Curriculum reform in Lesotho: exploring the interface between environmental education and geography in selected schools
- Authors: Raselimo, Mohaeka Gabriel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Curriculum planning -- Lesotho Curriculum change -- Lesotho Educational evaluation -- Lesotho Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Lesotho Geography -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Lesotho Agenda 21 (Program)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003369
- Description: This study sought to explore the interface between environmental education (EE) and school geography with a view to understanding a process of curriculum reform in the context of Lesotho. The research was based on the curriculum reform process that was initiated by a Danish donor-funded project, known as the Lesotho Environmental Education Support Project (LEESP), which operated from 2001 to 2004. Driven by a sustainable development imperative, the project was intended to assist Lesotho in the implementation of local action for Agenda 21 by introducing environmental education into the formal education system. Deviating slightly from much published research on geographical and environmental education, which focuses on how geography contributes to environmental education, this study explored how the latter has shaped the former in terms of content and pedagogy. Using the lens of critical curriculum theory, I sought to understand the political nature of the curriculum and of curriculum change, focusing on the LEESP curriculum policy development, dissemination and implementation at classroom level. The study employed Bernstein's concepts of classification and framing to illuminate issues of power and control between discourses, and between teachers and learners. Operating within an interpretive qualitative research orientation, the study used a case study method focusing on five secondary/high schools in Lesotho. The data was generated through document analysis, interviews and classroom observations. The study examined the assumptions, values and ideologies underpinning environmental education curriculum intentions as reflected in LEESP documents. It also investigated the social process of conceptualising and disseminating environmental education to understand the challenges faced as education practitioners made sense of environmental education innovations in the specific contexts of Lesotho, and how these could possibly influence what happens at the classroom level. The analysis of the LEESP documents revealed that while there are many areas of synergy between the LEESP environmental education policy guidelines and the national education ideals in Lesotho, achievement of the transformational visions of action competence, which was the overarching concept in the reform process, would require major structural changes. The study also highlights issues of participation, contestations, tensions and contradictions associated with the conceptualisation and dissemination of environmental education. At implementation level, there is a disjuncture between environmental education policy intentions and practice. Geography teachers in the research schools generally understood the existence of environmental education in their schools in terms of environmental management. The findings also revealed that while there is generally a strong environmental dimension in geography content, as reflected in both curriculum materials and classroom practice, the subject still retains its disciplinary boundaries and makes little use of knowledge from other subjects or the everyday knowledge of the learners. Finally, it emerged that while the geography teachers in their rhetoric espoused learner-centred methods, in practice they generally employed traditional teacher-centred and book-centred methods. The study concludes that a lack of change in school geography in Lesotho, of the sort envisaged in LEESP, may be attributed to contextual and structural factors such as an overemphasis on examinations, and certain perceptions on the part of teachers and learners embedded in the history and culture of their society. A model of teacher professional development capable of supporting curriculum change is therefore proposed.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Raselimo, Mohaeka Gabriel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Curriculum planning -- Lesotho Curriculum change -- Lesotho Educational evaluation -- Lesotho Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Lesotho Geography -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Lesotho Agenda 21 (Program)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003369
- Description: This study sought to explore the interface between environmental education (EE) and school geography with a view to understanding a process of curriculum reform in the context of Lesotho. The research was based on the curriculum reform process that was initiated by a Danish donor-funded project, known as the Lesotho Environmental Education Support Project (LEESP), which operated from 2001 to 2004. Driven by a sustainable development imperative, the project was intended to assist Lesotho in the implementation of local action for Agenda 21 by introducing environmental education into the formal education system. Deviating slightly from much published research on geographical and environmental education, which focuses on how geography contributes to environmental education, this study explored how the latter has shaped the former in terms of content and pedagogy. Using the lens of critical curriculum theory, I sought to understand the political nature of the curriculum and of curriculum change, focusing on the LEESP curriculum policy development, dissemination and implementation at classroom level. The study employed Bernstein's concepts of classification and framing to illuminate issues of power and control between discourses, and between teachers and learners. Operating within an interpretive qualitative research orientation, the study used a case study method focusing on five secondary/high schools in Lesotho. The data was generated through document analysis, interviews and classroom observations. The study examined the assumptions, values and ideologies underpinning environmental education curriculum intentions as reflected in LEESP documents. It also investigated the social process of conceptualising and disseminating environmental education to understand the challenges faced as education practitioners made sense of environmental education innovations in the specific contexts of Lesotho, and how these could possibly influence what happens at the classroom level. The analysis of the LEESP documents revealed that while there are many areas of synergy between the LEESP environmental education policy guidelines and the national education ideals in Lesotho, achievement of the transformational visions of action competence, which was the overarching concept in the reform process, would require major structural changes. The study also highlights issues of participation, contestations, tensions and contradictions associated with the conceptualisation and dissemination of environmental education. At implementation level, there is a disjuncture between environmental education policy intentions and practice. Geography teachers in the research schools generally understood the existence of environmental education in their schools in terms of environmental management. The findings also revealed that while there is generally a strong environmental dimension in geography content, as reflected in both curriculum materials and classroom practice, the subject still retains its disciplinary boundaries and makes little use of knowledge from other subjects or the everyday knowledge of the learners. Finally, it emerged that while the geography teachers in their rhetoric espoused learner-centred methods, in practice they generally employed traditional teacher-centred and book-centred methods. The study concludes that a lack of change in school geography in Lesotho, of the sort envisaged in LEESP, may be attributed to contextual and structural factors such as an overemphasis on examinations, and certain perceptions on the part of teachers and learners embedded in the history and culture of their society. A model of teacher professional development capable of supporting curriculum change is therefore proposed.
- Full Text:
Deciding and doing what's right for people and planet : an investigation of the ethics-oriented learning of novice environmental educators
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne Laura
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Environmental education Environmental ethics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1913 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007238
- Description: This study probes the ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of three novice environmental education practitioners in South Africa. Two of the cases examined work in a local government context, and the third in an environmental non-governmental organisation context. All three practitioners are studying a one-year professional development course in environmental education. The research asks how their ethical deliberations ‘come to be what they are’, at the interface of their workplace and course-based learning processes. Working within a relational, social realist ontology, the study takes a sociocultural-historical approach to learning, development and social change. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) provides theoretical tools and a descriptive language to approach the rich, qualitative data derived from workplace and course observations, extensive interviews, and document review. Critical discourse analysis was used as a secondary analytical tool to probe ethical and environmental discourses that were found to be influential in the course and workplace activity systems. Data from the three case studies was analysed in stages. In the first stage, CHAT provided a theoretical perspective and language of description to analyse the interacting activity systems in which each learner-practitioner’s ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations occurred. This provided a platform for the second stage of analysis which was framed by Margaret Archer’s (1995) social realist theory of morphogenesis/ morphostasis, followed by a summative retroductive analysis, to give an account of the interplay of historically-emergent social and cultural structures and individual reflexivity in relation to the ethical dimensions of environmental education practice. The study traces how ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations occur at the untidy, unpredictable intersection of workplace, course and personal contexts, and are strongest when they are situated in authentic contexts that resonate with learner-practitioners’ ‘ultimate concerns’ (after Archer, 2003; 2007). In this study, the learner-practitioners’ ‘ultimate concerns’ included family, personal well-being, social justice, cultural identity and religious commitments. The scope and depth of learner-practitioners’ social-ecological knowledge was also identified as a key factor influencing ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations, although the mediation of such knowledge can be hindered by language and conceptual ii barriers, amongst others. The study also noted how ethical positions circulating in the workplace, course and personal contexts were diverse, uneven and dynamic. Some ethical positions were found to be more explicitly differentiated than others, either resonating with or being overlooked by the learner-practitioners as they deliberated the ethical dimensions of their environmental education practice. In situations where there was limited depth, conceptual clarity and/ or confidence to engage directly with ethical concerns, there was a tendency towards (inadvertent) ethical relativism. Insights derived from the study suggest that these factors have limiting effects on the ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of novice environmental educators. These insights point to the need for ethical deliberations to be re-personalised in context and underpinned by depth knowledge. A relational and pragmatic approach to environmental ethics (that recognises the validity of judgemental rationality – which can be fallible – and which seeks out practical adequacy) is put forward as appropriate and potentially generative in environmental education and training processes. This would need to be supported by careful attention to the influence of environmental discourses and practices in shaping ethical deliberations, and may also be helpful in developing a much-needed accessible, everyday language of ethical engagement. This study’s contribution to new knowledge in the field of environmental education is through its account of ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations emerging (in the Archerian morphogenetic sense) in complex, indeterminate ways at the interface of sociocultural and social-ecological contexts. The ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of novice environmental educators occur in relation to their ‘ultimate concerns’ and are advanced or hindered by the historically-emergent practices, discourses and material realities of their workplace, personal and educational contexts. These insights require that the complex interplay of intersecting contexts and concerns that shape ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations be acknowledged and carefully mediated in both workplace-based and coursebased professional development processes.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne Laura
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Environmental education Environmental ethics
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1913 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007238
- Description: This study probes the ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of three novice environmental education practitioners in South Africa. Two of the cases examined work in a local government context, and the third in an environmental non-governmental organisation context. All three practitioners are studying a one-year professional development course in environmental education. The research asks how their ethical deliberations ‘come to be what they are’, at the interface of their workplace and course-based learning processes. Working within a relational, social realist ontology, the study takes a sociocultural-historical approach to learning, development and social change. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) provides theoretical tools and a descriptive language to approach the rich, qualitative data derived from workplace and course observations, extensive interviews, and document review. Critical discourse analysis was used as a secondary analytical tool to probe ethical and environmental discourses that were found to be influential in the course and workplace activity systems. Data from the three case studies was analysed in stages. In the first stage, CHAT provided a theoretical perspective and language of description to analyse the interacting activity systems in which each learner-practitioner’s ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations occurred. This provided a platform for the second stage of analysis which was framed by Margaret Archer’s (1995) social realist theory of morphogenesis/ morphostasis, followed by a summative retroductive analysis, to give an account of the interplay of historically-emergent social and cultural structures and individual reflexivity in relation to the ethical dimensions of environmental education practice. The study traces how ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations occur at the untidy, unpredictable intersection of workplace, course and personal contexts, and are strongest when they are situated in authentic contexts that resonate with learner-practitioners’ ‘ultimate concerns’ (after Archer, 2003; 2007). In this study, the learner-practitioners’ ‘ultimate concerns’ included family, personal well-being, social justice, cultural identity and religious commitments. The scope and depth of learner-practitioners’ social-ecological knowledge was also identified as a key factor influencing ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations, although the mediation of such knowledge can be hindered by language and conceptual ii barriers, amongst others. The study also noted how ethical positions circulating in the workplace, course and personal contexts were diverse, uneven and dynamic. Some ethical positions were found to be more explicitly differentiated than others, either resonating with or being overlooked by the learner-practitioners as they deliberated the ethical dimensions of their environmental education practice. In situations where there was limited depth, conceptual clarity and/ or confidence to engage directly with ethical concerns, there was a tendency towards (inadvertent) ethical relativism. Insights derived from the study suggest that these factors have limiting effects on the ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of novice environmental educators. These insights point to the need for ethical deliberations to be re-personalised in context and underpinned by depth knowledge. A relational and pragmatic approach to environmental ethics (that recognises the validity of judgemental rationality – which can be fallible – and which seeks out practical adequacy) is put forward as appropriate and potentially generative in environmental education and training processes. This would need to be supported by careful attention to the influence of environmental discourses and practices in shaping ethical deliberations, and may also be helpful in developing a much-needed accessible, everyday language of ethical engagement. This study’s contribution to new knowledge in the field of environmental education is through its account of ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations emerging (in the Archerian morphogenetic sense) in complex, indeterminate ways at the interface of sociocultural and social-ecological contexts. The ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations of novice environmental educators occur in relation to their ‘ultimate concerns’ and are advanced or hindered by the historically-emergent practices, discourses and material realities of their workplace, personal and educational contexts. These insights require that the complex interplay of intersecting contexts and concerns that shape ethics-oriented reflexive deliberations be acknowledged and carefully mediated in both workplace-based and coursebased professional development processes.
