scholarly journals Towards a humanising pedagogy: an autoethnographic reflection of my emerging postgraduate research supervision practice

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suriamurthee Maistry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Student Attrition ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Supervision Practice ◽  
Critical Autoethnography ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Writing Competence

Postgraduate supervision in South Africa is a fraught academic space. The ASSAF Report (2010) indicates that supervisor competence is a key contributing factor in student attrition. The coupling of autonomous student and competent supervisor is far from being the usual pattern in South African higher education. Furthermore, postgraduate supervision workshops and courses seldom focus on how particular practices are likely to result in social exclusion, giving far more attention to technical aspects of supervision. This paper considers instead the unwitting ‘othering’ that has occurred in my history as a supervisor and gives an account of ideas and principles that have guided me in seeking to improve my own practice. I focus in particular on those elements or aspects of my practice that are likely to (or do) alienate and marginalise my postgraduate students as I engage with supervising their work. My paper records an ongoing exercise in self-reflexion, shaped methodologically by the tenets of critical autoethnography, as a means to examine potentially subjugating effects that I can identify in my practice as supervisor with a diversity of postgraduate students. In this paper I reflect on two important aspects of supervision: verbal critique and written critique. I probe these two aspects with a view to altering my own trajectory of development in the direction of a more productive level of self-awareness in my practice. I argue that a sustained, careful and considered approach to student supervision that understands and conceptualises writing as a process (rather than a product) has enormous potential for facilitating and developing student academic writing competence. A heightened sensitivity to the debilitating and demeaning effects of careless feedback commentary and embracing research supervision as humanising pedagogy have significant implications for helping students to negotiate the liminal space in which they must master the threshold competences needed for success in advanced higher education research.

scholarly journals Doctoral Supervision Practice: What’s the Problem and How Can We Help Academics?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Carter ◽  
Barbara Kensington-Miller ◽  
Matthew Courtney
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Time Constraints ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Supervision Practice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Doctoral Supervision ◽  
Discipline Differences

Academics are feeling squeezed by increasing research supervision demands within tightening time constraints. In a changing higher education environment, demands on doctoral supervisors need to be better understood in order to provide them with the right support at supervision pressure points. As academic developers, our aim was to better understand supervision challenges across multiple disciplines. A two stage study firstly sought differences in research and supervision practice between faculties by means of an anonymised digital questionnaire [n226]. Twenty-two questions explored supervisors’ experiences of project management, communication and writing. Secondly, we interviewed 11 experienced supervisors from disciplines other than our own (education), focusing on supervision’s discipline-specific challenges and constraints. We expected to find discipline-differences between science and humanities. However, analysis showed that supervision challenges are the same across disciplines. We report on what these entail and argue that, as graduate numbers rise in an internationalised academy, supervision support can and should be developed centrally in order to address the growing pressures on faculty.

Breaking white silences in South African-Dutch collaboration in higher education

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Kamsteeg ◽  
Harry Wels
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
South African Society ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
South African Higher Education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show the complex positionality and the complexity that comes with the study of whiteness in South African higher education by Dutch, white academics. This complexity stems from the long-standing relationship between Dutch universities, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA) in particular, with their South African counterparts, which predominantly supported apartheid with reference to a shared religious (Protestant) background. Design/methodology/approach The paper rests upon a literature review of the development of South African higher education, and an assessment of the prominent role played by the Dutch Vrije Universiteit in support of the all-white, Afrikaans Potchefstroom University (presently North-West University). The authors, who are both involved in the institutional cooperation between Vrije Universiteit and South African universities, reflect on the complexity of this relationship by providing auto-ethnographic evidence from their own (religious) biography. Findings The paper reflects the ambiguous historical as well as contemporary contexts and ties that bind Vrije Universiteit to South African universities, especially formerly Afrikaans-speaking ones. The ambiguity is about the comfort of sharing an identity with formerly Afrikaans-speaking universities, on the one hand, and the discomfort of historical and political complicities in a (still) segregated South African society on the other hand. Originality/value This auto-ethnographic paper breathes an atmosphere of a “coming out” that is not very common in academic writing. It is a reflection and testimony of a lifelong immersion in VUA-South African academic research relations in which historical, institutional, and personal contexts intermingle and lead to a unique positionality leading to “breaking silences” around these complex relations.

scholarly journals Demystifying student plagiarism in academic writing: Towards an ‘educational’ solution

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hloniphani Ndebele ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Integrity ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Academic Standards ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
Student Plagiarism ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education

Plagiarism has become a recurrent challenge in higher education institutions, threatening the integrity of universities and their academic standards. The exacerbation of this issue can be largely linked to the escalating presence of online resources, which are easily accessible to knowledge and information communities worldwide. Many universities have thus instituted reactive measures that focus on detecting and policing plagiarism with little consideration of proactive and educational measures that can address the primary reasons for plagiarism and foster a community of academic integrity on their campuses. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to interrogate the treatment of plagiarism in universities, and provide recommendations for better educational approaches to address this issue in proactive ways that also acknowledge the complex, contextual background of the South African higher education landscape. Understanding the primary reasons students plagiarise is critical in finding educational rather than punitive solutions to address the issue.

