https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/488 2026-05-01T14:25:19Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/10448 Quality imperatives versus funding: A case of filial cannibalism in South African Higher Education? Groenewald, Thomas Filial cannibalism involves the killing and eating of one's young. This presentation will give attendees an overview of the former binary higher education system in South Africa; the differentiated funding; the cooperative education foundations of current Universities of Technology and Comprehensive Institutions and the existing quality imperatives pertaining to work integrated learning. A comparison will be made with regard to the specific quality imperatives of, among others, the Higher Education Quality Authority and international best practices pertaining to work integrated learning. These include: stakeholder-inclusivity regarding curriculum design and development; the obligation to place students where work-integrated learning is part of the curriculum; effective management and coordination; provision of adequate infrastructure; learning agreements clarifying the outcomes and the roles and responsibilities of the institution, students, mentors and employers; mentoring of students; effective communication; regular and systematic monitoring of progress of students; and academic as well as workplace based assessment. The staffing and resource-intensive implications with regard to the stated imperatives will be elaborated. The realities of discretionary grants which are potentially available for workplace experience of students studying towards scarce skills programmes will be addressed. The metaphor of ‘parental care, no care/total abandonment, and filial cannibalism’ will serve as vehicle to question the logic about non-funding by the Department of Higher Education and Training (as parent) of work-integrated learning parts of curriculum of certain higher education programmes (the younger programmes in the South African landscape). Conference paper 2011-09-03T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/2742 Semantic and metaphoric reflection on the training of decentralized staff responsible for supporting students in terms of work-integrated learning : a distance education university scenario Groenewald, Thomas; Le Roux, Mia This article provides both a current and a historical perspective, as well as describing the journey of a distance education institution. It contains a synopsis of the imperatives pertaining to work-integrated learning within higher education in South Africa. The article gives its readers a glimpse of the role of decentralized learner support staff at a distance education university in soliciting potential host organizations and placing students for their prerequisite work-integrated learning. It also contains an overview of a week-long seminar. The research entailed both a semantic and a metaphoric evaluation of the training. The findings include an analysis of semantic indicators of the reflection by participants and a review of the metaphors participants used to express their feelings about the seminar. The article concludes with the benefits message subsequently developed. Journal article 2009-10-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/2573 A phenomenological research design illustrated Groenewald, Thomas This article distills the core principles of a phenomenological research design and, by means of a specific study, illustrates the phenomenological methodology. After a brief overview of the developments of phenomenology, the research paradigm of the specific study follows. Thereafter the location of the data, the data-gathering the data-storage methods are explained. Unstructured in-depth phenomenological interviews supplemented by memoing, essays by participants, a focus group discussion and field notes were used. The data explicitation, by means of a simplified version of Hycner’s (1999) process, is further explained. The article finally contains commentary about the validity and truthfulness measures, as well as a synopsis of the findings of the study. http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/view/4484 Article 2004-04-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/2563 Acceptance of co-operative education practice by the academic staff at Technikon South Africa Groenewald, Thomas; Strumpfer, Deo; Lessing, B. C. (Barend Christiaan) Technikons advocate the practice of co-operative education, which is an educational strategy that integrates learning through productive work with the theoretical curriculum. However, only 35% of theTechnikon SA programmes have a compulsory experiential learning component. Grounded theory research was undertaken to determine some of the basic assumptions of Technikon SA’s academic staff in this regard. Rather than starting out with a specific research problem, grounded theory explores an area of interest and allows what is relevant to emerge. Semi-structured interviews with four open-ended questions, were conducted with a stratified-random sample of 25 teaching staff at Technikon SA. It was found that, although there is some willing compliance and belief in co-operative education, it is not indicative of the organisational culture of Technikon SA.; Technikons propageer die beoefening van ko˛peratiewe onderwys,’n opvoedkundige strategie wat leer deur produktiewe werkservaring integreer met die teoretiese kurrikulum. ByTechnikon SA egter, het slegs sowat 35% van die formele programme ’n verpligte leerervarings komponent.Teoretiese-begrondings navorsingsmetodologie is gebruik om sekere basiese veronderstellings van akademiese personeel te bepaal. Eerder as om’n spesi¢eke navorsingsprobleem as vertrekpunt te gebruik, ondersoek teoretiese-begronding’n area van belang en laat die metodiek die relevante sake toe om te voorskyn te kom. Semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude, met vier ope vrae, is gevoer met ’n gestrati¢seerde eweskansige steekproef van 25 akademiese personeellede vanTechnikon SA. Daar is bevind dat alhoewel daar beperkte oortuiging en gewillige uitlewing van ko˛peratiewe onderwys is, is dit nie beduidend as kenmerkend van die organisasie kultuur vanTechnikon SA nie. Article 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z