“We Eat Sushi Now”: Targeting Hungry Students at South African Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Hames ◽  
Desiree Lewis
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Student Support Services ◽  
Food System ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Public University ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The University

Media reports, research, and student support services are paying an increasing amount of attention to the hunger experienced by students at South African universities. This article demonstrates that most of this attention is rooted in a food security paradigm, or in approaches that mitigate the effects of student hunger. It avoids addressing the causes of hunger, which lie in oppressive systems such as the neoliberal world food system and the operation of the entrepreneurial public university. Our discussion of trends at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) takes two trajectories: We explore the ways in which universities’ practical and research priorities reinforce hegemonic responses to hunger, and we reflect on explicitly politicised currents of critical work around students and hunger. What certain scholars and activists have termed “critical food system literacy” signals how transformative strategies and knowledge production are being developed at some universities—sometimes beyond the parameters of what is conventionally seen as food-centred advocacy, activism, or research.

Pregnancy and Bodies of Knowledge in a South African University

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Barnes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
Public Space ◽  
South African ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Residence Halls ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
The University

Abstract:Based on a classroom encounter of the author, this article explores the gendered nature of African university space. It discusses a 2007–8 policy that banned pregnant adult students from living in the student residence halls at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. The policy was implemented despite protests from the university’s students and staff. The article argues that the more visibly reproductive a student’s body became, the more alien it was considered to be in spaces of knowledge production. This alienation was incongruous at a university widely considered as the most politically progressive in South Africa. It was rooted, however, in Western-oriented traditions of masculinist knowledge production in which there is no space for the female, let alone the pregnant, body in intellectual spaces; and in South African traditions of marginalization, exclusion, and “passing” in public space. Exploring ideas of “body language” and “bodies of knowledge,” the article concludes that there is a need for an interdisciplinary politics and epistemology of “seepage” in higher educational institutions that recognizes women’s minds and their bodies.

van Wyk Louw, Nicolaas Petrus (1906–1970)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heilna du Plooy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
The Family ◽  
South African Literature ◽  
Literature History ◽  
Faculty Of Education ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

N. P. Van Wyk Louw is regarded as the most prominent poet of the group known as the Dertigers, a group of writers who began publishing mainly in the 1930s. These writers had a vision of Afrikaans literature which included an awareness of the need of thematic inclusiveness, a more critical view of history and a greater sense of professionality and technical complexity in their work. Van Wyk Louw is even today considered one of the greatest poets, essayists and thinkers in the Afrikaans language. Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw was born in 1906 in the small town of Sutherland in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. He grew up in an Afrikaans-speaking community but attended an English-medium school in Sutherland as well as in Cape Town, where the family lived later on. He studied at the University of Cape Town (UCT), majoring in German and Philosophy. He became a lecturer at UCT, teaching in the Faculty of Education until 1948. In 1949 he became Professor of South African Literature, History and Culture at the Gemeentelijke Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 1960 he returned to South Africa to become head of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johanneshurg. He filled this post until his death in 1970.

The Space of the University: Time, and Time Again

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-271
Author(s):  
Mark Sanders
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The University ◽  
The University

AbstractScholarly analyses of the South African hashtag campus movements of 2015–2016, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, have evaluated them in terms of their success in bringing about political change in a linear causal fashion. Through a reading of Thando Mgqolozana’s novel, Unimportance (2014), the history of the University of the Western Cape, as well as scholarly commentary on #RMF and #FMF, this article argues that an attention to the cyclicality of time as it unfolds within the space of the university is crucial for properly understanding the events of 2015–2016.

scholarly journals Even we are important: Sexuality and the degenderisation of people with disabilities in the linguistic landscapes of two South African universities in the Western Cape province

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temitope O. Adekunle ◽  
Gift Mheta ◽  
Maleshoane Rapeane-Mathonsi
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Western Cape Province ◽  
Public Places ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
Higher Institutions

Background: This study focuses on the positioning of gender, sexual orientation and people with disabilities in the linguistic landscapes of two selected South African universities, which are located in the Western Cape province.Objectives: This study aims to answer the question: How are power relations depicted through linguistic landscaping in the universities?Methods: Given that there is minimal empirical data in this field, the researcher approached this question by exploring the way in which sexual orientation and people with disabilities are perceived, via the modal resources used in the categorisation of toilet users at the institutions. Specifically, toilet signage was observed as there were only a few other signage or forms of support (such as ramps and lifts – some of which may seem disability-unfriendly in terms of space) and acknowledgement in other places at the institutions for people with disabilities. Data (signs, images, texts, billboards and posters) were collected by means of photography. The interpretive paradigm was used to determine the choice of methodology: critical discourse analysis and multimodality. These were also used to thematically analyse the collected data.Results: Findings revealed that sexuality, as well as subtle inequality, unfortunately remain unravelled areas in South Africa’s higher institutions of learning. In addition, the degenderisation of people with disabilities appears to be prevalent at the institutions, although this may not necessarily be reflective of practices at all higher education institutions in South Africa.Conclusion: Nonetheless, the examined results are stimulating indicators of hegemonic and preferred practices in public places. They also depict the obtainable dissimilar scales and imbalances in society, which are not addressed may impede other authentic and ongoing measures of social integration and advancement.

scholarly journals Exploring student awareness on critical factors which shape community engagement in the health science disciplines at a South African higher education institution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeni Bheekie ◽  
Mea van Huyssteen ◽  
Hester Julie
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Interprofessional Education ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Health Science Students ◽  
The University

