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Exploring functionings and conversion factors in biodiversity teacher professional learning communities
No full textThe study explores the conversion factors, functionings (valued beings and doings), agency
and structures in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for Life Sciences teachers’
biodiversity knowledge. The teachers’ valued beings and doings as well as conversion factors
associated with these beings and doings were discussed within the conceptual framework of
the capability approach using three PLCs in South Africa. Two PLCs were in the Eastern
Cape Province (Grahamstown and Idutywa district), and one PLC was in the Western Cape
(Cape Town) province. The PLCs involved in this study were course initiated and were
positioned in the Fundisa for Change national teacher education programme. Fundisa for
Change is a partnership programme that aims to enhance transformative environmental
learning through teacher education. To illuminate constrained capabilities and how and to
what extent the Life Sciences teachers’ empirical actions are related to these, the concepts of
the capability approach were underlaboured with critical realism’s causal view of human
action. A critical realist theory of causation was useful in explaining how the teachers’ valued
beings and doings, conversion factors and capability sets can be partly accounted for via an
understanding of underlying mechanisms that are generative of events and empirical
experience.
The study used a qualitative case study research methodology. Interviews, questionnaires,
observations (of PLC activities), document reviews (of teachers’ portfolios of evidence,
Fundisa for Change implementation plan, evaluation forms and resources materials, and
policy documents) and reflection tools were used to collect data. Using the critical realism
modes of inference (induction, abduction and retroduction), the data was analysed in two
phases. Phase one analysis was primarily inductive and used thick descriptions (mainly in the
form of quotes) to present and discuss the teachers’ valued beings and doings and associated
conversion factors in the PLCs. This phase of analysis was abductive.
The study reported four main functionings valued by teachers: subject content knowledge,
teaching practices, assessment practices, and use of teaching and learning support materials.
These valued functionings were discussed in light of the beings and doings in the PLCs and
the underlying mechanisms related to teachers’ biodiversity teaching. Conversion factors that
were associated with the teachers’ valued beings and doings in the PLCs were discussed in
line with capability approach’s environmental, social and personal conversion factors. The study found that most of the conversion factors within the PLCs and the Fundisa for Change
professional development programme (good facilitation, collaborative learning space, site
where PLC activities happened, individual teachers’ capabilities, teaching and learning
support materials and policy documents) were enablers to the teachers’ capabilities for
biodiversity teaching, and thus enhanced teachers’ knowledge for biodiversity teaching. The
study further found that teachers realised some of their achieved functionings in their actual
teaching of biodiversity content in the Life Sciences curriculum, and that factors such as lack
of resources, large class sizes, learners’ abilities and lack of interest among some teachers
were amongst the factors that constrained teachers’ realisation of their achieved functionings
in the PLCs.
The study therefore revealed that if professional development programmes take account of
underlying mechanisms and respond to teachers’ capabilities i.e. their valued functionings for
biodiversity teaching in the Life Sciences curriculum, the professional development
programmes can be an important conversion factor that enables the expansion of teachers’
capabilities (especially their biodiversity knowledge, pedagogical and assessment practice but
also other capabilities) in ways that have the potential to reshape teachers’ classroom
practices related to the teaching of biodiversity
Restricted teacher leadership : a case study in a township high school in Port Elizabeth
No full textThe South African education system prior to 1994 was characterised by hierarchical management structures with top-down communication systems. After 1994, there was a policy call to shift leadership and management practices to more democratic ways of working. These policies required the principals to share their power with teachers, replacing the leader-follower system of leadership. The post-apartheid era in the South African education system marked a turning point where, in policy discourse at least, teachers were seen as leaders, opening the doors for teacher leadership.
The aim of this study was to explore the enactment of teacher leadership in a township secondary school in the province of the Eastern Cape. It also sought to investigate the factors that enhanced or hindered this leadership enactment as teachers operated as leaders in their natural setting. Under the umbrella of distributed leadership as a theoretical framework, the research study was located within the interpretive paradigm and a qualitative case study was adopted. Three teacher leaders at the case study school were my primary participants. Data collection methods included interviews, questionnaires, observations, self-reflective journaling and telephonic conservations.
