Doctoral Degrees (School of Higher Education Studies)

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Open Access
Enhancing economics curriculum implementation in selected schools in the Northern Cape
(University of the Free State, 2023) Manzi, Wellington Itai; Moreeng, Boitumelo
Economics, as a high school elective subject, helps learners to understand the operations of the economy and equips learners with critical thinking, analytical, problem solving and decision-making skills. It empowers learners with the skills required to confront 21st-century challenges. This qualitative study aimed to explore how Economics curriculum implementation can be enhanced in selected schools in the Northern Cape Province through article publications. This study is vital because Economics academic achievement has been reported to be poor in the province and country at large. There has also been literature which documents that Economics teachers face challenges in implementing the Economics curriculum. This qualitative study explores how Economics curriculum implementation can be enhanced in the selected schools in the Northern Cape Province. Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) theory was chosen to theorise the study while adopting case study research for the design and interpretive paradigm as the lens for the study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis and analysed using thematic analysis. The study findings revealed that although there are pockets of good practices in Economics curriculum implementation, more still needs to be done in terms of the provision of teaching and learning resources, equipping teachers with proper Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and improving the support provided to Economics teachers by various stakeholders including departmental heads. The study recommends more meaningful use of current and relevant educational resources and that teachers should undergo continuous teacher-initiated empowerment workshops to enhance their Economics curriculum implementation practices.
Open Access
Competency-based education and training for Technical and Vocational Education Training in Namibia: an evaluation of the technical teacher training programme
(University of the Free State, 2023) Hauuanga, Lance Paendohamba; Holtzhausen, S. M.; Khanare, F. P.; Jansen van Rensburg, L.; van Tonder, F.
Since 2008, with the establishment of the Namibia Training Authority (NTA), there has been an unprecedented focus on vocational education and training (VET) in the country. The establishment of the NTA reflects the government's commitment to addressing issues such as high youth unemployment, economic struggles, and the need for (re)industrialisation as well as revitalising the economy through technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Quality TVET depends heavily on the competencies and performance of TVET teachers, trainers, and instructors, which includes their theoretical knowledge, technical and pedagogical skills, and positive attitudes as well as staying up to date with new technologies in the workplace. Recognising the need for competent TVET teachers in a knowledge-based society undergoing technological transformation is crucial to producing skilled artisans and craftsmen in the country. This research addressed this gap by reconsidering the training and competence of TVET teachers in technical settings through assessing the adequacy, appropriateness, effectiveness and relevance of the DTVT qualification in training vocational teachers and trainers in Namibia. Bridging this gap is essential for TVET teachers to effectively prepare students and trainees for the world of work and the demands of the modern workforce. This new approach requires a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills, and it is acknowledged that many TVET teachers currently lack these integrated abilities, which confirms the study’s relevance and contemporariness. The study conducted in Namibia used a qualitative phenomenological case study approach to evaluate the DTVT programme offered at NUST. This approach was selected due to its ability to provide in-depth insights into the lived experiences within the TVET context, enabling a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. To guide its activities, the study adopted a dual theoretical framework that focused on Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) model and the Capability Approach (CA). These models aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the TVET teacher training programme’s effectiveness and to identify areas for improvement. By using these evaluation frameworks and conducting further research, the study aims to identify strategies and recommendations to transform TVET teachers’ education in Namibia. The ultimate goal is to either enhance, amend, or replace the existing programme to transform and equip TVET teachers with the necessary skills to effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. Overall, this study emphasises the importance of TVET in addressing Namibia’s socioeconomic challenges and highlights the need to invest in quality TVET teachers to ensure the successful transformation of the TVET industry in the country. Two of the major findings were DTVT programme was inappropriate as it was not preparing student-teachers to effectively fulfil the demands of a dual profession. This encompassed the necessity for them to possess both practical/technical skills, and a comprehensive understanding of methodological approaches as well as work integrated learning (WIL) that affected its appropriateness.
Open Access
Exploring teachers’ implementation of knowledge and skills beyond a School-University partnership
(University of the Free State, 2022) Moeti, Pakiso James; Ramohai, N. J.; Stott, A.
School–university partnerships have been shown to be effective in developing the knowledge and skills of participating teachers. Understanding what teachers do in classrooms with these knowledge and skills, including after the end of the partnership, and factors that affect this, is vital in the assessment of the long-term impact and sustainability of such partnerships, but is largely unexplored. This qualitative case study describes the experiences of 16 participants who taught mathematics and physical sciences within a school–university partnership, ways in which they implemented the knowledge and skills they gained through this partnership, and their perceptions of threats to, and conditions for, successful implementation of this knowledge and skill beyond the partnership period. The investigation drew data from two sources: semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The data were analysed using an interpretivist paradigm that allowed for a iterative and process-oriented research approach. The knowledge produced was analysed and interpreted using Kram’s framework of mentoring and complex systems theory. The findings suggest that the teachers developed content and pedagogical knowledge, and curriculum management and assessment skills, and are using a variety of approaches to implement these beyond the partnership period. Certain individual and institutional factors that threaten, and teacher traits and school conditions that are conditional for this implementation, were identified. Based on the findings, the study makes several recommendations for future school–university projects.
Open Access
A communication strategy to foster social cohesion in a higher education institution
(University of the Free State, 2022) Smith, Michael; Fru, Raymond Nkwenti
The aim of the study is to design a communication strategy to foster social cohesion in a higher education institution. Bricolage is the theoretical framework/lens through which I view and approach this study. The reason is institutions of higher learning have over the decades become communities of diversities of culture, religion and various other aspects of human life. Literature Reviewed include that of the two main disciplines in the title namely Communication and Social Cohesion. Because Communication deals largely with behavioural factors, the study dictates a review/exploration of both main legs namely Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. That is followed by literature regarding the three pillars of Social Cohesion, namely Social Capital, Social Inclusion and Social Mobility. Main objectives of the study include challenges, solutions, conditions, threats and indicators of success. Three countries are discussed based on their experiences relating to such objectives namely Britain, Kenya and South Africa by focusing on their political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal environments. Habermas’ Communicative (Participatory) Action is used in methodology, with focus group interviews and participant observation to collect data amongst community members of the University of the Free State. Analysis includes a SWOT Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis and Nonverbal Communication Analysis, which provide components/answers for the intended communication strategy for social cohesion. Based on the theoretical framework, literature reviewed, data collected, analysis, findings and discussion thereof, a conclusion is reached, which informs the recommendations for the type of communication strategy suitable to foster social cohesion in the University of the Free State. The study therefore concludes and recommends a communication strategy based on based on the principles of Ubuntu with Participatory Development Communication as its bloodline that infiltrates all its veins for its survival.
