Slow scholarship in writing retreats: A diffractive methodology for response-able pedagogies

Abstract

The corporatization of universities has led to increasing pressure on academics to publish as quickly and prolifically as possible. Writing retreats have been used as one way of ensuring the production of academic articles by providing spaces for academics to write, and pressurizing them to publish shortly thereafter. This article provides an alternative way of viewing and conducting writing retreats -that of Slow scholarship, which foregrounds attentiveness, care, thoughtfulness and quality rather than quantity and production. A 'response-able' pedagogy is suggested as a way of enacting a Slow scholarship, using a diffractive methodology for reading and writing and responding to peers' writing at writing retreats.

Creative Meaning-Making through a Multimodal, Interdisciplinary Exploration: Lessons for Higher Education Curriculum Enhancement

“…We applied the lenses of Touch (Barad 2012), a Political Ethic of Care (Tronto 2013) and Slow scholarship (Bozalek 2017) to the reading of our experiences. This enabled us to explore our pedagogy and find new ways to generate creative meaning.…”

“…Using a collaborative auto-ethnographic methodology informed by a social constructivist approach, we explore our collective experience in PAD courses and the journey of transforming our thinking. The different lenses of Touch (Barad 2012), an Ethic of Care (Tronto 2013) and Slow (Bozalek 2017) are applied to explore the constructive engagements across disciplinary boundaries to engage with the multiple insights of multiple fields. The paper concludes by exploring how 'space of (for) becoming', 'academic praxis', 'deconstructing entanglement', 'learning-by-modelling' and 'decolonising thinking', as revealed by our data analysis, can inform new ways of engaging with curriculum design, content and pedagogy in higher education.…”

Towards a Slow scholarship of teaching and learning in the South

“…Consequently, Slow scholarship is critical of academic development practices of offering workshops to academics on ways to cope with being overextended in their work, rather than practices which suggest that they should not be pressured to over extend themselves in the first place -see for example Berg and Seeber's (2016) critique of time management strategies for academics. In terms of SOTL, the expectation that writing retreats can be used to enable academics to churn out articles at a faster rate is a problematic one (Bozalek 2017). Slow scholarship is particularly suitable for Southern contexts because of its commitment to repoliticise and reinvigorate everyday practice in academia, as it is concerned about globalisation, ecological and environmental issues and colonialism (Berg and Seeber 2016).…”

Incubating a slow pedagogy in professional academic development: An ethics of care perspective

“…The Slow movement has now spread to many areas such as Slow Cities, and also in academia, Slow Science Slow Scholarship, Slow Pedagogy, Slow Ontology, and Slow Philosophy, the premise being that quality should not be compromised by the pressure of time that prioritises speed, efficiency and output (Berg and Seeber 2016;Boulous Walker 2016;Stengers 2011;Ulmer 2017). These different uses of Slow all emphasise depth of engagement, interdisciplinarity and the importance of making practices pleasurable for the participants (Bozalek 2017).…”

“…These effects include the audit culture which has led to increased administrative loads and bureaucratisation of teaching, increased staffstudent ratios, the casualisation of teaching, as well as pressure to publish as quickly as possible to increase financial rewards for the institution. The Slow movement provides an alternative way of valuing academic life, in areas such as Slow science (Stengers 2005(Stengers , 2011, Slow pedagogy (Berg and Seeber 2016;Hartman and Darab 2012;Martell 2014) and Slow scholarship (Bozalek 2017;Garey and Hertz 2014;Ulmer 2017). This alternative movement in academia is created through acknowledgement of collaboration and the building of interdisciplinary communities of practice; allocating time for internal reflection and mentoring in scholarship of teaching and learning; a focus on an ethics of care in the way in which we interact with and acknowledge each other; embracing Slowness and caring collectively;…”