- Full Text:
Narrating emergence in the curious terrain of academic development research: a realist perspective
- Authors: Niven, Penelope Mary
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa Black people -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1675 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003558
- Description: This dissertation adopts a realist meta-perspective on a body of the scholar's own research papers written between 2005 and 2011, all either published or in press and offered for reference in the Appendices. The six papers represent the point of departure for the thesis; they are the phenomenon for further investigation into 'what must be the case' for the research events to have emerged as they did. One aspect of this study, therefore, is an auto ethnographic account of conducting research in the field of Academic Development within varied settings and over a given time frame. But alongside this personal history it narrates cycles in the Academic Development movement in South Africa over 30 years. Margaret Archer's Social Realist principle of analytical dualism (1995) is used to disaggregate the emergent properties within these histories and to enable an analysis of the underlying mechanisms that generated them. It refers to three social domains. Firstly, it describes the material structures - the institutional environments, policies, roles or professional conditions - in which the projects were conceived. Secondly, it identifies the cultural registers that the profession was drawing on - such as theories, beliefs or discourses. Thirdly, it draws attention to the agency of individuals and communities in the field as they independently activated or mediated these various conditioning structures and registers. So the study is a systematic examination of the parts and the people in research stories, of the complex interrelationship of structural and agential elements, and of how together they have generated particular forms of knowing and kinds of knowledge in Academic Development. Drawing from this 'history-within-a-history', the study makes some claims for 'what must be the case' for substantial knowledge to flourish in a newly emergent, hotly contested and relatively unstable field. It argues that Academic Development has few shared epistemological foundations and boundaries, and its roles and functions are shifting and diverse. It describes the tensions in the field between those who have been inclined to understand it as primarily concerned with redress or equity in the postapartheid state, and yet others who have prioritised Academic Development as an efficiency project within higher education. But there is a third discourse emanating from those in the profession who have consistently argued that neither of these approaches can succeed without drawing on stronger theoretical foundations. This study endorses the view that Academic Developers need to identify more coherent ontological and epistemological frames for their research work. This has important implications for building the kind of substantial knowledge base that could be more influential in addressing the troubled terrain of South African higher education. The study refers extensively to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and to Mervyn Peake's 1946 illustrations of these children's stories, finding in these texts powerful analogies and metaphors for principles in realist philosophy and theory, and for describing a researcher's journey towards a more assured identity in the curious field of Academic Development.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Niven, Penelope Mary
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- Aims and objectives -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa Black people -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1675 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003558
- Description: This dissertation adopts a realist meta-perspective on a body of the scholar's own research papers written between 2005 and 2011, all either published or in press and offered for reference in the Appendices. The six papers represent the point of departure for the thesis; they are the phenomenon for further investigation into 'what must be the case' for the research events to have emerged as they did. One aspect of this study, therefore, is an auto ethnographic account of conducting research in the field of Academic Development within varied settings and over a given time frame. But alongside this personal history it narrates cycles in the Academic Development movement in South Africa over 30 years. Margaret Archer's Social Realist principle of analytical dualism (1995) is used to disaggregate the emergent properties within these histories and to enable an analysis of the underlying mechanisms that generated them. It refers to three social domains. Firstly, it describes the material structures - the institutional environments, policies, roles or professional conditions - in which the projects were conceived. Secondly, it identifies the cultural registers that the profession was drawing on - such as theories, beliefs or discourses. Thirdly, it draws attention to the agency of individuals and communities in the field as they independently activated or mediated these various conditioning structures and registers. So the study is a systematic examination of the parts and the people in research stories, of the complex interrelationship of structural and agential elements, and of how together they have generated particular forms of knowing and kinds of knowledge in Academic Development. Drawing from this 'history-within-a-history', the study makes some claims for 'what must be the case' for substantial knowledge to flourish in a newly emergent, hotly contested and relatively unstable field. It argues that Academic Development has few shared epistemological foundations and boundaries, and its roles and functions are shifting and diverse. It describes the tensions in the field between those who have been inclined to understand it as primarily concerned with redress or equity in the postapartheid state, and yet others who have prioritised Academic Development as an efficiency project within higher education. But there is a third discourse emanating from those in the profession who have consistently argued that neither of these approaches can succeed without drawing on stronger theoretical foundations. This study endorses the view that Academic Developers need to identify more coherent ontological and epistemological frames for their research work. This has important implications for building the kind of substantial knowledge base that could be more influential in addressing the troubled terrain of South African higher education. The study refers extensively to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and to Mervyn Peake's 1946 illustrations of these children's stories, finding in these texts powerful analogies and metaphors for principles in realist philosophy and theory, and for describing a researcher's journey towards a more assured identity in the curious field of Academic Development.
- Full Text:
Participatory mapping, learning and change in the context of biocultural diversity and resilience
- Authors: Ali, Million Belay
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Biodiversity conservation -- Research -- Ethiopia Cultural pluralism -- Research -- Ethiopia Ethnopsychology -- Research -- Ethiopia Adult education -- Research -- Ethiopia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1689 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003572
- Description: This study set out to investigate the learning and change that emerged in and through participatory mapping in the context of biocultural diversity and resilience in rural Ethiopia. It did this through examining the learning and agency emerging from three participatory mapping practices (Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling, sketch mapping and eco-cultural calendars) using two case study sites, located in the Bale Mountains and the Foata Mountains in Ethiopia, and honing in on in-depth reflective processes in two community contexts located within the broader case study sites, namely Horo Soba, Dinsho wereda in Bale; and Telecho, in Wolmera wereda, in the Foata Mountain complex. This study tried to answer three research questions related to participatory mapping: its role in mobilizing knowledge related to biocultural landscape, its role in learning and change, and its value in building resilience. The study used qualitative case study research methodology underpinned by critical realist philosophy, and used photographic ‘cues’ to structure the reporting on the cases. It used four categories of analysis: biocultural diversity, educational processes, learning and agency, in the first instance to report on the interactions associated with the participatory mapping practices as they emerged in the two case study sites. This was followed by in-depth analysis and interpretation of participatory mapping and biocultural diversity, as well as participatory mapping and learning, with an emphasis on acquisition, meaning making and identity formation processes. The in-depth analysis drew on social and learning theory, and theory of biocultural diversity and social-ecological resilience. The study also included analysis of broader change processes that were related to and emerged from the social interactions in the mapping activities, and the resultant morphogenesis (change), showing that morphogenesis, while broadly temporal, is not linear, and involves ‘little iterative morphogenic cycles’. These insights were then used to interpret how participatory mapping may contribute to resilience building in a context where social-ecological resilience is increasingly required, such as the two case study sites, where socialecological degradation is highly visible and is occurring rapidly. The study’s contribution to new knowledge lies in relation to the role of participatory mapping in facilitating learning, agency and change which, to date, appears to be under-theorised and under-developed in the participatory mapping and environmental education literature. As such, the study findings provide in-depth insight into how participatory mapping methodologies may ‘work in the world’, in contexts such as those presented in the two cases under study. It has tried to demonstrate how participatory mapping has managed to mobilize knowledge related to biocultural diversity, facilitated the acquisition of knowledge and helped members of the community to engage in meaning making activities relevant to their biocultural landscape and renegotiate their identity within the wider community context. It has also shown that dissonance is an important dynamic in the learning process; and that morphogenesis (or change) occurs over time, but also in smaller cycles that interact at different levels; and that participatory mapping cannot, by itself mobilise significant structural change, at least in the short term. It has also shown, however, that learning and the desire for change can emerge from participatory mapping processes, and that this can be utilized to adapt to the changing socio-ecological environments, potentially contributing to longer term resilience of social-ecological systems.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ali, Million Belay
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Biodiversity conservation -- Research -- Ethiopia Cultural pluralism -- Research -- Ethiopia Ethnopsychology -- Research -- Ethiopia Adult education -- Research -- Ethiopia
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1689 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003572
- Description: This study set out to investigate the learning and change that emerged in and through participatory mapping in the context of biocultural diversity and resilience in rural Ethiopia. It did this through examining the learning and agency emerging from three participatory mapping practices (Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling, sketch mapping and eco-cultural calendars) using two case study sites, located in the Bale Mountains and the Foata Mountains in Ethiopia, and honing in on in-depth reflective processes in two community contexts located within the broader case study sites, namely Horo Soba, Dinsho wereda in Bale; and Telecho, in Wolmera wereda, in the Foata Mountain complex. This study tried to answer three research questions related to participatory mapping: its role in mobilizing knowledge related to biocultural landscape, its role in learning and change, and its value in building resilience. The study used qualitative case study research methodology underpinned by critical realist philosophy, and used photographic ‘cues’ to structure the reporting on the cases. It used four categories of analysis: biocultural diversity, educational processes, learning and agency, in the first instance to report on the interactions associated with the participatory mapping practices as they emerged in the two case study sites. This was followed by in-depth analysis and interpretation of participatory mapping and biocultural diversity, as well as participatory mapping and learning, with an emphasis on acquisition, meaning making and identity formation processes. The in-depth analysis drew on social and learning theory, and theory of biocultural diversity and social-ecological resilience. The study also included analysis of broader change processes that were related to and emerged from the social interactions in the mapping activities, and the resultant morphogenesis (change), showing that morphogenesis, while broadly temporal, is not linear, and involves ‘little iterative morphogenic cycles’. These insights were then used to interpret how participatory mapping may contribute to resilience building in a context where social-ecological resilience is increasingly required, such as the two case study sites, where socialecological degradation is highly visible and is occurring rapidly. The study’s contribution to new knowledge lies in relation to the role of participatory mapping in facilitating learning, agency and change which, to date, appears to be under-theorised and under-developed in the participatory mapping and environmental education literature. As such, the study findings provide in-depth insight into how participatory mapping methodologies may ‘work in the world’, in contexts such as those presented in the two cases under study. It has tried to demonstrate how participatory mapping has managed to mobilize knowledge related to biocultural diversity, facilitated the acquisition of knowledge and helped members of the community to engage in meaning making activities relevant to their biocultural landscape and renegotiate their identity within the wider community context. It has also shown that dissonance is an important dynamic in the learning process; and that morphogenesis (or change) occurs over time, but also in smaller cycles that interact at different levels; and that participatory mapping cannot, by itself mobilise significant structural change, at least in the short term. It has also shown, however, that learning and the desire for change can emerge from participatory mapping processes, and that this can be utilized to adapt to the changing socio-ecological environments, potentially contributing to longer term resilience of social-ecological systems.
- Full Text:
The heuristic significance of enacted visualisation
- Authors: Samson, Duncan Alistair
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Heuristic Visualization Problem solving Pattern perception Problem solving -- Ability testing Mathematics -- Study and teaching Education -- Research Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003434
- Description: This study is centred on an analysis of pupils' lived experience while engaged in the generalisation of linear sequences/progressions presented in a pictorial context. The study is oriented within the conceptual framework of qualitative research, and is anchored within an interpretive paradigm. A case study methodological strategy was adopted, the research participants being the members of a mixed gender, high ability Grade 9 class of 23 pupils at an independent school in South Africa. The analytical framework is structured around a combination of complementary multiple perspectives provided by three theoretical ideas, enactivism, figural apprehension, and knowledge objectification. An important aspect of this analytical framework is the sensitivity it shows to the visual, phenomenological and semiotic aspects of figural pattern generalisation. It is the central thesis of this study that the combined complementary multiple perspectives of enactivism, figural apprehension and knowledge objectification provide a powerful depth of analysis to the exploration of the inter-relationship between the embodied processes of pattern generalisation and the visualisation of pictorial cues. The richly textured tapestry of activity captured through a multi-systemic semiotic analysis of participants' generalisation activity stands testament to this central thesis. Insights gleaned from this study are presented as practical strategies which support and encourage a multiple representational approach to pattern generalisation in the pedagogical context of the classroom.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Samson, Duncan Alistair
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Heuristic Visualization Problem solving Pattern perception Problem solving -- Ability testing Mathematics -- Study and teaching Education -- Research Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003434
- Description: This study is centred on an analysis of pupils' lived experience while engaged in the generalisation of linear sequences/progressions presented in a pictorial context. The study is oriented within the conceptual framework of qualitative research, and is anchored within an interpretive paradigm. A case study methodological strategy was adopted, the research participants being the members of a mixed gender, high ability Grade 9 class of 23 pupils at an independent school in South Africa. The analytical framework is structured around a combination of complementary multiple perspectives provided by three theoretical ideas, enactivism, figural apprehension, and knowledge objectification. An important aspect of this analytical framework is the sensitivity it shows to the visual, phenomenological and semiotic aspects of figural pattern generalisation. It is the central thesis of this study that the combined complementary multiple perspectives of enactivism, figural apprehension and knowledge objectification provide a powerful depth of analysis to the exploration of the inter-relationship between the embodied processes of pattern generalisation and the visualisation of pictorial cues. The richly textured tapestry of activity captured through a multi-systemic semiotic analysis of participants' generalisation activity stands testament to this central thesis. Insights gleaned from this study are presented as practical strategies which support and encourage a multiple representational approach to pattern generalisation in the pedagogical context of the classroom.
