Shaping the Future of Education:
Data-driven Strategies for Equity and Success
UCT's annual Teaching & Learning Conference provides an opportunity for the UCT community to focus on teaching and learning.
The conference aims to build capacity to engage with key questions in higher education, connect stakeholders in the education project, promote critical reflection and inspire innovative teaching practices. Co-hosted with the Data Analytics for Student Success (DASS) programme, the 2025 Teaching & Learning conference (TLC2025) aims to provide an opportunity to share, learn and explore how data could inform our practices. TLC2025 focuses on the varied ways that data can be created, shared and interpreted to inform the development of equitable educational opportunities for all UCT students. We invite the UCT community – both staff and students – to submit proposals responding to this call.
Proposal Submissions
Submit your proposal to present at TLC2025
Register
Please register to attend the conference, regardless of whether you are submitting a proposal.
We look forward to interacting with you at the 2025 UCT Teaching and Learning Conference.
Conference Dates
Tuesday, 18th – Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Data for Education
We embrace a broad understanding of "data" encompassing the rich tapestry of information emerging from teaching and learning experiences. Data includes traditional quantitative metrics like assessment marks and learning analytics, but also qualitative insights such as student feedback, classroom observations, and visual data like student-created infographics and concept maps. Whether you analyse student writing samples, track participation patterns, use polling tools, or observe learning behaviors, you are working with educational data.
In a context where our teaching and learning ecosystem is increasingly mediated by digital and artificial intelligence technologies, data-driven approaches can amplify existing inequities or serve as powerful tools for creating more inclusive learning environments. This conference focuses on how data can be created, shared, analysed and leveraged to create equitable educational opportunities and outcomes for all UCT students.
Critical Perspectives
We welcome diverse perspectives on data and its applications in higher education. Beyond technical approaches, we encourage critical engagement with data ethics, data colonialism, Global South perspectives, and critiques of datafication processes. We welcome contributions that challenge conventional data narratives, explore alternative methodologies, and propose more equitable approaches to data use in higher education contexts.
As a university situated in the Global South with histories shaped by colonialism and apartheid, we recognize the importance of employing critical frameworks to examine what data we collect, how we interpret it, and whose voices are centered or marginalized in data practices. These perspectives are essential for advancing UCT's transformation goals and identifying systemic inequalities that affect educational outcomes.
Conference Themes
We welcome submissions related to the following:
- Data-Informed Strategies for Teaching and Learning: Responsive and Culturally Relevant Pedagogies
- Data-Informed Strategies for Assessment: Transformative and Inclusive Practices
- Student Voice as Data: Partnership, Participation, and Multimodal Perspectives
- Data-Informed Strategies for Student Support: Holistic and Responsive Interventions
- Exploring Data Ethics: Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Higher Education
- Critical Approaches to Data: Theoretical Frameworks for Transformative Practice
- Wild Card Submissions
Contact
If you have any further queries, please contact cilt.events@uct.ac.za and a member of the organising team will get back to you.