Educators‘ perceptions of an in-service training programme

Abstract

In-service training programmes for educators (INSET) in South Africa have a common objective, namely to support unqualified or underqualified educators to teach their subjects well. The Science, Technology, Environmental and Mathematics Education (STEME) outreach programme is an initiative of the University of South Africa to support these educators with skills and knowledge to teach these subjects efficiently. This article reports on an INSET programme for science teachers who took part in STEME and serves as a case study to investigate educators’ perceptions of the programme. The study, which involved a total of 13 educators, had two phases which were conducted during and after the INSET programme respectively. A focus group interview was conducted in the first phase while individual interviews were conducted in the second phase at the participants’ schools. Participants valued facilitators’ knowledge, continuous support and demonstration of new skills in practical real-life situations. Their main concern was applying the skills at their schools within present circumstances. This case study can serve to inform other service providers on what educators expect from INSET programmes.     

The effectiveness of a course for helping educators cope with the demands of the IQMS

Abstract

In 2004, the South African Education and Labour Relations Council announced that an agreement had been reached to integrate several existing programmes on quality management in education into a new programme entitled Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) for School-based educators. In order to help educators in a particular Province of South Africa to cope with the demands of this programme, an Advanced Certificate in Education was instituted. The first cohort of teacher-students taking this particular ACE was subsequently subjected to an empirical survey intended to determine the effectiveness of the training. It was found that although the ACE was deemed to be generally helpful for meeting the IQMS requirements, it also failed in several respects. The survey also exposed several aspects of outcomes-based education with which school educators seem to be constantly struggling. Certain changes will have to be made to the ACE itself, but also to the current South African outcomes-based curriculum approach.     

Perspectives on the training of school governing bodies: towards an effective and efficient financial management system

Abstract

The argument of this paper is that the use of distance education methods is essential for the provision of all teacher education in South Africa – not just an option for a few programmes in one or two institutions. For this reason, the challenges of distance teacher education are the major challenges for achieving the goal set out in the National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development: ‘more teachers, better teachers’. Challenges include increasing the flexibility and location of current teacher education programmes in order to attract and support a more diverse teacher target audience, designing courses to nurture dialogue and integrate learner support, and moving beyond surface change in response to criticism. Finally, although external quality assurance processes are critical in creating a shared understanding of quality standards and the need for change, quality assessment needs to be followed up with support.     

Teaching mathematics that addresses learners’ multiple intelligences

Abstract

To meet the demands of our highly technological and globally competitive society, it is becoming increasingly important for all learners in South Africa to obtain skills and knowledge in mathematics. However, South Africa performed the worst of all the countries who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). Education in South Africa is now confronted with the dilemma of how to improve the mathematics performance of learners. One way of dealing with this dilemma is to apply Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences in the classroom. This intervention should contribute positively to the South African Government's Foundation for Learning Campaign. This article suggests specific ways in which teachers can incorporate the different intelligences in their teaching and learning activities in the mathematics classroom. Recommendations are made for the application of the Multiple Intelligences Theory in the mathematics classroom, and topics for future research are suggested.     

Educators' perceptions of continuing professional development for teachers in South Africa: A qualitative study

Abstract

The effectiveness of educational reform initiatives depends on the quality of teachers. Professional development (PD) of teachers has therefore become a major focal point of school improvement initiatives. The National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development (2007) attempts to address the need for suitably qualified teachers in South Africa. The study discussed in this article was qualitative within purposefully selected schools. Its aim was to explain educators' perceptions of continuing professional development in the light of the national policy. The following major findings emerged from the data analysis: (1) overall view of PD in the education system, (2) experience of types of PD programmes, and (3) impact of PD programmes on schools.     

Invisible Statues of Colonisation: Regulatory Curriculum Requirements in South African Higher Education

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the South African higher education (HE) system has become increasingly regularised. All programmes offered at South African public universities have to be registered and accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET); the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education (CHE); as well as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Such accreditation, registration and quality assurance is subject to a growing series of stringent regulatory frameworks that must be adhered to, chief amongst which are the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) and the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM) manual and the later Addendum. Increased calls from both students and government for curriculum transformation and the decolonisation of HE require a critical review of the regulatory regime as one of the barriers to curriculum transformation at South African universities. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual analysis of the CESM and its regulatory context within a decolonial framework in order to show that the regulatory requirements for curricula have created a rigid and colonised conception of what universities may and may not teach. The CESM categories and their concomitant requirements have become the so-called invisible statues of colonisation based on narrow and morally decadent Western conceptions of academic disciplines in current university curricula.     

Moral Education or Indoctrination in South Africa? A Brief Response to Potgieter

Abstract

This paper is a brief and informal response to Professor P. C. Potgieter's paper Moral Education in South Africa which appeared in the January 1980 edition of this Journal (Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 130‐3). In response to Potgieter the author attempts to present some of the more obvious philosophical and sociological inconsistencies and problems appearing in Potgieter's paper. He concludes, basically, that Potgieter has assumed a marked consensual model of South African society and, therefore, his analysis serves only to misinform the reader as to the complexities of moral education in South Africa.     

Future and changing roles of staff in distance education: a study to identify training and professional development needs

Abstract

The roles of distance education teaching staff are changing, necessitating role clarity and the development of appropriate competency frameworks. This article investigates the perceptions of the teaching and research staff at the University of South Africa, regarding the current and future roles of distance educators, their own competencies in each role and training that they require in order to address competencies required in these future roles. This research forms part of a larger project that focuses on capacity and continuous professional development processes that are necessary to train staff to be prepared for these changing roles. A quantitative web-based survey was sent to all academic (teaching and research) staff at the University of South Africa. Key results indicate that competencies in the roles of technology and instructional design have emerged as crucial for distance educators, and that future training programmes need to be developed to support these areas.     

The influence of on-farm advice on beliefs and motivations for Swiss lowland farmers to implement ecological compensation areas on their farms

Purpose: Farmers hold a key to reaching biodiversity targets, but will only carry out this service to society if they are sufficiently motivated to do so. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of on-farm advice as a tool for motivating farmers to take action to preserve or even to enhance biodiversity on their farms.

Design/methodology/approach: To address this aim, we surveyed 133 farmers (response rate 43.9%), of whom 23 had received on-farm advice about farmland biodiversity conservation over a period of six years.

Findings: The results showed that key beliefs and motivations were positively influenced by farmer advisory services. Farmers who had received advice agreed significantly more strongly in the compatibility of biodiversity conservation and production; that biodiversity is important; and that nature conservation on farms is appreciated by society.

Practical Implications: These results allow the conclusion that on-farm biodiversity advice might be a useful way of positively influencing the beliefs and enhancing motivations of farmers to contribute to biodiversity conservation on their farms.

Theoretical implications: Although several papers have examined the influence of agricultural extension on farmer behaviour, the results of this study contribute to explaining some of the contradictions in the literature about the effectiveness of advisory services. Furthermore, this study addresses [Batary, P., L. V. Dicks, D. Kleijn, and W. J. Sutherland. 2015. “The Role of Agri-Environment Schemes in Conservation and Environmental Management.” Conservation Biology 29: 1006–1016.] challenge that there has been insufficient research on the link between farmer advice and the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes.

Originality/value: This paper is among the first to address these research gaps and is the first to examine the influence of advice on farmer conservation behaviour in the Swiss context.     

Collaboration in open and distance learning: The realities of policy implementation in the Africa region

Abstract

In this article the Sub-Saharan Africa region's attempt to implement open and distance learning collaboration programmes, in line with the ideals of the World Declaration on Education for All (WDEFA), are discussed. The discussion is based on an analysis of the WDEFA policy; participation in, minutes and reports of the Multi-Channel Learning Base (MCLB) initiative; and a brief review of the literature on policy and ODL collaboration. The conclusions drawn from this analysis are that: the WDEFA was a useful policy on international collaboration for meeting basic learning needs; the MCLB initiative, though laudable in having shared in three regional activities of ODL experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and having developed a regional ODL programme of action, was unsuccessful in implementing collaborative programmes in the region. The reasons for the MCLB's failure relate to unrealistic timeframes, lack of resources, preference for national rather than international programmes, and the proposed location of the MCLB.     

Reading posthumanism and decolonisation diffractively towards (re)configuring an ontoepistemic approach to religion education

ABSTRACT

Student-teachers are exposed to different approaches to teaching Religion Education in South Africa. Amongst these have been the phenomenological-reflective-dialogical approach of Cornelia Roux and the empathetic-reflective-dialogical approach of Janet Jarvis. These different approaches made immeasurable contributions as they started to shift how Religion Education has been taught. The approaches are both informed by a social constructivist methodology, which riposte previous traditionalist approaches. This article questions whether these approaches, amidst the decolonial turn and the posthuman predicament, are still germane as they tend to separate ontology from epistemology. A diffractive reading of posthumanist theory and decolonial literature enabled us to bring texts in intra-action so as to problematise the colonial, capitalist and patriarchal character of existing approaches to Religion Education, both ontologically and epistemologically. This remains pivotal for a country like South Africa where colonial epistemicide prevails despite it being vehemently challenged. Our aim is to weave a text(ile), an ontoepstemic approach, to (re)configure Religion Education in support of the transformative potential of the decolonial project in South Africa. In our pursuit of ontoepistemic justice, we advocate for decolonising the Religion Education curriculum, understood as a verb, as (1) a means to critical empowerment and as (2) a complex encounter with entangled, embedded knowledges.     

Towards education for a sustainable future in Asia and the Pacific

Conclusion The second phase of education for a sustainable future (the widespread reorientation of educational practices, systems and structures) is not yet widespread in the Asia-Pacific region. This is a very large undertaking and one that the economically wealthy regions of the world have yet to make. Therefore it is not surprising that one of the world's economically poorer regions has yet to enact such reforms. However, there is sufficient leadership in the region (in the form of international and regional agencies and active NGOs) to indicate that if Member States can be convinced that a whole-of-government approach to sustainable development is desirable, the teacher educators, curriculum development officials and teachers of the region will have the requisite support to make the necessary reforms. Original language: English John Fien (Australia) Director of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Environmental Education, Griffith University. Teaching and research interests focus on the reorientation of education towards sustainability in the formal school sector, teacher education and community education. He is the author ofEnvironmental education: a pathway to sustainability and education for the environment andCritical curriculum theorising and environmental education. Editor of several UNESCO project publications, includingTeaching for a sustainable world (1995),Learning for a sustainable environment (1997) andTeaching and learning for a sustainable future (2000). Osamu Abe (Japan) Professor in Education at Saitama University in Japan and the Project Leader of the Environmental Education Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. A leading authority on conservation education and a well-known figure in both the environmental NGO and environmental education movements in Japan. Bishnu Bhandari (Nepal) Senior Research Fellow in the Environmental Education Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. Former Director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's conservation programme in Nepal. With Osamu Abe, he has convened a series of international conferences on environmental education in the Asia-Pacific region. They have publishedAn overview of environmental education in the Asia and Pacific region (1999) andA regional strategy on environmental education in Asia-Pacific (1999).     

A posthumanist approach to environmental education in South Africa: implications for teachers,teacher development,and teacher training programs

As we enter the sixth great mass extinction event, an event that points to humanity’s exploitative attitude towards nature, posthumanist ethics offers a different way of engaging with the world, a way which has clear and extensive implications for the way environmental education is taught in South African schools. However, given the official curriculum and assessment practices currently in use in South Africa, can a posthumanist approach to environmental education actually work within the current educational framework of discrete discipline/subject areas and specializations? The paper diffractively engages with the Department of Basic Education National Curriculum Statement: Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement: Foundation Phase Grades R-3: Life Skills for South Africa (the phase where environmental education is most likely to take place), and superpositions this text with a research study on environmental education undertaken in Canada and key posthumanist notions as they relate to environmental education. The paper concludes with a section on the implications for teachers, teacher development, and teacher training programs (not solely in South Africa) of using such an approach in the teaching of environmental studies.     

