Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures: A Renewed Focus on Critical Praxis 3030754286, 9783030754280

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Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures A Renewed Focus on Critical Praxis Yusef Waghid Faiq Waghid Judith Terblanche Zayd Waghid

Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures

Yusef Waghid • Faiq Waghid Judith Terblanche • Zayd Waghid

Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures A Renewed Focus on Critical Praxis

Yusef Waghid University of Stellenbosch Department of Education Policy Studies Stellenbosch, South Africa Judith Terblanche Department of Accounting University of the Western Cape Bellville, South Africa

Faiq Waghid Centre for Innovative Learning Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Town, South Africa Zayd Waghid Faculty of Education Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Town, South Africa

ISBN 978-3-030-75428-0    ISBN 978-3-030-75429-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover pattern © Melisa Hasan This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Foreword

Poststructuralists in the field of higher education reject “self-sufficiency” (this is in terms of learning rather than finance). However, the pressures of being financially self-reliant and less dependent on state resources push higher education to adopt entrepreneurial concepts. Under the notions of commodity and commericalisation (Shattock, 2010), academic output and student academic performance become main concerns; and university ranking becomes a race in delivering its services. The roles of university teachers and students have been challenged; university teachers become workers to cater for the demands of customers—that is, their students. Under such relationships, the pursuit of enhancing critical praxis has been hindered and the civic mission of higher education marginalized. Higher education is expected to go beyond instruction and research. The civic mission of higher education is to prepare students to be socially just citizens. Particularly in polarised and pluralised societies, higher education could facilitate the elimination and eradication of discrimination, oppression, violence and inequality as poststructuralists envision. Leaders at universities have a moral responsibility to defend the civic mission of higher education. “Leadership in any endeavor is a moral task but even more so for educational leaders, for their behaviors are commentaries on how things should be done” (Pellicer, 2007, p. 9). This implies that how leaders run their universities would have effects on other institutions, now and in the future. Leaders and teachers at higher education institutions not only teach values such as fairness, respect and equality, but also these values reflect in the organizations and operations of higher education. Thus they model civic responsibility that would have a significant impact v

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on students. A culture of higher education not only mirrors the civic culture of the society, but is also a shaper of that civic culture. Under polarized and pluralistic societies, nurturing students to understand different perspectives and building a mutually respectful society for learning to live together become very important. Pedagogical affirmations and or orientations in higher education are to teach students to think critically rather than teaching critical content. Students who possess critical thinking skills would critically evaluate the negative consequences of discrimination, oppression and violence (Halpern, 1999), challenge policies or ideas (Ylimaki, 2011) which create inequality. Teaching in higher education should be conducted in conversational style such as democratic dialogues and deliberative inquiry. An open classroom climate facilitates the deliberative inquiry that is connected with learning about democratic values and enhance the development of students’ critical thinking skills. When an open classroom climate is provided to students and university teachers for discussing controversial topics in relation to discrimination, oppression, violence and inequality, they can deliberate on issues openly and respectfully. When students’ awareness of these issues were increased, they could explore the root causes of the problems. Hopefully, students’ critical praxis could lead to the transformation of policies and politics with goals to eliminate and eradicate discrimination, oppression, violence and inequality. A civic mission of higher education is to respond to political, societal and environmental issues through community collaboration. University-­ community (including non-governmental organisations, governments, and schools) collaboration is recognized as a powerful notion for addressing political, societal and environmental issues. The university-community partnership has shifted from meeting solely the needs of universities to mutual benefits of both community and universities (Walsh & Backe, 2013). Although university-community partnerships could have a profound positive influence on political, societal and environmental issues (Lawson, 2010), establishing a reciprocal and sustainable partnership is challenging. Structural and cultural differences between university and community could have the potential to clash with one another (Burton & Greher, 2007; Walsh & Backe, 2013). Tensions could arise when there is a mismatch between goals of communities and universities. Some elements are believed to be critical for establishing successful university-­ community partnerships, such as developing effective communication networks that foster mutual trust and respect, creating clear common

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goals that can bond and empower all stakeholders to nurture synergy and collaboration (Peel et  al., 2002). The strong support from leaders in higher education and the community are crucial for university-community partnerships which could lead to a significant promise for renewal and advancement in solving issues in relation to politics, society and the environment (Essex, 2001). Indeed, higher education would make impacts beyond their walls by preparing students with CTS and collaborating with community. The book of Yusef Waghid, Zayd Waghid, Judith Terblanche and Faiq Waghid on critical praxis offers opportunities to think differently about the university and university-community partnerships. Their narratives constituted by reflective and autonomous human (in)teractions within pedagogy offer illuminating ways to think differently about a transformative democratic politics. Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

Linnie Wong

References Burton, S. L., & Greher, G. R. (2007). School—University Partnerships: What do we know and why do they matter?. Arts Education Policy Review, 109(1), 13–24. Essex, N.  L. (2001). Effective school-college partnerships, a key to educational renewal and instructional improvement. Education, 121(4), 732–736. Halpern, D.  F. (1999). Teaching for critical thinking: Helping college students develop the skills and dispositions of a critical thinker. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 80, 69–74. Lawson, H. (2010). An appreciation and a selective enhancement of the developing model for university-assisted community schools. Universities and Community schools, 8, 5–20. Pellicer, L. (2007). Caring enough to lead: How reflective practice leads to moral leadership (3rd. ed.). Corwin Press. Shattock, M. (2010). The entrepreneurial university: An idea for its time. London Review of Education, 8(3), 263–271. Walsh, M. E., & Backe, S. (2013). School–university partnerships: Reflections and opportunities. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(5), 594–607. Ylimaki, R. M. (2011). Critical curriculum leadership: A framework for progressive education. Routledge.

Preface

Collectively, as authors of this book, we have almost fifty years’ academic experience in higher education. We narrate our stories in blog fashion concerning important constitutive notions of what a university ought to be in a globalised higher education context. Our lived stories are not mere concoctions or fanciful narratives about our experiences over, at least, the last two decades, but more poignantly, political interruptions in the academic projects in which we have been involved. For us, a political interruption implies some sort of rupturing of the social order in which education unfolds with a hint of what that order ought to become. Our academic work is intrinsically political in the sense that what we endeavour to come up with is not disconnected from our democratic aspirations in a post-apartheid South Africa. At the core of this book is the idea that higher teaching and learning should be told in a conversational style. Put differently, we tell our stories in our own styles and attempt to find connections in our academic contributions. In this way, we hopefully render our combined ideas of critical praxis—that is, reflective and autonomous human (inter)actions within pedagogy—in ways that are commensurate with transformative democratic politics. Moreover, we embark upon this intellectual journey as university educators in a democratic South Africa to elucidate how our renewed understanding of critical praxis can manifest in university education. The notion of a critical praxis is tantamount to an act of doing something, in a neo-­ Aristotelian sense, in ways that draw on our free and liberatory agency as a community of scholars. We endeavour to show that we have learnt much from poststructuralism, especially concerning the seminal thoughts of ix

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Jacques Derrida, Jacques Rancière, Giorgio Agamben, and Seyla Benhabib. These theorists would be the first to remind us that they should not be trapped within a particular paradigm of thinking as poststructuralism presents itself, but there are, nonetheless, too many pronouncements in their seminal ideas that suggest their allegiance to a particular kind of thinking. In a philosophical sense, it does not seem right to talk about educational matters without connecting one’s thoughts to the theoretical frameworks in which one’s work finds resonance. Of course, we could have authored this book without ever referring to a major thinker in and about the politics and pedagogy of critical praxis. However, for us, critical praxis is a way of academic living and cannot be disconnected from how we organise our pedagogical work; more specifically, higher teaching and learning. In light of this, we have organised our writing according to ten interrelated chapters. To put it in the terms used by Giorgio Agamben (1994, p. 76) humans have the capacity to ‘will’ their actions—a matter of moving his actions by a practical willingness to do so. Praxis is a form of ‘productive doing’—a form of human action that brings us “into presence” (Agamben, 1994, p.  68). In other words, our critical (free) agency is driven by a will to come into the presence of others and then to enact our productive activities. If academics are not willing to engage in productive activities for its own sake, then it seems very unlikely that such activities would be motivated by their will to do so. It is in such a sense that we use critical praxis—firstly, in our academic activities within universities that are motivated by our willingness to do so; and secondly, in enacting our deeds, mostly teaching and learning, we (re)produce ourselves in the contexts of the work we do. We are willing to teach and learn, and in the actions of teaching and learning, we recognise the possibility that we also can change. Our critical praxis throughout our academic sojourn has been motivated by a willingness to come into the presence of others and concomitantly, to recognise that we are likely to change—that is, to be “moved by will” as Agamben (1994, p. 75) would posit. One can ask why our work is associated with critical praxis and not poiesis—the latter a term also used by Aristotle. Poiesis means that something is brought into being. So, humans have been brought into being like education is brought into being through humans’ doing. However, this does not mean that humans necessarily act upon the education that they brought into being. Praxis, in contrast, refers to a sense of acting upon what has been brought into being. As aptly put by Agamben (1994, pp. 68–69), “central to poiesis was the experience of production into presence, the fact that something passed from nonbeing

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into being, from concealment into the full light of the work”. Consequently, our pedagogical activities are a matter of praxis because such actions are not merely in our presence, but we act upon them. In Chap. 1, we offer an account of who we are, that is, our infancy and how we progressed academically over many years. We specifically focus on our narratives in and about critical praxis and why it is safe to refer to us as poststructuralists; if not, at least, aspiring ones. Put differently, in this chapter, we assert our voices as critical beings who perpetually endeavour to improve upon our democratic practices in the context of university education. We argue that university education ought to be a critical praxis because such a form of education has an intellectual and public responsibility. In Chap. 2, we show why poststructuralism has become endemic to university education in South Africa. Our poststructuralist orientations have given us new lenses to think more critically and deliberately about praxis. We contend that moving into the realm of poststructuralist praxis is, in fact, a post-critical pedagogical initiative that allows us to extend our thinking, acting and being beyond the taken-for-granted. That is, towards an academic realm where much remains in potentiality rather than having been predetermined or fixed with no further academic spaces to venture into. The academic spaces to venture into have some relation to cultivating critical intellectuals who can contribute to social change. In Chap. 3, we proffer an argument that university education ought to be inherently about the cultivation of critique—that is, as its primary intellectual pursuit. Through critique, university teachers and students can produce open, reflective and activist human encounters that can both be harnessed inside and outside of the university. After all, as we show, the university is a public space that relies on critique for its enactments. Our main argument is that a university of critique seems to be most appropriately placed to contend with the complex sociopolitical challenges of the modern day. In Chap. 4, we analyse the idea of democratic imagining in relation to the roles of university teachers and students. Central to any form of pedagogical engagement among teachers and students is the practice of civility. Enacting one’s practices in a decent manner during deliberative pedagogical encounters implies that teachers and students act in non-discriminatory and non-repressive ways in pursuit of enhancing their critical praxis. In addition, when pedagogical practices lean towards non-discrimination and non-repression, there is always the possibility that democratic practices will remain inclusive both internally and externally. In Chap. 5, we argue for a Rancièrean account of teaching whereby students are summoned to

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the pedagogical encounter to speak with authority. We contend that students ought to critically (re)examine their engagement in communities of practice and become co-constructors of knowledge instead of relying only on what they have been told by university teachers. The point about teaching with authority has to do with creating opportunities for students to engage in acts of community without the condition of belonging. In other words, they do not have to belong together to develop shared practices. In Chap. 6, we bring into question the idea of educational nihilism. For us, educational nihilism works against a university’s intellectual pursuits of a controversial kind. Any notion of educational nihilism is inherently flawed as it undermines any act of critical praxis. When nihilism works against any form of university praxis, it seems rather unlikely that criticality and responsibility will be enacted on the part of university teachers and students. In Chap. 7, we proffer an argument in defence of a university curriculum’s relevance to society. We contend that a university curriculum ought to be socially responsive and can become so if such a curriculum is enacted within a paradigm of ubuntu education. Ubuntu education can be engendered through civil, mutually respectful, and socially responsible human encounters. Through such a form of education, there is always the possibility that a university’s curriculum will remain socially responsive and by implication relevant to society. In Chap. 8, we show that a university’s best chance to combat controversy would be to recognise and advance political pluralism. Central to the notion of political pluralism is the possibility that controversial matters will emanate that can be resolved through deliberation, openness and reflective action—those acts of critical praxis that makes the university’s involvement significantly relevant. Political pluralism seems to resonate with a cosmopolitan form of education that accentuates the importance of living together in plurality and criticality. In Chap. 9, we extend the idea of critical practice to one that endorses an enactment of mutual respect. For us, mutual respect can most appropriately oppose any form of risk with which an educational institution might be confronted. Of course, taking risks is not necessarily disadvantageous to university education. However, when risks are not pursued critically and responsibly, the university’s aspiration to become critical might be thwarted. In Chap. 10, we make the argument that any university professoriate ought to remain vigilant in its pursuit to advance scholarship. Concerning our own post-critical praxis, we contend that a university professoriate cannot remain oblivious of the broader democratic politics in post-apartheid

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South Africa, and ought to do something about extending its intellectualism to developments in the broader democratic society. In the main, this book offers insights into how the notion of a post-­ critical praxis can be realised in higher education. Throughout the book we have attempted to situate our praxis within the realm of poststructuralist thought, give an account of our pedagogical actions in relation to the cultivation of socially just human relations, and show how teaching and learning on the African continent can be about producing an alternative future that responds to the political, societal and environmental demands for democratic change. Cape Town, South Africa Bellville, South Africa  Cape Town, South Africa  Stellenbosch, South Africa 

Zayd Waghid Judith Terblanche Faiq Waghid Yusef Waghid

Reference Agamben, G. (1994). The man without content (from Italian by G. Albert, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

Summary [Blurb]

This is a book about a conversation among four academics who consider themselves as poststructuralists in the field of higher education. Their narratives are grounded in theoretical claims of major thinkers of a poststructuralist kind. In addition, they reflect on their encounters with matters pertaining to higher education as a community of scholars without community. They specifically accentuate as to what motivates their pedagogical affirmations and/or orientations; why they are individually and collectively concerned with social justice education; and what they envisage higher education ought to be for alternative futures—that is, futures in which discrimination, oppression, violence and inequality are waning or have been eradicated. In this book, firstly, they tackle the educational matter of poststructuralist human encounters. Secondly, they elucidate the notion of social justice education in relation to their own narratives. Thirdly, they make an argument for higher education, specifically teaching and learning on the African continent, as an alternative future discourse that can be responsive to political, societal and environmental dystopias. Yusef Waghid is a distinguished professor of philosophy of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies, Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is the co-author of The thinking university expanded: On profanation, play and education (London: Routledge, 2020 with Nuraan Davids). Zayd Waghid is a senior lecturer of business and economics education in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. He is co-author of the book, Cosmopolitan education and inclusion: The self and others in deliberation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 xv

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with Yusef Waghid, Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu, Judith Terblanche & Faiq Waghid). Judith Terblanche is a senior lecturer and chartered accountant in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She is co-author of the book, Cosmopolitan education and inclusion: The self and others in deliberation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 with Yusef Waghid, Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu, Faiq Waghid & Zayd Waghid). Faiq Waghid is a lecturer in the Centre for Innovative Educational Technologies at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. He is co-author of the book, Cosmopolitan education and inclusion: The self and others in deliberation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 with Yusef Waghid, Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu, Judith Terblanche & Zayd Waghid).

Contents

1 Cultivating Praxis: On The Convergence of Our Distinctive Post-Critical Narratives (Who Are We?)  1 2 Higher Education and Poststructuralism: Moving Beyond Interpretation 17 3 The University as a Space for Intellectual Pursuits and Critique 31 4 The University and Democratic Reimagining 41 5 The University, Power and Social Change Towards a Period of Post-Massification 51 6 The University and the Presence of Educational Nihilism 73 7 The University, Curriculum, and Social Reality 81 8 The University and Political Pluralism 89 9 The University and the Experience of Risk 97

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10 Reclaiming Empowerment at the University: Professors and Students Are the University107 11 Coda: Higher Education under Reconsideration— Conversations about Critical Praxis119 Index133

CHAPTER 1

Cultivating Praxis: On The Convergence of Our Distinctive Post-Critical Narratives (Who Are We?)

Introduction We begin this book by focussing on who we are. Of course, we are not oblivious to the fact that by attempting to tell others who we are, might entirely not reveal who we are. However, if we do not present ourselves in particular ways, it makes the task of engaging with our thoughts somewhat of an impossibility because letting others know who we are is tantamount to telling them something about themselves. Considering that this is a book about higher education under consideration again, what we reveal about ourselves is connected to our understanding and situatedness within the realm of higher education. Moreover, because we are telling others about ourselves in relation to our critical praxis, it means that we present our conceptions of such actions in an understandable and hopefully, critical way. Our practices are critical, but, as we argue for throughout the book, they teeter on the edge of going beyond the critical. That is, we are post-critical agents who reveal ourselves in relation to our moments of post-criticality. Simply put, we align ourselves with the methodological concerns of poststructuralists who are beings of a specific kind and of any or whatever kind. So, let us begin to provide those narratives that reveal our initiation into poststructuralist pedagogical encounters.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_1

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From Humble Critical Beginnings to Poststructuralist Rebeginnings Yusef’s Infancy After having completed a doctorate in philosophy of education at the University of the Western Cape almost twenty-five years ago, Yusef decided to extend his publication outputs in the field of democratic education vis-­ a-­vis Muslim philosophy. Besides the doctoral experience, his only other encounter with higher education was as a tutor for postgraduate students in philosophy of education. However, the first time he formally applied for an academic position in the faculty where he studied and performed ad hoc tasks, he was not deemed good enough for a junior position. One can only infer that higher education appointments at the time must have been too prestigious, especially for someone who taught physical science to high school students. After all, his experience was limited, and for obvious reasons, he had a very limited publication record; although, having already published internationally as a school teacher in South Africa was itself a very remarkable achievement, according to many of his mentors. Nevertheless, his increased passion for higher education was revitalised when the University of South Africa (UNISA) appointed him as a researcher in distance education at their main campus in Pretoria. This meant that he had to relocate to the capital city. What made his adjustment somewhat difficult was that his family was left behind in Cape Town and his spouse (with a very influential mother-in-law) had no intention to live with him in the capital city, although he had already made several inquiries at local schools for his children’s impending relocation. Well, they never came to Pretoria. If there was ever an opportunity where he could expand his nascent academic career, it was during his very brief sojourn at UNISA. What he learned most, and which to his mind, provided much impetus to his research career, was what autonomy of mind, making your idea public, and commitment to the task at hand, all meant. Firstly, one cannot expect to be dedicated to educational research without autonomously investigating matters pertaining to higher education. At this early stage in his academic career, the matter attracting his attention was liberal understandings of democratic education and how they manifest in distance education and open learning practices. Although he had a choice to pursue a critical praxis concerning democratic education, he was innately drawn to the

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discourse. He considered himself as a change agent who gave much thought to how teaching and learning through distance education could be improved and what the implications of such change would be for societal actions. The second important thing he learned was making one’s research on critical distance education praxis public. This implied, first of all, that one had to identify appropriate academic journals, conferences, and publishing opportunities in relation to which systematic and sustainable educational research can be made public. From the very start, the research theme he pursued involved the cultivation of democratic education. When an article was accepted for publication in a major international journal, he immediately realised that the pursuit of scholarship is what constitutes higher education. That is, the production of knowledge is what distinguishes higher education from other forms of societal living. This is what he wanted to enhance at a very early stage in his academic career. However, not just anything attracted him. Instead, he found much fulfilment in producing scholarly works attuned to a critical paradigm based on human autonomy, empowerment and change—all aspects of university education he already wanted to pursue during his infancy as an academic. Unsurprisingly, one of the most influential books he has engaged with as an emerging scholar at the time was Adriana Hernández’s (1997) Pedagogy, democracy and feminism: Rethinking the public sphere. In this book, Hernández (1997) makes an argument for the cultivation of democratic politics within the broader spheres of educational discourses. This idea captivated his initial pursuit of scholarship, in particular, her view that critical pedagogy is central to any discourse of democracy. Thirdly, when he departed from UNISA, he joined the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) (formerly known as Peninsula Technikon) in Bellville, Cape Town. Although his work as a course materials developer lasted for just more than a year, it was at CPUT where he realised that higher education management is starkly different from the pursuit of scholarship. Furthermore, credible scholarship did not necessarily require a physical presence at an institution; but more significantly, it required a commitment towards academic writing and publishing. The latter is the primary reason why he eventually left CPUT to take up a position at Stellenbosch University, where he is still working in the same department for more than two decades. When he joined the philosophy of education division of his department, he was immediately confronted with who he was and who he wanted to be. It was through the pragmatist

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philosopher, Richard Rorty’s distinction he makes between a systematic and edifying philosopher, that he began to pay serious attention to who he wanted to become. In a way, Rorty’s (1980) Philosophy and the mirror of nature not only assisted him in uncovering himself but also laid the groundwork for how he eventually came to understand the philosophy of education. For Rorty (1980, p.  369), systematic philosophers are constructive, offer arguments, pronouncements, and build for eternity on “the secure path of science”. Of course, his own work involved constructing arguments; however, justifiable arguments have not been considered as uncritical and absolutely monolithic. Therefore, his attraction to Rorty’s idea of philosophy (of education) as an edifying practise seemed to be more tenable. That is, edifying philosophers “want to keep space open for the sense of wonder which poets can sometimes cause—wonder that there is something new under the sun, something which is not an accurate representation of what was already there … (Rorty, 1980, p. 370). The point is, edifying philosophy of education has to do with proffering arguments without claims that such arguments are “the new[ly] found accurate representations of essences” (Rorty, 1980, p. 370). What seems to be significant of edifying philosophy of education is its attempt to remain engaged in a conversation—that is, “a conversation which presupposes no disciplinary matrix which unites the speakers, but where the hope of agreement is never lost as long as the conversation lasts” (Rorty, 1980, p. 318). In the footsteps of Rorty, this doing philosophy of education has to do with being rational, fully human and being able to find agreement with other humans—that is, “to find the maximum amount of common ground with others” (Rorty, 1980, p. 316). Based on the afore-mentioned, he considers himself as one reading philosophy of education intent on actuating change; cultivating a critical praxis of democratic education; and attempting to act humanely, rationally, and responsibly with others. And so it happened that over the last two decades he has embarked upon enacting democratic citizenship education whereby he focussed on the importance of a sense of (co)belonging, coupled with advocacy for deliberative iterations, autonomy and responsibility. The latter focus has been expanded to a reflective openness to what is known and to what remains in becoming—all under the aegis of cosmopolitan education. The change he envisaged manifested in his encounters with colleagues and students in relation to a particular understanding of African philosophy of higher education. Firstly, his critical praxis has been linked conceptually and pragmatically to the cultivation of

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both democratic citizenship education and cosmopolitan education in an intertwined way. He will elucidate his attenuation to pragmatic African philosophy of higher education in the next chapter. Suffice it to say that his actions as an African philosopher of higher education have been shaped by a particular understanding of thinking that was geared towards finding solutions for philosophical problems on the African continent and then, to examine their implications for higher education. This is how he constantly thought about actuating societal change coupled with an enactment of a critical praxis that inspired him to enhance his rationality, humanity, and responsibility towards humans and non-­ humans in an ever-changing world. He was more interested in pursuing his profession as a philosopher of education concerned with pictures and metaphors rather than propositions and statements, as aptly stated by Rorty (1980, p. 12). In this way, his practice of philosophy of education is grounded in an “openness to strangeness which initially tempted us to begin thinking” (Rorty, 1980, p. 9). Simply put, he became more interested, following Rorty (1980, p. 10) in what can be conceived as more defensible than with accurate representations of reality. Judith’s Infancy 2019 represents the twelfth-year of her being a lecturer at a higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. She teaches on a professional programme, where research activities or exposure to research activities are not a requirement for students to obtaining a qualification. As a consequence of such a teaching-centred programme, lecturers on this programme join the academe in their capacity as professionals and not for their research or publication prowess. Although lecturers in this programme will be appointed at research-led HEIs, they often lack the skills to endeavour research activities and are, therefore, hesitant to engage. Consequently, the importance of research as a pedagogical activity, as well as the role of research in creating new knowledge that contributes towards the development of critical skills is largely misunderstood by such lecturers. Judith started working at Stellenbosch University (SU), where the research requirements for lecturers at the Department of Accounting (now called the School of Accountancy), was, at that stage, set at one article in an accredited journal every five years. Currently, she works in the Department of Accounting at the University of the Western Cape where there are no minimum requirements for research activities performed by

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lecturers. At both institutions, however, the future promotion possibilities of the lecturers could be limited due to a lack of research output on their part. Although, all lecturers, with a CA(SA) designation, will at a minimum be appointed at the lecturer level and often a master qualification with limited research output, is sufficient for being promoted to a senior lecturer. It is also possible to be an associate professor (or even a professor) without a doctorate. In addition, possibly because of the nature of the chartered accountancy (CA) profession and the significant emphasis on technical skills and knowledge, if CA lecturers do participate in research outputs, research pertaining to educational matters rather than pure accountancy matters are deemed inferior. During her six years at SU, she ensured that she met the minimum research requirements. She completed a subject-related masters and co-­ authored two articles in accredited journals about accounting education. At that stage, she merely completed the research articles as she remains goal-orientated and meeting the minimum requirements of one article every five years was a tick box exercise. Having said that, the focus of both articles touched on aspects associated with dearly held beliefs of hers, although she deemed it a futile exercise as she knew that research is not valued in her profession and that the impact of the research output will most likely be limited. In her aspirations to pursue a doctorate, she found herself struggling to find a department where she could do so. In line with the theme of her life, she always seems on the fringes, fitting in, but not entirely belonging. She wanted to be the voice from within the profession that highlights the value of the profession, while simultaneously critically assessing the possible shortcomings—for the profession, but most importantly for a country in need of social cohesion. And then she met Yusef Waghid. She found a home to register for her doctorate, but most importantly, through this deliberative encounter, research, particularly research on the philosophy of education, opened up a new world for her and fundamentally contributed to a transformational experience in herself—to such an extent that she now considers herself a philosopher of education-­ in-­becoming with CA professionalism. Waghid et al. (2018) argue that education is essentially a way of transforming or shaping individuals through pedagogical practices into able individuals that can participate and contribute to the cultivation of a democratic society. They argue that,

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[A] curriculum that does not cultivate deliberate engagement is oblivious of any understanding that education in itself is an encounter whereby people listen to one another and proffer articulations in defence of their points of view. When people engage, they bring to the encounter ways of seeing things differently without unjustifiably dismissing the ‘truth claims’ of others. The very act of deliberation allows people to bring their contending views into consideration by one another without the possibility that such views would be unreasonably and unjustifiably dismissed (Waghid et  al., 2018, p. 152)

Encounters, particularly between “different others in the learning processes and spaces” are required for meaningful transformation within individuals (Manthalu & Waghid, 2019, p. 251). As such, unless educational practices cultivate the required capabilities in students (and university educators alike) “toward the fulfilment of their responsibilities and interests that are individual as well as collective” (Assié-Lumumba, 2018, p. 67), education becomes an empty promise. The deliberative educational research encounter between Yusef and Judith, as depicted through the supervisor–student relationship, serves as an example of an educational promise to engaging iteratively. Through this encounter, Judith as a trained CA who possesses technical knowledge of legislative requirements, financial accounting and auditing standards (and affirming her conviction in the value of such technical knowledge), with limited research exposure, encounters the proverbial other. This other can be presented as follows: firstly, in the sense of a person (Yusef) entrenched in the philosophy of education rather than a fellow CA; secondly in the sense of being situated in the field of philosophy of education rather than a business-orientated one; thirdly in the sense of the nature of the material (books and journal articles on the philosophy of education) rather than legislation and standards; and lastly, in the sense of fellow education students rather than colleagues of accounting departments. Deliberative encounters represent the process of transformation in becoming, rather than a measured outcome to be achieved. The focus is then on the process of transformation of particularly the students (but also university educators). The challenge for educational pedagogy is, therefore, to cultivate in students the ability to apply critical thinking, deliberation and problem-solving skills to a constantly-changing contextual future. In this way, citizens will act responsibly and justly. In this example, research created the space for a deliberative encounter.

