5 research outputs found
What can Fraser and Bourdieu teach us about success and obstacles in the implementation of Recognition of Prior Learning?
No full textDespite the adoption of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policies, its implementation lags behind, remains un-coordinated and lacks institutional support. The key issues underlying these challenges include knowledge contestation and gatekeeping in the form of resistant cognitive structures in defence of the intellectual foundations of university knowledge. This article weaves the theories of Fraser and Bourdieu together to analyse the literature on RPL policy, pedagogic agency and practice in order to deepen understanding of RPL’s success and obstacles. Fraser’s notion of parity of participation is useful in that it theorises how adherence to social justice principles to promote RPL implementation can be created in the academy. Bourdieu’s work facilitates interrogation of the habitus, and social and cultural capital of RPL practitioners in relation to the habitus of academics, and how these impact the crossing of knowledge boundaries via RPL as a specialised pedagogy. The article concludes that successful RPL implementation requires, inter alia, that attention be directed to honing the class habitus of the academy as a whole, including adequate theorisation of the conditions necessary for the existence of pedagogic agency within the context of the prevailing knowledge difference discourse
Understanding change and implications of divisional management model (DMM ) in a merged multi- campus University in South Africa
No full textThe study sought to understand change and transition in a multi-merged campus university in South Africa. Specifically the objectives were to understand the Human Resource (HR) plan, how it is being rolled out, the reactions of workers to it, the effects of the plan on workers and the processes put in place to mitigate, rather than aggravate, the current and foreseeable consequences of the Human Resource plan. A qualitative case study was used and focus groups and semi-structured interviews (triangulated with observation and document analysis) were used on a purposive sample of unions and the university HR official in one campus. The researcher found that there is no organogram which acts as a framework wherein all workers in respective campuses shall fit in. additionally, there is no staff transition plan and harmonisation of conditions of service policy that is agreed upon. Though it seemed there were some mechanisms to attenuate the effects of the HR plan (possible retrenchments, loss of morale, uncertainty, stress, doubt and the like) such as voluntary service package, there were areas of concern about the lack of a properly and widely circulated plan, and the absence of plans to transition staff throughout the process of change. Consequently, the researcher recommended at the end of the study that there must be a change management leadership in each campus to drive transition, a creation of proper communication networks, institution of campus indabas, a design of a transition plan, harmonisation approaches, migration of institutional items to an institutional site and the facilitation of recognition agreements for those unions which are still recognise in the premerger manner
Online pedagogy: a changing higher education pedagogy and an emerging lecturer habitus
No full textThis study explored how the shift to online pedagogy has shaped lecturer dispositions and practices for a post-COVID-19 era, including whether their practices during the national lockdowns could be conceptualised as temporary coping mechanisms or as an adoption of new practices related to effective modes of online teaching. Bourdieu’s theory of human practices was employed to facilitate the exploration. The theory privileges the weight of past practices on agents while permitting incremental changes in such practices, depending on the flexibility and/or rigidity of a human habitus. Six lecturers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews to collect data. It was found that despite showing flexible and reflective dispositions regarding post-COVID-19 online teaching, participants were still in their exploratory phase in respect of teaching practices with online technology tools. An explicit institutional, reflective training process is suggested to help evolve in lecturers the habitus and cultural capital necessary to facilitate teaching with technology
Recognition of prior learning: A critique of Council on Higher Education policy provisions
No full textUsing Margaret Archer’s constructs, namely structure, culture, and agency, this paper argues that although there are commendable structural changes in the CHE (Council on Higher Education) and RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) policy which accommodate marginalized and unstructured experiential knowledge, thus equating it with ‘scientific’ knowledge produced by the university, there remains subtle preservations of material interests of the corporate agent (CHE policy maker) and the ideas, beliefs, and theories the latter holds about the place of unstructured learning and knowledge in universities. To advance this argument, a critique is mounted on three accommodative sub-units of the CHE RPL policy, namely: the notion of exemption, residency clause, and the ten percent ceiling on the number of applicants admitted through RPL. The rare allowance for exceptional deviations to the two latter notions (by CHE) is infused in the foregoing critique. In the final analysis, a reconsideration of these provisions is suggested
Enablements and constraints of articulation arrangements and agreements between technical and vocational education and training colleges and one Comprehensive University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
No full textThis study explored enablements and constraints of Articulation Arrangements and Agreements (AAAs) between Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges (TVETs) and one Comprehensive University (CU) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The constructs of structure, culture, and agency as propounded by Margaret Archer were employed as the theoretical lens of the study. Each of Archer’s constructs is independent and their dynamic interplay has causal influence on whether AAAs are facilitated or hindered. A qualitative single embedded case study design was applied, owing to the interpretivist paradigm the research chose. To this end, seven participants were purposively chosen and interviewed, and two university documents were analyzed, namely the draft University Articulation Guidelines (UAGs) and the university general prospectus. It was found that there were no formal, written, or even verbal TVET-CU agreements. Articulation happened on an ad hoc basis. The change of role-players in the institutional role array played a role in the non-existence and collapse of AAAs. On admissions, challenges included disparate requirements between National Senior Certificate and National Certificate Vocational. Nevertheless, articulation-enabling practices manifested themselves in the credit transfer decisions of participants. However, the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) component of a TVET national diploma programme enjoyed no parity with non-TVET and university cosrordinated experiential learning in some departments. In addition, there were nuanced views over the (inherent) value of WIL which affected its ultimate treatment. Finally, the study found that though TVET-university national diploma programmes were somewhat similar and enabled AAAs, they were still misaligned at the level of design and interface, resulting in duplication of content, waste of time, and state resources. The university also did not have TVET programmes in mind in the design and review of programmes. The researcher deduced a conceptual framework for understanding and explaining how and why TVET-university AAAs succeed or fail. The framework touts the importance of having knowledgeable, articulation- cultured and acculturated leadership and officials (responsible for admissions, credit transfer, and RPL) as crucial for exploiting structural enablements and creatively circumventing inherent structural constraints, including challenging subtle ideas which may wittingly or unwittingly harbor views of TVET programmes as inferior. To this end, it is suggested that there be an establishment of an articulation office to coordinate AAAs that take a form of a hybrid model whereby there would be a combination of multilateral, direct in-house, and franchise TVET-CCU AAAs. The framework should also resolve programme design alignment issues by incorporating CAT and RPL principles, including other articulation instruments during curriculum analysis. RPL should equally be applied in the treatment of TVET WIL.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, 202
