ERIC Number: EJ1149511
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2307-6267
EISSN: N/A
Promoting Social Change Amongst Students in Higher Education: A Reflection on the Listen, Live and Learn Senior Student Housing Initiative at Stellenbosch University
Dunn-Coetzee, Munita; Fourie-Malherbe, Magda
Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, v5 n1 p63-75 2017
Twenty-two years after apartheid South African higher education is still struggling with challenges around access, success and transformation. Stellenbosch University (SU), as a historically white university, is striving to become significantly better and different in terms of relevance and active role-playing. SU wants to prepare students to become South African citizens who bring about and enable positive change in society. The Listen, Live and Learn (LLL) initiative at SU is a senior student housing programme with the aim of providing experiential opportunities for students to make contact with "the other". By being in closer, more regular contact with "the other", students' stereotypes, biases and discriminatory attitudes should start changing for the better. This article focuses on the evaluation of one of the proposed outcomes of the LLL programme--increased levels of interaction among students in a LLL house lead to reduced stereotyping and diminished bias. A quantitative investigation by means of an electronic survey was conducted. The second phase of the research was of a qualitative nature and consisted of focus group interviews. The conclusion can be made that LLL participants are a self-selecting group and that students who tend to apply for the LLL programme probably already have low levels of prejudice, bias and stereotyping. For the programme to effect social change, it needs to be considerably expanded in order to include more students who may not necessarily share the "open-mindedness" of this cohort.
Descriptors: Social Change, Higher Education, Online Surveys, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes, Focus Groups, Interviews, Qualitative Research, Racial Segregation, Foreign Countries, Whites, Institutional Characteristics, Living Learning Centers, Dormitories, Program Descriptions, Statistical Analysis, Stereotypes, Racial Bias, Racial Relations, Change Agents, Student Diversity
University of Stellenbosch. 15A Bosman Street, Private Bag X1, Matieland ZA-7602, South Africa. Tel: +27-833505959e-mail: jsaa_editor@outlook.com; Web site: http://www.jsaa.ac.za/index.php/jsaa/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A