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Now, it could be argued that the deliberative educational encounter between Yusef and Judith, and the subsequent transformation of her inner self, is not entirely attributable to just only the pedagogical practices employed by Yusef (we will refer back to his notion of a pedagogy of rhythmic care in a later chapter), but it could also perhaps be attributed to who Yusef is as a person. In particular, it is his ability to be comfortable in a space of dissonance, or put differently and in relation to Rorty (as explained above), his ability to be open towards that which appears strange. One such ‘strange’ aspect that Judith will explore in a later chapter is the co-existence of technically skilled experts with a socially just perspective who actively could fight inequality through a particular skillset. This is where Judith currently finds herself as a result of this supervisor–student deliberative encounter. Education represents a promise and equally so, a democratic relation that epitomises acts of participation and social justice. Simply put, the question for critical self-reflection of any person involved at HEIs should be: In what way are firstly you and secondly your educational practices contributing towards the promise of social justice. This is so, as the promise of transformation through education is intrinsically connected to the promise of social justice through a democratic state. Zayd’s Infancy Zayd’s transition into higher education started about five years ago when he was appointed at lecturer level in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The Faculty of Education is housed in the old Mowbray Teachers’ College, which primarily focused on teaching and learning and in preparing pre-service teachers for the school contexts. When the amalgamation between the old technikons occurred in 2005 to form universities of technology, many academics who entered the profession primarily for their role in teaching were presented with a new role and responsibility. Whereas traditional universities in South Africa have and continue to engage mainly in theoretical and fundamental research, universities of technology, in contrast, are more involved in applied research. In other words, a university of technology is concerned with research uptake—that is, identifying the societal needs and problems and developing pragmatic and practical solutions to these issues. The need to engage in research uptake, by implication, presented academics with opportunities for professional development by advancing their academic

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careers to comply with this new role through pursuing masters and doctoral qualifications. Despite this new role concerning research, one central aspect at the time of the amalgamation, at least in the Faculty of Education at CPUT, was to remain teacher-centred—a practice that to no small extent remains at the core of the faculty. When he started at CPUT at the time, it was already ten years into the amalgamation. Several faculty staff members’ qualifications improved and more started to engage in the rigorous process of academic research. As an emerging researcher, Zayd started with a single article that was published in the year before his appointment in an accredited local journal in South Africa. The article, which was published from his PhD dissertation, was regarded at the time as a significant accomplishment for him having been a former teacher in a local high school in Cape Town where research is not the desired outcome of one’s roles or responsibilities. In the same year of his appointment at CPUT, he presented his first paper at an international conference on Emerging Technologies and Authentic learning in Cape Town. The conference served as a significant impetus for him to engage with academics in higher education and to present research, ideas and thoughts. As an emerging researcher, he was fortunate enough to be offered opportunities to present his research abroad as a result of conference grants available at CPUT. However, at least from his own experiences in the Faculty of Education, he experienced hesitancy by particular lecturers to engage in any form of research activity. He recalls one lecturer during a meeting arguing that her role as a lecturer was primarily to teach while dismissing the importance and value of research. Of course, it is not possible to transition a teacher-centred institution into a research-centred one over only ten years. However, this does not mean that one should separate the interrelation and relevance of research and its implications for one’s teaching. The prospects, together with the level of professional development that one acquires through research, is further awarded extrinsic benefits. For one, research at CPUT—albeit being a university of technology—by implication means that one can acquire future promotion opportunities through increased research outputs. One is also able to present one’s research at international conferences through the subsidy received from the government for one’s research outputs. The culture in the Faculty of Education remains teacher-centred, but this does not deter Zayd from embarking on his research journey, having produced his first international co-authored book a year after his appointment. However, despite his

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interest in research, having to balance his teaching load with research is not without its challenges. Having to focus on research meant that he needed to balance his teaching workload to ensure that he achieved the minimum requirement of one co-authored article per year at lecturer level. His teaching, therefore, needed to be both relevant and innovative to allow him the opportunity to do research at CPUT. With CPUT’s goal of increasing research uptake, his teaching, which informs his research, and in turn, his research that continues to inform his teaching, has always supported the use of educational technology. He, therefore, considers himself as an advocate for educational technology to enhance the pedagogical encounters between himself and students. His teaching has mostly been influenced by some of the major thinkers in philosophy. For one, he draws on quite extensively the poststructuralist Jacques Rancière’s (1991) notion of the ignorant schoolmaster. When he embarked on a career in higher education at CPUT, he had in mind initiating his students into pedagogical spaces where their voices would be quite prevalent in the classroom. Initially, the pedagogical encounters that ensued seemed to lend credence to the fact that many students were somewhat dependent on him for knowledge sharing and in the dissemination of information. It was quite surprising that in his first classes, students would show slavish dependence on him and even found it too demanding to analyse and critique his points of view during debates. To address this significant drawback to cultivating equitable spaces in classes for both himself and students, he reflects on Rancière’s (1999, p. 33) notion of equating disruption with exercising one’s equality. For Rancière (1999, p. 33), equality cannot be achieved when those who are deprived of it receive it through others, but also when they engage in deliberations in their own capacities. In other words, when students receive a degree of equality, it would still mean that others must give it to them, which disrupts their agency as equal citizens. In agreement with Rancière (1999, p. 30), equality is a way of attaining justice, and that is what students are entitled to expect from higher teaching and learning. Rancière (2006, p. 97) explains disruptive equality as a way to enact one’s terms with one’s equality, which is a matter of evoking one’s “sense of intelligibility” (Rancière, 2006, p.  97). Disruptive equality involves the expression of voice that would otherwise have been muted. By implication, Zayd explores the means of cultivating equitable spaces for his students through the use of educational technology—more specifically,

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online platforms as a means of enhancing deliberative pedagogical encounters. Through the use of educational technology, he started to play a diminished instructional role as an educator compared with his first encounter with students. In many ways, this pedagogical classroom initiative, with the assistance of the online encounters that ensued, enhanced his enthusiasm for teaching in the academe. He was excited to know what students would comment and how they would understand and develop a critical awareness of goals concerning social justice in society. So, in a way, he summoned my students to use their intelligence and to come to reason about contemporary issues surrounding social injustice in society. However, in summoning them to use their intelligence, he took a slightly different approach when teaching. That is, he became less of a master educator who had to tell his students things of which they were not aware. Instead, he adopted the role of ignorant educator (Rancière, 1991)—who invited students to use their intellectual equality to produce their understanding of contemporary societal issues. The students also realised that they did not just rely on my explanations and comments, but instead came up with their own independent, and at times, collaborative understandings of these societal issues. They were reminded that they could come up with their ways of seeing things and did not have to wait for my explanations. He, therefore, became more of an ignorant (Rancière, 1991, p. 12) educator who did not claim to know the answers to everything or that only his explanations were authentic. Hence, his professionalism was enhanced at CPUT through teaching informed by a poststructuralist conception of equitable dialogue in the classroom. Faiq’s Infancy On completion of his secondary school studies, Faiq decided to enrol for a bachelor’s degree in the biological sciences at a prestigious university in South Africa. To many first-year students, entering a first-year lecture venue with close to 300 students can be a daunting experience. For Faiq, it was a very demanding experience, further exacerbated by him not having the confidence, as a first-year student, to ask questions to lecturers if he was unable to understand what was being presented. It was always a fear that his grasp of pedagogical matters would be deemed as trivial by other students. This resulted in him erroneously trying to figure out what was being discussed or presented at the time on his own, often with little

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success. Additionally, with some subjects, the curriculum was fairly dense. This resulted in many lectures being presented as fifty-minute information sessions, leaving little opportunity for any form of engagement. These chalk-and-talk sessions further unsettled his tertiary educational experience. He was also not a residential student. He was, therefore, not able to engage with his peers if he needed help or if he was struggling. However, over five years of undergraduate study, he was able to establish a network of friends that could support him and ultimately was able to graduate, although two years beyond the time he was actually supposed to graduate. As a science graduate, he felt more like a walking textbook than a graduate that would be able to apply his understanding to a working environment effectively. Subsequently, he decided to enrol for a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) to become a high school teacher, as there were also limited career options for science graduates without honours or masters-level qualifications. During his pursuit of the PGCE, he felt the same frustrations he had encountered during his undergraduate studies, and there were still very few opportunities for him to engage within the confines of the lecture venues with peers or his lecturers. There were, however, some vocal students that were always involved in the class. However, many of his peers were mere passive participants, expecting to be taught how to teach in a school eventually. Having reflected on this over the years, Faiq concluded that not being able to find a voice during these lectures may have also contributed to him being indoctrinated by his teachers and lecturers into what he claims to have been their teacher-centred, chalk-and-talk, approach to pedagogy. He somehow assumed that this was the norm and that education was simply the transmission of knowledge, rather than seeing teaching and learning as an engagement, or embracing the notion that he can alter teaching and learning as well. It was when he was thrown into the deep end during his pre-service teaching practice year, that he began to view education differently. During that time, there was also a teachers’ strike, which saw the use of student teachers having to perform the roles of teachers. During teaching practice, there has been little or no support from lecturers that were based on the main campus. It was also during this time that the social networking site Facebook was launched—a social networking site with over 2.5 billion users. Many of his peers took the initiative to establish a Facebook group through which students could be connected, despite being placed in different schools around the Western Cape province of

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South Africa. This Facebook group proved to be invaluable to him and his peers, as they could support one another on this social networking site. For instance, peers advised on how to deal with challenging students they encountered or how to engage students with complex concepts effectively. The fact that learning occurred beyond the confines of the lecture theatre through the use of social networking technology led to it becoming prominent in his development as an educator in the field of educational technology. After having completed his teacher education, he was employed at a previously disadvantaged high school in the Western Cape. As a science teacher, it was challenging to effectively teach in a laboratory that was structured as a mere classroom. The term “lab” was a gross overestimation for what this facility actually was, namely, a classroom. However, during his first year in the teaching profession, there was a provincial drive by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to promote the use of educational technologies in classroom practices. Equipped with a smartboard, laptop and a data projector, he began exploring ways through which he could create more engaging learning experiences for learners— referred to as learners in a high school—beyond what is commonly referred to as “death by PowerPoint”. This prompted an exploration of the available research at the time of how he could use the range of educational technologies available to make his teaching and learning practices more inclusive. Having first-hand experience of how the social networking site, Facebook, could be used as an educational technology—a digital tool that can enhance the teaching and learning process—in his postgraduate studies, he began exploring how the use of this social networking site could be used by students to democratise teaching and learning practices. As a means to formalise his research, he conducted an action research study, registering for a PhD in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. He was attracted to action research as it allowed him to assume the role of a practitioner, researching ways in which he could improve his own practices as an educator. It was during this time that he was exposed to the poststructuralist ideas of French philosophers such as Jacques Rancière, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. As mentioned earlier, as an undergraduate and postgraduate student, he was frustrated by teacher-centred pedagogical practices, hindering his potential engagement with not only his lecturers but also peers. He became particularly attracted to their poststructuralist ideas as they

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advocate for the disruption of power relations potentially at play during pedagogical practices, something he came to realise within his own pedagogical practices. Eventually, he completed his PhD, titled The democratisation of senior phase science education through the application of educational technology. The study centred around the use of Facebook as educational technology to enact a Rancièrean and Deleuzian conceptualisation of democratic education. Through a poststructuralist lens, he argues for the use of educational technology to offer opportunities, through which students can potentially enact their autonomy, demonstrate critical thinking, enact moments of rhizomatic thinking (which he will elaborate later on in the book), the equalisation of pedagogical relations, the contextualisation of learning, and enhanced participation. Having been lauded for his doctoral research in the field of educational technology, he was appointed as a higher education advisor at Stellenbosch University. During his time at the institution, there was a drive to promote the use of blended learning. Blended learning is commonly described as a blend of face-to-face and online learning experiences. Many of the staff development activities he was involved in centred around promoting blended learning as a mode of delivery, including for instance workshops on how lecturers can create podcasts for student learning. In many instances that he observed at this institution, lecturers adhered to blended learning as a mode of delivery. They lecture face-to-face, with minimal engagement, and place their PowerPoint presentations or recordings of lectures on the institutional online learner management system (LMS). A concern, however, is that such a conception of blended learning, as a mode of delivery, primarily centres around the actions of the teacher. Drawing on many poststructuralists, he tried to incorporate the findings of his doctoral research into the staff development activities. However, since he was relatively new to the higher education spectrum, his colleagues with more experience in dealing with resistant academics, suggested that they speak with one voice. Blended learning was, therefore, viewed as the use of any educational technology as part of an academic’s teaching and learning practices. Consequently, the poststructuralist ideas he had been exposed to were not enacted as part of the staff development activities he was engaged in.

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Summary Our pedagogical encounters with students invariably involve evoking the potentialities of students to speak their minds. In turn, for such evocations to manifest, academics like ourselves ought to be committed to exercise our equality of intelligence. It is not as if we always told students what to do and how they should enact their pedagogical responsibilities. Instead, we expect of them to become speakers themselves that invariably turn our pedagogical encounters into fluid and dynamic movements of transformation. The latter is so because our actions as university teachers are guided by a criticality that summons students to come to speech themselves. Stated differently, our pedagogical encounters are intrinsically democratic because enabling opportunities for talking, listening, and iterations are created for all. Our own critical agency as university teachers not only involves our reflection and openness to what we are confronted with but more poignantly to engender equal opportunities for students to speak their minds. In the main, our new rebeginnings have been guided by our willing capacities to evoke students’ potentialities and for students themselves to act with autonomy, or productive will (Agamben, 1994, p.  76). It would, therefore, not be inappropriate to say that a critical praxis guides our university actions.

References Agamben, G. (1994). The man without content (from Italian by G. Albert, Trans.). Stanford University Press. Assié-Lumumba, N. T. (2018). Conceptualizing gender and education in Africa from an Ubuntu frame. In E. J. Takyi-Amoako & N. T. Assié-Lumumba (Eds.), Re-visioning education in Africa. Ubuntu-inspired education for humanity (pp. 67–84). Palgrave Macmillan. Hernández, A. (1997). Pedagogy, democracy and feminism: Rethinking the public sphere. State University of New York Press. Manthalu, C. H., & Waghid, Y. (2019). Decolonisation as democratising African higher education. In C. H. Manthalu & Y. Waghid (Eds.), Education for decoloniality and decolonisation in Africa (pp. 241–254). Palgrave Macmillan. Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation (from French by K. Ross, Trans.). Stanford University Press. Rancière, J. (1999). Disagreement: Politics and philosophy. Minnesota University Press.

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Rancière, J. (2006). Hatred of democracy. Verso. Rorty, R. (1980). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Blackwell Publishers Limited. Waghid, Y., Waghid, F., & Waghid, Z. (2018). Rupturing African philosophy on teaching and learning. Ubuntu justice and education. Palgrave Macmillan.

CHAPTER 2

Higher Education and Poststructuralism: Moving Beyond Interpretation

Introduction As mentioned in the previous chapter, our philosophical activity centred around an analysis of pictures (representations) and metaphors rather than propositions and statements. Like Richard Rorty (1980) we also followed the lead of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953) that analytic philosophy (and, for that matter, philosophy of education) has progressed towards the post-­ positivist stance. By post-positivism is meant that events in the world are no longer looked at as objective realities external to human consciousness. Instead, meanings are constructed and reconstructed as subjective human experiences internal to the human psyche. Furthermore, what is conceived through human experience is real and always subjected to further interpretation so that nothing in the world passes human scrutiny and that everything is always in the making. By the latter, we mean that nothing is cast in stone and there is always the possibility that things might be seen as otherwise. This brings us to a discussion of what constitutes post-­positivist, more specifically, poststructuralist educational encounters?

Towards Poststructuralist Educational Encounters During the late 1990s in South Africa, higher education discourses were replete with deliberations in and about critical paradigms. Critical paradigms provided lenses through which higher education could be © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_2

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conceived, firstly, as cultivating a self-consciousness among academics as they endeavour towards freeing themselves from repressive ways of seeing the world. Secondly, many academics became increasingly aware that they had to work not only towards self-empowerment but also to establish conditions where they and students can be liberated through emancipatory discourses. In a way, higher education became associated with analyses of self-empowerment and emancipatory endeavours that possibly spilt over to political and social contexts and rectification of a critical kind. Gone were the days of just looking at what higher education could bring to individual enactments and how academics could just remain ignorant of transformative education. That the newly found democratic state encouraged higher education to produce a critically informed student agency is a vindication of the overwhelming liberatory responsibility academics had to internalise. The newly found Council on Higher Education (CHE) and National Research Foundation (NRF) in the early 1990s did not look too favourably at non-contextual higher educational discourses and uncritical research interests of academic institutions. It was a time for critical re-­ adjustment that would challenge the higher educational quagmire in which pseudo educational discourses were seemingly confined. With pseudo educational discourses we refer to the positivistic stances educational practices have paradoxically assumed in the country—that is, everything was considered as external to the human experience. We say educational practices were paradoxically aligned with positivism because education itself is a human encounter that relies on subjective human experiences and, hence, it would seem quite ambiguous to talk about positivist educational experiences. It was Wally Morrow (2009) who first cautioned South African educators of not succumbing to instrumental rationality. Regarded as “a tightly knit web of beliefs, conceptions and practices … [and] the guiding philosophy of markets … rampant consumerism and an obsession with measuring the value of anything … in terms of money” (Morrow, 2009, p. 5), instrumental rationality undermines the value of education. To think of the value of education in terms of financial benefits only is to be remiss of the enormous potential education has in cultivating criticality, deliberative engagement, and a sense of co-belonging—all aspects of a democratic citizenry necessary to engender a post-apartheid and democratic state. Only when education is not exclusively looked at in terms of instrumental rationality, Morrow (2009, p.  11) avers, would South Africans be really

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concerned about the country’s fate because then “we will do well to emphasise discussion in public life, and to foster and nurture the disciplines of discussion in education … [that] will have more promise in fostering … civic pride and patriotism that can resist being interpreted as instrumental values” (Morrow, 2009, p.  11). The point is, debunking instrumental rationality, following Morrow (2009), is a significant step in cultivating a critical democratic citizenry after decades of apartheid rule in South Africa. The implication is, equally, that higher education would be re-examined in relation to more critical and democratic discourses. Put differently, higher educational experiences are human endeavours that are guided by the subjective understandings and consciousness of people who want to see the liberation of society from the shackles of domination and oppression—that is, human empowerment should be a corollary of struggle and contestation. Over the last decade, our own work and responses to the much-needed critical agency required in higher education discourses in the country, have been gradually aligned with poststructuralist tendencies. Not only as a consequence of the apparent tardiness shown by critical educational discourses to manifest but also as a result of an eagerness to make the democratic higher education project work. Much of the work on democratising higher education in South Africa, occurred under the guise of educational transformation. Understandably, human self-empowerment, a recognition that educational discourses had to be representative of the aspirations of the diversity and differences embedded in a democratic populace, and the quest to produce a responsible citizenry became the guiding rationale according to which educational transformation unfolded. By educational transformation we mean two things: the encounters among humans are always subjected to change; and, in empowering themselves, humans open themselves up to continuously look at things as they could be otherwise. Yet, as recognised by the CHE (2016), the emancipatory intent of the newly found higher education curriculum did not do enough to transform, specifically teaching and learning. Although teaching and learning have been influenced primarily by critical democratic discourses, the orientation of such higher education discourses was based mainly on a politics of participation. This implies that the concern of educational transformation was to create opportunities for university teachers and students to participate in pedagogical relations, which in itself was a necessary practice for transformation to occur. However, if pedagogical action was mainly premised on the practice of participation, then the

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possibility for real change to unfold might be placed at risk. Participation alone is an insufficient practice to ensure real change. Engagement, whereby teachers and students demonstrated their willingness and criticality to listen to one another and talk back freely, ought to become an extension of participation if any form of legitimate transformation were to manifest. Participation ensures that teachers and students are in one another’s presence. However, engagement ensures that participation is guided towards meaningful and defensible change. The latter is a way of cultivating praxis, that is, a form of doing (such as engagement) that stimulates teachers and students towards enacting unimaginable change. By imagination we mean that events in the social world unfold in such a manner that we (humans) would not be able to predict it in advance. For instance, at the time of authoring this book, no one could have predicted that the world would experience an almost universal lockdown due to the coronavirus that unexpectedly invaded many societies. In other words, imaginatively—one that is open to the unexpected—we are concerned with the notion of a critical praxis that is geared towards cultivating change through doing in a deliberative way. More specifically, participants should justify to one another their reasons for assuming particular positions and claims of truth. Such a critical praxis should be done in mutually respectful ways whereby others’ different points are never unjustifiably dismissed, and human encounters are considered as always in the making. This brings us to a discussion of why poststructuralism ought to be linked to higher education transformation in South Africa, especially concerning renewed forms of teaching and learning.

An Analysis of the National Review on Teaching and Learning in South Africa Yusef was privileged to be a member of the task team that reviewed higher education in South Africa, with a renewed focus on the last two decades of democracy. The report makes clear that redressing societal inequalities, re-skilling the workforce, economic growth, social mobility, and financial security are important aspects that higher education ought to address (CHE, 2016). Teaching and learning are considered as higher educational discourses that can contribute towards innovative pedagogical transformation (CHE, 2016, p. 146). However, individualised forms of teaching and learning, says the CHE (2016, p. 169), should be transformed into more

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socially embedded practices. In other words, the CHE (2016, p.  169) recognises the importance of transforming teaching and learning into deliberative pedagogical encounters. Put differently, teaching and learning are not just human actions that favour the individual or what individuals pursue; instead, teaching and learning are intertwined with practices of doing things together. That is, a teacher does not teach without the possibility that students learn or that students’ learning can be separated from teachers’ teaching practices. Secondly, graduates in South Africa do not seem to “have cutting-edge workplace skills and problem-solving abilities” (CHE, 2016, p. 170). The latter is a problem in the sense that without having the relevant skills and capacities to be taken up in the labour market economy, the already high levels of unemployment among the youth would invariably be exacerbated. It makes little sense to produce so many graduates, and these highly qualified graduates do not have the relevant skills and capacities to participate in the job market. It is not that these graduates do not have skills, but rather that they seemingly fail to transform their skills into more relevant actions that are commensurate with what the economic market requires. It makes no sense for a higher education system to produce large numbers of philosophers of education who are not required at universities that focus on technical and vocational education, for instance. Thirdly, teaching and learning do not seem to be responsive to the moral and public good with a lack of dissent shown being considered as impeding the transformation towards social justice in the country. According to the CHE (2016, p. 178), higher education is failing its students and that significant change, based on a strong foundation of scholarship, is needed. Many of the difficulties experienced by students when they reach university emerge from problems in the schooling sector but these are unlikely to be resolved in the near future and the higher education sector is responsible for addressing the needs of the students it serves.

Moreover, for teaching and learning to be individualised is to be remiss of the claim that any human encounter is invariably dialogical. One cannot assume that students are empty vessels waiting to be filled as if they do not have the will to make decisions and to form judgments. The transmission mode of teaching has been one of the reasons why apartheid pedagogy has been vehemently opposed as it undermined the autonomy of students. By student autonomy, we imply that students have the capacity to think

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independently and to produce highly reflective actions. There cannot be any meaningful teaching if students are not invited to engage with the thoughts of university teachers. Similarly, for teachers who think they can just teach without being questioned by students is to undermine the very crux of teaching—that is, to engage with others. The CHE correctly criticises uni-directional teaching as it undermines the voices of students. And, when student voices are not heard, the possibility exists that their opinions and thoughts would be excluded from any legitimate educational practice. Moreover, any plausible pedagogical approach ought to be underscored and guided by the presence of deliberative engagement. Just like teachers have something to say, students have an equal right to respond to their teachers’ claims of truth—that is, they should have the authority to talk back. Without a dissenting and critical voice, pedagogical encounters would be indefensible human acts. Also, if teaching and learning cannot be directed at achieving socially just human relations, there would be no point in teaching and learning at all. Here, we refer to socially just actions as those human activities that do not exclude the involvement of others. Cultivating social justice within pedagogical encounters implies that teachers and students would express their equal intelligence in ways whereby they can think differently about that which teachers teach and students learn. In this way, teaching and learning that are morally grounded do not pay lip service to what it means to teach for equality. The point is, teaching and learning would be implemented more defensibly if enacted along the lines of poststructuralist nuances—that is, teaching and learning should become more open to cultivating equal relations, or socially just relations among university teachers and students.

Towards Poststructuralist Pedagogical Encounters Most of the work we have been engaged with involved the cultivation of poststructuralist pedagogical encounters. Perhaps it would be correct to say upfront that we did not commence our academic careers as poststructuralist beings. Instead, as we continued to practise our profession as university teachers, we were somewhat stealthily assimilated into higher education discourses that have been biased towards seeing things anew and reimagining things as they could be otherwise. Somehow, our own pedagogical struggles within the higher education institutions where we work confronted us in such a manner that we had to look at pedagogical

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matters in more nuanced and insightful ways—somewhat different from what we have witnessed unfolding in the academe. We now offer our narratives concerning effecting pedagogical encounters of a poststructuralist kind: Yusef’s Narrative When he enters a university classroom, he introduces the topic and then asks students to respond to what they understand by the topic under discussion. In other words, teaching and learning are instantly presented as an intertwined practice and students are thus provoked to speak their minds. After he has listened to students, he summarises their claims and then begins to respond to students’ understanding in the context of the topic under discussion. Alternatively, he relies on volunteers to summarise what has been taught or discussed. It is not as if he (the teacher) merely tells students what they should know. Instead, he treats them as listening and speaking beings in terms where they can equally respond to what they are summoned to learn about. What he then does is to encourage deliberative engagement among students and himself. Such a notion of teaching is premised on the idea that teachers can learn from students and vice versa. Students also have the right to question the assumptions of the teacher; in fact, they are encouraged to do so in the classroom. It does not matter how contentious the topic might be, but for Yusef, teaching should not be disconnected from critique—that is, students are challenged to speak their minds and to take risks in the pursuit of more reasonable judgments. In this way, pedagogical encounters in Yusef’s university classroom are constituted by provocation, disruption, and summoning students to come to speech. The question is, what makes Yusef’s praxis post-critical? In the first place, pedagogical encounters involve teachers and students asserting their autonomies. Of course, a teacher has pedagogical authority as he or she knows his or her subject discipline. However, this does not mean that students cannot engage with that which they are being taught. In fact, students are invited to speak as they have the autonomy to (re)construct meanings. Post-critical teaching means that students engage with his (Yusef’s) seminal ideas and then ask questions about what they are being taught. In this way, deliberative inquiry underscores what both teachers and students do. When students’ potentialities are evoked, they can do things for themselves in the sense of even guiding the deliberations towards

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the pursuit of equality. Jacques Derrida’s (1997) idea that humans be encouraged to take risks constitutes much of his (Yusef’s) teaching as students are provoked to come to understand and even to take risks in the pursuit of gaining more understanding. Taking risks is a form of exercising autonomy. Students exert autonomy when they pursue risk-taking with the understanding that there is always more to know and learn. Pedagogical encounters are not about finding the truth; it is about taking risks in the pursuit of finding inconclusive answers and many truths to that which one is exposed to and wants to know about. If so, then there are always pedagogical spaces for the surprising and the unexpected. Put differently, teaching for Yusef is not about finding or construing a picture in the Wittgensteinian sense, but rather, to come up with what seems improbable and to remain open to the unexpected, as Derrida would encourage us to do. In this way, teaching is always open to what is still to come; and this is what makes his teaching a democratic endeavour. It is not that the teacher is saying everything. Instead, the teacher engages with students, and likewise, the students critically respond to him. By criticality is meant they students take his ideas into controversy and proffer alternative perspectives that seem to be more illuminating and convincing than his. So, for Yusef, poststructuralist teaching requires that one be informed and at times guided by students’ take on pedagogical matters. Judith’s Narrative Judith’s teaching and learning practices are significantly restrained by a prescriptive competency framework prescribed by the professional accountancy body, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). The competency framework lists, in detail, all competencies that higher education institutions are required to develop in their graduates in order for graduates to be deemed able to enter the accountancy profession. Due to the highly technical content, the volume of the content to cover in a limited timeframe and the large class sizes, teaching and learning practices in accounting education often tends to be without any pertinent focus on achieving socially just human relations or encounters. Put differently, the teaching and learning practices are often opposite to those envisioned by CHE, namely that of deliberative pedagogical encounters with a focus on addressing societal challenges (CHE, 2016). It is not that the competency framework is silent on aspects such as responsible leadership

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or critical thinking; however, how academics interpret and apply for example the development of the skill of critical thinking, is questionable. In part, the risk of students graduating and being unemployed is low, as the business and new-market economy absorb graduates with the technical knowledge and competencies of accounting students rather eagerly. However, the narrow focus on technically-skilled graduates also creates hindrances to the social justice agenda. Within this particular environment, in a limited way, Judith attempts to incorporate a praxis that is post-critical in her teaching and learning pedagogical practices. In the first instance, Judith developed, in association with business experts, an online project in 2017, focusing on entrepreneurship. Students were challenged through reflection exercises (unknown and unfamiliar to them) to explain and voice new thoughts or challenged thinking patterns in relation to being a job creator, rather than a jobseeker. Accounting graduates leave HEIs and immediately join a firm to enter into a three-year training contract, and as such, they often view themselves as job-seekers. The South African economy, however, requires that knowledgeable, able and skilled individuals actively create employment opportunities that require a different mindset, particularly concerning risk and security. In the second instance, Judith incorporates mini-breaks during her lecture time, called an ‘advert break’ where she asks probing questions about relevant real-life or business matters that are in the news. During such a mini-break, Judith sometimes reads relevant information from a news article and explicates various possible interpretations to said news report, while simultaneously encouraging students to comment or to ask provocative questions. Although it is not truly a deliberation in the fullest sense, it is nevertheless an attempt, amid the overwhelming volume of the curriculum content, to stimulate critical thinking. Often these ‘interruptions’ lead to ensuing conversations in her office and since consultation time is not constrained by a time-limit, such as a lecture period, the conversations lead to meaningful deliberation where she and the student listen to the views of one another. Thirdly, as Judith was provoked through the supervisory encounter with Yusef the past three years while pursuing a doctorate—to think differently by considering matters of deliberation, human relations and social justice of equal importance to that of the technical knowledge, she also endeavours to engage with colleagues in a similar manner to disrupt or challenge their thinking and deeply held beliefs about the profession and

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education. Currently, any meeting or conversation among accounting staff on topics related to teaching and learning and possible curriculum changes results in moments of deliberation as Judith deliberately raises provocative viewpoints to ensure that the accounting academics can voice their viewpoints and rethink normative positions in response to the claims of others. Although Judith teaches within an environment that is predominantly driven by technical knowledge and new-market economy needs, in a small way over the past three years, she endeavoured to transform her teaching pedagogical approach and interaction with colleagues. She went from a position of imparting knowledge to the student and maintaining the status quo in accounting education towards a more critical poststructuralist praxis. This includes engaging with students and fellow academics in such a way that the prospect exists that both Judith and the other, whether student or fellow academic, could foster a more socially just awareness. Zayd’s Narrative The South African Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) policy was designed to assess teacher education programmes in higher education institutions (DHET, 2011). The MRTEQ policy aims to provide teacher education institutions with guidelines for the development of programmes and curricula and to set minimum standards for different qualification types for specific purposes in higher education. However, the MRTEQ (DHET, 2011) and revised MRTEQ (DHET, 2015) policies lack clear guidelines in terms of the types of pedagogies needed within teacher education programmes. Of course, the absence of clear guidelines in both the MRTEQ policies presents teacher education institutions with the task of adopting effective pedagogical approaches to assist higher education educators in effectively preparing pre-service educators for the teaching profession (Waghid, 2017). Zayd’s philosophy of teaching in response to this major shortcoming of the MRTEQ policies (DHET, 2011, 2015) is oriented towards enhancing the teacher attributes of his students as aspirant educational practitioners in the economic, social and cultural spheres of society. More specifically, his teaching philosophy is foregrounded within Shulman and Shulman’s (2004) Fostering a Community of Learning (FCL) framework in which six clusters are considered as constituents of accomplished teachers, namely

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the cognitive, dispositional, motivational, performative, reflective and communal clusters. In cultivating equitable conditions in each of his classes, his teaching is firstly directed towards initiating his students into discourses of education at both micro and macro-level, which is premised on the notion that by integrating positively disruptive pedagogies in the classroom would hopefully cultivate their cognitive and critical thinking attributes. His use of positive disruption in a poststructuralist sense is linked to evoking the potentialities of students and encouraging them to act autonomously. His teaching is, therefore, supported through the use of both educational technologies and film whereby students are stimulated to learn with rather than through technology. Secondly, initiating his students in the field of business education along the principles of social justice is certainly a means towards exercising his students’ social principles and values of doing good for the benefit of themselves and others within the social contexts they are situated. Thirdly, he contends that by personally motivating his students would assist them in remaining focused and committed to sharing the vision of CPUT’s Faculty of Education—striving to achieve teaching excellence for the benefit of role players in their educational contexts as aspirant educators. Fourthly, integrating student-centred pedagogies would further assist his students in demonstrating their literacy skills in distinct contexts through interactive and online means of communication in pedagogical spaces of co-constructing knowledge. Fifthly, using blended learning as a situated practice in which his students can reflect on their thinking processes concerning their peers. They would invariably be provoked to use their abilities to articulate themselves and evaluate and monitor their thinking processes, which are necessary for generating their dispositions towards the cultivation of social transformation. Lastly, infusing educational technology in his teaching is undoubtedly necessary for creating spaces in which his students can collaborate and deliberate as part of a community of inquiry. In this regard, his teaching draws on John Dewey’s (1916, 1959) emphasis on collaborative constructivism in which collaboration through deliberation would assist students in assuming responsibility for their learning. Hence, the use of educational technology in supporting his teaching is aimed at cultivating communities of inquiry in which students are taught to reflect on their cognitive, social and teaching presences in class, as well as their educational contexts. Of course, this level of commitment to teaching, requires considerable effort, creativity and flexibility on his part. Simply explaining information or

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techniques to students in which they are expected to replicate information as subordinates undermines rather than enhances critical and creative thinking. Therefore, his teaching is always aimed at reflecting on and examining curriculum materials from different perspectives, seeking different structures within it and different angles from which to approach it, to enhance it for the benefit of his students. In many ways, he considers himself as a deliberative teacher—one who demonstrates a willingness to listen to others, (re)articulate justifiable points of view and recognise that students have a pedagogical right to talk back and be heard. Faiq’s Narrative When Faiq joined Stellenbosch University as a blended learning advisor, he initiated a massive open online course (MOOC), titled Teaching for Change: An African Philosophical Approach. Not only did he act as the instructional designer for the institution’s first-ever MOOC, but he was also responsible for tutoring students online. It was during his critical engagements with MOOC participants that he stretched his involvement beyond just making sense of their (participants’) assumptions and claims, but also challenged them to move beyond their understanding of African notions of teaching and learning. In his responses to students, he would often use an inquiry-based approach whereby he would invite them (students) to come up with answers to their concerns rather than providing them with his answers. Put differently, his pedagogical engagement with students took the form of autonomous and reflective student learning while his role as a mentor of the MOOC was inclined to a more advisory role—one where his students would be provoked to think for themselves. Summary  In this chapter, we have shown that a renewed understanding of critical praxis ought to be extended into the paradigmatic pedagogical spaces of poststructuralist teaching and learning. Our understanding of poststructuralist teaching and learning involves cultivating autonomous speaking and listening beings (teachers and students) that can take risks in the pursuit of what is still to come. Based on deliberative encounters, teachers and students can take risks and exercise their autonomy and responsibility as they endeavour to (re)construct events in the world. A transactional mode of teaching is favoured, and transmission is not always considered as a salient practice to pedagogical enactments. What remains dominant in all our university encounters is the possibility to summon students to learn on their own without always being told what to do.

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References CHE. (2016). South African higher education reviewed: Two decades of democracy. Council on Higher Education. Derrida, J. (1997). Politics of friendship (From French by G. Collins, Trans.). Verso. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. Macmillan Company. Dewey, J. (1959). My pedagogic creed. In J. Dewey (Ed.), Dewey on education (pp.  19–32). Teachers College, Columbia University (Original work published 1897). DHET (South African Department of Higher Education and Training). (2011). Minimum requirements for teacher education qualifications. Pretoria: Department of Higher Education and Training. Government Gazette 583 (34476). Retrieved April 1, 2020, from http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov. za/files/34467_gon583.pdf DHET (South African Department of Higher Education and Training). (2015). Revised policy on the minimum requirements for teacher education qualifications. Government Gazette 596 (38487). Pretoria: Department of Higher Education and Training. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from http://www.dhet.gov. za/Teacher%20Education/National%20Qualifications%20Framework%20 Act%2067_2008%20Revised%20Policy%20for%20Teacher%20Education%20 Quilifications.pdf Morrow, W. (2009). Bounds of democracy: Epistemological access in higher education. HSRC Press. Rorty, R. (1980). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Blackwell Publishers Limited. Shulman, L. S., & Shulman, J. H. (2004). How and what teachers learn: A shifting perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(2), 257–271. Waghid, Z. (2017). Integrating a constructivist blended learning approach in a third-year entrepreneurship education class. Paradigms: Journal for Research and Innovation in Teaching and Learning at CPUT, 20(1), 60–73. Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations (German by G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). Basil Blackwell.

