OpenUCT :: Browsing by Subject "transformation"

Browsing by Subject "transformation"

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Open Access
Activists within the academy: the role of prior experience in adult learners' acquisition of postgraduate literacies in a postapartheid South African university
(SAGE, 2011) Cooper, Linda
The article takes as a case study a group of disability rights activists who were given access to a master's program via Recognition of Prior Learning. The question explored is "Can adult learners' prior experiential knowledge act as a resource for the successful acquisition of postgraduate academic literacy practices?" The analysis is framed theoretically by Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital, and field. It is argued that adult learners' acquisition of postgraduate literacies is an outcome of the interplay between three factors: (a) student habitus and dispositions, (b) pedagogic agency, and (c) the nature of the disciplinary field. Although the program under investigation made complex demands on students, lecturers' understanding of student habitus enabled students' prior experiential knowledge to be tapped as a resource. However, students also exercised agency in negotiating the forms of academic habitus acquired, and the trajectory of their agency involved a mix of accommodation, resistance, and challenge.
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.
Open Access
Being Different Together: case studies on diversity interventions in some South African organisations
(2011) Steyn, Melissa
There are few contexts where people are not confronted by differences in the workplace, in organisations and public spaces, and as an aspect of the general body politic. This textbook is intended for students and educators of Human Resource Management, Organisational and Management studies. It is also relevant for diversity practitioners based in South African and international contexts.
Open Access
Cell phones in social transformation in Africa: insights from ongoing research in some African countries
(2012) Nyamnjoh, Francis
Cell phones have proved to be as accommodating as they are accommodated by those who embrace them. They shape their users as much as they are tamed by their users. For anyone interested in gaining a wider perspective on the situatedness of mobiles in African contexts, the social appropriation of technology and new configurations of marginality.
Open Access
Consolidated report of DEISA case studies
(2010) Steyn, Melissa; Kelly, Claire
DEISA (Diversity and Equity Interventions in South Africa) was a research programme which studied the transformation "industry" in South Africa, exploring issues such as the kinds of interventions. The content of this report has been used as part of the Diversity Studies MPhil Programme at the University of Cape Town. Specifically, it has been used for the course "Diversity Implementation and Practice", a course which introduces students to the strategies used, and challenges faced by, diversity practitioners in South Africa. This report could also be useful for the study of human resource management and industrial sociology in post-apartheid South Africa.
Open Access
Curriculum reform in South Africa: more time for what?
(2016) Shay, Suellen; Wolff, Karin; Clarence-Fincham, Jennifer
In 2013 the Council on Higher Education (CHE) released a proposal for the reform of South Africa’s undergraduate degree arguing that all current 3-year degrees and diplomas, as well as 4-year Bachelor’s degrees be extended by one year with an additional 120 credits. This paper argues that the structure proposed provides the conditions for a different kind of curriculum that enables epistemic access and development. The paper firstly offers a set of theoretical tools for conceptualising this enabling curriculum structure. Secondly, drawing on the CHE exemplars, the paper makes explicit the general curriculum reform principles that underpin the enabling structure. Finally, the paper describes how these reform principles translate into qualification-specific curriculum models which enable epistemic access and development. This research is an important contribution to the next phase of curriculum reform in South Africa, what we refer to as a ‘new generation’ of extended curricula.
Open Access
Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Collaborative, sustainable models for transformation and student involvement
(Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2022-06) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle
This is a panel presentation by the Digital Open Textbook for Development (DOT4D) initiative members Dr Glenda Cox and Michelle Willmers at the Siyaphumelela Conference in June 2022.
Open Access
Dynamics of identity and space in higher education: an institutional ethnographic case study of a transforming university
(2021) Cornell, Josephine; Kessi, Shose; Ratele, Kopano
Higher education globally is characterised by persistent inequality, which is particularly acute in South Africa. Due to the enduring legacy of colonialism and apartheid, students from certain categories of identity are marginalised, whereas others are privileged. An essential element of these dynamics of power is space. Intersections of identity such as race, class, ability and gender are axes of power in differential experiences of space. Despite this, space is often neglected in research into higher education transformation in South Africa. Through an institutional ethnography, this study examines the dynamics of space and identity at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The study involved a photovoice project, roving interviews and surveys with students; the collection of multimodal data in which space is documented; campus observations; and semi-structured interviews with staff and policymakers. The first analysis chapter involves a multimodal discourse analysis of the identity discourses produced for the Jameson Plaza by the students in the study, specifically as a place of belonging and connection and a place of alienation and discomfort. The second analysis chapter examines the institutional power geometries at play at the UCT across three specific dimensions: 1) spatial memory and material familiarity; 2) material campus symbolism; and 3) spatialised social practices and relations. The findings illustrate how space and power across these dimensions engender experiences of spatialised belonging or spatialised alienation on campus. The affective potentialities of campus, in turn, influence the types of identities students construct for themselves across campus space. Emerging from these considerations, the final analysis chapter explores what student do across, within and through campus spaces. The chapter focuses on everyday use of space by students at the individual level, and specifically spatial coping strategies students use to negotiate and manage their daily lives on campus.
