{"title":"Enacting criticality and care","authors":"Najma Agherdien","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11isi.627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.627","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides an account of one higher education teacher’s views on the notions of criticality and critique within the context of continuous professional learning spaces for academics and in which the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is central. I present an account of enacting SoTL practices through criticality and (with) care. Included is an account of SoTL engagements with academics, a process that takes time, courage, patience, and hope. The argument that I make is that withholding critical care – which includes attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness - is part of injustice. Hence, contestation, criticality, and critique with care must remain key SoTL activities. A twin argument is that (self) criticality is a precursor to critiquing others. The article concludes with implications of enacting criticality with care, in SoTL and beyond.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What is critical in EdTech research?","authors":"D. Gachago","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11isi.651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.651","url":null,"abstract":"There are a number of editors on the CriSTaL editorial board, whose interest is in educational technologies, emerging technologies, ICTs in education, digital education and digital pedagogies, which are some of the many terms that are used in our field. These are usually the editors I, Daniela, as managing editor, draw on, when we get submissions from authors on issues around the use of technology in learning and teaching. We receive many submissions, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rejection rate is also increasing due to the majority of the papers failing to meet CriSTaL’s aim and scope. I invited some of my editorial board colleagues into a conversation to chat about what we would like to see in a paper tackling technologies in learning and teaching and which papers we feel do not suit CriSTaL’s aims and scope. The colleagues who joined me in this conversation were Dr Najma Agherdien, who is in Curriculum and Teaching at the University of Witwatersrand and Dr Nicola Pallitt, an educational technology specialist and senior lecturer at Rhodes University. We shared our reflections with other members of the board, such as Paul Prinsloo, Research Professor in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in the College of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of South Africa, and Tutaleni Asino, Associate Professor in the Learning, Design and Technology Program at Oklahoma State University, and invited our critical friend Laura Czerniewicz, emeritus professor at the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town, to get an outside perspective as well.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investigating critical thinking in higher education in Latin America: Acknowledging an epistemic disjuncture","authors":"Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela, Roxana Chiappa, Andrés Rojas-Murphy Tagle, Nagwa Ismail, Liliana Pedraja Rejas","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11isi.624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.624","url":null,"abstract":"Critical thinking (CT) in higher education (HE) has been widely investigated in Western countries. Most of the research on CT has conceived it as a higher order thinking skill with implications for learning processes. CT has also been connected with critical pedagogies, an approach that seems particularly attuned with the Latin American region. Through a systematic literature review, this article maps the scholarship on CT in HE in Latin America (LATAM). Findings point to a local character of the research on CT that heavily relies on cognitive psychology traditions. It is proposed that the scholarship on CT in LATAM is characterised by an epistemic disjuncture that favours theories and methodologies produced in the Global North overshadowing well-recognised traditions of critical pedagogies in the region. We conclude that research on CT in the region is missing an opportunity to develop powerful features that are especially fitting for LATAM’s geo-historic context.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66975633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards understanding the influence of rurality on students’ access to and participation in higher education","authors":"Hellen Agumba, Z. Simpson, A. Ndofirepi","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11i1.643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.643","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the experiences of students from rural backgrounds in higher education in South Africa in order to foster more equitable access and participation. Edward Soja’s notion of spatial justice provides a platform for thinking about rurality and its impact on access and success in HE. Soja’s trialectical account means understanding rurality historically, spatially, and socially, and enables exploration of spatial inequalities based on the interplay between rurality and HE. Data was collected within an interpretive, qualitative, case study design through document analysis, interviews, and focus groups. The findings reveal the inequalities that students experience in HE due to their rural backgrounds and the fact that their experiences, abilities, and knowledges are neither acknowledged nor valued in the university, often by the students themselves. This study contributes to understandings of the historical, social, and spatial foundations of inequality in HE and charts future directions for policy and practice.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unpacking the notion of ‘criticality’ in liberatory praxis: A critical pedagogy perspective","authors":"G. Nomdo","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11isi.644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.644","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is informed by the field of socially just pedagogies. A critical pedagogy perspective grounded in a transformative and liberatory praxis is employed to discuss why the notion of criticality is fundamental to classroom engagement, especially within historically white South African universities. Although widely adopted, the meanings attached to criticality varies. This paper focuses on criticality as used within critical pedagogy and argues that it ushers in a humanising classroom pedagogy that facilitates dialogic relationships and promotes student agency and critical social consciousness. Through employing a qualitative case study methodology, this research draws on data extracted from two courses on identity. A critically reflective gaze is adopted to examine the impact of criticality in these spaces. Criticality embedded in dialogic praxis was found to aid the development of agency and raise critical awareness about socially just societies. Teachers’ responsibilities for being agents of change, was also highlighted.