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54 - Undergraduate Research in South Africa

Understanding the Quandary

from Part IV.2 - Africa & Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2022

By
Anisa Vahed
Edited by
Harald A. Mieg ,
Elizabeth Ambos ,
Angela Brew ,
Dominique Galli  and
Judith Lehmann
Harald A. Mieg
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Elizabeth Ambos
Affiliation:
Council on Undergraduate Research, Washington DC
Angela Brew
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Sydney
Dominique Galli
Affiliation:
Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
Judith Lehmann
Affiliation:
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Summary

There are concerns that the South African higher education system is not producing sufficient graduates to meet national needs in respect of economic and social development. Systemic reform such as strengthening the undergraduate teaching and research relationship, which is inextricably tied to curriculum structure, is necessary to meet the goals of equity and development and enhancing graduate quality. This can potentially widen the pipeline into postgraduate studies and produce the next generation of academics. The main argument of this chapter is the need to profoundly change the manner in which teaching is structured in South Africa, in order to shift the prevailing culture of undergraduate students as receivers to one in which they are inquirers. This requires pedagogies that enable inquiry-led learning to be developed, to actively engage students in the research process and for them to make the linkage to their discipline-specific practice. An increased focus on building an undergraduate research culture through pedagogical reforms is still needed.

Keywords

research-engaged teachinginquiry-led learningepistemological accessstudents’preparednessgraduate attributes
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research , pp. 499 - 507
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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