Never Forget where you Come from: Critical Diversity Literacy and Structure-facing Virtue among First-year Students

Marthinus Conradie [1], Olga Lasocka-Bełc [2]

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12570646

 

[1]  University of the Free State, South Africa, Department of English, Email: ConradieMS@ufs.ac.za https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2929-8616
[2]  The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Department of Special Education, Email: olasockabelc@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6550-0493

Abstract

This article investigates tensions that arose when a group of Learning Facilitators (LFs) and students collaboratively examined the socially constructed nature of racial identity. These discussions transpired in a South Africa Department of English, in an introductory module in postcolonial literature designed for first-year students. The core contribution of the article lies in conjoining critical diversity literacy (CDL) and structure-facing virtue to theorise this tension. It also produces suggestions for deepening the emancipatory potential of such discussions about identity and power in ways that are intended to be relevant to other settings in which comparable discussions are occurring between students and contractually appointed university teachers like LFs.

Keywords: critical diversity literacy, structure-facing virtue, racism

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