University Lecturers as Agents of Change and Social Justice Within a Rural South African Context

Abstract

The subject of higher education transformation and the related aspect of decolonization received widespread attention from various epistemological and pedagogical angles. It remains no secret that rurality has received little or no attention in all the contemporary transformation and decolonization debates and practices. Drawing from formal and informal conversations as well as observations within a South African university located within a rural setting, the chapter explores the diverse ways in which university lecturers are crucial agents of change and social justice within a rural higher education context. Drawing on the works of Freire, particularly in relation to the theory of critical pedagogy, the chapter reveals how beyond the general common understanding of a rational individual as agent lies the complex interdependence of individual agency and social contexts. The chapter further highlights that at the centre of the interaction between lecturers and students within the context of transformative change and social justice lies a complexity of multiple voices and practices that point to agency not as something that people can have or possess but as people’s actions and achievements. Since the lecturers are at the centre of ensuring social justice within universities, the chapter highlights that the personal and professional baggage that lecturers bring into the professional spaces, need to be reshaped. The chapter further argues that any effective change ought to place the interests of the student at the centre especially through initiatives that would aim at transforming rural academics into good teachers who can ensure an empowering and emancipating pedagogies are promoted.