Engaging with difference in higher education through collaborative inter-institutional pedagogical practices

Abstract

Apartheid-designed higher education institutions continue to have a major influence on students and higher educators in South Africa. There is a need for innovative approaches for engaging with difference in higher education. One means of doing this could be through innovative pedagogical approaches. The Community, Self and Identity project provides an illustrative example of how some of the challenges noted by the current minister of higher education could be addressed. In this course, students and higher educators from historically differently placed institutions and disciplines came together to critically interrogate concepts that could be regarded as core to human service professionals. As higher educators, we shared concerns regarding the cultural encapsulation perpetuated by the separation across historically advantaged and disadvantaged institutions. We set out to develop strategies in the curriculum that would allow students and higher educators to re-evaluate their own positions in relation to disciplinary knowledge, institutional and social identities.