- Education, Art, Aesthetics, Higher Education, Arts Education, Fine Arts, and 26 moreArt and Design Education, Creativity studies, Assessment in Higher Education, Art & Design education, Higher Education Studies, Critical Thinking and Creativity, Art and Interpretation, Teacing and Learning in Higher Education, Memory (Art), Melancholia (Art), Intentionality and interpretation in art, Assessment in the Creative arts disciplines, Intentionality and Interpretation, Art Education, Critical Pedagogy, Fine Art, Visual Art, Draawing, Teacher Formation, Equality and Diversity, Oppression, Critical University Studies, Regional development, Education for Sustainable Development, Studentification, and Fallismedit
This chapter grapples with the question of why decolonising ‘knowledge’ matters for teaching and learning. It shares a selection of important considerations at this point in time. It draws inter-textually to deliberate about (a) why... more
This chapter grapples with the question of why decolonising ‘knowledge’ matters for teaching and learning. It shares a selection of important considerations at this point in time. It draws inter-textually to deliberate about (a) why ‘knowledge’ (singular) should be decolonised within the modern western-oriented university; (b) why the decolonisation of knowledges matter, with consideration of their relation to the formations of the self, social and ecological in education; and (c) what the potential act(s) of decolonising knowledges through education holds for engendering critical and generative roles which educators should occupy. As a way into this deliberation, the chapter begins with observations of the phenomenon of what seems like either educators’ avoidance, ignorance or passing-the-buck on the question of the transformation of knowledges in the university in post-colonial contexts.
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This chapter provides insights into the intractable ethico-political nature of 'access' in post-colonial, post-conflict higher education (HE), through the reflections of Black academics and women academics who have lived experience of the... more
This chapter provides insights into the intractable ethico-political nature of 'access' in post-colonial, post-conflict higher education (HE), through the reflections of Black academics and women academics who have lived experience of the minority-majority transitions of academic communities in post-apartheid South Africa. To address the lack of 'diversity' of under-represented demographics within historically white institutions, those institutions who provided access to these handpicked academics did so requiring that they undergo rigorous professional development and socialisation programmes for the purposes of assuring their quality. Critical discourse analyses were undertaken of the qualitative responses of these academics made in response to a questionnaire on this subject, which were then confirmed and deepened within small group discussions. In this chapter we discuss how their responses revealed: (1) the mis-educational reception of structural access for troubling homogeneous institutional cultures; (2) the risks encountered in the politics of belonging of an individual's access for success; and (3) the problematic weight of transformative expectations when conditions mitigate against empowering agents access to challenge. Situated within an historical narrative of academic development and the national drives in that country for an HE sector 'transformed' from its historical legacies of injustice and inequality, the chapter highlights the implications of these three constructions of access for disrupting the machinations of the hidden macro-and meso-curricula of power and whiteness.
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This chapter is concerned with academic citizenry in higher education, and the conditions created within institutions for transformative leadership. This is central to the fitness-for-purpose of higher education institutions to drive the... more
This chapter is concerned with academic citizenry in higher education, and the conditions created within institutions for transformative leadership. This is central to the fitness-for-purpose of higher education institutions to drive the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Drawing from a mixed-method study, the chapter explores the patterns which emerged from literature, questionnaire responses, and semi-structured interviews about the problematics at play within six institutions in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. The two upper middle-income contexts have strong constitutional commitments to democracy and social justice at the macro-level, with bold policy interventions undertaken at meso-level to address the legacies of exclusion and oppression in student enrollment and staff composition in HE. However, recent fraught dynamics and unrest within the sector in each country have brought renewed attention to the politics of participation and a breakdown in trust of governance and management.
In this study, the standpoint of key stakeholders was prioritized, including those in assigned leadership positions and academic staff. Particular attention was paid to gender and intersectional inequalities impacting academic staff, and what they revealed about the persistence of policy-implementation gaps and their relation to principle-implementation gaps. Concerns are raised about impoverished comprehensions of, and conditions for, sustainable ethical leadership which emerged across both contexts.
Drawing from a mixed-method study, the chapter explores the patterns which emerged from literature, questionnaire responses, and semi-structured interviews about the problematics at play within six institutions in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. The two upper middle-income contexts have strong constitutional commitments to democracy and social justice at the macro-level, with bold policy interventions undertaken at meso-level to address the legacies of exclusion and oppression in student enrollment and staff composition in HE. However, recent fraught dynamics and unrest within the sector in each country have brought renewed attention to the politics of participation and a breakdown in trust of governance and management.
In this study, the standpoint of key stakeholders was prioritized, including those in assigned leadership positions and academic staff. Particular attention was paid to gender and intersectional inequalities impacting academic staff, and what they revealed about the persistence of policy-implementation gaps and their relation to principle-implementation gaps. Concerns are raised about impoverished comprehensions of, and conditions for, sustainable ethical leadership which emerged across both contexts.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter considers how the positioning of the artist-student’s intentionality can operate to resist closure in interpretation, bringing with it a healthy measure of uncertainty and discourse to assessment practices in visual arts... more
This chapter considers how the positioning of the artist-student’s intentionality can operate to resist closure in interpretation, bringing with it a healthy measure of uncertainty and discourse to assessment practices in visual arts practice. The discussion is set within a philosophical context of about constructions of authorship and creativity, and how these inform contemporary art criticism. It then extends to an analysis of the interpretative approaches adopted in the assessment practices of two art schools espousing polemically different approaches to intentionality; with an emphasis on the significance for the student experience, their metacognition and agency.
Educational intention
Situate the problem of authorship more explicitly within discussions about assessment.
Be more cognizant of the significance of assessment practices on the development of authorship.
Describe the significance of such practices for the principles of metacognition and agency.
Educational intention
Situate the problem of authorship more explicitly within discussions about assessment.
Be more cognizant of the significance of assessment practices on the development of authorship.
Describe the significance of such practices for the principles of metacognition and agency.
Research Interests:
Situated against an historical narrative of academic development in South Africa, this chapter revisits the intractable politics of access to higher education. The critical reflections of Black academics who endured ‘inclusion’ to an... more
Situated against an historical narrative of academic development in South Africa, this chapter revisits the intractable politics of access to higher education. The critical reflections of Black academics who endured ‘inclusion’ to an historically White institution in the immediate post-apartheid period reveal fraught negotiations and resistances to transitions of authority. As critical stakeholders of transformation in that country, their perspectives about the different approaches to access offer insights into how discourses of equity, inclusion, diversity and decolonisation operated within a problematic hidden curriculum of academic ‘success’.
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Arts-based methods are well-placed to enable disruptions to normative positioning of researcher, respondent and subject. This chapter draws on the author’s reflections of opening the research processes to the possibilities of... more
Arts-based methods are well-placed to enable disruptions to normative positioning of researcher, respondent and subject. This chapter draws on the author’s reflections of opening the research processes to the possibilities of methodological ir/responsibility. It focuses on a selection of mixed-method projects where a significant contribution to the validity of the empirical research emerged from the arts-based methods employed, including the use of journal writing, story-telling, metaphoric and visual imagery. The discussion is structured around the validity of the methods for the purposes of generating data to inform the evaluation of and research on that which is often difficult
and elusive to analyse in higher education. A particular contribution of the chapter is the discussion of how the construction of research participants informed both the data generation processes, and the analytic approach to the texts they authored. An argument is made for the importance of establishing conditions which enable the possibilities of participants’ agency.
and elusive to analyse in higher education. A particular contribution of the chapter is the discussion of how the construction of research participants informed both the data generation processes, and the analytic approach to the texts they authored. An argument is made for the importance of establishing conditions which enable the possibilities of participants’ agency.
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Educational intention At the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to: - situate the problem of authorship more explicitly within discussions about assessment; - be more cognisant of the significance of assessment practices on the... more
Educational intention
At the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to:
- situate the problem of authorship more explicitly within discussions about assessment;
- be more cognisant of the significance of assessment practices on the development of authorship;
- describe the significance of such practices for the principles of metacognition and agency.
Abstract
This chapter considers how the positioning of the artist-student’s intentionality can operate to resist closure in interpretation, bringing with it a healthy measure of uncertainty and discourse to assessment practices in the creative arts. The discussion is set within a philosophical context of constructions of authorship and creativity, and how these inform contemporary art criticism. It then extends to an analysis of the interpretative approaches adopted in the assessment practices of two art schools espousing polemically different approaches to intentionality, with emphasis on the significance for the student experience, their metacognition and agency.
At the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to:
- situate the problem of authorship more explicitly within discussions about assessment;
- be more cognisant of the significance of assessment practices on the development of authorship;
- describe the significance of such practices for the principles of metacognition and agency.
Abstract
This chapter considers how the positioning of the artist-student’s intentionality can operate to resist closure in interpretation, bringing with it a healthy measure of uncertainty and discourse to assessment practices in the creative arts. The discussion is set within a philosophical context of constructions of authorship and creativity, and how these inform contemporary art criticism. It then extends to an analysis of the interpretative approaches adopted in the assessment practices of two art schools espousing polemically different approaches to intentionality, with emphasis on the significance for the student experience, their metacognition and agency.
Research Interests:
The evaluation of teaching and courses has the potential to do more than assure quality. However, for many, the emphasis remains on the collection of evidence mandated from the top-down for assuring or furthering one’s career. However,... more
The evaluation of teaching and courses has the potential to do more than assure quality. However, for many, the emphasis remains on the collection of evidence mandated from the top-down for assuring or furthering one’s career. However, our responsibility to create opportunities to enable student voice and participation within our pedagogies grows in urgency. eing responsive to participants and other stakeholders may substantially improve and enhance the quality of student engagement, in addition to enabling staff to develop their teaching and curriculum design practice. Not all lecturers have explored opportunities to think differently or deeply about the potential contributions of evaluation.
Case Studies of the practice of: Caroline Khene; Helena van Coller; Jonathan Davy; Paul Mensah; Mark de Vos;
Monwabisi Peter; Nicky van der Poel; Joy Owen; Kelcey Brock; Miriam Mattison; Mosiuoa Tsietsi;
Dion Nkomo; Georgina Cundill; Brent Meistre; Dina Belluigi; Corinne Knowles; Deborah Seddon;
John Williams; Steffen Buettner; Hannah Thinyane; Tracey Chambers
Case Studies of the practice of: Caroline Khene; Helena van Coller; Jonathan Davy; Paul Mensah; Mark de Vos;
Monwabisi Peter; Nicky van der Poel; Joy Owen; Kelcey Brock; Miriam Mattison; Mosiuoa Tsietsi;
Dion Nkomo; Georgina Cundill; Brent Meistre; Dina Belluigi; Corinne Knowles; Deborah Seddon;
John Williams; Steffen Buettner; Hannah Thinyane; Tracey Chambers
Research Interests:
Playing broken telephone with student feedback: the possibilities and issues in transformation within a South African case of a collegial rationality model of evaluation. Chapter in Nair, C.S. and Mertova, P. (eds) (2013) Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Student Feedback in Social Sciences more
Drawing from the case of a small South African university which espouses a social justice approach to transformation, this chapter considers the possibilities and challenges created for student feedback within an institutional context... more
Drawing from the case of a small South African university which espouses a social justice approach to transformation, this chapter considers the possibilities and challenges created for student feedback within an institutional context that gives the individual lecturer a large degree of autonomy in evaluation. The chapter looks at some of the dominant perceptions of student feedback in addition to how it is collected and utilized, by referring to the Institution’s polices and guideline documents; institutional research in which course coordinators’ participated; responses elicited from forty lecturers on the issues outlined in this chapter; the author’s own reflections as an academic working in staff development at the institution; and specific examples of good practice from lecturers situated within social science disciplines. The emerging concerns which structured this discussion are: the impact of student feedback on improving quality; enabling student voice; increasing student ownership; and the educational worth of evaluation processes.
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Introduction Teachers often approach teaching and learning relationships by mimicking the way they were taught or the way they learnt, in a cycle where academics create images of themselves. In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid... more
Introduction
Teachers often approach teaching and learning relationships by mimicking the way they were taught or the way they learnt, in a cycle where academics create images of themselves. In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, whiteness hegemony constructed and enabled the white, heterosexual male as the ideal, self - constraining and disadvantaging those who differed as ‘other’, creating injustices in which education was complicit. Rubbing against this grain, formal staff development can provide transformative learning spaces where unconscious assumptions and practices that privilege the status quo are excavated, and alternative teaching and learning relationships between teacher and student are re-imagined. In formal courses, for instance, facilitative roles can be modelled which provoke interactions that encourage ethical relationships between participants who differ in terms of their backgrounds, disciplines, races, gender, philosophical viewpoints and so on. Such critical ‘work’ is underpinned by a contextual mandate towards social justice and a philosophical stance which privileges difference as more than a pedagogical tool, but an ethical one.
