The purpose of this article is to make a contribution to the discussion on the sociological features of higher education and the significant ways in which it comes to produce a particular version of the racial experience.2 While work has appeared which has begun to comment on fragmentation of identity in South African higher education there is insufficient attention paid to the ways in which identity-making takes place. What this article will do is to focus on the racial as a resource which is brought into contact with the institution and to suggest what the outlines of this coming together are in the South African setting. It does not, indeed cannot, develop a deep discussion, as in the classic identity-formation literature, about subject formation – who, for example, is attributing what to whom and under what power conditions. What it seeks to do, in a limited way, is point to interesting new trends in how race is being experienced by South African students and particularly by black students. What does the racial experience look like for them? When students invoke race what is it that they are talking about? South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 22 (3) 2008: pp. 662-678

The Intersection of Race and Class in the South African University: Student Experiences.

The study presents a framework for investigating the powerful resources within learners’ educational biographies, which, from their own accounts, appear to influence their engagement with teaching and learning practices. The research framework stresses the material, social and cultural influences on a learner’s biography and the need for recognition as well as the redistribution of resources. It assumes that both socio‐cultural influences as well as individual, affective and agentic phenomena play a role in shaping a student’s career. This framework is discussed in relation to a study undertaken at a South African university, at which 164 students, lecturers and academic support staff participated in semi‐structured interviews. The main focus of the interview was the individual’s educational biography as narrated by the individual. The findings support the socio‐cultural perspective and show that the relationship between identity, identification and feeling ‘at home’ with engagement in deep teaching and l...

What’s inside the suitcases? An investigation into the powerful resources students and lecturers bring to teaching and learning

The ideal of creating a non-racial and equitable school environment is embedded in the South African Constitution. This ideal is informed by a desire to overcome the divisions of the apartheid past by pursuing policies and strategies that will promote the achievement of social cohesion, without denying space for various identities. Schools are seen as im portant vehicles for driving social cohesion amongst learners and it is therefore important that all learners, irrespective of their race, experience a sense of belonging in the school. Using a case study and an interactive qualitative analysis research methodology, we explored the experiences of black and Indian learners in a desegregated former House of Delegates school to determine the successes and possible challenges of ensuring racial integration at the school level and therefore its contribution to social cohesion. The study demonstrates the importance of eight concepts (namely, the school as a welcoming space; belonging; respect; security; equality in the way we socialise; tender loving care; motivation; and freedom) to the study of racial integration and social cohesion. This article focuses on the contribution that sense of belonging has on creating a school environment that is enabling, contributing to learner achievement and concludes that sense of belonging, integration, and social cohesion are intertwined and important in creating an environment that is welcoming and a “home” to diverse learners and educators. Keywords : belonging; desegregation; diversity; integration; Interactive Qualitative Analysis; race; social cohesion

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Sense of belonging and social cohesion in a desegregated former House of Delegates School

This dissertation is a conceptual analysis of “institutional culture” in higher education, especially because the concept has become a buzzword in higher education discourse in South Africa. The aim is to develop an understanding of the concept, and more specifically, to explore how institutional culture is organised, constructed and articulated in the institutional documents of Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). These analyses are preceded by an analysis of higher education policy documents. I employ critical hermeneutics as research methodology to construct constitutive meanings of “institutional culture”. Since it is difficult to work with a large set of constitutive meanings, I narrowed the list down to the four most frequently recurring meanings, namely: shared values and beliefs; language; symbols; and knowledge production. These constitutive meanings form the theoretical framework which is used to analyse institutional documents. My findings suggest that all the constitutive meanings of my theoretical framework are addressed in the institutional documents of both SU and UWC, which means that the institutional documents conform to my theoretical framework. SU has, in my opinion, an excellent and comprehensive base of well-prepared and compiled institutional documents. However, most of these documents seem to relate to quality and compliance to national policy requirements, with no significant actions or strategies to address the challenges related to transforming the University’s institutional culture. Even though SU has shown commendable strategic initiatives to transform its institutional culture, there has not been sufficient engagement with the challenges of transformation. Similarly, for UWC, it is my contention that even though UWC is committed to transformation and nurturing a culture of change in order to make meaning of and address the complex challenges of the world, there needs to be more rigorous engagement in shaping and managing strategic direction and planning to ensure an institutional culture to accommodate change. Even though the institutional documents analysed mostly conform to the constitutive meanings of the theoretical framework, what of concern is the lack of an adequate articulation of the concept “institutional culture”. If there is no articulation, it follows Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za

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A critical-hermeneutical inquiry of institutional culture in higher education

This paper explores the drive to expand the quantity and quality of PhD's in South Africa and the impact this has had on under‐represented groups, in particular black graduates. Based on both quali...

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Elusive Equity in Doctoral Education in South Africa.

This article is a methodological scrutiny of the efficacy of the conceptual complex "home-at home", as a heuristic for understanding the nature of institutional culture as it articulates in 
higher education institutions. The approach adopted brings together a discussion on different 
conceptions of "home-at home", institutional culture in general, institutional culture and 
higher education in particular, and their methodological implications. Instead of suggesting 
a definitive approach I have attempted to draw out the ontological and epistemological 
ramifications as a way of clearing the conceptual ground. The idea behind this is to proceed 
while remaining fully mindful of the pitfalls attendant on research of this nature. I have tried 
to bring a sociological sensibility to bear on thinking through the implications of researching 
institutional culture, particularly in higher education where the reflex for reifying the 
university, that is treating it as an "ivory tower", is always proximate.

Lionel Thaver

Papers

"At home", institutional culture and higher education : some methodological considerations : research article