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teacher-team reflections on the quality and modes of thinking in Writing Intensive courses at the University of the Witwatersrand during the first year of the global COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Pam Nichols, Avril Joffe, R. Pillay, Bontle Tladi","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11i1.583","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.583","url":null,"abstract":"Writing Intensive (WI) courses depend on student engagement and continuous responses to student work. The sudden move to online learning in the face of COVID-19 presented profound challenges to this model. This is unsurprising since it is widely accepted that globally the quality of learning, particularly the acquisition of deep literacy, declined significantly throughout the pandemic (OECD, 2021; Garfinkle, 2020). This paper draws on the reflections of three course teams in different disciplines and follows the method pioneered by John Bean and Barbara Walvoord in the evaluation of writing programmes (Bean, et al., 2005). It mines iterative and comparative teacher team reflections but does not seek to provide quantitative data on ‘proof of impact’. From the evidence of these three courses, it is suggested that student learning and problem solving can be enhanced through the explicit teaching of the types of reasoning required, in these cases analogic, empathetic, and inferential. The argument is located within wider international arguments on the crisis of deep literacy and the work of The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on developing literacy skills in a digital world (OECD, 2021).","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66975575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Problematising the South African Higher Education inequalities exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic: Students’ perspectives","authors":"Corinne Knowles, Abongile James, Lebogang Khoza, Zikhona Mtwa, Milisa Roboji, Matimu Shivambu","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11i1.668","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.668","url":null,"abstract":"Former Rhodes University students, co-authors of this article, were engaged in a knowledge-making project during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper is a product of that project, where participants deliberated on the inequalities in the education sector based on their experiences in their university. These were exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. Using a decolonial theoretical lens, they present the experiences of students to critique university decisions at the time. They argue for a reconnection with the idea of the university as a public good, as an antidote to the neoliberal tendencies that perpetuate inequality in the sector. This requires a reconnection with its own students, and to collaborate with them to find strategies to deal with crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, a reconnection between the university and the school sector could lead to greater synergy and an easier transition between school and university.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Immanent and diffractive critique in scholarship and publication","authors":"V. Bozalek, Nike Romano","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11isi.629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.629","url":null,"abstract":"Criticality and critique require careful attention by authors, reviewers, and editors in Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CRiSTaL), since they form a central focus of the journal. Conventional views of critique are influenced by unexpressed assumptions that what is needed is an authoritative expert, who from a position of superiority and distance, diagnoses and pronounces on the inadequacies of the text. This article explores more generative approaches to critique and criticality such as immanent critique and diffractive methodologies. We argue that in order for immanent critique and diffractive methodologies to happen, sensibilities such as attentiveness, response-ability, accountability, generosity, and curiosity are necessary. The final section of the paper considers academic practices of reviewing, writing, reading, pedagogy, and conferencing in relation to immanent critique and diffractive methodologies and the sensibilities we propose which make these forms of critique and criticality possible.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Karen Barad as Educator: Agential Realism and Education","authors":"P. Du Preez","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11i1.682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.682","url":null,"abstract":"What do the tracing of stories about plastic bricks, the moon, an aquarium, Zuko, a pregnant stingray, Facebook, a stick, ghosts, and many other kin, have in common? And, how might ‘[a]rticulating those stories ...help “stretch” our response-ability as educators to include all humans and other-than-humans as part of our earthly survival and more just futures’(Murris, 2022:18)","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66976078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning-centred assessment validation framework: A theoretical exploration","authors":"O. Ijiwade, D. Alonzo","doi":"10.14426/cristal.v11i1.613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.613","url":null,"abstract":"Classroom-based assessment validation has received considerable critical attention and many conceptualisations have emerged. While these conceptualisations are helpful in advancing our assessment knowledge, there is a need for a more learning-oriented teacher assessment practice validation. This paper builds on previous validation theories and approaches to redefine the validity of classroom-based assessment in terms of practical, useful, and trustworthy interpretation and uses of classroom assessment in enhancing learning and teaching. Further, the paper sets relevant inferences and prioritises teachers as sources of evidence in assessment evaluation based on pragmatic principles and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. This explication is valuable in exploring a learning-centred validation approach for evaluating classroom assessment. The paper suggests practical principles for evaluating learning-oriented, teacher-based assessment. Lastly, the paper concludes by articulating implication of the approach in any contemporary assessment system.","PeriodicalId":36957,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66975720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}