency, and these networks can also work to constrain change. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
The transformative potential of intersecting arts-based inquiry and environmental learning in urban South Africa: a focus on socio-ecological water pedagogies
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Museums for the Planet: Critical Realist Philosophy and the Possibility of an Eco-decolonial Museology
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Museums Management , Critical realism , Ontology , Decolonization , Organizational change , Social ecology , Eco-decolonial
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192692 , vital:45251 , 10.21504/10962/192692
- Description: This study introduces dialectical critical realism into museology as a philosophical underlabourer for the development of new theoretical potentials for the transformation of museum practice. The idea of the museum is in a moment of fluidity evident in emergent decolonial and ecological perspectives and in the International Council of Museum’s process of redefinition of the museum. The potential to reimagine the museum lacks a coherent philosophical and theoretical foundation. The persistence of museological dualism separates the social from the ecological and absents the emergence of relational modes of thinking and practice. This study conceives an ecological-decolonial or eco-decolonial mode of museology that is disruptive of dualism and generative of relationality, and is thus generative of agency for deeper, more effective and enduring social-ecological justice. The core of this thesis is the development of the eco-decolonial mode of museology through the DCR onto-axiological chain or ‘MELD’ schema. At 1M a depth ontological analysis augmented by interviews with key informants establishes a dialectic of society and ecology in the museological context. 1M surfaces capitalism and the implicit neoliberal ontology of museology as deep causal mechanisms of the 2E persistence of museological human-nature dualism. The paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’ is a policy-practice contradiction that absents potentials for transformation of the museum and that is held in place by the grounding ontological activity of museology, collection. The 2E perspective on absences enables the emergence of new transformative pathways towards the 3L vision of the eco-decolonial mode of museology as a (4D) new way of thinking and working to resolve neoliberal restrictions. The fundamental 4D change envisioned for museum philosophy, theory and practice is an ontological transformation from traditionalist human-nature dualism to a progressive human-nature dialectic. A case study considers instances where museum workers exercised the agency to expand practice in this way. Future work using the expansive learning methodology of Change Laboratories will develop and implement the potentials generated by the onto-axiological chain for the eco-decolonial mode to bring real change to traditional, dualist museum practice, in order to ensure the relevance and the agency of the museum as a social structure in and for a changing world. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Museums Management , Critical realism , Ontology , Decolonization , Organizational change , Social ecology , Eco-decolonial
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192692 , vital:45251 , 10.21504/10962/192692
- Description: This study introduces dialectical critical realism into museology as a philosophical underlabourer for the development of new theoretical potentials for the transformation of museum practice. The idea of the museum is in a moment of fluidity evident in emergent decolonial and ecological perspectives and in the International Council of Museum’s process of redefinition of the museum. The potential to reimagine the museum lacks a coherent philosophical and theoretical foundation. The persistence of museological dualism separates the social from the ecological and absents the emergence of relational modes of thinking and practice. This study conceives an ecological-decolonial or eco-decolonial mode of museology that is disruptive of dualism and generative of relationality, and is thus generative of agency for deeper, more effective and enduring social-ecological justice. The core of this thesis is the development of the eco-decolonial mode of museology through the DCR onto-axiological chain or ‘MELD’ schema. At 1M a depth ontological analysis augmented by interviews with key informants establishes a dialectic of society and ecology in the museological context. 1M surfaces capitalism and the implicit neoliberal ontology of museology as deep causal mechanisms of the 2E persistence of museological human-nature dualism. The paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’ is a policy-practice contradiction that absents potentials for transformation of the museum and that is held in place by the grounding ontological activity of museology, collection. The 2E perspective on absences enables the emergence of new transformative pathways towards the 3L vision of the eco-decolonial mode of museology as a (4D) new way of thinking and working to resolve neoliberal restrictions. The fundamental 4D change envisioned for museum philosophy, theory and practice is an ontological transformation from traditionalist human-nature dualism to a progressive human-nature dialectic. A case study considers instances where museum workers exercised the agency to expand practice in this way. Future work using the expansive learning methodology of Change Laboratories will develop and implement the potentials generated by the onto-axiological chain for the eco-decolonial mode to bring real change to traditional, dualist museum practice, in order to ensure the relevance and the agency of the museum as a social structure in and for a changing world. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Exploring Social Learning within the Context of Community-Based Farming : Implications for Farmers’ Agency and Capabilities
- Authors: Dirwai, Crispen
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Crops and climate -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Livestock -- Climatic factors -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Social learning -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Community-supported agriculture -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Environmental education -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Climatic changes -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174526 , vital:42485 , https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/174526
- Description: This thesis, ‘Exploring social learning within the context of community-based farming: Implications for farmers’ agency and capabilities’, provided an opportunity to investigate how community-based farmers engaged a social learning process in adjusting their practices to the observed climate change and variability risks and vulnerabilities. The social learning and pedagogic trajectory towards climate change adaptation, involved a multi-sectoral approach in a community of practice that was inclusive of extension service, developmental agencies, a university, climate change activists, a primary school, a university, the agro-industrial community, the urban open market and the local standards association. Social learning, in this community of practice, took place during field days, field tours, focus groups and observations in a multi-case study approach. The main research question addressed in this thesis was ‘How can and does social learning facilitate or constrain the conversion of resources into functionings and new adaptation capabilities of communal farmers in Muchena village in the face of increasing climate change and associated climate variability related socio-ecological risks and vulnerabilities?’ In order to address this main research question and its corresponding sub-questions, two main categories of climate change adaptive agricultural practices, crop and non-crop, were studied in the context of social learning and collective and individual capabilities and agency. The research ontology and epistemology were grounded in critical realism, with the epistemic work in the multiple case study being drawing on a constructivist approach where eleven Farmers’ Case Stories [FCS] from crop and non-crop community-based farmers were purposively followed throughout this thesis journey, while the ontological dynamics were pursued through critical realist depth ontological enquiry. The theoretical framework for this thesis encompassed Bhaskar’s (1998; 2016) dialectical critical realist MELD schema, which underlabours conversion factors from Sen’s (1993; 2005) capabilities theory mobilised via the six sequential moments of the pedagogic practice of social learning as articulated by Wals (2007). This gave the theoretical framework a multi-dimensional facet. In this multi-dimensional theoretical framework, the ontologically influential generative mechanisms identified at 1M, were droughts, food insecurity, economic poverty, poor farming methods, floods, pests, socio-political stress, socio-cultural and intergenerational knowledge transfer, government policies and market forces. Effort was made to absent these ills at 2E, through knowledge co-creation within the communities of practice, through individual and collective reflexivity and was guided by the six sequential moments of Wals’ (2007) social learning pedagogic trajectory and by the three capabilities conversion factors; personal, environmental and social. At 3L’s totalities (laminated) and false totalities and compromises, the community-based farmers came to realise, appreciate and utilised the benefits of individual and collective agency as knowledge generation. In the theoretical framework, the social learning process was a product of collective and individual agency, a product of co-creation, co-sharing and co-monitoring and mentoring of each other’s work in a non-linear process towards transformation at 4D. The thesis identified the following capability sets and their corresponding functionings: education with the new achieved functionings of knowledge on market oriented economy with more functionings such as apiary, dendrology, aqua-culture and horticultural practices, partnerships including contract farming and company registration; health as a capability set had the new functionings of improved people’s and soil’s health from organic and conservation production practices; nutrition as a capability set with new functionings of organic and conservation farming as well as, through testing of products and soils to ascertain nutritional parameters, nutritional functionings. These identified capability sets as valued beings and doings all attempted to absent climate change induced droughts, food insecurity and economic poverty through the social learning process. The new achieved functionings of knowledge on related market oriented economy, were used for food security as farmers were able to buy maize, the staple food, which has been constrained by climate change induced droughts and pests. The new capability sets and achieved functionings in alternatives to maize crop farming could be viewed in this thesis as a positive emancipatory cyclic movement in the community-based farmers from non-being to agency [1M to 4D]. The thesis found that for the social learning process to be transformative, the community-based farmers had to reflect as individuals and collectively as a community from T1 [social learning layer 1] to T00 [social learning as multi-layered and infinite]. Learning starts from T1 by engaging the ontological and epistemological question ‘what?’ and the pedagogical question, ‘how?’, in order to understand existing ills and how best to absent them. Tensions existed as the community still take maize meal as their staple food and yet maize production is less resilient to droughts in the absence of water harvesting for irrigation. Despite realising the nutritional value of small grains, the research findings claimed that small grains were difficult to process into a mealie-meal and so, could not replace maize as a staple food. Theoretical contributions from this thesis entailed both epistemological and ontological implications as the community-based farmers started to question positivism as the only benchmark for organic standards by sending what they self-perceived as ‘organic’ products and soils, for verification from observed laboratory tests. This might have indicated a recognised shift in the epistemology of the poor community-based farmer, who are widely viewed in literature, as non-being and subsistence, towards an organised transformative market oriented practice. In this regard, transformative social learning catalysed by the thesis, contributed towards an organic practice characterised by absenting synthetic fertilisers and certain heavy elements