Author(s): Noko P Sekome, Ngoako J Mokoele
Recent literature on education, economics and other related disciplines have shifted towards embracing the value of diversity, transformation and empowerment. Diversity as a teaching and learning tool in higher education has been popularized internationally. However, South African literature on higher education has revealed the scarcity of literature on the significance of diversity in teaching and learning. The sudden transition to online learning because of level 5 lockdown because of coronavirus has relegated the usage of diversity to just a theoretical concept. Teaching and learning during lockdown were accompanied by multiple challenges such as lack of data, connectivity, gadgets and lack of trained academics and students. Immediately after training academics on Learning Management Systems (LMS), the focus shifted towards covering the lost time and completing the academic year. The pressures to complete the 2020 academic year were divorced from embracing diversity in teaching and learning. Embracing diversity during teaching and learning is rooted in the learning theory called constructivism. The paper argues that embracing diversity during online classes ensures the cultivation of its value to enable students to construct new knowledge. The paper concludes that the lack of professional and pedagogical training is a huge hindrance towards academics embracing diversity for teaching and learning in South African higher education.