A South African Big Picture for Teaching and LearningThe Politics of Learning and Teaching in

SA 

Howard College, UKZN

25-27 September 2012

1. Framesby High School (1975) – Study Skills, Career Choice and bible studies (forms of superstition)

2. Turfloop (1976) – from first year orientation to student incitement (and burning the library)

◦ Cloete (1979) Guidance Needs of Black Students in a Developing Country, International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling.

◦ Cloete and Le Roux (1981) A Brief Overview of Guidance in South Africa. In Shertzer and Stone. Fundamentals of Guidance.

3. University of the Transkei (1980) – from study groups to naïve but very serious politics• Cloete (1984) Perspectives on Student Learning: Has the long

awaited Paradigm Shift occurred? Perspectives in Education, 8, 2 pp 63-79.

2

From clinical psychology to student guidance to the UDF in three steps

1. Admitting black students – Stan Kahn and hood- winking the bureaucrats

2. Potential testing Wits 1986 – selecting blacks with potential, and then getting them to pass• Cloete and Sochet (1986) Alternatives to the behavioural

technicist conception of study skills. Higher Education, 15, 247-258.

3. A flood of expelled students – from state to university bureaucrats

4. Two institutions had to change – state and university 5. Moribund staff association – insurrection strategy

◦ Cloete and Muller (1986). University science teaching, research and community needs: the view from below. SA Journal of Science, 82, 10, 529-530

3

Wits (1986) – from Student Counselling to Testing for Potential to General Secretary of UDUSA

1. Start preparing to govern, write policy, you are useless protestors in any case (1989)

2. EPU’s (Wits, Natal, UWC)• Muller and Cloete. 1987. The white hands: academic social scientists,

engagement and struggle in South Africa'. Social Epistemology, 1,2, 141-154

3. National Policy Investigation (NEPI, 1991) – Post Secondary Group (Pandor, Nzimande, Moja, Badsha)

4. UDUSA Policy Forum – Policy vs Salaries• Moja, Cloete and Muller. 1996. Towards New Forms of Regulation in Higher

Education: Higher Education, 32, pp129-155 5. National Commission on Higher Education (1995)6. Did not want to discuss T&L, or Student Services – Student

Services Council regard student services and academic faculties as mutually interdependent

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From Protest to Policy

1. Deceptively simple: increased participation, greater responsiveness and increased co-operation

2. Policy terms: equity, development and democratisation3. Tension between equity and development. It became

internationally quite widely accepted that the way to bridge this tension was through a massified, but differentiated, system

4. NCHE: accepted massification but not differentiation5. White Paper: Planned Growth and "Fluid Boundaries"6. CHET (1997): Unifinished Business of the NCHE - massification,

knowledge production and differentiation (performance indicators)

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The Policy Big Picture: NCHE framework

A substantial body of academic and technical literature provides evidence of the relationship between informationalism, productivity and competitiveness for countries, regions and business firms. But, this relationship only operates under three conditions: information connectedness, organizational change in the form of networking; and enhancement of the quality of human labour, itself dependent on education and quality of life. (Castells and Cloete, 2011)

The structural basis for the growing inequality, in spite of high GDP growth rates in many parts of the world, is the growth of a highly dynamic, knowledge-producing, technologically advanced sector that is connected to other similar sectors in a global network, but it excludes a significant segment of the economy and of the society in its own country. The “disconnect” prevents what Castells calls the ‘virtuous cycle’ between dynamic growth and human development. (Castells and Cloete, 2011)

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Economic Growth and Human Development

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita versus Human Development Index (HDI)

Country GDP per capita (PPP, $US) 2007 GDP ranking HDI Ranking

(2007)GDP ranking per capita minus HDI

ranking

Botswana 13 604 60 125 -65Mauritius 11 296 68 81 -13South Africa

9 757 78 129 -51

Chile 13 880 59 44 +15Costa Rica 10 842 73 54 +19Ghana 1 334 153 152 1Kenya 1 542 149 147 2Mozambique 802 169 172 -3Uganda 1 059 163 157 6Tanzania 1 208 157 151 6

Finland 34 256 23 12 11South Korea 24 801 35 26 9USA 45 592 9 13 -4

CountryStage of

development (2009-2010)

