A critical realist exploration of the emergence, development, management and sustainability of a Christian private institution of higher education in Malawi
- Kadyakapita, Mozecie Spector John
- Authors: Kadyakapita, Mozecie Spector John
- Date: 2013 , 2013-03-24
- Subjects: Christian universities and colleges -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Private universities and colleges -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Education, Higher -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Higher education and state -- Research -- Malawi Universities and colleges -- Malawi -- History Educational planning -- Malawi
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1400 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001818
- Description: This study was prompted by an interest in exploring ways in which the development of private higher education in Malawi could be more sustainable. It examines the challenges that private institutions of higher education face in different contexts and the underlying causes of these challenges. The aim of the study was to explore the emergence of private higher education (PHE) in Malawi, its management, development, the challenges it faces and the generative mechanisms of these challenges. The research is a case study of one of the earliest private institutions of higher education in Malawi. The institution is owned and operated by a Christian church organisation that has been operating a network of private primary and secondary schools and health centres since its establishment in Malawi in the early 1890s. Critical realism is used as an underlabourer for its stance on ontological, epistemological and ethical assumptions of reality and its views on agency and structure. Two theoretical frameworks - complexity theory and transformational leadership theories - are used as lenses to help make sense of the nature of social organisations and also as heuristic devices for organising and making sense of data. Data were collected using qualitative interviews, archival document content analysis and observation. Twenty participants were purposefully selected for interviews. The participants comprised a senior officer at the MoEST headquarters, proprietors, members of the top management team of the institution, administrative assistants, heads of academic and nonacademic departments, teachers and non-teaching staff and students. Abstracted data were analysed using inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The study established that the emergence of private higher education in Malawi was generated by a number of mechanisms. These include the need to survive the threat to socioeconomic development posed by global trends in scientific and technological issues that heavily rely on access to the knowledge economy; the need to respond to demand for equity and access to higher education; the need to carry out the mission of the Christian church; government’s failure to expand and widen access to higher education; and the agential need to survive economic demands. The research findings indicate that a critical challenge that the emergence of private higher education faced was the lack of adequate and efficient structures and systems in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to expeditiously process applications to establish and accredit, monitor and control the development of private higher education institutions. It was also found that the challenges that the private higher education faces include high level of authoritarian governance and management practices, weak institutional management and control systems and structure, secularisation, lack of adequate funds to meet operation and capital development costs, facilities and resources to support teaching – learning functions, learner support facilities and services and a critical shortage of appropriately qualified administrative and academic personnel. The underlying causes of the challenges include the perceived threat to personal power and survival; fear of apostasy and secularisation; cultural values, adverse socioeconomic conditions; lack of diverse sources of funding, ineffective communication skills; weak governance systems and structures; low level of self-control; unfavourable attitudes towards educational institutions and the need to restore equity. To make private institutions of higher learning more sustainable, the study recommends that governance practices be guided by clear structures, policies and guidelines in the interest of transparency and accountability. It also recommends that government works in close partnership with private providers, reviews unfair policies concerning government scholarships, subsidizes the cost of materials for instruction and infrastructure development, and provides technical assistance to prospective and active providers. Lastly, the study recommends that private providers form an association so as to share experiences and to collectively deal with issues of common interest and concern. , Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Kadyakapita, Mozecie Spector John
- Date: 2013 , 2013-03-24
- Subjects: Christian universities and colleges -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Private universities and colleges -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Education, Higher -- Administration -- Research -- Malawi Higher education and state -- Research -- Malawi Universities and colleges -- Malawi -- History Educational planning -- Malawi
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1400 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001818
- Description: This study was prompted by an interest in exploring ways in which the development of private higher education in Malawi could be more sustainable. It examines the challenges that private institutions of higher education face in different contexts and the underlying causes of these challenges. The aim of the study was to explore the emergence of private higher education (PHE) in Malawi, its management, development, the challenges it faces and the generative mechanisms of these challenges. The research is a case study of one of the earliest private institutions of higher education in Malawi. The institution is owned and operated by a Christian church organisation that has been operating a network of private primary and secondary schools and health centres since its establishment in Malawi in the early 1890s. Critical realism is used as an underlabourer for its stance on ontological, epistemological and ethical assumptions of reality and its views on agency and structure. Two theoretical frameworks - complexity theory and transformational leadership theories - are used as lenses to help make sense of the nature of social organisations and also as heuristic devices for organising and making sense of data. Data were collected using qualitative interviews, archival document content analysis and observation. Twenty participants were purposefully selected for interviews. The participants comprised a senior officer at the MoEST headquarters, proprietors, members of the top management team of the institution, administrative assistants, heads of academic and nonacademic departments, teachers and non-teaching staff and students. Abstracted data were analysed using inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The study established that the emergence of private higher education in Malawi was generated by a number of mechanisms. These include the need to survive the threat to socioeconomic development posed by global trends in scientific and technological issues that heavily rely on access to the knowledge economy; the need to respond to demand for equity and access to higher education; the need to carry out the mission of the Christian church; government’s failure to expand and widen access to higher education; and the