Enabling open learning and participatory parity through increased e-learning : The case of leadership at Gert Sibande TVET College, South Africa

Abstract

At the core of challenges besetting most South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are poor leadership and management which lead to inadequate guidance and support for open learning, in general, and, more specifically, technologically innovative practices such ase-learning. E-learning contributed to improving learning flexibility for financially precarious students at Gert Sibande TVET College (GSC), who were unable to commute daily. Flexible modes of learning provision tie in with the South African Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) open learning principles. Asmall-scale qualitative study was undertaken to investigate leadership approaches and practices in its promotion of open learning via the prioritisation of e-learning at GSC, identified by DHET as a forerunner of e-learning. In-depth interviews with senior management and college lecturers were conducted online. Due to the social justice intent foregrounded in DHET’s draft Open Learning Policy Framework, Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework was used to determine the extent to which the leadership processes and practices enabled socially just environments for increased e-learning initiatives. The study found that visionary and socially just leadership practices contributed to increasing e-learning implementation at the college, although certain economic, cultural and political injustices in terms of effectively enabling e-learning still prevailed. This study holds the potential to further influence the social justice imperatives of leadership of e-learning at the institution, as well as contribute to leadership for open learning initiatives in South Africa and abroad.