Research publications - DLL

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9234

Browse

Browsing by Subject "Adult learner"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Building common knowledge: negotiating new pedagogies in Higher Education in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, Shirley; Daniels, Freda; Weitz, Vernon
    Discussions in this chapter are located within an action research-based study which aims at supporting the integration of enhanced pedagogies in one university in South Africa. The study recognises that even full-time funded students in Higher Education face economic pressures which mean that student employment alongside full-time study is approaching the norm. It also recognises that this situation has implications for the pedagogies that are used by university departments, whether students are preparing directly for the professions or undertaking more open-ended courses. In this chapter we focus on how one university initiative to create more responsive pedagogies has been negotiated into the practices of three departments in one university with a strong history of engaging first generation university students who are poor. In particular, we draw on the idea of common knowledge to explain how new understandings of pedagogy are negotiated into the practices by the core team and are then deployed institutionally. We identify and discuss the political nature of organisational innovation and the building of common knowledge, through discussing an illustrative ‘moment’ from the research project and the participatory research approach that we adopt. The chapter brings together analytic resources of cultural-historical theory, a participatory research approach and, in particular, ideas of relational expertise, common knowledge and relational agency.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Keeping the doors of learning open for adult student-workers within higher education
    (University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, Shirley; Witbooi, Sally; Abrahams, Mark
    The Freedom Charter of the African National Congress (ANC), the triumphant South African liberation movement, proclaims that ‘the doors of learning shall be open’ for all. Twenty years since coming to power, the doors of the universities are struggling to stay open for adult student-workers. An action research project into implementation of ‘flexible provision’ at one historically black university is described in response to these realities. Rich experiences from lives of working librarian student-workers illustrate the complex issues that confront individuals, workplaces and institutions in implementing innovative pedagogies within a university.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A realist assessment of the implementation of blended learning in a higher education context: the case of the Library and Information Science Department at the University of the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2015) Abrahams, Mark; Witbooi, Sally
    Opportunities for further studies by working adults came under threat as the University of the Western Cape stopped the offering of after-hours classes in most of its Faculties. Unqualified and under-qualified librarians were directly affected by this decision. This paper outlines an assessment of the conceptualisation and implementation of an action research project initiated by the Division for Lifelong learning. Using a realist evaluation approach, the assessment focuses on the implementation of strategies aimed at showing how lifelong learning opportunities, conceptualised and provided in flexible ways, could support innovation in learning and teaching in order to enhance access and success to learning by working people in the context of the Library and Information Science Department.