Ann Cameron

A needle in a haystack: a search for value for money in turn-around strategies for schools in difficult circumstances

Background While current investments in school improvement occur in the context of the worldwide economic downturn, in the South African context, there is in addition widespread disparity in education provision and attainment related to pre-democracy race-based patterns. Despite the education sector receiving the largest national annual budget allocation (at least 20%), and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the business sector and even international aid agencies spending millions on school improvement projects, efforts at school improvement have not translated into the desired learning outcomes for students (reflected, for instance, in international comparison tests like TIMSS). This situation calls for deliberation on what constitutes ‘value for money’ in school improvement. Purpose In this paper we present a review of school improvement interventions in South Africa, with a view to discussing their efficiency and effectiveness in the local context. Design and methods The review of school improvement interventions in South Africa involved a systematic search of published and unpublished reports of South African schooling interventions, by both national education agencies and NGOs, aimed at improving the quality of schooling. Desktop searches were conducted on Google Scholar, targeting journals published in the last 10 years (2002 to 2011). Information on unpublished interventions was derived from sources outside of academic documents (e.g. annual reports and personal communications). Snowball sampling was used to reach as many projects as possible, starting from interventions in Johannesburg, which is the most populous city and economic centre of South Africa. Fifty published reports and 75 unpublished reports were reviewed. The information from each report was entered on a spreadsheet according to the aspects of schooling the intervention addressed. The data were then summarised using descriptive statistics and graphs. Conclusions Evidence from the review suggests that in the South African context, where access and equity in education are yet to be achieved for the majority of the population, ‘value for money’ is achieved most effectively when there is ‘connectedness’ across sectors (especially education, health and social services), and when value is in terms of gains for the whole of society or the common good.

Valuing IKS in successive South African physical sciences curricula

The valuing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) is one of the principles on which the South African school curriculum is supposed to be based. The purpose of this paper is to critique the treatment of indigenous knowledge in the South African secondary Physical Sciences curriculum against a backdrop of international debates on the relationship between IKS and science. Such debates usually take either an Inclusive perspective, where IKS are regarded as part of science, or an Exclusive perspective, where IKS and science are regarded as separate domains of knowledge. We identify a third perspective where IKS and science are viewed as intersecting domains. A document analysis of all national post-apartheid curriculum documents relevant to secondary Physical Sciences identifies only nine examples of IKS related to Physical Sciences in the latest curriculum documents (CAPS), although this is an improvement on the previous curricula. The curriculum documents reflect some confusion about the relationship between IKS and science, both in the wording and in the positioning of examples in relation to science content. Physical sciences curriculum development in South Africa appears to have gone through the stages of colonisation, decolonisation and neo-colonisation. We recommend the development of theory that addresses the role of valuing IKS in science classrooms. The Intersecting perspective offers promise as an approach to use in science classrooms, allowing the distinction to be made between pieces of indigenous knowledge that intersect with modern science knowledge and IKS as whole systems of thinking with distinctive worldviews.

Making a Case for Epistemological Access in Biotechnology Education in Southern Africa

In southern Africa, biotechnology is increasingly important with regard to food security and the development of the pharmaceutical industry. Universities are tasked with providing the relevant capacity development through tertiary-level courses to meet these development needs. However, the knowledge and practices of biotechnology may be contentious as in issues related to genetically modified foods and cloning. It is also well known that in culturally diverse educational situations, students may experience epistemological challenges derived from their ontological standpoints, and that these can impact on the learning process. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate student views of biotechnology, a field of science where student ethical, religious and/or cultural beliefs may be at odds with the science that is taught in the classroom. Data was collected over a four-year period (2009–2012), from 115 students from two universities who volunteered to complete a questionnaire. Data was also collected from 70 students who volunteered to be part of focus groups during this time. Phenomenography was used as the research approach in this case study, resulting in an outcome space that produced two broad categories describing students’ responses to biotechnology. These were a theoretical and practical perspective, and a worldview perspective. The study found that students need and want to be as globally competitive as their international peers. This requires that the curriculum reflects the standard and practice of the Global North. However, in southern Africa, where the student demography in universities is typically very diverse, the findings also highlight the need for a pedagogical approach that facilitates learning through providing space for students to freely discuss and reflect on their views and concerns related to indigenous knowledge and beliefs.