Search

This paper focuses on an e-portfolio pilot initiative at the Faculty of Education at a South African university and aims to determine whether the theoretical underpinning and expectations of an e-portfolio aligns with the current practices and attributes of students' training during school practicum as teachers at a South African university. In the South African context, e-portfolios are increasingly being considered in teacher training programmes, to enable student teachers to reflect in, on and about practice in a structured way, whereby they demonstrate their growth and development as professionals. A self-selected sample of 11 student teachers placed in different urban and rural school contexts were provided with tablets and data bundles. Equipped with varying digital skills, daily reflections and regular online interaction with peers and project members was expected. Data gathering was done by means of semi-structured interviews which were analysed by means of framework analysis. Results suggest that student teachers still require support in reflective writing; that the social and collaborative aspects of e-portfolio use within the given context is underdeveloped, and that the level of digital skills of students will impact the potential success of the integration of e-portfolios as reflective tools. This paper contributes to the growing interest in South African literature regarding the use of e-portfolios for teacher training, by highlighting contextual and dispositional variables as essential considerations before adopting such a learning approach as part of teacher training.

The continued use of corporal punishment in some South African schools and the reasons advanced for it make this subject topical even now, twenty years after the abolition of this practice. Corporal punishment is a worrying issue among human rights activists and scholars. This paper reports on contestations and paradoxes regarding the use of corporal punishment arising from a qualitative study in two high schools, and the implications thereof for school leadership. Data was generated through interviews with the principals, selected teachers and learners. These participants were purposively selected with the understanding that they were information-rich regarding the issues at stake. The paper was informed by a two-pronged theoretical framework, involving the social learning and distributed leadership theories. The former was adopted to seek explanation regarding the use of corporal punishment, while the latter served as a lens through which to draw implications for school leadership. Findings show that on the one hand, some community members at the two schools saw corporal punishment as an acceptable, tried and tested disciplinary measure, and that on the other hand, it is viewed as a form of violence, and a thing of the past. Overall, it seemed that the two schools were failing to root out the use of corporal punishment. The paper argues leadership to be the missing link in the two schools' apparent failure, and that the stronger and more distributed leadership was, the more likely corporal punishment would be to be eradicated, and other disciplinary means practised.

Curriculum leadership is a complex and demanding practice, which goes beyond the research and disciplinary expertise of the curriculum leader. Engaging and leading educators in a process of curriculum change is not easy: it can be a difficult, and sometimes chaotic journey which is often characterised by philosophical debate, the calling into question of current practices, fear, and even openly acknowledged resistance. In order for change to succeed, leaders of curriculum change must facilitate a shared ownership of the change process. This will require the bringing together of individuals with different personal priorities and rallying them around a common goal, e.g. designing quality Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programmes. Our curriculum renewal journey involved the use of problem-posing pedagogies and required us to employ transformative types of leadership strategies. In this paper, we reflect critically, on our roles, as members of the "Abakhwezeli", in stoking the fires of curriculum change in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Faculty of Education. Furthermore, this paper will highlight particular defining moments during the curriculum renewal journey, where stakeholder consultation and the use of transformative methodologies assisted in prompting deep, critical reflection on the (re)designing of our B.Ed programmes.

This paper explores what, from school principals' perspectives, constitutes leadership for coping with and adapting to policy change within deprived school contexts. Using qualitative interpretive research, we drew from the practices of five principals that were purposively selected from a broader study, which focused on school principals' leadership in the changing education system within the rural context. The study included principals, heads of department, teachers and parents. The five principals selected for this paper were renowned for their positive image and their schools' success. From their stories we deduced three conclusions, which are important for theorising successful leadership for change in the deprived school context within a developing world. The findings suggest that principals' utilised creative and innovative ways to adapt and cope with change. Learning from their practices, this paper makes three important conclusions about leadership for coping with and adapting to change in the deprived context. We conclude that leadership practices are not fixed, but are fluid, and evolving, where leadership is not about compliance, but is about one's ability to identify what works at a given context. Leadership is also about being aware of the societal needs.

