Academic Wits Research Outputs (All submissions)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/36827
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Item Confessing sex in online student communities(Elsevier, 2017) Dominguez-Whitehead, Yasmine; Whitehead, Kevin A; Bowman, BrettIn this paper, we examine Facebook “Confessions” sites associated with two large universities (one North American and one South African) to investigate the ways in which students interactionally negotiate normativity in discussions initiated by confessions relating to sex. The research is grounded in a Foucauldian framework that emphasizes the centrality of sex and sexuality. Our findings focus on two interrelated aspects of the data. The first concerns the features of the initial (anonymous) confessional posts, and the second relates to subsequent comments on the initial post. Close examination of initial posts offers insights into participants’ orientations to sexual acts, situations and beliefs that are treated as either normative or transgressive. Subsequent comments posted by participants reveal ways in which the “confessability” of confessions is interactionally ratified or contested. The findings thus demonstrate some ways in which normative sexuality is (re)produced, ratified, and contested within student online communities.Item Food talk: A window into inequality among university students(2014) Dominguez-Whitehead, Yasmine; Dominguez-Whitehead, Kevin A.Although initially related to the country’s colonial and apartheid history, material inequality in South Africa has deepened, with recent research suggesting that South Africa now has the highest levels of inequality in the world. In this paper, we examine the interactional reproduction of inequality by paying particular attention to the discursive and interactional practices employed in students’ talk about food. Specifically, we examine food-related troubles talk and food-related jokes and humor, showing how students who described food-related troubles produced these troubles as shared and systemic, while students who produced food-related jokes displayed that they take for granted the material resources needed to have a range of food consumption choices available to them, while treating food consumption as a matter of individual choice. These orientations were collaboratively produced through a range of interactionally organized practices, including patterns of alignment and dis-alignment, pronoun use, laughter, and aspects of the formulation of utterances. While our analysis primarily focuses on these discursive and interactional practices, we also consider how discursive practices can be linked to the material conditions of participants’ lives outside of the analyzed interactions.Item Language, identity, and ideology: High-achieving scholarship women(Unisa, 2013) Dominguez-Whitehead, Yasmine; Liccardo, Sabrina; Botsis, HannahThis article addresses the linguistic identities of high-achieving women who are participants in a prestigious scholarship programme at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). We examined how these high-achieving women negotiate and construct their linguistic identities within the context of the university’s Anglicised institutional culture and against the backdrop of South Africa’s multilingual society. Individual and focus group interviews were examined by employing an experience-centred and culturally orientated approach to narrative (Squire 2008). Our examination revealed that language is both an academic and social intermediary of experience at the university, and that language functions as both an identity marker and an ideology that permeates the university and wider society. How participants transgress and maintain their linguistic identities, as well as how they subvert, and align with, the dominant university ideology is discussed.Item Background knowledge and epistemological access: Challenges facing black women in a SET scholarship programme(Unisa, 2015) Liccardo, Sabrina; Botsis, Hannah; Dominguez-Whitehead, YasmineIn promoting access to higher education in an unequal society there is a concern that universities may operate in a manner that values background knowledge associated with those who have access to a privileged class location. The authors focus on background knowledge, its contribution to epistemological access to higher education and how such background knowledge is likely to affect black women’s academic success. They analyse interviews with 19 black women from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are recipients of a Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) scholarship, utilising Ryle’s (1945) distinction between knowledge-how and knowledge-that, to understand their challenges in gaining epistemological access to university. Despite the scholarship programme’s comprehensive support, the findings suggest that students who enter with background knowledge acquired at well-resourced high schools are academically advantaged. The authors argue that SET scholarship programmes which recruit low-income students are necessary, but insufficient interventions for enabling epistemological access. Further responsiveness is required on the part of the university.Item Evaluating postgraduate preparation in the South African context(Routledge, 2015) Dominguez-Whitehead, YasmineLittle work is being undertaken in South Africa to systematically and intentionally prepare undergraduate students to pursue postgraduate studies. This is concerning given the shortage of postgraduate students and the small scale of postgraduate studies. The few programmes and endeavours that exist to prepare students for postgraduate studies are not necessarily evaluated to assess their achievements and shortcomings. This paper provides an evaluation of an academic year-long postgraduate preparation programme, and is specifically concerned with examining subsequent postgraduate enrolment and improvement of participants’ marks. The study draws on both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings indicate that the majority of programme participants proceeded to subsequently enrol in postgraduate studies immediately after completing the programme and that the programme played a role in the pursuit of postgraduate studies. However, the findings also indicate that overall participants’ marks did not improve after participating in the programme. The study brings to light that, while some achievements are possible, the limits of the programme must also be acknowledged.Item International students in the South African higher education system: A review of pressing challenges(Unisa, 2015) Dominguez-Whitehead, Yasmine; Sing, NevenshaThe internationalisation of the South African higher education (HE) system, has involved (among other developments) the steady increase of international student enrolment, particularly from other African nations. While there has been a considerable increase in the percentage of international students over the past few decades, little is known about the challenges they confront and the ways in which socio-political and economic issues facing South Africa and the HE system may impact them. This article focuses on significant features of the South African HE system and considers some of the theoretical challenges faced by international students within this context. Pressing socio-political and economic issues facing South African HE specifically, and the nation more generally, are highlighted and in turn their relevance for challenges faced by international students relating to xenophobia, discrimination and financial difficulties are addressed.Item Students’ food acquisition struggles in the context of South Africa: The fundamentals of student development(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015-04) Dominguez-Whitehead, YasmineThis article situates food at the heart of the fundamentals of student development, based on qualitative case study research. Food acquisition and food-related struggles in the context of the South African university are examined. Three overarching themes emerged from the analysis of the data, and are discussed in detail: depletion of food funds, acquiring food on campus, and awareness of others' food struggles. The findings suggest that students struggling to acquire food are dominated by food acquisition issues and that inaccessibility of food on campus has a potentially detrimental impact on student development and involvement on campus.Item Food Talk: A Window into Inequality among University Students(De Gruyter Mouton, 2014-01) Dominguez-Whitehead, Yasmine; Whitehead, Kevin AAlthough initially related to the country’s colonial and apartheid history, material inequality in South Africa has deepened, with recent research suggesting that South Africa now has the highest levels of inequality in the world. In this paper, we examine the interactional reproduction of inequality by paying particular attention to the discursive and interactional practices employed in students’ talk about food. Specifically, we examine food-related troubles-talk and food-related jokes and humor, showing how students who described food-related troubles produced these troubles as shared and systemic, while students who produced food-related jokes displayed that they take for granted the material resources needed to have a range of food consumption choices available to them, while treating food consumption as a matter of individual choice. These orientations were collaboratively produced through a range of interactionally-organized practices, including patterns of alignment and dis-alignment, pronoun use, laughter, and aspects of the formulation of utterances. While our analysis primarily focuses on these discursive and interactional practices, we also consider how discursive practices can be linked to the material conditions of participants’ lives outside of the analyzed interactions.