Esta pesquisa de doutorado tem como objetivo principal analisar o papel da pedagogia universitária em projetos inovadores de universidades públicas brasileiras. Analisar a pedagogia universitária em propostas inovadoras no ensino superior não é uma escolha aleatória. Há uma política de expansão da universidade pública, mas há uma política de formação pedagógica dos professores para essa universidade? Determinados autores (SANTOS, 2008; CHAUÍ, 2001, 2003; BUARQUE, 2003) apontam a crise da universidade e a urgência de mudança para que essa instituição não perca sua função e significância social. Dessa maneira, será avaliado em que medida projetos que, a princípio, podem ser classificados como inovadores cooperam para a transformação do ensino superior na direção do que é esperado para o cumprimento de sua função social e de que forma interagem com as discussões no campo da pedagogia universitária, em especial no que se refere à formação pedagógica do professor universitário. Pimenta e Anastasiou (2005) ressaltam a importância da constituição da identidade docente do professor de ensino superior, que também se daria em um processo de formação continuada. As universidades selecionadas foram a USP Leste e a UFPR Litoral. Tal seleção baseou-se no critério dessas universidades afirmarem constituir propostas inovadoras. Como metodologia, em um processo qualitativo de pesquisa, foram avaliados os projetos político pedagógico da instituição ou outros documentos que possibilitavam a compreensão da proposta inovadora e foram feitas entrevistas com coordenadores de curso, professores, presidente de comissão de graduação e diretor institucional. Por meio de análise dos dados coletados, foi possível constatar que ambas as universidades estão inovando e trabalhando a pedagogia universitária. No entanto, o trabalho com a pedagogia universitária e a formação pedagógica é muito mais presente na instituição que tem no ensino sua atividade fundante, do que naquela em que este fica subsumido na atividade de pesquisador do docente. Como resultado, é possível analisar duas realidades diferentes: a instauração de uma cultura da docência capaz de promover a construção da identidade docente de seus professores, e uma cultura mais voltada à pesquisa, desvinculada do eixo ensino. Por fim, a conclusão desse estudo revela que é necessária uma aproximação da teoria/prática no que se refere à inovação proposta e, para isso, a área da pedagogia universitária pode contribuir de maneira fundamental, principalmente no tocante à formação docente para lidar com o aspecto inovador do projeto. / This doctoral research study aims at analyzing the role of university pedagogy in innovating projects in higher education in Brazilian universities. The choice to analyze innovating projects in higher education pedagogy contexts is not at random. There is a university expansion policy in Brazil, but is there a policy for teaching education in the universities? Authors such as Santos (2008), Chauí (2001, 2003) and Buarque (2003) point out to the crisis at university level and the urgent need for change so that universities do not lose their social meaning. Taking these discussions into consideration, the research will evaluate if university projects, which in an initial analysis can be classified as innovating, cooperate to change the university context so that this institution maintains its social meaning. In addition, the research will analyze how these projects interact with the discussion proposed by higher education pedagogy studies. The interaction with higher education pedagogy will be evaluated from the perspective that it is urgent to provide pedagogical qualification to university professors. Pimenta and Anastasiou (2005) emphasize the importance of the development of a teaching identity in universities, which would also happen in a process of continuing education. The universities selected for the study are USP Leste and UFPR Litoral. The selection was based on the criteria that these universities affirm to carry out innovating proposals. The methodology, which was carried out according to a qualitative research approach, evaluated the political pedagogical projects of the institution or other documents that provided the understanding of the innovative proposal. In addition interviews with the course coordinators, professors, president of the undergraduate commission and institutional director were conducted. The analysis of the data demonstrated that both institutions are innovating and working with the higher education pedagogy. Although the work with the higher education pedagogy and teaching education is much more present in the institution that has teaching as a fundamental activity than in the institution where teaching is incorporated in the research activities of its professors. As a result it is possible to analyze two different realities: the establishment of a teaching culture capable of promoting the construction of teachers identity, and a culture of research detached from teaching. Finally, this study reveals that it is necessary an approximation of theory and practice in terms of the proposal of innovation and, to this end, the higher education pedagogy area can contribute in an essential manner, mainly in relation to teacher education so that teachers can cope with the innovating aspect of the project.