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23 October 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Valentino Ndaba
Dr Patience book
From left: Prof Melanie Walker (SARChI Chair and Director of Higher Education and Human Development Research Group), Dr Patience Mukwambo (author of the monograph), and Dr Mikateko Hoppener, Senior Researcher in the group.

“A quality higher-education learning experience is a transformative experience for both students and lecturers who develop their minds in criticality, as well as social and self-identity, in addition to other skills and competencies.” This was the message from Dr Patience Mukwambo at the launch of her recently published book – ‘Quality in Higher Education as a Tool for Human Development: Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Zimbabwe’.

The book is a product of her doctoral research and was launched by the office of the SARChI Chair in Higher Education and Human Development, where Dr Mukwambo is a full-time researcher and was introduced at an event held at the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 21 October 2019. 

Depressing higher-education system

Dr Mukwambo was joined in conversation by Prof Brian Raftopoulos, a Mellon Senior Research Mentor in the Centre for Humanities Research at University of the Western Cape. 

Both scholars testified to the concept of critical thinking, alluding to the depressing state of education in Zimbabwe due to limitations posed by a non-expanding economy and a repressive political space. 

Prof Raftopoulos told the audience the idea of critical thinking has a long genealogy in radical thought which has deepened its roots in modern-day society. 

“What you have seen through the introduction of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), is the increasing idea of functionalising education for a work economy. More often than not, you will hear the state saying it is up to school-leavers to create their own jobs,” said Prof Raftopoulos. According to Dr Mukwambo, part of the challenge is that “critical thinking is omitted on purpose and therefore universities lack a moral compass to work from”.

“While the broader economy might be constraining there are opportunities to develop critical thinking in the classroom, although it might not be uniform across all universities,” said Dr Mukwambo.

Equipping graduates with critical-thinking skills contributes to a range of benefits, such as improved wellbeing, economic outcomes, political engagement, and human capital formation. Quality in teaching and learning is therefore indeed a step in the right direction, towards social justice.


News Archive

Eusibius McKaiser gives first talk on new book at Kovsies
2012-05-09

 

Eusibius McKaiser
Photo: Johan Roux
9 May 2012

Students and staff from our university got the first glimpse of political and social commentator Eusibius McKaiser’s new book, There is a Bantu in my bathroom, during a public lecture of the same title held by the author on the Bloemfontein Campus.

McKaiser told the audience that they were amongst the first people to get a preview of his book, a collection of essays on race, sexuality and politics.

His talk centred on domestic race relationships, posing the question whether it was acceptable to have racial preferences with regard to whom you live with. Recounting an incident he encountered while looking for a flat in Sandton, McKaiser said the country was still many kilometres away from the end-goal of non-racialism.

McKaiser, who hosted a weekly politics and morality show on Talk Radio 702, and is a weekly contributor to The New York Times, said the litmus test for non-racialism in South Africa was not what people utter in a public space, but rather what was said in private.

“We need to talk more about the domestic space. In public, we are very insincere and quick to preach non-racialism.”

Recounting conversations he had with Talk Radio 702 listeners on the incident, McKaiser said that preference about whom you live with was not specific to white people’s attitude. He said many of his black listeners also felt uncomfortable living with a white person. “The question is, ‘What do these preferences say about you? What does it say about where we are as a country and people’s commitment to non-racialism?’”

McKaiser was the guest of the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice.
 

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