Browsing by Subject "contradictions"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Open Access
    The role of postgraduate students in co-authoring open educational resources to promote social inclusion: a case study at the University of Cape Town
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Paskevicius, Michael
    Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its OER directory, UCT OpenContent. However, persuading and then supporting busy academics to share their teaching materials as OER still remains a challenge. In this article, we report on an empirical study of how UCT postgraduate students have assisted in the process of reworking the academics' teaching materials as OER. Using the concept of contradictions (Engeström, 2001), we endeavor to surface the various disturbances or conflicts with which the postgraduate students had to engage to make OER socially inclusive, as well as Engeström's “layers of causality" (2011, p. 609) to explain postgraduate students' growing sense of agency as they experienced the OER development process as being socially inclusive.
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    Open Access
    What happens when the university meets the community? Service learning boundary work and boundary workers
    (Taylor & Francis, 2011) McMillan, Janice
    This article explores service learning via the lens of activity theory. Through this lens, it is identified as a form of 'boundary work' in higher education, with educators identified as 'boundary workers'. Drawing on the data from a recent study, this paper analyses service learning as an often contradictory and tensionfilled practice. The 'expanded community' and 'dual but interrelated object' in the service learning activity system result in many tensions for students and community members alike. This in turn poses significant challenges for boundary workers, and ultimately for the university. The paper concludes by arguing that in order to encourage and value service learning, we need to acknowledge the (new and different) knowledge, values and skills required for playing the role of boundary worker in (boundary) practices such as this.