COM 2012 Special Edition

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2529

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Browsing COM 2012 Special Edition by Subject "Education -- South Africa"

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    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.
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    Towards sustainable learning environments: deconstructing discourse of social justice in the english home language class room
    (Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2012) Govender, Rodelle; Muthukrishna, Nithi
    Internationally there have been calls for the creation of sustainable learning environments. Education is seen as a key tool for building a sustainable community and society. A key issue in these debates is that the school curriculum should involve learners in a critical engagement on issues of social justice, human rights and social change by transforming attitudes and behaviours. This article presents a study that explored how discourses of social justice are created and generated in a classroom, and how they influence a teacher’s practices. The study involved one teacher at an urban secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal. Data generation tools used were interviews and lesson observation. Data analysis entailed the use of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Three discourses of social justice embedded in the teacher’s assumptions and pedagogical practices emerged from the analysis: the discourse of academic excellence; the discourse of inclusivity and diversity; and the discourse of critical thinking. The study highlighted the need for further research into ways of supporting teachers in adopting a social justice approach to teaching and in creating empowering learning environments.