While the practice of inclusive education has recently been widely embraced as an ideal model for education, the acceptance of inclusive education practices has not translated into reality in most mainstream classrooms. Despite the fact that education policies in South Africa stipulate that all learners should be provided with the opportunities to participate as far as possible in all classroom activities, the implementation of inclusive education is still hampered by a combination of a lack of resources and the attitudes and actions of the teachers in the classroom. The main purpose of this paper was to develop a deeper understanding of a group of South African teachers' personal understanding about barriers to learning and how their understanding relates to their consequent actions to implement inclusive education in their classrooms. A qualitative research approach placed within a cultural-historical and bio-ecological theoretical framework was used. The findings, in this paper, indicate that the way in which teachers understand a diversity of learning needs is based on the training that they initially received as teachers, which focused on a deficit, individualised approach to barriers to learning and development, as well as contextual challenges, and that both have direct and substantial effects on teachers' classroom practices. As a result, they engage in practices in their classrooms that are less inclusive, by creating dual learning opportunities that are not sufficiently made available for everyone, with the result that every learner is not able to participate fully as an accepted member of their peer group in all classroom activities.

This paper explores the views of student teachers who were provided vicarious learning opportunities during an educational excursion, and how the learning enabled them to develop their teacher professional identity. This qualitative research study, using a social-constructivist lens highlights how vicarious learning influenced student teachers' professional identity. Data were analysed from activity based reflection notes Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students had written based on their learning and experiences during an excursion. Findings indicated that learning from other practising teachers' experiences enabled them to develop a more positive teacher professional identity in terms of caring, motivation and being a beacon of hope.

Although buoyed by the induction of a democratic government, and the high ideals of our constitution, the South African education system has in many ways not met the expectations of its people, in this case, the mathematics education community. With the birth of an expansive intended curriculum came the monitoring of the outcomes through systemic type testing, the so-called attained curriculum. In time, it became clear that the inevitable 'teaching to the test' would constitute a narrowing of the implemented curriculum. Two possible constraining influences of the systemic test were identified, namely, a narrowing of the curriculum, and reliance on only one source of external monitoring. To counteract these, a project titled Assessment Enhanced Teaching and Learning (AETL) has been initiated, involving Grade Nine mathematics teachers. The aim of the project is to provide intermittent markers of progress to the teachers and learners at strategic points throughout the year. Teacher involvement in the design and implementation of these formative assessment tasks is thus central to the project. In this paper, we report on a case study at one school in the Pretoria region, and explore the use of structured assessment tasks as an approach to professional development. The question posed here is, "How does the implementation of strategically designed assessment tasks support professional development and enable professional agency?" Our findings indicate a strong sense of agency motivated by the need to excel in systemic type testing.

This paper explores support in primary schools in a single South African school district. The literature suggests an increased need for educator support in South Africa due to a myriad of curricular changes in the aftermath of apartheid, as well as a teacher corps that is ill-prepared for the demands posed by curricular reform. Documented research showed educator support that is inadequate, leaving educators feeling unsupported and ill-equipped to face the challenges presented by the new education system. A qualitative approach located in an interpretive paradigm was adopted for this study while the requisite data were gathered by means of both individual and focus group interviews involving twenty participants from three primary schools in one school district. In addition, documents were requested from the schools, meetings were observed, and a cluster workshop was attended. The main finding of the study was that there is limited evidence of support for primary school educators in the South African school district studied. A key recommendation was that more curriculum instructors and heads of department be employed to increase the capacity of support for primary school educators.

The current emphasis on curriculum leadership implies the need to update school leaders' pedagogical knowledge. This paper will interest local and international readers because it highlights both essential content and the importance of the pedagogy employed to convey it. The study explored the initial effects of an introduction to Cognitive Education on the understandings of curriculum of school leaders engaged in post-graduate study. Using a qualitative research approach informed by a social constructivist paradigm, it accessed 29 participants' perceptions of the course content and methodology. Data included participant observer field-notes, questionnaires, and focus group interviews. Data was thematically analysed and key themes identified using "content" and "process" of the short course as initial categories. Findings indicated that new knowledge regarding intellectual (cognitive) development was valued, as were active modelling of cognitive education strategies, engagement with one another as a social community of enquiry, and opportunities for reflection and practice. The process categories reflected several of the characteristics highlighted as important in the professional development and cognitive education literature. Discussion focuses on the importance of the active "teaching of thinking" within the curriculum and on the urgent need to pay attention to how the curriculum is delivered at all levels of education, including the new Advanced Diploma for School Leadership and related leadership development courses.

