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The purpose of the study was to analyze the objectives of the first grade program as they appeared in the different subjects in ten state courses of study, in order to find common agreements as to a desirable first grade program.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates teachers' language practices in multilingual classrooms with regard to their attitudes, skills and strategies in their management of linguistic diversity among learners in their first year of primary school. Both the critical interpretive theoretical paradigm adopted and the qualitative research approach employed in the execution of the study presupposed gathering rich data, which a case study design of research assured. The data for the study was gathered from four year one classrooms purposively selected based on parameters that were deemed of interest in this study. These included, but were not limited to, the location of the school, the linguistic diversity among learners in the classrooms and the literacy traditions of the first languages spoken by the learners in the target classrooms. Although the specific context provided real input to the study, the findings may be relevant to language-in-education issues in many other African countries, and even in multilingual communities beyond. The study reveals yawning discrepancies between language policy and practice; between teachers' beliefs about linguistic diversity and their actual language behaviour in the classrooms; and between the definitions of mother tongue provided by the Ministry of Education and teachers' re-interpretations of these definitions in the various contexts studied. The study further indicates that teachers are working in an environment that is not supportive of effective policy implementation. This very limited policy implementation support is reflected in teacher training and preparation, teacher placement criteria, text book production and school examinations. This study indicates that even a sound understanding of linguistic diversity among teachers and their best intentions to give learners a sound foundation, is only the beginning of literacy development of young learners in Kenya. It recommends a new and incisive look at critical aspects of the education system in an effort to synchronise the different levels at which policy and practice need to meet. Various well-informed choices need to be made in the creation of a supportive environment for effective policy implementation. This should include among other things a change in the language-in-education policy to move away from early-exit to late-exit mother tongue education, and more first language maintenance in bilingual or multilingual classrooms. If learners are to benefit from mother tongue instruction in line with current research in the field, much needs to be done. Based on the insights gained in this study, a revision of teacher education curricula to include the management of linguistically diverse learners and improved language awareness is suggested, as is flexible curriculum delivery, scrapping of formal examinations in the early years and introduction of alternative assessment methods in these levels. In later years, bilingual (in some cases even multilingual) tests are bound to lower the drop-out rate and produce more understanding and less rote learning. The aim should be to assure multilingual, multiliteracy development and academic achievement for all learners regardless of their particular linguistic backgrounds. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek onderwysers se taalpraktyke in veeltalige klaskamers ten opsigte van hulle houdings, vaardighede en strategieë in die hantering van talige diversiteit onder leerders in hulle eerste jaar van primêre onderrig. Sowel die vertolkende teoretiese paradigma wat gevolg word as die kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering wat die studie aanneem, het daarop gereken dat ingesamelde data ryk sou wees aan inligting; die navorsingsontwerp, naamlik dié van gevallestudie, verseker die verkryging van sulke data. Die studie is gebasseer op inligting wat ingesamel is in vier klaskamers van leerlinge in die eerste skooljaar. Die betrokke navorsingsterreine is telkens doelbewus gekies op grond van die parameters wat belangrik was vir die studie. Dit sluit in, maar is nie beperk tot, die ligging van die skool, die talige diversiteit van die leerders in die klaskamers en die geletterdheidstradisies van die onderskeie eerstetale van die leerders in die geteikende klaskamers. Alhoewel hierdie spesifieke konteks verseker het dat die studie in 'n werklike situasie geanker is, is die bevindinge waarskynlik relevant tov taal-in-onderrig kwessies in verskeie ander Afrikalande, en selfs ook in veeltalige gemeenskappe elders. Hierdie studie onthul gapende ongerymdhede in die verhouding tussen taalbeleid en praktyk; tussen onderwysers se oortuigings rakende talige diversiteit en hulle werklike taalgebruik in die klaskamers; en tussen die omskrywings van moedertaal wat deur die Ministerie van Onderwys voorsien word en die onderwysers se herinterpretasie van hierdie omskrywings binne die verskillende kontekste wat ondersoek word. Die studie dui verder daarop dat onderwysers in ʼn omgewing werk wat nie die effektiewe implementering van beleid ondersteun nie. Sodanige beperkte ondersteuning in die implementering van die beleid word weerspiëel in die opleiding en voorbereiding van onderwysers, die plasingkriteria van onderwysers, die publikasie van handboeke en skooleksamens. Hierdie studie toon aan dat selfs 'n goeie begrip van talige diversiteit onder onderwysers en hulle beste voornemens om aan leerders ʼn vaste grondslag te bied, net 'n eerste tree is in die geletterdheidsontwikkeling van jong leerders in Kenia. Dit stel ʼn nuwe en indringende ondersoek van kritiese aspekte van die onderwyssisteem voor as ʼn poging om die verskillende vlakke waar beleid en praktyk mekaar behoort te ontmoet, te sinchroniseer. Verskeie goed ingeligte besluite sal geneem moet word in die skep van ʼn omgewing wat bevorderlik is vir effektiewe beleidimplementering. Dit sou onder andere ʼn verandering in die taal-in-onderwys beleid insluit om weg te beweeg van die vroeë wegbeweeg moedertaalonderrig na later wegbeweeg van moedertaalonderrig, sowel as meer instandhouding van die eerstetaal in twee- of veeltalige klaskamers. Vir leerders om baat te vind by