Inclusion in higher education a quest for epistemic access[1]

Inclusion in Higher Education: A
quest for epistemic access
SOTL Seminar Towards a Socially Just Pedagogy
21 August 2014
Tsediso Michael Makoelle (D Ed, Ph D)

Why inclusion?
 Education for social justice
 Human right issue
 Access to economic viability
 Responding to global commitments to make the
world an equitable and inclusive society
 Embrace diversity
T Makoelle 21 August 2014

Conceptualization
Inclusive education means providing equitable
education and widening participation of all
learners regardless of their background
(Ainscow (2010), Dyson (2012), Makoelle (2013)
Used interchangeably sometimes with social
inclusion (which encompasses wider social
context (Slee 2006)
Not inclusion: focus on only disability

Theoretical orientations to inclusive
education practice
 Curriculum approaches: view of curriculum as a barrier to
learning (Clough & Corbett 2000)
 Disability: the physical or psychological attributes of the learner
render him/her a victim of exclusion e.g. a hard-hearing learner
 Medical model: model in which teaching and learning are
designed to address the perceived learner medically diagnosed
shortcomings (according to this model there is something to fix on
the learner
 Social ecological model: was developed as a critique to the
medical deficit model: the learners social context forms the core of
accepting diversity and allowing participation of individuals
regardless of the differences (Reindall 2008, Cesar & Ainscow 2006,
Makoelle 2012

Developments in inclusion studies in South Africa and
abroad
International move to inclusive education.
Studies on inclusion have focused on:
philosophy of inclusion (Dyson 2001, Nind 2004, Slee 2005, Allan
2008, Makoelle 2013 ),
developing inclusive institutions ( Ainscow 2010, Booth 2002, Miles
2011)
teaching strategies, disabilities and Special needs (Rief 2006, Farrell
2002, Kellett 2003)
Inclusive Pedagogy (Florian 2007, Makoelle 2012, Makoelle 2013)
Policy (Engelbrecht 2012, Barton 2001,)
Sexuality, gender, Race and inclusion (Phasha 2010)
While several studies focused on these aspects, few actually analysis
Inclusion in Higher Education settings

Problematizing inclusion in SA
• In South Africa, as a result of the policy of separate
development for different racial and ethnic groups
(Apartheid) by the previous government in 1948
educational institutions were established along racial,
ethnic and disability lines
• Institutions became entities of particular races and
symbolised a particular, ability group
• As a consequence a distinct “Habitus” which is
socialized norms or tendencies that guide behaviour and
thinking (Bourdieu 1977) continue to influence thinking
around inclusion

What is an issue
• Since 1994 after the advent of the new educational
dispensation educational institutions including Higher
Education began to accommodated learners from
different abilities and needs in response to the policy of
equity, inclusion and non-discrimination enshrined in the
new constitution of the country (Makoelle 2013).
• Despite the advent of the new political dispensation, the
hallmarks of a segregated educational system are still
visible in educational institutions to date.

observation is that learners with diverse abilities and needs
in Higher Education environment have two options:
• to attend and strive to succeed through minimal support
or
• risk not been well accommodated into HE context,
therefore make little academic progress.
How can inclusion be operationalized in Higher Education
settings to enhance Epistemic access?
5 key areas in HE were identified
What is the Problem

1 Structure and inclusion in Higher Education Settings
 My thoughts and actions were guided by Anthony Giddens’s Structuration
Theory. (1994, 2013)
 Like Giddens I thought people are agents within social structures.
 That the activities of people within social structures constitutes their agency
(the ability of an individual to operate within the social structure)
 I became aware that structures have constraining effect on agents and
thus could determine the nature of agency.
 I also noted that individuals through agency also have the ability to
construct and reconstruct the nature of the structure.
 Thus agency and structure have a reciprocal relationship which Giddens and
myself call duality.
 This principles were used to guide our analysis of the role of the learner as
an individual within HE pedagogic settings