from the soils and from the products, thereby adapting and mitigating to global climate change at a micro-scale. The study, though small scale, might be viewed as having global policy implications. For SGD:2 FCS 1, VS absented hunger by transforming from zero tonnage in 2012 to an estimated harvest of four tonnes in 2017. For SDG:3, FCS 3, LN produced close to a tonne of organic peas that passed through laboratory testing for nutritional parameters and testing against heavy metals during the 2018 and 2019 farming season. SDG: 1 could be assessed and reflected through improved livelihoods from income raised under market gardening as shown in FCS 3, LN; FCS, 4 SM2; FCS 5 SS and FCS 6 JM2. Also from SDG 1, were alternatives to maize crop farming and climate change adaptation market oriented apiary practiced by FCS 7, LM2 & FCS 8, LM3 and market oriented dendrology from FCS, 10, VC & FCS 11, JC. FCS 10, VC, managed to register a small company while FCS 11, JC managed to get contracts from reputable tobacco companies in the country and he also managed to access bank loans to purchase a small truck to absent the transport ills that constrained the youths who finally moved out of the achieved functioning of dendrology. FCS, 3, LN and the group of youths valued sending their products and soils for laboratory tests, an indicator of the quality of education that they attained through Social learning process’ communities of practice engagement. By supplying part of their products as raw materials to an agro-industry, the newly achieved functioning of market oriented agriculture from FCS 3, LN and FCS 4, SM2 could be viewed as a move towards SDG: 9. In terms of SDG: 12, the farming practices studied in this thesis were deemed environmentally friendly, green and so were adaptations to climate change which could be read along with SDG: 13. The thesis findings thus could be viewed as those that could open up some ways of assessing and providing practical implementation pathways for some of the sustainable development goals as well as providing a platform to interrogate other ways of understanding critical realism’s underlying generative mechanisms as enablers and constrainers to shaping social learning and people’s measurable functionings in the context of education for sustainable development and the global action programme (GAP) and its immanent successor, the ESD Agenda 2030 framework. The research is therefore well poised to inform this agenda. The study concludes that in order to enhance community-based farmers’ social learning and agency towards climate change adaptation, extension service, the standards association institution, agro-industry, the university as well as the media, might need to engage pro-actively with the farmers’ capabilities and agency. The thesis also attempted to inform the university institution’s community engagement, thereby giving practical meaning to the whole institution approaches to ESD as promoted in the UNESCO ESD Global Action Programme, and the emerging ESD 2030 Agenda. The thesis therefore has potential to inform pedagogic practices at the formal, non-formal and the informal learning sectors. The thesis concludes that the social learning process, when coupled with critical realism and the capabilities theories, could facilitate the conversion of resources into new adaptive functionings. The social learning process is transformative, reflexive and recursive, but might have to start from 1M to 4D and from T1 to T00. Moreover, the thesis concludes that poverty remained one of the major disablers of the farmers’ capabilities and agency in this thesis. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
- Authors: Dirwai, Crispen
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Crops and climate -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Livestock -- Climatic factors -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Social learning -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Community-supported agriculture -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Environmental education -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Climatic changes -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe -- Mutasa District , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/174526 , vital:42485 , https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/174526
- Description: This thesis, ‘Exploring social learning within the context of community-based farming: Implications for farmers’ agency and capabilities’, provided an opportunity to investigate how community-based farmers engaged a social learning process in adjusting their practices to the observed climate change and variability risks and vulnerabilities. The social learning and pedagogic trajectory towards climate change adaptation, involved a multi-sectoral approach in a community of practice that was inclusive of extension service, developmental agencies, a university, climate change activists, a primary school, a university, the agro-industrial community, the urban open market and the local standards association. Social learning, in this community of practice, took place during field days, field tours, focus groups and observations in a multi-case study approach. The main research question addressed in this thesis was ‘How can and does social learning facilitate or constrain the conversion of resources into functionings and new adaptation capabilities of communal farmers in Muchena village in the face of increasing climate change and associated climate variability related socio-ecological risks and vulnerabilities?’ In order to address this main research question and its corresponding sub-questions, two main categories of climate change adaptive agricultural practices, crop and non-crop, were studied in the context of social learning and collective and individual capabilities and agency. The research ontology and epistemology were grounded in critical realism, with the epistemic work in the multiple case study being drawing on a constructivist approach where eleven Farmers’ Case Stories [FCS] from crop and non-crop community-based farmers were purposively followed throughout this thesis journey, while the ontological dynamics were pursued through critical realist depth ontological enquiry. The theoretical framework for this thesis encompassed Bhaskar’s (1998; 2016) dialectical critical realist MELD schema, which underlabours conversion factors from Sen’s (1993; 2005) capabilities theory mobilised via the six sequential moments of the pedagogic practice of social learning as articulated by Wals (2007). This gave the theoretical framework a multi-dimensional facet. In this multi-dimensional theoretical framework, the ontologically influential generative mechanisms identified at 1M, were droughts, food insecurity, economic poverty, poor farming methods, floods, pests, socio-political stress, socio-cultural and intergenerational knowledge transfer, government policies and market forces. Effort was made to absent these ills at 2E, through knowledge co-creation within the communities of practice, through individual and collective reflexivity and was guided by the six sequential moments of Wals’ (2007) social learning pedagogic trajectory and by the three capabilities conversion factors; personal, environmental and social. At 3L’s totalities (laminated) and false totalities and compromises, the community-based farmers came to realise, appreciate and utilised the benefits of individual and collective agency as knowledge generation. In the theoretical framework, the social learning process was a product of collective and individual agency, a product of co-creation, co-sharing and co-monitoring and mentoring of each other’s work in a non-linear process towards transformation at 4D. The thesis identified the following capability sets and their corresponding functionings: education with the new achieved functionings of knowledge on market oriented economy with more functionings such as apiary, dendrology, aqua-culture and horticultural practices, partnerships including contract farming and company registration; health as a capability set had the new functionings of improved people’s and soil’s health from organic and conservation production practices; nutrition as a capability set with new functionings of organic and conservation farming as well as, through testing of products and soils to ascertain nutritional parameters, nutritional functionings. These identified capability sets as valued beings and doings all attempted to absent climate change induced droughts, food insecurity and economic poverty through the social learning process. The new achieved functionings of knowledge on related market oriented economy, were used for food security as farmers were able to buy maize, the staple food, which has been constrained by climate change induced droughts and pests. The new capability sets and achieved functionings in alternatives to maize crop farming could be viewed in this thesis as a positive emancipatory cyclic movement in the community-based farmers from non-being to agency [1M to 4D]. The thesis found that for the social learning process to be transformative, the community-based farmers had to reflect as individuals and collectively as a community from T1 [social learning layer 1] to T00 [social learning as multi-layered and infinite]. Learning starts from T1 by engaging the ontological and epistemological question ‘what?’ and the pedagogical question, ‘how?’, in order to understand existing ills and how best to absent them. Tensions existed as the community still take maize meal as their staple food and yet maize production is less resilient to droughts in the absence of water harvesting for irrigation. Despite realising the nutritional value of small grains, the research findings claimed that small grains were difficult to process into a mealie-meal and so, could not replace maize as a staple food. Theoretical contributions from this thesis entailed both epistemological and ontological implications as the community-based farmers started to question positivism as the only benchmark for organic standards by sending what they self-perceived as ‘organic’ products and soils, for verification from observed laboratory tests. This might have indicated a recognised shift in the epistemology of the poor community-based farmer, who are widely viewed in literature, as non-being and subsistence, towards an organised transformative market oriented practice. In this regard, transformative social learning catalysed by the thesis, contributed towards an organic practice characterised by absenting synthetic fertilisers and certain heavy elements from the soils and from the products, thereby adapting and mitigating to global climate change at a micro-scale. The study, though small scale, might be viewed as having global policy implications. For SGD:2 FCS 1, VS absented hunger by transforming from zero tonnage in 2012 to an estimated harvest of four tonnes in 2017. For SDG:3, FCS 3, LN produced close to a tonne of organic peas that passed through laboratory testing for nutritional parameters and testing against heavy metals during the 2018 and 2019 farming season. SDG: 1 could be assessed and reflected through improved livelihoods from income raised under market gardening as shown in FCS 3, LN; FCS, 4 SM2; FCS 5 SS and FCS 6 JM2. Also from SDG 1, were alternatives to maize crop farming and climate change adaptation market oriented apiary practiced by FCS 7, LM2 & FCS 8, LM3 and market oriented dendrology from FCS, 10, VC & FCS 11, JC. FCS 10, VC, managed to register a small company while FCS 11, JC managed to get contracts from reputable tobacco companies in the country and he also managed to access bank loans to purchase a small truck to absent the transport ills that constrained the youths who finally moved out of the achieved functioning of dendrology. FCS, 3, LN and the group of youths valued sending their products and soils for laboratory tests, an indicator of the quality of education that they attained through Social learning process’ communities of practice engagement. By supplying part of their products as raw materials to an agro-industry, the newly achieved functioning of market oriented agriculture from FCS 3, LN and FCS 4, SM2 could be viewed as a move towards SDG: 9. In terms of SDG: 12, the farming practices studied in this thesis were deemed environmentally friendly, green and so were adaptations to climate change which could be read along with SDG: 13. The thesis findings thus could be viewed as those that could open up some ways of assessing and providing practical implementation pathways for some of the sustainable development goals as well as providing a platform to interrogate other ways of understanding critical realism’s underlying generative mechanisms as enablers and constrainers to shaping social learning and people’s measurable functionings in the context of education for sustainable development and the global action programme (GAP) and its immanent successor, the ESD Agenda 2030 framework. The research is therefore well poised to inform this agenda. The study concludes that in order to enhance community-based farmers’ social learning and agency towards climate change adaptation, extension service, the standards association institution, agro-industry, the university as well as the media, might need to engage pro-actively with the farmers’ capabilities and agency. The thesis also attempted to inform the university institution’s community engagement, thereby giving practical meaning to the whole institution approaches to ESD as promoted in the UNESCO ESD Global Action Programme, and the emerging ESD 2030 Agenda. The thesis therefore has potential to inform pedagogic practices at the formal, non-formal and the informal learning sectors. The thesis concludes that the social learning process, when coupled with critical realism and the capabilities theories, could facilitate the conversion of resources into new adaptive functionings. The social learning process is transformative, reflexive and recursive, but might have to start from 1M to 4D and from T1 to T00. Moreover, the thesis concludes that poverty remained one of the major disablers of the farmers’ capabilities and agency in this thesis. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
