Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South

Dear SOTL in the South community,

We are inviting contributions to a special issue, 7(3), of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) in the South journal, an online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fostering dialogue and research on teaching and learning in higher education in the global South, or about the global South. This issue will be devoted to the topic of Reframing and re-purposing assessment in higher education in the global South.

Of the many challenges and disruptions faced by the global higher education sector in recent years, assessment during the Covid-19 pandemic was arguably the most significant. From initial challenges related to technological knowledge of learning management systems, internet connectivity and conducive spaces for completion of remote assessments, to lecturer concerns regarding standards and academic integrity, assessment came to the fore as one of the most demanding and complex elements of emergency remote teaching and learning (ERT&L).

Many notable attempts were made by institutions locally and globally to address and resolve the various challenges that emerged. These responses are well documented in the plethora of papers and chapters published on ERT&L over the last two years, with many of the reported responses largely affirmative and geared towards maintaining the status quo. However, the disruption to the status quo in the shift to ERT&L provided an unprecedented opportunity to examine the deeper systemic issues underlying the challenges more critically and reflexively. In the context of the global South, for example, lecturers were afforded insights into the lives and challenges experienced by some students, and the potential injustices of reinforcing assessment practices that ignore the student experience. For many, there was also a sobering realisation of the complexity of assessments in higher education, especially in the wider context of increasing massification, decreasing human and fiscal resources, and widening inequalities.

The Covid-19 crisis thus provided the impetus for a long overdue interrogation of dominant assessment paradigms, including the mechanisms and conditions holding entrenched assessment practices in stasis. In some instances, discussions gave way for more critical and nuanced considerations of the philosophies and purposes of assessment, resulting in innovative, contextually relevant and more inclusive practices, which could contribute to genuine possibilities for transformative shifts. In others, however, it resulted in increasing the divide between those students who had access to resources and those who did not.

At the present juncture, institutions have now shifted out of emergency mode, and many students and lecturers have rapidly returned to pre-Covid “norms”.  In this special edition, we invite the submission of papers that leverage the lessons learnt and insights gained during the disruption of Covid-19 to re-frame and re-purpose assessments for inclusive, contextually relevant, and sustainable outcomes in higher education in the global South. See our our website for a discussion of how we conceptualise the global South. 

Contributions may include scholarly and thought-provoking papers on:

• Reframing the purpose, philosophies and principles of assessment in higher education for the global South
• Diversity, exclusion and inclusion in assessment and feedback practices
• Ethics of care and ethics of justice in assessment and feedback practices
• Authentic assessment for SDG goals in the global South context
• Challenges and possibilities for assessment of inter-, cross-, and trans-disciplinary learning outcomes
• Dismantling the ‘marks driven’ assessment culture
• Transforming assessments for student empowerment, criticality, and life-long learning
• Democratisation of assessment, including critical appraisals of the power dynamics of current assessment practices
• Decolonisation of assessments, including design of assessments for different epistemologies

Anticipated deadlines

Full paper due: 5 March 2023

Reviewer feedback returned: 24 April 2023

Revised submission due: 31 May 2023

Reviewer feedback returned: 31 July 2023

Revised submission due: 31 August 2023

Acceptance of paper: 31 October 2023

Date of publication: Mid-December 2023

Funding

Articles are freely accessible and there are no processing fees.

Should you be interested and in a position to submit an article for publication in the journal, please register as a user on the website and upload your article. Articles should be 5000-8000 words in length including references and endnotes. Further instructions can be found on our website – see instructions for authors.

If you have problems with the website please contact our managing editor at sotl.south.journal@gmail.com

Kind regards,

Dr Kershree Padayachee and Dr Kibbie Naidoo