Sarah Godsell | University of the Witwatersrand (original) (raw)
Papers by Sarah Godsell
South African Journal of Higher Education
The COVID-19 pandemic has had previously unimaginable and far-reaching effects on higher educatio... more The COVID-19 pandemic has had previously unimaginable and far-reaching effects on higher education globally (Baker et al. 2022; Cranfield et al. 2021; Kara 2021; Le Grange 2020). On top of the widespread loss felt by students and teachers across the world, we have had to make rapid changes to previously taken-for-granted ways of doing, being, learning and teaching (Baker et al. 2022; Cranfield et al. 2021). Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) brought constraints and opportunities, challenges and innovations. This article gives form to the statement: “there is an opportunity in the moment for genuine equity-focused innovation in policy-making, provision and pedagogy” (Czerniewicz et al. 2020). We use a theoretical framework of structure, culture and agency through which to view possibilities for transformation of pedagogy, and a form of semi-autoethnography as methodology. Two lecturers, one in the Humanities (Education) and one in the Life Sciences, wrote extended narrativ...
South African journal of higher education, Dec 1, 2021
Although assessment forms a key part of knowledge production in Higher Education spaces, it is ra... more Although assessment forms a key part of knowledge production in Higher Education spaces, it is rarely brought into the decolonisation conversation. Assessment performs a crucial inclusion/exclusion function. As this function determines formalised recognition of knowledge and proficiency, decolonisation of assessment should be part of decolonial research in Higher Education. Assessment outcomes determine whether and when students will progress and graduate If we focus solely on decolonising pedagogy and content, but rely on existing assessment practises, decolonisation stops at precisely the moment in which students' knowledge is measured. This article explores decolonising assessment through conceptual research and a case study using assessments and discussions from three History courses in a teacher education programme. This combination allows for the blending of a theoretical approach with some aspects of application, as well as a grounding in student-driven ideas. The case-study data is drawn from class discussions. 1 This article brings together principles of assessment, theories of teaching History, and theories of decolonisation. I examine how assessment can disrupt notions of where knowledge is held, built, and displayed. I also try to understand what kinds of assessment students could experience as enabling rather than gate-keeping. This investigation is exploratory, with the aim of opening a field of enquiry, not providing clear and definitive answers. However, as students pass through classrooms each year, there is an urgency to the enquiry. How these questions are approached day to day in the classroom will inform both findings and questions.
Education as Change
This article argues that the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) that took place during the Covid-19 ... more This article argues that the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 left learners and teachers alike awash in feelings of helplessness, loss, and anguish. While online learning literacy and pedagogy have improved over the course of 2020 and 2021, and interesting and important innovations have been implemented and explored, the foundational inequalities have not lessened or disappeared. This article argues for the use of care as a necessary pedagogy in the virtual classroom using a case study of one class. The labour of care needs to be considered as part of the labour of pedagogy during Covid-19. I argue for care being built into both pedagogy and assessment as part of a radical pedagogy for this time. I explore reflective assessment embedded in a pedagogy of care as a way to, if not combat, recognise and respond to the inequalities embodied in ERT and the society it exists in, towards radical change. Active reflection draws out...
Yesterday and Today, Dec 1, 2020
The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and th... more The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars.
South African Journal of Childhood Education
Background: The history essay, and historical writing, are crucial forms of assessment in History... more Background: The history essay, and historical writing, are crucial forms of assessment in History throughout primary and high school education. This article draws from an autoethnography of teachings in a pre-service history teachers’ school classroom. This article discusses obstacles students experience in conceptualising and writing the history essay. A tool is introduced to overcome these obstacles.Aim: This article presents a possible intervention in the form of a classroom tool.Setting: This classroom tool is presented in a pre-service history teachers classroom (tertiary). It is presented as a method to teach history in classrooms of senior phase (SP), intermediate phase (IP), and further education and training (FET) phase.Methods: This article uses a qualitative methodology that draws on autoethnography and reflective teaching methodology, allowing me to understand and analyse the processes taking place in my own classroom. This was authorised with an ethics protocol number (...
