This article picks up on Foucault's radical reconceptualisation of concept "power", and presents a significant challenge to contemporary discourses surrounding instructionist classroom management. We critique his approach to instructionist classroom management on the basis that it conceptualises power as domination in dealing with disruption in the classroom. We argue that power and discourse are interrelated constructs that the teacher uses to perpetuate Taylorism, Fordism and bureaucratic domination in an instructionist classroom setting. Drawing on Foucault's and Bourdieu's works, this document reviews: 1) explores Foucault's theory of discourse; 2) argues discourse as an instrument of power; 3) captures the philosophical perspectives on instructionist classroom management; and 4) argues a teacher's power as a tool for social reproduction and domination in instructionist classroom setting.

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest open distance e-learning (ODeL) university in the continent of Africa, with a student headcount more than 300,000. Over two decades after the transition from apartheid to democracy, vast inequalities across race, class, gender and socio-economic status persist in South Africa, with the majority of the African people being the most affected. Demographically, the African people constitute about 80.8% of the country's total population, compared to whites, who constitute a meagre 8.8%, yet African households carry the highest burden of poverty, living way below the official poverty line of $1.90/day as determined by the World Bank and other international agencies. This chapter explores these inequalities and ponders on the role of e-learning for this poorest section of society in a country where modern technological devises in the form of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and access to the Internet are perceived to be ubiquitous. South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) commits to "an expansion of open and distance education and the establishment of more 'satellite' premises where universities or colleges provide classes at places and times convenient to students (including in rural areas)". This chapter also explores the role of UNISA in the provision of distance learning through structured and sustainable e-learning.

This article debates access and success at the University of South Africa (UNISA).UNISA is an open distance learning (ODL) institution that provides higher education opportunities to working adults who would otherwise not have the opportunity to acquire a higher education qualification at full-time contact institutions. The article sketches the challenges and prospects of ODL. It teases out the challenges of ODL articulation, learner support, recognition of prior learning, and poor throughput rate. Substantively though, the article argues a case for well managed ODL programs to provide access to quality higher education to previously marginalised individuals and to enable developing countries such as South Africa to make a meaningful contribution to the global economy through knowledgeable citizenry and workforce.

The article explores the challenges of assessment in open distance learning (ODL). The authors argue that ultimately assessment should be about improving the quality of teaching and effective learning. It should be based on making expectations explicit and public, setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality, systematically gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches expectations and standards, and using the resultant information to document, explain, and improve performance. However, getting all these variables to work in ODL presents mammoth challenges. How can ODL lecturers validate and authenticate students' written work? How can they tell whether the students' submitted work sufficiently reflects their knowledge and understanding? South Africa has inherited an unequal, racially skewed and inequitable educational provision from its apartheid past. This poses serious challenge for assessing quality. The article therefore seeks to understand these context-specific challenges of ODL assessment at UNISA.

Currently, Unisa's Open Distance Learning (ODL)