Open Access
Exploring the use of collaborative learning to promote pre-service teachers’ participation in a rural university classroom
(University of the Free State, 2022) Adebola, Oyinlola Omolara; Tsotetsi, Cias
Pre-service teaching education globally is provided to equip students who wish to specialise in the relevant teaching skills and pedagogical knowledge needed to teach and learn effectively. This study aimed to explore collaborative learning strategies to promote pre-service teachers' participation in South African rural university classrooms through article publications. This study is important because universities situated in rural South Africa have been reported to face challenges due to historical, religious, political, and social marginalisation. This study is qualitative and intended to investigate the challenges that influence pre-service teachers’ less participation, the way out of the challenges, and the threats that could hinder the implementation of the suggested solutions in rural universities. Social constructivism theory and asset-based community development were chosen to theorise while adopting participation research for the design and transformative paradigm to lens the study. Data were collected using structured interviews, focus group discussions and interest in thematic analysis. The first article, titled: “Challenges of pre-service teachers’ classroom participation in a rurally located university in South Africa,” addresses the challenges responsible for pre-service teachers’ lack of participation in a rural university classroom. The findings based on the above discovered that lack of preparation from both lecturer and students, the use of a teacher-centred approach, difficulty in understanding the English language, teaching workload, large class size, student background and tribalism were the major challenges facing pre-service teachers’ classroom participation in a rurally located university in South Africa. With a research objective, the second article, titled: “A veritable tool for promoting classroom participation among pre-service teachers in rural universities in South Africa,” explores the strategies that engender collaborative learning among pre-service teachers in rural university classrooms. The study revealed the think-peer-share strategy, group work strategy, micro-teaching strategy, positive feedback and encouragement, learner-centred method, and inquiry method as strategies for improving participation among pre-service teachers in rural universities. Article three, titled: “Sustaining collaborative learning in a South African rurally located university classroom: Threats and conducive conditions,” examines the conducive conditions that could sustain collaborative learning among pre-service teachers and evaluates the threats that could hinder the implementation of the possible solutions in a rural university classroom. The findings revealed connecting activity to assessment, connecting content to students’ lives, establishing classroom culture and planning as the possible solutions. At the same time, language barriers, unconducive classrooms and the lack of infrastructure were suggested as impeding factors that could hinder the implementation of the proposed solutions in the study.
Open Access
Influence of technology mediated teaching and learning in the preparation of pre-service teachers with disabilities
(University of the Free State, 2023) Manyinyire, Fanuel; Tsakeni, Maria
Enrolment of students with disabilities in teacher education and other higher education programs has increased steadily, following policy reviews and advocacy by civic society (WHO, 2017; Pitman, 2022; FOTIM, 2011). Efforts have been on reducing learning barriers for students with disabilities by integrating technologies in pedagogic contexts (Jenson et al., 2010; Bekteshi, 2015). Nevertheless, studies on use of technologies to support learning for pre-service teachers with disabilities are limited, which inspired this study. Adoption of Universal Design for Learning, as the theoretical framework helped appraise inclusiveness, while Substitution Augmentation Modification and Redefinition helped establish extent to which technologies were integrated in pedagogic contexts (Rose & Meyer, 2002; Meyer et al., 2014). This study employed the social constructivism paradigm which influenced adoption of purposive and snow ball sampling of three teacher educators, a principal and twelve pre-service teachers, who provided study data through: interviews, observations and focus group discussions (Neuman, 2014; Cohen et al., 2018). Data was analysed through a thematic approach (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Results reveal inclusive enrolment, some infrastructural adaptations, some technology mediated teaching and learning and improvisation, as inclusive practices that benefitted pre-service teachers with disabilities. While teacher educators used technologies in presenting content, instructions and learning tasks, their efforts were impeded by inadequacy of technologies and inappropriate facilitation strategies. Effectiveness was also influenced by perceptions, attitudes and facilitation skills of particular educators. Students with dysfunctional or missing limbs used technologies for note capturing, presenting, researching and compiling assignments, which enhanced their social presence, participation and autonomy in learning processes. Despite predominant use of the technologies at substitution and augmentation, this promoted multiple presentations, expression and engagements (UDL). Notwithstanding lack of explicit policies on inclusive education, the institution availed several technologies, although these were not particularised to students with specific disabilities. Furthermore, these technologies were not easily accessible to pre-service teachers with disabilities, who largely relied on personally owned technologies. Findings from this study are fundamental on inclusion and responding to disabilities, as the recommendations highlight enhanced access to appropriate functional technologies, capacitation of teacher educators and infrastructural adaptation, as well as and apposite policies on use of technologies and its monitoring.
Open Access
A framework to improve curriculum leadership in primary schools
(University of the Free State, 2023) Shale, Motsamai Ishamel; Tshelane, M. D.