agential need to survive economic demands. The research findings indicate that a critical challenge that the emergence of private higher education faced was the lack of adequate and efficient structures and systems in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to expeditiously process applications to establish and accredit, monitor and control the development of private higher education institutions. It was also found that the challenges that the private higher education faces include high level of authoritarian governance and management practices, weak institutional management and control systems and structure, secularisation, lack of adequate funds to meet operation and capital development costs, facilities and resources to support teaching – learning functions, learner support facilities and services and a critical shortage of appropriately qualified administrative and academic personnel. The underlying causes of the challenges include the perceived threat to personal power and survival; fear of apostasy and secularisation; cultural values, adverse socioeconomic conditions; lack of diverse sources of funding, ineffective communication skills; weak governance systems and structures; low level of self-control; unfavourable attitudes towards educational institutions and the need to restore equity. To make private institutions of higher learning more sustainable, the study recommends that governance practices be guided by clear structures, policies and guidelines in the interest of transparency and accountability. It also recommends that government works in close partnership with private providers, reviews unfair policies concerning government scholarships, subsidizes the cost of materials for instruction and infrastructure development, and provides technical assistance to prospective and active providers. Lastly, the study recommends that private providers form an association so as to share experiences and to collectively deal with issues of common interest and concern. , Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
An exploration of conditions enabling and constraining the infusion of service-learning into the curriculum at a South African research led university
- Authors: Hlengwa, Amanda Immaculate
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Curricula -- Evaluation Service learning -- Research -- South Africa Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Evaluation Curriculum planning -- Research -- South Africa Experiential learning -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1888 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006036
- Description: Drawing on critical realist philosophy as a meta-theoretical framework, this study explores the conditions that enable and constrain the infusion of service-learning in university curricula. In this study, four discipline-based cases are analysed within the context of an overarching case of one South African university. The study reports on case study research into four disciplines, broadly representing the disciplinary array offered at Rhodes University, a small traditional research-intensive university in South Africa – four cases are thus embedded within a larger over-arching case. Margret Archer’s analytical dualism is used as an analytical lens for the inquiry. It offers tools for examining the conditions for the emergence of service learning and the form it takes in each case. Archer’s framework requires the artificial separation of structural, cultural and agential mechanisms for analytical purposes in order to establish the dominant factors impacting on the infusion of service-learning in curricula. An analysis of the interplay between structure, culture and agency uncovers insights into the conditions that enable or constrain the adoption of service learning as a pedagogic tool in specific disciplines. Curriculum decision-making is a central consideration in this study. Basil Bernstein’s theory of cultural transmission provides an external language of description to theorise the pedagogic choices made in specific contexts. This body of theory provides analytical tools for generating nuanced explanations of the significance of knowledge and curriculum structures as enabling and constraining mechanisms when pedagogic decisions are made. The study shows that the nature of the discipline has a significant influence on the emergence of service-learning and the form it takes in each context. Key agents draw on available structural and cultural mechanisms to either maintain the status quo or they exercise their personal properties and powers to mitigate existing conditions. The first case examines the emergence of service-learning in a ‘hard pure’ discipline where structural and cultural conditions constrain the emergence of innovative pedagogic tools. In this case a key agent draws on a confluence of personal, structural and cultural emergent properties to initiate a service-learning course at the honours level. Factors that make service-learning possible in this case include the key agent’s seniority within the institution, his status as a prolific researcher, the possibilities for application of disciplinary knowledge, and a strong institutional discourse of service to society (RU in Society) and an institutional and departmental discourse privileging academic freedom. In the second case the conditions in the ‘hard applied’ discipline are largely enabling, however the emergence of service-learning is facilitated by the interplay of the following agential, structural and cultural emergent properties: corporate agency taking advantage of the outward focus of the discipline (a region in Bernsteinian terms) and drawing on what is termed the RU in Society discourse. The third case represents a ‘soft pure’ discipline, where service-learning does not emerge within the formal curriculum, but in a largely marginalised departmental outreach programme. This discipline is inward facing and although its knowledge base draws on challenges and phenomena in society, it remains at an esoteric level accessible mainly to the discipline community. Agents in this department draw on the insular structure of the discipline, in conjunction with the strong Academic Freedom discourse to develop a form of service-learning that furthers disciplinary aims, albeit within the context of limited engagement beyond the boundaries of the discipline and the institution. In the case of the ‘soft applied’ discipline the structural and cultural conditions are largely enabling. However the emergence of service-learning in this discipline relies on the advocacy of a powerful social agent in the department with an interest in socially equitable practice; she draws on the RU in Society discourse to promote direct engagement with communities beyond the university boundaries. The study is set in a research-intensive university and it is perhaps not surprising that the service-learning courses in three of the four cases are framed by research projects. This suggests that in the context of this kind of institution it may be imperative to draw on research activities as the basis of infusing service-learning in the curriculum. The findings of this study challenge the implicit assumption in policy documents that it is possible to institute service-learning in all disciplines.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Hlengwa, Amanda Immaculate
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Curricula -- Evaluation Service learning -- Research -- South Africa Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Evaluation Curriculum planning -- Research -- South Africa Experiential learning -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1888 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006036
