This study was prompted by the researcher’s concern that the gender equity imperative within the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, and within national curriculum policy in South Africa is being sidelined in school History teaching for various reasons, the most significant of which is argued to be lack of awareness of the constitutive nature of discourse within language. The main aim of the study is to investigate whether a feminist post-structuralist approach to History teaching, which focuses on multiple perspectives and open interpretation, within the framework of six key aspects of critical media education, can open up space for female voices of the past and present in order to reconstruct realist historical narratives. The literature review reflects research relating to theories which have been seminal in the development of feminist post-structuralism. The qualitative research design entails a data collection instrument which focuses on denotative and connotative analysis of textual samples selected from Grade 10 schools History textbooks used for this investigation. Data collection relates to content analysis, narrative theory, textually-oriented discourse analysis, and gender-biased language with regard to images and print. To establish the category into which each textual sample falls, individual data counts have been undertaken. A detailed analysis process reveals that all nine of the textual samples are of the conforming type which do not question patriarchal gender construction.The study offers suggestions regarding the implementation of feminist post-structuralist strategies within the context of Grade 10 outcomes-based History teaching, which is compliant with South Africa’s national curriculum policy. Notwithstanding the gaze upon the problematising of discursive gender representation in Grade 10 History teaching resources used in South African public schools, this study argues that the results have wide application across grades, levels, learning areas and subjects which are part of South Africa’s national curriculum. The researcher therefore suggests that this study offers a positive contribution to equitable gender relations in the History classroom, in education generally, and in South Africa as a whole. / Didactics / D. Ed.

The main objectives of this research were to determine the perspectives of South Korean educators regarding the inclusion of environmental education into the curriculum of South Korean schools and to establish the educators’ level of knowledge of environmental education. The research was conducted using a translated questionnaire, which was administered to the educators. The findings of the research showed that few South Korean educators have had any training in environmental education. While most have had no exposure to environmental education it was found that they would appreciate training in the subject. The study highlights the importance of, and discusses the implementation of, environmental education in some Asian countries, as well as the constraints experienced during implementation. On the basis of the research findings, it is recommended that South Korea draw on the knowledge of other countries in both improving the current curriculum so as to include environmental education at all levels, and in the professional development of its educators, in order to bring about the effective inclusion and implementation of environmental education in South Korean schools. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)

South Africa has recently made a significant move towards support for deaf learners in inclusive education settings. Educators in inclusive classrooms are considered primary resources for the development of the strengths and competencies of these learners. Successful inclusion of deaf learners often depends on the skills of classroom educators. Nevertheless, educators often have little or no knowledge regarding support for deaf learners in inclusive classrooms. The experiences of deaf learners were investigated in order to understand the unique needs of these learners. The aim of the research was to add bottom-up approaches to the range of curriculum adaptations necessary to support deaf high school learners within inclusive education in South Africa. A mixed methods approach was employed, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in a triangulation research design. The findings that emanated from the quantitative research served to complement the findings from the qualitative study. The results of the empirical study were supported by the literature review to formulate practical guidelines for assisting educators to accommodate the curriculum in order to support deaf learners. These guidelines might enable educators to respond positively to the needs of deaf learners and ensure that their inclusion in the regular school is successful. / Inclusive Education / D. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

