Using the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving African baskets as a cultural tool to mediate learning of chemical and physical changes
- Authors: Kakambi, William Mafelezo
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Chemistry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Ethnoscience -- Namibia , Culturally relevant pedagogy , Traditional ecological knowledge -- Namibia , Basket making -- Namibia , Dyes and dyeing -- Namibia , Pedagogical content knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177268 , vital:42805
- Description: Literature has revealed that indigenous learners, especially in many African nations are subjected to learning school science in unfamiliar contexts. Learners in Namibia where this study was conducted are no exception. In consequence, learners experience cognitive conflict between school science and the experiences learnt at home and in the community. This is exacerbated, in part, by the fact that science teachers do not seem to know how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching. As an attempt to address this problem, some scholars call for the integration of indigenous knowledge into the science curriculum to provide a much needed context for learning science. It is against this background that this study sought to use the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving baskets as a cultural tool to mediate learning of chemical and physical changes. Underpinned by the interpretivist and Ubuntu paradigms, the study employed a qualitative case study research design. The study was conducted in the Zambezi region in Namibia. Four grade 8 Physical Science teachers, an expert community member, and a critical friend were involved as participants in this study. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, workshop discussions, participatory observation, and journal reflections. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Mavhunga and Rollnick’s topic specific pedagogical content knowledge were used as theoretical and analytical frameworks, respectively. A thematic approach to data analysis was employed to come up with sub-themes and themes. The findings of the study revealed that all the participating teachers in this study had never been exposed to ideas on how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching. As a result, they all embraced and valued the indigenous technology of dyeing and weaving as relevant and useful in the teaching and learning of chemical and physical changes. This study recommends that there is a need to empower science teachers on how to integrate indigenous knowledge in their science teaching in order to make science accessible and relevant to their learners’ lived worlds. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
An exploration of formative assessment in primary school Natural Sciences classrooms
- Authors: Mgoqi, Nomvuyo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education, Elementary -- South Africa , Science -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , Competency-based education -- South Africa , Curriculum-based education -- South Africa , Science teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Educational tests and measurements -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124167 , vital:35572
- Description: This research investigated formative assessment in primary school Natural Sciences classrooms. The intention was to explore how teachers use formative assessment strategies to raise classroom standards and to foster higher order cognitive development of learners. My interest in the study was influenced by constant poor achievement of South African learners in literacy and specifically in scientific literacy reported in various international and national benchmark tests. Vygotskian theory of the zone of proximal development was used to provide critical insight into formative assessment processes. Further theoretical lenses included Wylie and Lyons’ (2013) ‘Ten dimensions of formative assessment’ work for reviewing formative assessment strategies and Dalton’s (2003) ‘New Bloom’s Taxonomy’ for insight into cognitive development in classroom contexts. Influenced by the above mentioned reports, a qualitative case study of seven primary school teachers in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa was conducted. Underpinned by an interpretive paradigm and driven by the desire to achieve an in-depth understanding of the case under study, three techniques for data generation were employed. The first technique was semi-structured interviews. The second technique of data generation was through lesson observations including pre-lesson discussions and stimulated recall interviews. Observations were conducted to record teachers’ formative assessment practices and report how they use the formative assessment strategies to support student learning or ‘shifting’ their zone of proximal development through formative assessment practices. The third technique was document analysis of lesson plans, teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks worksheets of the two teachers observed. Documents were analysed to gain insights and understanding of how teachers prepared teaching and learning activities and assessments to support learner cognitive development. There were four data analysis phases. Phase I was an analysis of the semi-structured interviews. These were analysed to get a sense of teachers’ perspectives, experiences and challenges regarding formative assessment practices. In order to get a better sense of the quality of formative assessment, classroom observations were analysed using the lens of Wylie and Lyon (2013). This was analysis Phase II. Phase III made use of Dalton’s ‘New Bloom’s Taxonomy’ to gain insight into the role of formative assessment in supporting low, medium and higher order cognitive development. This phase was the document analysis and involved a review of the lesson plans, teaching and learning activities and formative assessment tasks. Phase IV further explored teachers’ experiences regarding implementation of formative assessment. Phase IV is different from Phase I in that it was not only looking at what teachers highlighted as challenges but also at challenges experienced during the lesson observations. This analysis was done across data sources, that is, semi-structured interviews, lesson observations and stimulated recall interviews. Findings from the first set of data showed that teachers viewed formative assessment implementation as a useful practice in the teaching and learning process. However, the diverse views showed lack of clarity of the purpose and definition of formative assessment. The results also revealed some effective attributes of formative assessment were observed during lesson observations at the time of the investigation. However, the results showed that clarifying goals, feedback and classroom collaborations were weakly implemented. These seem to be strategic entry points to begin strengthening the effective implementation of formative assessment classrooms. Supporting teachers regarding use of formative assessment techniques could be one of the means of helping teachers in collecting evidence of student learning. The teachers highlighted some challenges they experienced when implementing formative assessments. Hindrances to implementing effective formative assessment practice reflected structural, technical and attitudinal challenges. The study recommends that since formative assessment is a fundamental part of teaching and learning, teachers need more support and time for reflection to improve their implementation of effective formative assessment. The study also revealed that teachers need enough time to be able to implement effective formative assessment practices. This requires curriculum developers and administrators to revisit curriculum coverage in terms of breadth and depth and to give more time for the implementation of effective formative assessment practices.
