tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/value-of-knowledge-9581/articlesValue of Knowledge – The Conversation2016-12-19T14:13:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/699952016-12-19T14:13:02Z2016-12-19T14:13:02ZDecolonising the curriculum: the only way through the process is together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148895/original/image-20161206-25768-g3yxdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police guard a building at the University of Cape Town – from whom, since knowledge is not really owned by anyone.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a young black undergraduate studying in the UK more than 15 years ago, I can remember the first time I came across a viewpoint from a black academic – because it was that unusual. The academic was <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/research-innovation/article/1924629/nkomo-sm-prof">Stella Nkomo</a>, a pioneer in the research of race and gender in organisations, and the experience for me was profound. I was not alone. </p>
<p>So when South African students talk about feeling alienated because the examples in their curricula are all from overseas or feature dead white men, I know exactly how they feel – and why it is important to change this. </p>
<p>How to do so is far from clear. The theme of decolonisation is not new. It is a field of study several decades in the making. Yet the problem remains essentially unresolved, and, in recent times, there’s a sense that it has been somewhat sidelined. </p>
<p>Much of the talk within South African academia is of inclusion. But for many, the felt reality is of a status quo that is more concerned with maintaining the hegemony of whiteness than including other knowledges, systems and values. There is an eerie absence of the other, because – quite literally – only half of the country and the continent’s story has been told.</p>
<p>As scholars Martin Fougere and Agnet Moulettes <a href="http://mlq.sagepub.com/content/43/1/5">argue</a> in a recent paper, the tendency has been towards political correctness. The importance of “cultural sensitivity” is named in discussions about curricula, but not really embodied. And an awful lot has been left unsaid about colonial history. There has been a kind of glossing over the issues at the expense of real change and engagement.</p>
<p>A certain amount of this has undoubtedly happened at institutions in South Africa. Fixing this is no easy task. It is difficult to establish what the board looks like, never mind starting the game. But there are a few questions that can be posed and unpacked if universities are to move towards genuine decolonisation.</p>
<h2>Crucial questions</h2>
<p>For instance, what is this thing called Africa or African that people wish to infuse into curricula? Unpacking it makes clear that the notion of “Africa” is a largely a social construct that’s not borne out by the facts. Somalia is different to Zimbabwe. One cannot mistake Egypt for South Africa.</p>
<p>And if the continent is just one big happy family as this narrative of an African identity suggests, what is the xenophobia that’s played out across South Africa in recent years all about? </p>
<p>It’s also difficult to get to grips with what people are trying to decolonise. What is this “Western hegemony” that’s so often mentioned? Philosopher and novelist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/western-civilisation-appiah-reith-lecture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">Kwame Anthony Appiah</a> wrote in The Guardian recently that the use of the term “West” is itself problematic. Is it a contrast between east and west/Europe and Asia – as it was used in the 18th century – or between communism and capitalism as during the Cold War? </p>
<p>In recent years, Appiah writes, “the west” seems to mean the north Atlantic: Europe and her former colonies in North America: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The opposite here is a non-western world in Africa, Asia and Latin America – now dubbed “the global south” – though many people in Latin America will claim a western inheritance, too. This way of talking notices the whole world, but lumps a whole lot of extremely different societies together, while delicately carving around Australians and New Zealanders and white South Africans, so that “western” here can look simply like a euphemism for white.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Theorist Edward Said has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVC8EYd_Z_g">pointed out</a> that when caricaturing and parodying the other, one runs the risk of absurdity. Additionally, if people lose themselves in an obsession with the terms, they run the risk of being trapped in these identities and miss an opportunity to forge something larger.</p>
<h2>The difficulty of laying claim to knowledge</h2>
<p>Even if questions like “What is Africa?” and “What is Western?” are satisfactorily answered, there’s another thorny question on the path towards decolonisation: What is knowledge? More specifically, who owns it?</p>
<p>Knowledge is not really owned by anyone. It’s a cumulative, shared resource that is available to everyone. </p>
<p>There is perhaps no better way to illustrate this than with the fact that the classical inheritance of Greek and Roman learning, hailed by many as the foundation of western civilisation, is actually an inheritance shared with Islam – traditionally an enemy of the west. </p>
<p>In the BBC documentary <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9/episodes/player">Mistaken Identities</a>, Appiah points out that the Islamic world played a significant role in preserving this knowledge during the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire. In Baghdad of the ninth century Abbasid caliphate, the palace library featured the works of Plato and Aristotle, Pythagoras and Euclid, translated into Arabic.</p>
<p>The knowledge did not belong to the Europeans any more than it belonged to the Caliphate. It was useful to the human project more broadly. </p>
<p>So, back to South African universities. The conversation here would be more beneficial if it was not about what needs to be taken away. The country should be striving for the best of both worlds, not an either or. If there is African indigenous knowledge out there then yes, I want more of it. But if some “Western” scientist has the cure for cancer – then hell, I want that too. </p>
