Teachers’ understanding and implementation of inclusive education in an Eastern Cape primary school
- Authors: Mcconnachie, Karola
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Inclusive education -- South Africa , Special education -- South Africa , Education (Primary) -- Government policy -- South Africa , Alcoholism -- Social aspects -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1984 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013150
- Description: Since 2001 the South African Department of Basic Education has been working towards implementing Inclusive Education over a twenty year period. This is in accordance with international trends in education. This study set out to investigate the implementation of Inclusive Education in a South African context by conducting a case study at an Eastern Cape no‐fee‐paying primary school. It looked at how the government policy, as set out in Education White Paper 6 (EWP6) (DoE, 2001), is understood and being implemented by teachers at the Welcome Primary school. The study further investigated the introduction of the National Strategy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS strategy) (DoE, 2008a) to gain insight into how teachers identify and assess barriers to learning in an ordinary primary school. In addition it looked at emerging factors that could impact on the implementation of this policy. With 16 years teaching experience in ordinary and private schools and 19 years experience in a special needs school as a teacher, head of department and then principal, I have personal experience of the crisis in the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education. This awareness provided the impetus and interest in researching Inclusive Education policy implementation. It is my view that only when we begin to grapple with the problems right at the source of the education crisis within the majority of the no‐fee‐paying schools that informed decisions about policy and policy implementation can be made. As I am able to understand and converse in isiXhosa, I was able to observe and experience the implementation of EWP6 and the SIAS strategy in a school that is an isiXhosa‐medium ordinary primary school and similar to the majority of ordinary public schools in the district. A qualitative research approach based within an interpretive paradigm using the case study method was used for this study. Semi‐structured interviews, detailed field notes as well as documents generated by meetings and education conferences helped me to investigate and refine my research goals. The research found that the implementation of EWP6 and the SIAS strategy posed a major challenge for the Department of Basic Education, and highlighted the significant gap between ordinary primary schools and special needs schools. However, the fact that there is a partial engagement with the process of providing inclusive education, does present some measure of hope for a better future for those learners that have experienced the injustice of exclusion from education and society. The Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education will have to ‘catch up’ to other provinces in its delivery of every child’s constitutional right to education in an inclusive school environment. Factors emerged from the study that showed that the assessment of learners’ barriers to learning with the resultant support needs was a relatively new concept, as teachers tended to rely on traditional classroom tests and simple informal classroom assessments to assess the learners. Teachers expressed a good verbal knowledge of learners with support needs but found it very challenging to put this verbal knowledge into a written document. In addition there was inadequate support from the District Based Support Team to implement the SIAS strategy. This study showed that the medical model of assessment was still being adhered to in the research district with little evidence of a move to a social model of assessment in terms of the SIAS strategy. In addition, factors emerged indicating the serious impact that alcohol abuse has on children and the society in which they live. The evidence of increasing numbers of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in a single educational district is a matter of grave concern from an educational and financial perspective. It is my contention that this is a matter of national urgency and that the Department of Basic Education must confront the escalating problem of alcohol abuse and the resultant challenges of a large number of learners with serious barriers to learning that need to be included in the education system.
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- Date Issued: 2014
The development of the common fraction concept in grade three learners
- Authors: Fraser, Claire Anne
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) Mathematics Problems, exercises, etc Fractions -- Study and teaching (Elementary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1497 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003379
- Description: Over a period of nine months in 1999, a longitudinal teaching intervention was undertaken with Grade 3 learners in the Fort Beaufort district, Eastern Cape. Working in the interpretive paradigm, the intervention focussed on: - the development of the common fraction concept, - the relevance of the hierarchy of Murray and Olivier’s Four Levels of Development in common fractions and - whether learners’ informal knowledge could be utilised in developing this concept. Using the Problem-centred approach to teaching mathematics, problems set in reallife contexts were used as vehicles for learning. Learners were required to discuss, reflect and make sense of the mathematics they were doing. Participant observation, completed worksheets and unstructured interviews with learners, formed the primary method of data collection. Learners’ work was analysed and classified according to the method used and manner in which the solution was notated. Results showed that learners were able to achieve a significant degree of success in developing a stable common fraction concept. Learners were afforded opportunities to construct their own ideas and to develop a deeper understanding of the concept. Many methods used were based on their informal knowledge of sharing. Learners made sense of realistic problems using drawings, and invented their own procedures. Apart from Level One, Phase Three, all Murray and Olivier’s Levels of Development could be identified during the research. This study will provide educators with valuable information on how learners solve mathematical problems involving fractions and how informal knowledge can be used as a foundation on which to build.
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- Date Issued: 2001
A history of the Good Shepherd School, Huntley Street, Grahamstown
- Authors: Holshausen, Nicole
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Good Shepherd School (South Africa) -- History Schools -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Schools -- Grahamstown (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1554 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003436
- Description: This thesis is a qualitative, historical study of The Good Shepherd School in Huntly Street, Grahamstown, South Africa. It is one of the oldest school buildings in South Africa that remains in use as a school. There are two main threads to understanding The Good Shepherd School in context. The first of these threads, the colonial root of the school, is explained in a discussion of the Grammar School, attached to the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George, that utilised the Huntly Street facilities from 1851 to 1902. The second thread is the strong tradition of caring for the underprivileged. This is traced through following the development of the educational works of The Community of the Resurrection which involves the discussion of various schools at different locations in Grahamstown. The current school on the Huntly Street premises, The Good Shepherd School, forms, however, the focus of this study, which draws on all the histories of its forerunners and their historical locations. Historical social science methods and procedures were used in the research. This was done through documentary analysis of evidence as well as through semi-structured interviews, creating an interpretative account of how the school has affected people's lives. The conclusion reached is that The Good Shepherd School has contributed greatly to the education of underprivileged people in the Grahamstown area. It appears to be an outstanding example of a school offering a well-rounded, caring education when this was historically denied to many people in South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 1999