Petro du Preez

Reconciliation through dialogical nostalgia in post-conflict societies: a curriculum to intersect

The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new directions and ways of understanding curriculum, there is little consensus about the direction the field should take. Two particular issues that this article addresses are the tendency of curriculum practitioners to tackle social issues at a symptomatic level instead of considering the roots of the problems, and the over-emphasis on the political dimension with little or no attention given to the ethical dimensions of the curriculum. In an attempt to develop new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change, I explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives. To facilitate this exploration, I draw on the notion of the ethic...The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new directions and ways of understanding curriculum, there is little consensus about the direction the field should take. Two particular issues that this article addresses are the tendency of curriculum practitioners to tackle social issues at a symptomatic level instead of considering the roots of the problems, and the over-emphasis on the political dimension with little or no attention given to the ethical dimensions of the curriculum. In an attempt to develop new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change, I explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives. To facilitate this exploration, I draw on the notion of the ethical turn in the study of curriculum and the theory of intersectionality. Examples from South Africa are used to develop the argument. I conclude by situating the discussion in the context of other post-conflict societies where reconciliation is needed.

The centrality of the research question for locating PhD studies in the global knowledge society

Although classified as a developing country, South Africa lags far behind other BRICS member countries. A cause for concern is that the number of PhD studies rather than what they contribute is often used to measure their quality. This article argues that a quality PhD study must engage with the global knowledge society. A critical meta-study was conducted to ascertain whether the PhD studies between 2005 and 2012 in South Africa did so. The chief process was the interrogation of the research question in each PhD study, and its links with the topic, the focus and the repositioning of the contribution declared by the study. An analysis of 240 qualitative PhD studies in the education field has revealed that PhD studies with strong internal links tend to have a coherent conceptual build-up and contribute to the global knowledge society. In the conclusion, guidelines for PhD education are presented.

Higher Degree Committee Members’ Perceptions of Quality Assurance of Doctoral Education: A South African Perspective

In South Africa four key policy discourses underpin doctoral education: growth, capacity, efficiency, and quality discourses. This article contributes to the discourse on quality by engaging with quality assurance from the perspective of the decision makers and implementers of macro policy (national), meso (institutional), and micro (faculty/departmental) levels. We explore the perceptions that members of higher degree committees in the field of Education have of the quality assurance of doctoral education. Our data are drawn from a national survey questionnaire completed by these respondents at all public South African institutions that offer a doctorate in Education. The insights gained reside within four categories: positionality, policy, programmes, and people (stakeholders). Thereafter, we problematised the main results using academic freedom in a mode 3 knowledge production environment as a lens, which revealed thought provoking directions for future research about doctoral education.

Religious Values and/or Human Rights Values? Curriculum-Making for an Ethic of Truths

Greater diversity and a decline in the understanding of the moral purposes of education has not only had an impact on secular school environments’ conceptualization of values in education, but also influenced faith based school contexts. Amidst greater diversity, the questions pertaining to values in education have become more complex and have often been captured in dichotomous reasoning. My principal aims in this chapter are to contribute to the dilemma of contradicting value systems in education and the inability to frame a value system for a diverse context, as well as to explore theoretical possibilities to think about curriculum-making processes that could surpass these problems. Inspired by Rorty R (Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1979) and Badiou A (Ethics: an essay on the understanding of evil. Verso, London/New York, 2002), I will argue that discourses of values in education has been too fixated with objective answers to address descriptive moral challenges and, in so doing, too little focus and thought has been placed on continuous conversation that centres humanity and its infinite strive for truths. This phenomenon has resulted in an inability to overcome outdated dichotomous reasoning and to enter the domain of alternative, innovative understandings of values in education. Implications of these arguments will continuously be explored in the context of curriculum-making in secular and faith based school contexts. Toward the end I argue for an ongoing process of curriculum-making for an ethic of truths that provides a normative base from which values in education could organically stem and which does not set a good way of being as an abstract aim, but a concrete departure point.