A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in t... more A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg October 2015
In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a... more In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a major part of power and wealth redistribution. However, as the land claims process is linked to demonstrable historical legitimacy, this process has sometimes necessitated both the restating and reinventing of local histories and “ethnic identities”, in line with new political structures or moral frameworks. This article addresses continuity and innovation in strategies around historical adaptation to governance structures, ethnicity and “traditional” structures in South Africa. These themes will be explored using Hammanskraal, located in the north of Gauteng, as a case study, examining the way legitimacy has been gained, constructed and established in two specific periods: around 1911-1944 and 1995-2010. In 1944, government ethnographer NJ Van Warmelo produced a history of Johannes “Jan Tana” Kekana’s Ndebele, depicting the history and lineage of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane group. In 19...
South African Historical Journal, 2011
The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into p... more The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into part of the country's identity. Rooiberg is a tiny town in Limpopo that should not have survived into present day South Africa. The town was born and moulded out of a specific economic activity (tin mining) that governed most of the town's existence. When the tin mine around which the town was built was officially closed in 1994, this seriously jeopardised the future of the town. Yet, while almost all of the population left the town at that time, Rooiberg did nonetheless survive. This paper examines how and why. Through a research process involving the analysis of literature of company towns, as well as 27 interviews with inhabitants and ex-inhabitants of Rooiberg, this paper assesses both the location-specific and the generic reasons for Rooiberg's continued existence.1 Rooiberg's story, while in some ways a very specific case study, illuminates the importance of loca...
South African Historical Journal, 2011
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2016
New Contree a Journal of Historical and Human Sciences For Southern Africa, 2013
In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a... more In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a major part of power and wealth redistribution. However, as the land claims process is linked to demonstrable historical legitimacy, this process has sometimes necessitated both the restating and reinventing of local histories and "ethnic identities", in line with new political structures or moral frameworks. This article addresses continuity and innovation in strategies around historical adaptation to governance structures, ethnicity and "traditional" structures in South Africa. These themes will be explored using Hammanskraal, located in the north of Gauteng, as a case study, examining the way legitimacy has been gained, constructed and established in two specific periods: around 1911, government ethnographer NJ Van Warmelo produced a history of Johannes "Jan Tana" Kekana's Ndebele, depicting the history and lineage of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane group. In 1995, a substantial land-claim was lodged by a contestant for the chieftaincy of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane, presenting a different historical background that contested the narrative produced by Van Warmelo. The contestant for the chieftaincy, not currently officially recognised by South African state structures, has used various strategies to concretise his position. These strategies show how entrenched historical legitimacy is being counteracted by popular modes of expression, construction and communication. This new politics, consciously constructed around ideas of traditional structures and legitimacy, interacts with new power structures, adding the importance of political connections or resources to the construction of the claim. Contextualising this historically shows how continuities regarding "traditional" authorities have interacted with the state before, during and after apartheid.
South African Historical Journal, 2011
The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into p... more The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into part of the country's identity. Rooiberg is a tiny town in Limpopo that should not have survived into present day South Africa. The town was born and moulded out of a specific economic activity (tin mining) that governed most of the town's existence. When the tin mine around which the town was built was officially closed in 1994, this seriously jeopardised the future of the town. Yet, while almost all of the population left the town at that time, Rooiberg did nonetheless survive. This paper examines how and why. Through a research process involving the analysis of literature of company towns, as well as 27 interviews with inhabitants and ex-inhabitants of Rooiberg, this paper assesses both the location-specific and the generic reasons for Rooiberg's continued existence.1 Rooiberg's story, while in some ways a very specific case study, illuminates the importance of local, historical, and social factors in small-town urbanisation.
South African Journal of Higher Education
The COVID-19 pandemic has had previously unimaginable and far-reaching effects on higher educatio... more The COVID-19 pandemic has had previously unimaginable and far-reaching effects on higher education globally (Baker et al. 2022; Cranfield et al. 2021; Kara 2021; Le Grange 2020). On top of the widespread loss felt by students and teachers across the world, we have had to make rapid changes to previously taken-for-granted ways of doing, being, learning and teaching (Baker et al. 2022; Cranfield et al. 2021). Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) brought constraints and opportunities, challenges and innovations. This article gives form to the statement: “there is an opportunity in the moment for genuine equity-focused innovation in policy-making, provision and pedagogy” (Czerniewicz et al. 2020). We use a theoretical framework of structure, culture and agency through which to view possibilities for transformation of pedagogy, and a form of semi-autoethnography as methodology. Two lecturers, one in the Humanities (Education) and one in the Life Sciences, wrote extended narrativ...
South African journal of higher education, Dec 1, 2021
Although assessment forms a key part of knowledge production in Higher Education spaces, it is ra... more Although assessment forms a key part of knowledge production in Higher Education spaces, it is rarely brought into the decolonisation conversation. Assessment performs a crucial inclusion/exclusion function. As this function determines formalised recognition of knowledge and proficiency, decolonisation of assessment should be part of decolonial research in Higher Education. Assessment outcomes determine whether and when students will progress and graduate If we focus solely on decolonising pedagogy and content, but rely on existing assessment practises, decolonisation stops at precisely the moment in which students' knowledge is measured. This article explores decolonising assessment through conceptual research and a case study using assessments and discussions from three History courses in a teacher education programme. This combination allows for the blending of a theoretical approach with some aspects of application, as well as a grounding in student-driven ideas. The case-study data is drawn from class discussions. 1 This article brings together principles of assessment, theories of teaching History, and theories of decolonisation. I examine how assessment can disrupt notions of where knowledge is held, built, and displayed. I also try to understand what kinds of assessment students could experience as enabling rather than gate-keeping. This investigation is exploratory, with the aim of opening a field of enquiry, not providing clear and definitive answers. However, as students pass through classrooms each year, there is an urgency to the enquiry. How these questions are approached day to day in the classroom will inform both findings and questions.
Education as Change
This article argues that the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) that took place during the Covid-19 ... more This article argues that the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 left learners and teachers alike awash in feelings of helplessness, loss, and anguish. While online learning literacy and pedagogy have improved over the course of 2020 and 2021, and interesting and important innovations have been implemented and explored, the foundational inequalities have not lessened or disappeared. This article argues for the use of care as a necessary pedagogy in the virtual classroom using a case study of one class. The labour of care needs to be considered as part of the labour of pedagogy during Covid-19. I argue for care being built into both pedagogy and assessment as part of a radical pedagogy for this time. I explore reflective assessment embedded in a pedagogy of care as a way to, if not combat, recognise and respond to the inequalities embodied in ERT and the society it exists in, towards radical change. Active reflection draws out...
Yesterday and Today, Dec 1, 2020
The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and th... more The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars.
South African Journal of Childhood Education
Background: The history essay, and historical writing, are crucial forms of assessment in History... more Background: The history essay, and historical writing, are crucial forms of assessment in History throughout primary and high school education. This article draws from an autoethnography of teachings in a pre-service history teachers’ school classroom. This article discusses obstacles students experience in conceptualising and writing the history essay. A tool is introduced to overcome these obstacles.Aim: This article presents a possible intervention in the form of a classroom tool.Setting: This classroom tool is presented in a pre-service history teachers classroom (tertiary). It is presented as a method to teach history in classrooms of senior phase (SP), intermediate phase (IP), and further education and training (FET) phase.Methods: This article uses a qualitative methodology that draws on autoethnography and reflective teaching methodology, allowing me to understand and analyse the processes taking place in my own classroom. This was authorised with an ethics protocol number (...
A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in t... more A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg October 2015
In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a... more In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a major part of power and wealth redistribution. However, as the land claims process is linked to demonstrable historical legitimacy, this process has sometimes necessitated both the restating and reinventing of local histories and “ethnic identities”, in line with new political structures or moral frameworks. This article addresses continuity and innovation in strategies around historical adaptation to governance structures, ethnicity and “traditional” structures in South Africa. These themes will be explored using Hammanskraal, located in the north of Gauteng, as a case study, examining the way legitimacy has been gained, constructed and established in two specific periods: around 1911-1944 and 1995-2010. In 1944, government ethnographer NJ Van Warmelo produced a history of Johannes “Jan Tana” Kekana’s Ndebele, depicting the history and lineage of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane group. In 19...
South African Historical Journal, 2011
The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into p... more The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into part of the country's identity. Rooiberg is a tiny town in Limpopo that should not have survived into present day South Africa. The town was born and moulded out of a specific economic activity (tin mining) that governed most of the town's existence. When the tin mine around which the town was built was officially closed in 1994, this seriously jeopardised the future of the town. Yet, while almost all of the population left the town at that time, Rooiberg did nonetheless survive. This paper examines how and why. Through a research process involving the analysis of literature of company towns, as well as 27 interviews with inhabitants and ex-inhabitants of Rooiberg, this paper assesses both the location-specific and the generic reasons for Rooiberg's continued existence.1 Rooiberg's story, while in some ways a very specific case study, illuminates the importance of loca...
South African Historical Journal, 2011
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2016
New Contree a Journal of Historical and Human Sciences For Southern Africa, 2013
In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a... more In post-apartheid South Africa, many hopes were pinned on the process of land-restitution to be a major part of power and wealth redistribution. However, as the land claims process is linked to demonstrable historical legitimacy, this process has sometimes necessitated both the restating and reinventing of local histories and "ethnic identities", in line with new political structures or moral frameworks. This article addresses continuity and innovation in strategies around historical adaptation to governance structures, ethnicity and "traditional" structures in South Africa. These themes will be explored using Hammanskraal, located in the north of Gauteng, as a case study, examining the way legitimacy has been gained, constructed and established in two specific periods: around 1911, government ethnographer NJ Van Warmelo produced a history of Johannes "Jan Tana" Kekana's Ndebele, depicting the history and lineage of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane group. In 1995, a substantial land-claim was lodged by a contestant for the chieftaincy of the AmaNdebele-a-Moletlane, presenting a different historical background that contested the narrative produced by Van Warmelo. The contestant for the chieftaincy, not currently officially recognised by South African state structures, has used various strategies to concretise his position. These strategies show how entrenched historical legitimacy is being counteracted by popular modes of expression, construction and communication. This new politics, consciously constructed around ideas of traditional structures and legitimacy, interacts with new power structures, adding the importance of political connections or resources to the construction of the claim. Contextualising this historically shows how continuities regarding "traditional" authorities have interacted with the state before, during and after apartheid.
South African Historical Journal, 2011
The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into p... more The economic and social structure of small-town South Africa offers an interesting insight into part of the country's identity. Rooiberg is a tiny town in Limpopo that should not have survived into present day South Africa. The town was born and moulded out of a specific economic activity (tin mining) that governed most of the town's existence. When the tin mine around which the town was built was officially closed in 1994, this seriously jeopardised the future of the town. Yet, while almost all of the population left the town at that time, Rooiberg did nonetheless survive. This paper examines how and why. Through a research process involving the analysis of literature of company towns, as well as 27 interviews with inhabitants and ex-inhabitants of Rooiberg, this paper assesses both the location-specific and the generic reasons for Rooiberg's continued existence.1 Rooiberg's story, while in some ways a very specific case study, illuminates the importance of local, historical, and social factors in small-town urbanisation.