A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. / The research, conducted as part of a project aimed at improving teachers' English .skills, set out to answer the question: What are the needs of farm school teachers in relation to the use of English as the medium of instruction? Clarification of this question involved the examination of teachers' English proficiency, the teaching of English as a subject and the.observation of the learning/teaching situation in the farm school classroom. The research raised questions concerning the underlying assumption that an English language intervention could bring about major change in the classroom. As a result, further enquiries into the socio-economic context-of the schools were instituted. In addition, the learning/teaching situation was examined in the light of theories of cognition and change. A range of research methods involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized to penetrate this highly complex situation. The findings indicated a clear need on the. part of ihe teachers for an English proficiency course. At the same time. the findings also indicated most strongly that a fundamental change is needed in tne teachers' understanding of their role if they are to become agents of significant change. / Andrew Chakane 2019

Submitted in partial fulfilment of a Degree of Master in Education Wits School of Education, Curriculum Studies University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 2016 / This study considers black female teachers’ conceptions of themselves, their ‘identities’ as teachers and ways in which they negotiate this in relation to their membership in teacher trade unions. Drawing upon Wenger’s model of identity in practice, and recent research into identity construction and teacher activity in trade unions. The study uses a qualitative case study methodology. It uses semi-structured interviews with four Mpumalanga teachers from SADTU and NAPTOSA, within each trade union the study looked at a representative and an ordinary member of the trade union. A major finding of the study was that black female teachers partake in the reconciliation of their various identities, by filtering out what they deemed inappropriate and remaining with those identities which they felt led to less tensions with their teacher identity. It was also found that ordinary members of unions are disengaged with their union identity and therefore do little identity work to reconcile their union and teacher identities. The implications of this for teachers and education in South Africa are discussed. The study calls for further research that explores the process teachers undergo to take ownership of their union identity and therefore develop a sense of agency. / MT2017

This work is a descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of conflict that is lived by black teachers in the Bantu Education context. Subjects are teachers from the East Rand and Eastern Cape who have high school teaching experience that ranges from 1 to 15 years. The conflict researched was defined as those situations in which the teacher faced demands or expectations from different interest groups which were incompatible or negated each other. The Subjects of this research were six teachers who were interviewed for case material. The phenomenological case study design was used. Data collection consisted of in-depth interviews while analysis followed the phenomenological method developed at Duquesne University. This was an exploratory study which identified two major forms of conflict. The first exists between the teacher's expectation of teaching and the education authorities' expectation of how and what the teacher should teach in lessons. The second form of conflict identified is that in which the teacher's allegiance to one social group or ideology is violated by the teacher's participation in a system of education that negates his/her view about the South African sociopolitical situation. In the latter case the teacher is forced to comply with commitments or demands placed on him/her which negate each other. Van den Berg's theory of plural existence was used to inform data analysis and so was the theory of cognitive change and inconsistency.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Motivated teachers are essential for effe~~ive teaching to take place. As a result of trauma experienced by the black teacher, especially after 1976, when their authority was. undermined and the slogan "Liberation before education" was the theme of the day, teachers were unmotivated to teach. Furthermore the existing forms used to "inspect" the teachers were unacceptable for the ANC government and teachers. The researcher, out of his experience as subject advisor, identified and addressed the shortcomings in the existing evaluation practices by developing a motivation strategy where a motivation form is used. In this way a learning culture could again be established in the schools. As a grounding for above mentioned strategy a literature study was done on motivation, the motivation theories as well as ways in which adults are motivated. Goal setting, what it entials, existing theories as well as the errors made when setting goals, were also researched by means of literature studies. A motivation form is developed in this research, in which the purpose, development and structuring of the form is discussed. Finally research is undertaken to determine the didactic principles relevant to this study were researched to determine what the purpose and value of each principle were, and how these could simultaneously contribute towards the mastering of the work by the pupils.