<p>The only way through this is together.</p>
<h2>Dialogue and debate</h2>
<p>Rather than polarisation and othering in the best traditions of colonial inheritance, South Africa needs to move towards the middle ground where ideas can be exchanged and built upon.</p>
<p>It is crucial to foster dialogue to facilitate this exchange. Universities are traditionally the spaces where ideas can be rigorously and critically debated. They need to step up and own this space at this difficult and exciting time in the country’s history. </p>
<p>As the distinguished scholar <a href="http://www.bc.edu/research/cihe/about/pga.html">Philip Altbach</a> has pointed out, education has certainly been one of the most important (however insidious) vehicles of colonialist appropriation. It also, therefore, has the power to play a crucial role in forging a new narrative for South Africa and for Africa that is both global and local.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nceku Nyathi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are a few questions that can be posed and unpacked if universities are to move towards genuine decolonisation.Nceku Nyathi, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/499832015-11-05T03:51:38Z2015-11-05T03:51:38ZHow unequal access to knowledge is affecting South African society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100641/original/image-20151103-16514-8ufy08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To understand inequality in countries like South Africa, it is important to have a good grasp of factors influencing the allocation of skills and knowledge.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Inequality has a profound impact on people’s ability to accumulate skills and knowledge. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-protests-point-to-a-much-deeper-problem-at-south-african-universities-49456">protests</a> that rocked South Africa’s universities suggest in October 2015 suggest that the impact of inequality on the distribution of educational opportunities may have deepened so much that it now affects social cohesion.</p>
<p>In an era where education is an important driver of <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2013/06/13-facts-higher-education">social mobility</a>, inequality perpetuates itself in how skills and knowledge are accumulated. </p>
<p>As a person climbs the education ladder, differences in income will become as much about the type of training they acquired as about the number of years spent in school. This means that, to understand inequality, one needs a good grasp of factors influencing the allocation of skills and knowledge. This is particularly true of the middle part of the income distribution.</p>
<p>When a country is as unequal as South Africa, the people who have access to higher education – and the disciplines they choose to study – are likely to have a major effect on the society. The impact of these choices has the power to shape the composition of the society. This includes its elites and the nature of its middle class.</p>
<p>I <a href="http://www.econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/working_paper_552.pdf">examined</a> the factors behind the choices university students made about which subject they would major in. There were two reasons for this:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In an era of increasing specialisations and rising wage differentials, not all qualifications are created equal, and</p></li>
<li><p>A number of <a href="http://econpapers.repec.org/article/uwpjhriss/v_3a30_3ay_3a1995_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a280-310.htm">studies</a> already <a href="http://public.econ.duke.edu/%7Epsarcidi/arcidimetrics.pdf">show</a> a link between the distribution of university majors and income inequality.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Race has both direct and indirect effects on a person’s choice of university major. Directly, it embodies the differentials in intergenerational opportunities. In this way it affects the responsiveness of applicants to academic and market information about potential earnings associated with each major. </p>
<p>Indirectly, it influences the choice of university major through the distribution of pre-university educational opportunities and role models across segregated geographical spaces.</p>
<p>Understanding the effects of racial inequalities on these choices remains a key part of South Africa’s challenge to transform its middle class. </p>
<h2>Understanding the landscape</h2>
<p>I set out to answer two questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How is the ability of groups to choose majors that will earn them more money when they graduate affected by the education they were given at school, and by role models?</p></li>
<li><p>How does spatial inequality influence the choices students make when selecting the subject they will major in? Here I looked at specific neighbourhoods and high schools.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I exploited the extensive information in the admissions database of the University of Cape Town (UCT) between 2010 and 2013. I also used data from the national Quarterly Labour Force Survey. </p>
<p>That UCT is the best-ranked higher education institution in Africa allowed me to put the analysis in the context of elite formation in a society that is undergoing social and political transformation.</p>
<p>This approach enabled me to establish a link between educational choices at earlier stages in life and the choice of a university major. To the extent that pre-university educational opportunities are determined by where people live, it was possible to draw a connection between spatial inequality and the choices that students made.</p>
<h2>Where students grew up made a difference</h2>
<p>Spatial inequality can influence an individual’s decisions at university in several ways. This includes the quality of schools in a given geographical area, the influence of role models and the effect of relative achievement in different schools. Individuals are constrained by all or some of these background factors as they optimise expected lifetime earnings from the major they choose.</p>