Open Access
Health sciences undergraduate education at University of Cape Town: a story of transformation
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2012) Hartman, Nadia; Kathard, Harsha; Perez, Gonda; Reid, Steve; Irlam, James; Gunston, Geney D; Janse van Rensburg, Vicki; Burch, Vanessa; Duncan, Madeleine; Hellenberg, Derek; Van Rooyen, Ian; Smouse, Mantoa; Sikakane, Cynthia N; Badenhorst, Elmi; Ige, B
Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented.
Open Access
Human rights, disability, and higher education : conference held at UCT Middle Campus, Cape Town from 25 to 26 January 2003
(University of Cape Town. Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA), 2014-09-19) University of Cape Town. Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA); Van Zyl, Mikki
This report will be of value to Disability Studies scholars, educational theorists and researchers, as well as those interested in the construction of disability within the context of transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Over the past three decades, the discipline of Disability Studies has emerged as an independent field within the social science research and theoretical arena. Questions surrounding the nature and origin of (oppressive) societal responses to impairment - ranging from service installations to bureaucratic policies, linguistic conventions to exclusionary practices - are the primary concern of the field. Disability Studies attempts to examine and debunk the 'disabled' identity as one ascribed to individuals arbitrarily, yet selectively designated as disabled. Broadly, key theoretical positions within the field assert that the negatively valued and ascribed group identity of being 'disabled' is one which serves, through the operation of complex ideological machinery, to justify and obscure the systematic exclusion of persons so designated from equitable participation in the production of culture. This study looks at dynamics of human rights and disability within higher education institutions from this perspective.
Open Access
In Conversation: talking transformation
(2014-09-29) Jansen, Jonathan; Soudien, Crain
Many people are concerned about the pace, and indeed the meaning, of transformation in higher education and in South Africa more broadly. Two senior university administrators, authors and thinkers will think aloud about the issue. Professor Crain Soudien (Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town) will engage with Professor Jonathan Jansen (Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State), to examine the current state of transformation in higher education and its relation to South African society as a whole. Professor Jansen’s experiences and writings on transformation will focus the conversation, with Professor Soudien’s insight and experience contributing to the exchange. Considerations will include the quest to find creative management solutions to the expression of different cultural experiences inside institutions, and the challenges involved in constructing a fully South African reality inside environments that historically were determined by the practices of one group only. Jansen’s navigation of the treacherous racial terrain of the Reitz Four incident will form part of the discussion. The conversation will reveal how both men see the way though the deep racial cleavages that still plague our South African universities and society at large.
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Inclusivity, collaboration and student co-creation: Open textbook production models for social justice
(2022-02) Cox, Glenda; Masuku, Bianca; Willmers, Michelle
Presentation from the Open Textbook Conversation event hosted by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development initiative at the University of Cape Town on 10 March 2022 as part of international Open Education Week. The event was focused on launching the UCT UNESCO Chair in Open Education and Social Justice, profiling the UCT Open Textbook Award, addressing issues related to institutional support and the transformation agenda, and sharing findings from the DOT4D open textbook models for social justice articulation process.
Open Access
Justice and legitimacy hindered by uncertainty the legal status of traditional councils in North West Province
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2014) De Souza, Monica
The Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act 2003 provides for the transformation of apartheidera tribal authorities into constitutional-era traditional councils with a role in traditional governance. The process involves reconstituting these councils to meet certain thresholds of women and democratically elected members. Where councils have failed properly to meet the thresholds – seemingly the case in much of North West Province – their present legal status is called into question. In North West, the ambiguity surrounding their status has been compounded by the conduct of the provincial government, underlying tensions in the legislation, and a confusing series of contradictory government notices and court judgements dealing with the issue. This article examines how the reconstitution requirements have been applied in practice in North West and considers the legal and material impacts of the existing uncertainty surrounding traditional councils’ status. Where these councils are put forward as democratic bodies representing traditional communities in North West’s platinum mining belt, these are particularly important issues to consider in relation to the legitimacy of traditional councils.
