This is a presentation at the workshop on Emerging opportunities in post-graduate public health education for health systems development, Cape Town, 2015 The School of Public Health (SOPH) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) hosted a two-part workshop series in May and October 2015, as part of its ongoing work with 15 sister institutions in Africa and the global South. The overall aim of the workshops was to explore emerging opportunities for expanding access to, and delivery of, post-graduate training in public health for people working in or managing health services/systems.

1. “Time for Studies”
3 Year Action Research Project on Flexible
Learning and Teaching
Shirley Walters, University of Western Cape
07 May, 2015

2. 1Why this UWC/SAQA
Partnership Project?
2Paradoxes and
working students
Bird’s eye view of
Project, approach,
deliverables
3
Workplaces, university
and students
4
Metaphors and
theoretical insights5
Moving beyond
binaries – what is
needed?
6

3. Look to democratic roots…….
Universities and education generally
reproduce the social order, but it can,
alternatively, educate towards and for
a changed society. And I cannot in
conscience, in truth, educate, or lead
education, towards the reproduction
and maintenance of a social order
which is undemocratic, discriminatory,
exploitative and repressive and stands
universally recognised as such.
Jakes Gerwel, Vice-
Chancellor, UWC
1987

4. Tyrone Pretorius
“I came to study with no financial
support and I worked at the
Newlands Hotel, as it was then
known. I worked there on the night
shift as a switchboard operator in
order to pay my fees. I’d go through
to Newlands at around 9pm
because my shift started at 11pm.
I’d knock off at around 5am, then
went to take a quick shower, get to
UWC and then head off to class.
The only time I slept was after
class, maybe between 4pm and
6pm, do my school work and
studies and then head off to
Newlands.”
“But this is the story of most of our
students because we’re committed
to providing access to the most
socially disadvantaged, and each
one of them has a story of
overcoming incredible adversity in
order to be here.” Argus 17/4/15

5. Paradoxes
(i) Public Residential Universities under pressure to increase
intake of young students - working people or ‘first
generation students’ find options for education being
limited. At a time when public policy commitment is to open
and widen access to workers and adult learners, ‘doors of
learning’ paradoxically are closing
(ii) UWC has 55 year tradition of parallel day/night delivery
system which is breaking down – need for new conception
to continue to provide lifelong learning opportunities
(iii) Majority of UWC students work (paid and unpaid) or seek
paid work – are they all in fact ‘part-time?
(iv) Overcrowding of learning spaces is a major driver to change
teaching and learning practices

7. Locating project in UWC

8. Key deliverables
• Annual targets reached within Pilot Sites
• 5 academic articles (Shirley Walters, Mark Abrahams, Sally Witbooi, Vernon Weitz,
Freda Daniels)
• 1 Masters Thesis submitted (Catherine Wynsculley)
• Research report (70 Pages) Flexible Learning and Teaching Provision at UWC;
abbreviated report (12 pages) accepted by Senate Committees
• 3 pilot site case study reports; reflections on ‘motives’ within practices
• Feasibility study of B Admin as full degree FLTP site
• Seminars: 2 x series of workshops and seminars at UWC with visiting professors; ad
hoc seminars; 5 x national seminars; ‘thinkwell’ with national partners
• Conference papers delivered at Stirling University, Scotland, SAERA, CASAE, Canada
• Policy briefs
• Blog and booklet (educational poster) for dissemination nationally - please consult
http://uwcflexiblelearningandteaching.blogspot.com/

9. The people
Project staff, UWC colleagues, students, visiting
professors, SAQA colleagues, and more…
Barbara Jones, Freda Daniels, Anne Edwards,,
Vernon Weitz
Richard Edwards, Heidi Bolton, Freda Daniels,
Tara Fenwick

10. Students and Educators are ‘persons in the world’

11. School of Public Health (SOPH)
Who are our students?
Other countries:
India
Canada
France
ALL working
• Nurses
• Doctors
• Physios
• Managers
• Policy makers
• Female and male
• Young and old
• In urban and rural areas
• With or without access
to technology

12. Political Studies: A dynamic team
of people
 Mindsets matter: We value
Excellence, Relevance,
Collaboration and
Accountability.
 To deliver a high-quality
programme and thrive in
an increasingly complex
environment, we need to
be present, adaptable and
reflective.

