| Summary: | This study begins with an ethnographic self-study w
hich allows for a reflection on traditional
learning experiences.
This study is located in the context of the initial
development of dental health professionals
within those higher education institutions that end
eavour to provide education and training in
a rapidly changing context. This context is charact
erised by the simultaneous need to
address the blurring of boundaries and the dichotom
ies that exist such as the first world and
the third world, the developed and the less develop
ed world, the rich and the poor, health
and wealth, the private and the public sectors, the
formal and the informal sectors, the
advantaged and the disadvantaged, the privileged an
d the underprivileged.
The definitions, concepts, theories and principles
around curricula and professional
development are examined in an effort to extend int
o discoveries of educational research
usually beyond the purview of dental health practit
ioners, policy makers or higher education
specialists involved in training these dental healt
h practitioners.
It poses key questions regarding the nature of prof
essional competences within dental health
science undergraduate studies and how the curricula
are organised around these perceptions
of competence. Investigative tools include particip
ant observation, interviews and
questionnaires which have included both education d
eliverers – the teaching staff - and
education consumers – the students.
The areas of access by students to programmes (inpu
t), activities whilst in the programmes
(throughput) and their competences at the exit end
of the programme (output) are
examined.
It was found that institutions and programmes are p
aradoxically positioned declaring
missions to be globally competitive and internation
ally recognised and at the same time
wanting to reach out to the population who are disa
dvantaged and who form a majority.
Whilst the needs of the wider community is for basi
c dental services and primary health care,
the resources appear to be geared for producing tec
hnologically-superior professionals who
will cater for a largely urban and middle class pop
ulations. The resources available,
particularly human resources, for this training, ar
e going through a critical shortage.
Simultaneously demands are being made to challenge
the epistemological rationale of the
curriculum practice of the training sites at both u
niversities and technikons (now known as
universities of technology). === Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal,Durban, 2009.
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