Funding has become an established means of promoting the professionalisation of teaching and learning. Various funding schemes in Higher Education have incentivised innovation and research aimed at developing a scholarship of teaching. However, a causal relationship is impossible to prove and the underlying subjective processes of scholarly…

In this theoretical paper we explore the authorial voice of black African postgraduate students in their writing and scholarship experience. This includes investigating the undergirding factors that need to be interrogated when it comes to the student-supervisor relationship. Some (if not most) black African postgraduate students experience…

In this article, I examine the state of knowledge construction within the South African academe. This, I do by looking at how issues of epistemology and ontology are prioritised or negated in the social construction of knowledge. Focusing on what I have called 'the problem of perspectives', I show how 'epistemological narcissism' has often limited…

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) communities of practice (CoP) have emerged as collaborative learning environments that unite people with a shared interest. However, forming and maintaining a successful SoTL CoP can be challenging, requiring careful planning and execution. As academics, we face various challenges in our teaching and…

Pragmatism is an important resource that has helped higher education institutions (HEIs) in Lesotho and South Africa to complete the 2020 academic year even when they were affected by COVID-19. Pragmatism is a philosophy of human actions combined with experiences in order to produce outcomes or consequences, where the reality is about what works…

South African higher education policies have since 1997 called for the expansion of research collaboration with the African continent and Global South. In this article, the authors' analysed South Africa's international research collaboration trends and patterns during the 2012-2021 period. Focusing on co-authored scholarly publications, the…

Education curricula need constant updates in response to job market requirements, which may be influenced by the changing technological environment. In the library and information science (LIS) job market there are dynamics brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). These dynamics call for LIS schools to reconsider their curricula in…

The article discusses the question of the co-construction of knowledge between the university and its communities in the pursuance of community engagement, which is one of the key mandates of universities in South Africa. It reflects on the limitations of most academic approaches to the concept and practices associated with the scholarship of…

Higher education has been deeply affected by neoliberalism and corporatisation, with their emphasis on efficiency, competitiveness and valorisation of quantity over quality. This article argues that in the context of South African higher education, and in the Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) more particularly, such commodification of education…

This paper argues that the South African postdoctoral fellow system is de-professionalising academic work by constituting postdocs as students who receive training from the university rather than employees who work for it. Ironically, it obscures this de-professionalisation with a discourse of postdoctoral fellowships as 'professional development'…

In the dynamic landscape of the neoliberal university, conversations between emerging scholars serve as vital spaces for critical reflection and transformative action. This collaborative autoethnographic study engaged with the complexities of navigating academia as two black clinical psychologists within a South African university. Drawing on…

This article takes a deep dive into my doctoral journey and my lived experience as an emerging Black African scholar doing decolonial research in a South African colonial and Westernized university. I wrestle with the contradictions and tensions that emerged during this period that took place at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also look back…

While a number of studies report on how a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has been implemented in particular disciplines or faculties, arguably much less is known about how this can be achieved university-wide. This paper brings the lens of SoTL retrospectively, from the vantage position of a university leader, to a range of teaching…

In the 21st century, knowledge has become the driving force behind societal progress, emphasising the need for higher education to produce contextually relevant knowledge that addresses the multifaceted challenges faced by local communities. It is in this respect that knowledge needs to be generated through one's position of epistemic location in…

What scholars call "writing" actually involves writing, reading, talking, thinking, and engaging. Yet how academic writing develops through this recursive, social process, is imperfectly understood. Although participating in academic gatherings like colloquia and international conferences can help researchers find a scholarly voice, not…