A critical realist exploration of the culture of resistance in educational technology integration practices at a South African university
- Authors: Tshuma, Nompilo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Critical realism , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Effect of technological innovations on -- South Africa , College teachers -- South Africa , College teaching -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72318 , vital:30033
- Description: This thesis seeks to address a number of troubling concerns related to research and practice in the field of educational technology in South African higher education. Firstly, educational technology research has been criticised for a lack of theoretical rigour resulting in perspectives that are tightly focused mostly on practice but fail to adequately interrogate the socio-political complexities of integrating educational technology. Secondly, while research in the field has been criticised for failing to adequately contextualise the study of educational technology, it also fails to interrogate the impact of colonial legacies and Western-developed technologies on integration practices. Thirdly, there seems to be a disconnect between academics’ practices and choices with educational technology, and the expectations and assumptions of educational technologists. As such, this thesis predominantly follows inductive reasoning where literature and theory are applied to the empirical situation retrospectively in order to avoid the potential influences and biases of mostly Western-driven discourses on educational technology integration practices. Critical realism is used to ‘underlabour’ this study. This meta-theory asserts that there are multiple perspectives of an independent reality, and the work of research is to use these perspectives to draw closer to an understanding of that reality. As such, it allows me to interrogate my perspectives firstly, and secondly those of my research participants, about factors that constrain educational technology integration in the South African context through the use of theory (abstract concepts) and data (research participants’ multiple perspectives). However, critical realism is somewhat cautious in how to access this reality. Therefore, a critical ethnographic epistemology is employed to strengthen critical realism’s aim of accessing knowledge. A critical epistemology emphasises exposing hidden power structures, value judgements as well as self-knowledge and reflexivity. The thesis thus shows how a critical realist ontology could be complemented by a critical ethnographic methodology, particularly in critically-orientated research that has an emancipatory focus which seeks to uncover the socio-political context within which educational technology practices take place. A key argument is that critical realism can be employed as an ontological underlabourer for critical research because of: 1) its immanent critique of traditionally-accepted philosophies, 2) its emphasis on critique of our knowledge claims and value judgements, 3) its insistence that knowledge of the social world necessarily precedes emancipation, and 4) its different conceptions of power (oppressive power and transformatory power). This critical ethnographic research is conducted in a South African university with eight female academics. Data collection is in the form of interviews, observations and reflections, as well as informal and work-related interactions. At each data collection moment, I have had to be reflexively aware of my positionality as an educational technologist, the impact of a colonially-motivated methodology and an ethically-aware approach that seeks to put the needs of the research participants first. Critical ethnography’s meaning-making and critical realism’s abduction and retroduction are used to analyse and make sense of the data. In my attempt to contextualise the study’s findings, I first uncover structural forces and their impact on the academic role before attempting to correlate this with educational technology practices. The study’s findings point to two main structural forces in the socio-political context of South African higher education: the teaching/research tension and the elevation of one dominant culture. In terms of the teaching/research tension, the female academics in this study have to balance the urgent teaching function with the valued research function. They struggle to find this balance because of ambiguous messages from different structures, their passion for teaching, oppressive departmental dynamics and the pressures of their career trajectory. The elevation of one dominant culture is demonstrated through both oppressive cultural practices and untransformed curricula. The study shows that academics mitigate these structural constraints mostly through subtle every day resistance that seeks to mitigate their effect on both the academics and, where applicable, their students. Archer’s morphogenetic/morphostatic cycle is used retrospectively, in response to fieldwork, to conceptualise why this resistance comes about. A resistance framework developed using Archer is then used to understand educational technology choices and practices. The results of the research show that while academics are often pictured as resistant to technology as a response to different barriers, they actually often employ technology to resist structural forces. That is, with this thesis I show that there is a focus on resistance with technology rather than resistance to technology. The study shows how the research participants resist structural forces (teaching tension and dominant culture) by using technology to create safe and responsive learning spaces. As such, this thesis challenges educational technologists to re-think the way they support academics by recommending support strategies that acknowledge both the structural forces in the South African higher education context, as well as the culture of resistance, both of which impact academics’ educational technology choices and practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Tshuma, Nompilo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Critical realism , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Effect of technological innovations on -- South Africa , College teachers -- South Africa , College teaching -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/72318 , vital:30033