CHAPTER 3

The University as a Space for Intellectual Pursuits and Critique

Introduction At the time of writing this book, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) in South Africa, which provides advice to the Ministry of Education, have been confronted with the challenge of instability and dysfunction at some universities in the country. The CHE’s main concern has been with the increasing student protestations and disruptions that seem to undermine higher education’s academic projects at some universities. If a university’s mission ought to be about advancing knowledge and pursuing disciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary knowledge interests, then it seems odd and unacceptable that the university sector is marred by instability and dysfunctionality that seem to work against its intellectual pursuits. In this chapter, we rethink the notion of intellectual pursuits and critique that have been associated with university education for more than two centuries and offer a defence of such actions concerning what it means to be a responsible university education sector.

University Education and Disruption Instability and dysfunctionality in a philosophical sense can hardly be associated with disruption because the former conditions seem to impede and undermine the legitimate functioning of an institution. In contrast, disruption involves heeding to the aspirational ethos of an institution towards © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_3

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a new use in a somewhat constructive sense. For instance, a university that undergoes disruption opens itself up to new opportunities and ways of organising itself instead of being splintered irreparably into a chaotic institution. Here, we specifically think of students burning down a university library as a way to vent their frustration and anger at the institution’s management. Disruption is linked to the practice of opening up the institution (like a university) to new ways of being and acting. Thus, a university being ruptured is an institution that concerns itself with the act of emancipation. By emancipation, we mean the reconfiguration of the institutional order such that those who seemingly have no power to install dissensus on the grounds that they are excluded (Rancière, 1998). For instance, when students are excluded from university management processes that make decisions on pedagogical matters, they (students) intervene to rupture the institutional order to be heard. In other words, students speak out as a demonstration of their equal status in the institution and then set out to reconfigure it—that is, changing it from inside. In Rancièrean fashion, they interrupt the chain of reasons that dominate the institution—those proffered by the university managers—to create new forms of thinking and understanding. Likewise, when students engage with university teachers in pedagogical encounters, they are not just satisfied with what they hear from teachers. Instead, they endeavour to intervene in disagreement with teachers in a way that makes learning more illuminating. In this way, they disrupt the pedagogical encounters by coming to speech based on exercising their equal intelligence. This brings us to a discussion of university education concerning the practice of critique—the latter being considered as an instance of disruption.

University Education and Critique For us, a post-critical praxis invariably involves practising the notion of critique. For an understanding of critique, we are drawn to both Michel Foucault (1988) and Stanley Cavell’s (1979) notions of critique. In a Foucauldian way, critique is linked to experiencing sudden upheavals of thought that provokes one to think beyond the taken for granted. This Foucault refers to as engaging in practical criticism, whereby one comes up with ways to resolve undesirable situations (Foucault, 1988). Cavell (1979) links the notion of critique to looking at things sceptically—that is, living with scepticism means always to ask questions about what one encounters. In other words, when one engages with others, one becomes

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answerable to them and simultaneously interrupts one’s actions to allow the other to make sense of matters for herself. In turn, one raises doubts (distrust) about the transactional relationship with others so that both one and others can come up with things anew (Waghid, 2019, p. 77). In Cavellian fashion, living with scepticism involves moments of attachment and detachment when people remain in conversation with one another, yet, temporarily suspend their attachment as they withhold their views to allow the other to render her views uninterruptedly. Thus, when people embark on critique, they practically criticise to resolve undesirable situations, as well as raising doubts about one another’s rejoinders. Moreover, critique is always related to notions of discernment and reflexivity. To be discerning implies that one is capable of making sound judgments about, say, pedagogical matters. Furthermore, to be reflexive implies that one thinks deeper about matters of public concern. Together, being astute in one’s judgments and being reflexive about one’s judgments, is tantamount to acting with critique. We now offer accounts of critique in relation to our pedagogical encounters.

Our Narratives on Disruption and Critique in the Context of Teaching and Learning Yusef’s Moments of disruption and Critique In Yusef’s supervision with students, he initiates the encounters by asking critical questions pertaining to students’ investigations. Posing critical questions are not about merely assessing students’ levels of understanding but more poignantly, ascertaining whether they actually understand their own research interests. Occasionally, as the encounters evolve, Yusef interrupts the conversations by challenging students to think beyond the work they critically analyse. In turn, he creates the expectation that students talk back and even challenges them on particular theoretical assumptions about their scholarly endeavours. In the main, he is primarily concerned with why and how students’ work connects with existing theories on a particular subject before provoking them to think deeper about their work. In other words, students’ potentialities are evoked to conjure up ideas they might not have thought of on their own. Subsequently, students are required to revise or complete their writing in light of critical comments they have internalised during deliberations.

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In addition, Yusef insists that students’ potentialities be evoked so that they can take ownership of their research. Instead of always telling students what to do, he provokes them to come up with their own explanations and understandings of things. In this way, students’ learning is ruptured in the sense that they see the need to look at theoretical issues in ways that are commensurate with their pace of learning. Of course, taking his cue from the Council on Higher Education (CHE, 2016), one of the major criticisms about doctoral studies in South Africa is their softness on theory. Any study that does not engage vigorously with theory takes for granted that theory is external to the study and, as the CHE (2016) recognises, theory is being dealt with superficially and scantily. Now engaging with a theoretical idea in a very truncated way is to be remiss of touching on major thoughts that impact understanding. One can hardly take doctoral studies seriously that disrespects theoretical knowledge. Such studies would not only undermine the very institution of knowledge but also be deprived of plausible scientific analyses that might otherwise inform such works. In any case, we find it inexplicable that doctoral studies be remiss of theory because the practice cannot be expected to improve without reconsidered theoretical assumptions. Judith’s Moments of disruption and Critique Even though Judith contends that she does not overly demonstrate the typical characteristics of those attributed to accountants, the student– supervisor relationship with Yusef (2017 to 2019) did highlight apparent differences between Judith (an accountant) and Yusef (a philosopher). This was particularly evident through Yusef’s style of provoking Judith in finding her voice as a researcher. Since Judith over-analyse processes and procedures, she was able to quickly identify areas of comfort and discomfort, ready with a subsequent plan initially to work around those areas of discomfort. She swiftly identified a research problem and was only focused on solving the issue, without a willingness to really reflect or internalise what the issue entails. In a sense, she was focused on the goal or outcome, which is habitual to the accountancy profession, rather than embracing the journey and development phase—the process of arriving at the outcome. In a sense, she was disengaged from herself as being part of the research outcome. Initially, Judith avoided matters pertaining to theoretical research assumptions and existing theoretical frameworks and writing as she felt,

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instead, more comfortable with reading, rather than writing, and matters directly linked with her field of expertise, namely accountancy education. Yusef, however, remained primarily concerned with allowing her to learn at her own pace and subsequently kept on recommending certain relevant and sometimes not so relevant books of theorists. In addition, whether via electronic communication or in person, not one encounter fitted in the planned version of the event that Judith envisioned. Yusef rarely answered a direct question, but instead provoked Judith as he answered questions with a question of his own. Allowing, therefore, that Judith comes into her own by not providing answers—only further prompted her to question things, which could perhaps lead to greater development and growth within her thinking and articulation capacity. This was an important aspect of the student–supervisory relationship. Judith argues in her research that accounting education in South Africa should transform from education that is primarily focused on students’ ability to master technical knowledge to education that focuses on the development of the humanity of the student. This should happen to such an extent that the future chartered accountant is viewed as a socially just and responsible business leader with a particular technically astute knowledge-base. Nevertheless, Yusef provoked Judith to engage fully, in her full humanity. If he did not do so, the research study would have been fundamentally flawed as she would have argued for a change in the profession that she either did not believe in herself or was unwilling to open up to. Yusef’s supervision style of disruption to provoke a student into her own learning, resulted in a Judith-in-becoming in line with the notion of Walker (2008, p. 158) that education is a process focused on a changed human being—as such “[e]ducation involves a becoming”. In her own time, roughly one year later, when Judith felt comfortable enough to start writing, in an attempt to articulate her conceptual and theoretical framework, Yusef’s unique supervisory style of posing critical questions through care that is rhythmic, have resulted in further learning that ensued in Judith. Coming from a professional education background, where the focus is on exhaustive teaching of technical content, the unfamiliarity of research as pedagogy created uncertainty. Certainty creates a feeling of safety for Judith, while Yusef seems to thrive in the moments of uncertainty as it holds the potential of growth. This moment of potentiality he (Yusef) demonstrated throughout—either by disrupting thoughts or thinking patterns that Judith deemed to be valuable or by strengthening her reasoning, articulation and re-articulation of an argument through

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actions of deliberative dialogue. A significant reason why Judith was able to hand in a completed dissertation was because she was allowed to develop her own voice. This Yusef enabled through, what he calls a pedagogy of rhythmic care in his book titled Towards a philosophy of caring in higher education: Pedagogy and nuances of care (Waghid, 2019). Waghid (2019) argues that practical critical caring as pedagogy is rhythmic in the sense that educators should hold back their judgements in such a manner that students are invited and encouraged in re-elucidating their judgments and insight. Waghid (2019, p. 44) argues that he sometimes listens to the “unjustifiable views [of students], without pointing out their mistakes. He [Yusef] would allow them to make those mistakes only with the possibility that they might recognise their own mistakes in the light of ongoing conversations about concepts in class”. Similarly, Judith experienced how Yusef was very supportive and encouraging about her writing initially, thus holding back on being overly critical in the evaluation of the detail. In that way, she gained confidence in this unfamiliar practice, kept the momentum and continued writing. Slowly Yusef started, with each new chapter submitted, to ask more probing questions that resulted in Judith having to re-think and re-articulate certain parts of individual chapters. Through this rhythmic holding back of judgment at times, just to give the judgments at other times, Yusef allowed Judith to grow in the articulation of her own thoughts and understanding. This form of critical care mimics the Foucauldian and Cavellian notions of critique—to move beyond the seemingly accepted ways of thinking and doing to explore alternative or new ways of seeing (through learning). Albeit, what is required is a willingness to remain in conversation; harsh initial judgement will abruptly end a deliberation, while moments of withholding one’s views (in this example Yusef’s views) could evidently lead to an answer to a research problem (the outcome of Judith’s research problem) if the student feels welcome in the conversation. Zayd’s Moments of disruption and Critique Many of the students where Zayd is situated reside in historically disadvantaged areas in both the Western Cape, South Africa and throughout the world. To a large extent, they may have encountered numerous systemic and societal barriers to effective learning in their communities before their initiation into teacher education. These include, but are not limited to, overcrowded classrooms in a large number of historically disadvantaged

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schools; lack of basic and appropriate learning materials; poverty, safety and security; and the HIV/Aids pandemic. Barriers to effective learning are further exacerbated by some students’ inability to adapt to use the educational technologies that CPUT offers. In this regard, a large number of students in Zayd’s first-year classes find using the e-learning platform system a challenge. However, this is also quite prominent in his postgraduate classes as well; more specifically middle-aged to elderly students whom he finds reluctant to use the e-learning tools at the university. Considering many of his first-year students are new to higher education, the majority of these students are also reluctant to participate in debates and discussions. Of course, their reluctance is often challenged by himself in the sense that his teaching approach is highly deliberative, combining a socialisation and individuation approach. That is, students are provided with notes and prescribed texts, but they are also stimulated to critique and challenge. One approach to stimulate critical thinking among his students has been through the use of defamiliarisation. Defamiliarisation as a pedagogy involves teaching or guiding students to look beyond dominant versions of history and entrenched or invested canons and move the focus towards an awareness of what is, or has been, omitted, not represented, and not accounted for, and relating to previously marginalised cultures and experiences (Waghid & Hibbert, 2018a, 2018b). More specifically, one would broadly define this as the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way (Waghid & Hibbert, 2018a, 2018b). Thus, in 2018, he started exploring defamiliarisation as a teaching method and how it could be used in the process of beginning to disrupt the teacher education curriculum in the Faculty of Education at CPUT. In addition, he explored possible ways in which defamiliarisation may expand his students’ critical perspectives. The use of defamiliarisation in his teaching contributed positively towards disrupting students’ thoughts regarding contentious topics in higher education. As a pedagogical technique, it is a means towards cultivating equitable spaces for student learning. Furthermore, the pedagogical approach developed in his students the capabilities to look at contentious topics in society such as poverty, inequality, and many forms of social injustices from a defamiliarised perspective with the desired aim of cultivating inclusivity and diversity. It is a way of deepening his students’ social, economic, political, and cultural awareness concerning identity and power. This is due to the fact that cultural understandings have some affinity to

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people expanding their political awareness, intellectual growth and alertness. If university students’ capacities for learning and critical reflection are cultivated through forms of defamiliarisation that highlight instances of contentious topics such as colonialism, the possibility exists that higher education contexts can be shifted towards a more disrupted pedagogical space. Faiq’s Moments of disruption and Critique Faiq’s concern with some of the pedagogical practices at his institution involves trying to shift the mindsets of academics from focusing their pedagogy on the transmission of information to a pedagogy of criticality. His main contribution towards the cultivation of a liberatory pedagogy is to establish learning design opportunities for academics to improve their pedagogical practices. In a way, he disrupts their thinking about their teaching practices and provokes them to think differently about teaching and learning. Considering that the institution where he works is considered as one that focuses primarily on teaching the disruption of archaic and doctrinaire approaches to teaching, it becomes a highly transformative pedagogical act. Similarly, in his consideration of the institution’s mission to equip students with particular graduate attributes such as being critical thinkers after the completion of their university studies, Faiq seems to be very active in initiating staff into discussions about feasible graduate attributes. His main contribution to the initiation of staff involves advocating that academics learn to act critically through their work, which, in turn, would invite students to act critically themselves.

Summary In this chapter, we have looked at university education as an intellectual pursuit framed according to the practice of critique. Our narratives accentuate our students’ desire to want to learn and be provoked by our critical engagement with their learning. What is particularly noteworthy about a pedagogy of disruption is that the act of rhythmic caring guides such a pedagogy—to hold back and not to judge prematurely in order that the other feels free to articulate truth claims. Critique, as has been argued for, takes on at least three forms: practical criticism, scepticism and responsibility. Unless university educators consider their intellectual pursuits in light

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of critique and its concomitant link with rhythmic caring, higher pedagogical encounters will not necessarily be genuinely transformative.

References Cavell, S. (1979). The claim of reason: Wittgenstein, skepticism, morality, and tragedy. Oxford University Press. CHE. (2016). South African higher education reviewed: Two decades of democracy. Council on Higher Education. Foucault, M. (1988). Politics, philosophy, culture: Interviews and other writings 1977–1984 (L. D. Kritzman, Ed.). Routledge. Rancière, J. 1998. Disagreement: Politics and philosophy. Translated from French by I. Rose. University of Minnesota Press. Waghid, Y. (2019). Towards a philosophy of caring in higher education: Pedagogy and nuances of care. Palgrave Macmillan. Waghid, Z., & Hibbert, L. (2018a). Decolonising pre-service educators’ perceptions through defamiliarisation as a pedagogy. Educational Research for Social Change, 7(1), 60–77. Waghid, Z., & Hibbert, L. (2018b). Advancing border thinking through defamiliarisation in uncovering the darker side of coloniality and modernity in South African higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(4), 263–283. Walker, M. (2008). Human capability, mild perfectionism and thickened educational praxis. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 16(2), 149–162.

CHAPTER 4

The University and Democratic Reimagining

Introduction Several educational theorists consistently raise concerns about higher education institutions (HEIs) that tend to educate towards the needs of a globalised market economy. This is so, as governments around the globe task HEIs to deliver graduates who can respond to the needs of a rapidly changing technological world. In this regard, “[higher education practitioners] were also presented with the demands of the makers and shakers of capitalism, who insisted on highly-skilled knowledge workers to meet their need for ever-expanding profit” (Millar, 2014, p.  11). In light of these concerns, one question that comes to mind is whether HEIs are able to still fulfil a role in enabling citizens to participate in a democratic society. In this chapter, we will use the particular supervisor–student deliberative encounter between Yusef Waghid and Judith Terblanche as a backdrop in answering this pertinent question.

Philosopher and Chartered Accountant: On Cultivating Democratic Imaginings As depicted in the introductory section of the book, Yusef started his career as a teacher and continued into establishing himself as a university professor in philosophy of education through the production of credible research outputs. According to Waghid (2017, p. 24), higher education © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_4

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policies and practices are informed by the needs of the market-economy to such an extent, that universities seem to produce graduates that can be considered as mere “technicians of learning”. By “technicians of learning” (Derrida, 2004) is meant that students are produced by universities for mere utilitarian ends to perform certain technical functions but cannot really think for themselves. The latter idea seems to be attuned to the thoughts of Derrida (2004), who argues that the purpose of education and higher education is to cultivate socially just citizens. If universities primarily focus on graduates that are skilled experts, there seems to be a risk that society will lack sufficiently educated democratic citizens that can contribute to the eradication of inequality (Giroux, 2011). However, the need for participative socially just citizens is unrelenting. As a result, the concerns of educational theorists that are currently focused on specialised discipline-specific qualifications and outcomes are indeed valid. To our mind, producing students who are unresponsive to the just concerns of society can happen only as a consequence of a lack of democratic imagining on the part of many universities in the country. Democratic imagining, if connected to universities’ missions, potentially opens up such institutions to more credible pedagogical spaces, in particular, more authentic learning. Authentic learning involves teachers creating opportunities for students to enhance their critical capacities to think for themselves and to widen their reflective dispositions. The question arises, what does it mean to refer to the university as a space for democratic imagining? It was Benedict Anderson (1991) who convincingly brought the idea of imagination in conversation with democratic theory. For Anderson (1991), all (democratic) nations are imagined communities—that is, such nations only become possible because of human imaginings that conceive of nationhood as belonging to a community in bondage. At least three aspects of human living can be associated with the notion of democratic imagining—that is, one that draws on meanings of democracy to hold people together. Firstly, democratically imagined communities are cultivated because people engage in deliberation. By deliberation is meant that decisions are reached through a rational process of articulating views as equals—both teachers and students—who listen attentively to one another’s views with the possibility that alternative views ensue, or agreement might be attained. In deliberation, there is always the possibility that people will uncover meaning not thought about previously because of reconsidering the views being espoused by all

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participants. Michael Walzer (2004, p.  91) posits that deliberation is a democratic practice by … reaching decisions through a rational process of discussion among equals, who listen respectfully to each other’s views, weigh the available data, consider alternative possibilities, argue about relevance and worthiness, and then choose the best policy for the country or the best person for the office.

What makes deliberation different from mere talking or having a debate is that deliberation involves making an argument in defence of a particular point of view, unlike a discussion where participants merely raise issues or a debate where one person or group attempts to outlast the other (Robertson in Katz et al., 2009, p. 117). Also, just casually talking might not be directed at coming to some sort of agreeable or non-agreeable outcome. Deliberation has an outcome, whether to reach a consensus or dissensus. As Emily Robertson notes, deliberators are open to the possibility that they can be wrong or right about their judgments (2009, p. 117). Equally, all participants can respond to one another’s arguments by recognising the reasons of others and remaining open to alternative points of view if they are shown to be wrong—a matter of enhancing public reason (Robertson in Katz et al., 2009, p. 118). Thus, when one talks one engages in some casual conversation without necessarily reaching an agreement or disagreement. Debating involves people trying to outsmart one another in a winner-­ takes-­all exchange of views. Deliberation, instead, is an iterative process of people articulating their views, others listening to such views, and in turn, offering counter-arguments for what they have heard. The point is, without deliberation, democratic imagining cannot happen. Secondly, democratic imagining is about cultivating socially active citizens—that is, those activists working within democratic structures to change what seems unjust. In other words, social activists within a democracy consider themselves as advancing the principles of justice (Young, 2002). Democratic social activists do more than just deliberative engagement with others. They utilise strategies of mobilisation, protest, and disruption that call attention to the causes in “securing greater social justice or advancing the interests of the oppressed” (Robertson in Katz et  al., 2009, p.  121). Here we are specifically reminded of those democratic social activists who identify with social movements such as #FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall, and #MeToo movements that devoted themselves to

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contesting and eradicating inequalities in higher education, and gender discrimination against sexually abused citizens respectively. In the main, the idea of cultivating democratic and socially active students is aimed at enhancing the university as “an incubator for social activism” where institutional autonomy and academic freedom further advance the mission of the institution as a social critic (Robertson in Katz et al., 2009, p. 122). Thirdly, Amy Gutmann (1987) raises the moral importance of producing non-repressive and non-discriminatory democratic societies. What democratic imagining ought to do is to ensure that non-repression and non-discrimination be prevented from restricting deliberation, say about matters pertaining to university life, and excluding others from legitimately participating in democratic politics. In a way, universities should produce students who, on the basis of non-discrimination and non-­ repression, are educated to not only think critically but more poignantly to participate thoughtfully “in sociopolitical life that is demanded of citizens in a democracy” (Robertson in Katz et al., 2009, p. 36). To become critical inquirers as a manifestation of democratic imagining, students should begin to see how intellectual claims can be responsive to substantive sociopolitical reality and changing it, as purported by Michael Katz et al. (2009, p. 42). Based on the aforementioned discussion of democratic imagining, we now examine how pedagogical encounters within a university should be organised concerning our interactions.

Towards Democratically Imagined Pedagogical Encounters Democratically imagined pedagogical encounters involve teachers and students engaging in deliberation on the basis that they listen to one another as they proffer reasons in defence of truth claims. They (teachers and students) remain open to one another as they search for alternatives in the quest to come up with meanings perhaps not thought of previously. In recognising one another’s points of view, they endeavour to take issue with what they disagree with and simultaneously reconsider alternative perspectives to enrich human understanding. One of the aspects that we invariably focus on in deliberations is how our conceptions of educational matters influence pedagogical encounters. Of importance for students and teachers would be how to realise what

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they have learnt in class, in their communities. In this way, their education seems to be directly linked to their social realities, in particular how they (students) can enact change in their communities. Here we specifically think of joining movements that promote the interests of good citizenship and civic participation. In this way, social activism would be cultivated through pedagogical encounters. Moreover, educational encounters should have a political dimension, and learning the virtues of non-discrimination and non-repression should underscore university education. When students learn why and how they can prevent discrimination and repression, then the possibility is always there that such learning would manifest in students’ engagement with the broader public. Thus, the cultivation of democratically imagined communities involves establishing deliberative encounters, ensuring that such encounters have a socially activist orientation and that the encounters will invariably have a political take, in particular, being non-discriminatory and non-repressive. Yusef’s Narrative of Democratic Imagining When Yusef joined the university he now works at for more than two decades, he was responsible for the teaching of second-year philosophy of education students—a very racially homogenous group of students with only a few students of colour. When he introduced them to the pedagogical practice of deliberation, they were quite baffled by this as they have not been too accustomed to the practice of engaging with others and talking back to others. Yet, having attempted to initiate students into a pedagogy of deliberation implied that he had to show them how deliberation works. After he eventually demonstrated deliberation during every lecture, he had the expectation that students would begin to engage with him critically and to take issue with some of his truth claims. The latter did not occur. However, what students were made aware of was that teaching in itself is a deliberative pedagogical activity and that students should not take for granted that a teacher should be the only speaker in a university classroom. Moreover, much of his teaching and the examples he used in class revolved around real-life examples of a political kind. He recalls having taught students about the notion of compassion—that is, recognising human vulnerability and doing something about remedying it. For example, if school governing bodies do not show that they deliberate about

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matters, students are encouraged to avail themselves for educating such bodies about the practice of deliberation. In this way, university education would be extended into a community. In other words, their pedagogical work would have acquired a socially activist orientation. By far, the most illuminating act of Yusef’s teaching involved his elucidations of political matters pertaining to social exclusion. Throughout his teaching of second-year students, he accentuated the importance of social inclusion after decades of apartheid rule. He recalls that many of his students were then concerned about the increasing levels of inequality and poverty in the country. This, in itself, is laudable. Yet, as he would remind his students, one cannot just talk about human dystopias such as inequality and poverty without also internalising the values of non-discrimination and non-repression. Often discrimination and oppression of people result in exclusion and marginalisation. Any course on the philosophy of education ought to have a transformative, non-discriminatory and non-­repressive political agenda. In this respect, Yusef’s curricular content had an emancipatory dimension as he considered him then, a critical theorist-cum-practitioner. Judith’s Narrative of Democratic Imagining In essence, the supervisor–student relation between Yusef and Judith represented a democratically imagined pedagogical encounter. Upon meeting Yusef, Judith was a chartered accountant with limited exposure to research or philosophical aspects, while he (Yusef) is a distinguished professor in philosophy of education. Not only was it complex to navigate the research process between two individuals from such diverse scholarly backgrounds (as depicted in Judith’s narrative in Chap. 3), but it was also a challenge concerning the study itself. Throughout his research endeavours, Yusef vehemently argues against the notion of institutions of higher learning that start to align learning outcomes to that of the needs of a globalised capitalist world order. The chartered accountancy profession is an example of such a professional education that is at risk to align more with the needs of a capitalist environment than with that of emancipatory higher education. Although Judith clearly had some concerns about the role of the chartered accountancy profession towards social cohesion in South Africa, and hence the reason for pursuing a doctorate, she in no uncertain terms also believed in the merit of the rigorous focus on astute business and

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technical content; however, with a proviso. That proviso resulted in continued deliberation between a supervisor and a student. The outcome of such deliberation, of two people being introduced to each other from almost opposing positions, resulted in a dissertation entitled Cultivating socially just responsible citizens in relation to university accounting education in South Africa (Terblanche, 2019). Judith did include a section where she critically analysed educational theorists’ (such as Yusef) position on so-called professional education (such as the accountancy profession). Although Judith still valued the focus on technical and complex content in the accounting curriculum, she strongly argued that the aim of the accountancy profession should primarily be on cultivating socially responsible business leaders then on specialised technical knowledge. Such a conceptual shift in thought can only be attributed to an encounter with a person (Yusef) who has a different understanding of knowledge and to an encounter with material from another discipline. In turn, one hopes that not only the student transformed through such an encounter but that, through the process of deliberation, indeed the educator (Yusef as supervisor) himself also uncovered new meanings. Zayd’s Narrative of Democratic Imagining For Zayd, democratic imagining is a somewhat complex process in South Africa. For one, South Africa functions as a democracy, yet the majority of its population do not enjoy what Amartya Sen (1999) refers to as the substantive freedoms to enjoy life. Sen’s (1999) seminal works are quite prescriptive concerning the constitutive roles of freedom, namely the political freedoms, access to economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security needed for development to occur in society. A student, for instance, that enjoys political freedom but who does not enjoy access to economic facilities, at least in the Sen (1999) account of development, would, therefore, be experiencing unfreedom in society. When individuals do not enjoy their freedoms, they end up resorting to violence due to a lack of poor service delivery witnessed in many communities in South Africa. In the context of higher education, students end up protesting against the institutions aimed at providing them education due to a lack of access to financial resources needed to complete their tertiary studies. Deliberation, in instances of violence, as we have argued earlier, certainly cannot ensue. Students who disagree with the violent destruction of

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university resources are further victimised and marginalised for not adhering to the ideology of the group. In addition, for Zayd, democratic imagining starts in the university classroom, and this is where he advocates for cultivating a community of inquiry (CoI). In his teaching, he integrates Garrison et al.’s (1999) CoI framework to enhance the educational encounters among his students and himself in an online sphere. Talking about deliberation is one aspect, but experiencing it is undoubtedly essential for students to begin to process the ideals of democratic imagining. Put more aptly concerning cultivating socially just students, and invoking in them a sense of moral consciousness concerning non-discriminatory and non-repressive societies, are more viable practices than just talking about deliberative engagement. Using Garrison et al.’s (1999) framework, Zayd advocates for teaching that aims to advance his students’ cognitive, social and teaching presences. The framework itself is a useful barometer in evaluating his role as ignorant schoolmaster. In other words, when his teaching takes on the role of facilitator, then the expectation is that all students take on different roles. These roles are certainly not exhaustive in the case of his teaching. For some students, social cohesion is necessary for discussion while others take on the role of direct instructor through research that they enquire from various sources as a means of correcting any misconceptions that students have. The role of each student and Zayd of course as ignorant schoolmaster is thus crucial in fostering this community of inquiry, which he argues may further transcend to other contexts where students would be expected to enact what they encountered in this CoI (Waghid, 2016). Faiq’s Narrative of Democratic Imagining The basis of Faiq’s workshops with staff about learning and teaching with technology involves engaging them in deliberation. Through articulation, listening and talking back, Faiq seems to engage academics quite willingly and passionately in activities that have a social justice orientation. By social justice education, he specifically implies engaging them in pedagogical activities that are geared towards the cultivation of equality and inclusion among academics. One of the crucial aspects in including them in the staff development activities is to request them to provide input about their activities to keep their students interested in learning. No-one in his staff development workshops should feel excluded, and learning how to improve one’s teaching should always be connected to exercising one’s

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equality of intelligence and recognising that one’s students have an equal right to assert their intelligence too.

Summary Democratic imagining holds university teachers and students to the moral standards of human engagement—that is, treating one another with decency. When people act with civility, they open themselves up to deliberative encounters underscored by non-discriminatory and non-repressive acts of being towards cultivating socially just communities of praxis.

References Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. Verso. Derrida, J. (2004). Eyes of the university: Right to philosophy 2. Translated from French by J. Plug. Stanford University Press. Garrison, D.  R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-­ based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. Giroux, H. A. (2011). On critical pedagogy. Continuum. Gutmann, A. (1987). Democratic education. Princeton University Press. Katz, M., Verducci, S., & Biesta, G. (Eds.). (2009). Education, democracy, and the moral life (pp. 31–45). Springer. Millar, B. T. (2014). Becoming and being: A critical realist study into the emergence of identity in emergency medical science students, and the construct of graduate attributes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Anchor Books. Terblanche, J. (2019). Cultivating socially just responsible citizens in relation to university accounting education in South Africa. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Stellenbosch University Printers, Stellenbosch. Waghid, Y. (2017, June 9). Educate for real change. Mail & Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://mg.co.za/article/2017-­06-­09-­00-­ educate-­for-­real-­change Waghid, Z. (2016). Using film and online group blogs to cultivate a community of inquiry: A case studied at a university of technology in South Africa. Progressio, 38(2), 106–131. Walzer, M. (2004). Politics and passion: Toward a more egalitarian liberalism. Yale University Press. Young, I.  M. (2002). Activist challenges to deliberative democracy. In S.  Rice (Ed.), Philosophy of education 2011 (pp. 41–55). Philosophy of Education Society.

CHAPTER 5

The University, Power and Social Change Towards a Period of Post-Massification

Introduction Nowadays, access to the Internet in higher education is vital for student academic success. The Internet allows students the means to engage in distinctive forms of communication, the sharing of knowledge and collaboration through online platforms. Whether students are conducting research on different pedagogical approaches in teaching and learning such as problem-based learning, project-based learning or blended learning, one cannot deny the value the Internet brings to the university classroom and beyond. The Internet, categorised under Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and further extends to include social networking platforms, presents academics with opportunities and challenges. For the university educator, the opportunities are immense, whether one requires teaching and learning resources, additional information to extend one’s research capacity or whether one simply needs to communicate with students regarding assessment matters. Despite the pedagogical affordances of ICTs in higher education institutions in South Africa, the business of education remains unchanged. Students continue to attend face-to-face classes at scheduled times and venues on university campuses while university educators continue to present their lessons in traditional chalk and talk styles of teaching. The university educator continues to function as the primary source of knowledge in such instances, while university students function as passive recipients of knowledge. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_5

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While the global context and more specifically universities have already begun the shift towards Education 4.0, which is education’s response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the familiar stage of the massification of knowledge remains the routine practice. Academics, by implication, continue to operate in the first industrial revolution while borrowing tenets of the remaining revolutions. One could argue that at least in South Africa, university educators function in Education 1.5. In this chapter, we aim to explore how South African universities ought to function effectively in a period of post-massification. From a poststructuralist perspective, we draw on Jacques Rancière’s notions of the ignorant schoolmaster regarding how South African universities can respond efficiently to the demands of the post-massification era. We argue that a Rancièrian account of teaching and learning can further disrupt instances of power towards realising societal change in the university classroom and beyond.

