scholarly journals Marginalisation of ‘global South’ epistemics: the case of a soil science textbook

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Milton Milaras ◽  
Tracey McKay
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
World View ◽  
Global South ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Soil Science ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Science Textbook ◽  
The South ◽  
Global North

Scientific textbooks are often seen as critical teaching and learning tools for undergraduate students. Furthermore, textbooks can shape and define students’ comprehension and internalisation of academic disciplines. Despite this, textbooks are not necessarily error free. Additionally, textbooks can be laden with hidden representational presumptions and biases, foregrounding a particular culture, knowledge system, or hegemonic world-view. This can include the epistemology of the ‘global North’. How appropriate it is to prescribe such textbooks in the ‘global South’ is, therefore, debatable. Thus, this research represents an attempt to determine the suitability of a soil science textbook – produced in the global North – for use in the global South, specifically the South African context. Accordingly, one particular textbook, in use at some South African universities, was analysed using textual analysis, in order to ascertain its applicability within the context of an Africanised curriculum. The study found that, despite the publisher’s claim of ‘universality’, the book presents soil science knowledge as written with a northern geographical setting in mind and for a Western European or North American audience. Thus, for South Africa, with its radically different geographical, cultural, and soil conditions, the textbook is inappropriate and may even be moulding a particular global North worldview. On this basis it is recommended that academics of the global South adopt a critical approach when selecting textbooks; as well as actively promote and write textbooks directly suited to an African setting.   How to cite this article:  MILARAS, Milton; MCKAY, Tracey. Marginalisation of ‘global South’ epistemics: the case of a soil science textbook. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 2, p. 31-48. Sept. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=93&path%5B%5D=45   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Social Work and Indigenisation: A South African Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lobelo David Mogorosi ◽  
Dumisani Gaylord Thabede
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Work ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World View ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Global North ◽  
Work Education

For relevance to societal reality and challenges, countries should structure their social work education to deal with specific conditions and cultures. From its global North (i.e. Western Europe and North America) origins, social work has contributed to the expansion of the discipline and profession to the developing world, including South Africa. During the three decades (from the mid-1980s until the present day) during which they have taught social work in South Africa, the authors have witnessed half-hearted efforts to really integrate indigenous knowledge into the curricula. In writings and professional gatherings, scant attention was paid to curricula transformation imperatives enriching practice. To its credit, the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) advocates for decolonisation and indigenisation of social work education. Discussing decolonisation and indigenisation in social work curricula, the paper critiques assumptions of global North ideas, cloaked as if universally applicable. An example is about some principles of social casework – a method of choice in South Africa – which mostly disregards cultural nuances of clientele with a communal collective world view that relies on joint decision-making. A culturally sensitive approach is adopted as theoretical framework for this paper. The paper concludes with recommendations that should help ensure that social work curricula strive towards being indigenous, contextualised and culturally appropriate.

Book review: Jansen, J. 2017. As by Fire: The End of the South African University. Cape Town: Tafelberg.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Jared McDonald
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
The South ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Vice Chancellor ◽  
The University

Dr Jared McDonald, of the Department of History at the University of the Free State (UFS) in South Africa, reviews As by fire: the end of the South African university, written by former UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen.    How to cite this book review: MCDONALD, Jared. Book review: Jansen, J. 2017. As by Fire: The End of the South African University. Cape Town: Tafelberg.. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, [S.l.], v. 1, n. 1, p. 117-119, Sep. 2017. Available at: <http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=18>. Date accessed: 12 Sep. 2017.   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Covid-19: Interdisciplinary Explorations of Impacts on Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
Production Knowledge ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
The Impact

Premised on the disruption and lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, and in meticulous response to the impact of the pandemic on higher education – especially in South Africa – this collection of chapters spotlights the effects, consequences, and ramifications of an unprecedented pandemic in the areas of knowledge production, knowledge transfer and innovation. With the pandemic, the traditional way of teaching and learning was completely upended. It is within this context that this book presents interdisciplinary perspectives that focus on what the impact of Covid-19 implies for higher education institutions. Contributors have critically reflected from within their specific academic disciplines in their attempt to proffer solutions to the disruptions brought to the South African higher education space. Academics and education leaders have particularly responded to the objective of this book by focusing on how the academia could tackle the Covid-19 motivated disruption and resuscitate teaching, research, and innovation activities in South African higher education, and the whole of Africa by extension.

