Co-teaching and co-research in contexts of inequality

There has been a recent surge of interest in the concept of co-teaching and co-research across institutions of HE locally and globally, as a response to limited international mobility due to COVID-19. We see co-teaching and co-research as teaching and research that connects educators and learners across different institutions and different contexts, be it across South Africa, Africa or the world. Co-teaching and co-research is linked in this book to the term ‘networked learning’, following the Networked Learning Editorial Collective’s emphasis on relationships and collaboration rather than technology and foregrounding our strong commitment to social justice. Our collective experiences have shown that co-teaching and co-research are not easy endeavours, especially when they involve differently positioned and differently resourced contexts, students and academics. While these collaborations are enriching and exciting, they need careful support, preparation and time for sustained relationship building – topics that we find are not necessarily discussed in the literature around co-teaching and co-research. This book is an attempt towards closing this gap in knowledge by providing a range of chapters documenting personal experiences of academics and practitioners engaging in co-teaching and co-research across the African continent and beyond, facilitated by various networked learning tools and technologies. Framed by a spirit of sharing and connection, the book provides insights into the benefits and challenges of such collaborations, affordances of technologies to bridge unequal divides, emerging practices of continental collaboration and beyond. Additionally, the book provides an unusually honest and nuanced view on co-teaching and co-research across contexts of inequalities, foregrounding relationship- and community-building rather than technology and emphasising the importance of sustained connection and reflection in these collaborations. Applying a wide range of critical theoretical frameworks, these evidence-based but also reflective and reflexive contributions are a unique and important reminder that behind and through our screens, we connect as humans who yearn to learn from each other, but also need to learn how to learn from each other, when we do not share the same world views.

List of tables
List of figures
Abbreviations
Editors
Contributors
Preface
Foreword
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
University of Cape Town, South Africa

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Daniela Gachago
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Phindile Zifikile Shangase
University of the Free State, South Africa
Eunice Ndeto Ivala
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

Section 1: Connecting Africa through co-teaching and co-research

Chapter 2 - Enabling inter-institutional co-design and co-facilitation of a postgraduate diploma module in educational technology: Uncovering sites of struggle, negotiation and accommodation among course facilitators
Sonja Strydom
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Simone Titus
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Faiq Waghid
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Daniela Gachago
University of Cape Town, South Africa

Chapter 3 - Translating learning into collaborative research: Reflections from a postgraduate cohort
Cheryl Brown
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Proscovia Namubiru Ssentamu
Uganda Management Institute, Uganda
Emily Bagarukayo-Ngabirano
Makerere University, Uganda
Rehema Baguma
Makerere University, Uganda
Tabisa Mayisela
University of Cape Town, South Africa

Chapter 4
Looking back, moving forward: University-industry collaboration for architectural education, innovation and transformation
Jolanda Morkel
STADIO Higher Education, South Africa
Eunice Ndeto Ivala
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Lone Poulsen
Open Architecture, South Africa
Rodney Harber
Open Architecture, South Africa

Chapter 5 - Co-researching and technology use in higher education: Benefits,implications, and challenges
Nokukhanya Noqiniselo Jili
University of Zululand, South Africa
Mfundo Mandla Masuku
University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Dina Mashiyane
University of the Free State, South Africa

Chapter 6 - Exploiting technologies in networked designing, training and research engagement in African universities: A case of the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research
Pauline Ngimwa
Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, Kenya
Proscovia Namubiru Ssentamu
Uganda Management Institute, Uganda
Connie Nshemereirwe
Actualise Africa, Uganda

Chapter 7
Co-research and co-teaching in community-based adult education: Promoting information technology and nutrition in rural Limpopo, South Africa
Busisiwe Alant
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Rowan Thompson
STADIO School of Education, South Africa

Section 2: Connecting Africa and the world through co-teaching and co-research

Chapter 8 - You map our world; we write yours
Kristian D. Stewart
University of Michigan Dearborn, United States of America
Siddique Motala
University of Cape Town, South Africa

Chapter 9
Enhancing cultural competence and enriching virtual learning experiences via a collaborative online international learning project
Anisa Vahed
Durban University of Technology, South Africa
Krista M. Rodriguez
Monroe Community College, United States
Fábio de Souza
Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil

Chapter 10 - Learning from coronavirus: Design principles for connected co-learning and co-teaching in online and blended global architecture studios
Jolanda Morkel
STADIO Higher Education, South Africa
Lindy Osborne Burton
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Mark Olweny
University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Steven Feast
Curtin University, Australia

Chapter 11 - Emerging principles for online cross-cultural, collaborative research
Nicola Pallitt
Rhodes University, South Africa
Hannah M. Grossman
UCLA/Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, United States of America
Alice Barlow-Zambodla
e/merge Africa, South Africa
Juhong Christie Liu
James Madison University, United States of America
Neil Kramm
Rhodes University, South Africa
Leah Sikoyo
Makerere University, Uganda
Nompilo Tshuma
Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Chapter 12 - Participatory action research in digital storytelling: Using mobile technology to co-create social change in Kenya
Antonia Liguori
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Daniel Onyango
Hope Raisers, Kenya
Melaneia Warwick
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Michael Wilson
Loughborough University, United Kingdom

Chapter 13 - Understanding our complicity: Reflections on an international collaboration
Daniela Gachago
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Mark Dunford
Digitales, Goldsmiths College, University of London, United Kingdom

Afterword: Progress, power, pride and pleasure in co-teaching and co-researching
Maha Bali
American University in Cairo, Egypt

Index

Phindile Zifikile Shangase is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Free State, South Africa. She has over 10 years of teaching, supervision and research experience in higher education. Technology is her current passion in the form of technology-enhanced learning, including blended learning and multimodal pedagogies that contribute towards innovative and interactive teaching, learning and assessment practices.

Daniela Gachago is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Innovation in Learning at Teaching at the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on academic staff development to transform teaching and learning in higher education, with a particular focus on socially just pedagogies such as digital storytelling. She is also interested in innovative course and curriculum design, drawing from co-creative approaches such as design thinking.

Eunice Ndeto Ivala is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovative Educational Technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) located in Cape Town, South Africa. Eunice is passionate about staff development into mainstreaming technology in learning and teaching, and her training philosophy is informed by design-based research, design thinking, participatory methods, reflective and reflexive pedagogies. Her research focus is on information and communication technology (ICT)– mediated teaching and learning in developing contexts.

collaborative international learning (COIL), virtual classrooms, co-teaching, co-researching, educational technologies