Elzette Fritz

A Conversation of Teachers: In Search of Professional Identity

The authors describe teacher professional identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, which is their workplace. Activity theory is utilised as the broad theoretical lens and the design type and methodology are discussed accordingly. The school and the classroom are activity systems (Engeström, 1991), and social and semiotic ecosystems (Lemke, 1995). It is therefore in the tensions within the activity system that we capture and represent a constructed teacher conversation, composed of the voices of three social actors on an imaginary social stage, which is the empirical text of the article. Main findings speak to multiple roles, struggling voice and forging professional identity in the changing educational landscape.

The experiences of professional hospice workers attending creative arts workshops in Gauteng

Object: This article explores the experiences of professional hospice workers using a creative process for debriefing them in order to facilitate the expression and communication of complex thoughts and feelings. The creative arts workshops were developed with the understanding in mind that caring for terminally ill patients can be challenging and stressful and professional hospice workers are subsequently at risk of developing compassion fatigue. The workshops focussed on skills transfers as well as self-healing by experiencing and teaching a diverse range of creative arts like music, drama, art, touch therapy, storytelling and movement. Design: Case study design. Setting: Gauteng, South Africa. Methods: Data collection included individual interviews with 19 trainees at nine different hospices, focus group interviews, observations during the workshops as well as a researcher journal. Themes were generated through thematic analysis to describe the experiences of the caregivers. Results: We found that the expressive arts facilitated communication and self-care and improved the wellbeing of the professional hospice workers. Conclusion: These findings add to understanding of the healing effects of the creative arts and especially the benefits in the hospice setting.

Chronicling a Faculty of Education's journey into community engagement through service learning

This article describes and presents the communal story of three lecturers involved in the genesis and development of a multi-tiered service and support system instituted by the Faculty of Education in Johannesburg in conjunction with eight partner schools and a community organisation. The multi-tiered system comprises of pre-service teacher education students, B Ed (Hons) school counselors and M Ed Educational Psychology students. We describe the genesis of the system by first providing a contextual overview against the backdrop of a framework of social justice and care in the Faculty of Education and argue that as an academic enterprise the community engagement initiative contributes to a greater integration of theory and practice. We also posit that this integration, partly based on Bernsteins notion of an integrated curriculum, which is framed in a particular manner, leads to curriculum innovation in all the modules and also includes a revision of roles and power relationships generally assigned to le...

Dynamics in the Personal and Professional Development of Life-orientation Teachers in South Africa, Gauteng Province

Abstract Worldwide schools are confronted with a myriad of contextual challenges such as teenage pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, poverty, substance abuse, child headed households, suicide, to mention a few. South Africa, a country that is yet to win the war against poverty and underdevelopment is not an exception. Life Orientation (LO) as a subject presents schools in South Africa with opportunities to empower young people with knowledge and life skills to make meaningful choices. Whist the Department of Basic Education in South Africa has developed a clearly set LO curriculum, which has well-defined outcomes; it is not clear whether their training as LO teachers adequately equips them to deal with these multiple social issues affecting learners. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore the dynamics in the Personal and Professional Development (PPD) of LO teachers in South Africa, in the Gauteng Province. Data were collected through nine individual interviews, two focus group interviews and two collages by participants from 14 districts within the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE). The findings suggested that the PPD of LO teachers was impeded by the fact that it did not address issues such as their personal experiences, their attitudes towards LO, the LO curriculum delivery, and the complex roles they play in dealing with challenging issues. Based on these findings recommendations are made on how to best address these dynamics through their PPD and how to best support LO teachers to ensure meaningful teaching of LO.

Forging collaborative relationships through creative expressive arts therapy as school community intervention

Using the socio-cultural psychology of creativity as a framework, this article aims to describe our attempt to forge a collaborative relationship within a school that caters for learners with mild to moderate cognitive functioning and represents the diverse cultural and ethnic landscape of South Africa. We will demonstrate how a research team from the University of Johannesburg used participatory action research and applied creative expressive arts therapy (CEAT) to allow a shift in paradigm from ‘you’ and ‘them’ towards ‘us’ and ‘we’ – thereby building bridges of change between teachers, learners, researchers and parents. This article used the principles and paradigms developed by Glaveanu (2010a, 2010c) to contextualise the CEAT process.

When all the school became a stage: young children enacting a community’s fear and sense of loss

This article gives an ethnographic glimpse of how an urban South African school mirrored a community’s sense‐making during times of rapid social change. The glimpse is extracted largely from an ethnography that was composed in 2000. In this study of school life, the biennial play was central to the year’s activities. In the play the tone, content and style reflected a performance of the discourse of the school community – a discourse of fear and despondency, while searching for hope in spiritual song. Today this previously all White, Afrikaner school is still predominantly White, as Black children’s parents prefer English‐medium schools. On the surface the school appears to be a safe haven for those who were fearful of losing their social position, their language and their way of living, but the initial breakdown of the fabric of the school does not seem to have healed during the time after the study had been completed.

The Experiences of Educational Psychologists Who Utilise Ego-State Therapy to Address Dissociation in Adolescents:

Ego-state therapy is regarded an effective therapeutic technique for addressing dissociation. However, studies by psychologists (especially educational psychologists) who utilise ego-state therapy with adolescents presenting with dissociation are not readily available. This article derives from such a study aimed at exploring the experiences of educational psychologists with regard to the process followed in ego-state therapy, as well as its appropriateness for adolescents experiencing dissociation. Data were collected from four participants through incomplete sentences, semi-structured interviews, and symbolic artefacts, using a phenomenological research design. The findings demonstrate the value of utilising ego-state therapy as a therapeutic intervention for adolescents manifesting with dissociation.

‘Weaving a circle of care’ around families affected by HIV and AIDS

This article captures the systemic needs of families affected by HIV/AIDS. Three families were identified with the help of eight home-based care workers in a township community in the south of Johannesburg. The research highlighted the complexity of each family context, showing that there is no single way of providing care and that support from schools is vital for the children affected.

Positive adjustment to first grade despite divorce: Lessons for school psychologists

Positive adjustment to first grade is an important milestone in children’s lives. Yet, it is sometimes further complicated by additional challenges such as parental divorce. Drawing on a social ecological perspective we explored how the systems rooted in social ecologies enable children’s resilience when their parents are divorced so as to result in their coping well with adjusting to first grade. We used a single instrumental case study that involved visual methodologies to uncover lessons from the story of a first grader whose parents divorced but who continued to adjust well to first grade. Our findings suggest leverage points for school psychologists (SPs) who wish to champion the resilience of first graders who are adjusting to formal school as well as their parents’ divorce. SPs can intervene by supporting the first grader’s processes of agency and meaning making; by working systemically to engage systems of support; and by mobilizing systems with task-sharing.

The Experiences of Self-Injury Amongst Adolescents and Young Adults within a South African Context

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of self-injury among adolescents and young adults within the South African context. The participants were twelve university students who had self-injured in their adolescence (females = 92%). The data were collected through interviews, personal writings and collages and analysed using phenomenological data analysis. The findings indicate that self-injury is a strategy used to alleviate intense intrapersonal and interpersonal distress. To understand the complexity of self-injury, an integrative theoretical approach, encompassing a developmental and biopsychosocial perspective was used.