Communication and the Global South

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Ashwell ◽  
Stephen M. Croucher
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Global South ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Alternative Development ◽  
The South ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
The North ◽  
Global North ◽  
A Site ◽  
Development Trajectories

The Global South–North divide has been conceptualized in political, cultural, economic, and developmental terms. When conceptualizing this divide, issues of economic growth/progress, technology, political and press freedom, and industrialization have all been used as indicators to delineate between the “North” and the “South.” The North has traditionally been seen as more economically, technologically, politically, and socially developed, as well as more industrialized and having more press freedom, for example; the South has been linked with poverty, disease, political tyranny, and overall lack of development. This conceptualization privileges development efforts in the Global South based on democratic government, capitalist economic structures with their attendant neoliberal agenda and processes of globalization. This negative view of the South is a site of contest with people of the South offering alternative and more positive views of the situation in the South and alternatives to globalization strategies. While there may be some identifiable difference between some of the countries in the identified Global South and Global North, globalization (economic, political, technological, etc.) is changing how the very Global South–North divide is understood. To best understand the implications of this divide, and the inequalities that it perpetuates, we scrutinize the Global South, detailing the background of the term “Global South,” and examine the effect of globalization upon subaltern groups in the Global South. We also discuss how academic research using frameworks of the Global North can exacerbate the problems faced by subaltern groups rather than offer them alternative development trajectories by empowering such groups to represent themselves and their own development needs. The culture-centred approach to such research is offered as alternative to overcome such problems. The terms usage in the communication discipline is also explained and the complexity of the term and its future is explored.

scholarly journals Chartered accountancy and resistance in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Terblanche ◽  
Y. Waghid
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
The South ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
Learning Success ◽  
Chartered Accountants

In recent times, the chartered accountant profession was regularly in the news for reasons pertaining to the unethical and unprofessional behaviour of members. The profession has an important role to play in the South African economy, as members will often fulfil important decision-making roles in business. In a response to the dilemmas the profession is facing, we analysed the implications for the profession and society due to a resistance to include research as a pedagogical activity in the chartered accountancy educational landscape. Through deliberative research activities, students have the opportunity to engage with community members and with societal challenges that could foster reflexivity and humaneness in students. In addition, critical and problem-solving skills are cultivated. These are skills that are difficult to assess in the form of an examination, and the absence of research as pedagogical activity in this particular educational landscape, impacts the cultivation of these skills in future chartered accountants. This is so, as the chartered accountancy educational landscape is significantly influenced by the power that resonates within the profession and culminates into the disciplinary power mechanism of the examination. The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) set an external examination, called the Initial test of Competence (ITC), which graduates need to write upon leaving institutes of higher learning. Success in this SAICA-examination therefore impacts on the teaching and learning pedagogy adopted by chartered accountants in academe. If chartered accounting students were instead primarily being exposed to technical content assessed via an examination, also being exposed and introduced to deliberative research, the possibility exists that students, through critical reflexivity, could move beyond the constraints of the self to that of the communal other in line with the African notion of ubuntu can be enhanced.

scholarly journals Teaching and learning research in higher education in Colombia: a literature review

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Alison Kay Reedy ◽  
María Lucía Guerrero Farías
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The South ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Teaching And Learning Research ◽  
Global North ◽  
Learning Research ◽  
Nature Of Teaching

