Rural schools in South Africa often face numerous challenges that are largely aggravated by low numbers of learners, low numbers of teachers and a shortage of teaching and learning resources, to mention a few. Hence, the provision of one teacher per grade is perceived as a luxury in many rural schools. Consequently, such challenges have led to many rural schools being affected by multi-grade teaching. Multi-grade classes have more than one grade in one classroom, usually those grades that are close to each other. For instance, Grade R and Grade One learners will be taught in one class by the same teacher. This research study therefore focused on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching literacy in a multi-grade foundation phase class. The teaching of reading in isiZulu Home Language was singled out as the literacy component to be investigated. Teachers at the foundation phase need to have a distinctive body of knowledge as they have to be able to blend content in literacy and the appropriate methods of teaching each literacy component. They need to understand how to organize each component of the content and how to deliver it accurately to learners through appropriate methodologies. Moreover, it is imperative to understand that it is a complex process for teachers to intersect content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. The process becomes even more complex for teachers who teach in a multi-grade class. Reading as a literacy component was put under a particular lens as teaching and assessing this literacy component in a multi-grade context is highly challenging. This was an exploratory case study that was embedded in a qualitative research methodology. A primary school from Ndwedwe Circuit in the KwaZulu-Natal province was purposively sampled. Empirical data for this study were collected from this rural school because it was practising multi-grade teaching in all phases. To collect the data, teachers teaching multi-grade classes were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Observations were also done during the teaching process and relevant documents were analysed. The documents that were interrogated included daily, weekly and monthly work plans, class timetables, and the school’s calendar. The findings suggested that teachers relied on traditional methods of teaching as the context was complex and beyond their professional capabilities. This study was therefore aimed at contributing to the discourse of how teachers in rural contexts can be trained on multi-grade teaching in order to provide them with appropriate pedagogical knowledge and skills that will empower them to support teaching and learning across grades. / Thesis (M. Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Literacy is currently a topic of great concern in Namibia. Learners in this country have difficulty in reading and writing, and are often functionally illiterate. This study focuses on the beliefs, experiences and practices of teachers of reading in English to second language learners in Grade 4. Grade 4 is the transitional grade from mother tongue to English as the medium of instruction. The switch to English makes teaching reading in that language especially challenging. The study is structured according to the case study mode of enquiry, with the target respondents comprising Grade 4 teachers. Classroom observation, interviews and document analysis were used as means of collecting data. The main findings revealed that beliefs and experience had an impact on the way in which reading was taught in this study. It emerged that the teachers’ childhood experiences of literacy and learning to read are perpetuated in their beliefs, their attitudes, their basic conceptualization of reading and their current practices, all of which directly affect the children in their classes. Although the teachers’ professional training also had some influence on their teaching methods, neither of the two teachers interviewed had received much in-service support on how to teach reading, and they depended to a large extent on their recall of how they had learned to read themselves. Both teachers were taught in a traditional, teacher-centered way, involving phonics, rote-learning and drilling. Because they see themselves as competent readers, they believe that these approaches were effective and worth sustaining. Tentative recommendations arising from analysis of the data indicate possible areas for improvement in the teaching of reading, and offer guidelines to help teachers cope with the challenge.

A full dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Education. Presented to the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / This research was prompted by the discrepancy between levels of achievement in Grade 9 in a township school and the expectations at Further Education and Training (FET) Grades 10-12 levels. The literacy practices of Grade 9 learners were investigated to establish whether these practices prepared them adequately for Grade10. This research then sought to describe practices that were carried out in reading and writing in a Grade 9 classroom, with a specific focus on a township school in which the language of teaching and learning was English, which was not the learners’ mother-tongue. This research looked at the literacy gaps in reading and writing between the General Education and Training (GET) Phase and the FET Phase that impact on their preparation for the final phase of schooling and entry to tertiary level. Statistics show that in South Africa learners still perform poorly in reading and writing compared to their counterparts in Africa, especially in English. This is an empirical study using qualitative methods that include personal narratives, interviews and learner portfolios. The purpose was to establish how societal and pedagogical factors impact on literacy practices for effective learning and teaching in order for learners to acquire academic proficiency in English as a First Additional Language. The findings from this study revealed that the literacy practices that were investigated and the use of English as LoLT did not fully facilitate their preparedness for Grade10. Learners in this study still face challenges of acquiring basic reading and writing skills. Although they view English as an emancipatory and economic tool, it is still a difficult language to learn. Therefore their readiness to proceed to the FET level is minimal.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education In the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / Becoming information literate has been an educational concern that has been spurred by the change in information technology in the last twenty years. The school has been seen as the main player in allowing the learner to achieve this state of information literacy. Nonetheless, within the teacher-training offered at pre-service level (PRESET) in South Africa, information literacy has become to be seen as something needed by the student teachers for their own studies. This study looks at how the student teachers can be brought to an understanding of the relevance and importance of information literacy and the Information Skills Process, not only as a means of attaining the educational goals and aims as expressed in prescribed curricula, but also as a teaching methodology. A look at the literature on information literacy and its applicability in schools places particular emphasis on the process as described in key models. The rationale for choosing the Big6 model of Eisenberg and Berkowitz as the vehicle for the research is explained, and the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) as well as the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) of the South African national department of education (initially the Department of Education, but later changed to the Department of Basic Education) analysed in terms of information literacy. This analysis, together with interviews of lecturers involved in the training, was followed by an action research process with six students. The results of the analysis of the documents, together with an analysis of the answers by the lecturers in the interviews of the lecturers, and an analysis of the students’ reflections on the process, enabled conclusions and recommendations to be made. In particular, they confirmed the important place that information literacy, the information literacy skills and the Information Skills Process should play in both school-based education, and the training of student teachers.

