Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South (SOTL) in the South is an online open source and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fostering dialogue and research on teaching and learning in higher education in the global South, or about the global South.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Reflections on a Discipline-Based Recreational “Game Day” for Chemical Engineering Students: A Qualitative Case Study on Wellbeing and Learning
In response to student requests for stress-relief opportunities, a discipline-specific “Game Day” was piloted in 2022 by the Chemical Engineering Student Association (CESA) at a major contact South African university. Facilitated by staff representatives, the event provided a relaxed environment for undergraduate students to engage in recreational activities, foster peer connections, and unwind from academic pressures. This article presents a reflective case study of the Game Day, applying the structured Gibbs reflective model by the current and former CESA Representatives. Without formal outcome measures, insights of the Game Day intervention were derived from firsthand observations and informal student feedback. The reflections suggest that such low-cost, student-led initiatives may create an enhanced sense of inclusion, motivation, and community, contributing to the informal development of teamwork and social support networks. A seven-step action research framework is proposed to guide the adaptation and implementation of similar recreational interventions in other academic departments.
Peer-reviewed articles: reflections on SOTL in the South
Copyright (c) 2025 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South
Bridging Ubuntu Pedagogy and Out-of-classroom Spaces in Professional Training: Reflecting on Ad Hoc Group Supervision
Professional training in psychology is demanding. Part of professional training is psychotherapy supervision, and inherent to this process is professional identity development. Psychotherapy supervision is an ethical prerequisite but often operates outside of the formal curricula. As psychotherapy supervisors, we forged an additional space through ad hoc group supervision. The agenda of this space was to facilitate growth and the development of professional identity by foregrounding collegiality, peer engagement, and a space removed from the evaluatory aspect of the curriculum. We use collaborative autoethnography (CAE) in this paper to reflect on our role as the two supervisors within this group psychotherapy supervision space over the last couple of years and how this has operated as an out-of-classroom experience that facilitated development and professional identity formation, as well as the challenges that arose in this space. Three key themes emerged. The first highlights the psychotherapy supervision space, sometimes called clinical supervision. The second discusses the value of the out-of-classroom group created and its utility in facilitating learning. Lastly, we argue for interconnectedness and lessons learnt from creating these out-of-classroom supervision groups. We argue that adopting a posture of Ubuntu in how we interact with students creates a safer environment for learning, particularly outside of the formal classroom environment. We also recognise that this offering was limited by not having student voices and therefore privileges the perspective of supervisors.
Comparative Analysis of Campus Life Experiences Between Mainstream Daytime Students and their Evening-Attendance Counterparts
This research conducts a comparative examination between daytime and evening attendance students of the campus life experiences at a selected university of technology in South Africa. In a context marked by massification and the growing demand for equitable access to higher education, evening programmes have emerged as a strategic solution to extend institutional capacity and cater to non-traditional learners. These programs also create opportunities for out-of-classroom learning (OCL), enabling students, particularly those engaged in employment or caregiving, to pursue academic advancement while balancing work and life responsibilities. Using a mixed-methods approach involving surveys, focus groups, and observational studies, the study investigates disparities in academic performance, social involvement, student well-being, and engagement with informal learning opportunities. The findings reveal that while evening students report higher satisfaction with campus life, they face persistent barriers related to commuting, campus safety, and limited access to co-curricular programmes, internships, and professional networking opportunities. In contrast, daytime students demonstrate a broader but more uneven spectrum of engagement and well-being, often shaped by rigid academic scheduling and competing responsibilities. This investigation highlights the transformative potential of evening programmes in expanding access, supporting student mobility, and promoting inclusive forms of student success. It also reinforces the role of OCL as a critical enabler of flexibility and resilience, especially for students navigating multiple responsibilities. The study calls on institutions to develop flexible timetables, enhanced support services, and targeted interventions that address the unique needs of students learning beyond traditional classroom hours, particularly in preparing for future employability in a post-pandemic educational landscape.
