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(Un)Conferencing Under the Baobab Tree: Nurturing Holistic and Innovative Approaches in Higher Education Learning and Teaching

Greig Krull

Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-5869

Subethra Pather

Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5207-2792

Fhatuwani Ravhuhali

Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, Limpopo, South Africa

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5531-1709

The articles in this special issue are from recent work brought together by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA). It specifically draws from and builds on the conversations and engagements at the 2024 HELTASA (Un)Conference, co-hosted by the University of Limpopo and the University of Venda from 26–29 November 2024.

This issue aligns with the 2024 HELTASA (Un)Conference’s central theme: Nurturing holistic and innovative approaches in higher education learning and teaching contexts, which aimed to address the pressing challenges and opportunities facing higher education in Southern Africa and beyond.  In the Southern African higher education context, many universities are grappling with complex issues such as limited funding, unequal access, the effects of colonisation and apartheid, multilingualism, student exclusion, low graduation rates, and high unemployment rates among graduates. In addressing these complex issues, universities need to be intentional in creating inclusive, equitable, and diverse learning environments while preparing students for a sustainable future. The theme of this special issue (and the 2024 (Un)Conference), emphasises the need for comprehensive strategies that not only improve learning and teaching in higher education but also contribute to broader societal transformation.

The issue explores five interconnected sub-themes which are:

• Nurturing decolonial, inclusive and equitable approaches in higher education;
• Nurturing flexible and innovative pedagogical and curriculum approaches in higher education;
• Nurturing digital transformation, innovation, and assessment practices in higher education;
• Nurturing student support and fostering graduate attributes in higher education; and
• Nurturing relationality and participation in higher education contexts.

This APORTAL special issue brings together contributions from scholars and practitioners who are reimagining learning and teaching in innovative and holistic ways that respond to both current and future challenges. The special issue includes 19 articles, with contributions from 66 authors from 19 public and private higher education institutions in South Africa. Contributions in this special issue are drawn from emerging scholars and experienced researchers in the field of higher education studies. These articles offer theoretical insights, reflective accounts and empirical research that expand our understanding of innovation and transformation in higher education learning and teaching. The collection of articles aims to inspire the rethinking of learning and teaching processes and practices that are rooted in the Southern African context and is linked to the 2024 (Un)Conference’s use of the symbol of the baobab tree (a feature of the Limpopo province) as a source of life, resilience, and interconnectedness within the local ecosystem. The articles are grouped in five themed areas highlighted below and provide an overview of the articles in this special issue.

Section 1: Nurturing decolonial, inclusive and equitable approaches in higher education

The first section of this special issue looks at ways of mitigating historical and structural inequities to transform higher education learning and teaching through decolonial and inclusive processes. Using a systematic literature review, Olatain’s study on “Decolonising higher education in South Africa: A review of strategies for enhancing inclusiveness, equity, and diversity” identifies strategies such as curriculum transformation, participatory governance, community-engaged learning, and educator capacity-building. Mphuthi’s qualitative case study on “Integrating indigenous games into preservice teachers’ decolonised curriculum practice to help understand economics principles” identifies how indigenous knowledge systems (through indigenous board games) can be integrated into collaborative learning and teaching approaches for economic concepts and calculations. The idea of creating “cracks” in colonial pedagogies and practices is explored by Sibanda’s qualitative study of “Acts of decolonial love in academic literacy: Practitioners’ perspectives and transformative practices” in investigating how “decolonial love” can be integrated into the work of academic literacy practitioners. Finally, Leni et al. in their reflective study “A reflective shift towards student–staff partnerships for inclusive and decolonial curriculum co-creation in the Global South” provide an account of the benefits and challenges in developing student-staff partnerships in the local context, drawing on Global South pedagogies.

Section 2: Nurturing flexible and innovative curriculum and pedagogical approaches in higher education

Building on approaches that foster inclusivity and equity, articles in this section seek to explore flexible and innovative approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. Gunkel and de Villiers’ conceptual study, “A speculative synthesis of ubuntu pedagogy and constructivism for inclusive South African higher education”, conceptualises how Ubuntu pedagogy can be combined or synthesised with constructivist teaching approaches to reimagine contextually responsive learning and teaching approaches. Illustrating how flexibility can be enacted in curriculum design, Govender et al.’s design case study, “A BOLD proposition: A participatory parity approach to radical flexibility in designing a postgraduate diploma”, demonstrates how institutional constraints can be navigated to provide greater flexibility and student agency in programme development. Inclusivity is also foregrounded by Rambharose’s mixed methods study, “Empowering adult learners through interdisciplinary and inclusive digital recognition of prior learning in higher education”, which contributes a digitally supported Recognition of Prior Learning supportive framework to empower adult learners entering or re-entering higher education. Finally, at the structural level, the quantitative case study by Gumede et al., “A performance trend analysis of modules at-risk: A case study of a university of technology in South Africa”, uses learning analytics to identify patterns of underperformance to be able to address systemic risks to student success.

Section 3: Nurturing digital transformation, innovation, and assessment practices in higher education

Digital transformation continues to be an area that Southern African higher education has to navigate. The articles in this section seek to explore the opportunities and challenges related to digital transformation in learning and teaching in ways that support inclusiveness and equity. The mixed methods case study by Mutakwa and Muloiwa-Klenam, “Embedding digital transformation in South African higher education through bridging the digital divide: A university case study” highlights the complexities and nuances of the digital divide at a particular higher education institution and explores institutional approaches to narrow this divide. At a discipline-level, drawing from the insights during the COVID-19 period, the reflective study by Khoza et al., “Designing online teaching and learning experiences using the conversational framework: Reflections from a design discipline”, illustrates the challenges and complexities in how lecturers and students in design education can adapt to online modalities. Drawing on game-based learning approaches to fostering digital literacies, Snyman et al. explore the effects of using online games on student motivation in their design study of “Virtual escape rooms as a game-based learning strategy through the lens of the ARCS model”, highlighting how careful consideration of the digital learning experiences of different students in the design can enhance student motivation and collaboration. Moving to online assessment practices raises concerns about academic integrity, so Muzindutsi et al., in their study that interrogated assessment results over a five-year period, “Digital transformation and innovation in higher education: Rethinking online assessment integrity”, offer design considerations for oversight mechanisms and the redesign of assessments to suit different modalities. Finally, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has also sparked concerns about students’ potential overreliance on these tools for learning. Von Hagen et al. in their reflective study. “Smart talk: Reflections on utilising large language models (LLMs) to advance inclusive assessment practices” showcase how lecturers can make use of LLMs to enhance inclusivity and feedback in assessment practices, while balancing critical concerns about bias and over-reliance.

Section 4: Nurturing student support and fostering graduate attributes in higher education

Beyond a focus on what happens in a formal curriculum, this section considers the need for student support that considers the whole student and fosters the types of values and attributes South African graduates will need to succeed in their professional lives. Williams and Scholtz offer a qualitative study that demonstrates how students involved in peer-assisted learning programmes can cultivate attributes such as resilience, ethical capability, and problem-solving in the article “Enhancing graduate attributes through students providing peer-assisted learning at a South African university”. Focusing on the importance of encouraging creativity, “Modelling creativity in academic writing: Reflections on a writing centre approach at a University of Technology” by Tjabane and Shube, offers a reflective account of how writing centres can embed creativity into holistic support services for students. Finally, Ajayi and Nyamupangedengu contribute how embedding reflection into work-integrated learning initiatives can foster values such as openness, self-transcendence, and inclusivity in pre-service teachers in the qualitative study “Exploring pre-service teachers’ values through reflective practice during work integrated learning: Fostering values in higher education”.

Section 5: Nurturing relationality and participation in higher education contexts

The final section highlights the importance of foregrounding our human dimensions when it comes to innovation and transformation by centring the need for collaboration, relationality and participation in higher education. Nwanze et al. explore how trust dynamics shape collaboration in educational development projects in their reflective study “A reflection on dimensions of trust and epistemic agency in a blended learning project team”. While Govender et al. demonstrate how pedagogies of mattering can reshape curricula and institutional practices to foreground trust, inclusivity, and dialogue in their reflective study “Relational pedagogies reimagined: Reflecting on mattering and response-ability in higher education” about facilitating group conversations at the 2024 (Un)Conference. Finally, Ganas et al. showcase how the traditional pre-conference workshop day can be productively disrupted, drawing on the principles of Ubuntu and Ukama, using dialogic, story-based methodologies, to expand participation and create more inclusive scholarly (un)conference communities in their reflective article “Meqoqo under the Baobab: Expanding participatory possibilities of (un)conferencing in South African higher education”.

Through varied areas of focus and methodologies, the articles in this special issue seek to broadly contribute in three ways: to advance transformation and inclusivity in higher education, to promote pedagogical and institutional innovation when it comes to learning and teaching, and to nurture holistic approaches that recognise and value the unique contributions of students, staff, and other stakeholders in higher education. We encourage higher education researchers, scholars and practitioners to continue to build on these works to further nurture holistic and innovative approaches in higher education learning and teaching contexts.

How to cite this editorial: Krull, G., Pather, S., & Ravhuhali F (2025). (Un)Conferencing Under the Baobab Tree: Nurturing Holistic and Innovative Approaches in Higher Education Learning and Teaching. African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning, 9(6), 643-646.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70875/v9i6editorial