Browsing by Author "Jacobs, Anthea Hydi Maxine"

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    A critical-hermeneutical inquiry of institutional culture in higher education
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-12) Jacobs, Anthea Hydi Maxine; Van Wyk, Berte; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is a conceptual analysis of “institutional culture” in higher education, especially because the concept has become a buzzword in higher education discourse in South Africa. The aim is to develop an understanding of the concept, and more specifically, to explore how institutional culture is organised, constructed and articulated in the institutional documents of Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). These analyses are preceded by an analysis of higher education policy documents. I employ critical hermeneutics as research methodology to construct constitutive meanings of “institutional culture”. Since it is difficult to work with a large set of constitutive meanings, I narrowed the list down to the four most frequently recurring meanings, namely: shared values and beliefs; language; symbols; and knowledge production. These constitutive meanings form the theoretical framework which is used to analyse institutional documents. My findings suggest that all the constitutive meanings of my theoretical framework are addressed in the institutional documents of both SU and UWC, which means that the institutional documents conform to my theoretical framework. SU has, in my opinion, an excellent and comprehensive base of well-prepared and compiled institutional documents. However, most of these documents seem to relate to quality and compliance to national policy requirements, with no significant actions or strategies to address the challenges related to transforming the University’s institutional culture. Even though SU has shown commendable strategic initiatives to transform its institutional culture, there has not been sufficient engagement with the challenges of transformation. Similarly, for UWC, it is my contention that even though UWC is committed to transformation and nurturing a culture of change in order to make meaning of and address the complex challenges of the world, there needs to be more rigorous engagement in shaping and managing strategic direction and planning to ensure an institutional culture to accommodate change. Even though the institutional documents analysed mostly conform to the constitutive meanings of the theoretical framework, what of concern is the lack of an adequate articulation of the concept “institutional culture”. If there is no articulation, it follows that there is an inadequate understanding of the concept. A deeper understanding is crucial if the important link between transformation and “institutional culture” is to be realised. I contend that there exists a disjunction between “institutional culture” and transformation policies. One of the reasons for this disjunction is an impoverished understanding among higher education policy practitioners of the concept “institutional culture”, which creates an impression of compliance with national policy requirements.
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    Pluralist perspectives of a literacy policy in the Western Cape Province
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-03) Jacobs, Anthea Hydi Maxine; Van Wyk, B.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    This thesis explores pluralist perspectives on literacy in the context of the Literacy and Numeracy (LITNUM) Strategy of the Western Cape Education Department. My argument is that we need to move beyond functional or technical conceptions of literacy towards a recognition of its transformative potential. That is, the concept of literacy needs to be stretched to incorporate pluralist perspectives in order to achieve developmental aspirations. Following a literature review approach, I construct three constitutive meanings of literacy, namely “cognitive skills”, “social context” and “development”, and I investigate how the LITNUM Strategy conforms to these constitutive meanings of literacy. My finding is that LITNUM is based on a constructivist learning theory. I caution that when understandings of learning theories are viewed exclusively from one perspective, literacy becomes “compacted”, and we miss out on important considerations of literacy and its transformative potential. I show that LITNUM discusses several social contextual factors related to literacy; a recognition of the impact of social issues on literacy. Regarding LITNUM’s concern with development, I conclude that both functional and critical literacy as important aspects of development are not sufficiently addressed. In a nutshell: LITNUM focuses on technical skills, which need to be balanced with the notion that literacy is a social act, and that it has the potential to transform societies. I propose a “literacy of thoughtfulness”, based on compassion, love and care. This proposition forms the basis for possible future research.
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    Using a theoretical framework of institutional culture to analyse an institutional strategy document
    (University of South Africa Press, 2016) Jacobs, Anthea Hydi Maxine
    This paper builds on a conceptual analysis of institutional culture in higher education. A theoretical framework was proposed to analyse institutional documents of two higher education institutions in the Western Cape, for the period 2002 to 2012 (Jacobs 2012). The elements of this theoretical framework are ‘shared values and beliefs’, ‘language’, ‘symbols’ and ‘knowledge production’. Even though the larger study focused on two higher education institutions, the focus in this paper is only on Stellenbosch University (SU). The aim of the paper is to explore how the constitutive elements of the proposed theoretical framework are constructed in the Institutional Intent and Strategy 2013-2018 document of SU. The findings of the larger 2012 study suggested a missing link between transformation and institutional culture. Although SU is striving towards an inclusive campus or institutional culture, the contention is that transformation extends far deeper. The current analysis reveals that the challenges SU is facing are two-fold. Firstly, the university has to make sure that the proposed ‘core processes’ represent significant actions to address the challenges related to transforming the university’s institutional culture. Secondly, SU should guard against the use of concepts such as ‘redesign’ to imply transformation.