<p>The most significant determinant of what major was chosen by a student at UCT was the number of science courses they took in high school. But the choice of high school curriculum is often dictated by which of South Africa’s 242 municipalities a student lives in. This indicates the relevance of regional inequality.</p>
<p><a href="http://econpapers.repec.org/article/ucpjlabec/v_3a11_3ay_3a1993_3ai_3a1_3ap_3a48-83.htm">Evidence</a> suggests that the choice of major is depends very much on high school preparation. More accurately, the choice of high school curriculum is often made in anticipation of a certain university major and career path. A big part of the decision is already made in high school.</p>
<p>Political capital is also a major determinant in the inequality equation. To measure political capital I used a proxy – an indicator variable for black applicants from middle class households who come from municipalities electorally dominated by the governing party, the African National Congress. </p>
<p>Those individuals who were likely to have significant political capital tended to choose majors in commerce and the humanities. </p>
<h2>The impact on political and economic change</h2>
<p>My key finding was that white applicants are on average 1.8 times more responsive to changes in the signals of what they are likely to earn than black applicants.</p>
<p>I believe the dynamics of choosing a major at an institution like UCT are likely to have significant long term implications for economic and political transformation. This is because it will affect the composition of elites who will be spearheading the process.</p>
<p>Innovation at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid will be hampered if persistent inequality leads to talent being allocated inefficiently on a persistent basis.</p>
<p>The gravitation of children of the political elites towards less technical majors may also deprive the political class of sufficient interest in productive activities. These require scientific knowledge and technical skills. If the political class does not have a sufficient stake in skills investment in the productive sectors it will be less inclined to promote capital investment in them. </p>
<p>This, in turn, is likely to leave the elites with little incentive to respect property rights, as I have shown in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecpo.12063/abstract">another study</a>. Basically, the elites will be tempted to expropriate capital in sectors in which their children are not employed.</p>
<p>Policies to improve the availability of science education at high schools, or account for the effect of role models in university admissions, may go a long way in affecting economic development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Biniam Bedasso is affiliated with Economic Research Southern Africa. </span></em></p>In a country as unequal as South Africa, the people who have access to higher education have the power to shape the society, including its elites and middle class.Biniam Bedasso, Guest Lecturer in Political Economy, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/448582015-07-17T19:27:06Z2015-07-17T19:27:06ZMandela’s belief that education can change the world is still a dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88857/original/image-20150717-21036-1xrdssd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nelson Mandela believed education is the most powerful weapon which can change the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Antony Kaminju</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities can play an important part in fulfilling <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/names">Nelson Mandela’s</a> much-quoted belief that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mandela Day, the late South African president’s birthday, is an opportunity to reflect on how his statement of intent actually works in practice. How does education enable us to change the world?</p>
<p>Universities can make a contribution in two ways: through the empowerment of individuals and through the generation of knowledge.</p>
<h2>What universities can do for students</h2>
<p>Universities train people to be professionals who will be able to make a positive contribution to society in various fields. They produce medical doctors, teachers and engineers; entrepreneurs, artists and scientists. In this way, higher education is both a private good and a public good. </p>
<p>Individuals – especially in poorer countries – stand a better chance of getting a good job with a university degree. According to the <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21646985-american-model-higher-education-spreading-it-good-producing-excellence">World Bank</a> the average increase in earnings for every additional year of tertiary education is 21% in sub-Saharan Africa, measured over the period 1970 to 2013.</p>
<p>South Africa’s department of higher education has picked up on <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/White%20Paper%20-%20final%20for%20web.pdf">this</a>, noting:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Education has long been recognised as a route out of poverty for individuals, and as a way of promoting equality of opportunity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In South Africa, enrolment in higher education institutions <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DTXaaYbFKFY%3D&tabid=628&mid=2062">rose</a> from 490,494 students in 1994 to 837,644 in 2009 – a 71% increase. In this post-apartheid era, improvements in the university participation rate coincided with significant demographic changes in the student population. Two-thirds of university students were black in 2009, compared with just 32% in 1990.</p>
<p>The goal is to maintain this momentum. The government <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/White%20Paper%20-%20final%20for%20web.pdf">foresees</a> an increase in participation rates from the 2011 figure of 17.3% to 25% by 2030 – from 937,000 students to 1.6 million enrolments. </p>
