From contradictions to complementarities: a social realist analysis of the evolution of academic development within a department
- Case, Jennifer M, Heydenrych, Hilton, Kotta, Linda, Marshall, Delia, McKenna, Sioux, Willliams, Kevin
- Authors: Case, Jennifer M , Heydenrych, Hilton , Kotta, Linda , Marshall, Delia , McKenna, Sioux , Willliams, Kevin
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66752 , vital:28990 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1045479
- Description: Publisher version , Academic development is a recent project in the university, intended to enable the university to respond to the needs of a more diverse student body. In South Africa, such work arose during late apartheid, and has now moved to a more central institutional position advocating responsiveness in the light of the educational disparities that are the legacy of apartheid. The present study uses a social realist perspective to analyse the 25-year evolution of an academic development project within an engineering department at a South African university. The findings show that while academic development initially posed a contradictory logic to the department, the response was to reform the nature of this project into one that suited the other commitments of the department: a logic of complementarity. The department's relationships with industry were shown to have played a key role in fostering this form of change.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Case, Jennifer M , Heydenrych, Hilton , Kotta, Linda , Marshall, Delia , McKenna, Sioux , Willliams, Kevin
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66752 , vital:28990 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1045479
- Description: Publisher version , Academic development is a recent project in the university, intended to enable the university to respond to the needs of a more diverse student body. In South Africa, such work arose during late apartheid, and has now moved to a more central institutional position advocating responsiveness in the light of the educational disparities that are the legacy of apartheid. The present study uses a social realist perspective to analyse the 25-year evolution of an academic development project within an engineering department at a South African university. The findings show that while academic development initially posed a contradictory logic to the department, the response was to reform the nature of this project into one that suited the other commitments of the department: a logic of complementarity. The department's relationships with industry were shown to have played a key role in fostering this form of change.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Generic gold standard or contextualised public good? Teaching excellence awards in post-colonial South Africa
- Behari-Leak, Kasturi, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66774 , vital:28992 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1301910
- Description: Publisher version , Teaching Excellence Awards have raised the profile of teaching as a scholarly project. There are however a number of questions about what constitutes teaching excellence and how ‘excellence’ is understood in current higher education. In a post-colonial South Africa, where significant injustices permeate our society, we question whether excellence can be understood in a generic manner. Furthermore, we argue that as universities are a public good, teaching excellence needs to explicitly attend to the ways in which universities contribute to broad goals of transformation and inclusivity. We analysed data from the national Teaching Excellence Awards and 13 South African universities’ awards to interrogate the discourses that underpin ‘excellence’ in this context of social inequality. We found that while the awards have gone some way to enhancing the position of teaching in institutions, ‘excellence’ was largely articulated in fairly generic ways which failed to take into account the enablements and constraints of the discipline and the institution. Furthermore, the guidelines and criteria privilege a decontextualised notion of excellence that seeks a ‘gold standard’ and validates performativity, rather than a contextualised response to the needs of the students.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66774 , vital:28992 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1301910
- Description: Publisher version , Teaching Excellence Awards have raised the profile of teaching as a scholarly project. There are however a number of questions about what constitutes teaching excellence and how ‘excellence’ is understood in current higher education. In a post-colonial South Africa, where significant injustices permeate our society, we question whether excellence can be understood in a generic manner. Furthermore, we argue that as universities are a public good, teaching excellence needs to explicitly attend to the ways in which universities contribute to broad goals of transformation and inclusivity. We analysed data from the national Teaching Excellence Awards and 13 South African universities’ awards to interrogate the discourses that underpin ‘excellence’ in this context of social inequality. We found that while the awards have gone some way to enhancing the position of teaching in institutions, ‘excellence’ was largely articulated in fairly generic ways which failed to take into account the enablements and constraints of the discipline and the institution. Furthermore, the guidelines and criteria privilege a decontextualised notion of excellence that seeks a ‘gold standard’ and validates performativity, rather than a contextualised response to the needs of the students.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Strengthening postgraduate supervision
