The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development recently hosted a delegation from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who conducted a review of two CPUT projects.

The review, which took place from 10 to 13 May, is part of the international Supporting Quality Teaching study that has been undertaken by the OECD, which is based in Paris, since 2007.

The study forms part of the organisations Institutional Management for Higher Education (IMHE) programme, which is aimed at helping higher education institutions explore their institutional engagement into quality teaching.

According to the OECD the goal of the Supporting Quality Teaching is to “highlight effective quality initiatives and mechanisms and to push forward reflection or practices that may in turn help other institutions to improve the quality of their teaching and thereby, the quality of their graduates.”

In participating in the project, higher education institutions take part in an international review that collects information and benchmarks that would be of benefit to them.

The project is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, which is already completed, involved an overview of institutional initiatives and policies that enhanced the quality of teaching.

The second phase, in which CPUT is participating is exploring institutional experiences and approaches to quality teaching.

Prof Terry Volbrecht, Director of The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development said CPUT was invited by the OECD to participate in phase two of the study.

“They asked us to submit two particular institutional initiatives that have a wide impact on teaching and learning at the institution,” said Prof Volbrecht.

The OECD review visit focused on two key teaching initiatives at CPUT, namely the Curriculum Officer Project and the Extended Curriculum Project.

The Curriculum Officer Project is an advocacy project to empower academic staff members, nominated by their faculties, to improve teaching and learning practices within their respective faculties and academic departments.

The Extended Curriculum Project involves an extension of teaching and learning activities at first year level over two years with extensive academic support.

Prof Volbrecht said the review process involved a three-day site visit, interviews with staff members and students, documentary analysis and questionnaires.

He said this review will benefit CPUT as the institution will get an external opinion on the quality of the two programmes.

Fabrice Henard, an analyst at the OECD programme said there are ten institutions participating in the second phase of the study, which is earmarked to be completed in 2011.

He said the reviews will produce a reflective paper for each higher education institution. These reflective papers will then be cross-analysed by IMHE/OECD, which will result in an international transversal report.

Henard said the review is not meant to explore the whole educational process or to reveal the educational impacts. According to the OECD the reviews are intended to complement earlier evaluations and foster internal reflection for further work.

OECD review team member, Dr Outi Kallioinen, who is also the Development Director of Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland, said the reviews will also enrich the reflections of the OECD on the quality of education at institutions worldwide.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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The thorny topic of decolonising university curricula was tackled head-on during the annual Language Indaba this week.

Hosted by the Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development’s Language Unit this year participants explored the topic of Decolonising the Language Curriculum.

Delegates at the Indaba included discipline specialists, curriculum officers, language specialists, academics and researchers and students in relevant fields.

Delivering the keynote address, University of Cape Town’s Prof Carolyn McKinney cited examples of how colonialism in education negatively impacts the linguistic resources of African people.

McKinney questioned whether parents of English and Afrikaans – speaking children would allow their children to learn everything from Grade 4 onwards in isiXhosa as their Xhosa counterparts are compelled to learn in English.

She discussed various dominant language ideologies before offering the audience de-colonial approaches to language teaching.

She suggested multilingual class discussions, group work and learning materials as well as assignments requiring the use of more than one language and group to share resources, among others.

Prof Johannes Cronje, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design at CPUT, discussed his approach to teaching and learning in communication which allows students to interact with each other and himself, uses Dashboard and other online forms of learning as well as innovative assessment methods.

Jabar Mohammed, DeafSA’s Western Cape director, explained the role of DeafSA and the challenges faced by the South African deaf community as well as what is being done to address them.

CPUT’s Dr Bernadette Millar argued that decolonization is a journey of self-discovery culminating in a reawakening and a re-orientation.

Millar said decolonising the mind involved a radical process of finding the colonial master’s intention and undoing conditioning, normalisation, power and privilege of the white mind. 

Written by Kwanele Butana
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