Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Development Support)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Development Support) by Author "Fongwa, Sam"

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    The sociology curriculum, pedagogy and capabilities formation: a case study in two South African universities
    (University of the Free State, 2016) Manyonga, Bothwell; Walker, Melanie; Wilson-Strydom, Merridy; Fongwa, Sam
    𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 The study addresses how the sociology curriculum and pedagogy interact to enhance or constrain students’ capabilities and more broadly, human development. More specifically, the research is focussed on how curriculum knowledge acquired by undergraduate sociology students contributes to enhancing their capabilities to live and to act in society. The context is one where universities are under pressure to better align the relevance of their curriculum to the needs of the labour market, with less focus on expansive aims and more emphasis on outcomes that contribute to both economic advancement and human well-being. While the South African government has invested in the expansion of higher education enrolments and programmes for academic support, there is a need to interrogate how universities enhance or constrain individual and social well-being. Sociology has been chosen as a case subject because there is a growing concern internationally and nationally about the weakening and deepening disregard of the humanities and social sciences within the academy. Based on Sociology Departments at two South African universities, the research investigates three levels: i) curriculum level to examine what sociology knowledge is selected and why, as well as what valued doings and beings are considered important; ii) pedagogy level to explore how sociology knowledge is transmitted and how (if at all) the process expands capabilities and functionings; and iii) exit level outcomes to consider what students say they have become as a result of studying sociology. The study draws on perceptions from empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews with students (11) and lecturers (11) at each university, as well as relevant documents. The findings suggest that sociology is a subject taken by diverse students across axes of race, gender and schooling backgrounds. Although the students have different bundles of ‘resources’, the development of the curriculum fails to account for these differences but largely treats them as a homogeneous group. In this conceptualisation, there is limited or no attempt to consider the personal conversion factors that shape each student’s freedom to achieve, as well as understand the choices and values that convert these freedoms into actual achievements. Regarding valued capabilities, students and lecturers value capabilities such as knowledge and critical thinking, with the students’ having emphasis on capabilities such as economic opportunities, the opportunity to provide or experience good teaching, autonomy and voice, resilience, and recognition, respect and belonging, however, there were limited opportunities for this. All capabilities intersect and are multidimensional, thus students need all of them to achieve well-being as they reinforce and support each other. Subsequently, agency rests on the platform of these capabilities. Thus, equipping graduates with more capabilities, more well-being and more agency means higher education is more just rather than less just or is cognisant of a social justice agenda. The thesis concludes by proposing a capabilities-inspired curriculum model for human well-being. The model suggests grounds for (re)thinking policy orientations to sociology curriculum developers, particularly on how the capabilities approach and the more limited human capital theory can complement each other in higher education and curriculum development.