CRAFTING A FOUCAULDIAN GENEALOGY METHOD FOR ANALYZING CURRICULUM-AS-DISCOURSE IN SOUTH AFRICA
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5751-2707
Abstract
Introduction/Frame: (Contextualization/Justification) Viewing curriculum as discourse can enable educators to identify how historical markers of discrimination are repeated. Historical markers are archaeologically embedded in the various dimensions of a curriculum and find expression in preferred ways of thinking, speaking, doing, and being. Such historical hypernorms are often maintained by practical rationalities, or technologies of power that reify their taken-for-granted legitimacy as ‘truth regimes’. Research Question/Objectives: This phase of the study aimed to critically explore and disclose how the (socio/politico-historically constructed) rules of knowledge-formation in a contemporary occupational therapy curriculum-as-discourse, are reproduced and maintained as truths at a university that historically supported apartheid in South Africa. Methodology: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) approach was used to systematically craft a genealogy analysis method from foundational Foucauldian theory. Adjacent, a lens of the ‘dimensions of the curriculum’ was employed: i.e., the formal, the informal, the hidden, and the negated curriculum. Various data sources were categorized accordingly, e.g., overarching policy documents; social events; timetables and prescribed texts; physical teaching spaces; espoused values, and underlying assumptions modelled during assessment in teaching and learning spaces. Results: Following the four rules of knowledge-formation that ensued from an archaeology analysis, the contemporary reification of the historical markers was problematised through various technologies of power and self, as well modes of reasoning. Examples are pervasive white demographics of both students and faculty reifying cognitive monopoly and mono-cultural epistemologies; the rationalization of highly ritualized (over)assessment of students suppressing adult-to-adult transactionalism in andragogy practices; the reproduction of mono-cultural epistemologies in clinical training operating in the hidden curriculum. Final considerations: Consciously dismantling the rationalising strategies for the continuation of discriminatory patterns of inclusion and exclusion in a curriculum, can open a space for critical dialogue, disruption, and reconfiguration of a curriculum-as-discourse towards social justice, and epistemic freedom in (higher) education.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
openAccess
Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Reflections, 4(2), 4-15.
Arribas-Ayllon, M., & Walkerdine, V. (2017). Foucauldian discourse analysis. In C. Willig & W. Stainton-Rogers (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research in psychology, second edition (110-123). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Bawa, A. in van der Merwe, C. (2021, December 9). Eight challenges facing South African universities in 2022. Research Profession News. https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2021-12-eight-challenges-for-south-african-universities-in-2022/
Biesta, G. J. J. (2010). Good education in an Age of Measurement. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Botma, Y., Greeff, M., Mulaudzi, F. M. & Wright, S. (2016). Research in health sciences. Pearson Holdings Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd.
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. New York: Zone Books.
Carabine, J. (2001). Unmarried Motherhood 1830-1990: A Geneaological Analysis. In: S. Yates, S. Taylor & M. Wetherell (Eds.), Discourse as Data, A Guide for Analysis (pp. 267-310). SAGE Publications.
Connell, R. W. (1992). Citizenship, social justice and curriculum. International studies in sociology of education, 2(2), 133-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/0962021920020202
de Sousa Santos, B. (2023). The epistemologies of the South and the future of the university. Journal of Philosophy of Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopedu/qhad038
Dsouza, S. A., Galvaan, R., & Ramugondo, E. L. (Eds.). (2017). Concepts in occupational therapy: Understanding Southern perspectives. Manipal University Press.
Farias, L., Laliberte Rudman, D. & Magalhães, L. (2016). Illustrating the Importance of Critical Epistemology to Realize the Promise of Occupational Justice. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 36(4), 234–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1539449216665561
Fine, M. (2006). Bearing witness: Methods for researching oppression and resistance - A textbook for critical research. Social Justice Research, 19(1), 83-108.
Foucault, M. (1961/1989). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the Age of Reason. Routledge.
Foucault, M. (1975/1977). Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison. Random House Inc.
Foucault, M. (1978/2007). The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction. New York: Random House, Inc.
Foucault, M. (1984). In P. Rabinow (Ed.), The Foucault reader: An introduction to Foucault's thought. Penguin Books.
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the Self. In L. H. Martin, H. Gutman & P. H. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 16-49). University of Massachusetts Press.
Foucault, M. (1993). Á Propos Des Fauseurs d’Histoire. In D. Defert, F. Ewald & J. Lagrange (Eds.), Dits et écrits: 1954 – 1988. Vols I – IV (p. 412-415). Gallimard.
Foucault, M. (1997). Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth. Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, Volume I. The New Press.
Foucault, M. (2000). In J.D. Faubion (Ed.), Power. Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, Volume III. The New Press.
Foucault, M. (2003). Society must be defended. Penguin Books.
Foucault, M. (2005). The hermeneutics of the subject: Lectures at the Collége France 1981-1982. Palgrave Macmillan.
Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th Anniversary edition. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
García Ruiz, S., & Malfitano, A. P. S. (2024). Political action in occupational therapy: an integrative review. Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional, 32, e3624. https://doi.org/10.1590/2526-8910.ctoAR278336242
Giroux, H. A., 2015. Neoliberalism's War Against Higher Education and the Role of Public Intellectuals. Límite. Revista Interdisciplinaria de Filosofía y Psicología, 10(34), 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46894-5_10
Godsell, G., Chikane, R., & Mpofu-Walsh, S. (2016). Fees must fall: Student revolt, decolonisation and governance in South Africa. NYU Press.
Hammell, K. W. (2023). A call to resist occupational therapy’s promotion of ableism. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 30(6), 745-757. https://doi.org/10.1080/11038128.2022.2130821
Hafferty, F. W. & O'Donnell, J. F. (Eds.) (2014). The hidden curriculum in health professional education. Dartmouth College Press.
Hinchliffe, G. (2018). Epistemic freedom and education. Ethics and education, 13(2), 191-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1438150-
Hocking, C. & Whiteford, G. E. (Eds.) (2012). Occupational science: Society, inclusion and participation. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Jansen, J. D. (Ed.) (2019). Decolonisation in universities: The politics of knowledge. Wits University Press.
Keet, A. (2010). Almost Nothing: University Engagement as Hospitality. Keynote delivered at the University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Author can be contacted at Andre.Keet@mandela.ac.za
Kelly, A. V. (2009). The Curriculum: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications Limited.
Kronenberg, F., Pollard, N. & Ramugondo, E. (2011). Introduction: Courage to Dance Politics. In F. Kronenberg, N. Pollard & D. Sakellariou (Eds.), Occupational therapy without borders (pp. 1-16). Elsevier Ltd.
Ned, L., Tiwari, R., Buchanan, H., Van Niekerk, L., Sherry, K., & Chikte, U. (2020). Changing demographic trends among South African occupational therapists: 2002 to 2018. Human resources for health, 18, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-0464-3
Newton, P. & Compston, M. (2024, March 6). BEST Webinar with Martin Compton and Phil Newton on AI and Higher Education. Access can be requested from FrancisN10@cardiff.ac.uk.
Nietzsche, F. (1880/2015). The Wanderer and His Shadow. In Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: The Collected Works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (pp. Kindle loc. 11343-13559). Amazon Digital Services LLC: Pergamon Media,
O'Donnell, J. F. (2014). Introduction. In F. W. Hafferty & J. F. O'Donnell (Eds), The Hidden Curriculum in Health Professional Education (pp. Kindle loc. 89-439). Dartmouth College Press.
O'Farrell, C. (2005). Michel Foucault. SAGE Publications Ltd.
OTASA, 2018. Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa - Annual Report: The 2018 National Forum for Allied Health Professions in the Public Sector and OTASA Council 2018, Pretoria: OTASA.
Rauch van der Merwe, t., 2012-2018. Autobiographical Notes. Bloemfontein, South Africa s.n. Author can be contacted at tania.vandermerwe@wits.ac.za
Rauch van der Merwe, T. (2019). The political construction of occupational therapy in South Africa: Critical analysis of curriculum as discourse. Ph.D. Thesis, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/handle/11660/10424
Reilly, S. (2022, August 31). The biggest challenges facing highereEducation. SEAtS Software Education Success Platform. https://www.seatssoftware.com/the-biggest-challenges-facing-higher-education/
Rose, N. (1999). Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge University Press.
Sakellariou, D., & Pollard, N. (Eds). (2016). Occupational Therapies without Borders: Integrating Justice with Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Schreurich, J. J. & McKenzie, K. B. (2006). Foucault's Methodologies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 841-868). SAGE Publications.
Stats South Africa. (2023). Census 2022 Population Count Results 10 October 2023. Department Statistics South Africa. Republic of South Africa. MEDIA RELEASE. https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=16716#:~:text=Black%20Africans%20remain%20the%20dominant,7%2C3%25%20in%202022
Stout, R., Archie, C., Cross, D., & Carman, C. A. (2018). The relationship between faculty diversity and graduation rates in higher education. Intercultural Education, 29(3), 399-417. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2018.1437997
van den Akker, J. (2013). Curricular development research as a specimen of educational design research. In T. Plomp (Ed.), Educational design research (pp. 52-71). Part A: An Introduction. Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO).
van der Merwe, T. R., Ramugondo, E. L., & Keet, A. (2023). Crafting a Foucauldian Archaeology method: A critical analysis of occupational therapy curriculum-as-discourse, South Africa. Social Sciences, 12(7), 393. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12070393
WFOT, 2016. World Federation of Occupational Therapists - Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists, Revised 2016. http://www.wfot.org/ResourceCentre.aspx (Procured)
WFOT – World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2022, September) Global Demographics of the Occupational Therapy Profession. Human Resource Project. https://wfot.org/resources/occupational-therapy-human-resources-project-2022-numerical
Wilcock, A. A. (2002). Occupation for Health: A Journey from Prescription to Self Health. British College of Occupational Therapy.