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Teacher learning through teaching and researching: the case of four teacherresearchers in a Masters programme
Get PDFThere is a large body of research and on-going discussions about mathematics teachers’poor content knowledge in South Africa, with many suggesting that teachers need moreopportunities to increase their content knowledge. In this article I consider one importantopportunity that does not seem to be exploited – that of teachers’ learning in the classroom.By considering the learning experiences of four teacher-researchers who were enrolled for amasters degree, I explore how these teachers’ mathematics teacher knowledge developed asa result of their research inquiry. The findings indicate that all four teachers have deepenedtheir mathematical knowledge for teaching in the various domains. However, learning in theclassroom is enabled by the presence of supportive and knowledgeable colleagues. Ifauthorities want to encourage such forms of learning, then attention needs to be directed toproviding intensive classroom support in order to maximise the opportunity for classroomlearning
Coping in complex, changing classroom contexts: An investigation of the bases of pre-service teachers’ pedagogic reasoning
Get PDFDespite its central role in enabling professional judgements and decision-making in teaching, pedagogical reasoning is a slippery concept and difficult to pin down. Although pedagogical reasoning is understood to inform all aspects of teaching practice, we still do not know what pedagogical reasoning looks like. In this article, I present a set of conceptual tools, using concepts from Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2014), to analytically explore the differences between the abstraction and complexity of ideas expressed in the pedagogical reasoning of differently qualified pre-service teachers. I argue that pre-service teachers must be able to abstract and generalise their pedagogical reasoning, working with complex, specialised concepts associated with context-independent principles, in order to distinguish the ‘formal elements’ from the ‘material elements’ of teaching (Morrow, 2005). Being able to make this distinction, I argue, is likely to set pre-service teachers up to cope in complex, changing classroom contexts
Mobile Health (mHealth) in the Developing World: Two Decades of Progress or Retrogression
Get PDFMobile healthcare, or mHealth, is one of the key pillars of information and communication technologies for healthcare that consists of telemedicine, telehealth, eHealth, and mHealth. In the past two decades, mobile health has become a transformative concept for healthcare delivery innovations on a global scale. The success was based on the market-driven strategies that utilised the advances in mobile communications, computing, and sensor technologies, especially in recent years. Those market-driven mobile health systems were also closely associated with the global proliferation of smartphones, and based on the correlated usage principle of the smartphone applications for healthcare and wellbeing. However, the global commercial success of the smartphone-based mHealth model was not widely translated into successful scaled-up and tangible healthcare benefits, especially in low- and-middle income countries, compared to the consumer mobile health markets. The numerous healthcare challenges in the developing world remained largely untackled by the existing mobile health systems and models. The much-hyped transformative benefits of these systems remain largely unfulfilled. For two decades since the inception of this concept, the majority of the population in resource-limited healthcare settings still remain in poorer health and live in worsened conditions, with limited if any access to basic healthcare services. The much-hyped mobile health services that promised transforming these fragile and limited healthcare conditions, did not come to wider fruition globally. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its devastating human and economic impact worsened this status. An overview of the origin and the basic principles of mobile health, its current landscape and status in the developing world is presented. The impact of the smartphone-centric model that dominated the landscape of mobile health systems in these countries is discussed, and a critical view on the limitation of this mobile health model adopted widely in these settings is provided
“Do all roads lead to Rome?”: The influence of two different higher education programmes on beginner teacher identity
Get PDFIn South Africa there are currently several teacher education programmes from which educational students can choose. In this qualitative comparative case study, we explored the experiences of beginner teachers who chose opposite routes to becoming teachers and report on the influences of this choice on the construction and development of their beginner teacher identities. Purposefully selected, three participants were beginner teachers who studied full-time and three participants beginner teachers who studied part-time while working at a school. Epistemologically underpinned by the Interpretivist paradigm, we employed the Possible Selves theory (Marcus & Nurius, 1986) as theoretical lens. Thematic analysis of data demonstrated a correlation between beginner teacher identity and the teacher education programmes chosen by participants. Full-time participants showed a slower and more complex process of identity development where part-time participants came to terms with the realities of teaching earlier and were more prepared and confident for the realities of teaching
Specific learning disabilities: Challenges for meaningful access and participation at higher education institutions
Get PDFThe worldview on the rights of people with disabilities have changed in pursuit of social justice, resulting in an international increase of students with disabilities enrolling at Higher Education Institutions (HEI). This compound the need to meet the challenge to transform and attain the SDG’s and EFA as global imperatives. This research focussed on the experiences of students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) at a South African university. Findings suggest that although HEI have policies that promote inclusive education, many students with SLD still experience exclusion. It is concluded that authentic inclusion requires acknowledgement of the complex inter-relationship between teaching and learning
Early adolescent bystanders’ experiences of school bullying in a South African school
Get PDFBystander is relatively under-researched in bullying literature because most studies on bullying focus primarily on bullies or the direct victims of bullying. This study aimed to explore the bullying experiences of early adolescent bystanders in a South African school context using a qualitative research approach. A phenomenological research design was adopted. Twenty early adolescents’ bystanders were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Interviews were recorded on a voice recorder and transcribed thereafter. Qualitative data was analysed through inductive thematic analysis. The findings of this study revealed the various emotional and behavioral reactions of bystanders to witnessing school bullying. It is recommended that anti-bullying programs should be included in the curriculum so that school psychologist will have the opportunity to highlight the emotional, psychological and educational impact of bullying and to emphasise to the students that the negative consequences of bullying extend to all who are exposed to bullyin
Practical knowledge of teaching practice – what counts?