This paper explores novice foundation phase teachers' descriptions of their experiences in the liminal stage between being a student teacher and entering the professional world of the early grade classroom. The term "liminality" was popularised by anthropologist Turner (1969), building on the early work of Van Gennep (1960), in his work on rites of passage. The fluidity of the liminal period is characterised by instability and uncertainty with a diversity of factors affecting different novice teachers. In a generic qualitative study, based on individual, semi-structured interviews with 10 participants, findings show that the new teachers appeared to be somewhat unrealistic and/or unprepared in their expectations of what they would encounter in this period. The novices struggled to settle into the practice of a school classroom and largely blame the inadequacy of their teacher education programmes. They also cite the demands of tracking their young charges' learning and the lack of support from senior teachers as compounding factors for the difficulties they faced. These issues may have serious consequences for the retention of teachers in this important phase of schooling and therefore require the attention of both teacher education and school managers.

The Education District and Circuit Offices in South Africa are mandated by the Department of Basic Education to support schools under their jurisdiction. Reasons for the lack of such support to schools have been highlighted in various reports and research findings. This paper examines the role that properly constructed school improvement plans, developed by schools, and circuit improvement plans, developed by the Circuit Team, plays in effective district/circuit support to schools. We report on the construction of a theoretical model to assist Circuit Teams to support School Management Teams of underperforming high schools towards whole-school development in which these improvement plans play a central role. We followed an action research design, employing qualitative data generation and analysis methods. The participating School Management Teams and Circuit Team members attested to the value of the collaborative learning experience which ignited feelings of empowerment and increased cooperation. These findings suggest the value of an action learning approach to the professional development of both School Management Teams and Circuit Team members. The action-learning model that emerged from this collaborative enquiry consists of three distinctive phases, each phase containing a number of specific activities to be implemented in order for schools to progress towards becoming self-managing institutions of learning.

This paper investigates the underlying causes of financial mismanagement in public schools and focuses on the perceptions of various role players in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The various Departments of Basic Education in South Africa allocate funds to schools each year, and expect school principals and school governing bodies to manage it appropriately. The problem is that in some schools, the principals, teachers and school governing body members are perpetrators of various financial mismanagement activities related to financial mismanagement. This article reports on qualitative research used to arrive at an in-depth understanding of why financial mismanagement occurs in certain schools. For this purpose, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with principals, finance officers and departmental officials and analysed thematically. The findings revealed a lack of knowledge of legislation and skills, poor monitoring and control of funds, unavailability of financial policies in schools, omission to act against culprits, and lack of honesty, openness and trustworthiness. The article proposes remedies that might bring financial management in public schools in line with the principles of good governance.

Research addressing the sexual health and reproductive rights of pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers is growing, although attention to the sexual well-being of young mothers who are already in school remains limited. This omission places teenage mothers at risk, who may be susceptible to repeated pregnancies that may compromise their well-being and educational outcomes. By drawing on a qualitative study, we focus on young mothers' sexual relationships and their knowledge and choice of contraceptive methods, as well as their accessibility to them. In this paper, we ask how sexual and reproductive well-being is constructed in relation to knowledge, choice and accessibility to contraceptive methods. While the study found that schooling was constructed as vital to economic empowerment, teenage mothers' aspirations were compromised by limited contraceptive knowledge and choices, and enduring patterns of gender inequalities within relationship dynamics. Effective interventions require attention to a comprehensive understanding of sexual health, which includes a focus on gender and relationship dynamics, as well as knowledge of and access to contraceptive methods. Accessibility to all methods of contraceptive use remains vital in all health centres. Community health workers need to engage better with young mothers so as to support their reproductive well-being.