“I didn’t know I could use my music for others”: Community Music as Transformative Education at a South African University
In response to South African higher education’s transformation agenda, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) introduced community music (CM) as a BMus degree subject in 2012. In this article I examine the potential of CM to realise community engagement (CE) within higher education transformation policy mandates. From my perspective as researcher-practitioner, I consider CM as a curriculum transformation; its impact on student learning, and how CM transforms their musicianship to enhance the music degree. Using data from students’ reflective essays, students’ applied drama-facilitated reflections, and focus groups, I describe students’ transformative learning in the Wits CM courses, focusing on their service-learning (SL) experiences and reflections, over the past eight years. The findings suggest that CM re-orientates South African music curricula towards social engagement and artistic citizenship. I argue that integrating CM in the academy constitutes transformative education that changes students’ ways of knowing, learning, and being, and in so doing, develops critically aware, responsible citizens who can use their musicianship to benefit others. The research offers a model of CM in a South African university that speaks to higher education CE, and which is intended to highlight the significance of CM in the academy more broadly.
Beyond Classroom Walls: The Impact of Field Trips on Pre-Service Teachers' Engagement with Performing Arts in a Bachelor of Education Programme
This study investigates how field trips to a jazz concert and theatre performance enhance pre-service teachers’ engagement with performing arts in a South African Bachelor of Education programme. The objective was to assess their impact on music and drama education. The sample included 530 students across four years at a university of Technology. Findings show 92% had no prior exposure to formal arts venues, with increased enjoyment, cultural connection, and content knowledge in jazz and theatre. Students reported greater interest in integrating arts into teaching. Using Engeström’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the study emphasises field trips’ role in addressing South Africa’s arts access disparities. It informs teacher education to foster culturally responsive pedagogy.
Student Perceptions on Out-of-Class Experiences that Impact Student Success in a South African Context
This study investigates the impact of out-of-class experiences on student success in the context of South African higher education, amidst the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing socio-economic disparities. Focusing on first-year engineering students at a South African university, this research utilised root cause analysis through an online questionnaire to explore how out-of-class factors such as study groups, mentorship programmes, and extracurricular activities influence academic outcomes. Employing John Bean’s model of student attrition, the study delves into the interplay between psychological, organisational, and socio-economic factors shaping student retention and success. It reveals that despite existing interventions aimed at enhancing student well-being and academic performance, there is a critical gap between the interventions provided and the actual needs of students, particularly in addressing time management, organisational skills, and mental health challenges. The research advocates for a re-evaluation of current support structures and the implementation of more tailored approaches such as structured learning communities and integrated mental health practices within the curriculum. The study contributes valuable insights into enhancing student retention and well-being by highlighting the essential role of out-of-class experiences in the holistic development of students within the challenging landscape of the Global South.
Border crossings: Student drawings as strategic thinking for metacritical and embodied learning
In this article I examine a select group of drawing exercises presented in the early part of the first-year drawing programme in the Department of Visual Art, University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa. As many of our first-year students have little formal drawing experience before entering the programme, these drawing exercises confront received conventions of drawing that run counter to more productive strategies of metacritical thinking about how one draws. I explore how the drawing exercises under discussion embrace haptic knowledge, thinking, and doubt, through developing cognitive and kinaesthetic awareness. Such awareness facilitates embodied experiences of looking, drawing, and thinking that counter rote and uncritical picture-making.
Re-thinking the writing syllabus: How contextual factors inform curriculum revision
Recent studies demonstrate the effectiveness of needs analysis in relation to the language and communication goals of students. In this regard, different stakeholders contribute greatly to revision of curricula. While English language departments play an integral role in meeting the communication needs of learners, a more nuanced integration of stakeholders’ input is crucial. In this reflection, we detail the process of revising a writing syllabus, incorporating different stakeholders’ perspectives, expectations, and experiences. We argue that while needs analysis provides valuable instructional input, considering contextual factors is also essential in developing a sensible and holistic curriculum design that acknowledges ecological relationships between units in the university. Specifically, the interaction of the contextual factors, such as the course’s motivation, the writing and reading expectations of the different academic departments, and the priorities and experiences of teachers and students, led to the realignment of topics, and changes in task design and assessment practices in the revised writing syllabus.