M.Ed. / The research question which is addressed in this study is the lack of functional reading and writing skills in a content subject such as Geography. The research was conducted with the assumption that most black students are lacking in the advanced literacy skills to learn Geography successfully. The rationale for the research is that if our education system wishes to improve learning skills and especially literacy amongst most black students the curriculum should put into practice effective reading and writing programmes in the teacher training colleges so that these skills are taught from the pre-primary schools up to matric as an on-going activity. The findings show that there is a large amount of rote learning without understanding of the learning content in the research sample, that they have limited vocabulary that contributes to poor self-expression and that some teachers are not well trained in the teaching of reading and writing skills across the curriculum.

Information literacy is widely acknowledged as important for student success in higher education. Information literacy is the ability to sort through a large amount of available information, decide what is useful and believable, and apply it in an effective and ethical way. Faculty members have expectations regarding information literacy for students in the first year of college, while students have information literacy practices that may or may not match those expectations. In my study, I examined the alignment of faculty member information literacy expectations and student information literacy practices, focusing on freshman students and faculty members who teach freshman students in a required general education course at a public university in the northwestern United States. Using an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design, I began my study with qualitative interviews of students and faculty members, used data from the interviews to develop a survey instrument, conducted a pilot study with the survey instrument, and used the survey instrument to administer an online quantitative survey to 106 students and 10 faculty members. The survey consisted of 42 items pertaining to student practices and faculty expectations as identified by student and faculty member interview participants. Survey data showed the percentage of faculty members expecting a practice was generally higher than the percentage of students carrying out that practice. Overall, the study findings revealed a gap between faculty expectations and student practices.

This study explored what effect information literacy instruction (ILI) may have on both a generalized anxiety state and library anxiety specifically. The population studied was international students using resources in a community college. Library anxiety among international students begins with certain barriers that cause anxiety (i.e., language/communication barriers, adjusting to a new education/library system and general cultural adjustments). Library Anxiety is common among college students and is characterized by feelings of negative emotions including, ruminations, tension, fear and mental disorganization (Jiao & Onwuegbuzie, 1999a). This often occurs when a student contemplates conducting research in a library and is due to any number of perceived inabilities about using the library. In order for students to become successful in their information seeking behavior this anxiety needs to be reduced. The study used two groups of international students enrolled in the English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) program taking credit courses. Each student completed Bostick's Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) and Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to assess anxiety level before and after treatment. Subjects were given a research assignment that required them to use library resources. Treatment: Group 1 (experimental group) attended several library instruction classes (the instruction used Kuhltau's information search process model). Group 2 (control group) was in the library working on assignment but did not receive any formal library instruction. After the treatment the researcher and ESOL program instructor(s) measured the level of anxiety between groups. ANCOVA was used to analyze Hypotheses 1 and 2, which compared pretest and posttest for each group. Research assignment grades were used to analyze Hypothesis 3 comparing outcomes among the two groups. The results of the analysis ascertained that ILI was associated with reducing state and library anxiety among international students when given an assignment using library resources.