- Full Text:
An investigation into Grade R teachers' experiences of implementing numeracy in Grade R
- Authors: Barnard, Elna
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Teachers -- South Africa -- Attitudes Numeracy -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Mathematics teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa Early childhood education -- South Africa -- History Early childhood education -- South Africa -- Political aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1855 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004529
- Description: This research study investigates how selected Grade R teachers implement numeracy in their classrooms, based on their experiences, personal beliefs and perceptions. This study adopts the view that a teacher's practice is not only informed on what she believes about her learners, but also on how she organises her classroom environment and her own teaching practice. However, the teacher cannot be divorced from the political and historical background of Early Childhood Development (ECD), as these factors have an impact on her numeracy implementation. Integrated in this research study is thus not only a comprehensive historical analysis of the historical and political background of ECD, but also an in-depth look at the complex curriculum road the Grade R teacher had to travel over the past twelve years. The aim of this case study is to understand and describe what is happening in Grade R classrooms when numeracy is implemented, as well as identifying possible barriers which Grade R teachers may experience in implementing numeracy. The author utilized an adapted Interactive Qualitative Analysis Framework to explore Grade R teachers' views and experiences. Open-ended focus group interviews were used to develop a framework for individual interviews. This interview framework guided the data collection of nine audio-video tapes of classroom activities and nine semi-structured individual interviews. Analysis of the individual interviews revealed each teacher's understanding as well as her perceptions and needs regarding the implementation of numeracy in her classroom. The transcriptions of the individual interviews were compared to the audio-video tapes of what happened in each classroom. This was done in order to determine whether the teachers' practices were consistent with what they said in the interviews. Paradoxes and inconsistencies were documented. The historical and political analysis of ECD illustrates the complex development of ECD in South Africa over the last few decades. It therefore also highlights and brings to the fore the complex journey that Grade R teachers had to navigate in adapting their practice to ever changing curriculum requirements. The empirical results show that there are inconsistencies between what selected teachers know and believe, and what they are implementing. However, "silent themes" which did not come to the fore in the focus group or individual interviews, were identified in the audiovideo tapes of classroom activities. Also, many "silent themes" indicate that there are numerous concerns, such as lack of proficiency in bridging the gap between theory and practice, regarding the implementation of numeracy in Grade R. It was found that many of the selected Grade R teachers struggle to implement numeracy in their classrooms, as they lack the skills and support to teach numeracy in a Grade R context.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Barnard, Elna
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Teachers -- South Africa -- Attitudes Numeracy -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Mathematics teachers -- In-service training -- South Africa Early childhood education -- South Africa -- History Early childhood education -- South Africa -- Political aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1855 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004529
- Description: This research study investigates how selected Grade R teachers implement numeracy in their classrooms, based on their experiences, personal beliefs and perceptions. This study adopts the view that a teacher's practice is not only informed on what she believes about her learners, but also on how she organises her classroom environment and her own teaching practice. However, the teacher cannot be divorced from the political and historical background of Early Childhood Development (ECD), as these factors have an impact on her numeracy implementation. Integrated in this research study is thus not only a comprehensive historical analysis of the historical and political background of ECD, but also an in-depth look at the complex curriculum road the Grade R teacher had to travel over the past twelve years. The aim of this case study is to understand and describe what is happening in Grade R classrooms when numeracy is implemented, as well as identifying possible barriers which Grade R teachers may experience in implementing numeracy. The author utilized an adapted Interactive Qualitative Analysis Framework to explore Grade R teachers' views and experiences. Open-ended focus group interviews were used to develop a framework for individual interviews. This interview framework guided the data collection of nine audio-video tapes of classroom activities and nine semi-structured individual interviews. Analysis of the individual interviews revealed each teacher's understanding as well as her perceptions and needs regarding the implementation of numeracy in her classroom. The transcriptions of the individual interviews were compared to the audio-video tapes of what happened in each classroom. This was done in order to determine whether the teachers' practices were consistent with what they said in the interviews. Paradoxes and inconsistencies were documented. The historical and political analysis of ECD illustrates the complex development of ECD in South Africa over the last few decades. It therefore also highlights and brings to the fore the complex journey that Grade R teachers had to navigate in adapting their practice to ever changing curriculum requirements. The empirical results show that there are inconsistencies between what selected teachers know and believe, and what they are implementing. However, "silent themes" which did not come to the fore in the focus group or individual interviews, were identified in the audiovideo tapes of classroom activities. Also, many "silent themes" indicate that there are numerous concerns, such as lack of proficiency in bridging the gap between theory and practice, regarding the implementation of numeracy in Grade R. It was found that many of the selected Grade R teachers struggle to implement numeracy in their classrooms, as they lack the skills and support to teach numeracy in a Grade R context.
- Full Text:
Exploring opportunities for action competence development through learners' participation in waste management activities in selected primary schools in Botswana
- Authors: Silo, Nthalivi
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Environmental education -- Botswana -- Case studies Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- Botswana -- Case studies Environmental education -- Activity programs -- Botswana -- Case studies Student-centered learning -- Botswana -- Case studies Refuse and refuse disposal -- Environmental aspects -- Botswana -- Case studies Active learning -- Botswana -- Case studies Competency-based education -- Botswana -- Case studies Teacher-student relationships -- Botswana -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1541 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003423
- Description: The broader aim of this study is to probe participation of learners in waste management activities in selected primary schools in Botswana and through these activities, explore opportunities for action competence development. The study starts by tracing and outlining the socio-ecological challenges that confront children and the historical background of learner-centred education which gave rise to an emphasis on learner participation in Botswana education policy. It then maps out the development of children's participation in the global, regional and Botswana contexts by tracing the development of environmental education from early ecological and issue resolution goals of environmental education to sustainable development discourses. The focus is on policy issues and how learner participation has been represented and implemented in environmental education. The study then probes the rhetorical and normalised emphases on participation, and seeks further insight into how learners can be engaged in participatory learning processes that are meaningful, purposeful and that broaden their action competence and civic agency. The study uses the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) methodology to build a picture of waste management activity systems in primary schools and to bring to the surface contradictions and tensions in learner participation in these activity systems. These contradictions are used to open up expansive learning participatory processes with learners using the Danish action competence framework. The expansive learning process uses action competence models that provide potential for transformative participation with learners, and new and different opportunities for learner participation. Case study research was used and conducted in the south eastern region of Botswana in three primary schools in three contexts, namely urban, peri-urban and rural. The data was largely generated through focus group interviews during workshops with children and observations of waste management activities. These two methods formed the main data generation methods. They were complemented by semi-structured interviews with teachers, and other actors in the waste management activities, learners' activities and work, learners' notes, photographs and children's drawings as well as show-and-tell explanations by learners. Content analysis and the abductive mode of inference were used to analyse data in all three case studies. Findings from the first phase of the study reveal that participation of learners in waste management activities was largely teacher-directed. This resulted in a mis-match between teachers views of what practices are necessary and important, and children's views of what practices are necessary and important in and for environmental education. Due to culturally and historically formed views of environmental education, the study reveals that teachers wanted children to pick up litter, and this was their primary environmental education concern. Learners on the other hand, identified sanitation management in the school toilets as their primary waste management concern. Teachers had not considered this an environmental education concern. Using the action competence expansive learning approach, the second phase of the study addressed this tension by opening up dialogue between teachers and learners and amongst the learners themselves through an expansive learning process supporting children's participation and action competence development. Through this teacher-learner dialogical engagement, a broader range of possibilities became available and ideas around participation were radically changed. The study further reveals that the achievement of this open dialogue provided for a better relationship within the school community. And with improved communication came better ideas to solve waste management issues that the community still face on a daily basis, such as too much litter. Newly devised solutions were practical and had a broader impact than the initial ones that teachers had always focussed on. They included mobilising the maintenance of toilets, landscaping the school premises and even re-contextualising the litter management that had always caused tensions between learners and teachers. Children seemed to be developing not only a better understanding of the environment, but also developing the ability to resolve conflict amongst themselves and with their elders. By engaging in dialogue with children, they became co-catalysts for change in the school community. This study shows that if children's participation is taken seriously, and if opportunities for dialogue exist between teachers and children, positive changes for a healthier environment can be created in schools. It reveals that children also appeared to be feeling more confident and more equipped to consider changes in their environment outside of the school community. The study further shows that participation in environmental education involves more than cognitive changes as proposed in earlier constructivist literature; it includes in-depth engagement with socio-cultural dynamics and histories in the school context, such as the cultural histories of teachers, schooling and authority structures in the cultural community of the school. The study recommends that there is need to strengthen Teacher Education programmes to develop teaching practices and support for teachers to identify ways of engaging learners' views on issues in the school in open, dialogical ways. Such Teacher Education programmes should deepen teachers' understandings of learners' zone of proximal development (ZPD), demonstrating how dialogue and scaffolding are part of a teacher's role in supporting learning. This is shown in the three case studies that form part of this study. Finally, the study also deepens insights of using the Cultural Historical Activity theory (CHAT) to shed light on issues surrounding learner participation within the socio-cultural and historical environmental education contexts of the schools. The action competence models used in the study provide a tool for revealing forms of learner participation. This tool can be used for critical reflections and monitoring of teaching practices in schools.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Silo, Nthalivi
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Environmental education -- Botswana -- Case studies Environmental education -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- Botswana -- Case studies Environmental education -- Activity programs -- Botswana -- Case studies Student-centered learning -- Botswana -- Case studies Refuse and refuse disposal -- Environmental aspects -- Botswana -- Case studies Active learning -- Botswana -- Case studies Competency-based education -- Botswana -- Case studies Teacher-student relationships -- Botswana -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1541 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003423
- Description: The broader aim of this study is to probe participation of learners in waste management activities in selected primary schools in Botswana and through these activities, explore opportunities for action competence development. The study starts by tracing and outlining the socio-ecological challenges that confront children and the historical background of learner-centred education which gave rise to an emphasis on learner participation in Botswana education policy. It then maps out the development of children's participation in the global, regional and Botswana contexts by tracing the development of environmental education from early ecological and issue resolution goals of environmental education to sustainable development discourses. The focus is on policy issues and how learner participation has been represented and implemented in environmental education. The study then probes the rhetorical and normalised emphases on participation, and seeks further insight into how learners can be engaged in participatory learning processes that are meaningful, purposeful and that broaden their action competence and civic agency. The study uses the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) methodology to build a picture of waste management activity systems in primary schools and to bring to the surface contradictions and tensions in learner participation in these activity systems. These contradictions are used to open up expansive learning participatory processes with learners using the Danish action competence framework. The expansive learning process uses action competence models that provide potential for transformative participation with learners, and new and different opportunities for learner participation. Case study research was used and conducted in the south eastern region of Botswana in three primary schools in three contexts, namely urban, peri-urban and rural. The data was largely generated through focus group interviews during workshops with children and observations of waste management activities. These two methods formed the main data generation methods. They were complemented by semi-structured interviews with teachers, and other actors in the waste management activities, learners' activities and work, learners' notes, photographs and children's drawings as well as show-and-tell explanations by learners. Content analysis and the abductive mode of inference were used to analyse data in all three case studies. Findings from the first phase of the study reveal that participation of learners in waste management activities was largely teacher-directed. This resulted in a mis-match between teachers views of what practices are necessary and important, and children's views of what practices are necessary and important in and for environmental education. Due to culturally and historically formed views of environmental education, the study reveals that teachers wanted children to pick up litter, and this was their primary environmental education concern. Learners on the other hand, identified sanitation management in the school toilets as their primary waste management concern. Teachers had not considered this an environmental education concern. Using the action competence expansive learning approach, the second phase of the study addressed this tension by opening up dialogue between teachers and learners and amongst the learners themselves through an expansive learning process supporting children's participation and action competence development. Through this teacher-learner dialogical engagement, a broader range of possibilities became available and ideas around participation were radically changed. The study further reveals that the achievement of this open dialogue provided for a better relationship within the school community. And with improved communication came better ideas to solve waste management issues that the community still face on a daily basis, such as too much litter. Newly devised solutions were practical and had a broader impact than the initial ones that teachers had always focussed on. They included mobilising the maintenance of toilets, landscaping the school premises and even re-contextualising the litter management that had always caused tensions between learners and teachers. Children seemed to be developing not only a better understanding of the environment, but also developing the ability to resolve conflict amongst themselves and with their elders. By engaging in dialogue with children, they became co-catalysts for change in the school community. This study shows that if children's participation is taken seriously, and if opportunities for dialogue exist between teachers and children, positive changes for a healthier environment can be created in schools. It reveals that children also appeared to be feeling more confident and more equipped to consider changes in their environment outside of the school community. The study further shows that participation in environmental education involves more than cognitive changes as proposed in earlier constructivist literature; it includes in-depth engagement with socio-cultural dynamics and histories in the school context, such as the cultural histories of teachers, schooling and authority structures in the cultural community of the school. The study recommends that there is need to strengthen Teacher Education programmes to develop teaching practices and support for teachers to identify ways of engaging learners' views on issues in the school in open, dialogical ways. Such Teacher Education programmes should deepen teachers' understandings of learners' zone of proximal development (ZPD), demonstrating how dialogue and scaffolding are part of a teacher's role in supporting learning. This is shown in the three case studies that form part of this study. Finally, the study also deepens insights of using the Cultural Historical Activity theory (CHAT) to shed light on issues surrounding learner participation within the socio-cultural and historical environmental education contexts of the schools. The action competence models used in the study provide a tool for revealing forms of learner participation. This tool can be used for critical reflections and monitoring of teaching practices in schools.