Conceptualising a model for transforming university teacher education through the doctoral curriculum in the South African context
Amid the call for including a teaching component in doctoral programmes, a Teacher Development Programme (TDP) for doctoral students was organised at the research site. The TDP aimed to equip doctoral candidates with teaching and research supervision skills that could guide them in pursuing a possible university teaching career. An earlier empirical study on the participants' experiences of the online TDP indicated that after attending the TDP, doctoral students felt empowered to pursue an academic career. The knowledge and skills acquired from the workshops opened their eyes to teaching, minimised teaching anxiety, and boosted their confidence. This article draws on the empirical findings from the earlier study and aims to present a conceptual model for integrating the TDP into the doctoral curriculum. In conceptualising the model, we employ the integrative theoretical framework posited by Khan and Law (2015) and draw on some fundamental considerations for creating a doctoral teaching programme by Marx, Garcia, Butterfield, Kappen and Baldwin (2016). Supported by a qualitative integrative literature review, the article aims to assist doctoral programme directors, designers, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the South, as well as other policymakers such as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and The Council on Higher Education (CHE), in improving doctoral offerings and fully attaining all the programme's objectives.
Exploring the effectiveness of e-portfolios in a first-year undergraduate Project Management course
This study explored the effectiveness of e-portfolios as pedagogies in teaching and learning for undergraduate Project Management students at a rural university in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in institutions of teaching and learning adopting digital tools to teach and assess students. For some lecturers, it was their first time using digital tools in their classroom practices, and the tools’ effectiveness was unknown. Therefore, this study explored the effectiveness of e-portfolios as pedagogical devices in the teaching and learning of undergraduate Project Management students. Social constructivism and community of inquiry (CoI) frameworks guided the study. In this study, qualitative data was collected from an undergraduate class with a cohort of 35 students. Data was collected through focus group discussions and a semi-structured interview was used. The collected data was analysed using the thematic approach. Ethical considerations were adhered to. The findings revealed that using e-portfolios as pedagogical devices resulted in the development of 21st-century skills, such as communication, collaboration, and creativity, through conversations and social interactions. This study highlights the importance of equipping students with digital skills before designing e-portfolios. Challenges associated with the use of e-portfolios include poor internet connection and load-shedding.
University as border crossing: Exploring the experiences of health sciences students from low-resourced school communities
In responding to calls to widen access to students from less privileged communities, a South African university revised its admission policy for health sciences degrees to achieve a student population that demographically represents South African society. The new policy extends capacity for up to 40% enrolment from rural and other low-resourced schools. In this paper we report on aspects of a broader study whose data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. The paper shares university experiences of the first five cohorts of students from low-quintile and rural schools. We employed Phelan, Davidson and Cao’s (1991) model of students’ multiple worlds to understand participating students’ experiences of transitioning into and through university. The findings provide insights into how the life circumstances of students from low-socio-economic environments affect their transition into and through university at academic and social levels. Viewing transition through the metaphor of ‘border crossing’, these findings challenge stakeholders in higher education (HE) to work towards either easing the crossing or dissolving the boundaries altogether.
On the Proliferation of SOTL Work in the Aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic
In this editorial, I reflect on the implications of the increased interest in SOTL work brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. I identify three areas for consideration: the need to support novice and emerging SOTL practitioners, the need to allow space and time for academics – particularly emerging academics – to engage in scholarship of teaching and learning, and the need to identify strategies to relieve some of the burden faced by journal editors and reviewers. In addition, I provide an overview of this issue of the journal demonstrating how the issue, in its entirety, promotes a more caring and inclusive approach to teaching, learning and the scholarship thereof.