A comparative study of conceptualisations and practices of inclusion as an aspect of social justice in three teacher education institutions in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe
- Authors: Musara, Ellison
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Social justice and education , Teachers -- Training of -- Canada , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe , Educational sociology -- Canada , Educational sociology -- South Africa , Educational sociology -- Zimbabwe , Educational equalization , Inclusive education , Education -- Moral and ethical aspects , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144138 , vital:38314
- Description: This study sought to examine understandings and practices of inclusion as social justice in teacher education programmes in three countries: Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe. While inclusive education has become an issue of increasing importance globally, contemporary research shows that not much attention has been given to the preparation of teachers as a key element in developing inclusive education systems. Recognising that pre-service teacher education is vital to the success and continued development of inclusive educational practice, the purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the ways in which inclusion is understood and practiced in the field of teacher education. Using Roy Bhaskar’s (1978) critical realism as a metatheory and drawing on Fraser’s substantive theory of social justice (2008, 2009) and Tronto’s ethic of care (1993, 2013), this study explored the extent to which teacher education faculty and teacher candidates understood and practiced inclusion as an aspect of social justice. The data used in this study was generated through individual and focus group interviews and document analysis in three higher education institutions, one in each of the three countries. In Canada, four teacher educators took part in the interviews while five teacher candidates participated in the focus group. Similarly, in South Africa, three teacher educators and eight teacher candidates participated, and in Zimbabwe, four teacher educators and eight teacher candidates took part in the study respectively. Findings from the study revealed that inclusion still means different things to different people, reflecting contrasting theoretical and ideological orientations from which inclusion is considered, while still remaining a major educational policy concern in all three countries. In the Canadian and South African institutions, inclusion is viewed more in terms of systemic educational change in pursuit of equity, social justice and equal educational opportunities for all learners. In the Zimbabwean institution, the primary focus of inclusion remains creating conditions that make it possible for students with disabilities to overcome barriers to learning and participation by providing specialist educational measures and interventions intended to respond to specific forms of impairment. As a comparative study, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the knowledge of variations and patterns in the ways in which inclusive education is shaped by societal forces such as political, economic and cultural conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Musara, Ellison
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Social justice and education , Teachers -- Training of -- Canada , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe , Educational sociology -- Canada , Educational sociology -- South Africa , Educational sociology -- Zimbabwe , Educational equalization , Inclusive education , Education -- Moral and ethical aspects , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144138 , vital:38314
- Description: This study sought to examine understandings and practices of inclusion as social justice in teacher education programmes in three countries: Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe. While inclusive education has become an issue of increasing importance globally, contemporary research shows that not much attention has been given to the preparation of teachers as a key element in developing inclusive education systems. Recognising that pre-service teacher education is vital to the success and continued development of inclusive educational practice, the purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the ways in which inclusion is understood and practiced in the field of teacher education. Using Roy Bhaskar’s (1978) critical realism as a metatheory and drawing on Fraser’s substantive theory of social justice (2008, 2009) and Tronto’s ethic of care (1993, 2013), this study explored the extent to which teacher education faculty and teacher candidates understood and practiced inclusion as an aspect of social justice. The data used in this study was generated through individual and focus group interviews and document analysis in three higher education institutions, one in each of the three countries. In Canada, four teacher educators took part in the interviews while five teacher candidates participated in the focus group. Similarly, in South Africa, three teacher educators and eight teacher candidates participated, and in Zimbabwe, four teacher educators and eight teacher candidates took part in the study respectively. Findings from the study revealed that inclusion still means different things to different people, reflecting contrasting theoretical and ideological orientations from which inclusion is considered, while still remaining a major educational policy concern in all three countries. In the Canadian and South African institutions, inclusion is viewed more in terms of systemic educational change in pursuit of equity, social justice and equal educational opportunities for all learners. In the Zimbabwean institution, the primary focus of inclusion remains creating conditions that make it possible for students with disabilities to overcome barriers to learning and participation by providing specialist educational measures and interventions intended to respond to specific forms of impairment. As a comparative study, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the knowledge of variations and patterns in the ways in which inclusive education is shaped by societal forces such as political, economic and cultural conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Expanding learning in clergy leadership formation in an Anglican Church Province in Southern Africa: a critical realist study
- Authors: Chinganga, Percy
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- Africa, Southern -- Religious aspects -- Christianity , Church management -- Africa, Southern , Critical realism , Educational leadership , Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92258 , vital:30704
- Description: The focus of this study was to investigate the kind of learning that happened when participants involved in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) engaged in their responsibilities as a collective. Further, the research sought to explore collaborative and transforming practices in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities which could be expanded through learning. The study is premised on an investigation of the historical foundations of Christian leadership formation processes which sought to establish clergy leadership formation models relevant to ACSA (the context of the study) from inception (1848) to date (2017). This entailed investigating how the developments which have happened in the church from its inception in the New Testament times through the Medieval and Reformation periods, have contributed to the emergence of distinct Christian leadership formation models which have formed the basis of clergy leadership formation in ACSA. Accordingly, the study highlighted key issues relating to clergy leadership formation which are discernible in the different historical phases of the life and work of the church with the objective of establishing how ACSA, through expansive learning, could transform her current clergy leadership formation model(s) towards collaborative and transforming practices. The concept of expansive learning, drawn from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), was used in the study as a methodological tool to create an environment where research participants (formators) from several dioceses would engage in collective work activities which would surface contradictions relating to how clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were understood and facilitated in ACSA. In response to the surfaced contradictions, the study engaged research participants in Change Laboratory Workshops whose goal was to transform the organisation (ACSA) in two particular ways: empowerment of participants (formators) with conceptual tools relevant to their responsibilities in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in ACSA, and improvement of organisational cultural practices, that is, the manner in which ACSA ought to conceptualise, design, plan, facilitate and manage clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. The latter brought into the discourse the need for participants (formators) to select and employ methodologies, methods, approaches and resources relevant to the southern African context where ACSA is located even though the study also acknowledged the influence of other Anglican Church contexts on what happened at the local level. In order to decipher meaning out of investigated phenomena about clergy leadership formation in ACSA, the study employed the critical realist “underlabouring” philosophy advanced by theorists such as Bhaskar to surface underlying mechanisms that exist at the level of the “real” in order to understand the causes of particular events and experiences as they manifest in the “actual” and “empirical” domains of the world, ACSA in the case of the study. In particular, the study engaged critically the opinion deliberated by critical realists concerning the interplay between structure and agency in relation to the responsibilities of the research participants (formators) in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. For instance, the study had an interest in investigating why bishops (principal formators in ACSA) exercised their episcopal authority in the manner they do and why individual formators were concerned about particular issues which relate to the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA (agential reflexivity/subjectivity). The study observed that, in the case of diocesan bishops, critical realists would argue that, by virtue of the authority which comes with their responsibilities (agency), they have the power to influence transformation of practices in clergy leadership formation in ACSA at any given point in time. The flip side of the discourse was also taken note of: that some bishops, for reasons known to themselves and their predecessors, are often reluctant to embrace new ideas relating to clergy leadership formation practices in their dioceses. Further, through critical realist lens, the study concluded that Canons, Vision and Mission statements, Acts, and structures such as Synod of Bishops, Provincial Synod, ABoTE, Cott, and TfM structurally shape ACSA, thus providing the organisation with a stable ontology which ought to direct, regulate and control the manner in which clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were conceptualised, designed, planned, facilitated and managed. As such, the study had an interest in establishing what would happen, in relation to clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA, when these structures would have been activated? Beyond that, in view of the goal of the study, it was enquired how expansive learning processes could be helpful in responding to the research findings towards exploring collaborative and transforming clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA. Drawing from the conceptual framework which was carved in the study on the basis of the theoretical tools (critical realism and educational leadership theory) and methodological tools (CHAT orientated concepts) undergirded by the Vygotskian theorisation of human consciousness development, the study concluded that clergy leadership formation is a collaborative activity which calls for the recognition, appreciation and utilisation of available expertise in ACSA and provision of a platform where participants (formators) could engage collectively on issues relating to their work with the objective of building each other up in knowledge and skills (expansive learning) towards realisation of the goals and objectives of the organisation. Diverse understandings (contradictions) of what needed to be prioritised in the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA would be considered as a positive rather than a negative. Ultimately, through the use of inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, the study modelled a transforming, transformational, transformative, embodied and incarnational model of clergy leadership formation which ACSA could consider using in future deliberations on the object of study particularly in relation to the key research findings across the case studies which were used in the study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Chinganga, Percy
