Online teaching in response to student protests and campus shutdowns: academics\u2019 perspectives

Laura Czerniewicz,Genevieve Haupt,Henry Trotter

doi:10.1186/s41239-019-0170-1

Abstract

During the period 2015–2017, student protests and university shutdowns rocked the higher education sector in South Africa, with key issues being raised regarding student exclusion based on financial, epistemological and cultural grounds. In this highly politicised and contested environment, some universities decided to use blended and online delivery as a strategy to enable the academic year to be completed and all curriculum to be covered, despite the disruptions. This was a controversial decision politically and a challenging one practically. From the perspective of the academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT), this paper draws on interviews with educators in three broad disciplinary areas to explore their views, practices, and experiences regarding the use of online materials in these unique circumstances. Activity Theory provides a framework to consider the issues systemically and to identify the tensions and contradictions in the system.

Highlights

Whether or not technology is - or can be - neutral is a long-standing philosophical debate which inevitably infiltrates and underpins the fluid terrain of higher education in a digitised era
What is the responsibility of academics to the student body when protests interrupt classes and shut down the university? How do they manage their own principles, views and ambivalence when they have, and believe they have, an educational mission to complete the curriculum within a given timeframe? If teaching is to continue in a context of protest and disruption, how should it proceed – practically speaking – given the temporal, infrastructural, financial and emotional constraints that shape students’ and staff responses?
While South African students have long been known for their activism, these protests – coming more than 20 years after government change in 1994 – were notable for their power and persistence, as one university former vice-chancellor stated, “Even during the long, dark days of apartheid, no university had ever experienced this level of student protest in terms of scale, scope, intensity, and, in the course of time, violence” (Jansen, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Whether or not technology is - or can be - neutral is a long-standing philosophical debate which inevitably infiltrates and underpins the fluid terrain of higher education in a digitised era The impossibility of such neutrality is manifest in the role of technology in teaching, further amplified in a situation where technology is used during the highly politicized contestations of student protests. “Whether seeking to participate actively and sympathetically, or not,” one commentator noted, “all students and staff in the South African academy were part of the Fees Must Fall movement, in the sense that all had been affected by it. Their studies and employment had been influenced by protest actions and by institutional responses” (Hodes, 2016). While South African students have long been known for their activism, these protests – coming more than 20 years after government change in 1994 – were notable for their power and persistence, as one university former vice-chancellor stated, “Even during the long, dark days of apartheid, no university had ever experienced this level of student protest in terms of scale, scope, intensity, and, in the course of time, violence” (Jansen, 2017)

Methods

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Conclusion