Copyright (c) 2022 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Book review: Berman, KS. 2017. Finding voice: a visual arts approach to engaging social change. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
In this review of Kim Berman's Finding voice: a visual arts approach to engaging social change, Elizabeth Gunter explains how art-making may play a role in bringing about social change and transcending institutional norms. How to cite this book review: GUNTER, Elizabeth. Book review: Berman, KS. 2017. Finding voice: a visual arts approach to engaging social change. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 111-112, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=103&path%5B%5D=37 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright (c) 2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Implementing a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Workshop at Aga Khan University: reflections on the implementation and outcomes of an Instructional Skills Workshop in the context of Pakistan
The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Workshop (TLEW) is an indigenous name for the Canadian-based Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). TLEW is a teaching development workshop aimed at enhancing faculty members’ stances towards student-centred teaching and reflective practice at the higher education level. This short paper discusses the initiation, implementation and institutionalisation of the TLEW at Aga Khan University (AKU) across entities in Asia and Africa. In total, 77 faculty members drawn from different entities of AKU participated in the workshop in 2016-2017. Empirical evidence collected from TLEW graduates through a survey and interviews suggests that the intense episode of planning, teaching and receiving peer feedback during TLEW helped participants in sensitising them to effective planning for teaching in order to engage and enrich students’ learning. Furthermore, the repertoire of pedagogical strategies has permeated graduates’ classrooms. Nevertheless, for sustainability a mechanism needs to be in place for providing faculty with institutional support and recognition for their contribution in teaching and learning. A need is advocated for TLEW to evolve as a mandatory component for all teaching staff at the university to help serve as a fundamental base for initiating and sustaining change through ongoing professional development opportunities and establishing a community of practice. How to cite this reflective piece: RODRIGUES, Sherwin; BHUTTA, Sadia Muzaffar; SALIM, Zeenar; CHAUHAN, Sahreen; RIZVI, Naghma. Implementing a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Workshop at Aga Khan University: reflections on the implementation and outcomes of an Instructional Skills Workshop in the context of Pakistan. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 100-110, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=78&path%5B%5D=42 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Doctoral supervision in developing countries: desperately seeking the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
This reflective paper presents a contextual overview of doctoral supervision in low- and middle-income countries. It highlights several models or frameworks used in Western academic settings. Through a critical lens it considers a number of the opportunities and gaps, which may reframe and/or reform doctoral supervision in the low- and middle-income settings. It identifies a significant gap in the evidence and scholarship on the topic of graduate supervision in developing contexts. In the current and evolving higher education milieu and the global emergence of the knowledge economy, the topic of graduate supervision can no longer go without a serious and fulsome discussion. How to cite this reflective piece: PETRUCKA, Pammla. Doctoral supervision in developing countries: desperately seeking the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 92-99, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=65&path%5B%5D=41 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Decolonizing nature/knowledge: indigenous environmental thought and feminist praxis
This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on ‘Environmental Education’ taught at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development in Karachi, and it illuminates new perspectives and pedagogies of nature from the global South, specifically South Asia. Drawing inspiration from feminist and indigenous thought, the narratives of ecology shared here center the place of emotions, experience, memory and spiritual intimacy, offering one means of decolonizing environmental studies and expanding our understanding of ‘environmental consciousness’. These narratives defy ontologies of nature-human separation, capturing not just the co-existence of animals, spirits and humans but their co-constitution. Such indigenous ecologies of knowledge and wisdom, we argue, offer a timely corrective to fragmented and exploitative constructions of the natural environment as mere resource, pleasure, or commodity, while providing a profound, alternative basis for a richly layered, spirited, environmental education. How to cite this article: ALI, Nosheen; SAMNANI, Binish; WALI KHAN, Abdul; KHATOON, Najmi; ALI, Barkat; ASFUNDYAR, Sadia; ASLAM, Muhammad; AMIRALI, Sumaira. Decolonizing nature/knowledge: indigenous environmental thought and feminist praxis. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 77-91, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=80&path%5B%5D=36 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Blended learning: call of the day for medical education in the global South
