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The South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) regulates undergraduate pharmacy education and pharmacy practice. The SAPC Good Pharmacy Practice manual describes the role of pharmacists in maternal and child health (MCH) in line with the recommendation of international health regulatory bodies. However, baseline study findings in 2017 supported literature from around the world that indicated a need for curriculum review and integration to address the knowledge and skills gap in pharmacists' MCH training. This paper describes the development and implementation of an integrated framework for MCH training across the four years of a Bachelor of Pharmacy program. The intervention included didactic lectures, skills practical on infant growth assessment, and an experiential learning component at primary health care clinics and pharmacies. Knowledge and skills assessment on contraception, maternal and antenatal care, and neonatal and child care were carried out pre, eight weeks post, and two years post intervention using the same questionnaire. ANOVA and post hoc analyses showed that participants' knowledge and skills increased post intervention but decreased significantly two years later except in contraception where students experienced longitudinal integration of the MCH component. Generally, participants performed above the university average except in maternal and antenatal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zealous introduction of the South African Outcome Based Curriculum (C2005) belies its mechanical, instrumentalist and technocratic intent. Set on identified outcomes, its deterministic drive reduces language teaching to a mechanical enterprise. The urge for critical thinking is deadened for the sake of dry drills leading towards the achievement of the targeted outcomes. Expediency is the inescapable routine in language learning and teaching context. The perpertuation of ideolocal power dynamics is veiled and sealed. My argument in this paper is mapped as follows: I establish the tonal political expediency that characterizes the deterministic nature of this curriculum; critically examine the prospect of its initial phase;relate it to language learning and teaching within a critical language teaching practice; Finally I discuss the philosophical nuances that enhance the possible survival of critical language pedagogy within the era of the South Africa version of Outcome Based Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student field courses at Universities are increasingly incorporating problem-based interdisciplinary approaches to enhance learning opportunities. This paper reports upon seven field-based, problem-oriented, interdisciplinary courses held within southern Africa concerning natural resource management and sustainable land use. The SLUSE (Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management) project, under which these courses were devised, is introduced and the process of field-course implementation is described. The SLUSE approach is discussed in terms of management issues, levels of responsibility, staff and student development and the benefits to rural host communities. The courses are very intense experiences and students encounter difficulties working across traditional academic disciplines and in cross-cultural groups. Through critical thinking and self-reflection students understand the context of their learning better and have a greater appreciation of their own personal development. The process calls for long-term commitment to the communities with whom one works closely, the recognition of sometimes having to 'think on one's feet', being prepared to make mistakes and use frustration in a positive manner and a strong respectful working relationship from the staff. We advocate this process as worthwhile as classroom theory becomes real in an applied and complex environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument of this paper is that the use of distance education methods is essential for the provision of all teacher education in South Africa - not just an option for a few programmes in one or two institutions. For this reason, the challenges of distance teacher education are the major challenges for achieving the goal set out in the National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development: 'more teachers, better teachers'. Challenges include increasing the flexibility and location of current teacher education programmes in order to attract and support a more diverse teacher target audience, designing courses to nurture dialogue and integrate learner support, and moving beyond surface change in response to criticism. Finally, although external quality assurance processes are critical in creating a shared understanding of quality standards and the need for change, quality assessment needs to be followed up with support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his response to Kruger, Le Grange claims that: (1) the South African discourse of fundamental pedagogics was closely allied with Christian National Education and functioned as a powerful educational doctrine in the service of the South African policy of apartheid education; (2) fundamental pedagogics bracketed political discourse; (3) the connection between fundamental pedagogics and Christianity promoted an authoritarian approach to education; and (4) because didactic pedagogics and fundamental pedagogics were so intimately intertwined, South African didactic thinking also was used to serve and perpetuate the policy of apartheid education. This paper evaluates these claims and concludes that they are untenable in light of the history, nature, and purpose of South African fundamental and didactic pedagogical thinking. In his effort to link fundamental and didactic pedagogical thinking to apartheid education, Le Grange has lost sight of the profound influence of the tradition of European (Dutch/German) Didaktik on didactic thought in South Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the use of a key biological concept - broad classification - to teach the provisional and contested nature of science in