“Understanding the TVET game” : A case study on maximising available opportunities for open educational practices within the broader TVET field in South Africa

Abstract

This case study examines the management practices of False Bay College (FBC), a TVET college deemed ‘successful’ by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), asking what local practices support this success. However, rather than seeking a-contextualised ‘best practice’ to transfer to other colleges, the case study takes a relational Bourdieusian approach as a language of description, analysing decision-making in relation to the broader contours of power and structure. In doing so, I seek to locate ‘strategy’ back into a dynamic conversation with context. Bourdieu’s framework offers a rich conceptual apparatus for considering not just False Bay, but the state of relations in the broader TVET field and how vocational education is positioned against both basic education and broader political economic forces. In considering the ‘logic of practice’ underpinning FBC’s institutional organisingand decision-making, the chapter asks how these broader practices support both ‘open learning’ as a policy imperative from DHET, as well as broader social justice concerns (cf. Nancy Fraser’s approach, the overarching framework for the Cases of Open Learning, of which this study is one). The case study’s findings suggest that institutional arrangements and activities are not specific to open learning, but aregeneric features of leadership and decision-making practice that strategise within the prevailing TVET field and its policy and resource constraints. That these practices are historically and contextually specific suggests that there is no ‘silver bullet’ to learn from FBC that would transfer to other TVET colleges without significant change in the broader educational field in South Africa.