scholarly journals UCT Open Textbook Journeys

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Production Models ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University ◽  
Open Textbooks ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Textbook Development

The UCT Open Textbook Journeys monograph tells the stories of 11 academics at the University of Cape Town who embarked on open textbook development initiatives in order to provide their students with more accessible and locally relevant learning materials. Produced by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative, the monograph contributes towards a better understanding of open textbook production by providing details related to authors’ processes and their reflections on their work. The collection aims to provide rich anecdotal evidence about the factors driving open textbook activity and shed light on how to go about conceptualising and producing open textbooks, and to aid the articulation of emerging open textbook production models that advance social justice in higher education.

An Interactive Mobile Lecturing Model

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olutayo Boyinbode ◽  
Dick Ng’ambi ◽  
Antoine Bagula
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Educational Resource ◽  
Large Classes ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Although use of podcasts and vodcasts are increasingly becoming popular in higher education, their use is usually unidirectional and therefore replicates the transmission mode of traditional face-to-face lectures. In this paper, the authors propose a tool, MOBILect, a mobile lecturing tool that enables users to comment on lecture vodcasts using mobile devices, and aggregated comments become an educational resource. The vodcasts are generated through Opencast Matterhorn and YouTube. The tool was evaluated at the University of Cape Town with students’ own devices. The paper reports on the architecture of the MOBILect, its framework for student-vodcast interaction, and evaluation results. The paper concludes that the MOBILect has potential for use as a supplement to the traditional face-to-face lectures especially in scenarios of large classes, or where the medium of instruction is not the students’ mother tongue.

Internationalizing Higher Education: The Development of Practice and Policy in South Africa

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (7) ◽  
pp. 1758-1791
Author(s):  
Nadine Dolby
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Mission Statements ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Current Period ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Background/Context Internationalization has moved from the periphery to the core of many universities’ policies, mission statements, and strategic plans. In contrast to earlier paradigms of internationalization, the current period is significantly shaped by the global dominance of capitalism, the rise of the audit and accountability culture, and states’ retreat from funding of public services and goods, including higher education. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the practice and policy of internationalization evolved in the specific context of a South African university from 1996 to 2006. Setting The research took place in the International Academic Programmes Office (IAPO) at the University of Cape Town in 2006. Research Design This research is an instrumental case study of IAPO at the University of Cape Town in 2006. Data Collection and Analysis The analysis presented in this article is based on three major sources of data. First, I examined documents produced by IAPO from 1996 (the founding of the office) to 2006, including reports, strategic plans, operational plans, goals and objectives, financial reports, all publicity material, and the draft of the internationalization plan. Second, I analyzed documents produced by the University of Cape Town during this same time period, including mission statements, annual reports, documents related to the transformation process, and the university's 2006 policy on internationalization. Third, I interviewed all key personnel (9 individuals) in IAPO in March 2006. Conclusions/Recommendations I identify three areas that are the focus of the major concerns and tensions regarding internationalization in the first 10 years of the office: study abroad, international full-degree students, and relationships with Africa and the rest of the world. I argue that the lack of a formal institutional policy on internationalization allowed for considerable individual and organizational agency in these areas. While the adoption of a formal policy in 2006 may hinder and channel internationalization policy, IAPO's practices have transformed the everyday life of the University of Cape Town, though some of the outcomes have been unanticipated.

Double Thoughts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dean
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Paul De Man ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
De Man ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Coetzee’s interest in destabilizing the boundaries of literature and philosophy is most evident in later fictions such as Elizabeth Costello. But as Andrew Dean argues in this chapter, this interest in moving across boundaries in fact originates much earlier, in Coetzee’s quarrel with the institutions and procedures of literary criticism. Coetzee used the occasion of his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Cape Town (Truth and Autobiography) to criticize the assumption that literary criticism can reveal truths about literature to which literary texts are themselves blind. Influenced in part by such figures as Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, Coetzee posed a series of challenging questions about the desires at stake in the enterprise of literary criticism. Developing these thoughts, Dean explores the way in which Coetzee’s earlier fiction, including such texts as Foe (1986), is energized by its quarrelsome relationship with literary criticism and theory, especially postcolonial theory.

The Many Racial Effigies of Sara Baartman

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellen Hoxworth
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
Black Paint ◽  
African Students ◽  
The Many ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Six African students enact a somber, silent dance. They stage a series of striking images at the base of South African artist Willie Bester's sculptureSara Baartman, in the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Their faces and bodies smeared with black paint, the students articulate their protest ofSara Baartmanin explicitly racial terms, aligning their critiques of economic, colonial, and racial oppression under the sign of blackness.

scholarly journals "Our roots began in (South) Africa": Modelling law clinics to maximise social justice ends

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Donald Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

<p align="JUSTIFY">This article explores the ways in which law clinics can be organised to maximise their impact on social justice in South Africa. Such impact can be both direct in the form of the actual legal services offered to those in need or indirect in the form of encouraging law clinic students to commit to assisting those most in need of legal service after they graduate either through career choice or other forms of assistance. The article develops a decision-making matrix for clinic design around two dimensions, each with a number of variables. The first, "organizational" dimension relates to the way clinics are organised and run, and involves choices about whether: (1) clinics emphasise social justice or student learning; (2) student participation attracts academic credit or is extra-curricular; (3) participation is compulsory or optional; (4) clinics are managed and run by staff or students; and (5) there is one "omnibus" clinic structure covering all clinic activities or a "cluster" of discrete clinics conducting different activities. The second, "activities" dimensions involves choices about whether services are: (1) specialist or generalist; (2) exclusively legal or "<span lang="IT">holistic</span><span lang="EN">"; (3) provided only by students or qualified legal professionals; (4) located in community neighbourhoods or on campus; (5) provided by students working "in-house" in a university clinic or in external placements; (6) designed to benefit the wider community rather than just the individuals directly served; and (7) designed to remedy existing problems or educate the public on their legal rights and duties. </span></p><p align="JUSTIFY">While not intending to set out a blueprint for existing law clinics, the article argues that, if South African are motivated to enhance their impact on social justice and level of community engagement, they can learn much from the first law clinic to be established in South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, which was entirely student-run, optional and solely focused on ensuring access to justice rather than educating students. Drawing on his experience in adapting this model for use in Scotland, the author looks at the advantages of combining the volunteerist and student owned nature of this clinic with some formal teaching and staff involvement to maximize both the direct and indirect impact of clinics on social justice.</p>

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