Establishing a Health Sciences writing centre in the changing landscape of South African Higher Education

Natashia Muna,Ermien Van Pletzen,Taahira Goolam Hoosen,Karis Moxley

doi:10.14426/cristal.v7i1.165

Natashia Muna, Ermien Van Pletzen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v7i1.165

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Abstract

This article describes, analyses, and reflects on the conceptualisation and establishment of a Writing Lab at a South African university’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Drawing on the theoretical framework of New Literacy Studies, the academic literacies approach, and South African writing centre scholarship, the analysis revealed that the conceptualisation of the Writing Lab was primarily informed by the academic socialisation model but has since shifted to encompass a more transformative ideology; opening spaces where students’ own knowledges and literacies practices could contribute to new forms of thinking and representation in the academy. We argue that the shift was facilitated by collaboration with disciplinary lecturers, the faculty’s Primary Health Care ethos, and the Writing Lab’s engagement with a large postgraduate population, leading to the Writing Lab’s participation in new forms of knowledge-building that could contribute to the creation of decolonised spaces and shifts in institutional culture.

Highlights

Our article describes, critically analyses, and reflects on the two-year planning phase and first three years of operation of a new writing centre, located in a Faculty of Health Sciences at a historically white South African university
We find that the Primary Health Care (PHC) emphasis on inclusivity and social justice, its commitment to patient and community-centred practice, and its recognition of structural inequalities align well with the transformative principles of the New Literacy Studies and the academic literacies approach
This article described, analysed, and reflected on the conceptualisation and first three years in the life of the Faculty of Health Sciences Writing Lab, and found it to have been a period of growth, relationship-building, and learning

Summary

Introduction

Critically analyses, and reflects on the two-year planning phase and first three years of operation of a new writing centre, located in a Faculty of Health Sciences at a historically white South African university. Theoretical frameworks were drawn from the New Literacy Studies, which embed literacies in the context of social practices Throughout, the article engages with writing centre scholarship, both in South Africa and further afield. The final section of the theoretical framework links the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach central to the vision of the Faculty of Health Sciences to the transformative ideology of the New Literacy Studies and academic literacies approach

Objectives

Conclusion