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- Africa, Southern -- Religious aspects -- Christianity , Church management -- Africa, Southern , Critical realism , Educational leadership , Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92258 , vital:30704
- Description: The focus of this study was to investigate the kind of learning that happened when participants involved in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) engaged in their responsibilities as a collective. Further, the research sought to explore collaborative and transforming practices in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities which could be expanded through learning. The study is premised on an investigation of the historical foundations of Christian leadership formation processes which sought to establish clergy leadership formation models relevant to ACSA (the context of the study) from inception (1848) to date (2017). This entailed investigating how the developments which have happened in the church from its inception in the New Testament times through the Medieval and Reformation periods, have contributed to the emergence of distinct Christian leadership formation models which have formed the basis of clergy leadership formation in ACSA. Accordingly, the study highlighted key issues relating to clergy leadership formation which are discernible in the different historical phases of the life and work of the church with the objective of establishing how ACSA, through expansive learning, could transform her current clergy leadership formation model(s) towards collaborative and transforming practices. The concept of expansive learning, drawn from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), was used in the study as a methodological tool to create an environment where research participants (formators) from several dioceses would engage in collective work activities which would surface contradictions relating to how clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were understood and facilitated in ACSA. In response to the surfaced contradictions, the study engaged research participants in Change Laboratory Workshops whose goal was to transform the organisation (ACSA) in two particular ways: empowerment of participants (formators) with conceptual tools relevant to their responsibilities in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in ACSA, and improvement of organisational cultural practices, that is, the manner in which ACSA ought to conceptualise, design, plan, facilitate and manage clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. The latter brought into the discourse the need for participants (formators) to select and employ methodologies, methods, approaches and resources relevant to the southern African context where ACSA is located even though the study also acknowledged the influence of other Anglican Church contexts on what happened at the local level. In order to decipher meaning out of investigated phenomena about clergy leadership formation in ACSA, the study employed the critical realist “underlabouring” philosophy advanced by theorists such as Bhaskar to surface underlying mechanisms that exist at the level of the “real” in order to understand the causes of particular events and experiences as they manifest in the “actual” and “empirical” domains of the world, ACSA in the case of the study. In particular, the study engaged critically the opinion deliberated by critical realists concerning the interplay between structure and agency in relation to the responsibilities of the research participants (formators) in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. For instance, the study had an interest in investigating why bishops (principal formators in ACSA) exercised their episcopal authority in the manner they do and why individual formators were concerned about particular issues which relate to the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA (agential reflexivity/subjectivity). The study observed that, in the case of diocesan bishops, critical realists would argue that, by virtue of the authority which comes with their responsibilities (agency), they have the power to influence transformation of practices in clergy leadership formation in ACSA at any given point in time. The flip side of the discourse was also taken note of: that some bishops, for reasons known to themselves and their predecessors, are often reluctant to embrace new ideas relating to clergy leadership formation practices in their dioceses. Further, through critical realist lens, the study concluded that Canons, Vision and Mission statements, Acts, and structures such as Synod of Bishops, Provincial Synod, ABoTE, Cott, and TfM structurally shape ACSA, thus providing the organisation with a stable ontology which ought to direct, regulate and control the manner in which clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were conceptualised, designed, planned, facilitated and managed. As such, the study had an interest in establishing what would happen, in relation to clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA, when these structures would have been activated? Beyond that, in view of the goal of the study, it was enquired how expansive learning processes could be helpful in responding to the research findings towards exploring collaborative and transforming clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA. Drawing from the conceptual framework which was carved in the study on the basis of the theoretical tools (critical realism and educational leadership theory) and methodological tools (CHAT orientated concepts) undergirded by the Vygotskian theorisation of human consciousness development, the study concluded that clergy leadership formation is a collaborative activity which calls for the recognition, appreciation and utilisation of available expertise in ACSA and provision of a platform where participants (formators) could engage collectively on issues relating to their work with the objective of building each other up in knowledge and skills (expansive learning) towards realisation of the goals and objectives of the organisation. Diverse understandings (contradictions) of what needed to be prioritised in the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA would be considered as a positive rather than a negative. Ultimately, through the use of inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, the study modelled a transforming, transformational, transformative, embodied and incarnational model of clergy leadership formation which ACSA could consider using in future deliberations on the object of study particularly in relation to the key research findings across the case studies which were used in the study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A critical analysis of the establishment, conceptualisation, design and curriculum component selection of Master of Education programmes at selected Tanzanian universities
- Authors: Ramadhan, Maryam Khamis
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Master of education degree Tanzania , Universities and colleges Curricula Tanzania , Universities and colleges Evaluation , Teacher effectiveness Tanzania , Master of education degree , Educational change Tanzania , Secondary school teachers Tanzania , Pedagogical content knowledge Tanzania , Universities and colleges Administration , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62214 , vital:28139
- Description: There is a dearth of research on how the design and curriculum of a Master of Education (MEd) qualification for university-based teacher educators of prospective secondary school teachers may or may not contribute to the problem of poor secondary school learning outcomes in Tanzania. This qualitative study analyses the establishment, conceptualisation, design and curriculum components of selected MEd programmes with the purpose of identifying and explaining the conditions enabling and/or constraining the development of quality teacher educators. The research used a case study design to investigate how and why particular knowledge is privileged in two MEd programmes at two Tanzanian universities with a view to probing the relevance of the knowledge to teacher educators professional roles and practices. The study used critical realism as an under-labourer to investigate power structures and the generative and causal mechanisms underlying the two MEd programmes. The study draws on aspects of Bernstein’s theory as analytical tools to explain what emerges from the data. The data was collected from interviews, document analysis and observation, and analysed using thematic analysis, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The research revealed and explains how underlying structural and agential mechanisms have shaped the establishment, conceptualisation and curriculum design of the two MEd programmes. The findings revealed a strong relationship between constraints, including the lack of appropriate MEd design team and the inadequacy of resources and facilities, and the quality of MEd graduates. Such constrains are possible mechanisms associated with the agential actions of the top administrators affect the relevance and appropriateness of the MEd curriculum components, the effective lecturers transmission and students acquisition of knowledge and skills. The research also explored how underlying mechanisms shaped the selection of course content and the privileging of certain types of teacher knowledge. These mechanisms include programme entry qualification, curriculum arrangement of core and elective courses, the lack of awareness of the knowledge and skills requisite for teacher educators’ specialisation, and the absence of recontextualisation principles to guide appropriate selection and recontextualisation of the relevant teacher educator’s courses. There is evidence that both MEd programmes have insufficient pedagogical knowledge and lack large components of academic content knowledge of teaching. An emphasis on individual disciplinary education courses with strong boundaries between modules and topics, aimed at developing specific education specialisations, results in teacher educator professional knowledge being less developed. Furthermore the accumulation and repetition of inappropriate knowledge has resulted in these programmes being weak regions for teacher educators’ professional fields of practice. This has implications for the quality of the secondary school teacher professional development courses on which these MEd graduates teach. It raises questions about the quality of the secondary school teachers being produced, and the extent to which this is contributing to the disappointing performance of Tanzanian schooling. The study generates insights into the mechanisms and conditions constraining the development of quality teacher educators. These conditions include the domination of higher education by customer demand, weak university regulatory systems, and the autonomy of university administration in terms of programme approval and other academic operations. Some administrators and lecturers showed an understanding of what would enable quality teacher educator development in the MEd programme. The findings of the research may help to strengthen and enhance quality assurance in the Master of Education programmes for teacher educators in Tanzania in ways that help develop quality secondary school teachers and improve school learning outcomes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Ramadhan, Maryam Khamis
