Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

Abstract

2005),"Equal opportunity and affirmative action for South African women: a benefit or barrier?", Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 Iss 1 pp. 56-71 http://dx.Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:368933 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' perceptions of the challenges that they face and the factors that facilitate and impede teaching and learning within the context of transformation at the University of the Witwatersrand. The paper also explores students' perceptions of transformation directly and their ideas related to facilitating this process. The authors reflect briefly on colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and the state of higher education after 18 years of democracy. Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative, explorative, descriptive survey research design was employed to gain a deeper understanding of how students experience living, learning and teaching in higher education. A sample of 194 students with a mean age of 22.40 participated in the study. Findings -The results revealed positive facilitative factors such as quality of teaching, social support, material resources and practical/clinical training; as well as negative hindering factors that included high workload, English as a medium of instruction and limited access to "other" resources which impacted the learning processes. There was a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the current status of the school regarding transformation. Originality/value -This study makes novel contributions to the literature, especially related to the South African context. For instance, white students in professional degree programs reported that their inability to speak indigenous African languages hindered their provision of services to clients. This finding contrasts with previous literature that suggests that students who speak English as a first language have greater advantages than multilingual students whose mother tongue is not English.

Language and culture in speech-language and hearing professions in South Africa: The dangers of a single story

“…It is widely acknowledged that higher education programmes in the country reflect no or slow changes in curriculum transformation to be inclusive (Seabi, Seedat, Khoza-Shangase, & Sullivan, 2014 ). Higher education programmes, including SLH programmes in the country, are largely still based on a Eurocentric, Western epistemology with minimal, if any, inclusion of Afrocentric epistemology and ontology.…”

Transformation and self-identity: Student narratives in post-apartheid South Africa

“…The reasons for protest are manifold, but generally revolve around diversity and transformation, or lack thereof. Despite major government instigated restructurings -the most noticeable being the 2004 merger operation -many university cultures have shown a notorious slow degree of change compared with the pre-1994 situation (Aina 2010;Balintulo 2003;Chetty & Merrett 2014;Cloete 2014;Cross 2004;Higgins 2013;Jansen 2009;Jawitz 2010;Kamsteeg 2011;Keet & Nel 2016;Seabi et al 2012;Soudien 2008;Tabensky & Matthews 2015;Verwey & Quayle 2012;Walker 2005a;2005b;Walker & Loots 2016). This article presents narratives of self-identity of students from the University of the Free State (UFS), a formerly all-white and Afrikaans-medium taught university that is actually going through a critical transition phase (Keet & Nel 2016).…”

Lecturers’ Leadership Practices and Their Impact On Students’ Experiences of Participation with Implications for Marketing Higher Education Services

“…This finding is connected with some identified overarching emerging themes of this study: (1) Supportive academic leadership: in terms of academic modelling and good listeners and communication skills; (2) Teaching and learning quality: in terms of class management, participatory approach to teaching and supportive learning environment; (3) Academic versatility: in terms of lecturers' knowledge diversity. This finding infers that the lecturers' leadership practices in terms of teaching and learning quality and demonstration of academic leadership in the university have helped to transform and improve students' socio-academic abilities which is an expected function of a good academic leader (Balwant, 2016;Dahawy & Elmelegy, 2010;Elmelegy, 2015;Hofmeyer et al, 2015;Seabi et al, 2012;Warhurst, 2006). More so, findings revealed that lecturers' involvement of students in class sessions like questions and answers session and sharing contributions empowered students to become academically curious and inquisitive.…”

“…Also, Hofmeyer et al 2015in their qualitative study into the Australian higher education sector found that influence direction, culture, visibility and audibility and collaboration show positive influence on academic leadership practices and learning outcome. Seabi et al (2012), in a study on students' experiences about transformational leadership practices in a single South African university, found that teaching quality, academic support, material resources and teacher accessibility, all had a positive influence, while workload limited access to lecturers and learning materials had a negative impact on students' perception on transformational leadership practices of their lecturers. This implies that lecturers who are accessible and provide teaching and learning materials and deliver high quality lectures to students positively influenced them towards achieving their academic goals.…”