Revisiting central concerns expressed at the beginning of this anthology, such as the purposes of the university, and quality as being about transformation, I introduce this chapter by considering how the teacher and student have been constructed in the larger context of the university. Taking cognisance of the implications of this for the roles of the intellectual, I explore some of the possibilities created by difference and disruption. To suggest that we should open our ways of thinking of the other, I draw from Derrida’s argument that the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘other’ is neither/nor in terms of sameness and difference, and psychoanalytic acknowledgements that we are strangers to ourselves. In the second part, I explore the reflective and discursive spaces of the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PG Dip (Higher Education)) staff development programme which we offer at Rhodes University, which I argue have the potential to create the disruptive conditions to productively catalyse such ethical relationships. The last part of the chapter turns to how these aspects work at a fundamental level to disrupt notions of the self, and question some of the assumptions of the critical tradition of adult education, within which I believe we at Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) are situated. Interlaced with this discussion, are insights and reflections from participants in the programme.
Teachers often approach teaching and learning relationships by mimicking the way they were taught or the way they learnt, in a cycle where academics create images of themselves. In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, whiteness hegemony constructed and enabled the white, heterosexual male as the ideal, self - constraining and disadvantaging those who differed as ‘other’, creating injustices in which education was complicit. Rubbing against this grain, formal staff development can provide transformative learning spaces where unconscious assumptions and practices that privilege the status quo are excavated, and alternative teaching and learning relationships between teacher and student are re-imagined. In formal courses, for instance, facilitative roles can be modelled which provoke interactions that encourage ethical relationships between participants who differ in terms of their backgrounds, disciplines, races, gender, philosophical viewpoints and so on. Such critical ‘work’ is underpinned by a contextual mandate towards social justice and a philosophical stance which privileges difference as more than a pedagogical tool, but an ethical one.
Revisiting central concerns expressed at the beginning of this anthology, such as the purposes of the university, and quality as being about transformation, I introduce this chapter by considering how the teacher and student have been constructed in the larger context of the university. Taking cognisance of the implications of this for the roles of the intellectual, I explore some of the possibilities created by difference and disruption. To suggest that we should open our ways of thinking of the other, I draw from Derrida’s argument that the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘other’ is neither/nor in terms of sameness and difference, and psychoanalytic acknowledgements that we are strangers to ourselves. In the second part, I explore the reflective and discursive spaces of the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PG Dip (Higher Education)) staff development programme which we offer at Rhodes University, which I argue have the potential to create the disruptive conditions to productively catalyse such ethical relationships. The last part of the chapter turns to how these aspects work at a fundamental level to disrupt notions of the self, and question some of the assumptions of the critical tradition of adult education, within which I believe we at Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) are situated. Interlaced with this discussion, are insights and reflections from participants in the programme.
Research Interests: Teaching and Learning, Academic Development, Educational Development, Learning and Teaching, Reflexivity, and 7 moreStaff Development, Teaching Philosophy, Reflection, Reflective Thinking, Curriculum Theory and Development, Teaching and Learning In Adult and Higher Education, Social Justice Issues In Adult and Higher Education, and Critical Education and Student Affairs Issues In Higher Education
Abstract: The development of creativity is enabled or constrained by the conditions created through teaching and learning processes. This chapter looks at how assessment practices, because of their affective import, can impact on these... more
Abstract:
The development of creativity is enabled or constrained by the conditions created through teaching and learning processes. This chapter looks at how assessment practices, because of their affective import, can impact on these conditions and alter the student experience of learning. The reader’s attention is drawn to four particular areas - the role of the assessor, the assessment focus, the issue of assessment criteria, and the importance of feedback – where suggestions are made about culture, structure and agency in terms of student creativity. The chapter draws from textual and empirical research in a creative arts field.
The development of creativity is enabled or constrained by the conditions created through teaching and learning processes. This chapter looks at how assessment practices, because of their affective import, can impact on these conditions and alter the student experience of learning. The reader’s attention is drawn to four particular areas - the role of the assessor, the assessment focus, the issue of assessment criteria, and the importance of feedback – where suggestions are made about culture, structure and agency in terms of student creativity. The chapter draws from textual and empirical research in a creative arts field.
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Abstract: Providing ‘safe spaces’ to enable the development of creativity may require more creative solutions than the norm. In this chapter, we explore the design and implementation process of a formative evaluation instrument which... more
Abstract:
Providing ‘safe spaces’ to enable the development of creativity may require more creative solutions than the norm. In this chapter, we explore the design and implementation process of a formative evaluation instrument which utilises visual metaphoric storytelling to encourage reflection and feedback from fine art photography students about their experience of a course.
Providing ‘safe spaces’ to enable the development of creativity may require more creative solutions than the norm. In this chapter, we explore the design and implementation process of a formative evaluation instrument which utilises visual metaphoric storytelling to encourage reflection and feedback from fine art photography students about their experience of a course.
Research Interests:
Abstract: As agents in higher education (HE), a shift is required in terms of how we conceptualise the quality of teaching and courses in relation to student learning. This chapter argues that evaluation should be approached as ethical... more
Abstract:
As agents in higher education (HE), a shift is required in terms of how we conceptualise the quality of teaching and courses in relation to student learning. This chapter argues that evaluation should be approached as ethical and valid research into teaching and learning. Consideration should be given to how the conceptualisations of curriculum development and of student learning inform our choices and designs of data collection instruments. Alternative methods to standardised instruments and questionnaires are explored. The central principle underpinning this chapter is that, as a teacher-learner interaction, the processes of evaluating teaching/ courses should both focus on and facilitate student learning. Just as the assessment of student learning is now recognised as an integrated part of curriculum design, so too should the potential benefits of the evaluation of teaching and/courses be maximised in a sensitive and responsive manner.
As agents in higher education (HE), a shift is required in terms of how we conceptualise the quality of teaching and courses in relation to student learning. This chapter argues that evaluation should be approached as ethical and valid research into teaching and learning. Consideration should be given to how the conceptualisations of curriculum development and of student learning inform our choices and designs of data collection instruments. Alternative methods to standardised instruments and questionnaires are explored. The central principle underpinning this chapter is that, as a teacher-learner interaction, the processes of evaluating teaching/ courses should both focus on and facilitate student learning. Just as the assessment of student learning is now recognised as an integrated part of curriculum design, so too should the potential benefits of the evaluation of teaching and/courses be maximised in a sensitive and responsive manner.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This essay offers interpretations and documentation of the Broken Vessels exhibition (described below) held in 2021. It is structured in three parts: (I) an evocative series of impressions of the author in response to the experience of... more
This essay offers interpretations and documentation of the Broken Vessels exhibition (described below) held in 2021. It is structured in three parts: (I) an evocative series of impressions of the author in response to the experience of the exhibition in situ, and responses to the words 'broken' and 'vessel' from the title; (II) a close-reading of each work when walking the exhibition site; (III) threads that run across the show, including place (time and space) and practice (creativity and memory). The interpretative text is interwoven with references to correspondences with the artists and curatorial team; documentation of the event; relevant references; and prior artworks and writing on the artists' work. Central themes are historical and ecological melancholia of contemporary times, in addition to the (failed) promises of artistic and scientific representation.
Broken Vessels was conceived as “a pilot exhibition project for a long-term art biennial” of collaborative creative arts projects between Irish and African artists. For the inaugural exhibition, which ran from the 14th September to the 15th October 2021, a small group of six artists were selected to engage with the curatorial thematics, the installation site and western Ireland. Three were artists working within the immediate local spaces and concerns, Anne Marie Daecy, Noelle Gallagher and Louise Manifold; and three worked remotely, based in South Africa, Christine Dixie, Monique Pelser and Lesego Rampolokeng. The exhibition was curated by the South African artist Brent Meistre, curator of Analogue Eye: Video Art Africa, as part of the Interface programmes directed by Alannah Robins and produced by Jill Murray.
Broken Vessels was conceived as “a pilot exhibition project for a long-term art biennial” of collaborative creative arts projects between Irish and African artists. For the inaugural exhibition, which ran from the 14th September to the 15th October 2021, a small group of six artists were selected to engage with the curatorial thematics, the installation site and western Ireland. Three were artists working within the immediate local spaces and concerns, Anne Marie Daecy, Noelle Gallagher and Louise Manifold; and three worked remotely, based in South Africa, Christine Dixie, Monique Pelser and Lesego Rampolokeng. The exhibition was curated by the South African artist Brent Meistre, curator of Analogue Eye: Video Art Africa, as part of the Interface programmes directed by Alannah Robins and produced by Jill Murray.
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The relation of social ethics to knowledge production is explored through a study about academic research enquiry on minoritised and racialised populations. Despite social change related to migration and ethnicity being a feature of... more
The relation of social ethics to knowledge production is explored through a study about academic research enquiry on minoritised and racialised populations. Despite social change related to migration and ethnicity being a feature of contemporary Northern Ireland, local dynamics and actors seemed under-studied by its research-intensive ‘anchor universities’. To explore this, a critical discourse analysis of published research outputs (n = 200) and related authors’ narratives (n = 32) are interpreted within this paper through conceptualisations of consciousness. Insiders’ perspectives on the influences and structures of the research journey demonstrate the ways in which research cultures (mis)shape the politics of representation, authorship and ethicality. Societal and political disregard for the new publics, reproduced within universities’ hidden curriculum, has been negotiated and to some extent resisted in the research practices of those marginalised (such as women academics), those entering the system (migrant academics), and those local-born whose referential frames were developed external to local universities. Of concern is that the few research enablers were characterised by techno-rationality and doublespeak, impoverishing the depth of theorisation, complexity and intellectual debate necessary for challenging the existing dysconscious racism and xenophobiaism of the social imaginary.
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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Purpose-In the past decade, against increasing global inequality, higher education has grappled with increased demands for social justice, transformation and decolonisation. While a lot of research in South Africa has focused on the... more
Purpose-In the past decade, against increasing global inequality, higher education has grappled with increased demands for social justice, transformation and decolonisation. While a lot of research in South Africa has focused on the (im)possibilities of fostering racial, gendered, socioeconomic and cultural change, the connection of such change to questions of sustainability has been less explored. The purpose of this paper is to specifically explore the agency of academics to foster transformative initiatives for sustainability within the context of institutions historically serving under-represented populations. Design/methodology/approach-Using a qualitative methodology, this paper highlights the importance of considering sustainability in processes of transformation. This paper is specifically interested in how academic faculty and those in assigned leadership positions view their agency in relation to promoting transformation for sustainability at the institutional level. Drawing on data generated from semi-structured interviews with 13 participants at an historically Black university in South Africa, this paper details academics' and leaders' experiences and perceptions of their agency. Findings-This study reveals the adverse interactional dynamics within higher education institutions, which negatively impact academics' participation as key agents in change processes. Positional and identity challenges faced reveal the persistence of colonial and apartheid legacies of racism, sexism, Afrophobia and xenophobiawhich casts a shadow on possible trajectories of transformation and sustainability. This has serious implications for the common good, given South Africa's regional import for knowledge production and decolonisation within universities; its key role in the African 2063 Agenda; and the wider global Sustainable Development agenda. Originality/value-This study highlights insufficient engagement with the sustainability of transformation efforts within the context of South Africa. This study also emphasises the relation between transformation imperatives and racial, socioeconomic , gender and epistemic justice imperatives of sustainable development.
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Set against difficult and problematic legacies of institutional and academic autonomy, this paper cautions against curtailing the recognition, and the study, of troubled and alternative practices of academic freedom. What is deliberated... more
Set against difficult and problematic legacies of institutional and academic autonomy, this paper cautions against curtailing the recognition, and the study, of troubled and alternative practices of academic freedom. What is deliberated is the possibility of opening the concepts of academic freedom and academic autonomy against the limits, and the purposes, to which they have been recounted in many conflict-affected and postcolonial contexts. The paper begins by raising questions about the state of enquiry within post-conflict and postcolonial academia. It discusses observations that silence and silencing of engagement seem to be case in South Africa, where troubled legacies of the concepts’ operationalisation have had a chilling effect on scholarship. To wrestle the narrowed, dominant discourses away from imperialist and technocratic interests, in this speculative paper the lens of ugly academic freedoms allows for international counter-narratives to be drawn upon to de-idealise and problematise the concepts. This serves to situate recollections of fragments of South Africa’s past and present intertextual engagements with the internal and external threats to its higher education institutions and its academics’ freedoms.