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Master of education degree Tanzania , Universities and colleges Curricula Tanzania , Universities and colleges Evaluation , Teacher effectiveness Tanzania , Master of education degree , Educational change Tanzania , Secondary school teachers Tanzania , Pedagogical content knowledge Tanzania , Universities and colleges Administration , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62214 , vital:28139
- Description: There is a dearth of research on how the design and curriculum of a Master of Education (MEd) qualification for university-based teacher educators of prospective secondary school teachers may or may not contribute to the problem of poor secondary school learning outcomes in Tanzania. This qualitative study analyses the establishment, conceptualisation, design and curriculum components of selected MEd programmes with the purpose of identifying and explaining the conditions enabling and/or constraining the development of quality teacher educators. The research used a case study design to investigate how and why particular knowledge is privileged in two MEd programmes at two Tanzanian universities with a view to probing the relevance of the knowledge to teacher educators professional roles and practices. The study used critical realism as an under-labourer to investigate power structures and the generative and causal mechanisms underlying the two MEd programmes. The study draws on aspects of Bernstein’s theory as analytical tools to explain what emerges from the data. The data was collected from interviews, document analysis and observation, and analysed using thematic analysis, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The research revealed and explains how underlying structural and agential mechanisms have shaped the establishment, conceptualisation and curriculum design of the two MEd programmes. The findings revealed a strong relationship between constraints, including the lack of appropriate MEd design team and the inadequacy of resources and facilities, and the quality of MEd graduates. Such constrains are possible mechanisms associated with the agential actions of the top administrators affect the relevance and appropriateness of the MEd curriculum components, the effective lecturers transmission and students acquisition of knowledge and skills. The research also explored how underlying mechanisms shaped the selection of course content and the privileging of certain types of teacher knowledge. These mechanisms include programme entry qualification, curriculum arrangement of core and elective courses, the lack of awareness of the knowledge and skills requisite for teacher educators’ specialisation, and the absence of recontextualisation principles to guide appropriate selection and recontextualisation of the relevant teacher educator’s courses. There is evidence that both MEd programmes have insufficient pedagogical knowledge and lack large components of academic content knowledge of teaching. An emphasis on individual disciplinary education courses with strong boundaries between modules and topics, aimed at developing specific education specialisations, results in teacher educator professional knowledge being less developed. Furthermore the accumulation and repetition of inappropriate knowledge has resulted in these programmes being weak regions for teacher educators’ professional fields of practice. This has implications for the quality of the secondary school teacher professional development courses on which these MEd graduates teach. It raises questions about the quality of the secondary school teachers being produced, and the extent to which this is contributing to the disappointing performance of Tanzanian schooling. The study generates insights into the mechanisms and conditions constraining the development of quality teacher educators. These conditions include the domination of higher education by customer demand, weak university regulatory systems, and the autonomy of university administration in terms of programme approval and other academic operations. Some administrators and lecturers showed an understanding of what would enable quality teacher educator development in the MEd programme. The findings of the research may help to strengthen and enhance quality assurance in the Master of Education programmes for teacher educators in Tanzania in ways that help develop quality secondary school teachers and improve school learning outcomes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
A social realist study of employability development in engineering education
- Authors: Nudelman, Gabrielle Reeve
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Critical realism , Electrical engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Employability , Career education -- South Africa -- Cape Town , School-to-work transition -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62884 , vital:28307
- Description: This qualitative case study of a course pairing offered to final-year electrical engineering students at the University of Cape Town in 2015 was undertaken in order to better understand the ways in which participation in undergraduate courses can prepare engineering students for the workplace. The course pairing consisted of New Venture Planning and Professional Communication Studies. While the former aimed to expose students to the knowledge relating to starting a new business, the latter focused on teaching students how to create written and oral texts to support such an endeavour. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as a theoretical underlabourer, the study develops understandings regarding the generative mechanisms at work during the two courses. In support of this, the study posits an understanding of employability that moves beyond the acquisition of discrete workplace skills. Rather, employability is conceptualised as discursive transformation, with students being deemed “work-ready” when they develop discursive identities as engineers. Data generation took place by means of focus group and individual interviews, ethnographic observation and documentary research. Margaret Archer’s social realist tools – in particular, analytical dualism and the morphogenetic framework were used to trace the students’ transformations over the course pairing. It was argued that those students who developed discursive identities of engineers were those who, in Archer’s terms, emerged as social actors at the end of the course pairing. Two characteristics of the courses were found to enable this transformation: those parts that promoted deepened understanding of what the role of “engineer” entailed and the parts that provided spaces for students to develop their own personal identities. The findings of the study indicated that discursive identities as engineers were more likely to be developed through the group work and spaces for reflection engendered by the courses than as a result of the formal curriculum. The implications of the research are that, while a focus on employability in engineering education is valid and productive, this needs to be supported by opportunities for authentic learning experiences which afford students the opportunity to engage in learning that promotes real-life application of knowledge. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2018
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Nudelman, Gabrielle Reeve
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Critical realism , Electrical engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Employability , Career education -- South Africa -- Cape Town , School-to-work transition -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62884 , vital:28307
- Description: This qualitative case study of a course pairing offered to final-year electrical engineering students at the University of Cape Town in 2015 was undertaken in order to better understand the ways in which participation in undergraduate courses can prepare engineering students for the workplace. The course pairing consisted of New Venture Planning and Professional Communication Studies. While the former aimed to expose students to the knowledge relating to starting a new business, the latter focused on teaching students how to create written and oral texts to support such an endeavour. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as a theoretical underlabourer, the study develops understandings regarding the generative mechanisms at work during the two courses. In support of this, the study posits an understanding of employability that moves beyond the acquisition of discrete workplace skills. Rather, employability is conceptualised as discursive transformation, with students being deemed “work-ready” when they develop discursive identities as engineers. Data generation took place by means of focus group and individual interviews, ethnographic observation and documentary research. Margaret Archer’s social realist tools – in particular, analytical dualism and the morphogenetic framework were used to trace the students’ transformations over the course pairing. It was argued that those students who developed discursive identities of engineers were those who, in Archer’s terms, emerged as social actors at the end of the course pairing. Two characteristics of the courses were found to enable this transformation: those parts that promoted deepened understanding of what the role of “engineer” entailed and the parts that provided spaces for students to develop their own personal identities. The findings of the study indicated that discursive identities as engineers were more likely to be developed through the group work and spaces for reflection engendered by the courses than as a result of the formal curriculum. The implications of the research are that, while a focus on employability in engineering education is valid and productive, this needs to be supported by opportunities for authentic learning experiences which afford students the opportunity to engage in learning that promotes real-life application of knowledge. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2018
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Knowledge practices and student access and success in General Chemistry at a Large South African University
- Authors: Mtombeni, Thabile Nokuthula
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Knowledge management , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social integration -- South Africa , Educational equalization -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62873 , vital:28305
- Description: This dissertation reports on an investigation into the structuring principles of the General Chemistry curriculum at a Large South African University (LSAU). Student learning in the introductory modules of General Chemistry is critical for access to a range of fields since it is a requisite course for a variety of degree programmes. However, there is ample evidence that success in this subject remains a major challenge, particularly for black students. My quest in this study was to explore how the curriculum could enable greater epistemic access and thus include more students in science programmes at the LSAU. I investigated the organising principles underlying the curriculum practices of the General Chemistry module and explored the effects of the curriculum structure on student learning. Theoretically and conceptually, the study was underpinned by a social realist approach which holds that knowledge is stratified, differentiated, and has real emergent properties, powers and effects. The research question that I attempted to answer in this study was: How do knowledge practices privileged in the General Chemistry curriculum at the LSAU enable or constrain student learning? I adopted an intensive research design approach to conduct a qualitative case study using social realism and LCT as theoretical and analytical lenses. I used empirical data such as curriculum documents and interviews with lecturers to uncover the underlying generative mechanisms of the curriculum. I adopted a multi-layered data analysis process to make visible the underlying organising principles informing knowledge practices in the curriculum so that I could explain their potential effects on student learning. The first level of analysis explored the context of the curriculum and associated knowledge practices, and examined the pedagogic discourse evident in the curriculum. The second level of analysis revealed the inner logic structuring the curriculum and the associated knowledge practices. I used Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT): Specialisation to identify the specialisation codes, gazes