- Description: This thesis seeks to address a number of troubling concerns related to research and practice in the field of educational technology in South African higher education. Firstly, educational technology research has been criticised for a lack of theoretical rigour resulting in perspectives that are tightly focused mostly on practice but fail to adequately interrogate the socio-political complexities of integrating educational technology. Secondly, while research in the field has been criticised for failing to adequately contextualise the study of educational technology, it also fails to interrogate the impact of colonial legacies and Western-developed technologies on integration practices. Thirdly, there seems to be a disconnect between academics’ practices and choices with educational technology, and the expectations and assumptions of educational technologists. As such, this thesis predominantly follows inductive reasoning where literature and theory are applied to the empirical situation retrospectively in order to avoid the potential influences and biases of mostly Western-driven discourses on educational technology integration practices. Critical realism is used to ‘underlabour’ this study. This meta-theory asserts that there are multiple perspectives of an independent reality, and the work of research is to use these perspectives to draw closer to an understanding of that reality. As such, it allows me to interrogate my perspectives firstly, and secondly those of my research participants, about factors that constrain educational technology integration in the South African context through the use of theory (abstract concepts) and data (research participants’ multiple perspectives). However, critical realism is somewhat cautious in how to access this reality. Therefore, a critical ethnographic epistemology is employed to strengthen critical realism’s aim of accessing knowledge. A critical epistemology emphasises exposing hidden power structures, value judgements as well as self-knowledge and reflexivity. The thesis thus shows how a critical realist ontology could be complemented by a critical ethnographic methodology, particularly in critically-orientated research that has an emancipatory focus which seeks to uncover the socio-political context within which educational technology practices take place. A key argument is that critical realism can be employed as an ontological underlabourer for critical research because of: 1) its immanent critique of traditionally-accepted philosophies, 2) its emphasis on critique of our knowledge claims and value judgements, 3) its insistence that knowledge of the social world necessarily precedes emancipation, and 4) its different conceptions of power (oppressive power and transformatory power). This critical ethnographic research is conducted in a South African university with eight female academics. Data collection is in the form of interviews, observations and reflections, as well as informal and work-related interactions. At each data collection moment, I have had to be reflexively aware of my positionality as an educational technologist, the impact of a colonially-motivated methodology and an ethically-aware approach that seeks to put the needs of the research participants first. Critical ethnography’s meaning-making and critical realism’s abduction and retroduction are used to analyse and make sense of the data. In my attempt to contextualise the study’s findings, I first uncover structural forces and their impact on the academic role before attempting to correlate this with educational technology practices. The study’s findings point to two main structural forces in the socio-political context of South African higher education: the teaching/research tension and the elevation of one dominant culture. In terms of the teaching/research tension, the female academics in this study have to balance the urgent teaching function with the valued research function. They struggle to find this balance because of ambiguous messages from different structures, their passion for teaching, oppressive departmental dynamics and the pressures of their career trajectory. The elevation of one dominant culture is demonstrated through both oppressive cultural practices and untransformed curricula. The study shows that academics mitigate these structural constraints mostly through subtle every day resistance that seeks to mitigate their effect on both the academics and, where applicable, their students. Archer’s morphogenetic/morphostatic cycle is used retrospectively, in response to fieldwork, to conceptualise why this resistance comes about. A resistance framework developed using Archer is then used to understand educational technology choices and practices. The results of the research show that while academics are often pictured as resistant to technology as a response to different barriers, they actually often employ technology to resist structural forces. That is, with this thesis I show that there is a focus on resistance with technology rather than resistance to technology. The study shows how the research participants resist structural forces (teaching tension and dominant culture) by using technology to create safe and responsive learning spaces. As such, this thesis challenges educational technologists to re-think the way they support academics by recommending support strategies that acknowledge both the structural forces in the South African higher education context, as well as the culture of resistance, both of which impact academics’ educational technology choices and practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Expanding learning in clergy leadership formation in an Anglican Church Province in Southern Africa: a critical realist study
- Authors: Chinganga, Percy
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- Africa, Southern -- Religious aspects -- Christianity , Church management -- Africa, Southern , Critical realism , Educational leadership , Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92258 , vital:30704
