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Item Catalytic power of a pandemic: on enacting agency in professional higher education spaces through communities of practice(HELTASA (Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa), 2022) De Klerk, DanieThis chapter critically interrogates the agential metamorphosis the author experienced over an 18-month period during the Covid-19 pandemic, by means of numerous diverse communities of practice (CoPs). As a mid-career academic occupying a middle-management leadership position in a faculty, at a large, research-intensive public university in South Africa, the author first outlines the numerous professional tensions that characterise the dual roles he holds in the faculty. Underpinned by Social Realist principles and Archer’s (1995, 2000, 2005) notions about morphogenesis, the chapter explores the temporal interplay between structures (in the form of CoPs) and agency (in the form of the author’s agential metamorphosis). The chapter postulates that the Covid-19 pandemic served as a catalyst in this interplay, according the author unique opportunities to become part of numerous diverse CoPs that evolved organically during this time. Synergistic with this evolution, was that of the author’s awareness of his own agential potential and the intentionality with which he came to enact agency in the professional spaces he occupies. By linking the CoPs to four professional meta-identities, the chapter allows for critical reflections on how each CoP contributed in unique but interconnected ways to the author’s agential metamorphosis, catalysed by the pandemic. The chapter concludes by making recommendations on how higher education stakeholders can use CoPs and critical reflection about agential potential as ways of eliciting and enacting agency in their own professional spaces.Item Cultural diversity, 'Living Law' and Women's Rights in South Africa(Cambridge University Press, 2013) Albertyn, CatherineThis chapter considers the constitutional recognition of cultural diversity, especially as it is manifest through the recognition of customary law, and its relationship to the constitutional guarantee of gender equality. As the supreme law, the South African Constitution subjects all law (customary, common, and statutory) to the rights and values of the Constitution, including the primary democratic values of dignity, equality, and freedom. This chapter rejects the idea that the Constitution provides a “liberal democratic” framework that constitutes the basis for a “top-down” universalism that tests culture and custom against irretrievably external, liberal standards. Although the Constitution is capable of this, among other, interpretations, the chapter argues that the best – and most transformative – interpretation of the constitutional text is one that enables a deep respect for cultural identity and diversity and consequent recognition of positive cultural norms and practices, while also addressing cross-cutting, intragroup inequalities, such as gender. This interpretation recognizes that transformation under the South African Constitution requires courts to address multiple and intersecting inequalities, and that culture and custom – long ossified in official law – face particular challenges in adapting to contemporary political, economic, and social conditions. Although democratic and cultural values might be rooted in different contexts, South Africa’s history of colonialism, apartheid, and political struggles, as well as its socioeconomic development, mean that there is considerable common ground within and across communities for harmonizing customary law and the Constitution.Item Data to action: An overview of crime, violence and injury in South Africa(Medical Research Council, 2008) Suffla, Shahnaaz; Van Niekerk, Ashley; Bowman, Brett; Matzopoulos, RichardItem Distrust, accountability and capacity in South Africa's fragmented eduction system(Taylor & Francis Group, 2020) Chilenga-Butao, Thokozani; Pakade, Nomancotsho; Ehren, Melanie; Baxter, JacquelineSouth Africa's current basic education system is a product of the apartheid education bureaucracy that was fractured along racial lines, and later significant efforts to amalgamate this fragmented system into a single, inclusive and equal system. This chapter demonstrates how negative apartheid legacies of distrust and a lack of both accountability and capacity took root in apartheid's oppressive and unequal system, as well as efforts by the Department of Basic Education to overturn these legacies in the democratic era. The central argument of this chapter is that, despite formal bureaucratic procedures, expressed through regulations, which should produce more capacity and accountability in the education system, there are also codified practices of governance at the provincial and district levels that produce different outcomes from the intended goal of improved education. This argument is illustrated through a case study of the Schools Rationalisation Project in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.Item Extreme-Case Formulations(Wiley, 2015) Whitehead, Kevin AExtreme case formulations (ECFs) are semantically extreme formulations that invoke the maximal or minimal properties of events or objects, such as “everyone,” “nobody,” “always,” “never,” “completely,” “nothing,” and so on. This entry reviews seminal work on ECFs, identifying their key features and interactional uses. These include their uses in defending against or countering challenges to the legitimacy of complaints, accusations, justifications and defenses; in proposing the objective (rather than circumstantial) nature of a phenomenon; in proposing that some behavior is right or wrong by virtue of being widespread; and in producing designedly non-literal (and thus not accountably accurate) descriptions that display various kinds of investment on the part of speaker, and can also be used in actions such as joking, teasing and irony. In addition, the entry describes some of the applied interactional research in which ECFs have been shown to be an important resource for participants, and thus for analysts.Item Geological Remote Sensing(Acdemic Press, United Kingdom, 2021) Booysen, René; Nex, Paul A.M.; Gloaguen, Richard; Lorenz, Sandra; Zimmermann, Robert; Alderton, David; Elias, Scott A.The field of remote sensing has recently witnessed major innovations that have been translated to Earth science applications. Before they can be used, remote sensing data must be corrected for effects originating from the sensors, the platforms on which they are deployed, atmospheric characteristics, and geometrical constraints. When the data are calibrated and geolocated, they can be used either as physical quantities, such as reflectance and temperatures, or as images. The recent development of new sensors has permitted the remote measurement of a large area of the Earth's surface, with direct geological applications. Additionally, advances in machine vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence, combined with an unprecedented increase in computer processing power, have led to innovative remote sensing data processing techniques that simplify the handling of large amounts of complex data. As a consequence, it is now possible to characterize the geological settings of large areas with precision and even their changes through time. Remote sensing data are now directly integrated into modelling algorithms that describe surface and subsurface processes at different scales. Geological remote sensing currently encompasses multi temporal, multi-source and multi scale approaches. The retrieval of big data in disseminated archives, as well as (near) real time processing are the challenges that remain to be solved. These new applications in geology ensure cost efficient, safe, and rapid surveys and monitoring that not only benefit the research community but society at large.Item Judicial diversity(Juta and Co, 2014) Albertyn, CatherineA judiciary controlled entirely by whites and enforcing laws enacted by a white parliament in which Africans have no representation—laws which in most cases are passed in the face of unanimous opposition from Africans— . . . cannot be regarded as an impartial tribunal in a political trial where an African stands as an accused.Item Narrowing the geographical divide: a critical reflection of an accordance of the Covid-19 pandemic for collaborative professional learning and development(HELTASA (Higher Education Learning & Teaching Association of Southern Africa), 2022) Fontaine-Rainen, Danny; De Klerk, Danie; Frade, Nelia; Ramrung, ArthiGlobally, Covid-19 has disrupted practices within higher education forcing us to relook at how we engage, what we do and how we do things. The pandemic has changed how we teach and how our students learn. It has also changed the way we, as professionals working in higher education, do our work including how we interact with each other. While much has been taken away from our lived experiences and daily realities because of the need to live carefully and safely for ourselves and others, there are some very real, innovative, and genuine accordances that Covid-19 has promoted that provide current realities and future possibilities that are quite different from our past experiences. In this critical reflection we explore how we – four individuals from different universities across South Africa working together on the Student Learning Scholarly Project (SLSP) of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) – are communicating, collaborating, and learning in ways where, among other things, geography no longer matters. In spite of our physical separation, we are able to work together in ways that create and maintain momentum, generate a plethora of new ideas for consideration and action, and in many ways, produce more materials and products to enhance the student experience of higher education in South Africa. We will consider and reflect on what this different way of working means to us, both individually and collectively and what it means for higher education for the now and for the future.Item Race-Class Intersections as Interactional Resources in Post-Apartheid South Africa(Sage, 2013) Whitehead, Kevin AItem ‘Race’, social transformation and redress in the South African social and health sciences(Unisa Press, 2006) Bowman, BrettItem Reflections from implementing a faculty strategy for academic professional learning during a global pandemic(HELTASA (Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa), 2022) Krull, Greig; De Klerk, Danie; MacAlister, FionaJoining a new institution is challenging; doing so eight weeks before the advent of a pandemic was extremely challenging. Two new online learning specialists, together with the support of their manager, in a faculty’s Teaching and Learning Centre at a South African university, reflect upon personal experiences that highlight the challenges and accordance of supporting professional learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The two online learning specialists had to establish personal relationships with each other, their manager and the broader institutional community, in addition to building networks with the academics they needed to support. The faculty team had to work with the central support unit, as well as with faculty teams in other faculties to support academics in their transition to remote teaching and learning. Adopting an ethic of care philosophy, the team conceptualised and implemented various professional learning interventions for academics, while they themselves grew accustomed to the faculty and institution. In a short space of time, many academics in the faculty and institution looked at the team for advice, guidance and reassurance. Fortuitously, the period enabled the team to form/join support networks and communities of practice, both within the faculty and the institution. These experiences laid the foundation for a faculty support strategy for the future, and the design of short courses to further support the professional learning of academics and their capacity to develop and implement pedagogically sound blended and online offerings.Item Road to success programme: a case study(African Sun Media, 2022) de Klerk, Danie; Maleswena, Tshepiso; Spark, LindaThis case study outlines a scholarly approach to implementing Peer Advising in the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand.