Beyond legislation: A case study of Transformation in a South African higher education institution
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This research is about transformation in the Higher Education (HE) context with focus on a Higher Education Institution (HEI), the University of the Western Cape, officially labelled as a Historically Disadvantaged Institution (HDI) in Cape Town, Western Cape in South Africa. The researcher employs a Decoloniality lens to investigate the transformation of the UWC. The researcher first investigates a range of interviewees' lived experiences and then engages a small group of selected UWC participants in Participatory Learning Activities (PLA) to understand the participants' perceptions regarding transformation and to provide a platform for exploring transformation at UWC. The current approaches in the literature about transformation lean towards an intellectual discourse that offers many definitions of transformation which means that transformation in South African HEIs is whatever each HEI decides. This compounds the question of why HEIs are failing in their transformation approaches. The literature further critiques HEIs for failing to implement appropriate visionary and impactful transformation strategies and debates the merits of the dominant foundation of legislative compliance, specifically regarding the Employment Equity Act of South Africa.
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Keywords
Transformation, Higher Education, Diversity, Decolonisation, Culture