History of Higher Education Globally and in South Africa Globally, universities have transitioned through three distinct stages of higher education. These three stages in which higher education has transcended globally include the elitist, massification and post-massification eras. In elite higher education, a significant focus is placed on knowledge production on the part of talented university academics (Shin, 2014). Talented university academics are given academic freedom to further their research interests. Academic freedom is thus the core concept of the elitist university with the university functioning purely as an institution that produces pure and basic research. Whereas the small number of talented research-driven professors contribute to knowledge production, the remaining professors are responsible for the interpretation, translation or transmission of this knowledge to their students (Shin, 2014). In elitist higher education, students are adequately prepared for their studies by leading university professors (Shin, 2014). However, and considering that such students are prepared, there is not much knowledge to impart onto students (Shin, 2014). University professors are, therefore, the main actors in elitist higher education (Shin, 2014). In the initial stages of higher education, university education primarily focused on the minority elite towards moulding the minds and characters of the ruling class (Xing & Marwala, 2017). During the heydays of

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apartheid, higher education in South Africa was structurally influenced and shaped by a racial and segregationist logic of a system in which the minority whites were privileged (Badat, 2010; Jansen, 2004; Kraak, 2004; Hlatshwayo & Shawa, 2020). Universities under the apartheid regime were categorised according to historically white and historically black universities, which also included two separate universities for coloureds and Indians. While the historically white universities in South Africa were considerably well-resourced and research-intensive institutions, in stark contrast historically black universities remained poorly funded with many of its incoming students emanating from historically poor and rural backgrounds. Such students would not have been able to keep up with the rigorous demands of higher education due to a lack of financial resources and poor studying habits as a result of the poor level of primary and secondary education provided in historically disadvantaged schools in South Africa. Academics in historically disadvantaged universities would thus not have been able to keep up with the rigorous demands of academic research, which an elitist ideology favoured. Within the elitist categorisation of universities during the apartheid era, historically white universities were further established based on the language of tuition (Hay & Monnapula-Mapesela, 2009). Historically white universities, by implication, were thus categorised according to English and Afrikaans institutions of higher learning (Hay & Monnapula-Mapesela, 2009). While the English universities drew on the Anglo-Saxon historical tradition, Afrikaans universities, in stark contrast, drew on Dutch and German philosophical and theological traditions (Hay & Monnapula-­ Mapesela, 2009). Historically black universities were coerced into adopting a curricula and management model used by Afrikaans universities. The rationale for such an approach was premised on the need to maintain the Afrikaner identity and the rise of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa during apartheid. To address the social injustices in higher education as a result of the apartheid government’s segregationist policies, the democratically elected South African government of 1994, through its White Paper 3—A Programme for Higher Education Transformation (Department of Education, 1997, p.  21), reiterated the need for institutional redress towards transforming the inequalities between historically white and black universities. Through the support of the Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education, the government has been committed proactively to assist higher education institutions in developing planning capacity and

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appropriate institutional missions (Department of Education, 1997, p.  21). Government is furthermore intent on ensuring that new programmes are adequately located within the existing institutional landscape of South Africa (Department of Education, 1997, p. 21). Redress funding would, therefore, be allocated where needed to enable higher education institutions to offer the agreed programme mix in an effective manner (Department of Education, 1997, p.  21). Despite the government’s attempts towards transforming the higher education landscape, the 2015–2016 nation-wide student protests in South Africa highlighted significant shortcomings and failures concerning a significant lack of transformation of the elitist historically white South African universities. The second stage resulted from the tension between higher education as a public or private good in the late twenty-first century, which prompted the trend of the massification of knowledge as a means of expanding higher education to a vast majority of people (Xing & Marwala, 2017). During the massification period, higher education was shaped by significant changes through the [re]design of curricula; significant changes in organisational structures; improved pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning, including the modes of delivery; the increased interest in research uptake; and the relationship between universities and the communities (Xing & Marwala, 2017). The underlying aim of the massification of higher education, by implication, was the skills transfer of graduates and preparedness for the economic and technical roles in many organisations (Xing & Marwala, 2017). For Shin (2014), the massification stage of higher education places a greater emphasis on teaching in contrast to elitist higher education where research remained at the core of activities. A significant challenge to many university professors is that during the period of massification, students are not adequately prepared for their studies as they are in elitist higher education (Shin, 2014). However, despite the focus being centred on teaching, more academic professors become actively involved in research and knowledge production from the initial grand theories towards more middle- or small-range theories (Shin, 2014). In other words, the core aspect of universities in the massification era is concerned with teaching and quality assurance as opposed to the academic freedom espoused in elitist higher education (Shin, 2014). By implication, there is an increased focus on university management, administration and quality assurance concerning the need to ensure that research uptake enhances the efficacy in teaching and learning. Whereas elitist higher education is concerned with the need

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to produce pure and basic research, universities in the massification era are primarily concerned with applied research. The massification period in South Africa has undoubtedly presented academics with significant challenges. For one, many students emanating from historically disadvantaged communities are underprepared for the rigorous demands of higher education. This shortcoming presents university academics in South Africa with the need to develop a curriculum that would increase both student throughput rates while maintaining the quality of education. The school system in South Africa further exacerbates this challenge. The Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement, which is the official policy in primary and secondary education in South Africa, continues to favour rote learning practices. Many students who transition from such a school system to higher education expect their lecturers to follow suit. By implication, students who enter universities in South Africa fail to conceptualise what they are learning and, instead, become very much consumed with only the relevant content needed to ensure that they progress. A second major challenge in higher education is the language of communication. In many universities in South Africa, the language of instruction is English, which may be students’ second or even third language. This shortcoming presents academics with the need to develop teaching and learning materials that would be easily understood by students. At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, where one of the authors works, the language of instruction is English, while the majority of the students speak isiXhosa. A third major challenge faced by academics in South African universities is concerned with the need to weigh one’s teaching, research and community engagement responsibilities. If a university academic is to progress, then one would need to publish extensively. This may, in some instances, limit one’s capacity to teach or engage with the community. In the same manner, if one is primarily concerned with teaching, then one would not engage in any form of research. The ability to teach or assess efficiently may further be hampered by large class numbers prevalent in the massification era. A further challenge faced by many academics regards teaching methodologies that are still aligned to an elitist ideology out of touch with the African experience. These were some of the demands of the University of Cape Town’s #RhodesMustFall mission statement (UCT Rhodes Must Fall, 2015, p.  7) that calls for the rejection of an elitist ideology:

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Implement a curriculum which critically centres Africa and the subaltern. By this, we mean treating African discourses as the point of departure—through addressing not only content but languages and methodologies of education and learning—and only examining western traditions in so far as they are relevant to our own experience.

What some of these demands highlighted is a lack of students’ voices in designing a curriculum that is both relevant and appropriate to an African educational context. However, with the decolonisation movement slowly dissipating and losing momentum in recent years, there are lessons to be learnt if all South African universities are to function effectively in a post-­ massification era. The demand for a tertiary education qualification is linked to the possibilities of acquiring improved economic benefits through entering the work context. However, the twenty-six South African public universities and fifty technical vocational education and training colleges are certainly confronted with significant challenges. For one, the limited capacities available at these universities and training colleges in South Africa fail to allow for increased student intake. Such a significant crisis of students unable to gain entry into higher education does not bode well for a struggling economy where youth unemployment continues to soar. By implication, the vast majority of students who fail to meet set criteria are thus excluded. The challenges only further highlight the need for universities to be progressive in a post-massification era. So what does a post-massification era entail? In a post-massification era, according to Shin (2014), students become the core actors in their learning. By implication, the focus of education would shift from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach. Research further shifts from teaching towards learning with more professors engaging in practice and applied research (Shin, 2014). With the continued influence of globalisation on many developing nations and subsequent economic and education policies implemented by the government, universities in South Africa in the post-massification era were further confronted with challenges in maintaining excellence in teaching while producing quality research output. The influence of the post-­ massification era on teaching, research and community engagement further presents academics with opportunities to advance these fundamental roles in the academe in South Africa. We thus examine Jacques Rancière’s

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(1991) account of the ignorant schoolmaster in the context of the post-­ massification era of higher education in South Africa.

The Role of the University Educator as Ignorant Schoolmaster in the Post-massification Era of Higher Education If universities in South Africa were to function effectively in an era of post-­ massification, then there are lessons to be learnt concerning the challenges around the massification era. One of the significant challenges to the post-­ massification era, as outlined earlier, is that the business around teaching has remained the same. Considering that teaching informs research and likewise is informed by research, it would be important to visit underlying principles concerning underpinnings around teaching as an essential point of departure. Drawing on the seminal works of Jacques Rancière (1991) concerning universal teaching, which is the oldest form of teaching, we may uncover the means of disrupting the status quo concerning the massification of knowledge so routinely practised in higher education in South Africa. Rancière (1991) refers to universal teaching as an emancipatory form of teaching, which places the student at the fulcrum of their learning. Such an approach expects one to learn by him/herself without the need for a master explicator. Rancière (1991) argues that universal teaching” is the most effective means of teaching as the student is responsible for his/ her learning through his/her intelligence. When a student reads a text to make sense of the text, he/she learns by him/herself. When the student makes a mistake in misinterpreting the text, s/he corrects such mistakes and by implication adapts her/his learning to the context of the source. The process of learning, of course, does not stop there but rather places the student in an uncomfortable environment. More specifically, it is an environment in which students are expected to learn on their own, instead of expecting someone else to explain any miscomprehension they had concerning the text. In contrast, the master explicator argues against such a principle of teaching. Instead, the master explicator aims to separate the simple elements of learning—that is, to learn by oneself and to merge the simplicity preferably in principle with the factual simplicity typified in young and ignorant minds. This simple process of learning by oneself is met with resistance from the ideology of the master explicator who ends up

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transitioning such simplified teaching into a somewhat complicated process. The master explicator becomes the driving force and source of knowledge. Of course, the advocates for the explication system, according to Rancière (1991), would argue that transmission learning and forming minds co-occur through an ordered progression from the most simple to the most complicated process. The challenge of such an approach, particularly in higher education in South Africa, is the reality that not all students learn in the same hierarchical manner. Students learn by and with each other through their critical engagement concerning the text through discourse. By implication, students may become constrained by a hierarchical process of such learning in which they are expected to proceed only through and by their university educator. Critics may further argue that universal teaching may not yield as positive academic results as traditional teaching does through the explication system. Perhaps it is for this very reason that university educators, who in a period of massification succumbed to traditional forms of teaching and who argue for such an approach, fail to realise the intellectual revolution that universal teaching may bring about. Such educators, we argue, become so consumed with producing rote students without ever acknowledging the pedagogical worth and value that students could bring to the encounter. We agree with Rancière’s (1991) claim that universal teaching is practised out of necessity by everyone, yet no-one wants to recognise the intellectual revolution it signifies. Instead, Rancière (1991, p. 16) provokes and dares both educators and students to recognise and pursue the “open verification of [universal teaching’s] power”. Without recognising the alternative to traditional forms of teaching, by implication, renders one powerless to the extent that the “old master” continues to prevail in the classroom as the explicator and only source of knowledge. One of the pedagogical myths and perhaps determinants for lack of change to teaching in the massification era is the taken-for-granted assumptions that students learn best through a system that necessitates explication. Rancière (1991) argues, and we agree with his claim, that what is blindly taken for granted is a system that reiterates the need for students to learn through some given explanation. In the words of Rancière (1991), “the master must shatter the silence of the taught material”. By implication, the educator functions as the sole judge concerning the way students ought to learn, which instead determines much before students even set foot in class that they can only ever learn effectively through the master explicator. Power thus remains in the hands of the

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master explicator with the student functioning as the subaltern. Despite the perceived effectiveness of the explication system by advocates to enhance student learning, Rancière (1991) as a critique of such an approach, argued at the time that a growing complaint concerning the effectiveness of the explication process started to receive more attention. For Rancière (1991), one reason for the ineffectiveness of the explicative system is linked to the fact that the system itself fails to make it simple for students to understand. Rancière (1991, p. 6) instead describes explication as the myth of pedagogy that divides the world into “knowing minds and ignorant ones, ripe minds and immature ones, the capable and incapable and the intelligent and the stupid”. The pedagogical myth thus divides the world into two forms of intelligence—that is the superior and inferior intelligence (Rancière, 1991). Whereas the superior intelligence, according to Rancière (1991, p. 7), “knows things by reason, proceeds by method, from the simple to the complex, from the part to the whole”, the inferior intelligence, in contrast, “registers perceptions by chance, retains them, interprets them empirically, within the close circle of habit and need”. Through superior intelligence, the master explicator can transmit his/her knowledge by adapting it to the intellectual capacities of the student and allows him to verify that the student now has satisfactorily understood what he has learned (Rancière, 1991). Such an understanding of intelligence is congruent with what transpires in the university classroom in South Africa. More specifically, in the massification era, the division of intelligence depicts the level of expectations of the university educator of his/her student. Of course, this also creates a level of expectation of the university student. In other words, as one who is expectant of his/her university educator to impart his superior intelligence on to the student. The means of verification remains the standard of assessment to determine and ascertain students’ level of understanding of what was taught in class. The process of verification, instead, expects some form of regurgitation of the student through some examination or assessment with little critical input into advancing even the university academic’s level of intelligence. Power thus remains at the fulcrum of this process of stultification and expectation between the master explicator and his/her student. Quite interesting enough, Rancière (1991) describes the stultifier as one who does not necessarily cram his/her students with poorly digested knowledge. Instead, for Ranciere (1991) the stultifier is one who distances him/herself from his/her students through the former’s intelligence. The higher the stultifier’s level of intelligence, the more evident he/she finds

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the difference between students “groping blindly and searching methodically”. This difference vindicates at least for the stultifier the vested power necessary in providing clarity to his/her students concerning the contents of the book (Rancière, 1991). We argue that it, therefore, becomes an obsession of power through pedagogy—that is, the need to enforce the master explicator’s method of ensuring that the student understands what he/she is being taught. Such a hierarchical world of intelligence is premised on the notion that the student will never understand until the master explicator has found or developed a more rigorous and attractive form of explaining to the student. By implication (ibid.), exploring different ways of teaching that places the university educator in a better position to explain the source of knowledge undermines not only the process of learning but also maintains the enforced process of stultification—the second challenge to shifting to the post-massification era. Rancière (1991, p.  7) instead argues that the explicator is one who needs the “incapable” or subaltern and not the other way round. What Rancière (1991) alludes to is learning as a process in which students come to the fore through the co-creation of knowledge. The pedagogical myth in which the master explicator must explain to his/her students what they do not know further undermines the capacity and capability of students to learn by themselves. In order to disrupt the process of stultification, Rancière (1991) thus argues that a student’s will is required for active and critical learning. This is poignantly advocated by Rancière (1991, p. 12) in that “one could learn by oneself and without a master explicator when one wanted to, propelled by one’s desire or by the constraint of the situation”. Power can thus only be disrupted when students have the will to do so. More specifically, the level of power can only be clearly defined when there is a perceived disruption of one intelligence over another. Of course, critics of this notion would argue whether students would have the will to learn on their own when their educators believe in the explication process? Similarly, one could ask how a student, who is primarily accustomed to being taught through explication, can expect of his/her master explicator to shift away from the traditional means of teaching. Both parties need to take risks for constructive learning to take place. The emancipatory teacher needs to create an environment premised on risk-­ oriented action where he/she is willing to learn. At the same time, students who may feel frustrated with teaching in a traditional way of teaching may propel them in wanting to take control of their learning. Perhaps the

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student may be able to learn more efficiently on his/her own without knowing it but perhaps lack the will to do so. Both the university educator and students thus need to disrupt their level of comfort. Rancière (1991) calls for a process of emancipation in which the act of intelligence obeys only itself while one’s will obeys another will. What we infer from Rancière’s (1991) account of the process of emancipation is that a student may best learn when he/she has the will to do so and this would further depend on whether the master explicator is willing to relieve his power on the student. The student, in turn, would best learn through his account of making sense of learning, which would require him to evoke his level of intelligence through a critical reading of the source of knowledge—that is, the book as the other source of intelligence. Of course, the critique would further argue that such a pedagogical approach is merely a utopian one and that such an approach would simply not function in a period of massification. In the era of Jacotot, whom Rancière describes in his book, The Ignorant Schoolmaster and which perhaps one could argue occurred in an elitist era, students learnt best on their own due to their level of intelligence. The critique would thus argue that the pedagogical approach that Professor Jacotot initiated in his class would simply not render the results in the massification era. By and large, we are not arguing that such an approach would render similar results. Instead, what we are arguing for, in agreement with Rancière (1991), is that the order of the day should not necessarily be one pedagogy over another. Instead, what is needed is a process of liberty from a process of stultification. In other words, we argue that if universities are to transition successfully in a post-massification era, active learning can materialise when students are emancipated to take control of their learning, one in which they have the will to use their intelligence (Rancière, 1991).

The Role of the Student as Ignorant Community Practitioner in the Post-massification Era of Higher Education Whereas much of the discussion thus far centred around the myth of pedagogy that divides the level of intelligence amongst students, and with more academics under pressure to produce quality research outputs in universities in South Africa, one central function of academics that deserves

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as much attention is their role in enacting societal change. With post-­ massification, expecting more academics to become involved in practical or applied research towards advancing one’s teaching—a further implication of one’s teaching and its influence concerning the community—needs to be critically explored. Rancière’s (1991) notion concerning the ignorant schoolmaster, we submit, may further extend to include the educator as the ignorant community practitioner. Much of Rancière’s (1991) notion concerning the community of equals resonates in how we ought to serve society as community practitioners. For Rancière (1991, p. 71) the emancipated society is one that would renounce the division between those who do not know and those who do; more specifically, those who do not possess the property of intelligence and those who do. Such a society, according to Rancière (1991), is one that recognises minds in action—that is, “people who do, who speak about what they are doing, and who thus transform all their works into ways of demonstrating the humanity that is in them as in everyone”. What Rancière (1991) infers is a community premised on dialogical engagement, critical reflection, and action through the principles concerning social justice. What Rancière (1991, p.  72) claims is that such a society aims to unite humankind to the extent that there is “no better link than this identical intelligence in everyone”. In other words, a society premised on social cohesion may be better prepared in disrupting acts of cognitive injustice where dominant knowledge paradigms are often seen in tangent to other forms of knowledge categorised as a subaltern. Rancière (1991) further argues for reciprocity regarding the principle service an individual can receive from another. This depends on the faculty of intercommunicating one’s “pleasure and pain, hopes and fears” (Rancière, 1991, p. 72). In other words, when an individual aims to assist his/her community through reciprocity, the community should benefit in the same manner as the individual so as not to develop an unequal level of intelligence. Rancière’s (1991) notion concerning reciprocity is in congruence with the African philosophical ethic of ubuntu—of “I am therefore we are”. Any skewed understanding of power which aims to undermine the level of intelligence between an individual and community risks placing the one party as the subaltern to the other. If we look at how universities function, our basic notion is that such universities exist in society to serve communities. If one were to view the university primarily as the all-encompassing institution that produces knowledge for the community without acknowledging the value and

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knowledge that the community could bring to the encounter, then by implication it would mean that the community would have surrendered its level of intelligence to the university. Such an understanding of the role of the university as a community service provider may then be criticised on the basis that the community relies solely on the university to produce knowledge by addressing a social ill in the community. Put more aptly, when universities, through their community practitioners, aim to address a social ill in the community, then by implication it would mean that the community cannot address such an ill without the capacity of the university. Many universities in South Africa initiate some form of community engagement or service-learning encounter in communities. If we are to critically [re]examine the roles of university lecturers, students and the community, then we need to deconstruct the systems of power that perpetuate the inequalities in society. Often students engage with the community projects in which they bring to the educational encounter their skills and information and in turn, further develop their capacities and knowledge through their engagement in the classroom. Students, by implication, bring these skills to inform theory and the curriculum as knowledge producers. The question that we raise is whether such voluntary engagements equally render similar benefits to that of the community? For one, students engage in such forms of community engagement that are usually credit-bearing or linked to some form of assessment as part of the curriculum. When students complete their community engagement initiatives, the communities, in turn, are left with the same ills that these students aimed at addressing initially. Of course, one cannot deny the meaningful benefits that students bring to the encounter for both the community and students, however, the question that is perhaps unanswered is whether communities are left in a better or worse state. We argue that any perceived benefits of students in community engagement outweighing the hindrances of such encounters needs to be scrutinised critically. To explore this aspect in our argument, we revisit the seminal works of Julian Le Grand (1982). There is much we can understand about the role of the students as the ignorant community practitioner in the context of Julian Le Grand’s original thoughts on equity and equality. Le Grand (1982), in his book, The Strategy of Equality, questions the degree of equality achieved by the welfare state. What Le Grand (1982) argues against is the taken-for-granted assumption that social welfare institutions have made society more equal. For Le Grand (1982), it cannot be expected that the provision of resources

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to welfare users makes society equal. In line with Le Grand’s (1982) thoughts, we argue that welfare provision seems to perpetuate inequality. We argue that equality should be seen as a practice that does not rely on receiving—in this instance, welfare—but instead, equality is constituted by what one does. If one can be responsive to the needs of others, such persons would be treated equally. Equality then is the “the extent to which equal treatment for equal need is observed” (Le Grand, 2007, p. 97). If an individual needs more than another individual and that person is treated in a manner that satisfies his/her needs, (s)he would experience equality. Thus, equality does not imply sameness or being allocated the same resources than another person. Preferably, equality is achieved when the needs of someone else is satisfied similarly; another person’s needs can be attended to differently. Equality does not mean sameness; it means that attending to the different needs of someone, and after having allocated resources to her needs, (s)he should be considered as having been treated equally. Put differently; equality is not about achieving sameness, but about being equally attentive to the needs of another. On the other hand, Le Grand’s (1991, p. 42) analysis of equity is linked to minimum standards of treatment for those in need; proving the equality of “access in terms of the costs or sacrifices that people have had to make to get medical care”; and the attainment of full equality in terms of equal treatment for equal need. One cannot have an unlimited approach to respond to the needs of others. We argue that equity in this regard is achieved when specific minimum standards for treatment are adhered to and when individuals’ sacrifices are taken into account to secure equitable treatment. For instance, an individual is treated equitably if his/her needs are attended to minimally—that is, if (s)he does not make unrealistic demands in terms of her needs, and if (s)he herself has made in attendance to her needs. This implies that people should not just be given everything they want in the name of welfare, but should also contribute (if they are capable of doing so) to meeting their needs. If this happens, they are treated equitably, and they would experience equity too. Le Grand (2007) further extends the notion by making equality a condition of equity as well. By implication, equity does not only imply that one responds minimally to the needs of another, and in turn, the other person makes sacrifices in the accomplishment of his/her needs. In addition to this enactment of minimum treatment and commitment to make sacrifices, equity also involves treating others equally according to their needs.

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In sum, we argue that the ignorant community practitioner needs to always take into account the concept of equality and equity. For the ignorant community practitioner, equality should always involve being attentive to the needs of others without the expectation that they should be treated the same. Instead, equality means to be responsive to the needs of others according to their expectations. Second, equity implies that the ignorant community practitioner responds minimally to the needs of others and, in turn, makes sacrifices in attendance of their needs. Third, the ignorant community practitioner should be one to recognise the unequal power relations that may even exist between him/herself and the community. Hence, the idea behind community engagement initiatives should be seen by these students as an active learning process—one in which the community benefits through the co-construction and sharing of knowledge between the university and the community. This would further require the community to take a more substantial role in the [re]designing of community engagement initiatives integrated into a university curriculum that values critical engagement, student and community voices and shared interests. Fourth, the student as ignorant community practitioner is one who explores the means to cultivating equitable spaces for a community agency—one in which the community is afforded the means to reflect on the community engagement initiative critically. This would further require students to reflect critically on their roles in the community engagement initiative and to disrupt any stereotypical perceptions or preconceived judgements that these students may have concerning the community they encounter. Hence, Rancière’s (1991) account of the willingness of the student to relieve his/her power in the community is needed for students to disrupt these preconceived judgements concerning the social ill in the community. The student as ignorant community practitioner is thus one who is critically self-reflective of the need to balance what he is taught in the university classroom and what outcomes (s)he hopes to achieve through the community engagement initiative, with a greater emphasis on enacting societal change. This would further call for a [re]designing of the community engagement initiatives integrated into the curriculum, expecting students to critically explore the root causes of social ills in the community instead of always developing short-term solutions that end up perpetuating these problems.

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Yusef’s Narrative of Social Change One of the primary tasks of his appointed at the institution where Yusef works, involved building relations between the university and communities through project development. As the then director of the Centre for Educational Development at Stellenbosch University, he was privileged to extend his academic work into community development. As mentioned previously, he works in the area of democratic education, and one of the ways to ensure that his academic theorising manifests practically in communities, was through his agency in school governing bodies. It is with his work on school governing bodies that he first made a distinction between democratic action for participation and democratic action for engagement. Many school governors, especially in disadvantaged communities where he worked, considered it feasible enough to participate in democratic activities such as making sure that a chair of the governing body is appointed and that there are sufficient learner and teacher representation on the school governing bodies. In addition, his task was to make sure that governing members were knowledgeable of the South African Governing Body Act. However, despite governing bodies functioning well procedurally, not many members of such bodies were actively engaged in deliberation about school matters. It is one thing to participate and make up the numbers of such governing bodies, but to ensure that decisions taken were informed requires substantive engagement by all its members. The latter was not always the case and, it became a priority for Yusef’s community enhancement project to ensure that participatory involvement becomes more engaging—that is, participants articulating their views on governing matters and, in turn, taking risks to critically scrutinise one another’s assertions about such matters. In this way, community participation was extended into the realm of community engagement. That is, not only was it enough for school governing body members to participate and be present at meetings but their participation, if it were to be democratically attuned, had to be extended to active human engagement. By active engagement, Yusef means the capacity of people to listen to others’ views and even to take into controversy what is being heard. In this way, the work of school governing bodies became more democratically substantive and community engagement was realised in a very critical way. In other words, when people become more reflective about their thinking and actions, the possibility is always there for real social change to be enacted. As an active community practitioner, Yusef realised that for school

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governing bodies to be democratically more substantive, members of governing bodies had to exercise their willingness to deepen democratic practices autonomously. This meant that he had to be an amateur who established conditions for others to initiate change by themselves. Judith’s Narrative of Social Change As alluded to earlier, academics working at HEIs need to balance their available time between teaching, research and community engagement. Often, academics working in SAICA-accredited departments (or schools) of accounting (or accountancy), are primarily concerned with teaching due to significant (probably overloaded) curriculum content that needs to be taught during a three-year undergraduate degree. Community engagement or service-learning encounters within communities are not teaching and learning pedagogical practices incorporated into the technically complex knowledge-driven accounting curriculum. As a result, chartered accountant academics often view their contribution to the SAICA Thuthuka programme, liaising with businesses such as auditing firms and big corporations, and liaising with the professional body (SAICA) as part of community engagement. The Thuthuka programme is SAICA’s vehicle to transform the demographics of the profession: “[a]s a critical stakeholder in society, SAICA has undertaken the responsibility of ensuring that there is a consistent flow into the economy of adequately and suitably qualified accounting professionals who are representative of the country’s demographics” (SAICA 2008). Supporting the Thuthuka programme by mentoring Thuthuka-­ funded students, and by working at an HEI and lecturing (sometimes additional lectures) to Thuthuka-funded students, university educators often feel that they indirectly contribute to greater social cohesion and equality in the country. From a critical perspective, however, one needs to ask whether citizens, students and lecturers alike on these accounting programmes, are developing the required attributes to participate in society for the mutual good of the whole nation, inclusive of the voiceless marginalised citizens (Giroux, 2012). Naudé (2008) argues that teaching in the classroom often only results in the accumulation of theoretical knowledge by the student, rather than the cultivation of socially responsible decision-making ability. “Education problem solving should not just be confined to university classroom activity but should extend beyond its boundaries” (Waghid, 2006, p. 327). It

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implies, therefore, that students (and university educators) should be confronted with real-lived difficulties in communities and work together in collaboration with the community, as such encounters will harness the skills of ethical decision-making. Consequently, Judith argues in her dissertation, after reflecting and analysing the chartered accountancy educational landscape, for the inclusion of real encounters among university educators, students and a community (and particular difficulties experienced), into the curriculum. Zayd’s Narrative of Social Change Initially, the focus of the business education curriculum that Zayd was teaching at CPUT was aimed at fostering in students the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to make informed, productive, ethical and responsible decisions and to enhance participation in the formal and informal economic sectors in the South African and global economy. He thus redesigned the curriculum for business education along the principles of social justice that Miller (2003) advocates in meeting the needs of students in the context of teaching for social justice in South Africa. According to Miller (2003, p. 247), in order for society to be just, it must act by the principles of need, desert and equality. Fundamental needs, such as food, housing and medical resources, become the criteria for allocating the various resources by institutions (Miller, 2003, p. 247), while economic desert relates to how people are rewarded for the work they perform in their work contexts to serve as an incentive for the working class to improve their productivity and efficiency (Miller, 2003, p. 248). Furthermore, democratic citizens must be treated equally so that they can enjoy their legal, political and social rights in society (Miller, 2003, p.  250). In essence, in order for social justice to be achieved, citizens must be treated equally. Thus, for Zayd educators need to continually instil the underlying principles of social justice to ensure that future communities can enjoy a world in which economic, social and political boundaries no longer coincide, and in which people are awarded the liberty to be responsible and democratic citizens. In line with Miller’s (2003) principles of social justice, Zayd chose to integrate the use of film as a critical pedagogical tool, which Giroux (2004) submit affords students the means of bringing their experiences to the classroom while concomitantly connecting students’ classroom experiences to specific problems that emanate from their societal contexts

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(Giroux, 2004). The film titled, Who Cares? that showcases social injustices in the global context conveyed an empowering message for his students. A more detailed account of the film will be explored later in Zayd’s narrative in Chap. 7. However, for now, the film was used as a means of enhancing his students’ critical awareness of the practices of social injustice in society. The rationale behind such an approach was to elicit a response and, hopefully, to awaken their potential for learning in a deliberative way. Put more aptly, by stimulating them to learn in association with one another and at the same time, retain their autonomy. Through the use of film, Zayd played the role of the ignorant schoolmaster, offering his students the means to engage in discussions concerning the aspects of the film in local and global contexts. The film later served as a reference for the students concerning the communities in which they would initiate community engagement projects. The students, in turn, were expected to play the role of “ignorant community practitioner” by creating community agency through establishing a platform for the community to offer their views concerning the encounters that ensued. In other words, the students soon realised that for the communities to enact meaningful societal change in their contexts, members of the community had to exercise their willingness to deepen their community practices autonomously. Faiq’s Narrative of Social Change At the core of Faiq’s staff development initiatives is a discussion of the notion of decoloniality. For him, like for us, decoloniality is a matter of democratising one’s practices, and this is where he uses poststructuralist theories of democratic education to engender a critical understanding of decoloniality. Decoloniality as democratisation offers opportunities for staff (and students) to advance their pedagogical activities in inclusive ways reminiscent of democratic practices. Yet, decoloniality is not just confined to university practices. More poignantly, decoloniality is related to the social change necessary to democratise our fledgling democracy in the country further. It is for this reason that Faiq considers his work in staff development a highly politicised practice.

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Summary In this chapter, we argued that Ranciere’s (1991) account of the ignorant schoolmaster is necessary for (re)examining the role of the university educator in the era of post-massification. If universities in South Africa are to transition successfully in a period of post-massification, then students ought to always be emancipated to take control of their learning where they have the will to use their intelligence and where the university educator has the will to relinquish any forms of unequal power in the classroom. We further extend Rancière’s (1991) notion in the context of community engagement to include the role of the student as the ignorant community practitioner. We argue that students ought to [re]examine their preconceived judgements and assumptions concerning the community they serve critically as a means of breaking away from the dominant paradigms—where universities function as collaborators with the community and not primarily as the dominant providers of knowledge.

References Badat, S. (2010). The challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in South Africa. Development Bank of Southern Africa, 8(1), 1–56. Department of Education (DoE). (1997). Education White Paper 3: A Programme for Higher Education Transformation. Government Gazette, 386(18207). Giroux, H.  A. (2004). Pedagogy, film, and the responsibility of intellectuals: A response. Cinema Journal, 43(2), 119–127. Giroux, H.  A. (2012). Education and the crises of public values. Challenging the assault on teachers, students and public education (2nd ed.). Peter Lang. Hay, D., & Monnapula-Mapesela, M. (2009). South African higher education before and after 1994: A policy analysis perspective. In E. Bitzer (Ed.), Higher education in South Africa: A scholarly look behind the scenes. Sun Media. Hlatshwayo, M. N., & Shawa, L. B. (2020). Towards a critical re-­conceptualization of the purpose of higher education: The role of Ubuntu-Currere in re-­imagining teaching and learning in South African higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(1), 26–38. Jansen, J. (2004). Changes and continuities in South Africa’s higher education system, 1994 to 2004. In L. Chism (Ed.), Changing class: Education and social change in post-apartheid South Africa (pp. 293–314). South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. Kraak, A. (2004). Discursive tensions in South African higher education, 1990 to 2002. Journal of Studies in International Education, 8(3), 244–281.

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Le Grand, J. (1982). The strategy of equality. Allen and Unwin. Le Grand, J. (1991). Competition, cooperation or control? Tales from the British National Health Service. Health Affairs, 18(3), 27–39. Le Grand, J. (Ed.). (2007). The other invisible hand: Delivering public services through choice and competition. Princeton University Press. Miller, D. (2003). Principles of social justice. Harvard University Press. Naudé, P.  J. (2008). Ethics education in accounting: An outsider perspective. South African Journal of Accounting Research, 22(1), 1–17. Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation (From French by K. Ross, Trans.). Stanford University Press. SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants). (2008). Thuthuka. Retrieved March 14, 2020, from https://www.saica.co.za/Thuthuka/ tabid/4212/language/en-­US/Default.aspx Shin, J. C. (2014). The university as an institution of higher learning: Evolution or devolution? In J. C. Shin & U. Teichler (Eds.), The future of the post-­massified university at the crossroads: 13–27. Springer. UCT Rhodes Must Fall. (2015). UCT Rhodes Must Fall Mission Statement. The Salon, 9. Retrieved November 9, 2017, from http://jwtc.org.za/resources/ docs/salon-­volume-­9/RMF_Combined.pdf Waghid, Y. (2006). University education and deliberation: In defence of practical reasoning. Higher Education, 51(3), 315–328. Xing, B., & Marwala, T. (2017). Implications of the Fourth Industrial Age for higher education. The Thinker: A Pan-African Quarterly For Thought Leaders, 73, 10–15.