I used Grant’s Model of teacher leadership as my analytical tool. My findings indicated that teacher leadership was enacted in all the zones of teacher leadership but to varying degrees. My teacher leaders enacted leadership in Zone 1 where they showed strong leadership in the classroom. They also enacted leadership in Zone 2 and 4 where they showed leadership in working with other teachers and learners outside the classroom in curricular and extra-curricular activities as well as in other neighbouring schools. However, in Zone 3 the School Management Team (SMT) controlled most of the leadership and management activities. Teacher leaders were not included in decision-making in this zone as the SMT thought that it was their sole duty. Teacher leadership in this school was thus characterised as ‘restricted’ following the characterisations of teacher leadership by Harris & Muijs (2007). Using Gunter’s (2005) categories of distributed leadership, I categorised the case study school as an example of authorised distributed leadership
The relationship between the alcohol use patterns and cognitive and symptomatic functioning of Rhodes University students
No full textIntroduction: Studies reveal differential cognitive effects of alcohol use, with moderate to heavy alcohol having some beneficial effects in older adults, whereas in young adulthood, heavier alcohol use produces deficits. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and the cognitive and symptomatic functioning of university students over one year, and to discern which demographic, clinical and alcohol factors might moderate cognitive outcomes.
Method: The sample included undergraduate Psychology students from a South African University, aged 18 to 23 years (n = 86). The sample was divided into two alcohol use groups based on four categories from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) (Babor et al., 2001), including a lighter drinking group (Safe/Hazardous, n = 74) and a heavier drinking group (Harmful/Dependent, n = 12). The two drinking groups were statistically equivalent for distribution of age, gender, English first language, race groups, history of neurological or psychiatric vulnerability, a measure of initial intelligence/cognitive reserve (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test: PPVT-4) (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and for a measure of test-taking validity (Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Test: ImPACT Impulse Control) (p = < 0.05 in all instances). Participants were tested on the computerized ImPACT battery (ImPACT, 2007) at three intervals over an academic year (May, August, October 2012). Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to investigate cognitive and symptomatic differences between the two alcohol use groups, in association with moderating factors.
Results: The heavier drinking group revealed: (i) poorer performance on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed, Reaction Time and Cognitive Efficiency Index scores, including less ability to benefit from practice over time; (ii) symptom reports of severe Numbness/Tingling, Balance problems and Dizziness. Deleterious cognitive outcome was exacerbated by longer lifetime duration of alcohol use, passing out monthly, beer or wine drinking, smoking or substance use.
Conclusion: Deleterious cognitive and symptomatic effects of heavy alcohol use are in evidence for undergraduate university students implicating current and/or cumulative alcohol induced brain impairment. The results of the study are of concern for optimal academic performance of students at an early stage of university level study, who engage in heavier (Harmful/Dependent) drinking patterns, with negative implications for future career attainment
Removal of toxic anions from wastewater using electrospun nanofibers
No full textThe presence of arsenic and phosphate in waters, especially wastewater, has become a worldwide problem even till the present time. The current regulation of drinking standard water has become more stringent and requires arsenic content to be reduced to a few parts per billion. Nevertheless, phosphorous pollution, known as the eutrophication, is regarded as one of the main causes of water quality deterioration. Hence, the decontamination of phosphorous from aqueous solutions is of importance for eutrophication control and phosphorous recovery. Efforts are being made to remove these contaminants, arsenic (v) and phosphate from wastewater using low cost adsorbents. In the present study, removal of arsenic(v) and phosphate from wastewater using two novel fabricated sorbent materials; polyvinylmethylketone functionalized 2-amino4,6-dihydroxylpyrimidine (APPMKNFs) prepared via a Schiff base condensation reaction and aminated polyvinylbenzylchloride (PVBC) prepared through a substitution reaction and then quaternized using three alkyl groups (R’ = CH₃, C₂H₅ and C₃H₇) were investigated. The experiments were carried out in batch and solid phase extraction mode. Preliminary experiments were done with series of four sorbent materials (APPMKNFs, R’ = CH₃, C₂H₅ and C₃H₇) in order to find out a suitable and low cost adsorbents for the effective removal of arsenic (v) and phosphate. The best sorbent materials were obtained after the optimization and preparation experiments. The APPMKNFs and R’ = CH₃ were effective for arsenic (v) and phosphate removal from wastewater. The effect of pH, initial sorbate concentration, amount of sorbent, effect of co-exisiting anions and the reusability in batch and solid phase extraction mode were also investigated. From the experiment conducted, the pH shows a decisive factor on arsenic and phosphate removal. Analysis of adsorbent dosage, Kinetic studies and co-existing anions were carried out in order to evaluate sorption parameters. The adsorption isotherms were well fitted by Langmuir than Freundlch isotherm for (APPMKNFs). And more..
