Master of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion

Purpose

The aim of this Master's Degree by coursework and mini-dissertation is to educate and train learners as researchers and scholars in the specialist knowledge required for reconciliation and social cohesion in the contemporary world. In this qualification learners will be exposed to a high level of theoretical engagement and intellectual independence regarding Reconciliation and Social Cohesion to enable graduates to contribute to positive societal shifts.

Learners will acquire, through the well-designed modules and research project, a conceptual understanding that enables them to critically evaluate methodologies, current research and advanced scholarship in the field of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion as well as undertake research within the field. This qualification intends to deliver graduates that will demonstrate a systematic understanding of in-depth knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and new insights at the cutting-edge in Reconciliation and Social Cohesion. It will provide learners with a solid foundation for understanding and researching Reconciliation and Social Cohesion issues from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. This qualification develops an interdisciplinary research approach to the social, ethical, political and theological aspects of reconciliation and social cohesion.

Rationale

The need for this qualification draws on the National Planning Commission's (NPC) diagnostic report and National Development Plan (NDP) of 2011 which chronicle South Africa's social and developmental challenges against the backdrop of global developments that quickened the pace of the in equalisation of and within modern-day societies. The annual Human Development Reports of the United Nations (UNESCO) document this in virtuoso. 'The divided society' of the NPC's diagnostic report became the 'social cohesion' strategy of the NDP that is articulated as a prerequisite for societal progress. That is, the National Development Plan (NDP) links South Africa's socio-economic development to its capacity to build an inclusive and capable state. Serving the university's human and academic project and national imperatives, the reasoning behind this Master's Degree spirals outwards towards the region and the globe in back-and-forth- movements as interplays between the local and the global, the personal and political and the psychological and the material.

This qualification is also necessary to contribute to the building of a capable society that can respond to the challenge of social cohesion as formulated by the Declaration and Programme of Action of The National Social Cohesion and Nation Building Summit of 2012. As there are currently no Master's qualifications of this kind in South Africa, this qualification aims to fill the gap.

At an intellectual level, it is necessary to problematise the two leading concepts: Reconciliation and Social Cohesion, through the controlled contestations that a Master's qualification offers. Since it is endeavours to broaden the understanding of Reconciliation from its post-conflict bias and to include the political in Social Cohesion in order to root both in the everyday struggles of individuals and societies, thus this qualification may productively contribute to a new intellectual trajectory.

The Master of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion will expand career options of learners. The qualification equips graduates for work in local and international organisations and provides transferable skills for a wide variety of careers, including mediation, diplomacy, policy, advocacy, journalism, teaching and religious ministries.

The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice as the mandated location for driving the university's transformation trajectory serves as a well-chosen driver of the Master's qualification. Through this qualification the Institute can contribute to institutional deepening of transformation at the same time that it contributes to knowledge production and intellectual contestation regarding Reconciliation and Social Cohesion.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Where applicants do not meet the minimum admission requirements stated, RPL may grant access to the qualification. RPL will be applied according to the Recognition of Prior Learning, Credit Accumulation and Transfer, and Assessment (CHE 2016) and the institution's RPL policy. The process will be managed by the central RPL Office in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology.

• Through its RPL policy and RPL Office, the institution will ensure that quality assurance processes that address the specificities of the RPL process (including applications, assessment, and reporting and management systems) are implemented; and that administrative and support systems, both prior and subsequent to RPL assessment, are in place.
• Applicants will be assessed against Level 8 competencies. Furthermore, an RPL application for access will be evaluated against the entry requirements of the Master of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion and assessment will be undertaken by the Faculty of Theology.
• Credit accumulation and transfer will be applied when a learner's achievements are recognised and contribute to further leaning even if the learner has not obtained a qualification. Any and all credits for an incomplete qualification may be recognised as meeting part of the requirements for the Master of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion as per institutional General Rules.

Entry Requirements

• A relevant Bachelor Honours Degree or a relevant qualification, Level 8.

This qualification consists of compulsory and elective modules at Level 9 totalling 180 Credits.

Compulsory Modules: 150 Credits

• Theoretical and Epistemological Frames (Discourse and Disruptions), 30 Credits.
• Researching Reconciliation and Social Cohesion, 30 Credits.
• Research project, 90 Credits.

Elective Modules: 30 Credits (Choose two modules)

• Dignity and difference and the challenges relating to reconciliation and social cohesion, 15 Credits.
• Justice, Democracy and Wellness, 15 Credits.
• Part 1: Public Theology and Liberating Justice, 15 Credits.
• Part 2: The liturgies of a life together, 15 Credits.
• Mourning, Forgiveness, Trauma and Memory, 15 Credits.

1. Produce and execute a thorough research project which explores the contributions and current debates in academic literature relevant to the study of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion.
2. Address and engage with issues relating to social inequities and injustice in the contemporary world.
3. Assimilate and analyse critical information from a number of different historical and theoretical sources.
4. Acquire the ability to do independent learning and sustain academic development.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Conduct a literature review.
• Collect data.
• Analyse finding(s).
• Draw conclusions from synthesised research findings and targeted reading.
• Make sensible recommendations.
• Produce a mini-dissertation.
• Communicate effectively verbally and orally with professional audiences.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Use empirical and theoretical sources to produce spoken and written arguments mirroring their growing specialist knowledge in Reconciliation and Social Cohesion.
• Examine the social, political, cultural, and economic and religious factors that shape the way in which issues of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion are being addressed.
• Produce and make available for scrutiny, interventions that take into account the interdisciplinarity of Reconciliation and social Cohesion.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Prepare information analysed for further study within the programme and for further advanced Postgraduate study.
• Present persuasive written work with analytic arguments based on evidence, reading and reason.
• Produce and communicate, through formal presentations, substantial ideas that follow from intense reading.
• Put up critical contestations of taken-for-granted knowledge in organised course debates.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Access, process and manage existing information.
• Produce and communicate new knowledge or new insights on existing knowledge based on independent reading.

Integrated Assessment

Assessment activities and products

• The min-dissertation of 90 Credits in line with institutional prescripts makes up 50% of the Degree mark.
• Continuous assessment is the mode of assessment followed in the modules; no examinations are written. Formative and summative assessment products and activities make up the final module mark in either a 40-60 split between formative and summative assessment, or 50-50.
• Formative assessment activities occur throughout the teaching of the modules. Formative assessment activities make up 40-50% of the module's continuous assessment mark.
• Per module, at least one 15-minute class presentation on a topic chosen from a list prepared by the lecturer; may make up 20-30% of the formative assessment mark.
• Per module, participation in an organised debate as member of a debating team; may make up 10-20% of the formative assessment mark.
• Per module, an abstract of (200-300 words) on a conceptual controversy or weakness in a theoretical framework may be submitted for 10% of the formative assessment mark.
• Per module, a short report (500-1000 words) of an empirical investigation of limited scale may be submitted for 10-20% of the formative assessment mark.
• A summative assessment product for each module in the form of a (1500-3000) word essay, makes up 50-60% of the module's continuous assessment mark.