James Garraway | Cape peninsula University of technology (original) (raw)
Papers by James Garraway
Journal of Education
Change laboratories (CLs) are formative problem-solving initiatives that have been used extensive... more Change laboratories (CLs) are formative problem-solving initiatives that have been used extensively in Europe but have only recently been applied in African contexts. This review thus offers an original insight into their use and value in African contexts. The laboratories are classified into partial, classic, or augmented varieties-all of which are shown to assist participants learning to work with pressing local problems. Some CLs have expanded their remit to addressing grand societal challenges, such as sustainable practices and responses to climate change, which are particularly pressing issues on the continent. Our findings suggest that CL work in Africa, besides contributing overall to understanding the efficacy of the CL methodology, may also be taking a leading role in addressing some of the grand challenges affecting societies, globally.
Ashwin, P. 2020. Transforming University Education: A Manifesto. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-3... more Ashwin, P. 2020. Transforming University Education: A Manifesto. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-3501-5724-8
South African journal of higher education, 2011
Online Journal Abstract Information - Sabinet Online.
Journal of vocational, adult and continuing education and training, Nov 17, 2022
Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning
The roots of universities of technology can be traced back to technical colleges, which required ... more The roots of universities of technology can be traced back to technical colleges, which required compliance with industry standards, and the rule of labour markets. Universities of technology thus entered the university space, largely without an established critical tradition in teaching, learning, and research. This is the issue that we address in this paper, which is intended to inform potential authors in technical, vocational, and professional higher education who would like to publish their educational research studies in Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL). The issue is important as universities of technology in South Africa are increasingly taking on the mantle of professional education, particularly in the fields of health, engineering, and applied sciences. In this paper, we discuss examples of published educational research that critique some of the ‘taken-for-granted’ ideas that have shaped the practices and aspirations of universities of technologies. The...
International Journal for Academic Development, 2021
Nancy Fraser and Participatory Parity, 2020
Being Scholarly - Festschrift in honour of the work of Eli M Bitzer, 2016
The focus of this paper is a study of the attainment of graduate attributes by a ‘flagship’ progr... more The focus of this paper is a study of the attainment of graduate attributes by a ‘flagship’ programme at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. While many graduate attributes projects have tended to produce ‘wish lists’ that are de-contextualised and therefore difficult to implement or attain (Barrie, Andrews, Dean & Heimanis 2010), this study considered graduate attributes from the ‘opposite end’, as it were, by analysing a diploma programme that had already produced notable graduate attributes and trying to understand the structural and contextual features that enabled the graduates to attain success in terms of academic performance and post-qualification employability. This paper is based on work undertaken by the ‘Attaining Graduate Attributes in Universities of Technology’ project; a three-year study funded by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training through a National Collaborative Teaching Development Grant. The project understands graduate attributes as the outcomes of a programme; thus what is put into a programme (in terms of decision-making, resources, world-views, values, curricular selection, sequencing, pacing, and assessment) will strongly influence the graduates that emerge from it. All programmes produce graduates with attributes, but the achievement of desired graduate attributes will be dependent on more thoughtful and systemic programme ‘inputs’ in support of students’ development.
Curriculum Inquiry in South African Higher Education, 2010
Higher Education, Jul 26, 2016
Higher Education, Oct 1, 2006
South African journal of higher education, Mar 1, 2017
This paper is concerned with curriculum renewal in departments at a South African higher educatio... more This paper is concerned with curriculum renewal in departments at a South African higher education andtraining institution with a career orientated focus. The driving forces for curriculum change derive, firstly, from government documentation which itself draws on aspects of the need for new knowledge workers in industry described by Gibbons et al in 1994. The features of such workers would be their ability to apply transdisciplinary knowledge in flexible ways to solve problems. Secondly, there is a need to retain students in the system and to help scaffold their learning through providing a workplace focus and fostering learning to learn skills. In an attempt to meet these needs co-operative staff groups were set up to design interdisciplinary, work-related tasks with associated explanatory and guiding criteria. In observingand talking to staff developing these tasks, difficulties were detected in working co-operatively, moving from evaluative to learner-support criteria, integration and allowing for more learner-centred control in assessment.
