76 research outputs found
Q&A: Peter Kimani, author of Dance of the Jakaranda, talks with Maëline Le Lay
No full textAfrica in Words. https://africainwords.com/2019/05/23/qa-peter-kimani-author-of-dance-of-the-jakaranda-talks-with-maeline-le-lay
Lenses from the margins: young schooling mothers' experiences in two high schools in Gauteng
No full textA research report submitted to the School of Education,
Faculty of Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Education
September 2014Listening to the voices of learners, also referred to as ‘student voice’, ‘pupil voice’ or ‘insider perspective’, is an aspect of inclusive education research that views learners as experts on their own lives, and provides insight into school subcultures that are relatively inaccessible to adults. This study listened to the voices of eleven young schooling mothers to find out the factors that help or hinder their successful completion of high school.
A participatory methodology was used to listen to learners’ voices. The study’s model of inclusive research involved using a participatory approach in which the young schooling mothers assumed the role of co-researchers. The multiple data collection methods employed recognise the values of community, respect for diversity and belonging also enabled inclusive engagement by building on the participants' strengths and encouraged meaningful participation. I collected data using cellphone messaging, learners’ journals, interviews, focus group discussions and video interviews. The multiple opportunities provided to the learners to speak about their school experiences highlighted the efficacy of the methods and revealed the learners’ preferences. Data was analysed using phenomenography, an approach that identified the qualitatively different ways in which the experiences of the young schooling mothers could be understood.
The study found that learner-managed methods (cell phone messaging, journaling and learners’ video interviews) provided unique and authentic perspectives into the young mothers’ private lives. The learners stated that they felt included in school by being involved in the research and by voicing their experiences of school as young schooling mothers. The young schooling mothers experienced school and schooling as rapidly changing experiences of inclusion, exclusion and marginalisation. The learners identified situations when they could be treated as both the same as, and different from other learners. Recommendations to ensure the learners successful completion of high school include a differentiated recognition of difference approach and a review of policy based on a non-judgmental construction of young motherhood
Professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy: What teacher talk in professional communities reveals about teacher professional identity and agency
No full textA thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgIn-service teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy seeks to address the perceived lack of capacity for teaching in inclusive classrooms in South Africa. Research suggests that teachers feel underprepared for this task, and that the prevalent delivery models for this learning, workshops, and short courses, have done little to enable sustained inclusive practices.
This study took a new direction, arguing that simply acquiring knowledge and skills for inclusive teaching misses the need to focus on teacher professional identity and agency. The professional and institutional change required for teachers to be pedagogically responsive to a range of learners, demands that professional learning address teachers’ immediate realities, be a long-term, school-based professional learning programme.
A three-year study in a full-service school in Johannesburg, South Africa, investigated teacher talk within professional learning communities (PLCs). PLCs are situated in practice and can promote and sustain teachers’ learning over an extended period. Wenger’s (1998) theory of learning as social practice and Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) theory of identity as narrative provided analytical insights into identity and agency in the PLCs. The subject focus of the PLCs was inclusive pedagogy, and the analysis was based on the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach in Action (IPAA) (Florian & Spratt, 2013). Using a Critical interpretivism perspective, teacher talk in the PLCs and individual teacher interviews were analysed.
Analysis of teacher talk in relation to the IPAA revealed two themes of talk: Inclusive Talk and Difference Talk. “Difference Talk” showed that the enactment of inclusion cannot be rigidly defined and demarcated in advance in every situation or in every instance or be abstracted from time and place. A nuanced interpretation of difference may help researchers avoid the binary distinctions about inclusive education and inclusive pedagogy and deficit interpretations about teachers’ practices.
The findings show that even though teachers talked about enacting inclusive pedagogy they did not consider themselves inclusive educators. They implied that since they had not had ‘special 5 education training’ they could not consider themselves as inclusive educators despite saying that they had taught in an inclusive manner. Participation in the PLCs enabled teachers to negotiate meaning and create a coherent community. A coherent community allowed teachers to challenge their perspectives about teaching inclusively and to share their experiences.
