JournalTOCs

Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL)
Number of Followers: 16

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2310-7103
Published by African Journals Online

[261 journals]

Editorial
- Authors: Carol A. Taylor
  Abstract: No Abstract.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Sewing friendship: Increasing inclusivity through creating shared social
spaces for migrant and local populations in Durban
- Authors: Innocent Tinashe Mutero, Khaya Jean Mchunu, Ivan Gunass Govender
  Pages: 1 - 18
  Abstract: Most women in South Africa are heavily burdened by unemployment, poverty, and inequality. However, African immigrant women in South Africa are faced with additional challenges such as xenophobic discrimination, economic and social exclusion, and poor integration of migrants in workspaces occupied by locals. This study took advantage of the growing demand for higher education to embrace engaged scholarship to embark on an engagement process that facilitated transformational learning by enabling experience sharing among a diverse group of local and foreign women from Thusa Batho Sewing for Africa, a community sewing project located in Durban. Results for this study, which was designed as a participatory action research, reveal the university’s agency in nurturing associational enterprises that facilitate social change. Further, results show that inclusive, shared social spaces can be used as resources to facilitate both individual and group change through initiating shared problem identification and solving processes that can have a long-term impact on the community.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Promises and pitfalls of feminist pedagogy: A case of the University of
the Witwatersrand
- Authors: Palesa Nqambaza
  Pages: 19 - 37
  Abstract: The #RhodesMustFall movement highlighted the demand for critical pedagogy in the South African academy and feminist lecture halls have since been among the spaces that have offered this alternative. This article documents the findings of a study that sought to investigate the journey and experiences of second-year students taking Feminist Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand. Based on the findings, I argue that while feminist pedagogy has made great strides at creating and fostering learning environments that are safe, de-hierarchised, and dialogical, it has also overlooked the extent to which, in some respects, it falls short on delivering on its liberatory promise. I highlight how questions around the demands for de-hierarchized classrooms, ‘safe spaces, and politics of ‘bodies that belong’ compromise its liberatory potential. Failing to recognise and remedy these shortcomings, I argue that feminist pedagogy suffers from what I have termed Reverse Theoretical Dysmorphia.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
The phenomenology of colonialism: Exploring perspectives of social work
graduates in the African universi
- Authors: Thembelihle Brenda Makhanya
  Pages: 38 - 57
  Abstract: This article unpacks African students’ understanding of colonialism in higher education through the narratives of social work graduates who attended a university located in KwaZulu-Natal. The research study is inspired by the 2015/2016 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, which suggested a need to explore students’ views regarding colonialism in higher education. The data was collected through group interviews with twenty-two graduates. Framed within the Afrocentric theoretical framework and the phenomenology paradigm, the article explores the concept of colonialism in higher education and beyond. Participants’ thinking on colonialism in higher education and beyond was not homogenous and some key themes emerged. Participants described colonialism in higher education as a product of the past where white supremacy and European domination served to oppress and alienate Africans from their identities and the university space. They also saw universities as spaces where Eurocentric indoctrination occurred, supported by the misrepresentation and marginalisation of Africans, which led to further isolation of African identities of self.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
The Decoloniality of being Political Studies/Science: Legitimising
a(nother) way of being
- Authors: Siphiwe I. Dube
  Pages: 59 - 77
  Abstract: In contributing further to the general debate on decolonising Higher Education in South Africa, this article grapples with the question of being for Political Studies/Science. Specifically, the article engages with the question of how might departments of Political Studies/Science begin to imagine and engage the kind of complex decolonised curriculum that pays attention to the relevant structural and sociocultural contexts of South Africa without resorting merely to the additive approach or nominalist model of curriculum transformation as sufficient. In response, the article argues that the notion of being (Barnett, 2009) for our curriculum transformation as Political Science/Studies should be of central concern in our decolonisation process. In developing this argument, the article puts forth a theoretical model drawn from an interdisciplinary understanding of what constitutes transformative/decolonised disciplinary legitimation codes (being decolonised), that should be intentionally brought into Political Science/Studies through the language of decolonisation.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Using agential morphogenesis to track professional identity development in