school biology curricula. It also examines existing curriculum-related factors which might pose obstacles to implementing such a change. An investigation in South Africa highlights the problems regarding biological classification at the kingdom level of 50 biology students entering one university. Using interviews, questionnaires and document analysis, factors thought to affect learners' ideas were investigated, including the understanding of the changing and contested nature of scientific knowledge of a range of biology educators (35 teachers, 33 university academics, five teacher educators, four curriculum developers and two textbook authors). The students lacked knowledge of the concept of a biological kingdom, and showed archaic thinking about the number of kingdoms. Many of the teachers held similar views, used outmoded classification systems in their teaching, and were unaware of the history of changes in biological systems. A review of two relevant syllabi and five textbooks revealed insufficient, inaccurate, inconsistent and/or contradictory information about biological classification systems and how they change with time. Three potential problems associated with curriculum innovation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of children using 'drill-and-practice' literacy software at a primary school in the Western Cape, South Africa. The children's interactions with the software are analysed. The software has serious limitations which arise from the global political economy of the educational software industry. The package was structured around the UK National Curriculum's standardised literacy testing, and then adapted or 'localised' for use in South Africa. In the localisation process, details of content and language are customised, but the coded structure of the package (together with its educational assumptions) remains essentially unchanged. The children's interactions with the localised program are analysed as a simulation of classroom discourse. Despite the obvious limitations of the software, the study shows the children constructing their own contextual meanings from the rules of the package, and learning to interact with them as a rule-governed text. Their troubleshooting and cheating exploits are a source of pleasure to them, as they focus on the software's game-like economy of scores and marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes aspects of a research project which used linguistic and intertextual analysis of student writing to investigate the relationship between the academic curriculum and student voice in a first year economics course at a South African university. I argue that the discourses and practices of first year university economics textbooks provide a model of literacy practices which contradict many of the literacy practices of the discipline of economics. The first year economics textbook in particular, rather than exposing students to a variety of arguments and encouraging the development of critical reading skills appropriate for academic contexts, tends to be single voiced. This gives the impression of consensus in the discipline and it may encourage rote learning and plagiarism. This argument is supported with data from a research project. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Mathematical modeling of real world conditions should be part ofl mathematics classroom activities. In this paper I argue that when real world problems are taught at schools learners are not able to cope on their own, without the assistance of their educator. There is very little or no emphasis placed on this aspect of mathemtics at schools, although it is just beginning to make an appearance in our new Outcomes Based Curriculum. I also discuss an experiment conducted with Grade 10 learners (15 year old) and their responses to real world problems and the conditions that need to be considered. There is ample evidence that a lot of work on mathematical modeling of real world problems has been done elsewhere in the world, but not much has been done in South Africa. This experiment was fully conducted using Sketchpad as a mediating tool. This in itself was a difficult task because our learners have not been really exposed to dynamic geometry environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are, of recent, expressed concerns, albeit small in number, about the failure of sociology to 'engage with the wider society'. Implicit and explicit in the concerns is the suggestion that sociology is no longer as exciting as it was during the period of the struggle against apartheid. The period of apartheid was taken as one of the 'rise' of sociology because of sociology's engagement with the political issues of the day. This paper argues that the assumed 'rise' and 'fall' of the discipline in South Africa can better be characterised as the visibility of sociology in the 'public'. It is argued that the decades 30s. 40s and 50s were decades of success for sociology just like the 60s, 70s and early 80s that some point to as the period of 'rise' of the discipline The earlier decades saw the ascendancy of positivism, and sociology of that period contributed in great measure to the construction of apartheid, which was subsequently dismantled with contributions from sociology, specifically, the Marxist sociology. If there is therefore a 'fall' of sociology, it is the 'fall' of a theoretical perspective in sociology. However, given the call for a 'critical edge' in the discipline, it is suggested that such an edge would need to start from the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutions is the highest ordering principle in biology, dealing with questions about ultimate causation of form and functioning at all levels of life. Its introduction into the school curriculum provides children with access to ways of thinking that can make them more enlightened citizens and prepares them for tertiary-level study. The South African school curriculum before 1994 ignored evolution because it conflicted with the religious beliefs of the government. This paper identifies content statements that relate to evolution in the most recent Natural Sciences Learning Area Statement (Grades R-9) and the Life Sciences subject statement (Grades 10-12) for South African schools. The analysis shows that key foundational concepts are developed in the Natural Sciences learning area, but the term `evolution' is absent. In the Life Sciences subject statement, evolution, speciation, natural selection, common descent and gradualism are introduced in Grade 12. Both curriculum statements emphasize the need to recognize alternative ways of knowing, including faith-based and indigenous knowledge systems. While the curriculum statements are undoubtedly an improvement on the old syllabus, we conclude that they fail to integrate the various lines of evidence into an integrated Darwinian theory of evolution, they conflate different domains of knowledge, and they misrepresent key concepts such as natural selection. By denying learners, especially those from impoverished environments, meaningful access to higher-order concepts and ways of thinking, they endanger the social justice imperative which frames the entire National Curriculum Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent changes in mathematics curricula, both in South Africa and elsewhere, have begun to change the overwhelmingly symbolic nature of mathematics in schools (in the sense of use of mathematical symbolism), promoting more use of the oral and written language. Engaging students in `Writing-to-Learn' activities in mathematics classrooms has been identified and claimed by various mathematics education researchers as having a positive impact on the learning of mathematics. In this paper, I report on a piece of research, which is part of a broader study, on forms of mathematical writing and written texts produced by learners in grade 7 (12–13-year-olds) classes in six junior high schools in KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation between education and employers regarding the demands of a rapidly changing world ( focus on the situation in Southern Gauteng, a part of one of the nine provinces of South Africa). This paper attempt to address cooperation between education and role players in the labour market. Deriving from this the following question is regarded as valid: To what extent does present day education in South Africa offer solutions for the following • the changing demands of the labour market • the ability to adapt in a changing world • unemployment Although provision is made in the new curriculum, based on a new educational approach in South Africa, for equipping learners with skills and values, the emphasis is still on academic studies. Learners are therefore not adequately equipped for the labour market, national and international changes over a wide spectrum, or with the entrepreneurial skills to provide for themselves. That this complex situation is relevant in the Southern Gauteng area is supported by the fact that the unemployment rate varies around 50%. In a small scale study research was done to determine what the relationship is between education and the labour market in this area specifically with the aim of finding solutions for the problems stated above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the way in which undergraduate History students at the College of Education at Wits University enlarge their understanding of historical practice through engaging in an extended local history task. Most undergraduate history courses seem to exclude students from engaging in a key aspect of the practice of history — undertaking original research based on primary sources. The local history assignment initiates a diverse group students into gathering, investigating and interpreting a range of primary and secondary sources: visual, spacial, oral and written. An analysis of student reflections on what they have learnt from this shows high levels of engagement, rich insights and an enhanced sense of capacity and self-worth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the education and training of cataloguing students in South Africa at a distance education institution where the focus is on career-specific training. The position of the cataloguing course in the curriculum and the content of the course are explained. The utilization of media and technologies in offering the course, and anticipated changes and possible future developments are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language service courses at South African tertiary institutions are nothing new. However, traditional perspectives on the nature and purposes of these courses have been challenged. One of these challenges is the view that the language (discourse) of the subject cannot be taught in external language courses for academic or even specific purposes, but that subject specialists need to do this teaching. This paper reports on an investigation into language as a contributory factor to academic failure amongst first-year Accounting students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, to provide some empirical support for this view. The results of the investigation indicated that students' problems are in most cases related to conceptualisation. This indeed implies language, given its fundamental facilitating role in all higher-order cognition, but it is suggested that the most appropriate form of remedial support may be neither a course in English for academic purposes, nor even English for Accounting specifically, but rather some form of team teaching that involves both language teachers and subject specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Geography of African Development module is part of a year-long Third Year level geography course on Africa that has been offered at Rhodes University since 2002. The course is an exception to the dominant trend, both locally and internationally, which has witnessed a major decline in the teaching of regional geography and area studies. This paper examines how adopting a constructivist approach to the module's curriculum enabled learners to develop geographical skills at the same time as Africanising the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apartheid system of social engineering in South Africa enforced the segregation of racial groups. It lasted for 50 years, and had an