Thesis (M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The purpose of this study was to explore the coping strategies of primary school teachers in their multi-grade classes at Glen Cowie circuit. This exploratory case study addresses the coping strategies that rural primary school teachers use in curriculum delivery. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. This study revealed various challenges teachers experience and the coping strategies that teachers employ in dealing with challenges. A qualitative research approach was adopted in the study with the intention of finding as much detail as possible using a case study. Participants in this study were teachers who teach multi-grade classes in their rural schools in the Glen Cowie circuit in Limpopo. The investigation revealed that teachers did not have the necessary skills and expertise to teach multi-grade classes. It was also revealed that teachers were not trained to teach in multi-grade classes and they had to use individual strategies to cope with the contradictory conditions they found themselves in. The investigation concluded that the teachers in those multi-grade classes were qualified and had teaching experience, but they were not prepared to teach multi-grade classes in general. It proved that teachers remained resilient by applying varied strategies such as problem solving, goal setting, extra curriculum lessons and maintaining work-life balance to ensure that teaching and learning occurs

In a time of emergency measures due to the coronavirus pandemic, teachers have been forced to transition into distance education without prior experience and training, thus facing a significant professional challenge. Every teacher has dealt with this change differently and was given the opportunity to reflect their own teaching approach. The main aim of this thesis is to describe how distance education has transformed the approach of various types of teachers to the individual needs of students, in other words, to individualized teaching. In the theoretical part, selected approaches to the typology of teachers and their teaching styles will be described, using available professional publications. The importance of individualization as one of the key principles of current education will be justified. The ways in which a primary school teacher can respond to the individual needs of pupils in teaching will be summarized. The characteristic features of distance education, its advantages and limits will be described. In the practical part of the thesis, teacher's approaches to individualization in in- person and distance education will be mapped through qualitative research, in the form of a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Key words individualization, distance education, primary school teacher,...

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There has been a significant increase in the number of Students of Color attending Catholic schools in the United States in the last forty years. However, only 17% of the professional staff in Catholic schools nationally are Teachers of Color (with about 9.6% identifying as Latino/a) (McDonald & Schultz, 2020). The racial gap between Students and Teachers of Color is a social justice issue (Berrios, 2016), and yet, research on why Teachers of Color are choosing to teach in Catholic urban schools and the motivating factors that sustain their work in hard-to-staff Catholic schools is limited. This qualitative research study was conducted using a Critical Race Methodology (CRM) grounded (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002) in two overarching theoretical frameworks: Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit). Critical Race Testimonio was used as a counter-story method to document the experiences of Latino/a Catholic school teachers who served in under-resourced urban Catholic schools (Perez Huber, 2008). This study was guided by three research questions: (a) what factors do Latino/a teachers describe as encouraging them to choose and sustain their urban Catholic school teaching profession; (b) how do Latino/a teachers describe their racialized experiences in urban Catholic schools; and (c) how can urban Catholic schools enhance recruitment and retention policies and practices to diversify their teaching workforce? This study explored the racialized experiences and factors which motivated, sustained, and contributed to Latino/a Catholic school teachers’ choices to work in under-resourced urban Catholic schools and highlighted the authority of Latino/a teacher epistemology and ontology to understand that if the demographics of Catholic schools continue to shift, the recruitment and retention practices of Latino/a teachers must also change to meet the needs of all students in urban Catholic schools.

