A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Masters of Education (Educational Psychology) in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Needs Education, Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2018. / This research investigated the attitudes of Further Education and Training (FET) phase teachers toward the implementation of inclusive education in Libode District in the Eastern Cape. The investigation took place during the period between March and July 2017. The participants in this study were 182 Further Education and Training (FET) phase teachers from 12 randomly selected FET phase schools in the Libode district. Data were collected from teachers using a questionnaire. The data from the questionnaire were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results showed that the FET phase teachers in the Libode District hold negative attitudes toward the implementation of inclusive education in the Libode FET phase schools in the Eastern Cape Province. The study recommends many strategies to combat these negative attitudes, including making available a guide for FET phase schools on how to implement inclusive education, in-service training of the FET phase teachers on inclusive education, participation of FET phase school teachers in implementing the Inclusive Education Policy, involvement of stakeholders (parents and experts in different relevant fields) in the implementation of inclusive education, providing special education needs learners in FET phase schools with relevant resources, introduction of modularization to progressed learners in the FET phase schools and strengthening subject choices in FET phase feeder schools in grade eight and nine for grade ten subject streams.

For those who teach in higher education and draw on vocational rather than academic backgrounds, the processes of socialisation are complex, extended and highly conditioned by their ‘past’ professions. These professions are seen to provide both ‘resources’ and ‘dissonances’ in the transitions that constitute their progress towards becoming a teacher. Whilst a great deal has been written of these processes in older universities with high concentrations of academic staff whose careers are largely confined to higher education itself, relatively little is known of parallel processes in newer institutions that are highly connected to specific kinds of workplace. This study addresses the way in which the current literature has under-represented the experiences and perspectives of ‘late entrants’ to teaching in higher education who come to work in a university from a profession that is ‘outside’ of higher education itself. The study uses a case study approach based on a series of semistructured interviews to reveal and analyse the processes of socialisation for ten participants undertaking a programme of teacher training (PGCAP). It describes a certain kind of ‘insider’ research where closeness and rapport exist alongside asymmetries of power and forms of ‘guilty knowledge’. Narrative methods are used to analyse and represent the data from differing perspectives to reveal a range of engagements, commitments and experience. These are seen to shape the socialisation process through key ‘turning points’ promoting movement towards a teacher identity. The study draws on theoretical perspectives based on the work of Bernstein (2000) and Bandura (1997) in order to analyse core processes both situationally and from an individual perspective. The research raises key questions about the learning environments created for participants on this teacher training course and the wider discourses that influence such provision. It also challenges a growing assumption that the attempts by the state to control and improve teaching in higher education are incorporated into individual teaching practice.

The aim of this study was to determine how student writing and academic literacy are experienced and perceived in a university by academic staff and students and how pedagogical interactions are influenced by institutional discourses and practices. The research is a form of institutional case study realised through a qualitative, ethnographic-style inquiry. The methodology comprised semi-structured interviews with forty-eight academic staff from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and thirty-five student respondents from diverse areas of study, and discourse-based analyses of textual materials at both the institutional and departmental levels. The findings of the present research revealed that there is variation in the way academic staff perceive the nature and the learning of student academic literacy and their understanding of the practices which support that learning in a university. Students face significant challenges in adapting to variable expectations and managing the requirements of writing and assessment in the contemporary context. The research also revealed that there are structural aspects of higher education practice which appear to have adverse effects on the learning and development of student academic literacy and the capabilities of academic teaching staff to actively support and foster student learning in that domain. There are implications for the role of writing in learning and teaching and its position in the curriculum. It is argued that a more explicit approach should be taken to student academic literacy by embedding it in disciplinary teaching and learning. A number of ways, based on the evidence of this research, are suggested to advance pedagogical research and develop appropriate practice to that end. The findings are linked to wider debates about teaching, learning and educational reform in higher education. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting two disparate research paradigms for investigating the higher education experience. A new paradigm is conceptualised which draws on existing models theoretically and empirically but adds dimensions which address the exigencies of research in the contemporary context of higher education. It is argued that this reframing has the potential to raise and enhance the profile of pedagogical and student writing research consonant with current higher education policy aims and ambitions.