Research attests that there is correlation between leadership and learner achievement. Principals, deputies, head of departments and subject heads play an important role in designing high quality, critical, community-oriented and collective curriculum leadership in schools. Since the dawn of democracy, the South African education system has experienced many changes in their curriculum. This has led to a serious confusion in terms of leadership, which has resulted in ineffective curriculum leadership in schools. The aim of this study was to design a framework to improve curriculum leadership with the purpose of improving learner achievement. The study used a qualitative approach and a diverse group of curriculum leaders were involved, using critical participatory action research as participants, and the researcher used two primary schools for research. A focus group technique to facilitate participants’ observation was used to stimulate sustained interaction. The research question is: how can a framework to improve curriculum leadership in primary schools be designed? Providing ongoing curriculum leadership in schools today is a multifaceted process. The study used Africana Critical Theory (ACT) as its theoretical framework. African leadership models contend that there is a great interest in educational leadership today, because of the widespread belief that the quality of leadership makes a significant difference to school and learner achievement. It is a critical common place that leadership in schools is confronted by moral and ethical dilemmas, thus ACT as the 21st century outgrowth of efforts to deconstruct and reconstruct, the dialectics of domination and liberation of Africana life worlds, as well as lived experiences. Data were collected using free attitude interviews and analysed using critical discourse analysis. The study drew heavily on critical leadership studies as a conceptual framework that was used throughout the study. Critical leadership studies, as a conceptual framework proposed by the study - respond to the failure of mainstream leadership studies to address important questions of power, control and inequalities (cf. 1.3, 1.7, 2.2, 2.2.8.3, 2.7.1. 2.7.2, 2.7.3, 5.1, 6.2.2.3 & Figure 7.1). The discussion of the findings resulting from the intervention was done with the use of critical discourse analysis.
Open Access
Flipping the classroom to enhance student engagement in first-year statistics education
(University of the Free State, 2023) Da Silva, Liza; van der Merwe, Sean; van der Merwe, Linda
This study explores the effectiveness of a flipped classroom (FC) variant based on students engaging with content outside of class by viewing video-lectures. The flipped classroom encouraged students to take responsibility for their own learning. When they were unclear on specific concepts, they could use technology to collaborate with their peers or the lecturer. To encourage viewing of the videos, an incentive was given in the form of weekly assessments that the students had to complete, which formed part of their semester mark. A randomised pre-test-post-test control design was implemented in a sample of Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) students in a first-year statistics course. The FC approach was exercised in the experimental group (Group A), while the control group (Group B) received traditional face-to-face lecturing. A comparison between the final scores of Group A and Group B was used to give insight into the effectiveness of this treatment. Each group consisted of 67 students. The results showed that a video-based lecturing pedagogy significantly improved ECP students’ final scores. In this study, students applied different learning activities such as inquiring about information, watching video-lectures, and practically applying the knowledge studied when completing weekly online assessments. Students collaborated with the lecturer and their peers via e-mail or WhatsApp to thoroughly understand the subject. Therefore, active learning, which fosters deep learning, was encouraged. This finding is consistent with the constructivist pedagogical theory, which emphasises the importance of interaction with others in knowledge construction and develops a deeper understanding of the subject matter. These findings align with other studies that report positive student perceptions of blended learning in first-year statistics. This research found that the FC intervention, as applied by the researcher, resulted in a significant increase in student performance on their final marks, which indicates that the FC approach is an important pedagogical approach to increase student achievement. Further, the results confirmed that the FC approach improved student engagement. One factor that significantly enhanced student engagement was the students’ preferred place of study. Students from the experimental group studying at their place of residence significantly outperformed students from the traditional group who studied at their place of residence. Another factor that indicated that student engagement was enhanced was that student-staff interaction significantly increased in the experimental group. Some interesting findings surfaced. An unexpected gender finding evidenced that male students in the experimental group significantly outperformed the male students in the control group. Furthermore, when the place of study was examined, the experimental group performed better when studying at their residences. Many participants in Group A showed a favourable perception towards the videoed-lecturing approach as they enjoyed watching video-lectures at their own pace. They also indicated that they prefer this new variant of flipping because it motivated them to learn. From the survey analysis, many students preferred watching video-lectures at their own pace, time, and space. An overwhelming portion of the participants indicated that the use of technology was pivotal in their learning. It was also derived that the more students participated in all their assessments, the higher their final score was.
Open Access
An integrated service-learning praxis approach for flourishment of professional development in community-higher education partnerships
(University of the Free State, 2022) Venter, Karen Elizabeth; Holtzhausen, S. M.; Myburgh, E.
Universities and communities should embrace engaged scholarship for sustainable development challenges, through co-creation of responsive knowledge for the public good. Therefore, academics have infused community engaged service-learning (CESL) into the functions of teaching-learning and research, to deliver engaged scholarship in democratic community-higher education partnerships. However, sustainable CESL practice and partnership development are challenged by the complex process of institutionalisation. This five-articles-style thesis explored the contribution of an integrated service-learning praxis approach towards the flourishment of engaged scholarship in community-higher education partnerships. The approach combined CESL, appreciative inquiry and appreciative leadership, to advance the praxis of engaged scholarship. The study was demarcated in the field of higher education, applied in the discipline of nursing education, and contextually bound to three interrelated action research cycles and settings – for international, national and local level engagement. The study followed a transformative paradigm and qualitative, strength-based action research design of appreciative inquiry. Participants were conveniently and purposefully selected, based on their practical, career-bound wisdom of engaged scholarship. Data was co-generated in paired appreciative conversations, which were followed by collective data analysis in small and large-group format and guided by a 5D-process-driven (define, discovery, dream, design and delivery/destiny) semi-structured interview protocol. The research contributed to practical theory development, by providing five articles for improved CESL practice towards positive change. These articles comprised (1) a practical framework towards an integrated model for advancing engaged scholarship; (2) best practices for national support of engaged scholarship; (3) a community-university research partnership model, which affiliated with the Global University for Lifelong Learning (GULL), to reward reciprocal action learning in parallel with academic certification; (4) a set of principles for becoming globally competent citizens; and (5) the WHOLE model for engaged scholarship, balanced by social justice values-in-action, to co-create action-oriented knowledge for a better future for all people, the economy and the environment.
