Research in Educational Policy and Management (E-Journal)
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Exploring Social Justice Issues That Inform the 21st-Century Curriculum in Higher Education: Lecturers’ Voices and Experiences
Full text linkHigher education systems across the globe have adopted policies to provide a curriculum which is underpinned by the fundamental values of equality, inclusivity, and diversity. However, owing to lack of transformation and the practical implementation of these policies, higher education is still significantly entrenched in Eurocentric epistemologies which expose students to a learning environment which does not represent their social identities. This has led to the intensification of discourses on decolonisation epistemologies. At the centre of these decolonisation epistemologies is their advocacy for the recognition of indigenous epistemologies and ontologies in the learning environment. Of importance to these discourses is social justice issues that influence the 21st-century curriculum. Guided by the Critical Theory of Education, this study explored social justice issues that inform the 21st-century curriculum from a lecturers’ perspective. Data was collected from thirty-two purposefully selected lecturers from all universities in South Africa using a questionnaire with a Likert scale. The findings demonstrate that academic imperialism, language equity, equality, inclusivity, and diversity are the major issues of social justice that influence the 21st-century curriculum. To promote these social justice issues, this study advocates for radical transformation in language policies and pedagogical practices in higher education. The study further calls for the practical dismantling of the current dispensation in higher education which perpetuates social injustice and inequality. Educational policies need to respond purposefully to calls to decolonise the 21st-century curriculum holistically and create an education system which works for every student on these social justice issues
Exploring Challenges Hindering Teachers’ Implementation of Classroom Management Strategies in Gauteng High Schools, South Africa
Full text linkThis study explores challenges hindering teachers’ implementation of classroom management strategies in schools and suggests solutions thereafter. This study adopts the behaviourism theory, which aims to help learners unpack and emulate desirable behaviour, arguing that learning should lead to the adoption of constructive, observable conduct, such as what individuals say or do. The study is located within a qualitative approach using a case study design. The study consisted of purposively sampled participants comprised of twelve Grade 10 (FET Phase) educators from the three chosen high schools in Gauteng Province in the Ekurhuleni North District, South Africa. The collected data was analysed using content analysis. The findings highlighted large class sizes and insufficient parental involvement as key obstacles to effective classroom management. Setting clear expectations and fostering a positive environment were noted as crucial solutions. Recommendations include schools and educators actively promoting a supportive classroom atmosphere, establishing clear expectations, and encouraging parental participation in the learning process to overcome classroom management challenges and enhance high school teaching and learning experiences
Curriculum Reform for Social Justice: A Critical Policy Historiography of Transformation in Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa
Full text linkThe call for social justice in education has been echoed across the globe for many decades. However, the dual hatchets of racial and social-class segregation have refused to be buried in the 21st century. Inequalities within and across nations remain pervasive and conspicuous. Tapping into the framework of policy genealogy, this theoretical qualitative historiography teases the evolution of curriculum reform in three post-colonial states – Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa. These three nations share a common legacy of British colonialism and unequal access to education anchored in race, social class, gender and other manifestations of injustice. Using primary and secondary documents available in the public domain, the paper traces and juxtaposes post-colonial curriculum policies initiated in search for social justice and how these policies were implemented at school and classroom levels. The grounded theory emerging from this policy historiography is that the genealogy of curriculum reform policies was dictated by historical circumstances and the unique context of each country, rather than deliberate policy sharing among decision-makers in the three post-colonial states. Although reform policy espouses equitable education, the attainment of social justice in the three nations remains largely a mirage. Only children of the new Black elite are enjoying the fruits of post-colonial curriculum reform by attending expensive and generously resourced former White-only schools, but the poor majority remain marginalised in poorly resourced schools. This study recommends collaboration among policy makers in the three nations so that policy talk may be translated into policy action
Entrepreneurial Learning: Creating Value towards Social Justice
Full text linkEconomic equality contributes towards social justice through equal access to opportunities for employment, income generation, or starting businesses. Entrepreneurship is often viewed as the panacea for job creation and reducing unemployment. Entrepreneurship education, therefore, supports the development and expansion of learners’ knowledge and understanding of entrepreneurship. The notion is that when more learners opt to become entrepreneurs, economic inequality will be reduced. Entrepreneurship education continues to be studied for its contribution towards attaining social justice through economic equality. Recent literature, however, indicates a notable shift towards embracing a broader perspective of entrepreneurship education rather than only lauding it for its economic value creation. Numerous contemporary publications use the term entrepreneurial learning rather than entrepreneurship education. This shift emphasises the role of learners to learn self-directedly so as to think entrepreneurially or behave in an entrepreneurial manner rather than educators teaching them to “become entrepreneurs” (i.e., starting a business). Entrepreneurial learning intends to benefit not only the entrepreneurship learner but also purposefully endeavours to create value for others. The current conceptual paper focuses on this broader value-creation purpose of entrepreneurial learning and how this different view can contribute to attaining social justice if embedded in the South African school curriculum using a socio-constructivist theoretical framework. Conceptual recommendations are made for the optimal construction of entrepreneurial learning in upcoming curriculum adaptations to buttress its broader value-creation purpose in support of social justice
Dilemma of School Management Teams in Balancing Discipline and Multiple Deprivations among Learners through Integrated Management Approach
Full text linkThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has emphasized the paramount importance of ensuring the safety and protection of children globally. In alignment with this goal, the South African government took a proactive step by prohibiting corporal punishment as a means of disciplining learners within schools. However, this prohibition subsequently led to a resurgence of learner indiscipline within the educational system. The objective of this study was to delve into the experiences of School Management Teams (SMT) employing an integrated management approach to maintain discipline in an environment marked by multiple challenges. Through qualitative research methods involving interviews and document analysis, this study gathered insights from purposively selected participants, including teachers (2), SMT members who are also parents (2), and student leaders (4). Thematic analysis was conducted on the data and findings were categorized based on the emerging themes. The outcomes of this research shed light on several critical factors affecting discipline within schools. Firstly, the leniency exercised by teachers was identified as a significant factor undermining the enforcement of the school code of conduct. Secondly, overcrowded classrooms emerged as a substantial obstacle, making it arduous for teachers to offer individualized attention and promptly address behavioural issues. Lastly, inadequate support from the Department of Basic Education was recognized as a clear barrier to effectively upholding discipline in schools. In light of these findings, it is imperative to advocate for comprehensive training programs and adequate resource allocation for school management teams. These initiatives would equip SMTs to navigate the unique challenges associated with multiple deprivations and effectively manage disciplinary matters. Such investments are indispensable for fostering an environment conducive to effective education and overall growth of learners
The Role of School Leaders in Developing Teams: Sources and Triggers in School Health Promotion
Full text linkAlthough teams are the cornerstone of school health promotion, sources of team learning and the role of school leaders in developing such teams is unknown. It is important to understand the sources and triggers of team learning in order to establish the role of school leadership in the development of such teams. The investigation adopted a qualitative approach and a single case study design. Six members of the school management team and 12 teachers from one school participated. Eight of the 12 teachers were members of health committees responsible for the implementation of health policies in the school. Data were gathered by means of individual and focus group interviews. The findings revealed three sources of team learning that may be regarded as triggers: routine health promoting activities in the school, policies and guidelines for implementation of health programmes, and collaboration with other role players. School leaders were found to play an essential and multi-faceted role in team development, in that they were responsible for establishing developmental training programmes including creating opportunities for evaluation and reflection, managing interpersonal relationships and roles, articulating a vision, and facilitation of an open dialogue about the implementation of the health policy
Revisiting 'Great Media Debate': Technology-Mediated Learning and Ground Realities Across the Indian Institutes of Technology
Full text linkSince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, curriculum planners are giving more weightage to online learning. However, it would be incomplete to re-imagine curricula without considering the factors impacting learning. In this context, the ‘Great Media Debate’ (GMD), initiated between Richard Clark and Robert Kozma in the 1990s, discusses the factors influencing learning. While Clark focuses on instructional methods, Kozma posits that both methods and media impact learning. Our study re-visits the GMD in the present context of online learning and extends it, making it more heuristic by adding a specific contextual social factor, i.e., Availability and Accessibility of the Internet (A2I) at the individual/ household level to the debate. We build our proposition based on the 11,489 learners’ responses collected as a part of the Pan-IIT study in India and focus on the case study of one specific institution, IIT Jammu. The analysis using chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and descriptive statistics finds strong evidence for A2I to impact online learning, thereby broadening the GMD. A2I also influences the media by shaping the learners’ preferences for the media used in traditional classrooms. Finally, it brings out the rural-urban divide due to unequal internet distribution, raising the possibility of a more exclusionary curriculum for the learners. We conclude that there is a need for the contextual social factor, i.e., A2I, among others, to be strongly acknowledged in the GMD, enabling it to take a more comprehensive form and consequently, holding the potential to enrich the curricular reimagination
Towards a Just Distribution of Student Funding to Youth with Learning Disabilities in Vocational Education and Training
Full text linkThe funding of higher-education students contributes to their skills development and renders them employable and self-sustainable. Research indicates that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) (a South African tertiary education government funding agency) has done remarkably well in funding a large number of students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue vocational training. Having noted that disability is an under-researched topic in the South African Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) context, the authors employed a qualitative critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to analyse the tonal voice of the NSFAS policy text and generate a thematic depiction of its stance on the funding of persons with learning disabilities. A further review of 77 primary and secondary data sources was conducted to triangulate the findings drawn from the NSFAS policy text. The paper exposes the plight of youth with learning disabilities who, due to limited aptitude for academic learning, often languish on the periphery of the entrepreneurial and occupational worlds of work as observers or—if lucky enough to gain entry—serve as unaccredited (self-taught or naturally gifted) semi-skilled and secondary contributors to innovative ideas. Drawing on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, the paper highlights the need for a funding policy that acknowledges: 1) the element of heterogeneity in disability; 2) the adoption of a funding eligibility criteria that ensure inclusion and equality for all; and, finally, 3) the need for the funding of learning programmes that accommodate diverse learning styles, developmental needs and knowledge consumption of youth with disabilities. It further advocates for broad-based youth development so that no young person—with or without a disability— lacks access to occupational training to ply a trade in the professional, artisanal, creative, or entrepreneurial realms of the knowledge economy
Reflections on Decolonising of Medium of Instruction at South African Universities
Full text linkThe 2015/6 #Rhodes Must Fall student protest reignited the debate to decolonise higher education in South Africa and many parts of the world. One way of achieving this is through decolonising the language of teaching and learning in higher education to increase access. Within this caveat, we anticipate that this article will add a crucial contribution to contemporary international and local debates on decolonising the medium of instruction by providing evidence from South African institutions’ unique challenges and prospects associated with the quest to deliver quality decolonised education. While tremendous strides have been made in expressing the constitutional right of every learner to receive primary education in a language of their choice, at the university level, the development and implementation of inclusive language policies have been dismal at best. With the demise of the apartheid regime that significantly stifled African languages in South Africa, one could have hoped for changes in attitude and language usage in universities, mainly because universities still have discernible remnants of the apartheid legacy. This article highlights the urgent need for decolonising South African higher education, particularly concerning using English as the medium of instruction. We further hope that this study will benefit practitioners and stakeholders involved in formulating language policies at their respective learning institutions and prompt them to treat the decolonisation process with befitting urgency
Grade 11 Learners' Ability to Formulate Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy Questions within a Real-World Soccer Context in Tshwane, South Africa
Full text linkLearners are often tasked with activities that require them to solve problems in mathematics classrooms. Problem posing is one of the teaching strategies that can enable learners to appreciate the mathematics concepts to be extracted from familiar or everyday situations. However, problem posing, as a teaching and learning strategy, is mostly under-utilised, despite its potential to enhance mathematics learning. This article explores how Grade 11 learners pose Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy questions from a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match and determines the extent to which the questions posed by learners mirror the given soccer context. The study involved 42 participants, comprising 22 Mathematics and 20 Mathematical Literacy learners from a high school in the Soshanguve township in Tshwane, South Africa. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through a written task in which learners were given a scenario in the form of an extract from a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match report. The qualitative findings of the study show that learners were generally capable of posing or formulating questions based on the real-life soccer context provided. The analysis showed that (a) Mathematics learners formulated more questions with more mathematical terms in them than Mathematical Literacy learners did, and (b) Mathematical Literacy learners formulated questions that were more aligned to the analysis of the game than was the case with Mathematics learners. We argue that learners’ responses to the task were consistent with how they were socialised with the Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy discourse