Supervision : a Foucaultian exploration of institutional and interpersonal power relations between postgraduate supervisors, their students and the university domain
- Authors: Rau, Asta
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Methodology Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Criticism and interpretation Graduate students -- Supervision of Dissertations, Academic
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1786 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003671
- Description: Supervision is widely acknowledged as influencing the quality of postgraduate theses, and by association, of postgraduates. Despite this, publications on conducting research offer far less guidance on managing the supervision relationship than on the practicalities of producing a thesis. In-depth, qualitative supervision studies are few and fewer still examine power in the supervision relationship. Michel Foucault’s insights are used to explore the question: How do postgraduate supervisors and their Master’s students experience the supervision relationship and how are the dynamics of interpersonal and institutional power implicated in these relationships? Foucault argues that power relations always involve resistances; these function primarily through institutionalized discourses to produce different forms of knowledge, one form of which is identity or subjectivity. Accordingly, power relations are explored in terms of thesis-as-product, person-as-product and the impact of both on the mediation of knowledge in the educational domain. Four institutionalized discourses in the university domain are examined: · Commercial educational management discourse: targets academics through issues of quality assurance, throughput, publication, research productivity and funding. · Anarchic educational leadership discourse: integrates quantum principles with commercial demands, change management strategies and meaningful participation. · Humanistic discourse: favours a pastoral ethic and is person-centered. · Holistic discourse: cultivates ecological sensibility and values the interconnectedness of all aspects of being-in-the-world. Data collected in sixteen semi-structured interviews with three matched supervisor-student pairs selected from the humanities and education faculties of one South African university, are presented as case studies. Data analysis combines grounded theory techniques with selected aspects of Foucault’s methods. A conceptual model is devised to analyse how participants use resistance strategies to interface their autonomy and dependency with their expectations, abilities, and professional and pastoral care. The research yields rich data in which several thematic correlations in interpersonal and institutional power dynamics are grounded. These include: the significance of supervisor-student matching; links between expectations, abilities, the way participants negotiate power and the quality of professional and pastoral care they experience; the benefit of personal affinity to thesis-as-product and person-as-product; and the impact of commercial demands on participants’ power relations. Participants tend to reproduce the discourses in which they are embedded and adopt or adapt aspects of contesting discourses to this end. Potential avenues are identified for improving supervision practice and for further research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
- Authors: Rau, Asta
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Methodology Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Criticism and interpretation Graduate students -- Supervision of Dissertations, Academic
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1786 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003671
- Description: Supervision is widely acknowledged as influencing the quality of postgraduate theses, and by association, of postgraduates. Despite this, publications on conducting research offer far less guidance on managing the supervision relationship than on the practicalities of producing a thesis. In-depth, qualitative supervision studies are few and fewer still examine power in the supervision relationship. Michel Foucault’s insights are used to explore the question: How do postgraduate supervisors and their Master’s students experience the supervision relationship and how are the dynamics of interpersonal and institutional power implicated in these relationships? Foucault argues that power relations always involve resistances; these function primarily through institutionalized discourses to produce different forms of knowledge, one form of which is identity or subjectivity. Accordingly, power relations are explored in terms of thesis-as-product, person-as-product and the impact of both on the mediation of knowledge in the educational domain. Four institutionalized discourses in the university domain are examined: · Commercial educational management discourse: targets academics through issues of quality assurance, throughput, publication, research productivity and funding. · Anarchic educational leadership discourse: integrates quantum principles with commercial demands, change management strategies and meaningful participation. · Humanistic discourse: favours a pastoral ethic and is person-centered. · Holistic discourse: cultivates ecological sensibility and values the interconnectedness of all aspects of being-in-the-world. Data collected in sixteen semi-structured interviews with three matched supervisor-student pairs selected from the humanities and education faculties of one South African university, are presented as case studies. Data analysis combines grounded theory techniques with selected aspects of Foucault’s methods. A conceptual model is devised to analyse how participants use resistance strategies to interface their autonomy and dependency with their expectations, abilities, and professional and pastoral care. The research yields rich data in which several thematic correlations in interpersonal and institutional power dynamics are grounded. These include: the significance of supervisor-student matching; links between expectations, abilities, the way participants negotiate power and the quality of professional and pastoral care they experience; the benefit of personal affinity to thesis-as-product and person-as-product; and the impact of commercial demands on participants’ power relations. Participants tend to reproduce the discourses in which they are embedded and adopt or adapt aspects of contesting discourses to this end. Potential avenues are identified for improving supervision practice and for further research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
Teacher educators' interpretation and practice of learner-centred pedagogy : a case study
- Authors: Nyambe, Kamwi John
- Date: 2013-07-16
- Subjects: Bernstein, Basil B Education -- Philosophy Education (Higher) -- Namibia Teacher educators -- Namibia -- Case studies Universities and colleges -- Namibia -- Case studies Teachers -- Traning of -- Namibia -- Case studies Teachers -- In-service training -- Namibia Student-centered learning -- Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1954 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008260
- Description: The objective of this study was to understand how teacher educators in a Namibian college of education interpret and practice the learner-centred pedagogy underpinning the Basic Education Teachers Diploma (BETD) program. In order to achieve this objective, a case study approach was adopted, qualitative-interpretive in orientation and drawing upon interviews, naturalistic non-participant observation and document analysis. Bernstein's theory of pedagogy - in particular his notion ofrecontextualization - offered ideas and concepts that were used to generate and analyse data. The data indicated that, at the level of description, teacher educators interpreted leamercentred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on weak rules of regulative discourse, or a weak power relation between themselves and their student teachers. The weakening of the rules of regulative discourse and the waning of educator authority were indicated in the interview narratives, which evoked a pedagogic context characterized by a repositioning of the student teacher from the margins to the centre of the classroom, where he or she enjoyed a more active and visible pedagogic position. Contrary to the dis empowering dynamic within classroom practice under the apartheid dispensation, the repositioning of the student teacher suggested a shift of power towards him or her. Similarly, the identification of the teacher educator as afacilitator, which featured prominently in the interview narratives, further suggested a weakening or diminishing of the pedagogic authority of the teacher educator. With regard to rules pertaining to the instructional discourse, the data revealed an interpretation of leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong framing over the selection of discourses, weak framing over pacing, and strong framing over sequencing and criteria for evaluation. When correlated with the interview data, the data generated through lesson observation and teacher educator prepared documents such as lesson plans revealed a disjuncture between teacher educators' ideas about leamer-centred pedagogy and their practice of it. Contrary to the interviews, lesson observation data revealed that teacher educators implemented leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong internal framing over rules of the regulative discourse. Data further indicated strong internal framing over the selection, sequencing, pacing and evaluation. The study concluded that while some teacher educators could produce an accurate interpretation oflearner-centred pedagogy at the level of description, most of them did not do so at the level of practice. Findings revealed structural and personal-psychological factors that constrained teacher educators' recontextualization of the new pedagogy. A narrow understanding of leamercentred pedagogy that concentrated only on changing teacher educators' pedagogical approaches from teacher-centred to learner-centred, while ignoring structural and systematic factors, tended to dominate not only the interview narratives but also official texts. Learner-centred pedagogy was understood as a matter of changing from teachercentredness to leamer-centredness while frame factors, for instance regarding the selection, pacing or sequencing of discourses, still followed the traditional approach. The study recommends the adoption of a systematic and deliberate approach to address the multiplicity of factors involved in enabling teacher educators to interpret and implement leamer-centred pedagogy at the micro-level of their classrooms. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nyambe, Kamwi John
- Date: 2013-07-16
- Subjects: Bernstein, Basil B Education -- Philosophy Education (Higher) -- Namibia Teacher educators -- Namibia -- Case studies Universities and colleges -- Namibia -- Case studies Teachers -- Traning of -- Namibia -- Case studies Teachers -- In-service training -- Namibia Student-centered learning -- Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1954 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008260
- Description: The objective of this study was to understand how teacher educators in a Namibian college of education interpret and practice the learner-centred pedagogy underpinning the Basic Education Teachers Diploma (BETD) program. In order to achieve this objective, a case study approach was adopted, qualitative-interpretive in orientation and drawing upon interviews, naturalistic non-participant observation and document analysis. Bernstein's theory of pedagogy - in particular his notion ofrecontextualization - offered ideas and concepts that were used to generate and analyse data. The data indicated that, at the level of description, teacher educators interpreted leamercentred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on weak rules of regulative discourse, or a weak power relation between themselves and their student teachers. The weakening of the rules of regulative discourse and the waning of educator authority were indicated in the interview narratives, which evoked a pedagogic context characterized by a repositioning of the student teacher from the margins to the centre of the classroom, where he or she enjoyed a more active and visible pedagogic position. Contrary to the dis empowering dynamic within classroom practice under the apartheid dispensation, the repositioning of the student teacher suggested a shift of power towards him or her. Similarly, the identification of the teacher educator as afacilitator, which featured prominently in the interview narratives, further suggested a weakening or diminishing of the pedagogic authority of the teacher educator. With regard to rules pertaining to the instructional discourse, the data revealed an interpretation of leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong framing over the selection of discourses, weak framing over pacing, and strong framing over sequencing and criteria for evaluation. When correlated with the interview data, the data generated through lesson observation and teacher educator prepared documents such as lesson plans revealed a disjuncture between teacher educators' ideas about leamer-centred pedagogy and their practice of it. Contrary to the interviews, lesson observation data revealed that teacher educators implemented leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong internal framing over rules of the regulative discourse. Data further indicated strong internal framing over the selection, sequencing, pacing and evaluation. The study concluded that while some teacher educators could produce an accurate interpretation oflearner-centred pedagogy at the level of description, most of them did not do so at the level of practice. Findings revealed structural and personal-psychological factors that constrained teacher educators' recontextualization of the new pedagogy. A narrow understanding of leamercentred pedagogy that concentrated only on changing teacher educators' pedagogical approaches from teacher-centred to learner-centred, while ignoring structural and systematic factors, tended to dominate not only the interview narratives but also official texts. Learner-centred pedagogy was understood as a matter of changing from teachercentredness to leamer-centredness while frame factors, for instance regarding the selection, pacing or sequencing of discourses, still followed the traditional approach. The study recommends the adoption of a systematic and deliberate approach to address the multiplicity of factors involved in enabling teacher educators to interpret and implement leamer-centred pedagogy at the micro-level of their classrooms. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
Teachers as recontextualisers: a case study analysis of outcomes-based assessment policy implementation in two South African schools
- Authors: Wilmot, Pamela Dianne
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Competency-based education -- South Africa Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Case studies Educational change -- South Africa Teacher participation in curriculum planning -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1792 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003677
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of outcomes-based assessment in Grade 9 Human and Social Sciences of Curriculum 2005 in two South African schools. The research consists of two parts: Phase One, 2002 to 2003, was a qualitative case study, interpretive in orientation and using ethnographic techniques, aimed at understanding teachers’ responses to curriculum policy and the role of a school-based intervention, located within critically reflexive practice, in supporting change. During this phase, I was a co-participant operating from an insider position. During Phase Two, 2004-2005, I withdrew from the schools and took up an outsider position in order to analyse and theorise the case study. The findings of the interpretive review revealed a fascinating process of change, with some unexpected results that I lacked the theoretical and methodological tools to process. With support from critical friends, I realised that a dynamic and social process of knowledge recontextualisation had taken place, and that the research had moved beyond its initial goals. Not wishing to compromise my integrity as a qualitative researcher, I changed direction and made use of Basil Bernstein’s theorising (1990, 1996) to arrive at a suitable vantage point for the analysis. The main contention of this thesis is that the new OBE curriculum framework offers exciting opportunities for teacher participation in curriculum processes. However, if teachers are to maximise these and become agents of change, they need to acquire the rules of recontextualisation and reposition themselves in the recontextualising field. This implies epistemological empowerment, which takes time and mediation but which can be achieved through an approach to teacher professional development located in critically reflexive practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Wilmot, Pamela Dianne
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Competency-based education -- South Africa Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Case studies Educational change -- South Africa Teacher participation in curriculum planning -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1792 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003677