Open Access
A phenomenological reading of the racial knowledge and identities of student leaders engaged in reconciliation
(University of the Free State, 2017-08) Buys, Barend Rudolf; Jansen, J. D.; Niemann, S. M.
𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 This study wants to make sense of the lived experiences of student leaders engaged in racial reconciliation at a South African university campus by exploring their struggles with racial knowledge and identity over time. Four students, two male and two female, two black and two white, participated in the study. They were senior student leaders that played a public role in racial reconciliation on campus following a traumatic incident of racial discrimination at Reitz, a men’s residence on campus. The study faced a dearth in current literature on the combined themes of student leadership, racial knowledge and identity, and reconciliation. However, a broad literature review on student engagement, student leadership and student diversity revealed critical themes and gaps relevant to this study in the research on diversity and change in higher education. A framework of concepts was developed to read the narrative data of the study. These included the notions of conscientisation (Freire), racial ignorance (Mills), in-betweenness (Bhabha), transitionality (Winnicott), scapegoating (Girard), nearness (Jansen), embrace (Volf) and bridge-building (Boske). The study uses a phenomenological approach to describe and interpret the life histories of the participating student leaders. I drafted the four racial biographies of the four student leaders in conjunction with the students, which were then analysed for patterns of experiences that reveal shifts in racial knowledge and identity in and across lives. On the one hand, the students reproduced the racial ignorance and the hierarchies of racial distance that marked their lifeworlds. However, on the other hand, the students behaved in alternative ways to the norm of their environments. They built friendship across racial divides and challenged cultural codes and norms. The different and competing realities of racial distance and togetherness reveal a continued struggle between knowledge defined by ignorance and knowledge defined by the transitional context of post-apartheid South Africa. Similarly, their alternative experiences of race in a changing society reveal an alternative racial identity that emerge over time in their lives, an identity of in-betweenness. A synthesis of the emerging themes revealed successive moments of struggle with racial ignorance and alternative knowledge in their lives prior to and on campus, and prior to, during and after Reitz. The students learned to reproduce racial ignorance at school and at home prior to arriving on campus. On campus they faced radical racial distances prior to and immediately after Reitz. But, the trauma of the incident also disrupted the established racial hierarchies of their environment. Thereafter the post-Reitz interventions raised their consciousness about race and racial hierarchies so that ignorance dissipated. At the same time, the transitional nature of their racially integrating schools and local communities compelled new knowledge and identities different to established black and white identities. However, at school and on campus prior to Reitz, the students faced reprisals for their attempts at racial in-betweenness and breaking with racial codes and norms. Reprisals discouraged and cast doubt on new knowledge and identity. They internalised this rejection of their alternative knowledge, but rediscovered its value when the post-Reitz interventions for change embraced in-betweenness and alternative knowledge and identities. Their conscientisation disrupted racial ignorance and brought their in-betweenness and transitional knowledge to the surface. As ignorance dissipated, their new knowledge and in-betweenness were actualised as racial bridge-building. The study defines the students’ struggle with ignorance and transitional knowledge as the struggle of an epistemology of transitionality to emerge in the face of the dominant epistemology of ignorance that marks the post-conflict environment of post-apartheid South Africa. It defines their growing in-betweenness as an emerging ontology of transitionality and uses the notion of bridge-building to define the methodology and praxis of their leadership for racial reconciliation and change. The study contributes to current scholarship on leadership for change in higher education by describing in detail how student leaders experienced change personally and as part of change interventions on a divided university campus. The study provides new ways to make sense of how student leaders who counter-culturally lead reconciliation on campus become leaders for change and the social, cultural and political influences that mediate their transition. The study also contributes potential theoretical readings of transitionality, bridge-building and reprisal as important concepts to theorise leadership for change in higher education. The study recommends further research to test the transferability of the findings of this research.
Open Access
Teacher educators' perceptions and practices of teaching in a blended learning mode in Ghana
(University of the Free State, 2022) Brenya, Boahemaa; Olugbenga, I. G. E.; Jita, Thuthukile
The teaching and learning approach for higher education institutions all over the world has been transformed as a result of the emergence of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in March 2020. The pandemic necessitated the shift from face-to-face teaching to a blended learning mode by higher educational institutions in Ghana. Despite the effectiveness of blended learning in the delivery of instruction and learning, the scenarios created by Covid-19 forced teacher educators to accept the transformation of their teaching practice from residential classes to partly or full virtual programmes. This mixed-methods explanatory sequential study investigated the perceptions of teacher educators in their practices of blended learning in Ghana. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed as a theoretical framework for the study. Data collected from the quantitative study was analysed using SPSS (R-Package) and inductive thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data. Results indicated that teacher educators have positive perceptions about the blended learning approach being effective and efficient for teaching and learning. That is, the perceptions of teacher educators have an influence on the blended learning approach; hence, the blended learning method should be practised for effective and creative teaching. However, educators revealed certain challenges such as lack of internet resources, disturbances (such as technical problems, lack of office space and recording studio) in the blended learning environments, students’ poor attendance and participation in teaching sessions, inadequate and continuous training workshops for educators and poor functionality of technological gadgets. This study concludes by making philosophical recommendations to strengthen teacher educators’ application of the blended learning approach in their teaching and student learning practices in Ghana.
Open Access
Analysing student affairs research within higher education through Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model lens
(University of the Free State, 2020-07) Holtzhausen, Sophia Maria; Wahl, W. P.
