Knowing One\u27s Place in the Post-Millennial, South African Novels of van Niekerk, Wicomb, and Matlwa

The literature of post-apartheid South Africa suggests that the atrocities of the past still linger and continue to shape the mentality of the nation. Grace and hope often mix with resentment, bitterness, and vexation in the pages of contemporary South African novels. Marlene van Niekerk\u27s The Way of the Women (2004), Zoë Wicomb\u27s Playing in the Light (2006), and Kopano Matlwa\u27s Spilt Milk (2010), each reflects on intersections of race, space, and gender as they occur in specific locations. These novels all unfold in South Africa, and involve highly particularized settings that conjure up specific moments from the country\u27s history; nevertheless, thematically these works resonate. Though written in distinct narrative styles, each novel addresses the convergence of race and geography that continues to impact present day South Africa. These narratives shift back and forth between the present and the past, and the multilayered texts each act as a palimpsest, as the replaying and revision of past events place different conceptions of the same stories on top of one another. Furthermore, I build on Rita Barnard\u27s phrase, knowing one\u27s place, to discuss these representations of apartheid, a system that made it virtually impossible to define one\u27s place in society with any sense of confidence. The authors criticize the Afrikaner myth of superiority and the instability of the National Party\u27s resulting policy, yet suggest that all South Africans, regardless of race, must accept personal responsibility for their past actions before true progress can be made. As a result, South Africa\u27s diverse population, a people supposedly defined by renewed sense of racial equality, remains unstable today

Knowing One\u27s Place in the Post-Millennial, South African Novels of van Niekerk, Wicomb, and Matlwa

The literature of post-apartheid South Africa suggests that the atrocities of the past still linger and continue to shape the mentality of the nation. Grace and hope often mix with resentment, bitterness, and vexation in the pages of contemporary South African novels. Marlene van Niekerk\u27s The Way of the Women (2004), Zoë Wicomb\u27s Playing in the Light (2006), and Kopano Matlwa\u27s Spilt Milk (2010), each reflects on intersections of race, space, and gender as they occur in specific locations. These novels all unfold in South Africa, and involve highly particularized settings that conjure up specific moments from the country\u27s history; nevertheless, thematically these works resonate. Though written in distinct narrative styles, each novel addresses the convergence of race and geography that continues to impact present day South Africa. These narratives shift back and forth between the present and the past, and the multilayered texts each act as a palimpsest, as the replaying and revision of past events place different conceptions of the same stories on top of one another. Furthermore, I build on Rita Barnard\u27s phrase, knowing one\u27s place, to discuss these representations of apartheid, a system that made it virtually impossible to define one\u27s place in society with any sense of confidence. The authors criticize the Afrikaner myth of superiority and the instability of the National Party\u27s resulting policy, yet suggest that all South Africans, regardless of race, must accept personal responsibility for their past actions before true progress can be made. As a result, South Africa\u27s diverse population, a people supposedly defined by renewed sense of racial equality, remains unstable today

The Status of Phonics Instruction: Learning From the Teachers

Increasingly alarmed by instructional mandates more founded on journalistic rhetoric and popular opinion than on research findings or practitioner expertise, researchers gathered survey data from teachers to better understand the status of K–2 phonics instruction. Data demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of these K–2 teachers teach phonics, rely on a published curriculum, and teach phonics in systematic and explicit ways. These findings contradict media assertions that reading classrooms are largely devoid of phonics instruction and that teachers fail to include phonics as an important element of their reading instruction. Implications include calls for researchers to explore what teachers can share that helps us better understand what happens in the name of classroom phonics instruction and for decision makers to assume an informed stance before mandating instructional practices based on a narrow understanding of the needs of young readers and the teachers who support them