CHAPTER 6

The University and the Presence of Educational Nihilism

Introduction South African higher education is also challenged by the presence of educational nihilism. Here, nihilism refers to the instability and dysfunctionality of universities that bring about anti-intellectual and undemocratic educational experiences. We identify some of the fatalistic practices that undermine the moral fibre at universities and then examine their implications for teaching and learning in particular. It is the continental philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who in 1887 (Hatab, 2007, p. 11) advanced the threat of nihilism as the denial of truth or value in the world. Nihilism, in Nietzsche’s argument, has implicit forms that negate the life-world, that is, the denial of traditional beliefs (Hatab, 2007, p. 107). For Nietzsche, it is only beneficial as far as it opens space for something new liberated from decadence, pessimism, and denigration of the meaning of natural life (Hatab, 2007, p. 109). We use nihilism as the desire for destruction associated with anarchism; more specifically in the sense of devaluing educational values.

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Educational Nihilism and its Threats to Higher Education By now, firstly, it is public knowledge that some universities in the country grapple with an unpalatable development in university education, namely the exchange of sex for jobs or marks (Retief, 2019). Workplace sexual harassment can be considered a form of sexual violence, especially against vulnerable black female academic staff and students. Clearly, what can be conceived of as sexual offences seem to violate educational practice and the fact that it occurs at some institutions in the country is a sobering reminder of the omnipresence of educational nihilism. Secondly, about two years ago, it was reported that a senior professor and dean of a faculty at one of the universities in the country was assassinated for uncovering a plot to produce fraudulent PhDs (Mail & Guardian, 2018). About a decade before this incident, the institution was placed under administration for corruption and gross maladministration. Since then, the new administration has been implicated in corruption scandals that involved retaliation against whistleblowers (Mail & Guardian, 2018). Despite a special audit report from the Council on Higher Education that exonerated the institution from dysfunctionality, the senior professor was murdered. It is claimed that of the R400 000 per PhD graduate the state subsidises the institution, a large portion would have gone to the supervisors and for the promotion of candidates—a scheme apparently uncovered by the murdered dean (Mail & Guardian, 2018). Such educational nihilism not only proved to have been corrupt but also fatalistic for the institution. Thirdly, another example of educational nihilism is the recent spate of student violent protests at a university in South Africa. One of the country’s prominent educationists describes the burning of the institution’s HIV-AIDS support unit and the threats to burn down the institution’s School of Education, as responses of marauding students to the university’s seeming reluctance to adhere to their demands (Jansen, 2020). Jonathan Jansen (2020) questions whether the institution can still lay claim to being a university considering that student violence seems to disrupt research, teaching and learning, then it does bring into question the mission of the university. If students can light up their institution only because their supposed demands are not strictly met, then it says very little of their learning to be rational inquirers that are capable of settling disputes and controversies amicably and deliberatively. It does not mean just

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because one disagrees with the university’s management, one is obliged to threaten academics and destroy buildings. The afore-mentioned examples of educational nihilism in South Africa bring into disrepute the democratic transformation of higher education. The struggle against apparent authoritarian university management can never result in catastrophic forms of violence in which the art of persuasion dissipates. Any university (its students and staff included) that does not consider deliberation as a way to advance its academic project should rightfully be referred to as dysfunctional. And, unless the pockets of educational nihilism that occasionally raise its ugly head, are not going to be quelled from the start, there seems to be little hope for any advancement of higher education transformation in the country. Yusef’s Narrative on Educational Nihilism As a dean of a faculty, Yusef had the responsibility to ensure that research productivity is high on the agenda. In South Africa, the Department of Higher Education and Training subsidises universities according to the number of publications and students they enrol and produce. Considering that many academics are not as productive researchers as others, there seems to be a desperation among them to produce research outputs to gain subsidies. As an editor of a significant higher education journal in the country, Yusef is, at times, faced with articles that show very high similarity indexes that teeter on the edge of plagiarism. To him, this is another way in which educational nihilism manifests—plagiarising the academic works of others implies a violation of a serious kind; that is, academic perjury. Here, academic perjury refers to replicating the thoughts of others and presenting them as one’s own. Yusef recalls an incident about one academic in his faculty accusing another of having plagiarised his work. To him, such an accusation should be considered in a very serious light to the extent that the university has to decide whether it merits sanctioning the accused or not. It happened that the accused was asked to withdraw the chapter from a book. Nowadays, in the higher education sector, publication output desperation seems rife. Certainly, in the discipline of education, academic mediocrity in South Africa seems on the rise and the recklessness involved in producing just any article or book chapter has become so agonising for many academics that research for its own sake has taken a back seat. Not

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enough insight and thought filter through into publications in education and the once-prized endeavour of educational research seems to have emerged into insignificance. In this sense, educational nihilism seems to be prevalent in higher education. Judith’s Narrative on Educational Nihilism Not only, as Yusef describes above, is there a risk of educational nihilism in higher education as a consequence of a lack of quality in research publications, but equally so in relation to the quality of assessment. Particularly so, summative assessment in programmes where a significant emphasis is placed on passing traditional written examinations. Students studying towards becoming chartered accountants of South Africa need to master the principles and rules listed in several accounting and auditing standards and legislation. Whether they have indeed mastered this knowledge is predominantly measured by written examinations, spanning over three hours or longer per assessment per module. Since limited (probably none) marks are allocated for research projects or community engagement, the marks achieved in written tests or examinations are the measuring tool of whether a student is deemed competent or not in a particular module. Although limiting the measurement of a students’ competence per module on the writing of tests/examinations alone is probably detrimental to the cultivation of the full humanity of students, it is a great concern if written assessments are then not adequate or on the correct standard to measure competence. Even though pedagogy is skewed in accounting education towards that of teaching—particularly teaching by the master, the educator, who explicates the knowledge to the student along Rancièrean thought (Rancière, 1991), it is unfathomable then that accounting university educators will not take earnest responsibility and accountability in the practice of setting an assessment at an appropriate standard. Often academics will set assessments that are similar to those of the assessments of the previous year, or allocate or hint so much at a potential question that students will only prepare those bits of the curriculum that they perceive will be tested. Even worse, an academic may, in preparation for an assessment, although unknowingly to the students, work through a question in class that is similar to one that will be in the assessment. In this way, students can pass assessments without really understanding the subject matter or subject-related principles conceptually, even when they are, based on a mark achieved, deemed competent. In

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this instance, the students were coached into passing, which risked educational nihilism to be rife in higher education. Zayd’s Narrative on Educational Nihilism One of the significant threats, as outlined thus far in this book, is the continued violent destruction of university resources in South Africa under the orchestration of student protests. Not only does violence have financial implications on universities in having to rebuild essential infrastructure for all students, but it also paints a rather bleak picture of the type of students who engage in such forms of material destruction. What has become of the identity of fellow South Africans who do not take into account the implications of the burning of resources on future students? What has happened to peaceful protests in the context of democracy? Zayd questions the ideal of ubuntu in contemporary South African society. In 2006, former and late President Nelson Mandela produced his account of the African philosophic ethic of ubuntu, in an interview with South African journalist, Tim Modise: A traveller through a country would stop at a village, and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

If we apply Mandela’s (2016) account of ubuntu to the context of higher education in South Africa, then by implication, it would require that students always be conscious of their actions to the benefit of the university and prospective students. However, when the violent destruction of resources occurs in a society, then such a powerful African philosophical concept such as ubuntu is indeed undermined. How then can we begin to build a democratically inclusive university community, free from violent intimidation and destruction? The need to critically (re)examine one’s identity in society, for Zayd, would be an essential point of departure if we were to address educational nihilism in South Africa. Now if we explore a pragmatic approach towards (re)examining students’ roles in the university context, then the need to develop psychological assessment is perhaps one step in (re)evaluating students’ intentions in higher

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education. One of the significant shortcomings in the field of higher education is a harmonised approach to addressing the psychological assessment of students and their intentions in pursuing tertiary studies. In South Africa, first-year applicants are required to complete National Benchmark Tests (NBTs). These tests were designed to evaluate students’ academic literacy, quantitative literacy and mathematics to meet the rigorous demands of tertiary coursework. In this regard, students’ cognitive capacities are assessed; however, students’ attitudes, values and personality traits are not ascertained. A student, for instance, could meet the needs of the cognitive elements of the NBT but not be emotionally prepared to function capably as part of a cosmopolitan university community. Universities are thus presented with a significant threat of violence as a result of accepting students who may not hold the same values and ideals of universities. It also places society in an uncomfortable position. For instance, if society produces teachers who are not emotionally prepared for higher education and who conform to the violent intimidation of students and university resources, then the question concerning the type of teachers that are in turn produced for society may exacerbate instances of immorality in society. If society accepts students who emanate from a background premised on violence, then universities cannot function effectively. As we argued earlier on, this is due to the fact that universities do not function in isolation but rather function with communities. Hence, for universities to address educational nihilism would require communities to come to the fore in establishing, in collaboration with universities, shared moral values to the benefit of a functional democratic state. Faiq’s Narrative on Educational Nihilism At the time of writing this book, universities in South Africa have either been locked down due to the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus (covid-19) or have decided to pursue their academic matters through online education. Faiq has been confronted with how the university where he works can deal with online teaching. Moreover, as has been his approach for some time, online teaching and learning make similar demands of critical inquiry, and hence, academics at his institution ought to be reskilled to pursue online education based on new challenges in the world. He contends that academics ought to become much more vigilant in the pedagogical efforts to ensure deep learning. This implies that academics ought to embark on a pedagogy of confronting educational nihilism.

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Summary Educational nihilism will always bring a university’s intellectual pursuits into controversy. There cannot be any justification for educational nihilism that works against any form of legitimate university praxis. Educational nihilism is fatalistic for the university as it brings into disrepute the values of such an institution of higher education.

References Hatab, L.  J. (2007). Nietzsche’s on the genealogy of morality: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. Jansen, J. (2020). UKZN: It’s terrible seeing a varsity die, especially as it was preventable. Retrieved March 9, 2020, from https://select.timeslive.co.za/ ideas/2020-­02-­06-­ukzn-­its-­terrible-­seeing-­a-­varsity-­die-­especially-­as-­it-­was-­ preventable Mail & Guardian (M&G). (2018). The murder of Prof Kamwendo at Unizulu. Retrieved March 9, 2020, from https://mg.co.za/article/2018-­12-­08­letter-­the-­murder-­of-­prof-­kamwendo-­at-­unizulu Mandela, N. (2016). The ubuntu experience. Retrieved March 15, 2020, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODQ4WiDsEBQ Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation (from French by K. Ross, Trans.). Stanford University Press. Retief, C. (2019). Academics from tertiary institutions around South Africa have written to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor, calling for action on sexual offences that occur on university campuses. Retrieved March 9, 2020, from https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-­03-­26-­ academics-­highlight-­abuse-­of-­sex-­for-­jobs-­or-­marks-­at-­universities

CHAPTER 7

The University, Curriculum, and Social Reality

Introduction We begin from the premise that a university curriculum should not be confined to a set of courses, modules, subjects, methods, and techniques. Instead, the curriculum embodies “a comprehensive philosophical, political, and epistemological understanding of the pedagogical task” (Freire, 1994, p. 97). It is the latter notion of the curriculum that we examine in relation to the university and its social reality.

The University’s Social Reality and Curriculum The university environment in South Africa is pluralistic, and its curriculum should reflect the social realities of the South African context. Higher education in South Africa was always related to political practice—politics and education have always been interconnected. During the apartheid era, higher education reflected the national interests of the minority white ruling party—that is, education of segregation and domination by the white minority rule. Since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, higher education most poignantly reflects the interests of the black majority ruling party. In other words, the social reality of the South African political set-up manifests in the new curriculum—there is no distinction between the text of the curriculum and the political context of a democratic South African state. Firstly, an aspect of the political agenda that © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_7

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emerged in several policy texts has been the overwhelming emphasis the new democratic state placed on the democratisation of education; more specifically, higher education. In other words, no longer was the university curriculum considered as a space for indoctrination, but conscientisation and criticality became important pedagogical initiatives of a new democratic university curriculum. No longer was the professor regarded as an intellectual who possesses a text and doctrine and to whom students come to listen and be fed with knowledge. Instead, the university professor was supposed to assume the mantle of the critical pedagogue who listens to students and discusses, deliberates, and analyses situations or problems with them (students). Secondly, the diverse and heterogeneous South African society demands that the university does not exist as a homogenous university with all students thinking alike and having the same commitments (Freire, 1994, p. 91). Considering that the university ought to embrace diversity, unlike Freire’s (1994, p.  91) contention, such a university invariably engages academics and students in controversy as long as controversial matters are addressed in a deliberative way. It seems incomprehensible for a heterogeneous university to distance itself from controversy in the sense that political differences and epistemological complexities have a better chance of being resolved if they are addressed controversially. Controversy raises the possibility that thoughts will be seen differently and that ideas might be reconfigured in more acceptable ways of understanding. In this way, resolving controversial matters through curriculum inquiry not only becomes a politicised activity, but more poignantly, a philosophical and epistemological one that requires deliberative input from all those engaging in matters of social realities. Thirdly, like Freire (1994, p. 87), we purport that curriculum is a point of departure and not an arrival. In other words, remaining cognisant of South Africa’s racist past and the need for liberatory education should not be considered as fixed and conclusive. There is always space for new thoughts and practices commensurate with a liberatory form of higher education. Therefore, the higher education curriculum should not be regarded as absolute and only one point from which all ideas emanate and are configured. The point about democratic education is that it remains in-becoming and therefore, there are always opportunities to think differently about curriculum. In this way, forms of domination and oppression might be curtailed, and the struggle for emancipation will always constitute the cultivation of the higher education curriculum.

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In sum, our recognition of a social reality of which we are part requires that we reconfigure our curricular practices in such a way that we are not authoritarian and dogmatic. Unlike Freire (1994, p. 128) who does not want to leave the curriculum and teaching to the students, we want our students to enhance the curricular project. And, for the latter to happen, we should begin a conversation of radical proportion whereby we learn from our students and, if required, even provoke them to look beyond themselves with much more anticipation of the unexpected, the improbable. Only then would university education become much more critical— that is, transformative in the sense advocated by Freire (1994). Yusef’s Narrative on the University and Social Reality One of Yusef’s pedagogical initiatives that he initiated involved teaching a massive open online course (MOOC) to large numbers of students outside of his university. Such teaching for change is based on the understanding that African philosophy of education is possible through the implementation of pedagogical initiatives. This MOOC was primarily concerned with cultivating African teaching and learning according to a philosophy of identifying significant problems on the continent and then examining their implications for education. Over three years, this MOOC involved learning about major predicaments on the continent, such as military dictatorships, food insecurity, student protests, and nation-­ building. Central to an examination of such dystopias is the notion of ubuntu (human interdependence and dignity) in particular how ubuntu can contribute to minimising or even eradicating societal and environmental problems. After that, students had to examine how their own learning can be enhanced in relation to finding out how ubuntu manifests in pedagogical actions and change such actions accordingly. What is interesting about an ubuntu notion of education, is that students were willing to narrate their own stories about how the concept can be used in their specific surroundings and adapted to potentially guide human forms of living. In other words, students could contextualise the course in relation to their own learning and social realities. For instance, when a Mexican student could relate to the notion of ubuntu in such a way that she attempts to connect her own context with that of ubuntu, then one can claim that learning had been contextualised concerning an understanding of concepts unfamiliar in non-African contexts. In this way, the MOOC assisted students to think beyond their existing contexts and to relate and

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adapt the concept to their own social contexts. Students assumed responsibility for their learning and found the connectedness with other contexts quite insightful. Judith’s Narrative on the University and Social Reality Judith’s PhD study focussed on the power-dynamics and role-players within the chartered accounting educational landscape and was initiated because of some frustrations she experiences as a lecturer on this programme and within the system of accounting education at institutions of higher learning. As Judith stated in earlier chapters, SAICA prescribes a competency framework, listing all the competencies that chartered accountants should demonstrate upon entering the profession. SAICA measures whether these competencies were indeed developed during students’ time at HEIs as accounting graduates write an examination (called the Initial Test of Competence (ITC)) upon leaving HEIs and before they commence with their compulsory practical traineeship. As a consequence, HEIs, in essence, adopt the SAICA competency framework as curriculum because the results of the ITC reflects on the HEIs ability to prepare accounting graduates (students) sufficiently throughout their studies in order that they meet SAICA’s list of required competencies for entering the profession. SAICA is currently involved in a country-wide exercise to evaluate the relevance of the current competencies, as listed in the competency framework, to develop a competency framework relevant to the chartered accountant of the future. They will incorporate aspects such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and artificial intelligence and the impact of these changes on the future roles and responsibilities that accountants will fulfil in business. Arguably, such an exercise about relevance speaks to education-­ in-­becoming as new thoughts and practices are considered. However, the question remains whether such accounting education-in-becoming will be democratic? Judith, in her PhD study, explicates how the power in accounting education primarily resides in the profession via SAICA, how members of SAICA in the academe more easily connect with the needs of the profession than with that of the HEIs where they are employed. It also examines how academics in accounting education are appointed for their technical and professional skillset and not for their educational knowledge or expertise nor their research capabilities (Terblanche, 2019). The possibility,

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therefore, exists that an updated list of required competencies required for the chartered accountant of the future, will not be democratic as the focus will be on changed technical content and skills fitting for new roles. Instead, in developing students’ capabilities to engage with diversity, inequality and the changed conditions for human engagement to contribute to a socially cohesive South Africa. Perhaps what will be overlooked is incorporating material from other disciplines, such as philosophy of education, into the curriculum, or overlooking the fact that SAICA members in the academe will need to be emancipated themselves first and be equipped to facilitate teaching and learning in such a manner so that it is possible to cultivate socially just business leaders (citizens). For example, the power of using film or the arts are rarely considered to be appropriate for teaching on such professional educational programmes. However, just as she wrote this section, Judith viewed a film, named Poppie Nongena, and upon leaving the cinema, only one thought kept ringing through her mind—this film should be considered and declared compulsory material for every single citizen in South Africa. The movie depicts the tragic facts of a person of colour during apartheid, namely, Poppie. She is desperate to keep her family together, although the harsh realities of the pass laws are threatening to separate the mother from her children. One can just sit in silence and absorb the possible unimaginable pain upon viewing this film, but the power of the visual depiction is that the other enters the world of the so-called self and a process of self-reflection ensues. Self-reflection often carries the possibility of some sort of transformation to materialise and compassion to be realised, and is that not what we need in this country, to firstly listen and bear witness to the story and life of someone different than oneself, and to secondly be kind and compassionate, irrespective of apparent differences? Imagine if future business leaders of this country were able and equipped to maintain the tension between the needs of the business and the needs of the community in order to make decisions that support the economy, while not perpetuating inequality. Education has a role to play in future business leadership, but then we need accounting education not just to be in-becoming, but to be democratically in-becoming. Zayd’s Narrative on the University and Social Reality Zayd holds that Jane Roland Martin’s (2013) theory concerning education as an encounter may further be necessary for advancing the idea of

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social reality among students. For Roland Martin (2013), the theory holds that education only occurs if there is an encounter between an individual and a culture in which one or more of the individual’s capacities and one or more items of a culture’s stock become yoked (or attached) together (Roland Martin, 2013, p. 17). Put more aptly, when students’ capacities and cultural stock meet and become attached, education occurs. Students bring to the encounter(s), their cultural understandings and capacities and together, shape the particular encounter (Waghid, 2016, p.  2). In this regard, cultural understandings have some affinity to people’s expanded political awareness and intellectual growth and alertness (Waghid, 2016). As highlighted earlier in Chap. 5, Zayd used the film Who Cares? in his teaching. The film, showcased in his classes, is concerned with heightening individuals’ capability and willingness to transform the most pressing concerns plaguing their society (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). The film, using animated visual images, describes the most pressing socioeconomic issues such as poverty, unemployment, famine, and a lack of healthcare, among others, in a global society (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). The visual representations of these socioeconomic issues aim to appeal to an individual’s altruistic nature in finding the most innovative solutions in solving these concerns (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). The director, Mara Mourão, intuitively uses 18 ambitious and pragmatic social entrepreneurs from seven distinct countries—Brazil, Canada, Germany, Peru, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the USA—to share their experiences in reaching this global vision (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). In line with the notion of achieving an equitable and equal society, the film uses the rhetoric of achieving societal reform by highlighting the roles of willing and capable democratic change agents (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). Through raising critical awareness of the social injustices permeating society, the film aims to cultivate an imagined context that invokes within its audience the knowledge, values, and attitudes required to initiate socially just initiatives (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). Attuned with the use of the film as part of his teaching together with the online sphere that he allowed his students to engage in, the film appeared to have enhanced his students’ political awareness and curiosity to address social injustice where they encounter it. In this regard, the educational encounters were enriched by students’ political and intellectual awareness of societal injustices which, following Roland Martin (2013, p.  19) is significant in harnessing credible educational encounters. Therefore, because the political and intellectual orientations of students and educators were invoked through their responses, Zayd contends that

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the use of film supported by online discussion groups is an opposite approach for deepening the political awareness of encounters among students and university educators. If the social reality among students is cultivated through an analysis of thought-provoking films such as Who Cares? that highlight social injustices, the possibility exists that higher education contexts can be shifted towards more intellectually and politically relevant pedagogical spaces (Waghid & Oliver, 2017). Faiq’s Narrative on the University and Social Reality Nowadays, universities in the country are preparing themselves for the reality of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (or 4IR). And, as an educational technologist, Faiq is vividly aware of how universities ought to respond to technological advancement through their teaching, learning and research initiatives. Many of his current staff development activities have been reconsidered in relation to responding positively to 4IR. Therefore, much of the work he has done and continues, is geared towards implementing reimagined understandings of educational technology and how such technology can respond to the demands of a society attuned to 4IR. Together with colleagues (two co-authors of this book), he argues that “university teaching and learning cannot be oblivious of the age of 4IR.  The recognition of greater heterogeneity, coupled with enhanced forms of deliberative engagements, and the cultivation of dissent and disagreement through digital forms of teaching and learning, might just augur well for an enhanced form of cosmopolitan (higher) education” (Waghid et al., 2019, pp. 7–8).

Summary When a university’s curriculum seems to be unresponsive to societal matters, such a curriculum becomes opaque and irrelevant. This is so, as we have argued, because curriculum in itself is flexible and relevant to the public concerns it is supposed to serve. In our case, when the curriculum does not commensurate with the notion of ubuntu, there is very little higher education can do to ensure that the learning of students is somewhat connected to the realities of societies. The point about an irrelevant and non-transparent curriculum is that it does not lend itself to sustaining the educational encounters among humans at the university and beyond.

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References Freire, P. (1994). Curriculum and social reality. In M. Escobar, A. L. Fernandez & G.  Guevara-Niebla with P.  Freire (Eds.), Paulo Freire on higher education (pp. 71–129). State University of New York Press. Roland Martin, J. (2013). Education reconfigured: Culture, encounter, and change. Routledge. Terblanche, J. (2019). Cultivating socially just responsible citizens in relation to university accounting education in South Africa. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch. Waghid, Y., Waghid, F., & Waghid, Z. (2019). The fourth industrial revolution reconsidered: On advancing cosmopolitan education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 33(6), 1–9. Waghid, Z. (2016). A pedagogical approach to socially just relations in a grade 11 economics class. South African Journal of Education, 36(2), 1–18. Waghid, Z., & Oliver, H. (2017). Cultivating social entrepreneurial capacities in students through film: Implications for social entrepreneurship education. Educational Research for Social Change, 5(2), 76–100.

CHAPTER 8

The University and Political Pluralism

Introduction Higher education institutions in post-apartheid South Africa have undergone significant change since the promulgation of the Higher Education Act in 1998. Racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender changes are among the most noteworthy that suggest that pluralism has surfaced in the higher education landscape. In this chapter, we examine the importance of political pluralism for the advancement of university education.

On the Significance of Political Pluralism Nowadays, and certainly in South Africa, societies are culturally and ethnically diverse, contributing to the country’s heterogeneous public space, especially as a consequence of migrations from the broader African continent. With an increase in social diversity in the country, the idea of cultural homogeneity has slowly been eroded and is beginning to sow distrust among communities. As a liberal democracy, South Africa has increasingly embraced some form of multiculturalism whereby citizens have internalised a right to self-government, self-determination, and right to express cultural differences without exposure to prejudice (Kymlicka, 1995, p. 26). In many ways, the country’s emphasis on social rights is aimed at promoting social integration, which seems to be undermined by economic and social inequality on the part of its citizenry. Post-apartheid South © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_8

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Africa recognises the importance of supporting cultural diversity and political pluralism as plausible bases for social integration and cohesion. The support of cultural diversity and political pluralism is based on the premise that citizens need to trust one another to ensure cooperation among citizens (Putnam, 2000). What does recognising and supporting political pluralism contribute to a socially diverse community? Firstly, recognising political pluralism paves the way for diverse social groups to live together peacefully, interdependently, and in mutual respect. As aptly argued by Gary Bouma (2008, p. 123), “[s]ocial cohesion is most threatened where one group convinces itself that it does not need another. In such cases, social conflict … can reach levels that tear the social fabric to shredding point”. This is what the 1994 Nelson Mandela government realised when it took over the reins of South Africa’s first-ever democratic government. Mandela was adamant that social cohesion would allow South Africa to coordinate its own resources, sustain itself and build its democratic polity through forgiveness and reconciliation. Hatred and exclusion would only immerse the country into political turmoil, societal violence, and economic unproductivity. Secondly, enacting political pluralism paves the way for the cultivation of a rational public sphere (Rawls, 1993; Habermas, 1991). What a rational public sphere requires, is a recognition of the rule of law, a human rights agenda, and an acknowledgement of citizens’ constitutional freedoms (Dworkin, 2000). In other words, only rational and shared understandings of the public good can support the political institutions of society. Thirdly, political pluralism accentuates the importance of recognising citizens’ multiple identities, their participation and dignity as they endeavour to cultivate a morally grounded social imaginary (Taylor, 2004). Such a social imaginary, Taylor (2004) avers, enhances political trust and undermines social fragmentation and incivility. Nowadays, any form of legitimate democratic governance requires a commitment to political pluralism that subverts sameness and absolutism. Next, we examine some of the implication of recognising political pluralism for university education.

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Political Pluralism and Its Implications for University Education A university that recognises pluralism does not just promote the interests of a dominant ethnic group. Instead, such a university recognises the differences between multiple social groups and provides equal opportunities for all students. For instance, the institution with which we are affiliated is often criticised for promoting a language that favours the dominant cultural groups. If language is used to exclude, say, minority social groups, then such an institution would undermine the right of marginalised groups of students to learn in their mother tongues. Often, such situations give rise to conflict and contention among students and university teachers. The example of a university teacher in our faculty, who adamantly taught in her language of choice to the marginalisation of a minority social group is an example of an illiberal practice that goes against recognition of political pluralism. The upshot of such exclusive practices gives rise to disrespect and conflict even beyond the university classroom. Political pluralism requires that university teachers and students engage in mutually respectful pedagogical encounters without dismissing others on the grounds of their own ethnic preferences—in this instance, a language that excludes others. Moreover, a university that recognises political pluralism encourages its teachers and students to engage rationally in debate and disagreement about pedagogical matters. At such a university, teachers and students have the rational freedom to disagree with and reject decisions as long as they proffer justifications for their own decisions. They are held accountable to practices of compromise and reasonableness based on tolerance, openness and respect for one another. They trust one another on the grounds that they engage openly, freely and reflexively about matters of public concern. Put differently, teachers and students are bound by a politics of difference through which they endeavour to identify new patterns of social engagement and cohesion. Next, we analyse some of our narratives concerning cultivating mutually respectful, rational, and trustworthy pedagogical encounters. Yusef’s Respectful, Reasoned, and Trustworthy Encounters In a university classroom, say with pre-service teacher educators, Yusef initiates a discussion by introducing a controversial topic in education. He

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then invites students to give an account of their reasons pertaining to the controversial issue. When students disagree with one another, they are then encouraged to deliberate until they morally agree. However, if they do not find consensus, they are urged to maintain their mutual respect towards one another. In other words, students are encouraged to act as moral equals in the face of agreements or disagreements. This kind of democratic reciprocity is advocated by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (2004, p.  181) who purport that democratic encounters should be governed by “... the democratic virtue of mutual respect among people who deeply but reasonably disagree”. What is important about engaging in deliberative encounters in a university classroom is that students and teachers remain open-minded as they consider one another’s testimonies about controversial matters. In this way, participants (students and teachers) will continue “to respect [one another] and to learn from their disagreements” (Gutmann & Thompson, 2004, p. 185). Quite poignantly, Yusef, in conjunction with students, identifies particular controversial matters for discussion in class. Such issues range from the humiliation of people in the work environment to matters pertaining to university access. Not many of the discussions revolve around justifying why acts of indignity, such as allowing workers to drink urinated water and to deny students access to university education on the basis of racial quotas, should be tolerated. The primary point a discussion of controversial matters in higher education ought to bring to the fore is that no issue that undermines human dignity ought to be condoned. Judith’s Respectful, Reasoned, and Trustworthy Encounters As must be clear by now, Judith and Yusef shared a significant journey spanning the length of Judith’s PhD studies and is an excellent example of the power within educational practices if such an encounter is embedded in the appropriate conditions for human engagement in a diverse situation. When one treats those different from yourself with respect, have open communication, and commit oneself to the educational journey and process, it provides a sound foundation for trust. Judith and Yusef have several apparent differences, namely those of cultural, religious, gender, age, ethnicity, family-life, trade (or discipline) background, economical and political perspective, employing institutions and educational philosophy. Irrespective of the points of difference mentioned above, they fostered a relationship of such depth that Judith views Yusef as a mentor.

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Most likely, this was a result of Yusef demonstrating care, openness, acceptance and patience towards (or rather, with) someone noticeably unfamiliar to research and philosophy of education. This relationship could be summarised as one where each knows who he or she is and what formed them. However, they are not curtailed to be open, to encounter the other and stand in a position of dissonance as both are equally comfortable (or used to) being the voice from the fringes. It is only through encountering someone different than yourself that the seemingly immovable self can be challenged to shift, however slightly (Hansen, 2011; Papastephanou, 2012; Waghid et  al., 2020). This is so, because through listening, witnessing, and deliberation with another, people are able to reconsider their own thinking and beliefs to re-elucidate their views and re-envision a new and better future. Society is always changing, and as such, the self needs to be open to the unknown and unexpected. Zayd’s Respectful, Reasoned, and Trustworthy Encounters Particular underlying virtues underpin respectful, reasoned and trustworthy encounters between Zayd and his students. Drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre’s (1999, pp. 110–111) seminal works, the virtue of conversational justice may be necessary for an educator to engage through sound reasoning in conversation with his/her students. When an educator engages in conversation with his/her students then the rhetoric concerning what would be best for one or the other or “us” as a group “to do here and now, or next week, or next year” through the virtue of conversational justice is necessary for practical reasoning. For Zayd, drawing on MacIntyre’s (1994) thoughts, such a practice of deliberation implies that students would be critically inclined to accept and re-evaluate the viewpoints and narratives of others—that is their educators and students. In this regard, students as a community would be better prepared in developing possible solutions to practical problems in society. Furthermore, MacIntyre’s (1999, p. 150) virtue of truthfulness is what Zayd claims in his teaching is necessary for a trustworthy encounter with his students. MacIntyre (1999, p. 150) claims that for people to engage in dialogue, one individual has to understand the other’s point of view. Such an encounter, premised on the virtue of truthfulness, by implication infers that one displays a genuine concern of the other. For Zayd, an educator, by implication, demonstrates a degree of trustworthiness to his/her students through a moral consciousness of the educator’s actions towards

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students in the classroom. In the words of MacIntyre (1999, p. 150) one should be “able to speak with the other’s voice and, if the conversation between [the group] is sufficiently extended through time and is wide-­ ranging enough in its subject matter”, then, as MacIntyre (1999, p. 150) claims, people as a group will be “able to speak with the voice of the other systematically”. In this regard, people will be “able to assert, question and [be able] to prescribe in the light of the other’s conception of our common good” (MacIntyre, 1999, p.  150). By implication, educators and their students have to perform acts of responsibility through developing a degree of trustworthiness self-reflexively. Faiq’s Respectful, Reasoned, and Trustworthy Encounters For Faiq, the virtue of reasonable, mutually respectful, and trustworthy educational encounters is necessary to uphold if any form of staff development—his primary academic activity—were to be legitimate and educationally defensible. If staff development initiatives are not going to be underscored and guided by such virtuous actions, academic enhancement will fail to materialise. He cautions that the danger in and of staff development actions is that developers often see themselves as experts who know everything about human development. He contradicts such spurious notions by claiming that staff developers often seek credibility because they are often misrecognised by academics in faculties of not having established themselves in the disciplines of inquiry. Equally, he reminds us that often academics in faculties develop negative attitudes towards staff developers whom they (academics) think cannot really be of support with, say, curricular improvements). Consequently, he argues for more reason and trust to be established in staff development relations, especially among academics and staff developers. If not, he purports, university education will be put at risk.

