Produced from experiences at the outset of the intense times when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions began in March 2020, this collaborative paper offers the collective reflections and analysis of a group of teaching and learning and Higher Education (HE) scholars from a diverse 15 of the 26 South African public universities. In the form of a theorised narrative insistent on foregrounding personal voices, it presents a snapshot of the pandemic addressing the following question: what does the ‘pivot online’ to Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL), forced into urgent existence by the Covid-19 pandemic, mean for equity considerations in teaching and learning in HE? Drawing on the work of Therborn (2009: 20–32; 2012: 579–589; 2013; 2020) the reflections consider the forms of inequality - vital, resource and existential - exposed in higher education. Drawing on the work of Tronto (1993; 2015; White and Tronto 2004) the paper shows the networks of care which were formed as a counter to the systemic failures of the sector at the onset of the pandemic.
, Pope Francis made a 24-hour visit to the Central African Republic (CAR), where a civil war has been raging since March 2013. Visiting a country where sexual violence has become endemic, he declared himself a "pilgrim of peace and an apostle of hope" (Pollitt 2015, para 1). The importance of the visit to the United Nations (UN) and the CAR government was highlighted by the number of armed UN peacekeepers accompanying him, UN tanks patrolling the streets, and CAR President Catherine Samba-Panza welcoming him by stating that she hoped his visit would lead to the country finally finding peace. The perceived power of the Catholic Pope was encapsulated by a young man from CAR: "Bandits don't listen to politicians, but they will listen to him" (Sherwood and Benn 2015, para 15). While Pope Francis's visit could not solve the violence in the CAR, it serves to illustrate the power and influence of faith leaders, even within arenas not normally associated with faith. The importance of religion or faith 1 in development work is increasingly being recognised in the literature, as well as by funding agencies and governments, now indicating a greater willingness to partner with faith-based initiatives (see Deneulin and Rakodi 2011). For example, the United Kingdom (UK), Swedish, and Dutch governments have all allocated funds for the exploration of the role of religion in relation to development (James 2011). The UK Department for International Development (DFID), committed to a budgetary increase allocated specifically for faith based groups, from 10 percent in 2010 to 19 percent in 2015 (Mitchell 2012; DFID 2009). One area that many faith entities, and specifically faith-based organisations (FBOs), have increasingly been focusing on is gender-based violence (GBV). 2 A recent report mapping faith-based responses to violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the Asia-Pacific Region, identified 58 FBOs responding to VAWG, and noted this represents only a small proportion of the FBOs addressing GBV in the region (Kaybryn and Nidadavolu 2012). In this scope of work, engagement with faith leaders is of critical importance as they are understood to be gate-keepers to local communities, with considerable influence on their communities' beliefs and behaviours (Haddad 2002; Solarsh and Frankel 2004; Tomkins et al. 2015). Faith leaders are said to be embedded in, and respected and trusted by, the local community, with a thorough understanding of local dynamics that affect developmental concerns, and often have considerable leverage with state and non-state powers due to the size of their constituencies (Thomson 2014). In terms of GBV, faith leaders are widely understood to be key to recognising and promoting the rights of women (Tomkins et al 2015). However, the recognition of the importance of faith leaders to reducing GBV is also based on the understanding that faith traditions and, by extension, faith leaders can act as barriers to effective development and GBV responses. For example, faith communities and leaders can be apathetic, ...
The term as below Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) has been adopted worldwide. In practice, approaches to ERT have been contextual with diverse lecturer and student experiences owing to complex assemblages of sociomaterial practices. Approaches to ERT as mobile learning by necessity are understudied. The ‘pivot' to ERT was particularly challenging for those in resource-constrained environments. Lecturers not only had to redesign face-to-face courses for ERT but were designing for mobile learning based on their own resource constraints and that of their students. For many, this highlighted broader concerns for equity and social justice. The authors share case studies of two lecturers at Rhodes University, arguing that a sociomaterial perspective can assist researchers and practitioners to better understand contextual approaches to ERT. The article demonstrates concerns when designing mobile learning experiences and how lecturers' design journeys are entangled with the material, social and political.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.