Through Bronfenbrenner’s Person, Process, Context and Time (PPCT) model lens, this study identified the most important student affairs research themes for transforming student (including postgraduate students) learning and development in higher education, as well as how these themes might be managed or implemented best by higher education institutions. In order to address these questions, this five-article doctoral journey is situated within the parameters of Higher Education Studies, Student Affairs, Student Development Theory, and Ecology of Learning. All these fields of study and theories play a fundamental role in accomplishing student learning and development. However, this study predominantly is positioned within the field of student affairs, with special reference to Jones and Asbes’ (2017:143) third student development theory category. The motivation for this is that the study specifically concentrated on the ecological aspects of student development, reinforcing the applicability of Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) bio-ecological systems theory (i.e. the PPCT model) as a theoretical lens. Mainly qualitative data generation methods were employed in this study. The research findings are put forth in the format of five articles, which present a kaleidoscope of research that focused on the historical interval of 2008-2019: In Article 1 four North American directives and Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices provided a development trajectory of the student affairs profession. Although Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT model lens has signposted four historical movements (in loco parentis, service providers, out-of-class development officers, and multiple educators), the reader should note that these student affairs practitioners’ roles are evolutionary. This study also found that scholarly student affairs practitioners should be flexible and theory-based in their praxis. Also, because student affairs function under a contemporary umbrella with broad and diverse responsibilities, there is substantial scope for further development in this field. Article 2 explores the student affairs research position worldwide between 2008 and 2019 in the light of an extensive document analysis of 926 student affairs research articles published in 91 peer-reviewed journals. The thematic categorisation of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) was used to determine nine prominent and five new international publication trends as derived from the document analysis (CAS 2019). Thereafter, Bronfenbrenner's PPCT model, particularly the chrono-system, provided critical insights in this study about how and why student affairs manifest in worldwide higher education. Article 3 established an increase in and emphasis on African student affairs research. This provoked the significance of mapping African student affairs research during the past interlude (2008-2019) through Bronfenbrenner’s lens. The document analysis of 121 articles (published in 34 selected academic journals) confirmed nine of CAS’s prominent African student affairs research trends, while four new local themes were observed. Finally, postgraduate programmes and services requiring future exploration to extend and promote student affairs as a field of research and studies in the African context were identified. Article 4 focused on the interrogation, namely: In what way can scholarly article style postgraduate studies specifically enrich the field of student affairs? In this qualitative research journey, taken through Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical microscope, higher education experts and supervisors agreed that well-defined institutional policies, faculty/departmental guidelines, and assessment are essential for success. Subsequently, article option training and support for postgraduate students, supervisors, and student affairs practitioners are essential. This study’s final, proposed outcome is postgraduate attribute indicators for quality assessment of article style postgraduate studies, which require extensive future exploration. Finally, in Article 5 the findings of a 360-degree circle reflection on the four intervention guideposts are presented and analysed (through Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT model). Lessons learned to promote postgraduate student development could serve as catalyst for further research.
Open Access
Enhancing English academic literacy programmes for first year university students
(University of the Free State, 2015-06) Mathobela, Moodiela Victor; Hlalele, D. J.; Tsotetsi, C. T.; Papashane, M.
This study aims at enhancing English academic literacy programmes for first year university students at the Qwaqwa Campus of the UFS. In order to achieve this, the following specific objectives were formulated to direct the study: 1. To identify challenges justifying the need to enhance EALPs for first year university students, 2. To identify and discuss the components and aspects necessary for such enhancement to occur, 3. To determine the conditions under which such enhancement can be successfully achieved, 4. To anticipate plausible threats that may hinder the enhancement operationalization and the strategies that could be put in place to circumvent them, 5. To identify monitoring strategies as well as indicators of successful enhancement, and 6. To propose strategies for enhancing EALPs for first year university students. Critical Emancipatory Research (CER) as the theoretical framework was chosen to couch this study towards the operationalisation of the above mentioned objectives. CER's agenda of equity, social justice, freedom, peace and hope made it suitable for the enhancement of EALPs for first year university students that would include facilitators and students. These stakeholders are included in this study on the basis that their direct participation would likely enhance and promote their sense of ownership, legitimacy and also democratise and legitimise the process of enhancing EALPs for first year university students. Guided by CER as the lens anchoring th is study, I reviewed the literature on EALPs for first year university students who learn through English as a second, third, fourth or foreign language in South Africa, Australia, Canada, UK and the USA because these countries represent the best practices with regard to academic literacy teaching at first year university level given their socio-economic contexts which are more or less similar to the kind of students we teach at this campus of the UFS. Literature revealed a number of challenges and mechanisms which were put in place to solve them. Informed by theory and guided by the objectives of the study, I also looked at the components and aspects necessary for enhancement of EALPs, the conditions that made these solutions to be operational, as well as the threats that scampered their effectiveness in some instances and strategies put in place to circumvent them. The intent was to finally identify monitoring strategies and indicators of successful enhancement so that strategies can be proposed and replicated in our context. To complement the conceptualisation above, we generated empirical data through Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a research methodology and design which enabled the study to operationalise CER in action and to problematize issues of unequal power relations between the facilitators and the students. These power disparities seemed to be the most important factors that caused problems in the implementation of EALPs on the said campus. Through this the PAR approach, the voices of the marginalised and excluded stakeholders who were directly affected by the implementation of EALPs were given the opportunity to be expressed and heard. The empirical data confirmed that there were challenges in the implementation of EALPs at the Qwaqwa Campus as revealed in the literature elsewhere. These challenges included the exclusion of facilitators as EAL practitioners, as well as other beneficiaries in the implementation of these EALPs like students. There were also problems in formulating a commonly acceptable vision, hence no coordinated plan in implementation as well as lack of proper monitoring procedures to name a few. In order to overcome these challenges, seven components and aspects necessary for enhancing EALPs for first year university students emerged to counteract the challenges. Thereafter, eight conditions conducive for EALPs enhancement to occur were identified. Threats to enhancement and strategies to circumvent them were also highlighted. Based on the above, monitoring strategies and indicators of successful enhancement of EALPs were also explored and examined. The study concludes by proposing strategies to effectively enhance EALPs for first year university students using data from the literature and from the empirical data emanating from this study.