The aim of this research is of limited scope; it intended to examine how secondary school teachers experience the implementation of the competency-based curriculum in Tanzania. The study employed a descriptive case study design where eight participants provided in-depth data through face-to-face interviews, non-participant observation and document analysis. The in-depth data was gathered in natural school settings, an aspect which enhanced the study’s validity. After transcribing the interviews, an open coding process was undertaken and a theme comparison approach applied. The findings indicated that the participants had a limited understanding of the curriculum: they were happy in their teaching profession regardless of competence-based curriculum challenges; they were experiencing multiple challenges, the key ones being lack of participation in curriculum design and implementation; lack of quality text books and lastly, they were not motivated to implement the competency- based curriculum. The study concludes by providing relevant recommendations to various stakeholders including the teachers themselves, the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE), the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government (MORALG). / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Orientador: Dario Fiorentini / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T19:10:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Melo_JoseRonaldo_D.pdf: 1682673 bytes, checksum: 97695c8b182307a564faabddcd32960e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Neste estudo, investigamos como uma comunidade aprende e transforma suas práticas, sobretudo seus discursos e saberes sobre formação de professores de matemática num contexto de mudanças curriculares. A pesquisa foi realizada com a comunidade de professores e alunos que atuam no curso de formação de professores de matemática para Educação Básica da Universidade Federal do Acre (Ufac). Utilizamos como fontes de informações e obtenção de dados a abordagem metodológica, biografias de histórias de vida de professores e entrevistas realizadas com alunos, que foram analisadas a partir de uma aproximação da formação inicial e continuada do formador ao conceito de aprendizagem como participação em comunidades de prática. Essa análise foi, também, aprofundada a partir da perspectiva das relações de poder-saber presentes nos estudos foucaultianos. Para além dos objetivos relacionados inicialmente neste estudo, as narrativas de história de vida dos professores formadores, assim como as perspectivas teóricas adotadas, contribuíram, de um lado, para promover uma multiplicidade de possibilidades de se pensar a formação do formador e, de outro, para constituir um recurso valioso para as reflexões, análise e compreensão das práticas dos sujeitos pertencentes à comunidade estudada e que têm como referência as práticas de outras comunidades. Os resultados deste estudo apontam alguns caminhos de como os professores formadores são histórica e socialmente constituídos a partir dessas e nessas práticas, ocupando uma dupla posição: de sujeito enquanto objeto de si mesmo e de sujeito enquanto sujeitável ao poder disciplinar. Além disso, foi possível perceber que o currículo praticado nas instituições formadoras é de algum modo construído cotidianamente por todos que o compõem, e nesse processo, os sujeitos evidenciam suas crenças e deixam também suas marcas. Assim, os discursos que os professores formadores fazem circular parecem produzir efeitos e verdades que ultrapassam os domínios da sua atuação e se disseminam no espaço acadêmico, constituindo também o olhar e as práticas dos alunos em processo de formação, indicando que, apesar de todos os outros discursos que circulam no campo formativo, faz-se necessário para nós, enquanto pesquisador e professor formador, o desafio de encarar o desafio de provocar deslocamentos que, a partir de outros espaços e lugares, possibilitem lançar outros olhares em relação ao professor formador e sua formação, abrindo também a possibilidade de introduzir, nas práticas de formação docente, outras experiências, outros currículos, outras estratégias formadoras que, de algum modo, possam efetivamente contribuir para mudança da qualidade da formação do professor de matemática. / Abstract: In this study we investigate how a community of professors and students learn and transform their practices, especially their discourses and knowledge about teacher formation in a context of curriculum changes. The research had as subjects professors and students involved in the undergraduate course of mathematics for teachers of basic education offered by the Federal University of Acre. We employed the methodological approach of biographies of life histories to obtain information and data which were analyzed according to the concept of learning as participation in a community of practice focusing on initial and continued teacher's formation. The analyses also considered the perspectives of the power-knowledge relation present in Foucault's writings. Beyond the objectives initially established for this study, the narratives of life histories of the formation professors as well as the theoretical perspectives adopted contributed, for one, to uncover a multiplicity of possibilities of assessing the professor's own formation and, for the other, to build up a valuable resource for reflections, analyses, and understanding of practices, knowledge and learning of those subjects considered as members of the researched community which take as reference the practices of other communities. The results of the study point to some ways to understand how professors are historically and socially constituted by and in those practices, occupying a double position: subject as object of himself/herself, and subject as subjected to the disciplinary power. Moreover, they allowed the perception that the curriculum adopted in the formation institution is somehow daily built by all the subjects and that in this process they show their beliefs and leave their marks. Thus, the discourses that formation professors set in motion seem to produce effects and truths that move beyond their professional domains and disseminate in the academic environment also conforming the views and practices of students in the formation process; this indicates that, despite all the other discourses circulating in the formation field, it is necessary for us as researchers and formation professors to face the challenge of provoking dislocations which, from other spaces and places, would permit different views of the formation professors and their formation; that could open new avenues to introduce, in the teacher formation practices, other experiences, other curricula, other formation strategies which may contribute for a change in the mathematics teacher's formation. / Doutorado / Educação Matematica / Doutor em Educação

