scholarly journals Old Testament Studies: The story of a department

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurie Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
First Year ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Excellent Teaching ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
The Times ◽  
The University

The Department of Old Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, has been in existence since 1938 and this article is an attempt to highlight some aspects of its history. The article consists of two main sections. The first discusses the place of the Department in the world, in Africa and at the University. It is stated that the Department always moved with the times and re-invented itself in new contexts. It found a stronghold in the university context, addressed the problems of our times intellectually and consistently maintained international contacts. In the second section, the members of the Department are discussed individually. It will become clear that there is a strange mixture of synchrony and diachrony, of reading the text in its final form and of taking the historical context and growth seriously. Both approaches exist alongside each other and complement each other. It is concluded that the Department�s future lies in its scholarly past � in the intellectual traditions in which it is embedded, and in its ability to adapt to new contexts without losing its total devotion to critical scholarship, the students and the church.Like human beings, a university department can also have a biography. It has a life entrenched in real experiences and is subjected to the same socio-political realities as people. This article briefly tells the life story of one such department, that of the Department of Old Testament at the University of Pretoria. It describes the Department�s academic endeavours, and of the scholars who devoted their lives to the pursuit of Old Testament scholarship and the teaching of theological students from their first year to doctorate level. Over the years the Department had to adjust and re-adjust, but in the end it survived all kinds of pressures and established its place both here and abroad. One of the reasons for its endurance and survival has been the commitment of the members of the Department to cutting-edge research, sound scholarship and excellent teaching. This story is told here by focusing on the physical contexts in which the Department had to exist, and then on the scholars who made things happen.

scholarly journals Constructing the self in later life: The life story of Selaelo Thias Kgatla (1949–)

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Church Leadership ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Life Review ◽  
The Self ◽  
Interview Schedule ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
The University

On 15 April 2014 the author conducted an interview with Selaelo Thias Kgatla (then 64) by means of a prearranged interview schedule to revaluate a life review. Kgatla’s years of academic and ecclesiastical involvement leading to his ordination as the minister of the Polokwane Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa at the age of 47 were considered. However, the focus was on the last 18 years before his retirement, which was to happen in December 2015. This period commenced with his ordination in 1997 and covered his involvement in church leadership as Assessor and later Moderator of the Northern Synod (since 1999) and as Moderator of the General Synod (since 2005), as well as his appointments as professor at the University of Limpopo in 1997 and at the University of Pretoria in 2010.In freezing this interview into the academic account given here, oral history and methodological sensitivities are considered. The interviewee’s ownership of his life review is acknowledged; his construction of the self as a coherent story of church leadership is respected; and the characteristics of remembering in later life are pointed out reverentially.The life review with Kgatla was expanded with interviews from colleagues and congregants of his choice who confirmed the construction of his life story as one of relationship and resistance. Finally, the author gives a concluding overview of aims achieved in the article in terms of oral methodology and the contents of a life review in which the interviewee constructed his life as a church leader on the interface between resistance and relationship.

Assembling the Global University

2013 ◽  
pp. 366-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gray Kochhar-Lindgren
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Entrepreneurial University ◽  
First Year ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Global University ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The University

This chapter examines the emergence of the global artistic-entrepreneurial university, the increasing importance of interdisciplinary and innovative pedagogies, and how these new emphases are shaping institutional change. The first section analyzes the global university as an “assemblage,” a process that gathers ideas, materialities, digitized platforms, and human beings into a new form of higher education. Because of the impacts on higher education of the flows of capital, technology, people, and cultural practices in both the “East” and the “West,” this form of the university transcends regional and national boundaries as it builds networks of learning around the world. The second section of the chapter focuses on the increasing importance of interdisciplinarity and developing active and integrative pedagogies organized around fundamental skills and questions. In order to ground the discussion in particular sites, the authors use examples from the University of Hong Kong’s new Core Curriculum and from the University of Washington Bothell’s Discovery Core for first-year students. In the final section, the chapter addresses what the next steps might look like as institutions change themselves to fit a globalized context. This section returns to the idea of the global university as a “hub of an ecology of studio-labs” (Parks, 2005, p. 57) and suggest that the “managerial” university is transitioning into a more flexible model of the “artistic-entrepreneurial” university in order to prosper in an extremely competitive and generative global environment.

scholarly journals Factors influencing the choice of profession of first-year teaching students

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Hislop-Esterhuizen ◽  
J. G. Maree ◽  
M. J. Van der Linde ◽  
A. Swanepoel
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
First Year ◽  
Qualified Teachers ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
The University

The lack of appropriately qualified teachers in South Africa is growing rapidly and debates about the decline in teacher numbers in South Africa are increasing. In this study, the results of an investigation into possible factors that impact on the career choice of teaching students are reported. The reasons why first-year teaching students at the University of Pretoria chose teachings a career were studied by using a non-experimental design (survey design; administering anon-standardised questionnaire). The results revealed, inter alia, that a number of factors influence the career choice of first-year teaching students. Trends that emerged from the current study include the following: many more women than men enter the teaching profession; relatively few African language speaking students choose education as a field of study and the role of parents in helping their children to choose a career cannot be underestimated. 

scholarly journals Świadek historii. Swobodne wspominanie a krytyka źródła historycznego – o ambiwalencji metody w zachodnioniemieckiej oral history około roku 1980

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 39-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franka Maubach
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Narrative Interview ◽  
The Social ◽  
Past Experiences

Only recently has the contemporary witness become the subject of academic study. The emerging scholarship views this figure as belonging to a specific historical period, namely the post-Holocaust era. Today, the narrations of the contemporary witness are commonly understood as constructs, as stories developed synchronously in the course of the interview. The article takes a closer look at the formative period of the German Oral History studies around 1980, a field deeply informed by post-dictatorial sensibilities. It locates the figure of the contemporary witness, the interviewer and the interview methods employed within the historical context in which they emerged. Moreover, if we consider other Oral History approaches developed elsewhere and compare the German approach to Fritz Schütze’s narrative interview method for the social sciences, it can be identified as a genuinely historical, diachronically operating approach. By letting the interviewees talk about their memories uninterrupted, they were encouraged to reflect on their lives as a whole. A the same time, pioneers of the field such as Lutz Niethammer and Alexander von Plato developed ways to verify the narrations’ plausibility and thus to evaluate the reliability of the interview as istorical source. This combination of empathy and skepticism, of unconditional interest in a person’s full life-story and its critical verification became the hallmark of German Oral history Studies, not least because emerged in a post-dictatorial society. Rather than studying memories as mere constructions of the past, they developed a methodology aimed at enabling historians to get access to the actual past experiences which they believed are contained in the retrospective testimonies of individual human beings.

scholarly journals Student Support and Transition Through a Buddy Programme to Foster Social Integration

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
Ana Naidoo ◽  
Hestie Byles ◽  
Sindi Kwenaite
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Contact Point ◽  
Student Support ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
University Life ◽  
Student Advisor ◽  
Peer Advisors ◽  
The University

The University of Pretoria (UP) began offering formal academic student support in 2011 when the first faculty student advisor (FSA) was appointed. Although many more FSAs were subsequently appointed, assistance to all the students in need of support remained insufficient. However, financial assistance through the collaboration grant received from the Department of Higher Education and Training in 2018 made it possible to explore new areas of support. The UP was able to pilot four innovations due to the availability of additional funds. These included generic workshops across faculties; the creation of a hub in the library, which served as a common contact point for students requiring assistance; the appointment of peer advisors; and a Buddy Programme for first-year students. This article explains the Buddy Programme as perceived by the senior students who mentored the first-year students. The mentors are known as “big buddies”. Our work on this programme is based on Tinto’s (1975) ideas about social integration. The Buddy Programme was introduced to assist first-year students in their transition from school to university life. This paper highlights the challenges that first-year students faced and it explains how the concepts could become institutionalised once university activities have been normalised in the post-pandemic future.

scholarly journals Die Ou-Testamentiese Wetenskap in die Fakulteit Teologie (Afd A), Universiteit van Pretoria, 1917-1982

1992 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Oberholzer
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Old Testament Studies

Old Testament Studies in the Faculty of Theology (Sec A), University of Pretoria, 1917-1982 Elsewhere in this volume short treatments of the theology and work of scholars in the Department of Old Testament Studies in the Faculty can be found. This article intends to give a brief survey of the University of Pretoria’s earliest period of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, as well as a general history of the Department during the 75 years of its existence.

scholarly journals James Alfred Loader: ’n Huldeblyk aan ’n krities-solidêre profeet in die eties-teologiese tradisie/James Alfred Loader: A tribute to a critical-solidary prophet in the ethical theological tradition

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries G. Van Aarde ◽  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Honorary Doctorate ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Curriculum Vitae ◽  
Comprehensive Curriculum ◽  
The University ◽  
Theologische Fakultät

This article is the introduction to the James Alfred Loader Dedication. It consists of a tribute to Professor Loader’s academic contribution to Old Testament, Middle-Eastern religio-literary studies and the Rabbinical background of the Old- and New Testament. The article is modelled after the tribute published in German in the annual publication of the Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät Wien (Vienna, Austria) due to the honorary doctorate conferred on Professor Loader by the University of Pretoria (South Africa) in 2009. The tribute is combined with a comprehensive curriculum vitae, in part written in German, Afrikaans and English, and consisting of referencing Professor Loader’s personal data, his role as minister of religion, his academic awards, participation in scholarly societies, professional academic positions, academic reviewing, editorial activity, presentation of academic papers and a list of publications.

scholarly journals Teaching and inculcating (decolonised) legal skills in the LLB curriculum at the University of Pretoria?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Kok ◽  
Michelle Oelofse
Keyword(s):  
First Year ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Curriculum Transformation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Framework Document ◽  
The University

‘Legal Skills’ was taught as a standalone first-year module in the LLB curriculum at the University of Pretoria from 1998 to 2012. In the 2013 curriculum, the teaching and inculcation of legal skills were integrated into a first-year “Jurisprudence” module. The 2015/6 student protests at the University of Pretoria led to the creation of three ‘transformation work streams’, one of which was tasked with curriculum transformation. The activities of the curriculum transformation work stream led to the adoption by the Senate of a Curriculum Transformation Framework Document (CTFD). All faculties have been asked to reconsider and fundamentally reshape their curricula with reference to the CTFD. This reflection-on-the-curriculum process at the Faculty of Law has arguably been dominated by an over-emphasis on the place and sequencing of modules instead of an overhaul of the content of law modules and the approach with which teaching should take place. There has also been a concerted push from some quarters in the Faculty to reintroduce a standalone Legal Skills module, rationalised by an argument along the lines of ‘legal skills cannot be transformed’ (never mind ‘decolonised’). In this article we will consider what it could mean to ask for the decolonising of the teaching and inculcation of legal skills in an LLB curriculum.

scholarly journals Egge Simon Mulder, hoogleraar 1956-1970

1992 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. B. Breytenbach
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
University Of Pretoria ◽  
Reason And Faith ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church ◽  
Old Testament Studies

Egge Simon Mulder, professor from 1956 to 1970 E S Mulder succeeded Berend Gemser as professor in Old Testament Studies in the Faculty of Theology (Sec A) at the University of Pretoria. His approach was historicalcritical and at the same time he was totally committed to the ecclesiastical ministry. He can be characterised as an exponent of so-called Ethical Theology. Although he did not fully integrate his scientific work and his theologising within the scope of the church, he contributed to the present close ties between the Faculty and the Nederduitsch Hervormde Church, as well as to the ethos that there is no dichotomy between reason and faith.

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