The academic staff profile of Geographers at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa: the challenges for transformation

Abstract

South Africa's first national democratic elections in 1994 marked a turning point in the history of the country. Since democracy much of the focus of African National Congress (ANC)-led government has been on redress and transformation across all spheres of society, including higher education. This paper examines one important aspect inherent in transforming higher education; that is, changing the academic staffing profile of its institutions to more accurately reflect the demographics of the country. Specifically, we examine the academic staffing profiles (gender, race, and rank) of Geographers employed at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa and compare these statistics to national academic staffing trends.Results indicate that Geographers in South Africa are most often white and male although these findings mirror national percentages. We also found a paucity of black African Geographers at more senior academic positions as well as a lack of black African female Geographers. Racial inequities in the distribution of academic staff were noted with white male Geographers disproportionately located at historically white institutions while black African Geographers are disproportionately located at historically black institutions. We discuss these, and other results, in the broader context of the transformation of the discipline of Geography in South Africa.

We are not fully Citizens of our Universities

“…This further demonstrates what Moodly and Toni (2017) have argued, that the despite the strides made in the transformation trajectories of institutions, women still grapple with breaking the glass ceiling. This is particularly important considering that a study by Breetzke et al (2020) found that although the intake of black African students is higher than that of whites (in the @2016 report by Statistics South Africa, 66 percent were black African, 19 percent were white, 8 percent were Indian/Asian, and 7 percent Coloured). When juxtaposed with the staff intake, the racial inequalities are exacerbated... black Africans are under-represented at every academic rank at the country's HEIs with the inequalities most pronounced at the professorial rank where 62 percent of professors are white compared with 27 percent for Black African" (Breetzke et al, 2020, 3).…”

‘Whispered in corridors’: Intra‐national politics and practices of knowledge production in South African Human Geography

“…Growth in student numbers remains both a priority and a challenge, as the sector's capacity for new entrants (240,000 places for January 2022) is massively outstripped by increasing numbers of students sitting their National Senior Certificate (school leaving) examinations (897,163 students in December 2021) (Monama, 2022; Zali, 2022). 4 Meanwhile, inequalities in educational outcomes between elite schools and rural and township high schools perpetuate race‐ and class‐based inequities in access to and completion rates from universities (Breetzke et al, 2020; Kelly‐Laubscher et al, 2018), while the National Students’ Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) remains beset by high non‐completion rates, crippling levels of student debt, and disproportionate numbers of NSFAS‐funded low‐income students enrolled at under‐resourced HDIs (RSA NSFAS, 2018; Pillay, 2016—see also Table 1). This backdrop of historical inequalities and neo‐liberal policy shift are integral to history and evolution of Human Geography in South Africa and contemporary research and teaching concerns (Donaldson, 2020; Hammett, 2012).…”

“…However, staff 5 exodus to government and consultancy roles, limited theory development, and concentration of research‐active staff at a few institutions have resulted in concerns that ‘[g]eography research overall in South Africa remains weak in terms of quantity, quality and impact’ (Knight, 2019, p. 34; also Hammett, 2012; Hoogendoorn, 2012; Maharaj & Ramutsindela, 2021), leading Knight (2019, p. 34). These concerns reflect the legacies of apartheid histories and the continued reproduction of inequalities in research productivity and reputational prestige, exacerbated by the slow pace of transformation and the concentration of PhD‐holding staff and PhD candidates at HAIs (Breetzke et al, 2020; Daya, 2022; Knight & Rogerson, 2019; Ramutsindela, 2015). Building on Daya's (2022) call for the need to challenge and dismantle institutional cultures of hierarchy and oppression, we refocus these same imperatives to the intra‐national scale and critically explore the uneven national landscape and politics of knowledge production in Human Geography.…”

“…The evolution of the discipline in South Africa has already been subject to extensive reflection in the South African Geographical Journal (Ballard et al, 2016; Donaldson, 2020), The Geography of South Africa (Knight & Rogerson, 2019) and Visser et al's (2016) The Origin and Growth of Geography as a Discipline at South African Universities . Elsewhere, South African geographers have discussed challenges to decolonising geography curricula (Knight, 2018; Long et al, 2019), reflected on the policy relevance of geographical research (Oldfield & Patel, 2016), and evaluated the progress of transformation of Geography departments (Breetzke et al, 2020). Building on these contributions, we critically reflect on how intersections of apartheid and post‐apartheid politics of knowledge production perpetuate intra‐national inequalities and challenges for South African Human Geography.…”