Abstract
In the post-COVID-19 era, we have gone back to business
as usual. This paper questions this status quo and reports
on the co-creation of a learning design framework from a
Southern African authentic learning (AL) perspective, developed
collaboratively by nine purposely sampled educators from seven
South African higher education institutions who collaborated in
an NRF‑funded project. The paper argues that an AL framework
must emphasise elements that differ from, and sometimes
go beyond, those of the Global North, with care, contextual
relevance, and situatedness being key to authenticity. Our
collective efforts aim to challenge the dominance of (Northern)
perspectives and privilege, creating spaces for diverse ways of
thinking, doing, and being. Methodologically, the paper reports
on the first phase of the Educational Design Research (EDR)
project, which will inform future design iterations in the second
phase. Data were collected through a focus group and analysed
using thematic analysis. The framework used the four A’s as a
heuristic to organise the data: authenticity (aligned with ten AL
principles); agency (student voice and choice, promoting freedom