Книги по разным темам Pages:     | 1 |   ...   | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |   ...   | 27 | Our interaction in the community is reciprocal because in as much as we provide a service to the communities, we also learn to be members of our society. We are directly exposed to the feelings and heartbeat of communal existence through this engagement. Our research as Gramsci would quip is infused with passion which enables us to move from a pure positivist and cold cognitive position to a more committed position of empathy with the marginalized communities.13 We are consciously made aware of our privileged status as intellectual workers, but we are at the same time humbled by the resourcefulness of the teachers and schools in these rural and deprived communities.

Our emphasis on the establishment of communities of learning is informed by our firm believe in the power of human agency and that even though humans do not choose conditions of their actions as Gramsci notes, their volitional intends and purposes cannot be ignored in understanding the outcomes of their action. It is this firm believe informed by GramsciТs theorization that encourages our continued action towards enabling teachers to take charge of their roles.14 We see our roles as that of facilitator of change and transformation. We are aware that as intellectual workers we are not able to give power to other human beings, rather, our role is to create conditions where - us included - other human beings can take power in their own hands themselves by removing all possible impediments to that process.

As emerging organic intellectuals we see ourselves therefore as mediators of learning. Gramsci has emphasized the importance of education and learning in any transformatory process. To date we have come see the dominance of the belief that learners, teachers and schools catering for the subalterns, just like their communities, are bound to perform poorly in every facet of life. According to the views of this dominant perspective in South Africa, at least, it is expected that when results relating to school performance are scrutinized; poor, black, rural and marginalized learners will always come at the bottom of the league table. To date when research is conducted the findings confirm exactly that.15 Research further confirms that individuals from the subaltern categories are more prone to violence and crime, that they constitute the majority of the unemployed and the prison population. It is 78 Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments people from this poor, black and marginalized category who will not have access to housing, skills and good health.As intellectuals our role as it is beginning to emerge in the SELEN work above, seems to be to put together programs, projects and all, geared towards creating the alternative truth. Creating the counter-hegemonic perspective and facilitating it may seem almost impossible; however through organic intellectuals serving as mediators of learning it is possible to incrementally open cracks on the hold of this dominant ideology. For example, as demonstrated in SELEN, teachers are provided with opportunities to gain confidence in their work by gradually practicing their skills in the company of their peers in sympathetic and mutually supportive environments. Such opportunities are created by organic intellectuals. This may have multiplier effects as more and more teachers come to build the requisite skills and competencies to teach. More learners could learn more effectively and acquire better qualifications for better job opportunities thus reducing the levels of unemployment and crime. Other learners could become entrepreneurs who could create more job opportunities to other people as well. The point I am trying to drive at is that organic intellectuals have a role of mediating these positive learning experiences within and outside the confines of the university. They have to provide the leadership in conscientising the community of the power they have and creating opportunities for them to explore those potentials in freedom.

In mediating learning we have the responsibility of interpreting reality through research in constant conversations with the communities. The power of the current hegemonic interests may be so overwhelming to the extent that individuals (for example teacher and learners) and collectives (schools and universities) within communities accept the inequities engendered thereby as being natural.17 The organic intellectuals, because of their privilege of being able to see the bigger picture beyond the immediacy of experience now and for the individual, may assist in creating opportunities for individuals and collectives to see themselves beyond the present and the past and to be able to project into the future what may be possible. The intellectual as explained in the work of SELEN is about making it possible for people to dream and to imagine the future which is different and full of possibilities.

Our intention as emerging organic intellectuals, as illustrated in SELENТs work, is to provide spaces for ourselves and our communities to redefine our identity as that of a united South African nation. It is also our intention to focus our entire nationТs attention on our common humanity away from emphasizing apartheid and/or diversity.18 What we need is to infuse the common purpose for all to uplift the lives of us all. Our role as organic intellectuals is to create a sense of community at every opportunity possible that may avail itself. We need through thought and action to model Sechaba Mahlomaholo and Vhonani Netshandama citizenship of a democratic society by being vigilant and by sensitizing all to the dangers of inequity, social injustice, lack of freedom, lack of peace and of hope. In this way we will be playing the necessary pastoral role as organic intellectuals.3. Conclusion The above indicate the changed role of the intellectual. They also point out to the many demands on the organic intellectualТs expertise and experience. Such an organic intellectual has to be a scholar, a researcher and lifelong learner, a leader and multidisciplinary specialist.

Notes MG Mahlomaholo, СA Framework for University and Provincial Education DepartmentТs Collaborative Research Towards the Creation of Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments: An OverviewТ. Praxis Towards Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments in South Africa. D. Francis, M.G. Mahlomaholo & M.M. Nkoane (eds), Sun Media, Bloemfontein, 2010.

V Netshandama, СCommunity Development Approach to Community Engagement in Rural Based Higher Education Institutions in South AfricaТ.

South African Journal of Higher Education, vol. 24 (3), 2010, pp. 50-55.

Department of Education, National Curriculum Statement, Government Gazette, Pretoria, 2003, pp. 7-10.

A Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks. International Publishers, New York, 1977.

C Boggs, The Two Revolutions: Gramsci and the Dilemmas of Western Marxism. South End Press, London, 1984, p. 43.

MG Mahlomaholo, СTowards Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments: Unmasking Apartheid Legacies through Scholarship of EngagementТ. South African Journal of Higher Education. vol. 24 (3), 2010, pp. 8-13.

