Stellenbosch University Language Centre

Tag: writing centres

Writing centres as decolonising spaces

On 4 October, the head of the SU Writing Lab, Rose Richards, attended an online colloquium about decolonisation in South African writing centres. She shares her thoughts about the colloquium with us.

 

As a writing centre practitioner, I am very glad to see that other writing centre practitioners across the country share my views about the potential of writing centres to change the educational landscape.

The colloquium I attended was hosted by Durban University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Mangosuthu University of Technology. It was the first writing centre event hosted by universities of technology and I was excited to see what the presenters would discuss. The topic promised to elicit robust discussion and I was not disappointed.

Decolonisation is a provocative topic for many and because of this, people don’t explore what it really means. It’s not an ‘either … or’ proposition where European values and traditions are discarded in favour of African ones. It is a ‘both … and’ proposition, rooted in social justice and democratisation. If you want to see good breakdowns of the meaning and potentials of decolonisation, consider reading this paper by Prof Gift Mheta, one of the speakers, and this one by Savo Heleta (see full details at the end of this piece).

Language, flattened hierarchies and ubuntu were the themes that infused all of the talks. Studying in a country that has multiple languages is one issue that many South African students face. Because of this, writing centre practitioners tend to use code-switching and even shuttle between languages in consultation with students. This is one way of giving back some power to the students and creating space in which they can express themselves.

The peer tutoring approach and the writing centre ethos of being welcoming and nonjudgemental goes a long way to create a more democratic space in which students can rehearse academic identities and make mistakes without censure. We don’t give students their voice – they already have voices, but we help them to develop their voices and work out ways of being heard.

These and other writing centre approaches are part of what in South Africa is known as ubuntu. Baken Lefa, a science education researcher, describes ubuntu as the soul force that “expresses compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building and maintaining a community with justice and mutual caring”. For me, that force is strong in writing centres.

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Who were the speakers?

[us_cta title=”” btn_label=””]Prof Mheta (Durban University of Technology) spoke on the topic ‘Towards decolonised writing centre spaces: The reflections-for-action of a DUT Writing Centre practitioner’. Prof Mheta heads the DUT writing centre. His research interests are broad, with a focus on corpus development and maintenance, computational lexicography and language technology applications for the development of African languages. [/us_cta][/us_hwrapper]
[us_cta title=”” btn_label=””]Ms Puleng Sefalane-Nkohla (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) addressed the topic of ‘Being and becoming: Decolonising the writing centre space. How do we decolonise students’ academic support at CPUT?’ Ms Sefalane-Nkohla is acting head of department of the Student Learning Unit at CPUT’s Fundani Centre for Higher Education and Development. She has worked in writing centres for 22 years and has a 20-year association with the SU Writing Lab. She specialises in academic literacies, and language and technology.[/us_cta]
[us_cta title=”” btn_label=””]The final speaker, Mr Ntuthuko Mhlongo (Mangosuthu University of Technology), discussed ‘Location and Power: Appraising the opportunities and challenges for writing centres as spaces for transformation and decolonisation in the South African university context’. Mr Mhlongo started his writing centre journey at DUT. He is working on his PhD, which is about the challenges rural youth face in South Africa. His research interest lies in developing youth for the changing global environment and his interest in writing centres is about one way of achieving that.[/us_cta]

– by Rose Richards

Articles mentioned

Heleta, Savo. 2016. Decolonisation: academics must change what they teach, and how. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/decolonisation-academics-must-change-what-they-teach-and-how-68080

Lefa, Baken. 2015. The African Philosophy of Ubuntu in South African Education. Studies in Philosophy and Education 1(1):15.

Mheta, Gift, Lungu, Bwalya Nyangu & Govender, Thaiurie. 2018. Decolonisation of the curriculum: A case study of the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 38(4), 1-7. https://dx.doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38n4a1635

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Writing lab honours retired co-founder

Sharifa Daniels, one of the founding staff members of the Writing Lab of the Language Centre, retired in 2018, after nearly 17 years of service to the writers on campus. We decided to honour her with a special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus (SPiL Plus), an accredited open-access journal. The issue is called ‘Space, place, and power in South African writing centres’, since space, place and power are concerns close to Sharifa’s heart, as we explain in our introduction to the issue.

Sharifa often discussed these issues with us when we considered the role of the Writing Lab on campus. Coming from a background that was part of the anti-apartheid struggle, Sharifa saw that it was one thing to admit ‘non-traditional’ students, but quite another matter to help the students to feel part of campus. Before working at the Writing Lab, Sharifa had a long career in secondary education at disadvantaged schools. Here and elsewhere, she witnessed first-hand what happened to people’s lives and educations under apartheid. She also won a scholarship to the University of Iowa where she became interested in writing centres and their social justice possibilities. These are the ideas she brought home and later was able to use at Stellenbosch.

The special issue is the first special issue in the world about South African writing centres. The themes of space, place and power have long been significant in international writing centre work, but have a particular significance in South Africa where our political past and present revolves around how space and place allow power relationships to play out. Writing centres exist to help student writers develop their academic writing identities, but they do this within institutional structures that affect how and why they work.

The special issue has 12 articles and represents seven South African writing centres. It also has seven research notes, written by former Stellenbosch writing consultants whom Sharifa trained. The volume ends with a comic by a former writing consultant who is an artist. She describes the Writing Lab as a community of learning, where everyone was welcome. If you would like to know more about this friendly space, please e-mail or phone Anne-Mari Lackay at 021 808 2928.

The special issue was published as Volume 57(2019) of the accredited journal Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus (SPiL Plus).

Writing Lab comic by Neeske Alexander, an artist and former writing consultant.

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