Acceptance of co-operative education practice by the academic staff at Technikon South Africa

Abstract

Technikons advocate the practice of co-operative education, which is an educational strategy that integrates learning through productive work with the theoretical curriculum. However, only 35% of theTechnikon SA programmes have a compulsory experiential learning component. Grounded theory research was undertaken to determine some of the basic assumptions of Technikon SA’s academic staff in this regard. Rather than starting out with a specific research problem, grounded theory explores an area of interest and allows what is relevant to emerge. Semi-structured interviews with four open-ended questions, were conducted with a stratified-random sample of 25 teaching staff at Technikon SA. It was found that, although there is some willing compliance and belief in co-operative education, it is not indicative of the organisational culture of Technikon SA.

Technikons propageer die beoefening van ko˛peratiewe onderwys,’n opvoedkundige strategie wat leer deur produktiewe werkservaring integreer met die teoretiese kurrikulum. ByTechnikon SA egter, het slegs sowat 35% van die formele programme ’n verpligte leerervarings komponent.Teoretiese-begrondings navorsingsmetodologie is gebruik om sekere basiese veronderstellings van akademiese personeel te bepaal. Eerder as om’n spesi¢eke navorsingsprobleem as vertrekpunt te gebruik, ondersoek teoretiese-begronding’n area van belang en laat die metodiek die relevante sake toe om te voorskyn te kom. Semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude, met vier ope vrae, is gevoer met ’n gestrati¢seerde eweskansige steekproef van 25 akademiese personeellede vanTechnikon SA. Daar is bevind dat alhoewel daar beperkte oortuiging en gewillige uitlewing van ko˛peratiewe onderwys is, is dit nie beduidend as kenmerkend van die organisasie kultuur vanTechnikon SA nie.