Gross tertiary education

enrolment rate (2009)

Quality of education

system ranking (2009-2010)

Overall global competitive

ranking (2010-2011)

Ghana

Stage 1: Factor-driven

6 71 114Kenya 4 32 106Mozambique 2 81 131Tanzania 2 99 113Uganda 5 72 118

BotswanaTransition from

1 to 2 20+ 48 76

Mauritius Stage 2:

Efficiency-driven26 + 50 55

South Africa

18 (9) 130 54

FinlandStage 3:

Innovation-driven

94 6 7South Korea 98 57 22United States 82 26 4

Participation rate and development indicators

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South Africa: high-level knowledge outputs andincentive changes

9

5164 55286394

77638790

9800 9939

11468

685 761 961 969 1104 1100 1182

1421

5622 5456 5936 6483 66608003 8353

9748

13449 1309814184 14673

15423 15809 1593616684

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Doctoral enrolments Doctoral graduates Research publications Permanent academics

Permanent academics

Doctoral enrolmentsResearch publications

Doctoral graduates

This graph shows how the % of doctoral enrolments by race group changed between 1996 to 2010. African doctoral students rose from 13% in 1996 to 33% in 2004, and 44% in 2010.

Percentage of doctoral enrolments in race groupings

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13%

25%33%

41%44%

78%

62%55%

49%

42%

9%

13% 12% 10%14%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

1996 2000 2004 2008 2010

African White Coloured +Indian

AfricanWhite

Coloured+Indian

1. Data analysis for CHET is done by:• Ian Bunting – retired planner DoE and Dean UCT• Charles Sheppard – NMMU Planner/DHET Consultant

2. Data from:• CHE undergraduate academic progression study• DHET doctoral through put study• Ford funded Strengthening Social Sciences Study • CHET: South African Higher Education Performance Data

2000-2010: http://www.chet.org.za/data• Also: South African FET College Data and African Higher

Education Performance Data (under development)

3. Data Presentation: François van Schalkwyk (African Minds) 11

Data

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Size and shape of SA post-school system

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Student and population demographics by province

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Composition of students by race 2010

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Undergraduate throughput: 2005 cohort

NOTE: General and professional 3-year degrees (UNISA excluded)

Throughput: 2005 cohort all qualification types

Qualification level [no. of new entrants] Year 1 Year 3 Year 5 TOTAL

DROP-OUTS

3-year diplomas[37 330]

Graduate - 16% 19%

Drop out 33% 18% 5% 56%

Undergraduate degrees*[32 178]

Graduate - 27% 21%

Drop out 30% 12% 4% 46%

Masters[15 479]

Graduate 6% 25% 12%

Drop out 28% 15% 13% 57%

Doctorates[2 140]

Graduate 1% 14% 20%

Drop out 22% 15% 4% 41%

* General and professional 3-year degrees (UNISA excluded)

1. Academic staff inputs• FTE students/ staff ratio’s• Proportion of permanent staff with masters or PhD• Proportion of staff with PhD’s

2. Knowledge outputs to masters level • Average Undergrad success rate (cohort)• Ratio of Undergrad graduates to enrolments• Ratio of masters graduates to enrolments

3. High level knowledge outputs • Ratio of doctoral graduates to enrolments• Ratio of doctoral graduates to permanent staff• Ratio of accredited publications to permanent staff

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Differentiation indicators

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Differentiated clusters

1. Higher education almost had a “Marikina” moment at UJ during the mismanaged admissions process

2. The reason we have not had a similar revolt over drop out is that the “affected” are disempowered by the experience, and like the staff, blame the school system

3. The economic and personal/psychological cost is astronomical

4. SALDRU National Household Income Survey – returns on post-matric qualification is THREE times in earnings and finding employment

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Implications (something has to give)

1. Incentives: Blame the school system and take the money Knowledge production and PhD outputs (Herana)• Input / output funding balance

2. Degree structure: 4-year or 2-year diploma?3. Institutional structure: Differentiation

• Amongst “universities”’• Between universities and FTE college sector• Within FTE college sector

4. Not only underprepared students, underqualified academics 5. Alternative delivery (Cost and Moodies Rating Agency) 6. Teaching and Learning vs Research and Policy

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Implications: Pointers