Agency and social transformation in South African higher education : pushing the bounds of possibility / Grace Ese-osa Idahosa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Idahosa, Grace Ese-osa, author.

Series:

Routledge contemporary South Africa

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education, Higher--Social aspects--South Africa.

Education, Higher.

Universities and colleges--South Africa--Faculty--Attitudes.

Universities and colleges.

Social change--South Africa.

Social change.

Agent (Philosophy).

Education, Higher--Social aspects.

Universities and colleges--Faculty--Attitudes.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

xii, 180 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020.

Summary:

"This book explores the process of transformation, discussing how individuals are capable of acting to enable transformation of structures and cultures through the lens of South African higher education. Agency and Social Transformation in South African Higher Education examines the role of agency in effecting change amidst the conditions of South African Universities. Arguing for a focus on transformation from below, it explores transformation and agency from the perspective of academic staff. Through discussing moments at which faculty members embedded in rigid structures and cultures perceive themselves as having had the agency to interrupt and transform them despite their rigidity, this book describes the nuances of social action and agency within the South African higher education institutional context, and the ways in which contextual histories may provide enabling/limiting conditions to individuals within them. This book makes an important contribution to the field of agency and social transformation theoretically, methodologically and geographically, as it details the motivations for transformation, how individuals become agents of change and the practical experiences of these individuals from a localised perspective. Agency and Social Transformation in South African Higher Education will be of interest to scholars and students of African higher education, transformation studies and postcolonial studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Higher education as a field of struggle

Narratives of change

I met a new version of me : critical engagement and recreating oppressive spaces

The scales were peeled from my eyes : stepping off the golden ladder

The absent trace of battles : discursive and material agency

Strategy and resistance : reproduction and transformation

Concluding reflections : pushing the bounds of possibility.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Idahosa, Grace Ese-osa, Agency and social transformation in South African higher education

ISBN:

9780367074302

0367074303

OCLC:

1090481160