Recap on identity and mobility

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En provenance du cours de University of Cape Town

Writing your World: Finding yourself in the academic space

42 notes

University of Cape Town

Writing your World: Finding yourself in the academic space

42 notes

Throughout the world, writing serves to express, record and even create meaningful moments. In academic spaces, writing becomes the bridge between ourselves and the world of ideas. In this course, we provide practical insights into how to write an academic essay. We show you how to develop the academic skills needed to be a competent academic writer. You will have an opportunity to engage with texts written by academics, and to see how some of the ideas in these texts are used by students in constructing an academic essay. We address some of the challenges these students face with respect to academic writing and offer you the opportunity to practice and to develop your own writing style. For this course, we centre our lessons around a specific topic - the concept of identity, since it forms such an important feature of how we locate ourselves in an ever-changing global world. In other words, this course teaches academic writing skills through getting you to write and reflect on your understanding of identity. So if you are thinking about studying at a tertiary institution, or if you just want to brush up on your academic essay writing skills, this course is for you!

À partir de la leçon

Supporting the argument: situating identity within culture

This week begins with a discussion of culture and its relevance when individuals become mobile, moving between geographical and social contexts. We look at a case study of a student from the United Kingdom who comes to Johannesburg, South Africa. The case study helps us to think about who owns culture and how different or similar we are across contexts. Next, we consider Thornton’s arguments about culture. He argues against the view that there are many cultures and notes that there is only culture. Thornton considers culture as a resource to which people have different degrees of access. Some examples of cultural resources are clothes, money, beliefs, ideas. Individuals draw on these to construct their identity, but unequal access to these resources that are valued gives some people more possibilities to construct identities that are dominant and more valued. This creates a semblance of difference between groups of people. As people move across borders, these differences may become heightened, because some of the cultural resources that an individual carries with her, may cease to be relevant or may be seen as threatening. So, when supporting one’s argument about what happens to identity as individuals move across borders, it is important to delve into culture and how culture creates differences, how it may accentuate boundaries, and how these may or may not impact on identity. Writing paragraphs in support of one’s argument requires close attention to how the paragraphs link with the position, and with other ideas across the paragraphs. Hence, we offer practical guidelines on paragraphing, coherence and cohesion. We give an example of a well-written paragraph and analyse its form to see why it is good. We then review paragraphs submitted by our three student writers and note what is strong and what could be improved in each. We introduce the core aspects of referencing in essays. We also explain why referencing is an important part of academic writing when we are referring to different people’s views (or voices) and distinguishing these from our own.

Recap on identity and mobility3:33

Case study of an international student1:34

Pool of abundance: Understanding culture6:05

Round table discussion on culture13:57

Rencontrer les enseignants

Gideon Nomdo
Lecturer
Centre for Higher Education Development
Aditi Hunma
Lecturer
Centre for Higher Education Development

Last week we reflected on the question what

happens to identity when individuals become mobile,

or move from one space to another?

This is also our final essay question.

We've mentioned before that individuals have always been mobile.

We then look more closely at the case of Nelson Mandela and how he perceived

his identity when the South African apartheid state

deprived him of his right to move freely.

Generally, in periods of social stress,

the differences along the lines of race,

class and gender become more noticeable.

You also had a chance to read the works of Blommaert and Sichone on the effects of

migration and the social turmoil that

erupts when foreigners come to be viewed as a threat.

We then asked you to write your first draft of the introduction to your essay.

Your introduction is likely to develop in the weeks to come.

At this point, we would like to introduce a new theme that is often

used in conjunction with or even interchangeably with the concept of identity.

This is the theme of culture.

Culture is important because it affects the ways in which we view,

internalize and express our identities.

Culture allows us to be part of groups that are most like us.

It also tells us which groups are different.

We all carry aspects of our cultures around with us in the way we speak,

the way we dress,

what we eat, what we believe in and so forth.

Culture is therefore an important part of identities.

It is the means through which we are able to express who and what we are.

A discussion about identity and what happens to

it when it crosses from one context into another,

can thus be enriched and made much more

interesting when it touches on aspects of culture.

Remember that you will be defining what identity is in your essays,

and making the link with culture is one way in which to do this.

Culture, therefore provides you with a point of reference for

discussing some of the issues you may want

to raise in your respective paragraphs of your essay.

So, what is it that comes to mind when we hear this word culture?

Well, within my own cultural context of living in Cape Town in South Africa,

my family and community speak well,

mainly English and Afrikaans.

The majority are either Christian or Muslim.

And one of our favorite pastimes is braaing also known as barbecue in other contexts.

And well now that I think about it,

my immediate and extended family are also very different from each other.

So the question I'm confronted with all the time is what makes my culture distinctive?

In fact, what makes anybody's culture stand out?

So, how would you describe your culture?

Also, think about what happens to one's culture as

individuals move across borders and how this impacts on identity.

Remember that the discussion about culture is also a discussion about identity.

The issue of culture therefore,

resonates strongly with the question of identity

and mobility that has been explored in this course.

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