UJ explores the reinvention of Higher Education and culturally responsive teaching

Date: Feb 16, 2018 | News

Higher education institutions in South Africa and abroad are facing new demands and expectations. Students expect to learn specific knowledge and develop skills that will prove useful in their professional and daily lives, learning through materials and pedagogies that are relevant to the environments in which they live.

The Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and le Cnam (France) will coordinate the first joint research seminar on “University Teaching and Learning in Context“, on Monday and Tuesday 26-27 February 2018, in Auckland Park Kingsway Campus.

Twenty (20) delegates from five different countries will gather and collaborate on their research papers to share their different conceptual frameworks, research paradigms and policy recommendations.

“This two-day research seminar aims to contribute to the regeneration of curriculums and pedagogies in South Africa and abroad. We, therefore, invite researchers to reconsider the knowledge and pedagogies implemented at universities, scrutinising their relevancy for local and regional contexts—International trends and country-specific issues will also be discussed,” says Dr Loïse Jeannin, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies.

“This request for authentic learning opportunities is strongly expressed in the decolonization movement in South African universities encouraging lecturers to implement teaching strategies that promote social justice,” explain Dr Jeannin.

In addition, the seminar seeks to explore the development of online programmes and the internationalisation of higher education institutions which brings about new learning opportunities for university students. “The increasing diversity of university students because of the massification of access to higher education and/or the increasing student mobility worldwide, require lecturers to develop inclusive and culturally responsive teaching practices to meet the learning needs of their local and international students.”

“To accommodate these diverse learning expectations and facilitate the development of new pedagogies, professional development programmes for lecturers are developed and the conditions of their effectiveness are still debated,” says Prof. Michael Cross, UJ Research Professor at the Ali Mazrui Centre. “Hence, researchers from different parts of the world will share their different conceptual frameworks, research paradigms and policy recommendations,” adds Dr Jeannin.

The research papers are organised around the following subthemes: In-context pedagogy for university students; Decolonisation of the curriculum; Culturally responsive teaching and learning; Emerging professionals, emerging scholars; Learning opportunities and affordances; Online and hybrid programs for diverse students (historically disadvantaged students, culturally diverse students, professionals/adult learners, etc.); Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and training; Professional development for university lecturers and; Cross-border education and internationalisation.