Interplay of Structure, Culture and

Agency: A study on professional

development in higher education in

South Africa – what can we learn about

context, and does it matter?

HELTASA CONFERENCE

Free State University

19 – 21 November 2014

Full team (2011-2013)

Rhodes University Chrissie Boughey, Lynn Quin, Jo Voster

University of the Western Cape Vivienne Bozalek, Wendy McMillan

Stellenbosch University Brenda Leibowitz, Nicoline Herman, Jean Farmer, Susan van Schalkwyk, Julia Blitz

Cape University of Technology Chris Winberg, James Garraway

University of Cape Town Jeff Jawitz, June Pym, Kevin Williams, Teresa Peres

Durban University of Technology Gita Mistri,

University of Venda Clever Ndebele

University of Fort Hare Vuyisile Nkonki

The National Research Foundation provided funding for the project titled “Context, structure and agency”

(reference ESA20100729000013945)

Research setting: South African higher education

ComprehensiveDisadvantaged

Key Research Questions

1. How does ‘context’ influence participation in professional development wrt the teaching role?

2. How does the interplay of structure, culture and agency feature within and across these settings?

3. What can we learn in order to enhance the roles of teaching and learning centres and strategies?

4. What are appropriate research

methods to research professional

development in South Africa?

Key Assumptions for Operations

Embedded Case Study Design

Multiple sites across range of institutional types

Focus on macro, meso and micro levels

Reflection on practice as AD Practitioners

Collaborative research

Research Design

• National Policy Environment

• Analysis of intelligibilia per institution (p.i.)

• Reflective reports by AD Directors p. i.

• Questionnaire p.i. (736 cleaned replies)

• Interviews: – 4 senior management p.i.

– 10 – 16 academics p.i.

• Reflections on research process (x 2)

• Leading to 8 institutional case reports

Themes for this panel

A research-led and teaching-committed university Lynn Quin and Jo Vorster (Rhodes University)

UOTs since the mergers Gita Mistri (DUT)

Professional development in rural universities Clever Ndebele and Vuyisile Nkonki (UniVen and UFH)

Duality of institutions James Garraway and Chris Winberg (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)

Implications for research on professional development and recommendations for professional development

Vivienne Bozalek and Wendy MacMillan (University of the Western Cape)

Balancing act

Research and

Teaching & learning

Lynn Quinn and Jo Vorster Rhodes University

Rhodes context•Small, historically white, research-intensive, English medium (not merged)

•Good UG & PG pass & graduation rates

•Relatively good academic staff research outputs

•Despite being a ‘research intensive’ university, it is an enabling environment for the development of academic staff as teachers

–97% of respondents indicated a high interest in teaching

–79% have attended professional learning for teaching.

–83% Rhodes provides formal recognition for engagement in

professional learning

–82% Rhodes provides resources for engagement in professional learning

WHY?

Enabling items in the cultural system

Teaching highly valued by most staff (historically)

“there is a discourse in the institution that values good teaching”

“there’s a standard of excellence in teaching and for the most part our

academic staff have a passion for excellence in teaching”

“I’m also very fortunate because in my department I feel that the majority

of us are really committed to excellence in teaching and that really helps

and it’s very motivating to be part of that kind of team”

Passion for teaching and students’ learning

“cultivation of highly educated graduates” (VC)“I want to be a good teacher because I love it. I love it when I see the

students suddenly realize how something fits together and how, you

know, the penny sort of drops, to speak. I would imagine that a lot of

academics are motivated by that … face to face with the students rather

than the recognition”

There’s a commitment to excellence in teaching and that commitment is

carried through into a willingness to engage with new methods, new

ways of doing things … try this, try that and just that commitment to changing things if the students need it

Intrinsic motivation for staff development

I did a programme because I love teaching, quite frankly. Teaching is

what I really enjoy doing and that presses all my buttons

I just thought I wasn’t confident enough, you know, because I thought I

needed some support and the only way to gain that support was to link

up with people who could support me through readings, ja, through

discussions and that’s where CHERTL became just the right place to be

Enabling items in the cultural system

Challenging traditional views; questioning taken for granted beliefs about T & L

“teaching is about creating spaces of freedom for

students and for teachers to learn and grow and

transform at many levels, personal, social and

political together”

“So I don’t like teaching a student who memorises

something. But I want them to understand it, so I like

them to grasp and understand the applicability of

what they’ve learnt either with me or getting

assistance from their their peers. That’s my strong

belief”.