This thesis presents a study of three and four year old children attending preschool at a time of rapid expansion of this phase of education. There is strong evidence that the quality of the experience is the determining factor in the long term effectiveness of early years provision. However, quality is a contested concept with a range of viewpoints, defined by different stakeholders including children. The study builds on previous research and aims to clarify children’s perspectives on the quality of their preschool experiences and to consider how their viewpoint might influence policy and practice. The study examines successive policy initiatives in relation to children and families including the development of quality frameworks for early years practice. It considers policies that promote children’s participation based on children’s rights, and related theories of children as social agents, active in their own lives. The study discusses different approaches to quality early years provision, identifying two main positions, ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The study explores alternative, co-constructed approaches to quality that involve children assessing their learning together with trusted adults, to prepare for future learning. This is a qualitative study using an ethnographic approach. Data were collected employing an adapted version of the Mosaic Approach which combines multiple methods. The study takes a case study approach to present the research stories of six children by detailing their perspectives on quality. These findings are presented as a taxonomy of viewpoints, focussed around a common framework of re-occurring categories. This represents the contribution to knowledge of the study. The taxonomy is presented both in the language of children and that of adults in order to emphasise the extent to which the voice of children is currently absent from discourses on quality. Children’s responses are presented as indicators of quality that could inform day to day practice and policy.

The aim of this thesis is to promote a dialogue about constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996) with a particular focus on the use of reflective writing as an assessed task in courses of teacher education and the influence it has, or does not have, on teacher reflection and/or in improving practice. The work is set against a national context in which time to reflect is being written out of teacher education as a consequence of policy which locates ‘training’ to teach increasingly within the busy-ness of school life. Persuaded by principles of constructive alignment and, therefore, troubled by student teachers’ perceptions of complex assignments which appear to have little relevance to their practice as teachers, I have undertaken an action research study (McAteer, 2013; Norton, 2009; and Wells, 2001), beginning with a conviction that it is possible to design assessment tasks which truly integrate professional and academic requirements and influence the learning activity of student teachers in ways which are meaningful for their development as teachers. Using an adaptation of the Ward and McCotter (2004) ‘Reflection Rubric’ to locate characteristics of reflection within the reflective writing submitted for assessment, the study evaluated the relationship between written reflection and academic and professional attainment and found little evidence that engagement in the reflective writing assignment had contributed to the participants’ development as teachers. I conclude that the assessment strategies of students and of the course had been either not aligned or destructively aligned. The thesis narrates my journey to the adoption of a socio-constructivist perspective, leading to greater insight into the relationship between established assessment practice and the learning activity of student teachers, and a questioning of my practice. Crucially, the notion of a ‘framework for assessment’ is broadened to encompass all assignment-related activity, the people involved and the timeframe, in addition to the task and criteria. I conclude by identifying a desire to know more about the national view of assessment in teacher education, seeking a network of colleagues in order to explore ways in which counterparts in other institutions are supporting student teachers to develop reflective practice and assess reflective writing.

