Anne.Knott@nmmu.ac.za Writing Centre (WrC) Indaba University of Western Cape (UWC)

1. Contending Discourses used to construct [transforming?] WrC practices at the NMMU: a critical analysis Anne.Knott@nmmu.ac.za Writing Centre (WrC) Indaba University of Western Cape (UWC) 14 February 2008

2. 2. Outline of Presentation • What I mean by Discourses? • Broader context: global and local Discourses 5. Skelton’s ‘05 framework: dominant Discourses of ‘teaching excellence’ enacted in NMMU and HEADS Mission statements 6.Examples: psychologised and performative Discourses 7.Psychologised, performative/critical literacy practices: ‘skills’/’literacies’ 8.AD T&L of ’skills’/‘literacies’: theories and practices in Discourses 9.Some implications of dominant performative, psychologised Ds 10.Negotiating Discourses from a critical perspective: examples 11. Implications/effects: AD T&L of literacies in Discourses Conclusion 12. Appendix: A critical definition of ‘transformation’ adapted from Badat

3. 3. What are Discourses? ‘Discourses’ [with a big ‘D’] are characteristic (social and culturally formed, but historically changing) ways of talking and writing about, as well as acting with and towards people and things (ways which are circulated and sustained within various texts, artefacts, images, social practices, and institutions, as well as moment-to-moment social interactions) such that certain perspectives and states of affairs come to be taken as ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ and others come to be taken as ‘deviant’ or ‘marginal’ (e.g. what counts as normal [writing and teaching and learning practices] or a normal institution [and structures e.g. NMMU University and HEADS/CTLM Writing Centres], at a given time and place(Gee 2000:183)

4. 4. Broader context: global and local Discourses • Structural-functional: HEADS ‘whole greater than sum of parts’, ‘systemic’ university functions: research, teaching/learning and engagement (CHE ’04) • Neoliberal: SA macro-economic policy of GEAR: fiscal austerity, labour ‘market flexibility’ (‘flexible workers’, ‘employability’), economic deregulation, privatisation, corporatisation, and commercialisationof public sector e.g. ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ ideas, ‘core business’, ‘market-place’, ‘from morality and critique to moralistic audit-driven surveillance’ and ‘mindless criticism’, illusion of individual autonomy, commodification, competition, short-termism (Davies 2005), democratic subjects labelled ‘consumers’, ‘customers’ (Zorilla ‘98) • Managerial/Staff=HR: neoliberal practices e.g. unilateral decision, top-down managerial control- all CTLM/WrC staff ‘non-academic’, training for roles, business objectives in ‘Mission’ • Performativity: new mode of state, institutional regulation - makes it possible to govern in neoliberal market way, performance assessment (Ball 2003) • Excellence: 1) traditional 2) traditional psychologised 3) performative techno-bureaucratic [OBE] reinforced by managerial, neoliberal Discourses e.g HEADS Mission ‘centre of excellence‘, ‘adding value/excellence’ • Quality management (HEQC ’04) for development: ‘improve’/’enhance’, ‘reflective practice’; for accountability: QA, monitoring standards, instit audits T&L Resource ‘03: continuously review, self-evaluate, plan, implement

5. 5. Framework: dominant Ds of ‘teaching excellence’

6. 6. Egs psychologised/performative Ds HEADS Presentation and Mission ‘client’ (cf. ‘customer’→ neoliberal) Covey ‘habits’ (behaviourism → cf. ‘soc practices’) ‘wellness’ of staff, students, communities CTLM/Academic Development (Students) effective teaching and learning [writing] strategies transfer of [writing] ‘skills’ - also used in performative D Professional competence: identify T&L ‘skill competence’, ‘train’ (ex-tech), focus on ‘service’ (Land ’01) eg brochure