This paper presents a systematic review of the extent and nature of teaching and learning research in higher education in Colombia over the past two decades and shines light on a body of literature from the South that has been relatively invisible on the global stage. The study found that the volume of SOTL taking place in higher education in Colombia is greater than indicated by previous research, but is taking place unevenly across the higher education landscape. This paper explores the challenges faced by Colombian scholars in engaging in and publishing teaching and learning research. The findings show that while teaching and learning research is happening in higher education in Colombia there are major issues in identifying and locating that research due to a lack of consistent terminology to describe SOTL. The findings also show that the nature of research emerging from Colombia is highly aligned with the global North in terms of methods, methodologies and themes. This paper concludes with recommendations on how to make Colombian learning and teaching research more visible and to reflect to a greater extent the diversity and richness in teaching and learning that takes places in Colombia.   How to cite this article:  REEDY, Alison Kay; GUERRERO FARÍAS; María Lucía. Teaching and learning research in higher education in Colombia: a literature review. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 2, p. 10-30, Sept. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=113&path%5B%5D=44  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

scholarly journals On being African and Reformed? Towards an African Reformed theology enthused by an interlocution of those on the margins of society

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rothney S. Tshaka
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Global South ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
The South ◽  
Inaugural Lecture

This article was first given as an inaugural lecture. As such, it sets out a particular agenda for the researcher’s interest. Here, the notions of being African and Reformed are interrogated. The research notes that these notions are rarely used in the same vein. It is admitted that notions tend to pick up different meanings as they evolve, so these notions are especially seen in that light. The theological hegemony, which in the South African academic circles had become enveloped in the Reformed identity, is here forced to critically consider Africanness. This is considered significant, especially in a context where the Christian faith is seen to be flourishing in the global South. The article challenges attempts at explaining what Africanness mean as a front to perpetuate a status quo that from its inception never thought much of Africa and or Africanness. The author argues that the African Reformed Christian must acknowledge is status as a partial outsider in Reformed theological discourses.

scholarly journals The Impact of Using Code Alternation in Teaching Life Science to English First Additional Language learners in South African Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Mzamani Johannes Maluleke ◽  
Ernest Kwesi Klu ◽  
Vincent N. Demana
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
The South ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Teaching Life ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The study aimed at investigating the extent to which English is used as a medium of teaching and learning Life Sciences in a South African rural high school. As the government has given recognition to the country’s multilingual, multi-ethnic and multicultural composition, School Governing Bodies are mandated to choose any of the eleven official languages as a medium of instruction (RSA, Act 108 of 1996), but the power of deciding which language to use as a medium of instruction has been taken by teachers to shield their own shortcomings. To be able to explore and understand the prevailing situation, the researchers employed a qualitative design which translated into researchers observing classes, evaluating learners’ written texts and interviewing the teachers as methods of collecting data. The findings are that: first, learners’ and teachers’ proficiency levels in English are very low, as such, the English language is not a pivot of learning and teaching in the South African education system. This emanates from the fact that although in theory the majority of the South African schools have adopted English as a medium of instruction, in practice, this is far from the truth as teachers employ code alternation in the form of code switching, code mixing and sentence translation as viable means of scaffolding the learning of content subjects.

scholarly journals Global South and the Narratives of Dissent: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Dr. Syed Wahaj Mohsin ◽  
Ms. Shaista Taskeen
Keyword(s):  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Global South ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
The South ◽  
The People ◽  
Global North

It will not be incorrect to refer to “Global South” as a blanket term rather than an umbrella term that has both an enormous and complex structure. Innumerable nations of this world have been tagged as the nations belonging to the Global South. This demarcation between the Global South and the Global North is an ever-deepening abyss that has serious consequences in terms of global citizenship and harmony. The binary opposition between the Global North and the Global South cannot be blurred unless the privileged populations of the economically sound nations begin to realize that a majority of the people living in the Global South are competent, modern, rational, urban and civilized. A clichéd image of the South as wild, uncivilized and inferior must be abandoned to obtain an authentic outlook.

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