- McKenna, Sioux, Clarence-Fincham, Jenny, Boughey, Chrissie, Wels, Harry, Van den Heuvel, Henk
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Clarence-Fincham, Jenny , Boughey, Chrissie , Wels, Harry , Van den Heuvel, Henk
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66645 , vital:28975 , ISBN 9781928357322 , https://doi.10.18820/9781928357323
- Description: Preface: Since 1996 the number of students enrolled for Master’s study in South Africa has more than doubled, while doctoral enrolments have almost tripled (Cloete, Mouton and Sheppard 2015). Such enormous growth has had major implications for supervision, especially in a context where only 39% of academics have doctorates themselves. If South Africa is to come close to the National Development Plan target of 5 000 doctoral graduates per year by 2030, the pressure on supervisors is likely to continue apace. But supervision is of course not simply a matter of applying technical skills to churn out highly competent postgraduate scholars. It is a teaching craft coupled with research acumen and deep personal commitment. This book reflects on how a range of supervisors are making sense of this complex endeavour. The Strengthening Postgraduate Supervision book brings together 15 chapters written by 18 academics from 16 disciplines in 11 institutions. The authors work across all three institutional types found in higher education in South Africa: traditional universities, comprehensive universities and universities of technology. Through this rich array of contributions, supervision is presented never as a ‘best practice’ to be generically implemented but rather as a nuanced pedagogy to be nurtured through critical reflection. The chapters mix theoretical considerations of the postgraduate process and personal narratives of supervision practice. Most of the authors can be described as emerging supervisors, with a few contributions from more experienced supervisors, but all have in common a deep desire to forge inclusive environments that foster meaningful postgraduate research and nurture a new generation of scholars. It is through the sharing of these academics’ concerns and constraints, competencies and celebrations that this book adds to our understanding of postgraduate supervision in South Africa.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux , Clarence-Fincham, Jenny , Boughey, Chrissie , Wels, Harry , Van den Heuvel, Henk
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66645 , vital:28975 , ISBN 9781928357322 , https://doi.10.18820/9781928357323
- Description: Preface: Since 1996 the number of students enrolled for Master’s study in South Africa has more than doubled, while doctoral enrolments have almost tripled (Cloete, Mouton and Sheppard 2015). Such enormous growth has had major implications for supervision, especially in a context where only 39% of academics have doctorates themselves. If South Africa is to come close to the National Development Plan target of 5 000 doctoral graduates per year by 2030, the pressure on supervisors is likely to continue apace. But supervision is of course not simply a matter of applying technical skills to churn out highly competent postgraduate scholars. It is a teaching craft coupled with research acumen and deep personal commitment. This book reflects on how a range of supervisors are making sense of this complex endeavour. The Strengthening Postgraduate Supervision book brings together 15 chapters written by 18 academics from 16 disciplines in 11 institutions. The authors work across all three institutional types found in higher education in South Africa: traditional universities, comprehensive universities and universities of technology. Through this rich array of contributions, supervision is presented never as a ‘best practice’ to be generically implemented but rather as a nuanced pedagogy to be nurtured through critical reflection. The chapters mix theoretical considerations of the postgraduate process and personal narratives of supervision practice. Most of the authors can be described as emerging supervisors, with a few contributions from more experienced supervisors, but all have in common a deep desire to forge inclusive environments that foster meaningful postgraduate research and nurture a new generation of scholars. It is through the sharing of these academics’ concerns and constraints, competencies and celebrations that this book adds to our understanding of postgraduate supervision in South Africa.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Student-generated content: an approach to harnessing the power of diversity in higher education
- Snowball, Jeanette D, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66763 , vital:28991 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2016.1273205
- Description: Publisher version , Internationally, classes in higher education institutions are becoming larger and more diverse. Support for ‘non-traditional’ students has often taken the form of additional remedial classes offered outside the main curriculum, which has met with limited success. Sociocultural theories of learning argue that the potential clash between the sociocultural context of disciplinary knowledge and the very different home contexts of many non-traditional students needs to be acknowledged. One way to achieve this is to use student-generated content, which allows teachers to bring student experiences and voices into the community of practice and acknowledges the importance of their prior experiences in knowledge production. Building on such sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning, this paper focuses on the use of student-generated podcasts as a means to harness the diversity of student experiences in a large (nearly 600 students) first-year Economics class at a South African University.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66763 , vital:28991 , ISSN 1470-1294 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2016.1273205
