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Designing Systems with Care: Responding to Inequality in an Online Course in South Africa

Shanali C. Govender, Christine Immenga, & Daniela Gachago, �Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, Centre for Higher Education Development

University of Cape Town

contact: daniela.gachago@uct.ac.za

link to slides

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Shanali Govender, CILT

Christine Immenga, Student Affairs

Govender, S., Immenga, C., & Gachago, D. (2023). Designing Systems with Care: Responding to Inequality in an Online Course in South Africa. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 12(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.59668/722.13023

link to slides

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Context and Background

South Africa

Long history of racialized inequality (Davids & Waghid, 2020)
Highest Gini coefficient
Brutal lockdown leaving country reeling

UCT

Historically white liberal university
Student protests (#RMF, #FMF)
High levels of burnout among staff and students (Gachago et al 2023)

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EDN4501

EDN4501 Online Learning Design

3/4 module in PGDIP Educational Technology
App 45 participants from all over South Africa, from differently positioned institutions
Practical course, contextual, authentic, participants work on a design challenge in their context
Used to be taught as block weeks, move to online since pandemic

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EDN4501 course design

Trauma – informed pedagogies (TIP)

Trauma negatively affects learning: “when our nervous system is calm, [...] we are able to engage socially, be productive, and process new information in order to continue to learn and grow—and to feel we are living meaningful and fulfilled lives” (Imad, 2021, p. 2).
Aim to foster a sense of safety by reducing uncertainty, forging trust through regular communication, creating meaning through reaffirming or re-establishing goals to create meaning, cultivating community through intentional connections, and centering well- being and care (Imad, 2021)
Paying careful attention to cultural, historical and gender inequalities, in order to attend to the maldistribution of power in the classroom.

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Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory�

[...] the progressive, mutual accommodation throughout the life course, between an active, growing human being and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded (Bronfenbrenner, 1989, as cited in Shelton, 2019, p. 6).
Focus on microsystem: “setting with particular physical and material characteristics” that contains the “pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person” interacting in that setting (Shelton, 2019, p. 58).

The affect dimension is defined as the feelings experienced by people within the microsystem. If the developing person has positive feelings towards others within the microsystem, they are more motivated to engage in activities within the microsystem and as a result development will occur. If there are negative feelings toward the particular microsystem then the developing person may wish to avoid participating in that space (Shelton, 2019).

In turning to the power dimension, Bronfenbrenner describes this dimension as the “relative strength of each person in the relationship, and [...] their influence on each other” (Shelton, 2019, p. 34). Bronfenbrenner views power as a continuum whereby relations could exist where one person could have all the power and the other none or where both parties could be equal in power.

Reciprocity, Bronfenbrenner’s third dimension refers “to the mutual sharing or transactional character of the activities and interactions that take place in the relation” (Shelton, 2019, p. 35). Reciprocity in relations also exists along a continuum where on the one end relations can exist with “complete reciprocity, mutuality, and sharing” (Shelton, 2019, p. 35), and on the other end, relations exist with no reciprocity. This could be because the parties do not share with each other at all or because one party initiates an action but remains unresponsive when the other party attempts to initiate it. Examples of reciprocity include engaging in conversation, sharing of information or alternating roles within the microsystem.

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Study

Collective autoethnography (authors used their names and participants pseudonyms)
Interviews with 13 EDN4501 participants, course artefacts and reflections from three facilitators
Analytical framework: dimensions that affect relationships between actors: affect, power, and reciprocity

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AFFECT

Intentionally making space for feelings and relationship building

Lean into safety to ensure students’ emotional, cognitive, physical, and interpersonal safety

Promote Predictability and Consistency

“I feel like when it comes to teaching and learning, you have to be able to put those things [feelings] aside. [...]”

...that's the part that I found the most helpful, just having a safe space to think about your thoughts and jotting down those thoughts that you're thinking about, without freaking out about how this is going to impact your marks. (Sara, Participant)

I really appreciate how[..] we'll always have weekly announcements every Friday, [...] and all the new materials were being posted on Friday. [...] So for me, the whole idea of knowing that, okay, every Friday, I'm getting something new to read or to work on. (Kagiso, Participant)

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RECIPROCITY

Making trauma visible and responding with compassion to create trust and respect

Building connections through group work to foster mutual self-help and peer support

Exposure to inclusive practices to empower participants’ voices and choices by identifying and helping build on their strengths.

In terms of the approach, we are postgraduate students, most of us are working. And apart from work, we also have other things that are going on in our family circles. So sometimes meeting deadlines is not always possible. But the instructors showed a great deal of understanding and empathy, you know, which was then very easy to reciprocate...(Luvuyo, Participant)

….when we were given an opportunity to be in the breakout rooms, ... you could freely talk to your colleagues or talk to anyone, and it was almost like those activities were hoping to break those little silos that we're having in the main course. (Luvuyo, Participant)

The kinds of people they are, they were so caring, and they were quite involved, you know, you'd add them in your comment, and they will get back to you in no time. I liked that... it doesn't matter how many students you have, you just make time and make each student feel like they are special. And then again, group teaching - they were a team, even though we're online, they would give each other time and they would take turns, they would invite each other to comment. (Lindo, Participant)

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POWER

Awareness of power and positionality

Ceding power / promote co-design

...these empathy maps, [...] made me understand that I need to pay attention to the teacher's personality, [...] to improve the academic experience of students [...] because, [...], the personality of the person who designing or who is teaching will influence a course design. (Ester, Participant)

I liked what [the facilitators] were doing, you know, that whenever you're suggesting something, they would add it right there and then in front of you… (Lindo, Participant)

….it distributes responsibility in the classroom context [...] In designing for flexibility, I believe that we run the risk of placing the responsibility of design and the responsibility of creating a learning experience too fully on the shoulders of our students. (Shanali, Facilitator)

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Learnings and emerging tensions

Affective connection vis-a-vis the course, their peers, and facilitators which in turn motivated them to continue actively participating in the course in difficult times
While facilitators held position of power, participants could feel us sharing this power where possible
Commitments of our students to co-creating safe spaces with us became critical making participants intersecting needs visible - team teaching helps
Reciprocity in relationships among adult learners / modeling care
Importance of awareness of students’ contexts and how these affect their ability to participate (move beyond microsystem/dyad, including relationships among themselves, their students, departmens, institutions, families…)

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As such, the design decisions we make must take into account our diverse learners’ needs and expectations. This can only be achieved through an intense co-design process, with all stakeholders involved, and a sharing of our diverse experiences and expertise, while recognizing our own positions of power.

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Any questions?

daniela.gachago@uct.ac.za

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References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage

Gachago, D., Huang, C., Czerniewicz, L. & Deacon, A. 2023. A commodity to be exploited and exhausted: Expressions of alienation in higher education. Digital Culture & Education, 14(4). https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/volume-14-4-papers/a-commodity-to-be-exploited-and-exhausted-expressions-of-alienation-in-higher-education

Imad, M. (2020). Leveraging the Neuroscience of Now. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/06/03/seven- recommendations-helping-students-thrive-times-trauma

Imad, M. (2021). Transcending adversity: Trauma-informed educational development. To Improve the Academy, 39(3).

https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0039.301

Imad, M. (2022). Trauma-informed education for wholeness: Strategies for faculty and advisors. New Directions for Student Services, 2022(177), 39-47.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20413

Shelton, L. (2019). The Bronfenbrenner Primer. New York & London: Routledge.