Visiting Education Academic Shares Expertise in Self-Study Scholarship

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Dr Anastasia Samaras, an international education scholar with an extensive repertoire of teaching and research activity in self-study scholarship, was recently hosted by the School of Education as a Foreign Research Fellow.

Samaras is Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education, College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, Virginia.  During her visit, she facilitated a two-day ‘Self-study research dissemination and writing for publication’ workshop for a group of 40 master’s and doctoral students and research supervisors.

Samaras shared her expertise in the research methodology of self-study of practice for a range of activities aimed at supporting the development of self-study research capacity.

‘The students and supervisors are all participants in the Transformative Education/al Studies (TES) project that aims to support academic staff members in Higher Education Institutions who are pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees using the approach of self-study of educational practice,’ said the School’s Dr Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan.

Workshop participants also included academic staff members from diverse disciplines across six South African universities including UKZN.

Samaras was the expert guest facilitator of a second two-day workshop aimed at introducing 13 early career academics from UKZN to self-study as a methodological approach to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Her expertise and enthusiasm were greatly appreciated by those who participated in the workshops and seminar with one of the participants stating, ‘I intend to write, write, write. This was truly motivating!’

Samaras’s visit was made possible by funding from the South African National Research Foundation, UKZN’s Teaching and Learning Office, and the Durban University of Technology’s Research Office.

Melissa Mungroo