Presentation Outline

1. Reframing curriculum and pedagogical discourse in Universities of TechnologyProfessor Isaac Ntshoe MA PhD, Central University of Technology, Free State, Private Bag X 20539 Bloemfontein, 9300. Tel + 27 051 507 3636. intshoe@cut.ac.za,

2. Presentation Outline • The thrust of the paper • Embedded theoretical and conceptual • Purposes of UoTs • Purposes, curricular and pedagogical discourses in UoTs • Competing positions on UoTs curricular and pedagogies • Are there alternatives?

3. Introduction: The thrust of the paper • Demystification of curriculum and pedagogical discourses and related practices of occupational fields and qualifications of universities of technology (UoTs) • Shortcomings of competence and outcomes-based models to drive curriculum change

4. Thrust continuation • Contesting the entrenched approach to knowledge in UoTs • Exploring unconventional theoretical and conceptual epistemes to undergird curricula and pedagogic discourses in UoTs • Bersteinian theoretical and conceptual frame and those his theorists is used to embed the discussions in this presentation

5. Distinctiveness of purposes, curricula and pedagogies of UoTs • The belief peppered by sentiments such as rapid responsiveness to the demands of the labour market, appointments of experts acknowledged by industry (not academic), promotion of equity, and provision of low and high level skills • UoTs are unique in that they provide applied knowledge and can and able to adapt quickly to the demands of employment

6. Continuation ……. • Distinctiveness of UoTs in terms of their purpose, their curricula and pedagogy and the type of knowledge they offer has been exaggerated and oversimplified • Notions of matching and predicting traditional supply and demand planning in the 1960s and 1970s

7. Embedding theoretical and conceptual discourses • An alternative angle to conceptualise curricula and pedagogy in order to make graduates employable under the changing conditions • Bernsteininian thesis as well as those of his theorists • Practice cannot generate knowledge that student need to function effectively in changing employnment • Recontextualisation entails the process of delocating knowledge from discipline it is produced and relocating it into pedagogic discourse

8. Can HEQF, competence and outcomes drive curriculum and pedagogical practices of UoTs? • All qualifications necessarily involve outcomes in the sense that they represent about what the holder knows and can do and always involve the outcomes of some learning • Qualifications in most societies are used by students, trainees, employees, employers market • CESM and HEQF are guides to assist UoTs in developing their programme qualifications mix (PQMS) • HEQF and CESM have the potential of inhibiting discussions on the improvement of UoT curricula and pedagogical practices

9. Lessons • We must be wary of using HEQF, competence-, standards-and outcomes-based models as DRIVERS of curricula and pedagogy • Curricula and pedagogy that focus exclusively on specialised knowledge (practice) is problematic • It is the CURRICULA themselves that should be the starting point and not competences and outcomes • While sectorial knowledge derived from specific occupational remains the primary resource for UoTs, such specialist knowledge need to be strengthened in the curricula

10. Lessons continuation….. • Making institutions pro-active and not always to respond to external demands that they frequently do not have control over • The notion of recontextualisation is key in designing curricula that can prepare UoT graduates to function effectively in practice • Recontextualisation is a process of consciously delocating knowledge from its original field in which it was produced, and relocating it into a different context • Designing innovative curricula knowledge can be decontextualised (not context bound) so that graduates can function in the changing employment and technologies

11. Alternative curricula and pedagogical discourses • While alljobs require context-specific knowledge, many jobs also require knowledge involving theoreticalideas shared by a community of specialists who are not tied to specific contexts • Workers need to be able to transcend specificcontexts • Students therefore need to be able to accesstheoretical knowledge to do so, and this means that occupationalprogression is strongly related to educationalprogression, because education is one • Students need to acquire the capacity to integrate knowledge (and underpinning principles) • Rather than learning the isolated and unconnected contents of disciplinary knowledge, students need to learn the systems of meaning

12. Issues • The newly created UoTs have dual purpose (how do we reconcile these purposes in our curricula and pedagogies?) • UoTs face a unique challenge when compared to conventional universities • The changing nature of employment and of knowledge ( matching and forecasting) • Tailoring offerings and programmes in UoTs according to the demands of the market is short-sighted as the employers’ views are short-term and biased (the danger of preparing graduates for specific contexts)

13. Issues continuation • Closely related to the matching principle is the extent to which outcomes and competences can, and do drive educational reforms (curriculum change and their related pedagogical practices) • Emphasis on competence statements in the learning outcomes results in a knowledge is relegated to a category called ‘essential embedded knowledge’ • Competence-based training assumes outcomes can be achieved by directly teaching outcomes, and in doing so ignores the complexity that is needed to create capacity • Knowledge that is generated within particular UoT contexts cannot be delocated from contexts and relocated in diverse situations

14. Suggestions • This approach therefore makes a case for the decontextualisation of knowledge possible in the principles and concepts, firstly from its original source situations to diverse environments • Decontextualised knowledge therefore enables graduates to transcend context-specific knowledge • A focus on specific content for a specific context means that the meaning of that content is exhausted by the context • Unless students have access to the generative principles of disciplinary knowledge, they will not be able to transcend the particular

15. Suggestions continuation • Students need to know how these complex bodies of knowledge fit together if they decide whatknowledge is relevant for a particular purpose, and if they are to have transcend the present to imagine the future • Significant innovations are conceptually-based but practically implemented might define the long term goals of UoTs