The preceding chapters describe the various efforts, initiatives and policy attempts to realise t... more The preceding chapters describe the various efforts, initiatives and policy attempts to realise transformation in the South African higher education system from 1994 up to 2000. Chapter 12 (New South African Realities) is to some extent a summary assessment of the findings and discussions of chapters 4 to 11. As these chapters show, and as we will argue here, transformation in higher education was seen by politicians and laymen, policy specialists and ordinary people as an indissoluble part of moving away from apartheid as a state form to a more open, inclusive, equitable and democratic society. This book describes how the transformation project was launched, with great acclaim, consensus and fanfare-through a series of founding documents such as the National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI, 1993), the ANC Policy Document (Centre for Education Policy Development, 1994), the report of the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE, 1996), and even the first Higher Education White Paper of 1997only to seem to veer off track. A loss of course was detected in at least three areas. First, it seemed as if, after 1997, the policy process gradually became less participatory and democratic, and it even seemed to some that we were returning to something of a top-down style of policy imposition reminiscent of an earlier era. Secondly, it seemed as if the state was forsaking the values of equity and social justice in favour of the values of efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness. Thirdly, even where policy had been implemented as intended (in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme [NSFAS], for example), it was producing effects different from the ones expected and desired. What was producing these contrary effects? Why had the transformation project in higher education come to be so widely seen as an unpleasant surprise and distasteful disappointment? Two different classes of explanation are usually advanced for the apparent loss of virtuous course. The first, and most common, is a political one that attributes the cause for the surprise outcomes of policy, either in particular instances or in general, to political motives. The most common course change explained in this way is the apparent shift from the Reconstruction and Development Programme (ANC, 1994) to the policy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) (Department of Finance, 1996). There are two variants of the political explanation. The first assumes that government once acted in good faith but has since lapsed, for various reasons, into bad faith-the policy 'slippage' argument (Kraak, 2001). The second assumes that government never intended to implement the policy in the first place, and that the virtuous policy was meant to serve the symbolic ends of unity-the 'symbolic' policy argument (Jansen, 2001).
South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality, 2019
Why have learner outcomes over the last 20 years increased so modestly, despite successive waves ... more Why have learner outcomes over the last 20 years increased so modestly, despite successive waves of far reaching curriculum reform? Could the curriculum model we have be the problem? In addressing this question, this chapter surveys curriculum reform models in developed and developing countries, explores their different logics, and applies the insights gained to recent curriculum reform in South Africa. The chapter concludes by arguing that curriculum reform on its own is not enough, and that the research community in South Africa has yet to discover what the most efficacious pedagogy for learners in impoverished schools would look like.
Chapter 2 focuses on a few key Castellian concepts to show how, when brought together, they might... more Chapter 2 focuses on a few key Castellian concepts to show how, when brought together, they might shine some light on how universities function in the present time, particularly in relation to development. The chapter brings into relief what Castells augured globalisation would mean for higher education (and development) – trends to which most policy-makers, analysts and researchers simply did not pay sufficient attention. "The implications of the Castellian schema are thus not undilutedly optimistic, though Castells has more often than not been taken for a techno-optimist. The reasons lie in the architecture of his theoretical apparatus. This apparatus contains structural conditions as well as agents, powers to produce and powers to dominate, contradictions that have to be managed, and this can be done with wisdom or with folly. As against the rather smug narrative of universities being, next to the Church, the most durable of institutions, he tells a different story that incl...
Introduction 1.The First and Last Interpretters 2. Globalization, Innovation and Knowledge 3.What... more Introduction 1.The First and Last Interpretters 2. Globalization, Innovation and Knowledge 3.What Knowledge is of Most Worth for the Millennial Citizen? 4.Schooling and Everyday Life 5.Intimations of Boundlessness 6.The Well-tempered Learner 7.Critics and Reconstructors 8. Beyond Unkept Promises 9.Reason, Reality and Public Trust
Basil Bernstein, late holder of the Karl Mannheim Chair at the University of London Institute of ... more Basil Bernstein, late holder of the Karl Mannheim Chair at the University of London Institute of Education, died in September 2000. He was a source of inspiration, personally and intellectually, for many sociologists who used his theory in their work and he was a mentor ...
Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells ... more Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells on his visits to South Africa, and publishes them in a single volume for the first time. The book also publishes a series of empirically-based papers which together display the multi-faceted and far-sighted scope of his theoretical framework, and its fecundity for fine-grained, detailed empirical investigations on universities and development in Africa. Castells, in his afterword to this book, always looking forward, assesses the role of the university in the wake of the upheavals to the global economic order. He decides the universitys function not only remains, but is more important than ever. This book will serve as an introduction to the relevance of his work for higher education in Africa for postgraduate students, reflective practitioners and researchers.
This study describes the results of a survey and a description of instructional technologies in p... more This study describes the results of a survey and a description of instructional technologies in place in the social sciences in South African Universities. Lecturers in the social sciences reported a well-established practice of information and communication technologies (ICTs) use for general purposes (although frequent use tended to be for email and searching the Internet). They had a high self-efficacy in terms of using ICTs both generally and for teaching and learning, and a high enthusiasm for the use of ICTs for teaching and learning. Half the lecturers had started using ICTs recently with the introduction of learning management systems (LMSs) whereas the other half had established practices that preceded the mainstreaming of LMSs across universities. Only about a quarter of the respondents felt able to develop and update ICTs themselves which indicates that support is a necessary part of teaching with technology. In terms of different types of use the focus was on putting content on the web and course administration. Use of ICTs for teaching of skills (whether information literacy, problem solving or critical thinking) was infrequent. There were different types of ICT use across the different sub-disciplines. Lecturers reported factors which constrained their use of ICTs for teaching and learning, such as inadequate technology, pedagogical issues (e.g. plagiarism), and students opting out of lectures when materials were available online. It is argued that user studies in are relevant to the future delivery of educational material, in terms of removing barriers to use and targeting training and supportive activities.
Concluding chapter to the book <em>Castells in Africa: Universities and Development</em&... more Concluding chapter to the book <em>Castells in Africa: Universities and Development</em>. "The conclusions of these chapters should not be taken as cataloguing the failure of African academia only. The intention is the opposite. We already know from international indicators that African universities do not perform well by comparison with their global peers. The question is why and how. This is the path opened by Castells's trilogy. His work shines a particularly powerful light on the developmental predicament, and is especially valuable in pointing to the many structural impediments that must be acknowledged and strategically accommodated if they are to be overcome."
Abstract. Identifying what kind of knowledge is appropriate for the citizen of the new millennium... more Abstract. Identifying what kind of knowledge is appropriate for the citizen of the new millennium is of special concern in developing countries. They face two simultaneous challenges: carving out niche areas of innovation within the competitive global arena while meeting the basic development needs of the majority of their increasingly margin-alized and impoverished populations. Against this background, our article examines the question of appropriate knowledge in the globalizing world of the new millennium. We analyse some of the risks for teaching and learning entailed by recent assumptions regarding the changing social nature, production and dissemination of knowledge. In the final section, we critically examine one of these new knowledge production practices—community-based academic service learning—in light of these risks. Key words. community service learning; higher education; knowl-edge production What knowledge is needed by millennial citizens and their societies in these r...
The Routledge International Handbook of the …, 2010
The intractability of working-class failure has remained an unresolved issue for the sociology of... more The intractability of working-class failure has remained an unresolved issue for the sociology of education over the last forty years. Although some inroads have been made in understanding how inequality is engendered through schooling (and through pedagogy in particular), in ...
... The essays in this book constitute a set of retracing steps along the path of the sociology o... more ... The essays in this book constitute a set of retracing steps along the path of the sociology ofknowledge and curriculum. ... There are countless examples of similar &amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;borderless think&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27; in contemporary sociology of knowledge and curriculum. One privileged place for such thinking ...
The contemporary cultural debate within which accounts of curriculum constitution and change cont... more The contemporary cultural debate within which accounts of curriculum constitution and change contend is framed by the organising poles of insulation and hybridity. Insulation stresses the interdictory and impermeable quality of cultural boundaries, of textual classification, of ...
Closing the Achievement Gap from an International Perspective, 2013
Under apartheid South Africa maintained separate, unequal school systems for the four main popula... more Under apartheid South Africa maintained separate, unequal school systems for the four main population groups: Africans, coloreds (people of mixed decent), Indians and whites. Since the advent of democratic government in 1994, financial allocations have not only been equalized, but also skewed towards the historically disadvantaged sector.