The role of school psychologists has been debated and contested nationally and internationally for many decades, with an emphasis on the need for a paradigm shift in professional roles. Psychologists may be employed in the private sector, in nongovernmental organisations, in higher education institutions, and by the state. Those employed by the state within the Department of Basic Education are referred to as school psychologists, and are tasked with providing psychological services to public schools. In the Western Cape, the context of this study, school psychologists are assigned to circuit teams, where they are expected to work collaboratively with other professionals to provide support to schools. This paper is focused on school psychologists' perceptions of the challenges that emerge when working with other sectors to facilitate school development. Eight focus group discussions were conducted with 47 school psychologists. The data collected resulted in the generation of five categories of challenges facing school psychologists when they collaborate with other sectors to facilitate school development. These were: diverse discourses and worldviews; roles and boundaries; personal and interpersonal factors; training needs; and organisational challenges. This research contributes towards the deepening of school psychology practice, and to providing important insights towards the enhancement of intersectoral collaboration and school development as aspects of the provision of support to schools in South Africa.

This paper reports on lessons learnt in the use of teachers' social capital as a resource for curriculum development, in the implementation of the Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) programme in South Africa. The researchers in this study were amongst the trainers. The study followed a qualitative research approach, where a descriptive research design was adopted. Twenty teachers (two groups, of ten each) were recruited to form part of the study through a purposive sampling strategy. Data was collected through two methods: interviews and observations. The data collected was explicated using Hycner's (1999) model of data analysis. Data transcripts were re-read until categories and themes emerged. The study found that teachers were enthusiastic about implementing the programme as they participated actively in it through the implementation of CFS principles in their Life Orientation (LO) classrooms. The findings of this study have at least two implications for policy makers and researchers. The first is that the one-day workshops that teachers attend over a weekend appear to be inadequate, and could be used to complement more structured interventions such as that described in this article. The second is that teachers' social capital is critical in the implementation of curriculum development processes for an intervention to be effective.

This paper presents the findings of a study on the experiences of secondary school teachers on teaching pregnant learners in Limpopo Province. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten purposively selected secondary school teachers. Data analysis yielded six themes, which are: (1) identification of pregnant learners; (2) continuation of pregnant learners' school career; (3) dilemmas related to school-attending pregnant learners; (4) support of school-attending pregnant learners; (5) gender in pregnancy caretaking; and (6) communication and cooperation between teachers and parents. Teachers experienced challenges in identifying pregnant learners, and to meet their health needs as they lacked health related skills. Parents were not always cooperative towards teachers. It can be concluded that teachers face many dilemmas related to pregnant learners, and this requires a health facilitation model to enable teachers to assist pregnant learners such that they might better benefit from their schooling, and experience a positive health outcome.