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Universities' responsiveness to local communities' needs, and to informing and understanding social change, is important for serving the public good and building trust in this public institution by eroding the exclusions which have... more
Universities' responsiveness to local communities' needs, and to informing and understanding social change, is important for serving the public good and building trust in this public institution by eroding the exclusions which have characterised the 'ivory tower'. Such responsiveness may be enacted through the university's functions of (higher) education, research or third mission engagements. A recent study considered such responsiveness in Northern Ireland (NI), by exploring the state of academic research enquiry about, and with, local populations who are marginalised in that context because of their positioning as 'ethnic minorities' or 'migrants' (Belluigi and Moynihan, 2023).
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Migration, race and ethnicity, majority-minority dynamics are established areas of academic enquiry in many contexts around the world. While that may be the case, in one devolved region of the United Kingdom (UK), that of Northern Ireland... more
Migration, race and ethnicity, majority-minority dynamics are established areas of
academic enquiry in many contexts around the world. While that may be the case,
in one devolved region of the United Kingdom (UK), that of Northern Ireland (NI), these are significantly under-studied when it comes to local populations and issues. This study sought to comprehend how such localised research enquiry is constructed, perceived and impacted by the various stakeholders who influence that contexts’ higher education ecology.
academic enquiry in many contexts around the world. While that may be the case,
in one devolved region of the United Kingdom (UK), that of Northern Ireland (NI), these are significantly under-studied when it comes to local populations and issues. This study sought to comprehend how such localised research enquiry is constructed, perceived and impacted by the various stakeholders who influence that contexts’ higher education ecology.
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This paper represents a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles which included reports of parental dis/satisfaction about their child’s autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment and diagnoses. Five themes emerged which are visualised... more
This paper represents a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles which included reports of parental dis/satisfaction about their child’s autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment and diagnoses. Five themes emerged which are visualised in evidence maps: country comparisons of parental dis/satisfaction; factors which enhanced satisfaction; barriers which prohibited satisfaction; differences in national diagnostic methodology; and the chronology of diagnoses across countries. Evidence gaps indicate the lack of unified approaches to the diagnostic process; underrepresentation of such research showing a geographical spread; a lack of unified approaches to the diagnostic process; and where a significantly higher reporting of dissatisfied outcomes was documented. Results indicate that higher parental dissatisfaction is linked to those whose children had undergone the ASD diagnostic process, and those experiencing negative cultural stigmas prior to, or throughout, their child’s ASD diagn...
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This report presents findings on specific aspects of the composition and employment of academic staff in the discipline of education in higher education (HE) across the UK and in each of the devolved nations: England, Northern Ireland,... more
This report presents findings on specific aspects of the composition and employment of academic staff in the discipline of education in higher education (HE) across the UK and in each of the devolved nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The findings are informed by analysing statistical data collected by HE institutions during the academic years 2015-16 to 2019-20, as reported to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
The study was conducted in order to gain an understanding of the state of the discipline of education in the interests of addressing inequalities. It explored where certain markers of sameness and difference – in terms of characteristics of sex, ethnicity, age, disability, religious belief and nationality – may have affected staff employment between 2015 and 2020. This included analysing the percentages of staff, the proportions of groupings, and the rate of change in employment conditions, as captured in HESA data during the period researched. This enabled the researchers to identify the differential and, where possible to ascertain, the intersectional impacts on the access, positioning, attainment, progression and attrition of education staff. Main findings are summarised below.
The study was conducted in order to gain an understanding of the state of the discipline of education in the interests of addressing inequalities. It explored where certain markers of sameness and difference – in terms of characteristics of sex, ethnicity, age, disability, religious belief and nationality – may have affected staff employment between 2015 and 2020. This included analysing the percentages of staff, the proportions of groupings, and the rate of change in employment conditions, as captured in HESA data during the period researched. This enabled the researchers to identify the differential and, where possible to ascertain, the intersectional impacts on the access, positioning, attainment, progression and attrition of education staff. Main findings are summarised below.
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The university is a highly politicized and fractious realm for students and academics. Amidst trade-offs between the processes of massification, democratization, commodification, and globalization, the question of transformation for... more
The university is a highly politicized and fractious realm for students and academics. Amidst trade-offs between the processes of massification, democratization, commodification, and globalization, the question of transformation for sustainability has become crucial to the social good(s) of higher education. This paper considers academic citizenry within Indian public higher education-a context where the increase in the enrollment of first-generation students and female students, due to affirmative action policies, has not substantially translated into altering the composition of academic staff. Informed by a mixed-method study conducted in 2019 with the participation of academics and those in leadership positions at four higher education institutions, we found that the enactment of such policies was operationalized for the production of the "New Middle Class" by universities. Of concern is that neither the representation nor the participation of academics who are women, "lower" castes, or minorities meets the mark of just, inclusive institutions. Despite the rhetoric of inclusiveness and development, the implementation of related policies clothe subalterns with the veneer of the intellectual class, permitting access on condition that sociocultural identities are concealed, and the hegemonic status quo maintained. Terms such as "quality" and "equality" function as tools for social control rather than serving social justice, where assertions of caste identity and resistance are simultaneously repudiated and misrecognized.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A presumed indicator of change, in terms of the South African higher education sector’s racialised past, are the quantitative measures of numerical ‘diversity’ within the academic staff composition...
Research Interests:
In the early stages of the 'pivot online', various conceptions of inequalities and their relations to educational equity peppered the discourses of higher education practitioners and the promotional discourses of their institutions.... more
In the early stages of the 'pivot online', various conceptions of inequalities and their relations to educational equity peppered the discourses of higher education practitioners and the promotional discourses of their institutions. Concerned with what conditions subjectification and action within micro-and meso-curricula, this paper explores the cultural and structural discursive positions in which such agents are entangled, and the discourse conflicts they negotiated about what to adopt, shape, defer or resist. Offering deliberations on the possibilities and problematics for equity in higher education were insiders' perspectives of those who operate in the thresholds between academic and professional communities within South African and UK higher education-learning technologists, academic developers and Higher Education Studies scholars-in the period from March to June 2020. Careful not to provide a monovocal nor hierarchical interpretation of these discourses at that early stage in the pandemic, our analysis rather juxtaposes complex and at times conflicting local accounts and negotiations of three schisms around which their narratives skirted: (i) the substantial fault lines under and in societies, institutions and practitioner communities; (ii) the complexities which intersect with digital divides; and (iii) the in/visibility of differentially impacted individuals and groups during that period. As people with often strong ethico-political commitments, and responsibilities as members of evanescent interpretative communities, their acts of narration drew from and at times against the dominant discourses situated within particular socioeconomic and ideological higher education contexts.
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Patterns of research funding in the UK clearly evidence unequal awarding to the detriment of applicants of African descent. This paper presents a case from ‘within’ this larger machine of knowledge production: a failed funding application... more
Patterns of research funding in the UK clearly evidence unequal awarding to the detriment of applicants of African descent. This paper presents a case from ‘within’ this larger machine of knowledge production: a failed funding application made by two applicants to establish a social science network connecting African/ist scholars in Northern Ireland (UK) to those of its neighbouring Republic of Ireland (EU). Rated highly in the positive peer reviews of those appointed by the funding agency, the deficit cannot be readily placed on the content of the application nor on the universities of the applicants at the time, both highly positioned within the institutional stratifications in the UK and ROI. To illuminate from within this darker side of structural knowledge delegitimation in the global North, we situate this application as an insider example of the conditions which militate against advancing marginalised study areas. We do so to work against the prevailing impression of such work being impossible; turning to that which is not structurally delineated by institutions nor national funding mechanisms. In publishing this paper, we re-assert our ethical obligations and agency as intellectuals to bring to light the defunding of such endeavours and the larger genealogies of influence in our times.
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This report presents a mapping of research engagement about matters related to migrant and minority ethnic (‘MME’) people, groups or subjects in Northern Ireland, recorded on the public repositories of Northern Irish universities. The... more
This report presents a mapping of research engagement about matters related to migrant and minority ethnic (‘MME’) people, groups or subjects in Northern Ireland, recorded on the public repositories of Northern Irish universities. The project was undertaken by Migrant and Minority Ethnic Council of Northern Ireland led by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi, supported by Amanda Lubit, in the period of January-April 2021. The project was partially supported through the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast.
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Six experienced academic reviewers and editors explored the nature of quality in academic publication processes in the contexts of sustainability, education for sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article... more
Six experienced academic reviewers and editors explored the nature of quality in academic publication processes in the contexts of sustainability, education for sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article documents their exploration as a collaborative autoethnography structured around the authors' personal reflections on matters such as: how current quality indicators define the quality of academic publications; how effective current quality assurance processes may be; how congruent open access publication processes may be with the ideals of sustainability and of the SDGs; and about what new and different indicators of quality might look like. An inductive analysis of their reflections yielded three emergent and reoccurring themes: casting doubt on the fitness for purpose of current academic publication processes and means to assure their quality; seeking justice for all involved in academic publication; and creating opportunities for change. In writing this article, authors considered these themes and how academia might address them.
Research Interests:
Academics in conflict and refugee contexts often work in settings that are at stark odds to those typically portrayed in academic development research, and can encounter different challenges. Normative academic development resources can... more
Academics in conflict and refugee contexts often work in settings that are at stark odds to those typically portrayed in academic development research, and can encounter different challenges. Normative academic development resources can therefore be inadequate, inappropriate or inaccessible to academics marginalised by conflict or displacement. This paper reflects on a round table event held in June 2019, where Syrian academics gathered together with counterparts from post/conflict contexts including Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kenya, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Serbia and South Africa to share experiences and formulate strategies. This short paper foregrounds the perspectives of Syrian academics who 1
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Produced from experiences at the outset of the intense times when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions began in March 2020, this collaborative paper offers the collective reflections and analysis of a group of teaching and learning and Higher... more
Produced from experiences at the outset of the intense times when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions began in March 2020, this collaborative paper offers the collective reflections and analysis of a group of teaching and learning and Higher Education (HE) scholars from a diverse 15 of the 26 South African public universities. In the form of a theorised narrative insistent on foregrounding personal voices, it presents a snapshot of the pandemic addressing the following question: what does the 'pivot online' to Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL), forced into urgent existence by the Covid-19 pandemic, mean for equity considerations in teaching and learning in HE? Drawing on the work of Therborn (2009: 20-32; 2012: 579-589; 2013; 2020) the reflections consider the forms of inequality-vital, resource and existential-exposed in higher education. Drawing on the work of Tronto (1993; 2015; White and Tronto 2004) the paper shows the networks of care which were formed as a counter to the systemic failures of the sector at the onset of the pandemic.
Research Interests: Higher Education, Critical Pedagogy, Narrative Methods, Equality, Online Learning, and 15 moreOnline and Distance Education, Equity, Blended learning in higher education, Teaching, Learning, South Africa, Joan Tronto, ERT, Inequality, Pandemic, Pedagogy of Care, Therborn, Covid-19, COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and Emergency Remote Teaching
In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which... more
In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. Informed by literary and aesthetic theory, the framework’s horizontal axis relates to what might broadly be termed the sources or locus of meaning (that is, the author, the text, and the reader), and its vertical axis refers to broad approaches to how the problem of meaning is negotiated, whether representation or signification (differentiated in the framework as ‘eucharistic’, ‘objective’ and ‘operative’ criticism). The framework was initially constructed to analyse the embedded and often tacit interpretative approaches underpinning assessment practices in the creative arts in higher education, particularly in fine art studio practice, and as such the discussion of the methodological value of the framework is situated within this context.