The Significance of Teaching Academic Writing as a Discipline-Specific Skill

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
El-Sadig Y. Ezza ◽  
Altayeb Alballa Ageeb ◽  
Rayan O. Sirry ◽  
Emtithal Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Hard Science ◽  
Specific Skill ◽  
Disciplinary Affiliation ◽  
Study Participants

The purpose of the present study was to popularize the conscious initiation of novice scholars and postgraduate students into the writing conventions of their disciplines. In so doing, the study proposes the integration of writing courses into the disciplinary syllabus so that the students study writing developmentally throughout their stay in the faculty. A questionnaire, and an interview, were used to collect data from the study participants, who were lecturers and teaching assistants in different Sudanese higher education institutions. Data analysis revealed that the participants highly value the proposal to teach academic writing as a discipline-specific skill. It also showed significant differences in the participants' perceptions of explicit instruction of academic writing based on their disciplinary affiliation in favour of hard science specialists. However, the participants' research profiles did not show statistically different perceptions.

scholarly journals Plagiarism and attribution: an academic literacies approach?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Eva Magyar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Education Courses

In many Higher Education courses in the UK the ability to write extended academic prose is central to assessment and therefore to student success. One aspect of academic writing which students struggle with is incorporating the work and ideas of others, using appropriate attribution conventions. This can lead them to fall foul of  institutions’ plagiarism policies. Advice on plagiarism often consists of discussions around what is or is not plagiaristic behaviour while advice on attribution has tended to focus on referencing. This paper explores what an academic literacies approach to plagiarism might look like. It discusses and illustrates how an academic literacies approach was used in the design, analysis and application of a small-scale ethnographic research which set out to explore international postgraduate students' understandings of and questions about plagiarism across the disciplines in one UK university. The intention of the research was to use the findings in developing more culturally and context sensitive explanations of our attribution practices.    

Internationalization of the Curriculum for Italian and International Postgraduate Students

2016 ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
Ourania Katsara
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Teaching Activities

Internationalization of the curriculum (IoC) has been widely discussed in the literature but there is little research regarding the link between internationalization and language policies in higher education institutions. This chapter offers a comprehensive literature review indicating there is a gap in systematic research on designing effective curricula which could be used to justify the need for IoC. In particular, the author discusses a preliminary questionnaire survey analysing students' opinions on the usefulness of a short English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course within the context of Erasmus teaching in University of Basilicata, Italy. The main findings of the investigation indicated that Italian and International postgraduate students showed specific preferences towards academic writing skills that need to be taught in short seminars giving prominence to guided teaching activities. Finally, the author offers some implications emphasising the importance of a careful examination of the process of internationalization and its relationship to the implementation of language policies within the departmental curriculum.

A CUSTOMISED FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE PODCAST INTEGRATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Shane Pachagadu ◽  
Liezel Nel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Effective Integration

Numerous studies have explored the potential of podcast integration in teaching and learning environments. This paper first presents and organises perspectives from literature in a conceptual framework for the effective integration of podcasting in higher education. An empirical study is then discussed in which the guidelines presented in the framework were evaluated for applicability in a selected course at a South African University of Technology. Since the results of the study revealed a number of aspects not accounted for in the conceptual framework, the framework was customised to make it more applicable for the particular higher education environment. The customised framework identifies four principles and a series of related guidelines for the effective integration of podcasts in a South African higher education teaching and learning environment. This framework can become a valuable resource for effective podcast integration in similar environments.

Institutional Plagiarism Policy (Georgian higher education institutions’ case)

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natela DOGHONADZE ◽  
Ekaterine PIPIA ◽  
Nikoloz PARJANADZE
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Survey Questionnaire ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Copyright Violation ◽  
University Policies

The article deals with various aspects of plagiarism: definition (discriminating it from cheating and copyright violation), types (intended / unintended), involved people, causes, prevention, detection and punishment of plagiarism. A survey (questionnaire containing 42 items to be assessed in a 5-point Likert scale and one open- ended item) was conducted in Georgia. The questionnaire developed based on the literature review was uploaded on social media in three variants (to analyze the results separately and compare them): for students, for researchers and for assessors. The obtained results revealed that the opinions of the three groups of respondents differed to a certain degree, but were quite similar, eventually. The survey disclosed the existing problems, such as: lack of academic writing (in the native and especially foreign language) and research skills, lack of training in avoiding plagiarism, insufficiently clear university policies in the area, the emphasis on punishment instead of prevention, etc. Based on the obtained results recommendations for universities are given concerning plagiarism policies. 

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