and insights generated by the curriculum. For the third level of analysis, LCT: Semantics was used to generate the semantic profiles of learning activities to determine the extent to which the curriculum structure made cumulative learning possible. From the findings, it is evident that the verticality of knowledge in General Chemistry points to a recontextualising principle that prescribes the selection and arrangement of knowledge, and the special relationship of actors and discourses. As a result, the strong framing of the instructional discourse of General Chemistry curriculum structure is likely to constrain epistemological access for large numbers of students. In order to improve epistemological access to the field, weaker framing of the instructional discourse in introductory science is necessary. Weaker framing of the General Chemistry curriculum would require, in particular, changes to pacing, and that the evaluative criteria are made explicit. This is especially necessary when certain abstract and complex curricular content is taught, especially in the first semester. The findings also indicate that the nature of the organising principles in the curriculum are significant for improving epistemological access to knowledge. In terms of LCT: Specialisation, the General Chemistry curriculum generated a knowledge code and downplayed differences among social categories of students, thus positioning all equally in relation to the knowledge and practices of the field. Therefore, the structuring of the curriculum emphasises and legitimates students who have attained specialist knowledge without considering the nature of the new student coming into the educational setting. Simply, what is privileged is both the object of study (theoretical knowledge) and how it is studied (procedural knowledge). This finding is in line with the general outcomes of Chemistry education. In addition, the purist insight generated by the curriculum further attests to where the emphasis is placed in the curriculum. I argue that the lack of social relations in the curriculum poses a challenge for the holistic development of students as science knowers. The analysis of the learning activities shows rapid code shifts that indicate changes in cognitive demand and modes of thinking required of students. I argue that signposting the changes in complexity of knowledge and in the mode of thinking required could make learning, and thus epistemological access, more possible. Given the imperative of access to powerful knowledge, I contend that the curriculum should be reshaped to enable epistemological access for more students.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Mtombeni, Thabile Nokuthula
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Knowledge management , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social integration -- South Africa , Educational equalization -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62873 , vital:28305
- Description: This dissertation reports on an investigation into the structuring principles of the General Chemistry curriculum at a Large South African University (LSAU). Student learning in the introductory modules of General Chemistry is critical for access to a range of fields since it is a requisite course for a variety of degree programmes. However, there is ample evidence that success in this subject remains a major challenge, particularly for black students. My quest in this study was to explore how the curriculum could enable greater epistemic access and thus include more students in science programmes at the LSAU. I investigated the organising principles underlying the curriculum practices of the General Chemistry module and explored the effects of the curriculum structure on student learning. Theoretically and conceptually, the study was underpinned by a social realist approach which holds that knowledge is stratified, differentiated, and has real emergent properties, powers and effects. The research question that I attempted to answer in this study was: How do knowledge practices privileged in the General Chemistry curriculum at the LSAU enable or constrain student learning? I adopted an intensive research design approach to conduct a qualitative case study using social realism and LCT as theoretical and analytical lenses. I used empirical data such as curriculum documents and interviews with lecturers to uncover the underlying generative mechanisms of the curriculum. I adopted a multi-layered data analysis process to make visible the underlying organising principles informing knowledge practices in the curriculum so that I could explain their potential effects on student learning. The first level of analysis explored the context of the curriculum and associated knowledge practices, and examined the pedagogic discourse evident in the curriculum. The second level of analysis revealed the inner logic structuring the curriculum and the associated knowledge practices. I used Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT): Specialisation to identify the specialisation codes, gazes and insights generated by the curriculum. For the third level of analysis, LCT: Semantics was used to generate the semantic profiles of learning activities to determine the extent to which the curriculum structure made cumulative learning possible. From the findings, it is evident that the verticality of knowledge in General Chemistry points to a recontextualising principle that prescribes the selection and arrangement of knowledge, and the special relationship of actors and discourses. As a result, the strong framing of the instructional discourse of General Chemistry curriculum structure is likely to constrain epistemological access for large numbers of students. In order to improve epistemological access to the field, weaker framing of the instructional discourse in introductory science is necessary. Weaker framing of the General Chemistry curriculum would require, in particular, changes to pacing, and that the evaluative criteria are made explicit. This is especially necessary when certain abstract and complex curricular content is taught, especially in the first semester. The findings also indicate that the nature of the organising principles in the curriculum are significant for improving epistemological access to knowledge. In terms of LCT: Specialisation, the General Chemistry curriculum generated a knowledge code and downplayed differences among social categories of students, thus positioning all equally in relation to the knowledge and practices of the field. Therefore, the structuring of the curriculum emphasises and legitimates students who have attained specialist knowledge without considering the nature of the new student coming into the educational setting. Simply, what is privileged is both the object of study (theoretical knowledge) and how it is studied (procedural knowledge). This finding is in line with the general outcomes of Chemistry education. In addition, the purist insight generated by the curriculum further attests to where the emphasis is placed in the curriculum. I argue that the lack of social relations in the curriculum poses a challenge for the holistic development of students as science knowers. The analysis of the learning activities shows rapid code shifts that indicate changes in cognitive demand and modes of thinking required of students. I argue that signposting the changes in complexity of knowledge and in the mode of thinking required could make learning, and thus epistemological access, more possible. Given the imperative of access to powerful knowledge, I contend that the curriculum should be reshaped to enable epistemological access for more students.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
An analysis of the certificate of the theory of accounting knowledge and knower structures : a case study of professional knowledge
- Authors: Mkhize, Thandeka Fortunate
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Accounting -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Dropout behavior, Prediction of , Knowledge, Theory of , Knowledge and learning , Critical realism , Education -- Philosophy , Educational sociology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2057 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019771
- Description: This research project explores issues around the poor throughput and high dropout rate in the Certificate of the Theory of Accounting (CTA) by focusing on Accounting knowledge as an object of study. The CTA was identified as a serious block in the steps that one needs to go through on the journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant. Having a clear understanding of Accounting knowledge can lead to finding ways that can make the subject more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. This study contributes to understanding Accounting knowledge at the CTA level with the aim of clearly delineating its legitimate knowledge and knower structures. It answers the following two research questions: • What constitutes legitimate knowledge structures in the CTA? • What constitutes legitimate knower structures in the CTA? Academics from nine universities and representatives of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) participated in this study. Data was collected through interviews, observation and document analysis. Eighteen CTA lecturers and two members of the SAICA management team were interviewed. Three universities provided documents on their practices, which included learner guides, examination papers, suggested answers, lecture notes, tutorials and other curriculum documents for each of the four CTA subjects. SAICA provided the competency framework and examinable pronouncements. A conference that was jointly hosted by SAICA and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation was observed. This study used Critical Realism as its ontological underpinnings and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) as its substantive theory. It used the Specialisation and Autonomy principles of LCT to analyse the data. Specialization establishes the ways agents and discourses within a field are constructed as special, different or unique and thus deserving of distinction and status (Maton, 2014). The principle of Autonomy is concerned with the extent to which the field is self-governing and can do things of its own free-will (Maton, 2004). The study found that the CTA has a hierarchical knowledge structure, which means that when new knowledge is created in Accounting it is integrated into existing knowledge, resulting in coherent and integrated knowledge. CTA also has a hierarchical curriculum structure. While horizontal curriculum structures evolve through the replacement of existing knowledge by new approaches and content, a hierarchical curriculum typically grows through integration and subsumption of new knowledge into pre-existing knowledge and it relies on the acquisition of knowledge developed in previous modules or levels of study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Mkhize, Thandeka Fortunate
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Accounting -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Dropout behavior, Prediction of , Knowledge, Theory of , Knowledge and learning , Critical realism , Education -- Philosophy , Educational sociology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2057 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019771
- Description: This research project explores issues around the poor throughput and high dropout rate in the Certificate of the Theory of Accounting (CTA) by focusing on Accounting knowledge as an object of study. The CTA was identified as a serious block in the steps that one needs to go through on the journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant. Having a clear understanding of Accounting knowledge can lead to finding ways that can make the subject more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. This study contributes to understanding Accounting knowledge at the CTA level with the aim of clearly delineating its legitimate knowledge and knower structures. It answers the following two research questions: • What constitutes legitimate knowledge structures in the CTA? • What constitutes legitimate knower structures in the CTA? Academics from nine universities and representatives of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) participated in this study. Data was collected through interviews, observation and document analysis. Eighteen CTA lecturers and two members of the SAICA management team were interviewed. Three universities provided documents on their practices, which included learner guides, examination papers, suggested answers, lecture notes, tutorials and other curriculum documents for each of the four CTA subjects. SAICA provided the competency framework and examinable pronouncements. A conference that was jointly hosted by SAICA and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation was observed. This study used Critical Realism as its ontological underpinnings and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) as its substantive theory. It used the Specialisation and Autonomy principles of LCT to analyse the data. Specialization establishes the ways agents and discourses within a field are constructed as special, different or unique and thus deserving of distinction and status (Maton, 2014). The principle of Autonomy is concerned with the extent to which the field is self-governing and can do things of its own free-will (Maton, 2004). The study found that the CTA has a hierarchical knowledge structure, which means that when new knowledge is created in Accounting it is integrated into existing knowledge, resulting in coherent and integrated knowledge. CTA also has a hierarchical curriculum structure. While horizontal curriculum structures evolve through the replacement of existing knowledge by new approaches and content, a hierarchical curriculum typically grows through integration and subsumption of new knowledge into pre-existing knowledge and it relies on the acquisition of knowledge developed in previous modules or levels of study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Exploring lecturer experiences of the use of ICT in blended learning : a case study at a South African university
- Authors: Ntlabathi, Siyanda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Blended learning -- South Africa , Information technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations , Computer-assisted instruction -- South Africa , Internet in education -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2044 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017355
- Description: ICTs have had a tremendous impact on our educational environment. There have been a huge number of developments and support in implementation of ICT in Higher Education teaching and learning, also referred to as e-learning. Similarly there appears to be quite a number of research conducted on the use of ICTs in blended learning settings worldwide and as well as in South Africa. Very little research however, has focussed on the experiences of lecturers with e-learning, specifically as it relates to Learning Management Systems (LMS). In trying to meet the requirements of its academic programmes and be in line with new developments worldwide, the University which is the focus of this study pilot projected the use of an LMS in a blended learning approach which integrates face-to-face classes with Blackboard, an ICT-based system or tool. Following the implementation of the pilot project, this study explores the experiences of lecturers in their blended learning environments at this university in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The research design was that of an interpretative paradigm within a qualitative research approach in a case study methodology. Purposive sampling of six lecturers from departments within faculties across two campuses was done. The data was gathered through interviews, a follow-up questionnaire and document analysis was employed. Using Critical and Social Realism as meta-theories the study employed aspects of Activity Theory as substantive theory to understand particular experiences of blended learning environments and identify conditions which enable and constrain engagement in these environments so as to explore potential lessons to inform the kind of educational support which could be offered to facilitate uptake of the LMS.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Ntlabathi, Siyanda
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Blended learning -- South Africa , Information technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Technological innovations , Computer-assisted instruction -- South Africa , Internet in education -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2044 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017355
- Description: ICTs have had a tremendous impact on our educational environment. There have been a huge number of developments and support in implementation of ICT in Higher Education teaching and learning, also referred to as e-learning. Similarly there appears to be quite a number of research conducted on the use of ICTs in blended learning settings worldwide and as well as in South Africa. Very little research however, has focussed on the experiences of lecturers with e-learning, specifically as it relates to Learning Management Systems (LMS). In trying to meet the requirements of its academic programmes and be in line with new developments worldwide, the University which is the focus of this study pilot projected the use of an LMS in a blended learning approach which integrates face-to-face classes with Blackboard, an ICT-based system or tool. Following the implementation of the pilot project, this study explores the experiences of lecturers in their blended learning environments at this university in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The research design was that of an interpretative paradigm within a qualitative research approach in a case study methodology. Purposive sampling of six lecturers from departments within faculties across two campuses was done. The data was gathered through interviews, a follow-up questionnaire and document analysis was employed. Using Critical and Social Realism as meta-theories the study employed aspects of Activity Theory as substantive theory to understand particular experiences of blended learning environments and identify conditions which enable and constrain engagement in these environments so as to explore potential lessons to inform the kind of educational support which could be offered to facilitate uptake of the LMS.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Investigating and expanding learning in co-management of fisheries resources to inform extension training
- Kachilonda, Dick Daffu Kachanga
- Authors: Kachilonda, Dick Daffu Kachanga
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Fishery management -- Study and teaching -- Malawi , Environmental education -- Malawi , Social learning -- Malawi , Community-based conservation -- Malawi , Learning -- Philosophy , Critical realism , Education -- Social aspects -- Research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2053 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018659
- Description: This study investigates and expands learning associated with the co-management of fisheries resources to inform extension and training in the fisheries sector in two case study sites in Malawi. The study was located in the field of environmental education with a specific focus on community learning, agency and sustainability practices in co-management of fisheries resources. It focuses on how fisheries stakeholder learning can be mediated through expansive social learning processes to inform extension and training in the Malawi fisheries sector and aims at understanding learning as an emergent, agency centred process of change through social learning models that are said to have power to mobilise community agency for change. The empirical research for the study was conducted in two Malawian fishing communities: in Lake Malombe and the south-east arm of Lake Malawi using qualitative case study research design. The two sites were selected because they were the first sites in Malawi to implement fisheries co-management programmes following the failure of centralised management of fisheries resources. Data was generated through interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis, observations and change laboratory workshops in both sites. The two sites fall under one administrative office based in Mangochi where the two important institutions of the sector – the Fisheries Research Unit of the Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries College (a government institution responsible for the training of extension services) are also based. Both sites have implemented new governance structures named Beach Village Committees which are community-based organisational structures that function in parallel with traditional authorities to manage the fishery. Contextual and literature review work showed that extension services and programmes over the past hundred years, as observed in the fisheries sector in Malawi and in extension services elsewhere, have co-evolved with approaches to natural resources management. Early approaches to natural resources management involved traditional management (associated extension services and programmes were community based); later fisheries governance practices changed to centralised management and associated extension approaches were mainly top-down involving command and control or technology transfer. These early approaches have been problematic as resource users were pushed away from their own resources and were viewed as poachers. This resulted in loss of ownership among resources users. Recently in Malawi, after the change of government to democracy in 1994, fisheries management policy focused on co-management and/or adaptive co-management approaches, an approach that has also been adopted in other African water bodies. This has implications for extension service programmes in the fisheries sector that are not yet well defined. The study’s literature review revealed that co-management approaches assume collaborative learning, or co-learning, also termed social learning, or approaches that promote the engagement of different actors who are working on shared practice. They also assume a new form of agency among co-management stakeholders and extension workers. However, the theoretical foundations for establishing co-learning or social learning approaches in support of co-management policies are not well established in the fisheries co-management sector in Malawi, nor are the practices of how to support co-learning amongst diverse stakeholders in the fisheries co-management in the Lake Malawi context. This study sought to address this gap in knowledge and practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Kachilonda, Dick Daffu Kachanga
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Fishery management -- Study and teaching -- Malawi , Environmental education -- Malawi , Social learning -- Malawi , Community-based conservation -- Malawi , Learning -- Philosophy , Critical realism , Education -- Social aspects -- Research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2053 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018659
- Description: This study investigates and expands learning associated with the co-management of fisheries resources to inform extension and training in the fisheries sector in two case study sites in Malawi. The study was located in the field of environmental education with a specific focus on community learning, agency and sustainability practices in co-management of fisheries resources. It focuses on how fisheries stakeholder learning can be mediated through expansive social learning processes to inform extension and training in the Malawi fisheries sector and aims at understanding learning as an emergent, agency centred process of change through social learning models that are said to have power to mobilise community agency for change. The empirical research for the study was conducted in two Malawian fishing communities: in Lake Malombe and the south-east arm of Lake Malawi using qualitative case study research design. The two sites were selected because they were the first sites in Malawi to implement fisheries co-management programmes following the failure of centralised management of fisheries resources. Data was generated through interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis, observations and change laboratory workshops in both sites. The two sites fall under one administrative office based in Mangochi where the two important institutions of the sector – the Fisheries Research Unit of the Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries College (a government institution responsible for the training of extension services) are also based. Both sites have implemented new governance structures named Beach Village Committees which are community-based organisational structures that function in parallel with traditional authorities to manage the fishery. Contextual and literature review work showed that extension services and programmes over the past hundred years, as observed in the fisheries sector in Malawi and in extension services elsewhere, have co-evolved with approaches to natural resources management. Early approaches to natural resources management involved traditional management (associated extension services and programmes were community based); later fisheries governance practices changed to centralised management and associated extension approaches were mainly top-down involving command and control or technology transfer. These early approaches have been problematic as resource users were pushed away from their own resources and were viewed as poachers. This resulted in loss of ownership among resources users. Recently in Malawi, after the change of government to democracy in 1994, fisheries management policy focused on co-management and/or adaptive co-management approaches, an approach that has also been adopted in other African water bodies. This has implications for extension service programmes in the fisheries sector that are not yet well defined. The study’s literature review revealed that co-management approaches assume collaborative learning, or co-learning, also termed social learning, or approaches that promote the engagement of different actors who are working on shared practice. They also assume a new form of agency among co-management stakeholders and extension workers. However, the theoretical foundations for establishing co-learning or social learning approaches in support of co-management policies are not well established in the fisheries co-management sector in Malawi, nor are the practices of how to support co-learning amongst diverse stakeholders in the fisheries co-management in the Lake Malawi context. This study sought to address this gap in knowledge and practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Can expansive (social) learning processes strengthen organisational learning for improved wetland management in a plantation forestry company, and if so how? : a case study of Mondi