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of outcomes-based assessment in Grade 9 Human and Social Sciences of Curriculum 2005 in two South African schools. The research consists of two parts: Phase One, 2002 to 2003, was a qualitative case study, interpretive in orientation and using ethnographic techniques, aimed at understanding teachers’ responses to curriculum policy and the role of a school-based intervention, located within critically reflexive practice, in supporting change. During this phase, I was a co-participant operating from an insider position. During Phase Two, 2004-2005, I withdrew from the schools and took up an outsider position in order to analyse and theorise the case study. The findings of the interpretive review revealed a fascinating process of change, with some unexpected results that I lacked the theoretical and methodological tools to process. With support from critical friends, I realised that a dynamic and social process of knowledge recontextualisation had taken place, and that the research had moved beyond its initial goals. Not wishing to compromise my integrity as a qualitative researcher, I changed direction and made use of Basil Bernstein’s theorising (1990, 1996) to arrive at a suitable vantage point for the analysis. The main contention of this thesis is that the new OBE curriculum framework offers exciting opportunities for teacher participation in curriculum processes. However, if teachers are to maximise these and become agents of change, they need to acquire the rules of recontextualisation and reposition themselves in the recontextualising field. This implies epistemological empowerment, which takes time and mediation but which can be achieved through an approach to teacher professional development located in critically reflexive practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Teachers’ experiences of change : a case study analysis of a school-based intervention in rural Kwazulu-Natal
- Authors: James, Sally Jane
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: David Rattray Foundation , Educational change -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Case studies , Rural schools -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Community and school -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Social conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1980 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013118
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of the school-based intervention initiated by the David Rattray Foundation [DRF]. David Rattray, a South African historian well known for his contribution to the 1879-1896 Anglo-Zulu War heritage, was murdered in January 2007. In response to his untimely death, the DRF was established by family and friends with the hope of improving education within the Umzinyathi rural municipal district of KwaZulu-Natal. This study consisted of three phases: Phase I (May-December 2011); Phase II (January-December 2012), and Phase III (December 2012-October 2013). During Phase I, the focus was on describing the broader context in which the case is located. It resulted in a narrative account of the emergence of the DRF as a non-governmental organisation [NGO] working towards change within the local rural school community. During Phase II the focus shifted from the broader socio-political and economic context to the human dimension which included teachers, principals, volunteer workers and a district official working in the schools. During Phase II the approach to change adopted by the DRF was critically analysed in relation to models of change described in the literature. Teachers’ experiences of change were also examined. Phase III was a synthesis of the findings from the first two research phases. By drawing on systems and complexity theory perspectives, insights were gained enabling a deep understanding of the DRF’s school-based intervention as a whole. This research is a qualitative study that seeks to understand individual teachers’ experiences and participation in a process of change that reaches beyond the individual and his/her immediate context. The adoption of a realist ontology (Maxwell, 2012) and application of an explanatory heuristic based on the critical realist philosophy of Bhaskar (1979, 1980, 2011) enabled the layered analysis and in-depth interpretation that characterises the study. The findings of the study reveal a complex and ongoing process of change within a rural school context. The results illuminate the efficacy of a collaborative partnership between civil society (the DRF), the local community, under the leadership of a tribal authority, and the local government (KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Education). It also reveals how teachers within this particular context do not have a strong voice in the change process and hence participate only superficially in the school-based intervention. It is probable that the constraining mechanisms revealed through this research are not exclusive to this particular case study, but are common across the South African rural school context. The main contention of this thesis is that these mechanisms need further interrogation in order to enable further change and permit the active participation of teachers in the process.While the study illuminates many of the tensions and problems faced by the schools and the community in which they are located, it also highlights the achievements and selfless attitude of many people working towards change and improvement within the schools. This case study thus provides an example to all South Africans of what can be achieved with commitment and effort.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: James, Sally Jane
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: David Rattray Foundation , Educational change -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Case studies , Rural schools -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Community and school -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Social conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1980 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013118
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of the school-based intervention initiated by the David Rattray Foundation [DRF]. David Rattray, a South African historian well known for his contribution to the 1879-1896 Anglo-Zulu War heritage, was murdered in January 2007. In response to his untimely death, the DRF was established by family and friends with the hope of improving education within the Umzinyathi rural municipal district of KwaZulu-Natal. This study consisted of three phases: Phase I (May-December 2011); Phase II (January-December 2012), and Phase III (December 2012-October 2013). During Phase I, the focus was on describing the broader context in which the case is located. It resulted in a narrative account of the emergence of the DRF as a non-governmental organisation [NGO] working towards change within the local rural school community. During Phase II the focus shifted from the broader socio-political and economic context to the human dimension which included teachers, principals, volunteer workers and a district official working in the schools. During Phase II the approach to change adopted by the DRF was critically analysed in relation to models of change described in the literature. Teachers’ experiences of change were also examined. Phase III was a synthesis of the findings from the first two research phases. By drawing on systems and complexity theory perspectives, insights were gained enabling a deep understanding of the DRF’s school-based intervention as a whole. This research is a qualitative study that seeks to understand individual teachers’ experiences and participation in a process of change that reaches beyond the individual and his/her immediate context. The adoption of a realist ontology (Maxwell, 2012) and application of an explanatory heuristic based on the critical realist philosophy of Bhaskar (1979, 1980, 2011) enabled the layered analysis and in-depth interpretation that characterises the study. The findings of the study reveal a complex and ongoing process of change within a rural school context. The results illuminate the efficacy of a collaborative partnership between civil society (the DRF), the local community, under the leadership of a tribal authority, and the local government (KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Education). It also reveals how teachers within this particular context do not have a strong voice in the change process and hence participate only superficially in the school-based intervention. It is probable that the constraining mechanisms revealed through this research are not exclusive to this particular case study, but are common across the South African rural school context. The main contention of this thesis is that these mechanisms need further interrogation in order to enable further change and permit the active participation of teachers in the process.While the study illuminates many of the tensions and problems faced by the schools and the community in which they are located, it also highlights the achievements and selfless attitude of many people working towards change and improvement within the schools. This case study thus provides an example to all South Africans of what can be achieved with commitment and effort.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Teachers’ perceptions, experiences and challenges related to using ICTs in teaching Social Sciences in marginalised classrooms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Gunzo, Fortunate Takawira
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Social sciences -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Technological innovations -- Employee participation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Attitudes , Technological innovations -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Technology Acceptance Model , Teacher Cognitions theory
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146964 , vital:38581
- Description: This study seeks to examine teachers’ perceptions and experiences of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching as the basis for actual use in the classroom. I conducted an eclectic study with a multidisciplinary theoretical viewpoint combining theories from Information Technology (IT) and education to examine how perceptions and prior experiences with ICT influence cross-curriculum ICT integration. Specific aspects of five theories and models were used in different phases of this study. I drew on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Teacher Cognitions theory to understand teachers’ perceptions towards ICT in general and towards ICT in the classroom. The classroom observations were conducted using an observation guide informed by Activity theory. I then utilised the Adoption of Innovation and the Diffusion of Innovation theories to explain why and how ICT was utilised in the classrooms. A mixed methods research approach located within a pragmatic paradigm was chosen. Three data sets were collected. First, a questionnaire of attitudes and perceptions towards ICT was conducted with 183 teachers (mainly working at marginalised schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa). Questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a chi-square correlations test. Second, teachers enrolled in an in-service Advanced Certificate in Education specializing in ICT (ACE-ICT) at Rhodes University were supported in planning and implementing an intervention involving the use of a mobile computer lab in rural and peri-urban schools. Three key participants were observed while teaching in class using ICT for the first time and they were subsequently interviewed. Third, drawing from lessons learnt from this experience, students in the in-service education bachelor’s degree in ICT (BEd-ICT) – which replaced the in-service ACE-ICT – were supported and encouraged to experiment with cross-curriculum integration using ICT already at their disposal. Planning and reflections by three in-service BEd-ICT teachers were subjected to theory-based document thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the vast majority of the teachers had positive attitudes towards ICT and perceived ICT as useful, mainly as a productivity tool in teaching. ICT was used mostly for administration, planning and preparation of lessons and not for teaching or as a cognitive tool. Despite all key participants having access to similar ICTs and support, their experiences of teaching with ICT were different based on their personal commitment, access to and frequency of use of ICTs in their personal lives. Teachers who were self-motivated to use ICT in their teaching made efforts to do so regardless of infrastructure and resource challenges they faced at their schools. The main barriers to the use of ICT in the classroom appear to be lack of technical support and time constraints.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Gunzo, Fortunate Takawira
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Social sciences -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Technological innovations -- Employee participation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Teachers -- Attitudes , Technological innovations -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Technology Acceptance Model , Teacher Cognitions theory
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146964 , vital:38581
- Description: This study seeks to examine teachers’ perceptions and experiences of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching as the basis for actual use in the classroom. I conducted an eclectic study with a multidisciplinary theoretical viewpoint combining theories from Information Technology (IT) and education to examine how perceptions and prior experiences with ICT influence cross-curriculum ICT integration. Specific aspects of five theories and models were used in different phases of this study. I drew on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Teacher Cognitions theory to understand teachers’ perceptions towards ICT in general and towards ICT in the classroom. The classroom observations were conducted using an observation guide informed by Activity theory. I then utilised the Adoption of Innovation and the Diffusion of Innovation theories to explain why and how ICT was utilised in the classrooms. A mixed methods research approach located within a pragmatic paradigm was chosen. Three data sets were collected. First, a questionnaire of attitudes and perceptions towards ICT was conducted with 183 teachers (mainly working at marginalised schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa). Questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a chi-square correlations test. Second, teachers enrolled in an in-service Advanced Certificate in Education specializing in ICT (ACE-ICT) at Rhodes University were supported in planning and implementing an intervention involving the use of a mobile computer lab in rural and peri-urban schools. Three key participants were observed while teaching in class using ICT for the first time and they were subsequently interviewed. Third, drawing from lessons learnt from this experience, students in the in-service education bachelor’s degree in ICT (BEd-ICT) – which replaced the in-service ACE-ICT – were supported and encouraged to experiment with cross-curriculum integration using ICT already at their disposal. Planning and reflections by three in-service BEd-ICT teachers were subjected to theory-based document thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the vast majority of the teachers had positive attitudes towards ICT and perceived ICT as useful, mainly as a productivity tool in teaching. ICT was used mostly for administration, planning and preparation of lessons and not for teaching or as a cognitive tool. Despite all key participants having access to similar ICTs and support, their experiences of teaching with ICT were different based on their personal commitment, access to and frequency of use of ICTs in their personal lives. Teachers who were self-motivated to use ICT in their teaching made efforts to do so regardless of infrastructure and resource challenges they faced at their schools. The main barriers to the use of ICT in the classroom appear to be lack of technical support and time constraints.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The computer in secondary school mathematics : an analysis and classification of possible modes of application, with suggested implications for the mathematics curriculum in South Africa
- Authors: Marsh, Terence Anthony
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Computer-assisted instruction Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1459 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003340