WhatsApp use among African international distance education (IDE) students: transferring,translating and transforming educational experiences

ABSTRACT

Much of the research on how social media is embedded into the educational practices of higher education students has a Western orientation. In concentrating on a case study of the varied ways in which African International Distance Education (IDE) students actively use social media to shape their learning experiences, we discuss an under-researched group. The paper draws on analysis of 1295 online questionnaires and 165 in-depth interviews with IDE students at UNISA, South Africa, one of the largest providers of IDE globally. WhatsApp emerges as ‘the’ key social media tool that opens up opportunities for IDE students to transfer, translate and transform their educational journey when studying ‘at a distance’. Although WhatsApp does provide a ‘space of opportunity’ for some students, this is framed through socio-technical marginalisation, itself a reflection of demographic legacies of inequality. Exploring social media practices though the case of African IDE students places these students centre stage and adds to the awareness of the multiple centres from which international education is practiced.     

Tobephobia experienced by teachers in secondary schools: An exploratory study focusing on curriculum reform in the Nelson Mandela Metropole

Abstract

Because of its history from apartheid to democracy, the aspiration to reform schools is a recurrent theme in South African education. Efforts to reform education in schools based on the outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum approach created major challenges for policy makers in South Africa. The purpose of this exploratory research was therefore to determine whether secondary school teachers lack the professional competence to cope with curriculum reform and whether this incompetence results in them experiencing Tobephobia (TBP). The qualitative research method was used to conduct this investigation. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 teachers in 25 public secondary schools in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. In terms of their responses, it was evident that the teachers’ concerns about their professional competencies associated with the OBE curriculum had a negative impact on their ability to implement curriculum changes in their classrooms. The comparison of OBE with the syllabus by the teachers evoked their bias towards the traditional syllabus approach in maintaining the quality of education for all learners. Because of the historical bag gage associated with the syllabus in South Africa, it is recommended that a standards approach to the curriculum be considered by the Department of Education to resolve the curriculum problems in secondary schools. The responses from the teachers in this exploratory study once again affirmed the existence of TBP in secondary schools.     

Teaching for a Sustainable World: the Environmental and Development Education Project for Teacher Education

The social, economic, political and ecological imperatives of sustainable development outlined in ’Our Common Future, Agenda 21’ and ’Caring for the Earth’ have established a renewed agenda for environmental education which links it very closely with development education. Teacher educators in Australia have responded to the need to link environmental and development education and to raise the level of attention usually devoted to them in teacher education programmes. The ’Environmental and Development Education Project for Teacher Education’ has been the result. The project has involved 20 educators, drawn from 11 universities, government departments and NGOs across Australia, in writing and trialing a set of 18 3‐hour workshop modules on environmental and development education for use in pre‐service teacher education courses. These modules, published in the project manual, ’Teaching for a Sustainable World’, illustrate how environmental education and development education are related and provide practical assistance for teacher educators who wish to include these important fields in their programmes. An intensive dissemination programme in 1993‐94 involves workshops for all Faculties of Education in Australia.     

(De)coloniality and South African academe

ABSTRACT

The colonial nature of South African universities remains a source of debate among students and academics. Decolonization as rethinking academic institutional practices seems less controversial; the specificity of how to decolonize the academia is the core of divergent arguments and contesting ideologies. Consequently, many suggestions and methods for the decolonization of South African universities have been proffered. Although some of these suggestions are pertinent, a critical question about what should South African academe decolonize from needs to be engaged. This requires a critical, theoretical and intellectual discourse of coloniality in order to rethink the academia in South Africa. Drawing from Anibal Quijano’s critical discourse of coloniality of power, this paper (re)visits the nature of coloniality, explores approaches to decolonization and situates these understandings to the academia in postcolonial South Africa. A polycentric approach to decolonization is supported with a goal of decolonization as innovations.     