Orientador: Angela Bustos Romero de Kleiman / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T16:21:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DeGrande_PaulaBaracat_D.pdf: 5260797 bytes, checksum: fa55a4459fe92e02e221f82dcae36137 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: / Resumo: A pesquisa tem como objetivo geral conhecer e compreender práticas de letramento formativas do professor em seu local de trabalho. Mais especificamente, a investigação busca identificar e analisar eventos de letramento de formação em reuniões de corpo docente dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental que, no Estado de São Paulo, eram chamadas de Hora de Trabalho Pedagógico Coletivo (HTPC). A perspectiva teórica adotada é baseada na abordagem sociocultural dos Estudos de Letramento e na concepção dialógica de linguagem do Círculo de Bakhtin. De caráter qualitativo-interpretativista e de cunho etnográfico, a pesquisa tem como corpus dados gerados em observação participante realizada durante um ano com um grupo de professoras em uma escola pública do interior paulista. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que as professoras construíram dois tipos de eventos bastante distintos no tempo oficialmente dedicado à sua formação no local de trabalho: um deles, aqui chamado de HTPC-aula, ocorria entre professoras de uma mesma unidade escolar e a coordenadora pedagógica e se aproximava de características interacionais da aula expositiva, seguindo o padrão IRA de interação; o outro tipo de evento, chamado HTPC-oficina, era realizado entre professoras de toda a rede de ensino atuantes em um mesmo ano tendo em vista conteúdos cobrados em avaliações externas dos governos estadual e federal e se assemelhava, em termos interacionais, a uma oficina, em que as professoras encenavam situações e estratégias de ensino de sala de aula. Ao serem colocadas no lugar e na função de formadoras de suas colegas, as professoras adotam a brincadeira, o jogo simbólico, que atualiza os papéis de alunos e professores e dissolve relações de poder que as colocam em papéis assimétricos. As diferenças interacionais nas estruturas de participação de cada tipo de evento, nas relações entre as participantes e em suas identidades construídas na interação têm reflexos nos gêneros mobilizados e nos temas desenvolvidos, no sentido bakhtiniano. Outra prática de formação do professor bastante presente nas HTPCs, principalmente nas reuniões que adotam como modelo de interação a aula, era a leitura de textos dos gêneros de autoajuda e religiosos. Em um contexto cada vez mais complexo para atuação docente, a função da autoajuda e da religião na formação do professor é a de dar sentido à docência, de construir alternativas possíveis nos limites postos pela realidade onde realizam suas funções. Os resultados obtidos na pesquisa podem contribuir para que formadores de professores (re)pensem sua atuação na formação docente inicial e continuada e para o (re)planejamento de políticas públicas que têm em vista o professor / Abstract: / Abstract: The present research aims to know and understand teachers' formative literacy practices at their workplace. More specifically, the investigation identifies and analyzes literacy events in meetings designed for elementary school teacher¿s continuing education at the workplace. The theoretical perspective adopted is based on the New Literacy Studies sociocultural approach and on the dialogical conception of language of Bakhtin's Circle. From a methodological perspective, the research is qualitative-interpretative and ethnographic, with a corpus generated through participant observation carried out for over a year with a group of teachers in a public school in the state of São Paulo. The results show that the teachers developed two different types of events in the time officially dedicated to their workplace continuing education: one of them, a classroom lesson event type (HTPC-aula), occurred when the teachers belonged to the same schools, and followed the interactional patterns of a school lesson IRA; in the second type of event, that functioned interactionally like a workshop, teachers simulated classroom situations and teaching strategies and occurred when the teachers of more than one school, teaching the same grade level, were involved, with the objective of preparing their students for national and state achievement. When trey are put in the place of instructors of their colleagues, the teachers adopt the symbolic play, which updates the roles of students and teachers and dissolve power relations that put them in asymmetric roles. Interactional differences in participation structures of each type of event, in the relation among the participants and their identities constructed in the interaction had effects on the genres mobilized and the themes, in Bakhtin's sense, that were developed. Another practice observed, mainly in the meetings that follow the class interaction model, was the reading of texts of the self-help genre and religious genre. In an increasingly complex context for teaching practice, the role of self-help and religion genres in teacher formative practices is to give meaning to teaching, to build alternatives within the limits posed by the reality where they perform their work. The results of the research may contribute to teachers¿ conitinuing education programs and to (re)design public policies aimed at teachers¿ development and continuing education / Doutorado / Lingua Materna / Doutora em Lingüística Aplicada

In this thesis, a survey design was used following closely the objective of descriptive research. The idea was to take a sample of the population of teachers in the area, gather demographic data, and find out if the reasons they fail to fully integrate technology into their classrooms can be attributed to skill deficiency, motivation, lack of environmental support or a combination thereof.

This qualitative dissertation explored the digital literacy practices of adolescent Black girls who actively engaged on social media in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, mandatory school shutdowns, and the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. I employ the Black Girls’ Literacies (BGL) framework (Haddix & Muhammad, 2016) to analyze the TikTok accounts of two adolescent Black girl influencers, as well as six qualitative interviews I conducted with adolescent Black girls who avidly used video sharing social media apps during that time. The data analysis aligned with the following components of the BGL Framework: Black girls’ literacies are multiple; Black girls’ literacies are tied to identities; and Black girls’ literacies are intellectual, political, and critical. Moreover, the data analysis also revealed that Black girls espoused three different identities while using social media to address the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Black violence. These themes were: Crafting Digital Narratives of the Self as Educators, Crafting Digital Narratives of the Self as Nurturers, and Crafting Digital Narratives of the Self as Digital Activists. My findings suggested that for English educators, prioritizing racial literacy in the English classroom, creating learning experiences that are informed by critical media literacy, and creating a space that honors and supports Black girls’ desires to be activists within their communities are critical for their success within and outside of the English classroom.