- Full Text:
A critical analysis of discourses constructing portfolio assessment practices in three Eastern Cape schools
- Authors: Jones, Barbara Ellen
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Discourse analysis -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Educational tests and measurements -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Education -- Evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Curriculum evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1468 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003349
- Description: In 1998, South Africa introduced outcomes-based education to affect the shifts in pedagogy considered necessary following the move to democracy in 1994. Across the globe, the use of the portfolio to assess learners is increasingly being promoted as a form of progressive pedagogy. Hence, its adoption by the country as a new form of assessment practice was warranted. However, how the portfolio is constructed and perceived by educators within the classroom can become problematic in practice. This was apparent in the South African context and justifies research into how the portfolio is constructed as an assessment method in educational policy and by educators in the classrooms. The Curriculum Guide Directive text and the transcripts of twenty-one interviews carried out in three Eastern Cape schools served as the source of data for this study. Discourses make up a powerful framework of spoken, written and symbolic texts of institutional bureaucracies. Within these institutions human subjects are defined and constructed. Therefore, discourse construction acts as institutional forms of knowledge which can exude power over the individual if not made transparent. I used critical discourse analysis to uncover the discourses that were embedded within the Curriculum Guide Directive and to identify the discourses entrenched within the educators’ perceptions of the portfolio. The discourses in the Curriculum Guide Directive suggest the construction of the portfolio as a method of surveillance to track whether the educators are preparing learners for the school leaving examination and instructing the educators to provide evidence in the form of a portfolio. Analysis of the transcripts of the twenty one interviews with educators from three schools in the Eastern Cape indicated that the portfolio was not seen as a form of assessment by the educators, but as a form of discipline put in place by the Department of Education to ensure that they are preparing the learners for the school leaving examination and are able to produce proof of this preparation in the form of a portfolio. The discourses from the research highlighted that the school leaving examination is hegemonised into South African educational pedagogy as a form of traditional assessment and is not challenged even when it is no longer bringing about the dominant ideological goals. The portfolio was not seen as an assessment method by the educators nor represented as such in the Curriculum Guide Directive. Therefore, the job of the portfolio became that of a policing tool. Thus, a school curriculum which has been introduced with the intent of furthering social justice can become exclusive in practice, even with the best intentions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Jones, Barbara Ellen
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Discourse analysis -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Competency-based education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Educational tests and measurements -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Education -- Evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Curriculum evaluation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1468 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003349
- Description: In 1998, South Africa introduced outcomes-based education to affect the shifts in pedagogy considered necessary following the move to democracy in 1994. Across the globe, the use of the portfolio to assess learners is increasingly being promoted as a form of progressive pedagogy. Hence, its adoption by the country as a new form of assessment practice was warranted. However, how the portfolio is constructed and perceived by educators within the classroom can become problematic in practice. This was apparent in the South African context and justifies research into how the portfolio is constructed as an assessment method in educational policy and by educators in the classrooms. The Curriculum Guide Directive text and the transcripts of twenty-one interviews carried out in three Eastern Cape schools served as the source of data for this study. Discourses make up a powerful framework of spoken, written and symbolic texts of institutional bureaucracies. Within these institutions human subjects are defined and constructed. Therefore, discourse construction acts as institutional forms of knowledge which can exude power over the individual if not made transparent. I used critical discourse analysis to uncover the discourses that were embedded within the Curriculum Guide Directive and to identify the discourses entrenched within the educators’ perceptions of the portfolio. The discourses in the Curriculum Guide Directive suggest the construction of the portfolio as a method of surveillance to track whether the educators are preparing learners for the school leaving examination and instructing the educators to provide evidence in the form of a portfolio. Analysis of the transcripts of the twenty one interviews with educators from three schools in the Eastern Cape indicated that the portfolio was not seen as a form of assessment by the educators, but as a form of discipline put in place by the Department of Education to ensure that they are preparing the learners for the school leaving examination and are able to produce proof of this preparation in the form of a portfolio. The discourses from the research highlighted that the school leaving examination is hegemonised into South African educational pedagogy as a form of traditional assessment and is not challenged even when it is no longer bringing about the dominant ideological goals. The portfolio was not seen as an assessment method by the educators nor represented as such in the Curriculum Guide Directive. Therefore, the job of the portfolio became that of a policing tool. Thus, a school curriculum which has been introduced with the intent of furthering social justice can become exclusive in practice, even with the best intentions.
- Full Text:
Exploring and expanding learning processes in sustainable agriculture workplace contexts
- Authors: Mukute, Mutizwa
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Sustainable agriculture -- Africa, Southern Sustainable development -- Study and teaching -- Africa, Southern Permaculture -- Zimbabwe Organic farming -- South Africa Farmers -- Social conditions -- Africa, Southern Farmers -- Economic conditions -- Africa, Southern Farmers -- Training of -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1539 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003421
- Description: The focus of this study is to explore and expand farmer learning processes in sustainable agriculture workplace contexts. It examines change oriented learning processes in the context of three sustainable agriculture practices. The study begins by discussing the history and emergence of environmental discourses and approaches; sustainable agriculture; and the histories of three kinds of sustainable agriculture practices: Permaculture, Organic Farming and Machobane Farming System. It also traces the evolution of agricultural extension approaches within the wider context of education for sustainable development. The main focus of the study is an exploration of how farmer learning can be mediated through an expansive learning process. The study methodology surfaces some of the contradictions in sustainable agriculture and learning activity systems that farmers encounter in learning and practising sustainable agriculture. It uses these contradictions as sources of expansive learning in and between the respective activity systems of farmers, sustainable agriculture facilitators, agricultural extension workers (conventional) and organic entrepreneurs. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes result in the modelling, implementation and reviewing of solutions to contradictions being faced in the learning and practice of sustainable agriculture. The study also proposes a number of tools that can be adapted and used by development farmers and agricultural trainers to examine and expand learning as well as build farmer agency. The study was conducted in three case study sites in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe the study is located in Hwedza district in the St Margaret Primary School and community that learn, practise and facilitate the learning of Permaculture within the Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme (SCOPE). The second study site is in South Africa: Durban urban and peri-urban areas where a community of organic farmers, facilitators and entrepreneurs coordinate the marketing of their produce through Isidore Farm and Earth Mother Organic and support each other to learn and practise organic farming. The third study site is based in the Mafeteng and Mohale‟s Hoek districts of Lesotho where the focus was on farmers who learn and practise the Machobane Farming System (MFS) and are supported in this by the Rural Self Development Association (RSDA) and the Machobane Agricultural Development Foundation (MADF). Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) underpinned by critical realism to reveal how farmer learning is mediated and expanded. The theory of practice/habitus also provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. Using a two-phased, multiple embedded case study approach, the study worked within the broad framework of social learning. It used semi-structured individual and group interviews, observations and document analysis to explore learning processes and generate „mirror‟ data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, within the Developmental Work Research methodology, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to expanding learning processes. Drawing on critical realism the study used inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference to analyse data in each case study as well as across case studies. The findings of the study reveal that farmer learning is influenced by both intrinsic motives, such as identity, and extrinsic motives which are primarily associated with economic, ecological and health benefits. Farmers learn through scaffolding and mediating tools that link everyday and scientific knowledge. They also learn from fellow farmers through observation, practising and experimentation. Some of the issues that were raised in connection with farmer learning processes are: language; time to learn, practice and appropriate concepts; time to improve the natural resource base while at the same time improving income generation; and responses to climate change. The study also found that farmer learning and practice of sustainable agriculture in the case studies investigated, is influenced by past and current agricultural and educational policies; societal values and attitudes; social and cultural backgrounds; work affordances and gender relations; quality of training offered; poverty; and, HIV and AIDS. In the second phase of the study, which built on the problematic situations being encountered by research participants (sustainable agriculture farmers, sustainable agriculture facilitators, extension workers, and organic marketers) to surface contradictions, the main finding was that the expansive learning process has potential to enhance farmer learning and practice of sustainable agriculture. It does this by mobilising distributed cognition among participants as well as their preparedness to act. Through the expansive learning processes in each case study, research participants were able to question their practices, surface contradictions, model solutions and implement them, and thus build individual, collective and relational agency reflexively. Observation of this required micro-analysis of agentive talk and reflective talk. The study contributes in-depth insight into participatory research and learning processes, especially within the context of people-centred learning and innovation in the agricultural development arena. It provides empirical and explanatory insight into how change oriented social learning can emerge and be expanded in Education for Sustainable Development, explaining learning and change relationships in three sustainable agricultural practices. It also provides learning and extension tools to work with contradictions that arise from intentionality, experience, context and history in farming and training activity systems. Its key contribution lies in providing in-depth insight into mobilisation of human agency and reflexivity in change oriented sustainable agriculture learning and development, processes that are critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological issues and risks.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mukute, Mutizwa
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Sustainable agriculture -- Africa, Southern Sustainable development -- Study and teaching -- Africa, Southern Permaculture -- Zimbabwe Organic farming -- South Africa Farmers -- Social conditions -- Africa, Southern Farmers -- Economic conditions -- Africa, Southern Farmers -- Training of -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1539 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003421
- Description: The focus of this study is to explore and expand farmer learning processes in sustainable agriculture workplace contexts. It examines change oriented learning processes in the context of three sustainable agriculture practices. The study begins by discussing the history and emergence of environmental discourses and approaches; sustainable agriculture; and the histories of three kinds of sustainable agriculture practices: Permaculture, Organic Farming and Machobane Farming System. It also traces the evolution of agricultural extension approaches within the wider context of education for sustainable development. The main focus of the study is an exploration of how farmer learning can be mediated through an expansive learning process. The study methodology surfaces some of the contradictions in sustainable agriculture and learning activity systems that farmers encounter in learning and practising sustainable agriculture. It uses these contradictions as sources of expansive learning in and between the respective activity systems of farmers, sustainable agriculture facilitators, agricultural extension workers (conventional) and organic entrepreneurs. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes result in the modelling, implementation and reviewing of solutions to contradictions being faced in the learning and practice of sustainable agriculture. The study also proposes a number of tools that can be adapted and used by development farmers and agricultural trainers to examine and expand learning as well as build farmer agency. The study was conducted in three case study sites in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe the study is located in Hwedza district in the St Margaret Primary School and community that learn, practise and facilitate the learning of Permaculture within the Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme (SCOPE). The second study site is in South Africa: Durban urban and peri-urban areas where a community of organic farmers, facilitators and entrepreneurs coordinate the marketing of their produce through Isidore Farm and Earth Mother Organic and support each other to learn and practise organic farming. The third study site is based in the Mafeteng and Mohale‟s Hoek districts of Lesotho where the focus was on farmers who learn and practise the Machobane Farming System (MFS) and are supported in this by the Rural Self Development Association (RSDA) and the Machobane Agricultural Development Foundation (MADF). Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) underpinned by critical realism to reveal how farmer learning is mediated and expanded. The theory of practice/habitus also provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. Using a two-phased, multiple embedded case study approach, the study worked within the broad framework of social learning. It used semi-structured individual and group interviews, observations and document analysis to explore learning processes and generate „mirror‟ data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, within the Developmental Work Research methodology, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to expanding learning processes. Drawing on critical realism the study used inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference to analyse data in each case study as well as across case studies. The findings of the study reveal that farmer learning is influenced by both intrinsic motives, such as identity, and extrinsic motives which are primarily associated with economic, ecological and health benefits. Farmers learn through scaffolding and mediating tools that link everyday and scientific knowledge. They also learn from fellow farmers through observation, practising and experimentation. Some of the issues that were raised in connection with farmer learning processes are: language; time to learn, practice and appropriate concepts; time to improve the natural resource base while at the same time improving income generation; and responses to climate change. The study also found that farmer learning and practice of sustainable agriculture in the case studies investigated, is influenced by past and current agricultural and educational policies; societal values and attitudes; social and cultural backgrounds; work affordances and gender relations; quality of training offered; poverty; and, HIV and AIDS. In the second phase of the study, which built on the problematic situations being encountered by research participants (sustainable agriculture farmers, sustainable agriculture facilitators, extension workers, and organic marketers) to surface contradictions, the main finding was that the expansive learning process has potential to enhance farmer learning and practice of sustainable agriculture. It does this by mobilising distributed cognition among participants as well as their preparedness to act. Through the expansive learning processes in each case study, research participants were able to question their practices, surface contradictions, model solutions and implement them, and thus build individual, collective and relational agency reflexively. Observation of this required micro-analysis of agentive talk and reflective talk. The study contributes in-depth insight into participatory research and learning processes, especially within the context of people-centred learning and innovation in the agricultural development arena. It provides empirical and explanatory insight into how change oriented social learning can emerge and be expanded in Education for Sustainable Development, explaining learning and change relationships in three sustainable agricultural practices. It also provides learning and extension tools to work with contradictions that arise from intentionality, experience, context and history in farming and training activity systems. Its key contribution lies in providing in-depth insight into mobilisation of human agency and reflexivity in change oriented sustainable agriculture learning and development, processes that are critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological issues and risks.