- Description: The focus of this study was to investigate the kind of learning that happened when participants involved in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) engaged in their responsibilities as a collective. Further, the research sought to explore collaborative and transforming practices in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities which could be expanded through learning. The study is premised on an investigation of the historical foundations of Christian leadership formation processes which sought to establish clergy leadership formation models relevant to ACSA (the context of the study) from inception (1848) to date (2017). This entailed investigating how the developments which have happened in the church from its inception in the New Testament times through the Medieval and Reformation periods, have contributed to the emergence of distinct Christian leadership formation models which have formed the basis of clergy leadership formation in ACSA. Accordingly, the study highlighted key issues relating to clergy leadership formation which are discernible in the different historical phases of the life and work of the church with the objective of establishing how ACSA, through expansive learning, could transform her current clergy leadership formation model(s) towards collaborative and transforming practices. The concept of expansive learning, drawn from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), was used in the study as a methodological tool to create an environment where research participants (formators) from several dioceses would engage in collective work activities which would surface contradictions relating to how clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were understood and facilitated in ACSA. In response to the surfaced contradictions, the study engaged research participants in Change Laboratory Workshops whose goal was to transform the organisation (ACSA) in two particular ways: empowerment of participants (formators) with conceptual tools relevant to their responsibilities in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in ACSA, and improvement of organisational cultural practices, that is, the manner in which ACSA ought to conceptualise, design, plan, facilitate and manage clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. The latter brought into the discourse the need for participants (formators) to select and employ methodologies, methods, approaches and resources relevant to the southern African context where ACSA is located even though the study also acknowledged the influence of other Anglican Church contexts on what happened at the local level. In order to decipher meaning out of investigated phenomena about clergy leadership formation in ACSA, the study employed the critical realist “underlabouring” philosophy advanced by theorists such as Bhaskar to surface underlying mechanisms that exist at the level of the “real” in order to understand the causes of particular events and experiences as they manifest in the “actual” and “empirical” domains of the world, ACSA in the case of the study. In particular, the study engaged critically the opinion deliberated by critical realists concerning the interplay between structure and agency in relation to the responsibilities of the research participants (formators) in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. For instance, the study had an interest in investigating why bishops (principal formators in ACSA) exercised their episcopal authority in the manner they do and why individual formators were concerned about particular issues which relate to the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA (agential reflexivity/subjectivity). The study observed that, in the case of diocesan bishops, critical realists would argue that, by virtue of the authority which comes with their responsibilities (agency), they have the power to influence transformation of practices in clergy leadership formation in ACSA at any given point in time. The flip side of the discourse was also taken note of: that some bishops, for reasons known to themselves and their predecessors, are often reluctant to embrace new ideas relating to clergy leadership formation practices in their dioceses. Further, through critical realist lens, the study concluded that Canons, Vision and Mission statements, Acts, and structures such as Synod of Bishops, Provincial Synod, ABoTE, Cott, and TfM structurally shape ACSA, thus providing the organisation with a stable ontology which ought to direct, regulate and control the manner in which clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were conceptualised, designed, planned, facilitated and managed. As such, the study had an interest in establishing what would happen, in relation to clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA, when these structures would have been activated? Beyond that, in view of the goal of the study, it was enquired how expansive learning processes could be helpful in responding to the research findings towards exploring collaborative and transforming clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA. Drawing from the conceptual framework which was carved in the study on the basis of the theoretical tools (critical realism and educational leadership theory) and methodological tools (CHAT orientated concepts) undergirded by the Vygotskian theorisation of human consciousness development, the study concluded that clergy leadership formation is a collaborative activity which calls for the recognition, appreciation and utilisation of available expertise in ACSA and provision of a platform where participants (formators) could engage collectively on issues relating to their work with the objective of building each other up in knowledge and skills (expansive learning) towards realisation of the goals and objectives of the organisation. Diverse understandings (contradictions) of what needed to be prioritised in the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA would be considered as a positive rather than a negative. Ultimately, through the use of inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, the study modelled a transforming, transformational, transformative, embodied and incarnational model of clergy leadership formation which ACSA could consider using in future deliberations on the object of study particularly in relation to the key research findings across the case studies which were used in the study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Chinganga, Percy
