PiE 2014 Volume 32 Issue 4

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2637

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Browsing PiE 2014 Volume 32 Issue 4 by Subject "Capabilities approach"

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    A capabilities perspective on education quality: implications for foundation phase teacher education programme design
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2014) Baxen, Jean; Nsubugu, Yvonne; Botha, Liz Johanson
    While governments and communities across the globe are faced with the challenge of providing their citizens with good-quality education, there is lack of consensus on how education quality should be defined. Whereas a great deal has been written about the human capital and human rights approaches, which currently dominate the debate, the potential value of the capabilities approach to the field of education quality policy and practice is yet to be fully explored. This article aims to advance discussions on education quality, through critical engagement with discourses on the capabilities approach and its implications for education quality thinking, and offer an example of what implementation of this approach might mean in a South African teacher education context. The article outlines the core concepts underpinning the capabilities approach to education quality against the background of critiques of the human capital and human rights approaches. It then critically explores what a capabilities approach has to offer to education quality thinking, and describes how these concepts and principles are being interpreted within the new Rhodes B.Ed. (Foundation Phase) programme, currently being developed.
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    Confronting contradiction: diversity experiences at school and university
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2014) Wilson-Strydom, Merridy
    Transformation and the embracing of diversity remains a major challenge at South African universities. This article reflects on the contradictory nature of first-year university students’ experiences of diversity and highlights the difficult terrain that students need to navigate, often with hardly any preparation for the university environment based on their schooling experiences. Using the capabilities approach as the guiding theoretical framework, the article interprets these contradictory diversity experiences in the first year in light of data on encounters with diversity at high school. It draws on the results of a large-scale mixed methods study. Qualitative data, using focus group and visual methodologies, was collected from 270 first-year students in 2009 and 2010. In addition, a total of 2.816 high school learners selected from a diverse sample of 20 local schools completed a mainly quantitative survey that included various items about interaction with diverse peers and the broader community as well as engagement with complex and diverse ideas. The school-level data provides important contextual background for understanding and interpreting students’ experiences. Such understanding is critical if we are to confront and challenge the contradictory diversity experiences during the first year at university.