Rethinking support for university teachers in the context of decolonising higher education: The role of academic developers

Abstract

The diverse histories of each of the three formerly different higher education institutions that became NorthWest University (NWU) continue to encourage academic developers to think strategically on effective ways to offer responsive academic development support to the students and academic staff. Tasked with a mandate to render academic development support to academic staff, postgraduate, and undergraduate students to achieve equity (not equality) of outcomes, NWU's Faculty Teaching and Learning Support (FTLS) directorate continues to rethink its strategy and approach in fulfilling its mandate long after the merging of the three historically different institutions on 1 January 2004. The directorate understands that there are common, fundamental, and core student academic development and support, and academic professional development needs across the three campuses that should be aligned, yet our engagement has shown repeatedly that such support is always situational and, inadvertently, contextual. Drawing on New Literacy Studies as theoretical lens to advance its argument, this paper used the literature review method to present the rationale for a restructured FTLS work strategy at NWU to respond better to demands for supporting the academic project in the context of decolonising higher education.