Hur kan fritidshemslärares språkliga genusmedvetenhet tolkas utifrån kvalitativa observationer och intervjuer med teoretiska utgångspunkter som socialkonstruktivism, sociokulturellt perspektiv och hermeneutisk tolkning? Undersökningens syfte är att tolka skillnader och likheter i fritidshemslärares språkliga genusmedvetenhet. Frågeställningarna som undersöks är: arbetar fritidshemslärare med språkliga diskurser kring kön och genus? Om så hur? Vad finns det för likheter och skillnader i fritidshemslärares tolkningar om hur elever reproducerar och utmanar traditionella könsmönster? Går det att utskilja kollektiva eller individuella idéer bakom fritidshemslärares språkliga bemötande av elevers könsmönster? Undersökningen visar att språklig genusmedvetenhet är mångfacetterad och att ett kompensatoriskt synsätt präglar diskursen om genusmedvetet förhållningssätt.  Undersökningen visar också att det finns flera tolkningsmöjligheter för att förstå hur elevers genusuttryck påverkas och hänger ihop med flera faktorer beroende på vilka sociala och kulturella normer som fritidsverksamheten verkar i. / How can after-school teachers' linguistic gender awareness be interpreted based on qualitative observations and interviews with theoretical starting points such as social constructivism, socio-cultural perspective and hermeneutic interpretation? The purpose of the survey is to interpret differences and similarities in after-school teachers' linguistic gender awareness. The questions investigated are: do after-school teachers work with linguistic discourses around sex and gender? If so, how? What are the similarities and differences in after-school teachers' interpretations of how students reproduce and challenge traditional gender patterns? Is it possible to distinguish collective or individual ideas behind after-school teachers' linguistic treatment of students' gender patterns? The survey shows that linguistic gender awareness is multifaceted and that a compensatory approach characterizes the discourse on gender-awareness. The survey also shows that there are several interpretation possibilities to understand how students' gender expression is affected and is connected to several factors depending on the social and cultural norms in which the leisure activities operate.

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Denna avhandling handlar om ledarskapet i skolan. Skolan är en sammansatt verksamhet och i ledarskapet handlar det om att hantera många olika uppgifter på olika nivåer. Samtidigt som skolledare och lärare skall leva upp till samhälleliga förväntningar på skolverksamheten skall de också hantera kulturella villkor inom skolan. I avhandlingen studeras hur ledarskapet formas i och av samspelet mellan skolledare och lärare i vardagsarbetet. En fråga fokuserar på hur skolledare och lärare ser på varandra och hur de influerar och förstår varandra i vardagsarbetet. En annan fråga uppmärksammar vilken betydelse skolsammanhanget har för samspelet. För att belysa samspelet används fallstudier som forskningsstrategi. I studien ingår tre F-6-skolor med förskole-, fritidshems- och grundskoleverksamhet. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer och observationer. Teoretiskt har studien en socialkonstruktionistisk utgångspunkt i betydelsen av att skolledarskap ses som ett socialt fenomen. Intresset riktas mot att belysa skolledares och lärares utsagor om hur de förstår varandra och varandras ord och handlingar i det vardagliga arbetet. Resultatet ger anledning att fråga vem som egentligen leder vem. Avhandlingen visar tydligt att ledarskap är något som skolledarna och lärarna oundvikligen formar tillsammans – därav titeln Samproducerat ledarskap. Studien visar hur sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner i samspelet influerar skolledarnas och lärarnas agerande och ledarskapet. Konsekvensen blir ett ifrågasättande av den allt populärare bilden av ledaren som med stark hand förväntas styra sin organisation. En förståelse för att skolledarskapet är samproducerat, och att sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner har avgörande betydelser för hur det utövas medför en mer realistisk syn på skolledarskapets förutsättningar. / This thesis is concerned with aspects of school leadership. School work is characterised by its complexity, and school leadership requires the ability to deal with many different tasks at different organisational levels. At the same time as school heads and teachers are expected to respond to social expectations, they must also be able to deal with and respond to existing cultural considerations and prerequisites. The present study focuses on the formation of leadership during and as a result of the interplay between school heads and teachers in everyday educational practice. One research question concerns how this is formulated in heads’ and teachers’ statements, and how they perceive, influence and understand each other in their daily work together. Another research question highlights the importance of school contexts in the interplay between school heads and teachers. The underlying research strategy applied in order to illustrate the interplay between school heads and teachers is based on three case studies of so-called ‘F–6 schools’, i.e. three comprehensive schools including years 1–6, as well as pre-school classes, and leisure-time activities. The empirical research material consists of interviews and observations. This study takes a social constructionist point of departure, in the sense that school leadership is regarded as a social phenomenon, and focuses on creating a further understanding of this based on statements by school heads and teachers on how they understand each other and each others’ verbal communications and actions. The results give reason to the question of who is in fact leading who. The thesis clearly shows that leadership is produced and formed by school heads and teachers together – hence the title Co-Produced Leadership. The study shows how social, cultural and political dimensions in the interplay between school heads and teachers influence their actions and the formation of school leadership. This leads to a questioning of the increasingly popular image of the independent leader who is expected to govern her/his organisation with a firm hand. An understanding that school leadership is a product of intimate collaboration, and that social, cultural and political dimensions are vital in the formation of leadership, leads to a more realistic view concerning the possibilities and prerequisites of school leadership.