- Authors: Lindley, David Stewart
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mondi Group , Wetland management -- South Africa , Wetland conservation -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) , Employees -- Training of -- South Africa , Action theory , Critical realism , Social learning , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2003 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015661
- Description: Mondi is an international packaging and paper company that manages over 300 000 ha of land in South Africa. After over a decade of working with Mondi to improve its wetland management, wetland sustainability practices were still not integrated into the broader forestry operations, despite some significant cases of successful wetland rehabilitation. An interventionist research project was therefore conducted to explore the factors inhibiting improved wetland management, and determine if and how expansive social learning processes could strengthen organisational learning and development to overcome these factors. In doing so, the research has investigated how informal adult learning supports organisational change to strengthen wetland and environmental sustainability practices, within a corporate plantation forestry context. How individual and/or group-based learning interactions translate to the collective, at the level of organisational change was a key issue probed in this study. The following three research questions were used to guide the research: 1. What tensions and contradictions exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company? 2. Can expansive learning begin to address the tensions and contradictions that exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company, for improved sustainability practices? 3. Can expansive social learning strengthen organisational learning and development, enabling Mondi to improve its wetland sustainability practices, and if so how does it do this? Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the theory of expansive learning provided an epistemological framework for the research. The philosophy of critical realism gave ontological depth to the research, and contributed to a deeper understanding of CHAT and expansive learning. Critical realism was therefore used as a philosophy to underlabour the theoretical framework of the research. However CHAT and expansive learning could not provide the depth of detail required to explain how the expansive learning, organisational social change, and boundary crossings that are necessary for assembling the collective were taking place. Realist social theory (developed out of critical realism by Margaret Archer as an ontologically located theory of how and why social change occurs, or does not) supported the research to do this. The morphogenetic framework was used as a methodology for applying realist social theory. The expansive learning cycle was used as a methodology for applying CHAT and the theory of expansive learning; guiding the development of new knowledge creation required by Mondi staff to identify contradictions and associated tensions inhibiting wetland management, understand their root causes, and develop solutions. Through the expansive learning process, the tensions and contradictions become generative as a tool supporting expansive social learning, rather than as a means to an end where universal consensus was reached on how to circumvent the contradictions. The research was conducted in five phases: • Phase 1: Contextual profiling to identify and describe three activity systems in Mondi responsible for wetland management: 1) siviculture foresters; 2) environmental specialists; 3) community engagement facilitators. The data was generated and analysed through through document analysis, 17 interviews, 2nd generation CHAT analysis, and Critical Realist generative mechanism analysis; • Phase 2: Analysis and identification of tensions and contradictions through a first interventionist workshop. Modelling new solutions to deal with contractions, and examining and testing new models in and after the second interventionist workshop; • Phase 3: Implementing new models as wetland management projects and involved project implementation. This included boundary crossing practices of staff in the three activity systems, reflection and re-view in a further five progress review/interventionist workshops, and a management meeting and seminar; • Phase 4: Reflecting on the expansive learning process, results, and consolidation of changed practices, through nine reflective interviews and field observations; • Phase 5: Morphogenic/stasis analysis of the organisational change and development catalysed via the expansive social learning process (or not). The research found that expansive social learning processes supported organisational learning and development for improved wetland management by: 1) strengthening the scope, depth, and sophistication of participant understanding; 2) expanding the ways staff interact and collaboratively work together; 3) democratising decision making; 4) improving social relations between staff, reducing power differentials, and creating stronger relationships; 5) enhancing participant reflexivity through deeper understanding of social structures and cultural systems, and changing them to support improved wetland and environmental practice of staff, and developing the organisational structures and processes to strengthen organisational learning and development; and 6) using the contradictions identified as generative mechanisms to stimulate and catalyse organisational learning and development for changed wetland/environmental management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Lindley, David Stewart
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mondi Group , Wetland management -- South Africa , Wetland conservation -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) , Employees -- Training of -- South Africa , Action theory , Critical realism , Social learning , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2003 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015661
- Description: Mondi is an international packaging and paper company that manages over 300 000 ha of land in South Africa. After over a decade of working with Mondi to improve its wetland management, wetland sustainability practices were still not integrated into the broader forestry operations, despite some significant cases of successful wetland rehabilitation. An interventionist research project was therefore conducted to explore the factors inhibiting improved wetland management, and determine if and how expansive social learning processes could strengthen organisational learning and development to overcome these factors. In doing so, the research has investigated how informal adult learning supports organisational change to strengthen wetland and environmental sustainability practices, within a corporate plantation forestry context. How individual and/or group-based learning interactions translate to the collective, at the level of organisational change was a key issue probed in this study. The following three research questions were used to guide the research: 1. What tensions and contradictions exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company? 2. Can expansive learning begin to address the tensions and contradictions that exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company, for improved sustainability practices? 3. Can expansive social learning strengthen organisational learning and development, enabling Mondi to improve its wetland sustainability practices, and if so how does it do this? Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the theory of expansive learning provided an epistemological framework for the research. The philosophy of critical realism gave ontological depth to the research, and contributed to a deeper understanding of CHAT and expansive learning. Critical realism was therefore used as a philosophy to underlabour the theoretical framework of the research. However CHAT and expansive learning could not provide the depth of detail required to explain how the expansive learning, organisational social change, and boundary crossings that are necessary for assembling the collective were taking place. Realist social theory (developed out of critical realism by Margaret Archer as an ontologically located theory of how and why social change occurs, or does not) supported the research to do this. The morphogenetic framework was used as a methodology for applying realist social theory. The expansive learning cycle was used as a methodology for applying CHAT and the theory of expansive learning; guiding the development of new knowledge creation required by Mondi staff to identify contradictions and associated tensions inhibiting wetland management, understand their root causes, and develop solutions. Through the expansive learning process, the tensions and contradictions become generative as a tool supporting expansive social learning, rather than as a means to an end where universal consensus was reached on how to circumvent the contradictions. The research was conducted in five phases: • Phase 1: Contextual profiling to identify and describe three activity systems in Mondi responsible for wetland management: 1) siviculture foresters; 2) environmental specialists; 3) community engagement facilitators. The data was generated and analysed through through document analysis, 17 interviews, 2nd generation CHAT analysis, and Critical Realist generative mechanism analysis; • Phase 2: Analysis and identification of tensions and contradictions through a first interventionist workshop. Modelling new solutions to deal with contractions, and examining and testing new models in and after the second interventionist workshop; • Phase 3: Implementing new models as wetland management projects and involved project implementation. This included boundary crossing practices of staff in the three activity systems, reflection and re-view in a further five progress review/interventionist workshops, and a management meeting and seminar; • Phase 4: Reflecting on the expansive learning process, results, and consolidation of changed practices, through nine reflective interviews and field observations; • Phase 5: Morphogenic/stasis analysis of the organisational change and development catalysed via the expansive social learning process (or not). The research found that expansive social learning processes supported organisational learning and development for improved wetland management by: 1) strengthening the scope, depth, and sophistication of participant understanding; 2) expanding the ways staff interact and collaboratively work together; 3) democratising decision making; 4) improving social relations between staff, reducing power differentials, and creating stronger relationships; 5) enhancing participant reflexivity through deeper understanding of social structures and cultural systems, and changing them to support improved wetland and environmental practice of staff, and developing the organisational structures and processes to strengthen organisational learning and development; and 6) using the contradictions identified as generative mechanisms to stimulate and catalyse organisational learning and development for changed wetland/environmental management.
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- Date Issued: 2014
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