- Full Text:
Indigenous technology and culture in the technology curriculum : starting the conversation : a case study
- Authors: Vandeleur, Sonja
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Curriculum evaluation -- South Africa Curriculum planning -- South Africa Education -- Curricula -- South Africa Technology -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Indigenous peoples -- Education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1573 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003455
- Description: Since the collapse of apartheid and the first democratic elections of 1994, education in South Africa has undergone fundamental transformation and part of this transformation was the reconstruction of the school curriculum. The new curriculum, known as Curriculum 2005 and developed in 1997, introduced Technology as a new learning area. This study is based on the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’, a new aspect introduced in a revision of Curriculum 2005. The broad goal of the study was to examine and explore pedagogic practice in relation to the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the revised National Curriculum Statement for Technology. The study was informed by an examination of literature pertaining to philosophy of technology, indigenous knowledge systems and technology education. The review of the literature highlighted the contested nature of ‘indigenous knowledge systems’. Philosophies on the nature of technological knowledge were reviewed in order to explore the meaning of ‘technology’, and a comparative review of curriculum reform in regard to technology education in various parts of the world was conducted. This study presented an attempt to determine the rationale for the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the revised National Curriculum Statement for Technology in South Africa and to explore and examine what teachers’ existing practices were in this regard. It also examined a process of participatory co-engagement with a focus group of teachers. This process was an attempt to implement ‘indigenous technology and culture’ of the curriculum in a more meaningful way. A case study approach using an in-depth, interpretive design was used. A questionnaire, document analysis, interviews and focus group discussions were used to conduct the investigation. What emerged from the data analysis was that there was unanimous support for the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the technology curriculum, but implementation had been problematic. This was partly due to difficulties with the interpretation of this aspect in the curriculum as well as a lack of meaningful teaching and learning for various reasons. The study revealed that teachers face multiple dilemmas in implementing ‘indigenous technology and culture’ as an assessment standard. These dilemmas are pedagogical, political, conceptual, professional and cultural in nature. The intentions of the study were to build a comprehensive understanding of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ and to determine how a focus group of teachers were dealing with this new inclusion. The interpretive study concluded with implications and recommendations for further studies.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vandeleur, Sonja
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Curriculum evaluation -- South Africa Curriculum planning -- South Africa Education -- Curricula -- South Africa Technology -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Indigenous peoples -- Education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1573 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003455
- Description: Since the collapse of apartheid and the first democratic elections of 1994, education in South Africa has undergone fundamental transformation and part of this transformation was the reconstruction of the school curriculum. The new curriculum, known as Curriculum 2005 and developed in 1997, introduced Technology as a new learning area. This study is based on the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’, a new aspect introduced in a revision of Curriculum 2005. The broad goal of the study was to examine and explore pedagogic practice in relation to the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the revised National Curriculum Statement for Technology. The study was informed by an examination of literature pertaining to philosophy of technology, indigenous knowledge systems and technology education. The review of the literature highlighted the contested nature of ‘indigenous knowledge systems’. Philosophies on the nature of technological knowledge were reviewed in order to explore the meaning of ‘technology’, and a comparative review of curriculum reform in regard to technology education in various parts of the world was conducted. This study presented an attempt to determine the rationale for the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the revised National Curriculum Statement for Technology in South Africa and to explore and examine what teachers’ existing practices were in this regard. It also examined a process of participatory co-engagement with a focus group of teachers. This process was an attempt to implement ‘indigenous technology and culture’ of the curriculum in a more meaningful way. A case study approach using an in-depth, interpretive design was used. A questionnaire, document analysis, interviews and focus group discussions were used to conduct the investigation. What emerged from the data analysis was that there was unanimous support for the inclusion of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ in the technology curriculum, but implementation had been problematic. This was partly due to difficulties with the interpretation of this aspect in the curriculum as well as a lack of meaningful teaching and learning for various reasons. The study revealed that teachers face multiple dilemmas in implementing ‘indigenous technology and culture’ as an assessment standard. These dilemmas are pedagogical, political, conceptual, professional and cultural in nature. The intentions of the study were to build a comprehensive understanding of ‘indigenous technology and culture’ and to determine how a focus group of teachers were dealing with this new inclusion. The interpretive study concluded with implications and recommendations for further studies.
- Full Text:
Multilingualism and ICT education at Rhodes University: an exploratory study
- Authors: Dalvit, Lorenzo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa Educational equalization -- South Africa Digital divide -- South Africa Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa Educational innovations Information technology -- Study and teaching Language and education -- South Africa Native language and education -- South Africa Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes Computer science -- Study and teaching (Higher)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1673 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003556
- Description: In South Africa, the linguistic hegemony of English over the African languages in the academic field reproduces unequal power relationships between their speakers. The present study shows that an intervention shaped by a counterhegemonic ideology can change the attitudes of Black university students, key players in spearheading social change. Usign statistical analysis and survey methodologies, this research explored the hegemonic role of English as the only language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the discipline of Computer Science (CS) at Rhodes University. The study found that those speakers of an African language who are the most disadvantaged by the use of English as LoLT are also the most likely to resist a more extensive use of their mother tongue as an alternative. A group of such students were involved in the development and use of an online glossary of CS terms translated, explained and exemplified in an African language (isiXhosa). This experience increased the support for the use of African languages as additional LoLT, even in the Englishdominated field of study of Computer Science. This is an initial step towards promoting linguistic equality between English and African languages and social equality between their speakers.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Dalvit, Lorenzo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa Educational equalization -- South Africa Digital divide -- South Africa Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa Educational innovations Information technology -- Study and teaching Language and education -- South Africa Native language and education -- South Africa Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes Computer science -- Study and teaching (Higher)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1673 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003556
- Description: In South Africa, the linguistic hegemony of English over the African languages in the academic field reproduces unequal power relationships between their speakers. The present study shows that an intervention shaped by a counterhegemonic ideology can change the attitudes of Black university students, key players in spearheading social change. Usign statistical analysis and survey methodologies, this research explored the hegemonic role of English as the only language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the discipline of Computer Science (CS) at Rhodes University. The study found that those speakers of an African language who are the most disadvantaged by the use of English as LoLT are also the most likely to resist a more extensive use of their mother tongue as an alternative. A group of such students were involved in the development and use of an online glossary of CS terms translated, explained and exemplified in an African language (isiXhosa). This experience increased the support for the use of African languages as additional LoLT, even in the Englishdominated field of study of Computer Science. This is an initial step towards promoting linguistic equality between English and African languages and social equality between their speakers.
- Full Text:
The integration of natural resource management into the curriculum of rural under-resourced schools : a Bernsteinian analysis
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne Nakalo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Conservation of natural resources -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Bernstein, Basil B Nature conservation -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4762 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007157
- Description: This study was motivated by the need to improve curriculum relevance in poor rural schools through contextualised teaching and learning based on the management of local natural resources. It involved four schools which are located in the Ngqunshwa Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study's aim was to provide insight into and better understanding of the curriculum implementation process regarding natural resource management (NRM) education in a poor rural education context. This was done by analysing the extent of NRM integration in pedagogic texts, activities and practices in the different fields which constitute the structure of the pedagogic system in this education sector. The study adopted an interpretivist approach to the analysis, which was based on indicators of the extent of NRM integration, and was informed by Bernstein's concepts of classification and curriculum recontextualisation, and his model of the structure of the pedagogic system. The items which were analysed included national and provincial Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, Grade 10 Life Sciences textbooks, in-service training workshops for Life Sciences teachers, and various school documents, activities and practices. The analysis also involved interviews with educators, and classroom observations of Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons. The results revealed a very high overall level of NRM integration in the Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents produced at national and provincial levels. The overall level of NRM integration was also found to be very high in the Grade 10 Life Science textbooks that were analysed, but very low in the in-service teacher training workshops, and in the schools' documents, activities and practices, especially in the Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons, and in schools' end-of-year Grade 10 Life Sciences examination papers. The study makes a number of recommendations towards effective integration of NRM into the curriculum of Eastern Cape's rural poor schools which include more specific and explicit reference to NRM in the official Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, the provision of environmental education courses to district education staff and Grade 10 Life Sciences teachers, the training of teachers in the classroom use of textbooks and other educational materials, and regular monitoring of teachers' work. The study also exposes important knowledge gaps which need urgent research attention in order to enhance NRM education in the poor rural schools of the Eastern Cape. These include analysing power and control relationships between the various agencies and agents that are involved with curriculum implementation in this education sector, and conducting investigation into the creation of specialist NRM knowledge and into the quality of NRM knowledge that is transmitted as pedagogic discourse in schools. This study contributes to the fields of rural education and environmental education in South Africa, and to the growing interest in the study of curriculum from a sociology of education perspective in the context of the country’s post-apartheid curriculum reforms.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne Nakalo
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Conservation of natural resources -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Environmental education -- Curricula -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Bernstein, Basil B Nature conservation -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4762 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007157
- Description: This study was motivated by the need to improve curriculum relevance in poor rural schools through contextualised teaching and learning based on the management of local natural resources. It involved four schools which are located in the Ngqunshwa Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study's aim was to provide insight into and better understanding of the curriculum implementation process regarding natural resource management (NRM) education in a poor rural education context. This was done by analysing the extent of NRM integration in pedagogic texts, activities and practices in the different fields which constitute the structure of the pedagogic system in this education sector. The study adopted an interpretivist approach to the analysis, which was based on indicators of the extent of NRM integration, and was informed by Bernstein's concepts of classification and curriculum recontextualisation, and his model of the structure of the pedagogic system. The items which were analysed included national and provincial Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, Grade 10 Life Sciences textbooks, in-service training workshops for Life Sciences teachers, and various school documents, activities and practices. The analysis also involved interviews with educators, and classroom observations of Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons. The results revealed a very high overall level of NRM integration in the Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents produced at national and provincial levels. The overall level of NRM integration was also found to be very high in the Grade 10 Life Science textbooks that were analysed, but very low in the in-service teacher training workshops, and in the schools' documents, activities and practices, especially in the Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons, and in schools' end-of-year Grade 10 Life Sciences examination papers. The study makes a number of recommendations towards effective integration of NRM into the curriculum of Eastern Cape's rural poor schools which include more specific and explicit reference to NRM in the official Grade 10 Life Sciences curriculum documents, the provision of environmental education courses to district education staff and Grade 10 Life Sciences teachers, the training of teachers in the classroom use of textbooks and other educational materials, and regular monitoring of teachers' work. The study also exposes important knowledge gaps which need urgent research attention in order to enhance NRM education in the poor rural schools of the Eastern Cape. These include analysing power and control relationships between the various agencies and agents that are involved with curriculum implementation in this education sector, and conducting investigation into the creation of specialist NRM knowledge and into the quality of NRM knowledge that is transmitted as pedagogic discourse in schools. This study contributes to the fields of rural education and environmental education in South Africa, and to the growing interest in the study of curriculum from a sociology of education perspective in the context of the country’s post-apartheid curriculum reforms.
