Abstract

MOODLEY-MARIE, Janice K.; PARRY, Bianca R.  and  MASISI, Itumeleng. Student experiences of attending the first online Southern African Students Psychology Conference at an open distance e-learning university in South Africa. JSAA [online]. 2024, vol.12, n.2, pp.175-192. ISSN 2307-6267.  https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v12i2.5061.

The devastation and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to pervade almost every sphere of human existence, albeit arguably increasingly nuanced. As we move into the post-pandemic world, it is essential to reflect on the lessons learned and forge transformed, decolonised ways of knowledge production in higher education. To ensure the continuation of academic socialisation, academic conference organizers have had to introduce virtual conferencing during the pandemic. In this article, we discuss the experiences of students who attended the first online Southern African Students Psychology Conference (SASPC) during the pandemic in South Africa within a distance e-learning context. We use academic socialisation as a theoretical framework to understand student experiences attending the first online SASPC and to discuss the student conference as a site for decolonisation. From the focus group discussion with student attendees, the historical and current format of the conference unexpectedly emerged as a colonised space of academic socialisation that the students challenged. Opportunities for using the student conference space as a site of decolonisation are explored to contribute to the dearth of scholarly literature aimed at actively incorporating students' voices in the decolonisation of academic spaces in the Global South.

Keywords : Online academic conferences; students; psychology; COVID-19; South Africa; academic socialisation; student experience.

        · abstract in Other     · text in English     · English ( pdf )