scholarly journals Investigating literacy narratives among ethno-linguistically diverse South African students

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (234) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelia Carstens
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Literacy Narratives ◽  
African Students ◽  
Literacy Experiences ◽  
And Gender ◽  
South African Institution ◽  
African Institution

AbstractThis article reports on a study of pre-service teachers’ literacy narratives in a South African institution of higher learning. Literacy self-narratives of 57 students were collected and analysed for categories and themes under narrator and sponsor identities through the use of AtlasTi software. The results of the study show the role of historical, cultural and political contexts in shaping literacy identities of student teachers. The results also show huge disparities of literacy experiences among different racial and gender groupings, which highlight social and educational opportunities. Using New literacies and Multiliteracies frameworks, I consider how these literacy challenges may be transformed to facilitate a just and equitable society. Particular implications of the students’ constructions of literacy identities are considered at the end of the article.

scholarly journals What Does It Mean to Be a Young African Woman on a University Campus in Times of Sexual Violence? A New Moment, a New Conversation

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Astrid Treffry-Goatley ◽  
Naydene de Lange ◽  
Relebohile Moletsane ◽  
Nkonzo Mkhize ◽  
Lungile Masinga
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
South African ◽  
African Woman ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Collective Silence ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual

Sexual violence in the higher education is an epidemic of global proportions. Scholars conclude that the individual and collective silence that surrounds such violence enables its perpetration and that violence will only be eradicated when we break this silence. In this paper, we used two participatory visual methods (PVM), collage and storytelling, to explore what sexual violence at university looks like and what it means to woman students. Two groups of student teachers in two South African universities were engaged in collage and storytelling workshops in late 2017 and early 2018, respectively. We thematically analyzed the issues that emerged from the data, drawing on transformative learning theory to explore how our approach might help women students to break the silence around sexual violence and stimulate critical dialogue to address it. Our analysis suggests that these visual tools enabled deep reflections on the meaning and impact of sexual violence, particularly for women. In addition, the participatory process supported introspection about their experiences of sexual violence and their responses to it as bystanders in and around campus. More importantly, they discussed how they, as young women, might break the silence and sustain new conversations about gender and gender equality in institutions and beyond.

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