The relationship between policy-making processes and e-learning policy discourses in higher education institutions in South Africa
This study offered an explanatory critique of the implications of policy-making processes on policy discourses. Its objective was to understand how policy-making processes affect institutional e-learning policy outcomes in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. The study analysed the conceptualisation and design of institutional e-learning policies in three universities.The case-by-case analysis for this study used a qualitative post-structuralist research methodology associated with case study research. This method provided deep insights and intimate knowledge of the individual cases which formed an important basis for cross-comparisons to be made within and across cases, to draw a relationship between policy-making processes and e-learning policy discourses. Interviews were held with stakeholders who formulated e-learning policies at the three universities. The aim of interviews was to understand how the policies were formulated; to explore the factors impacting policy formulation; the composition of actors; and how policy issues were framed. The methodological and analytical lens of the study was based on the Stakeholder theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The Stakeholder theory was used to analyse the policy-making processes, whilst CDA was used to analyse the policies. The analysis focused on the assumptions inherent in the views of policymakers on the nature and role of technology in education. Considering power relations that are implicit in policy-making processes, the study examined the competing discourses found in the policy texts and the different frames used by policy actors in framing the policy problem. The aim was to understand the socio-cultural, political and pedagogical implications of these discourses on teaching and learning with technologies in HEIs. This was achieved by comparing the views of policymakers with the discourses found in e-learning policy texts. The study revealed that institutional policies are the products of complex inter-temporal exchanges among stakeholders who participate in the policy-making process. The features of the resultant policies depend on the interaction, interests and power of agents who are involved in the policy-making process. The interaction of agents is also hampered or facilitated by institutional structures, procedures and processes in place, including the institutional culture. Therefore, the ability of the stakeholders involved in the policy-making process to achieve cooperative outcomes plays a central role. An institution that facilitates interaction among policy-making agents is likely to generate policies that are adaptable to the environment, and that are less subject to changes. Contrary to this, an institution that does not encourage cooperation will produce a policy which results in few changes in practice. Whether the policy-making process facilitates or hinders cooperation will depend on some key features of this process, such as the number of actors involved, the level of involvement in the process, how they engage in dialogue and their ideological beliefs on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in this context.
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