- Full Text:
A systems approach to mainstreaming environment and sustainability in universities : the case of Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Togo, Muchaiteyi
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Rhodes University Education, Higher -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Case studies Environmental education -- South Africa -- Case studies Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4768 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007175
- Description: This study is influenced by the objectives of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities Partnership which aims to enhance the quality and relevance of university education through implementation of Environmental Education and sustainability across university functions and operations. It contributes to Education for Sustainable Development through the development of tools to assess sustainability in higher education, investigating sustainability practices in universities and proposing strategies for improving mainstreaming of sustainability. It also contributes to systems approaches in mainstreaming contextual sustainability challenges in university functions and operations. The aim of the study was to investigate how universities can mainstream sustainability in their functions and operations in response to contextual sustainability challenges in a changing environment using a systems approach. The research was a case study of Rhodes University in South Africa, which is situated in the impoverished Eastern Cape Province. The study involved 12 teaching departments (representing all faculties at the university), four research units and institutes, five managements units, the Estates Division and the Student Representative Council. The theoretical framework of the study draws from a critical realist ontology and systems thinking epistemology. Systems thinking emphasises the interdependencies of phenomena, thus providing the methodology and tools for a systems view of relationships between education and the environmental context in which it is embedded. Critical realism was employed as an underlabourer to systems thinking as it provides for some of the dimensions absent in systems thinking including its depth ontology which facilitates isolating causal factors influencing empirical reality. It recognises that explanation of phenomena can be embedded in history and acknowledges the fallibility of knowledge. The data collection methods employed in the study include a sustainability assessment using a Unit-based Sustainability Assessment Tool developed as part of the study, interviews, content analyses and observations. Data analyses were performed through employing morphogenetic analysis, and inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The morphogenetic analysis of social transformation/reproduction was employed to trace the historical emergence of sustainability initiatives at Rhodes University. Induction facilitated reorganisation of the data into themes which particularly represent the main sustainability activities at Rhodes University. Abduction, through recontextualising data in a systems thinking framework, enabled further insights into the phenomena. In the study, it enabled use of systems lenses as a framework and led to identification of systemic issues affecting mainstreaming and later, the development of systems thinking approaches in mainstreaming sustainability. Retroduction enabled identification of causal mechanisms which influenced the emergence of sustainability initiatives at the university. The study established that the emergence of sustainability initiatives at Rhodes University followed the 1990 Talloires Declaration and paralleled international institutional developments in relation to environmental and sustainability challenges. Since then, sustainability initiatives have continuously been emerging in various operational dimensions of the university in line with emerging sustainability challenges which resulted in a morphogenetic cycle. The study revealed that Rhodes University has mainstreamed sustainability across the functions and operations of most of the departments/divisions/units forming part of the study, especially in functions like teaching, research, community engagement and operations. There were a few exceptions like the Human Resources Division and to an extent the Research Office/Management Division which are not yet considering sustainability in their operations. While most of the teaching departments had sustainability initiatives in teaching, research and community engagement, there was diversity in the dimension(s) of sustainable development that the departments addressed and this seemed to relate to the disciplinary content of their subjects. In the Estates Division sustainability initiatives included sustainable landscaping, campus environmental management, water and energy conservation initiatives, waste recycling, use of biodiesel, to mention a few. Students were also involved in various sustainability activities especially through voluntary community engagement initiatives. Sustainability initiatives at the university were also discovered to be embedded within and responding to sustainability challenges of the immediate university environment of Makana District. The study unearthed the causal mechanisms enabling and constraining mainstreaming activities at the university. These were found to be embedded in the history and context within which the university is operating, and other factors related to university structures and agency of lecturers, other employees and students. Examples of these factors are unsustainable patterns in society, policies and the need to redress past inequalities. The study noted the existence of systemic issues at the university which need to be addressed to enable and enhance the promotion of a systems approach to mainstreaming: notably, complexity owing to diversity of approaches employed in mainstreaming, the absence of clearly defined university sustainability goals, problems of institutional support and in some cases, disciplinary governing rules which do not leave room for mainstreaming sustainability. The study established the possibility of improving mainstreaming of sustainability through the adoption of more explicit systems approaches. It suggests use of systems models including the systems-environment model, the functions/structure model and the motion picture model in the process. It recommends making the goal of mainstreaming more upfront, developing a shared understanding of sustainability and mapping out/defining contextual sustainable development issues to grapple with. The study also recommends adopting a holistic approach in mainstreaming, making it a campus-wide initiative, involving all students and developing interdisciplinary curricula. It suggests setting up of supporting mechanisms to strengthen, extend and spearhead mainstreaming and enhancement of collaborative work in sustainable development issues.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Togo, Muchaiteyi
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Rhodes University Education, Higher -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Case studies Environmental education -- South Africa -- Case studies Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4768 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007175
- Description: This study is influenced by the objectives of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities Partnership which aims to enhance the quality and relevance of university education through implementation of Environmental Education and sustainability across university functions and operations. It contributes to Education for Sustainable Development through the development of tools to assess sustainability in higher education, investigating sustainability practices in universities and proposing strategies for improving mainstreaming of sustainability. It also contributes to systems approaches in mainstreaming contextual sustainability challenges in university functions and operations. The aim of the study was to investigate how universities can mainstream sustainability in their functions and operations in response to contextual sustainability challenges in a changing environment using a systems approach. The research was a case study of Rhodes University in South Africa, which is situated in the impoverished Eastern Cape Province. The study involved 12 teaching departments (representing all faculties at the university), four research units and institutes, five managements units, the Estates Division and the Student Representative Council. The theoretical framework of the study draws from a critical realist ontology and systems thinking epistemology. Systems thinking emphasises the interdependencies of phenomena, thus providing the methodology and tools for a systems view of relationships between education and the environmental context in which it is embedded. Critical realism was employed as an underlabourer to systems thinking as it provides for some of the dimensions absent in systems thinking including its depth ontology which facilitates isolating causal factors influencing empirical reality. It recognises that explanation of phenomena can be embedded in history and acknowledges the fallibility of knowledge. The data collection methods employed in the study include a sustainability assessment using a Unit-based Sustainability Assessment Tool developed as part of the study, interviews, content analyses and observations. Data analyses were performed through employing morphogenetic analysis, and inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The morphogenetic analysis of social transformation/reproduction was employed to trace the historical emergence of sustainability initiatives at Rhodes University. Induction facilitated reorganisation of the data into themes which particularly represent the main sustainability activities at Rhodes University. Abduction, through recontextualising data in a systems thinking framework, enabled further insights into the phenomena. In the study, it enabled use of systems lenses as a framework and led to identification of systemic issues affecting mainstreaming and later, the development of systems thinking approaches in mainstreaming sustainability. Retroduction enabled identification of causal mechanisms which influenced the emergence of sustainability initiatives at the university. The study established that the emergence of sustainability initiatives at Rhodes University followed the 1990 Talloires Declaration and paralleled international institutional developments in relation to environmental and sustainability challenges. Since then, sustainability initiatives have continuously been emerging in various operational dimensions of the university in line with emerging sustainability challenges which resulted in a morphogenetic cycle. The study revealed that Rhodes University has mainstreamed sustainability across the functions and operations of most of the departments/divisions/units forming part of the study, especially in functions like teaching, research, community engagement and operations. There were a few exceptions like the Human Resources Division and to an extent the Research Office/Management Division which are not yet considering sustainability in their operations. While most of the teaching departments had sustainability initiatives in teaching, research and community engagement, there was diversity in the dimension(s) of sustainable development that the departments addressed and this seemed to relate to the disciplinary content of their subjects. In the Estates Division sustainability initiatives included sustainable landscaping, campus environmental management, water and energy conservation initiatives, waste recycling, use of biodiesel, to mention a few. Students were also involved in various sustainability activities especially through voluntary community engagement initiatives. Sustainability initiatives at the university were also discovered to be embedded within and responding to sustainability challenges of the immediate university environment of Makana District. The study unearthed the causal mechanisms enabling and constraining mainstreaming activities at the university. These were found to be embedded in the history and context within which the university is operating, and other factors related to university structures and agency of lecturers, other employees and students. Examples of these factors are unsustainable patterns in society, policies and the need to redress past inequalities. The study noted the existence of systemic issues at the university which need to be addressed to enable and enhance the promotion of a systems approach to mainstreaming: notably, complexity owing to diversity of approaches employed in mainstreaming, the absence of clearly defined university sustainability goals, problems of institutional support and in some cases, disciplinary governing rules which do not leave room for mainstreaming sustainability. The study established the possibility of improving mainstreaming of sustainability through the adoption of more explicit systems approaches. It suggests use of systems models including the systems-environment model, the functions/structure model and the motion picture model in the process. It recommends making the goal of mainstreaming more upfront, developing a shared understanding of sustainability and mapping out/defining contextual sustainable development issues to grapple with. The study also recommends adopting a holistic approach in mainstreaming, making it a campus-wide initiative, involving all students and developing interdisciplinary curricula. It suggests setting up of supporting mechanisms to strengthen, extend and spearhead mainstreaming and enhancement of collaborative work in sustainable development issues.
- Full Text:
Indigenous knowledges: a genealogy of representations and applications in developing contexts of environmental education and development in southern Africa
- Authors: Shava, Soul
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 Education -- Africa, Southern Environmental education -- Africa, Southern Indigenous peoples -- Africa, Southern Ethnoscience -- Africa, Southern Knowledge, Theory of Genealogy (Philosophy) Medicinal plants -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1885 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005920
- Description: This study was developed around concerns about how indigenous knowledges have been represented and applied in environment and development education. The first phase of the study is a genealogical analysis after Michel Foucault. This probes representations and applications of plant-based indigenous knowledge in selected anthropological, botanical and environmental education texts in southern Africa. The emerging insights were deepened using a Social (Critical) Realism vantage point after Margaret Archer to shed light on agential issues in environmental education and development contexts. Here her morphogenetic/morphostatic analysis of social transformation or reproduction is used to trace changes in indigenous knowledge representations and applications over time (from the pre-colonial into the post-colonial era). The second phase uses the same perspectives and tools to extend the analysis of power/knowledge relationships into the interface of indigenous communities and modern institutions in two case study settings in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This study reveals colonially-derived hegemonic processes of modern/Western scientific institutional representations/interpretations of the knowledges of indigenous communities. It also tracks a continuing trajectory of their dominating and prescriptive mediating control over local knowledges from the pre-colonial context through into the post-colonial period in southern Africa. The analysis reveals how this hegemony is sustained through the deployment of institutional strategies of representation that transform local knowledges into the disciplinary knowledge discourses of modern scientific institutions. These representational strategies therefore generate/reproduce and validate disciplinary discourses about the other, constructing disciplinary 'regimes of truth'. In this way modern institutions appropriate and displace indigenous/local knowledges, silence the voices of local communities and regulate individual and community agency within a continuing subjugation of indigenous knowledges. This study reveals how working within modern institutions and disciplinary knowledges in participative education and development interactions can serve to implicate indigenous researchers in these institutional hegemonic processes. The study also notes evidence of a continued resistance to hegemonic Western knowledge discourses as indigenous communities have sustained many knowledge practices alongside Western knowledge discourses. There is also evidence of a recent emergence of counter-hegemonic indigenous knowledge discourses in environmental education and development practices in southern Africa. It is noted that these have been contingent upon the changing political terrain in southern Africa as this has opened the way for alternative discourses to the dominant conventional Western knowledges in formal education and development contexts. The counterhegemonic discourses invert power/knowledge relations, decentre hegemonic discourses and reposition indigenous knowledges in formal education and development contexts. This study suggests the need to foreground indigenous knowledges as a process of knowledge decolonisation that gives contextual and epistemic relevance to environmental education and development processes. This calls for a need for new strategies to transform existing institutions by creating enabling spaces for the representational inclusion of indigenous knowledges in formal/conventional knowledge discourses and their application in social contexts. This opens up possibilities for plural knowledge representations and for their integrative and reciprocal co-engagement in situated contexts of environmental education and development in southern Africa.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Shava, Soul
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 Education -- Africa, Southern Environmental education -- Africa, Southern Indigenous peoples -- Africa, Southern Ethnoscience -- Africa, Southern Knowledge, Theory of Genealogy (Philosophy) Medicinal plants -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1885 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005920
- Description: This study was developed around concerns about how indigenous knowledges have been represented and applied in environment and development education. The first phase of the study is a genealogical analysis after Michel Foucault. This probes representations and applications of plant-based indigenous knowledge in selected anthropological, botanical and environmental education texts in southern Africa. The emerging insights were deepened using a Social (Critical) Realism vantage point after Margaret Archer to shed light on agential issues in environmental education and development contexts. Here her morphogenetic/morphostatic analysis of social transformation or reproduction is used to trace changes in indigenous knowledge representations and applications over time (from the pre-colonial into the post-colonial era). The second phase uses the same perspectives and tools to extend the analysis of power/knowledge relationships into the interface of indigenous communities and modern institutions in two case study settings in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This study reveals colonially-derived hegemonic processes of modern/Western scientific institutional representations/interpretations of the knowledges of indigenous communities. It also tracks a continuing trajectory of their dominating and prescriptive mediating control over local knowledges from the pre-colonial context through into the post-colonial period in southern Africa. The analysis reveals how this hegemony is sustained through the deployment of institutional strategies of representation that transform local knowledges into the disciplinary knowledge discourses of modern scientific institutions. These representational strategies therefore generate/reproduce and validate disciplinary discourses about the other, constructing disciplinary 'regimes of truth'. In this way modern institutions appropriate and displace indigenous/local knowledges, silence the voices of local communities and regulate individual and community agency within a continuing subjugation of indigenous knowledges. This study reveals how working within modern institutions and disciplinary knowledges in participative education and development interactions can serve to implicate indigenous researchers in these institutional hegemonic processes. The study also notes evidence of a continued resistance to hegemonic Western knowledge discourses as indigenous communities have sustained many knowledge practices alongside Western knowledge discourses. There is also evidence of a recent emergence of counter-hegemonic indigenous knowledge discourses in environmental education and development practices in southern Africa. It is noted that these have been contingent upon the changing political terrain in southern Africa as this has opened the way for alternative discourses to the dominant conventional Western knowledges in formal education and development contexts. The counterhegemonic discourses invert power/knowledge relations, decentre hegemonic discourses and reposition indigenous knowledges in formal education and development contexts. This study suggests the need to foreground indigenous knowledges as a process of knowledge decolonisation that gives contextual and epistemic relevance to environmental education and development processes. This calls for a need for new strategies to transform existing institutions by creating enabling spaces for the representational inclusion of indigenous knowledges in formal/conventional knowledge discourses and their application in social contexts. This opens up possibilities for plural knowledge representations and for their integrative and reciprocal co-engagement in situated contexts of environmental education and development in southern Africa.
