Browsing by Author "Dhunpath, Rabikanth."

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Archaeology of a language development non governmental organisation : excavating the identity of the English Language Educational Trust.
(2003) Dhunpath, Rabikanth.; Samuel, Michael Anthony.
Any attempt at understanding the influences that impinge on teacher development in South Africa is incomplete without an exploration of the role of NGOs, particularly those alternative development agencies that were conceived in response to apartheid education and which continued to pursue progressive, contextually relevant interventions in the transitional democracy. Using the archaeological approach to excavate deep insights into the behaviour of a language development NGO, this study documents the institutional memory of the English language Education Trust (ELET). Portraying two decades of its history (1984 to 2001) through the eyes of key participants in the organisation, the study traces the multiple influences, internal and extraneous, that have shaped ELET's mutating identity as it negotiated the challenges of a volatile and unpredictable NGO climate. The study pursues two reciprocal outcomes. First, it attempts methodological elaboration. In advocating transdisciplinary research, it borrows from the established traditions of empowerment and illuminative evaluation, appropriating their key tenets for an institutional evaluation. Underpinned by the genre of narrative research, the study expands the lifehistory method as an evaluative tool, providing opportunities for organisational members to engage in self-reflexive interrogation of the organisation's life as it negotiated a multiplicity of development challenges. Second, it attempts theoretical elaboration. It challenges classical organisational theory (which derives from the structural - functionalist corporatist mode of management theory), as conservative and inadequate in understanding the organisational culture of an NGO. The study proposes a post-structuralist mode of discourse analysis as complementary to classical management theory in organisational analysis. Conflating theory and method provides incisive conceptual lenses to appraise the contribution of ELET to language teacher development. The study finds that while ELET has been complicit in allowing its mission as a counter-hegemonic agency to be undermined by its submission to normative, coercive and mimetic isomorphism, it nevertheless demonstrates agency to innovate rather than replicate. It achieves this despite the cumulative constraining pressures of globalisation, manifest through volatility in corporate funding, shifting imperatives of bilateral funding agencies, and the fickle agendas of the fledgling democratic government. The study demonstrates that, given these unpredictable conditions, NGOs Iike ELET are forced to reinvent themselves to respond to emerging development opportunities as a hedge against attrition. In this regard, ELET has benefited from astute management and a vigilant quest for homegrown intervention programmes as alternatives to imported literacy programmes, all of which helps it redefine what constitutes emancipatory literacies. Despite its proven record of accomplishment as a site for alternative teacher development, the study demonstrates that a competitive higher education sector a hostile policy environment and the debilitating reporting mechanisms demanded by funders results in ELET's potential as a site for 'authentic' knowledge production to be devalued. A further consequence of this marginilisation is that the organisation finds itself increasingly vulnerable to co-option by the state as a functionary of service delivery, accounting upwards to funders rather than downwards to beneficiaries of development. The study argues that the exploitative relationship the NGO endures with other development constituencies is as much a consequence of the NGO's failure to embrace an expedient corporate culture as it is the failure of these constituencies to acknowledge the potential of the NGO. Hence, rather than preserve the antagonistic relationship between higher education institutes and alternative agencies for knowledge production, they will each benefit by mutually appropriating the accumulated expertise of the other, giving substance to the ideal of a community of reason through creative dialectical evolution. The study concludes with the proposition that one mechanism to operationalise the notion of a community of reason is community service learning, a partnership between higher education institutes, corporate funders and development NGOs, a relationship in which the NGO provides leadership in appropriating disparate energies towards the cultivation of a socially literate country.
Social class and the experience of university education: narrative inquiry.
(2022) Ragodoo, Nicolas Jean-Francois.; Shawa, Lester Brian.; Mariaye, Marie Hyleen Sandra.; Dhunpath, Rabikanth.
Access to and success by students from a range of backgrounds is often considered as a barometer of the democratic health of higher education institutions. As in many other African contexts (Asamoah, 2015; British Council, 2014; Lourens & Fourie-Malherbe, 2017), perceptions that, as part of the education system, higher education should enact a social justice agenda by being a gateway to better job opportunities have persisted in Mauritius. However, the extant literature reveals that a number of structural and cultural factors within the system and in the workplace impede automatic conversion of access to university into tangible changes for students who live in challenging family contexts. This study advances the debate by proposing an alternative outlook on university education through the eyes of students from different social classes, probing their pre-university trajectories as well as their actual experiences, and their outlook on the future. Anchored in the critical paradigm, it adopts a theoretical framework built on the sociological lens of Bourdieu’s reproductive theory and the social justice lens of Sen’s capability approach. In order to collect first-hand accounts of the reality of university students, the life history approach was adopted, with the application of narrative inquiry methodology. Through the juxtaposition of the theoretical lenses of Bourdieu and Sen, this work offers new insights into the role of the university at societal level. It analyses how university education, instead of acting as an equaliser across social classes, and an elevator of students from poor families, in fact pre-determines their life chances, thereby contributing to the perpetuation of the established social hierarchy. The study emphasises the key role that organic intellectuals are expected to play in rethinking and overhauling the current educational system.
Teachers’ work in a context of adversity.
(2018) Maharaj, Nadira.; Amin, Nyna.; Dhunpath, Rabikanth.
This study investigated the nature of teachers’ work in a context of adversity at Shivta Primary School. The school is situated in an underprivileged rural township in KwaZulu-Natal known as Kalika. Social constructionism was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study and the open systems theory and Morrow’s formal and material elements of teachers’ work were employed to examine the nature of such work in a context where students hail from low socioeconomic backgrounds. A qualitative ethnographic approach was used to collect data. Interviews, focus groups and observation were used to examine the nature, complexity and demands of teachers’ work in a context of adversity. While teachers are expected to comply with national norms as well as those formulated by school management, teaching in a context of adversity generates additional challenges. The study’s results revealed that teachers’ work at Shivta Primary School is concentrated, complicated, emotionally challenging and demanding. Apart from their daily classroom activities, they are called on to provide social and emotional support to students due to the latter’s socioeconomic circumstances. The findings also indicate that the rhythm of teachers’ work is constantly interrupted by counselling and social work; administrative duties and other incidental activities. This calls for the ability to constantly respond to new situations that are outside their normal duties. The multiple interactions that constitute teaching reveal teachers’ work as complex, demanding, emerging and intensified rather than permanent and coherent. Teachers at Shivta Primary School operate within a structure that requires that they attend to matters after the school day has ended. While this may be typical of many schools, the degree of adversity confronted by students at this school makes this study atypical. It is thus recommended that policies provide for support for teachers that work in a context of adversity.