Browsing by Subject "institutional culture"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Open Access
    "Because the country says they have to change" : an analysis of a diversity intervention in a South African Police Service (SAPS) station
    (2011-12) Faull, Andrew
    This resource will be of value to scholars of transformation in South African organisations. The shift from apartheid to a constitutional democracy in South Africa brought with it a plethora of questions concerning ideas of nationhood, citizenship, and organisational transformation. Integrally caught up in the revolution, the South African Police Service (SAPS) faces transformative challenges on scales far larger than most other organisations in the country. From being the strong arm of the oppressive elite, it has had to restructure and re-articulate its function while simultaneously attempting to maintain law and order. Like many other corporations and organisations, the SAPS has engaged in interventions aimed at aiding the fluidity of this process. This report is an analysis of one such intervention. It attempts to ascertain the extent to which members are changing as a result of particular diversity workshops conducted in a region of the Western Cape. The analysis focuses on members at one particular station.
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    Factors shaping lecturers’ adoption of OER at three South African universities
    (African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-08-18) Cox, Glenda; Trotter, Henry; Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams; Patricia Arinto
    The research presented here focuses on understanding the obstacles, opportunities and practices associated with Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption at three South African universities. It addresses the question: Why do South African lecturers adopt – or not adopt – OER? In trying to answer this, the authors also attempt to identify which factors shape lecturers’ OER adoption decisions, and how lecturers’ institutional cultures influence their OER use and creation choices. This study employed a qualitative research approach through in-depth personal interviews with 18 respondents at three different universities which together broadly represent the characteristics of South Africa’s university sector. Unique analytical tools – the OER adoption pyramid and OER adoption readiness tables – were developed to help with analysing and synthesising the data. Findings indicate that whether and how OER adoption takes place at an institution is shaped by a layered sequence of factors – infrastructural access, legal permission, conceptual awareness, technical capacity, material availability, and individual or institutional volition – which are further influenced by prevailing cultural and social variables. This study has value and application for researchers and institutions pursuing an OER agenda, policy-makers seeking tools to assess OER readiness in institutional contexts, and funding agencies aiming to boost institutional OER engagement. The dataset arising from this study can be accessed at: https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/555
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    "Like that statue at Jammie stairs" : some student perceptions and experiences of institutional culture at the University of Cape Town in 1999
    (2011-12) Steyn, Melissa; Van Zyl, Mikki
    This report is of value to those studying institutional culture in post-apartheid South Africa, and dynamics of transformation at South African institutions of higher learning. In this project, students spoke out about their experiences at UCT. In particular they describe how they perceived the university and the other students, and how their experiences impacted upon their academic performance and general well-being while attending UCT. In the study, the authors consulted a variety of policy documents and publicity materials from UCT. The authors then held 19 workshops with focus groups of students. Five were mixed while fourteen were purposive in that certain designated students, such as black student,s foreign students, women, etc. were targeted. The initiator of the study conducted ten of the focus groups, but for the others peer facilitators were used. From the findings it is clear that in students' experiences 'whiteness' still largely characterises the institutional culture. Many black students and some white students described incidents of overt racism against black academic staff and students. This report documents suggestions made by students, and also puts forward some recommendations. It is hoped that these will be received in the spirit in which the research was undertaken, namely to be helpful to UCT as it continues along the road of transformation. This report provides a forum in which diverse students voices are collated and reflected, on behalf of the students and committed educators, and for the continuance of outstanding education at UCT.