impact on every aspect of society. It particularly affected the education system, resulting in inferior primary and secondary teaching of black learners. Ten years after the dissolution of apartheid, the consequences are still being felt in tertiary institutions. This legacy presents a challenge to South African medical schools, especially at a time of curriculum transformation. This paper describes how the issues of social and educational discrepancies are being addressed at the University of Cape Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortage of reading material and information resources in many South African schools, especially those in poor communities, is a problem that needs to be addressed. While there has been considerable progress with the implementation of an outcomes-based curriculum relying on a learner-centred, resource-based methodology, libraries are largely absent in disadvantaged schools. This paper reviews the situation of school libraries in the Northern Cape, highlighting progress made in the last few years. Lessons drawn from policy and implementation factors have implications for education planners, librarians and library educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyse the efforts of one learner, Devan, and a student teacher, Sumaiya Desai, in whose class he participated, as she attempted to realise what may be referred to as a social, cultural, political approach to the school mathematics curriculum through the practice of project work. The focus is specifically on the actions and reflections of Devan as he participated in the project work experience and overturned his casting as a "failing" mathematics learner in a Grade 6 mathematics classroom. I theorise the practice of project work through the data related to Devan and the conceptual tools of project work: problem-orientation; participant-directed; inter-disciplinarity; and exemplarity, and use this framework to organise the structure of this paper. Through this conceptual framing, the challenges and possibilities that such classrooms pose, for learners like Devan but also for the theoretical ideas and associated practice, are made visible and I discuss the potentiality that remained unexplored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some results of South African (SA) grade 12 pupils on an international test of mathematical literacy, administered in the framework of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Three questions are addressed: (1) What are the strengths and weaknesses of SA school-leavers in mathematical reasoning and social utility from an international comparative perspective?: (2) What is the growth of SA pupils'' mathematical literacy from grade 8 to 12? (3) What are the background variables that influence the level of mathematical literacy of SA school-leavers? Finally some implications of the results for SA education will be discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This case study of the transformation of teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa is a reflection on the pressures and priorities that characterise curriculum design and development in a society undergoing rapid change. It focusses on the varied sources behind the process of curriculum transformation, indicating how an historically disadvantaged institution chose to redesign its model of teacher professional development to reflect a more progressive interpretation of the process of becoming a teacher. The influences impacting on the design of the teacher education curriculum emanate both from within the institution itself and from the wider external environment of changing educational policy which signalled a departure from apartheid traditions. This paper suggests that the process of transformation is characteristically messy, contradictory and complex. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, SOMAFCO, the African National Congress liberation school in Tanzania between 1978 and 1992. The authors reflect on the process of writing about recent and possibly controversial episodes in the history of South, and Southern, Africa. They also outline a number of areas that they argue reveal points of tension within the ANC's educational enterprise. Hinging on the question of what a 'political' or 'revolutionary' school might be, they probe areas such as gender, 'education with production', ethnicity and nationality in the exile context, and the curriculum. They conclude that while it is difficult to draw direct lessons for contemporary South Africa from the educational experience at SOMAFCO, there are many intriguing resonances that should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions whether the second Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education targets by 2015 for all children to complete a full course of primary schooling, can be realised. A key contention of this paper is that this forecast is far-fetched when we take into cognizance refugee children's accessibility to education. As much as it has reported that enrolment in primary education is on the rise, refugee access to education remains a great challenge. The purpose of this paper is to explore refugee children's access to education, with reference to the South African experience. The study adopted a qualitative approach and case study design. Refugee children have limited opportunities to secondary education and experience many problems accessing primary education because of their refugee status. The study found that there are two forms of barriers to refugee children's access to education: obstacles to enrolling in a school and barriers in respect of sustaining themselves after enrolling at schools. It is concluded that the refugee children's lack of access to education does not support the attainment of second Millennium Development Goal. The study recommends enlightening school management teams about refugee children's rights to quality education. This South African study, which is symptomatic of the global refugee experience, suggests the Second Millennium Development Goal will not be realised unless the education of refugee children is taken seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]