Open Access
Early career women academics: a case study of working lives in a gendered institution
(University of the Free State, 2019) Lewin, Thandi; Walker, Melanie
𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 This study was informed by my interest in a set of inter-related policy concerns about the academic profession in South Africa. Academic staff in South African universities remain predominantly white and male at senior levels, the pace of demographic change has been slow, and not enough young people are choosing academic careers and being retained in academic jobs. Women, and black women in particular, are significantly under-represented in the professoriate. The imperatives for change in South African higher education in the post-apartheid era have been linked both to social justice demands for a more equitable, representative and transformed system, as well as global pressures for more accountable, productive and competitive universities. Despite progressive policy frameworks, South African universities retain highly gendered and racialised institutional cultures, which create constraints for academic staff in building academic careers. However, policy has limitations, and deeper exploration is needed to understand gender inequity. There is a dearth of research on the working lives of academics in the South African academy, in particular on the experiences of early career academics and women in the early career. This study explored the working lives of a small group of early career academic women in one faculty at one institution through narrative research, informed by the following research questions: • How does gender impact on academic working lives, career development choices and professional identities of selected early career academic women? • How do early career academic women understand, experience and mediate gendered institutional environments and how does this affect their professional functioning and agency? • What does this reveal about why gender inequalities persist in universities? This study used a combination of feminist theorisation about organisations and the capability approach as a framework for analysis. Institutions are gendered in multi-dimensional ways and this impacts profoundly on academic lives and career trajectories. Gendered institutions affect the everyday experiences of academic women. Gender is implicated in the way institutions are structured and how they operate. Job structures, expectations and workloads are gendered. Gendered everyday interactions (which can be both overt and invisible) and individuals’ own gendered socialisation, influence how women navigate academic working lives. All these factors affect how early career academic women form professional academic identities and what kinds of career trajectories they follow. While academic careers emerge as multi-dimensional, systems of recognition are relatively one-dimensional. Experiences are diverse – some academics are able to successfully navigate institutions and achieve well-being- while others struggle to achieve a sense of stability. The capability approach offered a normative social justice framing of the data, allowing for an exploration of individual experiences. It highlighted valued aspects of working lives, explored constraints and enabling factors, and ultimately arrived at a set of contextual and multi-dimensional valued capability dimensions. From the narratives and engagement with other capability sets, five capability dimensions emerged, based on the valued and aspirational functionings of the nine participants: • navigation: to be able to navigate academic life successfully; • recognition: to be able to be recognised and valued for one’s academic work; • autonomy: to be able to achieve professional autonomy; • affiliation: to be able to participate in social and professional networks; and • aspiration: to be able to aspire to a professional academic career. The usefulness of these five dimensions is that they provide a way of understanding what kinds of careers early career academic women want, and therefore suggest ways in which institutions can reduce institutional barriers and enhance opportunities for career development and well-being. ___________________________________________________________________
Open Access
Physial space and transformation in higher education: the case of the University of the Free State
(University of the Free State, 2018-09) Tumubweinee, Philippa Nyakato; Jita, Loyiso; Luescher, Thierry M.
The significance of space and objects in space on South African higher education campuses was brought to the fore during the 2015/16 student movements. The movements highlighted that official higher education policy and institutional practice have not adequately considered the implications of material and immaterial space for transformation. While the idea for this thesis predated the student movement campaigns, the 2015/16 student movements focused the route of enquiry on the implications of space and objects in space at a higher education institution for knowledge production aimed at transformation in higher education. The claim is that space at a higher education institution, which constructs the social and is in turn constructed by the social, provides a lens through which to focus on the ‘where’ and thereby produce knowledge for transformation in higher education. Space at a higher education institution is intimately linked to the specificities of historical and spatial context-related factors, as well as to other factors – such as race, class, and gender – that impact on the reality of the everyday in higher education. Consequently, the study focuses on organisational indicators for space at a higher education institution that underpin the development of a conceptual framework. The aim is to produce knowledge that draws attention to broader socio-spatial concerns that ground and refer the study to the mandated role of higher education institutions, as social institutions, to support development in society. In this study, the implications of organisational indicators for space at a higher education institution for transformation in higher education are investigated through the case study of the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State. The investigation draws data from multiple sources, including first-person accounts, desktop reviews, and socio-spatial mapping of the Bloemfontein campus in its entirety and in relation to its context – the city of Bloemfontein. The data is analysed using qualitative techniques located in a social constructivist framework that allows for a reiterative and process-oriented research approach. The context-dependent knowledge produced in this manner and tested in the conceptual framework allows for inferences to be made about the socially constructed nature of space at a higher education institution and to gain insights into how this, in turn, constructs the social in the everyday reality of an individual in higher education. The study provides an empirical perspective from which to assess how the organisation of space at a higher education institution and the implications this has for the reality of the everyday in higher education impacts on individuals’ understanding of transformation. The purpose of this assessment is to move beyond a descriptive institutionalisation of transformation in higher education towards producing knowledge for transformation in South Africa.