Dealing with structural constrains in HE
context
 Enhancing Resilience through student agency: resilience is known to be
the capacity of individuals to negotiate and navigate their pathways towards
the resources that sustain well-being, the capacity of the individual’s physical
and social ecologies to provide resilience resources, and the capacity of
individuals, families and communities to negotiate culturally meaningful ways
to share health-promoting resources (Ungar, Masten, Malindi 2005) thus
resilience HE contexts would therefore mean learners emerging
triumphant from structurally associated adversity.
 Transforming institutional Culture : changing values, traditions, social and
political relationships and worldview created, shared and transformed by a
group of people bound together by a combination of factors that can include
a common history, geographic location, language, social class and religion
(Nieto 1999: 6)
 Architectural changes in planning physical space and provision of
resources that enhance access

2 Inclusive Pedagogy & Epistemology in
Higher Education
Inclusive pedagogy: totality of teaching, learning, beliefs
and attitudes to facilitating the process of knowing (Florian
2009; Makoelle 2013;2014)
Characteristics of inclusive pedagogy
Emancipatory
Embraces differences
Seeks to empower
Non- judgmental
All learners can learn but differently

Approaches in inclusive pedagogy and their
influence on pedagogic choices
Special needs approach
Assumption: view inclusion as limited to those diagnosed
with a special need usually derived from medical deficit
model
Practice: application of procedures, techniques, strategies
(proven to remedy or fix the need (Farrell 1997, Rief 2006)
Characteristics: usually prefers separate pedagogic
setting: the focus is on the learner
Critique : usually humiliating, subjugating and
disempowering

Approaches in inclusive pedagogy and their
influence on pedagogic choices
Inclusive approach to pedagogy
Assumption: all learners are accommodated regardless of
differences
Practice: usually rely on creativity and apply different
strategies in respond to the diverse needs of learners in an
inclusive setting
Characteristics: a more inclusive setting is preferred
: focuses on the teacher, resources, learner
Critique: while emancipatory and seek to change beliefs
and attitudes about differences, not implementable

Two views teaching which influences the
pedagogic ’s approach
Process-product (Behavioristic) view of teaching
Derived from positivistic view of epistemology
Role of the teacher: master of knowledge
Aim: objectives are set by the teacher (aimed at changing
the behavior of the learner
Content: prescriptive and transmission
Learning: reproduction of facts
Assessment: memorization of facts
Teaching style: mostly deductive

Characteristics of behavioristic approach
 Apply stimulus and response aimed at changing the
behavior of the learner
 View human in a mechanistic way
 recognize the learner’s prior knowledge to limited extent
 Not culturally relevant
 Teacher is in power (teacher-centred)
 Ignore the context of learning
 Pace driven
 Does not take into account the voices of learners

Implications for inclusion
 Ignores the potential insights into learner’s
understanding of teaching and learning process
 Authority vested in the teacher could be potentially
abused( exclusive tendencies)
 Does not encourage free space for innovation and
critical thinking
 Learners may develop dependency learning habits
 Limit knowledge to that which the teacher knows

Two views teaching which influences the pedagogic ’s
approach
Constructivist/ progressive view of teaching
Derived from post-positivistic view of epistemology
Role of the teacher: facilitates process of knowing
Aim: objectives are set jointly by the teacher and the
learner (aimed at allowing the learner to construct own
knowledge
Content: non-prescriptive and discovery learning
Learning: understanding principles
Assessment: application of knowledge rather than
memorization
Teaching style: mostly inductive

Characteristics of constructivist approach
 Apply learning through discovery
 View humans as constructing and reconstructing knowledge
 recognize the learner’s prior knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and
conceptions about knowledge
 culturally and socially relevant in approach
 Equal share of power between learner and teacher (learner-centred)
 context of learning is prioritized
 Not Pace driven
 takes into account the voices of learners