Summary In this chapter, we expounded on how university teachers and students can function in a university that advances political pluralism. Central to the notion of pluralism is the possibility that controversial matters will evolve. Moreover, as has been argued for, such matters ought to be addressed insightfully—that is, with openness and deliberative enterprise.

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References Bouma, G. (2008). The challenge of religious revitalization and religious diversity to social cohesion in secular societies. In B. S. Turner (Ed.), Religious diversity and civil society: A comparative analysis (pp. 13–25). The Bardwell Press. Dworkin, R. (2000). The threat to patriotism. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Understanding September 11 (pp. 273–284). Social Sciences Research Council. Gutmann, A., & Thompson, D. (2004). Why deliberative democracy? Princeton University Press. Habermas, J. (1991). The structural transformation of the public sphere. MIT Press. Hansen, D.  T. (2011). The teacher and the world: A study of cosmopolitanism as education. Routledge. Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford University Press. MacIntyre, A. (1994). After virtue: A study in moral theory. Duckworth. MacIntyre, A. (1999). Dependent rational animals: Why human beings need the virtues. Open Court. Papastephanou, M. (2012). Thinking differently about cosmopolitanism: Theory, eccentricity and the globalised world. Routledge. Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon and Schuster. Rawls, J. (1993). Political liberalism. Columbia University Press. Taylor, C. (2004). Modern social imaginaries. Duke University Press. Waghid, Y., Manthalu, C., Terblanche, J., Waghid, F., & Waghid, Z. (2020). Cosmopolitan education and inclusion: Human engagement and the self. Palgrave Macmillan.

CHAPTER 9

The University and the Experience of Risk

Introduction In this chapter, we depart from the philosophical premise that risk is not the same as a catastrophe, but rather the anticipation thereof (Beck, 2007). We then set out to determine what presents a major threat to higher education institutions in South Africa. To anticipate that something might be happening at universities sounds quite predictive. Moreover, based on particular volatile developments at universities in South Africa, one would expect that the idea of risk would come into play, especially in light of some violent actions that already ensued at some institutions. Of course, one might not always be right to assume that when students occupy an administration building, they eventually resort to violence when their demands are not met. It might be that students leave the building peacefully. However, this has not always been the case with student sit-ins at universities—they often leave the occupied buildings quite worse for the wear compared to how they found it before they embarked on occupying the buildings. So the prediction can be made that student occupation of buildings invariably results in chaos. This is not perhaps the sense in which we use the notion of risk in this chapter. Instead, we focus on risk in relation to the absence of defensible practices that can enhance the academic project.

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The Risk of Curbing Deliberation, Cosmopolitanism, and Responsibility Following the seminal thoughts of Ulrich Beck (2007, p. 188), risk has at least three categories: Firstly, “risk defines a social relation, a relation between at least two people: the decision-maker who takes the risk and who thereby triggers consequences for others, who cannot, or can only with difficulty, defend themselves”. Despite universities having gained much autonomy during the country’s twenty-five years of democracy, it appears as if the spirit of deliberation is beginning to wane. For instance, under the aegis of consultative processes, universities seem to have fairly robust appointment and promotions committees. It is expected that academic decisions are taken based primarily on merit and that appointees are justly promoted based on their academic competence and leadership abilities. However, it could be that such committees constrain deliberation on ensuing appointments and only take unilateral decisions on what they deem to be in the interest of an institution. The point is, as soon as deliberation is curbed on appointment committees, a university’s procedure for appointment is threatened because openness and reflexiveness about academically important matters for the institution are put at risk. That is, often, those who were supposed to have been considered for an appointment or promotion might not have the authority to challenge a risky decision on the part of university decision-makers. Similarly, institutional management might make certain fiscal decisions in the interest of campus security. Yet, such important decisions are not deliberated on and considered merely an executive function. It might be that campus stability might be undermined because some students deemed it necessary to show their dissatisfaction towards management for taking, what is perceived to be, a decision without consultation with the broader campus community. Consequently, the institution is put at risk because, as has become customary at some universities in the country, protracted protestations and disruptions might jeopardise institutional academic projects. Secondly, Beck (2007, p. 188) cogently reminds us that any threat to cosmopolitanism and its recognition of diversity invariably places institutions at risk. We are reminded of the cliche that universities in South Africa should become genuine African higher education institutions. And, for some academics and managers, cultivating an African university implies some kind of racial distortion towards black prejudice. That is, any legitimate African university should be predominantly an institution controlled

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by a specific racial group. This kind of African nationalism essentially works against diversity as it relies on a spurious conception of integration and homogeneity. To seriously put a university at risk in South Africa is to limit its aspirations to becoming truly inclusive by wishing away the notion of unity in diversity. In this sense, the idea of recognising cosmopolitanism as a “glue for diversity and plurality” becomes very pertinent (Beck, 2007, p. 188). African essentialists who make claims for Afrocentric universities based on ethnicity and race, risk subjecting such institutions to a precarious future, as Beck (2007, p. 189) would argue. Thirdly, Beck (2007, p. 188) avers that putting a global space at risk involves bringing a moral and political space of responsibility under threat “in which the others are present and absent, near and far, and in which actions are neither good nor evil, just more or less risky”. Here we are specifically thinking of faculties in which researchers are either productive or inactive. Productive researchers are often associated with those academics who go to great lengths to enhance the institutions’ and their own academic projects; engage with reputable scholars about their work, and publish articles and books that are highly commendable. They often constitute the backbone of institutions. Yet, we also find inactive or unproductive researchers who could not care less if they never produce research outputs for their own sake or to enhance their institution’s scholarly reputation. They are present, yet also absent from the research endeavours of scholarly life. What makes this unacceptable situation even riskier, is that some university managers do not see the need to intervene or attend to researchers’ ineptness. Such ‘researchers’, because they could hardly be deemed as doing substantive work in research, do not seem to fulfil their responsibilities as scholars. Often they (inactive researchers), claim to be too busy with all sorts of projects and teaching, as well as community engagement—as if community work does not require a substantial research and teaching premise. Yusef’s Narrative on Educational Risk In the first place, coupling the notions of education and risk seem paradoxical. Is it possible for human encounters to pose a risk to institutions of higher teaching and learning? This is so because education, a human encounter, can have the effect where developments at an institution might not necessarily advance such an institution’s ethos. Then, the educational institution would be put at risk. For instance, as dean of a faculty, Yusef

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was once confronted with a complaint of sexual harassment where an academic was accused of harassing young female students. This matter was reported to the institutional sexual harassment chair, and the matter was subsequently resolved. Why sexual harassment in the workplace poses a risk to the academe is primarily about violating the human rights of others; in this instance, students to be protected by the institution. Sexual harassment is such a despicable and callous act because, as happened, the accused was quick to plead his denial of the act of violation. Moreover, because it happened at an educational institution of higher learning, shows that transgression knows no bounds. As dean, Yusef had to act swiftly against such actions. The question might be asked, “How does sexual harassment actually pose a threat to higher education?” It is a major threat because education in the first place is about people engaging with one another. When engagement is thwarted based on one person acting out of line concerning another human being, the entire educational process is put at risk—that is, respect for one another would disappear without which any form of human engagement cannot exist. Mutual respect is reciprocal, and any violation of such a moral principle, claims Gutmann and Thompson (2004, p. 180), is to impede any form of justice. In sexual harassment, one person does not accept the claims of another, which brings the implausible exchange into disrepute. Moreover, because harassment nullifies the act of reciprocal justice, there can be no justification for such an immoral act. The point is, harassment in the first place coerces someone to do something unwanted. That is, the person being harassed is coerced to do something against her will, and then resists. When people protest against doing things unwillingly that are harassed and, such actions should never be condoned as humans are violated in a criminal way. Judith’s Narrative on Educational Risk As explained earlier, neither in the undergraduate or postgraduate qualification for chartered accountants, is research a required pedagogical activity. Thus, students are not required to conduct or participate in a research project and, therefore, leave an institution of higher education without the skills to conduct research, but ultimately without an enhanced development of the skills associated with research, such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. These skills are vital for the South African

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economic and social landscape as both are in urgent need of revival— either through the growth of the economy to create job opportunities that will impact the levels of poverty in a positive way, or by direct action towards abolishing practices that perpetuate systemic inequality. Following naturally from the lack of research as pedagogy in accounting higher education programmes is the fact that chartered accountant academics join the academe without the required research capabilities (they never encountered research through their studies either) and without really valuing research as a pedagogical activity. This is so, as they (chartered accountant academics) achieved the privilege of using the highly-esteemed designation CA(SA) without participating in research and consequently, matters pertaining to the profession and technical skills and knowledge are deemed to be of higher value. Although, where Judith is currently working, there are no departmental minimum requirements for research output that academics need to adhere to, the faculty is driving a process of establishing clearly-defined required research outputs before an accounting staff member will be considered for promotion (also applicable to new appointments). Now, arguably, the HEI that is endeavouring to create an environment where the emphasis is on constructing new knowledge by academics (irrespective of whether research is a pedagogical activity for students) should be lauded. However, it also creates two significant risks. Firstly, the department is currently only functioning because of the use of several short-term contract staff as vacancies cannot be filled by suitable candidates who meet the research requirements. For a teaching-intensive department, this puts the academic programme at risk as the administrative load for permanent staff becomes overwhelming, while several hours also need to be spent on bringing contract staff as quickly as possible independently. This is neither effective, efficient, nor sustainable. Secondly, in light of the fact that research is suddenly deemed a valuable pedagogical exercise by chartered accountant academics, these minimum requirements create a situation where staff are only willing to do research to obtain a promotion, while still not valuing it or finding it a useful practice for the accounting profession. As a consequence, the aim is now to achieve the magic number of specific research units for promotion, and ways to quickly achieve those are the most frequent current corridor conversational topic. The challenge is to find journals where it is easy to publish or to accumulate research points through conference proceedings.

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This is a particularly frustrating situation for Judith after her PhD journey—her encounter with research, so to speak. She has gained a greater insight into the possibilities and power within research as pedagogical practice if one were open to it and as such she cannot fathom why research would not be deemed a valuable teaching and learning practice for both students and academics. In fact, she argues in her PhD that research should be a compulsory component included in the accounting curriculum. Not only will academics contribute to knowledge that could minimise the potential impact of difficulties in troubled communities, but they could cultivate and develop the required skills and attributes to participate in and contribute to a democratic society. In this way, accounting academics will be viewed as “visible public intellectuals engaging with social and community issues” (Mahlomaholo, 2014, p. 679). In addition, students who are introduced to research projects during their studies, either focusing on challenges posed by different business industries or on lived challenges experienced by communities, could develop the required democratic principles that should never be underestimated. Research, especially directly impacting the dire lived realities of the marginalised in society, brings the required moral dimension into the educational landscape (Le Grange, 2012). The majority of HEIs in South Africa that are accredited by SAICA, are research-led institutions and the accounting academics should contribute to research. However, managing the process in such a way to not put education at risk is equally important. The expectations of academics should be listened to and considered upon implementation; there should be an active endeavour to change the perception and role of research in accounting education. Moreover, the historical stance of accounting academics that the highly intense teaching-focus of the programme does not allow time for research activities, should be considered. Zayd’s Narrative on Educational Risk What is quite prevalent in many of Zayd’s classrooms is the way students organise themselves into micro-communities. Whether these micro-­ communities are established on the grounds of race and language places the educational encounter at risk of undermining diversity and inclusivity. The racial categorisation is perhaps one of the underlying risks to education, at least from a cosmopolitan perspective. The racial categorisation of

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students, he argues, exacerbates the homogeneity of one racial group as exclusive and somewhat undermines the ideals of cosmopolitanism. For instance, if a group of students who are categorised as coloured under the system fails to blend with the majority of the students of a dominant race, then it not only marginalises the minority group of students but prevents the entire class from experiencing and engaging on matters of interest to all students. Such categorisation may further vindicate students of a dominant group their ideologies and values that are not shared in congruence with the minority. Of course, Zayd’s critics would argue that there is a difference between being racial and being racist. If we look at the current system in place, students are categorised according to four distinct races, namely African, Coloured, White and Asian. The system, in a way, perpetuates racial connotations that end up contributing to people racially categorising people that may end up exacerbating racism when dominant groups do not share the values of the minority groups. The idea behind a cosmopolitanist society is that we look beyond the dominant, entrenched paradigms of race. A cosmopolitanist classroom is one that embraces diversity and inclusivity— one where students can share their distinct ethnicities. A second, underlying risk to education is that of language use in teaching and learning. English remains the medium of instruction at many universities in South Africa. Of course, the level of tension exacerbates when a lecturer who is speaking English in the classroom and who does not understand other native South African languages such as isiXhosa or isiZulu places both students and the lecturer in an uncomfortable position. The academic jargon and language used concerning complex concepts in the commercial or natural sciences subjects may further contribute to students feeling marginalised and excluded from the lecture. In the same way, the lecturer, in some instances, may feel excluded when students engage in discussion using their mother tongue. Language is undoubtedly a complex issue in higher education, and by no means can it always be addressed. However, ignoring the impetus of language is to act in isolation from the status quo. It should be noted that Zayd is undoubtedly not a language expert. However, this does not stop him from developing pragmatic approaches towards cultivating a compositionist community, one where diversity and inclusivity are not overshadowed by dominant racial groups or language. The need to explore language across the curriculum is one point in

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addressing unjustifiable claims. An economics or science lecturer may argue that language is not part of their modus operandi and would, therefore, instead steer away from having to engage in any form of code-­ switching in their teaching. Such lecturers would argue that language should primarily be left to the language specialists. For instance, an international symposium that was hosted by CPUT in 2020, which focused on language across the curriculum, aimed to bring academics from various fields to engage in discourse concerning language use in teaching and learning. Many content lecturers were not present during the symposium, given the importance of language use. To address these risks to education, Zayd advocates, as mentioned earlier in Chap. 3, for the pedagogical approach of defamiliarisation. Quite interestingly, the pedagogical approach was initiated by a Russian formalist literary theorist named Victor Shklovskij (1917/1965). Shklovskij (1965, p. 13) claimed that over time, our perceptions of familiar, everyday situations become “stale, blunted, and automatised”. Shklovskij (1965, p. 13) explained thus: “After we see an object several times, we begin to recognise it. The object is in front of us, and we know about it, but we do not see it—hence we cannot say anything significant about it.” Shklovskij (1965, p. 2) postulated that “art removes objects from the automatism of perception in several ways”. Drawing on the original thoughts of Tolstoy, he submitted that using artistic techniques may assist one in making the familiar seem “strange”. What Tolstoy (1897  in Shklovskij, 1965, p.  3) inferred, is that for one to make the familiar seem strange is not to name the familiar object, “but instead describe an object as if [one] were seeing it for the first time”. Hence, for Zayd, defamiliarising techniques in higher education may assist university educators in examining familiar objects or texts concerning race and language with an exceptionally high level of critical awareness and consciousness (Kaomea, 2014, p.  15; Waghid & Hibbert, 2018). Faiq’s Narrative on Educational Risk Faiq contends that education is a risk because it can have unintended consequences. This does not mean that education should be predetermined in advance and that academics should merely fit into such relations based on the disciplinary contributions to knowledge construction. However, he avers that for a university to be sustainable, the quality of thought of its

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academics should be reasonable and tenable. Here, he specifically mentions the importance of writing journal articles, book chapters, and books. In his view, as technical editor of a major higher education journal, he often finds articles with exceptionally high similarity indexes. He attributes such academic offences to the real possibility of smart plagiarism. Smart plagiarism seems to be connected to using other scholars’ theoretical ideas without even any form of acknowledgement. These practices are rife in the country and poses a major academic risk to any form of credible scholarship. He witnesses a trend in articles submitted to the journal of which he is technical editor that too many articles seem to have quite high similarity indexes that brings the credibility of journal article publications under alarming suspicion—a risk South African higher education can ill-afford to be complacent about.

Summary In this chapter, we have argued that any form of educational risk seems detrimental to the advancement of the academic project in universities. Educational risk is primarily morally unjust because it undermines the act of mutually reciprocal human relations. Any violation of the human rights of another is not just deeply despicable, but it goes beyond human actions that endorse mutual respect. Moreover, if mutual respect is absent from any human encounter—that is, an educational one, the institution and its members contribute significantly to the risk that might be opened up. The point about risk is that the possibility is always there for something damning to happen, which in turn places the institution at risk of collapsing. When risk holds sway, it undermines any form of institutional stability and functionality for that matter.

References Beck, U. (2007). World at risk. Polity Press. Gutmann, A., & Thompson, D. (2004). Why deliberative democracy? Princeton University Press. Kaomea, J. (2014). Reading erasures and making the familiar strange: Defamiliarization methods for research in formerly colonized and historically oppressed communities. Educational Researcher, 32(2), 14–25. Le Grange, L. (2012). Ubuntu, ukama, environment and moral education. Journal of Moral Education, 41(3), 329–340.

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Mahlomaholo, S.  M. G. (2014). Higher education and democracy: Analysing communicative action in the creation of sustainable learning environments. South African Journal of Higher Education, 28(3), 678–696. Shklovskij, V. 1965. Art as technique. Translated from Russian by L. T. Lemon & M.  J. Reis (Eds.), Russian formalist criticism (pp.  3–24). University of Nebraska Press. Waghid, Z., & Hibbert, L. (2018). Decolonising pre-service educators’ perceptions through defamiliarisation as a pedagogy. Educational Research for Social Change, 7(1), 60–77.

CHAPTER 10

Reclaiming Empowerment at the University: Professors and Students Are the University

Introduction Since the origin of the university, professors and students have been considered as the backbone of the institution. Over the last four decades in South Africa, the professoriate and its students have remained the mainstay of the university, but with increasing amendments. Of course, the idea of the university remaining a meritocracy has, by now, dissipated. The academic offerings of research, teaching and learning, and community engagement are no longer considered for their intrinsic value—that is, a matter of practising such actions for their own sake. Instead, the university in South Africa has changed somewhat into an entrepreneurial institution. In this regard, an entrepreneurial university is more concerned with meeting the utilitarian ends of higher education, such as producing a technically competent and skilled student clientele that can serve the monetary interests of both the private and public sector. In this chapter, we examine this entrepreneurial course taken by the South African university and how the professoriate and its students have evolved over the last few decades.

A Professoriate Under Threat During the student days of the first author of this book, he remembers having applied to a local university for acceptance into a master’s programme in education and democracy. He was subjected to rigorous © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_10

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interviews before being considered favourably for a masters degree in philosophy of education. The interviewers, themselves professors in the field of philosophical inquiry, were astute, provocative and imaginative, having asked questions that really made students think deeply and critically about their ensuing research endeavours. Students were not just automatically accepted into the programme; instead, they had to show some scholarly prowess—in particular how to make sense of theoretical assumptions. One of the most poignant questions asked, relates to the research approaches students would engage with to conduct their research projects. Thus, the expectation was already created that students should know their research approaches before entering the master’s programme. The professoriate, in this instance, showed their readiness to want to work with and supervise academically-committed students. Yet, what persuaded one to pursue a master’s in the field of philosophy of education was the professoriate’s own disciplinary knowledge and stature as scholars of repute. The focus here is on reputation, which implies that there must have been some recognition within the scholarly community of the university academics with which students were about to engage. Without saying too much about the the professoriate of the past, suffice it to say that the relationship between students and professors was mutually respectful—students trusted the professors’ ability to promote their intellectual pursuits and, equally, professors trusted students’ willingness to embark on credible academic projects. This relationship of trust between students and professors have changed over many years to the extent that it is argued somewhere else that universities in South Africa have been less inclined towards acts of mutuality (Waghid & Davids, 2020). In light of the aforementioned, we now examine what it takes to assume the mantle of a professor at a university in South Africa. Appointment to the level of the professoriate differs from one institution to another. Generally speaking, to be appointed as a professor, one should at least show some evidence of having acquired a particular level of expertise regarding publication outputs, student throughput at the doctoral level and acquisition of some form of rating (assessment) by the country’s national research foundation, and involvement in administrative tasks. Regarding the publications output, many universities in the country actually look at the numerical value of one’s publications and, to a certain degree, does not pay much attention to the production of credible international scholarly books. This is quite bizarre considering the scholarly effort that has gone into the production of books. Similarly, the national

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body that assigns a particular rating to scholars who apply for such a rating relies heavily on peer-review reports of how authentically others evaluate an academic’s research pedigree. The understanding is that this national body looks for specific descriptions of peer reviewers and how they rate academics before a particular rating is assigned. A big part of assigning a rating is related to the perception of academics, and not necessarily to the quality of research outputs, in particular books produced by academics. Yet, usually, academics classified as at least established researchers are deemed eligible for promotion to the level of a professor. So, when aspirant professors submit their applications to their respective institutions, having acquired some rating would enhance an appointment to the level of the professor. In such instances (and there are many in the country), promotions are linked to tangible research outputs of a much lesser kind. Far more work goes into research for a book compared to a journal article of, perhaps, five thousand words. Books require far more intensive and comprehensive research over a longer period, and often such books amount to the same time taken, for instance, to produce on average ten journal articles. Simply put, books require far more comprehensive and substantive research than journal articles. Moreover, to be biased towards journal articles as the primary form of academic output is to make a mockery of credible book publications that require extensive and rigorous review. Now, despite the minimum requirements expected from academics to be considered for promotion to the level of a professor, one still finds, increasingly so, anomalous cases that suggest that the above minimum criteria for promotion are not consistently adhered to. At some institutions in the country, one still finds academics being promoted to the professoriate even without having produced doctoral students; or having published scholarly books, or having acquired a reasonable rating from the national body. At some institutions in the country, one might find professors who have produced only five research articles. To us, this suggests that the professoriate is more and more under threat from forces of mediocrity and perhaps nepotism, otherwise how else would some academics have gained promotion in a higher education system that sets such minimum criteria for promotion? It does not necessarily mean that one is eligible for promotion to the professoriate only because one has performed administratively or one has merely served as a manager of a faculty. Promotion to the level of professor is inextricably connected to what Jacques Derrida (2004, p. 151) refers to as “academic responsibility”. For

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Derrida (2004, p.  151), academic responsibility firstly implies having acquired theoretical knowledge of one’s field of inquiry, and “the holder of this knowledge, which is always knowledge of causes and principles, is the leader of arkhitekton of a society at work, [and] is positioned above the manual laborer (kheiroteknes) who acts without knowing”. Again, Derrida (2004, p. 152) considers a person who knows as one possessing reason and has a capacity to teach—that is, to direct, steer, and organise the empirical work of others. On what grounds does an academic become eligible if he or she does not possess the knowledge to organise and steer the work of others? There seems to be no scholarly justification here for even supervising or promoting a doctoral study without having the knowledge to do so. Does having been promoted to the professoriate with only a few journal articles make one eligible for supervising doctoral students? We do not imagine that this should be the case, but clearly, South African higher education has numerous examples to suggest academic responsibility is not adhered to. Secondly, following Derrida (2004, p.  152), academic responsibility associated with the professoriate involves people advocating truth without controls or concern for utility. As aptly stated by Derrida (2004, p. 152), “Nietzsche condemns … utilitarian and journalistic culture in the service of the State, condemns the professional ends of the university”. In our country, the national Department of Higher Education surveys the number of publications produced by universities and then subsidises the institutions based on their quantifiable research outputs, in addition to its students’ enrolments and throughputs. There have been cases at some universities where professors were appointed based on the number of outputs they produced. However, as has been the case, not all the outputs produced can and should necessarily be considered as credible. Only recently, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has become aware of some journals that are considered by the international academic community as predatory. In other words, these journals’ peer review processes are questionable along with the standing of the members on their editorial boards. Many of the journals considered predatory are now excluded from the DHET’s recognised lists of journals. Now, higher education institutions in the country seem to be merely concerned with the utilitarian or technical ends of research. In contrast, research as an academic responsibility “must not have viewpoints alone, but also thoughts” (Derrida, 2004, p. 152). We would be bold enough to purport that at least educational research in the country is seemingly on

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the decline. This seems to be due to academic rigour and scholarship that have been compromised for quantity, rather than quality of research outputs. Thirdly, academic responsibility also means that the professoriate should “prepare students to undertake new analyses in order to evaluate … [end-oriented research] when possible” (Derrida, 2004, p. 148). The problem with much of the doctoral research in the country, especially in and about educational inquiry, is that it does not necessarily provoke new thinking and students are often involved in insufficiently developed research about pedagogical practices. Many students are intent on working with problems in and about teaching, learning, and policy in higher education without thinking anew about such problems—that is, they seem to be oblivious to raising suspicions and doubts about such problems and fail to take risks in their analyses of such problems. In other words, many students do not necessarily venture beyond the profound into radical analysis. There are instances where the completion of doctoral inquiries merely become uncritical texts in the pursuit of excessive and measurable knowledge production. If educational research, in the latter instance, seems to be reduced merely to technique and not to scientific rigour and rationality, then scholarship in the country will remain precarious and irresponsible without making an opening towards an alternative future possible (Derrida, 2004, p. 149). What follows from the above is that the professoriate in South Africa seems to be under threat. If this is the one entity of the university that can ensure thinking that is not reduced to technique; thinking that is reasoned and by implication subjected to questioning; and thinking that remains suspicious, then it becomes the responsibility of universities to ensure that people with credible theoretical knowledge fulfil such profound and risky responsibilities. This brings us to a discussion of the professoriate from our specific point of view. Yusef’s Narrative on the Professoriate When Yusef joined the institution where he currently works and started working more than two decades ago, he aspired to become a university professor. This he accomplished within five years after his appointment in his current department. This was not only a phenomenal achievement on the part of an academic of colour, but he also became the first-ever professor of colour in the faculty of education since the university’s inception.

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What is quite interesting about his appointment as a philosophy of education professor was that the first-ever vice-chancellor of the institution was a philosopher of education and a prominent chair of the department was a philosopher of education. This indicates that philosophy of education has been considered a significant discipline within the institution for many years. Yusef is currently the distinguished holder of such a chair. Since his inaugural address, he has built on the understanding of democratic education that became an important discourse in his department. By extending the debates in and about democratic education, he refers to going beyond the restricted ideas of social versus representative democratic education. Instead, he introduced deliberative politics into the theoretical understanding of democratic education, which, to an extent, had been confined to John Dewey’s ideas of social experience at the time. As a deliberative democratic scholar in philosophy of education, he initiated all his doctoral students into such a discourse. The point is, when he joined the faculty and the department, it was only a few years after the promulgation of the South African Higher Education Act of 1997. It soon became his academic ambition to find a synergy between the democratic education agenda of the department—both as chair and dean of the faculty—and the democratic politics that prevailed in the country at the time. In a Freirean sense, the role of intellectuals in post-apartheid South Africa was to cultivate a relationship of critical praxis between the university and academic politics. Yusef’s earlier empirically-informed philosophical work in marginalised school governing bodies is a manifestation of his role as a democratically-inspired intellectual. Accordingly, he designed and (re)constructed his courses around the principle of academic politics with deliberative democratic education as a central theme. It was such a theme that widened his academic contributions to notions of freedom, equality, justice, transformation, risk and becoming. Over the past decade, Yusef extended his research efforts into the realm of democratic iterations and responsibility alongside notions of cosmopolitan education that deal with pedagogical matters of (in)hospitality and disruption. In this sense, his scholarly work has truly taken a poststructuralist turn. Moreover, he makes no excuse to align his thoughts intellectually with the seminal ideas of poststructuralist theorists, in particular, the intellectual efforts of Jacques Derrida, Jacques Rancière, Amy Gutmann, Seyla Benhabib, and Giorgio Agamben. However, these scholars themselves might assert their bias towards critical academic work. One of the primary reasons for being attracted to poststructuralist educational

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research is the possibility that pedagogical matters will always be considered as otherwise, that is, there is no end to intellectual pursuits and that educational research remains in becoming iteratively. To deny poststructuralist scholarship from its iterative efforts is to be remiss of the idea that educational research remains in potentiality. The point is, there is always more to know and understand and that research in and about matters pertaining to higher education can never be considered as conclusive. That in itself would mark the end of higher education, which is neither desirable nor possible. Judith’s Narrative on the Professoriate Previously, Judith explained that an academic could be a professor (and definitively an associate professor) without a PhD in several of SAICA-­ accredited departments (or schools) of accounting (or accountancy). Historically, there were no research requirements placed upon accounting academics as they were purely appointed based on their professional qualifications, and as such, several accounting professors (and other academics) never participated in research activities. Currently, this unattainable situation creates significant stress in the department where Judith is employed. In some sense, Judith feels disassociated, as she never enrolled for a PhD to get promoted. For her, it was more a matter of social responsibility and personal actualisation. In addition, her personal view in life is that one should only focus on that which can be changed, and as such, the fact that people were rewarded with a professorship without contributing to new thinking through research, is something she accepts. The current frustration that boils over frequently is due to staff who are at a lecturer level and cannot be promoted to the level of senior lecturer as the minimum research requirements are not achievable with the significant teaching loads of academics on accounting programmes. To compound the difficulty, some professors did not start conducting research, even while the research ‘monster’ (as accounting academics at lecturer level perceive it) was rearing its head. Not only did they become professors without any research output (or limited research at the most) in a previous disposition, but they predominantly remain disengaged from research to this day. To put it differently, while junior staff are trying to engage in some research to try and make progress in achieving the research requirements for promotion to senior lecturer level, professors often do not take

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on extra teaching loads to help junior staff. Instead, they just protect the status quo. Further, although SAICA is making significant strides in changing the demographics of the profession, to attract African candidates into the accounting academe remains a challenge. Therefore, some of these professors (or associate professors or senior lecturers) who are disengaged from research are white, while there are lecturers of colour that are desperate to be promoted, but they struggle to balance their teaching loads in addition to the new emphasis on research outputs. In essence, they have hurdles to overcome that did not exist for their fellow senior and older colleagues. What holds true, though, are that these older professors are all nearing retirement age and this particular challenge or difficulty will soon cease to exist. However, it is possible that lecturers might still have resentment in their hearts about the current challenges of chartered accountant academics compared to the previous generation. Although Judith is the first academic at her institution in the Department of Accounting that has obtained a PhD, she is on a senior lecturer level while there are four professors without PhDs in the department. As highlighted earlier, Judith did not expect to be promoted to associate professor after obtaining her PhD, and as such, observe and notice the current imbalance without being utterly disenchanted. Colleagues on lecturer level, however, expected to be promoted to senior lecturer after completion of their master’s degrees and are currently very disappointed that they are required to meet further research output requirements. On the one hand, one can recognise in this situation a potential ethical threat, while, on the other hand, HEIs also need to protect the integrity of higher education, the knowledge production process and the role of a professor that needs to advance specific knowledge domains. Zayd’s Narrative on the Professoriate A professor who came from the previous technikons (now Universities of Technology [UoTs]) functioned differently to that of a professor at traditional universities in South Africa. After the amalgamation of the technikons and traditional universities to form what is now referred to as UoTs, the criteria for acquiring a professorship initially stood in stark contrast to academics at UoTs being more concerned with teaching than research. Of course, the requirements for acquiring a professorship at a UoT has changed considerably in recent years with such institutions also

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expected to produce research outputs. However, UoTs are more practice-­ based institutions compared to traditional universities that focus quite extensively on research. If one were to examine, for instance, the National Research Foundation’s (NRF) list of rated researchers, then one would not be surprised by the fact that there are far fewer researchers at UoTs who hold ratings than at traditional universities. There are far fewer professors at UoTs as well in South Africa. Of course, the historical and political situation has a large part to play in this regard. However, with more UoTs expected to engage in practice-based research, teaching and community engagement, one can begin to ascertain the challenge in acquiring a professorship at a UoT than at a traditional university. At least from Zayd’s consultation with colleagues at various universities, it seems that UoTs and certain historically disadvantaged universities receive a higher subsidy than traditional universities. In this regard, a professor at a UoT could publish one article and receive a higher subsidy than at a traditional university. In some instances, these subsidies may end up being twice or even three times the amount at the UoT when compared to the traditional university. The teaching capacity at certain levels, namely, junior lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer level at UoTs and historically disadvantaged universities do not always make it possible to achieve the amount of research output compared to traditional universities. This leaves some academics with the need to collaborate quite extensively as part of a team of academics. In the natural sciences this is quite common; however, if one is to demonstrate one’s capacity as a university professor in the field of education, then one would be expected to show one’s ability to write a monograph, single-authored book chapters or single-authored journal articles, for instance. Furthermore, with the increase of student intake at universities in the post-massification era, it is not always possible to produce outputs on a large scale. Furthermore, the standard at which one applies for promotion in South Africa is far less stringent when compared to developed nations such as the United Kingdom (UK). In the UK, one would need to publish extensively (including a monograph or two), and even hold editorship of a journal to be promoted to senior lecturer level. Whereas in South Africa, for one to not engage in any scholarly work, implies that one would either not receive a subsidy from the government or acquire promotion. In this regard, there is far less accountability on the part of professors or academics in South Africa who do not produce.

