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02 July 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish
Prof Tristan McCowan
Palgrave Macmillan is publishing Prof Tristan McCowan’s latest book in August 2019 that addresses the question of higher education and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Scholars began writing about post-development theory in the 1980s. Post-development is a school of thought that is critical of development. It promotes alternative ways of thinking and acting beyond the ideology of development which originated during the Cold War. 

According to post-development theorising, the idea of underdevelopment was conceptualised in order to promise material improvement to the global South in an attempt to slow the speed at which socialism was spreading by fast-tracking capitalist economic growth. 

What does a post-development university look like?

In order to explore models of university development, on Wednesday 26 June 2019, the University of the Free State’s (UFS) South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) in Higher Education and Human Development Research Group hosted Professor Tristan McCowan, Deputy-Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education at University College London, for a seminar on the Bloemfontein Campus.

”A developmental university’s primary orientation is serving society, particularly the marginalised of the community,” the professor explained. Referencing developmental universities established in Africa in the post-independence period, Prof McCowan pointed out that these aimed to develop courses relevant to local agricultural and infrastructure needs. In addition, these institutions conducted applied research with the community, and maintained close relationships with government.

Embracing the process of change

Prof McCowan attested to the flawed nature of the race towards a universal form of development and continuing economic growth. “We need to emancipate ourselves from any notion that countries should all be developing in this same way.” 

He argued that competition in economic and higher education generates inequalities, hence the autonomous development advocated by post-development. This, he claimed, is a promising alternative model of a university which is concerned with achieving but also going beyond the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It appears utopian but asks that we imagine alternatives possibilities.

Moreover: “The acknowledgement of higher education in the Sustainable Development Goals has raised crucial questions about whether and how universities can solve environmental challenges, address societies’ wicked problems and promote social justice,” stated Prof McCowan.

Bridging the gap on the ground

He considers the post-development university as one that represents an ‘ecology of knowledges’, with students engaging with indigenous as well as mainstream forms of knowing, challenging disciplinary boundaries. These ways of adapting existing theories to practical problems of the outside world are reflected in the UFs’ Integrated Transformation Plan. 

If transformation is to be advanced in a radical direction as post-development argues, a critical questioning of the current educational landscapes needs to happen. This questioning is welcomed and encouraged at a post-development university.

News Archive

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf
2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language. 

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other.  The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live.  It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people.  We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.  

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big.  “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc.  This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI).  The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987.  “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one.  I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach.  WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters.   “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing.  My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said. 

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance.  “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter.  This is not true.  It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters.  Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages.  The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years.  This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language.  Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.  


Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

 

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