Academic reading as social research practice: reflections on a South African teaching experience

LLOYD HILL; MEO, ANALÍA INÉS

Ciudad del Cabo

Conferencia; 6th Annual Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; 2012

Academic reading tends to be overlooked by postgraduate programmes and courses on "academic literacy", which tend to focus on writing as a generic scientific skill. This paper begins with the demarcation and exploration of a body of literature in which "Reading" has been theorised as a  social research practice. From a Bourdieusian perspective, we argue that  "Reading" serves to position future academics in their respective disciplines (at both national and international level) and to shape their positioning within them. The paper then examines a pilot postgraduate module that sought to make "reading as social practice" visible to students. "Academic reading (and writing) as social research practice", was presented from November 2011 in the Stellenbosch Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. This two-day course sought to offer conceptual tools to unpack reading (in the context of writing) as a socially situated and discipline-specific practice; to promote a critical understanding of the students´ own academic reading (and writing) practices; and to unpack the ways in which reading is entangled with social positioning and the development of an academic voice. The module was supported by the Fund for Innovation and Research into Learning and Teaching (FIRLT) and the intention is to evaluate and develop the module for subsequent inclusion the Department´s Social Science Methods programme. This paper presents research conducted for and on this pilot module.