Perspectives in Education

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Perspectives in Education is a professional, peer-reviewed journal that encourages the submission of previously unpublished articles on contemporary educational issues. As a journal that represents a variety of cross-disciplinary interests, both theoretical and practical, it seeks to stimulate debate on a wide range of topics. PiE invites manuscripts employing innovative qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches including (but not limited to), ethnographic observation and interviewing, grounded theory, life history, case study, curriculum analysis and critique, policy studies, ethno-methodology, social and educational critique, phenomenology, deconstruction, and genealogy.

Debates on epistemology, methodology or ethics, from a range of perspectives including post-positivism, interpretivism, constructivism, critical theory, feminism and post-modernism are also invited. PiE seeks to stimulate important dialogue and intellectual exchange on education and democratic transition with respect to schools, colleges, non-governmental organisations, universities and universities of technology in South Africa and beyond.

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ISSN 2519-593X (Online), ISSN 0258-2236 (Print)

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 387

Open Access
Success profiling: a methodological perspective on the interactive nature of success predictors on student performance at an open and distance learning institution
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Müller, Hélène; Swanepoel, Elana; De Beer, Andreas
The drive to improve the academic performance of students at an open and distance learning (ODL) institution has resulted in the incorporation of a blended learning component, namely satellite classes, in the learning strategy to enhance the academic performance of first year diploma students in Business Management and Management. Monitoring this intervention to justify implementation costs (Mathur & Oliver, 2007:3) and effectiveness in relation to student performance is essential. Whereas an initial study confirmed a statistically significant relationship between satellite class attendance and academic performance, this study evaluated the interaction effect of satellite classes and additional, potential success predictors on academic performance by applying the Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) methodology. This decision tree methodology described the interactive driving forces that impacted on student success. Satellite class intervention and biographical student attributes constituted the driving forces. The CHAID analysis enabled the profiling of successful and at-risk students. The decision tree algorithm mimics true life situations where various effects interactively and jointly influence and predict an outcome. The results showed that satellite class intervention as such was an effective and significant predictor of performance, but that the critical interacting nature of satellite class attendance and additional co-predictors, such as population group and type of matriculation certificate, considerably strengthened performance prediction.
Open Access
Adolescents’ perceptions of an adventure-based programme
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Bosch, Ronel; Oswald, Marietjie
A qualitative study was undertaken to explore the perceptions of youth regarding their wilderness rites of passage experience and its value for their lives. The researchers operated in an interpretive/ constructivist paradigm and employed a qualitative research methodology. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, and individual interviews, documents, records, observations and reflections were used to collect data. Data were analysed by means of content analysis. We argue that participation in a wilderness rites of passage programme can contribute to the personal growth and development of youth at risk of experiencing or manifesting emotional or behavioural difficulties in schools. The research findings indicate that wilderness rites of passage programmes can contribute significantly towards school support for young people. The findings also highlight the fact that young people in the South African context are in need of caring school communities and adult mentorship. Young people are in need of support, discipline and guidance, as well as experiences of trust, love and care. School environments should change from being places of disappointment to being places of safety and growth. Such a culture of care could possibly curb the anger, resentment and distrust of the youth and support learners who are experiencing or mani festing emotional or behavioural difficulties in schools.
Open Access
Generic competences in Higher Education: studying their development in undergraduate social science studies by means of a specific methodology
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Gallifa, Josep; Garriga, Jordi
Research into the acquisition of generic competences was carried out with the undergraduate social science programmes offered by the Ramon Llull University, Barcelona (Spain). For these programmes an innovative methodology called ‘cross-course seminars’ has been developed. Its focus is, amongst others, on developing generic competences. In the first place, generic competences are assessed in terms of whether or not they are perceived as important by final year students, and what the main context of acquisition was. The ‘cross-course seminar’ methodology, characterised in the present study, correlates more closely with the perception of the importance of competences in the professional world than in other contexts – even regular courses or competences acquired outside the university. The research aims to help achieve a better understanding of the best contexts for the acquisition of generic competences in higher education and of their importance in the professional world. A methodology for the study of competence acquisition and for the characterisation of a competence-focused educational model is thus implicitly developed. The aim of the article is to contribute to current reflections on generic competences in higher education.