7. Skills traditional psychology ‘literacy’ unitary relatively fixed set of hierarchical skills acquired as a result of individual learning ‘autonomous’ of context generic, transferable value-free lang/skills instrument of communication (Christie ’85) Literacies social sciences ‘literacies’ in plural continuously changing not quantifiable learning as a result of social interaction ideological (Street ‘84, ’93, ‘95) socio-historical context value-laden (Hannon 2000) language/literacies constituted in Discourses (Gee; Fairclough) 7. psychologised, performative/critical Ds

8. 8. AD T&L of ’skills’/literacies’: theories & practices in Ds

9. 9. Implications of performative/psychologised Ds Epistemologies: knowledge that works and subjective interpretation - both focus on individual reinforced by individualised (neo)liberal discourse deficit Discourse of students (Jacobs ’07) e.g. lack of literacy and numeracyskill (CTLM mtg ‘08) deficit Discourse of staff but also of institution (e.g. UFH ‘99) and discipline English/Afrikaans/isi-Xhosa proficiency conflated with skills/literacies (Jacobs ’07, Knott ‘08) colonisation/appropriation of terms like ‘empowerment’, ‘transformation’ as part of critical Discourse

10. 10. Taking action from crit AD Dis • Practise AD as situated T&L in disciplinary Discourse communities of practice (Gee; Wenger ’98) • Take time to build coherent communities of practice e.g. in WrCs, writing dev team, responders using WRA • Challenge - dominant Discourse practices ito excellence, service, development, integration, curricula; ban on‘I’ in academic writing; only quantitative outputs (product/process tension); checklist, ‘tips’/techniques, generic ‘easy-to-transfer’ ‘skills’ ‘writing-by-nos’ (Court ’07) • Opening up of WrC practices to critical readers e.g. teachers of disciplinary T&L Discourses - spaces for dialogue, collegiality, specific work • Constant citing of research and inequalities Ds set up (T&L in HE, language, literacies/writing development and discourses)

11. 11.Implications/effects: T/L literacies and their AD Conflicting Discourses embodied in dualistic structures: ADS1/2 Burden of persuasion and support: bottom-up → top-down Mis-reading of crit D (e.g. ‘fight the institution’); uneven consensus Stress, resources, unreasonable demands, setting of boundaries Effect of power: using a critical discourse and not completing PhD: bottom non/ac hierarchy but experience in AD T/L of literacies it is only through sustained interaction of writing ‘consultants’ and teachers of disciplinary Discourses that teachers can make explicit what is implicit for students and use a critical discourse to teach and develop literacies like writing (Jacobs ’07) Conclusion ‘it is the fundamental job of education to give people bigger and better discourse maps, ones that reflect the working of Discourses throughout society, the world, and history in relationship to each other and to the learner’ (Gee 1999:23) We stand ‘at the very heart of the most crucial [historical,] educational … and political issues of our time’ - equity (Gee 1990)

12. A critical def of ‘transformation’: adapted from Badat ‘03 A movement from one set of social structural conditions [and discourses] to ... [a] fundamentally new [set] ... through purposeful and deliberate social action on the part of social actors. In these terms, ‘transformation must be understood as a double process: a process of the dissolution of an existing set of social relations and social, economic, political, ideological and cultural institutions, policies and [discourse] practices; and a process of the recreation and consolidation of an alternate set of social relations and social, economic, political, ideological and cultural institutions, policies and [discourse] practices. The processes of dissolution and recreation may, of course, be uneven and not necessarily result in a complete rupture or sweeping and total displacement of old social structures, institutions and [discourse] practices. Equally, they may be restricted in some social spheres and more extensive in [others] and their pace may also vary across different social arenas. ...Normative conceptions of transformation would insist on the conditions that would need to be met for changes to be considered as constituting transformation ... [Some] social actors would ... reserve the term ‘transformation’ to characterise changes that are anti-capitalist and antithetical to … dominant ideologies of [performativity,] neoliberalism [and managerialism] and are progressive in nature - the creation of fundamentally equitable social relations, greater social equality and social justice, more humane economic and social policies, the institution of substantive democracy and vibrant civil society, the expansion of human economic and social rights and civil liberties and the building of … criticaldebate and civic participation