SOTL @ UJ: towards a
socially just pedagogy
Conceptual framework
– in process
Version for 20
January 2015
Introduction
Higher education in South Africa faces key challenges in
relation to teaching and learning:
·
Small number of matriculating students to draw
from and simultaneously, students are drawn from more privileged echelons of
society, due to inequality in society in general, fostered by unequal
conditions in schools across the society
·
Low success rate and low throughput in
institutions across the country, with significant differences between
institutions
·
Higher education institutions enjoy less funding
and resourcing than universities in the global North
·
The curriculum remains by and large ‘derivative’
of the centre or metropole
·
The professionalization of the teaching role is
not as far advanced as it should be, for example in comparison with countries
like the UK and Sweden, where preparatory teaching and learning programmes are
required for newly appointed lecturers
·
South Africa (and UJ’s) responsibility towards
the rest of Africa.
In addition to these challenges facing higher education,
there are also challenges facing those academics who engage in the scholarship
of teaching and learning in order to enhance the learning opportunities of
their students. Amongst these challenges are the following:
·
Difficulty of crossing boundaries from own
discipline to social theory and learning theory
·
Isolation in own departments
·
Lack of time to conduct research which it not
always part of career trajectory/lack of time to ‘catch up’ in this new
knowledge domain.
Proposed response:
SOTL informed by a social justice approach
Amongst the varied strategies to enhance conditions for
teaching and learning, are those which support academics to become more scholarly,
creative and inventive about their own teaching, to share their findings and
critical observations with others, and thereby to generate communities of
enquiry at the micro and meso levels within faculties and disciplines. This is
what is understood as the scholarship of
teaching and learning.
Given the broad challenges referred to above, academics in
South Africa cannot afford to engage in the scholarship of teaching and
learning in an a-social manner. It is therefore necessary to undertake these
scholarly activities in order to further a socially just approach. This is
broadly understood as teaching and learning that encourages “participatory
parity” (Nancy Fraser).
A socially just pedagogy pays attention to:
Issues of access to higher education (widening
participation)
Epistemological access to those within higher education
(‘success’ and ‘throughput’)
Appropriate graduate outcomes (so that graduates can find
employment; so they can flourish and contribute to society).
Issues pertaining to knowledge and power (whose knowledges
are valued, and how knowledge is made accessible)
Issues of communication and democracy in relation to
language – without essentialising speakers of particular languages or languages
themselves. We also endorse a
multi-modality of communication forms and methods, including the digital and
visual, alongside the traditional textual.
Issues of voice – whose voices ‘count’ and what are the
silences? Are students heard – which students?
How time and space are used and how they shape the teaching
and learning experience
How the institutional culture influences teaching and
learning interactions, and what can be done about this where it appears to
hinder learning and teaching for all students and academics.
The respectful co-production of knowledge – where
co-producers are in other institutions such as community organisations,
schools, and where we address the gap between higher education and other
institutions.
Issues of democratic citizenship – in relation to
internationalisation and responsibilities closer to home.
The relationship of epistemology to ontology – we are not
just teaching students what knowledge to learn, but how to reason and feel
towards a just future.
In this project we seek to look towards the future, a
pedagogy of possibility and critical hope. However we acknowledge the
importance of criticality and critique, thus the important work of critical
pedagogy (Spivack, Habermas, Giroux and McLaren, Freire, amongst others).
A socially just pedagogy also pays attention to the
curriculum and pedagogic approaches (one cannot ‘teach’ students to become
critical citizens, using approaches which discourage independence and
criticality).
A socially just pedagogy takes into account the past – of
the institution, of students, academics and faces the future with a sense of
continuous possibility.
A socially just pedagogy assumes that dialogue is never
finished. Teaching and learning fosters our becoming, not brokenness.
A socially just pedagogy requires academics to explore their
own assumptions and experience the kinds of discovery and vulnerability that
they require from their students.
The SOTL @ UJ research project will investigate the value of
a number of pro-social justice approaches, including:
·
Participatory parity (Fraser)
·
Capabilities approach (Sen, Nussbaum, Walker)
·
Indigenous knowledge systems (‘Odora-Hoppers)
·
Pedagogy of discomfort (Boler, Zembylas)
·
Political ethics of care (Tronto)
·
Democratic education (Waghid)
·
Democratic and inclusive education (Soudien)
·
Post-humanism (Braidotti)
·
Socio-materialism (Barad, Deleuze-Gattari;
Mazzei and Youngblood-Jackson)
·
Cognitive justice (Visvinathan)
Approach to research
A socially just pedagogy is fostered by methods of research
which see students as partners and participants, not as objects of the
research. In this research the purpose of the research is significant – in what way does it foster
social justice in teaching and learning? Ethical and social dimensions are not
just matters for reporting against for institutional and committee processes –
they deserve deep consideration. The ethical dimensions of educational research
are not dissimilar from ethical dimensions of social relations in general, nor from
ethical dimensions concerning teaching and learning.
Despite a broad adherence to a social justice approach, it
is not anticipated that the group will reach a tight and homogenous
understanding of what a socially just pedagogy entails. We will not bind each
other to a strictly homogenous approach. We will, however, spend time
understanding the values bases and theoretical underpinnings of the various
approaches. We will consider the value of each and will consider what it
contributes to social justice with regard to teaching and learning. We also see
the need for approaches that might span philosophy, sociology and learning
theories. Our approach towards each other aspires towards appreciativeness and
recognition, as well as robust debate and challenge.
Central principles underlying the research approach and
underlying deliberations in the group are: criticality, reflexivity, respect,
openness, scholarship and empathy.
Research should be informed by the literature, including
philosophical and sociological approaches which shed light on teaching and
learning approaches. There needs to be a dialectical relationship between
theory and data, where research is informed by theory, but the research should
further illuminate, modify or raise questions in relation to the theory. The
group is also aware of its responsibility to contribute to the international
literature on teaching and learning via observations of conditions in the
global South, and from the perspective of a comprehensive, urban South African university.
Outcomes
Intended outcomes of the project are:
A SOTL community of practice
An outreach component (of which the blog is a part)
A series of investigations and initiatives in teaching and
learning contexts that address issues pertaining to social justice and teaching
and learning – captured in a register of projects and reports, to be featured
on the project blog
A discussion document for UJ regarding social justice and
teaching and learning
A book/informal publication/series of articles – to be taken
further.
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