Abstract
This paper challenges dominant framings of COVID-19 education as either a moment of crisis or an idealised opportunity to reimagine learning. Instead, it offers a counter-narrative of a Residential and Educational Support Programme (RESP) at Stellenbosch University—a historically white supremacist institution in the midst of transformation. Launched during the pandemic, one residence space was configured into a site of care, co-learning, and humanising pedagogy. Centring the voices of predominantly first-generation, Black women students, the study reveals how participants engaged critically with identity, navigated systemic inequalities, and cultivated belonging within a historically exclusionary institutional culture. These experiences show that meaningful transformation emerges through embodied relationships, solidarity, and collective empowerment. The research argues for contextually rooted, ethically driven care practices and humanizing pedagogies as a transformative force. In doing so, it contributes to global conversations on inclusive higher education and offers a model for reimagining residential education beyond the pandemic, and as a productive site to acquire worthwhile qualities and dispositions (epistemic virtues). Epistemic virtues include traits like intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, open-mindedness, and intellectual humility – qualities that help students engage with knowledge effectively. This research was part of a longitudinal ethnographical case study. We employed Joan Tronto’s ethics of care and Paulo Freire’s humanizing pedagogies to develop an integrated framework to analyze the students experience of the RESP. In essence, this study shows how students evolve intellectually and personally as they develop and refine epistemic virtues – which are essential for deep, life-long learning and academic growth.
Presenters
Joy PetersenFirst-Year Student Experience Curator and Coordinator, Division of Student Affairs, Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Adult, Community, and Professional Learning
KEYWORDS
CARE ETHICS, HUMANIZING PEDAGOGIES, EPISTEMIC VIRTUES, RESIDENTIAL EDUCATION
