Continuities and discontinuities in the journey from technikon to university of technology

Abstract

This paper offers a `genealogy' (Foucault 1984) of technical higher education in
South Africa. Key concepts in technological education and research, namely careerfocused
education and applied research, were investigated through a study of
documents and through interviews with lecturers and researchers in universities of
technology. The genealogy describes how these concepts and their associated
practices developed, changed and persisted across the period 1967±2004.
The genealogy identifies three `chronotopes' (Bakhtin 1981) in the development of
technical higher education: in the first chronotope Colleges of Advanced Technical
Education (as they were known) positioned themselves to serve the needs of
industry; in the second chronotope, the technikons find themselves in a state of
`academic drift' away from the practices of education for the needs of industry; in
the third chronotope the universities of technology engage in processes of
reinvention, realignment and enhancement, as the original mission of technical
higher education is reconsidered in the light of changing contexts and changing
needs.

South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19 (2) 2006: pp.189-200