Suchergebnisse

What scholars call "writing" actually involves writing, reading, talking, thinking, and engaging. Yet how academic writing develops through this recursive, social process, is imperfectly understood. Although participating in academic gatherings like colloquia and international conferences can help researchers find a scholarly voice, not all new scholars have the opportunity to participate in such gatherings and the learnings they offer. Especially for those scholars, their academic writing must be consciously developed. We examine the process by which a new South African management scholar, supported by his writing coach, developed an academic voice. Analyzing their 15-month long communication (emails and summaries of conversations), we find three interweaving processes. Coaching guides the new scholar first to learn to fit in by becoming aware of genre conventions through practical writing-to-learn and show-and-tell coaching tactics. Then the challenge is to stand out by forcing tough trade-offs and intensifying the focus on novelty. Ultimately the scholar must do both, negotiating the tension between them. Our article provides evidence of how the emergence of self-reliant scholarly writing can be supported. This process is especially salient in developing country contexts with few enculturating opportunities, but we suggest that it applies more broadly, opening avenues for future theorizing.

Abstract
Because discrimination is systemic, efforts to counter it must also be systemic. The South African case is instructive because it is extreme: Apartheid deliberately excluded the majority of the population, Black South Africans, from fully participating in society, but post-Apartheid efforts to achieve transformation have had limited success. This article examines the university system, where transformation involves increasing the size of the system; improving scientific quality and changing the racial composition. This will require more Black South Africans to do PhDs, to select academic careers and to be selected into the top universities. Policy interventions can be developed for each of these elements, but will they be complementary or contradictory? We simulate a calibrated model to address this question. Results reveal direct trade-offs, with different combinations resulting in different benefits. By highlighting the differential gains of different policy combinations, this article can support informed policy-making about a highly complex issue.