Beyond prose: Review of 'Poetic Inquiry for the Humanities and Social Sciences: Voices from the South and the North'
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480817 , vital:78479 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a11
- Description: The 54 authors of this book reflect on the use of poetic inquiry at a time when feminist, decolonial, and post-humanist researchers are raising concerns about the ways in which qualitative data collection and dissemination can silence some and reduce the experiences of others by adhering to the often-arbitrary restrictions of academic texts. Poetic inquiry, the authors of this book argue, should be welcoming, invite new perspectives, and make possible alternative interpretations of the social world. Sadly, as Pithouse-Morgan indicates, poetry is often associated with negative rather than positive educational experiences (p.201). For many of us, poetry is about mysterious meanings that our schoolteachers berated us for being too dense to access. While my own interest in poetic inquiry is in how we can use it to create and disseminate research, many authors in this book, such as Hough, Peté and Ndlovu, suggest that poetry can also be used “to teach complex topics from different points of view, make people more self-aware, encourage dialogue and empathy, grow social awareness, and raise ethical questions” (p.169). Badenhorst and McLeod point out that this can be challenging when working in neoliberal universities that turn us into human capital in service of competition and efficiency over social justice and equity. They suggest that poetry can help us to shift to a world “of senses and feeling [that] can provide a way to resist the tendrils of neoliberalism” (p.126).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2025
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480817 , vital:78479 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v121-n3-a11
- Description: The 54 authors of this book reflect on the use of poetic inquiry at a time when feminist, decolonial, and post-humanist researchers are raising concerns about the ways in which qualitative data collection and dissemination can silence some and reduce the experiences of others by adhering to the often-arbitrary restrictions of academic texts. Poetic inquiry, the authors of this book argue, should be welcoming, invite new perspectives, and make possible alternative interpretations of the social world. Sadly, as Pithouse-Morgan indicates, poetry is often associated with negative rather than positive educational experiences (p.201). For many of us, poetry is about mysterious meanings that our schoolteachers berated us for being too dense to access. While my own interest in poetic inquiry is in how we can use it to create and disseminate research, many authors in this book, such as Hough, Peté and Ndlovu, suggest that poetry can also be used “to teach complex topics from different points of view, make people more self-aware, encourage dialogue and empathy, grow social awareness, and raise ethical questions” (p.169). Badenhorst and McLeod point out that this can be challenging when working in neoliberal universities that turn us into human capital in service of competition and efficiency over social justice and equity. They suggest that poetry can help us to shift to a world “of senses and feeling [that] can provide a way to resist the tendrils of neoliberalism” (p.126).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025
Sustainability science engagement and engaged sustainability science
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Limson, Janice L, Le Grange, Lesley
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Limson, Janice L , Le Grange, Lesley
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480629 , vital:78461 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v120-n9-a1
- Description: The South African Science, Technology and Innovation Decadal Plan (2022-2032) shows a strong commitment to science engagement, with most references referring to the communication of science. This plan builds on the 2015 Department of Science and Innovation (DSI)'s Engaged Science Strategy, which notes that engaged science approaches are as yet underdeveloped in South Africa. The Decadal Plan explicitly relates science engagement to the need for more inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to science, with mention of greater inclusion of stakeholders in defining the needs and objectives for research, but without clear insight into how this is to be done or supported. More in-depth approaches and understanding may be needed to adequately bridge the sciencesociety gap, including in and through the educational sphere.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Limson, Janice L , Le Grange, Lesley
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480629 , vital:78461 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v120-n9-a1
- Description: The South African Science, Technology and Innovation Decadal Plan (2022-2032) shows a strong commitment to science engagement, with most references referring to the communication of science. This plan builds on the 2015 Department of Science and Innovation (DSI)'s Engaged Science Strategy, which notes that engaged science approaches are as yet underdeveloped in South Africa. The Decadal Plan explicitly relates science engagement to the need for more inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to science, with mention of greater inclusion of stakeholders in defining the needs and objectives for research, but without clear insight into how this is to be done or supported. More in-depth approaches and understanding may be needed to adequately bridge the sciencesociety gap, including in and through the educational sphere.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024
The scientific community accept marram grass to AUTHORS: be non-invasive in dune stabilisation in the Cape
- Lubke, Roy, Avis, Ted, Higgins, Ursula, Knevel, Irma, Van Eeden, Deon
- Authors: Lubke, Roy , Avis, Ted , Higgins, Ursula , Knevel, Irma , Van Eeden, Deon
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480662 , vital:78464 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v119-n1-a5