Open Access
Primary school teacher deployment: a comparative study
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Carrim, Nazir
Abstract not available
Open Access
Book review - Towards gender equality: South African schools during the HIV and AIDS epidemic
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Pillay, Venitha
Open Access
Design refinement tools for a teacher education curriculum: the example of a service learning course
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Petersen, Nadine; Henning, Elizabeth
This article addresses the issue of the theory-practice divide in pre-service teacher education from the viewpoint of design-based research (DBR). Using the example of a course in service learning (SL), the authors discuss their reflection on a curriculum that failed to help the students convert declarative knowledge to procedures of pedagogy, or to internalise this knowledge to become part of their disposition as teachers. The students’ theoretical work had remained in an epistemological apartheid zone where it did not meet with practice in either- procedural, conditional-, or reflective knowledge-making The authors then explore part of a curriculum revision model as proposed by Ruthven et al. (2009) who use DBR principles for curriculum refinement, including some of their “intermediary framework” set of tools in a revision that aimed to create an interface for theory and practice.
Open Access
Using participatory video to explore teachers’ lived experiences
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Olivier, Tilla; De Lange, Naydene; Wood, Lesley
Teachers who work in economically and socially disadvantaged environments have first-hand knowledge of the challenges that can impede teaching and learning, yet their voices are often ignored when researchers and policy-makers attempt to address such issues. In this article we describe how we attempted to make teacher voices audible via an intervention based on participatory visual methodology. A two-day participatory research-as-intervention workshop enabled twelve teachers from economically and socially disadvantaged township schools to produce videos that examined some challenges applicable to their praxis. The process of producing the participatory video offered the teachers the opportunity to learn more about themselves and their educational contexts, and to position themselves as “teachers who care”, as they collectively identified pertinent issues affecting their practice, decided on how to represent those issues visually and how to further use the finished product as a tool for teaching and/or community engagement.
Open Access
Finding the best fit: the adaptation and translation of the Performance Indicators for Primary Schools for the South African context
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Archer, Elizabeth; Scherman, Vanessa; Coe, Robert; Howie, Sarah J.
Reform and improvement are imperative in the current South African education system. Monitoring of school and learner achievement is an essential for establishing praxis for school improvement. Diversity of culture and South Africa’s 11 official languages make it difficult to develop valid monitoring systems. Limited resources, time constraints and the need to redress neglect of large portions of the education infrastructure from the apartheid era make it problematic to develop new monitoring systems for all official languages. Adaptation and translation of existing international monitoring instruments provide alternative solutions to developing new monitoring systems. Adaptation and translation of existing instruments is a daunting process, which balances statistical analysis, translation processes and user and expert evaluations. We investigate how to balance these different processes in order to create an instrument that provides valid data for educational decisions. The processes utilised in the adaptation and translation of the vocabulary subtest of the Performance Indicators for Primary Schools (PIPS) test for the South African context are used to illustrate the complex interplay between user and expert input as well as psychometric rigour. It is hoped this paper will contribute to the development of the necessary instrument adaptation skills in South Africa.
Open Access
Informing educational psychology training with students' community engagement experiences
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Ebersöhn, Liesel; Bender, C. J. Gerda; Carvalho-Malekane, Wendy M.
The purpose of this article was to describe students’ experiences of community engagement in an Educational Psychology practicum in order to inform relevant educational psychology training literature with experiences of students’ community engagement. Experiential learning served as our theoretical framework and we employed an instrumental case study design, purposefully selecting eight students in the MEd Educational Psychology programme to participate in a focus group. Other data sources included reflective journals and visual data. The following themes emerged from the thematic analysis: students gained insight into themselves as prospective educational psychologists, the curricular community engagement benefited students’ professional development and the practicum supported students in integrating theory with practice.
Open Access
“Why can’t Johnny write? He sounds okay!” Attending to form in English second language teaching
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Ayliff, Diana
This article addresses the problem of poor written English amongst many South African learners who study English as their First Additional Language (FAL) at secondary school level, and the effect this has on their tertiary education and their future careers. The reasons for this poor mastery of written discourse are explored and, in particular, it is argued that the problems that have arisen are because of the communicative meaning-focused approach that has been the raison d’être of the second language syllabi for many years. This approach has also underpinned the OBE curriculum for English as FAL. An alternative method, in which the form of the language is focused upon, is explored and it is argued that this methodology would be a more successful one for South African learners and go a long way to solving the problem of the poor standard of English of matriculants.
