Ukuba ngootitshala abaphum’ izandla – ukufunda kwiingxelo zabahlohli. Asikwazi ukuba yinto nje eqhelekileyo kulo mcimbi wemfundo. Enye yezinto Isifundiswa esingutitshala esaziwa ngayo kukuba namandla okufunqula ngemfundo. Om goeie leerkragte te word en te wees – leer uit dosente se verhale. In hierdie akademiese ruimte kan ons nie net gewoon wees nie. Akademici wat onderrig gee, dra ook die las van opheffing deur opvoeding. We cannot be just ordinary in this academic space. This identity of a teaching academic includes bearing a weight to uplift through education. green bay packers jersey nike air jordan women nfl jerseys Steelers Jerseys custom basketball jerseys nike air jordan shoes nike air max sc leather nfl gear nike air max 270 adidas online cheap wigs adidas factory outlet human hair wigs for women cheap wigs dallas cowboys Ukuba ngootitshala abaphum’ izandla – ukufunda kwiingxelo zabahlohli. Asikwazi ukuba yinto nje eqhelekileyo kulo mcimbi wemfundo. Enye yezinto Isifundiswa esingutitshala esaziwa ngayo kukuba namandla okufunqula ngemfundo. Om goeie leerkragte te word en te wees – leer uit dosente se verhale. In hierdie akademiese ruimte kan ons nie net gewoon wees nie. Akademici wat onderrig gee, dra ook die las van opheffing deur opvoeding. We cannot be just ordinary in this academic space. This identity of a teaching academic includes bearing a weight to uplift through education.
by Jean Farmer
We cannot be ordinary
By comparison to most contexts in an unequal and poor country like South Africa, academia is a privileged space. There is apparently no hard labour involved, there is less of a struggle for resources and academics fall within the top five percent of earning capacity. For this reason, we cannot be just ordinary in this academic space. Yet is this true that there is no hard work involved in being a university teacher? Is this work of teaching and learning and researching and making social impact just easy work which happens in the sky or in the ivory tower, having nothing to do with what happens on the ground? Being part of a privileged environment, higher education institutions hold firm on their own social justice projects as one of the three foundational pillars: research, teaching and learning and social responsibility. This piece considers academics’ being and becoming teachers. It begs reflection on the identity of the teacher within a sociocultural context and how this identity includes bearing a weight to uplift through education.
Teachers construct themselves according to personality and experiences. There can, however, be no stasis in the practice of being and becoming a good teacher. Good teaching requires an attitude and ability to learn and to adapt to the needs of students and to context (Winberg and Pallitt, 2016; Behari-leak and Mckenna, 2017). A crucial element for teachers to change and enhance their practice is an attitude and ability for being reflective (Leibowitz et al., 2015).
Although many of our lecturers and students come from privileged backgrounds, we have acknowledged more and more over the years that the SU academic space belongs to everyone in South Africa. This means that the students and lecturers who enter the institution come from different backgrounds with different cultural and educational experiences. We would be remiss if we failed to recognise that a number of our students do not come from privileged backgrounds.
As educational developers at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), we work with lecturers’ development from being post-graduate students and researchers in their field to becoming good, not just ordinary, teachers for our society. We open opportunities where lecturers can develop, reflect on, and further develop their best teaching practices for their and students’ benefit. The professional academic support services (PASS) community at SU works relatively cohesively to enhance the teaching experience of lecturers. In 2020 with the onset of Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTLA), for instance, a number of SU centres came together to present workshops for lecturers to offer the best possible learning experiences for students under challenging circumstances. Creating connections are imperative to develop lecturers’ sense of inclusivity and belonging. Knowing that there is a community of practice, albeit remote, is conducive to a good working environment. At CTL we recognise that academics have different trajectories of growth and we take different needs into account.
Navigating Differences
How then does an SU teacher navigate the differences while becoming a good teacher?
- Differences between self and student;
- differences amongst the students themselves as part of work groups;
- differences between students at entry point and the attributes with which they will leave university, being part of and contributing towards an integrated society.
Static knowledge and the secure feeling it could give academics in what they know, cannot sustain the teaching academic’s educational needs and the needs for educational change in a university. Instead, a supportive environment has been identified as one of the key enablers for an academic‘s professional development (McMillan and Gordon 2016). Similarly, the teaching academic has to create an enabling environment for new knowledge to be co-created by his/her students (SU Teaching and Learning Policy 2018). SU recognises the importance of an enabling environment and provides policy, workshops, and rewards. Ultimately, we agree that such an enabling environment is influenced by the immediate culture of the institution, and that is something more difficult to change (Van Schalkwyk et al., 2015).
