An inter-institutional postgraduate diploma for university teachers: exploring formative feedback data from the position of socially just pedagogies
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central University of Technology, Free State
Abstract
In January 2014, after many years of preparation, the Postgraduate Diploma
in Higher Education Teaching and Learning [PG Dip (HETL)] – a collaboration
between the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the University of
Stellenbosch and the University of the Western Cape – was offered. The
qualification is a two-year part-time course, and the first cohort of participants
graduated in December 2015. The question that this paper seeks to address is
whether a collaborative qualification, offered to academic staff across very
different institutions, can make a contribution towards socially just teaching
and learning in higher education. The study draws on Nancy Fraser's (2003)
conceptualisation of social justice, with its three dimensions of redistribution,
recognition and representation, as a framework for reflecting on the extent to
which the programme contributed towards the development and
understanding of socially just pedagogies in professional learning. This paper
draws on data collected from participants' and facilitators' formative feedback
on the postgraduate diploma over a two-year period (2014 – 2015). We
conclude that offering a single PG Dip (HETL) collaboratively across three
universities was socially just in that knowledge and resources were shared,
differently placed institutions were brought together, with their different
attributes being valued, and participants were given opportunities to interact
with and learn from one another across differences. Applying the research
findings to practice suggests that programmes in support of socially just
professional learning should enhance alignment across the redistribution of
facilitator and participant resources, recognise and address participants'
concerns and build participants' academic voices – elements key to
participatory parity.
Description
Keywords
Academic staff development, Inter-institutional collaboration, Professional learning, Socially just pedagogies
Citation
Winberg, C. et al. (2016). An inter-institutional postgraduate diploma for university teachers: exploring formative feedback data from the position of socially just pedagogies. Journal for New Generation Sciences, 14(3): 144 - 161