Melanie Walker and Arona Dison Cape Town, 21 st, 22 nd and 23 rd October 2009

► ‘Developing Discourses. Higher Education and Poverty Reduction in South Africa’. Research project funded by ESRC/DfID July 2008-December 2009, based at University of Nottingham, UK ► Melanie Walker, Monica Mclean, Arona Dison and Rosie Vaughan

► the purposes of universities in contemporary times: reductionist (human capital) or expansive (human development); ► human development as the normative underpinning of a ‘good’/ ‘transforming’ university; ► generating and indexing capability-based dimensions of professional education ► professional education in universities

► Whose interests is higher education serving? ► What are people able to do and be? What are groups able to do’? What are professionals able to do and to be? ► What kind of professional education holds the greatest promise for the realization of public good professional capabilities by mobilizing agency and forming identities, other- regarding goals and commitments to people living in conditions of poverty?

► (i) people in conditions of poverty are highly dependent on public action and public services as they have no private resources to invest and suffer most from poor service provision and delivery (Keefer and Khemani, 2005); ► (ii) socially conscious elites can play a significant role in affecting social policy and change in society when they see themselves as having interdependent lives with the poor, moral responsibility and obligation to others, and believe that public action to reduce poverty is possible (De Swaan et al, 2000); ► (iii) professionals equipped with knowledge, practical skills and public service values can make a positive difference in the everyday lives of the people with whom they come into contact.

► Conventional conceptualisations: resource- based (under a dollar a day); and/or subjective happiness (utility) ► Alternative: a multidimensional understanding – poor people are deprived of a range of possibilities and choices to be and to do what they value being and doing

► Globalization, markets in higher education, human capital aim dominates, managerialism, staff and student mobilities, stratified universities, and inequalities between universities in North and South (cf league tables and what they value/reward)

► Address ‘moral urgencies’ - foster a public culture of ‘non-domination and equality’ that can inspire us, even as ‘fearful human beings’ to value ‘mutual aid and reciprocity’ (Nussbaum, 2008); not well served by training ‘useful profit- makers with obtuse imaginations’(Nussbaum, 2006). ► Higher education which ‘cultivates humanity’ (Nussbaum, 1997)

► ‘create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives’ (UNDP) ► development by and for people-as-agents, humane priorities, wide and deep participation ► Goods in life – commodities and non commodifed goods for a range of valued human ends. Income and economy (productivity) matter, but the purpose of development is to enlarge all worthwhile human choices. ► Links between economic growth and human development are not automatic. ‘Valuable lives, even where there is high economic growth, can prove elusive’. (Alkire and Deneulin, 2009)

Human Development South Africa Report, 2000 ► Human development meaning of transformation: promote the interests of all, especially the most marginalised and poorest members of society. (Taylor, 2000) ► ‘Human development is not an option. Indeed if there is to be social and political stability and economic growth, it is an imperative’. (Taylor, 2000)

► C apabilities are the real and actual freedoms (opportunities) people have to do and be what they value being and doing. Sen’s capability approach asks us to evaluate development as the expansion of people’s freedoms to have well-being and agency in terms of what they themselves value being and doing, and to work to increase their freedom to be in those ways or to do those things. ► Nussbaum’s 10 central universal capabilities set out what is required for a fully human life.

► Pragmatic and comparative not transcendental /ideal - reasoned agreements about remediable injustices ► Capability formation in the space of evaluating quality (‘real lives’) ► Obligations to others ► Global in reach and responsiveness

HD/ Univ. Activi- ties Teach- ing Re- search Soc. Engage- ment Govern/ policy Univ. Envir- onment Well- being Particip & empow. Equity & Diversity Sustaina- bility (from Boni and Gasper, 2009)

► For example, what would ‘well-being’ (a human development value) look like in relation to key university activities: ► research ► teaching ► social engagement ► University governance ► university environment

► reduction.index.php reduction.index.php reduction.index.php ► ‘How might university-located professional education contribute to transforming South African universities to make contributions to poverty reduction? How can universities educate public good professionals who will make the choice and have the knowledge and practical skills to function in the interests of people living in conditions of poverty? How can we develop a professional capabilities index/metric?

► Prospective application of the capability approach (rather than an evaluation of whether capabilities have been expanded) ► To ask what changes to existing educational and social arrangements would expand professional capabilities and how ‘durable, equitable and sustainable such expansions would be’ (Alkire, 2008,p.32). ► Which policies and actions would yield greater capabilities? ► Prospective analysis recognizes that contexts of social norms, groups and social institutions are essential in developing policies which will advance capability formation.

