Exploring change-oriented learning, competencies and agency in a regional teacher professional development programme's change projects
- Authors: Mandikonza, Caleb
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme Environmental education -- Africa, Southern Education -- Africa, Southern , International Certificate in Environmental Education , Environmental education -- Africa, Southern , Teachers, Training of -- Africa, Southern , Education -- Philosophy , Mediated learning experience , Vygotskiĭ, L. S. (Lev Semenovich), 1896-1934
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4410 , vital:20660
- Description: This aim of this study was to explore the mediatory role of the Rhodes University (RU) / Southern African Development Community (SADC) International Certificate in Environmental Education course in developing capacity for reflexive mainstreaming of environment and sustainability education in teacher education in southern Africa. This course was a change-oriented intervention to support capacity and agency for mainstreaming environmental education across many sectors of education. The discourse of the course included environmental education and education for sustainable development and for this study this was referred to as environment and sustainability education (ESE). Environment and sustainability education is a developing notion in southern Africa and the SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme (REEP) was set up to support capacity for mainstreaming ESE. ESE was one of the responses taken by the SADC region to respond to prevalent environment and sustainability issues across the region. This study focused, in general, on establishing the mediatory roles of the reflexive mediatory tool, the change project in the course. More specifically, the research explores the mediatory role of course interventions and activities that were used to develop understanding of and to frame the change project in fostering agentially motivated changed practice in the teacher education sector. Drawing on realist social theory, which is a form of critical realism, especially the work of Margaret Archer, the study used the principle of emergence to interpret changes in the course participants' practices. The study was framed using the research question: How do mediated actions in a regional professional development programme and the workplace influence Environment and Sustainability (ESE) competencies, practice, learning and agency in Teacher Education for Sustainable Development (TESD) change projects? The following sub-questions refined the study: • What mediated actions on the course influence ESE competences, practice, learning and agency on the professional development programme? • How do these identified mediated actions influence ESE competences, practice and learning on the professional development programme? • What mediated actions in workplaces influence ESE competences, practice, learning and agency in the change projects in teacher education institutions? • How do these identified mediated actions in workplaces influence ESE competences, practices and mediated actions in the workplace? Notions of practice, agency, reflexivity, competences and capabilities were used to sensitise explanations of features emergent from course interactions; the process of analysis was under-laboured by the theoretical lens of critical realism and realist social theory. Mediation theory was used to explain the role of interventions across the course. The study used a case study approach with three cases of teacher educators from two institutions in two southern African countries. Data were generated through document analysis of course portfolios, semi-structured interviews with research participants, observations of participants during their teaching and through group discussions in a change management workshop to establish features that emerged from the course and change project interactions. The principle of emergence recognises that any interactions result in new features of characteristics that are different from the original. In this case, the study investigated those features shown by participants after being exposed to the course's mediatory tools. In order to describe the cases, a narrative approach was used. The study was conducted at the interface of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) and the Global Action Plan for Education for Sustainable Development, therefore the outcomes have implications for capacity development for ESE during and beyond the Global Action Plan for Education for Sustainable Development. The key finding is that capacity development for ESE needs to foreground reflexive engagement with one's own practice for it to be meaningful and relevant. The change project provided course participants with the opportunity to engage with their own practice and particularly their competences and capabilities through its mediatory tools. Course participants showed emergent properties that were evidence of expanded zones of proximal development (ZPD) in competences, capabilities and agency. The study illustrates that meaningful learning happens when immersed in context and when learners are able to make connections between concepts, practices and experiences (their praxis). The study also illustrates that capacity building creates opportunities for practitioners to expand their repertoire through the course activities. Some of the course activities stimulated, enhanced and gave impetus to their agency or double morphogenesis for them to continue to expand that repertoire by trying and retrying changes in practice that they value on their own and in communities of practice. Capacity development courses need to be structured to involve a variety of mediatory activities as some of these are relevant and are valued for different teacher education contexts. The study also shows how knowledge and understanding of classical Vygotskian mediation can be used to frame and structure courses for developing the ZPD retrospectively and how the repertoire which forms the ZPD has potential to be expanded and to keep expanding, whether at individual level or in community with others, as an object in the post-Vygotskian mediation process. The change project provides the starting point, the vehicle and momentum to teacher educators to critique and to reflexively transform competences or aspects of their practice that they value. The study showed that capacity development through the change project generated momentum for potentially morphogenetic changes in teacher education practice. The course initiated interactions at the phase T2-T3 that disrupted teacher educators' habitus. On-course phase activities such as assignments, lectures, discussions, practical tasks, excursions and regional knowledge exchange groups contributed smaller morphogenetic cycles to the main cycle. Reflexive engagement with one's own practice becomes a useful tool for building capacity for scaling capacity for mainstreaming ESE during and after the Global Action programme for ESD. Contributions of the study therefore go beyond the SADC region to contribute insights into capacity development for ESD in similar conditions of teacher education across the world.
