University of South Africa: CHS hosts 2022 Teaching and Learning Festival

Scheduled to take place on 20 July 2022, the festival is set to focus on the transformation of distance education. The main motif undergirding this theme is ubumba/letsopa/vumba/ivhu and the act of ukubumba/hobopa/ku vumba swilo/kuumba (to mould).

Prof Nokuthula Hlabangane, the Head of Academic Quality Assurance and Enhancement believes that “ukubumba” is an invitation to think about the nature of distance education in the context of human sciences. On the university’s role in moulding students, Hlabangane questions which student should be moulded, and the time needed to think through or explore this topic.

Hlabangane posed questions around the theme: “What then do we borrow from the invitation to mould using ubumba/letsopa/vumba/ivhu? Is this even a factor in our teaching? Is this an invitation worth taking up and, if so, how so, given the emphases of our respective curricula? How does this consideration inflect our vision of or for graduateness? Do we centre thought on how to heal the scars wrought on the land that are intricately connected to the scars wrought on its people in our role as ‘moulders’ of students who are of community and make up community? At what point does clay become mud?”

“Meaningful education should not alienate people from their land, but it should instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people would understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it.”

The keynote speakers of this year’s festival are traditional and spiritual healer Maine Khaukanani Maada; and author, midwife and spiritual health coach Mme Matshilo Motsei. Their respective topics are “Moulding pots: fulfilling my spiritual destiny” and “Learning to surrender the un-said and un-rehearsed”.