Concerns identified in the Action Research Workshop at the University of the Free State on the 28th February 2006 with Jean McNiff, Joan Whitehead and Jack Whitehead.
Adri Beylefeld gndkaab.md@ufs.ac.za
In teaching students to work in groups to be culture sensitive, etc, I am actually practising ubuntu myself and I am giving the students an opportunity to start practising it. It is my passion to capture and share with others my students’ lived experience of what it is that we are doing. And also to share with others how I myself grow in the process.
Lorraine Botha bothalf.hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
My passion is to contribute towards inspiring and assisting learners/students to achieve their educational goals. As a former mathematics teacher and now as a facilitator for developing mathematics teaching I have come to realise how many persons, because of lack of opportunities or other factors, are not achieving to their fullest potential and many fail their courses here at university because of gaps in knowledge and/or experience concerned with mathematical literacy.
I would like to make situational analysis of:
How many students are involved?
What the problems are?
How to help?
And then to establish a centre here at the university to assist students in catching up. Not only mathematics students are involved but also students doing other courses (e.g. law) who must use mathematics all the time. My values include compassion, security and warmth.
William Coleman wcoleman@cut.ac.za
My earnest desire is to be a catalyst or change agent that invokes and brings to the fore the so often hidden qualities and capabilities of those I come into contact with.
My limited cross-cultural experience is that we do not see these qualities or abilities because they are masked by what?
My own point of view
My own bias regarding these qualities
My own perceptions that have been built up through external events.
How do I remove this life-lens and in so doing see more clearly?
Jeanette du Plessis duplesj@cut.ac.za
To succeed in conveying the passion for my profession and the availability of limitless opportunities to grow and empower oneself to grow as a holistic human being.
To convey the message that learning is a process that never ends.
To motivate people to never become stagnant in anything they are doing, but to constantly enquire into new concepts and ideas.
Maybe most of all I want to convey the message to my students never to become so possessed with anything to lose compassion with any living creature on this earth.
Sanet du Toit narnia@absamail.co.za
My students are very good at doing but seldom take the time to reflect on what they have learnt through doing. I hold myself accountable to encourage them to learn through their actions, by sharing how I have been instrumental in my own learning and asking them to share their experiences and how I have influenced their learning. I am committed to this even though it will have positive as well as negative feedback and could provide for painful learning.
Annelie Ferreira ferreia.hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
My passion is social justice (dignity and respect) for children with special needs – children who do not necessarily have access to quality education. I am doing action research in a special education school and want to involve both teachers and learners in addressing the programme currently used for school discipline.
Hesta Freidrich-Nel hfried@cut.ac.za
I can identify with the message that I have heard today at this workshop, namely to show people that they can! My driver and passion is thus to show my students, by way of assessment that they can believe in themselves and their abilities. My responsibility no is to become living evidence of my theories. In doing so, I have to practice compassion, transparency and quality in my classroom and in assessment of learning e.g. ‘ubuntu’ in assessment.
Alwyn Hugo gnanaph.md@ufs.ac.za
Influencing student learning and achievement through positive use of technology
Academic Freedom of schools and faculty to enhance teaching
Using skills in faculty to contribute to solutions in faculty and schools
Gnkjm.md@mail.uovs.ac.za
Passionate to enhance students’ learning experience by being a professional role model to them through compassion and caring.
Shirly Ann Hyland shirly2208@highveldmail.co.za
Issue: To change the misconception in South Africa that all lawyers/attorneys are unethical, snide and corrupt. How can a person truly make a difference/change in a belief that has become so embedded and steadfast in the people of SA? The only answer I have to my ‘issue’ is to educate my law students in such a way that my values (ethics) inspire them to also have such or similar values that they will take into their practice one day. My dream: to educate ethical lawyers.
Beatri Kruger Krugerh.rd@mail.uovs.ac.za
What really matters to me?
If I were in my students’ shoes what kind of teacher- person would I like? Am I that lecturer? Am I a teacher who:
Walks the extra mile.
Is interested in students as people not objects
Wants to see students grow/develop – not only pass
Wants to share with students what made life worthwhile for me
Be the Lord’s hands and feet for students and enjoy life’s journey with them.
Petso Mokhatla Mokhatlap.sci@mail.uovs.ac.za
Through my learning and the knowledge and information I poassess I believe that people in rural communities may be empowered to have self-dependency. I am passionate about helping others to help themselves.
Mandla Mthombeni mthombenims.ekw@mail.uovs.ac.za
My passion is to work with the poor for their development.
Why? South Africa has 60% poverty and mostly Blacks.
What experiences? I was born and brought up in living the life of the poor/poverty. I have also learned that capitalism has never been prepared to help developing countries to eradicate poverty.
What can I do about it? I think if I write about my ideas and concerns, government and socieity will be aware/learn in order to make change in their lives.
Bad experience about capitalism in South Africa.
Basic services like water in certain places/towns/cities like Joburg is delivered/provided by multinational companies, which have made prices so high even for the poor who happen to be unemployed and depending on old pension fund of their elder in that household.
AIDS drug companies do not like to comply to government regulations to sell their drugs cheaper/affordable to the poor because of the ‘property rights’ issues.
Jeanine Nothnagel NothnagelJ.hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
This workshop has opened up a brand new field of doing research. I would really like to learn more about action research and maybe incorporate it in my Ph.D. After this workshop I see a lot of things in life in a new and different way.
Elizna Prinsloo prinse.hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
My passion for learning, gaining knowledge, experiencing a situation and then sharing that with others or learners so that they can also benefit from my learning or experience to enhance their own learning.
Jacques Ras rasj@cut.ac.za
Maykoto: Honor your promises.
I’m driven mainly by the well being of others
Making a difference to my students’ learning experience and life.
To carry over the human spirit in humanity: respect, equality, understanding, reliability, friendship.
Ielse Seale Sealei.md@mail.uovs.ac.za
I am a nurse educator teaching qualified nurses the principles of education in order for them to get a post-basic diploma in nurse education. How can I be a teacher that truly influences my students to:
Learn/change/achieve the knowledge, skill and attitude necessary for competence as a nurse educator.
Develop a sense of civic responsibility or maybe ‘ubuntu’
I am involved in facilitating a community service learning (CSL) module with Mabel. How can we improve our practice/module to address the CSL issues in SA.
Rassie Smut rassie@cut.ac.za
Without naming it as such, I actually would like to implement the principles of ubuntu to help in achieving my aim of alleviating ignorance around me. Especially, but not exclusively the ignorance showed by HE learners toward study fields like Chemistry, Biochemistry and even Biostatistics. In doing this I would also like to show them that learning is an open ended process – certainly never-ending and that they should stay learners for the rest of their lives.
Nicolene du Toit dutoitn.Hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
Something that is important to me is to make a difference in someone’s life, even it is with the smallest of actions, but to know that what I did helped that person at that given moment, with whatever it may be that he/she was struggling with.
Cobus van Breda vbredaj.hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
In my job situation I am exposed to more than the usual day to day environment. I have the ideal to share this knowledge, exposure and experience to science educators in the school situation, trying to broaden their insights and viewpoints in order to give them perspectives on the real value of the new ways of learner-centred teaching and thinking. We are preparing learners for a world out there, real-life, which in many ways doesn’t exist in the present classrooms or in the reference framework of many educators.
Ilse van Eeden iveeden@cut.ac.za
My core values for my educational programme:
To provide my students with the same passion I have for learning.
To guide my students to be the best they can in everyone’s own way.
To treat all people with respect.
To be a really good listener to enable me to really understand and hear what the student is communicating to me.
How can I make a contribution to my student’s life to improve their quality of learning?
Sheila Vrahimis vrahimiss.sci@mail.uovs.ac.za
If I understood the assignment correctly, I have to indicate what I feel strongly about and wish to be kep accountable for: this is my attempt –
I feel strongly about developing or rather assisting the development of the true potential of my students. In so doing to provide them, or help them develop skills to successfully complete their learning.
Arlys van Wyk vsgka.Hum@mail.uovs.ac.za
I have a deeply felt need to improve the English language development teaching on the UFS campus. I am unsure whether the current intervention is effectively meeting the needs of our students who often lack the academic literacy skills to achieve success in their students.
Annette Wilkinson silkinac.rd@mail.uovs.ac.za
I have a passion for people, for teaching, for sharing my enthusiasm.
I want to improve my practice of making academics/my students enthusiastic about new ways of teaching and researching in higher education. I want to tell my story and I want my students from diverse backgrounds to tell their stories, also in their research. I also want them to incorporate multi-media in their research. I found the idea of ‘Living Theory’ most liberating.
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The full reference for the ideas on the meanings and values of Ubuntu discussed in the workshop:
Beets, P. & Van Louw, T. (2005) Education Transformation, Assessment and Ubuntu in South Africa, in Waghid, Van Syk, Adams and November (Eds) African(a) Philosophy of Education: Reconstructions and Deconstructions. Published by the Department of Education Policy Studies, Stellenbosch University.
The ideas of Mfuniselwa John Bhengu were also influential from his:
Bhengu, M. J. (1996) Ubuntu: The Essence of Democracy. Capetown; Novalis Press.
Here is the reference to the point about the importance of the art of conversation from the work of Hans Geog Gadamer:
"To conduct a conversation requires first of all that the partners to it do not talk at cross purposes. Hence its necessary structure is that of question and answer. The first condition of the art of conversation is to ensure that the other person is with us…. To conduct a conversation…. requires that one does not try to out-argue the other person, but that one really considers the weight of the other's opinion. Hence it is an art of testing. But the art of testing is the art of questioning. For we have seen that to question means to lay open, to place in the open. As against the solidity of opinions, questioning makes the object and all its possibilities fluid. A person who possesses the 'art' of questioning is a person who is able to prevent the suppression of questions by the dominant opinion.... Thus the meaning of a sentence is relative to the question to which it is a reply (my emphasis) , i.e. it necessarily goes beyond what is said in it. The logic of the human sciences is, then, as appears from what we have said a logic of the question. Despite Plato we are not very ready for such a logic." (pp. 330-333)
Gadamer,H.G. (1975) Truth and Method, London; Sheed and Ward.