Open Access
Learning in Social Movements: A research study of awareness and understanding of a Treatment Literacy programme implemented by the Treatment Action Campaign in the Western Cape in the period 2001 to 2009
(University of Cape Town, 2020) Booysen, Fredalene; Ismail, Salma
This qualitative research study examines six participant's awareness and understanding of a Treatment Literacy (TL) programme implemented by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in the Western Cape in the period 2001 to 2009. The study investigates what attracted the participants to the TAC; what they learnt and how this was taught; the extent, if any, to which participant's experiences changed their understanding of HIV and AIDS, sexuality, treatment and other health-related practices. To analyse participants' awareness levels, understanding and experiences, I drew on Freire (1970; 1985) and Mezirow (1991; 1994) adult education literature, more specifically literature addressing the social movements and how activists learn and teach in different context (informal and non-formal) such as Newman (1995) and Foley (1999). These perspectives underpin the central argument of the thesis, namely that adult education is contextual and has impact on awareness, understanding and experiences and in this case HIV and AIDS. A primary finding of the study is how the participants in the study perceived the world as central to their learning. Learning is thus a substantially personal experience; however, the development of the individual frequently occurs within a group dynamic. Participants felt that being part of TAC and fighting for access to treatment and helping other people who are either HIV positive or affected by HIV and AIDS, helped them in turn to deal with their own challenges of being HIV positive and affected with HIV and AIDS. Being HIV positive and receiving education from TAC has given participants dignity and the necessary consciousness to obtain control of their life. Participants also reported that the TL programme boosted their confidence and raised their level of awareness and understanding of the topic.
Open Access
"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.
Open Access
Not naming race : some medical students' perceptions and experiences of 'race' and racism at the Health Sciences faculty of the University of Cape Town
(2011-12) Erasmus, Zimitri; De Wet, Jacques
This report will be of value to those studying and researching transformation in higher education in post-apartheid South Africa. Over the past few years the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT embarked upon a series of transformation processes. Despite these efforts, students at Medical School continue to lodge complaints about racist practices on the part of staff at the School and to claim such practices undermine their learning and academic performance. Following some complaints lodged early in 2001, the Dean of the Faculty convened a meeting where a study was commissioned to provide a scan of issues to inform terms of reference for a panel to be tasked with an in-depth evaluation of processes of transformation at Medical School. These issues are specifically related to students' experiences and perceptions of 'race' and racism.
Open Access
The "O" Report
(2011-12) Kelly, Claire
This report will be of value to those studying human resource management, and those who wish to learn more about transformation within post-apartheid South African organisations. This case study is one of ten case studies being conducted as part of a larger research project on Diversity and Equity Interventions in South Africa (DEISA). The aim of the research is to develop codes of good practice around diversity work in South African organisations. The organisation (0) was approached by iNCUDISA to take part in a case study. O is a small ingredient manufacturing concern based in Cape Town. At the time of the research they employed 232 people. An HR consultant was employed five years ago to implement an EE plan. Part of the implementation of this plan involved the establishment of an Employment Equity Committee. The EEC also took on the mandate of training, making it the Employment Equity and Training Committee. The HR manager named the EETC as the diversity intervention in this case. As the focus of the research was on good practice it was important that the HR manager judge this intervention to be successful Although he/she admitted that there were areas of difficulty, the intervention was judged as a success overall. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects that this intervention had had on the organisation.
Open Access
Open textbook case studies: social justice, agency and intersectionality
(2019-11) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle; Masuku, Bianca
Open textbook initiatives have been successful in the United States and Canada as a means to save money for students. At the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project, which began in July 2018, has also looked at cost savings. However, the impetus for this project is premised on the potential for open textbooks to transform curriculum, a current imperative in the South African higher education system. This presentation, delivered at the OE Global 2019 Conference, outlines the application of the DOT4D project social justice, social realist and intersectional approach.
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Open Textbooks and Social Justice: Open Educational Practices to Address Economic, Cultural and Political Injustice at the University of Cape Town
(2020-05) Cox, Glenda; Masuku, Bianca; Willmers, Michelle
This paper provides evidence from the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project at the University of Cape Town (UCT), on the potential of open textbooks to address social injustice in South African higher education and the practices utilised by UCT staff to address these challenges. The paper uses Nancy Fraser’s (2005) trivalent lens to examine inequality, specifically as relates to the following dimensions: economic (maldistribution of resources); cultural (misrecognition of culture and identities); and political (misrepresentation or exclusion of voice). The findings demonstrate that open textbooks have the potential to disrupt histories of exclusion in South African higher education institutions by addressing issues of cost and marginalisation through the creation of affordable, contextually-relevant learning resources. In addition to this, they provide affordances which enable lecturers to change the way they teach, include student voices and create innovative pedagogical strategies.
Open Access
Participatory Pedagogy and Open Textbook Publishing Journeys: Emerging Models at the University of Cape Town
(2020) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle; Masuku, Bianca
The presentation gives insight into the emerging models of open textbook production employed by lecturers in the DOT4D grants programme at UCT and describes the journeys these authors have embarked on in collaboration with students, academics and practitioners in their various fields. It also provides insight into emerging open textbook publishing models and the various formats and genres of open textbooks currently being produced at UCT. The discussion on publishing models addresses the partnerships for publishing required in the new open textbook production landscape in which academics and institutions take on the role of publisher in order to drive institutional transformation and alleviate injustices inherent in the South African higher education system.

Browsing by Subject "transformation"

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