- Description: Drawing on critical realist philosophy as a meta-theoretical framework, this study explores the conditions that enable and constrain the infusion of service-learning in university curricula. In this study, four discipline-based cases are analysed within the context of an overarching case of one South African university. The study reports on case study research into four disciplines, broadly representing the disciplinary array offered at Rhodes University, a small traditional research-intensive university in South Africa – four cases are thus embedded within a larger over-arching case. Margret Archer’s analytical dualism is used as an analytical lens for the inquiry. It offers tools for examining the conditions for the emergence of service learning and the form it takes in each case. Archer’s framework requires the artificial separation of structural, cultural and agential mechanisms for analytical purposes in order to establish the dominant factors impacting on the infusion of service-learning in curricula. An analysis of the interplay between structure, culture and agency uncovers insights into the conditions that enable or constrain the adoption of service learning as a pedagogic tool in specific disciplines. Curriculum decision-making is a central consideration in this study. Basil Bernstein’s theory of cultural transmission provides an external language of description to theorise the pedagogic choices made in specific contexts. This body of theory provides analytical tools for generating nuanced explanations of the significance of knowledge and curriculum structures as enabling and constraining mechanisms when pedagogic decisions are made. The study shows that the nature of the discipline has a significant influence on the emergence of service-learning and the form it takes in each context. Key agents draw on available structural and cultural mechanisms to either maintain the status quo or they exercise their personal properties and powers to mitigate existing conditions. The first case examines the emergence of service-learning in a ‘hard pure’ discipline where structural and cultural conditions constrain the emergence of innovative pedagogic tools. In this case a key agent draws on a confluence of personal, structural and cultural emergent properties to initiate a service-learning course at the honours level. Factors that make service-learning possible in this case include the key agent’s seniority within the institution, his status as a prolific researcher, the possibilities for application of disciplinary knowledge, and a strong institutional discourse of service to society (RU in Society) and an institutional and departmental discourse privileging academic freedom. In the second case the conditions in the ‘hard applied’ discipline are largely enabling, however the emergence of service-learning is facilitated by the interplay of the following agential, structural and cultural emergent properties: corporate agency taking advantage of the outward focus of the discipline (a region in Bernsteinian terms) and drawing on what is termed the RU in Society discourse. The third case represents a ‘soft pure’ discipline, where service-learning does not emerge within the formal curriculum, but in a largely marginalised departmental outreach programme. This discipline is inward facing and although its knowledge base draws on challenges and phenomena in society, it remains at an esoteric level accessible mainly to the discipline community. Agents in this department draw on the insular structure of the discipline, in conjunction with the strong Academic Freedom discourse to develop a form of service-learning that furthers disciplinary aims, albeit within the context of limited engagement beyond the boundaries of the discipline and the institution. In the case of the ‘soft applied’ discipline the structural and cultural conditions are largely enabling. However the emergence of service-learning in this discipline relies on the advocacy of a powerful social agent in the department with an interest in socially equitable practice; she draws on the RU in Society discourse to promote direct engagement with communities beyond the university boundaries. The study is set in a research-intensive university and it is perhaps not surprising that the service-learning courses in three of the four cases are framed by research projects. This suggests that in the context of this kind of institution it may be imperative to draw on research activities as the basis of infusing service-learning in the curriculum. The findings of this study challenge the implicit assumption in policy documents that it is possible to institute service-learning in all disciplines.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Examining emergent active learning processes as transformative praxis : the case of the schools and sustainability professional development programme
- Authors: Schudel, Ingrid Joan
- Date: 2013 , 2013-09-20
- Subjects: Active learning -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Student-centered learning -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006079
- Description: This is a study on the nature of learning, particularly the emergence of active learning processes in the case of an environmental education teacher professional development programme – the Eastern Cape Border-Kei cohort of the 2008 Schools and Sustainability Course. This was a part-time, one-year course supporting teachers to qualify, strengthen and deepen opportunities for environmental learning in the South African curriculum. An active learning framework (O’Donoghue, 2001) promoting teaching and learning with information, enquiry, action and reporting/reflection dimensions was integrated into the Schools and Sustainability course design to support these environmental learning opportunities. In this study, the notion of active learning is elaborated as a situated, action-oriented, deliberative and co-engaged approach to teaching and learning, and related to Bhaskar’s (1993) notion of transformative praxis. The study used a nested case study design, considering the case of six Foundation Phase teachers in six primary schools within the Border-Kei Schools and Sustainability cohort. Interviews, observations (of workshops and lesson plan implementation in classrooms) and document review of teacher portfolios (detailing course activities, lesson plans, learners’ work and learning and teaching support materials) were used to generate the bulk of the data. A critical realist theory underpinning the methodology enables a view of agency as emergent from social structures and mechanisms as elaborated in Archer’s (1998b) model of morphogenesis and Bhaskar’s (1993) model of four-planar being. The critical realist methodology also enables a view of emergent active learning processes as open-ended, responsive to particular potential, but dependent on contingencies (such as learning and teaching support materials, tools and methodologies). The analysis of emergent active learning processes focuses particularly on Bhaskar’s (1993) ontological-axiological chain (MELD schema) as a tool for analysing change. The MELD schema highlights1M ontological questions of what is (with emphasis on structures and generative mechanisms) and what could be (real, but non-actualised possibilities). It enables reflection on what mediating and interactive agential processes either reproduce what is or have the potential to transform what is to what could be (2E). Thirdly, the MELD schema enables reflection on what should be – this is the 3L “axiological moment” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9) where questions of values and ethics in relation to the holistic whole are raised. Finally, the schema raises questions (4D) of what can be, with ontologically grounded, context-sensitive and expressively veracious considerations. The study describes the agency of course tutors, teachers and learners involved in the Schools and Sustainability