Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current intervention programmes implemented in most Western Cape schools reflect the use of isolated item-based literacy teaching methods. However, the low literacy levels in the Western Cape primary grades do not indicate successful literacy learning. Therefore, this study seeks to implement alternative approaches to fostering literacy comprehension, such as socio-cognitive processing and constructivist approaches, which are more in line with current research than the traditional items based models of literacy instruction. The alternative, research-based methods were explored through the implementation of an individualized contingent literacy intervention with emergent literacy learners. The intervention took shape as a comparison between low progress learners, who participated in the literacy intervention lessons, and average progress learners, who did not participate in the literacy intervention lessons. The aim was to accelerate the low progress learners’ literacy learning so that they could reach the average-band performance of their classmates after 12 weeks in the intervention. Data were gathered by means of observations of learners and a Grade one teacher, an interview with the teacher and assessment results obtained in a pre-mid-post-test design. In order to triangulate the results of the intervention, both qualitative data and quantitative data were obtained and discussed. Based on qualitative data, the intervention lessons proved to be successful, because observations indicated positive change in the low progress learners’ reading and writing behaviours. Given the small sample size, the overall trend in the quantitative data supported the value of the intervention and indicated a need for extending the research beyond a pilot study. Further research using larger sample sizes is thus recommended. More research is also needed to obtain data on research-based interventions that are flexible enough to meet the diverse needs of learners from different cultural backgrounds. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die meerderheid Wes-Kaapse skole maak gebruik van intervensie programme wat geskoei is op die geïsoleerde item-geletterdheidsmetodes. Die lae geletterdheidsvlakke in die Wes- Kaapse laerskool grade reflekteer egter nie positief op die metode wat tans gebruik word nie. Daarom word hierdie studie onderneem met die oog op alternatiewe benaderings om geletterdheid te bevorder en sodoende verbeterde leesbegrip tot gevolg sal hê. Die benaderings ter sprake is sosio-kognitiewe prossessering en konstruktivistiese benaderings, wat beide meer in gehoor is met huidge navorsing. Deur alternatiwe navorsingsgebaseerde metodes, is ‘n individuele geletterdheid-intervensie program ontwikkel vir ontluikende geletterdheidsleerders. Die intervensie is geïmplementeer en gemeet deur middel van ‘n vergelyking tussen stadig vorderende leerders en gemiddeld vorderende leerders, waarvan laasgenoemde nie in die intervensie lesse deelgeneem het nie. Sodoende kan die impak onafhanklik vergelyk word. Die doel was om die stadig vorderende leerders se geletterdheidsvlak te versnel ten einde dieselfde geletterdheidsvlak van hul gemiddeld vorderende klasmaats binne 12 weke te behaal. Data is ingesamel deur middel van observasies van die leerders en ‘n Graad 1 juffrou, ‘n onderhoud met die juffrou en toetsresultate verkry in ‘n voor-middel-na-toets ontwerp. Om die resultate van die intervensie interpreteerbaar te vergelyk, is beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe data ingesamel en bespreek. Uit die kwalitatiewe data blyk dit dat die intervensie lesse suksesvol was aangesien die observasies dui op ‘n positiewe lees en skryf gedragsverandering in die stadig vorderende leerders. Met die klein steekproef van leerders betrokke, was die algemene tendens van die kwantitatiewe data dat die intervensie wel waardevol was, maar dat verdere studies met groter steekproef groepe noodsaaklik is. Verdere navorsing t.o.v. die insameling van data vir navorsingsgebaseerde intervensies is nodig. Hierdie data insameling en evaluasie tegnieke moet die diverse behoeftes van leerders, afkomstig van ‘n verskeidenheid agtergronde, in ag neem en akkomodeer om resultate vergelykbaar te maak.

Environmental and sustainability issues prevail in modern society. Southern Africa, where this study is based, is one of the regions most at risk from intersecting issues of climate health risk, and poverty-related ills. Education has the potential to facilitate catalytic transformation of society through development of understandings of these intersecting environment and sustainability concerns, and to support engagements in more sustainable social practices oriented towards the common good. This requires a rethinking of education within a wider common good frame. It also has implications for how quality education is considered. However, little is said of how this could be done, especially in teacher education. The paper shares two cases of teacher educators’ change project experiences, as they emerged via professional development support and the mediatory processes applied in courses conducted by the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC REEP) aimed at enhancing professional capacity of teacher educators and other environmental educators for mainstreaming environment and sustainability education (ESE)1. These courses are framed using a change project approach, and involve teacher educators as main participants. In-depth data were generated from interviews with two teacher educators, their assignment write-ups, and observations of their teacher education practice. Realist social theory, particularly the principle of emergence, was used to trace the emergence of change in teacher education practice. Sociocultural learning theory was used to explain mediation of learning-oriented changes in teacher education practice. We illustrate how the change project model and approach contributed to mediating change in practice, showing emergent attributes of capacity for mainstreaming ESE and elements of a concept of quality education among course participants oriented towards the common good. In conclusion, we argue that ESE seems to be a sensitising construct for initiating and sustaining change for ESE in teacher education. In addition, the change project has proved to be a potential vehicle for mainstreaming the notion and practice of ESE into social systems and teacher education practices. We argue that reflexive ESE praxis provides a sensitising focus, initiating quality education with humanising properties necessary for the common good.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att utforma ett kursupplägg till A-kursen i historia pågymnasiet som utgår från perioden 1900-2009. Vi ville undersöka om man genom ett sådantupplägg kunde uppnå kursmålen och samtidigt skapa ett bra underlag för att fördjupahistoriemedvetandet hos eleven. Historiemedvetande och genealogi var två centrala teoretiskabegrepp i utformandet och utvärderingen av upplägget. I kursupplägget arbetar vi oss framåtgenetiskt från år 1900 och gör genealogiska kopplingar till den tidigare historien. Perioden1900-2009 delades in i 10 arbetsområden, där viktiga händelser och skeenden behandlades,och utifrån vilka genealogiska kopplingar gjordes. Vi fann att samtliga kursmål för historia Abör kunna uppnås med detta upplägg. Genom att fokusera på nutidsperspektivet i elevenshistoriemedvetande tror vi också att de övriga perspektiven förstärks, vilket förhoppningsvisleder till ett fördjupat historiemedvetande. De genealogiska kopplingarna i vårt kursuppläggtror vi förtydligar sambandet mellan nutid och dåtid och stärker den enskilde elevensuppfattning om sig själv och sin plats i historien. / The aim of this thesis was to construct an outline for the A-course in history in senior highschools, focusing on the period 1900-2009. We wanted to investigate if such an outline couldachieve the aims for the course and deepen the history awareness of the students. In theoutline we work forward genetically from the year 1900 and make genealogical connectionsto the earlier history. History awareness and genealogy were important concepts in theconstruction and evaluation of the outline. The period 1900-2099 was divided into 10 studyareas, where essential events and developments were touched on and from which genealogicalconnections were made. We found that all the aims of the History A-course should beachieved with this outline. By focusing on the present perspective in the history awareness ofthe students we believe that the other perspectives are improved as well, which hopefullyleads to deepened history awareness. We believe that the genealogical connections in ouroutline clarify the link between the present and the past and increase the individual student’sconception of herself and her place in history.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has emerged as a concept in education that aims to promote values, knowledge, and skills necessary for individuals to contribute toward a sustainable future. In recent years, I have grown increasingly interested in understanding the role of sustainability in the future of art education. In this interview-based study, I examined the insights and professional trajectory of five art educators and five scholars. The narratives collected from the interviews and the supporting literature and documents formed a detailed profile of each participant that served as a framework for understanding their worldviews, backgrounds, and motivations. Aside the personal profiles that I was able to construct, I cross-studied the conceptualizations of the participants in (a) their definition of sustainability as a self-standing concept in art education, (b) their thinking about ideologies and paradigms of our time, (c) their thinking about the materials artists and art students use for expressive purposes, (d) the sustainability of our artistic and cultural practices, (e) the knowledge they highlighted that art educators need or desire, and (f) their opinions about the availability of resources and knowledge about art and sustainability to art educators.

This study was originally undertaken to change and improve the way I do my practice at Walter Sisulu University as a Research Associate whose responsibility is to facilitate research capacity development and research excellence within the University, amongst academics and postgraduate students. The success of the Research Resource Centre that I manage depends on the way I promote research culture and research productivity amongst academics and postgraduate students. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2013, p. 2), research is a systematic process that is used to collect, analyse, and interpret data in order to increase my understanding of the phenomenon about interest and concern about a given/identified phenomenon. In this case my own practice changed and improved for the better. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to examine the reasons behind the decline in research productivity in terms of research output and how this could be reversed through action research study intervention in order to enhance research productivity at Walter Sisulu University (WSU). The Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) allocation of research output units for WSU indicated that there was a decline in research output from 2005 to 2010. The extent to which my practice improvement could contribute towards changing or improving research productivity was a question which this study addressed through a quantitative, qualitative and self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry. I organized sample strategies of this study as follows: For quantitative data, I used 120 lecturers as my respondents through questionnaires (females = 47 and males = 73) who were randomly selected; For qualitative data, I used 24 lecturers as respondents who were randomly selected with whom I conducted interviews; and For self-reflective action research cyclic inquiry I used 7 Transformative Education/al Studies (TES) project group members as my focus group. My research findings concluded that the heavy teaching workload at WSU was problematic and lecturers/academics could not devote time to do research. My recommendation is that research should be made compulsory so that academics become aware that at least one or two published articles are required from them, for the benefit of annual university research productivity. Some research participants also recommended that the Research Resource Centre must include programs that focus directly on active participation in research in order to increase the capacity of individual researchers so as to build a critical mass of competent researchers, perhaps by even including incentives as a reward for doing research. According to Koshy (2010), action research is a specific method of conducting research by professionals and practitioners with the ultimate aim of improving practice. My new knowledge, therefore, in respect of how a concerned Research Associate, from a Historically Disadvantaged Institution (HDI), provided the impetus to create a collaborative practice in a higher education institution which was forced to merge with two former technikons (which lacked understanding of what a university means by research productivity and research output). I consequently developed the Nkosinathi Sotshangane’s cyclic practice improvement model through self-reflective action research, from which I believed other research practitioners could learn by doing something similar in their own context.