This study contributes a conceptual understanding of the interplay between teachers’ professional identity and the sociocultural contexts of PLCs, and how teacher talk can mediate teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy. The findings could be of interest to teacher educators in designing professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy.The South African National Research Foundation (NRF)XN (2024
Professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy: What teacher talk in professional communities reveals about teacher professional identity and agency
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, to the Faculty of Humanities, Wits School of Education,, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.In-service teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy seeks to address the perceived lack of capacity for teaching in inclusive classrooms in South Africa. Research suggests that teachers feel underprepared for this task, and that the prevalent delivery models for this learning, workshops, and short courses, have done little to enable sustained inclusive practices. This study took a new direction, arguing that simply acquiring knowledge and skills for inclusive teaching misses the need to focus on teacher professional identity and agency. The professional and institutional change required for teachers to be pedagogically responsive to a range of learners, demands that professional learning address teachers’ immediate realities, be a long-term, school-based professional learning programme. A three-year study in a full-service school in Johannesburg, South Africa, investigated teacher talk within professional learning communities (PLCs). PLCs are situated in practice and can promote and sustain teachers’ learning over an extended period. Wenger’s (1998) theory of learning as social practice and Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) theory of identity as narrative provided analytical insights into identity and agency in the PLCs. The subject focus of the PLCs was inclusive pedagogy, and the analysis was based on the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach in Action (IPAA) (Florian & Spratt, 2013). Using a Critical interpretivism perspective, teacher talk in the PLCs and individual teacher interviews were analysed. Analysis of teacher talk in relation to the IPAA revealed two themes of talk: Inclusive Talk and Difference Talk. “Difference Talk” showed that the enactment of inclusion cannot be rigidly defined and demarcated in advance in every situation or in every instance or be abstracted from time and place. A nuanced interpretation of difference may help researchers avoid the binary distinctions about inclusive education and inclusive pedagogy and deficit interpretations about teachers’ practices. The findings show that even though teachers talked about enacting inclusive pedagogy they did not consider themselves inclusive educators. They implied that since they had not had ‘special education training’ they could not consider themselves as inclusive educators despite saying that they had taught in an inclusive manner. Participation in the PLCs enabled teachers to negotiate meaning and create a coherent community. A coherent community allowed teachers to challenge their perspectives about teaching inclusively and to share their experiences. This study contributes a conceptual understanding of the interplay between teachers’ professional identity and the sociocultural contexts of PLCs, and how teacher talk can mediate teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy. The findings could be of interest to teacher educators in designing professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy.The South African National Research Foundation (NRF).MM202
Professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy: what teacher talk in professional communities reveals about teacher professional identity and agency
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, to the Faculty of Humanities , Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023In-service teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy seeks to address the perceived lack of capacity for teaching in inclusive classrooms in South Africa. Research suggests that teachers feel underprepared for this task, and that the prevalent delivery models for this learning, workshops, and short courses, have done little to enable sustained inclusive practices. This study took a new direction, arguing that simply acquiring knowledge and skills for inclusive teaching misses the need to focus on teacher professional identity and agency. The professional and institutional change required for teachers to be pedagogically responsive to a range of learners, demands that professional learning address teachers’ immediate realities, be a long term, school-based professional learning programme. A three-year study in a full-service school in Johannesburg, South Africa, investigated teacher talk within professional learning communities (PLCs). PLCs are situated in practice and can promote and sustain teachers’ learning over an extended period. Wenger’s (1998) theory of learning as social practice and Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) theory of identity as narrative provided analytical insights into identity and agency in the PLCs. The subject focus of the PLCs was inclusive pedagogy, and the analysis