Exploring the Dreams, Possibilities, and Necessity of Self-Study Research in South African Public Universities

• In Event: Exploring Issues of Diversity and Social Justice Through Self-Study

Abstract

In South African public higher education, the miseducative legacies of the apartheid and colonial past weigh heavily. This paper offers our learning as leaders of a community of university educators that seeks to contribute towards repairing the damages of South Africa’s divided and discriminatory past by means of self-study research. Through a collaborative arts-informed self-study research process, we have heard and seen multiple perspectives of community participants and expressed our own learning in dialogue with theirs, finding resonances and re-encountering ourselves. Longstanding involvement in a transdisciplinary, trans-institutional self-study community has enabled us to see and perform in imaginative and responsive ways as we explore dreams and possibilities for educational and research practice in public universities.

Authors

• Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Theresa Chisanga, Walter Sisulu University

• Thenjiwe Sindiswa Meyiwa, Durban University of Technology

• Delysia Timm, Durban University of Technology