Open Access
Exploring the role of service-learning in human development: perspectives of staff, students and community members
(University of the Free State, 2017) Mtawa, Ntimi Nikusuma; Wilson-Strydom, Merridy; Walker, Melanie
𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 Higher education institutions (HEIs) and particularly universities are increasingly being linked to debates about development. This perspective is dominated by two schools of thought. On the one hand, universities are positioned as drivers of individuals’ and nations’ economic development. On the other hand, apart from an economic focus, there is an emerging discourse that calls upon universities to advance broader human development. The study is premised on two arguments. One, the overemphasis on economic imperatives of universities undermines and neglects their social values related to human development. Two, in the scholarly works focusing on universities and human development, more work focusing on specific and concrete strategies that can enable universities to promote such notions of development is needed. This study builds on and contributes to the universities and human development debate by arguing that service-learning (SL) has great potential and some challenges to enable universities to promote human development. Traditionally, SL is positioned as a mechanism through which universities could achieve both educational and social purposes. These purposes include, among other things, enhancing pedagogical practices, fostering citizenship capacities, advancing social justice and developing civic-minded graduates. Generally, these purposes frame SL as a potential contributor to human development within and beyond universities’ boundaries. However, in spite of these potentials, SL is understudied and often its values are assessed in relation to students’ academic credentials and personal development, with less attention to benefits for communities. In response to these gaps in universities and human development perspectives and the SL field, the study explores the role of SL in human development from the perspectives of university lecturers, students and external community members. The study is guided by a central research question that focuses on the contribution of SL to human development. The study is situated within the interpretivist paradigms, in which qualitative methods are employed to explore the perspectives of staff, students and community members on SL. The study collected qualitative data using document analysis, in-depth interviews, focus groups and observations. The study integrated the Human Development (HD) and Capability Approach (CA) advanced by Mahbub ul Haq, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, and the notions of Participatory Parity, Transformative and Affirmative remedies of Nancy Fraser, as conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Both HD and CA were used to analyse and theorise the role of SL in enhancing capabilities and promoting human development. Based on these frameworks, I argue that SL can enhance capabilities and promote human development values. However, to do this, its design and implementation ought to be foregrounded in procedural principles for human development such as agency, empowerment, participation and sustainability. The outcomes of the analysis is a CA- and HD-informed framework for SL, in which I propose capabilities and HD values as a response to SL design and implementation in the direction of human development. The dominant capabilities suggested by students, community members and lecturers include multi-layered affiliation, narrative imagination, local citizenship, critical thinking/reflection, learning, knowledge and skills, capacity to aspire, public good-related professional capabilities, and citizenship capacities formation. The human development values and related processes include inclusive and active participation, a sense of empowerment and agency, enhanced sustainability, diversity literacy, space for deliberation, participatory parity, and reasoning, and advancing partial (remediable) justice. However, promoting these HD values and related processes in and through SL faces a number of conundrums and tensions. HD and CA frame SL into two spectrums. At one end, they conceptualise SL as a strategy through which universities can advance public good and human development of the communities in which they are located. At the other, HD and CA enable us to interrogate the unexamined discourses of power and privilege, which act as barriers to transformative potentials of SL. I conclude the theorisation of the study with a proposed expansive SL framework that could enable the modification and improvement of SL in the interest of promoting social justice in a grassroots and empowering fashion. ___________________________________________________________________
Open Access
A staff development programme for merged and incorporated South African higher education institutions
(University of the Free State, 2003-11) Redelinghuys, Jacobus Nicolaas; Hay, H. R.
English: Mergers and incorporations in higher education institutions are a world-wide phenomenon. The reasons why higher education institutions merge are not different from those of companies in the corporate sector, however, the initiators of the mergers/incorporations differs in the case of higher education institutions, because it is usually the government. When higher education institutions merge/incorporate, these institutions undergo major transformation. This transformation may include changes in the physical environment and resources, the location of the higher education institution, the administrative system of the higher education institution, its support structure, student and staff composition and as well as academic programmes. The South African higher education sector had to transform because it was characterised by fragmentation as a result of the previous political dispensation. The result was that the South African higher education sector consisted of 21 universities, 15 technikons and 96 colleges of education and was characterised by racial and gender inequalities. After the first democratic election of 1994, South African government departments became more integrated and started to function as a coordinated system. The South African higher education system started its transformation process with the establishment of the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) by presidential proclamation. The central proposal of the NCHE is that higher education in South Africa must be conceptualised, planned, governed and funded as a single, coordinated system. The change proposed by the NCHE is disruptive and traumatic, especially for people involved in the changing process. When mergers/incorporations occur, the corporations or identified higher education institutions are unaware of the impact of the merger/incorporation on staff. Staff may experience feelings of shock, denial, fear, anger, sadness and blame during the initial phases of the merger/incorporation. Staff may also lose a sense of loyalty towards the institution. This study addresses the problems staff experiences during a merger/incorporation process with a literature review on the history and transformation of South African higher education sector, international experiences of mergers and theoretical perspectives on mergers. It continues by describing how staff perceives a merger. The second stage of the study provides an empirical investigation on how staff perceives mergers/incorporations. The investigation focuses on staff and management, especially the interaction and communication between staff and management regarding the merger/incorporation. It concludes with the development of a staff developmental programme for merged and incorporated South African higher education institutions. One of the main proposals of the programme is the appointment of an independent merger/incorporation facilitator, who would be without bias towards any of the higher education institutions. This programme is also characterised by identifying staff and management needs during a merger/incorporation, for example: • the identification of management and staff needs; • training for management and staff; • psychological services for management and staff to assist with the merger/incorporation; and • addressing cultural diversity from an institutional and staff perspective. The merger/incorporation process is a changing process. In order for the changes to be as painless as possible, the programme proposes that continuous assessment should be built in throughout all the time-frames to ascertain if the merger/incorporation process, especially how the staff component is integrated, is going according to plan. The study concludes with recommendations on how staff should be accommodated through the different stages of the merger/incorporation process. It reiterates the fact that staff is one of, if not the most important, resource of any institution and should be given the attention it deserves.
Open Access
The relationship between lecturers' loci of control, job satisfaction and teaching approaches
(University of the Free State, 2012) Geldenhuis, Marie-Louise; Viljoen, M. C.
English: The main purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant relationship existed between job satisfaction, locus of control, and teaching approach. The study was executed by means of a quantitative, non-experimental, multivariate survey-type research design to test the hypotheses regarding the stated relationships. To interpret the results of the study univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics were used to describe the confounding variables, independent variables and dependent variable. Contradictions to the stated hypotheses are present in this research. The analysis of the relationship between teaching approach and job satisfaction indicates that lecturers with high job satisfaction, namely intrinsic satisfaction, employ a surface approach to teaching. No theory or research could be found to substantiate this finding. An inverse correlation also exists between locus of control and job satisfaction which indicates that the respondents with an external locus of control experience high job satisfaction. This phenomenon is unclear. The psycho-social backgrounds of the Black lecturers are significantly more adverse than that of the White lecturers. And much of the interpretations of the results are focused on the more adverse psycho-social background situation of the Black lecturers who form the majority of the study. Although the lecturers of Ikhala FET College experience high job satisfaction, they do not have an established locus of control, nor do they apply deep teaching. The former statement was deduced from the poor reliability of the scale (Cronbach’s Alpha = X). The conclusion was reached that this result might be attributed to weak psycho-social background factors and circumstances of the Black lecturers while growing up under a non-democratic government. Their present life situation is also significantly more adverse than that of the White group. There is the possibility of a relationship between locus of control, job satisfaction and teaching approach, but this research study was unable to confirm it.
