The university and social responsiveness in the curriculum: a new form of scholarship?

Abstract

Challenges facing the higher education sector globally include questions over what counts as knowledge and what are valid forms of both its reproduction and production. This paper addresses the question of how what counts as valid knowledge is challenged and how it changes over time. It does this via an analysis of examples of social responsiveness profiled as 'portraits of practice' in the annual social responsiveness reports produced at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a traditionally strong research university. In this paper, we discuss and analyse key themes emerging from this work and argue that social responsiveness not only serves to enhance the core functions of teaching and research but can act to change them.

Addressing social responsibility in medical education: The African way

“…These medical schools have since revised their 'Vision' and 'Mission' statements, as well as their curricula to make them more responsive to the needs and priorities of the new South Africa (Favish & McMillan 2009), and increasing access by Blacks to ( particularly) English-medium medical schools (Breier & Wildschunt 2006). Compared to findings by Nejati et al (2011), perusal of the South African University or medical school websites reveals little by way of these institutions' intended or current corporate social responsibilities.…”

Between activism and the academy: The urban as political terrain

“…Part of this debate has drawn attention to the ways in which universities ‘engage’ through thinking about the world ‘beyond’ or ‘below’ the Ivory Tower. What is a socially engaged university (Favish and McMillan, 2009) or relevant research in the contemporary context (Lalu, 2012; Parnell, 2007)? Beyond a too often easy tendency to claim a process of ‘salvaging’ knowledge for ‘communities’ (see Rasool, 2010, in the context of urban archeology and social history), in what ways do scientific practices claim the authority and expertise to ‘know for’, or claim through research to ‘service’ communities, those dis-enfranchised and impoverished in the past and the present (Oldfield, 2008).…”

Institutional Research on Engagement

“…Each of the SR annual reports has contained an analysis which brings issues to the surface for discussion about the value and practices of SR within the institution. The analyses have been presented at annual symposia with the aim of promoting SR, and have been used to inform a number of scholarly articles in national and international journals, thus contributing to the knowledge base of ES (Favish & Ngcelwane 2009;Favish & McMillan 2009;Leuscher et al 2015) Each year, the University's Social Responsiveness Committee selects a theme or themes around which the cases are selected in order to stimulate discussion and critical reflection on different aspects of ES. Occasionally the reports included theoretical pieces about ES to stimulate rigorous debate.…”