Abstract
This article reflects on work as a radical-feminist adult educator and as part of a group of academics from 10 universities who have developed new national qualifications in the Adult Education Community and Training Sector (ACET) for Higher Education in South Africa. The qualification will respond to the training needs of Adult Education Community lecturers and practitioners, and thereby indirectly contribute to the education and training needs of the communities, unemployed adults and youth who require skills to find employment. In the design of this qualification we sought to ensure the inclusion in the qualification of the new policy requirements, critical transformative educational practices, and perspectives from community educators, as well as recent demands from students for a decolonised curriculum. Sometimes these frameworks are in contradiction to one another, particularly in a neo-liberal context in which education has a strong focus on the workplace. I provide evidence from a qualitative study on student motivations to study further that shows that whilst there is a concern with education for skills development to grow the economy, there are still present strong political motivations to learn on the part of students and therefore it is imperative to teach from all these standpoints. Keywords: context; critical learning; education policy; social justice orientation; student motivations
Highlights
This article reflects on my work as a radical feminist adult educator working in University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Adult Education Unit, and as a member of a group of academics from 10 South African universities, who met to conceptualise and develop a curriculum framework for the Advanced Diploma in Adult Education Community and Training Sector
The development of new qualifications in the post school sector is in direct response to national and local priorities of improving the quality of teaching and training in both the formal and non-formal ‘classroom.’ The qualification will respond to the training needs of Adult Education Community lecturers and practitioners, and thereby indirectly contribute to the education and training needs of the community, unemployed adults and youth who require skills to find employment
Findings and Discussion Curriculum as Motivation My study explores how the adult education curriculum can be constructed on a knowledge base that takes into account knowledge and skills required for adult educators in a global context, but which is responsive to students’ personal intellectual resources and the political and social interests that they bring with them
Summary
This article reflects on my work as a radical feminist adult educator working in University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Adult Education Unit, and as a member of a group of academics from 10 South African universities, who met to conceptualise and develop a curriculum framework for the Advanced Diploma in Adult Education Community and Training Sector The development of new qualifications in the post school sector is in direct response to national and local priorities of improving the quality of teaching and training in both the formal and non-formal ‘classroom.’ The qualification will respond to the training needs of Adult Education Community lecturers and practitioners, and thereby indirectly contribute to the education and training needs of the community, unemployed adults and youth who require skills to find employment While developing this framework and designing the curriculum for the UCT Adv. Dip for ACET qualification, we sought to include in the curriculum the new policy requirements, critical educational practises, perspectives from community educators as well as recent demands from students for a decolonised curriculum. This dilemma is in synergy with the theme on developing a decolonised curriculum, and a social justice orientation and pedagogy that seeks to chart new socio-political and economic developments for South Africa through education
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