“I think the students all learn in a different way …

they need to put together their own, construct their

own picture of what they are learning and make it fit

in with what they already know. And of course,

everybody already knows different things,

everybody’s going to create or construct something

slightly different and slot it into what they already

know …”

Shifts in way ‘good’ teaching understood

good teaching is regarded as enabling students “to

both gain knowledge and contribute to knowledge

generation” (SM).

Enabling items in the cultural system

More nuanced understandings of diversity

“the ultimate test … of the transformation of a

university like Rhodes – or any university for that

matter – is the extent to which we have engaged

with profound epistemological and ontological

issues, teaching and learning issues and

curriculum issues” (SM)

Recognition that disciplinary qualifications not sufficient

I’m not sure you can necessarily teach simply

because you have a PhD. I’m a very strong

proponent of this programme

I do think that there is a funny assumption that just

because you have disciplinary knowledge you can

automatically pass that on in an effective way

through a kind of teaching structure. So I do think

it is appropriate to give opportunities for lecturers

to understand curriculum design, pedagogical

approaches, issues of assessment, etcetera,

etcetera. I think it is a very valid, valuable tool

Enabling structuresPolicies and probation and promotion requirements (levers)

… our induction, our expectations …that we put on

academics to equip themselves with respect to curriculum,

learning and teaching and so on all signal how seriously

we take learning and teaching.

“teaching is a very important part of, it’s one of those pillars

of the promotion process”

Well resourced, stable credible T & L Centre

And then we provide the mechanisms and processes by

which we support and induct them into those activities

CHERTL supports and nurture this very well at Rhodes

with the vast experience of their staff in various aspects of

professional engagement. The entire administrative set up

here supports this too!

I think we are privileged at Rhodes, that there are quite a

few opportunities for development

AD staff in academic posts

Roles/ Dean T & L

Overt and explicit support from senior leadership

Strong element of support for CHERTL from management

and leadership

Exploring

ACADEMIC &

MISSION DRIFTfrom within the DUT

Gita Mistri

In terms of the transformation agenda of the country, I am not sure ifeverything about that restructuring was actually thought through. We became

universities; everybody was suddenly called auniversity. However, which meant that we got measured and funded

similarly and not differentially. And if you’re going to take an institution like

ours and say we have to compete for this small pot ofgold with universities like UCT and Stellenbosch and so on, then

it becomes very difficult for me to say we were not impacted by that

restructuring, because the restructuring didn’t drill downinto what kind of funding and resource allocation mechanisms you will use;

what will be the performance indicators that you will use in order tomeasure the various institutions achievementstowards the national goals. (SM@)

structure

We’re going, but we’re going slowly, because...suddenly we were called a

university, [and] there’s supposed to be a shift in theway that you do things. We walk into an environment, those

of us who came from outside, where a number of people were telling usthat they were never even allowed to go to conferences and they were

teachers. No one expected them to write, no oneexpected them to play the academic game….some of them are near retirement, …and you say to them, “Youneed to actually start publishing …. (SM2)

culture

The university has done a lot in terms of giving us thisplatform to re-curriculate. It’s given us almost a blanksheet and said go and re-design your curriculum … towhat you think and together with otherstakeholders what you think is going to make this abetter quality student exiting our system. (LL2)

culture

Look, it’s hard to say the environment is conducive,but I think we have the attitude to make itconducive, we look beyond the potholes (LL4).

It’s a recognition of things [that] need to changeand there must be a better way of doing things(LL7).

agency

Political lobbying academic and mission drifterosion of the differentiating boundaries

Articulation???????????????????????????????????????????

Reverse - Transfer

Reverse lobbyingbusiness and industry re-establishment of the technikon type institution

Rurality and the Professional

Development of University

Teachers

Clever Ndebele (UniVen)

and

Vuyisile Nkonki (UFS)

The concept of rurality

• associated with remoteness with a set of characteristics such as greater distances, low socio-economic status, high proportion of indigenous people, poor access to services, and smaller populations.