The preceding chapters describe the various efforts, initiatives and policy attempts to realise t... more The preceding chapters describe the various efforts, initiatives and policy attempts to realise transformation in the South African higher education system from 1994 up to 2000. Chapter 12 (New South African Realities) is to some extent a summary assessment of the findings and discussions of chapters 4 to 11. As these chapters show, and as we will argue here, transformation in higher education was seen by politicians and laymen, policy specialists and ordinary people as an indissoluble part of moving away from apartheid as a state form to a more open, inclusive, equitable and democratic society. This book describes how the transformation project was launched, with great acclaim, consensus and fanfare-through a series of founding documents such as the National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI, 1993), the ANC Policy Document (Centre for Education Policy Development, 1994), the report of the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE, 1996), and even the first Higher Education White Paper of 1997only to seem to veer off track. A loss of course was detected in at least three areas. First, it seemed as if, after 1997, the policy process gradually became less participatory and democratic, and it even seemed to some that we were returning to something of a top-down style of policy imposition reminiscent of an earlier era. Secondly, it seemed as if the state was forsaking the values of equity and social justice in favour of the values of efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness. Thirdly, even where policy had been implemented as intended (in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme [NSFAS], for example), it was producing effects different from the ones expected and desired. What was producing these contrary effects? Why had the transformation project in higher education come to be so widely seen as an unpleasant surprise and distasteful disappointment? Two different classes of explanation are usually advanced for the apparent loss of virtuous course. The first, and most common, is a political one that attributes the cause for the surprise outcomes of policy, either in particular instances or in general, to political motives. The most common course change explained in this way is the apparent shift from the Reconstruction and Development Programme (ANC, 1994) to the policy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) (Department of Finance, 1996). There are two variants of the political explanation. The first assumes that government once acted in good faith but has since lapsed, for various reasons, into bad faith-the policy 'slippage' argument (Kraak, 2001). The second assumes that government never intended to implement the policy in the first place, and that the virtuous policy was meant to serve the symbolic ends of unity-the 'symbolic' policy argument (Jansen, 2001).
South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality, 2019
Why have learner outcomes over the last 20 years increased so modestly, despite successive waves ... more Why have learner outcomes over the last 20 years increased so modestly, despite successive waves of far reaching curriculum reform? Could the curriculum model we have be the problem? In addressing this question, this chapter surveys curriculum reform models in developed and developing countries, explores their different logics, and applies the insights gained to recent curriculum reform in South Africa. The chapter concludes by arguing that curriculum reform on its own is not enough, and that the research community in South Africa has yet to discover what the most efficacious pedagogy for learners in impoverished schools would look like.
Chapter 2 focuses on a few key Castellian concepts to show how, when brought together, they might... more Chapter 2 focuses on a few key Castellian concepts to show how, when brought together, they might shine some light on how universities function in the present time, particularly in relation to development. The chapter brings into relief what Castells augured globalisation would mean for higher education (and development) – trends to which most policy-makers, analysts and researchers simply did not pay sufficient attention. "The implications of the Castellian schema are thus not undilutedly optimistic, though Castells has more often than not been taken for a techno-optimist. The reasons lie in the architecture of his theoretical apparatus. This apparatus contains structural conditions as well as agents, powers to produce and powers to dominate, contradictions that have to be managed, and this can be done with wisdom or with folly. As against the rather smug narrative of universities being, next to the Church, the most durable of institutions, he tells a different story that incl...
Introduction 1.The First and Last Interpretters 2. Globalization, Innovation and Knowledge 3.What... more Introduction 1.The First and Last Interpretters 2. Globalization, Innovation and Knowledge 3.What Knowledge is of Most Worth for the Millennial Citizen? 4.Schooling and Everyday Life 5.Intimations of Boundlessness 6.The Well-tempered Learner 7.Critics and Reconstructors 8. Beyond Unkept Promises 9.Reason, Reality and Public Trust
Basil Bernstein, late holder of the Karl Mannheim Chair at the University of London Institute of ... more Basil Bernstein, late holder of the Karl Mannheim Chair at the University of London Institute of Education, died in September 2000. He was a source of inspiration, personally and intellectually, for many sociologists who used his theory in their work and he was a mentor ...
Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells ... more Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells on his visits to South Africa, and publishes them in a single volume for the first time. The book also publishes a series of empirically-based papers which together display the multi-faceted and far-sighted scope of his theoretical framework, and its fecundity for fine-grained, detailed empirical investigations on universities and development in Africa. Castells, in his afterword to this book, always looking forward, assesses the role of the university in the wake of the upheavals to the global economic order. He decides the universitys function not only remains, but is more important than ever. This book will serve as an introduction to the relevance of his work for higher education in Africa for postgraduate students, reflective practitioners and researchers.
