Q & A: Rhodes University
Q: What is your overarching vision for the Faculty of Education at Rhodes University during your tenure as Dean?
My vision is one I share with the African Union’ s Agenda 2063:“ The Africa We Want”. In the Africa I want, I see happy children secure in a healthy environment, with good nutrition, good care and above all, education that prepares them to make their own ethical and innovative contributions to society. The Education Faculty at Rhodes equips educators to provide such quality, relevant education, and undertakes research to guide us in making that ideal future, a reality. I regard our Faculty as a launch pad from which staff and students can take off as leaders, transforming the education endeavour, to make its rightful contribution to a better world.
Q: What role do you believe universities should play in shaping national education policy in South Africa?
In the current Administration we have a leadership that is poised to take our best research into practical policies. The new Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, is a Rhodes University Political Science graduate, who is already consulting with Education deans. Right now there are some key policy matters that require attention from academia, such as how to make mother-tongue based bilingual education work for our youngest learners. The Minister is putting the emphasis squarely on early childhood and foundation phase education, whilst not forgetting the importance of safe, healthy schools where all learners and teachers can feel secure and give their best.
Research is needed to steer practical implementation. I mentioned that Minister Gwarube is prioritising safe schools. A safe school is a school without pit latrines, right? That seems a no-brainer, but our students are coming from the field telling us that some pit latrines have been replaced by flushing toilets, in schools without running water; forcing children to squat outside as the new facilities quickly become unusable. Imagine! An effort was made to improve the situation, and made it arguably worse. We need research to tell us how to transition to safe, waterless or low-flow alternatives.
Q: How do you see the role of education in shaping a more sustainable and equitable future for South Africa?
I mentioned low-flow alternatives for flushing toilets. I saw such an alternative in the very smart Sandton headquarters of Nedbank. New, sustainable technologies exist to replace those that no longer serve us. But society is slow to take up these alternatives, and this is where education plays a role- to teach learners, students and industry leaders about alternatives. Some alternatives have drawbacks, too. Therefore education also needs to kindle the passion and the staying power to develop new solutions. This includes solutions to problems with inequality, in other words, economic solutions. We need to rethink Economics, Technology, Science and how we teach these subjects, putting the need for sustainable development and livelihoods uppermost in the minds of future economists, scientists, homemakers, farmers … and politicians.
Q: How has your focus on environmental learning shaped your approach to educational leadership?
From my earlier answers you can tell that I am an environmentalist. No-one can reach their full potential drinking dirty water and breathing polluted air, tilling depleted soils and struggling to find work. Those with money can shield themselves from the impacts of a degraded environment, but only at the expense of others, which creates environmental and economic injustices. But we can create so many jobs in the process of restoring our environment- rivers, oceans and fields … if only we were open to radical transformation. This I learned as an environmentalist, and it is the approach I bring to educational leadership as well. We should be fearless in formulating alternatives, at the same time we need to ce cautious and careful as we trial those alternatives. Leaders need to be good at working with others on solutions, not for the‘ buy-in’, but because no-one has all the answers.
Q: What are some of the most significant challenges facing teacher education today?
Teacher education is not only about preparing an individual with teaching competencies; it is also about preparing her or him to function well in a collective of colleagues, principals, parents, unions, and education systems that determine not only what, when and how they teach, but their conditions of employment. Teachers need to know what they can and cannot change about these conditions, which are not always ideal. At Rhodes we include a range of educational role players in our professional development programmes and encourage them to work with each other as they aim to improve education, one innovation at a time. I’ m proud to say that the Namibian Minister of Education studied in our Faculty! She undertook a classroombased study for her PhD, using cutting- edge, transformative learning theory. I can’ t think of a better way to equip oneself to lead an entire education system. www. futuresa. co. za 47