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Leadership -- Africa, Southern -- Religious aspects -- Christianity , Church management -- Africa, Southern , Critical realism , Educational leadership , Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92258 , vital:30704
- Description: The focus of this study was to investigate the kind of learning that happened when participants involved in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) engaged in their responsibilities as a collective. Further, the research sought to explore collaborative and transforming practices in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities which could be expanded through learning. The study is premised on an investigation of the historical foundations of Christian leadership formation processes which sought to establish clergy leadership formation models relevant to ACSA (the context of the study) from inception (1848) to date (2017). This entailed investigating how the developments which have happened in the church from its inception in the New Testament times through the Medieval and Reformation periods, have contributed to the emergence of distinct Christian leadership formation models which have formed the basis of clergy leadership formation in ACSA. Accordingly, the study highlighted key issues relating to clergy leadership formation which are discernible in the different historical phases of the life and work of the church with the objective of establishing how ACSA, through expansive learning, could transform her current clergy leadership formation model(s) towards collaborative and transforming practices. The concept of expansive learning, drawn from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), was used in the study as a methodological tool to create an environment where research participants (formators) from several dioceses would engage in collective work activities which would surface contradictions relating to how clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were understood and facilitated in ACSA. In response to the surfaced contradictions, the study engaged research participants in Change Laboratory Workshops whose goal was to transform the organisation (ACSA) in two particular ways: empowerment of participants (formators) with conceptual tools relevant to their responsibilities in clergy leadership formation programmes and activities in ACSA, and improvement of organisational cultural practices, that is, the manner in which ACSA ought to conceptualise, design, plan, facilitate and manage clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. The latter brought into the discourse the need for participants (formators) to select and employ methodologies, methods, approaches and resources relevant to the southern African context where ACSA is located even though the study also acknowledged the influence of other Anglican Church contexts on what happened at the local level. In order to decipher meaning out of investigated phenomena about clergy leadership formation in ACSA, the study employed the critical realist “underlabouring” philosophy advanced by theorists such as Bhaskar to surface underlying mechanisms that exist at the level of the “real” in order to understand the causes of particular events and experiences as they manifest in the “actual” and “empirical” domains of the world, ACSA in the case of the study. In particular, the study engaged critically the opinion deliberated by critical realists concerning the interplay between structure and agency in relation to the responsibilities of the research participants (formators) in ACSA clergy leadership formation programmes and activities. For instance, the study had an interest in investigating why bishops (principal formators in ACSA) exercised their episcopal authority in the manner they do and why individual formators were concerned about particular issues which relate to the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA (agential reflexivity/subjectivity). The study observed that, in the case of diocesan bishops, critical realists would argue that, by virtue of the authority which comes with their responsibilities (agency), they have the power to influence transformation of practices in clergy leadership formation in ACSA at any given point in time. The flip side of the discourse was also taken note of: that some bishops, for reasons known to themselves and their predecessors, are often reluctant to embrace new ideas relating to clergy leadership formation practices in their dioceses. Further, through critical realist lens, the study concluded that Canons, Vision and Mission statements, Acts, and structures such as Synod of Bishops, Provincial Synod, ABoTE, Cott, and TfM structurally shape ACSA, thus providing the organisation with a stable ontology which ought to direct, regulate and control the manner in which clergy leadership formation programmes and activities were conceptualised, designed, planned, facilitated and managed. As such, the study had an interest in establishing what would happen, in relation to clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA, when these structures would have been activated? Beyond that, in view of the goal of the study, it was enquired how expansive learning processes could be helpful in responding to the research findings towards exploring collaborative and transforming clergy leadership formation practices in ACSA. Drawing from the conceptual framework which was carved in the study on the basis of the theoretical tools (critical realism and educational leadership theory) and methodological tools (CHAT orientated concepts) undergirded by the Vygotskian theorisation of human consciousness development, the study concluded that clergy leadership formation is a collaborative activity which calls for the recognition, appreciation and utilisation of available expertise in ACSA and provision of a platform where participants (formators) could engage collectively on issues relating to their work with the objective of building each other up in knowledge and skills (expansive learning) towards realisation of the goals and objectives of the organisation. Diverse understandings (contradictions) of what needed to be prioritised in the facilitation of clergy leadership formation in ACSA would be considered as a positive rather than a negative. Ultimately, through the use of inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, the study modelled a transforming, transformational, transformative, embodied and incarnational model of clergy leadership formation which ACSA could consider using in future deliberations on the object of study particularly in relation to the key research findings across the case studies which were used in the study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Learning to learn: a critical realist exploration into the home established learning practices of a marginalised community in Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Armstrong, Meredith
