Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Since 2015 the South African higher education landscape has been transformed like never before with the rise of the #Feesmustfall movement and a social demand for decolonized university education. This created a shift not only in the higher education landscape but in society itself. Urban planning students are the future professionals that need to be able to negotiate such shifts to ensure a better (more just and equitable) society. The urgency of rethinking the urban planning educational environment and the central position planners can fulfill in addressing the rift between the needs of society and the products of higher education, initiated this research project. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an alternative learning environment that focuses on the centrality of value attributes. Collaboration as a social practice within a structured learning environment is used as the main catalyst. It is argued that this will help students negotiate the societal complexities that is manifesting in an ever changing landscape. The method that was followed is semi-structured interviews with two respondent groups: urban planning academics at four South African traditional universities and universities of technology, practitioners at non-governmental organizations. The semi structured questionnaires were informed by Schatzki’s Practice Theory and Laurillard’s Conversational Framework.