course, as emergent from a social-ecological context of poverty and inequality, and from an education system with a dual transformative and progressive intent (Taylor, 1999). It uses a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development (Janse van Rensburg & Mhoney, 2000) focusing on the development of autonomous (Bernstein, 1990) and reflexive teachers. With teachers well-disposed and qualified to fill a variety of roles in the classroom, these generative structures and mechanisms had the power to drive active learning processes with potential for manifestation as transformative praxis. Through the analysis of the active learning processes emergent from this context, the study shows that the manifestation of transformative praxis was contingent on relational situated learning, value-based reflexive deliberations, and an action-orientation with an emphasis on an iterative relationship between learning and doing. These findings enable a reframing of an interest in action in response to environmental issue and risk, to an interest in the processes that led up to that action. This provides a nuanced vision of active learning that does not judge an educational process by its outcome. Instead, it can be judged by the depth of the insights into absences (2E), the ability to guide moral deliberations on totality (3L), and by the degree of reality congruence (1M) in the lead up to the development of transformative agency (4D). The study also has a methodological interest. It contributes to educational and social science research in that it applies dialectical critical realist philosophy to a concrete context of active learning enquiry in environmental education. It reports on the value of the onto-axiolgical chain in describing a diachronic, emergent and open-ended process; in providing ontological grounding for analysis (1M); in understanding relationality in situated learing processes (2E); in focusing on value-based reflexive learning (3L) and in understanding transformative learning as “tensed socio-spatialising process” (Bhaskar, 1993: 160) where society is emergent from a stratified ontology, and agency and change are open-ended and flexible processes not wholly determined by the social structures from which they emerge (4D). Considering the knowledge interests defined in the 2011 South African Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education (South Africa. Department of Higher Education and Training, 2011) and the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) which were implemented in South Africa from 2012 (in a phased approach), the study concludes with recommendations for exploring environmental learning in the CAPS. The study proposes working with a knowledge-focused curriculum focusing on the exploration and deepening of foundational environmental concepts, developing relational situated learning processes for meaningful local application of knowledge, supporting transformative praxis through the “unity of theory and practice in practice” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9), and implementing a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Schudel, Ingrid Joan
- Date: 2013 , 2013-09-20
- Subjects: Active learning -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Student-centered learning -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1891 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006079
- Description: This is a study on the nature of learning, particularly the emergence of active learning processes in the case of an environmental education teacher professional development programme – the Eastern Cape Border-Kei cohort of the 2008 Schools and Sustainability Course. This was a part-time, one-year course supporting teachers to qualify, strengthen and deepen opportunities for environmental learning in the South African curriculum. An active learning framework (O’Donoghue, 2001) promoting teaching and learning with information, enquiry, action and reporting/reflection dimensions was integrated into the Schools and Sustainability course design to support these environmental learning opportunities. In this study, the notion of active learning is elaborated as a situated, action-oriented, deliberative and co-engaged approach to teaching and learning, and related to Bhaskar’s (1993) notion of transformative praxis. The study used a nested case study design, considering the case of six Foundation Phase teachers in six primary schools within the Border-Kei Schools and Sustainability cohort. Interviews, observations (of workshops and lesson plan implementation in classrooms) and document review of teacher portfolios (detailing course activities, lesson plans, learners’ work and learning and teaching support materials) were used to generate the bulk of the data. A critical realist theory underpinning the methodology enables a view of agency as emergent from social structures and mechanisms as elaborated in Archer’s (1998b) model of morphogenesis and Bhaskar’s (1993) model of four-planar being. The critical realist methodology also enables a view of emergent active learning processes as open-ended, responsive to particular potential, but dependent on contingencies (such as learning and teaching support materials, tools and methodologies). The analysis of emergent active learning processes focuses particularly on Bhaskar’s (1993) ontological-axiological chain (MELD schema) as a tool for analysing change. The MELD schema highlights1M ontological questions of what is (with emphasis on structures and generative mechanisms) and what could be (real, but non-actualised possibilities). It enables reflection on what mediating and interactive agential processes either reproduce what is or have the potential to transform what is to what could be (2E). Thirdly, the MELD schema enables reflection on what should be – this is the 3L “axiological moment” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9) where questions of values and ethics in relation to the holistic whole are raised. Finally, the schema raises questions (4D) of what can be, with ontologically grounded, context-sensitive and expressively veracious considerations. The study describes the agency of course tutors, teachers and learners involved in the Schools and Sustainability course, as emergent from a social-ecological context of poverty and inequality, and from an education system with a dual transformative and progressive intent (Taylor, 1999). It uses a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development (Janse van Rensburg & Mhoney, 2000) focusing on the development of autonomous (Bernstein, 1990) and reflexive teachers. With teachers well-disposed and qualified to fill a variety of roles in the classroom, these generative structures and mechanisms had the power to drive active learning processes with potential for manifestation as transformative praxis. Through the analysis of the active learning processes emergent from this context, the study shows that the manifestation of transformative praxis was contingent on relational situated learning, value-based reflexive deliberations, and an action-orientation with an emphasis on an iterative relationship between learning and doing. These findings enable a reframing of an interest in action in response to environmental issue and risk, to an interest in the processes that led up to that action. This provides a nuanced vision of active learning that does not judge an educational process by its outcome. Instead, it can be judged by the depth of the insights into absences (2E), the ability to guide moral deliberations on totality (3L), and by the degree of reality congruence (1M) in the lead up to the development of transformative agency (4D). The study also has a methodological interest. It contributes to educational and social science research in that it applies dialectical critical realist philosophy