Research Interests:
Alongside the various drives and interests in student engagement in higher education have emerged a plethora of approaches for generating data for learning, teaching, curriculum development and quality assurance, and research. The... more
Alongside the various drives and interests in student engagement in higher education have emerged a plethora of approaches for generating
data for learning, teaching, curriculum development and quality assurance, and research. The innovative methods which fall under the “visual narrative” umbrella draw on a number of traditions of academic and practitioner research in fields as diverse as psychology and psychotherapy, artmaking and cultural analysis, creative arts education, and ethnography. The lessons learnt from such multidisciplinary have created a plethora of heterogeneous methods and analytical approaches. The artifacts produced range from analogue low resource methods, such as drawings in comic strip-like sequences, the appropriation of found imagery, and/or objects animated through
stop-motion, through to contemporary new media, including digital storytelling, vodcasts, etcetera
data for learning, teaching, curriculum development and quality assurance, and research. The innovative methods which fall under the “visual narrative” umbrella draw on a number of traditions of academic and practitioner research in fields as diverse as psychology and psychotherapy, artmaking and cultural analysis, creative arts education, and ethnography. The lessons learnt from such multidisciplinary have created a plethora of heterogeneous methods and analytical approaches. The artifacts produced range from analogue low resource methods, such as drawings in comic strip-like sequences, the appropriation of found imagery, and/or objects animated through
stop-motion, through to contemporary new media, including digital storytelling, vodcasts, etcetera
Research Interests:
This paper explores the conflicts engendered during the artist’s formation due to repeated submission to assessment in formal creative arts education. In a comparative qualitative study of two visuals arts practice undergraduate... more
This paper explores the conflicts engendered during the artist’s formation due to repeated submission to assessment in formal creative arts education. In a comparative qualitative study of two visuals arts practice undergraduate curricula, the underlying interpretative approaches to intentionality were uncovered to comprehend the impact of the hidden curriculum at those higher education institutions. Across both sites, nominal authenticity emerged consistently as the most valued criterion which artiststudents referenced in their self-assessments of the success and quality of their artworks, and of their identities as members of the professional community of practice. This criterion for self-assessment ran parallel to, and at times against, the persistent disregard of the artist-students’ actual intentionality as a valid referent within the summative assessment practices of both the academic institutions studied. Within this paper, constructions of creativity, authorship and the relationship of these to interpretation, set the scene for exploring the traces, slippages and nuances between the discourses of authenticity which emerged. Drawing from empirical qualitative data generated from artist-students, artist-academics, curriculum documentation and observations of assessment, the contexts around these emerging discourses are discussed, and their significance for the novice artist’s experience, and the agency of artist-teachers, explored.
Research Interests:
Occasions for in-depth dialogue among academics in times of conflict are rare. Drawing upon such a dialogue between Syrian academics and international counterparts from contexts undergoing conflict or grappling with post-conflict... more
Occasions for in-depth dialogue among academics in times of conflict are rare.
Drawing upon such a dialogue between Syrian academics and international
counterparts from contexts undergoing conflict or grappling with post-conflict
legacies, we identity seven dominant themes that emerged from these discussions and reflect on participants’ strategic insights and mutual support, in addition to highlighting the consciousness that was raised around the agency, limitations, complicity and intergenerational legacies borne by academics and the academy in crisis contexts.
Drawing upon such a dialogue between Syrian academics and international
counterparts from contexts undergoing conflict or grappling with post-conflict
legacies, we identity seven dominant themes that emerged from these discussions and reflect on participants’ strategic insights and mutual support, in addition to highlighting the consciousness that was raised around the agency, limitations, complicity and intergenerational legacies borne by academics and the academy in crisis contexts.
Research Interests:
A presumed indicator of change, in terms of the South African higher education sector’s racialised past, are the quantitative measures of numerical ‘diversity’ within the academic staff composition at historically white institutions. To... more
A presumed indicator of change, in terms of the South African higher
education sector’s racialised past, are the quantitative measures of
numerical ‘diversity’ within the academic staff composition at historically
white institutions. To better inform policy, academic development curricula
and institutional culture, this study focuses on macroaggressions
related to the mis/recognition and un/belonging of black academics
who were selected for prestigious affirmative ‘accelerated development
programmes’ for transforming the academic staff composition. Insights
and narratives elicited via report-and-respond questionnaires, reflective
small group discussions and an arts-based method, indicated that participants
(a) experienced various microaggressions as members of different
communities within the institution, and as a result (b) negotiated
different identities according to social group norms, affordances and
settings. The study brings to the fore the complex social processes and
agential consequences of negotiating the politics of belonging in the
looming shadow of legacies of conflict and oppression.
education sector’s racialised past, are the quantitative measures of
numerical ‘diversity’ within the academic staff composition at historically
white institutions. To better inform policy, academic development curricula
and institutional culture, this study focuses on macroaggressions
related to the mis/recognition and un/belonging of black academics
who were selected for prestigious affirmative ‘accelerated development
programmes’ for transforming the academic staff composition. Insights
and narratives elicited via report-and-respond questionnaires, reflective
small group discussions and an arts-based method, indicated that participants
(a) experienced various microaggressions as members of different
communities within the institution, and as a result (b) negotiated
different identities according to social group norms, affordances and
settings. The study brings to the fore the complex social processes and
agential consequences of negotiating the politics of belonging in the
looming shadow of legacies of conflict and oppression.
Research Interests:
Dina Zoe Belluigi, Andrea Alcock, Veronica Farrell and Grace Idahosa reflect on figurative imagery in their research practices to expose the “hidden curriculum of higher education”. Their reflection recounts discursive processes in an... more
Dina Zoe Belluigi, Andrea Alcock, Veronica Farrell and Grace Idahosa reflect on figurative imagery in their research practices to expose the “hidden curriculum of higher education”. Their reflection recounts discursive processes in an attempt to “make sense” of “the modes of politics” in which they engage.
Research Interests:
With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, ‘transformation’ continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race,... more
With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, ‘transformation’ continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race, inequality and oppression among the black and women academics who were selected as recipients of post-apartheid academic development programmes at an historically white institution in South Africa. Utilising a report-and-respond approach, participants initially responded in a questionnaire to definitions of notions of transformation espoused within The Integrated Transformation Plans of South African universities. This was followed by non-deterministic small group discussions of the researchers’ interpretations of those responses. The recipients’ lived experiences provide deep insights, from within, into the misalignment between those discourses espoused and those practiced, which have implications for transforming the institutional culture of the dominant in-group. Emerging ahead of the implementation of a self-regulatory tool for higher education institutions across that national context, many of the participants called for structural accountability mechanisms in the face of their frustration with current ineffectual approaches. A concern about institutional responsiveness to research findings of such critical studies is raised.
Research Interests:
Recognising the authoritative de/legitimising power of education systems, this paper contributes to studies concerned with the ways in which new entrants to higher education experience the positioning of their inherited identities as they... more
Recognising the authoritative de/legitimising power of education systems, this paper contributes to studies concerned with the ways in which new entrants to higher education experience the positioning of their inherited identities as they negotiate their transition to campus life. The findings emerged during a broader psychosocial study of the transitions of seven first-generation students at a technical university in South Africa. The nature of their self-positioning was explored through an analysis of the positioning statements they articulated during photo-elicitation interviews. The university was positioned as a powerful institution, with conditions for both opportunity and alienation. Participants strongly identified with the professional community of practice in Art and Design. However, in relation to the urban campus context, the majority of participants positioned aspects of their home communities as deficit. A case is made for creating conducive conditions that enable self-reflection on students’ transitional experiences and develop collective critical consciousness.
Research Interests:
In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which... more
In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. Informed by literary and aesthetic theory, the framework’s horizontal axis relates to what might broadly be termed the sources or locus of meaning (that is, the author, the text, and the reader), and its vertical axis refers to broad approaches to how the problem of meaning is negotiated, whether representation or signification (differentiated in the framework as ‘eucharistic’, ‘objective’ and ‘operative’ criticism). The framework was initially constructed to analyse the embedded and often tacit interpretative approaches underpinning assessment practices in the creative arts in higher education, particularly in fine art studio practice, and as such the discussion of the methodological value of the framework is situated within this context.
AB - In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. Informed by literary and aesthetic theory, the framework’s horizontal axis relates to what might broadly be termed the sources or locus of meaning (that is, the author, the text, and the reader), and its vertical axis refers to broad approaches to how the problem of meaning is negotiated, whether representation or signification (differentiated in the framework as ‘eucharistic’, ‘objective’ and ‘operative’ criticism). The framework was initially constructed to analyse the embedded and often tacit interpretative approaches underpinning assessment practices in the creative arts in higher education, particularly in fine art studio practice, and as such the discussion of the methodological value of the framework is situated within this context.
AB - In this paper, an over-arching framework is presented and discussed which enables the mapping of the approaches to the interpretation of creative acts or artefacts for the purposes of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. Informed by literary and aesthetic theory, the framework’s horizontal axis relates to what might broadly be termed the sources or locus of meaning (that is, the author, the text, and the reader), and its vertical axis refers to broad approaches to how the problem of meaning is negotiated, whether representation or signification (differentiated in the framework as ‘eucharistic’, ‘objective’ and ‘operative’ criticism). The framework was initially constructed to analyse the embedded and often tacit interpretative approaches underpinning assessment practices in the creative arts in higher education, particularly in fine art studio practice, and as such the discussion of the methodological value of the framework is situated within this context.
Research Interests:
Criticality is an important means to negotiate uncertainty, which has become a characteristic of teaching and learning conditions in postmodern times. This paper draws from an empirical comparative case study conducted in the uncertain... more
Criticality is an important means to negotiate uncertainty, which has become a characteristic of teaching and learning conditions in postmodern times. This paper draws from an empirical comparative case study conducted in the uncertain discipline of fine art visual practice, where critical judgement and meta-cognition are important for professional contemporary art practice. Charting the curricula intended by staff and the culture experienced by students, the paper considers the relation between the espoused theory of criticality in two art schools and their theory-in-use within assessment structures and cultures. Emphasis is placed on the significance of such approaches to criticality for the student experience and their learning engagement. Emerging discourses of ‘subjectivity’ and a lack of development of student metacognition indicated that, at an undergraduate level of study, the curricula of these cases are unwittingly underpreparing their graduates for operating with agential criticality as they enter the uncertain context of contemporary art.
Research Interests:
This paper expands on empirical research which revealed that, whether or not an institution’s interpretative community was explicitly informed by outcomes-based assessment, the more powerful and implicit discourses that emerged in... more
This paper expands on empirical research which revealed that,
whether or not an institution’s interpretative community was
explicitly informed by outcomes-based assessment, the more
powerful and implicit discourses that emerged in assessment
practices were those of their professional practice and academic
traditions. Tensions, between the emerging dominant discourses,
had their roots in academic perspectives and traditions;
professional practice(s) and ways of being; and the more recent
educational development discourses. The significance of these
tensions for the discursive positioning of staff and students is
discussed, with suggestions made for possible ways to negotiate
these problematics more purposefully
whether or not an institution’s interpretative community was
explicitly informed by outcomes-based assessment, the more
powerful and implicit discourses that emerged in assessment
practices were those of their professional practice and academic
traditions. Tensions, between the emerging dominant discourses,
had their roots in academic perspectives and traditions;
professional practice(s) and ways of being; and the more recent
educational development discourses. The significance of these
tensions for the discursive positioning of staff and students is
discussed, with suggestions made for possible ways to negotiate
these problematics more purposefully
Research Interests:
Participatory assessment is increasingly employed in higher education worldwide as a formative mechanism to support students’ active learning. But do students in an increasingly relationally diverse environment perceive that peer... more
Participatory assessment is increasingly employed in higher education worldwide as a formative mechanism to support students’ active learning. But do students in an increasingly relationally diverse environment perceive that peer assessment of individuals’ contributions to group-work tasks enhances their learning? Recognising the impact of students’ conceptions on the quality of their learning, this study considers students’ perspectives of peer assessment of group-work contributions at a South African university. Questionnaires elicited students’ perspectives of and general attitudes towards assessment of and by their peers. A growing measure of discontent with the process of assessing peer contributions to group tasks emerged, including actual and perceived racial and gender stereotyping, and related rejection-sensitivity. These initial findings were checked against the
students’ experiences in a report-and-respond process that enabled probing discussions of the interpretations. This paper examines and explores the implications of such identifications and receptions for learning engagement and group-work curriculum development in the context of a rapidly transforming higher education sector.
students’ experiences in a report-and-respond process that enabled probing discussions of the interpretations. This paper examines and explores the implications of such identifications and receptions for learning engagement and group-work curriculum development in the context of a rapidly transforming higher education sector.
Research Interests:
This paper considers the influences of curricula content on the nuances of teaching and learning practices, and the ways in such influences are complicated by the contexts within which they are situated. Generated data from within the... more
This paper considers the influences of curricula content on the nuances of teaching and learning practices, and the ways in such influences are complicated by the contexts within which they are situated. Generated data from within the particularity of two fine art schools, one operating from the developed world in the global‘north’and another the developing world in the‘south’, considers how they have negotiated the contemporary push from the professional community of practice, led by ‘western’ artmaking,towards the discourse-interest of contextualism in fine art practice education, compared to the focus on skills and mastery of more out-dated formalism. Particular emphasis is placed on the significance of such influences and pressures on the structures and cultures of teaching and learning.
Research Interests:
Various constructions of supervisors and students emerge from education literature on art, design and architecture studio pedagogy. Constructions of the supervisor within the studio and during assessment are considered, with a discussion... more
Various constructions of supervisors and students emerge from education literature on art, design and architecture studio pedagogy. Constructions of the supervisor within the studio and during assessment are considered, with a discussion of the threads which underpin them. This is followed by a discussion of some of the current dominant constructions of the student, and possible effects of these roles and relationships on their engagement with learning. As many of these constructions may be inherited or unconscious, a concern for the agency of those involved to rupture, subvert, rescript or resist such constructions motivates this research, while acknowledging that this
may be limited by structural and cultural contexts.
may be limited by structural and cultural contexts.
