Linda van Laren

Using metaphors for integrating HIV and AIDS education in mathematics curriculum in pre‐service teacher education: an exploratory classroom study

In adopting the Education White Paper 6. Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System of 2001, the South African education system mandates teachers and schools to address the various intersecting factors that act as barriers to learning for all learners. Using drawings and metaphors with a group of pre‐service teachers, this paper focuses on a set of such factors: HIV and AIDS. The exploratory classroom inquiry reported herein explores the following question: what are my beliefs and pre‐service teachers’ beliefs about integrating HIV and AIDS education in the teaching and learning of mathematics? A drawing activity was developed for focus group discussions with seven primary school pre‐service teachers and the author, their mathematics teacher educator. This classroom inquiry involved an analysis of the drawings and the metaphors used to describe the integration of HIV and AIDS education in the mathematics curriculum. By focusing on the metaphors and the discussions that emanated from them, the project aimed to shed light on the beliefs of a group of pre‐service teachers about the possible integration of HIV and AIDS education in mathematics classrooms of young learners. The findings from these suggest varied understandings and beliefs about HIV and AIDS and their place in the mathematics curriculum and some possible strategies for the training of a ‘multiskilled’ teacher in the age of AIDS in pre‐service teacher education programmes.In adopting the Education White Paper 6. Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System of 2001, the South African education system mandates teachers and schools to address the various intersecting factors that act as barriers to learning for all learners. Using drawings and metaphors with a group of pre‐service teachers, this paper focuses on a set of such factors: HIV and AIDS. The exploratory classroom inquiry reported herein explores the following question: what are my beliefs and pre‐service teachers’ beliefs about integrating HIV and AIDS education in the teaching and learning of mathematics? A drawing activity was developed for focus group discussions with seven primary school pre‐service teachers and the author, their mathematics teacher educator. This classroom inquiry involved an analysis of the drawings and the metaphors used to describe the integration of HIV and AIDS education in the mathematics curriculum. By focusing on the metaphors and the discussions that em...

Towards academic generativity: working collaboratively with visual artefacts for self-study and social change

There appears to be a mounting consciousness in academia that knowledge production and the scholarly dissemination of knowledge do not necessarily lead to general well-being or improvement in society. In this article we start with ourselves by initiating an exploration into generative possibilities for becoming agents of social change through our own educational research. We take a collaborative self-study approach to our inquiry, using artefact retrieval as a visual method to re-examine our own research interests. Our individual reflections on our chosen artefacts are brought together into a reflexive dialogue. We follow this with a collaborative reflection, in which we explain how we have noticed similarities in both the connotative and denotative histories of our artefacts and gained an alternative perspective on our interests and practices as educational researchers. The article demonstrates how, by working with visual artefacts from our professional spaces, we were afforded the opportunity to collaboratively re-think our research endeavours. As ‘critical friends’ we were able to recognise the importance of moving beyond advocating change, and to explore how ‘starting with ourselves’ research approaches can facilitate social action for the benefit of others.

Learning about Co-Flexivity in a Transdisciplinary Self-Study Research Supervision Community

In South Africa, every postgraduate (master’s or doctoral) student is usually assigned one academic advisor, known as a supervisor. “The traditional model is the apprenticeship model of individual mentoring. This model is usually supplemented by informal and ad hoc support programmes” (Academy of Science of South Africa [ASSAf], 2010, p. 64).

Exploration of strategies to integrate HIV and AIDS education in pre-service teacher education

Abstract The South African National Policy on HIV/AIDS (Department of Education, 1999) mandates the integration of HIV and AIDS education in the whole South African education system. This self-study of a mathematics teacher educator explores integration of HIV and AIDS education in pre-service teacher education at a faculty of education that is situated in a province with one of the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence rates in South Africa. By examining the interactions between a group of volunteer pre-service teachers and their teacher educator, this self-study aimed at shedding light on how these interactions might be used to develop ‘multiskilled’ teachers who are HIV-aware, HIV-competent, and HIV-safe in the area of mathematics teaching and learning. Possible strategies for facilitating integration of HIV and AIDS education in mathematics education were explored. The findings suggest a possible ‘bottom-up’ strategy, using self-study, to integrate HIV and AIDS education in a discipline.AbstractThe South African National Policy on HIV/AIDS (Department of Education, 1999) mandates the integration of HIV and AIDS education in the whole South African education system. This self-study of a mathematics teacher educator explores integration of HIV and AIDS education in pre-service teacher education at a faculty of education that is situated in a province with one of the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence rates in South Africa. By examining the interactions between a group of volunteer pre-service teachers and their teacher educator, this self-study aimed at shedding light on how these interactions might be used to develop ‘multiskilled’ teachers who are HIV-aware, HIV-competent, and HIV-safe in the area of mathematics teaching and learning. Possible strategies for facilitating integration of HIV and AIDS education in mathematics education were explored. The findings suggest a possible ‘bottom-up’ strategy, using self-study, to integrate HIV and AIDS education in a discipline.

Dialogic Memory-Work as a Method to Explore the “Afterlife” of our Self-Study Doctoral Research

We are teacher educators and researchers in South Africa. In our doctoral studies we used self-study methodologies to improve our professional practice in relation to the challenges of teaching and learning in the South African HIV and AIDS context. This article demonstrates how we, as teacher educator-researchers, explored the “afterlife” of our doctoral research. We used self-selected exemplars from our own doctoral theses as research artefacts to investigate the relationship between our doctoral research and our professional development and practice. We combined memory-work and reflexive dialogue, using questions posed by a fictitious critical friend to examine our exemplars that consisted of short pieces of writing from our doctoral theses. We concluded that our dialogic memory-work method allowed for collaborative exploration of the afterlife of our doctoral research and this, in turn, facilitated our professional practice growth as teacher educator-researchers in the South African context of HIV and AIDS.

Mathematics teachers at the intersection of policy interventions: What practising teachers offer as challenges in teaching trigonometry

Abstract The South African schooling system is one of the areas where policymakers consider transformations to be important. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2012) was introduced to improve teaching and learning in mathematics. In addition, the DBE commissioned a higher education institution to provide an advanced certificate in education (ACE) programme for practising further education and training (FET) band mathematics teachers. Registered teachers attending these modules are at the intersection of two different DBE intervention pathways – curriculum and reskilling. It is critical to take note of what these mathematics teachers consider to be challenges. Before data collection commenced, the teachers engaged in alternative instructional activities to extend their pedagogical content knowledge for Grade 10 trigonometry. Their tutor asked them to reflect on the challenges that they would anticipate if they changed their trigonometry teaching methods to a...

Exploring teachers’ beliefs about algebra: a study of South African teachers from historically disadvantaged backgrounds

Algebra is a key course in the secondary mathematics curriculum. As a prerequisite for post-secondary mathematics, science and engineering courses, it is considered a gateway course. Since mathematical knowledge for teaching involves more than content knowledge algebra, teachers must be able to do more than successfully complete algebraic problems. They should understand algebra deeply and flexibly so that they are able to mediate students’ ideas, make choices about representations of content and modify curriculum materials. Yet, little is known about how certain groups view algebra and its teaching. In order to determine the beliefs held by a group of South African mathematics teachers with historically disadvantaged backgrounds teaching in schools that were previously segregated through Apartheid, this paper reports on what the group felt are the most important features of algebra.