higher education
- Authors: Gabrielle Nudelman
  Pages: 78 - 94
  Abstract: Professional identity development (PID) is a growing focus for higher education researchers interested in graduate employability and workplace readiness. This raises the challenge of how to trace students’ identity shifts. This paper shows how Margaret Archer’s agential morphogenesis can be used to generate understandings of how students’ identities change during professional degree programmes. Archer’s theories of double and triple morphogenesis are applied to data collected through interviews and documentary research. The findings are presented as narratives about two final-year electrical engineering students who participated in employability-development focussed courses at a South African university. These narratives offer in-depth descriptions of the students’ identity shifts as they neared completion of their studies. The richness of the findings, which incorporate the constraints and enablements of the students’ professional identity development, leads to the paper’s argument that agential morphogenesis is a productive analytical tool for researchers wanting to better understand PID in higher education.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Toward an inclusive evidence-based practice model: Embracing a broader
conception of professional knowledge in health care and health care higher
education
- Authors: Tone Dahl-Michelsen, Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, Karen Synne Groven
  Pages: 94 - 114
  Abstract: Evidence-based practice (EBP) and the evidence-based practice model (EBPM) are currently taken for granted as a guide for teaching and learning ‘best practice’ in higher education health care programs. As health care educators and researchers, we argue for enhancement of the model by inclusion of a broader conception of professional knowledge, including ethical care. In this conceptual paper, we draw on hermeneutic inquiry to reflect on theoretical underpinnings informing earlier discussions of EBP and the EBPM. Also, we enhance our critical thinking by turning to Aristotle. Taken together our reflections bring to the fore an awareness of conflicting logics embedded in the EBPM. We contend that an Aristotelian understanding, however, allows professional knowledge to be reinvigorated by bolstering possibilities for pluralistic conceptions of knowledge. In conclusion, we propose an elaborated EBPM termed the inclusive EBPM. The model includes ethical care as a to guide to teaching and learning of ‘best practice’.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Data-Driven Predictions of Academic Success among College Students in
Saudi Arabia
- Authors: Omar J. El-Moussa, Runna Alghazo, Maura A.E. Pilotti, Maura A.E. Pilotti
  Pages: 115 - 134
  Abstract: Predictors of college performance are markers of learners' characteristics that can be used to optimize admission, advising, counseling, and instruction. The present study focused on female and male graduates of a Saudi Arabian university that follows a USA general education curriculum. Saudi Arabia exemplifies a society in transition from a rigid patriarchal system to one that is more gender equitable. The study investigated the extent to which gender, high-school Grade Point Average (hs-GPA), and the GAT (equivalent to the SAT I) can predict GPA at graduation, as well as verbal, analytical, and quantitative competencies of graduates in Business, Engineering, and Law. In our study, females outperformed males on most measures except on the GAT. Gender differences in the choice of major were also found. For all, hs-GPA and GAT were poor predictors of academic success. Alternative measures were proposed along with the use of a data-driven approach for predicting students' performance at a given institution.
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Book Review
- Authors: G. Crimmins
  Pages: 135 - 137
  Abstract: Crimmins, G., ed., 2020. Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in The Academy: Higher Education, Aspiration and Inequality. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan Reviewed by: Gihan Ismail, University of Bath, UK
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Book Review
- Authors: L. Quinn
  Pages: 138 - 141
  Abstract: Quinn, L. (ed.) 2019. Re-imagining Curriculum: Spaces for Disruption. Cape Town: Sun Media Reviewed by Sioux McKenna, Rhodes University
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Book Review
- Authors: P. Ashwin
  Pages: 142 - 144
  Abstract: Ashwin, P. 2020. Transforming University Education: A Manifesto. London: Bloomsbury. Reviewed by James Garraway, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)
Book Review
- Authors: N. Brown, J. Leigh
  Pages: 145 - 147
  Abstract: Brown, N. & Leigh, J. (eds.) 2020. Ableism in Academia. Theorising experiences of disabilities and chronic illnesses in higher education. London: UCL Press. Reviewed by, Salley-Jayne Hewlett, University of Bath
  PubDate: 2021-08-02
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021)