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Harmonising Reality and Professional Practice: Pedagogies of Inclusive Teaching and Connected Learning
Abstract
Globally, there is a growing interest in achieving greater educational inclusion to address the persistent inequalities related to education disparities and social mobility. However, the focus of this study is the persistent high levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment in South Africa that requires a tripartite alliance between curriculum, pedagogy and technology. The diversity of learners, educational inequalities, increasing diffusion of digital technologies, and unaligned pedagogical connections within the current context of higher education in South Africa demand a multivariate ontological and epistemological analysis. Therefore, through a designreality gap analysis lens and a sustainable development perspective, the positioning of this paper built on four points: (1) reconstruction of pedagogic practices around the digital domain, (2) unaligned pedagogical connections having ontological implications in the evolution of higher education, (3) theoretical foundations of digital learning and its impact on pedagogic alterations in the context of unequal societies, and (4) gaps in digital infrastructure and professional development opportunities. Thematic analysis was used to explore the tripartite alliance between curriculum, pedagogy and technology as well as the theoretical and epistemological literature on adopting and appropriating technology in teaching and connected learning. This conceptual research takes a closer look at theoretical and epistemological considerations for digital education and online learning by examining the importance of institutions’ and individuals’ readiness to effectively implement digital tools to inform new ways of teaching and learning. Thus, the study contributes insights to the debates on the manifold effects of digital affordances in higher education and the conditions necessary to pedagogically integrate digital tools in the classrooms given the social issues, such as digital capital and inequalities in resource-constrained communities. The resource-poor contexts present special challenges in the effort to implement digitally enabled education while simultaneously offering unique opportunities to develop knowledge on the intersection of technology and education. Lastly, this paper argues the importance of expanding educators’ digitalisation knowledge systems instead of technological determinism.
PCF11 Sub-Theme: Changing Mindsets for Inclusive Open Education
Paper ID: 1266
Subject
Country
South Africa
Region
Africa
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Date
2025-09
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ORCID
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Publisher
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)