Pandemic disruptions to access to higher education in South Africa: A dream deferred?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT) and online learning highlighted issues of social justice, pedagogical inclusion and epistemic access in higher education. The research underlying this article analyses the complexities of access to learning and the effects of the shift to ERT and online learning on the social justice agenda in South Africa, using the case study of the University of Johannesburg. The article uses the conceptual frameworks of epistemic access, equity and inclusive pedagogy from the theories of Fraser (2008), Mbembe (2016) and Mgqwashu (2016). Pedagogic continuity and inclusion (Motala and Menon 2020; Menon and Motala 2021), hard-won by many institutions during the pandemic, will need to be sustained and secured as the world adapts to a “new normal” in higher education and other spheres of life. Czerniewicz et al. (2020, 957) refer to the maxim “Anytime, anyplace, anywhere” characterising ERT as a “brutal underestimation of the complexities and entanglement of different inequalities and structural arrangements”. Fataar (2020), Czerniewicz et al. (2020) and Hodges et al. (2020) advocate an alternative pedagogy that is “trauma-informed” and offers parity with the pedagogies that prevailed pre-pandemic. The article concludes that the pre-existing conditions of deep inequality and inequities, and a highly differentiated higher education system with uneven pedagogical practices, were exacerbated by the pandemic. While we acknowledge the achievement of avoiding the loss of the academic year during the pandemic, we argue that it is important to learn lessons from the initial implementation of ERT and the fractures that it highlights in higher education. Heading into an uncertain future, the sector needs explicit equity-driven approaches to ensure pedagogical inclusion beyond physical and epistemic access.

Shifting assessment paradigms in South African higher education: Evolving towards transformative approaches to policy development.

“…We further speculate that, along with more recent flexibility recommendations, the encouragement of multi-modal assessments may reflect changed assessment praxis post-COVID-19 practice and its many assessment challenges (Badat, 2020;Czerniewicz, Agherdien, Badenhorst, Belluigi, Chambers et al, 2020;du Preez & le Grange, 2020;Motala & Menon, 2020;Walwyn, 2020;Menon & Motala, 2022). The (draft) UCT assessment policy (2022) also promotes the use of multiple assessment methods to enable students to express their knowledge and skills in different ways.…”

A systematic review of the implications for teaching, learning and assessment at South African universities after the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Most students expressed dissatisfaction with online lectures, tutorials, and practical work (Alex, 2022;Ally et al, 2022), disruptions in their academic lives (Govender, Reddy & Bhagwan, 2021), difficulties with concentration, time management, content comprehension, and self-motivation for learning (Alex, 2022;Cupido, Gordon & Behardien, 2022), perceived lag in their academic progress (Knoetze & Toit, 2022;Ross, 2021), communication difficulties, insufficient lecturer support, and perceived lack of engagement in content uploading on LMS (Jordaan, 2022;Knoetze, Booysen & Khuhlane, 2022;Maphalala, 2021), disengagement, decreased motivation, non-submission of assessments, absenteeism, and dropouts (Maringe & Chiramba, 2022;Menon & Motala, 2022), students needed enhanced support, guidance, and effective LMS training (Buthelezi & Van Wyk, 2020), no ICT exposure in schools (Jordaan, 2022), lack of technology skills (Phejane, 2022).…”

“…Students experienced increased workload (Alex, 2022;Menon & Motala, 2022;Ross, 2021) because work was thrown at them (Feldman, 2020). https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v41i4.6181…”

“…Multimodal learning channels for diverse backgrounds and learning styles (Czerniewicz et al, 2020;Joseph et al, 2022;Naidoo & Israel, 2021), creating inclusive and supportive learning environment (Hardman et al, 2022), demonstrate resilience (Shaik, 2022), mitigate solutions to challenges, indicating some element of being self-directed learners (Mahlaba & Mentz, 2023), diagnose students' learning styles to optimize interventions (Kativhu, 2021), engage in reflective practices to align teaching approaches with student needs (Godsell, 2022), customize pedagogical tools for specific content to enhance learning (Menon & Motala, 2022), adapt teaching methods and delivery (Naidoo et al, 2022), and tailor instructional design and pedagogical strategies for online environments (Aina & Ogegbo, 2021).…”

From 'business as usual' to 'business unusual': Online academic literacy development for education students during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“…The onset of the pandemic, coincidentally, impressed the need for these LMSs as the only platforms for teaching and learning. Many students, however, struggled with accessing the new mode of online learning due to shortages of electronic devices and data to access the internet (Menon & Motala, 2022;Moodley, 2022;Osman & Walton, 2020). Universities made considerable efforts to provide electronic devices for students in challenging socio-economic conditions and negotiated with various phone telecommunication service providers to provide students with data at lower costs (Hedding et al, 2020).…”