- Full Text:
An investigation into the knowledge a Grade one teacher uses to develop the number sense of learners with mathematics learning difficulties
- Authors: Fleming, Kirsty Ann
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Learning disabled children -- Education -- South Africa , Mathematics -- Study and teching (Elementary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141533 , vital:37983
- Description: Learners in South Africa continue to underperform in the international and national mathematics benchmarking tests. In the primary school, poor performance in mathematics is viewed as an indicator of limited number sense. Since the end of Apartheid, there has been a proliferation of classroom-based research that attempts to explain why learners are underperforming and find solutions to the problem. Research that seeks to explain learner underperformance attributes poor learner performance to social-economic issues, teachers’ poor content and pedagogical knowledge, the complexity of the Language of Learning and Teaching, and insufficient support for learners with Mathematics Learning Difficulties (MLD). With regards to the latter, research suggests that Foundation Phase teachers are not equipped to assist learners with MLD develop their number sense. This qualitative case study aims to investigate the knowledge that an expert Foundation Phase teacher draws on, in the process of teaching, to assist learners with MLD develop their number sense. Data generated from observations and interviews with a Grade One teacher was analysed using Rowland, Turner and Thwaites’ (2013) Knowledge Quartet. The study found that the participant Grade One teacher employed all four categories of the Knowledge Quartet when developing her learners’ number sense. In particular, she placed strong emphasis on vocabulary development as a means of circumnavigating MLD when developing number sense in a Grade One mathematics lesson. She demonstrated knowledge of: the importance of vocabulary in learning mathematics; how to develop the learners’ understanding of mathematics vocabulary (and concepts); and how to adapt her approach to support the number sense development of learners with MLD. This research has value for teacher education programmes, both pre- and in-service, as it highlights the knowledge that a Grade One teacher draws on as she develops the number sense of all her learners, including those with MLD.
- Full Text:
An investigation of how selected Namibian grade 9 geography textbooks are reorienting school geography to education for sustainable development
- Authors: Uusiku, Naftal Amutenya
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Geography -- Study and teaching -- Namibia , Geography -- Study and teaching -- Namibia -- Textbooks , Sustainable development -- Study and teaching -- Namibia , Environmental education -- Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145524 , vital:38446
- Description: The World Social Science Report (UNESCO, 2013) describes environmental issues and challenges, many of which are driven by human activities. These include: changing consumption patterns, climate change, deforestation, desertification, water, population growth, poverty, food security, waste products and cultural diversity and globalization. Education for sustainable development [ESD], a vital tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, requires a rethinking and reorienting of education to address sustainability (UNESCO, 2016). The International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Education (2007, 2016) acknowledges the importance of reorienting of school geography to ESD. In Namibia, ESD has been embedded in the national curriculum. However, teachers play a critical role in reorienting school geography to ESD at the level of the classroom. They need appropriate resources to do so, the most widely used of which is the textbook. This study addresses the need for empirical research on how Namibian textbooks are reorienting geography to ESD. Using a qualitative interpretive research design, the study had the goals of understanding how selected Grade 9 textbooks are reorienting geography to ESD in what is taught (content) and how it is taught and learned (pedagogy), and how textbook authors perceive the reorienting of geography to ESD. Data were gathered through an online questionnaire of authors’ perceptions of their educational goals, important ESD content, the teaching strategies they use and the challenges they face. Document analysis was done on two causes of environmental deterioration — deforestation and population explosion in the theme Ecology — in three approved Grade 9 textbooks. The study provides evidence of how the selected textbooks are helping to reorientate school geography to the ESD content prescribed by the Namibian geography syllabus in a way that emphasizes knowing about, as opposed to critically engaging with the environmental challenges and issues at hand. With the exception of one textbook, the textbooks generally do not help to reorientate pedagogy to the transformative, change-oriented, futures-focused pedagogy advocated by the literature. Furthermore, the authors’ responses do not contain evidence that suggests their thinking is informed by contemporary perspectives on ESD or geography education. The findings provide insights for understanding how textbooks are helping to reorient Namibian school geography that may be of value to textbook authors and curriculum developers. Furthermore, it illuminates the need for theoretically informed curriculum and textbook writing workshops.
- Full Text:
An investigation of the influence of knowledge-production and learning processes on complex practices in a community-driven citizen science initiative: A nature conservation case study
- Authors: Alexander, Jaclyn
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Science -- Citizen participation , Western Leopard Toad Conservation Committee , Environmental education , Frogs -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/138173 , vital:37603
- Description: Community-driven citizen science initiatives have become an increasingly popular tool for combating social-ecological challenges that arise within communities. Scientific protocols have been designed to strengthen and support the accuracy and reliability of data collection and information sharing; however, little is understood of the dynamic social processes that reinforce and co-ordinate such community-driven action. This qualitative case study was undertaken to identify and understand complex organisational, political and socio-cultural processes (in particular knowledge-production and learning processes) that have guided, sustained and informed complex practices in a community driven citizen science initiative. The study aimed to inform the development of a social protocol that might be transferable to other citizen science contexts. The study drew on the theory of ‘Landscapes of Practice’, which highlights how multiple communities of practice overlap, interrelate, share knowledge and cross boundaries to create potential learning across a landscape. Additionally, ideas and typologies in recent citizen science literature offered perspective on the community-driven citizen science practices. This qualitative case study focused on the bounded case of the Western Leopard Toad Conservation Committee. Specific data generation tools (interviews, observations, document analysis and diagrams) were used from multiple perspectives over time to provide rigor and depth to the data. The study demonstrated how multiple ‘nexes of practice’ co-engaged in collective knowledge creation practices, which helped to enhance ‘knowledgeability’ across the landscape. This coordinated effort, however, was sporadic and inconsistent. Recommendations are made for the development of social protocols that could assist collaborators in citizen science initiatives to scrutinise and rethink their practices and to examine both their successes and shortfalls towards their shared interest.
