Collaborating Towards Humanizing Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning: Case of Universities of Technology in South Africa

The complex history of the South African higher education sector has led to a growing need for universities to engage in humanistic approaches to teaching and learning. This paper discusses ways in which key agents including academics can challenge the status quo in higher education and promote collaborative and transformative practice. Universities in modern society aim to educate and develop students to cope with the complexities of the economy and social change, and to produce new knowledge, while strengthening a commitment to society and democracy. Owing to the current low pass rate of students in the South African higher education sector, there has been a growing call to rethink ways of learning and teaching to ensure greater success for the diverse student body. Students enter university with rich histories, experiences, knowledge, and ways of viewing reality and require enabling environments to develop their identity and succeed at university. The authors acknowledge that students need these supportive spaces to navigate their way through university. Using a collaborative auto-ethnography inquiry approach, we reflect on how our experiences shape our practice in higher education. We value a social constructivist approach where learning is constructed through interaction, and not solely transmitted through instruction. The principles of Communities of Practice (CoP), Paulo Freire’s idea of a Humanizing Pedagogy (1970) and ideas on Critical Reflexivity in teaching and learning are adopted as a framework underpinning our reflections. The discussion is located within these tenets to explore the significance of collaborative approaches to teaching and learning in higher education in South Africa, and more specifically in a University of Technology. This paper argues that it is important to authentically engage with practices from the past, reflect on them and look towards future practices to provide quality educational experiences for students. Our reflective discussion on teaching and learning has suggested that teaching-learning are intertwined, and that carefully planned collaboration and interaction would bring us a step closer to offering students a holistic university environment that supports humanisation and the development of the ‘whole’ student.