- Description: There is a variety of possible ways in which computers can be used to enhance mathematics education. This thesis attempts to identify, analyse and classify these possibilities, particularly at the secondary school level. It describes and exemplifies applications ranging from drill-and-practice through games and simulations to problem solving by computer programming. Software evaluation procedures are considered in some depth. Illuminative evaluations of various items of software and there classroom use are reported. The underlying methodology is small-scale action research. Insights gained during the process of investigating each class of software lead to the eventual formulation of a scheme for classifying mathematics education software by means of 'multidimensional attributes'. It is contended that this scheme will help mathematics teachers to make well informed and sound professional judgements regarding the evaluation and use of computer programs for teaching/learning purposes. Also, it is hoped that this scheme and the thesis as a whole will contribute towards the establishment of well founded standards and procedures for software development in the field of mathematics education. Several implications of the computer for the mathematics curriculum in South Africa are suggested. A note of caution is sounded regarding possible detrimental effects of the computer and several questions requiring further research are posed. A recommendation arising from the thesis is that in-service training courses concerning computer applications in mathematics education should be run for secondary school teachers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
- Authors: Marsh, Terence Anthony
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Computer-assisted instruction Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1459 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003340
- Description: There is a variety of possible ways in which computers can be used to enhance mathematics education. This thesis attempts to identify, analyse and classify these possibilities, particularly at the secondary school level. It describes and exemplifies applications ranging from drill-and-practice through games and simulations to problem solving by computer programming. Software evaluation procedures are considered in some depth. Illuminative evaluations of various items of software and there classroom use are reported. The underlying methodology is small-scale action research. Insights gained during the process of investigating each class of software lead to the eventual formulation of a scheme for classifying mathematics education software by means of 'multidimensional attributes'. It is contended that this scheme will help mathematics teachers to make well informed and sound professional judgements regarding the evaluation and use of computer programs for teaching/learning purposes. Also, it is hoped that this scheme and the thesis as a whole will contribute towards the establishment of well founded standards and procedures for software development in the field of mathematics education. Several implications of the computer for the mathematics curriculum in South Africa are suggested. A note of caution is sounded regarding possible detrimental effects of the computer and several questions requiring further research are posed. A recommendation arising from the thesis is that in-service training courses concerning computer applications in mathematics education should be run for secondary school teachers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
The emergence and expression of teachers’ identities in teaching foundation phase mathematics
- Authors: Westaway, Lise
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7000 , vital:21208
- Description: The assertion that learner performance in South African schools is in crisis may be cliched but it is certainly true. The majority of learners in the schooling system are not achieving the required outcomes, particularly in language and mathematics. I use the underperformance of learners in mathematics as the impetus for my research which seeks to understand how teachers’ identities emerge and are expressed in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. The research contributes to an emerging scholarship that strives to explain underperformance and quality in mathematics classrooms beyond structuralist theorising. Recently research, particularly in South Africa, has begun to look more closely at who the teacher is and how the teacher is key in understanding what happens in the mathematics classroom. This emerging scholarship focuses on teacher identities. Research that foregrounds teacher identities within the field of mathematics education tends to be situated within a social constructionist orientation, which assumes that our knowledge of self and the world comes from our interactions with people and not some ‘objective’ reality (Berger & Luckman, 1966). Such a perspective appears to conflate questions of how we know something with what is. In other words, it elides structure and agency, thereby making research that seeks to examine the interplay between the two in the formation and expression of teachers’ identities, practically impossible. It is for this reason, as well as the need to move beyond the hermeneutic, that my research draws on Margaret Archer’s (1995, 1996, 2000) social realist framework. Social realism posits a relativist epistemology but a realist ontology. It is underpinned by the notion of a stratified reality with structural mechanisms giving rise to events in the world whether we experience them or not. It is only through the (inter)actions of persons that such mechanisms have the tendential power to constrain or enable the projects of persons. As such, my research seeks to identify the structural and agential mechanisms that give rise to teachers’ identities and how these identities are expressed in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. In my research, teacher identity refers to the manner in which teachers express their social roles as teachers. In the research I use a case study methodology. I provide rich data on four isiXhosa teachers teaching in low socio-economic status schools. This data is gleaned through interviews and classroom based observations which were recorded as field notes and video transcripts. Analysis of the data occurs through the thought processes of abduction and retroduction (Danermark, Ekstrom, Jakobsen, & Karlsson, 2002). These thought process enable me to (re)describe and (re)contextualise the object of study. Through the process of asking transfactual questions I identify the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms giving rise to teachers’ identities and their expression in teaching foundation phase mathematics. There are three significant findings in my research. Firstly, research that attempts to understand the emergence and expression of teacher identities should consider their broad contextual realities. The historical, economic, social and political contexts in which the teachers are born and live, influences their sense of self, personal identities and social identities (teacher identities) and as such, influences their decision to become teachers and how they express their roles as teachers of Foundation Phase mathematics. Secondly, my research suggests that teachers’ mode of reflexivity is key to understanding the decisions that they make in the classroom and how they deal with the structures that condition the manner in which they express their roles as teachers. Thirdly, collective agency is necessary to bring about change in the way in which teachers express their roles in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. My research produces new knowledge by examining the interplay of structure, culture and agency in the constitution of foundation phase teachers’ identities and their expression in teaching foundation phase mathematics. I use a social realist orientation to examine this interplay and provide an understanding of the mechanisms giving rise to the phenomenon under consideration. In this way I contribute to the extensive research on learner underperformance by focusing more explicitly on who the teacher is in the classroom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Westaway, Lise
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7000 , vital:21208
- Description: The assertion that learner performance in South African schools is in crisis may be cliched but it is certainly true. The majority of learners in the schooling system are not achieving the required outcomes, particularly in language and mathematics. I use the underperformance of learners in mathematics as the impetus for my research which seeks to understand how teachers’ identities emerge and are expressed in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. The research contributes to an emerging scholarship that strives to explain underperformance and quality in mathematics classrooms beyond structuralist theorising. Recently research, particularly in South Africa, has begun to look more closely at who the teacher is and how the teacher is key in understanding what happens in the mathematics classroom. This emerging scholarship focuses on teacher identities. Research that foregrounds teacher identities within the field of mathematics education tends to be situated within a social constructionist orientation, which assumes that our knowledge of self and the world comes from our interactions with people and not some ‘objective’ reality (Berger & Luckman, 1966). Such a perspective appears to conflate questions of how we know something with what is. In other words, it elides structure and agency, thereby making research that seeks to examine the interplay between the two in the formation and expression of teachers’ identities, practically impossible. It is for this reason, as well as the need to move beyond the hermeneutic, that my research draws on Margaret Archer’s (1995, 1996, 2000) social realist framework. Social realism posits a relativist epistemology but a realist ontology. It is underpinned by the notion of a stratified reality with structural mechanisms giving rise to events in the world whether we experience them or not. It is only through the (inter)actions of persons that such mechanisms have the tendential power to constrain or enable the projects of persons. As such, my research seeks to identify the structural and agential mechanisms that give rise to teachers’ identities and how these identities are expressed in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. In my research, teacher identity refers to the manner in which teachers express their social roles as teachers. In the research I use a case study methodology. I provide rich data on four isiXhosa teachers teaching in low socio-economic status schools. This data is gleaned through interviews and classroom based observations which were recorded as field notes and video transcripts. Analysis of the data occurs through the thought processes of abduction and retroduction (Danermark, Ekstrom, Jakobsen, & Karlsson, 2002). These thought process enable me to (re)describe and (re)contextualise the object of study. Through the process of asking transfactual questions I identify the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms giving rise to teachers’ identities and their expression in teaching foundation phase mathematics. There are three significant findings in my research. Firstly, research that attempts to understand the emergence and expression of teacher identities should consider their broad contextual realities. The historical, economic, social and political contexts in which the teachers are born and live, influences their sense of self, personal identities and social identities (teacher identities) and as such, influences their decision to become teachers and how they express their roles as teachers of Foundation Phase mathematics. Secondly, my research suggests that teachers’ mode of reflexivity is key to understanding the decisions that they make in the classroom and how they deal with the structures that condition the manner in which they express their roles as teachers. Thirdly, collective agency is necessary to bring about change in the way in which teachers express their roles in teaching Foundation Phase mathematics. My research produces new knowledge by examining the interplay of structure, culture and agency in the constitution of foundation phase teachers’ identities and their expression in teaching foundation phase mathematics. I use a social realist orientation to examine this interplay and provide an understanding of the mechanisms giving rise to the phenomenon under consideration. In this way I contribute to the extensive research on learner underperformance by focusing more explicitly on who the teacher is in the classroom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
The FITE for reading teaching : an examination of the initial training of senior primary teachers at a sample of institutions in England and South Africa
- Authors: McKellar, David William
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Reading (Elementary) -- South Africa Reading (Elementary) -- Great Britain Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- Great Britain
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003427
- Description: Primary school teachers are expected to teach reading. Whether they are adequately prepared to fulfil this role, particularly for those preparing to teach in the senior primary phase, is the concern of this thesis. Reading teaching models are useful to reading teaching course developers for devising initial training syllabuses. Such models are described, followed by an example of such a syllabus developed at Rhodes University. The Rhodes University model, described early in the thesis, is used as a background for the further consideration of aspects of reading teaching at other institutions. This model is also used as an instrument for assessing the pre-service teaching experience of student teachers. The study focuses on English speaking teacher training institutions where the majority of the student teachers are preparing to teach in English speaking primary schools. Because of the considerable influence of developments in England on South African English speaking teacher training institutions, reading teaching developments in England from 1972 to 1990 are described. The pioneering work of Cook and Moyle provides a background against which subsequent developments in reading teaching are traced. Reports produced by the Department of Education and Science provide many insights into the state of reading teaching in schools in England as well as developments in teacher training. The reading teaching courses at six teacher training institutions are examined - three in England and three in South Africa. The differences are considerable, particularly the amount of time allocated to reading teaching during the four years of initial teacher education and training common to the six institutions. Two cohorts of student teachers review and assess the Rhodes University reading teaching course in terms of the extent of its interest and value for them as prospective teachers, and the amount of time allocated to the course. The most disturbing finding of this study is the nature of reading teaching observed in schools by student teachers. It is suggested that if reading teaching in senior primary schools is to be improved, the deadlocked cycle needs to be broken by education authorities, teachers and teacher trainers resolving the problem jointly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
- Authors: McKellar, David William
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Reading (Elementary) -- South Africa Reading (Elementary) -- Great Britain Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- Great Britain
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1545 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003427
- Description: Primary school teachers are expected to teach reading. Whether they are adequately prepared to fulfil this role, particularly for those preparing to teach in the senior primary phase, is the concern of this thesis. Reading teaching models are useful to reading teaching course developers for devising initial training syllabuses. Such models are described, followed by an example of such a syllabus developed at Rhodes University. The Rhodes University model, described early in the thesis, is used as a background for the further consideration of aspects of reading teaching at other institutions. This model is also used as an instrument for assessing the pre-service teaching experience of student teachers. The study focuses on English speaking teacher training institutions where the majority of the student teachers are preparing to teach in English speaking primary schools. Because of the considerable influence of developments in England on South African English speaking teacher training institutions, reading teaching developments in England from 1972 to 1990 are described. The pioneering work of Cook and Moyle provides a background against which subsequent developments in reading teaching are traced. Reports produced by the Department of Education and Science provide many insights into the state of reading teaching in schools in England as well as developments in teacher training. The reading teaching courses at six teacher training institutions are examined - three in England and three in South Africa. The differences are considerable, particularly the amount of time allocated to reading teaching during the four years of initial teacher education and training common to the six institutions. Two cohorts of student teachers review and assess the Rhodes University reading teaching course in terms of the extent of its interest and value for them as prospective teachers, and the amount of time allocated to the course. The most disturbing finding of this study is the nature of reading teaching observed in schools by student teachers. It is suggested that if reading teaching in senior primary schools is to be improved, the deadlocked cycle needs to be broken by education authorities, teachers and teacher trainers resolving the problem jointly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