Discrepancies Among Teachers' Priorities for and Knowledge of Freshwater Topics

Abstract

A Blueprint for Environmental Education , edited by Jane S. Shaw. Bozeman, MT: Political Economy Research Center. 1999. Paperback. ISBN 0-9668243-1-8.

Environmental Education and Biodiversity , edited by Arjen E. J. Wals. Wageningen, The Netherlands: National Reference Centre for Nature Management. 1999. Paperback. ISBN 90-75789-03-3.

The Environmental Impact Statement Process and Environmental Law , by Emmett B. Moore. Columbus, OH: Battelle Press. 2000. Paperback. 162 pages. $19.95. ISBN 1-57477-092-6.

Caring for Plunet Earth, Volume 1: The Great Lakes, CD-ROM , Grand Rapids, MI: Center for Environmental Study. 1998. $39.00. Formatted for Macintosh, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1

Edgar Beaver's Destiny: An Environmental Fable , by Joseph Petulla. Available through Xlibris Corporation (www.Xlibris.com). 2000. Paperback. 124 pages. $16.00. ISBN 0-7388-2471-2.

A Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story , by William Souder. New York: Hyperion. 2000. Hardback. Illustrated. 299 pages. $23.95. ISBN 0-7868-6360-9.

Environmental Education and Communication for a Sustainable World: Handbook for International Practitioners , edited by Brian A. Day and Martha C. Monroe. Washington, DC: Academy for Educational Development. 2000. Paperback. 138 pages. ISBN 0-89492-108-8.     

The need for attention to the issue of rural education

This paper argues that strategies for vocational education in Africa, with particular regard to rural communities, which were highlighted as a key aspect of development strategies in the '60s and '70s — such as Education for Self Reliance or the Brigades of Botswana (see Nyerere, J., 1967. Education for Self-Reliance. Ministry of Information and Tourism, Dar es Salaam; Foster, P., 1969. Education for self reliance: A critical evaluation. In: Jolly, R. (Ed.), Education in Africa: Research and Action. East African Publishing House, Nairobi, pp. 81–102) and the World Bank programmes in support of Non-Formal Education (Coombs, P., Ahmed, M., 1974. Attacking Rural Poverty: How Non-formal Education Can Help. World Bank/Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore) — have never been replaced with a viable alternative in subsequent years. Whatever the reasons for the failure or demise of such programmes, which aimed at linking the school curriculum to the world of (rural) work in the past, the need for careful attention to that linkage has increased rather than decreased in the interim given the overall decline in access to secondary and tertiary education and the prospects for finding alternative employment in the formal sector. The paper focuses on recent reform initiatives in South Africa and seeks to make the point that new policy, in so far as it has been shaped by global trends, has failed to engage with the specific interests of the rural poor.     

Pedagogy of Learning and Teaching: A Phenomenographic Perspective from Selected Classrooms in Rural South Africa

Abstract

Classroom practitioners are expected to facilitate effective learning under the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in South Africa. During this facilitation process, educators are required to become more resourceful in terms of their learning and teaching strategies. This article is based on a case study – within the phenomenographic paradigm – of Grade 9 educators and learners in four rural schools in North West, South Africa. The study focussed on a specific economics and management sciences (EMS) topic relating to the understanding of the value or price determination of the South Africa rand on the foreign exchange market. The article is divided into three parts: firstly, the concepts of phenomenography and the variation theory of learning are explored and constituted as the conceptual framework; secondly, educators’ experiences with the variation theory as a classroom resource for learning; and thirdly, the impact of educators’ classroom experiences with the variation theory on learners’ quantitative and qualitative learning outcomes. The results showed an improvement in the learners’ understanding of the EMS topic studied.