‘From rhetoric to practice: a critique of immigration policy in Germany through the lens of Turkish-Muslim women’s experiences of migration’

The largest group of migrants in Germany is the Turkish people, many of whom have low skills levels, are Muslim, and are slow to integrate themselves into their host communities. German immigration policy has been significantly revised since the early 1990s, and a new Immigration Act came into force in 2005, containing more inclusive stances on citizenship and integration of migrants. There is a strong rhetoric of acceptance and open doors, within certain parameters, but the gap between the rhetoric and practice is still wide enough to allow many migrants, particularly women, to fall through it. Turkish-Muslim women bear the brunt of the difficulties faced once they have arrived in Germany, and many of them are subject to domestic abuse, joblessness and poverty because of their invisibility to the German state, which is the case largely because German immigration policy does not fully realise a role and place for women migrants. The policy also does not sufficiently account for ethnic and cultural identification, or limitations faced by migrants in that while it speaks to integration, it does not fully enable this process to take place effectively. Even though it has made many advances in recent years towards a more open and inclusive immigration policy, Germany is still a ‘reluctant’ country of immigration, and this reluctance stops it from making any real strides towards integrating migrants fully into German society at large. The German government needs to take a much firmer stance on the roles of migrant women in its society, and the nature of the ethnic and religious identities of Muslim immigrants, in order to both create and implement immigration policy that truly allows immigrants to become full and contributing members to German social and economic life, and to bring it in line with the European Union’s common directives on immigration.International Bibliography of Social Science

Knowledge and knowers in teaching and learning: an enhanced approach to curriculum alignment

John Biggs’ well-known curriculum design approach, constructive alignment, is widely used inhigher education in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. Developed with onedominant account of learning through curriculum, this approach has a gap in terms of accountingfor other kinds of knowledge building, and associated knower development. This paper proposes acomplementary approach that accounts for different kinds of knowledge and knower building.Using Legitimation Code Theory’s concept of Specialisation, the paper argues that accounting forwhat makes a discipline ‘special’ in terms of its basis for legitimate achievement can enablecurriculum writers to align curricula more effectively with that basis in different disciplines. Usinga case study approach, this paper shows how this tool can provide lecturers and academicdevelopment practitioners with a useful mode of analyzing curriculum alignment to more ablyaccount for differential development of disciplinary knowledges and knowers

Writing in the academy: collaborative writing development with students and lecturers at the UWC Writing Centre

Writing and reading critically are core academic practices that many South African tertiary students struggle with throughout undergraduate study. This is partly due to a lack of competency in English as a first language, and partly due to a lack of preparation at primary and secondary school level. Critical reading and writing practices need to be developed simultaneously, and contextually. The Writing Centre at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is currently exploring ways to make itself a more relevant and focused part of the University’s teaching and learning interventions and strategies, and to make it more responsive to the multiple reading, writing and language needs of students. Influenced theoretically and practically by New Literacy Studies and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) approaches, the Writing Centre is working to position itself as part of a teaching and learning environment that develops and supports both student writers and disciplinary lecturers. We aim to do this by foregrounding, theorising, researching and building a culture of writing intensive teaching that imagines and uses writing as a tool for learning, thinking and evaluation, as well as for assessment. In order to become a significant part of teaching and learning in higher education more generally, Writing Centres will need to work increasingly with lecturers to address the writing and reading needs of students in a supportive, critical and collaborative space that better serves the needs of both parties

Making inter-disciplinary spaces for talk about and change in student writing and literacy development

This paper discusses the role of a writing centre in creating spaces for talk about and change in disciplinary writing pedagogy. It asks how collaborative partnerships between disciplinary academics and Writing Centre practitioners might be established and nurtured sustainably. Drawing on insights from two collaborations with academics in political studies and law, the article asserts that writing centre practitioners play a valuable role in talking about and changing the way academic writing and literacy is taught in the disciplines. This is shown by working consistently with the understanding that critical reading, thinking and writing are literacy acts rather than generic skills and must therefore be learned and practiced in the disciplines. By supporting disciplinary academics in re-examining course outcomes, materials and assessments, and moving away from a ‘skills approach’ to writing, it is shown that building discipline-specific spaces for writing and literacy development is possible through these collaborative partnerships.Web of Scienc

Exploring the nature of disciplinary teaching and learning using Legitimation Code Theory Semantics

Teaching and learning is a growing field of research and practice globally, and increasing investments are being made in developing academics as teachers. An inability to adequately account for disciplinary knowledge can lead to academic development inputs that are unable to fully address the needs of students, educators, or disciplines themselves. Semantics, from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), provides insight not just into the hows of pedagogy, but also the whats and whys, particularly the ways in which knowledge needs to be connected up in meaning-making. This paper argues for the use of semantic profiles to open up conversations with educators about teaching, learning, and the nature of knowledge in their disciplines. It raises important questions about the practical uses of LCT tools in higher education, and shares initial ideas, informed by lecturer feedback in one case study, of how these tools can be used in academic staff development

Understanding Higher Education: Alternative Perspectives (2021) by Chrissie Boughey and Sioux McKenna

This is a review of: Boughey, Chrissie and McKenna, Sioux. 2021. Understanding higher education. Alternative perspectives. African Minds. ISBN: 9781928502210, 173pp

Maton, K. Knowledge and knowers. Towards a realist sociology of education. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415-47999-8

Book Revie

Book review: Going to University. The influence of higher education on the lives of young South Africans.

Review of:  Going to University. The Influence of Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans by Jennifer M. Case, Delia Marshall, Sioux McKenna and Disaapele Mogashana. Bloemfontein: African Minds, 2018

Teaching academic reading as a disciplinary knowledge practice in higher education

Many university lecturers expect students to be able to read disciplinary texts at the appropriate levels, and reflect critically and multidimensionally on those texts, yet are often frustrated by many students’ lack of ability to do so satisfactorily. While there is much research to suggest that academic writing needs to be taught within the disciplines as a practice linked to disciplinary knowledge, there is less research to make the same claims about academic reading, which is often referred to, rather, as a ‘skill’. This article argues for an overt focus on critical academic reading as part of disciplinary teaching and learning, and draws on a case study and lecturers' responses to questions on critical reading to show how an academic literacies and knowledge-focused approach can be useful to lecturers trying to help their students read in the disciplines