Research publications - DLL
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Item Building common knowledge: negotiating new pedagogies in Higher Education in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, Shirley; Daniels, Freda; Weitz, VernonDiscussions 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.Item The Cape Town statement on characteristic elements of a lifelong learning higher education institution(University of Western Cape, UNESCO, Lifelong learning, 2001) Walters, Shirley; Werner, MauchThis statement grew out of a need recognised by adult and higher educators, scholars and specialists in the area of adult and lifelong learning to build on previous work focusing on transforming institutions of higher education into institutions of lifelong learning. It continues the work begun at the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg, Germany, 1997, continued at the University of Mumbai, India in 1998, and the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris in 1998. It was developed at the conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship from the 10 - 12 October 2000 in Cape Town which was co-hosted by University of Western Cape, UNESCO Institute for Education and the Adult Education Research Group of the Danish National University of Education. The Cape Town Statement served as a key guiding document in the Division for Lifelong Learning at UWC. The list of ‘Characteristic Elements of a Lifelong Learning Higher Education Institution’ was annually reproduced as ‘framework part-time provision’ in a handbook called “Juggling to Learn Planning for Success in Your Studies – A handbook for Students, Educators and Administrators” It was used as an organisational tool to improve the part-time provision and to promote lifelong learning at institutional level and beyond. The Editions 2005-2012 of this handbook are available in the Special Collections in the UWC Main Library on level 12. The Cape Town Statement has been translated into French, Spanish and Chinese.Item Eighth Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture Presented by Kumi Naidoo in 2011(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Naidoo, KumiEighth Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture Presented by Kumi Naidoo in 2011Item Eleventh annual Julius Nyerere memorial lecture in 2014(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Popular Education South Africa; Walters, ShirleyThe event included a live performance by Jana Natya Manch (The People’s Theatre Group), also known as Janam (Birth). Janam has created original plays for the past 40 years; they have performed more than 8000 times in over 150 towns and cities of India, using public spaces and educating and engaging their audiences in discussions around issues of common concern. Janam is on its first tour of South Africa. They performed 'Enough is Enough'. A play based on the personal narratives of industrial workers in and around Delhi, gathered by the actors. The play is a juxtaposition of hilarious, over-the-top farce with deadly serious, quietly assertive docu-drama on the work conditions of workers. Through testimonies of real workers, the play explores issues that confront them, such as low wages, long hours of work, inadequate safety measures and the contract labour system. The topic was Popular Education: Inspiring education and activism. The event was coordinated by Professors Shirley Walters and Astrid Von Kotze of the Traditions of Popular Education Research Project within the Division for Lifelong Learning (DLL). This project was supported by the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) and UWC to uncover the history of popular education in South Africa in order to bring these traditions to the attention of those thinking about community learning centres / colleges which are mentioned in the White Paper on Post - School Education and Training.Item Fifth Annual Julius Nyerere memorial lecture presented by Pregs Govender in 2008(University of the Western Cape, 2008) Govender, PregsGovender discusses the impact of agreements and policies such as GEAR and GATT on labourers in sectors such as the textile industry. Govender also questions the impact of policies from organisations such the World Trade Organisation on developing countries.Item The first year experience of part-time students in a South African university: exploring student support linkages between First year orientation programmes and after hours support services(Division for lifelong learning, 2009) Koetsier, JosThe paper argues that once-off and stand-alone orientation programmes offered usually at the beginning of the first year have limited effect if they are not part of a broader array of support systems available to students in various forms for the entire duration of that year. Concerted support systems - which include mentoring, and peer facilitation, early warning mechanisms, student counselling, and time management workshops – are better positioned to support student success, particularly at first year level. Empirical information in this paper is based on research conducted at one South African university, the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The University predominantly recruits among the economically disadvantaged communities of the Western Cape. Surveys conducted during the Orientation Programmes of 2006-2008 showed that more than half of the first year part-time students who attend these programmes are first generation students. In other words, they were the first member of their family to enter the university and expressed the need for specific support throughout the year. More than 90% were employed and carried family responsibilities. Centralised after hours support has been institutionalized only recently (2008), resulting in the implementation of an institution specific model called the ‘After Hours Study Zone’ (AHSZ). The model seeks to link the first year orientation programmes offered at the beginning of the year to tailor-made after hours support throughout the year. In 2008, about 3000 students studied in the University’s after hour’s programmes. They were predominantly working part-time students (N=2702) who were older than the traditional student age (18-25 years). 