Blended learning (BL) is an e-learning approach that combines the strengths of both online and face-to-face learning, creating meaningful interactions between students, teachers, and resources. This paper explores students’ expectations and satisfaction with, and participation in, a basic science course offered through BL approaches in an undergraduate medical education programme in Pakistan. Developmental anatomy (embryology) was redesigned as a BL course and offered to a hundred first-year students. Both online activities and technology-assisted face-to-face interactive discussions were used in each topic. Students’ expectations were gathered at the start of the course and perceptions regarding their satisfaction with the course was collected at the end of the course via questionnaires. A temporal analysis of the website use was conducted to determine any changes in use across the course. The data shows that students were satisfied with their experience in the course. Their expectations regarding technology and pedagogy were met. Online individual learning activities were rated higher than collaborative discussions. Face-to-face discussions received a high rating compared to online learning activities. Students’ access to the website varied throughout the course and declined over time. However, some activity was noted before the exams. Students made extensive use of WhatsApp. In basic science subjects, BL has the potential to offer learners some control over content, learning sequence, and pace and time of learning. Unless made part of an assessment scheme, online discussions and other activities are not likely to be seen as useful learning strategies by students. Teachers’ skills in designing and facilitating BL courses are critical to the success thereof. How to cite this article: JAMIL, Zehra; NASEEM, Azra; RASHWAN, Eman; KHALID, Sumrah. Blended learning: call of the day for medical education in the global South. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 57-76, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=73&path%5B%5D=35 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Designing EthAKUL: a mobile just-in-time learning environment for bioethics in Pakistan
In developing countries such as Pakistan, bioethics has not been included in mainstream thinking in medical education. The authors’ experiences suggest that current methods of teaching bioethics are problematic as students are unable to translate theory to practice. Alternative pedagogies, such as just-in-time learning (JiTL) using mobile devices, may be able to foster the development and implementation of ethical reasoning among nurses, doctors, and medical and nursing students. This research was conceived to determine the effectiveness of mobile JiTL – anytime, anyplace learning through mobile devices – for teaching bioethics. After obtaining ethical clearance, a participatory design (PD) approach was adopted to ensure input from all stakeholders for the design of ‘EthAKUL’, comprising a mobile app, five modules and just-in-time pedagogy. The name of the app is an acronym evoking ethics, learning and the university where the project originated. As a part of the design process, three PD workshops were held with junior doctors, nurses, nursing students, medical students and bioethics teaching faculty, and five meetings were held with faculty members, to discuss functional specifications and user-acceptance testing of the app. The feedback related to the nature of common ethical issues encountered in clinical settings, the existing process of teaching and learning bioethics, and the requested features of the app were recorded. These data sets were analyzed and synthesized into functional and technical specifications for the mobile app. The software programmers developed the app with the close involvement of the stakeholders. The development of teaching content continued alongside this process. While this enabled EthAKUL’s developers to incorporate needs of all stakeholders, challenges were encountered in the process relating to the pragmatic and conceptual aspects of JiTL, ML and PD. We discuss the implications of this research in bringing about transformative changes in higher education. How to cite this article: NASEEM, Azra; GHIAS, Kulsoom; BAWANI, Sohail; SHAHAB, Mohammad Ali; NIZAMUDDIN, Sameer; KASHIF, Waqar; KHAN, Kausar S; AHMAD, Tashfeen; KHAN, Murad. Designing EthAKUL: a mobile just-in-time learning environment for bioethics in Pakistan. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 36-56, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=70&path%5B%5D=40 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Students’ perspectives regarding clinical preceptors (CPs) in the baccalaureate undergraduate nursing programme in Karachi, Pakistan