Inclusive Education has gained significant currency nationally and internationally. It demands that the teacher be able to meet the needs of learners with impairments in ordinary classrooms. The success of inclusive education rests on quality teacher preparation geared towards inclusive education. The focus of this investigation is on preparedness of mainstream primary school teachers in implementing inclusive education policy in the Nongoma circuit. The lack of teachers prepared to provide quality inclusive teaching to learners and the limitations of existing support structures both impact on inclusion. Through a questionnaire an effort was made to ascertain teachers’ preparedness for inclusive education in the Nongoma circuit. This measure was utilized to determine the extent to which teachers are prepared for the implementation of inclusive education in the classroom. It was also used to describe the nature of training provided by District Based Support Team in an advancement of inclusive education practices in the classroom. The researcher also identified enabling strategies required for teachers in an inclusive classroom environment. Finally, recommendations on strategies for the successful implementation of inclusive education in the classroom were made. The data was collected through a questionnaire. The researcher selected three wards Nongoma circuit as research sites with all teachers in the selected schools participating. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive education)

Studiens syfte är att analysera hur tre bildlärare på högstadiet bedriver sin bildundervisning av nyanlända elever som ännu inte till fullo behärskar svenska språket. Frågeställningarna innefattar olika strategier i bildundervisningen samt vilka problem och möjligheter lärarna upplever i en undervisning utan gemensamt talat språk. Studien innefattar tre semistrukturerade intervjuer – två muntliga och en skriftlig. Resultatet visar att samtliga lärare hade utarbetat och var i färd att utveckla en mängd olika strategier. Bildämnets multimodala resurser och de nyanlända elevernas flerspråkighet var centrala strategier för att överbrygga språkbarriären och skapa förståelse i ämnet. Främst två av lärarna ville även vidareutveckla undervisningen genom utökat kollegialt samarbete. Problemen lärarna uppfattade handlade till stor del om tidsbrist.  För att främja de nyanlända elevernas lärandesituation behövde exempelvis en av lärarna mer tid tillsammans med dem innan de började i ordinarie bildundervisning. Lärarna nämnde många möjligheter angående bildämnets resurser som medel för förståelse, samt möjligheter med att använda elevernas starkaste språk vid bedömning av teoretiska delar. / The purpose of the study is to analyze how three high school art teachers educate newly arrived pupils who do not fully understand the Swedish language. The issues contain how the teachers work with certain strategies and what kind of problems and possibilities they perceive when teaching without a common spoken language. The study includes three semi structured interviews – two oral and one written. The results illustrate that all of the teachers had developed, and were in the process of developing, a variety of strategies. Central strategies in creating understanding were multimodal resources specific for the art subject, and the newly arrived pupils’ multilingualism. Mainly two of the teachers wanted to develop their education further through expanded collegiate corporation. The problems that the teachers perceived mainly had to do with lack of time. To better support the newly arrived pupils’ learning situation the teachers needed more time together with the pupils, before they entered the ordinary classes. The teachers mentioned several possibilities concerning the art subjects’ resources as tools in understanding each other. They also emphasized the possibilities of using the pupils’ strongest language in the matter of theoretical assessment.