A framework for effective tutor system at UNISA

[摘要] English: The lack of effectively providing tutorial support and other student services to off campus students, especially those who live in remote rural areas, are the main reason for the high dropout and failure rate of off-campus students,. Most of these students do not receive effective tutorial and administrative support from their institution (s) of higher learning resulting in them either failing to achieve their desired qualification or discontinue their study. Although institutions of higher learning are trying to provide such support, especially tutoring support either face-to-face or on-line, this support seems to be ineffective because of a number of reasons. These reasons include tutors who are incapable to assist students effectively and insufficient resources to assist these students. The perceived top-down approach of providing the tutor system and other student support services to these students seem to frustrate the initiatives from the side of the institution, thus it was critical to use the community based approach to enhance the effectiveness of the tutor system. The involvement of the community and other stakeholders, including the students who are the most affected by people in the formulation of the framework to enhance the effectiveness of the tutor system was important. It became critical to use a research strategy that would motivate and enthuse those affected to change their situation. Participatory action research, conducted within a critical emancipatory theoretical framework, formulates a strategic management framework towards an effective tutor system. xxiii Since participatory action research is not done on people but together with them, a coordinating team was then formed to facilitate the engagement, interactions and participation of the students, parents and other stakeholders. The team formulated a vision, conducted situational analysis through SWOT analysis, set priorities, evaluated legislative imperatives and engendered collaborative planning. Data was collected through the principles of critical emancipatory research which encourages the relationship of trust, respect and hope among the participants as well as the use of their language which opened the communicative space among the participants. The interactive engagement between the participants helped to generate data that were used in the study. In order to make sense of the volumes of data generated, critical discourse analysis was used. This method allows data from discourse not to be taken at face value but to dig for deeper meaning. In this way knowledge creation becomes possible from what seem everyday conversations. Knowledge created from planning of activities and priorities, their implementation, monitoring, observations and reflections was used to confirm or negate what was learnt from related literature study. Furthermore, this knowledge was used to close the gaps that existed in the frameworks from other countries that were studied. In this way it became possible to formulate a framework that has built-in mechanisms that make it sustainable and thus engender sustainable learning environments. The active participation of people from diverse backgrounds as equals, as co-researchers and as creators of knowledge helped the study to present a strategic management framework for an effective and sustainable tutor system. The experiences that unfolded during the whole process from inception to actual presentation of the framework, informed the observations, conclusions and recommendation that round off the study in the last chapter.

[发布机构] University of the Free State