80% of these part-time students were over 30 years old (source: Management Information System, UWC, 2009 per 4 May 2009). The implementation of the AHSZ model is in line with the University’s lifelong learning mission and is supported by bi-annual research projects, aiming at specific faculties as well as constituencies (e.g. students and staff teaching on the After Hours Programmes). These studies form part of a series of research projects on Adult Learners in Higher Education and are funded by the university as well as by external agencies like the CHE (Council on Higher Education) in Pretoria The paper contextualizes these research findings and contrasts the institutional model with other first year support models in South Africa and findings in the (inter)national literature. It probes whether these models take into account the specific profile and needs of working adult learners who study part-time.Item Flexible learning and teaching: Looking beyond the binary of full-time/part-time provision in South African higher education(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, Shirley; Jones, BarbaraThis paper engages with literature on flexible learning and teaching in order to explore whether it may be possible, within the South African context, to have flexible learning and teaching provide a third way which goes beyond the current practice of full-time/part-time provision. This binary classification of students is a proxy for day-time/after-hours delivery. The argument is made that effective, flexible learning and teaching requires a fundamental shift in thinking about learning and teaching in higher education that moves us beyond such binaries. The paper proposes that in order to ensure access and success for students, ‘common knowledge’ (Edwards, 2010) will need to be co-constructed which understands flexible learning and teaching in ways which will meet needs of a diversity of students, including working students. It will require ‘resourceful leadership’ (Edwards, 2014) within the university that recognises, enhances and gives purpose to the capability of colleagues at every level of the systems they lead. Also, it will require the building of ‘common knowledge’ between certain sectors of universities and particular workplaces.Item Fourth Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture Presented by Ms Anne Hope in 2007(University of the Western Cape, 2007) Hope, AnneFourth Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture Presented by Ms Anne Hope in 2007Item Hitting the road: what students at UWC say about their public transport(University of the Western Cape, 2004) Koetsier, Jos; Gabavana, WisemannDiscussions with full-time and part-time students revealed that there is a serious need for safe and reliable public transport. Especially women from the townships frequently raised issues of public transport not being safe and available during after-hours. The Student Representative Council (SRC) of the University of the Western Cape initiated a transport survey among all students to address this issue. Safe and reliable public transport is not only an important asset for student but for all citizens of South Africa country. Public transport greatly contributes to the social and economic upliftment of the metropolis and the province. The SRC supported by the Division for Lifelong and the office of the Vice-rector Students Development and Support conducted this survey to get a picture of the transport needs of full-time and part-time students. A total of 488 students respondent to the survey, which was twice as high as any other on-line survey conducted at the University. The outcomes were shared with the wider campus community and stakeholders in the transport industry in the Cape Town Metropolis. A public presentation took place on 19 August 2004 during the Learning Cape Indaba.Item Inaugural Nyerere Lecture on Lifelong Learning by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, MP, at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, Thursday, 9 September 2004(University of the Western Cape, 2004) Pandor, NalediFirst Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture presented by Naledi Pandor in 2004Item Keeping the doors of learning open for adult student-workers within higher education(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, Shirley; Witbooi, Sally; Abrahams, MarkThe 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.Item Liberation pedagogy in the South African Context(Skotaville Publishers, 1990) Alexander, NevilleWe have arrived at a time to reflect on what has been done in the field of education for liberation, alternative education or People’s Education during the last few years. We have to analyse and theorise our experience in this country because it is imperative that beacons be set for future action, that direction and goals be determined so that energies now being expended are not wasted or misdirected. That there has been an explosion of liberation pedagogy, in the form of a multiplicity of educational projects and experiments inside and outside of the formal system of schooling since the early ’seventies more or less, is a well known fact. In recent years, many learned articles have appeared that attempt to contextualise this renaissance of learning in South Africa. Most of these have been programmatic and rhetorical or prescriptive insofar as they have dealt with the macro-educational issues involved, or descriptive and tentative insofar as they have confined themselves to micro-educational issues.Item Lifelong learning and professional development in 'Residential Universities': Implementing the 'White Paper on post-school education and training'(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Walters, ShirleyThis is a compilation of key documents from the four year action research project between the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) which seeks to implement the transformational agenda of the White Paper on Post-School Education and Training (MHET, 2013) which challenges education and training institutions to re-think approaches to teaching and learning. The research findings provide useful insights particularly for residential universities, but may also have application for other education and training institutions.Item Making sense of the transitional maelstrom of part-time students and their conceptions of learning as mediated by conceptional domains of work, family and self. A case study of undergraduate, part-time political studies students at a university in South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Abrahams, MarkThe