The heuristic significance of enacted visualisation
- Authors: Samson, Duncan Alistair
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Heuristic Visualization Problem solving Pattern perception Problem solving -- Ability testing Mathematics -- Study and teaching Education -- Research Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003434
- Description: This study is centred on an analysis of pupils' lived experience while engaged in the generalisation of linear sequences/progressions presented in a pictorial context. The study is oriented within the conceptual framework of qualitative research, and is anchored within an interpretive paradigm. A case study methodological strategy was adopted, the research participants being the members of a mixed gender, high ability Grade 9 class of 23 pupils at an independent school in South Africa. The analytical framework is structured around a combination of complementary multiple perspectives provided by three theoretical ideas, enactivism, figural apprehension, and knowledge objectification. An important aspect of this analytical framework is the sensitivity it shows to the visual, phenomenological and semiotic aspects of figural pattern generalisation. It is the central thesis of this study that the combined complementary multiple perspectives of enactivism, figural apprehension and knowledge objectification provide a powerful depth of analysis to the exploration of the inter-relationship between the embodied processes of pattern generalisation and the visualisation of pictorial cues. The richly textured tapestry of activity captured through a multi-systemic semiotic analysis of participants' generalisation activity stands testament to this central thesis. Insights gleaned from this study are presented as practical strategies which support and encourage a multiple representational approach to pattern generalisation in the pedagogical context of the classroom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Samson, Duncan Alistair
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Heuristic Visualization Problem solving Pattern perception Problem solving -- Ability testing Mathematics -- Study and teaching Education -- Research Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003434
- Description: This study is centred on an analysis of pupils' lived experience while engaged in the generalisation of linear sequences/progressions presented in a pictorial context. The study is oriented within the conceptual framework of qualitative research, and is anchored within an interpretive paradigm. A case study methodological strategy was adopted, the research participants being the members of a mixed gender, high ability Grade 9 class of 23 pupils at an independent school in South Africa. The analytical framework is structured around a combination of complementary multiple perspectives provided by three theoretical ideas, enactivism, figural apprehension, and knowledge objectification. An important aspect of this analytical framework is the sensitivity it shows to the visual, phenomenological and semiotic aspects of figural pattern generalisation. It is the central thesis of this study that the combined complementary multiple perspectives of enactivism, figural apprehension and knowledge objectification provide a powerful depth of analysis to the exploration of the inter-relationship between the embodied processes of pattern generalisation and the visualisation of pictorial cues. The richly textured tapestry of activity captured through a multi-systemic semiotic analysis of participants' generalisation activity stands testament to this central thesis. Insights gleaned from this study are presented as practical strategies which support and encourage a multiple representational approach to pattern generalisation in the pedagogical context of the classroom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The influence of introduced forest management practices on transformative social learning in a selected social-ecological forest community : a case of PFM and REDD projects at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi Forest Reserves in Tanzania
- Authors: Ferdinand, Victoria Ugulumu
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Forest management -- Tanzania , Forest reserves -- Tanzania , Transformative learning , Social ecology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2064 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020333
- Description: This research investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015. The term transformative social learning reflects an understanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012, prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people’s living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from fieldi based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. And more...
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Ferdinand, Victoria Ugulumu
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Forest management -- Tanzania , Forest reserves -- Tanzania , Transformative learning , Social ecology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2064 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020333
- Description: This research investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015. The term transformative social learning reflects an understanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012, prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people’s living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from fieldi based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. And more...
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The integration of natural resource management into the curriculum of rural under-resourced schools : a Bernsteinian analysis
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne Nakalo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Conservation of natural resources -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Bernstein, Basil B Nature conservation -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4762 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007157
- Description: This study was motivated by the need to improve curriculum relevance in poor rural schools through contextualised teaching and learning based on the management of local natural resources. It involved four schools which are located in the Ngqunshwa Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study's aim was to provide insight into and better understanding of the curriculum implementation process regarding natural resource management (NRM) education in a poor rural education context. This was done by analysing the extent of NRM integration in pedagogic texts, activities and practices in the different fields which constitute the structure of the pedagogic system in this education sector. The study adopted an interpretivist approach to the analysis, which was based on indicators of the extent of NRM integration, and was informed by Bernstein's concepts of classification and curriculum recontextualisation, and his model of the structure of the pedagogic system. The items which were analysed included national and provincial Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, Grade 10 Life Sciences textbooks, in-service training workshops for Life Sciences teachers, and various school documents, activities and practices. The analysis also involved interviews with educators, and classroom observations of Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons. The results revealed a very high overall level of NRM integration in the Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents produced at national and provincial levels. The overall level of NRM integration was also found to be very high in the Grade 10 Life Science textbooks that were analysed, but very low in the in-service teacher training workshops, and in the schools' documents, activities and practices, especially in the Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons, and in schools' end-of-year Grade 10 Life Sciences examination papers. The study makes a number of recommendations towards effective integration of NRM into the curriculum of Eastern Cape's rural poor schools which include more specific and explicit reference to NRM in the official Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, the provision of environmental education courses to district education staff and Grade 10 Life Sciences teachers, the training of teachers in the classroom use of textbooks and other educational materials, and regular monitoring of teachers' work. The study also exposes important knowledge gaps which need urgent research attention in order to enhance NRM education in the poor rural schools of the Eastern Cape. These include analysing power and control relationships between the various agencies and agents that are involved with curriculum implementation in this education sector, and conducting investigation into the creation of specialist NRM knowledge and into the quality of NRM knowledge that is transmitted as pedagogic discourse in schools. This study contributes to the fields of rural education and environmental education in South Africa, and to the growing interest in the study of curriculum from a sociology of education perspective in the context of the country’s post-apartheid curriculum reforms.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne Nakalo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Conservation of natural resources -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Bernstein, Basil B Nature conservation -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4762 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007157
- Description: This study was motivated by the need to improve curriculum relevance in poor rural schools through contextualised teaching and learning based on the management of local natural resources. It involved four schools which are located in the Ngqunshwa Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study's aim was to provide insight into and better understanding of the curriculum implementation process regarding natural resource management (NRM) education in a poor rural education context. This was done by analysing the extent of NRM integration in pedagogic texts, activities and practices in the different fields which constitute the structure of the pedagogic system in this education sector. The study adopted an interpretivist approach to the analysis, which was based on indicators of the extent of NRM integration, and was informed by Bernstein's concepts of classification and curriculum recontextualisation, and his model of the structure of the pedagogic system. The items which were analysed included national and provincial Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, Grade 10 Life Sciences textbooks, in-service training workshops for Life Sciences teachers, and various school documents, activities and practices. The analysis also involved interviews with educators, and classroom observations of Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons. The results revealed a very high overall level of NRM integration in the Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents produced at national and provincial levels. The overall level of NRM integration was also found to be very high in the Grade 10 Life Science textbooks that were analysed, but very low in the in-service teacher training workshops, and in the schools' documents, activities and practices, especially in the Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons, and in schools' end-of-year Grade 10 Life Sciences examination papers. The study makes a number of recommendations towards effective integration of NRM into the curriculum of Eastern Cape's rural poor schools which include more specific and explicit reference to NRM in the official Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, the provision of environmental education courses to district education staff and Grade 10 Life Sciences teachers, the training of teachers in the classroom use of textbooks and other educational materials, and regular monitoring of teachers' work. The study also exposes important knowledge gaps which need urgent research attention in order to enhance NRM education in the poor rural schools of the Eastern Cape. These include analysing power and control relationships between the various agencies and agents that are involved with curriculum implementation in this education sector, and conducting investigation into the creation of specialist NRM knowledge and into the quality of NRM knowledge that is transmitted as pedagogic discourse in schools. This study contributes to the fields of rural education and environmental education in South Africa, and to the growing interest in the study of curriculum from a sociology of education perspective in the context of the country’s post-apartheid curriculum reforms.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
The junior secondary course of the Cape Province and the dull-normal child : (a pilot study based on research in the Border area and the North-Eastern districts)
- Authors: Loots, Francois Jacobus
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: Education, Secondary -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Children -- Intelligence levels , Children with mental disabilities -- Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1994 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013501
- Description: [Aims of Dissertation and Investigation, p. ix-x] The aim of this dissertation is to analyse and evaluate the results of the new junior secondary course in respect of the dull-normal child ... How well did the junior secondary course succeed in meeting the needs of the dull-normal child? That is the question which this investigation will attempt to answer.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
- Authors: Loots, Francois Jacobus
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: Education, Secondary -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Children -- Intelligence levels , Children with mental disabilities -- Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1994 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013501
- Description: [Aims of Dissertation and Investigation, p. ix-x] The aim of this dissertation is to analyse and evaluate the results of the new junior secondary course in respect of the dull-normal child ... How well did the junior secondary course succeed in meeting the needs of the dull-normal child? That is the question which this investigation will attempt to answer.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
The mediating processes within social learning: women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape
- Authors: Rivers, Nina
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/888 , vital:20000
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes within the social learning of women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was undertaken in response to a growing problem of learning resources being decontextualised and therefore being of little relevance or use to the everyday practices of the people they were developed for. The central thesis of this study is that if the mediating processes that shape practice and learning are understood then these practices and learning can be better supported. One of the main foci of this study therefore is the concept of mediation and the importance of understanding the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape learning and practice within the context of rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices of rural women. The study interprets these as social learning processes after the work of Lev Vygotsky and post-Vygotskian learning and activity development research, which recognises that all learning is socially mediated. This study also attempts to show that ontological factors also shape social learning processes via structural mediations (which are often also socially structured over time in history). Working within the broad framework of change oriented social learning, education for sustainability and the southern African water and food nexus the study is focused around two central research questions: 1) What are the mediating processes evident in and surrounding the learning of rainwater harvesting in the context of women’s water and food security in rural communities? And 2) How can a question-based learning resource extend the learning practices in this context? Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), underpinned by critical realism, to reveal how the learning of rainwater and food gardening practitioners is constrained and enabled by mediating processes. The theory of mediation provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. A case study approach was used in two sites in the rural Eastern Cape. The first was Cata village in the Amathole district and the second was a peri-urban settlement called Glenconnor in the Cacadu district. Each case study is constituted within a networked activity system. The study also used a narrative inquiry approach in order to bring to life the case studies, activity systems and some of the dynamics of social learning within the study. The methodological tools of document analysis, observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape research participants’ rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices and their learning. Inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference were used to analyse data in and across case studies. One of the first findings of this study is that learning is embedded in and emergent from context in that it is mediated by implicit and explicit processes within each context. This makes such learning social, in the sense of social used by Vygotsky. The second finding showed that implicit and explicit mediation processes are constantly interacting in a dialectical process whether people are conscious of this interplay or not. This is an important dynamic to understand when trying to bring about societal transformation through education. Understanding the interaction between the implicit and explicit alerts researchers to the sociocultural dynamics inherent within social learning processes and therefore informs how learning resources and educational and development programmes should be designed and implemented. This study contributes to new knowledge in the environmental education field and the water knowledge sector. It makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the body of knowledge concerned with socially mediated learning and situated learning approaches. The study illustrates how learning is embedded in context and also how learning emerges in relation to context via interactions between implicit and explicit mediation processes, and considers what this means for learning and development in the rural nexus of water and food security practices. This study also contributes to the growing body of post-Vygotskian social learning research in southern Africa that is being developed in the context of cultural historical activity theory as it shows the dialectical relationship that exists between implicit and explicit forms of mediation as these are embedded in, emergent from, and are externally mediated into activity systems in rural community contexts. This study contributes to a second area of knowledge: the water sector. With a background in anthropology which sensitised the researcher to contextual factors and approaching the study through an educational lens, the data has been worked with to surface and present the nuanced mediating processes that shape the learning and knowledge around water issues. This way of working and this focus on the socio-cultural is relatively new in the water sector in South Africa and gains significance in the light of an emergent interest in more complex social studies in the water sector which has traditionally been dominated by natural sciences and engineering. The significance of this study for rural South African women’s lives is that by understanding and taking account of their history, context, struggles and experiences, their learning and practices can be better supported through more relevant learning resources and programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Rivers, Nina
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/888 , vital:20000
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes within the social learning of women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was undertaken in response to a growing problem of learning resources being decontextualised and therefore being of little relevance or use to the everyday practices of the people they were developed for. The central thesis of this study is that if the mediating processes that shape practice and learning are understood then these practices and learning can be better supported. One of the main foci of this study therefore is the concept of mediation and the importance of understanding the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape learning and practice within the context of rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices of rural women. The study interprets these as social learning processes after the work of Lev Vygotsky and post-Vygotskian learning and activity development research, which recognises that all learning is socially mediated. This study also attempts to show that ontological factors also shape social learning processes via structural mediations (which are often also socially structured over time in history). Working within the broad framework of change oriented social learning, education for sustainability and the southern African water and food nexus the study is focused around two central research questions: 1) What are the mediating processes evident in and surrounding the learning of rainwater harvesting in the context of women’s water and food security in rural communities? And 2) How can a question-based learning resource extend the learning practices in this context? Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), underpinned by critical realism, to reveal how the learning of rainwater and food gardening practitioners is constrained and enabled by mediating processes. The theory of mediation provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. A case study approach was used in two sites in the rural Eastern Cape. The first was Cata village in the Amathole district and the second was a peri-urban settlement called Glenconnor in the Cacadu district. Each case study is constituted within a networked activity system. The study also used a narrative inquiry approach in order to bring to life the case studies, activity systems and some of the dynamics of social learning within the study. The methodological tools of document analysis, observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape research participants’ rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices and their learning. Inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference were used to analyse data in and across case studies. One of the first findings of this study is that learning is embedded in and emergent from context in that it is mediated by implicit and explicit processes within each context. This makes such learning social, in the sense of social used by Vygotsky. The second finding showed that implicit and explicit mediation processes are constantly interacting in a dialectical process whether people are conscious of this interplay or not. This is an important dynamic to understand when trying to bring about societal transformation through education. Understanding the interaction between the implicit and explicit alerts researchers to the sociocultural dynamics inherent within social learning processes and therefore informs how learning resources and educational and development programmes should be designed and implemented. This study contributes to new knowledge in the environmental education field and the water knowledge sector. It makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the body of knowledge concerned with socially mediated learning and situated learning approaches. The study illustrates how learning is embedded in context and also how learning emerges in relation to context via interactions between implicit and explicit mediation processes, and considers what this means for learning and development in the rural nexus of water and food security practices. This study also contributes to the growing body of post-Vygotskian social learning research in southern Africa that is being developed in the context of cultural historical activity theory as it shows the dialectical relationship that exists between implicit and explicit forms of mediation as these are embedded in, emergent from, and are externally mediated into activity systems in rural community contexts. This study contributes to a second area of knowledge: the water sector. With a background in anthropology which sensitised the researcher to contextual factors and approaching the study through an educational lens, the data has been worked with to surface and present the nuanced mediating processes that shape the learning and knowledge around water issues. This way of working and this focus on the socio-cultural is relatively new in the water sector in South Africa and gains significance in the light of an emergent interest in more complex social studies in the water sector which has traditionally been dominated by natural sciences and engineering. The significance of this study for rural South African women’s lives is that by understanding and taking account of their history, context, struggles and experiences, their learning and practices can be better supported through more relevant learning resources and programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The National Skills Fund and green skills: towards a generative mechanism approach
- Authors: Sauls, Gideon George
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: South Africa. National Skills Fund , Environmental education Finance South Africa , Green technology Study and teaching South Africa , Postsecondary education South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63740 , vital:28482
- Description: The aim of the study was to investigate the role of the South African National Skills Fund (NSF) in responding to green skills training for the sake of better integration and optimal effectiveness in relation to the green economy in South Africa. The NSF is a multi-billion rand fund for skills development, with the responsibility to respond effectively to the country’s skills development needs. Part of the NSF’s mandate is to ensure the development of green skills in South Africa, with special reference to the allocation of grants, as a key mechanism in ensuring adherence to properly governed skills development funding requirements. This study considers the identification of green skills funding as a skills planning and implementation challenge within the post-school education and training context, the NSF, the green economy and related skills debates, both locally and globally. The study contributes to a growing body of research in South Africa that seeks a wider systemic perspective on green skills concerns. The NSF and its functioning is a critical dimension of the wider skills system and is a significant system element influencing further emergence of a coherent national system for green skills development. Providing further rationale for this study is the 2011 finding of the International Labour Organisation, that the green skills development system in South Africa is re-active and poorly systematised, a finding that was also noted in the first ever Environmental Sector Skills Plan for South Africa undertaken by the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2010. As the study is mainly focused on one aspect of the policy system, namely the NSF’s role in green skills funding, the bulk of the data used in this study is documentary. Research information was obtained from NSF documentary sources to describe the NSF organisationally. Information was also obtained from green skills documentary sources to obtain a better understanding of the nature and purpose of the development of green skills in South Africa. The study has also drawn on references related to grant management as a mechanism for seeding meaningful transformations and skills development research in South Africa to understand the skills development landscape, with special reference to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) post-school education and training system. Documentary data was supplemented by selected key respondent interviews from the skills sector and from the green skills research community to provide further perspective on the research focus. Critical realism (CR) is utilised as a meta-theoretical framework that seeks to inform the overall academic reflection and interpretation process. The work of Danermark, Ekström, Jakobsen and Karlsson (2002), which describes the process of data analysis in critical realism, was adapted into a four-phased research approach for this particular policy study, which I framed as a Quadrilateral Policy Analysis Framework (QPAF). This provided a data analysis framework which allowed for taking account of the mechanisms shaping the NSF as an important systemic funding agency within South Africa’s emerging post-school education and training context, as this relates to green skills. However, to further analyse this research question and context, I needed to work with substantive policy theory. Given the nature of the policy object that I was investigating, I found Feiock’s (2013) Institutional Collective Action Framework to be a helpful substantive policy theory as it has adequate nuance with which I could describe the NSF’s core function, namely that of grant-making for the post-schooling policy context. Based on the critical realist meta-theoretical framework and the substantive policy theoretical frameworks, I developed four phases of analysis, namely a) descriptive analysis which is divided into Part A (describing the green skills landscape and its funding demands ) and Part B (describing the NSF as it relates to green skills); b) component analysis which further analyses key components of the above; c) abductive policy analysis which identifies critical mechanisms and how they operate; and d) generative mechanism analysis which identifies the underlying generative mechanisms shaping the NSF’s engagement with green skills (or lack thereof). The following main findings are identified: • It emerged that the responsiveness of the NSF to green skills is emergent, essential and yet multifaceted due to competing stakeholder interests, expectations and claims; • Key strategic relations with critical role players within South Africa’s skills levy funding matrix emerged as a fundamental requirement towards the achievement of the NSF’s organisational mandate to respond effectively to national green skills needs and expectations; • Contracting is the central mechanism driving the NSF grant-making process. Related to this is the finding that partnerships emerged as the most versatile and underutilised mechanism that cuts across all four of the NSF grant-making phases; • The NSF’s current method of making sense of funding policy indications as per national policy documents is too reductionist because the method betrays an alignment-mirroring form of sense-making awareness that uncritically endorses substratum philosophical assumptions like Human Capital Theory (HCT) and associated neoclassical economic theories embedded in the policy frameworks. These assumptions contradict and potentially limit engagement with wider theories and policy frameworks for guiding skills development that are oriented towards the wider common good as argued by non-anthropocentric orientations in critical realism and the green skills sector. In summary, an argument is put forward that the NSF is a key funding mechanism towards green skills delivery in South Africa, but that this funding mechanism is under-utilised and inadequately mobilised for transitioning towards sustainability in South Africa. The study recommends that, in pursuit of better integration and optimal effectiveness thereof and in line with the fund’s legislative, organisational and public mandate, a consensual negotiation skills planning mechanism be considered from an institutional collective action response platform. In terms of recommendations for further research, it is proposed that a comparative analysis study could be considered between the NSF and other leading global funding agencies or other national skills funding mechanisms that are also concerned with the inclusion of green skills development. Comparative studies of this nature could potentially enhance the fund’s policy-making process and assist in the development of more appropriate institutional arrangements towards optimal funding responsiveness. Lastly, in the light of the NSF’s current contribution to green skills in the country, an impact evaluation study on the return on green skills investment presents an additional intriguing research endeavour which would contribute further perspective on the arguments presented in this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Sauls, Gideon George
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: South Africa. National Skills Fund , Environmental education Finance South Africa , Green technology Study and teaching South Africa , Postsecondary education South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63740 , vital:28482
- Description: The aim of the study was to investigate the role of the South African National Skills Fund (NSF) in responding to green skills training for the sake of better integration and optimal effectiveness in relation to the green economy in South Africa. The NSF is a multi-billion rand fund for skills development, with the responsibility to respond effectively to the country’s skills development needs. Part of the NSF’s mandate is to ensure the development of green skills in South Africa, with special reference to the allocation of grants, as a key mechanism in ensuring adherence to properly governed skills development funding requirements. This study considers the identification of green skills funding as a skills planning and implementation challenge within the post-school education and training context, the NSF, the green economy and related skills debates, both locally and globally. The study contributes to a growing body of research in South Africa that seeks a wider systemic perspective on green skills concerns. The NSF and its functioning is a critical dimension of the wider skills system and is a significant system element influencing further emergence of a coherent national system for green skills development. Providing further rationale for this study is the 2011 finding of the International Labour Organisation, that the green skills development system in South Africa is re-active and poorly systematised, a finding that was also noted in the first ever Environmental Sector Skills Plan for South Africa undertaken by the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2010. As the study is mainly focused on one aspect of the policy system, namely the NSF’s role in green skills funding, the bulk of the data used in this study is documentary. Research information was obtained from NSF documentary sources to describe the NSF organisationally. Information was also obtained from green skills documentary sources to obtain a better understanding of the nature and purpose of the development of green skills in South Africa. The study has also drawn on references related to grant management as a mechanism for seeding meaningful transformations and skills development research in South Africa to understand the skills development landscape, with special reference to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) post-school education and training system. Documentary data was supplemented by selected key respondent interviews from the skills sector and from the green skills research community to provide further perspective on the research focus. Critical realism (CR) is utilised as a meta-theoretical framework that seeks to inform the overall academic reflection and interpretation process. The work of Danermark, Ekström, Jakobsen and Karlsson (2002), which describes the process of data analysis in critical realism, was adapted into a four-phased research approach for this particular policy study, which I framed as a Quadrilateral Policy Analysis Framework (QPAF). This provided a data analysis framework which allowed for taking account of the mechanisms shaping the NSF as an important systemic funding agency within South Africa’s emerging post-school education and training context, as this relates to green skills. However, to further analyse this research question and context, I needed to work with substantive policy theory. Given the nature of the policy object that I was investigating, I found Feiock’s (2013) Institutional Collective Action Framework to be a helpful substantive policy theory as it has adequate nuance with which I could describe the NSF’s core function, namely that of grant-making for the post-schooling policy context. Based on the critical realist meta-theoretical framework and the substantive policy theoretical frameworks, I developed four phases of analysis, namely a) descriptive analysis which is divided into Part A (describing the green skills landscape and its funding demands ) and Part B (describing the NSF as it relates to green skills); b) component analysis which further analyses key components of the above; c) abductive policy analysis which identifies critical mechanisms and how they operate; and d) generative mechanism analysis which identifies the underlying generative mechanisms shaping the NSF’s engagement with green skills (or lack thereof). The following main findings are identified: • It emerged that the responsiveness of the NSF to green skills is emergent, essential and yet multifaceted due to competing stakeholder interests, expectations and claims; • Key strategic relations with critical role players within South Africa’s skills levy funding matrix emerged as a fundamental requirement towards the achievement of the NSF’s organisational mandate to respond effectively to national green skills needs and expectations; • Contracting is the central mechanism driving the NSF grant-making process. Related to this is the finding that partnerships emerged as the most versatile and underutilised mechanism that cuts across all four of the NSF grant-making phases; • The NSF’s current method of making sense of funding policy indications as per national policy documents is too reductionist because the method betrays an alignment-mirroring form of sense-making awareness that uncritically endorses substratum philosophical assumptions like Human Capital Theory (HCT) and associated neoclassical economic theories embedded in the policy frameworks. These assumptions contradict and potentially limit engagement with wider theories and policy frameworks for guiding skills development that are oriented towards the wider common good as argued by non-anthropocentric orientations in critical realism and the green skills sector. In summary, an argument is put forward that the NSF is a key funding mechanism towards green skills delivery in South Africa, but that this funding mechanism is under-utilised and inadequately mobilised for transitioning towards sustainability in South Africa. The study recommends that, in pursuit of better integration and optimal effectiveness thereof and in line with the fund’s legislative, organisational and public mandate, a consensual negotiation skills planning mechanism be considered from an institutional collective action response platform. In terms of recommendations for further research, it is proposed that a comparative analysis study could be considered between the NSF and other leading global funding agencies or other national skills funding mechanisms that are also concerned with the inclusion of green skills development. Comparative studies of this nature could potentially enhance the fund’s policy-making process and assist in the development of more appropriate institutional arrangements towards optimal funding responsiveness. Lastly, in the light of the NSF’s current contribution to green skills in the country, an impact evaluation study on the return on green skills investment presents an additional intriguing research endeavour which would contribute further perspective on the arguments presented in this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The place of language in supporting children’s mathematical development: two Grade 4 teachers’ use of classroom talk
- Authors: Robertson, Sally-Ann, 1952-
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Mathematics Study and teaching (Elementary) South Africa , Multilingual education South Africa , Language and education South Africa , Translanguaging (Linguistics) , Language policy South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62072 , vital:28104
- Description: Measures of mathematics achievement (documented locally, and in internationally comparative terms) have shown that South African learners whose first language (L1) is different from their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) are at a significant disadvantage, most particularly learners from vulnerable or marginalised communities. This transdisciplinary case study looks at two experienced Grade 4 teachers’ mathematics classroom talk practices. It is situated within a second language (L2) teaching/learning context in which teachers and learners share the same first language, but mathematics learning and teaching takes place officially through an L2 (English). The study is located within a qualitative and interpretive framework. It brings together insights from a range of distinct but complementary theoretical disciplines in its analysis of the empirical classroom observation and interview data. Its theoretical framing derives initially from professional literature relating to L2 teaching and learning. This is then embedded within a broader theoretical frame deriving from the work of Vygotsky, Bernstein and Halliday, each of whom has focussed on the centrality of language to the teaching/ learning process, as well as contributed to a heightened appreciation of socio-cultural influences on learners’ meaning-making processes. The study illuminates some of the linguistic challenges to L2 children’s maximal participation in the learning of school mathematics. It points too to the significant challenge many South African mathematics teachers face in trying to meet curriculum coverage and pacing demands, while simultaneously facilitating their learners’ ongoing induction – in and through L2 predominantly – into mathematically-appropriate discourse. Grade 4 is a year in which such challenges are often more acutely felt. Independently of the transition across to an L2 for the majority of South African learners, this is the year also where - relative to the foundation phase years - learners encounter an expansion of knowledge areas and more specialised academic text. Many learners struggle to adjust to these higher conceptual and linguistic demands, often leading to what has been termed a ‘fourth-grade slump’. The study highlights the need for more sustained and proactive challenging of perceptions that English as LoLT is the obvious route to educational - and subsequent economic - opportunity. Recognition of the consequences deriving from the choice of English as the main LoLT for mathematics teaching and learning could help counterbalance deficit discourses implicating poor teaching as a major contributor to South Africa’s poor mathematics education outcomes. The study highlights further that, if language is genuinely to be used as the ‘tool’ for learning it is claimed to be, synergistic opportunities for the dovetailing of insights into L2 learners’ literacy/ numeracy development require further exploration. It points to the need for ongoing professional development support for teachers of mathematics (at both pre- and in-service levels) that focuses on broadening and deepening their understandings around the linguistic, and hence epistemological, consequences of learning mathematics through an L2. Expanding mathematics teachers’ repertoires of strategies for supporting learners’ developing cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in mathematics (in both L1 and L2) would involve a conception of ‘academic language’ in mathematics which goes beyond a constrained interpretation of ‘legitimate’ mathematical text as that which is in texts such as curriculum documents and text books. Especially important here are strategies which foreground the value of classroom talk in assisting L2 children towards becoming more confident, competent and explorative bilingual learners, and thereby, more active agents of their own mathematical meaning-making processes. The study argues that such meaning-making processes would be further strengthened were additive bilingualism (in place of current predominantly subtractive practices) to be genuinely taken up as core to any teaching and learning of mathematics in contexts such as those described in this case study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Robertson, Sally-Ann, 1952-
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Mathematics Study and teaching (Elementary) South Africa , Multilingual education South Africa , Language and education South Africa , Translanguaging (Linguistics) , Language policy South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62072 , vital:28104
- Description: Measures of mathematics achievement (documented locally, and in internationally comparative terms) have shown that South African learners whose first language (L1) is different from their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) are at a significant disadvantage, most particularly learners from vulnerable or marginalised communities. This transdisciplinary case study looks at two experienced Grade 4 teachers’ mathematics classroom talk practices. It is situated within a second language (L2) teaching/learning context in which teachers and learners share the same first language, but mathematics learning and teaching takes place officially through an L2 (English). The study is located within a qualitative and interpretive framework. It brings together insights from a range of distinct but complementary theoretical disciplines in its analysis of the empirical classroom observation and interview data. Its theoretical framing derives initially from professional literature relating to L2 teaching and learning. This is then embedded within a broader theoretical frame deriving from the work of Vygotsky, Bernstein and Halliday, each of whom has focussed on the centrality of language to the teaching/ learning process, as well as contributed to a heightened appreciation of socio-cultural influences on learners’ meaning-making processes. The study illuminates some of the linguistic challenges to L2 children’s maximal participation in the learning of school mathematics. It points too to the significant challenge many South African mathematics teachers face in trying to meet curriculum coverage and pacing demands, while simultaneously facilitating their learners’ ongoing induction – in and through L2 predominantly – into mathematically-appropriate discourse. Grade 4 is a year in which such challenges are often more acutely felt. Independently of the transition across to an L2 for the majority of South African learners, this is the year also where - relative to the foundation phase years - learners encounter an expansion of knowledge areas and more specialised academic text. Many learners struggle to adjust to these higher conceptual and linguistic demands, often leading to what has been termed a ‘fourth-grade slump’. The study highlights the need for more sustained and proactive challenging of perceptions that English as LoLT is the obvious route to educational - and subsequent economic - opportunity. Recognition of the consequences deriving from the choice of English as the main LoLT for mathematics teaching and learning could help counterbalance deficit discourses implicating poor teaching as a major contributor to South Africa’s poor mathematics education outcomes. The study highlights further that, if language is genuinely to be used as the ‘tool’ for learning it is claimed to be, synergistic opportunities for the dovetailing of insights into L2 learners’ literacy/ numeracy development require further exploration. It points to the need for ongoing professional development support for teachers of mathematics (at both pre- and in-service levels) that focuses on broadening and deepening their understandings around the linguistic, and hence epistemological, consequences of learning mathematics through an L2. Expanding mathematics teachers’ repertoires of strategies for supporting learners’ developing cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in mathematics (in both L1 and L2) would involve a conception of ‘academic language’ in mathematics which goes beyond a constrained interpretation of ‘legitimate’ mathematical text as that which is in texts such as curriculum documents and text books. Especially important here are strategies which foreground the value of classroom talk in assisting L2 children towards becoming more confident, competent and explorative bilingual learners, and thereby, more active agents of their own mathematical meaning-making processes. The study argues that such meaning-making processes would be further strengthened were additive bilingualism (in place of current predominantly subtractive practices) to be genuinely taken up as core to any teaching and learning of mathematics in contexts such as those described in this case study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The relationship of academic aptitude and study habits to academic success : a study of first year students' experience of academic life with specific reference to the University of Fort Hare
- Authors: Penny, Alan Joseph
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Academic achievement , Student adjustment -- South Africa , College students, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1379 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001445
- Description: Any enquiry follows some incident which has prompted the question that leads to the enquiry. This study was prompted by a review of the 1974 first year examination results at the University of Fort Hare. The average percentage pass rate for that year was 59.3%. The cynic may remark that this is no different to the first year pass rate at white South African universities (cf. Erens and Louw, 1978), but when it is realised that students entering Fort Hare, or any other black university for that matter, are a highly select group, these figures have more Impact. The consequences of failure in terms of the wastage of human potential are immense (cf. Auerbach, 1977) but are more critical when this occurs, as It does, "... in a society which is competitive rather than co-operative, where people are for ever being classified according to what they have rather than that they can contribute and where competition plus classification inevitably breeds fears." Bligh (1978). A review of the first year examination results for the five years from 1971 revealed an average pass rate of 55.5% and for 1976, 1977 and 1978 a marked decline to 39.32%. For the earlier period, Downing (1977) found that 19.69% of students completed their degree courses In the minimum number of years. For the latter period (1976 to 1978) this has dropped to 16.3%, which, with the figure for the earlier period, suggests that whilst the failure rate may be highest at the end of the first year, in subsequent years it is also high. In this respect Fort Hare differs from white universities where about 75% of students complete their degrees in minimum time (cf. Erens and Louw, 1978)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
- Authors: Penny, Alan Joseph
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Academic achievement , Student adjustment -- South Africa , College students, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1379 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001445
