Repository logo
 

Academic Support

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/210

Browse

Author: search.filters.author.Fomunyam, Kehdinga George

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Theorising decolonisation, globalisation and internationalisation in higher education
    (2019-03-01) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    The 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Affective and embodied pedagogy as pathways to equity in curriculum and responsiveness
    (2022-12-31) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    The question of equity in the South African educational landscape and particularly in the curriculum at all levels cannot be over emphasised, however achieving this equity has proven to be daunting task. The purpose of this article is to explore affective and embodied pedagogy as alternative pathways to equity in curriculum and responsiveness. Hamilton (2007) argues that beyond the idea that equity is morally right, striving for radical educational equity, is a winning strategy for all learners regardless of their background. With resistance to the drive to achieve equity almost guaran-teed, questions arise on how to achieve the same and ensure that curriculum responsiveness takes places for all learners/students. This paper seeks to answer the question. This paper theorised affective and embodied pedagogy, and generated pathways or forces which can be used to establish equity and responsiveness in education. The paper proposes diffractive physicality, social vulnerability and rhizomatic spatiality as the key constructs for equity and responsiveness. The paper concludes that affective and embodied pedagogy can be used as pathways to achieve equity in curriculum and responsiveness.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Introduction : theorising curriculum approaches and praxis
    (BRILL, 2020-01-01) Khoza, Simon Bheki; Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga; Simon, Khoza
    Curriculum studies is at the core of the educational endeavour: it informs what happens in every educational institution. As a result of the criticality or primacy of the curriculum, every educational practitioner appears to claim expertise in curriculum matters, and in the direction the field of curriculum studies should take. The curriculum practitioner, especially in Africa, has been given little or no space to theorise, orienting the future of the field in Africa. Instead, European and American curriculum theorisers have been allowed to exert a marked influence on the nature and direction of African theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, especially in relation to curriculum studies. This situation raises fundamental questions about the future of education in Africa in general, and curriculum studies in particular. While Europe and America seem to be experimenting with new philosophical paradigms in curriculum studies, Africa seems to be trailing behind by ten or fifteen years. A case in point is the implementation in South Africa in the late nineties of outcomes-based education (OBE) (a European and American theoretical enterprise), although there was clear evidence that it would not work. Is Africa, therefore, doomed to repeat the mistakes of Europe and America in curriculum studies? Has educa-tion in Africa preconditioned the theoriser only to explore traditions from the global North, rather than experimenting and articulating alternative pathways for education in Africa? Must curriculum theorising in Africa slavishly follow the traditions of theorising laid down by the global North, or can such tradi-tions be used as springboards for the articulation of alternative perspectives, as we strive to develop African curriculum matters?
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Student engagement as pathway for deterritorialising curriculum internationalisation in higher education
    (Horizon Research Publishing Co., Ltd., 2020) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    This paper explores the concept of curriculum internationalisation in higher education. It recognises and articulates the fact that the curriculum internationalisation process needs to be deterritorialised and the best approach to this is ensuring student engagement. In discussing this in detail, the paper theorises student engagement and the different perspectives on and of engagement, discusses curriculum internationalisation and deterritorialisation. The paper then focuses on deterritorialising curriculum internationalisation through student engagement. The paper concludes with four key thoughts on curriculum internationalisation on the platform of student engagement in a deterritorialised context. The paper recommends that curriculum internationalisation should be contextual in nature. Also, deterritorialisation of the institution and the curriculum internationalisation process and the curriculum itself are key to successfully internationalising the curriculum and give students the best educational experience. Thirdly, for the curriculum internationalisation process to be successful, there is a need for a practical framework. And lastly, student engagement is critical in the internationalisation process and for the success of curriculum internationalisation itself
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Operational use of mobile learning : understanding and retention of curriculum content
    (2019-09-18) Sunker, Jeremy; Oyetade, Kayode Emmanuel; Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    This 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 contents
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Decolonising higher education in the changing world
    (Sun Media, 2019-03-01) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    The 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 development
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Theorising open curriculum charges as pathway to responsiveness in South African higher education
    (BRILL, 2020-12-14) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George; Khoza, Simon Bheki; Fomunyam, Kehdinga; Simon, Bheki
    Curriculum discourse in South African higher education has always involved debates around responsiveness and how best to make the curriculum respond to local needs. This was amongst the reasons for the call to decolonise the curriculum. With encounters in education being a function of the curriculum at play, it follows that the curriculum shapes the educational experience, and how prepared students are for the job market, be it to create employment or to seek such. With the rate of unemployment in South Africa increasing, the nation needs graduates who are job creators, not jobseekers. The open curriculum offers an excellent pathway for educational encounters which are not only responsive, but uniquely career-oriented. This chapter adopts Aoki’s conceptualisation of the curriculum as lived experience, making three fundamental arguments. First, the chapter argues that there is a need for the deconstruction of academic curriculum standardisation. Second, the chapter argues for an itinerant curriculum; and lastly, the chapter argues for curriculum encounters propelled by responsive curriculum matters in the South African higher education. The chapter concludes that career pathways have been hindered by poor curriculum choices. Such has been engendered by curriculum standardisation and hegemonic curriculum practices adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. For a higher-education curriculum to be responsive, students, as co-constructors or creators of knowledge, need to be part of the process, driving the change they want to see in their future.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Decolonising the future in the untransformed present in South African higher education
    (University of the Free State, 2017) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    South 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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 George
    This 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The itinerant curriculum as a key to responsiveness in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Nigerian higher education
    (Society for Research and Knowledge Management, 2022-07-30) Fomunyam, Kehdinga George
    The current age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) brings together digital, physical, and biological awareness in ways never before seen. The transition has contributed to new technology and developments, such as robotics, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. As a nation, Nigeria is still behind with preparations for its future through appropriate, unique educational practices in this era for its citizens. This is because the quality of Nigeria’s higher education curriculum has not improved much. To boost the responsiveness of Nigeria’s curriculum in this technological era, this theoretical paper explores the itinerant curriculum as an alternative direction to other highlighted alternatives in the literature. The paper explains how the itinerant curriculum can be used to achieve economic, cultural, disciplinary, and learning responsiveness in the era of the 4IR. The paper concludes that the itinerant curriculum is an important tool that can help Nigerian higher education achieve curriculum responsiveness.