scholarly journals Seeking relevancy and transformation: The journey of valuing agency at a South African film school

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Jenni Lynne Underhill
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
South African ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
African Film ◽  
Academic Argument ◽  
Film Development

AFDA (The School for the Creative Economies) South Africa, has a consciousness – framed by the emerging landscape of decolonization – that storytelling needs to be more socially relevant than ever before. Student filmmakers find themselves at a crossroad of needing to capture characters that are relevant with a view to engendering diversity and transformation. This paper discusses the explicit need for integrating the skill of critical thinking, framed by academic argument, into the conceptual process of student film development. This is because the conceptual relevance of films has to be deepened and well expressed. In addition, the identities of characters have to be as authentic and as representative as possible. By teaching students critical thinking, and its integration into the creative process, AFDA believes that the end product will have succinct social/political meaning. AFDA has devised an innovative way to integrate student agency and research into the conceptual development stage of the student filmmaking process. This paper demonstrates how this is done and motivates how this type of approach enables promising results. Keywords: Critical thinking, Agency, Creative process, Identity, Academic argument How to cite this article:Underhill, J.L. 2020. Seeking relevancy and transformation: The journey of valuing agency at a South African film school. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 4(2): 22-34. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.117. 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/

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/

scholarly journals Book Review: Standing Items: critical pedagogies in South African art, design and architecture, edited by Brenden Gray, Shashi Cullinan Cook, Tariq Toffa and Amie Soudien

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Nan Catherine O'Sullivan ◽  
David Hakaraia
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
African Art ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Critical Pedagogies ◽  
Art Design

In this review of Standing Items: critical pedagogies in South African art, design and architecture, edited by Brenden Gray, Shashi Cullinan Cook, Tariq Toffa and Amie Soudien, book reviewers Nan O’Sullivan and David Hakaraia explain how this book casts light on discussion points, awkward conversations, skewed demographics and pathways to radical change in these disciplines in South Africa.   Keywords: Critical pedagogies, South Africa, Book review, Art design and architectureHow to cite this article:O’Sullivan, N.C. & Hakaraia, D. 2020. Book review: Standing Items: critical pedagogies in South African art, design and architecture, edited by Brenden Gray, Shashi Cullinan Cook, Tariq Toffa and Amie Soudien. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 4(2): 244-247. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.150.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 Nancy Fraser and participatory parity: Reframing social justice in South African higher education, edited by Vivienne Bozalek, Dorothee Hölscher, and Michalinos Zembylas

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Sergio Celis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Nancy Fraser

In this review of Nancy Fraser and participatory parity: Reframing social justice in South African higher education, edited by Vivienne Bozalek, Dorothee Hölscher, and Michalinos Zembylas, book reviewer Sergio Celis discusses why this book is an invitation to reimagine our participation in the higher education field, as scholars, teachers, and citizens. Keywords: Nancy Fraser, Participatory parity, South Africa, Higher education, Book review How to cite ths article: Celis, S. 2021. Nancy Fraser and participatory parity: Reframing social justice in South African higher education, edited by Vivienne Bozalek, Dorothee Hölscher, and Michalinos Zembylas. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 5(1): 144-148. DOI: 10.36615/sotls.v5i1.178. 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 Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Shashi Cullinan Cook
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
University Of Technology

The second biennial ‘SOTL in the South’ conference was held at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in October 2019. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is gaining increasing traction in South African universities, and this conference was a collaboration between the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at CUT, and SOTL in the South. The theme of this conference was ‘Creating space for Southern narratives on Teaching and Learning’ and the keynote speakers were Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Joanne Vorster, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Catherine Manathunga. In this piece I reflect on the conference and identify some of the narratives that emerged from it. I share some of the discussions by keynote speakers and presenters which help to expand discourses on the interconnectedness of decolonisation, and economic, social and environmental justice, and I explain why I look to ‘Southern SOTL’ for guidance in negotiating contradictions in my teaching and learning context. In this piece I consider the response-abilities of higher educators to contribute to these urgent matters.Key words: SOTL in the South, research in teaching and learning, global South, north-south, decolonisation, 4IR, fourth industrial revolution, response-abilityHow to cite this article:Cullinan Cook, S. 2020. Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 4, n. 1, p. 69-85. April 2020. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=135This 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 Enlivening pedagogical methods in the classroom through visual arts

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Berman ◽  
Shonisani Netshia
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
African Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Pedagogical Methods

The call for ‘decolonising’ the curricula by the #FeesMustFall student-led protest movement, in response to an increase of fees at South African universities from 2015, presents educators with the challenge of engaging more relevant methodologies for teaching and learning local content that are appropriate for revised approaches in higher education. Our question in response to this challenge is: how do we enliven curricula and develop pedagogical approaches that can engender a sense of belonging for incoming first-year students and prevent polarising tendencies in the classroom? The visual arts are well positioned to disrupt divisions and stereotypes and offer creative ways to explore patriarchal and colonial power relations. Arts provide safe and empathetic ways for incoming students to gain perspective on their situations from both insider and outsider positions, and to develop a compassionate and enlarged view of the world. In this paper, we introduce some definitions and theoretical positions of decolonising frameworks in the classroom and present a series of first-year classroom interventions as examples of praxis. It is our contention that the arts create the conditions for equalising a classroom space through directing visual processes to engage issues such as the polarisation of race and class. Students are able to engage with ways of responding to their own understandings of how they see themselves as African students. How to cite this article: BERMAN, Kim; NETSHIA, Shonisani. Enlivening pedagogical methods in the classroom through visual arts. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, v. 2, n. 1, p. 4-20, Apr. 2018. Available at: http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=26   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 Unveiling the professional attributes of university teachers

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SI) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubby Dunpath ◽  
◽  
Hesta Friedrich-Nel ◽  
Hanlie Dippenaar ◽  
Lynn Biggs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Leverage Points ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Professional Attributes ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
National Framework

This article derives from a collaborative higher education project, conceptualised, and implemented by academics from seven South African universities. These academics are members of the South African Teaching Advancement at University (TAU) Fellowship. The project has its roots in the Department of Higher Education’s National Framework for Enhancing Academics as University Teachers, which identifies six leverage points or ‘imperatives for action’, one of which is the imperative to develop expectations (attributes) of academics in their role as university teachers. TAU Fellows engaged in the collaborative enquiry over a period of three years, appropriating a conceptual framework posited by Henry Giroux, of teachers as transformative intellectuals. In this article, each author reflects on his/her own scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) endeavours, which provided the conceptual tools to illuminate what for them and the group, are valuable professional attributes. The metaphor of the Baobab tree is appropriated to signify ‘rhizomatic thinking’, which portrays teaching as subconscious, subversive, non-linear, multi-directional, serendipitous, esoteric, dynamic, unbounded, unpredictable, adaptive, and non-hierarchical. This SoTL enquiry enabled the TAU group to unveil and declare their professional attributes as they made public their praxis. The attributes include academics as imbued with the capacity for critical thinking and actively promoting critical thinking amongst their students; as active learning mediators; as responsive, innovative, and relevant curriculum designers; and as engaged professionals. Appreciation of the article is enhanced when the reader first views this video https://youtu.be/yoA9guMut-8.

scholarly journals Practice makes perfect: a WID approach for Human Resource Management Honours students at a South African university

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Laura Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Creative Commons

Little is known about how postgraduate students should be taught to write in their discipline. This research explores how a research preparation module supported Human Resource Management Honours students to write their research reports at a South African university. The module incorporated a ‘Writing in the Disciplines’ (WID) approach, because students, who worked in groups, wrote a series of developmental assignments marked according to rubrics that made the conventions of the report explicit. Many of the developmental assignments were rewritten as components of the research report. In order to determine if rewriting the assignments improved the students’ writing, the assignments from four groups were evaluated against the students’ rubrics. The redrafted assignments met more of the criteria in the marking rubrics. Since all group members spoke English as an additional language, this approach might benefit postgraduate students in similar contexts. The findings suggest that academic staff who want to offer developmental assignments prior to the submission of a larger research text should ensure that students are supported in two ways. Firstly, the design of the assignments should provide students with the opportunity to practice writing all the components of the larger piece of research writing. Secondly, supervisors and academic literacies practitioners should collaborate more effectively so that they can use what they learn from each other to better support students to write for their disciplines. How to cite this article: ARNOLD, Laura. Practice makes perfect: a WID approach for Human Resource Management Honours students at a South African university. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, v. 2, n. 1, p. 42-59, Apr. 2018. Available at: http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=25   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 SoTL: A mechanism for understanding and finding solutions to teaching and learning challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Jo-Anne Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Academic Leaders ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Student Failure ◽  
The Many

The paper argues that the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a necessary strategy for mitigating the many teaching and learning challenges in South African higher education that prevent a large proportion of students from achieving academic success. Research suggests that well-structured and coordinated educational practices that are valued and supported by institutions are crucial for student success. While there exists a very useful body of scholarship on teaching and learning in higher education in South Africa, the persistently high levels of student failure and dropout across the system points to the need for more research into teaching and learning dilemmas in diverse institutional, disciplinary and classroom contexts. I argue that if more academics are to conduct SoTL, it has to be valued and supported by institutions and academic leaders. Even though more SoTL is needed to contribute to solving the many pedagogic dilemmas South African academics encounter, it is counter-productive to expect all academics to conduct SoTL. Rigorous SoTL requires immersion in educational ideas, concepts, theories and research processes. Many academics may not have the time or inclination to work in the area of SoTL, but I suggest that all must be scholarly teachers of their disciplines. Keywords: Scholarly teaching, Domains of SoTL, Collaborative SoTL Participatory parity, CurriculumHow to cite this article:Vorster, J-A. 2020. SoTL: A mechanism for understanding and finding solutions to teaching and learning challenges. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 4(2): 6-21. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.149.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/ 

Book review: Burke, PJ, Crozier, G and Misiaszek, LI. 2017. Changing Pedagogical Spaces in Higher Education: Diversity, Inequalities and Misrecognition. London: Routledge.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Zachary Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The South ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
The University

South African researcher Zach Simpson of the University of Johannesburg reviews the book Changing pedagogical spaces in Higher Education: diversity, inequalities and misrecognition by Penny Jane Burke, Gill Crozier and Lauren Ila Misiaszek. This book was published by the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE), in partnership with Routledge, an imprint of Taylor and Francis, for the SRHE Book Series.   How to cite this book review: SIMPSON, Zachary. Book review: Burke, PJ, Crozier, G and Misiaszek, LI. 2017. Changing Pedagogical Spaces in Higher Education: Diversity, Inequalities and Misrecognition. London: Routledge. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, [S.l.], v. 1, n. 1, p. 114-116, sep. 2017. Available at: <http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=17>. 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/

Assessing non-technical employability skills in public relations pedagogy: reflections of an educator and students

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Karabo Sitto
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
South African ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Flipped Learning ◽  
Participatory Learning ◽  
Classroom Assessments ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Active Pedagogy

Higher education faces the pressure of training students with non-technical employability skills, as well as meeting academic rigour and curriculum outcomes with limited resources. Vocational disciplines such as Public Relations (PR) grapple with the challenge of preparing students for the profession by developing the necessary skills. In an attempt to develop these skills, third-year South African university students were given a class assessment that required reading a number of set readings and working in groups. I present how, in the design of the module assessment, I included, through active pedagogy and participatory learning, the development of non-technical employability skills in PR, in addition to curriculum outcomes. I share an outline of the assessment, as well as the feedback from students from their responses to a questionnaire administered at the end of the semester. I discuss my own reflections on how the use of this assessment targeted curriculum outcomes and multiple non-technical employability skills as required within a third-year PR module. I highlight how this design was achieved without onerously increasing the number of assessments or resources needed. Through this article, I present practical student engagement in the classroom through effective incorporation of a flipped learning approach in an effort to develop non-technical employability skills.Key words: participatory learning, non-technica employability skills, public relations, flipped classroom, assessments, graduate attributesHow to cite this article:Sitto, K.M. 2020. Assessing non-technical employability skills in public relations pedagogy: reflections of an educator and students. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 4, n. 1, p. 51-68. April 2020. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=136This 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/

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