was based on the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach in Action (IPAA) (Florian & Spratt, 2013). Using a Critical interpretivism perspective, teacher talk in the PLCs and individual teacher interviews were analysed. Analysis of teacher talk in relation to the IPAA revealed two themes of talk: Inclusive Talk and Difference Talk. “Difference Talk” showed that the enactment of inclusion cannot be rigidly defined and demarcated in advance in every situation or in every instance or be abstracted from time and place. A nuanced interpretation of difference may help researchers avoid the binary distinctions about inclusive education and inclusive pedagogy and deficit interpretations about teachers’ practices. The findings show that even though teachers talked about enacting inclusive pedagogy they did not consider themselves inclusive educators. They implied that since they had not had ‘special education training’ they could not consider themselves as inclusive educators despite saying that they had taught in an inclusive manner. Participation in the PLCs enabled teachers to negotiate meaning and create a coherent community. A coherent community allowed teachers to challenge their perspectives about teaching inclusively and to share their experiences. This study contributes a conceptual understanding of the interplay between teachers’ professional identity and the sociocultural contexts of PLCs, and how teacher talk can mediate teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy. The findings could be of interest to teacher educators in designing professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy.National Research Foundation (NRF).XN (2024
Of rattle snakes and grapes of wrath: rise, fall and rise of independent media in Kenya
No full textThe Kenyan case highlights government’s recourse to sophisticated, “silent” but effective process of emasculating the media in spite of the robustness of the constitutional, legal and institutional frames for media behaviour. The author, Peter Kimani, notes further, however, that investments in the technology sector have led to an empowered citizenry and helped to reorganize the way news is sourced and disseminated, particularly through mobile telephony. According to him, “this, it is safe to predict, is the next news frontier, and start-ups and other fringe news portals are likely to problematize power relations between media barons and the state, and provoke reassessment in the way censorship is/will be exercised in the near future”
What matters in learning communities for inclusive education: a cross-case analysis
No full text© 2019 International Professional Development Association (IPDA). Implementing inclusive education requires on-going commitment to teachers’ professional learning. One way of implementing professional learning is to develop learning communities based on Lave and Wenger’s ideas of situated learning and learning as social practice. Learning communities, drawing on models of Professional Learning Communities and communities of practice, were designed to build capacity for inclusive teaching in two rural schools in Australia and a peri-urban school in South Africa. This paper reports on a multi-case study that involves a cross-case analysis of these three learning communities. We demonstrate that across the three cases, responsiveness to contextual exigencies matters, expertise matters and supportive networks matter. These findings are further illuminated by complexity theory which draws attention to learning communities operating at the confluence of a number of interacting systems, as well as the possibility of change where teacher learning occurs through the recontextualisation of knowledge and learning across boundaries. Our findings support situated learning that values collaboration to develop social and inclusive cultures and practice in schools. The findings also have the potential to inform planning for professional learning for inclusive education
Dance of the Jakaranda
No full textThis funny, perceptive and ambitious work of historical fiction by a Kenyan poet and novelist explores his country’s colonial past and its legacy through the stories of three men involved with the building of a railroad linking Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean--what the Kikuyu called the \u27Iron Snake\u27 and the British called the \u27Lunatic Express.\u27 --New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice Kimani has done a game job managing the carpentry of this ambitious novel, bringing great skill to the task of deploying multiple story lines, huge leaps back and forth in time and the withholding and distribution of information...Once Kimani has his plotlines all set, his writing relaxes, and it’s here that you can see his raw talent...I have never read a novel about [Kenya] that’s so funny, so perceptive, so subversive and so sly. --New York Times Book Review Destined to become one of the greats...This is not hyperbole: it’s a masterpiece. --The Gazette A multi-racial nation-building tale that begins during the construction of the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi. There are three men at its heart: two white, a British administrator known as \u27Master\u27 and an Anglican minister; one brown, an Indian technician who sires a male child, a birth that will reverberate down through the years. --Toronto Star A fascinating part of Kenya’s history, real