Department of Education, National Education Policy Act 27, Government Gazette, Pretoria, 1996, pp. 11-19.

MG Mahlomaholo, СSustainable Empowering Learning Environments through Community Cultural Wealth: A Story of HopeТ. Acta Academica (in press), 2010; L Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. New Left Books, London, 1977, p. 136.

L Shange, СSolidarity with the People of Kennedy Road and Abahlali BasemjondoloТ. Democratic Socialist Movement, 2008, viewed 01 October 2009, Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments T Bereng, СInterrogating the Absence of African-Authored Research-Based Textbooks and Journal Articles in South AfricaТs Education SystemТ, PhD Thesis, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, 2007, pp. 33-40.

A Davidson, Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography,Merlin Press, London, 1977, pp. 67-79.

S Gill (ed.), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 27-50.

P Allman, СGramsci, Freire and Illich: Their Contributions to Education for SocialismТ, T Lovett (ed.), Radical Approaches to Adult Education: A Reader. Routledge, London, 1988, pp. 99-105.

L Flank, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony: Marxism, Capitalism, and Their Relation to Sexism, Racism, Nationalism, and Authoritarianism, Red and Black Publishers, Florida, 2007, pp. 105-109.

S Hall, СThe Problem of Ideology - Marxism without GuaranteesТ. Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 10 (2), 1986, pp. 28-44.

T J Yosso, СWhose Culture has Capital A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural WealthТ. Race, Ethnicity and Education, Vol. 8 (1), March 2005, pp. 69-91.

News 24, Idle Youth worry Nzimande 2009, viewed 01 October Netshandama, op. cit., pp. 50-55.

MG Mahlomaholo, СSustainable EmpoweringЕ, op. cit.

Bibliography Allman, P., СGramsci, Freire and Illich: Their Contributions to Education for SocialismТ. Radical Approaches to Adult Education: A Reader. T. Lovett, (ed.), Routledge, London, 1988.

Althusser, L., Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. New Left Books, London, 1977.

Bereng, T., СInterrogating the Absence of African-Authored Research-Based Textbooks and Journal Articles in South AfricaТs Education SystemТ. PhD Thesis. Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, 2007.

Boggs, C., The Two Revolutions: Gramsci and the Dilemmas of Western Marxism. South End Press, London, 1984.

Boyer, EL., Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities for the Professoriate. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton, NJ, 1990.

Sechaba Mahlomaholo and Vhonani Netshandama Davidson, A., Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography. Merlin Press, London, 1977.

Ц, National Curriculum Statement. Government Gazette, Pretoria, 2003.

Ц, National Education Policy Act 27. Government Gazette, Pretoria, 1996.

Flank, F., Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony: Marxism, Capitalism, and Their Relation to Sexism, Racism, Nationalism, and Authoritarianism. Red and Black Publishers, Florida, 2007.

Gill, S. (ed.), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993.

Gramsci, A., Selections from the Prison Notebooks. International Publishers, New York, 1971.

Hall, S., СThe Problem of Ideology - Marxism without GuaranteesТ. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 10 (2), 1986, pp. 28-44.

Ц, СIdle Youth WorryТ, in News 24, viewed 01 October 2009, M. G., СA Framework for University and Provincial Education DepartmentТs Collaborative Research towards the Creation of Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments: An OverviewТ. Praxis Towards Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments in South Africa. D. Francis, M. G. Mahlomaholo & M. M. Nkoane (eds), Sun Media, Bloemfontein, 2010.

Ц, СSustainable Empowering Learning Environments through Community Cultural Wealth: A Story of HopeТ. Acta Academica (in press), 2010.

Ц, СTowards Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments: Unmasking Apartheid Legacies through Scholarship of EngagementТ. South African Journal of Higher Education, vol. 24 (3), 2010, pp. 8-13.

Netshandama, V., СCommunity Development Approach to Community Engagement in Rural Based Higher Education Institutions in South AfricaТ.

South African Journal of Higher Education. vol. 24 (3), 2010, pp. 50-55.

82 Sustainable Empowering Learning Environments Shange, L., СSolidarity with the People of Kennedy Road and Abahlali BasemjondoloТ. Democratic Socialist Movement. 2008, viewed 01 October 2009, T. J., СWhose Culture has Capital A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural WealthТ. Race, Ethnicity and Education, vol. 8 (1), March 2005, pp. 69-91.

The Return of the Democratic Intellect James Moir Abstract This paper revisits George DavieТs notion of the democratic intellect as a feature of Scottish higher education. The role of the intellectual in society has become ever more specialist and bound up with income generation. Gone is the notion of the intellectual being someone who shares their knowledge with the wider public, but rather this is now with interested stakeholders. Yet the professional academic is much more in the business of excluding rather than including others in the activities they engage as Сintellectual work.Т Indeed, in Scotland, there have been the beginnings of a debunking of the notion of the democratic intellect. Nevertheless, the myth of the academic as a servant of the public is still strongly held. Knowledge production from above rather than from below is still the dominant epistemological modus operandi. This paper argues that academics in universities should consider revisiting the notion of the democratic intellectual in order to consider themselves in a transformative capacity in their relations with students and the wider public.

Given the public purse for higher education is open to intense scrutiny this argument may provide a stimulus to intellectuals connecting with the public in a way that they have not had to.

Key Words: Democratic intellect, citizenship, higher education, academia, transformative intellectual, graduate attributes, personalization.

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