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The professoriate thus continues to be placed under significant threat in South Africa. This threat has further had implications on the university in terms of teaching, research and community engagement. For instance, if a university professor who was promoted and who never supervised a student to completion but was expected to produce such a student, then one would need to scrutinise such a promotion policy critically. Such promotion has a negative impact on the student concerning the completion of his or her studies within the allocated period. It further has an implication on the university in terms of financial capacity and resources spent. This is because the government further subsidises universities for every master’s and doctoral student produced. When such a student fails to complete his/her studies within the allocated period, the university foregoes the amount of time spent and resources used. As we argued earlier in Chap. 5 concerning the post-massification era, the fact that more professors are engaged in empirical research or applied research has a bearing on the limited pure or basic research. Of course, such a phenomenon does not only apply to South Africa but to the global context as well. The notion of practice-based research may further be linked to textbook publishing. Put more aptly, and if we explore the entrepreneurial nature of professors, then we need to explore the impact of textbook publishing. It should be noted that textbooks have no bearing on one’s ability to acquire a promotion or receive a subsidy from the government. However, continued textbook publishing has a bearing on the capacity of a professor as a researcher to produce research outputs. Professors in this regard would reap considerable commission from the sale of textbooks in their classes. However, the credibility of engaging in such practices is perhaps questioned when students who do not have the means to afford such books at the undergraduate level are expected to purchase these textbooks out of necessity, together with the prescribed list of textbooks for their studies. It becomes even more unethical when students are required to further purchase textbooks published by a professor as students progress through their undergraduate studies. Furthermore, the need to decolonise even one’s research practices in South Africa is impacted by the requirements and expectations of a post-­ massification era in terms of research. Of course, Zayd’s critics would argue that practice-based research has implications on one’s teaching and he is, of course, in agreement with such critics. However, if we were to produce conceptual or theoretical knowledge that would be worthy of application in developed and developing contexts, then by implication

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more professors, particularly in the field of education in South Africa, would be expected to produce such pure or basic research as a means of enhancing the researcher’s voice from an African perspective. Faiq’s Narrative on the Professoriate Faiq’s understanding of the professoriate is that of an intelligent and responsible group of academics that takes scholarly endeavours seriously. What seems to be important for him is that professors should determine the academic trajectory universities take in the quest to connect with public concerns. For instance, he considers the professoriate as academics with high intellectual capacities who can enact difference in our communities. In other words, the professoriate is not isolated from the communities in which they live; instead, they are responsible for the advancement of such communities. For instance, as a biological sciences graduate, he does not regard environmental degradation and climate change as reasons for activists to respond only. For him, the professoriate has the societal responsibility to act upon whatever undermines humans’ societal living. Put differently, a professor is a social, environmental and political activist who can make a difference in society and act upon his knowledge to advance good human living. It is quite interesting to note is that Faiq does not accentuate the importance of research publications, but he nevertheless stresses that knowledge production is central to the role the professoriate should enact. The latter is an acknowledgement that research outputs of relevance are significant in cultivating a just society. In other words, professors cannot and should not see themselves as existing in ivory towers disconnected from the realities of social life. Categorised by the National Research Foundation as an emerging young scholar is a vindication that he takes scholarship seriously and often talks against the appointment of and promotion of academics whose pedigrees do not agree with those academics who are genuine professors.

Summary In this chapter, we examined our own critical or perhaps post-critical praxis concerning university education. We contend that the university professoriate cannot remain oblivious of the broader democratic politics in post-apartheid South Africa and that their curricula should reflect the

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democratic change in a substantive manner. Only then could we have seriously reconsidered our critical praxis. We have argued that a reconsideration of critical praxis involves more than just cultivating dialogue in the higher education institutions within which we work. Underlying our engagement with peers and students is the practice of deliberative inquiry in iterative ways. We have presented ourselves as democratically inspired deliberative agents in higher education who remain open to the new and unexpected. This is so because of our conviction that higher education is a practice that remains in becoming. Finally, our attraction to the notion that higher education remains in potentiality is our contention that such a democratically informed iterative academic project remains inconclusive. Consequently, we rightfully aligned ourselves with a poststructuralist reimagining of university education.

References Derrida, J. (2004). Eyes of the university: Right to philosophy 2 (From French by J. Plug & others. Trans.). Stanford University Press. Waghid, Y., & Davids, N. (2020). The thinking university expanded: On profanation, play and education. Routledge.

CHAPTER 11

Coda: Higher Education under Reconsideration—Conversations about Critical Praxis

Introduction This contribution explores insights that can be built into discussions about critical praxis concerning the re-evaluation of higher education policy. These insights have been scrutinised to contribute to the development of higher education and to critically explore issues that have persisted in promoting injustice in higher education. In addition, the scrutinised information is expected to create prospects for addressing, what I call a philosophical point of view that declares that education reform in South Africa does not translate into the social change envisaged in the policies introduced in 1997 and 2013 respectively. The accents I use to contribute to the themes in conversations about critical praxis are materialism—so to reflect upon the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures which constrain higher education, and an ethics of care—to deliberate upon a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centres on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue, and can move higher education forward. While this coda intends to ensure commitment to student welfare, the contribution also wants to explore insights that can realise transformation and decoloniality of higher education. Although public policy in democratic South Africa aspires to effect equality in accessing higher education, the opportunities for realising this goal are unlikely because the majority of black students come from poor schools, and their poor historical background predetermines their lack of © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7_11

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skills to access higher education globally. Christensen and Eyring (2011, p. xxi) remark that in these neoliberal times, which are characterised by the shift away from state welfare provision, poor students will continuously be sidelined by the higher education system because universities want to attract the most capable and discerning students who would propel their institutions onto academic ranking leaderboards. Christensen and Eyring further refer to such global cooperation as the root cause of all challenges that are distressing the higher education system. My argument is that academics ought to engage in critical praxis to question the existence of asymmetry in a democracy to eradicate asymmetrical integration in higher education coupled with the connection of the higher education policy to apartheid and coloniality. In debates about critical praxis, the reader should be able to talk openly about the injustices of asymmetry to acknowledge that inequality exists and that inequality borders on discrimination, considering that the majority of students that the system alienates are black. Fear or neglect to have an open discussion about inequality itself may seem to foster dominant power relations. Substantiating this assertion is Aronowitz (2015), who states that [f]or Horkheimer, Critical Theory proceeds from the theorist’s awareness of his own partiality. Thus theory is neither neutral nor objective. Its partisanship consists in its goals: the reconstruction of society based on non-­ exploitative relations between persons; and the restoration of man to [the central] place in the evolution of human society as a self-conscious, self-­ managing subject of social reality. Yet, the awareness that the term ‘critical theory’ itself presupposes a definite philosophical standpoint does not imply its one-sidedness. On the contrary, the core of the dialectical theory is the recognition that the world of perception is a product of human activity.

From this perspective, I gather that students from poor schools are likely not to access higher education, which is the level that is sought for social mobility, if scholars do not engage in critical theory praxis  – that is, to allow students to flourish even though their schooling encounters tend to stand in the way of their ability to attain this tool. Marginson’s (2016, p. 415) observation is that while higher education cannot guarantee social success for students from poor backgrounds, in terms of social averages, it continues to make a difference. Because of this state of affairs, it then becomes imperative that in the deliberations on critical praxis, scholars should converse from a philosophical standpoint that seeks to engender

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social justice. To engender social justice, therefore, would mean that the discourse examines all hindrances that prevent evolution in higher education, with one of those being coloniality, which is embedded within the higher education system and may, instead, prove challenging to verify that it exists. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2015, p.  488) corroborates the above contention and further declares that coloniality is not easily recognised as it somehow has become an invisible power structure, that is well-maintained in books, in the criteria for academic performance, in cultural patterns, in common sense, in the self-image of peoples, in aspiration of self, and so many other aspects of our modern experience. Rancière (1991, p. 105) concurs and explains that the culture of education was intrinsically linked to some form of dominion. Rancière (1991) therefore suggests questioning the status quo and says: It’s not enough for inequality to be respected; it wants to be believed and loved. It wants to be explicated. Every institution is an explication in the social act, a dramatization of inequality. Its principle is and always will be antithetical to that of a method based on equality and the refusal of explications.

To explicate inequality, therefore, the question that needs to be asked during the conversations on praxis should be, “What is more important for the South African higher education system, whether to address social inequalities in order to build an equal higher education social structure, or to embrace global competitiveness in order to be ranked among the best institutions in the World?” Waghid (2010, p.  38) argues that an equal higher education social structure can be attained through compassionate encounters only if academics can collectively oppose marginalisation in any form in higher education. In addition to Waghid’s assertion, my argument is that there is also a need for a bureaucratic and pedagogical shift in the higher education policy agenda to ensure that the capacity of the university system is extended to accommodate even those students inclined to be sidelined by the system. The reason being that they are mostly second and third-language speakers of the university’s languages of instruction, which are either English and Afrikaans. Having these conversations in mind, I begin a conversations about critical praxis with Max Horkheimer’s materialist philosophical stance, which justifies the need to engage with policy and the reality of university as both

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a political entity and a bureaucracy of social and political transformation to support higher education reconsiderations, were to be realised.

Conversations about Critical Praxis Focusing on the Complex Connections of the Social, Political and Material Conditions of Inequalities and their Implications Horkheimer (1989, p. 25) states: The final goal of social philosophy is the philosophical interpretation of human life – insofar as humans are not mere individuals but members of a community. Social philosophy must therefore primarily concern itself with those phenomena that can be interpreted only in the context of social existence of humans such as the state, law, economy, religion: in short with all the material and spiritual culture of humanity as such.

The implication of this assertion is an attempt to seek resolutions for the greater good. The greatest need is to gain certainty about the nature of reality of the discoursed subject, and either accept the situation as it is or challenge it. Horkheimer’s emphasis is that critical theory exists in the dialectic tension between accepting the existence of social asymmetry and challenging the existences of the alienating system. As an example, in this contribution, the discourse is on the educational reforms that have not translated to social transformation as envisioned in the two policy framework  – that is, White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education of 1997 and White Paper For Post-school Education And Training: Building An Expanded, Effective And Integrated Post School System of 2013 enacted after the dawn of democracy. This subject has, therefore, rendered higher education complex and contentious. The questions then become how higher education can move forward when the neoliberal policies that have been adopted by the government seem to accept inequality as a norm. If this question were to be addressed from a materialists point of view, it can be argued that things should not be allowed to remain as they are. The reason is that in South Africa, there is an overlap between class and race because the majority of those who are still marginalised are black, and who may never get to enjoy a similar experience to those who come from privilege, hence Horkheimer’s emphasis in seeking resolutions that can ensure an equitable and equal world.

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Freire (1985) substantiates Horkheimer’s need to seek resolutions by mentioning the need for dialogues. An example when using the higher education scenario would be a dialogue between policymakers and students, which would bring about change in unequal power relations. The dialogue would bring about a nuanced understanding of the impact of structural injustice and the concept of power and privilege as defined through economic substructures. Young (2011, p. xvi) then explains that the most helpful concept with which to approach structural injustices is that of shared responsibility. We turn away from the past and toward the future, accepting collectively, the fact that as citizens, we bear responsibility for monitoring political institutions and ensuring that such structural injustices do not arise within them, or, if they are already there, that they are ameliorated. Young’s (2011) notion of shared responsibility spells out the need to improve on the universities’ institutional culture so it can embrace all students without having to base access on meritocracy. By the university culture, I refer to how things have been done at an institution. As stated in Van Wyk (2009, p. 332), “[w]hile academics may not pay much attention to the culture of their institutions in their day-to-day activities, there is an inescapable, pervasive culture that determines how things are done at each institution”, which then become norms that tend to be static. The above then is the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures, which seem to constrain higher education. Below, the dialogue looks into an ethic of care as a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centres on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue—and it then is likely to address the issues which materialism has detailed as a challenge.

Kant’s Moral Theory as the Substructure of Ethics of Care The principle of goodwill is drawn from Kant’s deontological ethics, which relates to acting out of duty, and relies on principles to highlight moral actions. The morality of an action is not based on whether that action itself is right or wrong, and it does not care much about the consequences of the action. Kant believes that ethical actions follow universal moral laws (Wood, 2002, p.  82), which are then accepted as the right thing to do. Wood’s (2002) interpretation of Kant’s moral law

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connects it to the supreme law of a country, which compels citizens to be obedient to the law. To explain how to be obedient to the supreme law, Wood (2002) highlights the practice of goodwill without restrictions, meaning that in Kant’s moral law, the expectation is an adherence to the principle, whether or not people agree or disagree with the principle. Wood (2002, p.  92) also states that in Kant’s moral law, actions have moral worth only if they are performed out of duty. Kant’s (in Wood, 2002) moral law can be used as a lens to examine the transformation strategies in higher education, to ensure that the transformation strategies redress the disparities constructed by the apartheid system, as tabulated in both White Paper 3 and White Paper for Post-school Education and Training. According to Kant’s (in Wood, 2002) categorical imperatives, the maxim that should govern the practice of goodwill should be to make the practice of goodwill a universal law. Considering that, when the white papers in higher education were enacted, the fundamental goals were to redress the disparities constructed by the apartheid system, which are tabulated clearly in the White Paper for Post-school Education and Training today: The institutional landscape is still reminiscent of apartheid, with disadvantaged institutions, especially those in rural areas of the former bantustans, still disadvantaged in terms of infrastructure, teaching facilities and staffing. Black students at formerly white-only institutions have often been victims of racism, and female students have been victims of patriarchal practices and sexual harassment. Poorer students have to fit in with systems that were designed for students from relatively privileged backgrounds. (Department of Higher Education and Training [DHET], 2013)

Higher education institutions need to make the disruption of the status quo a priority to ensure that transformation is not delayed. This, according to Kant (in Wood, 2002), should be propagated as a true moral proposition that is viewed rationally, instead of driven by racial politics. According to Kant, we first have a perfect duty not to act by maxims that result in logical contradictions but to ensure that the people are not the means to an end but the end itself. To disrupt obstacles that hinder transformation in higher education using Kant’s moral law, policymakers need to understand that

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[t]he rational being must always consider itself as giving laws in a realm of ends … Morality thus consists in the reference of all action to that legislation through which alone a realm of ends is possible. But the legislation must be encountered in every rational being itself, and be able to arise from its will. (Wood, 2002, p. 84)

This assertion can be explained as a suggestion that emphasises the need to treat all human beings as ends, and not a means to an end for other people. This assertion also explains that helping others is an obligation that should not be questioned.

The Ethics of Care as a Context-Bound Approach that Can Be Redefined as an Unorthodox Theme in the Critical Praxis Conversations Noddings (2003) defines the notion of ethical caring as a state of being in a relationship that is asymmetrical but reciprocal. This relationship consists of a carer and the cared for. Noddings (1998, p. 127) explains the asymmetry as a depiction of determinative positions of influence, which can be evenly portrayed in the mother-and-child relationship, and can be seen as both endearing and satisfying as they are assumed to come naturally. The analogy of the mother-and-child relationship is brought up to emphasise natural caring, which can easily produce satisfying results if policymakers can attempt to be empathetic to the plight of poor students. Noddings (2013) suggests that in the discourses of today “the effort should be directed to transforming the conditions that make caring difficult or impossible”. Noddings (2003, p. 24) explains an ethic of care as doing the right thing, which is caring about others. Comparatively speaking, Kant’s (in Wood, 2002) moral approach also emphasizes caring for others as the right thing to do. The difference between the two is that the principle-­ based ethics of caring are not seen as a proposition that progresses naturally, but a must. Within the principles is respect for autonomy, which involves justice and an ethical and legal duty to avoid harming others, while in the ethics of care, the impetus is not turning away from those who need care.

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Ethics of Care as an Extension of ubuntu To deviate a bit, I want to affirm that caring, as a norm is nothing new in the South African social system. The concept of ubuntu carries similar attributes as an ethics of care since it promotes collective co-existence. Nevertheless, Broodryk explains this phenomenon as a way of life that highlights social and physical interdependence of people. My emphasis with this interpolation is to attempt to encourage policymakers to borrow from aspects of ubuntu to address challenges in higher education, as ubuntu starts by looking within before extending oneself to others. This suggests that, as South Africa exists in a global ecosystem, the state would need to first and foremost begin by addressing local needs, using systems that are ideal for South Africa, in order to take on the world. Held (2006, p. 85), in her comment on liberal morality, states: Thinking of society’s members as if they were fully independent, free and equal rational agents obscures and distorts the conditions of vast numbers of them at the very least and has the effect of making it more difficult to address the social and political issues that would be seen as relevant and appropriate if these conditions were more accurately portrayed and kept in view. The liberal portrayal of the self-sufficient individual enables the privileged to falsely imagine that dependencies hardly exist, and when they are obvious, to suppose they can be dealt with as private preferences, as when parents provide for their infants. The illusion that society is composed of free, equal independent individuals who can choose to be associated with one another or not obscures the reality that social cooperation is required as a precondition of autonomy.

From this excerpt, I also contend that in the disruption of alienating processes at universities in my study, policymakers need to reimagine their guidelines and rationale as nearly all rules that have been applied at the universities tend to be in indulgence of privately schooled, and former model C (white) students, which technically is a promotion of privilege, as I have referred to in the paragraphs above. Held (2006, p. 87) also warns against the annihilation of rules and principles when speaking from the perspective of the ethics of care. This is echoed by Slote (2007, p. 12), who states that the norm should not be to apply a general rule of what is good, but rather to pay attention to how the other person has experienced the world. Slote (2007, p.  12) states that institutions ought to develop processes with extended goodwill. Slote (2007) reasons that when taking

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the ethics of care path, it is necessary to concern yourself not only for “individual welfare but for good relationship[s]”.

The Ethics of Care through the Critical Theorist Lens Critical theorists take more of a social approach, although they relate to the ethics of care approach. For example, when exploring the effect that systematic exclusion has on the students, the critical theorist would focus on how the social groups we belong to are affected. In this case, how the social groups of the students are affected. Young (2011) speaks about ethical responsibility. Young believes that we tend to have a binary definition of things. We would, for instance, classify universities in South Africa in terms of historically advantaged or historically disadvantaged institutions. In Young’s (2011) opinion, these institutions are both products of structural injustice; and therefore, we should not isolate one from the other, but rather work towards the eradication of inequalities that were perpetuated by structural injustice, and which are still perpetuated through the present policy frameworks. The fundamental argument is that the plight of students from poor schools is a social problem. That meritocracy is used to grant these students access to higher education is ironic, seeing that poor students come from schools without resources, and their lived experiences do not do anything to help their cause. Although privilege continues to be a contentious subject in South Africa today, there are those who want to deny that privilege continues to elevate students who attend former Model C schools and private schools whether black or white, even though the reality is that there are still underprivileged students who need assistance to gain access to higher education. Shifting the responsibility of desolate encounters experienced by students from poor schools to students themselves can never help us change this status quo until policymakers disrupt their processes to ensure equity. Earlier in the chapter I referred to Freire (1985, p. 48), who recommends that equitable strategies should be framed in a manner that ensures that everyone gets ahead in the practice of the ethics of care. This would suggest that the lived experiences of students from poor schools should be acknowledged. What I took from Freire’s perspective, is that the higher

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education institutions need to start by acknowledging that different socioeconomic backgrounds and academic encounters shape the abilities of students who may want to study at these universities. It is, therefore, vital that institutions develop elastic structures to promote equity.

Implications of Caring in an Educational Setting Noddings defines education as “a constellation of encounters, both planned and unplanned, that promote growth through the acquisition of knowledge, skills, understanding and appreciation” (Noddings, 2002, p. 283). This suggests that if ethics of care gets introduced in policymaking, teaching and learning would develop to the extent that it goes beyond book knowledge to facilitate moral values, positive and critical thinking, benevolence, and ethical values. In this regard, students are prepared for citizenship and are formed into rational beings that are socially conscious. Waghid (2002, p. 458) corroborates this notion and states that a need for a different concept of the education system has emerged where universities excel in community service (in the form of providing integrated teaching and research-based services grounded in the knowledge production in the context of its application) as there is a great need for communities and universities to become jointly responsible for social change. This would be in lieu of a model that focuses exclusively on conventional academic research and teaching. My extrapolation of Waghid’s assertion is that teaching and learning in a university setting should be able to prepare students to be change agents; I thus purport the idea that students are able to navigate and contribute positively to their world as societies evolve. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2015, p. 18), on the other hand, suggests epistemic freedom to attain caring relations in an educational setting. He says: Epistemic freedom is different from academic freedom. Academic freedom speaks to institutional autonomy of universities and rights to express diverse ideas, including those critical of authorities and political leaders. Epistemic freedom is much broader and deeper. It speaks to cognitive justice; it draws our attention to the content of what it is that we are free to express and on whose terms. Cognitive justice … is premised on recognition of diverse ways of knowing by which human beings across the globe make sense of their existence. Epistemic freedom is about democratising ‘knowledge’ from its current rendition in the singular into its plural known as ‘knowledges’. It is also ranged against overrepresentation of Eurocentric thought in ­knowledge,

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social theory, and education. Epistemic freedom is foundational in the broader decolonisation struggle because it enables the emergence of critical decolonial consciousness.

When making sense of Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s (2015) proclamation, I contend that his point of view of epistemic freedom suggests the inclusion of students in ways that express decoloniality within their encounters, and thus ensuring that all students, whether affluent or poor, can take part in higher education. If caring exists in higher education, the systems would suppress the colonial hegemony, and embrace ubuntu. The current form of university encounters still seems to perpetuate the issues of race and class in that those who seem to enjoy higher education encounters are propelled forward by privilege by previously being exposed to encounters that match the required university proficiencies. To undermine this, the impetus has to be to develop “decolonial initiatives aimed at creating post-­ colonial futures, free from coloniality” (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015, p. 18). Simons and Masschelein (2011, p. 81) mention pedagogic subjectivation as an ideal intervention to effect caring in higher education, as pedagogic subjectivation would be for verification of equality to authenticate whether resources that are in place, can improve one’s “ability to” or one’s “potentiality”.

How Can Caring Be Imparted to Students? Friedrich, Jaastad and Popkewitz (2011, p.  64) say, “[e]quality and inequality are not facts to be checked but opinions that function as the practical grounds on which our thoughts are built”. Therefore, if caring and compassion are premised on the educator’s thoughts, it would be easy for educators to develop caring environments from which respectful and caring interactions are nurtured. The nurturing of interactions also mean empowerment as it is not just about the concept, but it is about allowing student voices to speak and reasoning skills to develop. Biesta (2013, p. 78) states that inculcating caring ought to begin with demystification and liberation from dogmatism, and that will close the gaps within pedagogical encounters. This approach has the ability to dissolve self-imposed tutelage and can promote ethics of care. According to Waghid (2010, p.  71), when imparting caring to students, it is necessary to teach and show respect towards the students so that they can learn that even those who perpetrated acts of racial bigotry, gender oppression and cultural

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imperialism should be respected as persons, as this would leave doors open for reconciliation if there were some animosity. To safeguard against this, universities ought to ensure there are visible policies that protect all students.

Conclusion Young (1990, 2011), points out that politics is an integral part of the operation of a public education system and in the middle of everything that is iniquitous in the South African higher education sector. For example, the South African government opted to drop RDP1-fuelled policies that focused on equity and redress of the imbalances created by the apartheid government, for policies involving growth, employment and redistribution (GEAR). The government declared that it would stimulate faster economic growth, which was required to provide resources to reduce poverty, and also aimed at reducing fiscal deficits, and decreasing barriers to trade and liberalising capital flows. To liberalise capital flow means to open borders to compete on global platforms. By the time the economic policy of Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) was replaced by GEAR in 2007, unemployment had increased by 1.2% from 21% per cent in 1996, which goes to say that the changing of the economic policy did not do South Africa any favours. Instead, the South African triple threat of unemployment, poverty and inequality increased. The policies that were established in higher education around this time also got an outward focus to try and compete with universities such as Harvard, MIT and Oxford – universities that are regularly ranked in the top tier of the ranking organisations, such as The World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings, among others. Simply put, South African higher education institutions want to compete with institutions that have the capacity to educate and cultivate future Nobel Prize winners. The subjects of equity and inclusion seem to have taken a backseat. The questions that come to mind are: what are the odds that South African institutions can move out of the 500 to 800 level to the top tier if they still carry a burden of inequalities? Moreover, what are the odds that the newly-proposed South African economic policy, Economic Transformation, Inclusive Growth, and Competitiveness: Towards an Economic Strategy for South Africa will effectively impact upon higher education?

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In essence, our government overseeing a developing country ought to be part of these conversations so that the government can become decisive about issues of inequality because if such issues are left alone, they tend to fester and become bigger problems. An example of this would be the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall campaigns. What is more, even though globalisation has been the primary influencer in the modern world, national needs instead of what is seen as the delocalisation of nation-states need to be cultivated.

Note 1. The Reconstruction and Development Programme is a South African socio-­ economic policy framework implemented by the African National Congress (ANC) government of Nelson Mandela in 1994.

References Aronowitz, S. (2015). Against orthodoxy: Social theory and its discontents. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved March 15, 2020, from https://books.google. co.za/books/about/Against_Orthodoxy.html?id=kdu_CQAAQBAJ&printsec =frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage Biesta, G. J. J. (2013). The beautiful risk of education. Paradigm. Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. (2011). The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education inside out. Jossey-Bass. Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). (2013). Education white paper for post-school education and training: Building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. Government Printers. Freire, P. (1985). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Pelican Books. Friedrich, D., Jaastad, B., & Popkewitz, T. S. (2011). Democratic education: An (im)possibility that yet remains to come. Educational Philosophy and Theory, Special issue: Rancière, Public Education and the Taming of Democracy, 42(5/6), 60–75. Held, V. (2006). The ethics of care: Personal, political and global. Oxford University Press. Horkheimer, M. (1989). The state of contemporary social philosophy and the task of an institute for social research. In Critical theory and society a reader. Routledge. Marginson, S. (2016). The worldwide trend to high participation in higher education: Dynamics of social stratification in inclusive systems. Higher Education Journal, 72(4): 413–434. Retrieved June 17, 2019, from https://link.springer. com/article/10.1007/s10734-­016-­0016-­x

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Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.  J. (2015). Decoloniality as the future of Africa. History Compass, 13(10), 485–496. Noddings, N. (1998). Philosophy of education. Westview Press. Noddings, N. (2002). Starting at home: Caring and social policy. University of California Press. Noddings, N. (2003). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education (2nd ed.). University of California Press. Noddings, N. (2013). Education and democracy in the 21st century. Teachers College Press. Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation. Translated from French by K. Ross. Stanford University Press. Simons, M., & Masschelein, J. (2011). Governmental, political, and pedagogic subjectivation: Foucault with Rancière. Educational Philosophy and Theory, Special issue: Rancière, Public Education and the Taming of Democracy, 42(5/6), 76–92. Slote, M. (2007). The ethics of care and empathy. Routledge. Van Wyk, B. (2009). Universities as organisations or institutions? The culture debate and one institution. In E.  Bitzer (Ed.), Higher education in South Africa: A scholarly look behind the scenes (pp. 331–347). Sun Press. Waghid, Y. (2002). Knowledge production and higher education transformation in South Africa: Towards reflexivity in university teaching, research and community service. Higher Education, 43, 457–488. Waghid, Y. (2010). Education, democracy, and citizenship revisited. SUN MeDIA. Wood, A. W. (Ed.). (2002). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals: Immanuel Kant. Yale University. Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press. Young, I. M. (2011). Responsibility for justice. Oxford University Press.