Research Interests:
Varying approaches to interpretation, debated in aesthetic and literary criticism since the very beginnings of philosophy, favour the artist’s (author’s) intentionality, the viewer’s (reader’s) interpretation, and/or the artwork (text)... more
Varying approaches to interpretation, debated in aesthetic and literary criticism since the very beginnings of philosophy, favour the artist’s (author’s) intentionality, the viewer’s (reader’s) interpretation, and/or the artwork (text) itself. The merit of these approaches, in terms of what informs the artwork’s meaning or significance, is not at issue in this research project. Rather this project is concerned with how these different approaches play out within referential frameworks in teaching, learning and assessment interactions in higher education, and their significance for creativity in fine art studio practice.
To comprehend the complex interplay of structure, culture and agency, the study draws from qualitative case studies of two art schools, in England and in South Africa, which differed in their espoused approach to assessment and interpretation. In addition, comparative case analysis of five studio practice teachers and their students considers agential approaches to interpretation and their significance for student engagement. Data was collected from course documentation and generated utilising a variety of hybrid methods. This included observations of assessments, questionnaires and interviews with staff; and to generate data from students, an image-based narrative method, focus group interviews and questionnaires. At various points during such researcher-participant interactions, possibilities for reciprocality, transgression and challenge of interpretations were enabled.
Utilising critical discourse analysis, each case was analysed individually and then comparatively. Firstly, that which was espoused and practiced by staff was mapped to a framework constructed for the purpose of identifying approaches to interpretation: whether eucharistic, objective, or operative criticism, in relation to the author, text and reader. Secondly, insights from staff and student participants were related to the optimal conditions for creativity in this domain. Schema of the environment, relationships and curricula were then sketched, indicating the significance of interpretative approaches on students’ emotional, critical and reflective engagement with themselves as artist-students, their artmaking processes, and their artworks.
This project contributes to research in assessment in fine art studio practice by providing a means to both identify the discipline’s embedded referential frameworks and consider their significance for creativity. The findings from this study revealed that whether or not the interpretative community of assessors were informed by educational development or quality assurances discourses, or utilised explicit criterion-referenced assessment, the more powerful and implicit discourses were those of their professional practice, informed by art criticism. As such, actual intentionality was not given prominence in either institution’s summative assessments. Despite this, its importance for the nominal authenticity of the artist-student emerged. As students’ reflective engagement of assessors’ readings of their artworks against their own meaning-making was unsupported, students evidenced underdeveloped skills of metacognition and critical judgment. However, the study found that those teachers with longer experience, of the particularity of institutional structures and cultures, had developed the capacity to better manage the effects on their students’ formative experiences. Such relationships emerged as having a strong formative influence. Those students, who believed their teacher was concerned with their actual intentionality, experienced less alienation and felt better supported to persevere with or problematize their desires, and to handle uncertainty.
An argument is made for the negotiation of interpretation as discursive and inclusive of students’ actual intentionality in assessment practices in fine art studio practice. This turn, to situating the author within interpretation, is towards enabling possibilities of agency and the responsibility of ethics within teaching, learning and assessment of reflexive practitioners. In questioning the significance of interpretation on authorship and the conditions for creativity within the higher education context, of which there has been little in the way of empirical research, this research contributes to contemporary literary and aesthetic criticism.
To comprehend the complex interplay of structure, culture and agency, the study draws from qualitative case studies of two art schools, in England and in South Africa, which differed in their espoused approach to assessment and interpretation. In addition, comparative case analysis of five studio practice teachers and their students considers agential approaches to interpretation and their significance for student engagement. Data was collected from course documentation and generated utilising a variety of hybrid methods. This included observations of assessments, questionnaires and interviews with staff; and to generate data from students, an image-based narrative method, focus group interviews and questionnaires. At various points during such researcher-participant interactions, possibilities for reciprocality, transgression and challenge of interpretations were enabled.
Utilising critical discourse analysis, each case was analysed individually and then comparatively. Firstly, that which was espoused and practiced by staff was mapped to a framework constructed for the purpose of identifying approaches to interpretation: whether eucharistic, objective, or operative criticism, in relation to the author, text and reader. Secondly, insights from staff and student participants were related to the optimal conditions for creativity in this domain. Schema of the environment, relationships and curricula were then sketched, indicating the significance of interpretative approaches on students’ emotional, critical and reflective engagement with themselves as artist-students, their artmaking processes, and their artworks.
This project contributes to research in assessment in fine art studio practice by providing a means to both identify the discipline’s embedded referential frameworks and consider their significance for creativity. The findings from this study revealed that whether or not the interpretative community of assessors were informed by educational development or quality assurances discourses, or utilised explicit criterion-referenced assessment, the more powerful and implicit discourses were those of their professional practice, informed by art criticism. As such, actual intentionality was not given prominence in either institution’s summative assessments. Despite this, its importance for the nominal authenticity of the artist-student emerged. As students’ reflective engagement of assessors’ readings of their artworks against their own meaning-making was unsupported, students evidenced underdeveloped skills of metacognition and critical judgment. However, the study found that those teachers with longer experience, of the particularity of institutional structures and cultures, had developed the capacity to better manage the effects on their students’ formative experiences. Such relationships emerged as having a strong formative influence. Those students, who believed their teacher was concerned with their actual intentionality, experienced less alienation and felt better supported to persevere with or problematize their desires, and to handle uncertainty.
An argument is made for the negotiation of interpretation as discursive and inclusive of students’ actual intentionality in assessment practices in fine art studio practice. This turn, to situating the author within interpretation, is towards enabling possibilities of agency and the responsibility of ethics within teaching, learning and assessment of reflexive practitioners. In questioning the significance of interpretation on authorship and the conditions for creativity within the higher education context, of which there has been little in the way of empirical research, this research contributes to contemporary literary and aesthetic criticism.
Research Interests:
This paper considers a curriculum design motivated by a desire to explore more valid pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking skills among students engaged in an Environmental Science course in South Africa, focussing... more
This paper considers a curriculum design motivated by a desire to explore more
valid pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking skills among students
engaged in an Environmental Science course in South Africa, focussing specifically
on the topic of Citizen Science. Fifty-three under graduate students were
involved in the course, which was run over a two week period. Data were generated
from several sources, including individual student evaluations, a focus
group discussion, lecturer reflections and summative assessment results. During
the course, the development of critical thinking skills was scaffolded by different
thinking approaches to the possibilities and problematics of student-selected case
studies, followed by a collaborative re-examining of ‘what is known’ about
Citizen Science. Spiralling engagement with various resources harnessed the
diversity of the class, as they drew on their personal and disciplinary backgrounds.
The insights highlight possibilities for alternative higher education
teaching models for emerging subjects such as Environmental Science, where
the competencies required of graduates, such as critical thinking and coping with
uncertainty, differ significantly from traditional ‘science’ competencies, and
therefore require a departure from traditional teaching methods.
valid pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking skills among students
engaged in an Environmental Science course in South Africa, focussing specifically
on the topic of Citizen Science. Fifty-three under graduate students were
involved in the course, which was run over a two week period. Data were generated
from several sources, including individual student evaluations, a focus
group discussion, lecturer reflections and summative assessment results. During
the course, the development of critical thinking skills was scaffolded by different
thinking approaches to the possibilities and problematics of student-selected case
studies, followed by a collaborative re-examining of ‘what is known’ about
Citizen Science. Spiralling engagement with various resources harnessed the
diversity of the class, as they drew on their personal and disciplinary backgrounds.
The insights highlight possibilities for alternative higher education
teaching models for emerging subjects such as Environmental Science, where
the competencies required of graduates, such as critical thinking and coping with
uncertainty, differ significantly from traditional ‘science’ competencies, and
therefore require a departure from traditional teaching methods.
Research Interests:
A common global perception of group work in the higher education context is that it has the potential to act as a platform which can enable student learning by means of interactions, shared diverse experiences, deep engagement with... more
A common global perception of group work in the higher education context is that it has the potential to act as a platform which can enable student learning by means
of interactions, shared diverse experiences, deep engagement with subject concepts and the achievement of tasks collaboratively. Indeed, in different socio-economic,
historical and institutional contexts, group work activities have become levers by which deeper learning could be achieved. Drawing on perceptions and experiences
of group work among environmental science students at a South African university, we investigate the ways in which group work could be more expansively viewed as
‘terrains of learning’ for students. The results in general indicate that students have positive perceptions and experiences of group work, though problematic elements
are evident. This particular case study points to the attention that should be paid to understanding issues of background, ethnicity and various student personalities which could hinder or enable the desired student learning. Such an understanding could contribute to debates regarding the achievement of higher quality learning, given issues of diversity and transformation in the South African higher education context.
of interactions, shared diverse experiences, deep engagement with subject concepts and the achievement of tasks collaboratively. Indeed, in different socio-economic,
historical and institutional contexts, group work activities have become levers by which deeper learning could be achieved. Drawing on perceptions and experiences
of group work among environmental science students at a South African university, we investigate the ways in which group work could be more expansively viewed as
‘terrains of learning’ for students. The results in general indicate that students have positive perceptions and experiences of group work, though problematic elements
are evident. This particular case study points to the attention that should be paid to understanding issues of background, ethnicity and various student personalities which could hinder or enable the desired student learning. Such an understanding could contribute to debates regarding the achievement of higher quality learning, given issues of diversity and transformation in the South African higher education context.
Research Interests:
Students experience the studio as the heart of the curriculum, with its problem-based experiential emphasis as oppose to information transmission models typically associated with lecture/discussion courses. The relationships within the... more
Students experience the studio as the heart of the curriculum, with its problem-based experiential emphasis as oppose to information transmission models typically associated with lecture/discussion courses. The relationships within the studio involve not just the student and studio supervisors, but also interactions between peers. Aspects of a teacher-centred paradigm, student-centred curricula, traditional notions of enculturation, and collaborative and peer learning are intertwined. At times these streams complement each other, and at times there is tension between them. This is indicated in the various constructions of supervisors and students which emerge from education literature on studio pedagogy. Constructions of the supervisor within the studio and during assessment are considered, with a discussion of the threads which underpin them. This is followed by a discussion of some of the current dominant constructions of the student, and possible effects of these roles and relationships on his/her learning. A concern for the agency of those involved to rupture, subvert, rescript or resist such constructions motivates this research, while acknowledging that this may be limited by structural and cultural contexts.
Research Interests:
Underpinned by an awareness that education systems inherently maintain the status quo, this article explores a paradox at the heart of fine art studio teaching, learning and assessment in the postcolonial context of South Africa. The... more
Underpinned by an awareness that education systems inherently maintain the status quo, this article explores a paradox at the heart of fine art studio teaching, learning and assessment in the postcolonial context of South Africa. The content of most current curricula evidences a concern with power, and the politics and problem¬atics of representation. As such, encouragement of student engagement around and negotiation of notions of transformation, critical dialogue and identity is espoused. However, in the article it is argued that the current approaches to assessment often unquestioningly replicate inherited systems, and in so doing, unwittingly reproduce systems of cultural capital that may be non-transformatory and non-pluralistic. Thus, because of the way assessment is practiced, that which is taught may be radi¬cally different from that which is experienced and thereby learnt in the studio.
Research Interests:
Abstract Drawing from creativity and art research, this paper proposes a schema for the conditions for creativity in fine art studio practice. Discussion focuses on how the triad of creative person, artmaking process, and artwork is... more
Abstract
Drawing from creativity and art research, this paper proposes a schema for the conditions for creativity in fine art studio practice. Discussion focuses on how the triad of creative person, artmaking process, and artwork is constructed, and the situating of this creative triad within an enabling environment, which on a structural level includes the curriculum, and on a cultural and agential level involves teaching and learning relationships. An emphasis in placed on affective concerns, particularly the role of uncertainty as an important part of the art student's learning experience.
Drawing from creativity and art research, this paper proposes a schema for the conditions for creativity in fine art studio practice. Discussion focuses on how the triad of creative person, artmaking process, and artwork is constructed, and the situating of this creative triad within an enabling environment, which on a structural level includes the curriculum, and on a cultural and agential level involves teaching and learning relationships. An emphasis in placed on affective concerns, particularly the role of uncertainty as an important part of the art student's learning experience.