Exploring the role of corrective feedback in helping Grade 8 learners to improve the accuracy of their written English: an action research case study
No full textThis action research study explored and analysed the role of teacher corrective feedback in
helping Grade 8 learners to improve the accuracy of their written English as their second
language. Therefore, the goals of this study were to examine the kind of language errors my
grade 8 learners’ made in their writing, to find out whether these errors could be categorized
linguistically, and to determine if they were errors, mistakes or lapses. The study further
analysed how learners responded to my feedback, and also determined which feedback
strategies worked best to help my learners deal with their errors, mistakes or lapses.
This study set out to look at six learners from one Grade 8 class of 40 learners. The data were
gathered from six written essay scripts, and each learner wrote four essay draft revisions. The
learners’ written essays were analysed by means of checklists in order to identify the types
and patterns of errors made. Errors such as punctuation, past tense verbs, spelling and
vocabulary were identified, analysed and categorized to provide insights into reasons
underlying the instances in which they were committed.
The findings of this study showed that factors underlying learners’ written errors included
mother-tongue interference, overgeneralization, fossilization, translation, lack of
concentration, and carelessness. The findings further showed that corrective feedback on
learners’ draft revisions provided them with extensive exposure and practice in English,
enabled them to internalize language rules, and reduced the tendency to commit errors in
their writing. The findings further suggest that procedures such as multiple-draft activities,
indirect feedback, direct feedback, focused corrective feedback, error correction and written
feedback with explicit corrective comments improved their levels of writing. Furthermore,
putting these procedures into practice and reflecting critically on how to apply them helped
enrich my own teaching practices and development in relation to the provision of corrective feedback to improve accuracy in learners’ writing. The findings are discussed in the context
of the related literature. This study should be read by ESL teacher-trainers, ESL teachers,
ESL student-teachers and ESL learners/students in general
I Have Gone Away Many Times
No full textI search for beauty and for myself amidst the debris and ruin and violence, so my poems are mainly grounded narratives that combine the lyrical and the political, celebration and lament. They reconnect with nature, the now ravaged landscapes that gave me my first impulse to make songs, poetry, and art. My poems also draw on my Xitsonga culture – its folklore, proverbs, idioms, parables, and clan praise songs. Stylistically I am influenced by Mahmoud Darwish’s and Garcia Lorca’s musical structures, while Aimé Césaire has shown me how to write a long poem in both abstract and concrete registers, and Yehuda Amichai how to write with a questioning style, dislodging accepted dogma. Local influences are Mzi Mahola and James Magaisa, with their critique and celebration of culture. I pick up fragments elsewhere, as I go
Istraight Lendaba
No full textMy collection of stories describes the lives of ordinary black people living in post‐apartheid
South Africa, especially those living in the margins, and the compromises that poverty forces
them to make. In such a world, virtue and vice are flip sides of the same coin. My stories search
for hope in an environment which Ayi Kwei Armah describes as “so completely seized with
danger and so many different kinds of loss.” My writing is inspired by Mozambican writer Luis
Bernardo Honwana, South African writer Joel Matlou whose demotic stories gave voice to
everyday life in the townships, and Cameroonian writer Werewere Liking’s as well as Brenda
Fassie’s powerful representation of the subversive nature of African women
The Smell Hits You First
No full textThis collection of poems and prose poems is a record of my life, from growing up in the small town of Bindura in Zimbabwe to landing in the small town of Grahamstown in South Africa. It is a story of dislocation: physical, emotional, and political. It is a story about borders and boundaries; although not rich, I was raised among the rich; although not white, I spent a considerable part of my childhood in white spaces. These fragments are told through the voice of my younger self and also retrospectively by my adult self. Two important influences on my style and my struggle to write about my identity have been Woman Hollering Creek by Latino American author Sandra Cisneros and Citizen: An American Lyric by US poet Claudia Rankine
Dialogues of sexualities: An action research project
No full textRisky and abusive sexual behaviours, stemming largely from inequitable gendered norms, are a pervasive feature of the South African socio-sexual landscape. Literature shows that sexuality education programmes can be effective in reducing risky sexual practices, but South African school sexuality education has been shown to be largely inadequate. The question arises as to how to engage with high school learners about sexualities in meaningful ways. In an attempt to answer this, I implemented a dialogical sexuality action research project at a lower middle class urban high school. Freirian principles of critical consciousness and dialogical pedagogy were utilized, and these were infused with feminist post-structural understandings of a discursively constituted subject.