Guided by an interpretivist paradigm, the qualitative case study reported on here provided insight into the points of view of 9 foundation phase teachers on whether they believed that Response to Intervention (RtI) could be a viable approach to implement within their own school context. A semi-structured, focus group interview was conducted to explore the participants' views regarding the viability of RtI for their school. Through exploring these teachers' views, we aimed at initiating further research into whether RtI could potentially be a viable approach to assessment and intervention within a South African context. The findings suggest that the participants envisioned numerous challenges in the implementation of RtI within their school context. These challenges related to a lack of resources and challenges associated with the curriculum. The participants envisioned such challenges as potentially preventing the effective implementation of RtI and, therefore, decreasing its viability in their school context. The participants believed that if certain challenges, such as a lack of time and a lack of qualified teaching staff could be addressed and overcome, then an RtI approach could become viable in their school context. They believed that an effective RtI implementation could yield benefits associated with improved overall service delivery to learners and their parents. Furthermore, the participants believed that RtI could potentially result in a reduced need for financial resources to pay for referrals to learner support specialists, which they perceived as a challenge in their learner support interventions. The insights obtained from this study may be useful in guiding further research endeavours into the perceived viability of RtI in other school contexts in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the findings of a small-scale, extant, qualitative social media research study on commenters' understanding of the antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. Comments on an article posted by Sarah Sorge (2013) on The Educator's Room were used as data source. Guided by an ecological model and the attribution theory, the study identified victim and perpetrator attributes, colleagues' indifference and unprofessionalism, school management's lack of leadership and failure to address the problem, as well as socio-cultural factors and policy changes as antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. It is argued that conventional teacher-learner power relations are flawed due to the unsupportive, even antagonistic attitudes of parents, colleagues, society at large, people in leadership positions and policy makers towards the victims of teacher-targeted bullying. It is concluded that, despite ethical dilemmas, the advent of the Internet and social media has created opportunities for researchers to use comments posted on the Internet as a data source to investigate teacher-targeted bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grade 2 learner results of the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS) randomised control trial (RCT) in the North West province showed that the structured pedagogic intervention model that included instructional coaching, lesson plans, and quality learning materials was more cost-effective than a similar intervention model that excluded coaching. These results are read against the growing body of literature that questions the value of RCTs in identifying mechanisms of change. For this reason, two small-scale qualitative case studies were undertaken to identify the difficulty in detecting workings of classroom practice that RCTs cannot show. Three mechanisms of change: the organisation of space, time, and implementation of routines drawn from the work of Foucault, were analysed to interpret observed changes to teacher practice and some of the weaknesses in the EGRS programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Physical Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) requires learners to develop science inquiry skills, including Integrated Science Inquiry Skills (ISIS). However, the performance of learners in assessment tasks related to ISIS has been consistently poor over several years. The use of ineffective pedagogical methods to develop practical skills could partly account for this poor performance. This study compared the effectiveness of individual and group practical investigations in developing ISIS in learners. The study involved 319 purposively selected Grade 11 Physical Sciences learners in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Pre- and post-tests, and practical reports were used to assess learners' competence in ISIS, while a questionnaire provided information about their opinions regarding the investigation methods used. A comparison of the performance of the two classes of learners showed no significant difference in their overall competence in ISIS. Qualitative analysis of the practical reports and learners' opinions revealed some discrepancies between the two investigation classes. The results suggest that the two approaches to practical investigations are approximately equally effective in developing learners' overall ISIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, education systems have been affected by radical social, political and economic changes. Although school principals play a pivotal role in improving student learning and attaining educational outcomes, they work under strenuous conditions to deal with multifaceted transformational issues. Principals experience great difficulty in coping with numerous changes, partly because they are inadequately prepared for their leadership position, or simply lack the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to lead and manage schools effectively and efficiently. Fundamentally, principals should be empowered to effectively deal with challenges facing them in the 21st century. Using qualitative research, this study explored the importance of promoting a culture of professional development that will prepare principals to confront education challenges and obstacles facing them. Fifteen principals were selected to determine their perceptions and experiences of how they were prepared and professionally developed to lead and manage schools. Findings revealed that in South Africa, there is no formal preparation for aspiring or practicing principals taking on leadership and management positions, and very few in-service professional development programmes are available. There is a dire need for education authorities to introduce compulsory training and development programmes for aspiring and practicing school leaders to lead and manage their schools successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voices of school children who are orphaned and vulnerable are more often than not missing from conversations about their care and support at school. In a rural ecology this is even more so the case. This article draws on a study with school children in rural KwaZulu-Natal and explores their constructions of care and support in the age of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). A qualitative approach using collage, a visual arts-based method was used with 20 school children from two rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to coproduce data with the participants, which was analysed using thematic analysis. A bio-ecological systems theory was used to frame how rural school children understand and envision care and support in a rural school context, explaining their ideas of transforming school care and support provided for vulnerable children. The findings point to the need for strengthened competencies and agency, improved collaboration and inclusion at school level, and enhanced relations and agency at community level. The findings suggest a democratising of care and support, and have implications for systemic programmatic interventions and policy-making aimed at strengthening the relationships of the individual, the school and the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global prioritisation of the inclusion of learners with disabilities, and of vulnerable young people's resilience, means that teachers worldwide require insight into how best to facilitate the resilience of adolescents made vulnerable by intellectual disability (ID). To provide such insight, we conducted a secondary data analysis of a multiple case study of resilient adolescents with ID attending special schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The visual and narrative data that inform this case study were generated by resilient adolescents with ID (n = 24), and their teachers (n = 18). Four school-related themes emerge from their accounts of resilience-supporting factors associated with their schools for the physically and severely intellectually disabled (SPSID). From these, we distill three uncomplicated actions mainstream school ecologies can execute in order to enable the resilience of included adolescents with ID. Their simplicity and ordinariness potentiate universally useful ways for mainstream teachers to champion the resilience of included adolescents with ID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]