Journal of Education
Change laboratories (CLs) are formative problem-solving initiatives that have been used extensive... more Change laboratories (CLs) are formative problem-solving initiatives that have been used extensively in Europe but have only recently been applied in African contexts. This review thus offers an original insight into their use and value in African contexts. The laboratories are classified into partial, classic, or augmented varieties-all of which are shown to assist participants learning to work with pressing local problems. Some CLs have expanded their remit to addressing grand societal challenges, such as sustainable practices and responses to climate change, which are particularly pressing issues on the continent. Our findings suggest that CL work in Africa, besides contributing overall to understanding the efficacy of the CL methodology, may also be taking a leading role in addressing some of the grand challenges affecting societies, globally.
Ashwin, P. 2020. Transforming University Education: A Manifesto. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-3... more Ashwin, P. 2020. Transforming University Education: A Manifesto. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-3501-5724-8
South African journal of higher education, 2011
Online Journal Abstract Information - Sabinet Online.
Journal of vocational, adult and continuing education and training, Nov 17, 2022
Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning
The roots of universities of technology can be traced back to technical colleges, which required ... more The roots of universities of technology can be traced back to technical colleges, which required compliance with industry standards, and the rule of labour markets. Universities of technology thus entered the university space, largely without an established critical tradition in teaching, learning, and research. This is the issue that we address in this paper, which is intended to inform potential authors in technical, vocational, and professional higher education who would like to publish their educational research studies in Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL). The issue is important as universities of technology in South Africa are increasingly taking on the mantle of professional education, particularly in the fields of health, engineering, and applied sciences. In this paper, we discuss examples of published educational research that critique some of the ‘taken-for-granted’ ideas that have shaped the practices and aspirations of universities of technologies. The...
International Journal for Academic Development, 2021
Nancy Fraser and Participatory Parity, 2020
Being Scholarly - Festschrift in honour of the work of Eli M Bitzer, 2016
The focus of this paper is a study of the attainment of graduate attributes by a ‘flagship’ progr... more The focus of this paper is a study of the attainment of graduate attributes by a ‘flagship’ programme at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. While many graduate attributes projects have tended to produce ‘wish lists’ that are de-contextualised and therefore difficult to implement or attain (Barrie, Andrews, Dean & Heimanis 2010), this study considered graduate attributes from the ‘opposite end’, as it were, by analysing a diploma programme that had already produced notable graduate attributes and trying to understand the structural and contextual features that enabled the graduates to attain success in terms of academic performance and post-qualification employability. This paper is based on work undertaken by the ‘Attaining Graduate Attributes in Universities of Technology’ project; a three-year study funded by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training through a National Collaborative Teaching Development Grant. The project understands graduate attributes as the outcomes of a programme; thus what is put into a programme (in terms of decision-making, resources, world-views, values, curricular selection, sequencing, pacing, and assessment) will strongly influence the graduates that emerge from it. All programmes produce graduates with attributes, but the achievement of desired graduate attributes will be dependent on more thoughtful and systemic programme ‘inputs’ in support of students’ development.
Curriculum Inquiry in South African Higher Education, 2010
Higher Education, Jul 26, 2016
Higher Education, Oct 1, 2006
South African journal of higher education, Mar 1, 2017
This paper is concerned with curriculum renewal in departments at a South African higher educatio... more This paper is concerned with curriculum renewal in departments at a South African higher education andtraining institution with a career orientated focus. The driving forces for curriculum change derive, firstly, from government documentation which itself draws on aspects of the need for new knowledge workers in industry described by Gibbons et al in 1994. The features of such workers would be their ability to apply transdisciplinary knowledge in flexible ways to solve problems. Secondly, there is a need to retain students in the system and to help scaffold their learning through providing a workplace focus and fostering learning to learn skills. In an attempt to meet these needs co-operative staff groups were set up to design interdisciplinary, work-related tasks with associated explanatory and guiding criteria. In observingand talking to staff developing these tasks, difficulties were detected in working co-operatively, moving from evaluative to learner-support criteria, integration and allowing for more learner-centred control in assessment.