- Full Text:
Developing social indicators for the evaluation of natural resource management programmes using a capability approach in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Human, Johanna Susanna
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Natural resources -- Management -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Environmental economics -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Subsistence farming -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Watersheds -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Capabilities approach (Social sciences) , Tsitsa River Catchment (Eastern Cape, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147348 , vital:38628
- Description: The dissertation investigates how the capability approach can be used to develop social indicators for a natural resource management (NRM) programme. The study aimed to develop an understanding of what the beneficiaries of the programme value being and doing to guide the development of social indicators that will take into consideration their personal development aspirations. These valued beings and doings were then overlaid with the programme goals and objectives to identify and select the final indicators. The study was situated in the Tsitsa catchment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa and was part of a natural resource management programme, focused on land restoration and avoided degradation. Methods used to collect data for this study and develop an understanding of what the residents’ valued beings and doings were, included semi-structured interviews, workshops and document analysis. The research population was non-homogenous. I tried to include voices representing different prominent groups of land users in the study. This included established commercial farmers, emerging commercial farmers, commercial forestry, residents residing in communal areas and engaged with subsistence farming and residents from these communal areas who are now residing elsewhere but continue to have connections to the catchment. Understanding the voices of these different groups who reside in the catchment was important to develop an inclusive understanding of what residents of the catchment valued beings and doings were. The research process was supported by participatory approaches. This process, and the lessons learnt during the research process, were valuable for the further development and implementation of the planned participatory monitoring evaluation reflection and learning (PMERL) framework. The research process involved learning from the research participants about their valued beings and doings and what was important for the programme implementers. Some of the research participants from the Rhodes University implementation team (RUIT) were also involved in selecting the indicators they thought the programme should monitor. Overall, using the capability approach helped me to gain insight and understanding with regard to what the valued beings and doings are for the residents of the catchment and what they would like development programmes, such as the Tsitsa Project, to address. It was surprising to find many areas of overlap between the valued beings and doings of the different residents in the catchment, as well as the similarities between these and the goals and objectives of the Tsitsa Project. In conclusion, using the capability approach was useful to learn what was important for the residents of the catchment to help develop the social indicators but also to learn how to guide and steer participatory monitoring and evaluation processes in the future.
- Full Text:
Investigating meaningful and critical teaching of poetry in English First Additional Language: a case of two Grade 11 classrooms in Lusikisiki District, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Dlamini, Sibongile Melody
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Poetry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Lusikisiki , Second language acquisition , Critical discourse analysis , Literacy -- South Africa -- Lusikisiki , Culturally relevant pedagogy -- South Africa -- Lusikisiki
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/130636 , vital:36449
- Description: Poetry stands out among literary genres as a rich resource for language teaching and learning (Danesh & Shirkhani, 2015). However, according to some reports on Grade 12 English First Additional Language in the Eastern Cape, poetry is a particularly challenging genre to both teachers and learners. This background has given rise to this study, which aimed to investigate the critical and meaningful teaching of poetry in Grade 11, a class preparing learners for Grade 12. This interpretive qualitative case study drew on Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory of cognitive development, which states that learners’ best knowledge is produced when co-operative learning takes place, with the help of the teacher. Purposive sampling was used to select two high schools from Lusikisiki district in the Eastern Cape, and one Grade 11 class and one teacher from each school. Lesson observations, document analysis, semi-structured interviews with the teachers, and focus group discussions with the learners were used to collect data. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Dutta’s (2001) model of poetry learning, as well as insights from Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory were used to analyse data. In addition, Four Reader Roles by Freebody and Luke (1990) were employed as a data analysis tool to find out the degree to which the poetry teaching developed learners into code breakers, text users, text participants and text analysts. The data revealed that both teachers and learners had a limited understanding of and negative attitudes towards poetry, and this affects the way teachers teach as well as how learners learn poetry. It also indicated that a teacher-centred approach constrains meaning and critical poetry teaching and learning. The findings suggested that in place of the traditional way of poetry teaching, teachers need to learn, develop and use innovative teaching strategies to strengthen poetry understanding in learners.
- Full Text:
Towards realising the benefits of citizen participation in environmental monitoring: a case study in an Eastern Cape natural resource management programme
- Authors: Mtati, Nosiseko
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Tsitsa Project , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Environmental monitoring -- South Africa -- Tsitsa River , Environmental monitoring -- Citizen participation -- South Africa -- Tsitsa River , Water supply, Agricultural -- South Africa -- Tsitsa River , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167562 , vital:41492
- Description: The Tsitsa Project focusses on land use management and rural livelihoods in the Tsitsa River catchment in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs and the environmental monitoring initiative is implemented by Rhodes University, where I am employed as the catchment coordinator. This study explores the environmental monitoring initiative within the bigger Tsitsa Project. Community members in the catchment monitor sediment transportation in the Tsitsa River and its tributaries, which originally became of interest because it is proposed that a dam (Ntabelanga Dam) be established here. This study aims to understand citizen environmental monitoring in the Tsitsa Project; what the project managers regarded as benefits; and how the monitors themselves perceived benefits of participating as monitors. A realist approach was followed, in order to understand the connections between the context and the mechanisms in the project, and how these combined to result in the outcomes observed. Realist research emphasises the importance of context in shaping outcomes such as the achieved benefits of citizen monitoring. Data was collected using a case study method, where each individual monitor and their particular context, was regarded as a case. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 monitors and five Tsitsa Project staff; this was supported by field notes and the reviewing of project documents including field reports. The realist analysis looked at the context of the monitors in general and the mechanisms applied by the project in recruiting, training and managing the monitors. A second layer of mechanisms was identified as those responses from the monitors to what the project was introducing to them. Outcomes were both positive and negative, including how long monitors remained in the initiative, what benefits they derived from the process, and what potential benefits they did not achieve. This included lost opportunities to provide recognition for skills and experience gained. Recommendations are made regarding the recruitment, training and management of monitors, to optimise benefits for the monitors, the host institution and the initiative’s staff. The study is significant because of its particular yet representative characteristics and it will assist both the Tsitsa Project, which aims to expand its citizen environmental monitoring initiative, as well as wider Natural Resource Management Programmes in South Africa. It is also hoped that it will contribute to the literature on environmental monitoring as a little researched form of citizen science globally.