<p>And at the same time, it plans to broaden access for individuals from previously excluded and disadvantaged groups even more because the:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… achievement of greater social justice is closely dependent on equitable access by all sections of the population to quality education.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What research can do for society</h2>
<p>The second way in which Madiba’s statement about education works in practice is through research that generates reliable and relevant knowledge.</p>
<p>The world is faced with what are called “wicked problems” – highly complex challenges whose potential solutions require creative, interdisciplinary thinking. </p>
<p>Universities are well placed to contribute to the search for solutions to these complex problems by drawing from a range of disciplines: the environment, conflict management, health, water, food security and social cohesion. Academics – and students, particularly at postgraduate level – engage in scientific research that generates new knowledge in the search for solutions to a variety of problems, including health challenges.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, the work of <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/discover?scope=%2F&query=ronald+van+toorn&submit=">Ronald van Toorn</a>, a senior specialist in paediatric neurology at Stellenbosch University. As part of his <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/english/Lists/news/DispForm.aspx?ID=2683">PhD studies</a>, he found that certain innovative treatments offer children with tuberculosis meningitis a much better chance of survival. </p>
<p>These treatments may also enable children who have been left paralysed or blind by this serious condition – the most common form of bacterial meningitis in the Western Cape – to walk or see again.</p>
<p>A PhD represents a university’s top training product. Working towards a doctorate, you not only absorb large volumes of knowledge in a particular field of study, but you also learn to generate new knowledge yourself. This is what Van Toorn has done. And this is also what our country and continent needs much more of.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DTXaaYbFKFY%3D&tabid=628&mid=2062">National Development Plan</a> sets South Africa a target of more than 100 PhDs per million by 2030, compared to the 28 per million currently, considered low by international standards. </p>
<p>To achieve this target, South Africa needs more than 5000 doctoral graduates per year – considerably more than the 1420 produced in 2010, but attainable if the growth in graduates at this level between 2008 and 2013 (12.3% per annum) is maintained.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the <a href="http://www.chet.org.za/files/resources/05%20UWN_Special_Edn_4.5_Dakar2015.pdf">Centre for Higher Education Transformation</a> reported that among South African students, African doctoral enrolments (5065) first exceeded white enrolments (4853) in 2010, and African graduates (821) at this level first exceeded white graduates (816) in 2012. </p>
<p>Yet, with the white population making up only 8.4% of the country’s population, compared to 80.2% <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022014.pdf">African</a>, South Africa still has a long way to go to achieve better participation and throughput rates. </p>
<h2>What society can do for students and universities</h2>
<p>But the planned expansion of access does not only require making places available in higher education institutions. As the government <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/White%20Paper%20-%20final%20for%20web.pdf">says</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Education and training must also be affordable for potential students. To this end the government has significantly increased the funds available for student loans and bursaries, particularly through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the scheme has been mired in controversy. Students have protested for not receiving funding timeously or not at all. It seems the problems go deep. In May, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2015/02/19/probe-into-fraud-at-student-aid-scheme">confirmed</a> there would be a probe into corrupt practices. This is a welcome move.</p>
<p>Universities also receive and disburse financial aid from sources other than the state. More than one-third of Stellenbosch students receive some form of financial aid. Last year the university paid out bursaries and loans to nearly 55% of its revenue from student fees.</p>
<p>Bursaries are an excellent way to ensure that young people from across the class, and in South Africa’s case colour, divides are offered the opportunity to develop as individuals and to contribute to the country’s knowledge bank.</p>
<p>When Madiba was awarded an honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch University in 1996, he said in his acceptance speech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This occasion is testimony to the fact that we South Africans have struck out on the road of building a joint future, that we are in the process of breaking down the divisive bulwarks of the past and building up a new nation – united in all its rich diversity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Almost two years after Madiba’s <a href="http://nelsonmandelas.com/nelson-mandelas-death/">death</a> the challenge remains to use education to change South Africa, and the rest of the world. This makes bursary donations – the gift of education – an appropriate tribute to the man who continues to teach us about the virtue of selfless service to others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wim de Villiers is Rector and Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University.</span></em></p>Nelson Mandela called education “the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world”. How can universities bring his words to life?Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/418992015-06-01T04:17:25Z2015-06-01T04:17:25ZPrivate vs public schools: it’s not a simple numbers game<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82940/original/image-20150526-24766-1upa3ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C96%2C1659%2C1415&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oprah Winfrey's academy for girls in South Africa is well-resourced and produces good results. These factors mean it is in the minority.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/visionandleadership/improvementguides/leadinglearning.asp">Educational research</a> shows clearly that four variables are essential for excellent education. They are: prioritising teaching and learning; a good partnership between home, school and community; excellent school leadership and teachers who are learning all the time.</p>