to a concrete context of active learning enquiry in environmental education. It reports on the value of the onto-axiolgical chain in describing a diachronic, emergent and open-ended process; in providing ontological grounding for analysis (1M); in understanding relationality in situated learing processes (2E); in focusing on value-based reflexive learning (3L) and in understanding transformative learning as “tensed socio-spatialising process” (Bhaskar, 1993: 160) where society is emergent from a stratified ontology, and agency and change are open-ended and flexible processes not wholly determined by the social structures from which they emerge (4D). Considering the knowledge interests defined in the 2011 South African Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education (South Africa. Department of Higher Education and Training, 2011) and the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) which were implemented in South Africa from 2012 (in a phased approach), the study concludes with recommendations for exploring environmental learning in the CAPS. The study proposes working with a knowledge-focused curriculum focusing on the exploration and deepening of foundational environmental concepts, developing relational situated learning processes for meaningful local application of knowledge, supporting transformative praxis through the “unity of theory and practice in practice” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9), and implementing a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Exploring and expanding capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in science teacher education : case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa
- Authors: Chikunda, Charles
- Date: 2013 , 2013-08-30
- Subjects: Science teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Case studies Science teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe -- Case studies Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Case studies Women in education -- South Africa -- Case studies Women in education -- Zimbabwe -- Case studies Environmental education -- Study and teaching -- Case studies Curriculum planning -- South Africa Curriculum planning -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006026
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore and expand capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects (SMTs) in teacher education curriculum practices as a process of Education for Sustainable Development in two case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study begins by discussing gender and science education discourse, locating it within Education for Sustainable Development discourse. Through this nexus, the study was able to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness of the curriculum practices of teacher educators in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects; scrutinise underlying mechanisms that affect (promote or constrain) gender and sustainability responsive curriculum practices; and understand if and how teacher education curriculum practices consider the functionings and capabilities of females in relation to increased socio-ecological risk in a Southern African context. Influenced by a curriculum transformation commitment, an expansive learning phase was conducted to promote gender and sustainability responsive pedagogies in teacher education curriculum practices. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes resulted in (re)conceptualising the curriculum practices (object), analysis of contradictions and developing new ways of doing work. Drawing from the sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with the three theoretical approaches of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), feminist theory and capabilities theory. The capability and feminist lenses were used in the exploration of gender and sustainability responsiveness in science teacher education curriculum practices. CHAT, through its associated methodology of Developmental Work Research, offered the opportunity for researcher and participants in this study to come together to question and analyse curriculum practices and model new ways of doing work. Case study research was used in two case studies of teacher education curriculum practices in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects, one in Zimbabwe and one in South Africa. Each case study is constituted with a networked activity system. The study used in-depth and focus group interviews and document analysis to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness in curriculum practices and to generate mirror data. Inductive and abductive modes of inference, and Critical Discourse Analysis were used to analyse data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to the expansive learning process. Findings from the exploration phase of the study revealed that most teacher educators in the two case studies had some basic levels of gender sensitivity, meaning that they had ability to perceive existing gender inequalities as it applies only to gender disaggregated data especially when it comes to enrolment and retention. However, there was no institutionalised pedagogic device in place in both case studies aimed at equipping future teachers with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to promote aspects of capabilities (well-being achievement, wellbeing freedom, agency achievement and agency freedom) for girls in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects. Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects teacher educators' curriculum practices were gender neutral, but in a gendered environment. This was a pedagogical tension that was visible in both case studies. On the other hand, socio-ecological issues, in cases where they were incorporated into the curriculum, were incorporated in a gender blind or gender neutral manner. Social ecological concerns such as climate change were treated as if they were not gendered both in their impact and in their mitigation and adaptation. It emerged that causal mechanisms shaping this situation were of a socio-political nature: there exist cultural differences between students and teacher educators; patriarchal ideology and hegemony; as well as other interfering binaries such as race and class. Other curriculum related constraints, though embedded in the socio-cultural-political nexus, include: rigid and content heavy curriculum, coupled with students who come into the system with inadequate content knowledge; and philosophy informing pedagogy namely scientism, with associated instrumentalist and functionalist tenets. All these led to contradictions between pedagogical practices with those expected by the Education for Sustainable Development framework. The study contributes in-depth insight into science teacher education curriculum development. By locating the study at the nexus of gender and Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects within the Education for Sustainable Development discourse, using the ontological lenses of feminist and capabilities, it was possible to interrogate aspects of quality and relevance of the science teacher education curriculum. The study also provides insight into participatory research and learning processes especially within the context of policy and curriculum development. It provides empirical evidence of mobilising reflexivity amongst both policy makers and policy implementers towards building human agency in policy translation for a curriculum transformation that is critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological risks. , Microsoft� Word 2010 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Chikunda, Charles
- Date: 2013 , 2013-08-30
