Pedagogy and Agency in Postgraduate Student Supervision in a Rural South African University

Introduction

The expansion of postgraduate training and outputs within a global context has increased in a number of universities worldwide. This has particularly been the case as universities have increasingly become strategically seen not only as an important source and measure of global competitiveness but also central to driving socio-economic development worldwide (Kaggwa, Sekiwu & Naluwemba 2017). McAlpine and Amundsen have averred that both developed and developing countries across the globe have come to view universities as strategically positioned for championing social and economic growth as well as international competitiveness (2011, p. 4). Higher education policies have been viewed as vehicles for the promotion of socio-economic growth and global competitiveness. At the core of achieving socio-economic growth and global competitiveness some western governments have embraced the practice of rankings. It is within this context that the Canadian government for instance set a 2010 research and development target which aimed at attaining a top 5 ranking in those two areas (McAlpine and Amundsen, 2011, p. 4). It is significant to note that such targets have been driven by an increase in the enrolment of students on doctoral programs. Other countries such as the United Kingdom have also sharply increased attention on higher education policies particularly with greater emphasis on accountability, higher rates of research productivity coupled with higher doctoral student throughput as well as expectations their research out puts having global competitiveness.

This preceding view, albeit at global level is essential to this chapter’s arguments as the South Africa’s universities have not been spared the pressure of ensuring an increase in the enrolment of master’s and doctoral programs. This has occurred within a context of embracing rankings as well as ensuring research out puts meet international standards. This becomes an important issue within the South African context particularly when one considers the apartheid legacy of inequality that created a divide within the education sector. The legacy of historical disadvantage particularly within South African University system has linkage to the racially segregatory nature of apartheid policies. Bharuthram and Kies (2013) present an important insight on how the education for Black South Africans mirrored the inequitable relations of the racialist and non-democratic apartheid state. Subsequently, huge disparities between institutions arising from the discrimination of the apartheid era produced a legacy of the historically advantaged and the historically disadvantaged institutions.

The apartheid legacy in South Africa meant that the university system gets divided into what has come to be commonly known as formerly Historically Advantaged Universities (HADs) on the one hand and the formerly Historically Disadvantaged Universities (HDUs) on the other. In this categorization, the former are at the core of the arguments of this chapter as they represent poorly resourced institutions in terms of human and financial resources as well as infrastructure wise (Breetzke and Hedding 2016). On the contrary the latter category have benefitted from favourable policies and resources, which has given them an urge in terms of productivity and competitiveness. Focus on low resource settings is crucial considering the dictates of the knowledge economy currently prevalent not just in South Africa but across the globe as well. According to a report by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASAf), the production of doctoral graduates is beneficial to the country in many regards (ASAf, 2010, p. 116). The report exposes an important strong correlation between the production of doctoral graduates and economic growth especially within the context where frontier research has increasingly become essential in knowledge-based economies (ASAf, 2010, p.116).