“Community Psychology is for Poor,Black People”: Pedagogy and Teaching of Community Psychology in South Africa

The term “community” holds historical connotations of political, economic, and social disadvantage in South Africa. Many South African students tend to interpret the term “community” in ways that suggest that community and community psychology describe the experiences of exclusively poor, black people. Critical pedagogies that position the teaching process as a transformative activity and that challenge student perceptions about the status quo are central in teaching community psychology. This article uses the subdiscipline of community psychology to discuss the importance of pedagogy. It uses a module that was presented at Stellenbosch University (SU) in the Western Cape, South Africa, as an illustrative example. The module was taught collaboratively with the social work department at the University of the Western Cape. Forty-five psychology students from a historically white university (SU) and 50 social work students from a historically black university (UWC) engaged in face-to-face workshops and virtual (e-learning) assignments that interrogated notions of the self, community, and identity. Final student essays were analysed qualitatively for themes illustrating aspects of the human capabilities approach to pedagogy adopted in this project.     

Creating and translating knowledge about teaching and learning in collaborative school–university research partnerships: an analysis of what is exchanged across the partnerships,by whom and how

Whilst there is a growing body of literature on practitioner research and the role of collaborations and partnerships that include universities in that process, there are relatively few studies examining the role of the university in any depth. We reflect on 12 years of working in school–university collaborative research partnerships through an analysis of the exchanges between teachers and academics as documented by interviews, case studies and project reports. We draw upon a sample of 90 teachers in 51 schools covering all phases of compulsory schooling. Focusing on the exchanges between the university and partnership schools, we extend the idea of radical collegiality to encompass teacher to academic dialogue in the process of mutual transformation. We contribute to the development of greater conceptual clarity regarding school–university research partnerships and their potential to contribute to the creation and translation of knowledge about teaching and learning. The interplay of the project as the context, the role of enquiry and the development and use of tools by the participants is outlined and a model for understanding the dynamics of school–university partnerships proposed. We suggest that the project as a space‐ and time‐limited context inclusive of partner institutions may have the scope to reconcile the tension between an impetus for exclusive bonding and the flexibility of bridging across structures in social networks. We conclude that the model of the exchanges between partners is fruitful in unravelling the relationship between theory and practice in the pursuit of knowledge about teaching and learning.     

Bringing the social into pedagogy: unsafe learning in an uncertain world

The paper describes a collaborative curriculum development project implemented over 3 years at 2 universities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The project involved a short module in which students in their fourth year of study interacted and learnt collaboratively across the boundaries of institution, discipline, race and social class, about the concepts of community, self and identity. The pedagogic approach adopted is described, as well as the responses of the students, and a brief reflection on some of the learning outcomes attained. The paper considers the learning processes which the curriculum development team experienced, and suggests that in order to facilitate learning for an ‘uncertain world’, the curriculum designers, too, need to engage in learning processes in which they make themselves vulnerable, mirroring some of the learning processes they expect the students to undergo.     

A look at creativity in public and private schools

This research study investigated the perspectives of teachers on student creativity. A group of 15 teachers from public schools and 24 teachers from private schools completed an Early Childhood Creativity Rating Scale (ECCRS) on four of their students. A total of 156 students were rated on this ECCRS. The major question asked in this study was: How do teacher perspectives of student creativity differ in public and private schools, between kindergarten and grade 3, and are these perspectives influenced by teacher characteristics. Results found that private school teachers rated their students higher on creativity, third grade students were rated lowest on creativity, and teachers who perceived themselves as most creative also rated their students as most creative.     

Catalytic tools: understanding the interaction of enquiry and feedback in teachers’ learning

This paper investigates how the use of Pupil Views Templates (PVTs), a tool designed to elicit, record and analyse the development of students’ awareness of their own learning processes, supports teachers’ professional learning. This paper reports on a three‐year collaborative practitioner enquiry project involving more than 30 primary and secondary schools in England. The data set includes practitioners’ case studies, interviews, questionnaires and cross‐project analysis completed by the university team. Analysis focuses on the role of feedback, stimulated through the use of PVTs, in teachers’ learning through three dimensions: the influence of student feedback on teachers as part of the pedagogical encounter; the influence of student feedback on schools within the context of the practitioner enquiry projects; the influence of feedback on the lead teacher researchers. Links between the tools used, the source of the feedback, and teachers’ learning are mapped from a ‘second order perspective’ derived from the diverse data sources.     

Parent–Child Math Talk About Fractions During Formal Learning and Guided Play Activities

This study examined parent–child math talk within three contexts (formal learning; guided play; unguided play) in order to identify characteristics of activities supporting high-quality math engagement. Seventy-two dyads of parents and 4- and 5-year-olds were observed using a set of toy foods; instructions and materials varied across conditions. Parents and children engaged in the most math talk in formal learning; guided play also yielded more math talk than unguided play. Parents rated the formal learning and guided play activities as equally supportive of math learning, but rated the guided play activity as more enjoyable than the formal learning activity. The findings have implications for how parents should be encouraged to support preschoolers’ math learning.     

“I will not hate myself because you cannot accept me”: Problematizing empowerment and gender-diverse selfies

ABSTRACT

While selfies of beautiful cisgender women are declaimed by mainstream media as narcissistic and facile, some body-positive feminists and queer theorists argue that selfies can be empowering. They claim self-representation by traditionally stigmatized people can challenge normative presentations of beauty and gender. This article problematizes “empowerment” as a definitive and/or productive frame and argues instead for observation and analysis of “privilege” in situated practice. In this article I combine analysis of a collection of online cultural artifacts (including nonbinary selfies on Tumblr) and interviews with a small group of trans* social media storytellers to explore theoretical tensions between gender fluidity and identity fragmentation across multiple social media sites and practices. Gender-diverse digital self-representation encompasses both “consistent” androgyny, nonbinary, agender, and so on, and “emergent” presentations-in-flux. I assert that the ongoing iteration of self across social media—implied by self (re)presentation—can have simultaneous and contradictory political significance. I conclude that networked interpersonal complications frame understandings of empowerment, as perhaps they always have done.     

Seeing eye to eye: An evaluation of the use of video-conferencing to support collaboration

Student mobility and trans-national collaborative modes of learning at University level have been strongly promoted within Europe. However, such initiatives are expensive, difficult to organise and do not always attain their objectives. Recently there has been considerable interest in the extent to which computer-mediated communication between students in different countries can either supplement or substitute for actual student mobility. This paper reports an evaluation of a project in which video-conferencing was introduced in the context of an established Anglo-Spanish programme in which UK and Spanish Fashion students undertake collaborative projects in each others’ countries. Project aims included fostering and supporting second language use, providing an innovative context for collaborative art and design projects and offering an opportunity to simulate trans-national working conditions. Questionnaires, observation and interview data indicate that not all these objectives were realised, though student reaction to the technology and to the benefits it afforded for collaboration were broadly positive. The strengths and weaknesses of video-conferencing as a support to collaborative learning in this context are discussed.