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Minorities -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Readiness for school -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Marginality, Social -- South Africa , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93778 , vital:30939
- Description: This study was completed as part of a project exploring social inclusion and exclusion in South African higher education. In a globalised world, the achievement of a qualification from an institution of higher education is increasingly key to finding any sort of employment. This is particularly the case in South Africa where employment amongst black citizens is inordinately high. The aim of the research reported upon in this thesis was to better understand the construct of ‘epistemological access’ (Morrow, 1992), often used in relation to the needs of black working class students entering higher education, in relation to performance data (see for example, CHE, 2016) that repeatedly shows that black students fare less well than their white peers. Following what might be termed a ‘social’ approach to understanding access, this study begins long before most students have even heard of higher education and focuses on identifying the mechanisms that come into play at much earlier level of learning and literacy development. The study outlines the development of ‘ways of being’, or social practices, surrounding learning in a marginalised community in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This was achieved by means of critical ethnography and it is therefore qualitatively based. The study shows how social structures enable or constrain a child’s school readiness and how they then go on to support or impede progress in school where the language and literacy needed for educational success are further developed. The study therefore aims to allow us to explain global data indicating that the single greatest indicator of a young person’s ability to access and succeed in higher education is the level of education of caregivers in their homes of origin. Examined from a critical perspective (i.e. with a concern for social justice), this study has made use of a framework using social, psychological and linguistic theory and more, particularly, the work of sociologist Margaret Archer (1995, 1996, 2003). The study makes particular use of Archer’s ‘morphogenetic framework’ which allows for an analysis of the way structure and culture impact on a child’s development over time. As I was concerned that my own social status might impact on the understandings I developed as a critical ethnographer, the study acknowledges my own experiences of learning and the way my own family sought to enhance them as enabling. In doing this, the study aims to better contribute to understandings of social justice in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Armstrong, Meredith
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Minorities -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Readiness for school -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Marginality, Social -- South Africa , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93778 , vital:30939
- Description: This study was completed as part of a project exploring social inclusion and exclusion in South African higher education. In a globalised world, the achievement of a qualification from an institution of higher education is increasingly key to finding any sort of employment. This is particularly the case in South Africa where employment amongst black citizens is inordinately high. The aim of the research reported upon in this thesis was to better understand the construct of ‘epistemological access’ (Morrow, 1992), often used in relation to the needs of black working class students entering higher education, in relation to performance data (see for example, CHE, 2016) that repeatedly shows that black students fare less well than their white peers. Following what might be termed a ‘social’ approach to understanding access, this study begins long before most students have even heard of higher education and focuses on identifying the mechanisms that come into play at much earlier level of learning and literacy development. The study outlines the development of ‘ways of being’, or social practices, surrounding learning in a marginalised community in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This was achieved by means of critical ethnography and it is therefore qualitatively based. The study shows how social structures enable or constrain a child’s school readiness and how they then go on to support or impede progress in school where the language and literacy needed for educational success are further developed. The study therefore aims to allow us to explain global data indicating that the single greatest indicator of a young person’s ability to access and succeed in higher education is the level of education of caregivers in their homes of origin. Examined from a critical perspective (i.e. with a concern for social justice), this study has made use of a framework using social, psychological and linguistic theory and more, particularly, the work of sociologist Margaret Archer (1995, 1996, 2003). The study makes particular use of Archer’s ‘morphogenetic framework’ which allows for an analysis of the way structure and culture impact on a child’s development over time. As I was concerned that my own social status might impact on the understandings I developed as a critical ethnographer, the study acknowledges my own experiences of learning and the way my own family sought to enhance them as enabling. In doing this, the study aims to better contribute to understandings of social justice in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
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