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An analysis of the certificate of the theory of accounting knowledge and knower structures : a case study of professional knowledge
- Authors: Mkhize, Thandeka Fortunate
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Accounting -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Dropout behavior, Prediction of , Knowledge, Theory of , Knowledge and learning , Critical realism , Education -- Philosophy , Educational sociology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2057 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019771
- Description: This research project explores issues around the poor throughput and high dropout rate in the Certificate of the Theory of Accounting (CTA) by focusing on Accounting knowledge as an object of study. The CTA was identified as a serious block in the steps that one needs to go through on the journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant. Having a clear understanding of Accounting knowledge can lead to finding ways that can make the subject more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. This study contributes to understanding Accounting knowledge at the CTA level with the aim of clearly delineating its legitimate knowledge and knower structures. It answers the following two research questions: • What constitutes legitimate knowledge structures in the CTA? • What constitutes legitimate knower structures in the CTA? Academics from nine universities and representatives of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) participated in this study. Data was collected through interviews, observation and document analysis. Eighteen CTA lecturers and two members of the SAICA management team were interviewed. Three universities provided documents on their practices, which included learner guides, examination papers, suggested answers, lecture notes, tutorials and other curriculum documents for each of the four CTA subjects. SAICA provided the competency framework and examinable pronouncements. A conference that was jointly hosted by SAICA and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation was observed. This study used Critical Realism as its ontological underpinnings and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) as its substantive theory. It used the Specialisation and Autonomy principles of LCT to analyse the data. Specialization establishes the ways agents and discourses within a field are constructed as special, different or unique and thus deserving of distinction and status (Maton, 2014). The principle of Autonomy is concerned with the extent to which the field is self-governing and can do things of its own free-will (Maton, 2004). The study found that the CTA has a hierarchical knowledge structure, which means that when new knowledge is created in Accounting it is integrated into existing knowledge, resulting in coherent and integrated knowledge. CTA also has a hierarchical curriculum structure. While horizontal curriculum structures evolve through the replacement of existing knowledge by new approaches and content, a hierarchical curriculum typically grows through integration and subsumption of new knowledge into pre-existing knowledge and it relies on the acquisition of knowledge developed in previous modules or levels of study.
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Empathy in the time of ecological apartheid : a social sculpture practice-led inquiry into developing pedagogies for ecological citizenship
- Authors: McGarry, Dylan Kenneth
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Education -- Philosophy , Social learning , Environmental education , Arts in education
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1985 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013154
- Description: Considering the ecological crisis and the increased disconnection between human beings and nature, this study attempts to find the social and aesthetic educational response needed for developing ecological citizenship for the 21st century. In this transdisciplinary study I articulate what at first seems a clumsy attempt to enable the capacities of the embodied ecological citizen, and which later emerges as an alchemical ‘social sculpture’ approach to learning that expands the range of capacities available to the citizen and the citizen’s immediate community. This learning bridges the gap between purely biocentric and technocentric forms of education, and addresses the ambiguity of concepts and forms of action such as ‘sustainability’. My primary focus is enabling both communal and personal forms of agency: new ways of 'doing’ and 'being' in the world as it changes radically. I argue that this demands constantly reflecting on and engaging without understanding, place and perception of the problems we see. Attending to a call for the importance of complex learning processes, that deepens our understanding of sustainability, and the need for methodological and pedagogical approaches to accessible forms of learning socially in the era of climate change and environmental degradation, this study offers a particular insight into the education of an ecological citizen. In particular I examine a form of learning that enables individuals to explore relationships between themselves and their ecologies (both physical and social), and that encourages personal forms of knowing so that each person’s values can be cultivated within the experience and intuitive expression from both inner and outer realities. Central to my research focus is addressing the difficulties inherent in ‘ecological apartheid’, which is defined as a growing separation of relationships that include the human being’s relationship with the natural world, as well as disconnections experienced within one’s own inner and outer capacities. Subsequently I investigate forms of learning that encourage agency that most appropriately enable citizens to respond personally to both inner and outer forms of disconnection. ‘Personal’ and ‘relational agency’ are defined and investigated through an initial twelve-month collaborative participatory contextual profiling exploratory research period in South Africa (phase A), where I explore various forms of multiple-genre creative social learning practice that develop an accessible set of methodologies and pedagogies for the ecological citizen. Through this exploratory research, I place significance in the relatively unknown field of social sculpture, which I investigate through a self-made apprenticeship with Shelley Sacks, an expert in the field. This is documented through a rigorous ethnographic inquiry over a period of 18 months. Following this I undertake another two-year collaborative, practice-based research study across South Africa (phase B: 17 towns, with a total of 350 citizens) and eventually abroad (United Kingdom, Germany, USA and Belgium).The focus of this study was the implementation of a collaboratively developed citizen learning practice entitled Earth Forum developed by Shelley Sacks as a progression from her work “Exchange Values: voices of insivible lives” and my collaboative exploration into Earth Forum and its further development draws heavily from social sculpture methods obtained during the apprenticeship, and applied in 36 different incidences. I further explore the efficacy of this practice in enabling and expanding the capacities of participants, particularly those that encourage the development of personal and relational agency. This was achieved through a pedagogical development and expansion period (phase C). A primary finding through the iterative phase (phase D) was the value