The South African government has shown enormous commitment to the achievement of “Education for All” (EFA) through its policies premised on the right to basic education for all which is enshrined in the constitution. Central to the South African constitution, is a fundamental right of all citizens to basic education, equity, redress, and the improvement of quality of schooling. Further, pro-poor funding policies such as school fee exemptions, social grants and, most recently, the designation of 60% of all schools as ‘no fee’ schools, have made it possible for even the poorest learners to attend school. This has affirmed South Africa’s commitment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In light of Notwithstanding the progress made in South Africa in universalising education, there are concerns regarding learner access to quality education, especially in poor provinces such as the Eastern Cape where this study is situated. Thus, the purpose of this study is to further understanding of the interface between learners’ agency and access to education in two township public high schools in Makana District in the Eastern Cape Province. In doing so, the research addresses the current under-representation in the literature of the voices of learners about their experiences of access to education. Drawing on Margaret Archer’s social realist approach to the relationship between structure and agency, the study explores learner agency with the aim of understanding how learners exercise their agency as they struggle to negotiate and overcome difficult and challenging circumstances in order to access education. The data collection was carried out during the academic year 2011, using a qualitative case study approach. Multiple methods of data collection were used. First, data was collected through questionnaires administered to learners. This questionnaire asked for basic information about the schools (for example, subjects, resources and teachers ), parents ( their education, employment, qualification etc.) and learners’ aspirations (their role model; where they see themselves in 5 years; which university they would like to attend; and what they would like to become in future). Secondly, observation method was used to collect data that would inform an assessment of the school’s structure and cultural practices and the impact these have on learners’ access to education. The focus here was also on classroom interaction between learners and teachers, as well as classroom participation, participation in extra-mural activities and voluntary activities, and interaction with peers and others in a variety of school settings. Thirdly, interviews with learners, educators, principals, and parents were used to provide insight about how participants construct their social worlds. In this study the primary data was collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interview. And finally, document analysis was used to analyse the attendance and performance of learners on attendance registers. Findings from this research have enabled new themes and areas for reflection about learner agency to emerge. These themes reflect current and ongoing constraints and enablements towards learners’ educational experiences. In particular, themes such as the following have surfaced: learners changing their lives; the desire to succeed; shaping the future; the value of education; family pride; aspirations and careers. This study addressed these developments by examining agency as temporally located reflexive deliberations of learners upon their future goals and present social environment. This allowed for the identification of individuals’ future goals in relation to access to education and the strategies that they intend to pursue to achieve them, in relation to their personal and social contexts. The findings show the choices and decisions learners are prepared to make and the strategies they use as they engage with socio-cultural environments. Archer’s nuanced approach to agency and structure offers tools to help make sense of learners’ equally nuanced way of engaging with various social structures and making considered decisions about their social environment. Key findings of this research suggest that despite the constraining social structures in their homes, communities and schools, learners make decisions and choices that enable them to navigate social contexts to their advantage. Put differently, for learners, social structures provided the impetus for the projects they created, and to this extent enabled rather than constrained their courses of action.

