Research Publications (Academic Support)
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Item Theorising decolonisation, globalisation and internationalisation in higher education(2019-03-01) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeThe higher education landscape in South Africa is complicated with a rich dose of challenges and opportunities. From apartheid South Africa to democratic South Africa, the higher education system has been dramatically influenced by several isomorphic forces that have led to the current educational call for decolonisation, which scholars in the higher education sector are trying to handle. Amongst these forces are colonialism, globalisation and internationalisation. While the nation has moved passed colonialism, its legacies still hold the higher education sector hostage creating the need for decolonisation. Globalisation has a complicated history dating back centuries. Vincent-Lancrin and Kärkkäinen (2009) argue that globalisation is a comparatively new term used to describe an old process that began with our human ancestors moving out of Africa to spread across the globe. They continue that the term has been used differently by different people owing to its different facets. Marginson and Rhoades confirm this by defining globalisation as meaning ‘becoming global.’ They provide an alternative definition by looking at it as ‘the development of increasingly integrated systems and relations beyond the nation’ (Marginson & Rhoades, 2002, p. 288) . Globalisation, therefore, moves towards making nations become more and more entangled with one another.Item Theorising the #MustFall student movements in contemporary South African higher education : a social justice perspective(University of Pretoria - ESI Press, 2019) Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile; Kehdinga, George FomunyamA significant amount of literature on the student movement in South Africa is characterised by two limitations. Firstly, a significant amount of this literature is found in un‑academic and non‑peer‑reviewed sources, such as social media, online newspapers, blog posts and other platforms. Secondly, some of this literature is characterised by an absence of theory in offering us critical analysis of the emergent conditions of the student movement as a phenomenon in South African higher education (SAHE). In this article, we respond to the above gaps by contributing to the scholarly development and critical analysis of the student movement in SAHE. In order to respond to the above two gaps, we firstly provide a brief historical and contextual environment that has contributed to the emergence of the student movement phenomenon in SAHE. Secondly, we introduce Nancy Fraser’s social justice perspective, in offering us the theoretical and conceptual tools we need to look at the struggles and challenges that confront student movements, focusing in particular on the challenges that frustrate them in relating and interacting as peers on an equal footing in society. Using Fraser’s social justice framework to look at the #MustFall movements will allow us to better understand them as complex phenomena in SAHE and allow us to properly understand their emergence.Item Operational use of mobile learning : understanding and retention of curriculum content(2019-09-18) Sunker, Jeremy; Oyetade, Kayode Emmanuel; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeThis chapter aims to evaluate and explore students’ perceptions of mobile phones in helping with understanding and retention of curriculum content. This aim is achieved within a theoretical framework on the use of mobile learning with understanding and retention. Student learning is influenced by different environmental factors, which impact the adequacy of their understanding and retention of curriculum content. At tertiary education level, the intensity and quality of work become more physically and mentally demanding. Students may find it more difficult to deal with the workload they are presented with. As a result, this may affect the potential level of understanding that can be accomplished in certain subject areas. This study was conducted on undergraduate students studying Information Technology (IT) at a university in Durban, South Africa in 2016. The self-administered questionnaire-based survey was used while transactional distance theory (TDT) is the core theoretical framework that underpins this study. The outcome of students’ perception was analyzed and it was found that the use of mobile phones in teaching and learning improved their understanding and retention of curriculum contentsItem Decolonising higher education in the changing world(Sun Media, 2019-03-01) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeThe decolonisation of higher education is a critical yet highly debatable discourse in the early 21st century where scholars from across the world are moving towards a more congruent and borderless notion of education and responsiveness. The need for decolonisation in higher education, and more so in African higher education, cannot be overemphasised, especially in this era of globalisation and internationalisation where Africa and its education systems are continuously being misconstrued as possessing the same level of capital and political will to engage at a variety of levels. Education and decolonisation in Africa should embrace the notion of the pluriversal in response to the diverse contextual differences and realities permeating the local landscape, which in itself is longing for engagement and interrogation, so as to drive change and developmentItem Decolonising the future in the untransformed present in South African higher education(University of the Free State, 2017) Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeSouth Africa as a nation became democratic in 1994 because of the end of apartheid. Since 1994, higher education has geared towards transformation and redress of the inequalities created by the inhuman policies of apartheid. While few applaudable steps have been taken towards this direction, South African higher education remains largely untransformed. For the past two