Lecturers’ reflections on the teaching of social sciences in a multidisciplinary context at a university in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The article offers detailed reflections of two lecturers on the teaching of Social Sciences Education Honours modules in a multidisciplinary context at one university in South Africa. The reflections portray that, while in Social Sciences Education students from diverse specialisations are enrolled in courses that are multidisciplinary in nature, the teaching pedagogy used continues to be disciplinary-based. Through the qualitative self-reflective narrative study of two lecturers teaching Commerce Education and History Education in the Honours programme in this university, the paper explores how these lecturers teach these Honours modules in a multidisciplinary context. Drawing on the reflections of the two lecturers, the conclusions of the study were that, the Honours programme in Social Sciences Education needs to be an integrated and multidisciplinary study, given the pedagogical weaknesses, and the resultant compromising of the quality of the teaching of the disciplines within this programme. The paper proposes ‘border crossing pedagogy’ as a solution that can be used in a multidisciplinary classroom because it allows for integration of disciplines in terms of content and teaching approach. This calls for revisiting how the modules within Social Sciences Honours programme are taught in South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Commerce education
• history education
• honours modules
• multidisciplinary
• social sciences education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina Kgari-Masondo

Christina Kgari-Masondo is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where she teaches and supervises postgrad students at Honours, Masters and PhD level. She publishes on a variety of topics related to History Education.

Jabulisile Ngwenya

Jabulisile Ngwenya is a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She teaches Accounting Education at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She also supervises postgraduate students at Honours, Masters and Doctoral level. Jabulisile’s research interests include teaching, learning, and assessment in Commerce Education.