transformative curriculum rita 2016
TRANSCRIPT
Adopting a transformative curriculum approach to teaching in a global higher education context : perspectives from a South African Institution
Rita Kizito NMMU 2016
Abstract
Since 1994, South African Universities have been grappling with issues of transformation at strategic and operational levels. This is primarily because social, political and economic inequalities still persist at all levels of society, including higher education, even after 20 years of democracy. Despite engagements at different levels including the setting of policies, committees and plans to address transformation, there is still no real broad consensus around what curriculum transformation really means and what is at the nexus of the curriculum transformation agenda. The South African literature in this area signals two main approaches to curriculum reform. The first one is a representivity approach with a focus on which group (racial, gender, class) is succeeding and likely to succeed in higher education. The second approach is ideological and considers distribution of economic and political power . Both these approaches have a direct influence on what is taught and how it is taught.
This webinar is an invitation to a discussion around the conceptualisation of a project which is exploring academic and student perceptions of curriculum and teaching transformation at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University , South Africa. Both representivity and ideology need to be confronted if meaningful transformation is to occur. At the heart of the discussion is a need to develop curricula responsive and relevant to the conditions in which both staff and students find themselves. The primary challenge is in finding a way of adopting a transformative but integrated, coherent approach to teaching in higher education while responding to local and global demands.
The discussions in this webinar are around…
• The South African HE context at a glance ( some statistics)
• What the debates in transforming HE have been in South Africa
• Activity 1 - What in your opinion is a transformative curriculum?
• The transformative agenda at NMMU - Curriculum Renewal and a Humanising Pedagogy ( a rationale for choosing this particular path)
• Activity 2 – What should be at the ‘nexus’ of transforming HE curricula at both the local and global levels ?
• A possible way forward - UK contexts, a South African Context …
• Thanks and acknowledgements
The South African HE context at a glance ( some statistics) – racialized past
Pre merger HWU (10) HBU (10) HWT (7) HBT (7)
34 contact institutions2 Distance
6 Afrikaans4 English
6 African2 non-African2 special purp.
6 establ. in 1967
5 African late 70s/80s2 non-African
Merger Universities Comprehensives UoT’s
23 Institutions
11 6 6
Research Intensive*
Upper band Middle Band Lower band
23 institutions
5 7 11
*Cooper, D. (2015) Social Justice and South African University Student enrolment Data by ‘race’ 1998-2012: From ‘Skewed Revolution’ to ‘Stalled Revolution’. Higher Education Quarterly
HWU Historically White University/Tecknikon
HBU Historically Black University/Technikon
Post-school Education and Training (PSET ) Provision
Statistics on Post-School Education and Training in South Africa: 2013 © Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015.
Headcount enrolments in public higher education by race, 2008 -2013
2013 Higher Education Data: Participation , Council on Higher Education, 2016
Headcount enrolments by the 20 main fields of study from 2011 to 2013
2013 Higher Education Data: Participation , Council on Higher Education, 2016
HE instruction and research staff 2003-20122003 2012 Change in #
African 9732 (21%) 16429 (32%) +69%
Coloured 2061 (5%) 2664(5%) +29%
Indian 3613 (8%) 4346(8%) +20%
White 28139 (62%) 27456 (53%) -2%
Unknown 2112 (5%) 678 (1%) -68%
Total 45657 51573 +13%
DHET (2013) Staffing South Africa’s Universities Framework
The South African reality about student success in undergraduate programmes• Only about one in four students in contact institutions (that is, excluding
UNISA) graduate in regulation time (for example, three years for a three-year degree).
• Only 35% of the total intake, and 48% of contact students, graduate within five years.
• When allowance is made for students taking longer than five years to graduate or returning to the system after dropping out, it is estimated that some 55% of the intake will never graduate.
• Access, success and completion rates continue to be racially skewed, with white completion rates being on average 50% higher than African rates.
• The net result of the disparities in access and success is that under 5% of African and coloured youth are succeeding in any form of higher education.
A proposal for undergraduate curriculum reform in South Africa: The case for a flexible curriculum structure, p.17. © Council on Higher Education, Pretoria, 2013
Debates about HE transformation in SA
• Legacy of social and economic inequalities and exclusions
• No real agreement around what a transformed institution or a transformed curriculum should look like
• Two approaches to transformation ( Crain Soudien, 2010)
representivity approach with a focus on groups (racial, gender, class but also in the “programme mixes” ( transformation is about redress )
ideological – dominant academic discourses and institutional cultures ( transformation is about re-thinking education and disrupting the status quo)
About NMMU
PROGRAMMES6 FACULTIES
5 campuses – three in Summerstrand ( next to the ocean), Bird Street ( heart of PE) Missionvale, George ( on the Garden route)
669 full time academics (278 with doctoral degrees)1039 part time teaching staff
Distribution by race in 2012, 25% White; 1%
Indian; 14% Coloured: 52 % Black; 7% foreign
Tensions in transforming the curriculum
Equity QualityRedress EfficiencyChange DevelopmentInclusivity DiversityLocalization Globalization
Activity 1
What in your opinion is a transformative curriculum?
The transformative agenda at NMMUTransformation is the vehicle to achieving the NMMU mission and vision
• Our Mission is to offer a diverse range of quality educational opportunities that will make a critical and constructive contribution to regional, national and global sustainability.
• Our Vision is to be a dynamic African university, recognized for its leadership in generating cutting-edge knowledge for a sustainable tomorrow.
• The principles/values of the NMMU underpinning Transformation include:
Respect for diversity reflecting equity, equality and humanity
Excellence
Ubuntu
Integrity
Respect for the natural environment
Humanizing Pedagogical framework (NMMU,2013)
Enabling
Inte
gra
ted
WHO?
WHO? WHO?
“Knowledges”WHAT?
AssessmentSO WHAT?
Conducive environment
WHERE?
Methods & Pedagogies
HOW?
I
Thou It
WHY? Bigger purposes
Enabling a way of becoming for life and work
Freire, P. 1993. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Zinn, D., Geduld, D., Delport, A., & Jordaan, C. (2014). 'Learning walks': Dialogic spaces for integrating theory and practice in a renewed foundation phase curriculum. South African Journal of Childhood Education,4(3), 103-121.
Activity 2
What should be at the ‘nexus’ of transforming HE curricula at both the local and global levels ?
Possible ways forward
• Continue advancing the work of Ralph Tyler, Lawrence Stenhouse, Paulo Freire – understanding the power and limitations of their contributions to the curriculum development project
• Restructuring curriculum to that it meets societal needs & concerns
• Renewing curriculum so that it maximises student participation and growth
• Simultaneously addressing local and global demands (relevance)
• Flexibility
Real transformation can neither condone ‘business as usual’ nor can it be done ‘on the cheap’
From Concept paper prepared for the second Higher Education Summit, 2015
