Browsing by Author "Ravjee, Neetha"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Access to and use of information and communication technology by students at the University of the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2005) Mkhize, Sibusiso Zolile; Ravjee, Neetha; Czerniewicz, Laura; Faculty of Education
    This study investigated access to and use of Information and Communication Technology by students at the University of the Western Cape. It examined how the issues of access and use play out at the microlevel of a historically disadvantaged institution in South Africa by investigating the institutional arrangements and practices of different computer laboratories.
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    Exclusion by design: A constitutional analysis of admission policies and practices in selected Cape Town schools
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Isaacs, Bernita; Ravjee, Neetha; Albertus, Chesné
    School admission policies are powerful tools that can sometimes contain provisions that are in conflict with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and other legislation and policies which regulate education in South Africa. Provisions relating to fees, documents required for admission and specific admission practices may have the effect of excluding certain learners from admission to schools. Such practices include charging application fees, charging registration fees, administering admission tests and demanding only specific documents for proof of address. On the face of it, these practices may seem unproblematic, but in effect, they exclude certain learners. This may be contrary to South African Law. Section 36 of the Constitution allows for the limitation of rights. Differentiation or discrimination may be permissible; however, it is unfair discrimination that is prohibited. Consequently the constitutionality of these policies and practices investigated are measured against the protection afforded by the Constitution. This study identifies some of these exclusionary provisions and practices at schools and proposes possible ways to eradicate and combat them. Because the exclusion of learners, whether through school admission policies or practices, may unjustifiably encroach upon the rights of such learners, this is an investigation into a legal issue and a legal theoretical lens must, therefore, be used to address this phenomenon. This qualitative study thus determines whether or not, and if so, how school admissions policies function to exclude learners from schools. The research is based on the comparative analysis of various public documents including the Constitution; legislation; judicial decisions; awards of cases of the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) and policies of the Western Cape Education Department school admission policies and practices from five high schools and five primary schools in the Western Cape were sampled and analysed. The focus of the research is public schools in the Western Cape Province including specialised schools referred to as focus schools.
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    Neither ivory towers nor corporate universities: Moving public universities beyond the "mode 2" logic
    (UNISA, 2002) Ravjee, Neetha
    This article investigates the tensions in the "mode 2" thesis, which suggests the emergence of new, global trends in the production and dissemination of knowledge. I explain its influence in recent South African higher education policy debates and research practices by referring to competing readings of "mode 2", which have allowed it to feed simultaneously into both liberal and critical discourses on higher education transformation in South Africa. Clear tensions emerge from the limitations of "mode 2" in speaking to existing inequalities and in informing non-corporate models of institutional transformation.
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    The politics of e-learning in South African higher education
    (University of the West Indies, Distance Education Centre, 2007) Ravjee, Neetha
    Introduction: The appearance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the intersection of competing perspectives on higher education transformation in South Africa suggests that the increasing use of ICTs is not an automatic ‘good in itself’ but needs to be problematised. This paper first describes the new ICT-related practices emerging in South African higher education institutions, and then identifies and compares four broad approaches informing the relation of these new practices to higher education change. The first three approaches conceive of this relationship in terms of the role of ICTs in effecting specific changes in higher education institutions, while the fourth approaches the relation discursively. The final section describes access patterns in ‘dual-mode’ institutions, and asks whether the emerging trends are redefining the meanings of access to higher education. In thinking about how to re-imagine current elearning practices outside of the tight globalisation script, this paper supports a framework that both embraces the possibilities offered by online pedagogies, and problematises central aspects of the political economy and cultural politics of e-learning in higher education.
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    Teachers' authority: Strategies for instilling discipline in a post-corporal punishment era
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Egunlusi, Oluwatosin; Ravjee, Neetha
    This research explores the relationship between authority and discipline in South African schools. During apartheid, corporal punishment was used as an authoritarian mode of discipline. The new democratic Constitution, which guarantees the right to dignity, equality, freedom and security for all citizens, led to legislation that outlawed corporal punishment: Section 10 of South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 prohibits the practice of corporal punishment in schools. The banning of corporal punishment leaves schools with the responsibility of implementing disciplinary practices to make learners feel emotionally comfortable and physically safe to develop self-discipline. However, recent research suggests that educators link the growing problem of indiscipline in many schools to the banning of corporal punishment and inadequate alternative disciplinary practices. Some teachers struggle to implement disciplinary alternatives to corporal punishment. Others argue that teachers find it difficult to liberate their teaching approaches from the restrictions of the past; they struggle to be in authority without being authoritarian. Many teachers still confuse the use of „authority‟ with being „authoritarian‟, and shy away from exercising their authority at all. Educators find it difficult to manage discipline in classrooms. Yet the task of nurturing serious scholars and responsible citizens may be difficult in schools with discipline problems. Therefore, this qualitative case study of a Cape Town high school investigates the puzzle of authority in the post-apartheid classroom. It seeks to better understand teachers‟ authority in managing classroom discipline in the post-corporal punishment era. The main research question is: How do teachers in the selected Cape Town high school understand discipline and authority in the post-corporal punishment era? The findings suggest that educators may offer a vision of classroom leadership in schools that addresses teachers‟ authority outside of the mechanical and punitive forms of control. The study shows that experienced teachers are more knowledgeable about the concept of authority compared to novice teachers. Experienced teachers are aware of what teachers‟ authority entails and what is needed for the effective exertion of teachers‟ authority, while some novice teachers confuse „authority‟ with „being authoritarian‟ and therefore struggle to exert their authority in the classroom.
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    The impact of neoliberalism on South Africa's education policy discourse post-1994: The quest for a radical critical pedagogy
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) Dames, Edward William; Ravjee, Neetha
    Since the 1980s several different forms of privatisation had been introduced into the South African educational system by the De Lange Commission. Since the 1990s a raft of neoliberal policies has been implemented under the banner of "educational transformation" by the post-apartheid state. This qualitative exploration will apply a critical policy analysis approach to analyse the impact of neoliberalism on post-apartheid education policy discourse in the public schooling system in South Africa from a historical, social and critical perspective. More specifically, I will apply the insights of critical education theory to interrogate the impact of the neoliberal orthodoxy and its concomitant values on the public schooling system with regard to the delivery of accessible, quality public schooling in post-apartheid South Africa.