Journal Article

Why mouth all the pieties?

Thondhlana, Gladman, Belluigi, Dina Zoe

2019

Overview

With inequality persistent across geopolitical contexts, 'transformation' continues to be expediently cited in the rhetoric of higher education institutions. Illuminating alike issues worldwide, the paper critically examines race, inequality and oppression among the black and women academics who were selected as recipients of post-apartheid academic development programmes at an historically white institution in South Africa. Utilising a report-and-respond approach, participants initially responded in a questionnaire to definitions of notions of transformation espoused within The Integrated Transformation Plans of South African universities. This was followed by non-deterministic small group discussions of the researchers' interpretations of those responses. The recipients' lived experiences provide deep insights, from within, into the misalignment between those discourses espoused and those practiced, which have implications for transforming the institutional culture of the dominant in-group. Emerging ahead of the implementation of a self-regulatory tool for higher education institutions across that national context, many of the participants called for structural accountability mechanisms in the face of their frustration with current ineffectual approaches. A concern about institutional responsiveness to research findings of such critical studies is raised. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Academic achievement / Academic staff / Accountability / African American Teachers / Apartheid / Ausland / College Faculty / Colleges & universities / Critical theory / Cultural groups / Development programs / Discourses / Education / Education parks / Educational Change / Equal Opportunities (Jobs) / Experience / Foreign Countries / Frustration / Gender Bias / Gender equality / Geopolitics / Higher Education / Hochschule / Hochschulsystem / Implementation / Inequality / Institutions / Lehre / Mouth / Oppression / Post-apartheid era / Questionnaires / Race / Racial Bias / Racial Segregation / Responsiveness / Rhetoric / School facilities / Self regulation / Student / Studium / Südafrika / Teacher Attitudes / Transformation / Universities / Whites / Women / Women Faculty / Women scholars / Work Environment