The initial consultative process started in 2012 with two projects at the school. Data from these projects, and a further consultation with the school principal, provided baseline information on the gendered norms and the sexuality education in the school. I then instituted a dialogical sexuality intervention with a group of Grade 10 learners, aiming to bring gendered and sexual norms to visibility, to trouble them (thereby promoting participants’ critical consciousness around gendered norms), and to provide recognition for participants in a variety of subject positions. Ten sessions were conducted, with the focus of each session being planned by the group. The action research project attempted to promote understandings of the processes required to facilitate such aims.
The dialogical format of the group generated curiosity and engagement, and there were suggestions that some participants were taking up safe-sex messages in a reflexive manner. A partial normalisation of some ‘hidden’ aspects of sex, particularly around issues pertaining to female sexuality, was enabled, and critical consciousness around the gendered inequities in ‘cheating’ was promoted. However, abstinence was relatively silenced, and male same-sex remained heavily stigmatised. No substantial action component beyond the group meetings was generated. Participant feedback indicated that they placed great value on the dialogical processes in the group, and that they enjoyed being able to talk about sexual and other personal aspects of their lives. I theorise that the value of the group was in the recognition that participants received as they were positioned in a variety of subject positions. Whilst dialogue was shown to be extremely valuable, there were suggestions that other, non-dialogical modes of recognition were also needed by participants
The knowledge-knower structures used in the assessment of graphic design practical work in a multi-campus context
No full textThis case study explicates the knowledge-knower structures that are valued in the assessment of Graphic Design (GD) practical work in a multi-campus Private Higher Education (PHE) context. Assessment, which provides the measure for student success and progression, plays a significant role in Higher Education (HE). It is acknowledged that, in addition to increased pressure on educators to deliver high pass and throughput rates, there is often scrutiny of their assessment practice to ensure that it is fair, reliable, valid and transparent. The aspects of reliability and validity are particularly significant in for-profit private higher education institutions, where a strong focus on efficiency may result in added scrutiny of assessment practices. Although the assessment of GD practical work exemplifies these pressures and objectives, its characteristics and practices set it apart from many of the more standard forms of assessment found in HE. Not only is GD practical work predominantly visual rather than text-based, but complex achievements and tacit knowledge are assessed. This form of assessment traditionally relies on panel or group marking by connoisseurs who consider what is commonly termed ‘person’, ‘process’ and ‘product’ when making value judgements. Therefore, in GD assessment knowledge, the design product, the graphic designer and what the graphic designer does may all be valued. GD assessment, where outcomes are not easily stated, relies on the tacit expertise of assessors and can often be perceived to be subjective and unreliable. It therefore sits uncomfortably with results-driven HE and institutional priorities.
In light of this context and the complex and social nature of GD assessment, a critical realist approach provided the guiding metatheory for this case study. Critical realism considers the unseen but real mechanisms that exist and interact within a context to create a phenomenon such as an assessment practice. In this case study the knowledge-structuring theories of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton were used to uncover these mechanisms. Bernstein and Maton propose that new knowledge, the curriculum and pedagogy, which includes assessment, communicate the valued disciplinary knowledge and who controls these communications.
For this study the institutional documents and voices of assessors provided insight into the GD assessment practice; data was generated through a lecturer survey, the study guides and assessor conversations at both the formative and summative assessment stages. Given the significance of both knowledge and expertise in GD, Specialisation, one of the Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) dimensions, provided the conceptual tool whereby the generated data were analysed and categorised, and the underlying valued knowledge-knower structures, or specialisation codes, were identified.
The identified specialisation codes revealed a number of code clashes, matches and shifts, which highlighted instances of mixed or conflicting communication regarding what was valued and used in GD assessment. These clashes, matches and shifts have significant implications for curriculum design, pedagogy and assessment. As a result the findings may have relevance for students, lecturers and assessors who work in practice-based fields which require the assessment of complex achievements and rely on a specialised gaze to judge standards.
Informed by the findings of this study, I argue that there is a fundamental conflict between what is valued within the broader national South African Higher Education system and Private Higher Education institutional context, and the nature of GD assessment. The broader structures, guided by a techno-rationalist approach to assessment and the pressures of massification, success, compliance and institutional efficiencies, value explicitly-stated outcomes and criteria, propositional knowledge and a positivist ideal of one correct mark for any one assessment, while the GD assessment practice values the more social and tacit elements of procedural knowledge and a specialist knower as evidenced in a largely tacit GD gaze that assessors possess and students aim to develop. The uncovering of the knowledge-knower structures used in GD assessment has the potential to make the assessed gaze more explicit to lecturers, assessors and ultimately to students. My findings offer a deeper understanding of the assessment of knower code disciplines which require a specialist gaze for the judgement of student work, and the pressures experienced in this type of assessment in a HE context