Saloshna Vandeyar

Conflicting Demands: Assessment Practices in Three South African Primary Schools Undergoing Desegregation

Abstract Recent educational reforms in South Africa have been framed by an outcomes‐based education (OBE) policy. One of the assumptions underlying this nationally directed educational reform process is that teachers will be both willing and able to adapt their teaching and assessment practices accordingly. Yet, there is considerable evidence to suggest that this is not so (Harley & Wedekind, 2004; Jansen, 2001; Jita, 2002; Sieborger & Nakabugo, 2001; Vandeyar & Killen, 2004a). The change in educational policy has set new and more challenging demands on teachers, which are often in conflict with their beliefs and value systems. These conflicting demands are twofold in nature: a change in assessment policy and a change in learner target population. To explore this issue, this article examines data from a larger study that set out to investigate teacher assessment practices in multilingual classrooms in South African primary schools. This article is about the process of policy appropriation or misappropriation by agents mediating between policy and its actual practice on the classroom floor. In this case, the policy in question is OBE‐related assessment policy. The mediators between policy and practice in the classroom are teachers. Using a conceptual framework that advocates an approach to educational changes that Proudford (1998) terms as “emancipatory” (p. 139), this article attempts to describe how teachers cope with conflicting demands on their assessment practices. The emancipatory approach is conceptualized in terms of three key dimensions: professional confidence, professional interpretation, and professional consciousness (Proudford). The findings of this study are twofold. First, teachers mediate the external pressures upon them through the “filter” of their own professional identities. Second, the process of assessment is not merely technical, but it is not merely social and personal either; it is both.

Beliefs and attitudes about assessment of a sample of student teachers in South Africa

Abstract The purpose of this study was to take the first steps in a long-term approach to helping South African teachers understand and respond to government demands that they change their assessment practices. Specifically, it attempted to identify the beliefs, perceptions and attitudes about assessment that student teachers bring with them to courses that are designed to equip them to teach in ways that are consistent with current curriculum trends in South Africa. The study attempted to answer the following research questions: are student teachers’ beliefs about assessment consistent with the approaches to assessment advocated in the South African Revised National Curriculum Statement? Are student teachers’ beliefs about assessment consistent with the basic principles of outcomes-based education? The results indicated broad general agreement between student teachers’ beliefs about assessment and the principles of assessment espoused in the Revised National Curriculum Statement. However, there was evidence that the beliefs of some of the subjects were inconsistent with these principles.

Impediments to the successful reconstruction of African immigrant teachers’ professional identities in South African schools

The purpose of this study was to explore difficulties and challenges that confront African immigrant teachers as they attempt to reconstruct their professional identities in South African schools. The study was qualitative in nature and utilized narrative inquiry and the case study approach. Data-gathering techniques included a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations, focus group interviews, field notes and researcher journals. Data were analysed using grounded theory and content analysis methods. Findings of the study revealed that immigration status, employment status, attitudes of indigenous learners and holding on to former culture or way of knowing due to lack of induction or mentoring, were impediments to the successful reconstruction of African immigrant teachers’ professional identities in South African schools.

Re-negotiating identities and reconciling cultural ambiguities : socio-cultural experiences of Indian immigrant students in South African Schools

Abstract South Africa has become the host country of destination not only to immigrants from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, but also from countries such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Much research has focussed on Black Immigrant students experiences in South African schools. Little if any research has addressed experiences of Indian immigrant students.Utilising social constructivism, case study approach and narrative inquiry, this study sets out to explore the socio-cultural experiences of Indian immigrant students in South African schools. It was found that contests of space and place in South African ‘schoolscapes’were not so much about ‘race’ as it was about nationalism and territoriality. For South African Indian students, international competition was not an abstract policy; it entered the school through immigrant students. For Indian immigrant students international acceptance implied a re-negotiation of identities and a reconciliation of cultural ambiguities.