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of an Information Literacy intervention administered to first year Faculty of Business students at Rosebank College Cape Town. The exponential nature of information has led to students having access to abundant information which often comes unfiltered. This requires them to be in possession of life long competencies to find and apply this information to solve problems. Recent shifts in pedagogy and curricula have also precipitated the importance of independent learners who are capable of constructing their own knowledge. Student centred methods of teaching employed in tertiary institutions such as, problem based learning, evidence based learning and inquiry learning have necessitated the importance of Information Literacy training towards the development of independent learners. The study assesses the baseline incoming skills of the Faculty of Business students. Two intervention workshops are conducted for the experimental cohort and a post-test is administered. After the post-test the results of the control and experimental group are compared. The study uses the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for higher education as a theoretical foundation. The standards are applied as benchmarks when assessing the Information Literacy competencies. The study explores the following research questions:  Are the Information Literacy interventions administered to the first year business faculty students effective and do they meet the proposed outcomes?  What are the existing Information Literacy competencies of the incoming students in the Faculty of Business?  How should Information Literacy programmes be delivered?  Are the ACRL standards a reliable tool to assess Information Literacy skills and the effectiveness of the interventions administered? The study found out that offering Information Literacy interventions would result in students accumulating these skills. This is supported by the difference in scores between the control group and the experimental cohort. However it must be noted that Information Literacy training is not an event but rather an on-going process. / Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl

This thesis specifically focuses on the professional practices and training of Western industrial designers using postcolonial theory to inform working practices in a complex global ecology. It investigates the culturally hegemonic construction of design solutions in man-made products. By adopting key ideas from postcolonial and cultural studies as a lens to evaluate fields of industrial design discourse, practice and pedagogy, the work proceeds from the premise that design is not intrinsic to a product but the result of a myriad different forces and factors acting on it externally including hegemonic potencies. By reinterpreting technological formations in light of research emerging from post-colonial studies, it attempts to broaden our intellectual understanding of how product design in theory, practice and education can often rely upon western [hegemonic] aesthetic and deep cultural archetypes. The purpose of this enquiry is to highlight the potentials that exist to explore a synergy between east and west in industrial design with a prospective vision for global, trans-cultural design. The research claims that current design practice often leads to culturally determined - rather than universal - conceptions in design and it attempts to re-conceptualise design as practice within a necessarily hegemonic culture. This hegemony needs to be acknowledged and redressed via increased awareness and changes to the intellectual heritage and autonomy of West European and American industrial design, in its dialogue, practice and education. As an epistemological project to identify knowledge within this discourse, it suggests new methodological and strategic approaches to engage with the crisis the discipline faces in light of globalisation so as to open up future discussions in design discourse and give a voice to the many silences that make up the noise of the world. It attempts to: • Further understand the trajectory of hegemony and globalisation in relation to design, technology and culture. • Critically engage with cross- and trans-cultural, global and social design implications. • Address the discrepancies between designers’ culture and users’ culture, to expose the necessity for more culturally-cognizant design practice and pedagogic provision. The research was initiated by identifying a number of questions that designers and users may consciously or subconsciously confront when faced with products that problematise the imagined universal values of designed products in terms of gender and culture. It explores how certain design solutions produced and developed in the west and their diffusion into global, international markets and foreign cultures could affect those cultures by asking in what ways the usability, aesthetic and symbolic characteristics of these artefacts often unwittingly contribute to the privilege or marginalisation of people from particular socio-cultural backgrounds. The thesis intervention is that product designers are neither explicitly trained to comprehend nor surmount their respective cultural constraints and design education both nationally and internationally is not sufficiently equipped with the tools to acknowledge and confront this. The key arguments presented in this thesis are: 1. Products can often be deconstructed to identify cultural connotations or omissions in their design. 2. Global, a-cultural design and universal usability are fallacies that frequently deny the existence of an underlying cultural hegemony at play. 3. Mass-produced products can gradually homogenise and eradicate cultural diversity contributing to the negative effects of colonialist attitudes and/or globalisation. 4. Academia and educational institutions have the potential to extend awareness in this field to inform and train future designers and graduates to better advance design obligations in global, trans-cultural, cross-cultural and multicultural contexts.