Ina Joubert

How post-apartheid children express their identity as R citizens D

Children in South Africa are educated to identify with democratic values and democracy in post-apartheid society. As yet, we have no empirical evidence on their views on and identification with the new South African democracy. When given an opportunity to express their life experiences, the 9-year-old child citizens of this case study revealed their democratic identity on various levels. These children expressed a weak identification with democracy on the local level but a strong identification with democracy on the national level. The authors argue that the weak identification on the local level may influence the children’s identification with democracy negatively. It is the key finding of this study that a lack of democratic identification may endanger the sustainability of the South African democracy into the future.

Establishing a Reading Culture in a Rural Secondary School: A Literacy Intervention with Teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers (n = 6, male = 1, female = 5) were purposively selected to participate. The literacy intervention was developed with phonetic acquisition as the basis to develop reading skills. It became evident that implementing English (additional language) as teaching and learning language in the school may have contributed to barriers to learning. Limited resources and reading instruction training exacerbated the problems. However, once the teachers acquired new skills and the children received the needed support, the improvement in overall academic achievement was significant.

Road Safety Education: A Paradoxical State for Children in a Rural Primary School in South Africa

The study explores the response of rural primary school children to road safety education programmes. In this qualitative research project, we employed an interpretivist paradigm to investigate and understand children’s responses to road safety education in one school in the Moloto Village, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Drawing on various participatory activities done by the child participants, as well as non-participant observation by the researchers through ‘photo voice’, the researchers posit their findings. The key finding is that the children theoretically know what to do when using the road as pedestrians but that they do not apply road safety rules as the community’s unsafe road use behaviour undermines all road safety skills the children have learnt at school. The paradox between what the literature on road safety education prescribes and what the national curriculum of South Africa promotes regarding road safety, and what the children apply in their daily lives, is apparent and noteworthy.

Developing open source materials for foundation phase: Diverse spaces for collaboration

Determining a space for collaborative activities involves the creation of a unique space which encourages reciprocal learning and the creation of products that can benefit all participants. The aim of this article was to explore the experiences of group members in this collaborative space. The group consisted of lecturers from different Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) tasked to create quality open-source materials for teaching and learning Literacy in Foundation Phase at HEIs (coming together and work in one space) in the endeavour to connect and share collaboratively. Selected components of the theories of space suggested by Lefebvre and Soja were employed to explain the data which were gleaned through interviews with all participants in the group. This paper makes two important contributions: firstly, it substantively presents a deeper understanding of the experiences of the group in collaborative work and secondly, through the use of a theoretical framework on space, offers insights into the nature of collaboration within diverse spaces.

UNCOVERING YOUNG CHILDREN'S EMERGING IDENTITIES RELATED TO THEIR LITERACY EXPERIENCES: SUGGESTIONS TO STRENGTHEN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The study explored how young children’s identities emerged from their drawings and accounts of their favourite stories as we argue the importance of understanding children in the context of school and language education. Sixty-six (n=66) children of two urban schools in Pretoria, South Africa were asked to write about and draw their favourite story. The participants were between the ages of six and seven years. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Chen’s theory of the construction of identity in a social context were used as conceptual framework. This conceptual framework could be linked to the findings which suggested that the children related their drawings and versions of their favourite stories to their interpretations of their life worlds. The prominent themes from the data could be associated with the self, the family, familiar objects and known animals. Their literacy experiences and the socio-cultural influences on the children’s construction of their identities were apparent in their work. We argue that teachers need to better understand how children understand themselves in relation to the world around them when making decisions about effective language education.

Teachers' Perceptions and Value of Yoruba as a Medium of Instruction in Primary 3 Classes

Abstract Yoruba is one of the languages recognised in Nigeria to be used as medium of instruction in the lower primary classes as stipulated by the Nigerian National Policy on Education. This study investigated how teachers experience the use of Yoruba as medium of instruction in primary classes. The study was qualitative thus employed the one-on-one interview schedule, semi- structured observation schedule and document analysis as data collection instruments. The participants included 10 primary three teachers in two primary schools. The findings revealed amongst others that despite lack of support from the government teachers have taken it upon themselves to promote Yoruba and make it accessible to learners. The study recommended that the government should do more to provide workshops and relevant materials for teaching.

Self-reflective practices during teaching and learning of an undergraduate literacy module

Abstract This paper is based on a field experience project designed as part of the foundation phase literacy programme. In this project, foundation phase teacher education student-teachers selected a teaching site and a learner or group of learners that they would teach to read in the afternoons and over the weekends. The aim of the project was to offer the teacher education student-teachers an opportunity to put theory into practice using self-reflective strategies that included group and individual reflections on instructional strategies presented in DVDs, reflections on microteaching lessons to the class, and reflections on teaching learners in local schools. During the time that they were working with their learners, they were also expected to confer with other teacher education student-teachers to exchange ideas, strategies and their ‘best practice’ experiences with others. Three distinct stages emerged as student-teachers taught and reflected on their experiences. Student-teachers were initially unsure of their capability of taking on the project. The second stage was that of determination to grapple with the project and the last stage was resolving to take ownership of the project. This paper recommends that projects of this nature are necessary as they allow undergraduate student-teachers opportunities for authentic learning regarding the teaching of reading.