Research Interests:
Whilst principles of validity, reliability and fairness should be central concerns for the assessment of student learning in higher education, simplistic notions of ‘transparency’ and ‘explicitness’ in terms of assessment criteria should... more
Whilst principles of validity, reliability and fairness should be central concerns for the assessment of student learning in higher education, simplistic notions of ‘transparency’ and ‘explicitness’ in terms of assessment criteria should be critiqued more rigorously. This article examines the inherent tensions resulting from CRA’s links to both behaviourism and constructivism and argues that more nuance and interpretation is required if the assessor is to engage his/her students with criterion-based assessment from a constructivist paradigm. One way to negotiate the tensions between different assessment ideologies and approaches meaningfully is to construe assessment as ‘mediation’. This article presents an example
assessment rubric informed by John Biggs’ (1999) SOLO Taxonomy.
assessment rubric informed by John Biggs’ (1999) SOLO Taxonomy.
Research Interests:
Abstract: This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education (such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation... more
Abstract:
This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education
(such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum
developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation methods in relation
to a focus on student learning. We argue that many of the existing methods of
evaluation in higher education are underpinned by a conception of learning that is
de-contextualised. As a consequence, many data collection methods do not
address aspects that affect students’ learning. This is problematic because the core
aim of higher education is to facilitate student learning. We propose a
contextualised evaluation methodology, guided by 10 key questions, which can
help evaluators address concepts and questions of student learning in their
evaluations.
This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education
(such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum
developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation methods in relation
to a focus on student learning. We argue that many of the existing methods of
evaluation in higher education are underpinned by a conception of learning that is
de-contextualised. As a consequence, many data collection methods do not
address aspects that affect students’ learning. This is problematic because the core
aim of higher education is to facilitate student learning. We propose a
contextualised evaluation methodology, guided by 10 key questions, which can
help evaluators address concepts and questions of student learning in their
evaluations.
Research Interests:
This paper highlights inadequacies of a creative arts curriculum that claimed to have been informed by postmodern theories, without careful consideration of how these might or should impact on teaching and learning interactions. In... more
This paper highlights inadequacies of a creative arts curriculum that claimed to have been informed by postmodern theories, without careful consideration of how these might or should impact on teaching and learning interactions. In particular, the relationship between intentionality and interpretation addressed in this case study is of concern for educationalists in a postmodern world. At issue is how assessors’ interpretations are responsive to or balanced with student meaning making. Drawing from research conducted at a South African fine art department, the author considers whether a transfer of Barthes’ notion of author to student intentionality and reader to lecturer interpretation is a constructive framework for student learning. In the case studied, flat approaches to the post-structuralist ‘intentionality fallacy’ were found to further exacerbate unequal power dynamics, with detrimental effects on student learning. An argument is made for more ethically aware approaches to the balance between interpretation and intentionality by recognizing that it echoes the relationship between self and other.
Research Interests:
Abstract: Using critical discourse analysis to excavate the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that both creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite... more
Abstract:
Using critical discourse analysis to excavate the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that both creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite the prevalence of these often used terms, assessment practices and feedback were found to unwittingly encourage reproduction. A dominant negative dialectic at play in assessment practices was a modernist conception of the artist-student. The climate created by the imbalance between creativity and criticality was found to impact negatively on students’ approaches to learning as a result of being alienated from their desires. Focusing on the South African context, this case study contributes to global concerns about strategic and uncritical adoptions of politically expedient discourses in higher education.
Using critical discourse analysis to excavate the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that both creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite the prevalence of these often used terms, assessment practices and feedback were found to unwittingly encourage reproduction. A dominant negative dialectic at play in assessment practices was a modernist conception of the artist-student. The climate created by the imbalance between creativity and criticality was found to impact negatively on students’ approaches to learning as a result of being alienated from their desires. Focusing on the South African context, this case study contributes to global concerns about strategic and uncritical adoptions of politically expedient discourses in higher education.
Research Interests: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Discourse, Alienation, Curriculum, and 3 moreFine Art, Artist, and Espoused
"Abstract: This report presents the findings of a case study excavating the event of the ‘Critique’ (crit) formative assessment method within a Fine Art Studio Practice curriculum. Arguments informed by critical postmodernism,... more
"Abstract:
This report presents the findings of a case study excavating the event of the ‘Critique’ (crit) formative assessment method within a Fine Art Studio Practice curriculum. Arguments informed by critical postmodernism, education theories and contemporary art criticism are utilised to construct a dialectic of higher education, contemporary art and fine art studio practice which emphasizes the importance of agency, expressed through intentionality, and critical thinking, expressed through a recognition of the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘the other’.
Using critical discourse analysis, the disjunctions between the espoused and practiced curriculum are explored. The researcher analyses how the assessment practices of the case studied are influenced by unexamined agentic factors, such as inter-departmental relations, lecturers’ assumptions and prior learning, and structural determinants, such as the medium-specific Bachelor of Fine Art degree structure and prevailing artistic traditions. The research findings indicate that these are underpinned by tensions between two orientations, the espoused curriculum’s discourse-interest informed by critical theory, and the theory-in-use. The latter is shown to have unexamined modernist leanings towards formalism that requires a master-apprentice relationship between lecturer and students, and encourages reproduction rather than critical, creative thinking. The dominant discourses in the School construct a negative dialectic of the artist-student that can be seen to deny student agency and authorial responsibility. Findings suggests that students experience this as alienating, to the extent that to preserve their sense of self, students adopt surface and strategic approaches to learning.
An argument is made for lecturers’ engagement with reflexive teaching practice, which model ethical relationships between ‘self’ and ‘other’ during ‘crits’. In addition, emphasis is placed on how assessment practices should be more aligned with the espoused curriculum, in that the importance of a reflexive relationship between form and content, process and product, intentionality and interpretation is acknowledged."
This report presents the findings of a case study excavating the event of the ‘Critique’ (crit) formative assessment method within a Fine Art Studio Practice curriculum. Arguments informed by critical postmodernism, education theories and contemporary art criticism are utilised to construct a dialectic of higher education, contemporary art and fine art studio practice which emphasizes the importance of agency, expressed through intentionality, and critical thinking, expressed through a recognition of the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘the other’.
Using critical discourse analysis, the disjunctions between the espoused and practiced curriculum are explored. The researcher analyses how the assessment practices of the case studied are influenced by unexamined agentic factors, such as inter-departmental relations, lecturers’ assumptions and prior learning, and structural determinants, such as the medium-specific Bachelor of Fine Art degree structure and prevailing artistic traditions. The research findings indicate that these are underpinned by tensions between two orientations, the espoused curriculum’s discourse-interest informed by critical theory, and the theory-in-use. The latter is shown to have unexamined modernist leanings towards formalism that requires a master-apprentice relationship between lecturer and students, and encourages reproduction rather than critical, creative thinking. The dominant discourses in the School construct a negative dialectic of the artist-student that can be seen to deny student agency and authorial responsibility. Findings suggests that students experience this as alienating, to the extent that to preserve their sense of self, students adopt surface and strategic approaches to learning.
An argument is made for lecturers’ engagement with reflexive teaching practice, which model ethical relationships between ‘self’ and ‘other’ during ‘crits’. In addition, emphasis is placed on how assessment practices should be more aligned with the espoused curriculum, in that the importance of a reflexive relationship between form and content, process and product, intentionality and interpretation is acknowledged."
Research Interests: Assessment, Creativity, Evaluation, Critique, Curriculum, and 4 moreAgency, Fine Art, Espoused, and Crit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This mini-paper reflects on the concepts and methods which I have found of value in my journey as a researcher engaging with justice and equality for misrecognised participants in higher education. It was presented to interested peers... more
This mini-paper reflects on the concepts and methods which I have found of value in my journey as a researcher engaging with justice and equality for misrecognised participants in higher education. It was presented to interested peers from Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and Queen's University Belfast as part of the colloquia series 'Researching Socio-Education Challenges'.
Research Interests:
This mini-paper reflects on my interest in researching and representing counter-narratives of authority and of authorship in higher education. It was presented to interested peers from Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and... more
This mini-paper reflects on my interest in researching and representing counter-narratives of authority and of authorship in higher education. It was presented to interested peers from Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and Queen's University Belfast as part of the colloquia series 'Researching Socio-Education Challenges'.
Research Interests:
These are the notes compiled for oral contributions, by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi & Dr Roxana Chiappa, as invited discussants at the launch of the Special Issue: ‘Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary’,... more
These are the notes compiled for oral contributions, by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi & Dr Roxana Chiappa, as invited discussants at the launch of the Special Issue: ‘Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary’, edited by Tzanakou, C. and Henderson, E. F., and published in 2021 in the journal Higher Education 82:4. It arose from the work of the Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network. The launch event was held on the 11 March 2022 online, and was supported by Oxford Brookes University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion RIKE Network.
Research Interests:
Explorations of the seen and unseen social changes within the academy underpin the Counter// Narratives’ project, where in 2019-2020 the life history narratives of first generation academics from Angola, India, South Africa and Syria were... more
Explorations of the seen and unseen social changes within the academy underpin the Counter// Narratives’ project, where in 2019-2020 the life history narratives of first generation academics from Angola, India, South Africa and Syria were engaged with by visual artists from the collective Analogue Eye: Video Art Africa, many of whom are themselves first generation university-educated.
In each of these contexts, a critical mass of those from groups and knowledge systems misrecognised and oppressed have negotiated radical changes in the figures and institutions of authority in their countries. Authorship is central to such power and to agency. This paper deliberates such questions and politics of authorship alongside those entanglements of author-ing inherent to the interpretative processes of storytelling, artistic research and interpretation within The ‘Counter // Narratives’ Project itself - which sought to explore how counter-stories may see a way through the myopia of the social delegitimation of the western-oriented academy, provide challenge to reproductions of internalised oppression, and openings to engagement with more just notions of authority.
Against the dominant hero narratives of social mobility and exceptionalism, and the looming spectres of colonial universities’ mythologies of quality, the artists grappled with the ethico-historical responsibility of bearing witness, but also creating generative and equitious imaginaries through their creative arts research practice. Drawing on reflective interviews with the artists, participants and ourselves as the research-curatorial team, in this video we offer a synopsis of the paper for this conference. Within it, we highlight insights into the layers of narration negotiated, including the relations between those layers and the visual discourses and micro-textuality of the final videos. Excerpts and stills from the video artworks, and extracts from correspondence, transcripts and audience reception responses are referenced by the research-curatorial team, to provide a rich and complex dialogue about the im-possibilities of representing and visualising emancipatory imaginaries.
In each of these contexts, a critical mass of those from groups and knowledge systems misrecognised and oppressed have negotiated radical changes in the figures and institutions of authority in their countries. Authorship is central to such power and to agency. This paper deliberates such questions and politics of authorship alongside those entanglements of author-ing inherent to the interpretative processes of storytelling, artistic research and interpretation within The ‘Counter // Narratives’ Project itself - which sought to explore how counter-stories may see a way through the myopia of the social delegitimation of the western-oriented academy, provide challenge to reproductions of internalised oppression, and openings to engagement with more just notions of authority.
Against the dominant hero narratives of social mobility and exceptionalism, and the looming spectres of colonial universities’ mythologies of quality, the artists grappled with the ethico-historical responsibility of bearing witness, but also creating generative and equitious imaginaries through their creative arts research practice. Drawing on reflective interviews with the artists, participants and ourselves as the research-curatorial team, in this video we offer a synopsis of the paper for this conference. Within it, we highlight insights into the layers of narration negotiated, including the relations between those layers and the visual discourses and micro-textuality of the final videos. Excerpts and stills from the video artworks, and extracts from correspondence, transcripts and audience reception responses are referenced by the research-curatorial team, to provide a rich and complex dialogue about the im-possibilities of representing and visualising emancipatory imaginaries.
Research Interests:
Research Background: When it comes to social justice, leadership plays a significant role in fostering vision, ensuring compliance with policies and their implementation, in addition to embodying a responsibility for institutional growth.... more
Research Background:
When it comes to social justice, leadership plays a significant role in fostering vision, ensuring compliance with policies and their implementation, in addition to embodying a responsibility for institutional growth. This is important in the current global drive to address gender inequality, one of the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations. Public institutions of authority, particularly higher education institutions (HEIs), play a significant role for the public good in this regard. However, the staff composition of Indian public HEIs presents a dismal picture with women occupying only 7% of positions of leadership.
Objectives:
The paper aims to study the role of institutional leaders in implementing, monitoring and evaluating gender policies. It further wants to understand the individual and systemic constraints faced by leaders in their efforts to attain the vision of gender equity in their institutions.
Methods:
We present findings from a collaborative research project studying the dominant cultures within universities in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. It draws from data generated through mixed methods in 2019, with participation of 185 academic staff and leaders.
