30 November - 03 December 2020 | Bloemfontein\, South Africa
2020 HELTASA programme (PDF)\, 24 November 2020
Higher Education globally\, particularly in South Africa\, continues to face challenges relating to learning spaces t hat affect both teachers and students. This means that teachers in school s and in Higher education institutions must relook the way they interact and engage with learners and students\, respectively. These existing chal lenges have now been compounded by the Coronavirus pandemic. This necessi tates that Higher Education institutions rethink the delivery of their cu rricula as well as different ways of interacting and engaging students us ing diverse learning spaces and platforms. Face to face interaction is gr adually being replaced by virtual or remote learning as schools and highe r education institutions must abide by the requirements of social distanc ing imposed by the various governments to curb the spread of the deadly v irus. COVID-19 has added to the woes South African Higher Education is al ready experiencing and it needs a concerted effort to all those involved in education to address these problems to ensure delivery of quality educ ation for all. \; \; \; \; \;
Morieson\, M urray\, Wilson\, Clarke and Lukas (2018) advocate for university campuses to provide spaces that facilitate the formation of communities of practi ce and enable greater communication\, interaction and collaboration in di fferent contexts. Higher Education within the context of the coronavirus pandemic requires even greater and more systematic collaboration between Education systems globally and within Southern Africa. As argued by Barne tt (2000) the context of Higher Education is &ldquo\;supercomplex&rdquo\; and necessitates learning spaces where students can cope with the radica l changes taking place in the world especially within universities. In li ne with this argument\, the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa currentl y calls for accelerated ways of expanding access and responsiveness to em erging skills and knowledge need\, an idea which was initially advocated by the South African Ministry of Higher Education\, through its Higher Ed ucation Qualification Sub-Framework (2013). South Africa is still grappli ng with widening access to higher education\, and increased numbers of st udents entering higher education\, the majority of whom come from poor ed ucational backgrounds. Such varied educational backgrounds have widened t he articulation gap from secondary to tertiary education (Chetty and Path er\, 2015). \;This means that the university teachers need to be equ ipped with the necessary skills to cater for the needs of the diverse stu dent population (Heagney and Marr 2013).
The coronavirus pandemic i s not only challenging the teaching and learning approaches but has expos ed South Africa&rsquo\;s inequalities in the allocation of resources betw een universities as well as the readiness of universities to cater for st udents and lecturers who\, because of their backgrounds and circumstances \, do not have access to technological devices. In the process of moving from traditional classroom teaching to remote or virtual teaching and lea rning these inequalities must be addressed.
University teachers sho uld be encouraged to reevaluate their teaching strategies and use innovat ive approaches that will enable all the students to equally participate a nd learn effectively. As observed by Kozinskiy (2017)\, there are student s who are not interested in attending class\, listening to a lecture\, an d memorizing for examinations but they want to be challenged and engaged in the learning process. Innovative approaches should be considered in a broader sense to include curriculum transformation\, assessment and evalu ation of learning and teaching in different modes and contexts\, includin g the coronavirus pandemic context. It is important to create learning sp aces where both university teachers and students can co-create knowledge that will empower students to contribute to their society and economy. Mo rieson et al\, (2018) suggest that universities should position students not as passive consumers but as active participants and co‐creators of th eir university experience. Hence\, Case (2015: 31) argues for the signifi cance of having &ldquo\;a depth of intellectual leadership in higher educ ation that will allow us to build institutions that are truly public spac es that build emergent citizenship and belonging for all students&rdquo\; . In line with this argument\, HELTASA 2020 conference aims to present an opportunity for academics in Southern Africa to hold conversations on ho w to &ldquo\;create enabling learning spaces for all&rdquo\;. Th ese conversations will be in line with HELTASA&rsquo\;s mission of promot ing &ldquo\;teaching as a scholarly\, responsive and legitimate engagemen t in the context of inclusion and upliftment in higher education practice &hellip\;&rdquo\; and will attempt to respond to the following questions:
Go to the HELTASA website to register and attend