Introduction Clinical practice is considered an integral part of nursing education. It is in the clinical area that the students integrate the theory learnt in the classroom into practice. An enabling clinical environment with the assistance of a clinical preceptor (CP) ensures that student nurses become independent practitioners and competent in their roles and responsibilities. Design A comprehensive study was undertaken to explore the emerging role of CPs in Pakistan. This research has been reported in the literature. This paper will deal exclusively with the perceptions of nursing students when working with CPs in the four-year undergraduate baccalaureate program at a private school of nursing (SON) in Pakistan. Through focus group discussions, the perceptions of undergraduate students were explored. Results Four main themes emerged. These included the creation of a conducive clinical environment, development of competencies, engagement in patient care, and personal and professional development. Conclusion Based on the study findings, recommendations for strengthening the role of CPs in supporting undergraduate nursing students in their clinical practice are presented. How to cite this article: KHOWAJA, Amina Aijaz; DIAS, Jacqueline Maria. Students’ perspectives regarding clinical preceptors (CPs) in the baccalaureate undergraduate nursing programme in Karachi, Pakistan. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 26-35, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=68&path%5B%5D=39 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Developing a rubric to assess critical thinking in a multidisciplinary context in higher education
Critical thinking (CT) is a generic attribute that is greatly valued across academic disciplines in higher education, and around the globe. It is also defined as one of the graduate attributes of higher education for the sample private university where this research was conducted, as it is perceived that CT helps the graduate to become ‘engaged citizens’ in the twenty-first century. Despite the well-documented importance of CT, its assessment remains a challenge. This study addresses this challenge through the systematic development and field-testing of a rubric for assessing critical thinking in a multidisciplinary context in higher education. A multidisciplinary group of faculty (i.e. education, nursing, medicine) from the sample university partnered with a policy research group in Canada to translate this plan into action. The development of the assessment tool followed a multi-step process including: (i) identification of the main elements of CT; (ii) choice of a rubric format; (iii) adaptation of the currently available relevant rubrics; and, (iv) field testing and establishment of the reliability of the rubric. The process resulted in the development of a holistic template, the Assessment of Critical Thinking (ACT) rubric. Two versions of the rubric have been field tested on a sample (n=59) of students drawn from different entities of the sample university. The data collected was subjected to psychometric analysis which yielded satisfactory results. This was a modest attempt to develop an assessment tool to guide multidisciplinary faculty members in teaching and assessing CT by assisting them to make decisions about the level of their students’ CT skills through a combination of numerical scores and qualitative description. It may also empower them to make self-initiated, conscious efforts to improve their classroom practice with reference to CT. The ACT rubric provides an anchoring point to start working on the daunting yet doable task of developing and fine-tuning both the assessment measures of CT and interventions to promote CT based on the assessment findings. Future research may not only provide robust evidence of the reliability and validity of the ACT rubric for a larger and varied sample but also help in making informed decisions to enhance teaching and learning of CT across entities of the sample university. How to cite this article: BHUTTA, Sadia Muzaffar; CHAUHAN, Sahreen; ALI, Syeda Kausar; GUL, Raisa; CASSUM, Shanaz; KHAMIS, Tashmin. Developing a rubric to assess critical thinking in a multidisciplinary context in higher education. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 1, p. 6-25, Apr. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=69&path%5B%5D=34 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Internationalisation through South-North mobility: Experiences and outcomes of research capacity-building programmes for African scholars in Denmark
Internationalisation of higher education in the global South manifests in different ways through different modalities. Using a multi-disciplinary mobility-lens, this paper discusses outcomes of geographical mobility practiced by African scholars going to universities in the global North as part of research capacity-building programmes. Over the past 30 years, Danida (Danish International Development Assistance) has provided financial assistance – including research visits at Danish universities – to academics in the global South, who would work with problems in their home countries. This type of internationalisation through research capacity building is used in many European countries and is interesting because it facilitates geographical mobility across the North-South socio-economic divide. Based on a survey sent to 499 current and former African scholars as well as 15 qualitative interviews, the aim of this paper is to analyse the reflections from African academics being involved in this type of internationalisation practice. Thereby we give voice to scholars from the global South who are the practitioners of South-North mobility. More specifically, we analyse the role of different locations for becoming an academic and for their knowledge production. Thus, the paper critically examines the impact made by ‘internationalisation as mobility’ on the personal and professional development of African academics.
