Download - THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
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THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD ..
Cilla Nel
February 2008
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INTRODUCTION ..
• A recent study has revealed that more than half the student population in South African HEIs are over the age of 23 (CEPD, 2005)
• significant number being postgraduate students wanting to upgrade their qualifications (Duke & Jones, 2005:15)
BUT
• There seems to be “no place for them to flourish”
(Osman & Castle, 2006: 516)
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THE CONTEXT ..
• The UJ Faculty of Education began a writing support centre in 2002 with the purpose of supporting postgraduates (Education Master’s and Doctoral students) through the research process.
• Postgraduate writing support now operates under the umbrella of the Centre for Education Practice Research.
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THE GOALS ..
• To support postgraduates through the writing process
BUT, also
• To make better writers, not just better writing (Stephen North, 1984)
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THE PHILOSOPHY
Writing is a SOCIAL PROCESS of discovery and can be facilitated by tutoring which is
• contextual• individualized • collaborative• interpersonal (Murphy & Sherwood, 2003)
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Thrown into the deep end ..
Bruffee (1987) has stated that …
• tutors are not just selected and thrown into the practice of tutoring with little or no guidance …
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This research revealed that ..
• A peer tutor
through conversation, creates and develops
a community where students
can collaborate and co-construct
knowledge
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Recommendations
The development of
• an equilateral triangle between peer tutors, students and supervisors
• a postgraduate programme
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The postgraduate programme
• A Methodology course run by supervisors
• A Methodology CD with references
• Postgraduate writing support programme which focused on many aspects of the writing and research process run by the writing centre
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I needed to get
WRITE TO THE CENTRE
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THE PILOT STUDY
• A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE – to develop a theoretical framework a lens through which to view my practice
• A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH – a quest for understanding the postgraduate experience
• PARTICIPANTS - Education postgraduate students 14 postgraduates men and women 8 English 1st language speakers others Afrikaans and African 1st language speakers
• DATA COLLECTION TOOLS - Individual conversations and the completion of a sentence
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Postgraduate study is like..
• A very long journey• A f**** lonely journey• An incredible journey • A long turbulent flight• Going to the gym• Rowing against a rapidly flowing river• Climbing a mountain • A journey of self discovery• An unfolding of self• An awakening of part of me that I didn’t know existed• A metamorphosis
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My interpretation ..
• Unpacking and understanding these similes led me to consider that the students needed more assistance and support as they undertook their research journey.
• This included emotional and psychological support in addition to writing support.
• It was part of the role of the writing centre to create a
“safe house” (Papay, 2002) and
“a rehearsal space” (Van Rensburg, 2004)
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The first lesson …..
• A writing centre should not only be seen as a
physical space
• but should be conceived of primarily as a
‘pedagogical concept’
(Clark, online)
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Develop a network …
• with the writing centre being the pivot
• Students are introduced to each other and encouraged to talk and work together
• Conversation and collaboration can occur in any context
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The second lesson ..
There needs to be a shift of power.Postgraduate students need :• to become empowered• to take control over their own studies• to be encouraged to take on the roles of teaching teaching
and tutoring each other and tutoring each other and thus
• transform change from below rather than hierarchically from above (Nichols, 1998:92).
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Working on own and with peers
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At postgraduate level
• We need to build a community of practice (Wenger,1999)
• encourage individual and group work sessions, workshops, buzz sessions, a multitude of possible interventions …..
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During the course of the year we built up a postgraduate community …
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Workshops …
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Within our community, we ..
CONVERSE
COMMUNICATE COLLABORATE
CRITICIZE CONSTRUCT
CREATE COMPOSE
sometimes CRY
With a little TLC and
coffee and cookies
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The third lesson ..
is understanding that this postgraduate community is vital
to allow students to flourish so that postgraduate study is seen as
“a dynamic process and a journey of growth and empowerment”
(Bailey, 2001:7 cited in Lessing & Lessing, 2004:74)
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And so, the way forward …
• Build, develop and maintain networks
• Continue to develop this community of practice
and
• Develop an online writing centre which hopefully will encourage time-pressed students as well as geographically distanced students to enter the community
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That’s all folks!
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Bibliography
• Bailey, 2001:7 cited in Lessing & Lessing, 2004:74• Bruffee, K.A. (1987). The Art of Collaborative Learning: Making the Most of
Knowledgeable Peers. in Change. 19: 42-47.• Clark, I. The writing manual from Montreat College
http//www.writingcentres.org/ptlinks.htm accessed 12/02/2005• CEPD (2005) Equity access and success in higher education for adult
learners and workers. Research report commissioned by the Council on Higher Education. Johannesburg: Centre for Education Policy Development.
• Duke C. and Jones, B. (2005). South African universities, new develop- ments and the adult population. In International comparators of widening participation to and through higher education – policy and practice.
• Lessing, N. and Lessing, A.C. The Supervision of Research for Dissertations and Theses In Acta Commercii (2004) Volume 4
• Murphy, C. and Sherwood, S. (2003). The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing tutors, 2nd Edition. New York: St. Martin’s.
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• Nichols, P. A Snowball in Africa with a Chance of Flourishing : Writing Centres as Shifters of Power in a South African University In Current Writing (1998) 10 (2) pp.
• North, S. (1984) The Idea of a Writing Center. In College English 46 pp. 433-46
• Osman, R and Castle, J. (2006) Making space for adult learners in higher education in the South African Journal for Higher Education. (4) p. 515-527.
• Papay, T.W. (2002) Collaborating with a Difference: How a South African Writing Center brings Comfort to the Contact Zone in The Writing Center Journal. 23 (1) Winter 2002
• Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of Practice, Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press