Janet Condy

'All stories bring hope because stories bring awareness': students' perceptions of digital storytelling for social justice education

Although becoming a more racially-integrated society, the legacy of Apartheid still affects learners’ social engagements in and outside their classrooms. Adopting Nussbaum’s (2010) capabilities framework for a socially just democracy, this paper examines 27 pre-service teacher education students’ perceptions of a digital storytelling project and its potential for recognising and honouring capabilities necessary for engaging empathetically with the ‘other’. Using narrative inquiry, and specifically Bamberg’s (2006) ‘small stories’ approach, the research team analysed 30 stories students constructed in four focus group conversations at the end of the project. In these stories, most of Nussbaum’s (2010) capabilities were evident. We found that, in the collective sharing of their stories, students positioned themselves as agentive selves, displaying the belief that they can make a difference, not only individually within their own classrooms, but also as a collective of teachers. Keywords: capabilities approach; digital stories; digital storytelling; pre-service teacher education; social justice education

Three years of a literacy development project in South Africa: An outcomes evaluation

Abstract The article describes an evaluation, over three years, of a Concentrated Language Encounter literacy development project in the Western Cape region of South Africa. At the end of 2003 the project had involved 262 disadvantaged schools, with 2 749 classroom teachers trained in the programme methodology over four geographically different districts of the Western Cape. Data were gathered from Grades 1 to 7 in four randomly selected experimental schools and four matching control schools over the four districts. Four learner performance measures applicable at different grade levels, and appropriate to regional linguistic and cultural constraints, and one parent questionnaire were used. Statistically significant differences were found on all four performance measures for the main (condition) effect. These results are generally supported by interim results for 2001 and 2002, as well as by qualitative analysis of teacher feedback. Given a baseline assessment at the beginning of 2001, showing initial non-significant differences between experimental and control schools (Grades 1-7 ) on all measures, the results indicate that the Concentrated Language Encounter programme is having a significant and sustained impact on student performance. A marginal, but significant, difference in parental support of reading development was also demonstrated, despite no direct parent intervention of the programme in this area

Using Technology to Enhance Pedagogies in Rural Geography Primary Classroom in the Twenty-First Century

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to explore how two rural primary teachers used technology to enhance their pedagogical and content knowledge of Geography in their everyday teaching and learning. Hence the theory of Koehler and Mishra’s Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framed this research. Although the Intermediate Phase curriculum provides a general education experience, teachers need to adopt teaching strategies that deliver Geographical knowledge, skills and values which enable learners to function effectively and responsibly. A qualitative research design was employed for this study using interviews and observations. Two teachers were purposively selected for this study. The findings indicate that the two teachers used technology, to varying extents, to enhance their pedagogy.

‘Family comes in all forms, blood or not’: disrupting dominant narratives around the patriarchal nuclear family

ABSTRACT After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged.