Research Articles (School of Education Studies)

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Open Access
Comparing native signing, late-signing and orally trained deaf children’s ‘theory of mind’ abilities
(SAGE Publications, 2010) Van Staden, Annalene
I argue that language skills and social interaction, specifically quality social discourse (reciprocal interaction) concerning mental states are pivotal in the development of social understanding and ‘theory of mind’ development. Thus, this research is grounded and positioned within the theories of social constructivism. ‘Theory of mind’ development in relation to language acquisition, social interaction and the assessment of ‘false-belief’ is presented. In addition, the advantage that Sign Language offers in the early years of a deaf child’s life is clearly demonstrated, by comparing the performance of native signing deaf children with deaf parents and late-signing and orally trained deaf children of hearing parents on different ‘false-belief’ tasks. In contrast to deaf children of hearing parents, deaf children who have deaf parents, are provided with natural access and exposure to Sign Language. As a result, native signing deaf children demonstrate developmental benchmarks in ‘theory of mind’ acquisition similar to typical developing hearing children.
Open Access
Turning the tide on illiteracy: a search for early childhood language stimulation among Free State pre-schoolers
(School of Education of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2011) Van Staden, Annalene; Griessel, David
One of the most significant educational accomplishments in a literate society is learning to read and write. Social-constructivist theorists emphasise the mediating role of language in the process of knowledge construction during the social interaction of children1 with more capable peers, adults and educators. This theoretical account confirms recent longitudinal findings that significant relationships exist between quality early childcare learning environments and academic performance in the primary school. Moreover, evidence abounds of direct links between quality language input in early childhood education and emergent literacy skills development and the stability of literacy, social and behavioural skills throughout childhood and adolescence. Against a backdrop of recent literacy statistics obtained from the Annual National Assessments (2011) of South Africa, which indicate a downward trend in literacy achievement for the majority of children, it is critical to gain an understanding of teacher practices and the quality of early childhood language input currently being offered in early childhood education. Despite numerous efforts to increase the literacy level of primary school children, it does seem that early literacy is still lacking in the majority of children who enter the formal school environment. For instance, in the Free State province only a third of Grade 3 children achieved the basic literacy outcomes in 2011. A collaborative effort is thus in the process of being undertaken to assess the quality of early childhood language stimulation programmes being offered at randomly selected Grade R-classes in the Province. The study involves a research team comprising six members, 107 educators and 3657 Grade R children. This longitudinal, community-based research project is in three phases: Phase One (2009–2010) the pilot project was launched; Phase Two (2011) has been replicated but with a more representative sample of classes and early childhood centres, including in-depth and focus-group interviews with a representative sample of Grade R educators; and Phase Three (2012–2014), in which identified needs of Grade R educators will be addressed through workshops and in-service training opportunities. Embedded in the broader theoretical framework of ecological systems theory, the first phase also considered the impact of various teacher and classroom variables on the language outcomes of pre-school children. These included school demarcation, socio-economic status, school fees, educator-child ratio, language of teaching and learning (LOLT), and educators’ training and experience. Data was gathered through multiple methods of the administration of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERSR), classroom observations, recording field notes and informal discussions with the Grade R educators. Important findings are that the quality of language input varied significantly across different educational settings in rural and urban areas of the province, though Grade R classes in urban areas are much better equipped and teaching practices to support language development more advanced. Major concerns that impact negatively on the language-related experience of pre-school children were socio-economic and financial constraints; the majority of children not having access to books and other support material; over-crowded classes and how these affect quality teaching and learning; both teachers and children being disadvantaged because of LOLT policies in some of the schools; and authoritarian teaching styles. The results not only confirm those of previous South African studies, that the quality of language stimulation programmes need urgent attention, but also provide the basis for a radical re-think by policymakers and stakeholders in education on the entire provision of pre-schooling.
Open Access
The Krugersdorp samurai sword killing: a media analysis
(University of the Free State, 2011) De Wet, Corene
English: Using data gathered from the South African newspaper coverage, this article examines the space and time frames through which the media cultivated a particular view of the Krugersdorp samurai sword killing. The article also reports on findings from a qualitative content analysis on newspapers’ portrayal of the three dominant space frames, namely the individual, the organisational (teaching and learning milieu) and the societal frames. A total of 62 news stories and editorials were analysed. The study found that the event was mostly framed at the individual level and the present time frame. Findings from the content analysis highlighted newspapers’ conflicting portrayal of Morné Harmse, his parents and the school where the killing took place.
Open Access
Sexuality education in South Africa: a sociocultural perspective
(University of the Free State, 2011) Beyers, Christa
English: In a multicultural society such as South Africa, it is difficult to define what should be viewed as “sexual health” or “culture-appropriate” content to teach in schools. Drawing on findings from black Life Orientation teachers who teach sexuality education, this article will argue that teachers shy away from teaching crucial information regarding sexuality because their own sociocultural values and moral beliefs could contradict or differ from the programmes that they are expected to teach.
Open Access
Conceptualising the re-design of the curriculum for teacher education
(University of the Free State, 2011) Du Toit, Gawie
English: Over the past few years the HEQC audited higher education institutions and evaluated various programmes presented at these institutions. The Bachelors in Education degree (BEd) was one of the programmes evaluated at the majority of these institutions. Explicit levels of progression linked to theoretical depth, articulation between modules and overlapping, coherence of programmes to a shared vision, and alignment in modules were some of the typical areas of concern raised in the evaluation of some of these programmes. The main aim of this article is to conceptualise from a “pure” curriculum perspective a teacher education programme that is fostered within a theoretical framework. A further aim is to design BEd programmes, in order to address the challenges of education in South Africa. An inductive qualitative approach is used to facilitate the achievement of these aims.
Open Access
Critical liberatory inclusive pedagogy: arguing for a zero-defect discourse
(University of the Free State, 2011) Nkoane, Milton
English: This article explores the discourses within critical pedagogy and inclusive education. It highlights the obstacles that academic institutions and educators need to overcome in order to realise an emancipatory and critical pedagogy. The article valorises muted voices and reflects on how the dominant discourse has camouflaged its hegemonic ideology while perpetuating the centre for dominance and pushing students with special educational needs to the periphery; actions which often make such students feel disempowered, disenfranchised, silenced and marginalised. A critical theory is applied in this article to cast light on exclusion, social injustice and marginalisation.
Open Access
Put reading first: positive effects of direct instruction and scaffolding for ESL learners struggling with reading
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Van Staden, Annalene
The inability of many English second-language (ESL) learners to read at desirable levels is universal, but reasons for this and solutions have not yet been addressed. Within the South African teaching context especially there is a paucity of evidence-based research findings available on the literacy challenges faced by ESL learners and the application of effective intervention strategies. This paper investigates whether the reading and reading-related skills of ESL learners in post-apartheid South Africa can improve significantly following evidence-based direct instruction and reading scaffolding techniques to enhance reading comprehension. The paper is based on an experimental/control study of 288 ESL learners from 24 primary schools in the Free State province. Learners received small-group instruction, which included evidence-based direct instruction reading that explicitly targeted skills such as phonological/phonemic awareness, sight words and word identification, reading fluency, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and the application of reading comprehension skills. ESL learners in the control group followed the prescribed reading instruction programme in the specific school, which entailed ESL classroom intervention using balanced literacy instruction with a focus on word study, group and individual story reading, and writing activities, without explicit instruction or reading scaffolding. Results showed statistically significant differences, with medium effect sizes, favouring ESL learners in the experimental group, thus increasing confidence that direct instructional procedures in combination with reading scaffolding techniques can boost important literacy and functional academic skills of ESL learners. Results from this study have already made a significant contribution to the hitherto scarce empirically validated research into the literacy challenges facing ESL learners in South Africa, and so are intended to open up for debate a topic of critical importance to the country’s education system.
Open Access
Social communication towards sustainable physical science learning environments
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2012) Mahlomaholo, Sechaba. M. G.
This article documents how social communication among actors in one of the projects in our academic network creates sustainable learning environments at a school and its local community. Social communication is understood to be the symbolic order that emerges when these actors (human beings), in a reciprocal manner, explain and share the intentions, processes and outcomes of their actions. In this study, actors who communicate among themselves in the academic network are teachers, learners, parents, members of the community, postgraduate student researchers and their supervisors. Such communication is deliberate and it is organised, among others, towards enhancing academic performance of school learners as well as the empowerment of other actors participating therein. Using network theory the author comes to understand how this network as the space of flows of knowledge and communication was created and meaningfully used to achieve the abovementioned objectives. Analysing the conversations of actors within this network further, using critical discourse analytic procedures, also shows how they combine their tacit community cultural wealth and global knowledge to scaffold themselves to higher forms of conceptual sophistication. Through this intersection of “knowledges”, learning environments become sustainable as actors own them through self-generated communications and knowledge.
Open Access
Power relations: exploring meanings in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement 2011
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2012) Palmer, June; De Klerk, Darrell
Power relations are seldom one-sided. Those who exercise power are caught up in and subjected to its functions equally as those over whom power is exercised. Educational institutions as social structures with a mandate of sustaining learning represent the conceptualisation of power as concomitant to social relationships. In the enactment of power, discourses of text and talk are evident in directive speech acts, through text types and laws, regulations, instructions, institutional policies and everyday social contact. This article provides insight into the concept of social communication transfer in multicultural education settings in South Africa. Despite the transformation of South African society, education institutions in particular remain sites where powerlessness is rife and social communication discourses reinforce the notion of perpetual disempowerment. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was undertaken to analyse the purpose statements outlined in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS 2011). An analysis was conducted in which meanings conveyed in CAPS discourses were explored; an interpretation of the manifestation of power relations in texts and the implications thereof on the creation of a sustainable learning environment uncovered.
Open Access
Social justice and rural education in South Africa
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2012) Hlalele, Dipane
Social justice is undeniably grounded in efforts at circumventing provisions that seek to uphold ostracism and exclusionary practices which have permeated South Africa and many other societies worldwide for extensive periods of time. Vast incongruities and/or inequalities between better resourced urban communities and neglected rural areas impinge on the provision of and access to education. This paper, grounded in a distributive paradigm that views social justice as a proper distribution of social benefits and burdens among members of society, traverses the positive and negative features of rural education related to social justice. It concedes that difference is an inherent, inevitable and indispensable feature of social existence and education, arguing that rural education needs to embrace difference, shape demands and model social benefits in accordance with the realities of a particular rural setting. This implies that social justice should be perceived as a humanising process – a response to human diversity in terms of ability, socio-economic circumstances, choice and rights.
Open Access
Constructive feedback as a learning tool to enhance students’ self-regulation and performance in higher education
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2012) Du Toit, Erna
If feedback is provided in a way that can develop students’ self-regulatory skills, it could enhance learning and, consequently, lead to improved performance. To improve teaching and learning in higher education (HE), this study sought to determine whether the feedback to first-year students affords them an opportunity to learn from it. A theoretical framework on constructive feedback, self-regulated learning and the expectations of students was synthesised from literature which formed the basis of the research. This was followed by empirical research using a questionnaire to capture students’ perspectives regarding feedback. Students experienced the feedback as not contributing towards improving their performance but are convinced that, if they receive feedback that is focused on the task level, it can improve their performance. Suggestions are provided that emphasise the need to use feedback at both task and process level as a learning tool.
Open Access
Difficult conversations: lessons learnt from a diversity programme for pre-service teachers
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2012-09) Le Roux, Adré; Mdunge, Percy
Premised on the notion that any educational programme for pre-service teachers pursues excellence in both academics and social justice, teacher educators must capacitate student teachers to work in areas of social justice. Pre-service teachers must subsequently be assisted to become professionally qualified teachers who are prepared to move outside their contingent practices and assumptions to recognise and counteract oppressive practices, especially their own. However, to get pre-service teachers to challenge their own assumptions, to question what they know and to seek new understandings involves entering a field that contains complex, incongruous and even conflicting perspectives. In this reflective article we draw on our reflective notes, our observation and student journals to reflect on the lessons we have learnt from a diversity programme offered to final-year pre-service teachers. This article not only foregrounds how teaching for social justice is partial, but also makes room for considering some implications for teacher education.
