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Transdisciplinary Winter School 2015

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Transdisciplinary Winter School 2015 calls on African researchers to bring about transformative change on the continent.

The need for research that brings about transformative change in Africa was highlighted at the eighth Transdisciplinarity Winter School held recently at the Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch. Prof. Mark Swilling posed a challenge to the PhD and masters students, academics and practitioners from South Africa, Botswana, Ghana and Kenya, among other African countries, to "take up their responsibility as African scientists to bring about the transformative change required to address the continent's challenges."

Keynote speakers, including course convener John van Breda from TsamaHub and Dr. Thenjie Major from the University of Botswana, expanded on the need for research methods employed in Africa to be inclusive, rooted in indigenous worldviews and able to tackle the complexities of the diversity and interconnected relations within Africa's socio-ecological systems. For this reason, the programme focused on exploring the relevance of a context-sensitive, narrative-based approach to conducting transdisciplinary research on the continent. The objective of this series of summer and winter schools is to develop practical approaches to transdisciplinary research in Africa and to support students wanting to undertake this kind of work and their supervisors with a methods-based approach acceptable to faculties.

Participants were exposed to a variety of narrative-collection techniques as well as two leading software tools, which would enable the generation of both quantitative and qualitative data. In addition, they participated in a micro-narrative research project during the week to enable them to understand the practical realities of this type of approach. The analysis of participants' stories was presented back at the end of the week to stimulate insights and debate about the relevance of using this method in African research contexts. Class discussions and presentations, which also focused on complexity theory, an introduction to visual narratives and indigenous research methodology were interspersed with site visits to enable participants to gain a real-world perspective of complexities and ways in which transdisciplinary research can bring about transformative change.

All participants noted that the course had been enriching in terms of both their work and in deepening their personal understanding of complexity and the need to co-generate transformative knowledge to address challenges on the continent. The dynamic mix of presentations, site visits and space for class discussion and debate was emphasised by participants as one of the reasons they would recommend to others that they attend the transdisciplinary summer and winter schools.

Van Breda noted that "there is space for Africans to contribute a unique aspect to transdisciplinary research approaches using the narrative approach, which is an appropriate approach in Africa as it is context sensitive, an indigenous method and inclusive. It therefore contributes to the transformative change researchers are being charged to bring about."

 

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Author: SPL Marketing/SPL Bemarking
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Visibly Featured: SPL; SU Main; Economic and Management Sciences
Published Date: 8/26/2015
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GUID Original Article: EEF7D993-2791-4604-968D-C69F71A26D5D
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Opsomming: Transdissiplinêre Winterskool 2015
Summary: Transdisciplinary Winter School 2015

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