Context Matters: Academic professional development in South African Higher Education

Brenda Leibowitz, Vivienne BozalekSusan van Schalkwyk, Chris Winberg

NRF Project: Structure, Culture and AgencyPretoria, HELTASA 2013

ContextContext: environment in which the (‘macro’) features of the system are either reproduced or transformed” (Archer 1995, p. 11). This can refer to any level, from macro to micro.

Context: the settings in which the systemic relations interact with the human or individual.

Interplay of systemic (cultural and structural and agentic) features which have causal Powers

ContextMultiple determination: multiple powers reinforce or contradict each other.

“Causal efficacy” is a product of the parts and the relations combined” (Elder-Vass, 2010:28)

“Tree structure” (Elder-Vass 2010: 28) – multiple possibility of outcomes that emerge indifferent directions

Professional development of teaching

• Formal: formal programmes, short courses etc• Less structured: eg grants, collaborative

schemes• Situated learning, in context and via practice• Encouraged by the environment – policies and

practice• PD = what people learn, what they apply and

what they are encouraged or enabled by the environment to acquire

South African Higher Education

• Pop: 50 million; 23 universities• Higher education influenced by apartheid past– i.r.t. race and class– Institutions and what they provide

• Institutions vary according to:– Institutional type– Geographical location– Merged or not– Previously advantaged v. disadvantaged

Research Design

Participatory and collaborativeMulti-siteMacro, meso and micro levelsMeso:

Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyDurban University of TechnologyRhodes UniversityStellenbosch UniversityUniversity of Cape TownUniversity of VendaUniversity of the Western Cape

Research Design

Meso:Eight site reports (on the institution, its policies and facilities)Eight reflective reports (by heads of CLTs)(Data based on reports in public domain and perceptions of CTL Heads)

Research Design

8 response papers on factors that constrain and enable:

quality teachinguptake of professional development

opportunitieswork of the Centre for Teaching and

Learning

Research questions

• What structural and cultural properties appear to constrain or enable quality teaching and the professional development of academics in their teaching roles?

• Are these factors linked to specific types of

university contexts?

Findings

Research questions

• What structural and cultural factors appear to constrain or enable quality teaching and the professional development of academics in their teaching roles?

• Are these factors linked to specific types of

university contexts?

1. History, Geography and Resources

High staff turnover both within the centre – it is a struggle to get people to stay, although the same could be said about the faculties, you work with them in the department, come next year, there are new people. At [our one rural campus] we struggle to retain staff because the town is not able to offer amenities, eg decent shopping, decent school for the kids, the university is not paying as much as other universities. Housing is a problem in [the rural campus], people stay in [nearby more comfortable towns] this commuting becomes too much… (HDI5).

2. Leadership and stabilityWhen we have a DVC academic who has a full understanding, things go smoothly, but in instances where we had a DVC academic who was not so sure, things would not go as smoothly. Then the Director [of the TLC] must explain and convince… (HDI5).

Regular changes in leadership … result[ing] in differing strategic visions, organisational restructuring and financial outlays as they left the institution… the institution has had five Vice Chancellors since 2002.The longest period of service at this level has been two and a half years … Simultaneously there have been three DVCs … with various Deans acting in between (UoT8).

3. Discourses around teaching and learning

Intrinsic value of teachingI love teaching. … I just love it

Teaching v. research push for the PhD (HAI3), focus on research (UoT8)

Them v. us (Teachers v. CLT staff)then people turn around and say: ‘they refuse to help us’ (HAI1) lack of concern, knowledge or understanding of who our students are (HAI1),

Blame the studentunder-preparedness on the part of the lecturers which shows itself when lecturers do not know how to deal with students from diverse backgrounds and lecturers who cannot vary their teaching methods (HDI5).

4. Systems for Reward and Recognition

Work has been done to make a valuing of quality teaching explicit within the descriptors around promotion and the merit awards … Having made the criteria explicit, has enabled people to have the conversation about promotion and future career which encourages them to take up the opportunities (HAI1)

We are viewed as a support centre with an academic function. We are not given full academic status. It is constraining because some academics don’t take us seriously. They say we are not academics, we are looked at as a para-professional. It becomes difficult, if I must have an oversight role on what is happening in the classroom, and they say ‘you are a para-professional’. Even though we offer the PGDHE, we can’t run it ourselves, all the admin is done via the Faculty of Education. We are even denied to be in the graduation procession. We had to fight that (HDI5).

5. Capacity, Image and Status of CTL staff

Research questions

• What structural and cultural factors appear to constrain or enable quality teaching and the professional development of academics in their teaching roles?

• Are these factors linked to specific types of

university contexts?

How these play out in different contexts

• Multidetermination (mutually reinforcing causal powers)Eg. UOT7: Staff student ratio Timetabling committee Vision of teaching as an ex technicon

• Multidetermination (contrasting causal powers)Eg UOT8: Leadership instability Strong vision of CTL staff

• Enablements and constraints are viewed differently in these different settings

• Enablements and constraints not only at HAIs or vice versa

Research Limitations

• Some data based to a degree on self-reporting/views of very specific group

• Some data based on university self-portrayal eg information on university websites

• Information on the domain of agency very limited

Significance

• Significance of multi-determination• Structure and culture are frequently

interlinked• Role of agency requires more attention: to

what extent is it linked to biography, expertise, etc?

• Systematic features - cultural and structural – can change.

Recommendations

National policies focusing on the enhancement of teaching must take variation of local institutional contexts into account, especially wrt:• Geography, history and resources• Leadership and stability• Discourses around teaching and learning• Reward and recognition• Status and capacity of CTL staff

Recommendations

• Geography, history and resources• Leadership and stability• Discourses around teaching and learning• Reward and recognition• Status and capacity of CTL staffThese properties can also serve as heuristics forstrategies to enhance professional development wrt teaching