3 Cognitive Justice and inclusion in HE
 Visvathathan coined the concept of cognitive justice in 1997. The
concept came about as a result of a concern that western forms of
knowledge and the way knowledge is acquired and validated
seemed to perpetuate the dominant hegemonic discourse of the
western cultures.
 Therefore cognitive justice is a paradigm that seeks to critique the
hegemonic paradigm of modern science. It proposes to give
recognition to alternative paradigms especially those that are
derived from indigenous forms of knowledge.
 According to Odora Hoppers (2010, 2011) Van der Westhuizen
(2011) indigenous forms of knowledge have to be part of knowledge
production process and that they should not be subjected to
standards and should not be forced to fit structures of western
knowledge

Implication to higher education
 To what extent does HE curriculum provision take into
consideration the indigenous epistemologies
 For example in his work entitled Post-colonial
perspectives on education policy research in South
Africa, Van der Westhuizen (2011) argues that
epistemological tools used to conduct research have sort
to perpetuate view of reality as seen by the colonizers

Dealing with cognitive Justice in HE
 Equitable learning is a process of bridging the learning
gap between those who are advantaged and those that
are disadvantaged in terms of educational resources
(UNESCO 2012)
 However most arguments being put forth for equitable
learning focus primarily on access to educational
resources, very little is said and done about making
learning itself an emancipatory process. Emancipatory in
a sense that indigenous knowledge systems are
recognized and incorporated into teaching and learning
process to ensure cognitive justice (Makoelle 2014)
 Adopting transformative epistemologies

4 Empiricism : A curtain on the mirror
According to Basker reality is constituted by three domains which are:
 Real: generative structures or causal mechanisms
 Actual: events resulting from various real tendencies and
countertendencies
 in specific initial conditions
 Empirical: observations or measurements of actual events and,
 in some circumstances, underlying structures or mechanisms
(Bhasker 1998).
According to Basker most of what happens at the level of the actual
and empirical are controlled by relational and causal mechanisms
operational at the level of the real. These mechanisms might not be
readily accessible as they are mostly hidden from the empirical
world. The implication is that which is witnessed at the level of the
actual and empirical should be treated with caution ad they might
not represent the true nature of reality

In what way
Is knowing and facilitating the process of knowing political?
How do knowledge holder use/ monopolizes knowledge (those holding
the keys or epistemic tools
Recently Xholela Mangcu (UCT Associate Professor) wrote
an article about “ the absence of Black-African
Professors in institutions of HE (City Press 2014:20July )
His article was a indication that there are politics in HE which are in one
way or another related to politics and this if not managed has the
potential to transcend into pedagogic practices

5 Knowledge Economy
How do knowledge holder use monopolizes knowledge (those holding
the keys or epistemic tools?
In his work Bernstein (2003) “structuring the pedagogic discourse” talks
about Autonomous and market-oriented visible pedagogies.
Bernstein makes an analogues distinction between visible pedagogies
that are autonomous which pursue knowledge for its value and
dependent visible pedagogies which are dependent on their market
relevance (born out of context of cost-effective education)
Because this are assumed to be creating jobs their knowledge tend to
be prioritized leading to reproduction of hierarchies within and
among institutions

Consumerism, profiteering and commodification in HE
Mass enrollments in the name of job relevant skills may
compromise two aspects
 Financial inaccessibility
 Adoption of more horizontal, segmented non cumulative
knowledge forms which access to are held by knowledge
holders
 Influence to sequencing and pacing hierarchical
regulative rules which may disadvantage others within
the pedagogic discourse
These provide a fertile ground for exclusion and
marginalization
D Sekhukhune & T Makoelle 16 August 2012

Be a research Friend to Tsediso Makoelle
Go to the following online resources to connect, view and download
my Research pieces on Inclusion
www.uj.ac.za (Profile and contacts)
www.researchgate.net (Publications)
Private Emails: tsedisomakoelle@yahoo.co.uk
Work Email: tmakoelle@uj.ac.za
Tel mobile: +27 761722431)
Work: +27 11559 3915
Social Network: Facebook : profile name Tsediso Makoelle
T Makoelle 21 August 2014 SOTL Seminar

Inclusion in higher education a quest for epistemic access[1]

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Inclusion in higher education a quest for epistemic access[1]

More from Brenda Leibowitz

Recently uploaded

Inclusion in higher education a quest for epistemic access[1]