Findings:
While the leadership ensured the existence of gender policies in their universities, mechanisms of implementation, monitoring and evaluation were weak and left much to be desired. The rhetoric of gender mainstreaming covered up for the lack of awareness of the intentionality of policies for gender equity. The policies were considered more of a constitutional obligation rather than being looked upon with a politico-ethical vision to include those marginalized with regard to gender and its intersections with caste, sexuality, ability and language. The resources of ‘ghettoised’ areas of specialization were not utilized to the optimum therefore rendering the institutional functioning to remain exclusionary, elitist, sexist and casteist.
When it comes to social justice, leadership plays a significant role in fostering vision, ensuring compliance with policies and their implementation, in addition to embodying a responsibility for institutional growth. This is important in the current global drive to address gender inequality, one of the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations. Public institutions of authority, particularly higher education institutions (HEIs), play a significant role for the public good in this regard. However, the staff composition of Indian public HEIs presents a dismal picture with women occupying only 7% of positions of leadership.
Objectives:
The paper aims to study the role of institutional leaders in implementing, monitoring and evaluating gender policies. It further wants to understand the individual and systemic constraints faced by leaders in their efforts to attain the vision of gender equity in their institutions.
Methods:
We present findings from a collaborative research project studying the dominant cultures within universities in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. It draws from data generated through mixed methods in 2019, with participation of 185 academic staff and leaders.
Findings:
While the leadership ensured the existence of gender policies in their universities, mechanisms of implementation, monitoring and evaluation were weak and left much to be desired. The rhetoric of gender mainstreaming covered up for the lack of awareness of the intentionality of policies for gender equity. The policies were considered more of a constitutional obligation rather than being looked upon with a politico-ethical vision to include those marginalized with regard to gender and its intersections with caste, sexuality, ability and language. The resources of ‘ghettoised’ areas of specialization were not utilized to the optimum therefore rendering the institutional functioning to remain exclusionary, elitist, sexist and casteist.
Research Interests:
In the past two decades, South African higher education has been characterised by concerns with equity and access. This paper draws on a research project which was concerned with an aspect of the complexities of relational and... more
In the past two decades, South African higher education has been characterised by concerns with equity and access. This paper draws on a research project which was concerned with an aspect of the complexities of relational and interactional diversity of academic staff which have emerged once the minimum expectations of standards of numeric access of student participants were met in an historically white university. The project focussed on the reception of participants of carefully crafted and well-informed ‘accelerated development programmes’ which over the past 15 years sought to offer “a rigorous academic advancement path, predominantly for top young black and women academics whose research and teaching development is accelerated over a period of three years”. These programmes were initiated as a way to redress the demographic imbalances of academic staff, while assuring the quality of the faculty. For the most part, they have been evaluated as successful as an overwhelming majority of the participants performed well according to the criteria in which they were assessed. Our role was not to ascertain the quality of such programmes, but in response to a request by some of the recipients, we aimed to explore the more fundamental and nuanced problematic of institutional transformation through inviting insights into the lived experiences of the programmes’ recipients, who were often characterised as agents embodying transformation. Of the 27 who actively participated, data was generated via a questionnaire, followed by presentation of our analysis to small discussion groups. Additional engagement occurred through postcards with metaphors chosen from the questionnaire responses which invited participants to compose messages to imagined readers of their choice within the institution. Our discussion will focus on the participants’ perceptions of the relationship between institutional evaluation processes of their development/ performance, and the ways they constrained or enabled the potential of these future leaders, to effect substantive transformation of the institutional culture.
Research Interests:
Conjuring the spectre of authorship, considered passé in continental philosophy and contemporary ‘western’ criticism for some time, may provide a valid and poignant ethical reference point for studies of higher education in a globalised... more
Conjuring the spectre of authorship, considered passé in continental philosophy and contemporary ‘western’ criticism for some time, may provide a valid and poignant ethical reference point for studies of higher education in a globalised world. In this paper, it is argued that the concepts of author, text and reader allow for a re-consideration of taken-for-granted discourses and interpretative approaches in Higher Education, particularly for those with academic concerns. Informed by the author’s drive to be responsive to an ethical obligation to the global South and in contexts with legacies of conflict and inequality, surfacing the politics and problematics of authorship poignantly brings to bear that which is de/legitimised between the gazes of the local, national, global. The ways in which the concepts of author, text and reader are constructed, and their roles positioned, may enable us to deliberate the sub/text of the macro-, meso- and micro-curricula of higher education in varied contexts, and, in turn, put us in a better position to analyse the significance of what we ourselves design, as such texts operate beyond our own intentionality in the world.
Research Interests:
This paper reflects on a collaborative study which explored academic citizenry in the post-colonial contexts of South Africa and India. We conducted a mixed-method study of academics' experiences of agency, positioning and participation... more
This paper reflects on a collaborative study which explored academic citizenry in the post-colonial contexts of South Africa and India. We conducted a mixed-method study of academics' experiences of agency, positioning and participation within universities, to comprehend the conditions of possibility for their shaping of the trans/formation of higher education. While participants' narratives revealed heterogeneous experiences and understandings, from passivity to ignorance and activism, what was disconcerting was what emerged about the larger conditions of their formation as citizens within boundaries and borderlands of the academy. Imaginaries to effect change seemed dormant or suppressed in India, and battle fatigued in South Africa. As authors, we discuss how this project made visible the intractable problematics of our 'work' within Higher Education Studies, Women's Studies and Academic Development, and the related impossibility for decolonising the hidden meso-curriculum.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Within this talk I hope to bring to the fore the complex social processes that mediate, and are mediated by, the politics of belonging within the university. Questioning assumptions about the potential of policy to regulate change, I... more
Within this talk I hope to bring to the fore the complex social processes that mediate, and are mediated by, the politics of belonging within the university. Questioning assumptions about the potential of policy to regulate change, I highlight insights from studies which have explored discourses and constructions of academic identity, citizenship and inclusion – to look at the agential consequences of negotiating power relations in the looming shadow of legacies of inequality, conflict and oppression.
Research Interests:
actively reflect on their approaches to authorship, textuality and readership in higher education research. In the process, they will gain experiential knowledge of two such endeavours which utilize arts-based methods, and will be invited... more
actively reflect on their approaches to authorship, textuality and readership in higher education research. In the process, they will gain experiential knowledge of two such endeavours which utilize arts-based methods, and will be invited to contribute to research on such processes[1].
Along with the facilitator(s), participants will be prompted to create visual narratives from a provided bank of images, which they will show and discuss with a small group of fellow participants. They will then choose one of the visual narratives to re-present in a postcard, articulating thoughts about either the narrative or the participation process for a reader of his/her choice, to whom the postcard will be addressed. Through this process, participants will act as authors and readers of the texts constructed.
All original artifacts will remain in the possession of the participants. Those who are willing, will be invited at the end of the workshop to contribute images of their artifacts for research purposes [2]. However, participating in the workshop process is in no way dependent on participating in the research.
Along with the facilitator(s), participants will be prompted to create visual narratives from a provided bank of images, which they will show and discuss with a small group of fellow participants. They will then choose one of the visual narratives to re-present in a postcard, articulating thoughts about either the narrative or the participation process for a reader of his/her choice, to whom the postcard will be addressed. Through this process, participants will act as authors and readers of the texts constructed.
All original artifacts will remain in the possession of the participants. Those who are willing, will be invited at the end of the workshop to contribute images of their artifacts for research purposes [2]. However, participating in the workshop process is in no way dependent on participating in the research.
Research Interests:
Conjuring the spectre of authorship, considered passé in continental philosophy and contemporary ‘western’ criticism for some time, may provide a valid and poignant ethical reference point for studies of higher education in a globalised... more
Conjuring the spectre of authorship, considered passé in continental philosophy and contemporary ‘western’ criticism for some time, may provide a valid and poignant ethical reference point for studies of higher education in a globalised world. In this paper, it is argued that the concepts of author, text and reader allow for a re-consideration of taken-for-granted discourses and interpretative approaches in higher education, particularly for those with academic concerns. Informed by the author’s drive to be responsive to an ethical obligation to the global South and in contexts with legacies of conflict and inequality, surfacing the politics and problematics of authorship poignantly brings to bear that which is de/legitimised between the gazes of the local, national, global. The ways in which the concepts of author, text and reader are constructed, and their roles positioned, may enable us to deliberate the sub/text of the macro-, meso- and micro-curricula of higher education in varied contexts, and, in turn, put us in a better position to analyse the significance of what we ourselves design, as such texts operate beyond our own intentionality in the world.
Research Interests:
Amidst national calls for Afrikanising our curricula, the complexities of authorial biography in post-colonial times, and the possibilities of co-constructed curricula through participatory evaluation, authorship continues to productively... more
Amidst national calls for Afrikanising our curricula, the complexities of authorial biography in post-colonial times, and the possibilities of co-constructed curricula through participatory evaluation, authorship continues to productively problematize our academic spaces. This paper argues that the ways in which the academic’s intentionality operates, and is valued, in the development and assessment of teaching portfolios (TP), may be significant for the quality of their learning engagement. Situating the author within interpretation processes may lead to better development of their capacity for self-assessment, metacognition and reflexivity, as they negotiate the complexities of the-other-as-reader. This presentation considers two foci of authorship which the TP potentially makes manifest: ‘layers of narration’ when authoring the curriculum and the actual portfolio document itself. The concern is with how intentionality operates when it comes to the student-recipients’ experiences of and reception of curricula; and how it operates in relation to the reader-responses of the TP assessors. If staff are indeed invested in their ‘nominal authenticity’, i.e. that what they actually intend is received as such, that negotiated criterion might better align their practice to their intentionality, or enable conscious change informed by the reception of others. Whilst previous proponents of such an approach have utilised such notions as ‘espoused theory’ vs ‘theory-in-use’, contemporary notions of authorship and readership from literary theory may provide re-consideration of our assessment processes as academic developers, as they are predicated on notions of ethical responsibility and obligation in postmodern times.
Research Interests:
This presentation explores the complexities of staff members’ perceptions of relational and interactional diversity and identity at an historically white university in South Africa. Respondents were drawn from participants of development... more
This presentation explores the complexities of staff members’ perceptions of relational and interactional diversity and identity at an historically white university in South Africa. Respondents were drawn from participants of development programmes which were espoused to offer career advancement to individuals for equity purposes towards the transformation of institutional culture.
Research Interests:
This paper presents a framework which enables the mapping of approaches to the interpretation for the purpose of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. The framework productively situates specific... more
This paper presents a framework which enables the mapping of approaches to the interpretation for the purpose of analysing the underlying referential frameworks which inform assessment. The framework productively situates specific assessment practices and discourses against a broader analytical narrative of interpretation. It was initially developed as part of a research project which aimed to analyse approaches to the assessment of complex student submissions in the creative arts discipline of fine art studio practice, and, as such, will include examples of its application when teasing out the assessment structures and practices of institutions and individuals. The framework contributes to research in assessment by providing a means to identify embedded referential frameworks; to detect and reflect on nuances in the structural, cultural and agential approaches to assessment; and to open up tacit process to the stakeholders involved.
Research Interests:
In the past two decades, South African higher education has been characterised by concerns with equity and access. This paper draws on a research project which was concerned with an aspect of the complexities of relational and... more
In the past two decades, South African higher education has been characterised by concerns with equity and access. This paper draws on a research project which was concerned with an aspect of the complexities of relational and interactional diversity of academic staff which have emerged once the minimum expectations of standards of numeric access of student participants were met in an historically white university. The project focussed on the reception of participants of carefully crafted and well-informed ‘accelerated development programmes’ which over the past 15 years sought to offer “a rigorous academic advancement path, predominantly for top young black and women academics whose research and teaching development is accelerated over a period of three years”. These programmes were initiated as a way to redress the demographic imbalances of academic staff, while assuring the quality of the faculty. For the most part, they have been evaluated as successful as an overwhelming majority of the participants performed well according to the criteria in which they were assessed. Our role was not to ascertain the quality of such programmes, but in response to a request by some of the recipients, we aimed to explore the more fundamental and nuanced problematic of institutional transformation through inviting insights into the lived experiences of the programmes’ recipients, who were often characterised as agents embodying transformation. Of the 27 who actively participated, data was generated via a questionnaire, followed by presentation of our analysis to small discussion groups. Additional engagement occurred through postcards with metaphors chosen from the questionnaire responses which invited participants to compose messages to imagined readers of their choice within the institution. Our discussion will focus on the participants’ perceptions of the relationship between institutional evaluation processes of their development/ performance, and the ways they constrained or enabled the potential of these future leaders, to effect substantive transformation of the institutional culture.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, ‘transformation’ continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race, quality... more
With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, ‘transformation’ continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race, quality and oppression among the black and women academics who have been the recipients of post-apartheid development programmes at an historically white institution in South Africa. It presents their responses to the espoused discourses of transformation as portrayed in the Integrated Transformation Plans of South African universities, which extend from reparation; compliance; relevance; evolution; psychological; contexts; social; review; to mission. Utilising a report-and-respond approach, participants responded to the definitions of each notion outlined in a questionnaire, followed by non-deterministic small group discussions of the researchers’ interpretations of their responses. These recipients’ lived experiences provided deep insights, from within, into the significance of misalignment between transformation discourses and practice for transforming the institutional culture of the dominant in-group. Emerging ahead of the implementation of a self-regulatory transformation tool for higher education institutions across that national context, these findings point to the importance of external mechanisms for holding institutions to account for what they espouse, and for their responsiveness to higher education research.