- Full Text:
Student's van Hiele levels of geometric thought and conception in plane geometry: a collective case study of Nigeria and South Africa
- Authors: Atebe, Humphrey Uyouyo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1777 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003662
- Description: This study is inspired by and utilises the van Hiele theory of geometric thought levels, currently acclaimed as one of the best frameworks for studying teaching and learning processes in geometry. The study aims both to explore and explicate the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking of a selected group of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Nigerian and South African schools. The study further aims to provide a rich and indepth description of the geometry instructional practices that possibly contributed to the levels of geometric conceptualisation exhibited by this cohort of high school learners. This collective case study, presented in two volumes, is oriented within an interpretive research paradigm and characterised by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample for the study comprised a total of 144 mathematics learners and 6 mathematics teachers from Nigeria and South Africa. They were selected using both purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In using the van Hiele model to interrogate both learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation and teaching methods in geometry classrooms, the study employs a qualitative and qunatitative approach to the data-collection process, involving the use of questionnaires (in the form of various pen-and-paper tests, hands-on activity-based tests), interviews and classroom videos. Although the data analysis was done largely through descriptive statistics, the whole process inevitably incorporated elements of inferential statistics (e.g. ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc test) in the quest for indepth analysis and deeper interpretation of the data. Learners were assigned to various van Hiele levels, mainly according to Usiskin’s (1982) forced van Hiele level determination scheme. The whole process of analysing the classroom videos involved a consultative panel of 4 observers and 3 critical readers, using the checklist of van Hiele phase descriptors to guide the analysis process. Concerning learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation, the results from this study reveal that the most of the learners were not yet ready for the formal deductive study of school geometry, as only 2% and 3% of them were respectively at van Hiele levels 3 and 4, while 47%, 22% and 24% were at levels 0, 1 and 2, respectively. More learners from the Nigerian subsample (53%) were at van Hiele level 0 than learners from the South African subsample (41%) at this level. No learner from the Nigerian subsample was at van Hiele level 4, while 6% of the South African learners were at level 4. In general, learners from the Nigerian subsample had a poorer knowledge of school geometry than their peers from the South African subsample, as learners from the latter subsample obtained significantly higher mean scores in the van Hiele Geometry Test (VHGT) and each of the other tests used in this study. Results relating to gender differences in performance generally favour the male learners in this study. For each of the participating schools, learners’ van Hiele levels (as determined by their scores on the VHGT) strongly correlate with their performance in geometry content tests and mathematics generally. For each of the Nigerian and South African subsamples, for n ≤ 2, learners at van Hiele level n obtained higher means on nearly all the tests administered in this study than their peers at level n–1. This finding provides support for the hierarchical property of the van Hiele levels.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Atebe, Humphrey Uyouyo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1777 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003662
- Description: This study is inspired by and utilises the van Hiele theory of geometric thought levels, currently acclaimed as one of the best frameworks for studying teaching and learning processes in geometry. The study aims both to explore and explicate the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking of a selected group of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Nigerian and South African schools. The study further aims to provide a rich and indepth description of the geometry instructional practices that possibly contributed to the levels of geometric conceptualisation exhibited by this cohort of high school learners. This collective case study, presented in two volumes, is oriented within an interpretive research paradigm and characterised by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample for the study comprised a total of 144 mathematics learners and 6 mathematics teachers from Nigeria and South Africa. They were selected using both purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In using the van Hiele model to interrogate both learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation and teaching methods in geometry classrooms, the study employs a qualitative and qunatitative approach to the data-collection process, involving the use of questionnaires (in the form of various pen-and-paper tests, hands-on activity-based tests), interviews and classroom videos. Although the data analysis was done largely through descriptive statistics, the whole process inevitably incorporated elements of inferential statistics (e.g. ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc test) in the quest for indepth analysis and deeper interpretation of the data. Learners were assigned to various van Hiele levels, mainly according to Usiskin’s (1982) forced van Hiele level determination scheme. The whole process of analysing the classroom videos involved a consultative panel of 4 observers and 3 critical readers, using the checklist of van Hiele phase descriptors to guide the analysis process. Concerning learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation, the results from this study reveal that the most of the learners were not yet ready for the formal deductive study of school geometry, as only 2% and 3% of them were respectively at van Hiele levels 3 and 4, while 47%, 22% and 24% were at levels 0, 1 and 2, respectively. More learners from the Nigerian subsample (53%) were at van Hiele level 0 than learners from the South African subsample (41%) at this level. No learner from the Nigerian subsample was at van Hiele level 4, while 6% of the South African learners were at level 4. In general, learners from the Nigerian subsample had a poorer knowledge of school geometry than their peers from the South African subsample, as learners from the latter subsample obtained significantly higher mean scores in the van Hiele Geometry Test (VHGT) and each of the other tests used in this study. Results relating to gender differences in performance generally favour the male learners in this study. For each of the participating schools, learners’ van Hiele levels (as determined by their scores on the VHGT) strongly correlate with their performance in geometry content tests and mathematics generally. For each of the Nigerian and South African subsamples, for n ≤ 2, learners at van Hiele level n obtained higher means on nearly all the tests administered in this study than their peers at level n–1. This finding provides support for the hierarchical property of the van Hiele levels.
- Full Text:
An interpretive inquiry into girls' educational choices and aspirations: a case study of Murang'a district, Kenya
- Authors: Mwingi, Mweru P
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Education -- Kenya -- Case studies Education -- Economic aspects -- Kenya -- Case studies Student aspirations -- Kenya -- Case studies Women -- Vocational guidance -- Kenya -- Case studies Sex discrimination in education -- Kenya -- Case studies Sex discrimination against women -- Kenya -- Case studies Sexism in education -- Kenya -- Case studies Women -- Education -- Kenya -- Case studies Educational equalization -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1583 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003465
- Description: Global consensus on the importance of gender equity in education is perhaps one of the greatest agreements reached in the twentieth century. However, for countries in the sub Saharan African region where disparities of gender are wide and primary education takes priority, secondary education continues to remain in the periphery. As countries make progress towards the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE), the concerns for gender equity and equality have become associated with school access and pupil retention. Yet, patterns and trends in school enrollment suggest that disparities of gender are more complex. As lessons are learned from the achievements and challenges of attaining UPE, it is increasingly apparent that gender disparities within education occur in, within and beyond access to schooling. In other words, the challenge of making education gender equal goes beyond school access and school enrollment. Kenya is a signatory to the 1990 Jomtein Declaration on Education For All (EFA). It is also among the few countries in the sub Saharan Africa region with a significantly reduced gender gap in primary and secondary education. This is in tandem with the third of the eight Millennium Development Goals whose aims bear a broad social and economic development agenda. While education equity is important in Kenya and tremendous progress has been made in primary education, beyond the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE) there is an even more significant target; gender equity in education both in primary and secondary education by 2015. The attainment of this target requires more than access to schooling and for this reason it poses great challenges to governments and schools. In light of the progress made in Kenya and the need for more equitable education beyond primary education, this study conceives a need for an incisive examination of education equity priority areas in Kenya. The study argues on the need for a shift of concern and debate from primary education to secondary education because the gains of UPE only become meaningful when education equity is secured in secondary education. The study underscores that beyond school access and retention, education output and outcomes need to become prominent variables because they gauge trends and patterns and the quality of gains made where education is claimed to be both accessible and equitable. Using case study method, the study makes a critical interpretation of the schooling experiences, educational choices, preferences and aspirations of girls taking secondary education in single-sex schools in Murang’a district, Kenya. The study shows that girls schooling experiences are not homogenous and that there are contradictions in the ways that girls experience their schooling and make educational choices. It also shows that girls do not necessarily stand good chances with their education simply because they are enrolled in single-sex schools. The study reveals individual subjectivities and schooling culture to be at the centre of the differences between schools and the schooling experiences that girls have. The two have impact on how girls perceive themselves and their abilities, the preferences they nurture and the educational choices they make. The study draws attention to nuances in access and equity within girls’ education. It draws out issues and nuances linked to gender access, equity and equality with respect to school, teacher and subject access. Though the study is not generaliseable, it shows that in contexts where female access and survival is secured, there is need for attention to be paid to the environments that nurture educational choices and preferences so that the high rates in school access become translated into equally high educational output and outcomes.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mwingi, Mweru P
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Education -- Kenya -- Case studies Education -- Economic aspects -- Kenya -- Case studies Student aspirations -- Kenya -- Case studies Women -- Vocational guidance -- Kenya -- Case studies Sex discrimination in education -- Kenya -- Case studies Sex discrimination against women -- Kenya -- Case studies Sexism in education -- Kenya -- Case studies Women -- Education -- Kenya -- Case studies Educational equalization -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1583 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003465
- Description: Global consensus on the importance of gender equity in education is perhaps one of the greatest agreements reached in the twentieth century. However, for countries in the sub Saharan African region where disparities of gender are wide and primary education takes priority, secondary education continues to remain in the periphery. As countries make progress towards the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE), the concerns for gender equity and equality have become associated with school access and pupil retention. Yet, patterns and trends in school enrollment suggest that disparities of gender are more complex. As lessons are learned from the achievements and challenges of attaining UPE, it is increasingly apparent that gender disparities within education occur in, within and beyond access to schooling. In other words, the challenge of making education gender equal goes beyond school access and school enrollment. Kenya is a signatory to the 1990 Jomtein Declaration on Education For All (EFA). It is also among the few countries in the sub Saharan Africa region with a significantly reduced gender gap in primary and secondary education. This is in tandem with the third of the eight Millennium Development Goals whose aims bear a broad social and economic development agenda. While education equity is important in Kenya and tremendous progress has been made in primary education, beyond the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE) there is an even more significant target; gender equity in education both in primary and secondary education by 2015. The attainment of this target requires more than access to schooling and for this reason it poses great challenges to governments and schools. In light of the progress made in Kenya and the need for more equitable education beyond primary education, this study conceives a need for an incisive examination of education equity priority areas in Kenya. The study argues on the need for a shift of concern and debate from primary education to secondary education because the gains of UPE only become meaningful when education equity is secured in secondary education. The study underscores that beyond school access and retention, education output and outcomes need to become prominent variables because they gauge trends and patterns and the quality of gains made where education is claimed to be both accessible and equitable. Using case study method, the study makes a critical interpretation of the schooling experiences, educational choices, preferences and aspirations of girls taking secondary education in single-sex schools in Murang’a district, Kenya. The study shows that girls schooling experiences are not homogenous and that there are contradictions in the ways that girls experience their schooling and make educational choices. It also shows that girls do not necessarily stand good chances with their education simply because they are enrolled in single-sex schools. The study reveals individual subjectivities and schooling culture to be at the centre of the differences between schools and the schooling experiences that girls have. The two have impact on how girls perceive themselves and their abilities, the preferences they nurture and the educational choices they make. The study draws attention to nuances in access and equity within girls’ education. It draws out issues and nuances linked to gender access, equity and equality with respect to school, teacher and subject access. Though the study is not generaliseable, it shows that in contexts where female access and survival is secured, there is need for attention to be paid to the environments that nurture educational choices and preferences so that the high rates in school access become translated into equally high educational output and outcomes.
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Changing words and worlds?: a phenomenological study of the acquisition of an academic literacy
- Authors: Thomson, Carol Irene
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa College student development programs -- South Africa Literacy -- South Africa Education, Higher -- Philosophy Educational change -- South Africa Phenomenology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1446 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003327
- Description: This study is contextualised within the field of post-graduate, continuing teacher education, and the vibrant and demanding policy context that has characterised higher education in post-apartheid South Africa. Situated within a module specifically designed to address what is commonly understood to be the academic literacy development needs of students in the Bachelor of Education Honours programme at the former University of Natal, it aims to unveil the lived experiences of students taking this module. The module, Reading and Writing Academic Texts (RWAT), was developed in direct response to academics’ call that something be done about the ‘problem’ of students’ reading and writing proficiency. As a core, compulsory module, RWAT was informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and drew on Genre Theory for its conceptual and theoretical framework. It foregrounded the genre of the academic argument as the key academic literacy that was taught. The motivation for this study came from my own increasing concern that the theoretical and conceptual framework we had adopted for the module was emerging as an inherently limiting and formulaic model of literacy, and was resulting in students exiting the module with little or no ‘critical’ perspective on any aspect of literacy as social practice. I was also keen, in a climate of increasing de-personalisation and the massification of education, to reinstate the personal. Thus, I chose to focus on individual lives, and through an exploration of a small group of participants’ ‘lived’ experiences of the RWAT module, ascertain what it is like to acquire an academic literacy. The key research question is, therefore: What is it like to acquire an academic literacy? The secondary research question is: How is this experience influenced by the mode of delivery in which it occurs? For its conceptual and theoretical framing, this study draws on social literacy theory and phenomenology, the latter as both a philosophy and a methodology. However, although the study has drawn significantly on the phenomenological tradition for inspiration and direction, it has not done so uncritically. Thus, the study engages with phenomenology-as-philosophy in great depth before turning to phenomenology-as-methodology, in order to arrive at a point where the methods and procedures applied in it, are justified. The main findings of the study suggest that, despite the RWAT module espousing an ideological model (Street, 1984) of literacy in its learning materials and readings, participants came very much closer to experiencing an autonomous model of literacy (Street, 1984). The data shows that the RWAT module was largely inadequate to the task of inducting participants into the ‘situated practices’ and ‘situated meanings’ of the Discourse of Genre Theory and/or the academy, hence the many ‘lived’ difficulties participants experienced. The data also highlights the ease with which an autonomous model of literacy can come to govern practice and student experience even when curriculum intention is underpinned by an ideological position on literacy as social practice. Finally, the study suggests that the research community in South Africa, characterised as it is by such diversity, would be enriched by more studies derived from phenomenology, and a continuing engagement with phenomenology-as-a-movement in order to both challenge and expand its existing framework.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Thomson, Carol Irene
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa College student development programs -- South Africa Literacy -- South Africa Education, Higher -- Philosophy Educational change -- South Africa Phenomenology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1446 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003327
- Description: This study is contextualised within the field of post-graduate, continuing teacher education, and the vibrant and demanding policy context that has characterised higher education in post-apartheid South Africa. Situated within a module specifically designed to address what is commonly understood to be the academic literacy development needs of students in the Bachelor of Education Honours programme at the former University of Natal, it aims to unveil the lived experiences of students taking this module. The module, Reading and Writing Academic Texts (RWAT), was developed in direct response to academics’ call that something be done about the ‘problem’ of students’ reading and writing proficiency. As a core, compulsory module, RWAT was informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and drew on Genre Theory for its conceptual and theoretical framework. It foregrounded the genre of the academic argument as the key academic literacy that was taught. The motivation for this study came from my own increasing concern that the theoretical and conceptual framework we had adopted for the module was emerging as an inherently limiting and formulaic model of literacy, and was resulting in students exiting the module with little or no ‘critical’ perspective on any aspect of literacy as social practice. I was also keen, in a climate of increasing de-personalisation and the massification of education, to reinstate the personal. Thus, I chose to focus on individual lives, and through an exploration of a small group of participants’ ‘lived’ experiences of the RWAT module, ascertain what it is like to acquire an academic literacy. The key research question is, therefore: What is it like to acquire an academic literacy? The secondary research question is: How is this experience influenced by the mode of delivery in which it occurs? For its conceptual and theoretical framing, this study draws on social literacy theory and phenomenology, the latter as both a philosophy and a methodology. However, although the study has drawn significantly on the phenomenological tradition for inspiration and direction, it has not done so uncritically. Thus, the study engages with phenomenology-as-philosophy in great depth before turning to phenomenology-as-methodology, in order to arrive at a point where the methods and procedures applied in it, are justified. The main findings of the study suggest that, despite the RWAT module espousing an ideological model (Street, 1984) of literacy in its learning materials and readings, participants came very much closer to experiencing an autonomous model of literacy (Street, 1984). The data shows that the RWAT module was largely inadequate to the task of inducting participants into the ‘situated practices’ and ‘situated meanings’ of the Discourse of Genre Theory and/or the academy, hence the many ‘lived’ difficulties participants experienced. The data also highlights the ease with which an autonomous model of literacy can come to govern practice and student experience even when curriculum intention is underpinned by an ideological position on literacy as social practice. Finally, the study suggests that the research community in South Africa, characterised as it is by such diversity, would be enriched by more studies derived from phenomenology, and a continuing engagement with phenomenology-as-a-movement in order to both challenge and expand its existing framework.
