Submitted to the Faculty of Education in Fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Philosophy of Education, University of Zululand, South Africa, 1990. / Education is one of the most important human activities of all nations all over the world. Adults, that is, parents, teachers and adult members of the society educate young children in order to assist and guide them to become proper adults.
Pre-primary school education has become the necessity for pre-school children of every community. Good early education guarantees good and proper foundation for later life for a child. But poor early education, or lack of early education for the child, results in various educational problems, such as the inability to be a proper person. The pre-primary school educators have the important educational task to perform in this regard. The child must be assisted and guided by his educators to be able to form a proper balance between freedom and authority in education situations. This will enable him to be a free, responsible and self-determined person.
The researcher of this study wanted to establish the educational proficiency of the pre-primary school educators. The essential concepts which are connected with this study were defined clearly. Method of research included the researcher's personal observations in pre-primary school education situations. It also comprised of the completion of questionnaires by the pre-primary school educators.
There is debate about the views of freedom and authority in education situations. Some educationists favour freedom and dislike authority. Other educationists support the use of even strict authority. They favour the abolition of freedom in education situations. A real education
situation is one where a proper balance between pedagogic freedom and pedagogic authority is maintained.
Freedom in education should be understood as a pedagogic category. It must be viewed on the fact that the open child enters into the open world. The child must be assisted to be at liberty to exercise the freedom of choice within an education situation. Educators need to provide educational opportunities which are full of freedom of choice for children to actualize their responsible freedom and self-determination.
Authority in education must be elevated to a level where it essentially becomes a pedagogic category. With an authority a child is guided by an educator to acquire norms and values of a society. The pedagogic authority guarantees security for the child and it also ensures him to be independent morally. Educators should be able to differentiate between the pedagogic authority on one hand, and force, punishment and suppression, on the other hand.
Empirical investigation helped to establish the authenticity of the problem in education. The major hypothesis was:
"THE CHILD'S ABILITY TO FORM A PROPER BALANCE BETWEEN A PEDAGOGIC FREEDOM AND PEDAGOGIC AUTHORITY CONSTITUTES AN AUTHENTIC PEDAGOGIC TASK FOR THE PRE-PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATOR."
The child cannot actualise his responsible freedom and moral self-determination without the educator's educational support and assistance. Therefore, personal observations of the pre-primary school education situations were considered by the researcher to be essential components of research. Questionnaires had also been constructed
and supplied to pre-primary school educators- Results were presented, analysed and evaluated by the researcher. Something emerged during the observations and completing of questionnaires. The educators emphasized the need for co-operation between them and parents in pre-primary school education. Educators indicated a strong desire to obtain professional training in their educational task so-as to execute it effectively and successfully.
General review of the entire study, relevant conclusions, recommendations and educational implications were made. The need for more research was pinpointed. A general summary of the entire study was made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/901 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Ndlovu, Themba Panwell. |
| Contributors | Luthuli, P.C. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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