Pedagogical discourse in Papua New Guinea (PNG) community schooling is mediated by a western styles education. The daily administration and organisation of school activity, graded teaching and learning, subject selection, content boundaries, teaching and assessment methods are all patterned after western schooling. This educational settlement is part of a legacy of German, British and Australian government and non-government colonialism that officially came to an end in 1975. Given the colonial heritage of schooling in PNG, this study is interested in exploring particular aspects of the degree of mutuality between local discourses and the discourses of a western styled pedagogy in post-colonial times, for the purpose of better informing community school teacher education practices. This research takes place at and in the vicinity of Madang Teachers College, a pre-service community school teachers college on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The research was carried out in the context of the researcher’s employment as a contract lecturer in the English language Department between 1991-1993. As an in-situ study it was influenced by the roles of different participants and the circumstances in which data was gathered and constituted, data which was compatible with participants commitments to community school teacher education and community school teaching and learning. In the exploration of specific pedagogic practices different qualitative research approaches and perspectives were brought to bear in ways best suited to the circumstances of the practice. In this way analytical foci were more dictated by circumstances rather by design. The analytical approach is both a hermeneutic one where participants’ activities are ‘read like texts’, where what is said or written is interpreted against the background of other informing contexts and texts, to better understand how understandings and meanings are produced and circulated; and also a phenomenological one where participants’ perspectives are sought to better understand how pedagogical discursive formations are assimilated with the ‘self’. The effect of shifting between these approaches throughout the study is to build up a sense of co-authorship between researcher and participants in relation to particular aspects of the research. The research explores particular sites where pedagogic discourse is produced, re-produced, distributed, articulated, consumed and contested, and in doing so seeks to better understand what counts as pedagogical discourse. These are sites that are largely unexplored in these terms, in the academic literature on teacher education and community schooling in PNG. As such, they represent gaps in what is documented and understood about the nature of post-colonial pedagogy and teacher training. The first site is a grade two community school class involved in the teaching and early learning of English as the ‘official’ language of instruction. Here local discourses of solidarity and agreement are seen to be mobilised to make meaningful, what are for the teacher and children moments in their construction as post-colonial subjects. What in instructional terms may be seen as an English language lesson becomes, in the light of the research perspectives used, an exercise in the structuring of new social identities, relations and knowings, problematising autonomous views of teaching and learning. The second site explores this issue of autonomous (decontextualised) teaching and learning through an investigation of student teachers’ epistemological contextualisations of knowledge, teaching and learning. What is examined is the way such orientations are constructed in terms of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ epistemological and pedagogical alignments, and, in terms of differently conceived notions of community, in a problematisation of the notion of community schooling. The third and fourth sites examine reflective accounts of student teachers’ pedagogic practices, understandings and subjectivities as they confront the moral and political economies and cultural politics of schooling in School Experiences and Practicum contexts, and show how dominant behaviourist and ‘rational/autonomous’ conceptions of what counts as teaching and learning are problematised in the way some students teachers draw upon wider social discourses to construct a dialogue with learners. The final site is a return to the community school where the discourse of school reports through which teachers, children and parents are constructed as particular subjects of schooling, are explored. Here teachers report children’s progress over a four year period and parents write back in conforming, confronting and contesting ways, in the midst of the ongoing enculturation of their children. In this milieu, schooling is shown to be a provider of differentiated social qualifications rather than a socially just and relevant education. Each of the above-mentioned studies form part of a research and pedagogic interest in understanding the ‘disciplining’ effects of schooling upon teacher education, the particular consequences of those effects, what is embraces, resisted and hidden. Each of the above sites is informed by various ‘intertexts’. The use of intertexts is designed to provide a multiplicity of views, actions and voices while enhancing the process of cross-cultural reading through contextualising the studies in ways that reveal knowledges and practices which are often excluded in more conventional accounts of teaching and learning. This research represents a journey, but not an aimless one. It is one which reads the ideological messages of coherence, impartiality and moral soundness of western pedagogical discourse against the school experiences of student-teachers, teachers, children and parents, in post-colonial Papua New Guinea, and finds them lacking.

Teachers' thinking underpins their actions, in various ways, consciously or nonconsciously, and therefore it is necessary to understand their thinking in order to understand their teaching. Part of such thinking concerns subject knowledge, which is an important, albeit often assumed, feature in professional practice. For primary school teachers who cover the breadth of the National Curriculum there are particular issues. In music, despite frequent reports from Ofsted referring to the good quality of teaching, there still appears to be considerable lack of confidence among such teachers, frequently linked with a perceived lack of subject knowledge. Subject knowledge in music is under-researched in this country and this small-scale study was intended to explore the nature of teachers' beliefs about music in education. In a qualitative case study approach, the teachers in a two-form-entry, inner-city primary school talked individually, in three separate sessions over the course of an academic year, about various aspects of music in education. They also constructed concept maps to represent their thinking. A process of inductive and iterative analysis led to the identification of four main findings concerning enjoyment, the value of music, issues relating to instrumental teaching and the use of schools' broadcasts. These aspects form the basis of a discussion which moves beyond the original research questions to build an orthogonal model that conceptualises and contextualises teachers' thinking within two dimensions representing their professional/non-professional lives and the formal/informal contexts of musical involvement, nested in their beliefs regarding the nature and value of music. It is suggested that this model might also apply to other subjects. There are implications from this study not only for teachers themselves and for the schools in which they work, but also for those involved in supporting student and practising teachers through ITE, INSET and CPD, as well as for policymakers.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:15:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciene Mozzer- 2.pdf: 1903750 bytes, checksum: 73839b3a0c5ad9c2b72e61247c047c32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-11-27 / In the present study we perform an analysis of the new educational paradigms on the phenomenon of expanding technologies, the official recommendations on the incorporation of technology into educational settings and teaching practices. The objectives are researching the discussions about the contributions of technology in educational settings; analyze the skills needed for meaningful teaching activities using educational technology tools available; identify how technological innovation can add value to existing pedagogical actions and its multiple possibilities to improve teaching practice; analyze the reasons why teachers can not aggregate into their routines this kind of pedagogical technologies. We conducted a field research as subjects who had five teachers of Primary Phase 1, Public Institutions (s) and Private (s) in Juiz de Fora city / MG, active in the classroom. For data collection it was applied a questionnaire to identify the personal characteristics and deepening interviews. For the analysis of the interview data it was used the methodology of content analysis, proposed by Bardin (1979) and Franco (2003). The results show the necessary changes in the educational system, and rethinking of teaching education, because today is crucial that teachers must incorporate these kind of technologies in currently practice. Key word: Teaching, Technology, Knowledge Teachers Training. / No presente trabalho realizamos uma análise sobre os novos paradigmas educacionais diante do fenômeno da expansão das tecnologias, as recomendações oficiais sobre a incorporação da tecnologia no contexto educacional e nas práticas docentes. Teve como objetivos pesquisar sobre as discussões acerca das contribuições da tecnologia no contexto educacional; analisar as competências necessárias para uma ação docente significativa utilizando as ferramentas que a tecnologia educacional disponibiliza para o professor; identificar como as inovações tecnológicas podem agregar valores às ações pedagógicas já existentes e suas múltiplas possibilidades de enriquecer a prática docente; analisar as razões pelas quais professores não conseguem agregar em sua rotina pedagógica a tecnologia. Realizamos uma pesquisa de campo que teve como sujeitos cinco professores do Fundamental 1ª fase, de Instituições Públicas(s) e Privadas(s) da cidade de Juiz de Fora/MG, atuantes na sala de aula. Para a coleta de dados aplicamos um questionário para a identificação do perfil dos sujeitos e entrevistas de aprofundamento. Para a análise dos dados das entrevistas utilizamos a metodologia de análise de conteúdo , proposta por Bardin (1979) e Franco (2003). Os resultados obtidos apontam para a necessidade de mudança no sistema educacional, um repensar da formação docente, pois hoje é fundamental que tenhamos professores capazes de incorporarem as tecnologias na prática cotidiana.

Este trabalho se refere a um estudo do curso de Licenciatura em Química da UFPel, no qual buscamos compreender os efeitos das políticas curriculares, das políticas para a iniciação à docência e das avaliações em larga escala, em relação à seleção e organização de conhecimentos considerados necessários para a formação inicial de professores de Química. Foram tomados como corpus de análise as orientações curriculares de acordo com a legislação vigente para cursos de Licenciatura em Química, o Projeto Pedagógico e os planos de ensino das disciplinas do curso de Licenciatura em Química da UFPel, os documentos oficiais referentes ao PIBID e ao ENADE e as falas dos egressos do curso, no período de 2009 a 2011, que responderam a um instrumento de pesquisa e participaram de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Os dados foram analisados segundo pressupostos da Análise Textual Discursiva (MORAES e GALIAZZI, 2011), metodologia de análise de dados que compreende processos de unitarização, categorização e comunicação. O estudo permitiu ver que reestruturações mudaram o desenho curricular e algumas concepções sobre o referido curso, mas não, necessariamente, as práticas dos professores formadores. Com relação aos conhecimentos validados para a formação dos professores de Química, destacam-se os efeitos do PIBID no currículo do curso, pela proposição de ações que possibilitam pensar outra lógica curricular e, também, os efeitos do ENADE, pois independentemente de sua finalidade, que era avaliar o desempenho dos estudantes e agora serve como instrumento de avaliação institucional, os processos de avaliação em larga escala definem e validam conhecimentos e disciplinas em cursos de graduação, tal como pensamos ocorrer com o curso pesquisado. / This paper refers to a study of the Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry from UFPel, in which we search to understand the effects of curriculum policies, policies for initiation to teaching and large-scale assessments in relation to the selection and organization of knowledge considered necessary for the initial training of teachers of Chemistry. Curriculum guidelines in accordance with current legislation for undergraduate courses in chemistry were taken as part of analysis, the Pedagogical Project and plans for teaching the disciplines of Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry UFPel, official documents pertaining to PIBID and ENADE and the speeches of the graduates of the course, in the period from 2009 to 2011, who responded to a survey instrument and participated in a semistructured interview. Data were analyzed according to the assumptions Textual Discourse Analysis (MORAES and GALIAZZI, 2011), data analysis methodology that includes process unitarization, categorization and communication. The study allowed to see that restructuring changed the curriculum design and some views on that course, but not necessarily the practices of teacher educators. With respect to knowledge validated for the training of teachers of chemistry, we highlight the effects of PIBID the course curriculum, by proposing actions that enable other curricular logical thinking and also the effects of ENADE because regardless of its purpose, which was to assess the performance of students and now serves as an instrument for institutional assessment, evaluation procedures largely define and validate knowledge and disciplines in undergraduate courses, as we think occur with the course researched.

Submitted by Alex Ribeiro Batista (alexrb10@gmail.com) on 2018-06-18T22:40:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Versão Final para repositório.pdf: 3004599 bytes, checksum: f4bee4cee37b8cdc7ea049c1d33c5551 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Claudia Adriana Spindola null (claudia@fct.unesp.br) on 2018-06-19T11:24:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 batista_ar_me_prud.pdf: 3004599 bytes, checksum: f4bee4cee37b8cdc7ea049c1d33c5551 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-19T11:24:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 batista_ar_me_prud.pdf: 3004599 bytes, checksum: f4bee4cee37b8cdc7ea049c1d33c5551 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-27 / A presente pesquisa vincula-se à Linha de Pesquisa “PROCESSOS FORMATIVOS, ENSINO E APRENDIZAGEM” do programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da FCT/UNESP (Presidente Prudente- SP). Ela tem como objetivo geral caracterizar as concepções e práticas relatadas pelos docentes das licenciaturas em Matemática de Presidente Prudente (SP). As percepções e os conhecimentos relacionam-se à formação de futuros professores e pretendem analisar como tais elementos se relacionam com o perfil de formação de professor, do qual o projeto pedagógico dos cursos em análise traçou as linhas mestras. A pesquisa desenvolveu-se com abordagem qualitativa de caráter descritivo-explicativo, cujos sujeitos são 17(dezessete) professores formadores de dois cursos de licenciatura em Matemática na cidade, um deles estabelecido em uma instituição particular (Curso I) e o outro em uma universidade pública (Curso II). Para tanto, analisamos os Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos das instituições, bem como fizemos um levantamento do perfil, das concepções e das práticas dos formadores por meio de questionários e entrevistas. Os dados foram levantados através de análise de conteúdo por tema. Os resultados apontaram que o perfil dos formadores investigados caracteriza-se como homogêneo, já que muitos deles estudaram em escola pública durante a Educação Básica, realizaram cursos de graduação e pós-graduação em instituições públicas e sempre gostaram de Matemática. Quanto ao ingresso na carreira universitária há diferenças. No caso da universidade pública, isso se dá por concurso e no caso da instituição particular por convite baseados nos currículo dos professores. No caso da experiência na Educação Básica, parte dos docentes do Curso I atuaram nesse nível de ensino, enquanto no Curso II, poucos atuaram. A maioria dos formadores não realiza pesquisas na área de Educação Matemática. Tanto as concepções dos formadores sobre a formação de professores de Matemática, quanto a ideia de professor para atuar na Educação Básica demonstra-se difusas e parciais, sendo o licenciando considerado como principal obstáculo para a realização do que é previsto nos Projetos Político Pedagógico dos cursos em que atuam. Apesar de acreditarem que o perfil do curso em que trabalham está mais voltado para a Educação Básica, os formadores concebem um perfil de professor fragmentado, em que se delineia uma dicotomia entre as dimensões da formação docente. Exceto no caso dos professores da área pedagógica, não há uma concepção, por parte dos professores da área específica. Entre eles, avoluma-se a percepção de que o projeto do curso como um todo é o responsável pela formação docente e não um dos seus aspectos isoladamente. Os resultados da pesquisa também revelaram que, na opinião dos formadores, o desprestígio das licenciaturas manifesta-se tanto de ordem acadêmica, quanto social. Por fim, no que concerne aos desafios para os cursos de licenciatura, os formadores apontaram que eles são inerentes à passagem dos licenciandos em professores. / This research is linked to the Research Line “PROCESSOS FORMATIVOS, ENSINO E APRENDIZAGEM” of the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da FCT/UNESP (Presidente Prudente- SP). Its main goal is to characterize the conceptions and the practices reported by the teachers who work in the courses of degree in Mathematics from Presidente Prudente (SP). The perceptions and knowledge are related to the training of future teachers and intend to analyze how these elements relate to the teacher training profile, whose master lines were traced by the Political-Pedagogic Projects of the analyzed courses. The research was developed with a qualitative approach of a descriptive-explanatory character, whose participants are 17 (seventeen) training teachers who work in two courses of degree in Mathematics in this town, one of them established in a private institute (Course I) and the other in a public university (Course II). To do so, we analyzed the Political-Pedagogic Projects of each institution and we did a survey of the profile, conceptions and practices of the training teachers using questionnaire and interviews. The data were collected through content analysis by theme. The results showed that the profile of the investigated training teachers characterizes as homogeneous, once lots of them studied in public schools during the Basic Education, graduated and post graduated in public institutions and always liked Mathematics. Regarding to the way they started in the university career, there are differences. In the public university case, the only way is to apply for a civil service examination and, in the private institution case, an invitation based on the teachers‟ resume is required. Regarding the experience in the Basic Education, part of the teachers from the Course I acted in this level, while in the Course II, a few did. Most part of the training teachers doesn‟t do research in the field Mathematical Education. The conceptions of the training teachers about the formation of Mathematics teachers and the idea of teachers acting in Basic education are both diffuse and partial. Their students are considered the main obstacle to the accomplishment of what is predicted in the Political-Pedagogic Projects of the courses in which they work. Despite believing that the profile of the course in which they work is more focused to the Basic Education, the training teachers devise a fragmented teacher profile, which outlines a dichotomy between the dimensions of teacher education. Except in the case of teachers of the pedagogical area, there is no conception, on the part of the teachers of the specific area. Among them, the perception that the project of the course as a whole is responsible for the teacher training and not one of its aspects in isolation grows. The results of the research also reveal that, in the training teachers‟ opinion, the discredit of the degree courses is manifested in academic order as well as social. Finally, with regard to the challenges for degree courses, the training teachers pointed out that they are inherent to the passage of the students into teachers.