The thesis takes the general question of responsive curriculum development which meets both the n... more The thesis takes the general question of responsive curriculum development which meets both the needs of Work and those of the academy as its starting point.
The rationale for the topic flows out of education policy and societal pressures worldwide which are calling for an ever greater responsiveness from higher education to the workplace in the twenty-first century. Responsiveness to Work (i.e. the world of work) requires collaborative and integrative work between communities of academic and non-academic practitioners. Differences between knowledge and practices at Work and within the academy are broadly acknowledged in the literature, yet the ensuing nature and complexity of interactions between these two communities in curriculum design ‘on the ground’ is poorly understood. A key point is to recognize that integration as such cannot be the goal: the differences remain, but have to be turned into productive collaboration and joint development, for example, of a curriculum.
Productivity here is not used in the sense of the ratio between output achieved and inputs needed, but rather refers to the activity theorists’ concept of zones of potential development between two different, interacting activity systems (their way of conceptualizing communities of practice). Productivity is then a measure of the extent to which new hybrid knowledge emerges in the interactive zone with positive outcomes for both systems. Ideally, the integrated curriculum elements look to both Work and academic knowledge. Such productivity involves the acknowledgement of pre-existing boundaries and differences between types of knowledge and the subsequent actions of actors in crossing these boundaries. After sketching the policy backdrop to the issues of responsiveness to Work “on the ground”, the first part of the thesis discusses theories of curriculum development, and of boundaries, differences, boundary crossing and maintenance. Inspired by the work of Nooteboom, a model is outlined for optimal difference allowing for innovative and productive curriculum development.
The processes and patterns of responsiveness of higher education to the needs of Work are studied empirically at two interconnected levels: The meso-level of the design of curriculum units; and the micro-level of face-to-face interactions between representatives from Work and the academy as they negotiate how to implement responsiveness. The curriculum units examined are those in which universities have attempted to design units which include aspects of Work. The face-to-face interactions are those between lecturers and Work representatives as they attempt to negotiate what sort of knowledge should be taught in the academy to meet both Work needs and those of the academics. At the meso-level, different cases (in different countries) were studied which together spanned the spectrum of differences between academic knowledge and workplace knowledge. At the micro-level, the focus was on the actual boundary work, and how it might set productive developments in motion.
The processes involved are those of the mutual presentation of knowledge difference between work and the academy followed by knowledge transformations. These transformations are in turn enabled by the representatives’ actions and their mobilisation of structures to enable bridging between the different types of knowledge. Difference between work and academic knowledge matters. Firstly, difference needs to be recognised and identified, not as a stumbling block to further developments, but as a resource. Secondly, an optimal degree of initial difference, rather than no difference at all, is an enabling factor, in concert with actor strategies, in the development of hybrid work/academic curriculum objects.
The insights in micro-interactions can be combined with the analysis of meso-level curriculum development to create a model for productive work towards integration of Work and higher education. This model is supported by the literature discussed in the first part of the thesis, and can actually be used more broadly, for example for productive development and implementation of policy (in this case, for responsiveness to Work).
Curriculum development in vocational/professional education is often concerned with envisaging a ... more Curriculum development in vocational/professional education is often concerned with envisaging a possible future in which graduates would be expected to effectively function. Therefore a potentially useful curriculum development competence would be the ability to imagine how particular curriculum changes may play out in a future society. In this research academic staff were presented with an opportunity to engage in reflective enquiry into a future curriculum in dedicated workshop spaces through the use of a type of scenario tool, fictive scripting. Analysis of the workshops indicated that this method did promote reflexivity and learning amongst workshop participants. It is suggested that this future-orientated approach could be used to assist academics and managers in understanding the complexities and pitfalls of curriculum change.