- Subjects: Science teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Case studies Science teachers -- Training of -- Zimbabwe -- Case studies Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- Case studies Women in education -- South Africa -- Case studies Women in education -- Zimbabwe -- Case studies Environmental education -- Study and teaching -- Case studies Curriculum planning -- South Africa Curriculum planning -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006026
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore and expand capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects (SMTs) in teacher education curriculum practices as a process of Education for Sustainable Development in two case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study begins by discussing gender and science education discourse, locating it within Education for Sustainable Development discourse. Through this nexus, the study was able to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness of the curriculum practices of teacher educators in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects; scrutinise underlying mechanisms that affect (promote or constrain) gender and sustainability responsive curriculum practices; and understand if and how teacher education curriculum practices consider the functionings and capabilities of females in relation to increased socio-ecological risk in a Southern African context. Influenced by a curriculum transformation commitment, an expansive learning phase was conducted to promote gender and sustainability responsive pedagogies in teacher education curriculum practices. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes resulted in (re)conceptualising the curriculum practices (object), analysis of contradictions and developing new ways of doing work. Drawing from the sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with the three theoretical approaches of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), feminist theory and capabilities theory. The capability and feminist lenses were used in the exploration of gender and sustainability responsiveness in science teacher education curriculum practices. CHAT, through its associated methodology of Developmental Work Research, offered the opportunity for researcher and participants in this study to come together to question and analyse curriculum practices and model new ways of doing work. Case study research was used in two case studies of teacher education curriculum practices in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects, one in Zimbabwe and one in South Africa. Each case study is constituted with a networked activity system. The study used in-depth and focus group interviews and document analysis to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness in curriculum practices and to generate mirror data. Inductive and abductive modes of inference, and Critical Discourse Analysis were used to analyse data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to the expansive learning process. Findings from the exploration phase of the study revealed that most teacher educators in the two case studies had some basic levels of gender sensitivity, meaning that they had ability to perceive existing gender inequalities as it applies only to gender disaggregated data especially when it comes to enrolment and retention. However, there was no institutionalised pedagogic device in place in both case studies aimed at equipping future teachers with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to promote aspects of capabilities (well-being achievement, wellbeing freedom, agency achievement and agency freedom) for girls in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects. Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects teacher educators' curriculum practices were gender neutral, but in a gendered environment. This was a pedagogical tension that was visible in both case studies. On the other hand, socio-ecological issues, in cases where they were incorporated into the curriculum, were incorporated in a gender blind or gender neutral manner. Social ecological concerns such as climate change were treated as if they were not gendered both in their impact and in their mitigation and adaptation. It emerged that causal mechanisms shaping this situation were of a socio-political nature: there exist cultural differences between students and teacher educators; patriarchal ideology and hegemony; as well as other interfering binaries such as race and class. Other curriculum related constraints, though embedded in the socio-cultural-political nexus, include: rigid and content heavy curriculum, coupled with students who come into the system with inadequate content knowledge; and philosophy informing pedagogy namely scientism, with associated instrumentalist and functionalist tenets. All these led to contradictions between pedagogical practices with those expected by the Education for Sustainable Development framework. The study contributes in-depth insight into science teacher education curriculum development. By locating the study at the nexus of gender and Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects within the Education for Sustainable Development discourse, using the ontological lenses of feminist and capabilities, it was possible to interrogate aspects of quality and relevance of the science teacher education curriculum. The study also provides insight into participatory research and learning processes especially within the context of policy and curriculum development. It provides empirical evidence of mobilising reflexivity amongst both policy makers and policy implementers towards building human agency in policy translation for a curriculum transformation that is critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological risks. , Microsoft� Word 2010 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Pedagogical ways-of-knowing in the design studio
- Authors: Kethro, Philippa
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Graphic arts -- Education (Higher) Interior decoration -- Education (Higher) Fashion design -- Education (Higher) Industrial design -- Education (Higher) Aesthetics, Modern Art -- Philosophy Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives Interaction analysis in education Visual literacy Critical realism Communication and education
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1840 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004338
- Description: This research addresses the effect of pedagogical ways-of-knowing in higher education design programmes such as Graphic Design, Interior Design, Fashion, and Industrial Design. One problematic aspect of design studio pedagogy is communication between teachers and students about the aesthetic visual meaning of the students’ designed objects. This problematic issue involves ambiguous and divergent ways-of-knowing the design meaning of these objects. The research focus is on the design teacher role in design studio interactions, and regards pedagogical ways-of-knowing as the ways in which teachers expect students to know visual design meaning. This pedagogical issue is complicated by the fact that there is no agreed-upon corpus of domain knowledge in design, so visual meaning depends greatly on the social knowledge retained by students and teachers. The thesis pursues an explanation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing that is approached through the philosophy of critical realism. How it is that particular events and experiences come to occur in a particular way is the general focus of critical realist philosophy. A critical realist approach to explanation is the use of abductive inference, or inference as to how it is that puzzling empirical circumstances emerge. An abductive strategy aims to explain how such circumstances emerge by considering them in a new light. This is done in this study by applying Luhmann’s theory of the emergence of cognition in