Index

A Academic/academics, 3, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 25, 38, 48, 51, 53, 55, 56, 61, 67, 75, 76, 78, 82, 94, 98–102, 104, 109, 113–115, 117, 120, 121, 123 accountant, 67, 101, 114 accounting, 26, 84, 102, 113 activity, 94 ambition, 112 black female, 74 careers, 2, 3, 9, 22 of colour, 111 community, 110 competence, 98 contributions, 112 decisions, 98 encounters, 128 enhancement, 94 expectations of, 102 fellow, 26 freedom, 44, 52, 54, 128 function of, 61 group of, 117 with high intellectual capacities, 117

institutions, 18 jargon, 103 journals, 3 literacy, 78 matters, 78 mediocrity, 75 mindset of, 38 offences, 105 offerings, 107 opportunities for, 38 output, 109 perception of, 109 performance, 121 perjury, 75 politics, 112 position, 2 positive, 58 professors, 54 programme, 101 projects, 31, 75, 97–99, 105, 108, 118 promotion of, 117 ranking leaderboards, 120 research (see Research, academic) research pedigree, 109

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Y. Waghid et al., Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75429-7

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Academic/academics (cont.) resistant, 14 responsibility, 109, 110 rigour, 111 risk, 105 success, 51 team of, 115 theorising, 66 trajectory, 117 university, 52, 55 (see also University, academic) at UoTs, 114 works, 66, 75, 112 writing, 3 Act/acts autonomously, 27 with autonomy, 15 callous, 100 with civility, 49 of cognitive injustice, 62 critically, 38 of deliberation, 7 as the designer, 28 of emancipation, 32 human (see Human, acts) humanely, 4 immoral, 100 of indignity, 92 of intelligence, 61 in isolation, 103 by maxims, 124 as moral equals, 92 of mutually reciprocal human relations, 105 of participation, 8 pedagogical, 38 by the principles of desert, 68 by the principles of equality, 68 by the principles of need, 68 of racial bigotry, 129 of reciprocal justice, 100 responsibly, 7 of rhythmic caring, 38

swiftly, 100 of teaching, 46 upon, 117 of violation, 100 Action/actions, 1, 5, 13, 31, 33, 62, 66, 77, 83, 99, 100, 107, 123–125 consequences of the, 123 of deliberative dialogue, 36 democratic, 66 direct, 101 educator, 93 ethical, 123 minds in, 62 moral, 119, 123 pedagogical, 19, 83 reflective, 22 relevant, 21 research, 13 research study, 13 risk-oriented, 60 socially just, 22 societal, 3 staff development, 94 of the teacher, 14 university, 15 as university teachers, 15 violent, 97 virtuous, 94 Activities, 5, 48, 54 day-to-day, 123 democratic, 66 research, 5, 102, 113 staff development, 14, 48, 87 African, 103 candidates, 114 continent, 5, 89 discourses, 56 educational context, 56 essentialists, 99 experience, 55 higher education, 98 higher education institutions, 98

 INDEX 

languages, 103 nationalism, 99 notions of teaching and learning, 28 perspective, 117 philosophical concept, 77 philosophical ethic, 62, 77 philosophy of education, 83 philosophy of higher education, 4 teaching and learning, 83 university, 98 Afrikaner identity, 53 nationalism, 53 Agamben, Giorgio, 112 Apartheid, 19, 46, 53, 81, 85, 120, 124 era, 53, 81 government, 53, 130 heydays of, 53 pedagogy, 21 post-, 18, 89, 112, 117 regime, 53 rule, 19, 46 system, 124 Autonomy, 2, 4, 14, 23, 69, 98 act with, 15 exercise, 28 exercising, 24 human (see Human, autonomy) institutional, 44, 128 of mind, 2 precondition of, 126 respect for, 125 of students, 21 B Benhabib, Seyla, 112 Black female academic, 74 majority ruling party, 81 people, 122

135

prejudice, 98 schools, 127 students, 119, 120, 124 universities, 53 C Care, 93, 119, 123, 125 critical, 36 ethics of, 119, 123–129 medical, 64 nuances of, 36 pedagogy of, 36 rhythmic, 8, 35, 36 Caring, 126, 129 critical, 36 environments, 129 ethical, 125 ethics of, 125 in higher education, 129 implications of, 128–129 interactions, 129 natural, 125 for others, 125 as pedagogy, 36 philosophy of, 36 relations, 128 rhythmic, 38, 39 Change, 3, 4, 19, 35, 43, 67, 85, 107, 108, 113, 114, 127 actuating, 4 agents, 3, 128 climate, 117 conditions, 85 cultivating, 20 cultural, 89 curriculum, 26 defensible, 20 democratic, 86, 118 ethnic, 89 gender, 89 initiate, 67

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INDEX

Change (cont.) lack of, 58 meaningful, 20 in organisational structures, 54 perception, 102 racial, 89 real, 20 significant, 21, 54, 89 social, 51–70, 119, 128 societal, 5, 52, 62, 65, 69 teaching for, 83 technical content, 85 in their communities, 45 in unequal power, 123 unimaginable, 20 Citizenship, 4, 128 education, 4, 5 good, 45 Civic participation, 45 pride, 19 Classroom, 10, 13, 23, 27, 58, 63, 67, 68, 70, 94, 103 cosmopolitan, 103 dialogue in the, 11 experiences, 68 initiative, 11 overcrowded, 36 practices, 13 university, 23, 45, 48, 51, 52, 59, 65, 67, 91, 92 Colonial hegemony, 129 -ism, 38 post-, 129 Coloniality, 120, 121, 129 Communication electronic, 35 forms of, 51 language of, 55 online means of, 27 open, 92

Community/communities, 27, 36, 45, 49, 54, 62, 63, 66–69, 78, 89, 117, 128 agency, 65, 69 change in, 45 development, 66 disadvantaged, 66 encounter in, 63 engagement, 55, 56, 63, 65–67, 70, 76, 99, 107, 115, 116 engagement projects, 69 enhancement project, 66 future, 68 historically disadvantaged, 55 imagined, 42, 45 of inquiry, 27, 48 micro-, 102 participation, 66 practitioners, 62, 63, 65, 66 of praxis, 49 projects, 63 scholarly, 108 service, 63, 128 in South Africa, 47 troubled, 102 university, 77 Compassion, 45, 85, 129 Controversial issue, 92 matters, 82, 92, 94 topic, 91 Controversy, 24, 66, 79, 82 Cosmopolitan classroom, 103 education, 4, 5, 112 higher education, 87 perspective, 102 society, 103 university community, 78 Cosmopolitanism, 98–105 threat to, 98

 INDEX 

Critical academic work, 112 action, 38 agency, 15, 19 analysis, 33, 47 assessment, 6 awareness, 11, 69, 86, 104 beyond the, 1 care, 36 caring as pedagogy, 36 comments, 33 decolonial consciousness, 129 democratic citizenry, 19 democratic discourses, 19 engagements, 28, 38, 45, 58, 65 exploration, 62, 65, 119 inclination, 93 initiative, 65 inquirers, 44 inquiry, 78 paradigms, 3, 17 pedagogical tool, 68 pedagogue, 82 pedagogy, 3 perspectives, 37, 67 post-, 1–15, 23, 25, 32, 117 practices, 1 praxis, 1, 2, 4, 5, 15, 20, 28, 32, 112, 117–121 praxis conversations, 125 questions, 33, 35 reading, 61 re-adjustment, 18 [re]examination, 63, 77 reflection, 38, 62, 65 response, 24 scrutiny, 63, 66, 116 self-reflection, 65 service, 70 skills, 5 stakeholder, 67 theorists, 46, 127

137

theory, 120, 122 theory praxis, 120 thinkers, 38 thinking, 7, 14, 25, 27, 37, 44, 100, 128 understanding, 69 way, 1, 66 Criticality, 15, 18, 20, 24, 82 pedagogy of, 38 post-, 1 Criticism major, 34 practical, 32, 38 Critique accounts of, 33 notions of, 32, 36 practice of, 32, 38 Cultural awareness, 37 background, 92 capacities, 86 change, 89 differences, 89 diversity, 89 groups, 91 homogeneity, 89 imperialism, 130 spheres, 26 stock, 86 understandings, 37, 86 Culture institutional, 123 pervasive, 123 university, 123 Curriculum, 7, 12, 55, 56, 63, 65, 68, 76, 81–87, 103, 104 accounting, 47, 67, 102 business education, 68 change, 26 content, 25, 67 higher education, 19, 82 inquiry, 82

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INDEX

Curriculum (cont.) materials, 28 new, 81 non-transparent, 87 teacher education, 37 text of the, 81 university, 65, 81, 82, 87 D Decolonial consciousness, 129 initiatives, 129 Decoloniality, 69, 129 of higher education, 119 notion of, 69 Decolonisation movement, 56 struggle, 129 Defamiliarisation, 37, 104 forms of, 38 Deliberation, 10, 17, 23, 33, 43, 44, 47, 98–105, 120 act of, 7 matters of, 25 practice of, 46, 93 Deliberative, 37 agents, 118 democratic education, 112 democratic scholar, 112 dialogue, 36 educational encounter, 8 educational research, 7 encounters, 6–8, 28, 41, 45, 49, 92 engagements, 18, 22, 23, 43, 48, 87 enterprise, 94 input, 82 inquiry, 23, 118 iterations, 4 pedagogical activity, 45 pedagogical encounters, 11, 21, 24 politics, 112

teacher, 28 way, 20, 69, 82 Democracy, 3, 20, 43, 107 asymmetry in a, 120 citizens in a, 44 context of a, 77 dawn of, 122 fledgling, 69 functions as a, 47 liberal, 89 meanings of, 42 twenty-five years of, 98 Democratic action, 66 activities, 66 change, 118 change agents, 86 citizenry, 18, 19 citizens, 42, 68 citizenship education (see Education, democratic citizenship) discourses, 19 education (see Education, democratic) elections, 81 encounters, 92 endeavour, 24 governance, 90 government, 90 imagining, 42–49 iterations, 112 nations, 42 politics, 112 polity, 90 populace, 19 practices, 43, 67, 69 principles, 102 reciprocity, 92 relation, 8 scholar, 112 social activists, 43 societies, 6, 41, 44, 102

 INDEX 

South Africa, 119 state, 8, 18, 78, 82 structures, 43 theory, 42 transformation, 75 university curriculum, 82 virtue, 92 Democratisation, 14, 69 of education, 82 Derrida, J., 24, 42, 109, 110, 112 Dialogue, 93, 123 cultivating, 118 deliberative, 36 equitable, 11 need for, 123 between policymakers, 123 Disadvantaged, 124 communities (see Community, disadvantaged) historically, 36, 53, 55, 115, 127 institutions, 124, 127 previously, 13 Discourse, 3, 58, 112, 121, 122 African, 56 critical democratic, 19 critical educational, 19 of democracy, 3 democratic, 19 of education, 27 educational, 3, 18, 19 emancipatory, 18 engage in, 104 higher education, 17, 19, 22 higher educational, 18, 20 important, 112 pseudo educational, 18 of today, 125 Discrimination, 45, 120 gender, 44 non-, 44, 46 Disrespect, 91

139

Disruption, 10, 23, 31, 33–38, 43, 112 of alienating processes, 126 of archaic approaches, 38 instance of, 32 of intelligence, 60 pedagogy of, 38 positive, 27 of power relations, 14 of the status quo, 124 style of, 35 Disruptive equality, 10 pedagogies, 27 Distrust, 33, 89 Diversity, 19, 37, 82, 85, 90, 98, 102, 103 E Economic awareness, 37 benefits, 56 boundaries, 68 facilities, 47 growth, 20, 130 inequality, 89 landscape, 101 perspective, 92 policies, 56, 130 roles, 54 sectors, 68 spheres, 26 substructures, 123 unproductivity, 90 Economy, 67, 85, 122 global, 68 growth of the, 101 market-, 21, 41, 42 new-market, 25, 26 South African, 25, 68 struggling, 56

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INDEX

Education accountancy, 35 accounting, 6, 24, 26, 35, 47, 76, 84, 85, 102 agenda, 112 background, 35 business of, 51 cosmopolitan, 4, 5, 87, 112 culture of, 121 curriculum, 19, 37, 68, 82 democratic, 2–4, 14, 66, 69, 82, 112 democratic citizenship, 4, 5 discipline of, 75 discourses, 17, 19, 22, 27 distance, 2, 3 faculty of, 111 field of, 115, 117 focus of, 56 implications for, 83 methodologies of, 56 notions of, 99 online, 78 philosopher of, 5, 6, 112 policies, 42, 56 problem solving, 67 professional, 35, 46, 47 programme in, 107 quality of, 55 reform, 119 risks to, 102–104 of segregation, 81 social justice, 48 teacher, 13, 26, 36, 37 tertiary, 56 transformation, 20, 75 transformative, 18 ubuntu notion of (see Ubuntu, notion of education) university, 3, 31, 32, 38, 45, 46, 52, 74, 83, 89, 90, 92, 94, 117, 118 value of, 18

Educational context, 56 discourses, 3, 18–20 encounters, 45, 48, 63, 86, 87, 94, 102 experiences, 12, 18, 19, 73 inquiry, 111 institution, 99, 100 journey, 92 knowledge, 84 landscape, 68, 84, 102 matters, 6, 44 nihilism, 73–79 pedagogy, 7 philosophy, 92 practices, 7, 8, 18, 22, 74, 92 practitioners, 26 programmes, 85 reforms, 122 research, 2, 3, 7, 76, 110, 111, 113 risk, 99–105 technologies, 10, 11, 13, 14, 27, 37, 87 theorists, 41, 42, 47 transformation, 19 values, 73 Educator/educators, 26, 36, 47, 58, 60, 62, 68, 76, 86, 93, 94, 129 actions, 93 aspirant, 27 development as an, 13 higher education, 26 ignorant, 11 master, 11 practices as an, 13 role as an, 11 South African, 18 teacher, 91 university, 7, 38, 51, 52, 58–61, 67, 68, 70, 76, 87, 104

 INDEX 

Elitist categorisation, 53 ideology, 53, 55 universities, 54 Emancipated society, 62 Emancipation process of, 61 Empowerment, 3, 19, 129 self-, 18 Encounter/encounters academic, 128 among humans, 19, 87 compassionate, 121 deliberative, 6–8, 28, 41, 45, 49, 92 deliberative educational, 8 democratic (see Democratic, encounters) desolate, 127 educational (see Educational, encounters) educational research, 7 higher education, 129 human, 24 online, 11 pedagogical, 10, 15, 22, 23, 32, 33, 39, 44, 45, 91, 129 schooling, 120 service-learning, 63 supervisory, 25 university (see University, encounters) Engagement active, 66 community, 55, 63 critical, 28, 38 deliberative, 18, 22, 23, 43, 48, 87 dialogical, 62 iterative, 7 minimal, 14 practice of, 45 voluntary, 63

141

Environmental, 117 degradation, 117 problems, 83 Equal intelligence, 22, 32 need, 64 opportunities, 15, 91 relations, 22 right, 22, 49 society, 86 status, 32 treatment, 64 Equality, 10, 22, 48, 63, 64, 67, 68, 112, 119, 121 concept of, 65 disruptive, 10 intellectual, 11 of intelligence, 15 pursuit of, 24 verification of, 129 Equitable conditions, 27 dialogue, 11 society, 86 spaces, 10, 37, 65 strategies, 127 treatment, 64 world, 122 Equity analysis of, 64 concept of, 65 condition of, 64 ensure, 127 Ethical actions, 123 caring, 125 decision-making, 68 decisions, 68 duty, 125 responsibility, 127 theory, 119, 123 threat, 114 values, 128

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INDEX

Ethic/ethics of care, 119, 123–129 of caring, 125 deontological, 123 philosophic, 77 of ubuntu, 62 Explication, 58–60, 121 process, 59, 60 refusal of, 121 system, 58, 59 F Female academic staff, 74 students, 100, 124 Freedom/freedoms, 47 academic, 44, 52, 54, 128 constitutional, 90 epistemic, 128, 129 notions of, 112 political (see Political, freedoms) rational, 91 roles of, 47 substantive, 47 Freire, P., 82, 83, 123, 127 G Global, 52, 120 competitiveness, 121 context, 52, 69, 116 cooperation, 120 economy, 68 ecosystem, 126 platforms, 130 society, 86 space, 99 vision, 86 Globalisation, 56, 131 Globalised capitalist world order, 46 market economy, 41

Goodwill extended, 126 practice of, 124 principle of, 123 Gutmann, A., 44, 92, 100, 112 H Higher learning institutions, 46, 53, 84 teaching and learning, 10, 99 Higher education, 1–5, 8–10, 14, 19–21, 26, 31, 36, 37, 41, 44, 46, 47, 51–58, 76–78, 81, 87, 89, 92, 97, 98, 100, 103, 107, 111, 113, 114, 119, 120, 122–124, 126, 127, 129, 130 access, 120 appointments, 2 contexts, 38, 87 curriculum, 19, 82 discourses, 17, 20, 22 elite, 52 elitist, 52, 54 encounters, 129 institutions, 22, 24, 26, 41, 51, 53, 54, 79, 89, 97, 98, 100, 110, 118, 124, 128, 130 journal, 75, 105 landscape, 54, 89 liberatory form of, 82 management, 3 massification of, 54 policy, 119–121 programmes, 101 purpose of, 42 realm of, 1 scenario, 123 sector, 75 social structure, 121 South African, 73 spectrum, 14 system, 21, 109, 120, 121

 INDEX 

techniques in, 104 transformation in, 75, 124 Higher learning, 100 Historical background, 119 forces, 119, 123 situation, 115 stance, 102 tradition, 53 Historically advantaged institutions, 127 black, 53 black universities (see Universities, historically black) disadvantaged, 36 disadvantaged communities, 55 disadvantaged institutions, 127 disadvantaged schools, 37, 53 disadvantaged universities, 115 (see Universities, historically disadvantaged) poor, 53 white, 53, 54 white universities (see Universities, historically white) Human actions, 21, 105 activity, 22, 120 acts, 22 autonomy, 3 beings, 125, 128 consciousness, 17 development, 94 dignity, 92 dystopias, 46 encounters, 18, 20, 21, 24, 99, 105 engagement, 49, 66, 85, 92, 100 experiences, 17, 18 forms of living, 83 living, 42, 117 psyche, 17

relations, 22, 24, 25, 105 rights, 90, 100, 105 scrutiny, 17 society, 120 vulnerability, 45 Humanity, 5, 35, 62, 76, 122 I Ideological forces, 119, 123 Ignorant community practitioner, 61–70 educator, 11 minds, 57, 59 schoolmaster, 10, 48, 52, 57–62, 69, 70 Inclusivity, 37, 102, 103 Inequality, 8, 37, 64, 85, 120, 121, 129–131 eradication of, 42 levels of, 46 as a norm, 122 social, 89 societal, 20 systemic, 101 Injustice of asymmetry, 120 cognitive, 62 in higher education, 119 social, 11, 37, 53, 69, 86, 87 societal, 86 structural, 123, 127 Inquiry -based approach, 28 community of, 27, 48 critical, 78 curriculum, 82 disciplines of, 94 educational, 111 field of, 110 philosophical, 108

143

144 

INDEX

Institution/institutions, 5, 6, 14, 28, 31, 32, 38, 42, 46, 47, 52, 66, 68, 74, 78, 84, 91, 92, 97–99, 105, 108–111, 114, 120, 121, 123, 126–128, 130 academic, 18 all-encompassing, 62 backbone of the, 99, 107 chaotic, 32 disadvantaged, 124 educational, 99, 100 entrepreneurial, 107 formerly white-only, 124 higher education, 130 of higher learning, 53 historically disadvantaged, 127 of knowledge, 34 mission of the, 44 political, 90, 123 practice-based, 115 presence at an, 3 research-intensive, 53 research-led, 102 scholarly reputation of, 99 social welfare, 63 South African, 130 teacher-centred, 9 teacher education, 26 Institutional academic projects, 98 autonomy, 44, 128 culture, 123 landscape, 54, 124 management, 98 missions, 54 order, 32 redress, 53 sexual harassment, 100 stability, 105 Intellectual alertness, 38 awareness, 86

growth, 38, 86 pursuits, 31–39, 79, 108, 113 Intelligence artificial, 84 division of, 59 forms of, 59 hierarchical world of, 60 identical, 62 inferior, 59 level of, 59, 61–63 source of, 61 superior, 59 understanding of, 59 J Judgments, 33, 36, 43 form, 21 reasonable, 23 sound, 33 Just citizens, 42 society, 117 Justice, 112, 125, 128 attaining, 10 cognitive, 128 conversational, 93 form of, 100 principles of, 43 reciprocal, 100 K Knowledge acquisition of, 128 advancing, 31 co-constructing, 27 co-creation of, 60 disciplinary, 31, 108 domains, 114 -driven, 67 forms of, 62

 INDEX 

institution of, 34 interdisciplinary, 31 massification of, 52, 54, 57 paradigms, 62 producers, 63 production, 3, 52, 54, 63, 111, 114, 117, 128 providers of, 70 public, 74 sharing, 10, 51, 65 source of, 51, 58, 60, 61 technical, 6, 7, 25, 26, 35, 47, 101 theoretical, 34, 67, 110, 111, 116 trans-disciplinary, 31 workers, 41 L Language/languages, 53, 55, 91, 102, 104 across the curriculum, 103, 104 of choice, 91 of communication (see Communication, language of) expert, 103 impetus of, 103 of instruction, 55, 121 native South African, 103 speakers, 121 specialists, 104 that excludes others, 91 third, 55 of tuition, 53 use, 103, 104 use in teaching and learning, 104 Law/laws, 85, 122, 125 moral, 123, 124 rule of, 90 supreme, 124 universal, 124 universal moral, 123

145

Leaders business, 47, 85 political, 128 Leadership abilities, 98 business, 85 responsible, 24 Learning, 13, 14, 27, 32, 36–38, 42, 45, 48, 55–58, 60, 61, 70, 74, 83, 87, 111 active, 60, 61, 65 authentic, 9, 42 blended, 14, 27, 28, 51 capacities for, 38 community of, 26 constructive, 60 contextualisation of, 14 critical, 60 deep, 78 design opportunities, 38 e-, 37 effective, 36, 37 elements of, 57 encounters, 63, 67 experiences, 13 further, 35 materials, 37 methodologies of, 56 outcomes, 46 own, 35, 83 pace of, 34 potential for, 69 practices, 2, 55 problem-based, 51 process of, 7, 57, 60 project-based, 51 sense of, 61 students, 14, 21, 28, 34, 37, 59, 87 technicians of, 42 transmission, 58

146 

INDEX

M Massification, 52, 57–69 aim of, 54 challenges around, 57 era, 52, 54–61, 115, 116 of knowledge, 54 period of, 54, 55, 58, 61 post-, 51–70, 115, 116 stage, 54 Massive open online course (MOOC), 28, 83 Master explicator, 57–61 Minority, 52, 81, 91, 103 elite, 52 groups, 103 rule, 81 social groups, 91 white ruling party, 81 whites, 53 Moral actions, 119, 123 approach, 125 consciousness, 48, 93 dimension, 102 equals, 92 fibre, 73 good, 21 importance, 44 laws, 123, 124 principle, 100 proposition, 124 space of responsibility, 99 standards, 49 values, 78, 128 N Neoliberal policies, 122 times, 120 Nihilism, 73, 79 threat of, 73

O Oppression, 19, 82 gender, 129 of people, 46 P Pedagogical act, 38 actions, 19, 83 activities, 5, 45, 48, 69, 100, 101 affordances of ICTs, 51 approaches, 22, 26, 37, 51, 54, 61, 104 authority, 23 classroom initiative, 11 efforts, 78 enactments, 28 encounters, 1, 24, 46 engagement, 28 exercise, 101 initiatives, 82, 83 matters, 11, 23, 24, 32, 33, 91, 112, 113 myths, 58–60 practice of deliberation, 45 practices, 6, 8, 13, 14, 25, 38, 45, 67, 102, 111 relations, 14, 19 responsibilities, 15 right to talk back, 28 shift, 121 spaces, 10, 24, 27, 28, 38, 42, 87 struggles, 22 subjectivation, 129 task, 81 technique, 37 tool, 68 transformation, 20 work, 46 worth, 58

 INDEX 

Pedagogy/pedagogies, 3, 27, 37, 38, 60, 61, 76, 78 apartheid, 21 approach to, 12 of care, 36 critical (see Critical, pedagogy) of critical caring, 36 of criticality, 38 of deliberation, 45 of disruption, 38 disruptive, 27 educational, 7 liberatory, 38 myth of, 59, 61 research as, 35, 101 of rhythmic care, 8, 36 types of, 26 Philosopher, 34, 41–44 continental, 73 edifying, 4 of education, 21 (see Education, philosopher of) French, 13 of higher education, 5 pragmatist, 4 systematic, 4 Philosophical activity, 17 aspects, 46 concept, 77 ethic of ubuntu, 62 inquiry, 108 point of view, 119 premise, 97 problems, 5 sense, 31 stance, 121 standpoint, 120 traditions, 53 understanding, 81 work, 112

Philosophy analytic, 17 of education, 2–7, 17, 41, 45, 46, 83, 85, 93, 108, 112 of higher education, 4 major thinkers in, 10 of markets, 18 Muslim, 2 of teaching, 26 Pluralism, 89, 91 notion of, 94 Political agenda, 46, 81 awareness, 37, 38, 86, 87 boundaries, 68 contexts, 18, 81 differences, 82 dimension, 45 entity, 122 freedoms, 47 institutions, 90, 123 issues, 126 leaders, 128 matters, 46 perspective, 92 pluralism, 89–94 practice, 81 rights, 68 situation, 115 take, 45 transformation, 122 trust, 90 turmoil, 90 understanding, 81 Politics academic (see Academic, politics) deliberative, 112 democratic, 3, 44, 112, 117 of difference, 91 of participation, 19

147

148 

INDEX

Poststructuralism, 1, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17–28, 52, 69 Poststructuralist, 1, 14 beings, 22 conception, 11 educational encounters, 17 educational research, 112 ideas, 13, 14 kind, 23 lens, 14 nuances, 22 pedagogical encounters, 1, 22 perspective, 52 praxis, 26 reimagining, 118 scholarship, 113 sense, 27 teaching, 24, 28 tendencies, 19 theories, 69 theorists, 112 turn, 112 Poverty, 37, 46, 86, 101, 130 reduction, 130 Power, 14, 32, 37, 51–70, 84, 92, 102, 120, 121, 123 relations, 14, 65, 120, 123 structure, 121 unequal, 65, 70, 123 Praxis, 1–15, 23, 25, 121 cultivating, 20 post-critical, 32 poststructuralist, 26 university, 79 Privilege/privileged, 20, 53, 66, 101, 122, 123, 126, 127, 129 backgrounds, 124 promotion of, 126 Productive decisions, 68 researchers, 75, 99 will, 15

Professional, 5 accountancy body, 24 body, 67 development, 8, 9 education, 35, 46, 47 educational programmes, 85 ends, 110 programme, 5 qualifications, 113 skillset, 84 Professionalism, 6, 11 Professor/professors, 6, 56, 82, 107–110, 113–117 ability, 108 academic, 54 accounting, 113 appointed as a, 108 aspirant, 109 associate, 6, 113, 114 capacity of a, 116 of colour, 111 distinguished, 46 genuine, 117 level of, 109 mantle of a, 108 nature of, 116 older, 114 research-driven, 52 role of a, 114 senior, 74 university, 41, 52, 54, 82, 111, 115, 116 at UoTs, 115 Professoriate, 107–117 role of the, 117 university, 117 Professorship, 113, 114 at a UoT, 114, 115 Provocative inquiry, 108 questions, 25 viewpoints, 26

 INDEX 

Public, 2, 3, 102 broader, 45 concerns, 33, 87, 91, 117 education system, 130 good, 21, 54, 90 knowledge, 74 life, 19 policy, 119 reason, 43 sector, 107 space, 89 sphere, 3, 90 universities, 56 R Racial, 103 bigotry, 129 categorisation, 102, 103 change, 89 connotations, 103 distortion, 98 groups, 99, 103 logic, 53 politics, 124 quotas, 92 Racism, 103 victims of, 124 Rancière, 10, 13, 52, 56–62, 65, 70, 76, 112, 121 Rational, 4 agents, 126 beings, 125, 128 encounters, 91 freedom, 91 inquirers, 74 process, 42, 43 public sphere, 90 understandings, 90 Rationality, 5, 111 instrumental, 18 Reflective, 4, 22, 27, 28, 42, 66 actions, 22 dispositions, 42

149

openness, 4 self-, 65 student learning, 28 Repression, 45 non-, 44–46 Research academic, 9, 53, 128 as an academic responsibility, 110 activities, 5, 9, 102 applied, 8, 55, 56, 62, 116 articles, 6, 109 basic, 52, 55, 116, 117 career, 2 doctoral, 14, 111 educational, 76 efforts, 112 empirical, 116 endeavours, 46, 99, 108 form of, 9, 55 fundamental, 8 interests, 18, 33, 52 journey, 9 outputs, 6, 9, 41, 61, 75, 99, 101, 109–111, 114–117 pedigree, 109 practice-based, 115, 116 practices, 116 productivity, 75 publications, 76, 117 requirements, 5, 6, 101, 113 value of, 9 work in, 99 Researchers established, 109 fewer, 115 inactive, 99 ineptness, 99 productive, 75, 99 rated, 115 unproductive, 99 Respect, 91, 92, 129 for autonomy, 125 mutual, 90, 92, 100, 105 for one another, 100

150 

INDEX

Respectful encounters, 91–94 mutually, 20, 91, 108 Responsibility, 4, 5, 8, 18, 27, 28, 38, 67, 75, 76, 94, 113 academic, 109–111 democratic, 112 of desolate encounters, 127 ethical, 127 political space of, 99 shared, 123 societal, 117 space of, 99 for their learning, 84 of universities, 111 Risk, 20, 25, 42, 46, 94, 97–99, 101, 105, 112 academic, 105 community, 62 to education, 102, 104 educational, 99–105 of educational nihilism, 76 education at, 102 education is a, 104 experience of, 97–105 idea of, 97 institution at, 105 notion of, 97 -oriented action, 60 pose a, 99, 100 put at, 98–100 significant, 101 taking, 23, 24, 28, 60, 66, 98, 111 underlying, 103 of undermining diversity, 102 university at, 99 Risky, 98, 99, 111 decision, 98 S Scholarship, 111, 117 credible, 3, 105 foundation of, 21

poststructuralist, 113 pursuit of, 3 Self -consciousness, 18 -determination, 89 -empowerment, 18 -government, 89 -reflection, 8, 85 -reflective, 65 Sexual abuse, 44 harassment, 74, 100, 124 offences, 74 violence, 74 Social act, 121 activism, 44–46 activists, 43 approach, 127 averages, 120 awareness, 37 boundaries, 68 change, 51–70, 119, 128 cohesion, 6, 46, 48, 62, 67, 90, 91 conflict, 90 contexts, 18, 27, 84 critic, 44 diversity, 89 education, 112 engagement, 91 entrepreneurs, 86 exclusion, 46 experience, 112 fabric, 90 forces, 123 fragmentation, 90 groups, 90, 91, 127 ill, 63, 65 imaginary, 90 inclusion, 46 inequalities, 89, 121 injustice, 11, 37, 53, 69, 86, 87 integration, 89, 90 interdependence, 126

 INDEX 

issues, 126 justice, 8, 11, 21, 22, 25, 27, 43, 48, 62, 68, 121 landscape, 101 life, 117 mobility, 20, 120 networking platforms, 51 networking site, 12, 13 networking technology, 13 opportunities, 47 principles, 27 problem, 127 realities, 45, 81–87, 120 relation, 98 responsibility, 113 rights, 68, 89 spheres, 26 success, 120 system, 126 theory, 129 transformation, 27, 122 welfare institutions, 63 world, 20 Socially cohesive South Africa, 85 diverse community, 90 just, 8, 22, 24, 26, 35, 42, 47–49, 85, 86 responsible, 47, 67 Societal, 68 actions, 3 change, 5, 52, 62, 65, 69 inequalities, 20 injustices, 86 living, 3 matters, 87 problems, 83 responsibility, 117 Society/societies, 20, 89, 128 democratic, 44 global, 86 inequalities in, 63

151

just, 117 realities of, 87 repressive, 48 Socioeconomic backgrounds, 128 issues, 86 Sociopolitical life, 44 reality, 44 South Africa, 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19–22, 31, 34–36, 46, 47, 51–59, 61, 63, 68, 70, 74–78, 81, 82, 85, 89, 90, 97, 98, 102, 103, 107, 108, 111, 115, 116, 119, 122, 126, 127, 130 democratic, 119 post-apartheid, 89, 112, 117 universities in, 114 South African, 18, 77 context, 81 economic landscape, 101 economic policy, 130 economy, 25, 68 educators, 18 government, 53, 130 higher education, 73, 105, 110, 121, 130 Higher Education Act of 1997, 112 institutions, 130 journalist, 77 political set-up, 81 public universities, 56 social system, 126 society, 77, 82 state, 81 triple threat, 130 universities, 52–56, 97, 107, 127 Structural injustice, 123, 127

152 

INDEX

Student/students capability of, 60 -centred, 27, 56 of colour, 45 critically informed, 18 disruptions, 31 female, 100, 124 intake, 56, 115 prospective, 77 protestations, 31 protests, 54, 77, 83 roles, 77 socially active, 44 violence, 74 university (see University, students) T Teacher/teachers, 9, 12, 13, 20–24, 26, 32, 36, 37, 41, 42, 44, 45, 78, 92 actions of the, 14 assumptions of the, 23 attributes, 26 -centred, 9, 12, 13, 56 claims of truth, 22 deliberative, 28 disagreement with, 32 education, 13, 36 education curriculum, 37 education institutions, 26 education programmes, 26 emancipatory, 60 former, 9 pre-service, 91 representation, 66 roles of, 12 school, 2, 12 service, 8 and students, 12, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 42, 44, 49, 91, 94 type of, 78 university, 15, 19, 22, 32, 49, 91, 94

Teaching, 60 capacity, 115 form of, 57 and learning, 3, 8, 12–14, 19–26, 28, 38, 48, 51, 52, 54, 55, 67, 73, 74, 78, 83, 85, 87, 102–104, 107, 128 methodologies, 55 notion of, 23 philosophy, 26 poststructuralist, 24, 28 practices, 21, 38 presences, 27, 48 principle of, 57 profession, 13, 26 traditional forms of, 58 traditional means of, 60 traditional way of, 60 universal, 57, 58 Technical competence, 107 complexity, 67 content, 24, 35, 47 editor, 105 education, 21, 56 ends of research, 110 experts, 8 functions, 42 knowledge (see Knowledge, technical) roles, 54 skilled graduates, 25 skills, 6, 101 skillset, 84 Theoretical assumptions, 33, 34, 108 frameworks, 34, 35 ideas, 34, 105 issues, 34 research assumptions, 34 understanding, 112

 INDEX 

Thinkers critical, 38 major, 10 Thinking, 5, 25, 27, 35, 38, 66, 82, 99, 111 creative, 28 critical (see Critical, thinking) forms of, 32 independent, 22 new, 111, 113 own, 93 patterns, 25, 35 processes, 27 reasoned, 111 rhizomatic, 14 suspicious, 111 understanding of, 5 ways of, 36 Transformation, 7, 8, 15, 19, 21, 54, 85, 112, 119, 124 in becoming, 7 education (see Education, transformation) in higher education, 124 legitimate, 20 pedagogical (see Pedagogical, transformation) political, 122 process of, 7 Trust, 90, 91, 94 foundation for, 92 political, 90 relationship of, 108 Trustworthy encounters, 93, 94 U Ubuntu, 77, 126–127, 129 concept of, 126 notion of, 83, 87 notion of education, 83

153

Unemployment, 21, 56, 86, 130 University/universities academics, 52, 55, 59, 108 access, 92 actions, 15 Afrikaans, 53 Afrocentric, 99 autonomy of, 128 campuses, 51 classroom, 23, 45, 48, 51, 52, 59, 65, 67, 91, 92 collaboration with, 78 for coloureds, 53 community, 77, 78 as a community service provider, 63 context, 77 culture, 123 curriculum, 65, 81, 82 education sector, 31 educators, 7, 38, 51, 52, 58–61, 67, 68, 70, 76, 87, 104 elitist, 52 encounters, 28, 129 English, 53 entrepreneurial, 107 environment, 81 heterogeneous, 82 historically black, 53 historically disadvantaged, 53, 115 historically white, 53 homogenous, 82 for Indians, 53 lecturers, 63 library, 32 life, 44 management, 32, 54, 75 managers, 32, 99 mission, 31 practices, 69 praxis, 79 professor, 41, 52, 54, 82, 111, 115, 116

154 

INDEX

University/universities (cont.) professoriate, 117 proficiencies, 129 quality assurance, 54 resources, 48, 77, 78 at risk, 99 role of the, 63, 70 sector, 31 of South Africa, 2 South African, 52–56, 97, 127 student, 59 teachers, 15, 19, 22, 32, 49, 91, 94 of technology, 8, 9, 114, 115 traditional, 8, 114, 115 various, 115 V Verification means of, 59 open, 58 process of, 59

Violence, 47, 75, 77, 97 instances of, 47 sexual, 74 societal, 90 student, 74 threat of, 78 Violent actions, 97 destruction, 47, 77 intimidation, 77, 78 protests, 74 W Welfare in the name of, 64 provision, 64, 120 users, 64 White historically, 53, 54 minority rule, 81 -only institutions, 124 ruling party, 81