- Description: Any enquiry follows some incident which has prompted the question that leads to the enquiry. This study was prompted by a review of the 1974 first year examination results at the University of Fort Hare. The average percentage pass rate for that year was 59.3%. The cynic may remark that this is no different to the first year pass rate at white South African universities (cf. Erens and Louw, 1978), but when it is realised that students entering Fort Hare, or any other black university for that matter, are a highly select group, these figures have more Impact. The consequences of failure in terms of the wastage of human potential are immense (cf. Auerbach, 1977) but are more critical when this occurs, as It does, "... in a society which is competitive rather than co-operative, where people are for ever being classified according to what they have rather than that they can contribute and where competition plus classification inevitably breeds fears." Bligh (1978). A review of the first year examination results for the five years from 1971 revealed an average pass rate of 55.5% and for 1976, 1977 and 1978 a marked decline to 39.32%. For the earlier period, Downing (1977) found that 19.69% of students completed their degree courses In the minimum number of years. For the latter period (1976 to 1978) this has dropped to 16.3%, which, with the figure for the earlier period, suggests that whilst the failure rate may be highest at the end of the first year, in subsequent years it is also high. In this respect Fort Hare differs from white universities where about 75% of students complete their degrees in minimum time (cf. Erens and Louw, 1978)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
The role of the self-concept in a system of guidance at the level of initial adolescence
- Authors: Hall, Deryck John
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Self-perception in adolescence , Educational counseling
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1382 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001448
- Description: Part One I A Perspective on Guidance II Concepts of Self This section is a review and discussion of the two conceptualizations which are fundamental to the research structure: guidance as an overall framework within which procedures are devised for the development of this understanding of the "self" . Part Two • III Didactic Discovery IV The Class Citation Award A way of thinking about an ~ducational approach which could generate a classroom mileu, where the in a practical ongoing process to encourage participation and CCA is the key~ote strategy involve the group in "self" and "other" awareness. Part Three V VI Experiment, Survey, Action Research Results, Reflections and Recommendations The three research methods employed to gather evidence of pupil awareness and its implications, with a discussion patterns of self~knowledge, and its effect on the NOTE: Constant reference to thi s page, and to page xxxii will enable the reader to view the thesis as a whole
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
- Authors: Hall, Deryck John
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Self-perception in adolescence , Educational counseling
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1382 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001448
- Description: Part One I A Perspective on Guidance II Concepts of Self This section is a review and discussion of the two conceptualizations which are fundamental to the research structure: guidance as an overall framework within which procedures are devised for the development of this understanding of the "self" . Part Two • III Didactic Discovery IV The Class Citation Award A way of thinking about an ~ducational approach which could generate a classroom mileu, where the in a practical ongoing process to encourage participation and CCA is the key~ote strategy involve the group in "self" and "other" awareness. Part Three V VI Experiment, Survey, Action Research Results, Reflections and Recommendations The three research methods employed to gather evidence of pupil awareness and its implications, with a discussion patterns of self~knowledge, and its effect on the NOTE: Constant reference to thi s page, and to page xxxii will enable the reader to view the thesis as a whole
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
Towards a collaborative approach to teacher professional development : a journey of negotiation
- Authors: Southwood, Sue
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1866 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004649
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study, based on ethnographic principles, located in the interpretive paradigm of qualitative research. The focus is specifically on the development of a collaborative approach ro teacher professional development: an approach that recognises and celebrates teachers themselves as resources for their own and other teachers' professional development. The study was carried out over a period of four years with a group of twelve teachers who had recognised the need and expressed the desire to develop their teaching. The research evolved in two main phases. The initial phase was based on the implementation and evaluation of a project designed to encourage a collaborative approach to teacher development based on mutual peer support. This led to a second phase, the main focus of the research, aimed at gaining a greater understanding of the teachers' situation and situating their practice in the wider context generated by this understanding. Conversations with the teachers led to the identification of dimensions and tensions characterising their experience. The research presented here, represents an attempt to understand, interpret and make recommendations relating to the professional development of teachers. The understanding is linked to the teachers' educational biographies and experience of the culture in which they are situated. The interpretation is based on what may be viewed as a dynamic ongoing construction of meaning - a journey of negotiation. The text, described as a narrative collage, a tapestry of voices interwoven by threads of negotiation, represents a collaborative accomplishment. The teachers' words have been interpretively framed and these constructions validated in an interpersonal construction of social reality. The reader is invited to engage in an act of complicity, to collude with the text in the construction and negotiation of shared meaning, possibly finding resonance with their own situations. Reflections on the teachers' experience reveal journeys which resonate with that of the society in which the school is located - 'a case in transition' - situated between an environment characterised by constrained cooperation and an environment characterised by freer collaboration. The overall tension may be viewed metaphorically as a 'Tug o' War'. On one end of the rope is a cultural legacy of authority, isolation, social division and conservatism, while on the other end there is a pull towards greater autonomy and interaction, to adapt rather than conserve and to work together in mutual collegial support: a struggle between cooperating with what is and collaborating towards what could be. The main contention of this thesis is that we ought strongly to support and encourage collaborative approaches to professional development based on mutual peer support. We need to look towards a future of open professionalism where the teachers are regarded as key persons in the process. The attainment of such an ideal needs to be seen as part of systemic changes in management, policies and structure geared towards greater inclusivity and democratic practice; it necessitates a coherent approach that is based on relationships of mutual respect and appreciation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
- Authors: Southwood, Sue
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1866 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004649
- Description: The research presented in this thesis is a case study, based on ethnographic principles, located in the interpretive paradigm of qualitative research. The focus is specifically on the development of a collaborative approach ro teacher professional development: an approach that recognises and celebrates teachers themselves as resources for their own and other teachers' professional development. The study was carried out over a period of four years with a group of twelve teachers who had recognised the need and expressed the desire to develop their teaching. The research evolved in two main phases. The initial phase was based on the implementation and evaluation of a project designed to encourage a collaborative approach to teacher development based on mutual peer support. This led to a second phase, the main focus of the research, aimed at gaining a greater understanding of the teachers' situation and situating their practice in the wider context generated by this understanding. Conversations with the teachers led to the identification of dimensions and tensions characterising their experience. The research presented here, represents an attempt to understand, interpret and make recommendations relating to the professional development of teachers. The understanding is linked to the teachers' educational biographies and experience of the culture in which they are situated. The interpretation is based on what may be viewed as a dynamic ongoing construction of meaning - a journey of negotiation. The text, described as a narrative collage, a tapestry of voices interwoven by threads of negotiation, represents a collaborative accomplishment. The teachers' words have been interpretively framed and these constructions validated in an interpersonal construction of social reality. The reader is invited to engage in an act of complicity, to collude with the text in the construction and negotiation of shared meaning, possibly finding resonance with their own situations. Reflections on the teachers' experience reveal journeys which resonate with that of the society in which the school is located - 'a case in transition' - situated between an environment characterised by constrained cooperation and an environment characterised by freer collaboration. The overall tension may be viewed metaphorically as a 'Tug o' War'. On one end of the rope is a cultural legacy of authority, isolation, social division and conservatism, while on the other end there is a pull towards greater autonomy and interaction, to adapt rather than conserve and to work together in mutual collegial support: a struggle between cooperating with what is and collaborating towards what could be. The main contention of this thesis is that we ought strongly to support and encourage collaborative approaches to professional development based on mutual peer support. We need to look towards a future of open professionalism where the teachers are regarded as key persons in the process. The attainment of such an ideal needs to be seen as part of systemic changes in management, policies and structure geared towards greater inclusivity and democratic practice; it necessitates a coherent approach that is based on relationships of mutual respect and appreciation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2001
Using reading to learn pedagogy to enhance the English first additional language teachers’ classroom practice
- Authors: Mawela, Rethabile Rejoice
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Reading to learn , Language transfer (Language learning) -- South Africa -- Kuruman , Language teachers -- South Africa -- Kuruman , Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Bilingual method , Second language acquisition
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63415 , vital:28409
- Description: Drawing from the Hallidayan, Bernsteinian and Vygotskyan theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Pedagogic Discourse and Social Learning, this study examined the role that Rose's (2005) Reading to Learn (RtL) pedagogy could play in the development of teachers’ pedagogic practices in the teaching of English First Additional Language. The study participants teach English First Additional Language in Black, materially and economically disadvantaged rural primary schools in Kuruman, the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. As study participants, 4 intermediate phase and 4 senior phase teachers of English First Additional Language were purposively selected from 6 rural schools. Located within the Critical Paradigm, Subjective Epistemology and Mixed-Method approach, the study used documentary evidence, semi- structured interviews and RtL pedagogy as research instruments. Research findings reveal that RtL enriched and advanced teachers’ pedagogic practice in the teaching of reading and writing. As a consequence, teachers’ classroom practice of the 8 study participants improved as evidenced as their content knowledge expanded, the quality of teaching developed and their perceptions of themselves as professionals was transformed. An accompanying finding is that teachers acquired the tools to teach reading and the reading and writing proficiencies of learners in their classrooms improved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Mawela, Rethabile Rejoice
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Reading to learn , Language transfer (Language learning) -- South Africa -- Kuruman , Language teachers -- South Africa -- Kuruman , Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Bilingual method , Second language acquisition
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63415 , vital:28409
- Description: Drawing from the Hallidayan, Bernsteinian and Vygotskyan theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Pedagogic Discourse and Social Learning, this study examined the role that Rose's (2005) Reading to Learn (RtL) pedagogy could play in the development of teachers’ pedagogic practices in the teaching of English First Additional Language. The study participants teach English First Additional Language in Black, materially and economically disadvantaged rural primary schools in Kuruman, the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. As study participants, 4 intermediate phase and 4 senior phase teachers of English First Additional Language were purposively selected from 6 rural schools. Located within the Critical Paradigm, Subjective Epistemology and Mixed-Method approach, the study used documentary evidence, semi- structured interviews and RtL pedagogy as research instruments. Research findings reveal that RtL enriched and advanced teachers’ pedagogic practice in the teaching of reading and writing. As a consequence, teachers’ classroom practice of the 8 study participants improved as evidenced as their content knowledge expanded, the quality of teaching developed and their perceptions of themselves as professionals was transformed. An accompanying finding is that teachers acquired the tools to teach reading and the reading and writing proficiencies of learners in their classrooms improved.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Waste management knowledge, its production, recontextualisation and circulation in Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) training programmes
- Authors: Giqwa, Nomfundiso Louisa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Refuse and refuse disposal -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa. Expanded Public Works Programme , Refuse and refuse disposal -- Employees -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa. Department of Environmental Affairs , Knowledge, Theory of , Knowledge, Sociology of
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63729 , vital:28478
