Reimagining Writing Centres Practices: A South African Perspective
Keywords:
Writing centre, higher education, language, COVID-19Synopsis
In light of the changing face and internationalisation of our student body and their concomitant needs, this book attempts to foreground both the strides made in the field, as well as the important questions and debates confronting writing centre practitioners in the South African higher education arena. The latter demands that we review and reimagine the support we currently provide. Reimaging, however, forces us to wrestle with the challenges that are inherent in work of this nature and to be vocal about the difficult questions that must be asked and answered if we want to provide socially just solutions to our students’ writing challenges. The onset of COVID-19 also imposed on our daily practices and required a hasty re-evaluation of our service provision.
The aim of this volume is to further conversations and research on the notion of the internationalisation of writing centres and the necessity to focus on the key issues of multilingualism, discipline-based writing, social justice, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as specialised consultant/tutor training. Writing centres at South African universities have established themselves as fundamental to the support and development of our students. Thus, the time is ripe for us as writing centre practitioners in the South African context to continue writing our own writing centre narrative, grapple with context-specific issues and questions, and provide context-specific answers and solutions that speak to the lived realities of our students. We hope to achieve this through this book.
Chapters
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Acknowledgements
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Foreword
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Introduction
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Chapter OneReimagining the Role of Writing Centres: From ‘Safe Spaces’ to ‘Brave Spaces’ in Pursuit of Equity and Inclusion
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Chapter TwoBeing and Becoming: Decolonising the Fundani Writing Centre Cosmos
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Chapter ThreeBridging the Multilingual Divide: Enhancing Academic Literacy through Metaphors in South African Writing
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Chapter FourWriting Centre Apologetics: A Case for Writing Centre Efficacy Studies in South African Higher Education
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Chapter FiveAcademic Argument in Development Studies: Resources for Access to Disciplinary Discourses
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Chapter SixA Reflection on Curricular and Non-curricular Writing Support for Postgraduate Students in the School of Public Management and Administration
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Chapter SevenReflections on Risk and Resilience: A Law School Writing Centre’s Learning from the Covid-19 Storm
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Chapter EightDeveloping Resilient Pedagogy: New Questions for Writing Centre Practice at the Wits School of Education Writing Centre
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Chapter NineIn the Forests of the Library: Five Paths Through Letter Writing and Writing Groups Towards Sustainable Writing
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Chapter TenReimagining Writing Centre Consultant Training: Establishing a Conceptual, Reflective and Values-based Approach to Support Transformative Learning
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Chapter Eleven‘This Work has Paid Off in Bountiful Ways’. Development of Writing Tutors as Emerging Academics at a South African University Writing Centre
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Chapter TwelveInvoking the Power of the Mentor
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About the Contributors
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Index