- Full Text:
An exploration of how Professional Learning Communities can contribute to the development of teachers’ capabilities and valued functionings in teaching environmental content knowledge in the Life and Living strand in Grade 8 Natural Sciences
- Authors: Thomas, Kgomotso Emily
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa , Science teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa , Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92584 , vital:30739
- Description: The study explored how professional learning communities can contribute to the development of teachers’ capabilities and achievement of valued functionings related to teaching environmental content knowledge in the Life and Living strand in Grade 8 Natural Sciences. This is in the context of the Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement (CAPS), which is a content-referenced curriculum that requires active and critical approaches to learning, and to environment and sustainability content. This study is designed as a qualitative case study of a professional support forum (PSF) in the Mahikeng sub-district, in North West. The study made use of questionnaires, observations, interviews and document analysis as data generation methods. The Capability Approach was used as a theoretical and conceptual framework to explore teachers’ valued functionings, as well as the conversion factors related to those functionings. A functioning is defined as what a person values to be or do, hence the term valued beings and doings has been used interchangeably with the term valued functionings throughout the study. The analysis of data was done in three phases. Phase one analysis was inductive with the data from questionnaires, classroom observations, document analysis (work schedules and lesson plans or preparation books). The purpose of this phase was to answer the first research sub-question of how teachers teach environmental content. Phase two was a deductive analysis, and the purpose was to present teachers’ valued beings and doings in teaching environmental content, and in belonging to the PSF. The last phase of analysis was abductive, and it employed the theoretical framework of Sen’s Capability Approach to get a deeper understanding of factors that either enabled or constrained teachers’ valued beings and doings associated with their capabilities. The study found that teachers have gaps in their environmental content knowledge in the Life and Living strand grade 8 Natural Sciences. This was mainly as a result of teachers not having relevant qualifications, and/or not having any professional development in teaching the environmental content knowledge. Secondly, teachers used traditional methods which were teacher-centred to teach environmental content knowledge. The gaps in the environmental content knowledge were constraints to how the teachers taught environmental content in their classrooms. Teachers’ valued beings and doings related to teaching environmental content were discussed under the three conversion factors of the capability approach: personal, social and environmental conversion factors. The study found that teachers’ qualifications, experiences, passion for environmental content topics, level of confidence, teaching and learning resources, learners’ interest and participation, support, classroom and schools’ environment were among conversion factors that either enabled or constrained teachers’ valued functionings in teaching environmental content Findings also revealed that teachers have different valued functionings related to belonging to the PSF: shared responsibilities, shared values and vision, collaboration, and discussion of subject content. The conversion factors related to these functionings were found to be learning space, time and duration of the PSF, activities in the PSF, teaching and learning resources, teaching experience, and facilitation. The study recommends that teachers’ professional development programmes should promote subject content discussions as well as group and individual learning. They should also create supportive conditions that will expand teachers’ capabilities in teaching environmental content knowldge. Lastly, the teachers’ professional development programmes should explicitly take into account teachers’ valued functionings and conversion factors that can enable teachers to develop their professional capabilities.
- Full Text:
An investigation into amaXhosa new initiates’ masculine identity construction, mediation and negotiation: implications for the Life Orientation Curriculum
- Authors: Mdaka, Sizwe
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Social life and customs , Initiation rites -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Masculinity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Life skills -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies , Life skills -- Study and teaching -- South Africa -- Curricula , Men -- Identity -- South Africa , Boys -- Education -- South Africa , Gender identity in education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94926 , vital:31097
- Description: This study asked questions about dominant discourses shaping new amaXhosa initiates masculine identities. In particular, it asked questions on the interface between tradition and modern values and how the new initiates negotiate these in constructing masculine identities and the implications this has for schooling (and specifically LO classes). This was a qualitative case study that relied on multiple sources of data including individual and focus groups interview with AmaXhosa new initiates as well as individual interviews with teachers. The study also included classroom observations of Life Orientation classes as the selected schools. Initially, informal discussions with the new initiates were held to gain insights on their perspective of initiation schools. The findings of this study revealed three broad themes. The first was that normative masculine conceptions and manhood, with particular attention paid to constructions of manhood and masculine identity and their relation to emotional display, men as breadwinners and family providers, marriage, and heterosexuality and fatherhood. The second one was on gender space and power in the classroom which revealed masculine performance inside and outside the classroom, and the role played by sitting positions and spatial arrangements as a discursive spaces for the construction of particular masculine identities. The third related the curriculum in practice versus the stated LO curriculum and revealed a disjuncture between the two. With teachers tolerating the traditional male structures and behaviours in the classroom, despite being in conflict with the stated LO curriculum core messages on gender, patriarchy and equality, intentionally or unintentionally select a position of collusion rather than disruption of these classroom behaviours. The study results highlight the complex social space that new initiates inhabit in order to make meaning of their masculine identities, and the challenges for teachers and schools in mediating between the traditional values and behaviours of some leaners, some of which are in conflict with the values and behaviours espoused by the LO curriculum and the modernizing project goals of SA education and the Constitution.
- Full Text:
Exploring Intersemiotic Complementarity in three Namibian Physical Science teachers’ classroom practice
- Authors: Nakakuwa, Tomas
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Semiotics , Communication in science , Communication in education , Physical sciences -- Study and teaching -- Namibia , Science -- Study and teaching -- Namibia , Language and education -- Namibia , Science teachers -- Training of -- Namibia , Visual learning , Verbal learning
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96812 , vital:31324
- Description: The Namibian Science curriculum promotes learners’ development of self-confidence, self-knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live. The world we live in is increasingly multimodal, necessitating a multiliteracy in learners in order for them to engage meaningfully with knowledge and skills. Furthermore, scientists themselves engage in a range of inscription practices. While verbal language is the primary medium through which scientific knowledge and concepts are constructed, communicated, and learned, visuals can help learners to gain knowledge that they may not receive from verbal explanation alone. The verbal and visual semiotic modes can also function in a complementarity way, and this is significant in contexts where science lessons are for the most part in a second language - as is the case in Namibia where the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) of English is commonly not the learners’ mother tongue. However, no studies were found exploring the nature of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in the practice of Namibian science teachers, or whether it was related to the number of years of science teaching experience. This study thus aimed to explore the dynamics of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in the classroom practice of three Junior Secondary Physical Science teachers, with varying amounts of science teaching experience, in the Oshana region of Namibia. This qualitative case study, on the dynamics of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in science teacher classroom practice follows in the path of earlier studies which employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in the analysis of multimodal discourse. This thesis is also informed by Social Constructivism in which the various semiotic modes are recognised as components of the toolkit for mediating learning. The study adopted the interpretive paradigm. Data collection involved lesson observations and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis involved identification and coding of themes and categories inductively. The results reveal that the participant teachers employed the full range of intersemiotic sense relations which literature outlines. It was found that the ideational meanings in the verbal and visual modes of the science teachers’ practice are lexico-semantically related through these intersemiotic sense relations. While some teachers utilised some intersemiotic sense relations more often than others, there were no correspondences evident between the use of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity and the number of years of science teaching experience. The results also indicated that different intersemiotic sense relations served different purposes in the science classroom. The verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in the participant teachers’ practice tended to focus on: physical material, processes, symbolism or resemblance. This study has significant implications, providing an empirical basis for informing pre-service Physical Science teachers’ training and guiding the in-service training of Physical Science teachers in Namibia. Since its effective use may not be left up to teaching experience, Namibian Physical Science teacher training programmes need to include the use of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in order to equip and empower Physical Science teachers.
- Full Text:
Investigating how outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa respond to the needs of visually impaired learners via inclusive practices
- Authors: Eksteen, Hendrik Christiaan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Children with visual disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Outdoor education -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa , Outdoor recreation for children with disabilities -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92716 , vital:30721
- Description: Outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa are conducted at campsites and centres owned by the government, non-profit organisations and private owners. People suffering from impairments are often disabled by society because of their handicap. More than three percent (3%) of young people in South Africa aged between 10 – 19 years are disabled. This study investigates the status of inclusion of outdoor environmental education programmes for disabled young people; what is offered and what practices are working in the industry in South Africa. It also investigates barriers to inclusion. Though many disabilities have been identified, visual impairment is the focus of the study. This study also looks at what more can be done from an Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development point of view and investigates what underlying mechanisms influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. What is done and what is not done to promote inclusion for visually impaired learners in these programmes is also investigated. This study aims to answer the question; What is the current status quo concerning the inclusion of visually impaired learners in outdoor environmental learning programmes in environmental education centres and campsites in South Africa? An initial focus group conducted informally prior to the study, helped me to understand the context. In this study, key-interviews and questionnaires were used as research tools. I also ran a photo narrative project throughout the research project which was used as a participatory activity and provided further insight into practices. Inductive, abductive and retroductive analysis approaches were used to identify emerging themes, and I applied method triangulation using all research tools in order to address the research questions. Some of the most important findings are that: • There are many barriers, some intrinsic others extrinsic, that hinder inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. • Although there are many things done in the industry to promote inclusion, there is much more that could be done. • The visually impaired individual him/herself influences inclusivity in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Interactions and influences in the mesosystem (between different microsystems and ecosystems) have an impact on the inclusivity of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Dispositions of people have an impact on the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • The diversity of generative mechanisms (drivers to events), that interact at the level of the real, influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. Disability/impairment is a much-neglected area of environmental education research in South Africa. This study has contributed scholarship to this area and has also identified possible further areas of study in creating awareness, creating an opportunity to reflect on practices, and finding possible solutions to the barriers of exclusion.
- Full Text:
Recontextualisation of biodiversity knowledge in the Senior Phase Natural Sciences curriculum
- Authors: Mmekwa, Makwena
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Biodiversity -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Environmental protection -- South Africa , Biodiversity Conservation -- South Africa , Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Program) , South African National Biodiversity Institute. Life: the state of South Africa's biodiversity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92694 , vital:30723
- Description: This study explored the nature of biodiversity knowledge in the Senior Phase Natural Sciences curriculum in relation to international and national scientific documents. Significant biodiversity key features were identified from a review of these documents. These concepts were then explored in terms of how they had been presented and recontextualised in the Senior Phase Natural Sciences CAPS policy document and a selection of three commonly used textbooks for this subject in South Africa. Using Bernstein’s (1990) framework of the Pedagogic Device, the study traces how biodiversity knowledge was de-located from the scientific Field of Production (FOP) and relocated into the Official Recontextualisation Field (ORF) and Pedagogical Recontextualisation Field (PRF). In exploring the continuity, changes and discontinuities in the biodiversity content, as it has been recontextualised, the study utilised Bernstein’s concepts of selective appropriation and ideological transformation. The study is a qualitative case study that drew on document analysis and structured interviews to generate data. Data analysis for this study consisted of two phases. Phase One involved an analysis of biodiversity knowledge in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) and Life: The State of South Africa’s Biodiversity (SANBI, 2013) which represented the FOP. This was in order to explore the nature of biodiversity knowledge in those documents. This knowledge was then compared to the Senior Phase Natural Sciences curriculum which represented the ORF and selection of textbooks representing the PRF. Phase Two sought to investigate the role players in the recontextualising fields and what roles did they play in the recontextualisation of biodiversity knowledge. This phase entailed an analysis of interviews. The findings showed that both the international document and the national document presented biodiversity knowledge in terms of their fundamental value to humans. In addition, these documents illustrated human-environmental interactions. They presented procedural knowledge that allow us to understand ecosystems and their services to human well-being. The documents also described how ecosystem services are in decline in many places around the world. The documents presented knowledge of threats to biodiversity such as habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and overharvesting. They also included knowledge of conservation and sustainability which focused on preventing ongoing degradation and restoration and reversal of degradation of ecosystems. In comparing the ORF and the PRF this study showed that the CAPS policy document appears to present concepts foundational to understanding biodiversity rather than discussing biodiversity itself. The textbooks contextualise these foundational concepts and broaden them mostly through pictorial illustrations, as case studies and contextual examples. A recommendation from the research is that the official recontextualisation process should review opportunities to draw on international and national documents that present concepts and contemporary cases of biodiversity content knowledge to ensure that the complexities around biodiversity are presented in the curriculum. This study may contribute to the development and review of the Natural Sciences curriculum and environmental education in South Africa. The study also suggests areas of biodiversity knowledge that might be included as curriculum content in the future. It further suggests that curriculum developers consider including new environmental knowledge which deals with local, national and global needs and expectations.
- Full Text:
Selected Namibian secondary school geography teachers’ pedagogical thinking and practices: the case of mapwork
- Authors: Naxweka, Johanna Ndamononghenda
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Geography -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Cartography -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia , Maps -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76969 , vital:30651
- Description: Learner performance in mapwork in secondary school geography in Namibia has been consistently poor. Examiners’ reports provide detailed feedback on the difficulties learners demonstrate with little, if any, attention paid to teachers’ perceptions, experiences and pedagogical practices of mapwork. This qualitative study generated insights to understand selected geography teachers’ perceptions and pedagogical practices of mapwork. Data were generated through a questionnaire administered to thirty geography teachers in fifteen secondary schools in the Ohangwena Circuit in the Ohangwena Region of Namibia. The teachers’ responses were coded and analyzed and patterns and trends identified. Based on what emerged, a purposive sample of three teachers was chosen for in-depth interviews to probe their responses and to observe their classroom practices. The study draws on learner centred pedagogy (LCP), the official educational policy in Namibia, and Shulman’s perspectives of teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (1986, 1987) to interpret what teachers say about the teaching of mapwork and how they teach it. The qualities of teachers’ PCK that support student learning in mapwork are not yet fully understood because there has been little research on teachers’ PCK for teaching mapwork and spatial thinking in geography classrooms (Jo & Bednarz, 2014). The study sheds light on the teachers’ qualifications and experience, their perceptions and attitudes towards the teaching of mapwork, their teaching strategies and the resources they use. The findings reveal that the teachers are conscientious but ill-equipped to teach mapwork. The study illuminated a disjuncture between the rhetoric and practice of learner centred pedagogy. There is evidence which suggests that the teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum is superficial and limited to content. Their practices are focused on teaching map skills and procedural knowledge with little, if any, attention given to spatial and map conceptual understanding and application of knowledge to solve problems. The study concludes that teachers’ map and spatial conceptual understanding and pedagogical content knowledge should be strengthened if the persistent problem of poor learner attainment is to be resolved. It provides insights that may be of value to Namibian teachers, teacher educators, curriculum policy developers and Senior Education Officers when addressing this problem.
- Full Text:
Teachers’ engagement with learners in inclusive foundation phase classrooms: a case study analysis
- Authors: Skae, Vera Astrid
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Early childhood education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies , Education and state -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92705 , vital:30722
- Description: Since 2001, South African teachers have been attempting to practise inclusive education in classrooms in ordinary, public schools. Previous research has shown the many challenges South African teachers face in our current educational environment. Strong arguments, however, have been made for more research to be done on actual teacher engagement with learners in our ordinary, public school classrooms, and the extent to which classroom practices are inclusive (Engelbrecht, Nel, Nel & Tlale, 2015, p. 3). This study sought to do an in-depth critical analysis of three foundation phase teachers and their engagement with learners in their classrooms at an Eastern Cape school. The aim was to examine how inclusive education was being enacted by the teacher with learners in real classroom settings, with particular attention paid to ways in which learners experience barriers to learning. A micro-level analysis was conducted in a single unit case study and using a qualitative research approach in an interpretive paradigm. Questionnaires, observations, and semi-structured interviews were conducted in an attempt to gather in-depth data. It was heartening to observe the extent to which inclusive education and practices were being enacted at the school and in the classrooms, and instructive in providing examples of what can work in the South African context. Key findings of this study include the generation of a framework for analysing inclusive classroom practice at the micro level. Criteria were identified as indicators of inclusive education of learners including those experiencing barriers to learning in the classroom. This study builds on and extends what has been developed at the macro and micro level of inclusive education in schools and in the classroom. It found that a number of challenges remain for enabling the implementation of an inclusive education. At the macro level, these include the provision of clear directives for implementation of inclusive education by the appropriate authorities; the provision of well-structured professional teacher training and development programmes in inclusive classroom practices, as well as in barriers to learning and how to address them; and the provision of funding for school and classroom infrastructure and resources. At the micro level, these include the successful implementation by teachers of inclusive classroom practices and the provision of the necessary support for learners experiencing barriers to learning in their classrooms, including expert personnel, resources, and assistive devices.
- Full Text:
A review of the implementation of the CAPS Life Skills curriculum training, as a recontextualising process, in engaging teachers in environmental education in two districts of the Eastern Cape Province
- Authors: Yoyo, Sindiswa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Life skills Study and teaching (Continuing education) South Africa Eastern Cape , Environmental education Curricula South Africa Eastern Cape , Teachers In-service training South Africa Eastern Cape , Curriculum change South Africa Eastern Cape , Teachers Education (Continuing education) South Africa Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61767 , vital:28057
- Description: This study examines how the implementation of CAPS Life Skills curriculum training (as a recontextualising process) is engaging teachers in environmental education. The research was centred on training manuals for Life Skills (Official Recontextualisation Field) and their use in CAPS training at district level in two Eastern Cape sites of recontextualisation (Professional Recontextualisation Field). During the training, teachers developed lesson plans that were reviewed and group interviews were conducted on the training process and its outcomes. The manuals, training process, lesson plans and interview transcripts were analysed for evidence of environmental education, notably content, teaching and learning methods and assessment strategies. Bernstein’s (1990) framework of the pedagogic device underpins this study. Here the concept of the relay is key for tracking the "relay” of the content, teaching and learning methods and assessment strategies through the processes of recontextualisation into the lesson plans for the field of production. During the process of de-location and relocation, gaps are created and this study sought to track and probe patterns of omissions that took place during the relay process in two cases of training. The review of the in-service training course process of recontextualisation and its cascading approach exposed challenges of omission as it became clear that at each level of the recontextualisation process, gaps were apparent. The study highlighted how the 3-5 day workshop process reviewed was not a robust model for professional development. It was not effective and changes in the mode of delivery and processes of support that reach into curriculum practice in the context of the school are recommended. The study concludes that there is a need for continuous professional development as teachers need ongoing support especially for a "new” curriculum like CAPS that is content driven.
- Full Text:
Sociocultural and sociomaterial mediation of children’s connectedness-with-nature: a case study of Hobbiton
- Authors: Ward-Smith, Chesney Fenella
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Environmental psychology South Africa Eastern Cape , Experiential learning South Africa Eastern Cape , Environmental education Activity programs South Africa Eastern Cape , Nature study Activity programs South Africa Eastern Cape , Outdoor education South Africa Eastern Cape , Ethnoecology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61918 , vital:28083
- Description: An increasingly large body of literature sees disconnection from nature as central to the convergent social-ecological crisis, rooted in anthropocentric ontologies. This study explored the potential for embodied, sociomaterial nature-based activities to engender shifts in children’s perceptions of, and sense of connectedness with, nature. Equally it explored how children’s socio-cultural-historical value positionings (SCHVP) mediated their perceptions of, and connectedness with, nature. The nature-based activities, spread over five-day camps, were located at Hobbiton-on-Hogsback, a centre that has existed for decades to provide experiential learning and graded exposure to natural spaces, aiming to increase environmental knowledge and nature-connection. The experiences of two groups of children from wide-ranging socioeconomic and socio-cultural backgrounds in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were explored using interpretive case study methodology. Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with selected children (aged 10-14) and the Hobbiton staff members who worked with them, as well as participant observation, data were collected and analysed thematically. This study was guided by a layered theoretical framework that included Deep Ecology as an under-labourer, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a substantive, analytical framework. Interactions between participants’ SCHVP and the sociomateriality of the nature- based activities were analysed in relation to the children’s nature-perceptions and sense of Connectedness-With-Nature. The findings highlight both the importance of the children’s SCHVP and the sociomateriality of the nature-based activities in mediating their prior perceptions of, and connectedness with nature. The nature-based activities acted as a primary stimulus for developing environmental empathy, awareness and pro-environmental intentions. In essence, Hobbiton acted as a primary ‘seed planter’ towards greater feelings of Connectedness-With-Nature. However, recommendations are put forward for more decolonised, ethics-oriented and sociomaterial design of Hobbiton’s nature-based activities, with an emphasis on integrating children’s SCHVP into the pedagogical-design process in relation to the sociomaterial elements of the nature-based activities. Emically integrating the children’s multiplicities of knowing, doing, valuing and being into the pedagogical-design process could contribute to the decolonisation of nature-based experiences in such contexts cultural, socio and political diversity.
- Full Text:
Teacher perspectives on value creation and learning in South African eco-schools: an evaluative review of teacher support processes in an eco-school professional learning community
- Authors: Khan, Anisa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa , Environmental education -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Continuing education , Teachers -- Attitudes , Communities of practice -- South Africa , Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education , Eco-schools
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62840 , vital:28300
- Description: The study is framed within the broader policy context of teacher professional development and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Department of Higher Education (DHET) strategy to support the development of Professional Learning Communities. Teacher Education and Development initiatives in South Africa face multiple challenges, with the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education in South Africa: 2011-2025 (ISFPTED) (South Africa, DBE, 2011) providing guidance on priority interventions to address these, including guidance on continuous teacher professional development through teacher education support in professional learning communities. The Eco-Schools programme has, over its decade-long history, provided support to teachers in schools registered as Eco-Schools. The value created by the diverse support practices is not well known or understood. The study aimed to shed light on the support teachers in the Eco-Schools programme value and how this contributes to environmental learning and practice. Working with Wenger’s Communities of Practice theory (Wenger, 1998) as a conceptual framework and lens, the study set out to describe and explore the processes of teacher learning amongst a sample of teachers supported to function as a professional learning community within the Eco-Schools programme. The findings and recommendations made are in relation to the research goals which are to explore and describe the value being created by the patterns of teacher support in an Eco-Schools node/cluster. To this end, the evaluative study generated evidence in relation to what teachers derive value from through the support they receive; and assessed evidence on how teaching, learning, and practice are developing through participation in the Eco-Schools Professional Learning Community examined. The study was conducted in 2 phases, the first as a survey of the patterns of support in Eco-School clusters/ nodes. The descriptions enabled a mapping of the patterns of support in the “coordinator supported model” of Eco-Schools to understand how the coordinator supported model of Eco-Schools enables teacher collaboration and supports the development of an environment and sustainability community of practice between teachers from across the cluster/ node. The second part of the study explored teacher’s perspectives of value derived from participation in an expanded model of Eco-Schools support, using an appreciative inquiry methodology to extract teacher narrations of value creation and meaning-making. In relation to goal one, the main findings indicate that the patterns of support enabled teachers to develop confidence and skills for action taking and responding to local socio-economic and environmental challenges. The data also reflected local partnerships with other environmental knowledge organisations, thus adding value to the programme through an expanded network of environmental practice and provision of additional resources. In relation to goal 2 of the study, teachers experienced Eco-School practices as personally meaningful and connected to their identity. Teachers expressed value in the training they had received through the Fundisa for Change programme which deepened their understanding of the implementation requirements of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) and helped to connect knowledge concepts in the curriculum with sustainability practices implemented as part of the Eco-Schools framework. In relation to goal 3, teachers gained confidence in “Teaching Biodiversity” through the Fundisa for Change training. Teachers were better able to understand the Specific Aims of the Biodiversity curriculum (CAPS) and to adapt their teaching methods to support the CAPS content and assessment requirements. Teacher portfolios also showed evidence of teachers developing skills in analysis of learner performance and an awareness of the need to adjust their teaching and assessment strategies to address “gaps” in learner understanding.
- Full Text:
A review of the development and enactment of a radio programme on rainwater harvesting in expanding social learning interactions: a case of the Imvotho Bubomi Learning Network in the Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Lupele, Chisala
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Imvotho Bubomi Learning Network , Amanzi for Food , Radio in education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Educational broadcasting -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Radio stations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community radio -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Environmental education -- South Africa , Water conservation -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Rhodes University. Environmental Learning Research Centre
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/12991 , vital:21786
- Description: The use of radio and associated information and communications technologies (ICTs) has not been widely explored as a process of environmental education over the years. If environmental education is to involve many people, the use of radio and associated ICTs, particularly in community radio, needs to be researched because radio has multilayered functions. This study examines how practitioners in an agricultural Community of Practice (CoP), namely the Imvotho Bubomi Learning Network in the Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa developed a radio programme on rainwater harvesting for the promotion of food security. The study probes the expansion and social learning of the network and into the public sphere after broadcasts. The study draws on research data generated in the Amanzi for Food project which was funded by the Water Research Commission of South Africa and was led by the Rhodes University Environmental Learning Research Centre. Using interviews, radio programme transcripts and observations, the study found that through using their prior knowledge from a training of trainers’ course on rain water harvesting and drawing on everyday experience of rainwater harvesting the CoP members had an expansion in their mutual engagement, joint enterprise, diversity, shared repertoire and identity into a knowledge community. This learning process developed through a successive elaboration of social ecological and social articulations related to the expansive functioning of the CoP; and experience of the benefits of rainwater harvesting as radio programme listeners deliberated how the different practices related to their existing knowledge and experience. The study also found that these expansive processes of social learning occurred across the spectrum of smallholder farmers and homestead food growers in a stimulated radio listening focus group discussion. The study concludes that agriculture practitioners involved in education for sustainable development could expand their knowledge sharing platforms by giving more attention to community radio as a means of both involving participants and engaging learning communities in local environment and sustainability concerns.
- Full Text:
Exploring Grade 9 Physical Science teachers’ views and experiences on the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in their lessons: a Namibian case study
- Authors: Simasiku, Fredrick Simataa
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6919 , vital:21200
- Description: There is extensive research on the fact that the learning of science is assisted through the inclusion of the prior everyday knowledge and local knowledge that learners bring from home and from within their communities. It is precisely for this reason that the Namibian Learner Centered Education (LCE) curriculum encourages teachers to include learners’ prior everyday knowledge in their science lessons. However, the inclusion of traditional knowledge/local knowledge or indigenous knowledge (IK) and how this should be done has been largely ignored both in the Namibian school science curriculum and textbooks. It is against this background that this study sought to explore teachers’ views and experiences on the inclusion of IK in Physical Science Grade 9 lessons as well as the pedagogical strategies that they use. This research used a mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative data were collected) which was underpinned by the interpretive paradigm. Within the interpretive paradigm, I employed a case study approach. The study was carried out in the Endola education circuit of the Ohangwena Region. Essentially, the study explored three things: Firstly, the views, experiences and pedagogical strategies of Grade 9 Physical Science teachers on the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in their lessons. Secondly, to find out what factors enable the teachers to integrate their local knowledge into Physical Science lessons? Thirdly, to look at constraints that affect Grade 9 Physical Science teachers in the use of local knowledge in their science lessons. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data obtained were validated in two ways, firstly, the data were triangulated from different data gathering techniques, and secondly, validation was done by member checking of the transcribed scripts. To make meaning from the data generated, Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory was used as a lens to analyze the data. The data generated were coded inductively and presented in graphs, tables and descriptive texts to make meaning. The findings from the research revealed that teachers in the Endola circuit do make some efforts to include indigenous knowledge in their lessons. Furthermore, teachers seemed to grasp the benefits and constraints that come with the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in their science lessons. For example, it emerged that indigenous knowledge enables learners to link what they are taught in the science classroom to what is happening in the community or at home, thereby enhancing their understanding of the concepts. Topics such as acids and bases, friction, combustion, static electricity and pressure emerged as some of the topics in which teachers include indigenous knowledge. On the other hand, the issue of language, textbooks and lack of indigenous knowledge by teachers affects the way teachers are able to include IK in their lessons. This study thus recommends that teachers should explore different indigenous practices that can be linked to the topics in the curriculum or syllabus to enhance learning and teaching. Furthermore, they need to involve local communities that possess indigenous knowledge to help in delivering indigenous practices during the lessons. Lastly, teachers and communities should start developing learning and teaching support materials that are useful when local knowledge is included.
- Full Text: