Risky writing: Working with a heteroglossic pedagogy to deepen pre-service teachers’ learning

This article explores how course design and assessment in a first year pre-service teacher education course for English students can be imbued with academic depth and rigour in ways that enable  students to take intellectual and textual risks. We argue for a conceptualisation of risky writing in which we open up student critical engagement with sociolinguistic issues by juxtaposing academic and creative genres in curriculum course material and assessment. Academic writing in its current form is problematised and questions are raised about the extent to which academic courses provide students with an apprenticeship into compliance, conformity and silence. We present the possibilities of using a heteroglossic pedagogy (Blackledge & Creese, 2014) for learning, teaching and writing. The principles underpinning the course (linguistic diversity as a resource, the value of lived experience and the interrelation of epistemological access and academic rigour) constitute a heteroglossic pedagogy. We illustrate these principles using two examples, one from student performance during the course and the second from independent writing for an assignment. Together, the two data snapshots illustrate the pedagogic possibilities of fluid movements between distantiation and appropriation using flexible genres, which ultimately facilitate deeper student engagement and understanding of disciplinary knowledge. The two data snapshots are not “mere descriptions or anecdotes” detached from principles (Slonimsky & Shalem, 2004: 92). They facilitate academic depth and rigour because of the carefully staged moves between the strange and the familiar in a context that encourages students to take creative and intellectual risks

Identifying mechanisms of change in the Early Grade Reading Study in South Africa

The Grade 2 learner results of the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS) randomised control trial (RCT) in the North West province showed that the structured pedagogic intervention model that included instructional coaching, lesson plans, and quality learning materials was more cost-effective than a similar intervention model that excluded coaching. These results are read against the growing body of literature that questions the value of RCTs in identifying mechanisms of change. For this reason, two small-scale qualitative case studies were undertaken to identify the difficulty in detecting workings of classroom practice that RCTs cannot show. Three mechanisms of change: the organisation of space, time, and implementation of routines drawn from the work of Foucault, were analysed to interpret observed changes to teacher practice and some of the weaknesses in the EGRS programme.Keywords: early grade reading; Foucault; qualitative case study; RCT

Literacy, power and the embodied subject: literacy learning and teaching in the foundation phase of a Gauteng primary school situated in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg.

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between literacy, power and the body in early schooling. It investigates how the ideal literate subject is constructed in policy documents and classroom practice. It also focuses specifically on how the reading subject and writing subject are constructed. The notion of transition underpins the research. Levels of self-regulation, and the continuities and shifts in literacy learning and teaching were tracked as children moved though ‘informal’ preschooling to more ‘formal’ schooling in the Foundation Phase. A preschool and a primary school in a working class Johannesburg suburb formed the research sites. A multiple case study design incorporated 5 classrooms from 4 grades: Grade 00, Grade 0, Grade 1 and Grade 3. Over a period of eighteen months the researcher was a participant observer using fieldnotes and videotape to record classroom interactions. This data was supplemented with policy documents, teacher interviews and classroom artefacts. Foucault’s work on power, subjectivity, the body and space forms the theoretical centre of this research. His work on government and governmentality places the research in a political and educational context with a specific focus on the construction of national and individual subjectivities. The ideal literate subject constructed in the Revised National Curriculum (DoE 2002) is a critical and analytic reader and writer who will be a productive and responsible citizen. Findings show this is not taken up in schools. Rather, in school the ideal literate subject has a good vocabulary, writes neatly, spells correctly, and reads fluently with expression and comprehension. The emphasis on skills like decoding and encoding texts rather than meaning-making constructs a limited literate subject. An analysis of spatial and temporal organisation of classrooms reveals a difference between the preschool and primary school subject. The daily preschool routines work to create a communal subject which falls away in the primary school where the focus is on individual competence. There are greater movement flows in the preschool, and space is created for exploratory and pleasurable reading and writing. This shifts in the primary school as children are required to be silent ‘on-task’ subjects, confined to desks. There are high levels of surveillance and extensive bodily training to ii master writing. Levels of self-regulation decreased rather than increased which may point to inefficient use of space and time, and an over-reliance on skills-based tasks. Finally, the literate subject need not be limited. It appears that greater knowledge of alternative approaches to reading and writing is needed. This would also require reassessing materials and activities. Collaborations need to be developed between preschool and primary teachers to enhance practices. Serious consideration should be given to understanding the impact space and time have on classrooms. ii

Pitfalls and possibilities in literacy research: A review of South African literacy studies, 2004-2018

Background: Given the comprehensively documented literacy crisis in South Africa and the gaps in what is known about the effective teaching of reading and writing in schools, high-quality literacy research is a priority. Objectives: This article evaluates South African research from two annotated bibliographies on reading in African languages at home language level (2004-2017) and South African research on teaching reading in English as a first additional language (2007-2018). It also aims to provide guidelines for addressing these weaknesses. Methods: Examples of 70 quantitative and qualitative research studies from the annotated bibliographies were critically analysed, identifying key weaknesses in the research as a whole and examples of excellent quality. Results: Weaknesses evident in the research reviewed, suggested greater consideration is needed to lay sound methodological foundations for quality literacy research. Three methodological issues underlying local literacy research that require greater attention are research design, selection and use of literature and research rigour. High-quality research examples are referenced but, for ethical reasons, examples of what we consider to be flawed research are described generally. Guidelines are offered for addressing these pitfalls that, in our view, contribute to research of limited quality. Since many universities require submission of a journal article as a requirement for postgraduate students, preparation for such an article is considered. Conclusion: While this article is not intended to be a comprehensive guide, we hope it is useful to supervisors, postgraduate students and early career researchers currently undertaking, or planning to undertake, literacy research and to writing for publication