communication to teacher ways-of-knowing in the design studio. Through the substantive use of Luhmann’s theory, an abductive conjecture of pedagogical ways-of-knowing is mounted. This conjecture is brought to bear on an examination of research data, in order to explain how pedagogical ways of-knowing constrain or enable the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The abductive analysis explains three design pedagogical ways-of-knowing: design inquiry, design representation and design intent. These operate as macro relational mechanisms that either enable or constrain the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The mechanism of relation is between design inquiry, design representation and design intent as historical knowing structures, and ways-of-knowing in respect of each of these knowing structures. For example, design inquiry as an historical knowing structure has over time moved from ways-of-knowing such as rationalistic problem solving to direct social observation and later to interpretive cultural analysis. The antecedence of these ways-of-knowing is important because communication about visual meaning depends upon prior knowledge, and teachers may then reproduce past ways-of-knowing. The many ways-of-knowing that respectively relate to design inquiry, design representation and design intent are shown to be communicatively formed and recursive over time. From a Luhmannian perspective, these ways-of-knowing operate as variational distinctions that indicate or relate to the knowing structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This is the micro-level operation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing as relational mechanisms in design studio communication. Design teachers’ own ways-of-knowing may then embrace implicit way-of-knowing distinctions that indicate the knowledge structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This implicit indication by distinction is the relational mechanism that may bring design teachers’ expectation that this and not that visual design meaning should apply in communication about any student’s designed object. Such an expectation influences communication between teachers and students about the potential future meaning of students’ designs. Consequently, shared visual design meaning may or may not emerge. The research explanation brings the opportunity for design teachers to make explicit the often implicit way-of-knowing distinctions they use, and to relate these distinctions to the knowing structures thus indicated. The study then offers a new perspective on the old design pedagogical problem of design studio conflict over the meaning of students’ designs. Options for applying this research explanation in design studio interactions between students and teachers are therefore suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Kethro, Philippa
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Graphic arts -- Education (Higher) Interior decoration -- Education (Higher) Fashion design -- Education (Higher) Industrial design -- Education (Higher) Aesthetics, Modern Art -- Philosophy Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives Interaction analysis in education Visual literacy Critical realism Communication and education
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1840 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004338
- Description: This research addresses the effect of pedagogical ways-of-knowing in higher education design programmes such as Graphic Design, Interior Design, Fashion, and Industrial Design. One problematic aspect of design studio pedagogy is communication between teachers and students about the aesthetic visual meaning of the students’ designed objects. This problematic issue involves ambiguous and divergent ways-of-knowing the design meaning of these objects. The research focus is on the design teacher role in design studio interactions, and regards pedagogical ways-of-knowing as the ways in which teachers expect students to know visual design meaning. This pedagogical issue is complicated by the fact that there is no agreed-upon corpus of domain knowledge in design, so visual meaning depends greatly on the social knowledge retained by students and teachers. The thesis pursues an explanation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing that is approached through the philosophy of critical realism. How it is that particular events and experiences come to occur in a particular way is the general focus of critical realist philosophy. A critical realist approach to explanation is the use of abductive inference, or inference as to how it is that puzzling empirical circumstances emerge. An abductive strategy aims to explain how such circumstances emerge by considering them in a new light. This is done in this study by applying Luhmann’s theory of the emergence of cognition in communication to teacher ways-of-knowing in the design studio. Through the substantive use of Luhmann’s theory, an abductive conjecture of pedagogical ways-of-knowing is mounted. This conjecture is brought to bear on an examination of research data, in order to explain how pedagogical ways of-knowing constrain or enable the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The abductive analysis explains three design pedagogical ways-of-knowing: design inquiry, design representation and design intent. These operate as macro relational mechanisms that either enable or constrain the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The mechanism of relation is between design inquiry, design representation and design intent as historical knowing structures, and ways-of-knowing in respect of each of these knowing structures. For example, design inquiry as an historical knowing structure has over time moved from ways-of-knowing such as rationalistic problem solving to direct social observation and later to interpretive cultural analysis. The antecedence of these ways-of-knowing is important because communication about visual meaning depends upon prior knowledge, and teachers may then reproduce past ways-of-knowing. The many ways-of-knowing that respectively relate to design inquiry, design representation and design intent are shown to be communicatively formed and recursive over time. From a Luhmannian perspective, these ways-of-knowing operate as variational distinctions that indicate or relate to the knowing structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This is the micro-level operation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing as relational mechanisms in design studio communication. Design teachers’ own ways-of-knowing may then embrace implicit way-of-knowing distinctions that indicate the knowledge structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This implicit indication by distinction is the relational mechanism that may bring design teachers’ expectation that this and not that visual design meaning should apply in communication about any student’s designed object. Such an expectation influences communication between teachers and students about the potential future meaning of students’ designs. Consequently, shared visual design meaning may or may not emerge. The research explanation brings the opportunity for design teachers to make explicit the often implicit way-of-knowing distinctions they use, and to relate these distinctions to the knowing structures thus indicated. The study then offers a new perspective on the old design pedagogical problem of design studio conflict over the meaning of students’ designs. Options for applying this research explanation in design studio interactions between students and teachers are therefore suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Positions on the mat : a micro-ethnographic study of teachers' and learners' co-construction of an early literacy practice
