PiE 2011 Volume 29 Issue 4

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2649

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    Book review - Barbarism in higher education: once upon a time in a university
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Nkomo, Mokubung
    Abstract not available
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    Child participation in school governance: the case of prefects at a primary school in Lesotho
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Morojele, Pholoho; Muthukrishna, Nithi
    This paper draws on literature that has theorised child participation within the sociology of childhood framework to examine how children participate in governance within school spaces. Four children aged between 13 and 17 (in grades six and seven) who serve as prefects at a primary school in Lesotho were participants in this study. Data was collected through a focus group interview and individual semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study indicate that authentic participation of children is limited in the school context. One of the key barriers to participation seems to be a hierarchical and authoritarian school management style. The ethos of control, discipline and authority stifles the process of child participation at the school. The main role of the prefects appears to be ‘policing’ and ‘reporting’ to the school hierarchy. Children’s pursuit of authentic participation denotes that they construct themselves as active social agents, deserving meaningful participation in school governance. The conclusion points to the need to raise critical consciousness for teachers and school management to interrogate their own ideologies about children and childhood, and to challenge the authoritarian hierarchy of school management which impedes children’s meaningful participation.
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    Distributive leadership in public schools: experiences and perceptions of teachers in the Soweto region
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Naicker, Suraiya R.; Mestry, Raj
    In current times, the increasing demands of principalship and the complexities facing schools have led to the emergence of distributive forms of leadership in schools. The dissatisfaction with traditional models has resulted in a paradigm shift where leadership focus on the position of individuals in the hierarchy has been rejected in favour of collective leadership practices. In an era of democracy, distributive leadership continues to attract attention as a relevant model for the twenty-first century school. Using a mixed methods approach, we investigated teacher experiences and perceptions of the practice of distributive leadership in South African public primary schools in the Soweto region. Soweto is a township in South Africa steeped in political history associated with the struggle against apartheid (pre-1994) and which, to date, comprises predominantly black residents. Findings from the qualitative phase of the research revealed that distributive leadership had not taken root in schools in Soweto. However, the quantitative findings showed the early stages of a movement towards distributive leadership.
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    Editorial
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Niemann, Rita
    Abstract not available
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    Enabling roles to reclaim teacher agency: insights from the Advanced Certificate in Teaching (Foundation Phase)
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Ebrahim, H. B.; Verbeek, D. C.; Mashiya, J. N.
    In developing the Advanced Certificate in Teaching (ACT) as a professional qualification for continuing teacher education for early schooling at the University of KwaZulu-Natal we asked the following: “What are the enabling roles foundation phase teachers need to play in order to reclaim their space as agents who significantly influence their professional practice and how can they be assisted to become fully engaged in these roles?” We believe that this focus is timely and critical given the current effect of the discourse of standards and accountability on teacher agency. In this article we present a framework of enabling roles which create opportunities for teacher-students to experience critical reflection, transformatory learning and the development towards stronger agency. A significant implication of the framework is that teachers gain the experience of being part of a community in dialogue instead of a blunt tool for externally imposed curriculum demands. Space is created for both personal direction and the development of practice from within the foundation phase. We are mindful of the fact that, once the course has been completed and the qualification obtained, the lack of personal commitment and institutional pressure to teach in government-sanctioned ways may create slippage and constrain liberating roles. Nonetheless, we feel that, in introducing the roles in the ACT, developmental opportunities for teacher autonomy and transformative professionalism will be created.
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    The Game Object Model and expansive learning: creation, instantiation, expansion, and re-representation
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Amory, Alan; Molomo, Bolepo; Blignaut, Seugnet
    In this paper, the collaborative development, instantiation, expansion and re-representation as research instrument of the Game Object Model (GOM) are explored from a Cultural Historical Activity Theory perspective. The aim of the paper is to develop insights into the design, integration, evaluation and use of video games in learning and teaching. The first part of the research deductively analyses the historical development of the GOM over the past 12 years against the expansive learning cycle. Thereafter the open-ended reflections of participants who attended a workshop to re-represent the GOM as an instrument to evaluate computer games for the classroom were analyzed using both interpretive and deductive qualitative approaches. The development of the GOM and associated models showed that the prime unit of analysis was collective, tool-mediated and object-oriented activity. Findings show that, during each expansive learning cycle, the model functioned first as object and then as tool. Analyses of the activity associated with the development of the GOM instrument to evaluate computer video games fostered individual understanding of the role of games in education and transformed world views in all non-positivist participants. The development of the GOM and associated models supported multiple points of view in which activity system and individual contradictions drove expansive learning cycles and individual transformations. Future research should investigate the efficacy of the GOM-based game evaluation instrument developed as a product of this research.
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    Integrated environmental teaching in South Africa: an impossible dream?
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Mokhele, Matseliso Lineo
    To its credit, the new National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for GET (General Education and Training) recently revised into a new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS)1 in RSA has put a premium on the inclusion of environmental learning as an integrated component of all subject areas in the primary school phase of learning. This is in line with international recommendations and provisions, particularly those originating from the Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in 2002. While the NCS is mandatory for all government schools in the country, many schools have all but ignored the environmental learning mandate in the curriculum. In this paper, I shall examine two case studies of schools in South Africa that have taken the curriculum mandate of integration seriously by specifically designing programmes for environmental learning. Using a qualitative research approach, I shall explore what was involved in the two programmes for integrating environmental learning, and how these programmes were implemented in each of the two schools. I shall then discuss my key finding, this being: while their efforts were admirable, both schools worked differently to achieve the target of an integrated environmental teaching/learning programme in the various school subjects. The paper concludes with a discussion on what integrated environmental teaching in South African schools actually involves and why implementing such a programme is near impossible, given the conditions currently prevailing in South African schools.
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    The odd couple: diverging paths in language policy and educational practices
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Prinsloo, Mastin
    This paper examines the divergences between what educational policy calls for in South African schools with regard to language and learning and what takes place in schools. It argues that South African constitutional and education policy statements employ an idea of languages as bound entities and systems, and combine this understanding of languages with discourses on language rights and of language endangerment. An alternative view studied language as practice rather than system. From this perspective the idea of ‘a language’ is a misleading shorthand for a diverse range of language varieties, genres, registers and practices. Such resources are not equally distributed among users of these resources and they carry different social weightings or valuations. This paper argues that the language assumptions in language policy ‘erase’ linguistic complexities and assume a linguistic homogeneity and stability which is inappropriate. A view of language is developed where language operates as a ‘non-neutral medium’ in stratified social contexts of all kinds. These inequalities operate just as much within designated ‘languages’, in terms of the varieties and their uses within that language, as across them. The observed differences between policy prescription and language practice provide support for this alternative perspective on language.
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    Parental partnerships in the governance of schools in the Black townships of Port Elizabeth
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Mbokodi, Sindiswa Madgie; Singh, Prakash
    This article focuses on the functionality of school-governing bodies (SGBs) as the voice of parents in the governance of schools. After nearly sixteen years since the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (SASA) came into effect, the question that still raises many concerns among stakeholders in education is whether Black parents through their SGBs are aptly fulfilling their roles as rightful partners in the governance of their children’s schools. The aim of this study was therefore to determine whether Section 18 of SASA was being appropriately realised in the Black townships of Port Elizabeth. Using the qualitative research method, a sample of ten schools – five primary and five secondary schools – was intentionally selected from the Black townships of Port Elizabeth. A total of forty in-depth open-ended interviews were conducted. The study found that, although the schools had legally constituted SGBs, these SGBs were not functional. The findings of this study shed light on the challenges why a partnership cannot materialise if Black parents do not have the capacity to be partners in the governance of schools. Hence, this study provides new insight into the status quo of Black parental involvement in the governance of schools.
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    The professional lives of teacher victims of workplace bullying: a narrative analysis
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) De Wet, Corene
    In order to expand the body of knowledge on workplace bullying in South Africa the aim of this article is to report on findings from a narrative analysis. In this article the professional life stories of two teachers, who have been exposed to bullying by their principals over an extended period of time, are retold. The narratives describe how and why they were bullied and the impact of the bullying on their professional lives. By using narrative analysis this article gives a voice to victims of workplace bullying and creates an awareness of this scourge in an ever-changing South African education dispensation.
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    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.
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    Reflexive pedagogy for reading across the curriculum: the University of KwaZulu-Natal Faculty of Education experience
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2011) Mgqwashu, Emmanuel Mfanafuthi
    This article is a qualitative evaluation of the role of reflexive pedagogy; a pedagogic approach used in a first year, academic literacy compulsory module for all first year Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) students offered by the School of Language, Literacies, Media and Drama Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The module is called Academic Learning in English (ALE). Its objective is to assist students in the process of enhancing their skills in reading and writing so that they become effective learners in the university environment. Located within the philosophy of subjectivist epistemology and qualitative methodology, the article uses semi-structured interview questions, students’ assignments and one lecturer’s written comments on these assignments and the module worksheets as the sources of data. These are used to carry out the qualitative evaluation of reflexive pedagogy. The findings indicate that, as educationists, and for the realisation of the post-apartheid ideals in South Africa, reflexive pedagogy has the potential to undo school classroom practices that evolved in western education systems to reward the elite and marginalise the majority.