Dr Bradley Rink

In a South African higher education landscape increasingly shaped by managerialism, standardised performance targets, and administrative demands, a University of the Western Cape academic is making the case for a more deliberate, reflective pedagogy - slow teaching.

Dr Bradley Rink, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environmental Studies and Tourism at UWC, explores this concept in his scholarly article, For slow teaching: courageous and compassionate pedagogy in times of change, published in the South African Geographical Journal. Drawing on his experiences in the classroom, Dr Rink argues that slow teaching is not about inefficiency or covering less content - it is about fostering care, attentiveness, and critical engagement in learning environments often pressured by speed and output.

“Slow teaching is a nascent movement forwarded by scholars who seek to imbue their teaching with attentiveness, deliberation, thoughtfulness, and open-ended inquiry. Slowness in this pedagogical stance is not synonymous with decreased velocity or curtailed curricula,” Dr Rink wrote.

A pivotal moment in Dr Rink’s teaching career occurred in 2017, when a student interrupted a lecture on urban transport and mobility: “With all due respect, sir, what can you teach me about mobility? I live it every day.” 

Dr Rink noted: “At first I was left speechless, but then responded with a promise to learn more about his world. That entry point for a single student would go on to become a central tenet of my teaching practice. This incident allowed me as a teacher to have my vulnerability exposed, while at the same time foregrounding my humanity”.

Rather than relying on conventional lectures alone, Dr Rink introduced changes designed to encourage deeper learning and reflection. These included walking interviews, reflective essays, and rearranged seating to promote interaction. He also slowed the pace of lectures to allow space for critical dialogue and student participation.

The paper situates these strategies within the broader movement of "slowness" that originated in the 1980s through the work of Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food Movement. Petrini’s critique of fast food culture in Italy laid the foundation for a global initiative centred on sustainability, culture, and community - principles that later influenced educational theory, including slow pedagogy.

Dr Rink reflected on how slow teaching serves as a form of resistance to the dominant performance culture in universities. In contexts like South Africa, where many students face social and educational inequalities, slow teaching can create room for more inclusive, humane, and socially just learning experiences.

Importantly, the paper does not claim that slow teaching is a panacea. Rather, Dr Rink presented it as a values-driven approach that invites educators to reflect on their own roles, slow down the pace of knowledge delivery, and engage more meaningfully with students - particularly those from marginalised backgrounds.

• Dr Rink’s work on Slow teaching is part of his Teaching Advancements at Universities (TAU) Fellowship. https://taufellowships.org.za/