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What influences, informs and impacts on the development of 'teaching' in higher education, reflects the ways in which the purpose of higher education is negotiated. This talk will consider dominant constructions of the roles and... more
What influences, informs and impacts on the development of 'teaching' in higher education, reflects the ways in which the purpose of higher education is negotiated. This talk will consider dominant constructions of the roles and responsibilities of the academic in South African universities in the wake of that country's negotiated political settlement, which pivot around how teaching has grappled with notions of access. Questions will be posed about whether approaches to ‘access for success’ should continue to be positioned within myths of advancement in this field of professional practice, or whether such impulses thwart the more radical equity projects of ‘access to challenge’ in a context burdened with legacies of injustice from colonialism, apartheid and the cold war.
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This paper offers insights into the deliberation process of one particular agent who coordinated the curriculum development process of a Higher Education Studies programme aimed at connecting diverse international contexts. In this paper,... more
This paper offers insights into the deliberation process of one particular agent who coordinated the curriculum development process of a Higher Education Studies programme aimed at connecting diverse international contexts. In this paper, she shares four specific ‘questions of authorship’ which she consciously identified as important before the programme’s inception, which she then revisited when engaging stakeholders and collaborators, in her attempts to be responsive to an ethical obligation to the global South. Continually negotiating the politics and problematics of authorship, may be a poignant way to bring to bear that which is de/legitimised in the assessment of content, methods, assessment and contexts chosen for inclusion in such a programme. The presentation is intended as an ‘opening’ to fellow researchers, teachers and students in this field, to consider the significance of such conceptual framing for thinking and practices across borders.
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Taking cognizance of discursive positioning and constructions of the ‘self’ on those participating in higher education, an argument is made for establishing disruptive conditions at the various levels of institutional structures in higher... more
Taking cognizance of discursive positioning and constructions of the ‘self’ on those participating in higher education, an argument is made for establishing disruptive conditions at the various levels of institutional structures in higher education to productively catalyse ethical obligation and to trouble notions of identity underpinning much educational development discourses.
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Taking the stance that each evaluation instrument can be a proactive tool to serve a direct purpose in facilitating student learning (Powney & Hall 1998; McKeachie & Kaplan n.d.), this discussion focuses on the design of an experiential... more
Taking the stance that each evaluation instrument can be a proactive tool to serve a direct purpose in facilitating student learning (Powney & Hall 1998; McKeachie & Kaplan n.d.), this discussion focuses on the design of an experiential evaluation instrument appropriate to creative arts, practice-based disciplines. The paper is informed by a body of knowledge which argues that the purposes of the evaluation of teaching practice and the assessment of student learning need not be exclusive, but rather should be focussed on encouraging engaged, committed (Mann 2001) and deep approaches (Biggs 1999) to learning.
We believe that learning and art making are both processes of meaning making, negotiated by individuals in their social contexts. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of visual, metaphoric storytelling in formative evaluation instruments designed to elicit feedback from fine art photography students. The students’ playful constructions of visual narratives will act as ‘sketches’ of their experiences of meaning making during a course(s). We envisage that within such instruments there may be more possibilities for the student’s memories to be activated; for reflection on his/her learning from a critical distance; and for ‘unrepresentable’ aspects of his/her experience to be more present. Most important are the education benefits to be gained from the student’s experience of being ‘the other’ as a ‘reader’ of visual ‘texts’.
We believe that learning and art making are both processes of meaning making, negotiated by individuals in their social contexts. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of visual, metaphoric storytelling in formative evaluation instruments designed to elicit feedback from fine art photography students. The students’ playful constructions of visual narratives will act as ‘sketches’ of their experiences of meaning making during a course(s). We envisage that within such instruments there may be more possibilities for the student’s memories to be activated; for reflection on his/her learning from a critical distance; and for ‘unrepresentable’ aspects of his/her experience to be more present. Most important are the education benefits to be gained from the student’s experience of being ‘the other’ as a ‘reader’ of visual ‘texts’.
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‘Using evaluation to improve the practice of Foundation Courses’, a development workshop run at the ‘Conversations about Foundation’ Conference, 1 & October 2007, Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Published in Conversations about Foundation, J. Garraway [Ed], Cape Peninsula of Technology. ISBN 978-0-620-42102-7more
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A recording of an overview of a research project conducted collaboratively by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi and Dr Gladman Thondhlana, with the participation of 27 recipients of an equity agenda programme for academic faculty in a South African... more
A recording of an overview of a research project conducted collaboratively by Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi and Dr Gladman Thondhlana, with the participation of 27 recipients of an equity agenda programme for academic faculty in a South African historically 'white' higher education institution.
The recording was produced by these academics. It is in no way representative of the institutions to which they are affiliated.
Please click CC to access captions if necessary. We welcome translation contributions.
The recording was produced by these academics. It is in no way representative of the institutions to which they are affiliated.
Please click CC to access captions if necessary. We welcome translation contributions.
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This is an online archive which places links to international ‘texts’ (art, music, literature, happenings etc) alongside each other, across various contexts, perspectives and times, which touch on the messiness of lived experience in... more
This is an online archive which places links to international ‘texts’ (art, music, literature, happenings etc) alongside each other, across various contexts, perspectives and times, which touch on the messiness of lived experience in higher education. I started it in South Africa, when I found that formal Higher Education courses provided the space for academics and students to engage dispassionately, but that more was needed to create possibilities for opening to diverse experiences, understandings and contexts. I felt, informed by my fine arts background, that more figurative texts might better enable the liminal and affective engagement necessary for substantive ‘challenge’ of the norms which are taken for granted in education. As the link is publically accessible, it provides an informal place of international dialogue across borders.
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SUMMARY OF FOCUS: Emerging from my previous research, in a practice-based discipline, has been a realisation that the relationship between practice-based learning, teaching and research is often unexplored, particularly from the... more
SUMMARY OF FOCUS: Emerging from my previous research, in a practice-based discipline, has been a realisation that the relationship between practice-based learning, teaching and research is often unexplored, particularly from the perspective of those teaching. This project explores where and how they intersect, to better inform these interactions, within and beyond each of the disciplines I consider, particularly as inquiry based research (in all its variations) is increasingly being recognised as of value for epistemological access. Data has been generated from three practice-based areas within disciplines which in particular have a studio learning/ pedagogy focus (such as fine art, music), in addition to those which use the laboratory or observational contexts (including field work, laboratories, therapy observations etc). To dates, participants have been drawn from chemistry; botany; clinical psychology; physics; fine art; and law. Whilst these teaching contexts vary dramatically, all are designed to give students access to practice-based research and to various extents form their identities, in those fields. They have in common that their traditions were originally based on master-apprentice dynamics, albeit that these may have been challenged and shifted over time.
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The legacies of EuroAmerican conceptions of academic freedom and academic autonomy are fraught. Because of the ways in which they have been operationalised and remembered, they have had a chilling effect of scholarly retraction and taboo... more
The legacies of EuroAmerican conceptions of academic freedom and academic autonomy are fraught. Because of the ways in which they have been operationalised and remembered, they have had a chilling effect of scholarly retraction and taboo in some post-conflict and post-colonial contexts, including South Africa, where that ‘freedom’ is unusually enshrined constitutionally. I discuss the dangers of evasion and prohibition of engagement with dominant discourses, particularly for higher education researchers, and the value of collaborating to probe where and how such hidden curricula may shape our work. Moreover, I would argue that generative counter-narratives of academic freedom and academic autonomy run along various threads of African scholarship, both on and off the continent. This paper recognises four with potential to radicalise research on higher education. First, are genealogical constructions of academic freedom as part of long struggles for freedom. Such ugly freedoms de-idealise the concepts and the agents who practice it, exposing the erasure and whitewashing, and enabling recognition of alternative, sometimes even unheroic and ineffective, practices of ugly academic freedom. Second, is the widening of dominant assumptions about ‘threats’ as external to institutional autonomy, to address internal problematics for academic autonomy within those supposed protections. Third, are those operating from the historical awareness of crushed hopes since ‘decolonisation’, who seek to address the nation-state’s relations to institutional autonomy and the public good(s). Fourth, are those engage with the geopolitical webs of the bureaucracies of knowledge dissemination and related assessment regimes, which impact academic authorial agency. Deliberating such scholarly contributions holds generative potential for the studying the ways in which academic citizenry is exercised individually, collectively, institutionally and transgressively. I would argue that this conversation is worthy of de-membering and re-membering (Ndlovu-Gatcheni, 2022) as we negotiate, record and situate our moves as academic communities towards transformative framings, discourses and praxis within/out the African university in our times.
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Academic experience, identity and commitments are often subsumed by dominant technocratic discourses of contemporary higher education. However, memory of witnessing past injustices in representation by the university and critical... more
Academic experience, identity and commitments are often subsumed by dominant technocratic discourses of contemporary higher education. However, memory of witnessing past injustices in representation by the university and critical commitments to transformations in authority, can serve to resist the erasure of counter-narratives. The fraught terrain of those who author representations academically and artistically was explored within a research project which sought to generate, and study, counter-stories of the transitions in authority in higher education affected by conflict, colonialism and/ or their legacies. Seven video-artworks were created by artists from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania catalysed by the input of participating academics from Angola, India, South Africa and Syria, whose experiences as first-generation academics, while personal and particular, resonate with the larger patterns of change within their HE sectors. The artworks engage with authorship as a situated agential activity present within cultures, languages, ideologies, influences and biographies, and thus entangled within readership and textuality.
For more on the project and its collaborators see https://counternarrativefilm.wixsite.com/counter
For more on the project and its collaborators see https://counternarrativefilm.wixsite.com/counter
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'. Paper presented at panel on 'Diversifying Research' for the Race Equality In Higher Education Conference, Queen's University Belfast
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This was a reflection of day two of the ACUSAfrica colloquium 2022 titled 'Reflexive solidarities in techno-rational times'. The sessions reflected on where 'The African university in techno-rational times', 'Black Feminism and Critical... more
This was a reflection of day two of the ACUSAfrica colloquium 2022 titled 'Reflexive solidarities in techno-rational times'. The sessions reflected on where 'The African university in techno-rational times', 'Black Feminism and Critical University Studies' and 'Transdisciplinary institute for Mandela Studies (TIMS): Radical Openness'. This was presented orally to delegates of the colloquium. As such, a shared understanding of the previous day's content were assumed. This is the author's interpretation of those contributions. For a fuller engagement, please contact the presenters or access the recordings which will be available on www.acusafrica.com. Biographical notes of the presenters are included for readers' information, as communicated by the colloquium organisers. The full programme is attached for your reference.
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In this keynote paper, I formulate and share my thinking on the question (the possibility really, which I have signaled by the punctuation in the title of this talk) about two potentially impactful institutions (or really ideographs)... more
In this keynote paper, I formulate and share my thinking on the question (the possibility really, which I have signaled by the punctuation in the title of this talk) about two potentially impactful institutions (or really ideographs) which operate in very real ways, internationally and locally, that is higher education and the SDGs. They hold such promise aesthetically and have been given social mandates, in this case development mandates, but also have considerable problematic effects – with which we as intellectuals, I would argue, must engage, if they are going to be transformative, especially where they intersect.
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What members of research ethics committees learnt about themselves, their committees and their institutions from the 'pivot' online during the pandemic should be of interest to scholars of, and practitioners within, education systems.... more
What members of research ethics committees learnt about themselves, their committees and their institutions from the 'pivot' online during the pandemic should be of interest to scholars of, and practitioners within, education systems. State restrictions led to sudden increases in digital technologies for various aspects of research practice, including field work, data processing, and administration. Digital tools were introduced not only into university systems, but also the lives of novice and experience researchers, at unprecedented speed and scale. Across the world, these were largely commissioned without the involvement of expert research communities (Williamson, 2021; Ndzinisa & Dlamini, 2022) and without enablement for such communities to interrogate the widereaching implications of utilising products designed for commercial purposes.