Transforming Transformation in Research and Teaching at South African Universities

Title page
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
	References
01: Transforming Transformation in Research and Teaching at South African Universities: An introduction
	Transformation: A post-apartheid concept
	Raising concerns about ‘transformation’ in universities
	Section and chapter summaries in this volume
	References
SECTION 1: Transformation, its Scope and Limitations
02: Transformation as Freedom: Confronting ‘unfreedoms’ in students’ lives
	Introduction
	The project
	Freedom and justice within university spaces
	Instrumental freedoms for university transformation
	Freedoms and unfreedoms in students’ lives: Viola’s story
	Conclusion: University transformation as freedom
	References
03: Is University Transformation about Assimilation into Slightly Tweaked Traditions?
	How to be part of one another
	The idea of transformation as assimilation is rejected
	Universities in 2044
	A conversation with a white man
	Beyond transformation as assimilation
	Ever met an intersectional Zulu pro-feminist male activist scholar?
	Subverting the continuing alienation of some people from the authority to explain the world
	Do not hand your children over to the traditionalists
	Conclusion
	References
04: ‘This Revolution has Women, Lesbians and Gays, Queers, and Trans Bodies. Remember That!’
	Introduction
	Decolonising transformation
	Basic education
	Higher education: Fault lines and critical incidents
	Discussion: Queer transformation?
	Conclusion
	References
SECTION 2: Researching Material and Symbolic Spaces on Campus
05: Location and Dislocation: Spatiality and transformation in higher education
	Introduction
	A spatial reading of the Wits School of Education campus
	How students use the affordances of space in the #FeesMustFall protests
	A failed attempt to transform space
	Conclusion
	References
06: ‘Why Did You Choose to Sit Here?’ Interviews with people in same-race friendship groups at Stellenbosch University
	Introduction
	“Why did you choose to sit here?”
	“So what?”
	Implications for thinking about transformation
	References
07: The Writing on the Toilet Wall: Researching graffiti conversations in women student toilets at Stellenbosch University
	Introduction
	Method
	Framing the inquiry
	Anonymity and the making of conversations
	Findings and analysis
	Conclusion
	References
SECTION 3: At Home or Not at Home: Raising Concerns about Forms of Othering On and Off Campus
08: Out of Sight: Beyond these walls, inside this machine
	I: The Bus Home
	II: To Write
	III: To Write to Fail
	References
09: The Fall of Rhodes: A photovoice investigation into institutional culture and resistance at UCT
	Bridging the gap between lived experience and institutional culture
	Resisting institutional culture: The photovoice process
	The politics of identity and representation
	Affective barriers to belonging at UCT
	The fall of CJR and the rise of a black intersectional narrative
	Transformation, institutional culture and the role of affect
	References
10: A ‘Home for All’?: How gay, lesbian and bisexual students experience being ‘at home’ in university residence life
	Introduction
	The study
	The (contested) concept of ‘home’
	‘It just doesn’t feel right’ – being uncomfortable and dislocated ‘at home’
	Implications for higher education transformation: Towards residences that are truly ‘home for all’
	Conclusion
	References
11: Feeling at Home or Not at Home: Negotiating gender, sexuality and race in residences in an historically white university in South Africa
	Introduction
	Researching students
	Reading focus group discussions as ethnographic encounters
	Single-sex residences and normative expectations about gender and sexuality
	Sexuality, gender and race and the economy of popularity in residences
	Concluding comments
	References
12: ‘Everything and the Kitchen Sink’: Being ‘at home’ in South African universities
	The kitchen sink: Jill’s story
	Everything and the kitchen sink: Jude’s story
	Mapping this story to the student movement, 2015 and beyond
	#RhodesMustFall
	#FeesMustFall
	#RU Reference List
	Conclusion
	References
13: ‘We Have no Faces’: The intersectional positionality of black South African women in STEM fields
	Introduction
	Findings
	Conclusion
	References
SECTION 4: Doing Gender and Heterosex on Campus
14: Constructing Heterosex: Examining male university students’ depictions of (hetero)sexuality in their talk of rape in South Africa
	Introduction
	Heterosex and ‘the cultural scaffolding of rape’
	Constructing ‘normal’ heterosex and its relation to rape
	Concluding remarks
	References
15: ‘Doing Gender’ on Campus: Students’ experiences of normative practices of heterosex in South African higher educational contexts and some critical reflections on dominant responses
	Introduction
	Universities as a site for the reproduction of heteronormative gender and sexualities
	Critical thoughts on higher educational responses to gender (in)justices
	Concluding thoughts
	References
SECTION 5: Engaging with Disability as a Transformation Concern  in Higher Education
16: Disability and Higher Education in South Africa: Political responses and embodied experiences
	Introduction
	Background to disability and education in South Africa
	Policy responses in the period 1994‑2001
	The experiences of disabled students in South African universities
	Entering university campuses: Who is allowed to enter?
	Disclosing a disability: More than securing accommodations
	General support: Disability units and lecturer attitudes
	Issues of accessibility
	Where we are now and the way forward
	References
17: ‘Silence is Violence’: Claiming voice for disability in higher education transformation
	Wits in the late 80s and early 90s: Rose’s experiences
	Stellenbosch University today: Bongani’s experiences
	Conclusion
	References
SECTION 6: Transformative Pedagogies and Curricula
18: To Do Difference Differently: Intervening at the intersection of institutional culture and the curriculum
	Introduction
	The intersection between institutional culture and curriculum
	Institutional culture
	Hidden curriculum
	A curricular intervention in UP’s institutional culture: Doing Difference Differently (UP3D)
	Critical self-reflection as primary pedagogical approach
	UP3D in 2016 and 2017: Disturbing habits of misrecognition
	Conclusion
	References
19: ‘Gender Equality is a Human Problem’: Teaching men and masculinities in a South African undergraduate classroom
	Introduction
	Background and context
	Discussion
	Conclusion
	References
20: Gender, Violence and the First‑Year Curriculum
	Introduction
	Gender-based violence in South African universities
	Theoretical framework
	Setting the context
	Research methodology
	The class discussions
	Discussion
	Implications for development
	References
21: Performing Transformation: Exploring the contribution of the InZync poetry sessions to sociocultural transformation in Stellenbosch
	Introduction
	Background
	Towards a context-specific systems understanding of transformation
	Complex systems – an orientating framework
	InZync as a complex sociocultural system
	A thick description of transformation at InZync through the mouths of participants
	The participants and their interactions
	Key learnings applicable to transformation at Stellenbosch University
	Conclusion
	References
22: Transforming the Intellectual: Open Stellenbosch and the use of social media
	Defining the Intellectual
	Intellectuals in the Internet age
	Open Stellenbosch and the use of social media
	New media, new activists, and the question of the intellectual
	Conclusion
	References
SECTION 7: The Politics of Language and Transformation
23: Whiteness, Afrikaans Language Politics and Higher Education Transformation at Stellenbosch University
	Introduction
	Transformation of the South African higher education system
	Whiteness in the language debate at SU
	Transformation, policy-making and Afrikaans
	Conclusion
	References
24: Negotiating Belonging through Language, Place and Education: An auto-ethnography
	Negotiating language since birth
	Language as cultural capital
	Dominant narratives about Afrikaans at Stellenbosch University
	References
25: Rhodes Had to Fall, but King George Still Stands: Two South African universities compared
	Introduction
	Higher education in South Africa post-1994
	‘Africanisation’ in higher education
	Mission and vision: UKZN vis-à-vis UCT
	Concluding thoughts
	Acknowledgement
	References
SECTION 8: Schooling and Transformation
26: Standard Disruption: Transformation and language use in places of learning
	Introduction
	From the ground up: Transformation as engaging with local practices
	Three educational places involving young people from one Cape Flats neighbourhood
	From the Cape Flats to the academy
	Last words
	References
27: Transformation as a Matter of State rather than Degree: Thinking beyond desegregation
	Schools and inequality
	Data and methods
	Desegregated but unequal
	Discussion and conclusion: Thinking beyond high schools
	References
About the Authors