Acta constitutiva y estatutos sociales

Terms such as higher education, discourse, positioning and learning guides can assume different meanings in different contexts.

Contextualised meaning will be given to these terms so that the study retains its focus as these concepts are used throughout.

Three concepts form the cornerstone of this study: positioning, discourse, and learning guide.

52 1.12.1 Positioning

Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1986: 1769) defines position/positioning as an act of lying down or stating a proposition or thesis. It is also seen as a proposition or thesis: assertion, statement or the proper response to a subject or topic. Another definition is that positioning is the ground or point of view adopted with reference to a particular subject. It is a mental attitude, a way of viewing or thinking about something. All in all, it is to assume or maintain a position.

The Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995: 989) defines positioning as a way of thinking about a particular matter.

From the reviewed literature, positioning is regarded as created by discourse which in turn is created by power. The dominant discourse in South Africa has, through its power, categorised and classified blacks as inferior and of a lower class, according to neo-colonial social ranking, starting with Whites at the top, followed by Indians and Coloureds, with blacks being ranked the lowest. This positioning, according to Foucault in Mahlomaholo (1998), is reinforced by meaning construction that positions people through 'scientific knowledge' which is a reflection of the power relations that constructs subjectivity.

For purposes of this study, positioning is taken to mean the view or attitude of both dominant and dominated discourses respectively on the learning guides. This is how they view the learning guide in terms of the power relations at play since the merging of the HBIs and HWIs. For the dominant discourse, the learning guide assumes a central role in the teaching and learning process in higher education institutions, whereas the opposite is true for the dominated discourse which has a negative

53 attitude towards these learning materials.

1.12.2 Discourse

Discourse, according to the South African Concise English Dictionary (1999: 332), is a written or spoken communication or debate or formal discussion of a topic in writing, or it is a speech, piece of writing or a discussion about a particular, usually serious, subject.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary's definition is that discourse is the act, power or faculty of making consecutive and logically expressions of ideas.

Habermas (1984b: 161) regards a discourse as:

a process of argumentation that is devoted to the redemption or grounding of a controversial validity claim on the basis of the best argument. Consequently, the motive of the individuals participating in the discourse is to redeem or ground the problematic validity claim according to the better argument.

Discourses, as referred to here, are modalities that, to a significant extent, govern what can be said by what kind of speakers and for what type of imagined audiences. They are social practices that constitute both social subjects and objects of their investigation. The rules of discourse are normative and derive their meaning from the power relations of which they a part, that is, discourses organise a way of thinking into a way of doing. They actively shape the practices that discourses serve.

However, they are always indexical to the theoretical perspectives of the researchers and their interpretations. In other words, there exists no simple privileged and perdurable set of research practices whose name is

"field relations". Discourse, according to Foucault in Weedon, refers to:

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ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledge and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the nature of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern (1987: 108).

1.12.3 Culture

Another very important concept for the study is culture. Amilcar Cabral's comments qualify the inclusion of culture in the definition of concepts, where he says:

History teaches us that, in certain circumstances, it is very easy for the foreigner to impose his domination on a people. But it also teaches us that, whatever may be the material aspects of this domination, it can be maintained only by the permanent, organized repression of the cultural life of the people concerned... In fact, to take up arms to dominate a people is, above all, to take up arms to destroy, or at least neutralize, to paralyze its cultural life. For, with a strong indigenous cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation (1999: 190).

For the purposes of this study, Sékou Touré's definition of culture is adopted wherein he describes culture as:

all the material and immaterial works of arts and science, plus knowledge, manners, education, a mode of thought, behaviour and attitudes accumulated by the people both through and by virtue of their struggle for freedom from both the hold and domination of nature; we also include the result of their efforts to destroy social systems of domination and exploitation through the production process of social life (1999: 191).

Ngugi expresses views similar to those of Touré when he writes:

Comment [Hester13]: List of references?

Also: NB spelling has been corrected

Comment [Hester14]: List of references?

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Culture develops within the process of a people wrestling with their natural and social environment. They struggle with nature. They struggle with one another.

They evolve a way of life embodied in their institutions and certain practices.

Culture becomes a carrier of their moral, aesthetic and ethical values. At the psychological level, these values become the embodiment of the people's consciousness as a specific community. That consciousness, in turn, has an effect on how they look at their values, at their culture, at the organisation of power and at the organisation of their wealth extracted from nature through the mediation of their labour (1999: 191).

1.12.4 Higher education

Any study that is carried out after Grade 12 would generally be regarded as higher education. However, for the purposes of this study, higher education refers specifically to universities and the former technikons converted into universities of technology. The two types of educational centre are important for the study because they are the basic source for all resources necessary for the development of a country, socially, economically, politically and scientifically. The researcher sees higher education as a critical role player in social transformation as policy makers are most likely to come from higher institutions of learning.

Higher education institutions have a great influence on the direction taken by the country in policy formulation for successfully achieving national goals. Moreover higher education controls society because through research, it is the centre for knowledge production.

1.12.5 Learning guide

In more practical terms, a learning guide is a document that is compiled and printed at the central campus and distributed to all other campuses.

This means that all students of the university will have the same guide.

Closely related to this is the fact that examination papers are compiled

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centrally. The shifting away from a fragmented education system of the past towards a more integrated system that would eliminate inequalities has necessitated the implementation of quality assurance and control in higher education teaching and research. Basically, a learning guide as a teaching and learning aid is designed to support learners and guide them through the learning process. It indicates what they should learn, how it can be learnt and how learners will be able to know whether they have learnt. The emphasis is thus on giving information to learners through the learning process. The main difference between a textbook and a learning guide is that it carries all information from different books which the compiler deems fit to be used for the achievement of the set objectives of the course. As a result learning guides are not open to questioning and divergent thinking because they supply “useful” or relevant information only.