The objective of this study was to understand how teacher educators in a Namibian college of education interpret and practice the learner-centred pedagogy underpinning the Basic Education Teachers Diploma (BETD) program. In order to achieve this objective, a case study approach was adopted, qualitative-interpretive in orientation and drawing upon interviews, naturalistic non-participant observation and document analysis. Bernstein's theory of pedagogy - in particular his notion ofrecontextualization - offered ideas and concepts that were used to generate and analyse data. The data indicated that, at the level of description, teacher educators interpreted leamercentred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on weak rules of regulative discourse, or a weak power relation between themselves and their student teachers. The weakening of the rules of regulative discourse and the waning of educator authority were indicated in the interview narratives, which evoked a pedagogic context characterized by a repositioning of the student teacher from the margins to the centre of the classroom, where he or she enjoyed a more active and visible pedagogic position. Contrary to the dis empowering dynamic within classroom practice under the apartheid dispensation, the repositioning of the student teacher suggested a shift of power towards him or her. Similarly, the identification of the teacher educator as afacilitator, which featured prominently in the interview narratives, further suggested a weakening or diminishing of the pedagogic authority of the teacher educator. With regard to rules pertaining to the instructional discourse, the data revealed an interpretation of leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong framing over the selection of discourses, weak framing over pacing, and strong framing over sequencing and criteria for evaluation. When correlated with the interview data, the data generated through lesson observation and teacher educator prepared documents such as lesson plans revealed a disjuncture between teacher educators' ideas about leamer-centred pedagogy and their practice of it. Contrary to the interviews, lesson observation data revealed that teacher educators implemented leamer-centred pedagogy as a pedagogic practice based on strong internal framing over rules of the regulative discourse. Data further indicated strong internal framing over the selection, sequencing, pacing and evaluation. The study concluded that while some teacher educators could produce an accurate interpretation oflearner-centred pedagogy at the level of description, most of them did not do so at the level of practice. Findings revealed structural and personal-psychological factors that constrained teacher educators' recontextualization of the new pedagogy. A narrow understanding of leamercentred pedagogy that concentrated only on changing teacher educators' pedagogical approaches from teacher-centred to learner-centred, while ignoring structural and systematic factors, tended to dominate not only the interview narratives but also official texts. Learner-centred pedagogy was understood as a matter of changing from teachercentredness to leamer-centredness while frame factors, for instance regarding the selection, pacing or sequencing of discourses, still followed the traditional approach. The study recommends the adoption of a systematic and deliberate approach to address the multiplicity of factors involved in enabling teacher educators to interpret and implement leamer-centred pedagogy at the micro-level of their classrooms. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

L’arménien occidental est classé comme langue en danger depuis 2010, mais il est enseigné dans un réseau d’écoles arméniennes à travers une diaspora mondiale, crée par un génocide en 1915. Les inscriptions sont en déclin dans les écoles du Moyen-Orient depuis quatre décennies, alors qu’en France on observe un développement des écoles privées. Toutes les écoles sont confrontées à une culture éducative en évolution. Les données sont collectées à Beyrouth, Amman, Paris et Marseille, et des participants venant d’Alep. L’approche est interdisciplinaire, poststructuraliste et constructiviste, dans le but de comprendre le rôle des politiques scolaires dans l’attractivité des écoles et dans la transmission linguistique et dans la promotion de la vitalité de la langue dans chaque contexte. L’analyse de discours est employée pour analyser les représentations de la langue et des écoles aux niveaux personnel et structurel. Les théories de la vitalité ethnolinguistique et de la socialisation linguistique aident à éclairer les liens entre la politique, le choix des parents, et la vitalité de la langue. Le choix des parents est approché du point de vue de la psychologie de la consommation, et finalement c’est la notion de l’habitus (de Bourdieu) qui éclaire le mieux les dynamiques de ce choix et pourquoi il constitue souvent une rupture définitive avec l’institution. L’étude montre que les politiques au-delà de l’institutionnel ont moins d’influence sur le maintien de la langue que l’inscription à l’école et les discours dominants. Des préconisations sont formulées pour des changements de la politique scolaire et de la pédagogie. / Western Armenian was declared “definitely endangered” in 2010, although the language is taught in private Armenian schools across a global diaspora created by a genocide in 1915. Enrollment in Armenian schools in the Middle East has been declining for four decades, while the Armenian schools of France are growing & evolving & all are facing a rapidly changing educational climate. Conducted in Beirut, Amman, Paris & Marseille, and involving participants from Aleppo, this study analyzes data from more than 100 diasporan Armenians and a dozen schools. An interdisciplinary, post-structuralist & constructivist approach is taken to understanding the roles of school policies in attracting parents to Armenian schools, in effectively transmitting the language to students, & promoting the vitality of the language in each of the four contexts. Discourse Analysis is applied to both structural & personal representations of the language & of the schools. Ethnolinguistic Vitality & Language Socialization theories are used to understand the connections between policy, parent school choice & the wider vitality of the language. Parent school choice is looked at in terms of consumer psychology, and ultimately Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is the most apt for explaining why Armenian parents choose non-Armenian schools, & why this often becomes a definitive family break from the institution. Policy above the school level is found to have less impact on vitality than school enrollment & dominant discourses on language maintenance. Recommendations are made for policies & pedagogy.

This phenomenological, qualitative study addressed student perceptions of their meaning-making process towards self-authorship in a self-designed gap year experience and was conducted in a public higher educational institution in the Southeast. Data was gathered through interviews from a purposeful sample of gap year program participants and program administrators. Emerging themes and categories were identified by coding and analyzing the interview data, such as continual reflection reinforces the value of individual meaning-making, self-expectations versus self-worth, the influence of societal expectations are minimized, and self-designed learning helps to solidify changes in self-authorship. The data showed a strong connection between multiple meaning-making contexts for students and an enhancement in their authorship, as well as multiple-identities. The findings may be useful in gap year program reflection and redesign, and provide implications for self-design in experiential learning opportunities and gap year outcomes.

No description available.

This study investigates whether the learning strategy of Peer Presentations may positively influence an English Language Learner’s (ELL's) relationship with peers, and personal perspec-tives with pertinence to the sciences, public discourse, and their institution. Data collection in-struments included a developed pre- and post-sociometric survey to quantitate each classroom's social status, and a pre- and post-qualitative oral interview to acquire individual perceptions con-cerning enjoyment and contentment of academic topics. Three ELLs from two learning environ-ments participated with the eight day intervention, comprising of 45 minute instructive sessions to become proficient with demonstrating an arrangement of invigorating yet harmless scientific experiments. After the Peer Presentation, analysis of pre- and post-sociometric results demon-strated an overall increase of more intimate friendships. Examination of the ELLs' oral inter-view responses indicated growth of enjoyment regarding their institution and public discourse. Overall recommendations and suggestions of utilizing Peer Presentations are discussed for those involved with educating students.

No description available.

No description available.

This study explored the effectiveness of a student question creation process engaging students actively in self, peer, and instructor interaction in development of affective, cognitive, and meta-cognitive skills. Employing a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design assigning both treatment and control activities sequentially in an alternating pattern over a six week period, students' performance on exams as well as their perceptions of various aspects of the student question creation process were used to evaluate the effectiveness of student-created questions (SCQs) activities as a cognitive strategy and to identify factors contributing to the effectiveness of question creation activities on students' learning. Subjects of this study were high performing and highly motivated graduate students in an 8-week online biomedical statistics course, part of a specialized master's program designed for medical school preparation. Survey findings and focus groups strongly supported the student question creation process as a facilitator of higher order thinking. However, the relatively short study duration, comparison of student question creation with another competing method for facilitating learning (discussion board) and not a pure control group, and availability of a common study guide course with student-created questions on all course topics may have muted assessment of the full impact of the strategy on learning. Although practically difficult in an education environment, further research to assess fully the impact of the student question creation strategy is desirable especially if these confounding factors can be greatly minimized, if not eliminated.

The knowledge-driven, network society is founded upon technology. Educators need to implement technology effectively into the three main pillars of education, namely teaching, learning and assessment. This would assist students to become independent, confident and motivated life-long, self-directed learners that can use technology effectively in an educational environment. It would also ensure that graduates are able to become change agents, transferring their knowledge, skills and values to others in their communities. Alternative assessment methods that are technology driven could enable both educators and students to become more effective in a network society. This study advocates the use of alternative assessment methods by using technology driven assessment tools for possible replacement of traditional, paper based and "one size fits all" assessment methods within the subject field of Theology. Document analysis was used in a broad sense to evaluate technology-based multimedia documents. Ten documents were identified and evaluated as possible alternatives for traditional assessment methods. Inter-rater reliability ensured that the investigation provided constant estimates and results. The SECTIONS model used for this evaluation provided opportunities to include criteria important for higher education, the use of technology and subject relevant information to ensure that the evaluation was done with a specific purpose and scope in mind; to find technology-based tools that can substitute traditional assessment tools in order to enhance effective education to students. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Open and Distance Learning)