- Description: Publisher version , Internationally, classes in higher education institutions are becoming larger and more diverse. Support for ‘non-traditional’ students has often taken the form of additional remedial classes offered outside the main curriculum, which has met with limited success. Sociocultural theories of learning argue that the potential clash between the sociocultural context of disciplinary knowledge and the very different home contexts of many non-traditional students needs to be acknowledged. One way to achieve this is to use student-generated content, which allows teachers to bring student experiences and voices into the community of practice and acknowledges the importance of their prior experiences in knowledge production. Building on such sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning, this paper focuses on the use of student-generated podcasts as a means to harness the diversity of student experiences in a large (nearly 600 students) first-year Economics class at a South African University.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
The role of doctoral education in early career academic development
- Frick, Liezel, Albertyn, Ruth, Brodin, Eva, McKenna, Sioux, Claessson, Silwa
- Authors: Frick, Liezel , Albertyn, Ruth , Brodin, Eva , McKenna, Sioux , Claessson, Silwa
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66658 , vital:28978 , ISBN 9781928357216 , https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311427468/download
- Description: The social and economic significance of the doctorate is recognised across the world, as doctoral candidates are considered to be key contributors to the knowledge society by contributing to socio-economic development through innovation (Barnacle 2005; Taylor 2012). Doctoral students – regardless of their discipline – are expected to take part actively in the knowledge creation process at universities, and this is especially important for those who will remain in academia and continue to contribute in this way.1 But knowledge creation is a complex process. Knowledge creation at the doctoral level and beyond requires a comprehensive understanding of relevant knowledge, sound judgment, and the ability to advise with insight. Doctoral learning also includes aspects such as abstract reasoning, the ability to conceptualise, and problem solving. Thus, through the original contribution candidates are expected to create during the doctorate, they are supposed to become experts in their chosen field of study. This process has been described by Evans (2014) as disciplinary acculturation. Various authors (for example Danby & Lee 2012; Lin & Cranton 2005; Manathunga & Goozée 2007) point out that this process of becoming an expert is by no means easy or straightforward. Rather, developing as a scholar is a lifelong process in which moving from a novice to an expert is an essential rite of passage into academic practice (Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986). Benmore (2014) states that for those pursuing academic careers, it involves coming to know, but also coming to be an academic. Such a process of becoming doctorate implies movement over time, progression, and transformation (Barnacle, 2005).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Frick, Liezel , Albertyn, Ruth , Brodin, Eva , McKenna, Sioux , Claessson, Silwa
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66658 , vital:28978 , ISBN 9781928357216 , https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311427468/download
- Description: The social and economic significance of the doctorate is recognised across the world, as doctoral candidates are considered to be key contributors to the knowledge society by contributing to socio-economic development through innovation (Barnacle 2005; Taylor 2012). Doctoral students – regardless of their discipline – are expected to take part actively in the knowledge creation process at universities, and this is especially important for those who will remain in academia and continue to contribute in this way.1 But knowledge creation is a complex process. Knowledge creation at the doctoral level and beyond requires a comprehensive understanding of relevant knowledge, sound judgment, and the ability to advise with insight. Doctoral learning also includes aspects such as abstract reasoning, the ability to conceptualise, and problem solving. Thus, through the original contribution candidates are expected to create during the doctorate, they are supposed to become experts in their chosen field of study. This process has been described by Evans (2014) as disciplinary acculturation. Various authors (for example Danby & Lee 2012; Lin & Cranton 2005; Manathunga & Goozée 2007) point out that this process of becoming an expert is by no means easy or straightforward. Rather, developing as a scholar is a lifelong process in which moving from a novice to an expert is an essential rite of passage into academic practice (Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986). Benmore (2014) states that for those pursuing academic careers, it involves coming to know, but also coming to be an academic. Such a process of becoming doctorate implies movement over time, progression, and transformation (Barnacle, 2005).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
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