years, a wave of student protest swept across the nation, calling for decolonisation of higher education in general and the curriculum in particular. This move brings to mind several questions about decolonisation and transformation. What is the state of South African higher education? Why has it remained untransformed since the advent of democracy? What should be decolonised to ensure transformation of the present and the future? This paper therefore ventures to answer these three questions using the theory of social transformation as a lens. The paper points out that funding structures, research politics, administrative structures and a lack of interest are amongst the reasons for the lack of transformation. The paper concludes that there will be no transformation until higher education institutions have been decolonised. Social transformation is therefore argued as the pathway for decolonisation. The paper recommends that transformation in higher education should go beyond the shelves where they are stored as policy to the classroom and university environment for practice and universities need to revise their understandings of transformation under the guidance of the DHET.Item Theorising first-generation students’ successes at a historically white South African university(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2019-12-30) Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeThis article attempts to shift the first-generation literature to not only focus on the marginalised experiences of first-generation students, but to also theorise the successes that these students have experienced in negotiating a historically white higher education institution. To do this, data was generated using semistructured interviews and participants were sampled using snowball sampling and this ensured that the social networks and connections that these students have with one another, were accessed. 32 first generation students were recruited, and in-depth interviews were held with each of the participants, averaging one hour per student. The data or findings indicate that the success of first-generation students largely depends on four key forces – the force of diligence, the force of language, the force of personal attributes, as well as the force of personal relationships. Bourdieu’s field theory, capital (social and cultural), and habitus were employment to further make sense of the findings. All these forces play a critical role in ensuring that first-generation students are not only able to negotiate their marginality in a historically white HE, but that they are successful.Item Deconstructing quality in South African higher education(Emerald, 2018) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George>This study aims to examine six South African universities with a particular focus on the quality of teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study approach was adopted and data were mainly generated by means of open-ended questionnaires. The questionnaire was circulated to approximately 1,800 students and 746 completed it. The data were categorized and analysed thematically, using both national and international benchmarks for quality teaching and learning. Findings The findings reveal that teaching and learning in South African universities is marred by a plethora of challenges. Lecturers lack basic skills and essential resources to effectively facilitate teaching and learning. Furthermore, quality benchmarks set by the Council on Higher Education are only met on paper and little or nothing is done to translate this into practice. Originality/value The study proposes among others that clearer policies on funding are recommended to ensure proper allocation of resources, staff development and institutional comeliness. Finally, to enhance transformation, universities should prioritize teaching and learning and take steps to ensure that those teaching in the classroom are qualified to do so.Item Contextual decolonisation of higher education in South Africa(2019-03-01) Kehdinga George Fomunyam; Matola, Noluthando; Moyo, Sibusiso; Govender, Vaneshree; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeItem Genopolitics : the dormant niche in political science curriculum in South African universities(AOSIS, 2018) Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli N.; Fomunyam, Kehdinga GeorgeSouth African higher education institutions have been grappling with the challenges of transformation and decolonisation as a result of the 2015–2016 student protests calling into focus issue of access (both formal and epistemological), belonging, social justice, transformation and others. One of the key sites for this struggle for transformation has been curriculum and the notion of relevance in responding to the development of social reality. Political Science as a discipline has increasingly been confronted with an ‘existential crisis’ with scholars in the field asking critical questions on whether the discipline has reached a point of irrelevance to social reality. Three key critiques of political science as a discipline are discussed in this article – firstly, the critique that political science is obsessed with what has been termed ‘methodological fetishism’ in being unable to embrace new knowledge. Secondly, that political science tends to construct universal theories and concepts that assume global homogeneity and de-emphasise the importance of context and locality in knowledge, knowledge production and its experiences. Thirdly, and the central point of this article, the social disconnection between political science as a field and its [in]ability to make a socio-economic contribution to society. This article suggests that genopolitics allows us to critically reflect on and respond to the above notions of relevance in political science by looking at the role of genes played in political behaviour and genetic dispositions to see and analyses how people, communities and societies behave in the ways that illuminate our understanding of social reality.Item Decolonising for higher education excellence(2019-03-01) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga George