Objects as Entry Points for Self-Study Research: Toward Social Cohesion in South African Higher Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Objects and Arts-Based Inquiry in Self-Study

Abstract

This paper focuses on objects as entry points for self-study research, in the interest of promoting social cohesion within South African public higher education. Data sources comprise a set of object-inspired self-study research statements composed by a heterogeneous group of higher education teachers. These statements were written in response to prompts for using objects as tools for self-study research. We carried out a thematic analysis of the self-study statements, in which we grouped them into three distinctive, yet interrelated conversations. The three conversations offer understandings of how collaborative inquiry evoked by everyday objects can enrich self-study research across wide-ranging contexts and multiple knowledge fields.

Authors

• Guruvsagie (Daisy) Pillay, University of KwaZulu - Natal

• Theresa Chisanga, Walter Sisulu University

• Anita Hiralaal, Durban University of Technology

• Lungile Rejoice Masinga, University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Inbanathan Naicker, University of KwaZulu-Natal