The purpose of this research study was to establish the perceptions of economics teaching of
two teachers of economics who were functioning in two contrasting contexts. The intention
was to examine their practice and to ascertain the extent to which the relationship between
their beliefs and their practice was constrained or facilitated by the context in which they
taught.
The study made use of interviews and classroom observations to address these issues. The
research confirmed that there was a disjunction between the teachers' theories of economics
teaching and their actual practice and that their practice was mediated by the context in which
they functioned. Both teachers shared very similar epistemologies. They concurred on
assessment techniques and teaching methodology in economics. They also agreed that the
goal of economics teaching was to engender a love of the subject. However, the vastly
different contexts in which they taught spawned unique coping strategies to deal with their
peculiar teaching environments.
The 'macro' c~nstraints which they faced emanated from external institutions that imposed
overt and hidden rules and expectations upon them. Internal constraints were derived from the
peculiar context of each school. The study revealed that the teacher operating in the more
repressive context displayed a greater degree of dissonance between beliefs and practice as
compared to the teacher in the more favourable context. The teacher in the favourable context
was better able to implement her beliefs about economics teaching. However, she was faced
with new challenges created by the information explosion as a result of the school's access to
the Internet. Though the nature of the discipline urges a problem-solving approach to economics teaching
and even though both teachers concurred with this view, the constraints of the context were
compelling factors that hindered teachers' educational ideals. Of note , was the fact that the
more repressive the context, the greater were the constraints facing the teacher, and the more
complex were the strategies employed by the teacher in order to cope. The more complex the
coping strategy, the greater was the disjunction between teachers' theories about economics
teaching and their practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5915 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Maistry, Suriamurthee Moonsamy. |
| Contributors | Harley, Ken L. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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