Browsing by Author "Kefale, Kende"

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    From Gatekeepers to Gateways: Courses Impeding Graduation Annual Report 2019
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Shay, Suellen; Collier-Reed, Brandon; Hendry, Jane; Marquard, Stephen; Kefale, Kende; Prince, Robert; Steyn, Sanet; Mpofu-Mketwa, Tsitsi; Carstens, Rondine
    The Courses Impeding Graduation (CIG) Project is a research and development initiative of the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) addressing the problem of high failure rates in courses that are obstacles to student retention and progression. This report report lays out the background, aims, objectives, and outcomes of the project in 2019, with a particular focus on first-year Mathematics courses in the Faculty of Science, examining which students are at higher risk of failing these courses. The report includes student perspectives gathered through focus groups.
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    The paradox of differentiation : Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory and the impossibility of unilateral control - the case of apartheid
    (2009) Kefale, Kende
    The German sociologist, Niklas Luhmann, proposed a social theory that could describe a society at a far more abstract level than is customary. Based on his study of general systems theory and drawing on the works of biologists and mathematicians, Luhmann formulated his theory of social systems which he hoped would move social theory away from the discourse of oppression. In developing his theory, one of the conclusions he arrived at was that unilateral control (or domination) was impossible as a permanent feature of a system. This paper demonstrates (a) how such unilateral control cannot be a defining structure of a society although it appears temporarily from time to time and (b) how Luhmann's social systems theory provides a theoretical framework to understand the impossibility of unilateral control. By using Luhmann's theory of differentiation, this paper will show how the unique evolution of the Apartheid subsystem led to the temporary success of its efforts at unilateral control. It will also be shown how the same unique differentiation could not allow for this kind of control to persist over time - hence the paradoxes of differentiation. The paper concludes by indicating the dangers of superficial abstractions based on temporary states of a system, and advocates a level of abstraction more concerned with action than experience.
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    UCT ERT Student Experience Survey 2020
    (University of Cape Town, 2020-09-25) Marquard, Stephen; Walji, Sukaina; Lester, Soraya; Kefale, Kende; Deacon, Andrew
    Final report of the UCT Emergency Remote Teaching Student Experience Survey 2020, an online survey of student experiences of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the 2nd term of 2020 (April to July 2020). The purpose of the survey was to inform and improve the design of courses taught online during the second semester of 2020 (August to November), and improve support for students where possible. The survey was thus a form of institutional research and followed an exploratory research design rather than setting out to confirm or disprove specific hypotheses. The report presents key concerns of students during this time period, including mental health, course workload in relation to available time, and challenges relating to course site design, assessments, social connectedness, Internet access and mobile data and preferences relating to video material and synchronous teaching. While most students experienced some difficulties arising from ERT and the COVID-19 lockdown conditions, students who no longer had access to UCT residences after the start of ERT were particularly adversely affected.
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    The University as a social system: Niklas Luhmann on the problem of self-descriptions
    (2013) Kefale, Kende; Jubber, Ken
    This examination is undertaken to investigate whether the self-description provided by the University of Cape Town (UCT) regarding its race-based affirmative action in admissions is responsible for the heated debate that it continues to elicit. It begins with a close examination of Luhmann's "Social Systems" which is used to conceptualize the university itself as a social system.