Policy discourses about teaching excellence in a transforming South Africa
Searle, Ruth; McKenna, SiouxAbstract:
Our analysis underpinning this chapter attempts to deconstruct the ways in which teaching is framed within various national policies and documents in the South African higher education arena. In looking at these texts we wanted to consider not only the ways in which teaching is positioned in the South African context but also the implications of such positioning for the classroom. Foucault (1980: 100) uses the term ‘discourse’ to describe how institutions name, define and regulate their practices such that a discourse is the place where ‘power and knowledge are joined together’. Discourses are thus very powerful in structuring both knowledge and social practices. The discourses of teaching that we refer to in this chapter are not only direct references to teaching but also the ways in which teaching practices are framed and constructed within the documents. For example, The National Plan for Higher Education (DoE, 2001), describes in detail the multiple aims of higher education but makes scant reference to the role educators should play in realizing these aims.
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| Chapter Title: | Policy discourses about teaching excellence in a transforming South Africa |
| Book Title: | International perspectives on teaching excellence in higher education |
| Edited by: | Skelton, A |
| City: | London |
| Publisher: | Routledge |
| No. of Pages: | Unpaginated proof |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Document Type: | Chapter in Book (Not Peer Reviewed) |
| Subject Area: | National Systems and Comparative Studies |
| Country: | South Africa |
| Keywords: | Policy Analysis, Excellence, Teaching, Teaching Quality, South Africa, Higher Education Policy |
| File Size: | 88 KB |
| Rights: | Authors |
| Date Added: | 09 March 2011 |