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A critical ethnographic study of report writing as a literacy practice by automotive engineers
- Authors: Harran, Marcelle
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Written English -- South Africa Written communication -- South Africa Literacy -- Social aspects -- South Africa Engineers -- Language -- South Africa Communication in engineering -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1476 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003357
- Description: This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power relations, values and identities are manifested rhetorically. The basis for this critical theory of literacy is the assertion that literacy is a social practice which involves not only observable units of behaviour but values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. As the institution’s socio-cultural context in the form of embedded historical and institutional forces impact on writer identity and writing practices or ways of doing report writing, notions of writing as a transparent and autonomous system are also challenged. As critical ethnography is concerned with multiple perspectives, it was selected as the preferred methodology and critical realism to derive definitions of truth and validity. Critical ethnography explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings providing a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. As human experience can only be known under particular descriptions, usually in terms of available discourses such as language, writing and rhetoric, the dominant practices emerging in response to the report acceptance event are explored, especially that of supervisor feedback practices as they causally impact on report-writing practices during the practice of report acceptance. Although critical realism does not necessarily demonstrate successful causal explanations, it does look for substantial relations within wider contexts to illuminate part-whole relationships. Therefore, an attempt is made to find representativeness or fit with situated engineering literacy practices and wider and changing literacy contexts, especially the impact of Higher Education and world Englishes as well as the expanding influence of technological and digital systems on report-writing practices.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Harran, Marcelle
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Written English -- South Africa Written communication -- South Africa Literacy -- Social aspects -- South Africa Engineers -- Language -- South Africa Communication in engineering -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1476 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003357
- Description: This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power relations, values and identities are manifested rhetorically. The basis for this critical theory of literacy is the assertion that literacy is a social practice which involves not only observable units of behaviour but values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. As the institution’s socio-cultural context in the form of embedded historical and institutional forces impact on writer identity and writing practices or ways of doing report writing, notions of writing as a transparent and autonomous system are also challenged. As critical ethnography is concerned with multiple perspectives, it was selected as the preferred methodology and critical realism to derive definitions of truth and validity. Critical ethnography explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings providing a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. As human experience can only be known under particular descriptions, usually in terms of available discourses such as language, writing and rhetoric, the dominant practices emerging in response to the report acceptance event are explored, especially that of supervisor feedback practices as they causally impact on report-writing practices during the practice of report acceptance. Although critical realism does not necessarily demonstrate successful causal explanations, it does look for substantial relations within wider contexts to illuminate part-whole relationships. Therefore, an attempt is made to find representativeness or fit with situated engineering literacy practices and wider and changing literacy contexts, especially the impact of Higher Education and world Englishes as well as the expanding influence of technological and digital systems on report-writing practices.
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A transdisciplinary explanatory critique of environmental education
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Environmental education Business enterprises -- Environmental aspects Corporations -- Environmental aspects Social responsibility of business Social responsibility of business -- Study and teaching Environmental education -- Philosophy Environmental ethics -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1804 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003689
- Description: This study originates out of my experience as an environmental educator working within business and industry in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is motivated by my observation that, despite much environmental rhetoric and training, environmental education in industry rarely leads to significant advances towards environmental protection. I assume that the problem of the mismatch between rhetoric and action involves both semiotic and non-semiotic components and therefore, after a thorough exploration of my methodological options, I adopt a qualitative transdisciplinary textual analysis of relevant documents using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Bhaskar’s Dialectical Critical Realism, with some insights taken from Bhaskar’s more recent concept of Meta-Reality. My main conclusions from the study indicate that causally efficacious philosophical mistakes, relating to theories of structure/agency and theories of epistemology, are an important aspect of the problem being considered. Specifically, I demonstrate that these mistakes function to buttress ideology and its attendant contradictions which in turn function to provide the preconditions that maintain inequalities and poor environmental practice in business and industry. Prior and current events, such as climate change and the trend towards globalisation, the ‘free market economy’ and psychological characteristics of the author, relevant to the problem, are also important. In line with Bhaskar’s emancipatory aim for explanatory critique, I end with tentative recommendations for a re-imagined environmental education for business and industry which require (un)action. Consistent with my methodological choices, my recommendations have a (qualified) universal application, despite my focus on texts from South Africa and Zimbabwe. My recommendations are summarised below: • there should be consistency between theory and practice such that performance contradictions are avoided; • we should not act from a fear of survival based on past, no longer relevant experiences (e.g. from childhood) as this is unlikely to be an adequate base for present actions; • we should avoid voluntarism by acting with the resources at our disposal, based on a true understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and our own specificities; • we should avoid assuming the stance of the ‘victim’ by refusing to blame other agents or circumstances, without distorting or underestimating the causal efficacy of those agents or circumstances (related to avoiding voluntarism, whilst nevertheless not resorting to determinism either); • we should direct our action towards the abolition of inequalities and master-slave relationships (related to the avoidance of performance contradictions); • we should act from the position of epistemological humility, rather than from the position of epistemological privilege; • we should consider action as ‘shedding’ based on an understanding of the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA); and • we should consider learning to be ‘shedding’ based on the necessity of (un)knowledge, or ignorance, as a requirement of arriving at relatively new knowledge. This study is also a contribution to contemporary methodological discussions relevant to Critical Discourse Analysis in that it extends these discussions to include psychoanalytical (as well as the more familiar phenomenological and ideological) depth explanations of lived illusion. Furthermore, this study is an experimental attempt to apply the concept of ‘meta-reflexivity’ in Critical Discourse Analysis.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Environmental education Business enterprises -- Environmental aspects Corporations -- Environmental aspects Social responsibility of business Social responsibility of business -- Study and teaching Environmental education -- Philosophy Environmental ethics -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1804 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003689
- Description: This study originates out of my experience as an environmental educator working within business and industry in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is motivated by my observation that, despite much environmental rhetoric and training, environmental education in industry rarely leads to significant advances towards environmental protection. I assume that the problem of the mismatch between rhetoric and action involves both semiotic and non-semiotic components and therefore, after a thorough exploration of my methodological options, I adopt a qualitative transdisciplinary textual analysis of relevant documents using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Bhaskar’s Dialectical Critical Realism, with some insights taken from Bhaskar’s more recent concept of Meta-Reality. My main conclusions from the study indicate that causally efficacious philosophical mistakes, relating to theories of structure/agency and theories of epistemology, are an important aspect of the problem being considered. Specifically, I demonstrate that these mistakes function to buttress ideology and its attendant contradictions which in turn function to provide the preconditions that maintain inequalities and poor environmental practice in business and industry. Prior and current events, such as climate change and the trend towards globalisation, the ‘free market economy’ and psychological characteristics of the author, relevant to the problem, are also important. In line with Bhaskar’s emancipatory aim for explanatory critique, I end with tentative recommendations for a re-imagined environmental education for business and industry which require (un)action. Consistent with my methodological choices, my recommendations have a (qualified) universal application, despite my focus on texts from South Africa and Zimbabwe. My recommendations are summarised below: • there should be consistency between theory and practice such that performance contradictions are avoided; • we should not act from a fear of survival based on past, no longer relevant experiences (e.g. from childhood) as this is unlikely to be an adequate base for present actions; • we should avoid voluntarism by acting with the resources at our disposal, based on a true understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and our own specificities; • we should avoid assuming the stance of the ‘victim’ by refusing to blame other agents or circumstances, without distorting or underestimating the causal efficacy of those agents or circumstances (related to avoiding voluntarism, whilst nevertheless not resorting to determinism either); • we should direct our action towards the abolition of inequalities and master-slave relationships (related to the avoidance of performance contradictions); • we should act from the position of epistemological humility, rather than from the position of epistemological privilege; • we should consider action as ‘shedding’ based on an understanding of the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA); and • we should consider learning to be ‘shedding’ based on the necessity of (un)knowledge, or ignorance, as a requirement of arriving at relatively new knowledge. This study is also a contribution to contemporary methodological discussions relevant to Critical Discourse Analysis in that it extends these discussions to include psychoanalytical (as well as the more familiar phenomenological and ideological) depth explanations of lived illusion. Furthermore, this study is an experimental attempt to apply the concept of ‘meta-reflexivity’ in Critical Discourse Analysis.
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An investigation of the key mechanisms that promote whole school development in a secondary school pilot project context
- Authors: Westraad, Susan Fiona
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education -- South Africa Education, Secondary -- South Africa Education and state -- South Africa School improvement programs -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003291
- Description: Providing relevant and quality schooling for all South African learners is the paramount goal of the South African National Department of Education. South Africa 's historical and current socio-economic contexts provide many challenges for both the Department of Education and schools in this endeavour to provide quality teaching and learning. These challenges impact directly and indirectly on what happens in the classroom. Since 1994 a plethora of education and training policy has been introduced in South Africa to redress historical imbalances; to introduce a new education and training framework and approach; and to provide guidelines, principles and procedures for addressing some of the challenges that impact on schools. The National Whole School Evaluation Policy provides the legislative framework for the establishment of a quality assurance process in South African schools based on accountability and support. The subsequent Integrated Quality Management System attempts to provide a framework for integrating school evaluation and performance measurement. Policy frameworks are in place to guide quality assurance and school improvement, however, the reality of implementing this at a grass roots level is particularly challenging. The General Motors (GM) South Africa Foundation, a non-governmental development organisation, established by General Motors (GM) South Africa, commenced with the piloting the Learning Schools Initiative to investigate some of the challenges of whole school development and evaluation. This research documents the Learning Schools Initiative's intervention with the initial two pilot secondary schools situated in Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) over a four-year period. It reviews the relevant school reform and school development literature and adopts a critical realist evaluative research approach to investigate the key mechanisms that promote whole school development and change in this context. In keeping with this approach, the results of the research are analysed and discussed within a context-menchanism-outcome configuration that involves the identification of the key mechanisms that bring about desired outcome/s in a specific context. Seven key generative mechanisms are identified as critical at a school and classroom level (i) school culture, (ii) school structures, (iii) effective leadership and management, (iv) personal growth and meaning, (v) restoration of relationships, (vi) professional development of educators, and development of capacity to work together, and (vii) support and accountability. The need to structure school development interventions around the triggering of identified key mechanisms is also identified as an important overarching mechanism. Suggestions are made for further research required to facilitate a deeper understanding of how to bring about meaningful change that results in quality teaching and learning in South African schools.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Westraad, Susan Fiona
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education -- South Africa Education, Secondary -- South Africa Education and state -- South Africa School improvement programs -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003291
- Description: Providing relevant and quality schooling for all South African learners is the paramount goal of the South African National Department of Education. South Africa 's historical and current socio-economic contexts provide many challenges for both the Department of Education and schools in this endeavour to provide quality teaching and learning. These challenges impact directly and indirectly on what happens in the classroom. Since 1994 a plethora of education and training policy has been introduced in South Africa to redress historical imbalances; to introduce a new education and training framework and approach; and to provide guidelines, principles and procedures for addressing some of the challenges that impact on schools. The National Whole School Evaluation Policy provides the legislative framework for the establishment of a quality assurance process in South African schools based on accountability and support. The subsequent Integrated Quality Management System attempts to provide a framework for integrating school evaluation and performance measurement. Policy frameworks are in place to guide quality assurance and school improvement, however, the reality of implementing this at a grass roots level is particularly challenging. The General Motors (GM) South Africa Foundation, a non-governmental development organisation, established by General Motors (GM) South Africa, commenced with the piloting the Learning Schools Initiative to investigate some of the challenges of whole school development and evaluation. This research documents the Learning Schools Initiative's intervention with the initial two pilot secondary schools situated in Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) over a four-year period. It reviews the relevant school reform and school development literature and adopts a critical realist evaluative research approach to investigate the key mechanisms that promote whole school development and change in this context. In keeping with this approach, the results of the research are analysed and discussed within a context-menchanism-outcome configuration that involves the identification of the key mechanisms that bring about desired outcome/s in a specific context. Seven key generative mechanisms are identified as critical at a school and classroom level (i) school culture, (ii) school structures, (iii) effective leadership and management, (iv) personal growth and meaning, (v) restoration of relationships, (vi) professional development of educators, and development of capacity to work together, and (vii) support and accountability. The need to structure school development interventions around the triggering of identified key mechanisms is also identified as an important overarching mechanism. Suggestions are made for further research required to facilitate a deeper understanding of how to bring about meaningful change that results in quality teaching and learning in South African schools.
- Full Text: