Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007. / This study explores the coming into being of a new Learning Area called Arts and Culture in the school curriculum in South Africa since 1997. The critical questions ask why Arts and Culture was deemed necessary in the new curriculum (Curriculum 2005); what factors influenced its design and did the Review process of 2000/1 effect significant changes to the Arts and Culture curriculum? The study draws its methodology from narratology, heuristic theory, discourse analysis and literary criticism in various ways. It uses narratology as the basis for analysis and as a representational device. As I was part of the policy development, the study commences with a personal narrative that sets the scene for the research. The primary data derive from interviews with policy makers, arts curriculum developers and arts practitioners and detailed analyses of relevant arts education policies. The first level of analysis entailed a narrative analysis of the interviews, focussing on the point of view and voice of the speaker. Documents were similarly analysed using a narratological lens developed for this study. The second level of analysis brought together the two sets of data and their individual stories to produce two differently focalized stories about the Arts and Culture curriculum: a curriculum of the Heart and a curriculum of the Head, both in the service of social transformation in South Africa. A third story, representing an unseen character - resistance arts, was introduced as pivotal in the Arts and Culture story. The third level of analysis dealt with abstractions from the group stories, arguing that nation building and identity formation and the potentially transformative role of the arts were central to this Arts and Culture curriculum. Discontinuities in the socio-political context and the curriculum discourse between 1997 and 2001 resulted in shifts in focalization of the curricula and may do so in the future. Current discourse allows for the creolisation of the arts and a re-imagined cultural identity.

This study is postpositivist. Adopting an ontological framework of critical realism requires the researcher to take the position of “modified” objectivist, and explore opportunities for the qualitative interpretation of quantitative data. Grounded theory is explored as the primary methodological approach, and as such the study takes on an inductive, theory-generating form in an attempt to describe and explain student performance within the context of alternative access to tertiary science studies. True to grounded theory, the researcher begins the study without a theoretical framework, this being built as the study progresses. The researcher’s experience of teaching educationally disadvantaged students Foundation Biology in the Centre for Science Access on the Pietermaritzburg campus of KwaZulu-Natal is used as a starting point, from which the initial research question emerges, namely the performance of the Access students in a first-year Life and Environmental Science stream module relative to direct entry students. Results from quantitative data analysis on students’ final marks in the first-year module pose a second research question: what factors contribute to the differing success of the student groups in the first-year module? Drawing on extant international and South African literature on factors affecting university student performance in conjunction with Regression Tree Analysis on the first-year module final mark, a theoretical framework begins to emerge. The concept of the “advantaged disadvantaged” calls for the notion of Access to be reconsidered, and curriculum responsiveness is examined in some detail. Grounded theory method of constant comparison, seeking core categories, together with efforts of triangulation prompt the third line of enquiry, specifically to establish what factors are influencing the performance of the Foundation students in their Access year. Using students’ final Foundation marks as the outcome variable, further Classification and Regression Tree analysis is conducted, including biographical, socioeconomic, school history, and academic factors as well as a measure of student motivation. In addition, literature around Access contributes to theory building. This systematic abstraction and the conceptualization of empirical data result in a substantive theory: that it is English language proficiency, above all other possible variables that can best explain Life Science (Biology) student performance. Selection into the Foundation Biology module is found to be at odds with selection into the Programme as a whole, necessitating curriculum responsiveness at the modular level. The emergent grounded theory, and the notion of “fuzzy generalization”, seen to be appropriate to critical realist research, allows opportunities to explore remediation in the curriculum on the basis of these research findings. Attention is paid specifically to scaffolding literacy in biology through a “learning to read”, “reading to learn” approach. These measures are dicussed within the context of assisting students to achieve epistemic access that will enable them to successfully participate in the academic practice of Science. / Theses (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

This investigation is a case-study of adolescent literacy practices and some of the texts arising from them. Forty-five texts were initially analysed for their generic structure and semiotic composition from within the traditions of the sociolinguistic paradigm. Findings from these two processes of analysis were then reinterpreted from a Deleuzean perspective with the aim of opening out otherwise imperceptible generative forces implicated in differences between the creation of online texts such as MXIT instant messages; Facebook texts and emails, and traditional print-and-paper school based writing. The context for the study was a Pietermaritzburg government girls’ only high school. A mixed-methods approach was used throughout the research process. The sample of twelve learners was purposefully selected from across two grade 9 classes to whom subject-English was taught. The core component of the data is a single writing exercise in which the pupils were asked to write a film appraisal as 1) a MXIT or SMS message; 2) an email; 3) a Facebook message and 4) a conventional film review. There are two major findings from this study. First, in some contexts, adolescents demonstrate a high degree of differentiated control over the structural, linguistic and semiotic composition of their writing in English; second, in online literacy, there is a complex configuration of motivating contextual variables that teenagers co-opt. These generate dynamic forces that serve adolescents’ own social and affective purposes and which can supersede, subvert or cooperate with the stated purpose of a genre. A Deleuzean framework helps reveal the complex processes underlying adolescent literacies and enables the beginning of an interrogation of the pedagogic implications of recent innovations in communication technology and practices. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This thesis traces and analyses the dynamics of policy formulation and implementation in South Africa over the past two decades and attempts to identify the possibilities for democratic processes to change an unequal and multi-tiered education system. The study suggests that what has been missing from most analysis of transitional policymaking in South Africa is a careful examination of social class, and particularly how and why social movements and social actors on the ground, who were initially central to policy formulation and critique, became largely marginalised once policies were institutionalised. The trajectory of the latter trend, related to the class nature of the post–apartheid state and the political economy of the transition from apartheid to democracy is explored in detail in several of the chapters that comprise this thesis. The thesis builds an argument around class, political economy and community participation situated in critical education policy analysis as the theoretical approach. Critical policy analysis views the terrain of the state and therefore policy formulation processes as spaces of contestation and negotiation. It also allows insight beyond the symptoms of educational inequality and dysfunctionality and shows connectivity between education policy and social relations of power. The major characteristics of an ‘evaluative’ case study which combines description, explanation and judgement is employed in the study of the Education Rights Project. Such a methodological approach allows for reflection on the generation of extant post-apartheid education policy and its implementation. Various chapters provide an account of how communities can use research to document violations of education rights and claim their rights which in turn also provide insights into the complex nature of democratisation of education and formal policy making arrangements. The thesis also demonstrates how experiences of transformational education and activism actively seek to disrupt the dichotomies between formal and informal educational arrangements, the public and private spheres, and cultural and political spaces. The role of local education activism in South Africa has been relatively under researched and largely ignored by mainstream education policy theorists; this thesis attempts to rectify this gap in South African education scholarship. One of the questions explored is whether the elision of social class analysis and meaningful community participation in education policy deliberations has contributed to the failure in addressing and overcoming the profound inequalities and social cleavages that characterise the South African education system. Relatedly, this thesis examines the critical role of community, civil society and social movements in policy critique and development. The study also focuses on issues impacting on the implementation of the right to basic education through formal policy and legislative frameworks and whether these fall short of the needs of people living in South Africa as well as the constitutional imprimatur around the fulfilment of their potential. The thesis suggests that educational reforms should be accompanied by a wider range of redistributive strategies, democratic participation, political will and clear choices about the social ends policy interventions seek to achieve. These issues are prompted by other framing questions such as does the right to education impact on the development of democracy and social transformation in South Africa, what are the obstacles and impediments to the fulfilment of educational rights and what is the relationship between the state and civil society in educational policymaking and the meaning of this relationship for the establishment of democracy in education? / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

This research study is an exploration of the self-directed professional development of teachers, teaching in public schools in an era of democracy and educational change in South Africa. Amidst an ever-changing educational system, these teachers - Mbeje, Shabeer, Carolina, Shakila and Tasneem - position themselves as self-directed teacher-learners. As self-directed teacher-learners they adopt particular learning practices which enable change within the broader discourses of public schooling. Life-story interviews were used to enter into the public and private spaces of these five teachers which offered me glimpses of how particular systems shaped their identities, and how the meanings of teacher-learner shaped their learning practices. I employed the thematic restorying approach to represent the narratives. Through collaboration with the teachers in this study, I identified critical moments in their lives which shaped their self-directed learning for change within the broader discourses of public schooling. The reconstructed narratives are located within the social, political and educational systems of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa Positioning this study in the critical paradigm, I developed a multi-layered framework of analysis and interpretation. I offer my interpretations of the stories through three lenses: restorying the field texts - the self through story; the teacher-learner in relation to socio-cultural contexts, and practices of self-directed learning. This study shows that as teacher-learners learn for change through self-directed learning , they develop their agency as transformative intellectuals, which is necessary for the reworking of South African public schools. Self-directed learning is critical for the transformation of the teacher-learner: as their race, class and gender meanings are disrupted for new meanings of teacher- learner. In their becoming they consciously and subconsciously create a “new professional teacher-learner” for South African public schooling. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This study examined the role of literacy in enhancing rural people's capabilities for participation in Uganda's Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), an intervention aimed at improving rural livelihoods through commercialising subsistence agriculture. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach, in which poverty is conceptualised to be a capability deprivation as the conceptual frame of reference, the study aimed at exploring how literacy facilitates or inhibits rural subsistence farmers' participation levels in PMA activities in Manibe Sub-County, Arua District. Using data collected from 54 research participants analysed interpretively, the study revealed that the majority of PMA activities demand a high degree of interaction with written materials, mostly in English, which created an unconducive atmosphere for the unschooled in the target group, thereby forcing them to depend on literacy mediators. It further revealed that there were more women than men participating in parish level activities which greatly decreased in favour of men at sub-county levels and above. It also found that farmers' groups were treated uniformly which negatively affects some of them in terms of access to resources and options. It further revealed that lack of supporting resources, stringent conditions for accessing Enterprise Development Funds, and difficulties in meeting farmers' co-funding requirements, were creating serious obstacles in undertaking group activities, hence making many potential participants avoid PMA activities. The main thesis in the study is that transforming rural subsistence producers into small-scale commercial farmers as a rural poverty reduction strategy, without providing them with the means to expand their basic capabilities so as to move out of capability deprivation, will not by itself increase rural incomes and reduce poverty. It is argued further that engaging the rural subsistence farmers in commercial agriculture will tend to enrich the educated few who are already better resourced. Since capability deprivation, amongst others, manifests itself through widespread illiteracy, the study recommends that efforts to eradicate rural poverty should focus on expanding the capabilities of the target group through building their literacy skills and improving their access to basic resources. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This study's aim was to solicit the beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of the teachers to the implementation of the road safety education programme in the context of curriculum change in five primary schools in the Pietermaritzburg Region. It is the beliefs and the attitudes of the teachers that imply assumptions about curriculum change and implementation that was the major focus of this study. The implementation of the road safety education programme was studied in the context of curriculum change. This was done by using a qualitative research methodology. A case study research method was employed to gather data. Through semi-structured teacher interviews, classroom observations and learner administered questionnaires, the researcher was able to answer the three critical questions of the study. For the analysis of the data, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used. The analysis of the data revealed that despite the teaching and learning constraints that teachers experience in the classroom with implementing curriculum change, they do the best that they can. They implemented the road safety education programme in very innovative and interactive ways. Feedback from teacher interviews regarding the implementation of the road safety education programme, indicated that it was a good programme which was well developed and aligned to the Revised National Curriculum Statement. It was informative and provided learners with a wide range of age appropriate knowledge and expertise to make them safe and responsible road users. This study also revealed the gaps in the literature where road safety education and its implementation, is concerned. This study makes a number of recommendations for successful curriculum implementation in the context of change. Because of the qualitative nature of the data collected it was difficult to establish whether there was, in fact behavioural changes regarding safe and responsible road user behaviour. Therefore the study recommends that more research must be carried out on the implementation of the road safety education programme because this study only represented five primary schools. This study also emphasized the importance of implementing road safety education from grade R to Grade 12 to enhance safe and responsible road user behaviour. This may be useful in reinforcing safe and responsible road user behaviour. Twelve years of road safety education will definitely have a cumulative effect which will be beneficial to the learner. A permanent space must be found in the CAPS school curricula to deliver appropriate and effective road safety education from Grade R to Grade 12. The basic epistemological approach of the research reflects the importance of moving beyond universal truths about implementation as a complex and highly contingent enterprise in which variations is the rule rather than the exception. This study subsequently concluded that the successful implementation of the road safety education programme was dependent on the teacher‟s beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of the innovation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This study investigates ways in which English Studies at Rhodes University, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Natal, and the University of Sydney responded to linguistic and academic literacy needs of entrance level students. Both qualitative and quantitative data from these research sites are integrated with an autobiographical narrative based on my own personal experiences of learning English and in English at secondary and tertiary levels in South Africa. Dealing with data this way made it possible for my study to examine strategies through which different English departments negotiate the challenge of enabling students to access the discourse of the Discipline. I relied on the principles underpinning Genre Theory and Grounded Theory to engage critically with participants’ responses to interview questions and documentary evidence from research sites. It appears from the study that modules designed to develop students’ linguistic and/or academic literacy skills need not maintain a pedagogic practice that is either grammatical rules or academic writing and critique based, without an attempt to integrate the two. This separation is seen as artificial, and reflects pedagogic practices that tend to mystify the discourse of the Discipline of English Studies. Given the fact that not all students posses relevant cultural capital to negotiate meanings successfully within this discourse, many of them are excluded during lectures. Literature and research findings in this study indicate that this exclusion manifests itself when such students fail to choose grammatical structures according to the purpose for which they construct texts, both in speaking and in writing. Within this context, there is a need for an alternative model to inform theory, module design, and pedagogic practices in entrance level modules. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This study is located at the interface of online learning within a context of English language studies and academic literacy and is underpinned, from a critical theoretical perspective, by an understanding of the implications of the digital divide for South Africa. The thesis includes an exploration of online learning, as mediated by information and communication technology (ICT), in an undergraduate English language and academic literacy classroom at a university in Johannesburg, South Africa. The study draws on research and theorising by Warschauer (2002a, 2002b, 2003), who argues for the need for technology in developing countries as a means of social inclusion. The aim is to explore the extent to which communities of practice (COPs) are enabled in an online environment, among English non-mother tongue speakers, who have minimal previous access to ICT. To achieve the aim the study examines the extent to which the learners participate, negotiate meaning, construct identities, and perceive themselves as autonomous in online spaces. This is a case study that explores asynchronous lCT practices such as the use of the Internet (Net), e-mail, and discussion threads in an online Web course management system. From a sociocultural perspective, and recognising that learning does not occur in isolation, the work of Lave and Wenger (1991, 1996,2002) is used to frame the study, concerned as it is with learning, technology and empowerment. Lave and Wenger (1991, 2002) locate learning as a form of interaction and co-participation, and argue that learning occurs within specific contexts or communities of practice. Thus they focus on how individuals become members of 'communities of practice'. The study suggests that practice and participation are underpinned, and to some extent determined, by the identities constructed by participants In the on line communities. Participants' ICT practices are examined from the perspective of literacy, in this case electronic literacy, as a social practice and New Literacy Studies, where the work of Gee (1996, 1997, 2000), Street (1984, 1993a, 1993b, 2003), Barton, Hamilton and lvanic (2000), and Lankshear and Knobel (1997, 2004) are drawn on to examine the use of technology. Constructions of identity are examined from Hall's (1992) post-structuralist view that old identities, which stabilised the social world as we knew it, are in decline, giving rise to new identities and fragmenting the modem individual as a unified subject. From observations, participant-interviews, questionnaires, written data, and the analysis of messages posted to discussion threads over the duration of a year, the study demonstrates that the online environment facilitates the construction of communities of practice, by enabling participants to develop and sustain local and global relationships, construct identities, and engage autonomously in the medium. My findings suggest that online environments be considered, not merely as alternative modes of delivery in the language classroom, but for social inclusion, provided that facilitators and learners are adequately prepared for the use of digital technology. The study further suggests a model for the adoption of ICT in relation to learning within the South African context. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This study sought to explore some of the ways in which assessment itself needs to be treated as a feature of equity and transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. How can the classroom become a level playing field for all, not just in terms of admission and changes to the overall composition of the student body, as well as staffing, but in relation to the curriculum itself, of which assessment is a part? In a multilingual, multicultural country like South Africa, which also carries a lot of political baggage, one has to agree that assessing all students in the same way does not mean, assessing all students equally. To assess all students in the same way, regardless of their proficiency in English and only in the mode of writing, is to ignore the wealth of diversity and potential among our student population. The ESL students in this study repeatedly indicated that they cannot express themselves adequately in writing in English and that "the expression of the examiners" and the "wording of the questions" pose a problem in the written assessments. They often find out after a paper "what a question meant" or what the examiner intended. EFL students too experienced problems with "ambiguity" and "unclear expression" of the examiners. This qualitative study introduced an oral component into the present tertiary assessment structures in Science. The private nature of the written assessments does not permit interaction between student and examiner or invigilator during an examination. This means that both student and assessor in turn have to rely on their own interpretation of the written word without consulting with each other. Oral assessments on the other hand, permit live interaction. Both candidate and assessor can seek clarity from each other. Rather than grappling with understanding of each others' English, the focus can rightfully move to assessing the student's knowledge of content. As the study endeavoured to devise a relatively new form of assessment for the South African context, it required tools and techniques that would provide for exploration and that would allow for modification along the way. An action research approach was therefore used. This study took on what might be described as a 'hybrid' version of action research in order to investigate how as an instructor in Language Education, I could bring about change in assessment in Science. Individual and group oral assessments were conducted with undergraduate students at two tertiary institutions, viz. a technikon and a university, in KwaZulu-Natal. The assessments were conducted in three phases. The first phase of the assessments adapted oral assessment practices used by South African and international Science educators. The second and third phases investigated 'closed' structures devised for the individual and group oral assessments within a South African tertiary context, respectively. After each phase of the assessments, feedback from the participants was analysed and comments and criticisms were addressed. Collaboration with the participants yielded harmonious working relationships, successful administration of the assessments, and valuable contributions from the students and assessors, especially with regard to the design of the oral assessment grid. Five main sources of data were generated in this study, viz. from the focus group discussions with the assessors and the students, the student and assessor questionnaires, and the assessment sessions. Triangulation, and more specifically, data triangulation was employed to ensure reliability and validity or consistency and comparability of the oral assessments. Incorporating an oral component to the assessments meant that students could reap the benefit of the higher mark in either the written or the oral mode. Students were grateful that the assessments "tested two different sides of a person" and that if they could not express themselves adequately in writing, they could "fall back on the orals". Assessors were unanimous that "apart from promoting understanding, the oral assessments provided many other benefits for assessors and students". They therefore hailed the mixed-mode of assessments as a "win-win situation" for all the participants. The study concludes with recommendations and implications for the reform of language policy and assessment practices in tertiary education, and the need for further work in tertiary classrooms where teachers embark upon action research. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.