This study describes the results of a survey and a description of instructional technologies in p... more This study describes the results of a survey and a description of instructional technologies in place in the social sciences in South African Universities. Lecturers in the social sciences reported a well-established practice of information and communication technologies (ICTs) use for general purposes (although frequent use tended to be for email and searching the Internet). They had a high self-efficacy in terms of using ICTs both generally and for teaching and learning, and a high enthusiasm for the use of ICTs for teaching and learning. Half the lecturers had started using ICTs recently with the introduction of learning management systems (LMSs) whereas the other half had established practices that preceded the mainstreaming of LMSs across universities. Only about a quarter of the respondents felt able to develop and update ICTs themselves which indicates that support is a necessary part of teaching with technology. In terms of different types of use the focus was on putting content on the web and course administration. Use of ICTs for teaching of skills (whether information literacy, problem solving or critical thinking) was infrequent. There were different types of ICT use across the different sub-disciplines. Lecturers reported factors which constrained their use of ICTs for teaching and learning, such as inadequate technology, pedagogical issues (e.g. plagiarism), and students opting out of lectures when materials were available online. It is argued that user studies in are relevant to the future delivery of educational material, in terms of removing barriers to use and targeting training and supportive activities.
Concluding chapter to the book <em>Castells in Africa: Universities and Development</em&... more Concluding chapter to the book <em>Castells in Africa: Universities and Development</em>. "The conclusions of these chapters should not be taken as cataloguing the failure of African academia only. The intention is the opposite. We already know from international indicators that African universities do not perform well by comparison with their global peers. The question is why and how. This is the path opened by Castells's trilogy. His work shines a particularly powerful light on the developmental predicament, and is especially valuable in pointing to the many structural impediments that must be acknowledged and strategically accommodated if they are to be overcome."
Abstract. Identifying what kind of knowledge is appropriate for the citizen of the new millennium... more Abstract. Identifying what kind of knowledge is appropriate for the citizen of the new millennium is of special concern in developing countries. They face two simultaneous challenges: carving out niche areas of innovation within the competitive global arena while meeting the basic development needs of the majority of their increasingly margin-alized and impoverished populations. Against this background, our article examines the question of appropriate knowledge in the globalizing world of the new millennium. We analyse some of the risks for teaching and learning entailed by recent assumptions regarding the changing social nature, production and dissemination of knowledge. In the final section, we critically examine one of these new knowledge production practices—community-based academic service learning—in light of these risks. Key words. community service learning; higher education; knowl-edge production What knowledge is needed by millennial citizens and their societies in these r...
The Routledge International Handbook of the …, 2010
The intractability of working-class failure has remained an unresolved issue for the sociology of... more The intractability of working-class failure has remained an unresolved issue for the sociology of education over the last forty years. Although some inroads have been made in understanding how inequality is engendered through schooling (and through pedagogy in particular), in ...
... The essays in this book constitute a set of retracing steps along the path of the sociology o... more ... The essays in this book constitute a set of retracing steps along the path of the sociology ofknowledge and curriculum. ... There are countless examples of similar &amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;borderless think&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27; in contemporary sociology of knowledge and curriculum. One privileged place for such thinking ...
The contemporary cultural debate within which accounts of curriculum constitution and change cont... more The contemporary cultural debate within which accounts of curriculum constitution and change contend is framed by the organising poles of insulation and hybridity. Insulation stresses the interdictory and impermeable quality of cultural boundaries, of textual classification, of ...
Closing the Achievement Gap from an International Perspective, 2013
Under apartheid South Africa maintained separate, unequal school systems for the four main popula... more Under apartheid South Africa maintained separate, unequal school systems for the four main population groups: Africans, coloreds (people of mixed decent), Indians and whites. Since the advent of democratic government in 1994, financial allocations have not only been equalized, but also skewed towards the historically disadvantaged sector.
Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells ... more Castells in Africa: Universities and Development collects the papers produced by Manuel Castells on his visits to South Africa, and publishes them in a single volume for the first time. The book also publishes a series of empirically-based papers which together display the multi-faceted and far-sighted scope of his theoretical framework, and its fecundity for fine-grained, detailed empirical investigations on universities and development in Africa. Castells, in his afterword to this book, always looking forward, assesses the role of the university in the wake of the upheavals to the global economic order. He decides the university’s function not only remains, but is more important than ever. This book will serve as an introduction to the relevance of his work for higher education in Africa for postgraduate students, reflective practitioners and researchers.
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Papers by Johan Muller