Transcending the teaching versus research debate: Embracing an expanded view of scholarship

These developments have posed new opportunities and challenges to higher education, in general, and technikons, in particular. These developments have changed the context and face of higher education dramatically and the question must be posed as to whether the academic community within technikons can meet these challenges. Previously, the teaching mandate for technikons was clear cut. Now research has been added to the agenda. This paper wishes to focus on the view of scholarship as a teaching/research dichotomy and how scholarship necessarily has to change to envelope a more a symbiotic relationship between teaching and research.

Furthermore, the paper will expound on ways in which research disadvantaged institutions, particularly the Peninsula Technikon, have gone about:

• moving from a teaching institution to a teaching and research institution;
• how the research funding was granted to facilitate this move;
• how the institution gradually blended teaching and research;
• how it deals with present obstacles through its educational development service which it renders staff and students;
• mapping out future endeavours through the institutional academic objectives.

At present qualitative research methodologies are looked at seriously to accommodate a host of researchers in the humanities and social sciences who could enter into multi-disciplinary research projects with their more quantitative oriented colleagues in the science, engineering and technology fields to investigate areas such as industrial safety and the management of technology.

Research funding agencies are urging technikons to engage in multi-disciplinary research. This is indeed a challenge if we consider that two paradigm shifts are taking place, albeit at a slow pace. Firstly, the shift has to take place from a pure teaching orientation to a teaching/research orientation. Secondly, the literature shows evidence that the paradigm development in the science, engineering and technology fields takes place faster than in the humanities.

The paper will conclude why these new educational policy developments have had a huge impact on higher educational institutions, academic staff and students, and research administrative structures, bearing in mind that the traditional universities in South Africa have a long history of teaching, research and service.

Finally, the single coordinated system of higher education places colleges, technikons and universities in direct competition with one another in terms of state funding, physical and human resources and students.