At Technikon Witwatersrand, Business Communication is offered as a service subject, which is compulsory for a variety of diplomas and the majority of students are obligated to do the course. Its broad intention is to assist students in developing their proficiency in English, enabling them to cope with studying at Technikon and preparing them for the workplace. Despite the fact that the course is designed to assist them, many students question why they have to do the course and whether it is simply a repetition of high school work. The study attempts to examine the implicit and explicit goals of Business Communication, to explore the process through which the goals have been developed and changed over the years (i.e. how the goals have been constructed), and to elicit and compare the perspectives of the different stakeholder groups as to the goals. Both a qualitative and a quantitative approach are used in the research design. Interviews with four fulltime lecturers were conducted and a self-designed questionnaire was administered to students. These were the main means of data collection. The data reveals that the goals of Business Communication are implied rather than explicit. Despite this, students and lecturers see the course as important. Recommendations are made to help the Department of Business Communication to reflect on their practice with particular emphasis given to material development and the application of OBE principles.

This study was conducted in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, South Mrica. Triggered by the demands of South Mrican post-apartheid curriculum transformation, the study focused on establishing a sustainable science teachers' trans formative and continuous professional development (TTCPD) network with the view to improving their practice. It is premised on the assumption that teachers are capable of taking responsibility for their own professional development. It is a case study carried over a period offour years with a group of eight teachers. Rooted in the socially critical-emancipatory orientation in conjunction with the participatory action research approach, and located in the qualitative and interpretive research paradigms, it focuses on doing research in democratic and egalitarian ways through working with teachers rather than on them. Such a stance supposes a collaborative partnership and a dialogic relationship viewed as being both reciprocal and mutually enriching for the teachers who were seen as co-learners and co-researchers in this study. Two main goals of the study may be identified. For the first goal, the actors in this study established a sustainable and participative approach to professional development. This was explored through the formation of a TTCPD network which was informed by the actor-network theory framework. Our focus was on co-construction of scientific knowledge utilising the development and adaptation of learning and teaching support materials (LTSMs) as a catalyst to drive the process. The second goal was to examine how the TTCPD network enhanced the teachers' subject-content knowledge, pedagogical-content knowledge as well as individual and collaborative reflections. The research process evolved into three mam phases: The initial phase involved adapting and modifying LTSMs which were initially used in conjunction with microscale science kits and pilot tested with a group of Grade 10 students. This led to the second phase of the research project, which was aimed at gaining insights into the science teachers' capabilities in developing teaching and learning units of work. ii \ The second phase focused on the development of a collaborative orientation to the development of LTSMs and culminated in the formation of sub-networks responsible for certain tasks within the broader network. AB common ground, we focused on developing teaching and learning units of work on the following science topics: electrostatics, electricity, and electrochemistry, to illuminate and foster integration within science. The third phase was concerned with gaining insights into the science teachers' practice in their classrooms. This phase focused on putting theory into practice through the collaborative implementation of teaching and learning units of work. Feedback on the lessons was discussed during our workshops as an attempt to further enhance collaborative reflections. Data was generated usmg workshop discussions with reflective notes; active interviews; focus group discussions; co-teaching, participant observation and videotaped lessons with reflective notes; and a research journal. A variety of data generation techniques were employed to enhance validity and quality of the research. Techniques for validation and trustworthiness of data included triangulation; member checks orface validity; prolonged engagement; catalytic validity and peer validation. The study exposed the underlying historical, ideological and epistemological contradictions of the teachers' past educational backgrounds. It emerged that the ways in which they were taught were at times an inhibitor to innovativeness, perpetuating transmissive approaches to teaching and learning. Lack of professional development and support, and the tensions between policy formulation and implementation exacerbated this. Reflections from the teachers' experiences further revealed that, for teachers to be effective agents of change in the reform process, empowerment opportunities are vital. AB a result, exposure to the TTCPD network was useful in capacitating the teachers with the development of LTSMs, which led to the enhancement of their pedagogical, and science content knowledge conceptual development as well as collaborative reflections.The main findings of this study is that, science teachers' transformative and continuous professional development based on participative approaches and mutual collegial support are indispensable, and that teachers' socio-cultural contexts and experiences should be taken into consideration during this process. Teachers should be regarded as central in the process, and mutual respect and dialogical relationships are pivotal. A further recommendation of this study is that capacity-building is critical for quality teaching and learning, and there is a need to move beyond the rhetoric of complacency to pro-activism, supporting ongoing development of teachers in professional transformative networks. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

This study examines the role of academic literacies and academic-writing practices at two diverse South African senior secondary schools and the implications that these practices have for academic-literacy teaching in Higher Education (HE). As student academic writing is central to teaching, learning and assessment in HE, learner academic-writing standards at schools will often impact on academic success in HE. This is a concern for HE as research from South African schooling contexts have found that students from secondary schools are seldom equipped to cope with the demands of HE writing practices. In addition, the introduction of a new curriculum (National Curriculum Statement – NCS) based on the principles of the South African constitution and informed by the Bill of Rights, impacted for the first time on senior secondary schools in 2006, when it was implemented in grade 10, and HE received its first cohort of matriculants with an NCS educational background in 2009. Therefore, this study specifically explores teachers' writing practices within an NCS writing-practice design for grades 11 and 12, and assesses its current implications for academic-writing practices in HE. Critical ethnography was selected as the primary methodology as it is concerned with multiple perspectives and explores local-practice contexts. Therefore, it provides a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices by examining the participants' writing-practice perceptions, observing their teaching practices and analysing their written responses or feedback to first and final drafts. The data/study sample consisted of three grades 11 and one grade 12 English Home Language and English First Additional Language teachers as well as selected learners from two secondary schools in the Port Elizabeth district. The data was collected by means of classroom observations, teacher interviews and learner samples of academic writing. Although this study focused on the teaching of academic writing by the four teachers, literacy understandings were also explored by describing what literacy practices subjectively meant to the four teachers by determining the meanings they collectively and individually gave to dominant literacy practices in academic writing, especially feedback practices in text production. A detailed examination of the new NCS requirements suggest that it offers an understanding of knowledge as a social construct, advocates a multiple literacies approach to teaching and learning, and allows for a process approach to cognitively-demanding writing which takes cognisance of the rhetorical, social and cultural dimensions of literacy. Collectively, the ASs in LO3 reflect a process approach to writing, from planning, drafting, feedback, revision to presentation of the final text. It also considers the specific rhetorical dimensions of purpose, audience, and context. Therefore, these NCS writing practices should benefit learners advancing to HE. This study argues that if teachers in secondary schools were to adhere more closely to the NCS's LO3 and its ASs implementation guidelines, learners would be better prepared to cope with HE academic-writing requirements. Instead, the study found that the teachers tended to reduce writing practices to the mastery of discrete sets of technical skills with a focus on surface features of language like spelling and grammar. In addition, the study found that when the teachers' perceptions of the NCS and their own classroom-writing practices were explored, they tended to resist a social-practice approach to academic writing, and, as a result, mostly adapted LO3 of the NCS rather than adopting it as intended by the policy-makers. Similar to other South African studies, this study concludes that teachers remain largely rooted in their autonomous teaching practices favouring traditional methods with which they are familiar over curricula policies which could emancipate learners toward levels of achievement which would better prepare them for both HE and the world of work. In other words, teachers in the sample tend to conserve their traditional methodologies which are predominantly informed by deficit views of learners‟ problems, selectively including new policy requirements which create the impression of compliance, rather than fundamentally altering their approaches pedagogically in the classroom and their academic-writing practices in particular.

Since 1994, the educational landscape in South Africa has been subjected to on-going policy changes. The national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which has been promulgated recently, is the third version of a post-apartheid national school curriculum. Teachers, in particular, fulfil critical roles as change agents during a process of educational transformation, as they need to facilitate the change by implementing the new national school curriculum. This study aimed to ascertain teacher experiences of continuous curriculum change, by focusing in particular on the views of selected FET teachers. Focus group interviews were conducted with teachers employed at secondary schools in an urban township in the Eastern Cape. The data revealed that the teachers‟ responses could be categorised into four broad themes, namely CAPS itself, the learners in relation to CAPS, the teacher in relation to CAPS and the Department of Education in relation to CAPS. Despite several frustrations and uncertainties, it was clear that the teachers wanted to assume agency as they expressed a commitment towards change and a willingness to implement CAPS to the best of their ability. This study however concludes that the FET teachers who participated struggled to assume full agency, due to restrictive and disabling conditions which are mostly beyond their control.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The purpose of this study was therefore to address the following primary research question: ‘What effect would a specially designed, developed, implemented and evaluated Material Science (MS) course have on serving teachers in terms of their perceptions and knowledge/understanding regarding content in MS and instructional practice in D&T?’