Restorying for transdisciplinarity: A proposed teaching-learning strategy in a context of Human Rights Education

Janet Jarvis

doi:10.4102/td.v14i2.483

Abstract

Human Rights Education can provide a context for transdisciplinary boundary talk as a possible way to create cohesion among the multiple disciplines embedded within the Social Sciences. This article presents a teaching-learning strategy, Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying, which can be employed to facilitate such boundary talk. Both self-dialogue and self-narrative are used to create open space stories. This provides a platform for restorying as Social Science postgraduate students at a South African higher education institution engage in the space between, across and beyond academic disciplines. Conversation centres on the human right to gender equality as informed by the individual’s substantial and situational identities. The teaching-learning strategy introducing as it does, communities in conversation, communities in dialogue and communities for transformation, can be used to create possible cohesion among both academics and students in the Social Sciences. It also has the potential to be transformative beyond the Social Sciences and indeed, society at large.

Highlights

Human Rights Education research has been criticised for being ‘predominantly school-based and fundamentally descriptive and uncritical’ (Simmonds & Du Preez 2017:17). This conventional approach to Human Rights Education1 is troubled and human rights issues and in particular, the human right to gender equality as it is embedded in the South African Constitution (Bill of Rights) (Republic of South Africa 1996) is employed to facilitate transdisciplinary boundary talk in a higher education institution with a view to possibly being a catalyst for social transformation
The researcher explained to the students that while Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying can be used to engage in transdisciplinary boundary talk focusing on numerous human rights issues, for the purposes of this project, it would be used to explore how the substantial and situational identities of the participating Social Sciences students intersect with the human right to gender equality
Faculties and School’s of Education are professionally bound to provide intervention strategies in their graduate programmes to enable students to engage in transdisciplinary boundary talk which can contribute to social transformation (Hampson & Assenza 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Human Rights Education research has been criticised for being ‘predominantly school-based and fundamentally descriptive and uncritical’ (Simmonds & Du Preez 2017:17). Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying facilitates transdisciplinary boundary talk exploring how the substantial and situational identities of Social Sciences students intersect, in this case, with the human right to gender equality. Gender equality refers to men and women being equal in dignity and in terms of their shared humanity, having identical value or worth and enjoying the same rights and opportunities (Subrahmanian 2005) This teaching-learning strategy provides students with the opportunity to reflectively engage with their own perspectives by way of self-dialogue and to express this through selfnarrative. This transdisciplinary boundary talk was facilitated by Empathetic-ReflectiveDialogical Restorying with the human right to gender equality as the focus of conversation in which 24 Social Sciences postgraduate students, embedded in their particular disciplines participated For this Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying to be effective, a safe space (Du Preez & Simmonds 2011; Roux 2012) was created where substantial and situational identities could intersect. The possibility exists for transdisciplinary restorying to take place, and this has the potential to contribute to social transformation

Methodology

Participants

Result

Conclusion