Developing the profession and practice of academic advising for South African universities
| dc.contributor.advisor | Strydom, Francois | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Loots, Sonja | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Khanye, Gugu Wendy | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-08T13:26:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-08T13:26:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Dissertation (M.Ed.(Higher Education Studies))--University of the Free State, 2024 | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | Internationally, academic advising plays a critical role in supporting student success, promoting retention and contributing to positive graduation rates, while facilitating a positive and fulfilling experience. It has become the cornerstone for higher education institutions in how they guide and support students and connect students to the institution and resources. In the South African context, similar developments have been observed. In recent years, academic advising in South African higher education has shown significant increases in the advancement of it as a practice and profession. It has helped facilitate how students are supported, how students access and navigate higher education successfully. With the intentional efforts to advance the professionalisation of academic advising through the Academic Advising Professional Development (AAPD) short course, this study has the dual purpose of reflecting on whether the AAPD meets the needs of both practitioners and students in the South African higher education context. Reflecting on literature and international best practice, work by Yarbrough (2002), as well as Troxel et al. (2021), has demonstrated that it is the engagements between advisor and advisee that are amongst the most impactful encounters that influence a student’s sense of self-efficacy towards completing their degree requirements. Adopting a meta-approach, this study evaluates whether the use of the AAPD and its foundational theoretical approaches support the development of academic advising in South Africa by aligning conceptual and practical needs of students. The first paper uses a constructivist paradigm to explore how AAPD participants between 2018 and 2021 acquired knowledge and learned. Building on this, the second paper focuses on the practice, reflecting on whether the students who went for academic advising had their needs met by the AAPD using a pragmatic paradigm. The significance of this study is that core to academic advising, the informational, conceptual as well as relational components are at the core of what students need support with and what should form the base of the AAPD short learning programme. Some advisors still find it challenging to distinguish conceptual and informational components, which is usually caused by the reality that when students do seek advising support, they are confronted by a combination of needs. When considering how advisors are trained, the AAPD forms an introductory basis to the profession and practice. There are, however, gaps for advisors with regard to leading and coordinating the work. There is a need for ongoing communities of practice that afford for advisors to reflect and continue realigning their practice, especially within the conceptual and relational components. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12932 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Developing the profession and practice of academic advising for South African universities | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Dissertation |