Perceptions of policy duty bearers on the inclusive education policy for pregnant teenagers in South Africa

Abstract Post-apartheid, South Africa democratised access to education as enshrined in the country’s Constitutional Bill of Rights of 1996. This also includes making education accessible to pregnant teenagers as provided for by other post-apartheid legal provisions that prohibit discrimination in education. This study explored the perceptions of education policy duty bearers on the inclusion of pregnant learners in formal schools. The sample of the study comprised teachers, community representatives in school governing bodies (SGB), and parents of pregnant teenagers at two schools that mainstreamed pregnant learners. Data were analysed using Atlas ti computer package which was programmed to code and quote participants’ views. Results of the study revealed that socio-cultural gender ideologies were the more influential variables on participants’ negative perceptions towards the inclusion of pregnant learners in regular schools. From the findings, we recommend that comprehensive structures and procedures for policy dialogue and advocacy be established in schools.

Youthscapes: the politics of belonging for ‘Makwerekwere’ youth in South African schools

This article is framed within the global context of immigration and the resultant debates around citizenship, belonging, inclusion and exclusion. The task of schools as social institutions is to ‘integrate’ and ‘educate’ immigrant youth and as such they can be seen as the primary sites where the politics of belonging and struggles over belonging and citizenship are waged. Drawing on the conceptual framework of ‘youthscapes’ and the theoretical framework of critical race theory, this article engages with the contradictions inherent in schools and the manner in which the South African education system is implicated in constructing different ‘kinds’ of citizens and reproducing hierarchies of belonging, even in its efforts at inclusivity.

Assessing Grade 4 mathematics in the learner's mother tongue : a South African experiment

Official policy in post‐apartheid education is aimed at redressing linguistic inequity in schooling by promoting the 11 official languages of South Africa through mother tongue instruction. However, since the life chances of children are inextricably linked to the language of power, many parents believe that their children would benefit from instruction in English. Consequently, there has been an ever‐increasing demand for English to be the language of instruction in schools. Utilising case studies of Grade 4 pupils at three desegregated schools, this research sought to determine whether Grade 4 learners, whose mother tongue is not English, would be able to express their conceptual mathematical understanding better when tested in English or in their mother tongue. The major finding was that although many non‐first‐language English speaking Grade 4 learners are challenged by having to acquire abstract subject knowledge through a non‐mother tongue medium, they face an even greater challenge when tested in their mother tongue.

Being "in a limbo" : perceptions of immigration, identity and adaptation of immigrant students in South Africa and the United States

ABSTRACT Much research is available that details student experiences of immigration and adaptation to receiving countries and schools, but few studies analyze the metaphors used by immigrant students (IS) when talking about the immigration experience, or offer a comparative lens through which to view identity negotiation in two very different contexts. The present paper aims to address these gaps by conducting a comparative linguistic analysis of 20 interviews conducted with IS at universities in South Africa and the United States in order to gain a greater understanding of immigration and the types of identity negotiation processes learners undergo in these very different countries. Findings reveal interesting similarities between metaphorical conceptions of immigration across different cultural contexts and a remarkable resilience in the use of adaptation strategies and identity development that leads to salient pedagogical implications for teachers of higher education who face increasingly international classrooms.

Opposing gazes : racism and xenophobia in South African schools

Utilising a qualitative case study approach, this research study set out to understand discrimination experienced by immigrant students in their interactions with South African students and the prejudice immigrant students expressed against Black South African students. Findings reveal that the discrimination experienced by immigrant students could be clustered into four broad themes, namely categorisations and prototypes; practised stereotypes; academic and social exclusion; and work ethic. Furthermore, statements immigrant students make about South African students seem to fall into two broad categories, namely lack of value for moral integrity and lack of value for education. Educating students to value human dignity and to view each other as cosmopolitan citizens of the world could be a way to ensure social cohesion and harmony of future generations to come.

Embracing diversity : the case of EquityRes, a student residence at Urban University

Abstract Utilising a qualitative case study and the methodology of portraiture, this paper set out to explore how the institutional culture at EquityRes, a university student resident in South Africa, promoted interaction of culturally diverse students. Data capture included a mix of semi-structured interviews, field notes and a researcher journal. Data was analysed by means of the content analysis method. Theoretical moorings of this study were embedded in critical race theory and cosmopolitanism. Findings reveal that the design of living spaces, the consultative participatory management style and inclusive cultural and social activities at EquityRes, promoted equality and interaction of diverse students. The paper concludes by recognising that the transformation policies developed by EquityRes, not only recognised the significance of the construct of race, but were intent on curbing racial and cultural discrimination and embracing diversity. These polices were enacted in the lived experiences of diverse resident students and created opportunities for intercultural contact and meaningful interaction.