http://hdl.handle.net/11189/1921 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 04:35:33 GMT 2026-09-02T04:35:33Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10753 Title: Peer mentors’ access to resources and efforts to provide support to first-year students during the COVID-19 pandemic Authors: Mkonto, Nosisana Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption in higher education, compelling universities to adopt emergency remote teaching and learning strategies. Lockdown forced a rapid shift to online platforms, new assessment forms, and digital communication tools. This transition especially affected first-year students, who were unfamiliar with university structures and lacked the psychosocial support typically available on campus. Universities were challenged to support these students in a remote environment. Before the pandemic, peer mentors offered face-to-face psychosocial support to first-year students. However, COVID-19 restrictions necessitated a move to online mentoring. This study explores how peer mentors adapted their support roles during the lockdown, focusing on their use of digital platforms to mentor first-year students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. A mixed-method research design was adopted, involving an online survey and six focus group discussions with sixty-two peer mentors. The survey, distributed via Google Docs, gathered quantitative data, while qualitative data was obtained through online discussions held on Microsoft Teams. The study is grounded in the ethics of care and digital inequality theories, which provide a framework for understanding mentors’ access to resources and their ability to offer support. Findings show that despite limited access to resources, peer mentors demonstrated resilience and innovation in their efforts to provide psychosocial support. The peer mentors’ experiences underline the potential for leveraging existing social capital to enhance mentoring efforts. The study stresses the importance of recognizing and addressing digital inequalities while promoting caring and supportive relationships in higher education, particularly in times of crisis. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10753 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10752 Title: Afrocentric graduate attributes for future-ready graduates: conceptualization in the South African decolonial context Authors: Ditsele, Rampofeng; Simelane-Mnisi, Sibongile; Mji, Andile Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate how lecturers at a University of Technology conceptualize 21st-century graduate attributes within an Afrocentric framework through their teaching practices. The objective was to explore how academics understand and implement these attributes, considering the imperatives of decolonization and contemporary educational demands. The Fourth Industrial Revolution and decolonization imperatives necessitate reconceptualizing graduate attributes that reflect 21st-century competencies and African philosophical foundations. Despite extensive research on graduate attributes, limited scholarship explores how these can be conceptualized within decolonized curriculum frameworks embracing Afrocentric principles. This study addresses the gap in understanding graduate attributes for future-ready graduates within South African decolonial contexts. A qualitative descriptive case study design grounded in Afrocentricity philosophy was employed. Purposive sampling selected 14 participants: seven academics and seven students from two faculties. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Thematic analysis using Atlas. The study generated 36 codes and 57 quotations, resulting in nine categories across three themes: conceptualisation of 21st-century graduate attributes, their importance, and teaching strategies. Findings revealed that lecturers used case studies, role-plays, and interactive discussions to facilitate student engagement, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving while promoting technological literacy. Students confirmed that lecturers used real-world examples and expected active problem-solving engagement to enhance the development of graduate attributes. The study revealed a comprehensive framework for 21st-century Afrocentric graduate attributes. The research demonstrates the effective conceptualization and implementation of Afrocentric graduate attributes in preparing students for contemporary challenges while maintaining their cultural identity. The study recommends integrating 21st-century Afrocentric graduate attributes into institutional teaching, learning, and assessment strategies to guide academic practices systematically. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10752 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10751 Title: Reimagining academic writing in higher education in the age of artificial intelligence Authors: Mhlongo, PraysGod Abstract: The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has created significant challenges for institutions of higher learning. While some academics have embraced GenAI, others have been reluctant for several reasons, including compromised assessment methods and the potential erosion of students’ critical thinking and scientific or academic writing skills. Drawing on personal lecturing experience, I reflect on the vulnerability of current academic writing assessment in the face of GenAI. This article aims to offer an alternative perspective on the teaching and assessment of academic writing, which may pave the way for the integration of GenAI into higher education teaching and assessment. It seeks to sustain the ongoing debate on GenAI integration in higher education, a discussion largely visible on platforms such as LinkedIn. A contribution of this nature is critical and a duty of all teachers. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10751 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10745 Title: Stay with the trouble: entangled relations – a tribute to Professor Elmarie Costandius’s embodied arts-based practice Authors: Meiring, Kobie Abstract: This paper explores the pedagogical entanglements of embodiment, thinking-through-doing, and visual redress in higher education through a post-qualitative and autoethnographic approach. Engaging with the work of Professor Elmarie Costandius, I reflect on how intra-actions between students, materials, and spaces shape learning in arts-based education. Moving beyond representation, this inquiry considers how embodied arts practices disrupt entrenched binaries, allowing for more relational, emergent ways of knowing. While the discussion is situated within a specific pedagogical context, it also raises larger philosophical and global concerns about inclusive knowledge production and justice—challenging dominant modes of learning that marginalise material, affective, and embodied engagements. In doing so, this paper contributes to ongoing conversations about response-ability in arts-based education, foregrounding the ethical and epistemic stakes of making, knowing, and being in entangled pedagogical spaces. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10745 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z