<p>While coveting this level of education for their children, parents also have to consider their budgets. The cost of both public and private education in South Africa <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=4460">rose by 9.3%</a> in March compared to the previous year, far outstripping headline inflation of 4% year-on-year for the same month.</p>
<p>As in other parts of the world, fees for private schools can be anything up to 10 times higher than for public schools. One estimate <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2015/04/28/cost-of-education-rises-double-that-of-inflation">suggests</a> that it costs more than double to put a child through South Africa’s private school system.</p>
<p>The questions for all parents, particularly in a <a href="http://www.biznews.com/budget/2014/10/22/south-african-economic-growth-plummet-1-4-nene-warns-country-turning-point-mtbps/">tough economy</a>, is: is it worth it? How much should they be spending to secure a good education - and job prospects - for their children?</p>
<p>The South African schooling sector is large, complex and unevenly distributed in terms of the communities it serves. There are public schools, faith-based schools, secular, corporate and low-fee private schools. Parents home school their children or send them to single sex institutions. Others choose co-ed schools and some dig deep into their pockets to pay for high-fee private schools.</p>
<h2>The relationship between cost and results</h2>
<p>Where are parents getting the best value for their money - that is, securing their children a top quality education? </p>
<p>One measure of success is whether children are completing their school years with qualifications that enable them to enter university. The data suggests that the size of the school fee is not a determinant. While there’s a huge difference in cost, there is little difference in outcome. </p>
<p>Many of South Africa’s <a href="http://howtopassmatric.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Schools-Performance-Report.pdf">top performing schools</a> are government-funded public entities. In the country’s economic hub, the Gauteng province, the top performer is a public school, Afrikaanse Hoer Meisieskool (Afrikaans High School for Girls).</p>
<p>Ninety-six percent of its matriculants qualified to apply for university study at the end of 2014. This is the highest qualification a school leaver can <a href="http://www.saqa.org.za/show.php?id=5647">earn</a> in South Africa. To send a child to the school for one year costs around R26 000.</p>
<p>Roedean, also in Gauteng, is a private school for girls. Of its 2014 matriculants, 99% performed well enough to qualify for a university application. A year at Roedean costs four times more at R108 000. </p>
<h2>Not all public schools are equal</h2>
<p>The comparison between public and private schools masks a much bigger challenge. There is a negligible difference between well-resourced public schools in middle and upper middle class areas and their counterparts in the private sector. </p>
<p>But these high-performing public schools are the exception, not the rule. There is a great amount of variation in the quality of education and in the country’s public schools. About <a href="http://childrencount.ci.org.za/rights_education.php">80%</a> of the 30 000 government-funded primary and secondary schools are <a href="http://africacheck.org/reports/are-80-of-south-african-schools-dysfunctional/">not performing well</a>. This means that the majority of the 11 million children <a href="http://www.childrencount.ci.org.za/indicator.php?id=6&indicator=15">enrolled</a> in South African schools are attending under-performing institutions.</p>
<p>In the long run, graduating from a private or excellent public school will equip your children well. But by failing to advocate for a good education for all, South Africa is losing out.</p>
<p>A well-educated population can boost the <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/school-success-brings-massive-economic-gain-says-oecd-20150517-gh2v87">country’s GDP significantly</a>. Good education across the board can also help reverse inequality, which is crucial in a country with a bruising history of racial and economic prejudice.</p>
<p>Excellent education is inherently valuable both for individuals and for society as a whole. It yields benefits, such as producing active and critical citizens, that go beyond the cost of the investment. But to be beneficial, education must be of a high quality for all. When the quality is weak, education actually loses its value for the majority of children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruksana Osman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents want to know how much they need to spend to secure a good education - and job prospects - for their children. But is it as simple as balancing your own books and ignoring the bigger picture?Ruksana Osman, Professor and Dean of Humanities, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/393612015-04-15T20:35:26Z2015-04-15T20:35:26ZMeasuring the value of science: it’s not always about the money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77615/original/image-20150410-2072-eix65b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C1101%2C697&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Science can help explain the mysteries of the universe but how do you put a dollar value on that?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiegilbert/8274404242">Flickr/James Gilbert</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reports about the worthy contributions of science to national economies pop up regularly all around the world – from the <a href="http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_13-5-2014-12-8-8">UK</a> to the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100609/full/465682a.html">US</a> and even the <a href="http://www.scidev.net/global/r-d/news/basic-science-linked-to-faster-economic-growth.html">developing world</a>.</p>
<p>In Australia, the Office of the Chief Scientist recently <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2015/03/report-the-importance-of-advanced-physical-and-mathematical-sciences-to-the-australian-economy-2/">released an analysis</a> of science and its contribution to the economy down under, finding it’s worth around A$145 billion a year.</p>
<p>It’s perfectly sensible and understandable that science (and related sectors) would feel the need to account for themselves in financial or economic terms. But in doing this we need to be wary of getting lulled into believing that this is the only – or worse, the best – way of attributing value to science.</p>
<p>When it comes to determining the value of science, we should <a href="http://www.iisd.org/pdf/s_ind_2.pdf">heed the words</a> of the American environmental scientist and thinker, <a href="http://www.donellameadows.org/donella-meadows-legacy/donella-dana-meadows/">Donella Meadows</a>, on how we think about indicators: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Indicators arise from values (we measure what we care about), and they create values (we care about what we measure). Indicators are often poorly chosen […] The choice of indicators is a critical determinant of the behaviour of a system.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Much public debate about the value of science has been hijacked by the assumption that direct, tangible economic impact is <em>the</em> way to measure scientific worth. </p>
<p>We seem now to be in a place where positing non-economic arguments for science benefits runs the risk of being branded quaintly naïve and out-of-touch at best, or worse: insensitive, irrelevant and self-serving. </p>
<p>But relegating science to the status of mere servant of the economy does science a dramatic disservice and leaves both science and society the poorer for it. </p>
<p>So here are five ways we can acknowledge and appreciate the societal influences and impacts of science that lie well beyond the dreary, soulless, cost-benefit equations of economics. </p>
<h2>Testing and presenting ideas and the great tools to do it</h2>
<p>The mechanisms of scientific enterprise have proven their worth time and again. The formulation of challengeable hypotheses, and the increasingly sophisticated methods we use to test them, have repeatedly been confirmed as the most potent tools for finding out things about our world. </p>
<p>The scientific method has helped us make sense of the world in a way that counters our natural tendencies to make connections and draw conclusions that simply aren’t true.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/clearing-up-confusion-between-correlation-and-causation-30761">For example</a>, the issue of correlation and causation, and how we regularly mess this up if we don’t apply rigorous scientific and statistical reasoning. </p>
<h2>Scientific reasoning protects us and saves us from ourselves</h2>
<p>Scientific thinking and reasoning – and the social and institutional capital that often comes with it – help free us from control by superstition, magical thinking and unscrupulous power-seekers. </p>
<p>Science has been our guide, our sword and our shield, when identifying all manner of evils. Think the connection between <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/">smoking and disease</a>, the damage of <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/">human-induced climate change</a>, or waking us up to the first rule of gambling: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120816-travelwise-casino-design-and-why-the-house-always-wins">that the house always wins</a>. </p>
<p>While there are benefits to the economy in saving lives or working to stem the effects of climate change, these are not the first, nor even the most, significant effects on us as individuals. </p>
<h2>Inspire, motivate and delight</h2>
<p>By pushing the boundaries of what is possible, science has repeatedly inspired and facilitated humanity’s ability to not just dream, but to turn our most ambitious dreams in to reality. </p>
<p>People now live into their <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/deaths/life-expectancy/">70s and 80s</a> as a matter of routine, we easily and instantly communicate with any part of the globe on a whim and we have even left the planet itself. </p>
<p>A quick search for the most <a href="http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/science-websites">popular science sites on the web</a> turns up an armful of space-related material, explainers on how things works and general science story aggregators. If economic benefits are even mentioned, they are frequently an afterthought at best.</p>
<p>At my own university, the most popular video on our YouTube channel is a physics lecture on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n19HIHCpOVE">the great unsolved mysteries of the universe</a>. Yes, a lecture. An hour-long lecture, filmed in lo-fi nearly five years ago. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n19HIHCpOVE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The inspirational effects of science are powerful, ubiquitous, and are by no means limited to contested contributions to the economy. And this is just the tangible, more obvious stuff. </p>
<h2>Challenging the status-quo and inspiring reflection</h2>
<p>Equipped with scientific methods and reasoning, no subject need be off the table for reasoned debate, discussion and dissent. In science, no subject is taboo as long as the methods for considering it are scientific. </p>
<p>This ethos allows us to challenge the assumptions upon which fundamental norms are based without worrying that rogue, opposing ideas might somehow infect us. </p>
<p>The application of scientific reasoning allowed us, for example, to discover that the <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/how-do-we-know-the-earth-orbits-the-sun/">sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth</a> and to recognise there are more than two straight-forward biological representations of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/barronlerner/2015/03/13/science-activism-and-truth-galileos-middle-finger-by-alice-dreger/">human sexes</a>. </p>
<p>Pushed further, respect for the appropriate application of scientific thinking accepts challenges to the very basis of our beliefs about ourselves as a species. Nowhere is this more powerfully confronted than in Australian-born philosopher <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epsinger/">Peter Singer</a>’s <a href="http://www.vuletic.com/hume/ph/singer.html">thought-provoking</a> dismemberment of our rationale for justifying experimentation on non-human animals that we would not conduct on ourselves.</p>
<p>Yes, greasing the economic wheels of day-to-day subsistence is important, but reflecting upon, and challenging how we understand what makes us human? That’s something you’d be hard pressed to cost-out for your bank manager. </p>
<h2>Meaning, worth and expressing the best of ourselves</h2>
<p>We already know that science can free us from the tyranny of superstition, ignorance and devious influences.</p>
<p>At its finest, it provides a model for exploring and understanding anything in the tangible universe. But science and its products also offer a vehicle for considering what it is to be human, not just physically but esoterically.</p>
<p>Science can offer a sense of mystery and connectedness that doesn’t rely on faith or appeals to authority and dogma. It can provide a humbling, perspective-smashing sense of the scale of the stuff of the universe and our place in relation to it (from sub-atomic to galactic and beyond). </p>
<p>I say this not to usurp the place of religion for those to whom it is important. On this I agree with American physicist and writer <a href="http://cmsw.mit.edu/alan-lightman">Alan Lightman</a> <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/15/alan-lightman-accidental-universe-science-spirituality/">when he says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Science does not reveal the meaning of our existence, but it does draw back some of the veils.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For atheists like me though, I am more moved by sentiments like those expressed by Ann Druyan, the widow of the American astronomer Carl Sagan, who said Carl saw science as a kind of “<a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/12/20/carl-sagan-varieties-of-scientific-experience/">informed worship</a>”. Science can provide a wonderful path to connecting with something bigger and more profound than ourselves, without requiring divine support. </p>
<h2>So anyway …</h2>
<p>I’m not so idealistic that I’d argue money doesn’t matter. It matters. It matters a lot. But to accept without contest that it is the most important, realistic or mature way to measure value in society is not only diminishing, it’s perverse. </p>
<p>Science helps us see that we are more than just the sum of our economic outputs and contributions (how often do you hear Einstein, Newton or Curie lauded for their contributions to the economy?).</p>
<p>Science helps us accept that idealism is okay, even beneficial. Science is as intrinsic to culture and cultural-identity as high-culture (think music, poetry, literature, painting and the like). </p>
<p>Science provides a refuge for those of us who know that knowledge for its own sake can be intrinsically valuable. It supports we who appreciate that there can be immeasurable value in judging human endeavours using indicators that stretch far beyond the mundanities of improving wages or boosting trade. </p>
<p>Yes there are benefits of science that can be measured by their contribution to GDP, but that doesn’t mean they should be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Lamberts has previously received funding from the ARC Linkage program. </span></em></p>Why put a dollar value on science when the benefits to our lives and society are far more valuable?Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/245592014-03-26T19:45:38Z2014-03-26T19:45:38ZNavigating the online information maze: should students trust Wikipedia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44354/original/m2qvw53t-1395286071.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do we know where to find the most credible information in an age of digital literacy?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=154993310&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5NTMxNDg0MiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTU0OTkzMzEwIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDE1NDk5MzMxMCIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xNTQ5OTMzMTAvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJjakNZaCtvWm5HbzdMZEUxcUVLMTJDZU9wVEUiXQ%2Fshutterstock_154993310.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=8p0C1CdW9Sq5JvUXswXnrA-1-79">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being literate used to be about knowing how to read. In the 21st century it also means knowing how to negotiate through the torrent of information coming at you from all directions. <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041057_internet_fatigue_information_overload_news.html">Information Fatigue Syndrome</a>, or <a href="https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-748-spring2013/2013/01/30/infoglut-how-are-we-going-to-deal-with-the-information-explosion/">“Infoglut”</a> is a defining issue of modern life. For students particularly, it is getting harder to find useful, quality information.</p>
<h2>Information literacy to digital literacy</h2>
<p>Educators have been teaching information literacy skills to students for many decades: learning to read, how to use libraries etc. Now with the increasing amount of information on the internet, it is more important than ever for higher education to teach students to apply these <a href="http://education.purduecal.edu/Vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy7/edpsy7_meta.htm">metacognitive</a> skills — searching, retrieving, authenticating, critically evaluating and attributing material — to the online environment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/80624">Digital information literacy</a> skills have already been <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy">recognised</a> as essential for study and for students’ future employability.</p>