traditional trajectory of young students in higher education in South Africa is currently under sharp scrutiny and the general provision is considered to be inadequate in terms of quality, diversity and quantity. There is a proposal to increase the participation rate of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 from 16% (in 2011) to 23% by 2030 (DHET, 2012). Already, the increase in access to young school leavers without the concomitant resource allocation has resulted in the inability of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to continue to provide access to ‘non-traditional’ working adults in some of its programmes. The large classes for young undergraduates, the necessary foundation/support programmes to assist under-prepared school leavers, recent demands to increase postgraduate study output and to publish are related pressures influencing the decisions to limit undergraduate part-time studies for adult learners. To address this ‘dilemma’ an action research project was launched to introduce lifelong learning opportunities that are conceptualised and provided in flexible ways. The intention is to challenge both the university and workplaces to interrogate understandings and approaches to professional development and to support innovation that will enhance successful access and success for working people. The Political Studies department at UWC is one of the pilot sites for the action research and initial reflections on the challenge to introduce flexible modes of teaching and learning revealed that the attempts may be constrained by prevailing conceptions of the trajectories of part-time students. Instead of the traditional, linear transition into higher education – normally associated with younger learners – trajectories for mature adult learners are less linear, more complex, and include ‘stop-outs’ and discontinuities within transitions (Stevenson & Clegg, 2012). This paper describes the national transitional context of higher education in South Africa and the precarious location of working adults studying at UWC within this context. It further explores the transitional maelstroms as shared by a sample of part-time Political Studies students; it considers the roles and influence of the contextual domains of work, family and self; and examines the implications for mature students, their workplaces and the Political Studies department at the university.Item Ninth annual Julius Nyerere memorial lecture presented by Carolyn Medel-Añonuevo 2012(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Medel-Añonuevo, CarolynResisting the Second Scramble of Africa through Lifelong Learning: Revisiting Julius Nyerere´s thoughts on development and education.Item Planning the imaginary: assessing the marketing of lifelong learning and its impact on institutional change. Paper presented at the 15th International Conference on Assessing Quality in Higher Education 14-16 July 2003, University of the Western Cape(2003) Koetsier, JosIn August 1999 UWC launched its first marketing campaign “It is Never too Late to learn” which mainly targeted Adult Mature learners with an interest for part-time studies. In those days many people perceived Lifelong Learning as being equivalent to part-time studies and part-time studies as being equivalent to after hours studies. From the ensuing campaigns since 1999 a lifelong learner emerged who was part-time as well as full-time, was a mature learner of an average age of 27 years for women and 23 years for men, who wanted good services and high quality programmes during all working hours of the university. The marketing campaigns solicited many queries from prospective and current students, queries that hint at the need for institutional change. The paper assesses areas of enquiry and contestation embedded in 262 email queries and shows how they point towards the need for institutional change.Item Popular pedagogy and the changing political landscape: A case study of a women’s housing movement in South Africa(Taylor & Francis Group, 2009) Ismail, SalmaThis paper sets out to explore the relationship between popular education and the changing South African political landscape through case study research of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Development Association. The research took place over an extended period of time from 1992#2003 and discusses how popular education was advocated by the South African Homeless People’s Federation and its parent NGO (People’s Dialogue); how it was implemented, how an increasing disjuncture between teaching and learning occurred, and how pedagogy was shaped by both political and personal factors. The paper discusses the interactions between social movements and NGOs and the limitations of social movements and popular education. It argues for a more nuanced conceptuItem Putting ourselves into practice: Popular education at/and universities(Journal of Education, 2005) Von Kotze, AstridThis paper looks at different ways in which popular education has been played out in South African university adult education (UAE) since the 1980s. It traces the changing relationships between UAE and sections of civil society, notably social movements, within the context of shifting socio-political dynamics. It suggests that today, there is a tension: UAE is asked to pay allegiance to vocationalism, market values and individualism. Adopting the old struggle language of ‘empowerment’, ‘participation’, and ‘people-centred education’ seems to signal that the old freedoms adult education as non-formal education utilised, are still alive. However, popular education is in danger of becoming a technology, divorced from the purpose and alliances that gave it meaning in the past. The paper asks what role does popular education have to play, today? It outlines some ways in which UAE can still make itself accountable and useful to struggles for social justice. These are proposed as a model of good practice – encapsulated by Collins’ (1991) suggestion that rather than putting theory into practice, we should put ourselves into practice.Item Radio advert for the Division of Lifelong Learning (UWC)(University of the Western Cape, 1999) Division for Lifelong LearningRadio advertisement for the Division of Lifelong Learning (DLL) at the University of the Western Cape.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, SallyOpportunities 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.