Abstract
Background: The young speech–language therapy (SLT) profession in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) needs to develop research at different levels to reflect theory and practice. In general, in SSA, a lack of research investment and output brings many challenges for research development. Often research collaborations with researchers from minority world contexts are entered into with potential intercultural and (neo)-colonial conflicts with subsequent power disparities and the danger of a lack of cultural adaptation. However, the current early stage of professional development in research offers many opportunities for the SLT profession, such as the chance to create a unique African methodology. Methodology: In this chapter, we focus on a concept of a multilevel approach to SLT research development and connect it to the specific SLT research context in SSA. We discuss methodological necessities, challenges, and opportunities to propose and explicate a participative and relational in vivo approach—conceptually and practically illustrated with our own research examples following this approach. Results: Different forms of implementation of such a relational research paradigm, and the related research questions and methods, are exemplified at the five levels of SLT research. A research checklist at the end of the chapter gives recommendations to reflect on research strategies and designs in the proposed relational approach. Discussion: This relational research approach, which considers the needs of participating people and the demands of the context, offers an opportunity to create unique SSA research methodology by building a body of evidence-based practice, which is culturally appropriate with and for persons with communicative disorders in SSA.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Even though South Africa has a longer history in the establishment of the SLT profession, this chapter will address sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
References
Adams, J., Gurney, K., Hook, D., & Leydesdorff, L. (2014). International collaboration clusters in Africa. Scientometrics, 98, 547–556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1060-2
Anyanwu, K. (1987). The idea of art in African thought. In G. Fløistad (Ed.), African philosophy (pp. 235–260). Springer.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Clarendon Press.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. Doubleday.
Beta, K., Polzin, C., Vuliva, A., Wu, J., & Lüdtke, U. (2023). The participatory potential of photovoice as a relational in vivo research and training method. The case of a community-based prevention program on early communication and language disability in underserved rural sub-Saharan Africa. In U. Lüdtke, E. Kija, & M. K. Karia (Eds.), Handbook of Speech–Language Therapy in sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 265-282). Springer.
Boshoff, N. (2009). Neo-colonialism and research collaboration in Central Africa. Scientometrics, 81, 413–434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2211-8
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Stanford University Press.
Butler, J. P. (1996). Excitable speech: Contemporary scenes of politics. Routledge.
d’Abdon, R. (2016). Teaching spoken word poetry as a tool for decolonizing and Africanizing the South African curricula and implementing “literocracy”. Scrutiny 2, (21), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/18125441.2016.1192676
Derrida, J. (1988). Limited Inc. Northwestern University Press.
Ellerbrock, M. (2014). Entwurf eines tansanischen Konzeptes von frühkindlicher Entwicklung mit dem Fokus auf Sprachentwicklung – Ein Forschungsprojekt mit interkulturellen Tandems. [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Leibniz University Hannover.
Fanon, F. (1952). Black skin, white masks. Grove Press.
Frank, B., & Trevarthen, C. (2015). Epilogue: Emotion in language can overcome exclusion from meaning. In U. Lüdtke (Ed.), Emotion in language: Theory – Research – Application (pp. 445–452). John Benjamins.
Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action: The critique of functionalist reason (Vol. 2). Polity Press.
Heleta, S. (2018). Decolonizing knowledge in South Africa: Dismantling the ‘pedagogy of big lies’. Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 40(2), 47–65.
Jimoh, A. K. (2017). An African theory of knowledge. In I. E. Ukpokolo (Ed.), Themes, issues and problems in African philosophy (pp. 121–136). Springer.
Kennedy, H., Landor, M., & Todd, L. (2011). Video interaction guidance: A relationship-based intervention to promote attunement, empathy, and wellbeing. Jessica Kingsley.
Kristeva, J. (1980). Word, dialogue, and novel. In J. Kristeva, L. S. Roudiez, T. Gora, & A. Jardine (Eds.), Desire in language: A semiotic approach to literature and art (pp. 64–91). Columbia University Press.
Kristeva, J. (1984). Revolution in poetic language. Columbia University Press.
Kristeva, J. (1991). Strangers to ourselves. Columbia University Press.
Kristeva, J. (1998). The subject in process. In P. Ffrench & R.-F. Lack (Eds.), The Tel Quel reader (pp. 133–178). Routledge.
Lotman, J. (1992). On the semiosphere. Sign System Studies, 33(1), 205–229.
Lüdtke, U. (2012). Relational emotions in semiotic and linguistic development. In A. Foolen, U. M. Lüdtke, T. P. Racine, & J. Zlatev (Eds.), Moving ourselves, moving others: Motion and emotion in intersubjectivity, consciousness and language (pp. 305–346). John Benjamins.
Lüdtke, U. (2023). Speech–language therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: The emergence of a profession in a diverse multilingual and multicultural context. In U. Lüdtke, E. Kija, & M. K. Karia (Eds.), Handbook of Speech-Language Therapy in sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 15–36). Springer.
Lüdtke, U., Ehlert, H., & Bornman, J. (2022). Oral text production, oral text reception, and emotions. In G. L. Schiewer, J. Altarriba, & B. C. Ng (Eds.), Language and emotion: An international handbook (pp. 769–801). De Gruyter.
Lüdtke, U., & Polzin, C. (2015). Research on the relationship between language and emotion: A descriptive overview. In U. M. Lüdtke (Ed.), Emotion in language: Theory – Research – Application (pp. 211–240). John Benjamins.
Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1992). The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala.
Mbiti, J. S. (1966). Akamba stories. Oxford University Press.
Ngongalah, L., Emerson, W., Rawlings, N. N., & Muleme Musisi, J. (2018). Research challenges in Africa: An exploratory study on the experiences and opinions of African researchers. BioRvix. https://doi.org/10.1101/446328.
Okech, J. E. A., Pimpleton-Gray, A. M., Vannatta, R., & Champe, J. (2016). Intercultural conflict in groups. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 41, 350–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2016.1232769
Pillay, M., & Kathard, H. (2015). Decolonizing health professionals’ education: Audiology & speech therapy in South Africa. African Journal of Rhetoric, 7(1), 193–227.
Polzin, C. (2019). Zum Performativen des frühen Dialogs: Eine Fallanalyse in einem tansanischen Waisenheim. Springer VS.
Polzin, C., Lüdtke, U., Semkiwa, J., & Frank, B. (2017). And then I belonged: Relational communication therapy in a remote Tanzanian orphanage. In S. Daniel & C. Trevarthen (Eds.), Rhythms of relating in children’s therapies: Connecting creatively with vulnerable children (pp. 339–358). Jessica Kingsley.
Popper, K. (1935). Logik der Forschung. Springer.
Schütte, U. (2016). Culturally sensitive adaptation of the concept of relational communication therapy as a support to language development: An exploratory study in collaboration with a Tanzanian orphanage. The South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, a166. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v63i1.166
Schütte, U., Lüdtke, U., Mdemu, E., Vuliva, A., Semkiwa, J., Polzin, C., et al. (2016). Particpatory Action Research in der Frühpädagogik: Erste Schritte einer kultursensiblen Intervention in einem tansanischen Waisenheim. In I. Hedderich & R. Zahnd (Eds.), Teilhabe und Vielfalt: Herausforderungen einer Weltgesellschaft. Beiträge zur internationalen Heil- und Sonderpädagogik (pp. 495–503). Bad Heilbrunn.
Schütte, U., Polzin, C., Vuliva, A., & Lüdtke, U. (2023). Clinical competence of SLTs in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts: A qualitative study of intercultural work experiences abroad. In U. Lüdtke, E. Kija, & M. K. Karia (Eds.), Handbook of Speech-anguage Therapy in sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 75–96). Springer.
Senghor, L. S. (1984). Liberté: Tome 1. Négritude et humanisme. Ed. du Seuil.
Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description on primary intersubjectivity. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech: The beginning of interpersonal communication (pp. 321–348). Cambridge University Press.
Trevarthen, C. (2001). Intrinsic motives for companionship in understanding: Their origin, development, and significance for infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, 95–131. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0355(200101/04)22:1<95:AID-IMHJ4>3.0.CO;2-6
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2015). Regional overview: Sub-Saharan Africa: UNESCO Science Report, Towards 2030. https://en.unesco.org/unesco_science_report/africa. Accessed March 29, 2022.
Venter, E. (2004). The Notion of Ubuntu and communalism in African educational discourse. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 23, 149–160. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SPED.0000024428.29295.03
von Förster, H. (1981). Observing systems. Intersystems Publications.
von Glasersfeld, E. (1984). An introduction to radical constructivism. In P. Watzlawick (Ed.), The invented reality (pp. 17–40). Norton.
Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24, 369–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819702400309
Winberg, C., McKenna, S., & Wilmot, K. (Eds.). (2021). Building knowledge in higher education: Enhancing teaching and learning with legitimation code theory. Routledge.
Acknowledgments
As we are very much “outsiders” from a minority world country, we would like to express our thanks for reflection and discussion with the following persons. We thank our research team in the project “Establishment of a Child Development Lab in Tanzania” funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD): Josephat Semkiwa, Afizai Vuliva, Enna Mdemu, Marianne Mrisho, Bodo Frank, and Ulrike Schütte, as well as all the participants of this project. Additionally, we are grateful to the members of the DAAD project team “Knowledge Transfer by Global Unity—Multilateral East African-German Partnership in Speech Language Pathology” (2015–2018) from Kenyatta University (KU), Nairobi, Kenya, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda. Further, we would like to thank all discussants and participants of the fifth East African Conference on Communication Disability in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2013. Further, we would like to thank Juan Bornman from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, for asking challenging questions and thus improving our text. A final check from a sub-Saharan African perspective was completed by Mathew Karia (KU).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lüdtke, U.M., Polzin, C. (2023). The Demands of Context: Development of a Relational In Vivo Methodology for Participative Speech–Language Therapy Research in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Lüdtke, U.M., Kija, E., Karia, M.K. (eds) Handbook of Speech-Language Therapy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04504-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04504-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-04503-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-04504-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)