Open Access
Conversations among Black staff members at a historically White Afrikaans university campus on issues of race, social justice and reconciliation
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2012-09) Nel, Willy
In an ethnographically designed study, guided by a critical community psychology framework, Black staff members at a historically White Afrikaans university campus conducted email conversations relating to issues of race, social justice and reconciliation. The conversations were initiated by the author (Black) who mainly used prompts found in the local institutional context to elicit responses from colleagues. A critical discourse approach to thematic analysis of the email conversations was followed. The main findings are: Compared to the potential number of respondents (32 Black staff members or 18% of all faculty staff), very few colleagues (9 or 28% of Black staff members) responded via email to the invitations but, when met in person, all expressed strong views on the topics or prompts used in the initialising emails. The critical discourse approach revealed clear psychopolitical awareness and strong discourses of fear, powerlessness and bitterness, as well as a discourse of non-engagement. These discourses appeared in all three domains of analysis: local, institutional and societal. Theoretical explication is sought mainly in resistance theory for the discourse of non-engagement and the scarcity of responses located in the local domain. Transformative resistance is suggested so that alternative discourses are inculcated, at least, in faculties of education at some historically White Afrikaans university campuses.
Open Access
An evaluation of an intervention using sign language and multi-sensory coding to support word learning and reading comprehension of deaf signing children
(SAGE Publications, 2013) Van Staden, Annalene
The reading skills of many deaf children lag several years behind those of hearing children, and there is a need for identifying reading difficulties and implementing effective reading support strategies in this population. This study embraces a balanced reading approach, and investigates the efficacy of applying multi-sensory coding strategies and reading scaffolding to facilitate elementary phase deaf readers’ reading development. Sign language – in combination with multiple visual, tactile and kinaesthetic coding strategies and reading scaffolding techniques – was used to facilitate literacy and vocabulary development. Participants were 64 children, diagnosed with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss and aged from 6;03 to 11;08 years (mean age 9.37 years). Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. There were no significant differences between the groups pre-intervention on measures of sight word fluency, word recognition, receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Results demonstrated a significant increase in reading and vocabulary skills of deaf readers who received the balanced reading approach intervention, as compared to the control group who received usual classroom instruction. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and pedagogical implications these findings have for deaf children’s reading and literacy development.
Open Access
Teacher professional development programmes: what is missing?
(University of Venda, 2013) Tsotetsi, Cias T.; Mahlomaholo, Sechaba M. G.
Professional development of teachers is a cornerstone for the provision of quality teaching and learning in an education system in a country. Studies affirm that effective professional development programmes of teachers stand at the centre of proposals for improving the quality of teaching and the transformation of education. The Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) has been put in place to develop the competencies of teachers in South Africa. A major problem in professional development programmes of teachers offered is that teacher competencies seem not to be improving as envisaged, mainly because of problems experienced in implementation. For example, challenges to the IQMS include a tendency to lose sight of the objectives of its processes. The focal point in implementation becomes securing awards rather than improving the quality of teaching and learning, because the same instrument is used for development and performance management. Another challenge is that the IQMS policy does not directly encourage and motivate teachers or improve their morale as it focuses mainly on monitoring school effectiveness. Shortage of adequately qualified staff and large learner-teacher ratios exacerbate the problem in the implementation of this policy. In order to obtain the empirical data, we employed Participatory Action Research in two secondary schools in the Free State province. The focal point of the research was to demonstrate if there was a need to enhance teacher development programmes in the two schools. Findings revealed a lack of a coordinated plan and the non-involvement of practitioners and beneficiaries in the design and implementation of CPD programmes, to name a few.
Open Access
South African teachers’ exposure to workplace bullying
(AOSIS, 2013) De Wet, C.; Jacobs, L.
Research on workplace bullying (WPB) in occupations, identified teaching as a high risk job. Yet there is a dearth of research on WPB among teachers. The aim of this study is to contribute to the limited body of knowledge on the prevalence of WPB within an international and South African schooling context. This article reports on results from an exploratory study on South African teachers’ exposure to WPB. Self-reporting questionnaires were completed by a convenient, voluntary sample of teachers (n=999). The respondents had to indicate their exposure to 43 pre-defined acts of WPB clustered into four categories. This study exposes the commonness of WPB among participating teachers: 90.8% of them were victims of WPB during the 12 months that preceded the study, and 89.1% of the victims had been exposed to at least two different categories of WPB. The perpetrators tried especially to undermine the victims’ professional status and isolate them. The study identified the constant evaluation of victims’ performance as the most common of the 43 negative acts. The results are discussed with reference to other studies. It is concluded that WPB is a serious problem in South African schools and needs to be addressed on policy and institutional levels.
Open Access
Service learning as a response to community/school engagement: towards a pedagogy of engagement
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2013-06) Alexander, Gregg; Khabanyane, Mokhethi
The promulgation of the White Paper on Higher Education (1997) necessitated Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa to avail their expertise in their human resources and physical infrastructure for service learning and community engagement initiatives, in the interest of demonstrating social responsibility, collaborative partnerships with, and a commitment to the development of South African communities. Service learning as a thoughtful organised, reflective and engaged service pedagogy is focused on the developmental priorities of communities through the application of knowledge, skills and interaction among communities, academics, students and service providers to the benefit of all participants (Council on Higher Education, 2006). In response to the latter mentioned, this interdisciplinary study, therefore, reports on the results of a service learning component to teach postgraduate students, attached to the Department of Comparative Education and Education Management, to perform specific skills (management tasks) via the implementation of structured interventions at their selective schools. Class presentations, reflective journals on students’ observations, experiences and actions revealed significant parallels between the implemented service learning curricular (management tasks) and the respective ‘engaged’ school communities.
Open Access
Framing of school violence in the South African printed media - (mis)information to the public
(Education Association of South Africa, 2014) Jacobs, Lynette
The way in which the media report on school violence influences public perceptions, gives rise to particular attitudes and can influence decisions by policy makers. The more frequently an issue is presented in a specific way, the more likely it is for readers to perceive the media’s version as the truth. Although news is assumed to be reliable, comprehensive and unprejudiced, journalism can be questioned. This study explores how school violence is framed in the South African print media. A framing analysis was done of 92 articles that appeared in 21 different public newspapers during one year. I found that the way in which the public is informed encourages the perception of school violence as being an individual, rather than a societal, problem and encourages the acceptance of assumptions and stereotypes. Typical ‘bloodand- guts’ reporting is popular, while issues such as emotional and sexual violence in schools appear largely unnoticed by journalists. I argue that the main frames provided to readers in South African newspapers fail largely to elicit social responsibility, while at the same time promoting civic indifference.
Open Access
Guided group reflections of first-year pre-service teachers: moving beyond the rhetoric of "go and reflect"
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2015) Beylefeld, Adri; Le Roux, Adré
In South Africa, pre-service teachers enter education programmes with diverse preunderstandings of the teaching profession. For some, their experiences are often naively divorced from a genuine understanding of how present-day education perpetuates patterns of poverty and privilege. Responding to the pedagogical challenge of framing problems of social injustice in relation to the profession, we designed a school visit project to expose first-year pre-service teachers to school environments that represent the exciting inequities in educational experiences and opportunities. In this article we comment on the written group assignments that followed from the small-group discussions which were held after the school visit. Located within a lifelong learning framework, we proceed from the assumption that discussion in a group with support will afford students the opportunity to position themselves in relation to the grave inequalities embedded in South African education. Data obtained were analysed by means of open and axial coding to comment on the salient issues the students discussed, the issues they wanted further clarification on, and the opportunities they envisaged to engage with and act on. We found that, although the small-group discussions succeeded in setting a critical reflective process into motion, a space was not created for students to uncover and challenge their deep-seated assumptions that stem from a specific historical and cultural context.
Open Access
Strategies and outcomes of involving university students in community engagement: an adaptive leadership perspective
(Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), 2015) Hlalele, Dipane; Manicom, Desiree; Preece, Julia; Tsotetsi, Cias T.
English: The purpose of this article is to compare how students and community members learned and applied their knowledge in four small-scale university–community engagement projects during 2013. It draws on the concept of adaptive leadership as an approach and analytical tool in a recently completed community engagement and service learning action research partnership between the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwa Qwa campus and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Pietermaritzburg campus. The project was funded by the National Research Foundation, with additional support from the UKZN Teaching and Learning Fund and UFS Faculty of Education research funds. A total of twelve case studies involved sixty-five students, nine NGOs and four schools. In each case, students worked in teams in response to community requests for assistance. Projects included Saturday curriculum activities for schools, workshops for parents, assisting with film making or archiving, assisting with monitoring and evaluation of rural reading clubs, producing small organic gardens and assisting with a childcare development project. Each case study involved end of project interviews with students and community contacts and some interim observations during the project implementation phase. This article compares four of the case study findings between the two institutions. It outlines how the concept of community engagement has evolved and briefly reviews the literature on community engagement, particularly in the South African context. It then introduces the theoretical framework and methodology. The findings suggested that the adaptive leadership approach contributed to stimulating shared ownership of learning.