Browsing by Author "Farmer, Jean"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemCollaborative research in contexts of inequality : the role of social reflexivity(Springer Verlag, 2017) Brenda, Leibowitz; Bozalek, Vivienne; Farmer, Jean; Garraway, James; Herman, Nicoline; Jawitz, Jeff; McMillan, Wendy; Mistri, Gita; Ndebele, Clever; Nkonki, Vuyisile; Quinn, Lynn; Van Schalkwyk, Susan; Vorster, Jo-Anne; Winberg, ChrisThis article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by 14 members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, ie. structural and cultural, and agential conditions influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by 14 of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants’ home institutions, are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.
- ItemTransitions and translations from Afrikaans to English in schools of the Helderberg area(Stellenbosch University, Department of General Linguistics, 2010) Farmer, Jean; Anthonissen, ChristineThis paper reports on the findings of a project that profiled the linguistic resources of learners with an Afrikaans-English bilingual background in order to determine features of a perceived process of language shift. The language repertoire and decisions on school enrollment of learners from Afrikaans homes that are registered in the English first language classes were investigated in a historically white, Afrikaans-only High School where recently English medium classes were introduced. During the past couple of years the language of learning and teaching in this school has been adjusted to fit the educational requirements of learners from linguistically and racially diverse backgrounds. Considering also the link between language and ethnicity, the linguistic preferences and patterns of language choice and language use of a selected group of 15- to 18-year-old learners were traced. Reported uses of English and Afrikaans in domains beyond the school, notably at home with relatives, are taken as indicative of linguistic identities. The patterns and preferences of learners from "coloured" communities indicate an extensive process of marginalisation of Afrikaans in families that formerly had a decidedly Afrikaans identity.