<p>Academia has long discouraged students from using general search engines like Google and crowd-sourced information resources like Wikipedia for their assignments. It’s no big surprise, though, that students continue to <a href="http://oclc.org/research/activities/vandr.html">access</a> these resources. That may not be such a bad thing.</p>
<p>The crowd-sourcing review practices of Wikipedia, though <a href="http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=99618&sid=747733">criticised</a> for favouring rapid turnaround over reliability, are forcing educators to reconsider the value and credibility of digital resources, or at least to rethink their attitude towards them. As scandalous as it might sound to old-school academics, Wikipedia is arguably subject to more rigorous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editorial_oversight_and_control">review practices</a> than are many scholarly publications.</p>
<p>Any interested party can contribute to a Wikipedia page. This community of gatekeepers, which is not unlike a community of scholars united by a common interest, assures quality of content. The influence of a minority of rogues is unlikely to taint the overall quality for long.</p>
<h2>Who determines the value of knowledge?</h2>
<p>The traditional academic attitude to crowd-sourced content raises serious questions about who determines the value of knowledge. Why should a journal article reviewed by a relatively small, self-selected group of academics be regarded as more valuable than an article in Wikipedia, which has been peer-reviewed by possibly thousands of interested readers?</p>
<p>The value of online information will undoubtedly differ in certain disciplines. A medical student is unlikely to rely on content generated from a search engine. I, for one, certainly hope that individuals in the medical profession draw on information from scholarly publications and not the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank">top</a> Google entry, which could be a popular blog or tabloid newspaper.</p>
<p>But for highly technical, fast-moving fields, such as information technology (IT), the <a href="http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=6016.php">lag</a> between journal article submission and publication invariably means that this information is outdated before it is released.</p>
<p>A student writing about emerging technologies, for example, needs access to, and institutional permission to use, information that is available via online newspapers, blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and social media sites. Digital literacy skills can help them sift the wheat from the chaff.</p>
<h2>A threat to the gatekeepers</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, these new forms of knowledge construction represent a potential <a href="http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/21366">threat to the authority</a> of academic gatekeepers. Unsurprisingly, these educators <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/yet-another-academic-against-wikipedia/1628">shun Wikipedia</a> and insist on the use of peer-reviewed sources alone.</p>
<p>This archaic practice continues despite demands from employers for graduates who can critically judge the validity and reliability of online information.</p>
<p>Higher education institutions need to equip students with digital literacy skills. Otherwise, <a href="http://www.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed">new modalities of education</a>, such as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs, are likely to become increasingly popular, threatening traditional models over time. While disciplines that rely heavily on practical instruction, such as medicine, will retain their value, highly technical and fast-moving fields such as IT may be at <a href="http://www.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed">risk</a>. </p>
<p>How then can formal institutions remain relevant in the digital age with the proliferation of MOOCs?</p>
<h2>Keeping formal institutions relevant</h2>
<p><a href="http://oclc.org/research/activities/vandr.html">Students want</a> an easy and reliable way to quickly validate online information. Unfortunately, many are not comfortable using materials outside those that are institutionally provided. As educators, we need to find ways to teach students how to cut through the noise and find quality information.</p>
<p>This raises questions about what an education that incorporates the development of digital literacy skills would actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-a-more-literate-world-look-like-18420">look like</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://academicskills.anu.edu.au/resources/handouts/writing-annotated-bibliography">annotated bibliography</a> is certainly not a novel idea. For countless years it has allowed students to demonstrate how they account for the currency, relevance and authority of information. If this task has worked so successfully for printed texts, surely it can be adapted for the digital environment.</p>
<p>The incredibly popular image-sharing platform <a href="http://www.pinterest.com">Pinterest</a> may be unintentionally fostering the development of these skills. Users are seduced by the aesthetically pleasing pictorial representation of ideas. Without even realising it, they are selecting, analysing and prioritising content for their own digital collections. </p>
<p>Other <a href="http://www.teachthought.com/learning/55-content-curation-tools-to-discover-and-share-digital-content/">digital curation tools</a> also function in this way.</p>
<p>These are just some of the tools that could be used to explore how students determine the relevance and credibility of web-based content. However, despite Infoglut, digital curation tools remain a largely untapped resource in the higher education sector. As educators, we ignore these new tools at our peril.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Antonio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Being literate used to be about knowing how to read. In the 21st century it also means knowing how to negotiate through the torrent of information coming at you from all directions. Information Fatigue…Amy Antonio, Research Fellow , University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.