5 - Crystallising Commitment to Transformation in a South African Higher Education Institute
Corresponding Author(s) : Helen M. Macdonald
Journal of Higher Education in Africa,
Vol. 8 No. 2 (2010): Journal of Higher Education in Africa
Abstract
This paper emerges out of an ethnographic study conducted at the University of Cape Town that explored the dynamics of an intervention providing a ‘safe space’ for university staff to engage in alternative ways with South Africa’s apartheid past, the university’s institutional culture and with each other. This paper focuses on the social politics that arose between the intervention, its participants and imagined non-participants in relation to the university’s ‘transformation’ vision. The interventionist intention was reworked by participants at a ground level into key symbols by which participants shaped the patterns of their behaviours and gave meaning to their experiences. Utilising Ortner’s (1973) model for recognising and using key symbols, I argue that ‘transformation’ and ‘safe space’ are elaborating symbols in that they have conceptual and action elaborating power. These elaborating symbols operate in relay with a kind of logic that ‘crystallises commitment’ from participants to the intervention in an emotionally powerful and relatively undifferentiated manner. In so doing, they render the intervention a ‘summarising’ symbol capable of expressing what their experience means to them as an imagined community in relation to others.
Keywords
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)BibTeX
- Badat, S., 2004, ‘Transforming South African Higher Education 1990-2003: Goals, policy initiatives & critical challenges & issues’, in N. Cloete, P. Pillay, S. Badat & T. Moja, eds., National Policy & Regional Response in South African Higher Education (pp. 1-46), New York, NY: Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.
- Black, M., 1962, Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Boler, M., ed., 2004, Democratic Dialogue in Education. Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silence, New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
- Boostrom, R., 1998, ‘“Safe spaces”: Reflections on an Educational Metaphor’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 30(4): 397-408.
- Buck, C., 1999, Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baháí? Faith, New York: State University of New York Press.
- Caplan, P., 1988, ‘Engendering Knowledge: The Politics of Ethnography’, Anthropology Today, 4 (5): 8-12, 4 (6): 14-17.
- Cloete, N., Fehnel, R., Maasen, P., Moja, T., Perold, H. & Gibbon, T., eds., 2002, Transformation in Higher Education: Global Pressures and Local Realities in South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.
- Cohen, A. P., 1989, The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Routledge. Cook-Sather, A., 2002, ‘Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change’, Educational Researcher, 31(4): 3-14.
- Coyle, F., 2004, ‘“Safe space” as counter-space: Women, Environmental Illness and “Corporeal Chaos”’, The Canadian Geographer, 48(1): 62-75.
- Donadey, A., 2002, ‘Negotiating Tensions: Teaching about Race Issues in Graduate Feminist Classrooms’, NWSA Journal, 14(1): 82-102.
- Ellsworth, E., 1989, ‘Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy’, Harvard Educational Review, 59(3): 297-324.
- Erasmus, Z. & de Wet, J., 2003, ‘Not Naming “Race”: Some Medical Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of “Race” and Racism at the Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Cape Town’, Unpublished Research Report. Institute for Intercultural and Diversity Studies at University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
- Evans-Pritchard, E. E., 1962, Social Anthropology and Other Essays, New York: Free Press.
- Ferguson, J., 1990, The Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power, New York, Cambridge University Press.
- Ferguson, J. & Lohmann, L., 1994, ‘Development and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho’, The Ecologist, 24(5): 176-181.
References
Badat, S., 2004, ‘Transforming South African Higher Education 1990-2003: Goals, policy initiatives & critical challenges & issues’, in N. Cloete, P. Pillay, S. Badat & T. Moja, eds., National Policy & Regional Response in South African Higher Education (pp. 1-46), New York, NY: Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.
Black, M., 1962, Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Boler, M., ed., 2004, Democratic Dialogue in Education. Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silence, New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Boostrom, R., 1998, ‘“Safe spaces”: Reflections on an Educational Metaphor’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 30(4): 397-408.
Buck, C., 1999, Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baháí? Faith, New York: State University of New York Press.
Caplan, P., 1988, ‘Engendering Knowledge: The Politics of Ethnography’, Anthropology Today, 4 (5): 8-12, 4 (6): 14-17.
Cloete, N., Fehnel, R., Maasen, P., Moja, T., Perold, H. & Gibbon, T., eds., 2002, Transformation in Higher Education: Global Pressures and Local Realities in South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.
Cohen, A. P., 1989, The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Routledge. Cook-Sather, A., 2002, ‘Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change’, Educational Researcher, 31(4): 3-14.
Coyle, F., 2004, ‘“Safe space” as counter-space: Women, Environmental Illness and “Corporeal Chaos”’, The Canadian Geographer, 48(1): 62-75.
Donadey, A., 2002, ‘Negotiating Tensions: Teaching about Race Issues in Graduate Feminist Classrooms’, NWSA Journal, 14(1): 82-102.
Ellsworth, E., 1989, ‘Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy’, Harvard Educational Review, 59(3): 297-324.
Erasmus, Z. & de Wet, J., 2003, ‘Not Naming “Race”: Some Medical Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of “Race” and Racism at the Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Cape Town’, Unpublished Research Report. Institute for Intercultural and Diversity Studies at University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E., 1962, Social Anthropology and Other Essays, New York: Free Press.
Ferguson, J., 1990, The Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power, New York, Cambridge University Press.
Ferguson, J. & Lohmann, L., 1994, ‘Development and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho’, The Ecologist, 24(5): 176-181.