Undergraduate - UnitAZA3852 - Researching Africa in modern times

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

To find units available for enrolment in the current year, you must make sure you use the indexes and browse unit tool in the current edition of the Handbook.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Social Science, South Africa
Offered	Not offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)	Dr Alex Asakitikpi

Synopsis

In the unit, students will identify an issue of interest to them drawn from their undergraduate studies in Behavioural Studies, Sociology and/or any other unit in the Social Sciences. The focal point of the unit is skills enhancement in integrating South methodological perspectives. The unit will also underscore the how of carrying out research in Africa/Southern contexts. Part ot the enhancement of skills will hinge on how to locate relevant resources and presenting these in both written and oral forms. Students will be required to choose topics that interest them. Using this topic, students will undertake an extensive review of the relevant academic literature integrating African/Southern perspectives. At this stage, students will not be required to complete an independent research exercise. However, their write up at this stage will have the potential of being developed into an honours proposal and independent proposal for research. The write-ups for research will be supervised by the Unit Coordinator with input from other staff as appropriate.

Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, students will have:

Developed extensive knowledge of a significant issue in contemporary social sciences and especially integrating African and Southern Perspectives;
Engaged with a variety of critical and theoretical debates about this issue from both a universal methodological perspective but more so an African and South perspective;
Developed the ability to critically evaluate the extant literature about this issue;
Knowledge of a range of methodological approaches that have been used to examine this issue and especially South perspectives with emphasis being laid on the nascent but rapidly growing African methodological stances;
Developed the ability to communicate in both oral and written formats about their issue of research investigation;
Independently developed and completed a significant piece of research.