eprintid: 10162007
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/16/20/07
datestamp: 2022-12-21 16:27:32
lastmod: 2023-03-01 11:32:37
status_changed: 2022-12-21 16:27:32
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Ngcwangu, Siphelo
title: Researching the Public Good: Reflections on Experiences of Doing Research on Higher Education and [t]he Public Good in South Africa
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B16
divisions: B14
divisions: J80
keywords: public good, higher education, South Africa, qualitative research, #FeesMustFall
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
abstract: This article discusses the experience of doing research on higher education and the public good in South Africa within a bigger project titled ‘Higher Education, Inequalities and the Public Good: Perspectives from Four African Countries’. Qualitative data was collected through key informant interviews by a team of eight researchers who concentrated on specific groups of stakeholders as per the themes of the research. The aim of the interviews was to understand the perceptions of stakeholders both within and outside the university system on the public good role of university education in South Africa. This article focuses on three key issues: locating the research in the context of South Africa’s democratic transition, methodological challenges and pitfalls, tensions, and missing questions/silences. We were doing our research in the aftermath of the student protests of 2015 and 2016, and many of the stakeholders we interviewed were actively involved in making sense of the issues that the students raised. The research team formulated the ‘DNA’ framework for analysing qualitative data from the stakeholders, which refers to the descriptive, normative and analytic aspects of the data that pointed to a unique way in which we could frame our findings. By reflecting on the research process and our positionality in it, the paper contributes to the general field of qualitative research studies, bringing in the dynamics of conducting research in large-scale cross-national projects.
date: 2022
date_type: published
publisher: CODESRIA - Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
official_url: https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v20i2.2732
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1996604
doi: 10.57054/jhea.v20i2.2732
lyricists_name: Unterhalter, Elaine
lyricists_id: ESUNT09
actors_name: Unterhalter, Elaine
actors_id: ESUNT09
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Journal of Higher Education in Africa
volume: 20
number: 2
pagerange: 211-231
citation:        Ngcwangu, Siphelo;      (2022)    Researching the Public Good: Reflections on Experiences of Doing Research on Higher Education and [t]he Public Good in South Africa.                   Journal of Higher Education in Africa , 20  (2)   pp. 211-231.    10.57054/jhea.v20i2.2732 <https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v20i2.2732>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10162007/1/Paper%201%20JHEA%20for%20publication.pdf