Soledad Falabella and Sebastian Brett were at the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) during the last week of November to attend CARTA’s workshop for academic supervisors, and JAS2 for CARTA doctoral fellows (Cohort 8).
A notable feature this year was the presence among the supervisors of many former doctoral candidates that ESE:O had taught in previous years. Having since gained their doctorate they are now valuable research and teaching assets in their departments. This was living proof of the progress CARTA is making in its aim of creating a critical mass of locally trained scholars In African universities.
Since 2011 ESE:O has facilitated writing workshops for 200 CARTA grant-holders from seven African countries, and is proud to contribute to this exciting initiative.
Discussion at the supervisors workshop focused on making the development of academic literacy skills a central aspect of doctoral supervision, and on instilling a culture of critical thinking at the
heart of that relationship.
After a gruelling 7-month online workshop, Soledad and Sebastian enjoyed meeting with the Cohort 8 fellows, whom we had not seen in person since March.
Buoyed by their resilience and good humour, we organized a closing session in which the 26- strong cohort divided into groups of five to recite an invented story to an audience of their colleagues. The often hilarious results showed how well the fellows understood the structure of a narrative— something long embedded in African storytelling traditions but rarely linked to academic writing (see video).
In a final survey, 96% of the cohort said they thought their writing ability had improved “very much” or “quite a lot” as a result of the workshop, which was described as “one of a kind”.