Copyright (c) 2021 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Internationalization at Home (IaH) in Living-learning context
Internationalisation has been associated with the cultivation of global competencies. However, there have also been contentions about inclusivity, accessibility and mobility, and that it may privilege some. This reflective piece attempts to respond to these tensions through a description of and reflection on the effectiveness of two Internationalisation at Home (IaH) initiatives. It focuses on informal curricula in living-learning contexts where literature and concrete examples are scanty. Drawing on the learning points, it shares thoughts about the need for critical mass, whole university experience, and intentionality.
Perspectives of postgraduate professors and students on internationalization and English language use at a university in the south of Brazil
The aim of the present study is to understand how internationalization has been understood, lived, and discursively constructed by postgraduate students and faculty members at a publicly funded university in the south of Brazil. Through data generated using questionnaires and interviews (with 406 and 19 participants, respectively), we observed at this university that there are discrepancies between how student and faculty participation in the process of internationalization is perceived. We also identified inconsistencies in relation to the understandings of the role of foreign languages in this process. The results show that internationalization is conceptualized as the establishment of interpersonal, intercultural, and inter-institutional relationships (as defended by Martinez, 2017). They also point to two specific needs: a) for more student involvement in discussions over the internationalization process of the university; and b) for a plurilingual understanding of the status of English within this process.
Coloniality prints in internationalization of higher education: The case of Brazilian and Chilean international scholarships
In this article, we argue that efforts to internationalize higher education that do not make visible the colonial legacy in the higher education space become catalysts that intensify and reproduce the power asymmetries among countries, universities, and ways of knowing. To support and illustrate our argument, we carried out an analysis of two of the largest international scholarship programs implemented by Latin American countries, namely, the Brazilian ‘Science without Borders’ and the Chilean ‘Becas Chile’ programs. Our analysis shows that Brazil and Chile, aiming to enhance their position in the so-called ‘knowledge economy’, implemented strategies of internationalization that assumed, naturalized, and possibly biased the intrinsic benefits of internationalization at the expense of local needs and realities. We also found that Brazil and Chile embrace a concept of internationalization equated with academic mobility to (almost exclusively) Western/European industrialized countries of the global North.
Turning outwards or inwards? The experience of a Mexican indigenous model of community-driven and intercultural education in a globalized world - La Universidad de los Pueblos del Sur
The neocolonial undercurrent of internationalization that drives educational policies and standards, imposes a EEUUrocentric worldview and perspective of human development upon the global South. Beyond the discourse of international cooperation, this vision sustains what Quijano describes as the ‘coloniality of power’ that deepens inequalities between universities of the global North and South. In Latin America, there are various alternative educational projects, including indigenous universities that turn inwards toward rich pluriversal contexts, histories of resistance, and diverse tapestries of knowledge to address local problems and train youth to generate new horizons for ongoing indigenous and afro-mestizo social movements. This article is a reflective analytical account of our seven-year experience as volunteer educators at the Universidad Intercultural de los Pueblos del Sur (UNISUR) from an intercultural and decolonial feminist perspective. Founded in 2007 in southern Mexico, UNISUR was formed as a grassroots indigenous university of and for the original peoples of Guerrero state. Our account disrupts the hegemonic vision of an internationalized education that sustains racialized ‘colonialities of power’ and instead proclaims the right to self-determination, to the empowerment of women, and to an education based on principles of decolonial epistemic equity.
