Enabling inter-institutional co-design and co-facilitation of a postgraduate diploma module in educational technology: Uncovering sites of struggle, negotiation and accommodation among course facilitators

Abstract

The development of a curriculum for a diverse group of students is challenging, whether at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. Various social, organisational, political, cultural, and personal factors are at play in the process of designing a curriculum that is learning-centred and responsive to societal needs. The notion of learning-centred curriculum development has been addressed extensively in the literature; however, scant research focuses on the interests of agents, as well as the cultural and structural considerations at play, when designing a postgraduate module for participants from diverse and unequal backgrounds. Analysing written reflections and reflective conversations on the various events, mechanisms, and structures encountered during the process of curriculum development, we shed new light on the covert issues facilitators have had to acknowledge when designing a learning-centred curriculum for participants across vastly diverse higher education contexts in South Africa. Drawing on sociologist Margaret Archer’s research, we seek to provide insight into the interplay between structure, culture, and agency when course facilitators from different institutional backgrounds collaboratively designed and facilitated a postgraduate module in educational technology.