Bibliography: pages 126-137. / Black schooling has been plunged into deep crisis following persistent political and ideological assertiveness by users' against the intransigent State. Assertive practices in the State black secondary schools climaxed with the refusal by students to sit for examinations. Accompanying these assertive practices were the disintegration of order and the alarming failure rate, all of which put teachers in the midst of accusations from both the State and some users. The State blamed teachers for disorderliness, the lack of discipline of students and for not doing their work efficiently. Some users accused teachers of incompetency and often of sustaining the State hegemony. Teachers, however, redirected the accusations at the State for its authoritarianism. These labellings reflect the impact the interminable education crisis has had on teachers working within State schools which are the site of race and class struggle. The crisis bears heavily and negatively on teachers' authority to an extent where some scholars highlight that teachers have become professionally dysfunctional and have since lost authority (see below). The study takes these charges seriously and is geared towards understanding teachers' authority within the context of South African education system whose bias favours white, in particular Afrikaner supremacy and the domination of the ruling classes. This could mean that teachers' authority is either a creation of this supremacy/domination and its maintenance or a product of resistance towards such domination. In order to test this theoretical supposition, particular attention was given towards understanding the significance of teachers' authority, its social bases, the way it is exercised and its stability or instability in the context of the current education crisis. What came to light was the fact that teachers exercised a form of authority predetermined by the State whilst at the same time there were attempts to move away from that practice and establish an alternative authority. The new form of authority was interpreted as being influenced by an ideology whose ultimate aim was to transform the imposed status quo. The conclusions were that teachers' authority remained in crisis as did the schools, due to teachers' work which either conflicted with the educational policy or which propped up the system in the face of insurmountable resistance from users. It was suggested that teachers are likely to thrive in the crisis if they were able to collectively amass political professional power in alliance with the community to engage in counter-hegemony.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / This thesis sets out to demonstrate the influences on the personality of a Black African Male Educator – specifically mine - as I enquire: ―Why do I do things the way I do?‖ and ―What has enabled me to meet, face and resolve the challenges that I have come across in life?‖ I have addressed these questions from a self-study perspective, using narrative enquiry, living theories methods and auto-ethnography. I have written this thesis aware that I lived the first thirty seven years of my life under the potentially personality deforming oppression of apartheid, and that I have conducted my study and written my thesis in the context of the HIV&AIDS pandemic. In creating my own ―living theory‖ philosophy, I look at my epistemology - How do I know what/that I know? - my ontology – Who am I? Who am I becoming? What do I believe? and my axiology – What do I value? In creating my own ―living theory‖ (Whitehead, 2008), I examine the influences which have informed my personality development and that of my research participants. The originality of the contribution of this thesis to the academy is to demonstrate the influence of one person‘s personal origin and naming, carers and family, childhood experiences and learning, sport and sport instructors on his personality development. In addition, the thesis highlights the usefulness of forms of knowledge - herding and induku - that have not been explicitly declared as useful and included formally in education. To this end, I demonstrate the connections that exist between, induku, herding, work, community involvement and education as influential in personality development. I use my personal beliefs and values – principally ubuntu and ukuhlonipha – and the Critical Cross Field Outcomes to demonstrate the relationship between these values and outcomes, my personal account and the development of my human personality. I look at the implications for education. I review the Republic of South Africa‘s National Curriculum Statement in Life Orientation Grades 10–12. I suggest ways in which the Beliefs and Values demonstrated and examined in this thesis, and Critical Cross Field Outcomes can be incorporated in Community Service Integrated Projects that can help learners to make their beliefs and values explicit in their learning, all to the end of influencing values-informed personal development. / National Research Foundation.

M.Ed. / Originally the aim of the study was to detemine the role of the African educator at home as well as at school. It was felt that this person has an extremely difficult task to accomplish, especially in view of the violence and the problems just before the 1994-elections. However, as the study progressed, the African concept, Ubuntu, proved to be an interesting topic and it was thought to be a possible solution to a country riddled with unique problems in education and the violence in particular. The term Philosophy of Life was briefly discussed, as it is always embedded in the way one educates one's child. Education as a concept was studied, in particular in the way it teaches a child to become more human. The Philosophy of Life that seemed of great importance is Humanism. Universal educational principles that seemed relevant, were identified to be used as criteria for the rest of the study. The term, human, and all the others related to it were analysed. Western Humanism, both Traditional and Neo-humanism, were studied. The educational implications of Western humanism were discussed, using the identified criteria for education as guidelines. In chapter four the African humanism, Ubuntu, was, via a literature study, analysed in great depth. There are as many versions of this term as there are people, but the most common characteristics of Ubuntu were identified. After a general discussion, the connotations usually given to the charateristics were listed. Afterwards the educational implications of Ubuntu were discussed. In chapter five an educational evaluation of the implications of African Humanism was undertaken. This study does not claim to be complete. It was merely an attempt to get a better grasp on reality. A literature study proved sufficient for this purpose, as very little was actually written about the concept Ubuntu, when the research was started. However, much has been said and written since.

This study, The lived experiences of black women academic researchers at the University of South Africa, investigated the factors that impacted on the lives of the black women academics at Unisa in the College of Education. It was a phenomenological study wherein the participants shared their lived experiences through in-depth interviews. This was a qualitative study that employed an interpretive paradigm. This permitted the view that reality is multiple layered. It took into account the various viewpoints of the participants as different realities that were narrated in this report by using the verbatim quotations of the participants. The findings revealed that Black women academic lecturers at Unisa faced challenges in the teaching and learning area. They had no ownership of modules that they taught because they were not primary lectures. They experienced racism and alienation from both Black and White academics that have long been at Unisa. White staff questioned their qualifications and, they received no orientation in the teaching of ODL modules. In the research area, challenges concerned the supervision of postgraduate students and article writing for publication. It also arose that they received less support from senior colleagues and from their supervisors in their personal studies. There was general complaint about the 2010 Unisa mentoirship programme but there was commendation of the recent CEDU mentorship programme. The participants felt that Unisa should introduce academic support programmes that would cater for staff over the age of 50 because the current programmes only cater for those below 50 years of age. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)

This dissertation examines the changing perceptions which black history educators and learners have held toward secondary school history education from 1948 to 2008. The province of Mpumalanga is focused upon, although the perceptions held about history education by black secondary school educators and learners within the wider historical context of South Africa is also examined. It is argued that while the history education offered to black learners in South Africa secondary schools during the apartheid era was unpopular largely due to its pro-government subject matter, post-apartheid secondary school education is in danger of becoming increasingly marginalized within the school curriculum as it cannot successfully compete with a modern, technological and materialistically orientated society. / History / M.A. (History)

This dissertation examines the changing perceptions which black history educators and learners have held toward secondary school history education from 1948 to 2008. The province of Mpumalanga is focused upon, although the perceptions held about history education by black secondary school educators and learners within the wider historical context of South Africa is also examined. It is argued that while the history education offered to black learners in South Africa secondary schools during the apartheid era was unpopular largely due to its pro-government subject matter, post-apartheid secondary school education is in danger of becoming increasingly marginalized within the school curriculum as it cannot successfully compete with a modern, technological and materialistically orientated society. / History / M.A. (History)