13. 1“I am thinking of leaving
my job because I have
to go to my classes
during the day.”
Working Student
2“Who’s going to be on duty at the
circulation desk if she goes to class
again this morning?”
Line Manager
“I’m sorry, but I really have
to go to class now. Can you
cover for me with the
shelving? I’ll be back by
lunch time, I promise.”
Working Student i
3
“We really need to provide more
support for the students, but at the
moment at least they can apply for a
bursary.”
Line Manager
4“I have to teach my classes, then go to
the committee meeting, and then to the
research meeting. And then submit my
reports. And I have to publish my paper.
How will I squeeze all of that in today?”
Academic
5
“We must do everything we
can to support the student
in successful studies…but
after hours classes are just
too expensive”
University Manager
6

14. Insights
• Time for studies
• Understanding flexible learning and teaching
• Organisational change: Building common knowledge, relational expertise
and agency
• Importance of resourceful leadership at all levels
• 4 institutional sub-systems working together differently
• Differentiated possibilities for workplaces / university working together
• Moving beyond the binary - what is needed?

15. “How can you make visible such an
immaterial idea as time?” (William Kentridge)
Theories of time illuminate. Links to scheduling, pace and
flexibility dimensions are relevant to analysing time for
professional development studies………..
Key concepts relate to ‘construals’ and ‘enactments’ of
time; monochronicity and polychronicity.. ..Working
students experience the intense acceleration of time.
(Catherine Wynsculley)

16. Time …can institutions rethink `time
for studies`? Lifelong Learning is about
a life-time
Seasonal time
Clock time
Plot time
Circular time
Plant time …
(Katharine Taylor, PhD student)

17. Understanding flexible learning
and teaching
Shifting discourses and complex interplay btw:
• Identities of university and workplace staff and
students (including changing roles and responsibilities;
understandings of work and study times)
• Epistemology – understanding what and whose
knowledge counts at different times
• Power relations

18. Understanding flexible learning and teaching

19. Flexible learning – emerging definition
In furtherance of UWC’s mission to make ‘lifelong
learning opportunities available’: Flexible learning
and teaching provision is an inclusive, student-
centred approach that promotes flexibility in
admissions criteria, curriculum design, learning and
teaching modes and assessment, with appropriate
support systems and services, for the purpose of
developing graduate attributes throughout the
learning process so that all students can make a
positive difference in the world.

20. Limits to Flexibility?

21. Institutional change: common knowledge,
relational expertise and relational agency
(Anne Edwards, Oxford University)
Edwards’ (2011) notion of common knowledge is very
useful; it speaks to the fact that to bring about
institutional change, its not only the surface behaviours
that need to change. We need to recognise the
‘historically accumulated motives’ that have given shape
to practices. Accessing and discussing these often tacitly
held motives takes deep and sustained dialogue….we
need to take the standpoint of others to understand how
and why they are using resources for flexible learning in
ways which matter to them.

22. Resourceful leadership (Anne Edwards)
Leadership is required to listen, tap into and
harvest innovations to help their movement
upstream; champions of innovations in teaching
and learning, at every level, need affirmation and
support to percolate common understandings of
flexible learning up, down and around institution.
Collaborative relationships important for
implementation of FLTP.

23. University is complex system
Flexible approaches require profound shifts in the
way that the entire university views, engages and
develops knowledge - 4 interdependent sub-systems
must work together (Green et al 2013)
(1) Teacher
(2) Student
(3) Delivery
(4) Administrative

24. LOOKING BEYOND BINARIES
Is it `flexible learning` for everyone? Is it possible?
CENTRAL PERIPHERAL
Full-time students Part-time students
Day (8.30 – 16h30) Night (after office hours)
No paid work Paid work (trying to get work)
Younger (18-24) Older (25 and above)

25. Universities and workplaces –
different logics
No one size fits all e.g. differentiate between 3 ideal types
of labour market organisations (Freidson, quoted by Allais) –
each provides very different options for relationships
between workplaces and education and training
organisations:
• Bureaucratically controlled division of labour
• Professionally controlled division of labour
• Free market

26. So where to from here?
`Big Ideas`:
(i) Plan for whole u/g degree e.g. B Admin (currently ‘full time’ and ‘part time’) to be
offered as a FLTP degree – scoping complete; secure political and financial support
(ii) Adopt framework of flexible learning and teaching for all students and support high
level mission initiative to shift UWC within next 5 years towards quality FLTP for a
diverse range of students
(iii) Build common understandings of what FLTP means across the 4 sub-systems
(iv) Support FLTP in faculties through incentives; analyse the blockages to flexibility e.g.
regulations, staff conditions, venue usage etc. Ensure capacity of central ‘engine
room’ to support change processes
(v) Professional development for university leadership in faculties and at the centre learn
about flexible learning and emerging technologies by enrolling on the CHECET course.

27. Immediate next steps
Project in current form, ends 30 June 2015; closing out
reports to SAQA; Senate
Integrate insights into IOP
Popular booklet to be disseminated at UWC and nationally
Formal handover to be hosted by UWC’s DVC Academic in
late July 2015
Archive documents
Consult Blog
http://uwcflexiblelearningandteaching.blogspot.com/