- Description: For more than three decades, botanists and dune ecologists in the Department of Botany at Rhodes University have spent over 20 000 people-hours researching marram grass. Because of the invasive nature of the plant in Australasia and North America, the plant was long thought to be invasive in the Cape. It has been concluded that the species is non-invasive so long as the variety present in the Cape is used and no new material is introduced. Despite this evidence, the authorities list marram grass as a Category 2 species of weed which may only be grown under permitted conditions in demarcated areas. In order to obtain a permit to use the grass in a large stabilisation project at Hout Bay, a detailed study was reinitiated on the distribution of marram grass 20 years after the original studies on its distribution had been completed. These results confirmed results of the previous studies that the grass was non-invasive. These findings were ratified in a peer-reviewed research paper published recently in a special issue on 'Dynamics and Stability of Plant Communities in Coastal Sand Dunes' of the open access journal Plants (Lubke; Plants 2022;11(17), Art. #2260). Finally, marram grass, as it occurs on our Cape dunes, may be accepted as a useful pioneer and dune stabiliser. No indigenous species are capable of performing the same process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
- Authors: Lubke, Roy , Avis, Ted , Higgins, Ursula , Knevel, Irma , Van Eeden, Deon
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480662 , vital:78464 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-sajsci-v119-n1-a5
- Description: For more than three decades, botanists and dune ecologists in the Department of Botany at Rhodes University have spent over 20 000 people-hours researching marram grass. Because of the invasive nature of the plant in Australasia and North America, the plant was long thought to be invasive in the Cape. It has been concluded that the species is non-invasive so long as the variety present in the Cape is used and no new material is introduced. Despite this evidence, the authorities list marram grass as a Category 2 species of weed which may only be grown under permitted conditions in demarcated areas. In order to obtain a permit to use the grass in a large stabilisation project at Hout Bay, a detailed study was reinitiated on the distribution of marram grass 20 years after the original studies on its distribution had been completed. These results confirmed results of the previous studies that the grass was non-invasive. These findings were ratified in a peer-reviewed research paper published recently in a special issue on 'Dynamics and Stability of Plant Communities in Coastal Sand Dunes' of the open access journal Plants (Lubke; Plants 2022;11(17), Art. #2260). Finally, marram grass, as it occurs on our Cape dunes, may be accepted as a useful pioneer and dune stabiliser. No indigenous species are capable of performing the same process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023
Using the curriculum to enhance teaching and learning
- Authors: Boughey, Chrissie
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480762 , vital:78474 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-10e89fb92b
- Description: The publication of cohort studies tracking students’ performance has given rise to concerns about the efficiency of the South African higher education system at a number of levels. These studies, which began with Scott et al.’s1 pioneering work in 2007 and which have continued with the CHE’s2 annual Vital Stats series, show that, regardless of the university at which they are enrolled, the subject area or the type of qualification for which they are registered, black South Africans fare less well than their white peers. At institutional levels, alarm at such observations is seen in efforts to manage success, throughput and drop-out rates through the appointment of key individuals such as deans and deputy vice chancellors responsible for teaching and learning. At a national level, concern about the performance of the system overall has led to the introduction of, first, Teaching Development Grants and, now, University Capacity Development Grants. Both of these mechanisms provide earmarked funding aimed at enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Boughey, Chrissie
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480762 , vital:78474 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-10e89fb92b
- Description: The publication of cohort studies tracking students’ performance has given rise to concerns about the efficiency of the South African higher education system at a number of levels. These studies, which began with Scott et al.’s1 pioneering work in 2007 and which have continued with the CHE’s2 annual Vital Stats series, show that, regardless of the university at which they are enrolled, the subject area or the type of qualification for which they are registered, black South Africans fare less well than their white peers. At institutional levels, alarm at such observations is seen in efforts to manage success, throughput and drop-out rates through the appointment of key individuals such as deans and deputy vice chancellors responsible for teaching and learning. At a national level, concern about the performance of the system overall has led to the introduction of, first, Teaching Development Grants and, now, University Capacity Development Grants. Both of these mechanisms provide earmarked funding aimed at enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Valuing the humanities: What the reports don't say
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480773 , vital:78475 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC130647
- Description: Two recent reports defending the social value of the humanities in South Africa and arguing for their renovation are premised on the notion of a crisis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480773 , vital:78475 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC130647
- Description: Two recent reports defending the social value of the humanities in South Africa and arguing for their renovation are premised on the notion of a crisis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
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