Faculty productivity in Zambian higher education in the face of internationalization: Unpacking research, publication and citation at the University of Zambia
This paper is based on a study that aimed at examining and interrogating the extent of faculty productivity in Zambia in terms of research, publication and citation with specific reference to the University of Zambia (UNZA). The paper invokes the Network Theory of Internationalisation of Higher Education founded by Johanson & Mattsson (1988).The research design used in this article is a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. The sample size total was 254, of which 244 were academic staff and 10 were key informants from management. Qualitative data was analysed according to emerging themes, while quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this paper seem to suggest that faculties at UNZA were highly involved in research (applied and basic) at 75%, but with poor incidences of transforming research into publication and innovation. Only 38% of respondents published articles annually (increasing to 62% within two years) in local and international journals. While respondents who had published books in the last two years was as low as 19.5%. UNZA productivity output in terms of citation was relatively poor, below the expected standard of h-index and citation index of a flagship university which has a track record of more than 40 years of operation as a fully-fledged comprehensive university. Results primarily showed that the UNZA had an average h-index of 4.50 and a citation index of 156.87 which are significantly lower than the world averages of 17.50 and 971, respectively. The paper finally argues that, UNZA like most of the flagship and comprehensive universities in Africa, are quickly transforming from a teaching university into a research university based on the influence of the global North whose research agenda is central – at the expense of teaching. In order to improve on research productivity, this paper recommends that UNZA deliberately identify relevant industries, and global and regional partners to genuinely collaborate with as a way of leveraging resources and expertise. There is also a growing desire by universities in the global South to work closely together as way of improving their own productivity capacity in terms of research, publication, citation and redefine the concept of internationalization to fit the global South.
Decolonizing the training of engineers and scientists: The case of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics at Universidad de Chile
Given current global crises, there is a need to move beyond the anthropocentric, reductionist and short-term vision of the world, imposed through the hegemony of Western culture. Are we still in time to change the prevailing hegemonic vision of the world and better address global crises and their local impacts? What is the role of intercultural higher education in this challenging task? We conceive this type of education for the training of future decision-makers, as well as scientists and technicians who must respond to current and future challenges in society. Therefore, we evaluate the contribution of the Indigenous Peoples Program (PPI) of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM) at Universidad de Chile (UCH). We conclude that the PPI opens up possibilities for intercultural training in the FCFM, which can contribute to changing the professional and scientific performance of its graduates, opening their minds to other cultures, worldviews, values and paradigms.
Internationalisation and the global South
This special issue of SOTL in the South tackles the internationalisation of the scholarship of teaching and learning in the global South. In examining internationalisation as a means of driving globalisation, there is a group of forces that work together in a complex intersection that involve financial, military, environmental, migratory, technological, cultural, and political dimensions (Giddens, 1990). Many of these global forces are driven by commercial aims and flow from post-capitalism. In this context, this special issue portrays the struggles of conceiving and enacting internationalisation on campuses in the global South. These struggles are increasingly part of universities, yet this special issue also shows how Southern responses to internationalisation emerge from these struggles and project new practices inspired by the idea of intercultural education.
Decolonisation in universities: The politics of knowledge, edited by Jonathan D. Jansen
In this review of Decolonisation in Universities: The Politics of Knowledge, edited by Jonathan D. Jansen, book reviewer Naiefa Rashied explains how this book serves as an enriching resource for understanding decolonisation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. This book is an important resource for academics and other stakeholders who are interested in decolonisation, particularly with respect to curriculum reform in higher education.
Nancy Fraser and participatory parity: Reframing social justice in South African higher education, edited by Vivienne Bozalek, Dorothee Hölscher, and Michalinos Zembylas
In this review of Nancy Fraser and participatory parity: Reframing social justice in South African higher education, edited by Vivienne Bozalek, Dorothee Hölscher, and Michalinos Zembylas, book reviewer Sergio Celis discusses why this book is an invitation to reimagine our participation in the higher education field, as scholars, teachers, and citizens.