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Research suggests that beginner teachers face challenges when transitioning from pre-service to in-service teaching. Both international and local research found that transitioning from preservice to newly qualified teachers can be problematic. This study explores the learning experiences of beginner foundation phase Grade R teachers. The study utilises a qualitative research design embedded in the interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected from six foundation phase Grade R teachers using semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The findings show that beginner teachers face enormous challenges early in their careers, and their sustainability in the classroom depends on how well they address these challenges. The findings have significant implications for the implementation of formal mentoring in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parent participation is fundamental to children's early literacy development and later academic success. This small-scale qualitative study located in the interpretivist paradigm utilised semistructured interviews to collect data from two Grade R teachers' concerning their perceptions of parent participation in children's early literacy development. Findings revealed that teachers had a narrow and limiting understanding concerning parental involvement. Teachers attested to parents not being interested in their children's early literacy due to their socio-economic positions which hurdled their commitments to work. Teachers wanted parents to participate in storytelling but on their terms. These findings have important implications for how policy and practice need to be reconceptualised for a stronger focus on parental participation in children's early literacy and holistic parental participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-portfolios, or electronic portfolios, have recently gained popularity as a means for students and continuous learners to present their skills, accomplishments, and other relevant information in an online format. To confirm learning outcomes, e-portfolios need secure, dependable, and privacy-protecting systems for issuing and verifying credentials. When any client changes their document, designs present in help are altered, and it is imperative to refresh them in setup data handling frameworks. Considering the unchanging nature of the text, it is a mind-boggling undertaking to refresh the changed substance in web-related applications. Making computerized antiques is one of the significant issues to be evident and solid in updated content. Existing frameworks give private organizations comprehensive, concentrated arrangements that depend on trusted outsiders to issue and confirm accreditations. In addition, they need to give students the tools to take ownership of and share the material in their e-portfolios with other organizations, which increases the potential for forgery and bogus credentials. This paper proposes the Trusty URI Learning-Based Secure Blockchain Management Schema (TURILSBMS). This framework ensures the legitimacy and uprightness of client certifications. What is more, the information relates to an e-portfolio. While unquestionable cases are used for e-portfolio qualification evidence confirmation and check, decentralized IDs and undeniable certificates are used for client profile differentiating proof, verification, and approval. We have planned and carried out a model of the proposed plot utilizing a Quorum consortium blockchain network. Considering the assessments, our arrangement is attainable, secure, and protective. Compared to traditional approaches, the proposed approach gives better privacy-based immutable digital artifact creation over nanopublication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a great menace to human health worldwide including in India. Hence, the present work is aimed to analyze the resistance/susceptibility pattern of pathogens isolated from clinical samples of patients in Andhra Pradesh, South India. Methods: This study was conducted on clinical samples sent to the microbiology department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Andhra Pradesh, South India, for 1 year. Information on clinical parameters, types of specimens collected, culture results, and antibiotic sensitivity/resistance patterns were collected manually from the department registration book. Results: Out of 2,253 clinical samples screened for culture and sensitivity, 1,593 (70.7%) showed significant growth of organisms and were resistant to either single or multiple drugs. Most isolates were from urine samples followed by soft tissues, blood, respiratory, and other sources. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Staphylococcus aureus were the common isolates in all clinical samples. Isolated pathogens were found to be more from in-patients. Of 1,593 bacterial isolates, 83.6% of isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Acinetobacter spp. (80.0%) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (75.0%) exhibited a high rate of multidrug resistance among gram-negative and gram-positive isolates, respectively. Conclusion: The results indicated that E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., and S. aureus were the frequently isolated microorganisms. AMR among these isolates was high for commonly used antibiotics and reserved drugs such as cefepime and carbapenems demanding continuous surveillance and implementation of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. The isolated pathogens showed good susceptibility to linezolid, tigecycline, tobramycin, gentamicin, and colistin antibiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is imperative that children's participatory rights are supported and therefore it is incumbent upon adults genuinely to listen to them and take their views seriously. However, 28 years into a democratic South Africa and children's participatory rights are not fully actualised and implementation seems to be problematic in early childhood education. The purpose of this article was to explore 13 final-year student teachers' understandings about children's participatory rights in the Reception Year (Grade R) and how these understandings influence their practice using Lundy's model of participation and Honneth's theory of recognition. A qualitative approach was applied, and data was collected through a focus group interview that was undertaken online. The data revealed that student teachers had a limited understanding of children's participatory rights but aligned more towards children's protection rights. Additionally, whilst the participants related the concepts of Lundy's model of participation to mainly pedagogical scenarios that lacked children's genuine participation, the participants gave children the recognition to building their self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is part of larger South African project funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training and EU which focused on how practitioners listen to young children in early childhood care and education to encourage a sense of belonging and participation. The study was conducted at two early childhood care and education centres, one advantaged and one disadvantaged, where practitioners were interviewed about their views and experiences of listening to children. Data were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The study found that practitioners were keenly aware of the importance of listening to young children, thereby democratising pedagogical spaces and validating children's right to participate. Their views highlighted the link between listening and encouraging a sense of belonging. Furthermore, listening with regard to being relational, responsive and encouraging agency were viewed as tools to support and encourage belonging. The study also highlights the complexity of asserting children's voices in pedagogical spaces (due to factors related to time and curriculum constraints). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this case study I explored the dilemmas of three early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers in a poor community in the Cape Flats of Cape Town, South Africa during COVID-19, and how they used these dilemmas to transform their teaching. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants and data was collected through a semi-structured interview and thematically analyzed. Ethical clearance was secured from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Mezirow's transformative learning theory was used as an analytical framework for the study. In particular, Mezirow's concept of disorienting dilemmas was used to engage with the dilemmas the ECCE teachers were confronted with during the pandemic. Further, his concept of perspective transformations was used to analyze how the ECCE teachers engaged with these dilemmas to transform their teaching. Findings show that while ECCE teachers' faced disorienting dilemmas of digital inequity and of children's interactive play, they also adopted alternative roles and actions as they engaged in dialogue and shared negotiations, ensuring that the functioning of the ECCE centre would continue in solidarity with the children and parents. These findings have important implications for how local government provide financial and digital support for poor communities during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing support to student teachers to implement participatory pedagogies is vital for understanding the importance of listening to children's voices and involving them in decision making. At a local university in the Western Cape, South Africa, ten final year Foundation Phase student teachers studying toward the Bachelor in Education who enrolled in the Reception Year module participated in a project during work integrated learning using Harry Shier's Pathways to Participation model in support of a participatory pedagogy. After the first session of work integrated learning, student teachers participated in focus group interviews guided by open-ended questions on their experiences using Shier's model. Findings reveal that whilst student teachers were open to listening to children's voices, they did not have the necessary opportunities in their training to listen to children. Students were restricted to the confines of a Grade R class dominated by mentor teachers who adopted a transmissive pedagogy. Student teachers also noted that children were not accustomed to having their voices heard and making decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]