Get PDFThe role of formal and systematic knowledge in socialisation into teaching is in question.There is a rising tendency towards anti-intellectualism in different quarters of the field ofeducational studies coupled with an ever increasing emphasis on tacit understanding andimmersion in practice. Socialisation into professional practice is purported to dependpredominantly on ‘doing’ in situ, and on learning what experienced teachers do and far lesson ‘concept building’. In this paper we argue that the emphasis on immersion in the site ofpractice as the gateway to an understanding of the practice of teaching rests on anoverstated conception of tacit knowledge which misses the crux of professional knowledge.The crux of professional knowledge, we argue, lies in specialised practice languages(Collins, 2011) which constitute criteria of professional practice and enable articulationbetween different reservoirs of knowledge. Emulating what expert practitioners do inpractice is not central to the development of professional knowledge of teaching
Initial Teacher Education students’ conceptualisation of inclusive education
Get PDFIn South African, Inclusive Education requires teachers to be responsive to diversity. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has a role to play in challenging and disrupting teacher thinking to support conceptualisations of Inclusive Education that position teachers’ responsiveness to diversity. The theoretical framework used is the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach in Action (IPAA) Framework. The research was conducted at a public urban university in Johannesburg, South Africa with 200 third year preservice teachers. The data was analysed by considering preservice teachers’ reflections on adapting content knowledge, thinking about learner needs and selection of teaching and learning strategies. Findings indicate that preservice teachers were engaging with the theory of Inclusive Education; demonstrated awareness about issues of diversity but struggled to consider learners’ diverse needs and how to address these in practice. We recommend continued support for preservice teachers in building capacity to enhance responsiveness in inclusive practice through ITE programmes and further research. 
21st Century competencies in Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Rhetoric and reality in the wake of a pandemic
Get PDFThere is general agreement about the need for vocational education and training to embrace ‘modern technologies’ in gearing up to deliver ‘21st century competences’ to young people. Recent TVET policies in South Africa incorporate the language of future competencies that ought to be acquired by college students through their curricula, and delivered by lecturers with appropriate professional training. But in April 2020, confronted by a global Covid-19 pandemic and an immediate hard lockdown, TVET colleges went into crisis mode to try and meet a government demand that ‘no student be left behind’. While blended and remote methodologies had been employed to some extent in a few college programmes, the pandemic suddenly launched all lecturers into technology dependent teaching and learning. This article is based on a survey of conveniently selected public TVET college lecturers early in the lockdown, under enormous pressure to continue the academic programme. The snapshot obtained was one of anxiety and consternation, but also of deep concern for students and their well-being under inordinately difficult conditions. Their conflicting priorities while they tried to balance teaching responsibilities and personal needs were illustrative of Maslow’s well-known theorisation of humans and their hierarchy of needs. The limited research conducted for this article was exploratory at a time in the pandemic when there were more questions than answers in every sphere of social interaction. Findings therefore did not seek to be definitive and there was full understanding that the education and training landscape was dynamic and shifting. However, what can be shared here is a moment in time to appreciate the experiences of a critical component of the TVET college sector and the distance they would have to traverse towards the aspirations espoused in polic