Lecturers' psychosocial experience of change in higher education in South Africa

Abstract

The global higher education landscape is rapidly changing as it re-organises itself to keep up with the demands and challenges of the 21st century. The corporatisation of higher education institutions, the emergence of managerialism, economic restructuring, and the incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICT) into educational teaching and learning environments are significant shifts occurring currently. In addition to these challenges, South African higher education institutions also grapple with social inequalities inherited from apartheid, economic stratification, and the challenge of reaching their transformation goals. These changes challenged the existing ideological beliefs of academia, with its long-standing traditions such as professional autonomy, academic freedom, intellectual discourse, and knowledge production. The study aimed to explore how lecturers working at South African higher education institutions experienced, responded to and coped with the changes. A cross-sectional, qualitative approach was employed. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with twenty participants from various private and higher education institutions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to analyse the semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the data was aligned with phenomenological, hermeneutic and idiographic principles, and both inductive and deductive approaches were used. The findings were structured in terms of three key considerations: (1) participants' experiences of the changes in higher education, (2) how they responded to the changes and (3) how they coped with the changes. Four concerns reflected academics’ experiences of change, namely a shift in governance, intensification and extensification of administrative workload, a change in student profile and the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in higher education learning environments. Academics’ responses to these concerns played out as resistance or acceptance. Resistance was reflected in preferences for the status quo (i.e., a collegial culture of decision-making, having autonomy and freedom), relying on self-interest (i.e., personal valence) and silence to discreetly maintain some level or feeling of control. Accepting the changes in higher education were justified ideologically, such as respect for authority. Academics’ ideological orientations offered interpretations through which they could make sense of the changes in their work environment and, as such, reduce feelings of uncertainty. The ways academics coped with changes in higher education centred on social support, active coping, distraction coping, interpersonal communication, and turning to religion. The study concluded that the changes in higher education institutions in South Africa directly impacted academics’ work environments. Academics highlighted the shift in the governance of higher education institutions and the rise of new managerialist approaches (i.e., an auditing culture) as key changes. They perceived the increase in institutional control as a threat to academic professionalism and status. They experienced being marginalised and excluded. They had to rely on various strategies to cope with a changing student profile and the impact of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into higher learning environments. The study concludes with the recommendation that the unique history of higher education in South Africa justifies the establishment of mechanisms that encourage authentic engagement between academics and management to sustain change through redesigning institutions for change.