The Role of Everyday Contexts in Learner‐centred Teaching: The practice in Namibian secondary schools

This paper reports on the use of out‐of‐school everyday contexts in Namibian science classrooms. This use is portrayed against the backdrop of an explicit educational philosophy of learner‐centred teaching. Data were collected through audio‐taped teacher–learner interactions and non‐participant field notes in 29 junior and senior science classes taught by 12 teachers in six schools. An existing typology was applied to classify episodes of use of everyday contexts and identify teachers’ pedagogic strategies for their use. The results show that more everyday contexts are used in junior secondary than in senior secondary classes, that only a limited range of types of everyday contexts are used at both levels, and that their use often follows theoretical exposition or teacher questioning. These findings are related to three interpretations of learner‐centred teaching. Recommendations for a fuller implementation of learner‐centred teaching are made.     

Finding her way: a beginning teacher's story of learning to honour her own voice in teaching

This article examines the ways in which a collaborative action research design became the lens by which a classroom teacher and two university teacher educators examined the practice of a novice during her second year of teaching. Together the three authors tell a story of a young woman's struggle to find and honour her voice as a new teacher. Three overarching themes were identified from the date, including university preparation, formal/informal support networks and finding and honouring her voice. Findings revealed that the collaborative nature of this research provided for unintended praxis for all researchers. Ultimately, the teacher's quest for voice and ultimate articulation of self-as-teacher emerged as a result of her participation in this collaborative inquiry.     

PRESENTATION OF THE ELDERLY IN THE SUNDAY NEWS

To determine the amount of newsspace devoted to articles about aging and the elderly 254 Sunday issues of 22 daily newspapers in 3 circulation groups published in 1983 were examined. A content analysis of the age‐related articles was also done. A total average of .87% of the news‐space was allocated to aging. This figure varied only slightly with circulation size, the ratio of elderly residents in the areas, or with the independence or affiliation of the newspapers. There were, however, differences among individual papers in space allocation. More articles were event—rather than issue—oriented. Metropolitan papers published significantly more issue articles than did papers in the lower circulation groups. Metropolitan papers significantly more often depicted the elderly in active rather than passive roles, whereas the opposite was true for papers in the lowest circulation group. Males were predominantly the subjects of articles in all papers. Recommendations for further study and implications for educational gerontologists are discussed.     

State control,religious deference and cultural reproduction: some problems with theorising curriculum and pedagogy in the Cambridge Primary Review

This article offers a critique of the quality of theorising underlying proposals on curriculum and pedagogy in the Cambridge Primary Review. Despite its strengths, the review is seen as omitting consideration of three major areas in primary education: gifted pupils, teacher effectiveness research and the private sector. Questions are raised about the review's use of evidence about a broad and balanced curriculum and about ability grouping. The proposals for curriculum are seen as backward-looking and bureaucratic, while its treatment of religious education is judged to be overly deferential and inadvertently sustaining indoctrination. Its proposals for pedagogy give undue emphasis to a particular form of constructivism, dialogic teaching, whilst ignoring theories of social/cultural reproduction. It is concluded that the review missed an opportunity to propose three more radical and innovatory reforms: to increase school autonomy in curriculum matters; to theorise pedagogy so as to include learning beyond the school; and, to integrate recent findings from educational effectiveness research into theorising pedagogy.     

Moral Lessons: The Ethical Role of Teachers

This article explores conceptual and empirical issues related to the moral and ethical basis of professional practice in teaching. In considering the ethical role of teachers within an expanded context of the formal and informal moral life of classrooms, the discussion raises concerns about both the theoretical identification and practical investigation of "moral lessons." It does so through a review of current literature in this area and a report of a 2nd-level analysis of findings from a research study of 2 culturally diverse elementary school classrooms in urban Canada.