Open Access
The challenges of designing a new programme and qualification mix (PQM) for a comprehensive university in South Africa
(University of the Free State, 2009-04) Dandala, Maxwell Andile; Hay, Johnnie F.; Van der Westhuizen, Louis J.
English: This study focused on the challenges of designing a new Programme and Qualification Mix (PQM) for a Comprehensive University (CU) in South Africa. The mergers and incorporations of higher education institutions in South Africa resulted in the formation of three institutional types, namely, traditional universities, universities of technology (former technikons) and comprehensive universities (offering both university-type programmes and technikon-type programmes). The interest in pursuing this study was initiated by the challenges that the CUs would face in designing their first post-merger PQMs. Walter Sisulu University (WSU) which resulted from the merger of three historically disadvantaged institutions (HDIs) was used as the case study. WSU was one of the six South African CUs, four of which were currently offering both university- type programmes and university of technology-type programmes. The other two CUs were seemingly at the initial stages of offering both types of programmes. The study explored the transformation of the South African Higher Education system which was informed by what the position was before 1994 and also by examining the higher education transformation agenda after 1994 through attempts by the first democratic post-apartheid government of South Africa to create a single higher education system through the National Commission on Higher Education (1996), the Education White Paper 3 (1997), the Higher Education Act, Act No. 101 of 1997, as amended, the National Plan for Higher Education (2001), as well as the Guidelines for Mergers and Incorporations (2003). Documents such as the Qualifications Structure for Universities in South Africa – Report 116 (1995), the Qualifications Structure for Technikons in South Africa – Reports 150 and 151 as well as the Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF) – 2007 were used in conjunction with the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) – 2004-2014 in order to enrich the debate that informed the designing and development of the PQM for WSU as a comprehensive university. The above legislative framework was followed by an attempt to define or explain terminologies like “university”, “comprehensive university”, “programme”, “qualification”, “programme and qualification mix”, in the context of the South African higher education system. These definitions were compared with equivalent international practice. This study, in attempting to analyse the PQMs of CUs, discussed the inherent nature and roles of universities as well as the classification of university types in South Africa which resulted from the mergers and incorporations of certain higher education institutions. The chapter described in the above paragraph was followed by a discussion of academic programmes and qualifications1 offered at selected comprehensive universities on five continents, namely, Africa, Asia, America2, Australia and Europe. This was done in conjunction with an exploration of the process of the development of the PQM of two South African traditional universities, two South African universities of technology and four3 South African comprehensive universities. In order to analyse the challenges associated with the designing and development of the first post merger PQMs for comprehensive universities in South Africa a sample of eight universities were asked to respond to a survey using questionnaires. Research questionnaires were distributed and retrieved from the selected eight universities including two merged traditional universities, two merged universities of technology and four merged comprehensive universities as well as one questionnaire to each of the three former Vice Chancellors of the three institutions which merged to form WSU. The Executive Deans of the four faculties of WSU had to respond to the same questionnaire and this gave a clearer hands-on and current view of the process of PQM design and development at WSU. These universities were asked questions on the definition of terms like what Programme and Qualification Mix are understood to be, what comprehensive universities are, what their views are in terms of the sustainability of the binary divide, what their PQM development processes entailed, which stakeholders were involved in their PQM development processes and what challenges faced their PQM development processes. A selection of stakeholders who are interested and affected parties in the PQM design and development process of WSU was interviewed. Interviews were conducted with a senior official of the Higher Education division of the national Department of Education, the Eastern Cape Provincial Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education, the official who led the process of developing the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) as well as the Executive Mayors of the three District Municipalities, namely, Amathole, Chris Hani and OR Tambo, in whose areas all four campuses of Walter Sisulu University are situated. The interview schedule covered questions like the roles of the above stakeholders in WSU’s PQM development processes and what these stakeholders expected to achieve from the aforementioned PQM processes. They were also probed on what specific programmes they would like the PQM processes to include. The results of both the questionnaire and the interview surveys were analysed and conclusions were drawn therefrom. Since WSU is used as a case study, the challenges of designing the first post-merger PQM for this specific university as a comprehensive university were outlined in detail with a possible model proposed for its PQM. The last chapter drew general conclusions, recommendations and suggested areas for further empirical studies in this field.
Open Access
Factors influencing organisational commitment motivation and job satisfaction among academic employees at a South African university: post-merger effects
(University of the Free State, 2009-12) Kele, Tumo Paulus; Viljoen, Marianne; Schulze, Salome
This study was an assessment of the level of academics' organisational commitment, motivation and job satisfaction after the complex transformational process of merging. The study focused on one faculty in a South African technological university. The study aimed to answer the research question of whether there is a relationship between the merger experience, organisational commitment, motivation and job satisfaction among academic employees at a higher education institution. A quantitative research design was employed with the study and questionnaires were used to collect data. A sample of 154 university academics responded to the questionnaires. The sample consisted of 103 academics who were employed by the institution before the merger and 51 employed after the merger process. Questionnaires were self administered by the researcher and analysed. Results of the descriptive statistics and analyses of covariance indicated that a relationship indeed exists between merger experience and the studied variables. The same significance was also found between merger experience and certain confounding variables. Additionally, the study compared the levels of the studied variables between the pre-merger and post-merger groups and the difference was noted. The conclusions of the study revealed that although it is a mammoth task for institutional managers, obtaining academics' commitment and motivation during the change process is vital for the materialisation of merger goals. Younger academics seemed to be more commitment than their old counterparts; similar results were found for job satisfaction and motivation.