The Development of Academic Advising to Enable Student Success in South Africa

Tiroyabone, Gugu Wendy; Strydom, Franҫois

doi:10.24085/jsaa.v9i2.3656

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…The history of colonialism and the system of apartheid, which legislated the racist oppression and exploitation of Black people and other racial groups to the benefit of the minority white population, still impacts educational settings today. Most Black students are the first in their families to have access to tertiary education (Tiroyabone & Strydom, 2021) and many do not speak English as their home language; however, English is the language of instruction at most institutions of higher learning. In addition, the fact that well-resourced universities were often classified as "whites only" during apartheid means that these spaces still carry symbolic and structural elements of colonialism and apartheid.…”

Section: The South African Higher Education Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanising Online Pedagogy through Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Vally Essa,

Andrews,

Mendelowitz

et al. 2023

OLJ

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Humanising pedagogy has been a focus of recent research as more universities move to online and blended models of instruction. Online learning has been linked to feelings of isolation, disconnection, and depersonalisation of the learning experience for many students. In South Africa, the shift to online instruction took place in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent student movements that brought attention to how the country’s violent history resulted in structural inequalities in terms of race and class that affect learning environments. Thus, humanising pedagogy also meant recognising and addressing how students’ contextual challenges might affect their feelings of connection in the learning environment. In this article, we present a case study of a first-year course at a South African university where we used online discussion forums that required students to engage with weekly forum tasks. Through thematic content analysis of students’ dialogic responses on these forum tasks, we demonstrate how the tasks facilitated humanising pedagogy by allowing students to use their authentic voices, to form social connections, and to reflect their affective and personal experiences. We argue that interactive, asynchronous online forums can be effective tools to facilitate humanising online pedagogy when these forums are designed in ways that encourage dialogic learning, use content that is relevant to students’ contexts, and give students agency by allowing them to select texts for discussion and share their diverse perspectives. Our analysis also showed limitations to forum discussions which include students echoing responses and instances of silencing and unsupportive group dynamics.

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Section: The South African Higher Education Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanising Online Pedagogy through Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Vally Essa,

Andrews,

Mendelowitz

et al. 2023

OLJ

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“…However, there is a need for caution in implementing learning analytics data in higher education (Larrabee Sønderlund, Hughes & Smith, 2019). The notion of student success in higher education is complex (Kuh et al, 2006;Scott, 2018;Tinto, 2012;Tiroyabone & Strydom, 2021;Kahu & Nelson, 2018), and therefore context-nuanced academic support strategies are needed to target outcomes in student success metrics better, namely self-efficacy, academic performance, persistence, retention, and completion (Soika, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In South Africa, universities face significant shortfalls in achieving student success (Mabokela & Mlambo, 2017). There is, therefore, a growing emphasis nationally (Bokana & Tewari, 2014) and within individual institutions on understanding the context and complexity of the student success problem, to support student experiences, and to enhance student success in their programmes of study (Tiroyabone & Strydom, 2021;Fataar, 2018;USAf, 2018;Dhunpath & Subbaye, 2018;Strydom, Kuh & Mentz, 2010). In addition, the issues of inclusion (Kruss, 2017) and equity gaps in students' education, experiences, and outcomes need to be addressed (Cosser, 2018;Notshulwana, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology-mediated advising for student success: Exploring selfmediated academic support for undergraduate students using AutoScholar Advisor System

Khumalo,

Rawatlal,

Nnadozie

et al. 2023

pie

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This article explores the use of the AutoScholar Advisor System (Auto-Ad) to provide useful learning support analytics for self-mediated student academic support. The study is part of a pilot project for enhancing student success in a four-year undergraduate degree (BEd) programme. Adopting students’ self-authorship as an organising framework and using the Auto-Ad implemented on the learning management platform, the study involved 200 high performing undergraduate students (cum laude or summa cum laude trajectory) in a School of Education at one university. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect and analyse the data. Quantitative data were analysed based on the students’ interaction with Auto-Ad as academic learning support tool to enhance their performance through automated advising. Qualitative open-ended comments allowing in-depth insight into the students’ perceptions of their performance were also analysed. The students considered knowledge, self, and relationship to be important for achieving high performance and success. The strongest correlated factors were choice of degree, motivation, study habits, family, and relationships. Implications of these findings within the current student support systems at South African universities are discussed.

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“…There has, for some time, been a dearth of literature on academic advising within and for the South African higher education context. Encouragingly, this has begun to change, following the launch of a national project in 2017, which focuses on the professionalisation of advising for the South African context (Tiroyabone and Strydom 2021). Nevertheless, most of what has emerged either focuses on the adoption of Global North academic-advising models within the South African higher education context (e.g., Van Pletzen et al 2021), academic advising during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Moosa 2021), examples of how academic advising could support students in extended curriculum / access programmes (e.g., Sekonyela 2021), or quantitative studies that aim to document students' reasons for seeking advice (de Klerk 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing a baseline: A social realist perspective on academic advising at a South African university prior to COVID-19

de Klerk

2023

SAJHE

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Academic advising remains an emerging practice and profession within the South African higher education sector. Although there has been an increase in literature about advising in South Africa recently, there remains a dearth of literature about the experiences of academic advisors working in this context. This article aims to make such a contribution, by focusing in particular on the experiences and insights from 15 South African advisors (from one university) about academic advising prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data that informs this study was collected through semi-structured interviews. The focus in this article is on advisor responses to three of the interview questions, which proved sufficient because of the richness of the data. The study draws on elements of social realist Margaret Archer's (1995) morphogenetic framework to explicate why this perspective on advising within a South African higher education context is necessary. Archer's (1995, 2005) work on structure, culture, and agency is then used as analytic lenses with which to analyse the advisors' experiences and insights of advising prior to the pandemic. A phenomenographic approach (Marton 1981; Tight 2016) is adopted to explore the varying conceptions (Cibangu and Hepworth 2016) of advising offered by the academic advisors. Nine focal areas emerge from these insights, which are analysed and discussed using Archer's (1995Archer's ( , 2005 structure, culture, and agency. It becomes apparent that academic advising was complex even before the pandemic. The advisors express an urgency to help others, raise concerns about entrenched inequities and resource constraints, highlight the pitfalls of inadequate help-seeking among students, and emphasise the need for better institutional integration of academic advising at the advisors' university, among other things. It becomes clear that there are numerous structural and cultural tensions that constrain advisor and student agency, possibly to the detriment of student success. The article leaves the reader with insights into the experiences of academic advisors prior to the pandemic, thus providing a baseline against which to measure advising during and beyond the pandemic, at a time when advising in South African higher education is still being developed and defined.

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The Development of Academic Advising to Enable Student Success in South Africa

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Humanising Online Pedagogy through Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Humanising Online Pedagogy through Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Technology-mediated advising for student success: Exploring selfmediated academic support for undergraduate students using AutoScholar Advisor System

Establishing a baseline: A social realist perspective on academic advising at a South African university prior to COVID-19

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