Abstract Background Community Engagement (CE) is cornerstone to South Africa’s higher education transformative agenda. Teaching disciplines across faculties have adopted varied CE implementation strategies, due to different theoretical interpretations. Undergraduate health science students are traditionally exposed to CE experiential learning programs, preparing them for professional practice. This study investigated final year students’ awareness of the critical factors which shape CE in the health science disciplines at a South African university.Method An exploratory descriptive qualitative study was conducted at an engaged university located in the Western Cape. Five discipline- specific focus group discussions were conducted with twenty seven final year students, purposively selected from five health sciences faculties, using an adaption of Furco’s self-assessment rubric. Thematic analysis was conducted on the transcribed data to identify the factors deemed critical for CE using Furco’s self-assessment tool as the coding framework. Trustworthiness of the data and findings were ensured. Ethics approval was obtained indicating that the research satisfied the ethics principles related to informed consent, respect for the participants ‘rights in terms of privacy, autonomy, beneficence and confidentiality.Results The a priori t hemes identified were the university’s philosophy and mission related to CE, student involvement, faculty involvement, community participation and partnerships and institutional support for CE. The cross-cutting themes that emerged across these critical factors of Furco’ included: siloism in the university, interprofessional education and monitoring and evaluation for impact. These health science students indicated that CE awareness was limited to discipline-based programs, indicative of a siloed approach. In addition, varied theoretical interpretations of CE emerged. Interprofessional education was lacking across the disciplines, even though it underpins professional practice. Participants reiterated that a central CE unit is required to co-ordinate and evaluate CE programs. Occupational therapy participants, however, reflected a critical consciousness that is congruent with an assets-based approach to CE.Conclusion The University of the Western Cape should facilitate stewardship in implementing Boyer’s 'scholarship of engagement' to ensure consistency in CE approach in the health science curriculum. Such an approach would deepen students understanding and application of CE.

scholarly journals Renewal, Renaissance, Reformation, or Revolution? Guiding concepts for social transformation in South Africa in the light of 16th century ecclesial reform and deform movements in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst M Conradie ◽  
Teddy C Sakupapa
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
First Semester ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
African Context ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Point Of Departure

This contribution is based on what may be called a pedagogical experiment in a postgraduate course on the 16th century European Reformations that was offered at the University of the Western Cape in the first semester of 2017. On the basis of a close reading of selected literature on the reformation, this contribution highlights the legacy of 16th century ecclesial movements for Southern Africa. The point of departure is located in the context of a discussion on a range of guiding concepts for social transformation in the contemporary (South) African context. It is argued that the deepest diagnosis of current (South) African discourse may well point to a view that none of the options for a category that may be regarded as more ultimate than justice (as a ‘remedy’) is attractive enough to muster sufficient moral energy without endless further contestations. Without necessarily suggesting what that ultimate maybe, it is suggested that a lack of an appealing notion of what is truly ultimate can undermine any attempts to address inequality (as our diagnosis) in current discourse. This necessarily calls attention to the relationship between the penultimate and the ultimate, and indeed between justification and justice.

scholarly journals Space and Approach in "The Virtuous City" - A Tale of Two Universities: Re-imagining and reconstruction of the westernised South African university

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quraysha Ismail Sooliman ◽  
Iram Yousuf
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
City Space ◽  
The University ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
Mental Well Being

In order to know how to change one must be able to acknowledge what one does not know. Central to knowledge production of relevance is humility and an understanding of the realities of one’s own environment. From a decolonial perspective, knowledge production is affected by the development and creation of the actual physical spaces of the university and its pedagogy. The Covid_19 pandemic has tested the functionality of the physical space of the university as well as the organization of the city space. This paper considers these issues, their impact and effect on the mental well-being of both academics and students by exploring the idea of the university as a virtuous city. We draw on Al-Farabi’s treatise of the Virtuous City because physical and conceptual architectures reflect a way in which the world is structured. In South Africa, the violent design of the fragmented spaces has been planned according to the colonial, cartographic imagination which destroys and distorts memory and ruptures tradition. The architecture of the cities and universities, it can be argued, effect a similar process, and serve as an affirmation of the pre-dominance of the white-supremacist power structure in South Africa. Cities are created by people and each city is a creation of the interaction of social, economic, cultural, and political imperatives. The university is a micro-manifestation of the cosmopolitan city that adopts different approaches to knowledge, decolonisation and transformation. In re-imaging and reconstituting the westernised South African university an appropriate approach to reaching the ideals of well-being and harmony would require the shedding of the ego and the Cartesian “I”. The process of decolonising the university should occur by deconstructing and recognising colonial methods, theories and practise in our pedagogy and spaces in order to begin the process of reconstruction.

Close(d) Reading and the “Potential Space” of the Literature Classroom after Apartheid

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-285
Author(s):  
Kate Highman
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
English Department ◽  
Potential Space ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Transitional Space ◽  
Cultural Experience ◽  
Reading Pedagogy ◽  
The University

This article explores psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott’s ideas about play and “transitional space” or “potential space” in relation to reading, pedagogy, and the legacy of apartheid in South African universities. Following the work of Carol Long, who argues that “apartheid institutions can be understood as the opposite of transitional spaces,” the author draws on her experiences of teaching in the English Department of the University of the Western Cape to reflect on how pedagogy is shaped by institutional culture. The article focuses particularly on “close reading” in the South African university classroom and how a rigid understanding of it has sometimes closed and constrained the experience of reading for students in order to argue for a more open model of “close reading” that values the immersive and creative aspects of reading as well as the analytic, following Winnicott’s understanding of meaningful cultural experience as rooted in play.

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