Reframing purpose and conceptions of success for a post-Covid-19 South African higher education

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic raised immense challenges for universities. Staff and students had to quickly transition to an unfamiliar mode of emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) with its associated affordances and losses. The experiences of students and staff and the lessons learned during this time will affect the provision of teaching and learning in the future. During ERTL, a group of academics and teaching and learning support staff from different faculties at a large research-intensive public university in South Africa came together to support each other and share experiences of enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. This led to reflection on the impact of Covid-19 on the higher education landscape through community of practice. The aim of this conceptual paper is to discuss alternative notions of institutional purpose and lecturers’ conception of success that might influence the emerging post-Covid-19 higher education landscape in the global south. We claim that a more nuanced and critical understanding of these concepts is essential to evaluate the gains and losses experienced during Covid-19. Our argument hinges on our reflections of supporting teaching and learning during 2020 and 2021, and our observations of the challenges experienced by lecturers as they transitioned to ERTL. We suggest that it was in the moments of disruption and disequilibrium that lecturers were required to re-think the purpose of their courses and of higher education more broadly. Furthermore, it challenged us as a collective and individually to reflect critically on the measures of success within courses that changed dramatically in response to the prevailing circumstances, as well as more broadly within the sector.

Remote Teaching and Learning at a South African University During Covid-19 Lockdown: Moments of Resilience, Agency and Resignation in First-Year Students’ Online Discussions

“…Based on the data discussed above, this article makes two key arguments. Firstly, although the narrative of vulnerable poor students with no device, data and/or connectivity dominates in earlier publications on emergency remote teaching and learning, many of these vulnerable students in fact saw this mode of learning as an opportunity to reimagine and rethink their learning approaches (Dison et al, 2022;Mbhiza, 2021). This category of students was able to experience fully the transformative potential of online learning during lockdown.…”

“…Secondly, while students believed that every dark cloud has a silver lining, there were also some students who displayed resignation to the Covid-19 and remote learning challenges. This category of students capitalised on how the negative effects of remote learning and the Covid-19 lockdown, as well as the worsening socioeconomic problems in post-apartheid South African communities did indeed affect their academic performance (Alex, 2022;Dison et al, 2022;Shava, 2022).…”

“…This sample of students' remote teaching and learning experiences epitomised moments of resilience and agency as they navigated the academic disruptions caused by the pandemic. However, online discussions also revealed some students' sense of resignation to the economic and psychosocial burdens of Covid-19 Dison et al, 2022;Hemson, 2019;Holton, 2019;Mbhiza, 2021).…”

“…For some first-year students, it is an opportunity to participate in their long-awaited "university experience"; for others, it is an overwhelming experience with its own fears and anxieties. For university managements, Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to reimagine the idea of higher education, to respond to new, efficient and seemingly more productive ways of learning and working revealed by Covid-19 (Dison et al, 2022;Mbhiza, 2021;Shava, 2022).…”

“…As a result, many academic staff members were not completely prepared for remote learning because "academic staff at contact universities typically have little, if any experience of training in the pedagogy or delivery of online learning" (Hedding et al, 2020, p. 1). In addition, students from both privileged and disadvantaged communities were left to struggle with access to devices, data and internet connectivity problems in urban and rural areas, without the quality of student support they were accustomed to, and these problems were more severe in vulnerable communities (Alex, 2022;Dison et al, 2022;Le Grange, 2020b;Mtswheni, 2022). To alleviate the burdens of emergency remote learning, many South African universities provided devices and data to students in need.…”