Open Access
Parents’ perceptions of home reading activities: comparing children with and without learning disability
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Johnson, Ensa; Bornman, Juan; Alant, Erna
The early reading process can be viewed as triadic, encompassing the child, the parents and the environment. We examine the impact of each of these three components on children’s participation in home reading activities as perceived by their parents. The results obtained from a questionnaire completed by parents of Grade 1 children, with and without learning disability, support findings of previous studies that home reading environments of both groups and their parents’ role in story book reading are not significantly different. The main finding was that children’s responses during story book reading and their engagement in independent reading differ. Children without learning disability are more involved in the reading process and independent reading than children with learning disability. This implies that teachers need to encourage parents of Grade 1 children to continue to actively engage in reading activities with their children despite their children becoming independent readers, and to also assist them in the selection of appropriate reading material.
Open Access
Implementing a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Dinama, Baamphatlha
I explore the ways in which RE teachers understand and implement a multi faith Religious Educa tion curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools. The multi faith RE curriculum came about as a result of an educational policy change in 1994. The study is based on case studies and draws its data from classroom observations, interviews and documents such as the RE teaching syllabus, and the schemes of work. In highlighting the teachers’ understanding and classroom practices, I adopted the concept of the teachers’ professional knowledge landscape. When the multi faith RE curriculum was introduced in Botswana, there were two groups of teachers, those who taught the multi faith curriculum and those who taught both the single faith and the multi faith Religious Education. Five themes emerged from the data, namely: pedagogical and content knowledge, assessment, mentoring, and collaboration. I conclude that there are no marked differences between these two groups of teachers in terms of their understanding of the curriculum and their classroom practices.
Open Access
A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school in South Africa
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Naidoo, Devika
This paper provides an analysis of the extent of integration at a historically advantaged school. A qualitative multi-method case study allowed for in-depth analysis of integration in the school. Bernstein’s theory of code, classification, boundary and power framed the study. Data analysis showed that: racial desegregation was achieved at student and level one staff level and lacking at management and administrative staff level; staffing integration was minimal; institutional culture integration was not evident; social boundaries enacted maintained previous race based power relations; weaker boundaries between instrumental and non-instrumental forms of knowledge legitimised students’ experiences and interests but did not facilitate access to non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking; the dominant discursive frame of teachers was one of student deficit. These regularities point to a discursive formation (Foucault, 1977) that undermine integration and would reproduce previous racialised inequalities. Finally, an explanation of the discursive formation is touched on followed by recommendations.
Open Access
Job search and over-education: evidence from China’s labour market for postgraduates
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Fengliang, Li; Yandong, Zhao; Yongpo, Tian
This article investigates the relationship between the number of informational channels and overeducation in the outcome of job search, using the survey data of postgraduates in China. The empirical results show: (1) the more the informational channels of job search are used, the lower the probability and the less the intensity of over-education will be; (2) graduates from prestigious “985” universities have lower probability and less intensity of over-education than those of their counterparts from “none-985” universities. Based on the findings above, we argue that helping graduates to get more job information and improving the quality of universities will lighten the problem of the over-education under the situation of great higher education expansion.
Open Access
Diverging on diversity and difference: the mask of inclusion
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Pillay, V.; McLellan, C. E.
In this paper we argue that the clichéd phrases, ‘dealing with difference’ and ‘dealing with diversity’, despite their commitment to accepting and appreciating difference and diversity, may be used in counterproductive ways to camouflage resistance to change and transformation. In a small sample of interviews conducted at a South African university, the appropriation of these phrases for the purpose of practicing sameness was apparent. While pointing to the possibilities of asserting diversity and difference and simultaneously practicing sameness, the paper also proposes the possibilities for the acknowledgement and embracing of the ambivalence toward diversity and difference as valuable opportunities for transformation.
Open Access
What teacher educators consider as best practices in preparing pre-service teachers for teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Essien, Anthony A.
This paper reports on an investigation into what teacher educators consider to be best practices in how to prepare pre-service teachers to effectively deal with the challenges of teaching Mathematics in multilingual contexts, and how what teacher educators consider as best practices inform their own classroom practice. Twelve teacher educators (TEs) from four universities in a province in South Africa participated in the study. Through a qualitative analysis of the interviews, five practices emerged as best practices for these teacher educators: the use of code switching, the creation of an environment of trust in the classroom, the use of one (rather than two) medium of instruction, namely English, the use of linguistic metaphors that the languages present in the class potentially provide for use in mathematics, and, finally, the creation of an awareness of the multilingual context in which pre-service teachers would teach at the end of their qualification. Given that most teachers in South Africa teach in multilingual classrooms and teacher education research on mathematics education has not, thus far, focused on multilingual mathematics education, it is hoped that these five practices would serve as an inducement for both teacher educators and researchers alike. The author also cautions against the adoption of imported practices from other countries and argues that in delineating practices that are more likely to work in the South African context, it is important to bear in mind the distinctive nature of multilingualism in South Africa.
Open Access
Vulnerability and belonging in the history classroom: a teacher’s positioning in “volatile conversations” on racism and xenophobia
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Geschier, Sofie M. M. A.
This article is explorative in its attempt to define vulnerability within transformative pedagogy by analysing excerpts from two “volatile conversations” on racism and xenophobia between a teacher and her grade nine class in a well-resourced Jewish school. The two conversations differed in regard to the teacher’s use of vulnerability, even though the underlying rationale remained the same, namely to question and deconstruct prejudiced thinking. During the first interaction, the teacher struggled to invite learners to join in the conversation when she attempted to situate racism solely in their heads. During the second interaction, in contrast, instead of focusing on the learners’ thinking, the teacher placed her own xenophobic thinking in the centre and talked reflectively about what fear might say about one’s society and one’s position in that society. While this second interaction was difficult, the learners felt safe enough to take up the teacher’s attempt to render racism and xenophobia strange. The article argues that more discussion is needed in regard to the potential role of vulnerability in pedagogical interactions, particularly taking into account teachers’ and learners’ complex, ever-changing narratives and positions in a fast changing, and still very much divided, yet hopeful country.
Open Access
Youth self-formation and the ‘capacity to aspire’: the itinerant ‘schooled’ career of Fuzile Ali across post-apartheid space
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Fataar, Aslam
This article is a narrative analysis of one young boy’s encounter with his schooling across the rural and urban landscape. It is set against the backdrop of the changing social reproductive context of education in South Africa in the democratic period. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews, the analysis probed the subjective basis on which this young boy encountered his various spatial terrains in order to establish his schooled career. The article employs the lenses of ‘aspiration’, ‘space’, and ‘technologies of self’ to present the argument that his ‘capacity to aspire’ has to be understood on the basis of his active self-formation and disciplining, accumulated across the itinerant spaces of his life. The aim of this article is to open a window onto how young people now go about navigating their educational aspirations in the light of their contingent life circumstances.
Open Access
Book review - The brave 'new' world of education: creating a unique professionalism
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Nkomo, Mokubung
Abstract not available
Open Access
Teacher ratings of academic achievement of children between 6 and 12 years old from intact and non-intact families
(Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2010) Molepo, Lephodisa S.; Maunganidze, Levison; Mudhovozi, Pilot; Sodi, Tholene
We investigated teacher ratings of the impact of parental divorce on academic achievement of children between 6 and 12 years old up to 12 months after their parents divorced. A purposive sample of 120 children attending four different primary schools in a small South African town took part in the study. One third (n 40) of the children had experienced parental divorce (male 14, female 26) while two thirds had not. Teachers rated participating children in their class on academic performance on the Conners rating scale ranging from 0 to 3. In addition, teachers ob tained the average term score of each of the participating children in key academic areas, which were converted to the Conners scale for classification. Chi square tests were used to analyse the data. Results showed that the academic performance of children from non intact families within the age range of 6 9 was inferior to that of their counterparts from intact families suggesting that the experience of parental divorcee had a negative impact on children’s academic achievement. It is recommended that future research compare teacher ratings with children’s ratings on standardised tests.

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