► From data, research, theorizing, RWGs ► ‘Comprehensive’ capabilities taken into account: 1. Life 2. Bodily health 3. Bodily integrity 4. Sense, imagination and thought 5. Emotions 6. Practical Reason 7. Affiliation (A and B) 8. Other species 9. Play 10. Control over one’s environment (A and B) 11. Doing good to others 12. Living in a law abiding fashion 13. Understanding the law (Nussbaum, 2000 and Wolff and De Shalit, 2007)

Public good professionals and poverty reduction ► Expand comprehensive capabilities of people living in conditions of poverty through formation of public good professionals and their capabilities and functionings

► The overarching theme was conceptualized as public good professionalism; we take this to mean ‘pro-poor’ professionalism. (around 61% of South Africans are ‘poor’ South Africa HD Report, 2000) ► We looked at how public good professionals were being educated at universities (within the 5 professional programmes studied) ► Awareness that transformation processes involve tensions, contradictions and constraints, as well as opportunities

► We did not expect to find a homogenous vision of transformation. ► We assumed there would be diverse professional capabilities within a professional site which were valued. ► We thought there would be an iterative 'thread’ which could be ‘pulled through’ all the interviews for each professional site in order to tell a reasonably coherent story about educating professionals. If we found public good professionalism in alumni and students we assumed it is happening in some way in professional education and that we should then be able to find evidence.

Stages of data collection and analysis Stage 1: 90 interviews with students, lecturers, university leaders, alumni, professional bodies, NGOs (August – October 2008). Dissemination and discussion of project begins October 2008 and continues through to November Stage 2: Coding of Social Work data around 9 themes (informed by theory and data). We then generated 4 grounded professional capabilities. Vision, Professional agency, Affiliation and Resilience

► Stage 3: Coding and ‘chunking’ of lecturer, alumni and student data using agreed categories of professional capabilities, educational arrangements, and social constraints (by mid- March 2009) ► Stage 4: summary narrative produced (March 2009) ► Stage 5: construction of professional capabilities tables (indexing) across all 5 case studies, drawing on summary narratives (March 2009)

► Stage 6: further adjustment of these 4 tables after feedback from RWGs (July-September 2009) ► Stage 7: drafting of expanded case study for each professional site ( ,000 words), including discussion and feedback from each participating department (by November 2009) ► ► At each stage of the process, the Research Working Groups played an invaluable role in giving input and feedback on formation of professional capabilities at universities and specifically on our emerging professional capabilities index.

► Recognizing the full dignity of every human being. ► Acting for social transformation and reducing injustice ► Making sound, knowledgeable, thoughtful professional judgments ► Working/acting with others to expand comprehensive capabilities of people living in poverty

Table One- Professional capabilities (freedoms to be and to do and to choose): ► Informed Vision and Imagination ► Affiliation (solidarity) ► Resilience ► Social and collective struggle ► Emotions ► Integrity ► Assurance and confidence ► Knowledge and practical skills

(DRAFT) Indexing professional capabilities and dimensions of professional education Table Two - Educational Arrangements ► Curriculum ► Pedagogy ► Encouraging professional ways of being ► Departmental culture

(DRAFT)Indexing professional capabilities and dimensions of professional education Table Three - University conditions ► Institutional culture and environment ► Advancing criticism, deliberation and responsibility ► Social engagement ► Building just futures

(DRAFT) Indexing professional capabilities and dimensions of professional education Table four- Constraints (social & educational/ legacy of apartheid) ► Systemic and material base ► Cultural

1. vision 2. affiliation 3. resilience 4. struggle 5. emotions 6. Knowledge & skills 7. integrity 8. confidence PROFESSIONAL CAPS. EDUCATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS departmental cultures building just future professional ways of being culture engagement legacy of apartheid (racial oppression) INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS curr. & pedagogy advancing criticism, delib, resp systemic & material based cultural Capability inputs Biographies of dis/advantage (autonomous agency & capability to realize) META FUNCTIONINGS recognise every person’s full human dignity act for social transformation and reduce injustice make wise prof. Judgements work/act with others to expand capabilities of the poor

► Praxis pedagogies: transformative, critical, attentive both to knowledge and to responsible action in society, with these features : i. Contextual and disciplinary knowledge and understanding ii. Developing identity, commitment and community iii. Transformative learning to mirror the emphasis on transformation in South African society.

► If certain kinds of [public good] professionals are being educated by universities, this is a significant contribution to poverty reduction in South Africa, given that all professionals - engineers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, economists, business leaders, social workers, and so on - are now educated in universities. ► Need for public reasoning about an evaluative /quality framework and the reach and responsiveness of HD and the CA.

Working with tables ► If we were to follow Boni and Gasper’s approach we might list the professional capabilities as human development values or dimensions and ask what implications follow for teaching, research, social responsibility, university governance and university environment.

Prof Caps/ Univ. Activi- ties Teach- ing Re- search Soc. Engage- ment Govern/ policy Univ. Envir- onment Vision Affilia- tion Resil- ience Struggle

► Or HD values might be the vertical axis and capabilities /public good professionalism the horizontal axis.

HD Values / Univ. Activi- ties Teach- ing Re- search Soc. Engage- ment Govern/ policy Univ. Envir- onment Well- being Partic & Empow. Equity & Diversity Sustain- iblity <PUBLICGOODPROFESS/ PROF.CAPS>>

► Or the professional capabilities might form the basis of a process of public reasoning to agree a smaller set of core values and dimensions for a whole university which might be the same, or different from our Index, but which were still grounded in human development ethics and values, and would constitute the basis of internal deliberative quality evaluation processes.