Browsing by Subject "academic literacies"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Cultural studies meets academic literacies: exploring students resources through symbolic objects
    (Taylor & Francis, 2008) Archer, Arlene
    This paper reflects on a first year communication project in a South African engineering foundation programme which attempted to bring a cultural studies perspective to the teaching of academic literacy practices. In the project, students identify everyday objects that have symbolic meanings and examine these in a range of physical, cultural and communicational contexts. These objects are seen as catalysts for enabling student narratives and understandings to emerge. Objects also become a way of exploring notions of culture and cultural practices in the classroom and the tensions between convention and change they often index. This paper focuses on a particular manifestation of this tension, in the form of a moralistic discourse, or a discourse of 'propriety'. The pedagogical implications of this kind of cultural studies project are explored, including the importance of opening up less regulated spaces to allow different competencies to be validated and, crucially, ways of framing and critiquing students' resources in order to harness these constructively.
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    Expanding the repertoires of practice of multilingual science student teachers through a decolonial approach to academic literacies at an elite English medium university
    (2022) Abdulatief, Soraya; Mckinney, Carolyn
    The need to prepare science teachers in South Africa to respond to a heterogenous language and literacies context where multilingualism is the norm and where school conditions may shift rapidly is urgent. However, students arrive at university with varying resources and some, due to historical inequality, may not be able to meet the academic literacies demands of the university courses for which they register, and are often institutionally described as “at risk” or underprepared. Drawing on academic literacies and decoloniality theorising, this study examines the apprenticeship into the coloniality of schooling for African language speaking students locating deficit, not in the students but in the lingering colonial ideologies of language and literacy in the schooling and higher education systems. The research uses a qualitative approach and is a case study in the form of a participant intervention that addresses the academic and multiliteracies challenges faced by five African language speakers registered for a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in science education at an elite English medium university in South Africa. I also consider whether taking a decolonial approach to academic literacies could expand the students' repertoires of practice and their production of texts in the PGCE programme. In addition, I investigate the participants' early experiences of coloniality in education; the academic and multimodal practices needed by student teachers; how African languages could be used as a resource for learning; and the role spaces outside of the university campus played in developing students' identities as science teachers and in their construction of multimodal repertoires. The theoretical framework draws on decolonial theory (Mignolo 2007; Quijano 2007; Ngugi wa ‘Thiongo 1986) and a social practices approach to academic literacies (Street 1985; Lillis 2001; New Literacy Studies 1993 and the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies; and multimodality e.g. New London Group 2000). The research findings show how African language speaking students' learning and literacies experiences from school to university continue to be shaped by coloniality, specifically the use of English as the language of instruction. Additional findings consider the specific knowledge and experiences student teachers require to successfully navigate university courses and professional practice; and what practices the demystification of academic literacies knowledge entails in a teacher education course. Taking a decolonial approach to academic literacies repositioned the students as capable and demonstrated that the problem lay not with the students, but with the system specifically under-resourced educational practices such as multimodal learning and academic literacies and continuing colonial ideologies of language and literacy.
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    Multimodal texts in higher education and the implications for writing pedagogy
    (Wiley, 2010) Archer, Arlene
    Although studies on writing pedagogy and academic literacies have examined changing genres in tertiary education, there has not necessarily been an emphasis on how a range of modes and media have influenced texts in various disciplines. This paper explores the influence and incorporation of the visual into student texts in Higher Education, looking at the semiotic weighting of modes, conventions and functions of images, visual/verbal linkages and visual composition. These aspects of multimodal texts have implications for the ways in which we teach 'academic literacies' practices and writing as multimodal composition to students.
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    The tangled web: investigating academics' views of plagiarism at the University of Cape Town
    (Taylor & Francis, 2010) de Jager, Karin; Brown, Cheryl
    This article considers the problematic question of student plagiarism, its causes and manifestations, and how it is addressed in academic environments. A literature survey was conducted to establish how higher education institutions approach these issues, and a twofold investigation was conducted at the University of Cape Town. Data was gathered from the case records of the university disciplinary tribunals dealing with plagiarism, and a survey was conducted among academic staff to establish how they dealt with issues surrounding plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Academics seem unwilling to follow official university policies if they are perceived to be unrealistic.