Education in Africa 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Book |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Being at home: race, institutional culture and transformation at South African higher education institutions |
| Editors: | Tabensky, Pedro Alexis Matthews, Sally |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Pages: | 322 |
| Language: | English |
| City of publisher: | Pietermaritzburg |
| Publisher: | University of KwaZulu-Natal Press |
| ISBN: | 186914290X; 9781869142902 |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | higher education universities educational reform culture contact race relations values |
| Abstract: | This edited work has gathered together contributions on how to transform universities in South Africa; as many are struggling to shift their institutional culture. In a South African context, transformation means to attempt to change higher education institutions such that they no longer reflect the values promoted by apartheid but rather reflect the values embodied in South Africa's 1996 Constitution. Institutional culture is the main subject for discussion in this book. In order to transform South Africa's universities, the contributors begin by analyzing the idea of what a university is, and relatedly, what its ideal aims are. A second theme is to understand what institutional culture is and how it functions. Moreover, transformation cannot occur without transforming the broader cultures of which they are a part. Related to this theme is a general concern about how contemporary moves towards the instrumentalization of higher education affect the ability to transform institutions. These institutions are being pushed to conform to goals that are outside the traditional idea of a university, such as concerns that universities are being 'bureaucratized' and becoming corporations, instead of a place of learning open to all. In conclusion it can be said that the contemporary South African academic community has an opportunity to recreate itself as the end of apartheid created space for engaging in transformative epistemic projects. The transformation of the tertiary sector entails a transformation of institutional cultures. Contributions: Part 1: The Basic Questions: 1. 'Tell us a new story': a proposal for the transformatory potential of collective memory projects (Louise Vincent); 2. 'Feeling at home': institutional culture and the idea of a university (Samantha Vice); 3. White privilege and institutional culture at South African higher education institutions (Sally Matthews); Part 2: Rhodes University: a case study: 4. Making room for the unexpected: the university and the ethical imperative of unconditional hospitality (Minesh Dass); 5. The violence beneath the veil of politeness: reflections on race and power in the academy (Thando Njovane); 6. What about the queers? the institutional culture of heteronormativity and its implications for queer staff and students (Natalie Donaldson); 7. Employing safe bets: reflections on attracting, developing and retaining the next generation of academics (Amanda Hlengwa); Part 3: Pathways: 8. Race and justice in higher education: some global challenges, with attention to the South African context (Lewis R. Gordon); 9. Thinking outside the ivory tower: towards a radical humanities in South Africa (Nigel C. Gibson); 10. Towards a decolonial analytic philosophy: institutional corruption and epistemic culture (Paul C. Taylor); 11. The countercultural university (Pedro Tabensky); 12. Africanising institutional culture: what is possible and plausible (Thaddeus Metz); 13. Instrumentalisation in universities and the creative potential of race (Bruce B. Janz). Bibliogr., notes, refs. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
