Psychosocial Pathways Towards Reinventing The South African University

​This book proposes a conceptual-empirical framework for exploring forms of continuity and change along psychosocial pathways in South African universities. It illustrates how the psychosocial pathways are grounded in the symbolic narratives and knowledges of young scientists, engineers and architects - all interlocutors in the research from which this book is based. Alala, Mamoratwa, Welile, Odirile, Kaiya, Amirah, Takalani, Nosakhele, Naila, Ambani, Khanyisile, Itumeleng, Ethwasa and Kgnaya provide collective standpoints in the multiplicities within and between the lived lives and told stories of young Black South African women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In doing so, this compelling work advances possibilities for demythologising scientific endeavour as a white male achievement and shifting knowledge communities across gendered, racialised, class and national divides. This book presents an innovative narrative methodology, utilising the myth of the Minotaur to examine the state of the university at the heart of the hierarchical labyrinth in “post”-apartheid South Africa. Throughout the work the author wrestles with and self-reflexively highlights her own positionality as a white, middle-class South African woman to examine how this affects the production of this research in ways which serve to preserve the colonial knowledge system. With the rise of the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall student movement in South Africa, demanding for the fall of institutionalised racial hierarchies, the author uses the cover image of narrative formations in the spirit of exploration to think with and through undulating networked forms that could possibly forge new psychosocial pathways towards decolonising and reinventing South African universities. This work offers a unique conceptual and methodological resource for students and scholars of psychosocial and narrative theory, as well as those who are concerned about the politics of higher education, both in South Africa and in other contexts around the world.

Drawing on the South African case, this book looks at shifts in higher education around the world in the last two decades. In South Africa, calls for transformation have been heard in the university since the last days of apartheid. Similar claims for quality higher education to be made available to all have been made across the African continent. In spite of this, inequalities remain and many would argue that these have been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. Understanding Higher Education responds to these calls by arguing for a social account of teaching and learning by contesting dominant understandings of students as decontextualised learners premised on the idea that the university is a meritocracy. This book tackles the issue of teaching and learning by looking both within and beyond the classroom. It looks at how higher education policies emerged from the notion of the knowledge economy in the newly democratic South Africa, and how national qualification frameworks and other processes brought the country more closely into conversation with the global order. The effects of this on staffing and curriculum structures are considered alongside a proposition for alternative ways of understanding the role of higher education in society.

Universities of the 21st century and beyond must be about teaching, learning, research excellence, creativity and innovation as much as they must be about enabling the destiny of students, communities and nations to realize their potential. UJ succeeded in her vision and responsibilities to transform the divisions, prejudices and limitations that often restrain the advancement of society. The story of UJ’s transition to an inclusive, diverse, dynamic, bold and purposeful institution of learning demands to be read by everyone, South African, African and beyond. It is a story of how to be an object rather than the subject of history, while dynamically shaping our shared futures, laying a solid foundation for future generations to be advocates and architects for social change and cohesion. It is a story of courageous and visionary leadership. The book offers our nation profound lessons in leadership that should enrich all our efforts to transform institutions in a sustainable way, to play a meaningful role in building ONE NATION. - DR WENDY LUHABE, Economic Activist, Social Entrepreneur, First Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg

The interwoven futures of humanity and our planet are under threat. Urgent action, taken together, is needed to change course and reimagine our futures.

Picturing research: drawing as visual methodology offers a timely analysis of the use of drawings in qualitative research. Drawing can be a method in itself, as in the research area of Visual Studies, and also one that complements the use of photography, video, and other visual methodologies. This edited volume is divided into two sections. The first section provides critical commentary on the use of drawings in social science research, addressing such issues of methodology as the politics of working with children and drawing, ethical issues in working with both adults and children, and some of the interpretive considerations. The second section, in its presentation of nine research-based case-studies, illustrates the richness of drawings. Each case study explores participatory research involving drawings that encourages social change, or illustrates participant resilience. These case studies also highlight the various genres of drawings including cartoons and storyboarding. The book draws on community-based research from a wide variety of contexts, most in South Africa, although it also includes work from Rwanda and Lesotho. Given the high rates of HIV&AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, it should not be surprising that many of the chapters take up concerns such as the preparation of teachers and community health workers in the age of AIDS, and the experiences of orphans and vulnerable children. Moving further afield, this book also includes work done with immigrant populations in Canada, and with tribunals in Somalia and Australia. Picturing research is an important resource for novice and experienced researchers interested in employing qualitative methodology that encourages rich (yet low-tech) visible data and that offers a participatory, enabling experience for participants and their communities.

The purpose of this book is to establish the first formalised scholarly work on critical management studies (CMS) in the South African context. The book is a collection of seven chapters, six of which employ a conceptual methodology and one of which follows an interpretive paradigm employing qualitative methods of inquiry. CMS is a relatively young school of thought, arising in the early 1990s and still very much a peripheral movement within the academic discipline of management. South Africa has very little scholarship on CMS as precious few scholars work in this space. Furthermore, publication opportunities are virtually non-existent as CMS is virtually unknown in the South African community of management scholars. Thus, this book represents the first academic work on CMS published in South Africa, written and reviewed by scholars who are familiar with the field. The primary target readership would be management academics, but it could also be a useful reference for postgraduate students in management.

"The global disruption to education caused by the COVD-19 pandemic is without parallel and the effects on learning are severe. The crisis brought education systems across the world to a halt, with school closures affecting more than 1.6 billion learners. While nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives varied greatly and were at best partial substitutes for in-person learning. Now, 21 months later, schools remain closed for millions of children and youth, and millions more are at risk of never returning to education. Evidence of the detrimental impacts of school closures on children's learning offer a harrowing reality: learning losses are substantial, with the most marginalized children and youth often disproportionately affected. Countries have an opportunity to accelerate learning recovery and make schools more efficient, equitable, and resilient by building on investments made and lessons learned during the crisis. Now is the time to shift from crisis to recovery - and beyond recovery, to resilient and transformative education systems that truly deliver learning and well-being for all children and youth."--The World Bank website.