- Authors: Van der Mescht, Caroline
- Date: 2013 , 2013-06-10
- Subjects: Literacy -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape English language -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape English literature -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Education, Primary -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Teachers -- Psychology Language and culture
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1836 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004333
- Description: Thesis embargoed until end of 2023. , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Van der Mescht, Caroline
- Date: 2013 , 2013-06-10
- Subjects: Literacy -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape English language -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape English literature -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Education, Primary -- Research -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Teachers -- Psychology Language and culture
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1836 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004333
- Description: Thesis embargoed until end of 2023. , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Representation and use of indigenous heritage constructs : implications for the quality and relevance of heritage education in post colonial southern Africa
- Authors: Zazu, Cryton
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Albany Museum (Grahamstown, South Africa) Cultural property -- Conservation and restoration -- Research -- Africa, Southern Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city) Indigenous peoples -- Material culture -- Africa, Southern Anthropological museums and collections -- Management -- Research -- Africa, Southern Cultural property -- Management -- Research Ethnoscience -- Study and teaching -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1407 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002015
- Description: This study explores representation and use of indigenous heritage constructs with a view to identifying implications thereof for the quality and relevance of heritage education practices in post colonial southern Africa. Framed within a critical hermeneutic research paradigm under-laboured by critical realist ontology, the study was conducted using a multiple case study research design. The data collection protocol was three-phased, starting with a process of contextual profiling, within which insights were gained into discourses shaping the constitution and orientation of heritage education practices at the Albany Museum in South Africa, the Great Zimbabwe Monument in Zimbabwe and the Supa Ngwao Museum in Botswana. The second phase of data collection entailed modelling workshops in which educators engaged in discussion around the status of heritage education in post apartheid South Africa. This highlighted, through modelled lessons, some of the tensions, challenges and implications for working with notions of social transformation and inclusivity in heritage education. The third phase of data collection involved in-depth interviews. Twelve purposively selected research participants were interviewed between 2010 and 2011. Data generated across the study was processed and subjected to different levels of critical discourse analysis. Besides noting how heritage education in post colonial southern Africa is poorly framed and under-researched, this study revealed that current forms of representing indigenous heritage constructs are influenced more by socio-political discourses than the need to protect and conserve local heritage resources. The study also noted that the observed heritage education practices are oriented more towards addressing issues related to marginalisation and alienation of indigenous cultures and practices, than enhancing learners’ agency to manage and utilise local heritage resources in a more sustainable ways. Based on these findings the study recommends re-positioning heritage education within the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ESD acknowledges both issues of social justice and the dialectical interplay between nature and culture; as such, it may allow for representation and use of indigenous heritage constructs in ways that expand current political orientations to include sustainability as an additional objective of heritage education. Given that little research focusing on heritage education has been undertaken within southern Africa, the findings of this study provide a basis upon which future research may emerge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Zazu, Cryton
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Albany Museum (Grahamstown, South Africa) Cultural property -- Conservation and restoration -- Research -- Africa, Southern Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city) Indigenous peoples -- Material culture -- Africa, Southern Anthropological museums and collections -- Management -- Research -- Africa, Southern Cultural property -- Management -- Research Ethnoscience -- Study and teaching -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1407 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002015
- Description: This study explores representation and use of indigenous heritage constructs with a view to identifying implications thereof for the quality and relevance of heritage education practices in post colonial southern Africa. Framed within a critical hermeneutic research paradigm under-laboured by critical realist ontology, the study was conducted using a multiple case study research design. The data collection protocol was three-phased, starting with a process of contextual profiling, within which insights were gained into discourses shaping the constitution and orientation of heritage education practices at the Albany Museum in South Africa, the Great Zimbabwe Monument in Zimbabwe and the Supa Ngwao Museum in Botswana. The second phase of data collection entailed modelling workshops in which educators engaged in discussion around the status of heritage education in post apartheid South Africa. This highlighted, through modelled lessons, some of the tensions, challenges and implications for working with notions of social transformation and inclusivity in heritage education. The third phase of data collection involved in-depth interviews. Twelve purposively selected research participants were interviewed between 2010 and 2011. Data generated across the study was processed and subjected to different levels of critical discourse analysis. Besides noting how heritage education in post colonial southern Africa is poorly framed and under-researched, this study revealed that current forms of representing indigenous heritage constructs are influenced more by socio-political discourses than the need to protect and conserve local heritage resources. The study also noted that the observed heritage education practices are oriented more towards addressing issues related to marginalisation and alienation of indigenous cultures and practices, than enhancing learners’ agency to manage and utilise local heritage resources in a more sustainable ways. Based on these findings the study recommends re-positioning heritage education within the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ESD acknowledges both issues of social justice and the dialectical interplay between nature and culture; as such, it may allow for representation and use of indigenous heritage constructs in ways that expand current political orientations to include sustainability as an additional objective of heritage education. Given that little research focusing on heritage education has been undertaken within southern Africa, the findings of this study provide a basis upon which future research may emerge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »