Disruptive teaching in the 21st century* (* Title provided by the organisers)

Disruptive
teaching in the
21st century*
(* Title provided by the
organisers)
Presentation at the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS),
University of South Africa (Unisa) Leadership Summit
21 -22 November 2016, Manhattan Hotel, Pretoria
Paul Prinsloo
University of South Africa (Unisa)
@14prinsp
Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_derailment

Alternative title:
Disrupting assumptions
and practices pertaining
to ‘disruptive’ teaching in
a not-so-open, distance
(and often distant), not-
always-sure-about-the-
learning institution
Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_derailment

Imagecredit:https://pixabay.com/en/binary-code-man-display-dummy-face-1327512/
I do not own the copyright of any of the images in this
presentation. I therefore acknowledge the original copyright and
licensing regime of every image used.
This presentation (excluding the images) is licensed and
published under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
License

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/branches-tree-twigs-bark-high-238379/
Overview of the presentation
• Engage with and slow down the notion of
‘disruption’ &‘disruptive’
• Briefly map the hype and critiques of the notion of
‘disruptive innovation’
• If I have to talk about ‘disruptive teaching’, then let
us consider…
• (In)conclusions

Disruptive innovation as weasel word
Image credit: https://www.amazon.com/Watsons-Dictionary-Contemporary-Cliches-Management/dp/1740513215
“Weasel words are words that have been
sucked dry of meaning, they are mere
‘shells of words: words from which life has
gone, facsimiles, frauds, corpses.
Weasel words are the words of the
powerful, the treacherous and the
unfaithful, spies, assassins and thieves.
Bureaucrats and ideologues love them.
Tyrants cannot do without them”
(Watson, 2004, pp. 1-2)

“An avalanche of nonsense. … This is not our language –
because it is not written for us. This is written for the kind of
people who are impressed by such language” (Kernohan, 2013)
Kernohan, D. (2013, March 11). We’re under fifteen feet of pure white snow. [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/were-under-fifteen-feet-of-pure-white-snow/
Source credit: http://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2013/03/avalanche-is-coming_Mar2013_10432.pdf?noredirect=1

Retrieved from https://medium.com/@bryanalexander/a-devils-dictionary-of-educational-technology-1c3ea9a0b932#.fwehp5qbd

Welcome to the age of spectacle, the era of “post-truth”
and “post-rule”, the race-for-flashy-terms-and-concepts,
rituals of “fake fraternisation” (Hartley, 1995), a time
characterised by an obsession with the latest trend,
where we believe that educational technologies can
redeem bad teaching, where we uncritically embrace
“Gladwellism” – “The hard sell of a big theme supported
by dubious, incoherent but dramatically presented
evidence” (Appleyard, 2014). Welcome to the ‘Shallows’…
Appleyeard, B . (2014, April 10). Why futurologists are always wrong – and why we should be sceptical of
techno-utopians. NewStatesman. Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/04/why-
futurologists-are-always-wrong-and-why-we-should-be-sceptical-techno-utopians
Hartley, D. (1995). The ‘McDonaldization’of higher education: food for thought?. Oxford Review of Education,
21(4), 409-423.

Images retrieved from Amazon.com

Source credit: Lepore, J. (2014, June 23). The disruption machine. NewYorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/the-
disruption-machine
“Disrupt or be disrupted”
“The eighteenth century embraced the idea of progress; the nineteenth
century had evolution; the twentieth century had growth and then
innovation. Our era has disruption, which, despite its futurism, is atavistic. It’s
a theory of history founded on a profound anxiety about financial collapse,
an apocalyptic fear of global devastation, and shaky evidence” (Lepore, 2014)
“The idea of innovation is the idea of progress stripped of the aspirations of
the Enlightenment, scrubbed clean of the horrors of the twentieth century,
and relieved of its critics. Disruptive innovation goes further, holding out the
hope of salvation against the very damnation it describes: disrupt, and you
will be saved” (Lepore, 2014; emphasis added)

Thompson, B. (2014, June 18). Critiquing disruption theory. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://stratechery.com/2014/critiquing-
disruption-theory/
Kiesling, L. (2014, June 17). Critiquing the theory of disruptive innovation. [Web log post]. Retrieved from
https://knowledgeproblem.com/2014/06/17/critiquing-the-theory-of-disruptive-innovation/

Dila, M.A. (2016, March 6). Pardon our disruption, Mr Christensen. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-
overlap/pardon-our-disruption-mr-christensen-be57d9f1433c#.1ogfsyue4
Moazed. A. (2016, February 16). Why Clayton Christensen is wrong about Uber and disruptive innovation. TechCrunch. Retrieved
from https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/27/why-clayton-christensen-is-wrong-about-uber-and-disruptive-innovation/

Image credit: http://connect.citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/10/C2.jpg?81cf05
What do we mean with ‘disruptive teaching’ in a
context where…

• Students protests and disruptions brought higher education in
South Africa to a standstill
• A government that has systematically and increasingly defunded
higher education
• Student: faculty ratios have exponentially increased
• Teaching is increasingly outsourced to adjunct faculty, teaching
assistants and/or tutors
• The workload of faculty has increased exponentially as they
manage print-based and online teaching, administer external
markers and e-tutors, are required to dance to the tune of the
orchestra playing “Abide with me” and reorganising the
deckchairs while there are signs that the ship is in trouble?
What do we mean with ‘disruptive teaching’ in a
context where/when…

So if I have to talk about disruptive teaching, let us
consider how/that…
• Our curricula still reflect the opinions, epistemologies and ontologies
of mostly white male scholars based in North-Atlantic contexts
• Many of our curricula are locked into agreements with publishing
houses where they prescribe the curricula, shape our pedagogies and
assessment practices
• The notion of “you can study any time, any place, at your own pace”
resembles a crude commercialisation of an industrialised process of
teaching where students, actually, have very little choice
• We seem to disregard the costs of prescribed text books and not
consider the huge potential (and implications) of embracing open
educational resources (OER)
• We still subscribe to the notion that increasing student-teacher/tutor
interaction (at huge cost) is the only way to address concerns about
student success and throughput

• Teaching is not valued as much as research and student support
is mostly an unbearable nuisance that we outsource to non-
academic departments
• The administrative workload of faculty has become unbearable
where we have to continuously report to different stakeholders
for various purposes in a frenzy of proving that somehow we are
worth our salaries
• We are condemned to compare and report on comparisons of
student success between semesters, disregarding how curricula,
pedagogies, examination timetables, macro-societal factors,
institutional inefficiencies and (said softly) block adjustments of
marks and changes in student/lecturer/marker profiles make
comparisons tenuous if not impossible

• As we move increasingly online, the strict distinction/separation
between office hours and private, personal lives are eroded as we
are increasingly online, 24/7, 365 days a year
• We consider two marked assignments with two tutorial letters with
general, one-size-fits-all feedback as ‘formative assessment’
• We have not broken the iron triangle of cost, quality and access with
many of our initiatives resulting in huge costs, initiatives that do not
scale well, and with an obsession to implement before we know the
impact or appropriateness of these interventions
• We don’t have the time or the skills to critically engage with the
student data we have access to and interrogate our assumptions
about students’ prior educational experiences as predictor of their
success

So if I have to talk about disruptive teaching, let
us consider that…
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/gears-machine-old-mechanical-19979/
While distance education and open distance
learning are often presented as a highly
industrialised form of education, it does not
mean that our processes and individuals are mere
replaceable cogs in a machine

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortgirl/11973269764
Cynefin framework image: http://www.hlswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Cynefin-Adapted.jpg

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/branches-tree-twigs-bark-high-238379/
(In)conclusions
“Weasel words are words that have been sucked dry of meaning,
the are mere ‘shells of words: words from which life has gone,
facsimiles, frauds, corpses. Weasel words are the words of the
powerful, the treacherous and the unfaithful, spies, assassins and
thieves. Bureaucrats and ideologues love them. Tyrants cannot do
without them” (Watson, 2004, pp. 1-2)
There is a danger that we uncritically accept words like
“disruption”, “innovation” and “excellence” without due
consideration of whose interests are at stake, who are
affected, the unintended consequences and our fiduciary
duty of care to our staff, students
and the communities we serve

THANK YOU. KE A LEBOGA. BAIE DANKIE
Paul Prinsloo
Research Professor in Open Distance Learning (ODL)
College of Economic and Management Sciences,
Office number 3-15, Club 1, Hazelwood,
P O Box 392
Unisa, 0003, Republic of South Africa
T: +27 (0) 12 433 4719 (office)
prinsp@unisa.ac.za
Skype: paul.prinsloo59
Personal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com
Twitter profile: @14prinsp

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