Stretch awareness beyond our own realities
Good teaching would thus mean that we do not hesitate to make space for differences, and that we integrate the knowledge we and our students can gain from sharing our experiences. Working together on issues towards eliminating the educational problems in South Africa is not hard manual labour. Without undermining the manual labour our students’ parents do, it is still hard work to offer our students other future career options.
South Africa is a country where resource disparities exist; some of our own students are poor and suffering in our midst or in their home provinces. University teachers cannot afford to be selfish in their thinking. This means that our awareness needs to be stretched beyond our own realities. Awareness of context is important to fair and effective teaching and learning. The lengths to which the institution and its lecturers and PASS staff went during the 2020 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTLA) and the 2021 Augmented Remote Teaching and Learning (ARTLA) are a testament of an institution which has turned its view from its former cohorts of privileged students to one which tries to address those students with limited resources.
Perceptions and approaches to good teaching differ markedly. One could possibly draw ideal types, but there is no one kind of good teacher. I propose that it is imperative for good teaching academics to assess their students’ different needs. Together, we can still do more.
Communities of Co-created Knowledges
The challenge of changing culture is welcomed at a university, where questions are asked and critique is welcomed as part of the lifelong learning of students, staff and the institution as a living part of society and the community.
SU’s endeavours to build communities show that we value the experiences of others despite conceptual boundaries, some of which arise from differences in culture and beliefs. A strong sense of belonging to a community not only benefits productivity in advancing the knowledge with which academics enter an environment, share ideas and debate. It also integrates knowledges. It could integrate knowledges not only across disciplinary boundaries, but also across the boundaries between lecturers and their students. This practice of co-creating knowledge is encouraged amongst colleagues in the PASS environment, amongst lecturers and between lecturers and their students. Co-creating knowledge espouses the shattering of boundaries not only between knowledge bearers, but also spills over to breaking barriers between sectors of societies.
SU is research-oriented and a well-resourced institution. In this sense, for us, academia is a privileged space because we are able, through teaching, to influence society. Nevertheless, there is a lot of hard work involved. We do reach out to society while teaching and while doing research. At the CTL we encourage this through discussions on decoloniality and through engaging lecturers on best teaching and assessment methods. Lecturers work hard to reach their students where they are at, and to consider their context. The CTL mirrors this with our practices and lecturers not only mimic, but also improve on our methods. They are innovative and research their teaching and student learning. This is work that tries to prepare our graduates to act with academic integrity. We try to develop creators who can integrate their knowledge and values with communities. We hope that our graduates never forget that they are a privileged part of our society which mainly struggles with impoverishment and connected social ills. Being and becoming a teaching academic who is reflective is a continuous and arduous task, but as with our students, our aim is lifelong learning.
References
Behari-Leak, K. & McKenna, S. 2017. Teaching excellence awards in post-colonial South Africa: Generic gold standard or contextualised public good? Teaching in Higher Education, March 2015:1–15. DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2017.1301910
Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Van Schalkwyk, S. and Winberg, C. 2015. Institutional context matters: the professional development of academics as teachers in South African higher education. Higher Education, 69:315-330.
McMillan, W. & Gordon, N. 2017. Being and becoming a university teacher. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(4): 777-790. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2016.1236781
Stellenbosch University (SU) 2018. Teaching and Learning Policy.
Van Schalkwyk, S., Leibowitz, B., Herman, N. and Farmer J. 2015. Reflections on professional learning: Choices, context and culture. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 46:4-10. Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.stueduc.2015.03.002
Winberg, C. & Pallit, N. 2016. “I am trying to practice good teaching”: Reconceptualizing eportfolios for professional development in vocational higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology. May 47(2) 543-553. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12440
About the Author
Jean Lee Farmer, CTL Advisor.
Jean Lee Farmer completed her doctoral study in Higher Education on educational trajectories of Black women academics. She started her student career as a nurse before becoming a high school and part-time university teacher. She grew up in the impoverished community of Hanover Park on the Cape Flats and is thus acutely aware of the importance of good teaching. She claims that it was her school and university teachers’ sense of social justice and awareness that brought her this far. She has worked at the CTL as an advisor for the past 10 years.
Disclaimer
All views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the Stellenbosch University.
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