• In SA, the notion of rural is closely associated with histories and structures that have created conditions and circumstances of ‘oppression’, ‘deprivation’, ‘disadvantage’ and ‘deficit

• Often, rural is formulated in comparison to the urban with strong assumptions of difference and deficit underpinning this binary (Masinire, Maringe and Nkambule 2014)

The concept of rurality......

However, a contrasting view looks at the generative and transformative nature of rurality in relation to the effectiveness of intervention programmes (Balfour, de Lange, and Khau, 2012)

Rurality as context suggests that one of the defining characteristics of rurality is its intensity. For example, even though there is poverty in urban context, the fact that there is better support and infrastructure and a better chance of obtaining assistance (in the form of social services), such support often is either absent or inaccessible in rural areas, owing to distance, poor transportation, and neglect (Balfour, Mitchell, & Moletsane 2008).

The intersection between rurality and

professional development

… there are many barriers that make the

process of engaging in professional development

difficult: long distances, lack of economic

resources, and heavy workloads that require a lot

of time and energy both inside and outside of

school (Gallo, J.R.,2013).

Key constraints to the uptake of

professional development

senior management cited large class teaching as major

constraint to lecturers finding time to engage in

professional development opportunities. The quote below

illustrates how rurality bears on the uptake of PD

opportunities in a rural campus:

“But if you have very few people doing what so many

people should be doing, chances are that something has

to give. Quality might suffer, in fact, because they

wouldn't take advantage of those staff development

opportunities. I mean, we have lots of seminars here, and

you see that members of staff really don't show up. You

have to be dealing with students (and sometimes people

coming from town), where are the colleagues?”

Key constraints...

Constraining conditions identified by lecturers were time,

inadequate infrastructure, lack of orientation prior to

assumption of duty, huge workloads, large classes and

lack of requisite resources. (lack of resources to hire more

staff in the concept of rurality?). The quotes below

buttress the above sentiments:

“Low attraction of adequate qualified staff due to living

conditions, hence putting too much workload on the

available staff. As a result available staff are at times

unable to pursue professional development opportunities

if is there are no replacements” ( MNG2)

Key constraints...

“Currently within the university we do have the problem that

all the positions are not quite filled, and another concern

might be that there might be financial constraints, you know to

get everything going at the moment” (SM-2)

“Number two is the lack of senior degrees among the majority

of our staff members as, also I was indicating to you, we are

one of the faculties in this university with a low percentage of

people or lecturers with doctorate degrees and that has a

knock-on effect in many areas “(SM-4).

“In fact, that’s probably at the bottom of it all because, when

we say that it’s difficult to obtain the proper numbers of staff,

it’s because of the financial constraints that the university has”

(SM-5).

Rurality on policy and subsidy for staff

development“Rural based universities have a historical constraint of resource challenges, this has partly influenced policy on staff development for part time and auxiliary staff not always catered for in some development opportunities. The idea of having staff to pay for their own staff development is not appealing to staff.”

Rurality and the CPD of discipline-specific competencies

“Long distance from industry inhibited collaboration, access with legal firms for professional development”.

Key enablers

• Management support especially from the DVC

academic

• Deliberate identification of courses/formal

qualifications on teaching in higher education

and sending staff members to enrol for these

• Funding readily available for staff development

from the staff development and training section

in the Human Resources Department and the

Academic Development Centres.

Key enablers...

The structures that have been put in place; School Based Teaching and Learning Committees and the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee

Technology as an enabler helps to mitigate some of the challenges imposed by rurality as discerned in the quote below:

“If we had enough resources, like video conferencing and a lot of those things were working fairly well, I think we could eliminate what I am going to say, which is the time, because having to drive to Town A, I always feel it’s a waste of my time and I think I’m very pleased it’s this year, because only yesterday I was counting on my way to Town C, I was saying, you know, we’ve been so blessed this year, but it takes us time sometimes to recognize when a bad thing has been lifted from us” ( SM-6)

Implications

• Rurality presents both challenges and opportunities for PD

• The uptake of developmental opportunities is militated against by some facets of rurality in a cyclic way.

• There is need for professional development of managers and academic developers on ways of mitigating the challenges imposed by rurality.

• Reconsideration of theoretical frames and pragmatic issues when planning for PD interventions

• Institutional policies and strategies on PD need to bargain for, frame, and focus on rurality as it affects PD of lecturers.

DUALITY OF INSTITUTIONS

James Garraway and Chris Winberg

(Cape Peninsula University of Technology)

Enterprise versus student

development

The first interesting tension emerging from the data is that of the essential duality of universities as institutions. Following the now well-known work of Burton Clarke (1983) universities function both as enterprises with their managerial and administrative functions and priorities as well as organisations concerned with student learning and development.

Enterprise versus student

development

In terms of the Burton-Clarke duality, senior management views good teaching as equating to throughput/pass rates whereas staff understand it more in terms of their own and students learning experiences

Our success rate, our

pass rates have

actually been at a fairly

good standard if I may

say so, which means

… that approach was

yielding some results

… I just find when I have a

new idea and I sit down and I

start … you know …

hammering it out on the

computer I find it so inspiring

… and I often find that the

students enjoy being taught

in a different way to the

regular chalk and talk thing.

So that has been a virtuous

cycle

I … think that I’m as much a

learner as I am a teacher

because

I learn from the students

every day.

you ought to be able to make

a difference … you shouldn’t

going through the motions of

teaching and what I mean by

making a difference would be

contributing to the

development of people,

peoples’ minds and skills in a

meaningful kind of way

the DHET asked us to set

us , to stretch ourselves

more and set ourselves

more challenging targets …

we had 78…79%

throughput

What counts as

‘good’ teaching:

Enterprise

Vs teaching as

Development from

managers and staff

Recommendations

• teaching needs to be uplifted nationally• more and improved professional development

opportunities• teaching conditions need further investigation• history, geography and resources impact teaching

e.g. high turnover rural HEIs• casualisation militates against investment in teaching• infrastructure, leadership and admin have impact• taking teaching forward nationally• binary between research and teaching addressed• academics learn from peers – needs

acknowledgement and action

Any thoughts regarding

recommendations?

Future Plans

Colloquium:

Professional Development with Regard to the

Teaching Role in Higher Education

27 July 2015

Cape Town

- please contact us if you would be interested in

presenting or attending

Book on project

Journal special issue on theme

http://interplayofstructure.blogspot.com

Papers associated with the projectLeibowitz, B. and Bozalek, V. 2014. Access to higher education in South Africa: A social realist account. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning. 16 (1), pp 91 - 109. http://wpll-journal.metapress.com/link.asp?id=X7243U561274

Leibowitz, B., Ndebele, C. and Winberg, C. 2013. The role of academic identity in collaborative research. Studies inHigher Education. DOI:10.1080/03075079.2013.801424 (3 June 2013)

Leibowitz, B., van Schalkwyk, S., Ruiters, J., Farmer, J. and Adendorff, H. (2012) “It’s been a wonderful life”: Accounts ofthe interplay between structure and agency by “good” university teachers. Higher Education 63 353 – 365.

Jawitz, J., Williams, K., Pym, J. and Cox, G. 2013. Why we do what we do: Interrogating our academic staff developmentpractice 76. In: T. Tisani and M. Madiba (Eds) Proceedings of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association ofSouthern Africa (HELTASA) 2012 Conference.ISBN: 978-0-620-55540-1 Publication date: April 2013.

MacMillan, W. (on-line, HERD) ‘They have different information about what is going on’: Emotion in the transition touniversity. CHER-2012-1069.R2

Ndebele, C., (2014). Deconstructing the Narratives of Educational Developers on the Enabling and ConstrainingConditions in Their Growth; Development and Roles as Educational Staff Development Facilitators at a South AfricanUniversity. International Journal of Education Science, 6(1), pp.103–115.

Quinn, L. and Vorster, J. (2014). Isn’t it time to start thinking about ‘developing’ academic developers in a moresystematic way? International Journal for Academic Development. DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2013.879719

Ndebele, C. (2014). Approach towards the professional development of academics as espoused in institutional policydocuments at a South African university. J Soc Sci, 38(3): 255-269

Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Winberg, C. and van Schalkwyk, S. (2014) Institutional Context Matters: the professionaldevelopment of academics as teachers in South African Higher Education. Higher Education, DOI: 10.1007/s10734-014-9777-2

Leibowitz, B. (2014) Conducive Environments for the Promotion of Quality Teaching in Higher Education in South Africa.CRISTAL. 2 (1) 49-73 DOI: 10.14426/cristal.v2i1.27