Search Results

South Africa has policies and frameworks for curriculum design, transformation, and quality assurance in each public institution of higher education (HE). These policies influence the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), particularly at the departmental and disciplinary levels of English Studies. Despite the policy narratives and rhetoric, English Studies still carries vestiges of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. Similarly, in other disciplines, scholars in the Global South have highlighted coloniality, epistemicides, epistemic errors, and epistemic injustices, but not in a dual critique of SoTL and the English language. Hypercritical self-reflexivity by academics should be the norm in SoTL, and this should be linked to language-based curriculum reforms and module content designs. All of these self-reflexive efforts should foreground how the mission to transform and decolonize is entangled with Eurocentric paradigms of English language teaching. This paper characterizes the nexus between SoTL and the coloniality of language within South African higher education. It also discusses and critiques the nature of an English department in a post-apartheid and postcolonial South Africa. In addition, it critiques the coloniality of language and imperial English language paradigms often embraced by higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa, and delineates curriculum transformation, Africanization, and decolonizing English within this educational sector. Finally, the paper challenges Eurocentric SoTL practices and colonialist English language paradigms by framing its argument within a critical southern decolonial perspective and a post-Eurocentric SoTL.

Epistemologies are understood as ways of knowing that stem from an individual’s ontological orientation. Such orientations are intimately tied to personal experiences that educational scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings (2001) argued create “systems of knowing” based on majority-normative epistemological stances. In this manuscript, we were interested in analyzing how institutional knowledge is transformed into a system of knowing based on a norming of beliefs through educational research funding. Specifically, we analyse the ways leadership within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) conceptualizes ideas of "quality" research based on public blog posts by the institute's former director. Our results show a tilted appreciation for replicable studies based on an epistemology that understands educational research to be similar to scientific research in all fields – one centered on “rigorous reasoning” aimed at generating testable theories to expand outcomes at scale. As such, we argue such a discourse of quality research is contributing to the perpetuation, rather than amelioration, of inequities within educational settings. To end, we provide possible new directions for centering context-based epistemological understandings of quality within educational research. Such epistemologies are better suited to inform researchers who seek to close opportunity gaps in educational settings as well as increase the impact of educational research across multiple contexts.

Keywords: Epistemologies, Discourse, Governmentality, Research Funding

This paper proceeds from the presupposition that stories could play a significant role in making children global citizens. I draw on Nussbaum’s (2008) theorization of narrative imagination to argue that telling children stories is one of the most appropriate ways to develop the values that would help them become global citizens. I argue that stories equip children with the appropriate dispositions to make meaningful contributions to the societies in which they find themselves. I also argue that stories offer teachers a viable method for making their classrooms culturally responsive. I conclude by suggesting that the ambiguity regarding which values to emphasize can be clarified by incorporating more stories into the classroom.

This study critically examined tutors’ perspectives on advancing the academic development of teacher education programs delivered via open and distance learning (ODL) at Bangladesh Open University (BOU). Tutors play a pivotal role as frontline facilitators of instruction, yet their experiential insights are often underrepresented in institutional decision-making. Drawing on a constructivist paradigm and grounded theory methodology, this qualitative inquiry engaged 82 tutors across eight tutorial centres using open-ended survey questions. Through classical content analysis, eleven major themes emerged, including attendance in tutorial sessions, curriculum and module design, tutorial session frequency, physical resources, tutor professional development, and supervision of practice teaching. The findings reveal that tutors emphasise the need for structured learner engagement, participatory curriculum revision, robust infrastructural support, and institutional investment in tutor capacity-building. The study also highlights disparities between current program structures at BOU and international norms, suggesting the need for extended program duration and more integrated practicum experiences. Implications are drawn for institutional policy, academic design, and participatory governance in ODL. By foregrounding tutors’ voices, this study contributes to a more inclusive model of academic development and underscores what tutors perceive as the need to bridge the gap between policy directives and pedagogical realities in distance education.

Keywords: Open and Distance Learning (ODL), teacher education programs, tutors’ perspectives, academic development, Bangladesh Open University

What remains in the archive when its material objects are constructed with the aim of destruction? Scholarly approaches to the “self-destructive archive” have emphasized ways to manipulate the archive to circumvent its inevitable drive toward loss. The Falles Festival of València, Spain, offers a different perspective: through the burning of the monumental artworks that give the festival its name, an “intangible archive” of behaviours, feelings, and beliefs comes into being, one that structures and is structured by social life during and beyond the festival. This archive affords ethnomusicologists a means to reconceptualize the material nature of ephemeral phenomena like sound.

As governments and funding agencies increasingly embrace Open Science and FAIR data principles, both qualitative and quantitative researchers are encouraged to deposit and share their data via institutional repositories. How suitable are repositories and data sharing for ethnomusicologists? This article chronicles a pilot project using the Canadian institutional data repository Borealis focused on digital ethnomusicological research data related to the defunct Toronto punk and metal venue Coalition TO. The article includes recommendations relating to digital ethnomusicological research data management and considerations for those contemplating storing and sharing their digital research data collections, whether via institutional repositories or other means.

Fragmentary and modest, Augusto Monterroso’s work has not received the same attention as that of his friends Juan Rulfo and Julio Cortázar. Yet his writing offers original perspectives on major cultural issues that remain relevant to the present day, including that of Latin American identity and difference. Engaging with Mignolo’s decolonial theory and Moreiras’s critique of regionalism through close readings Monterroso’s short prose (1959-98), this paper argues that it is precisely the use of a fragmentary aesthetics that allows Monterroso to anticipate the politics of (de)coloniality and representation that would only come to crystallize in academia in the twenty-first century.

Keywords: Augusto Monterroso, Augusto Monterroso, América Latina, Latin America, identidad, identity, representation, representación, solidarity, solidaridad

In this article, we outline an emergent community-engaged research-creation (CE-RC) methodology that builds on principles from performative ethnography, community engagement, and care-full improvisation. CE-RC was developed through the Resonance Project (2020-23), in which we tested, reflected on, and refined our ideas in collaboration with musicians from marginalized communities. Drawing on both ethnographic data and analysis of collaborative artistic creations, we argue that CE-RC has high potential as a participatory applied methodology through which researchers and community collaborators together can advocate for positive social change.

This study explores the mechanisms through which job demands and structural constraints influence psychological distress among community organization workers. Based on semi-structured interviews with 12 female practitioners, our analysis reveals a two-dimensional process where job demands (quantitative, qualitative, and emotional) generate psychological tensions and fatigue. Simultaneously, systemic inertia—conceptualized as insufficient contributions from beneficiaries and external partners—constitutes a structural constraint that generates feelings of powerlessness. This powerlessness, associated with frustration, anger, and sadness, creates a deleterious loop where task repetition amplifies exposure to job demands. This research enriches existing theoretical models by revealing mechanisms specific to the helping professions.

Keywords: Mental health at work, Santé mentale au travail, Psychological distress, Détresse psychologique, Risques psychosociaux, Psychosocial risks, Community organizations, Organismes communautaires, Exigences psychologiques du travail, Job demands, Structural constraints, Contraintes structurelles, Sense of powerlessness, Sentiment d’impuissance

Keywords: Lionel Manga, Cameroun, physique quantique, Max Planck, politique