moedertaalonderrig in oorstemming met huidige insigte uit navorsing in die veld, moet nog baie gedoen word. Gebaseer op die insigte wat in hierdie studie verkry is, word onder andere hersiening van die onderrigkurrikula vir onderwysers voorgestel sodat die hantering van talig-diverse groepe leerders asook verbeterde taalbewustheid daarby ingesluit is. Dieselfde geld ontwikkeling van buigbare kurrikula, die skrapping van formele eksaminering in die vroeë skooljare en die instelling van alternatiewe assesseringsmetodes op hierdie vlakke. In die later jare sal tweetalige (in sommige gevalle selfs veeltalige) toetse beslis die uitvalsyfer verlaag, asook meer begrip en minder leë memorisering tot gevolg te hê. Die doel moet wees om veeltalige, multi-geletterheidsontwikkeling en akademiese prestasie vir alle leerders te verseker ongeag hulle spesifieke talige agtergrond. / The African Doctoral Academy (ADA) at Stellenbosch University through the Partnership for Africa's Next Generation of Academics (PANGEA), for providing the funds

The purpose of this study is to investigate primary education teachers&#039 / perceptions about Total Quality Management (TQM) and the implementation degree of the principles of TQM in their schools / and to investigate whether there are significant differences between these perceptions of teachers in Curriculum Laboratory Schools (MLO) in which TQM principles are applied and teachers in non-MLO schools. For this reason, 16 primary education schools eight of which are MLO schools in different provinces of Ankara were randomly selected, for the sample of the study. Teachers in these schools were asked to fill out the questionnaire consisting of the proposala based on the principles of TQM. A total of 406 teachers completed and returned the questionnaires. Descriptives statistics were used to evaluate the data obtained. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyse whether there is a significant difference between MLO and non-MLO school teachers&#039 / perceptions related to TQM principles. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the perceptions of teachers in MLO and non-MLo schools. Moreover, Chi-square test was used in order to analyse if there are significant differences in MLO and non-MLO school teachers&#039 / perceptions about the degree of the implementation of TQM principles. The results showed that there was a significant difference only in one TQM proposal related to TQM principles. It is implemented in MLo schools more than non-MLO schools.

Recent changes to the provision for teacher training have seen a move to place greater responsibility for the training of teachers with schools rather than with Higher Education Institutes. The rationale appears to be the view that this will produce the kind of teachers schools are looking to employ. However, there appears to be little research focused on the opinions of the senior management of primary schools about whether they believe this to be the case, whether they feel schools are in a good position to undertake this training, and what impact they perceive such a move will have on primary schools. This study took a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore primary school headteachers’ perceptions of how best to train primary school teachers seen by them as fit to practise and what they perceived schools could and could not provide to support this outcome. Data were initially collected in a feasibility study exploring the views of the headteacher, the school-based mentor and the former trainee teacher in identifying their perceptions of factors which contributed to the outstanding outcome for a trainee on the Graduate Trainee Programme on the completion of his training year. Reflections on one of these factors in particular, that of the crucial role of the headteacher in enabling the successful outcome, at a time when a number of significant reforms to teacher training were being implemented, prompted a reconsideration of the focus of the main study to an exploration of headteachers’ perceptions of training teachers seen by them as fit to practise in primary schools in a changing landscape of teacher training. Twelve primary school headteachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed utilising a constant comparison method (Strauss and Corbin, 1990; Charmaz, 2006). Conclusions from a small scale study cannot easily be generalised. However the findings from the main study suggested the headteachers believed teachers who were fit to practise demonstrated the ability to think critically about their practice and that this attribute was under-represented in standards for teachers. In terms of training to become teachers fit to practise the headteachers supported the viewpoint of the primacy of practice but believed that practice alone was not sufficient to develop the teachers they sought to employ in their schools. In order to become critical thinkers trainee teachers needed to study the theory underpinning the teaching in schools. This study should be guided by experts, who most of the headteachers identified as academic partners, in teacher training located outside of the school. There was a measure of hostility from some of the headteachers to the idea that a teaching school could fulfil this expert role. The headteachers used a number of synonyms to describe the teachers they were seeking but all appeared to mean teachers fit to practise in their schools. The headteachers believed they had the ability to recognise the potential to become a teacher fit to practise in applicants to teaching and they used this to identify trainee teachers who would fit their schools. With greater responsibility for teacher training moving to schools this highlighted issues of equality of opportunity and a potentially insular approach to the training and recruitment of teachers. According to the headteachers, schools which participated in teacher training required at least a good Ofsted grade, a climate and skilled staff to support novices and strategic leadership by the headteacher. As part of the remit of this strategic leadership the headteachers perceived it was their role to protect their schools from external pressures such as Ofsted inspections. This, they believed, gave them the autonomy to decide on their level of participation, if any, in teacher training on an annual basis. Recommendations for further research, policy and partnerships have been made.

Since independence in 1962, the education system in Uganda has comprised four levels under the control of the Ministry of Education and Sports, namely, the pre-school, primary education, post-primary education and higher education. In 1986, the National Resistance Movement formed a series of commissions to investigate the functioning of the Ministry of Education and Sports. Subsequently, the Education Policy Review Commission was established and made the recommendation to universalise primary education. In 1996, the President announced free education for all with the main components including the provision of free education for a maximum of four children per family, and the removal of school fees in primary schools from grades one to seven. The main goal was to provide for the minimum necessary facilities and resources to enable all Ugandan children of school-going age to enter and remain in school until the primary cycle is completed. However, the implementation of Universal Primary Education in Uganda has been met with various challenges. The current planning and organising framework does not support its implementation with communication and coordination challenges cited as most problematic. This study focuses on proposing a planning and organising framework that will address the issues regarding policy implementation, coordination and communication. Specifically, the study will focus on: <ul> a) describing the internal and external environment within which Universal Primary Education in Uganda is implemented; b) exploring the planning and organising challenges hindering the implementation of Universal Primary Education in Uganda; and c) proposing a comprehensive planning and organising framework to support the implementation of Universal Primary Education in Uganda. </ul> The study employs a qualitative approach and data is collected through the use of an extensive literature review supported by qualitative interviewing of key role-players employed by the Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda. International best practices are used to determine the planning and organising requirements for successful implementation. The study proposes the establishment of a Department of Primary Education responsible for ensuring the appropriate involvement of all role-players in the planning and organising functions. The establishment of such a department will ensure that monitoring and evaluation, accountability of finances and effective communication are achieved. By placing emphasis on the planning and organising requirements for implementation, the aim of providing free education to all Ugandan children might be achieved. Copyright / Dissertation (MAdmin)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Research has shown, with respect to the learning of mathematics, that whole class interactive teaching, its form and function, is a complex phenomenon. Teachers develop and exploit pedagogical strategies, which they believe are effective either in engaging their children in mathematical learning or in presenting mathematics to learners. Such strategies, whether later shown to be effective or not, are typically assumed to develop during periods of teacher education or through practice after qualification. Alongside these assumptions is the belief that teachers who are enthusiastic about and have a secure subject knowledge with respect to mathematics will evoke similar enthusiasm, confidence and competence in their learners. However, observations during my years as a teacher educator have led me to conclude that trainee teachers, even those with similar qualifications, frequently behave very differently when put in front of children. Such differences confound the naïve assumption, for example, that similar enthusiasm and confidence will yield similar patterns of teaching practice. Thus, what primary teachers do and why they do it has vexed me for a number of years. I have wanted to know, in particular, what makes teachers teach differently during whole class episodes, not least because my experiences as both teacher and teacher trainer have led me to believe that it is during these periods that teachers induct their children into those mathematics-related beliefs and behaviours that will determine the extent to which they enjoy and engage meaningfully with the subject. Addressing such questions demands an appropriate methodological stance. Consequently an exploratory case study of six teachers, two during a first, essentially pilot phase, and four during a second, was undertaken. All teachers, to facilitate understanding of how exemplary practice differs from one person to another, were considered, against various criteria, as effective. The pilot enabled me to evaluate not only the effectiveness of extant frameworks for analysing classroom behaviour but also my skills as an interviewer and observer of classrooms. The second phase, drawing on what had been learnt during the first, was more open in that existing frameworks were abandoned in favour of allowing the data to speak for themselves rather than being constrained by others’ conceptualisations of effective teaching. Both phases, to examine teachers’ underlying beliefs about mathematics and its teaching, their classroom practice, particularly during whole class episodes, and their rationales for their actions, were addressed by means of a battery of data collection tools. Teachers’ backgrounds and underlying beliefs about mathematics and its teaching were examined through preliminary, life history, interviews framed by a loose set of questions derived from the literature. Interviews were video-recorded. Teachers’ classroom actions were captured by means of a tripod-mounted video camera placed discretely in their classrooms, augmented by a wireless microphone worn by the teacher and a separate, static microphone to capture as much of the children’s talk as possible. Finally, teachers’ rationales and explanations for their actions were examined through the use of video-recorded video stimulated recall interviews. All recordings, whether of classrooms or interviews, were transcribed for later analysis. Analysis during the first phase drew extensively on pre-existing frameworks. While they were helpful in identifying both similarities and differences in teachers’ beliefs, actions and rationales, it became clear that they failed to capture the subtleties and nuances of meaning embedded in the high quality data yielded by the approaches adopted. In so doing it became clear that while data collection approaches were appropriate, analyses needed to be more open in order to allow the data to give up the depth and complexity of their stories. During the second phase, while it was acknowledged that this was not a grounded theory study, analysis drew extensively on the coding strategies of the constant comparison procedures of grounded theory. This approach to analysis yielded results previously unknown in the literature. Quite unexpectedly two groups emerged from the data. Significantly, each was underpinned by teachers’ experiences as learners of mathematics and whether the enjoyment they had gleaned from those experiences was instrumentally located or relationally located. The first group, identified as the mediators, having been engaged, in various ways, with mathematics and derived pleasure from relational experiences expected their children to experience mathematics similarly. Their teaching was based on a desire to develop, in collaborative ways, a deep conceptual knowledge that would form the basis for later procedural skills and, significantly, problem solving. Teachers in the second group, identified as the mediated group, having derived pleasure from their procedural successes as children, saw mathematics and its teaching as skills-based. Their classroom actions and commensurate rationales were focused on surface learning and the replication of the pleasure they had experienced when young. Interestingly, the beliefs of both groups and, to an extent, their classroom actions were independent of any training they had received. The Mediators showed different signs of professional independence and autonomy. They had a clear articulation of their warranted principles and were able to exploit these in the ways that mediated the constraints within which they worked. Moreover, and this presents substantial implications for teacher education, teachers in the Mediated group, exhibited few signs of professional independence; their actions being constantly mediated by the constraints, whether institutional or governmental, within which they worked. They had few articulated principles around which they based their teaching. These differences permeated all aspects of their work.

This thesis contributes to an understanding of why children in urban Ethiopia and elsewhere go to school by accounting for children in one Ethiopian city’s own explanations of! their educational participation, and examining the factors shaping these understandings. The findings demonstrate that, for children in this context, education was both an indicator of a ‘good’ childhood, and the route to social adulthood. Children in Hawassa wanted to go to school in order to become good workers, good people and good national! citizens. Their motivations for going to school often overlapped with dominant arguments for the expansion of education, but went beyond the narrow economic instrumentalism of the human capital approach and challenged the neoliberal individualism that has underpinned much work on human capabilities. The thesis therefore asserts the important contribution that children can make to debates about the purposes of education. However, it also demonstrates that children’s explanations of their schooling were constrained by the discourses and understandings available to them. It argues that children had largely internalised a deficit model of childhood and education that inhibited the expansion of their critical capabilities In demonstrating the constraints upon children’s understandings, the thesis also demonstrates that educational participation in Hawassa was not solely the outcome of children’s rational evaluation of the costs and benefits associated with going to school. However, it does not instead present attendance as resulting from compulsion or normativity. Rather, it argues that going to school was an act of agency that arose from children’s ultimate human concerns, and was constrained and enabled by external ‘generative mechanisms’(Bhaskar 1978). These mechanisms included discourses about the morality and power of education, economic structures rendering school attendance necessary for the achievement of desired indicators of adulthood, and government strategies seeking to minimise civil conflict and dissent.