and imagined, is revealed and reclaimed by one of its own. --Minneapolis Star Tribune But the novel has way more strengths than I can describe here, including the beauty of lyrical narration that combines irony, flashback, humour, allusions and inter-textual references, all of which are expertly manipulated to give the reader a gem of a story populated by composite characters, a story that, though revisiting old themes and times, does so with the freshness that one would expect of established literary geniuses. --Daily Nation The author has built here not only, on these pages, not only a railroad, but the singular triumph of a highly diverting novel. Besides weaving an excellent plot-line, he offers the reader a classic, understated writing style that haunts much of this book, turns it into a minor masterpiece. --RALPH Magazine, Starred review Peter Kimani, an acclaimed writer and poet, has brilliantly constructed this novel’s plot...[His] lyrical prose, such as portraying the train as ‘a massive snakelike creature,’ and his breathtaking descriptions of ‘God’s country’ bring the beauty of the land before our eyes. --Historical Novels ReviewSet in the shadow of Kenya\u27s independence from Great Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda reimagines the special circumstances that brought black, brown and white men together to lay the railroad that heralded the birth of the nation.The novel traces the lives and loves of three men--preacher Richard Turnbull, the colonial administrator Ian McDonald, and Indian technician Babu Salim--whose lives intersect when they are implicated in the controversial birth of a child. Years later, when Babu\u27s grandson Rajan--who ekes out a living by singing Babu\u27s epic tales of the railway\u27s construction--accidentally kisses a mysterious stranger in a dark nightclub, the encounter provides the spark to illuminate the three men\u27s shared, murky past.With its riveting multiracial, multicultural cast and diverse literary allusions, Dance of the Jakaranda could well be a story of globalization. Yet the novel is firmly anchored in the African oral storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted, and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity, providing a fresh metaphor for race in contemporary Africa.https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1063/thumbnail.jp
Using online discussion forums to promote student engagement in an academic literacies course
No full textThe advent of Covid-19 forced universities worldwide to find ways of presenting content online that would otherwise have been facilitated in a face-to-face environment. A first-year literacy course at a South African university servicing a large number of B.Ed. students had traditionally relied on class discussions and small group work for clarification of concepts as well as the development of student writing. Online learning, however, made these practices very challenging, and subsequently online discussion forums were identified as a “second prize” way of achieving course outcomes that had traditionally happened in person. To our surprise, the online forums had affordances for the development of academic literacies, promoting student engagement and providing feedback that we had not anticipated. To investigate the reasons for this, focus group discussions were held with students. The feedback received from these focus group interviews confirmed our suspicion that online discussion forums must remain an integral part of our academic literacy course, even after all Covid-19 restrictions are lifted
Disrupting monolingual practices: The role of multilingualism as a pedagogy of possibility in Writing Centres
No full textMonolingual practices that dominate university spaces can contribute to othering, resulting in the marginalisation and exclusion of students who are less competent in the dominant discourse. These limitations must be addressed to create a more inclusive learning space that accommodates all students regardless of their social, economic, educational, and linguistic backgrounds. This paper explores how peer tutors in writing centre leverage their South African indigenous language repertoire to help students access disciplinary content knowledge and improve their academic writing practices. This paper discusses the findings from two focus group discussions with peer tutors at the Wits School of Education Writing Centre (WSoE WC). We explore how peer tutors\u27 integration of multilingualism during writing consultations can inform a new writing centre pedagogy. We also leveraged the principles of wayfinding to navigate and orient peer tutors within a complex university space, which challenges the university\u27s stated educational transformation with a concrete proposition. Data analysis shows how peer tutors and students collaboratively explore and map out academic writing using familiar languages to navigate the rigid structure of academic writing in a manner that respects and incorporates students\u27 linguistic backgrounds. Through wayfinding, peer tutors disrupt monolingual practices and by doing so, increase student participation and chances of success in higher education. Writing centres, as wayfinding spaces, are instrumental in championing the adoption of multilingual pedagogies, thus disrupting dominant monolingual practices in higher education
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