of imaginal contemplation, attentive listening, and empathy as capacities that enable an ecological citizen’s overall capability. I ascribed this to Nussbaum and Sen’s (1993) capability theory and the need to enable the articulation and implementation of a citizen’s valued ‘beings and doings’. Through this iterative phase, specific attention is given to listening and intuitive capacities in enabling personal and relational agency, and specifically I observed the fundamental role of imagination in this form of learning. Particularly valuable for the educational contribution of this study is the pedagogical development of the Earth Forum practice that enables an accessible, socially constructed form of learning. This contributes specifically to exploring ‘how’ social learning is undertaken, and I argue that an aesthetic approach to learning is vital for the education of the ecological citizen. I carefully describe how one can conduct collaborative practice-based research that utilises creative connective practice in agency development. This collaborative approach, with regard to learning socially and capacity development for ecological citizenship (that focuses its attention on addressing ecological apartheid and separateness), is articulated through a multiple-genred text. I found that empathetic capacity in ecological citizen education is relatively unexplored, and within listening and as well in empathy theory, that the role of imagination in listening and empathy development, requires greater attention. I attempt to reveal how connective practice considers aesthetic form and shape in expanding capacities of human beings, and introduce novel expanded forms of developing pedagogies that encourage personal and relational agency in the context of ecological apartheid from the artsbased field of social sculpture. Finally, I aim in this study to share the potential value found in social sculpture theory and practice into the field of environmental education and social learning through a reflection on the current context of education and social learning, and its potential enrichment via social sculpture processes.
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The integration of academic skills/support programmes into university department structures: a case study in the sociology of education
- Authors: Drewett, Michael
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Compensatory education -- South Africa , Education, Higher , Education -- Philosophy , Rhodes University. Academic Development Programme
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3327 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003115
- Description: This research focuses on the extent to which the Rhodes University Academic Skills Programme (ASP), now known as the Academic Development Programme, is able to act as an agent of progressive change within Rhodes University. In so doing it concentrates on the potential of the strategy of integrated academic development for dealing with the academic needs of university students within the context of South Africa as a society in transition. The candidate considers the inability of structuralist educational theory to account for the potential of human agency at the site of formal education. It is shown that structuralist theories provide deterministic and pessimistic accounts of the role of institutions of formal education. In support of this contention this study explores the history of ASP at Rhodes University, demonstrating that significant change in student academic development has already taken place. ASP has contributed to change within the said University through challenging traditional notions of academic development. This thesis suggests that the non-structuralist critical theory of Jurgen Habermas provides a more holistic account of ASP than do structuralist theories of formal education. Through the incorporation of Habermas's theory of communicative action a process of critical integration is explored, showing that a strategy of integrated academic development has the potential to involve all those who have an interest in university education through a process of rational discourse. This potential is strengthened by the fact that many students and staff have expressed an awareness of the need for an integrated academic development strategy. This thesis subsequently explores the possibility of there being a process of democratic and rational discourse which could lead to a progressive integration programme in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology. This thesis stresses the contested nature of the integration process within departments. It is indicated that Habermas's critical theory is able to account for the changes which have taken place in the past and which are presently under way. It is argued that it not possible to predict future outcomes, but that if ASP pursues a process of rational discourse, it will indeed be able to stimulate a critical integrative approach to academic development in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology.
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An investigation of the evolution and current status of the core theoretical disciplines in the training of primary school teachers at selected English-medium training institutions in South Africa
- Authors: Robertson, Sally-Ann, 1952-
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Elementary school teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Education -- Philosophy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2008 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015891
- Description: This investigation examines developments which have taken place in the theoretical component of pre-service courses for primary teachers. Revised conceptions of the purpose and scope of primary education, and the attendant demand for better qualified primary teachers to implement such education, resulted in a considerable increase in the theoretical component of primary teacher preparation courses . Better theoretical understanding of the educative task was perceived to be essential to the production of more effective primary teachers. The emergence of various schemes for the preparation of South African primary teachers is outlined. The Cape Province provides the major exemplar. The nature of educational theory, and its precise contribution to enhanced teaching ability has been a subject of fierce debate within educational circles. An analysis of theory, in general, and as it applies in the educational context, is undertaken. The evolution of the core theoretical disciplines of education - history, philosophy, psychology and sociology of education - is traced. The current status of these disciplines at selected South African institutions undertaking primary teacher preparation is then investigated, and the views of lecturing staff at these institutions on the optimal approach to the teaching of educational theory are presented. The disciplines still play an important role in the South African Bachelor of Primary Education degree courses surveyed. In British teacher preparation courses, however, disenchantment with the disciplines' format has given rise to demands for new approaches to the teaching of educational theory. Some of these alternative approaches are evaluated. An overall assessment is made of the contribution that can be expected from educational theory in pre-service courses for primary teachers, and some recommendations are made for the management of the theoretical component of pre-service courses for South African primary teachers.
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