A critical analysis of CAPS for Life Skills in the Foundation Phase (Grades R–3)

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Foundation Phase Life Skills curriculum (DBE, 2011) is composed of four focus areas: Beginning Knowledge; Personal and Social Well-being; Creative Arts; and Physical Education. These areas draw on a number of disciplines and this makes the curriculum dense. This density is, in turn, a challenge for teachers and teacher education. We perform an historical analysis of Life Skills curriculum documents from 1977 to the present and a content analysis of the CAPS document. Using Bernstein (1971, 1996) we show that this curriculum is weakly classified and that epistemological orientations are blurred, if not rendered invisible. The specificity of different disciplinary lenses that have different objects of enquiry, methods of analysis, and criteria for truth claims is lost in an overemphasis on everyday knowledge. If teachers are not themselves schooled in the languages of the disciplines that underpin Life Skills they may not be able to give children access to them, nor are they likely to be able to help them understand how different parts of the system relate to one another

Strengthening foundation phase teacher education through mentoring

This paper explores a multidimensional mentorship model implemented between lecturers from the foundation phase at the Wits School of Education and four master’s students from the University of Limpopo, as part of the Departments of Education’s research initiative to strengthen foundation phase teacher education. Using three critical incidents, we interrogate mentors’ experiences of their mentoring practices. Two sets of literature, mentoring and social capital are used as a lens for analysing these incidents. Initial findings suggest the relationship has moved from the initiation to cultivation stage (Kram, 1985; Ragins & Kram, 2007). But, cultural preconceptions, implicit assumptions and institutional practices can impede or enhance information flows and trust. It is argued that weak ties characterised by mentors’ heterogeneity is a strength that has resulted in growing professional development. Through a process of reflection-on-practice, we have begun to think of ourselves as a fledging community of practice. This opens up possibilities for the larger research project

Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa

International conventions acknowledge the right of refugees and of disabled people to access quality inclusive education. Both groups struggle to assert this right, particularly in the Global South, where educational access may be hindered by system constraints, resource limitations and negative attitudes. Our concern is the intersectional and compounding effect of being a disabled refugee in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disabled refugees have been invisible in policy and service provision, reliable data is very limited, and there has been little research into their experiences of educational inclusion and exclusion. This article makes the case for research to address this gap. Three country contexts (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda) are presented to illustrate the multi-layered barriers and challenges to realizing the rights for disabled refugees in educational policy and practice. These three countries host refugees who have fled civil unrest and military conflict, economic collapse and natural disaster, and all have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. None has available and reliable data about the numbers of disabled refugees, and there is no published research about their access to education. Arguing for an inclusive and intersectional approach and for the importance of place and history, we illustrate the complexity of the challenge. This complexity demands conceptual resources that account for several iterative and mutually constituting factors that may enable or constrain access to education. These include legislation and policy, bureaucracy and resource capacity, schools and educational institutions, and community beliefs and attitudes. We conclude with a call for accurate data to inform policy and enable monitoring and evaluation. We advocate for the realization of the right to education for disabled refugee students and progress towards the realization of quality inclusive education for all

Researching digital inequalities in children’s play with technology in South Africa

This paper reports on the South African findings from an international mixed methods study between the LEGO Foundation, Dubit and the Universities of Sheffield (England) and Cape Town (South Africa) on young children’s learning with digital technology. The findings of the study, the first of its kind in South Africa, show the consistency of qualities and experience of play, but also reveal socio-economic, linguistic, ethnic, gender and racial inequalities in the play environments of both groups of 3–11-year-olds. Yet, despite these structural inequalities, the play ecologies of children in resource-constrained environments show their creativity within the digital/non-digital environment. The paper discusses some of the analytical tools used and the geo-political issues raised, and considers these in conjunction with selected data. We conclude that the different socio-cultural conditions and geo-political realities offer new insights about the role global education research can play in helping combat structural inequalities in resource-constraine

A space to write: The construction of the writing subject in early schooling

This article applies Foucault's (1977. Discipline and punish) theory of spatial distribution in relation to the teaching of writing in English medium classrooms in early schooling. It aims to highlight the value of working with spatial theory, by attempting to show the relationship between spatial configurations and writing practices that work to produce particular subjectivities. The research sites were two desegregated schools in Johannesburg - a pre-school and a primary school. A Grade 00, Grade 0, two Grade 1 classes and a Grade 3 class constituted the case studies in a multiple case study design. The primary method of data collection was participant observation. Observations were recorded through field notes and video recordings.These were supplemented by teacher interviews and artefact collection.The spatial layout and movement flows of the Grade 00 classroom reveal a writing subject who can make meaning through experimentation and exploration of resources. From Grade 0 this changes, as the emphasis shifts to correctness and a technical mastery of handwriting. Children are confined to their desks and subjected to high levels of corporeal training. By Grade 3, the writing subject emerges as docile and skilled, but with little opportunity to use writing for creative purposes