- Description: This study set out to investigate the structuring, recontextualisation and circulation of waste management knowledge in the South African environmental Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Waste Management Projects. In this thesis these projects also referred to as the Working on Waste (WoW) programme or focus area within the Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programme (EPIP) hosted by the National Department of Environmental Affairs. Expanded Public Work Programmes are a strategy used by governments to address unemployment and in South Africa; the programmes also seek to address a need for skills development. In this study, the focus is on EPWP waste management knowledge, training programmes and activities only. With waste management knowledge as the core interest, the focus of the investigation was on knowledge circulation of waste management via informal (participation in the project) and formal training of workers at Level 2 National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The study started by firstly investigating what waste management knowledge is produced in the Field of Production via scientific research and policy. It then studied how this waste management knowledge is recontextualised into qualifications and skills programmes designed in the official recontextualising field and learning materials and training programmes designed and offered in the professional recontextualising field. The study also focused on the knowledge of workers and their experience of training in the EPWP workplaces, with an emphasis on rural workplaces. This is where the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is placing emphasis on training for job creation, empowerment and skills development, and it is also where a number of EPWP Working on Waste programmes are being implemented. The aim was also to develop an understanding of how knowledge circulates amongst learners in training sessions and in workplaces. To do this, I drew on Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogical device which provides theoretical lenses and a language of description to explain how knowledge is recontextualised from the field of production to the field of reproduction. To investigate the structuring of this knowledge by official and pedagogical recontextualisers, I drew on the work of Maton, who offers a Legitimation Code Theory to explain the principles structuring knowledge, of which I used specialisation and semantics (two of his suite of knowledge structuring principles) for analysis. The questions that guided the study throughout were: 1. What is the structure of legitimate knowledge and knowers in waste management? 2. What are the underlying principles underpinning knowledge and knowers in waste management? 3. How is the knowledge recontextualised in waste management training qualifications, documents and manuals for worker training at NQF Level 2? 4. How is the knowledge reproduced and evaluated in the waste management EPWP training activities (formal) and workplaces (informal)? 5. How does waste management knowledge circulate amongst the workers in the EPWP training activities and workplaces? For this study I used the case study method, focusing only on one field or DEA EPWP focus area (waste management) and one programme (EPWP Working on Waste), looking in more depth at two cases (two similar types of projects) within the EPWP Working on Waste programme, though they are situated in different areas and though I could only carry through observations of actual workplace training in one of the two sites due to contextual circumstances. The first project was situated in the Amathole District Municipality while the second one was situated in the Chris Hani District Municipality, both of which are in the rural towns of the former Transkei region in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This area has been at the forefront in accessing funding for these projects due to the level of poverty surrounding these towns and the inability of the local government sphere to deliver on its mandate in the region. Data was collected through document analysis, questionnaires, interviews and observations. Documents analysed were research documents produced by researchers at the level of production as well as legal frameworks guiding waste management processes in this country. Qualifications and Unit Standards at Level 2, as well as training materials designed by providers were analysed. Training in one of the projects was observed and workers in both sites were interviewed twice. The main finding of the study is that waste management knowledge is characterised by interdisciplinarity and a strong epistemic relation which emphasises procedural and technical forms of knowledge. The study found that the knowledge constructed in the field, as well as the policies, qualifications and training programmes are all consequently characterised by a strong epistemic code (ER+) and a weak social relations code (SR-). The study also identified a ‘code clash’ with the knowledge of workers in rural towns whose knowledge and experience of waste management was found to reflect a strong social relation (SR+) and weak epistemic code (ER-), a pattern which was traced back to a similar code in waste management knowledge at home and school (i.e. workers’ prior knowledge and learning experiences). This created difficulties for the trainers who sought to use strategies of descending from the abstract to the concrete in various ‘descending’ semantic waves that tended to move from high levels of semantic density (SD+) to lower levels of semantic density (SD-) as the training provider sought to contextualise a range of concepts. This was the main strategy identified for mediating waste management knowledge reflecting a dominant pattern of SD+/SG- to SD-/SG+ (with SG meaning semantic gravity). This shows that the trainer seldom started mediating concepts from the basis of workers’ prior knowledge and experience and observations showed little responsiveness from workers resulting from this strategy. Despite this, the study found that workers did develop an improved understanding of specialised waste management knowledge over time, especially through observing and doing more complex tasks in the workplace. The study offers a model for addressing the pedagogical difficulty identified around the code clash, and suggests that further attention needs to be given to ‘ascending’ from the concrete to the abstract in pedagogical practices. The study also pointed to the need for a more inclusive knowledge framework for waste management training, especially in the field of recontextualisation (both the official and pedagogical recontextualisation fields) to extend possibilities for workers to learn more about economic potential and access routes into more sustainable jobs. It identifies the need for a more systemic approach to waste management in rural towns and municipalities, improved compliance and also proposes that better waste management practices are modelled to avoid performative contradictions between the knowledge promoted in the field of production and the official and pedagogical recontextualising fields and the field of reproduction, where workers are learning this knowledge via a mix of accredited training and exposure to participation in waste management practices. This study contributes to new knowledge in that it offers an epistemically grounded and theorised pedagogical process model for Level 2 Waste Management Training (in the EPWP programmes, but potentially also more broadly) that accords with the need for a strong epistemic relation code (ER+) embodied in the need for learning scientific and technical waste management knowledge and procedures. It also addresses workers’ needs for greater epistemic access and participation in knowledge building and application of waste management knowledge in praxis as per the purpose of the EPW training programmes, thereby potentially opening up more sustainable learning pathways for them out of poverty through the EPWP training opportunities. The study has pointed to key areas for further research, including further research on the proposed model, further research into Level 2 pedagogical practices and further research into the foundations of waste management learning in schools. Most of the workers who were participating in the training in the EPWP programmes were educated at above Level 2 before participating in the projects, yet their knowledge and experience of waste management was mostly based on everyday knowledge, pointing to an absence of adequate waste management education in schools in rural contexts in South Africa. The study has also made various recommendations for improving waste management education and training at Level 2 in EPWP programmes in rural areas in particular (but potentially also more widely), notably the need to develop a more inclusive knowledge framework that includes historical and economic knowledge more explicitly at all levels of the recontextualisation process; improved pedagogical and assessment practices that take better account of learners knowledge and experiences in knowledge building processes; and giving attention to structural and systemic approaches to waste management in rural areas to avoid performative contradictions that arise between the knowledge being promoted in the field of production and the field of reproduction and the actual context of waste management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Giqwa, Nomfundiso Louisa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Refuse and refuse disposal -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa. Expanded Public Works Programme , Refuse and refuse disposal -- Employees -- Training of -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa. Department of Environmental Affairs , Knowledge, Theory of , Knowledge, Sociology of
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63729 , vital:28478
- Description: This study set out to investigate the structuring, recontextualisation and circulation of waste management knowledge in the South African environmental Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Waste Management Projects. In this thesis these projects also referred to as the Working on Waste (WoW) programme or focus area within the Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programme (EPIP) hosted by the National Department of Environmental Affairs. Expanded Public Work Programmes are a strategy used by governments to address unemployment and in South Africa; the programmes also seek to address a need for skills development. In this study, the focus is on EPWP waste management knowledge, training programmes and activities only. With waste management knowledge as the core interest, the focus of the investigation was on knowledge circulation of waste management via informal (participation in the project) and formal training of workers at Level 2 National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The study started by firstly investigating what waste management knowledge is produced in the Field of Production via scientific research and policy. It then studied how this waste management knowledge is recontextualised into qualifications and skills programmes designed in the official recontextualising field and learning materials and training programmes designed and offered in the professional recontextualising field. The study also focused on the knowledge of workers and their experience of training in the EPWP workplaces, with an emphasis on rural workplaces. This is where the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is placing emphasis on training for job creation, empowerment and skills development, and it is also where a number of EPWP Working on Waste programmes are being implemented. The aim was also to develop an understanding of how knowledge circulates amongst learners in training sessions and in workplaces. To do this, I drew on Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogical device which provides theoretical lenses and a language of description to explain how knowledge is recontextualised from the field of production to the field of reproduction. To investigate the structuring of this knowledge by official and pedagogical recontextualisers, I drew on the work of Maton, who offers a Legitimation Code Theory to explain the principles structuring knowledge, of which I used specialisation and semantics (two of his suite of knowledge structuring principles) for analysis. The questions that guided the study throughout were: 1. What is the structure of legitimate knowledge and knowers in waste management? 2. What are the underlying principles underpinning knowledge and knowers in waste management? 3. How is the knowledge recontextualised in waste management training qualifications, documents and manuals for worker training at NQF Level 2? 4. How is the knowledge reproduced and evaluated in the waste management EPWP training activities (formal) and workplaces (informal)? 5. How does waste management knowledge circulate amongst the workers in the EPWP training activities and workplaces? For this study I used the case study method, focusing only on one field or DEA EPWP focus area (waste management) and one programme (EPWP Working on Waste), looking in more depth at two cases (two similar types of projects) within the EPWP Working on Waste programme, though they are situated in different areas and though I could only carry through observations of actual workplace training in one of the two sites due to contextual circumstances. The first project was situated in the Amathole District Municipality while the second one was situated in the Chris Hani District Municipality, both of which are in the rural towns of the former Transkei region in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This area has been at the forefront in accessing funding for these projects due to the level of poverty surrounding these towns and the inability of the local government sphere to deliver on its mandate in the region. Data was collected through document analysis, questionnaires, interviews and observations. Documents analysed were research documents produced by researchers at the level of production as well as legal frameworks guiding waste management processes in this country. Qualifications and Unit Standards at Level 2, as well as training materials designed by providers were analysed. Training in one of the projects was observed and workers in both sites were interviewed twice. The main finding of the study is that waste management knowledge is characterised by interdisciplinarity and a strong epistemic relation which emphasises procedural and technical forms of knowledge. The study found that the knowledge constructed in the field, as well as the policies, qualifications and training programmes are all consequently characterised by a strong epistemic code (ER+) and a weak social relations code (SR-). The study also identified a ‘code clash’ with the knowledge of workers in rural towns whose knowledge and experience of waste management was found to reflect a strong social relation (SR+) and weak epistemic code (ER-), a pattern which was traced back to a similar code in waste management knowledge at home and school (i.e. workers’ prior knowledge and learning experiences). This created difficulties for the trainers who sought to use strategies of descending from the abstract to the concrete in various ‘descending’ semantic waves that tended to move from high levels of semantic density (SD+) to lower levels of semantic density (SD-) as the training provider sought to contextualise a range of concepts. This was the main strategy identified for mediating waste management knowledge reflecting a dominant pattern of SD+/SG- to SD-/SG+ (with SG meaning semantic gravity). This shows that the trainer seldom started mediating concepts from the basis of workers’ prior knowledge and experience and observations showed little responsiveness from workers resulting from this strategy. Despite this, the study found that workers did develop an improved understanding of specialised waste management knowledge over time, especially through observing and doing more complex tasks in the workplace. The study offers a model for addressing the pedagogical difficulty identified around the code clash, and suggests that further attention needs to be given to ‘ascending’ from the concrete to the abstract in pedagogical practices. The study also pointed to the need for a more inclusive knowledge framework for waste management training, especially in the field of recontextualisation (both the official and pedagogical recontextualisation fields) to extend possibilities for workers to learn more about economic potential and access routes into more sustainable jobs. It identifies the need for a more systemic approach to waste management in rural towns and municipalities, improved compliance and also proposes that better waste management practices are modelled to avoid performative contradictions between the knowledge promoted in the field of production and the official and pedagogical recontextualising fields and the field of reproduction, where workers are learning this knowledge via a mix of accredited training and exposure to participation in waste management practices. This study contributes to new knowledge in that it offers an epistemically grounded and theorised pedagogical process model for Level 2 Waste Management Training (in the EPWP programmes, but potentially also more broadly) that accords with the need for a strong epistemic relation code (ER+) embodied in the need for learning scientific and technical waste management knowledge and procedures. It also addresses workers’ needs for greater epistemic access and participation in knowledge building and application of waste management knowledge in praxis as per the purpose of the EPW training programmes, thereby potentially opening up more sustainable learning pathways for them out of poverty through the EPWP training opportunities. The study has pointed to key areas for further research, including further research on the proposed model, further research into Level 2 pedagogical practices and further research into the foundations of waste management learning in schools. Most of the workers who were participating in the training in the EPWP programmes were educated at above Level 2 before participating in the projects, yet their knowledge and experience of waste management was mostly based on everyday knowledge, pointing to an absence of adequate waste management education in schools in rural contexts in South Africa. The study has also made various recommendations for improving waste management education and training at Level 2 in EPWP programmes in rural areas in particular (but potentially also more widely), notably the need to develop a more inclusive knowledge framework that includes historical and economic knowledge more explicitly at all levels of the recontextualisation process; improved pedagogical and assessment practices that take better account of learners knowledge and experiences in knowledge building processes; and giving attention to structural and systemic approaches to waste management in rural areas to avoid performative contradictions that arise between the knowledge being promoted in the field of production and the field of reproduction and the actual context of waste management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018