THE STUDENT VOICE IN CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION

Within university spaces new knowledge is produced, unlocked and harnessed, and students are educated to meet the high-level skills demands from a changing labor market. “The core roles of higher education is one of disseminating knowledge and producing critical graduates, producing and applying knowledge through research and development activities and contributing to economic and social development and democracy through learning and teaching, research and community engagement” [1, p. 6].
The year 2015 was a watershed year for Higher Education (HE) in South Africa as imperatives were brought into the spotlight by students in this sector. In response, the national agenda on HE signified related transformation challenges as a matter for urgent attention. The University of Pretoria (UP) was affected by disruptions on and closure of some of their campuses. As a response and in line with the national agenda, the university, through a consultative process, drafted a transformation strategy highlighting that “academic activities should benefit both the public and human potential” [2, p. 1]. In the strategy the workgroup on curriculum transformation explained that “Curriculum transformation involves continuously rethinking and re-evaluating the ways in which we learn and teach. This includes responsiveness to and thinking in new pedagogical methodologies and approaches within disciplines” [2, p. 4]. The transformation strategy identified four drivers of curriculum transformation in the institution namely responsiveness to social context; epistemological diversity; renewal of pedagogy and classroom practices; and an institutional culture of openness and critical reflection [2, p. 1].
The focus of this paper will link the proposed renewal of pedagogy and classroom practices as perceived by students in the transformation process with their understanding of a good and bad lecturer as elicited in a longitudinal project, in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (FEMS). The researchers linked the qualitative results of these studies, through literature, to student success encapsulated in lecturer classroom behavior, student engagement and student learning. This information could be used by FEMS, and the institution in general, to address students’ concerns regarding curriculum transformation, meet student expectations and improve student experiences, resulting in positive student engagement and finally student success.