4,689 research outputs found
Teaching in and beyond pandemic times (2021)
Book review: edited by Jonathan D Jansen and Theola Farmer-Phillip
Angels in the wind: future directions for educational research
Opening address at the 2014 SAERA conference
Michael Samuel(Chair of the Local Organizing Committee
Sustaining evolving teaching practicum models in higher education: A conversational ethnodrama between South African teacher educators
This article explores the evolving trajectory of the Teaching Practicum (TP) models within a selected South African teacher education institution (TEI) to accommodate the localised challenges of shifting from face-to-face support of professional learning towards online modes of delivery during Covid-19 times. Over time, even before the onset of Covid-19, the specific institution was characterised by increasing diversification of its student body and increased enrolment of student teachers resonating with similar patterns across other TEIs nationally. The study draws on the ethnographic tradition of celebrating participantsā lived experiences within the field of teacher education by capturing how a teaching practicum coordinator attempted to deal with complex and multiple challenges to enact and sustain a re-imagined TP programme. The pattern of responsiveness continues even as the pandemic (potentially) wanes. A reconstructed dialogue represents the responses of the internal coordinator within the institution (foregrounding changing operational concerns) and a senior teacher educator external to the institution (foregrounding shifting theoretical and policy considerations). Drawing from ethnodrama traditions, this dialogical conversation acknowledges the lived experiences of everyday designing, delivering and using TP models. It includes the hesitance of school mentors, student teachers and teacher educator supervisors to adopt alternative practices to conventionalised rituals of TP. The conversation questions the academic rationale of the various models of TP in their bolstering of student teachersā professional learning. The studyās findings indicate that the successful implementation of a meaningful and contextualised revised TP curriculum necessitates re-imagining the roles of the various partners involved in the TP endeavour: who are co-responsible for conceptualising and ensuring transformative professional growth and development
Examining pre-service teachersā subject matter knowledge of school mathematics concepts
This article explores the nature of the subject matter knowledge that pre-service mathematics teachersā possess
by analysing its components, namely, common content knowledge and specialised content knowledge of the
high school mathematics curriculum. The data was generated from 59 final year pre-service mathematics
teachersā written responses, which tested three sets of competencies: solving problems on Functions and
Inequalities; analysing and interpreting learnersā errors; and their expertise in allocating marks to questions.
Analysis of the written responses identified five categories of response patterns and thereafter individual
interviews were conducted with four participants to discuss the responses. The results revealed that while the
participants were competent solvers of school mathematics problems, they were unable to analyse and
interpret learnersā errors for diagnostic purposes. This suggests that teacher preparation should develop
pre-service mathematics teachersā specialised content knowledge. The findings also confirmed the value of
learner error analysis as an alternative strategy to cultivate the specialised content knowledge of future
mathematics teachers
Cosmic Shear Results from the Deep Lens Survey - II: Full Cosmological Parameter Constraints from Tomography
We present a tomographic cosmic shear study from the Deep Lens Survey (DLS),
which, providing a limiting magnitude r_{lim}~27 (5 sigma), is designed as a
pre-cursor Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) survey with an emphasis on
depth. Using five tomographic redshift bins, we study their auto- and
cross-correlations to constrain cosmological parameters. We use a
luminosity-dependent nonlinear model to account for the astrophysical
systematics originating from intrinsic alignments of galaxy shapes. We find
that the cosmological leverage of the DLS is among the highest among existing
>10 sq. deg cosmic shear surveys. Combining the DLS tomography with the 9-year
results of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP9) gives
Omega_m=0.293_{-0.014}^{+0.012}, sigma_8=0.833_{-0.018}^{+0.011},
H_0=68.6_{-1.2}^{+1.4} km/s/Mpc, and Omega_b=0.0475+-0.0012 for LCDM, reducing
the uncertainties of the WMAP9-only constraints by ~50%. When we do not assume
flatness for LCDM, we obtain the curvature constraint
Omega_k=-0.010_{-0.015}^{+0.013} from the DLS+WMAP9 combination, which however
is not well constrained when WMAP9 is used alone. The dark energy equation of
state parameter w is tightly constrained when Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation
(BAO) data are added, yielding w=-1.02_{-0.09}^{+0.10} with the DLS+WMAP9+BAO
joint probe. The addition of supernova constraints further tightens the
parameter to w=-1.03+-0.03. Our joint constraints are fully consistent with the
final Planck results and also the predictions of a LCDM universe.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Beyond Narcissism and Hero-worshipping: life history research and narrative inquiry.
Available in pdf article
Accountability to whom? For what? : teacher identity and the Force Field Model of teacher development.
The rise of fundamentalism in the sphere of teacher education points to a swing back towards teachers as service workers for State agendas. Increasingly, teachers are expected to account
for the outcomes of their practices. This article traces the trajectory of trends in teacher education over the past five decades arguing that this "new conservative trend" is but one of
the many forces that characterise present interpretations of the goals of teacher education and development. A de-professionalisation of teaching as a career looms on the horizon. Each era has progressively provided new insights into what the goals for teacher education could and should be. These have become increasingly layered into expanding roles and responsibilities being foisted on teachers. The article argues that this could threaten teaching as a career and fewer individuals now willingly choose the teaching profession. If they do, their accountability is seldom to quality teaching and learning as professional teachers find themselves threatened on a number of fronts by contradictory and often competing forces. The article presents a model for understanding the complexity of forces influencing teachers' identities, and shows why there is a need for creative discursive spaces for the coexistence of these many forces. Rather than capitulate to the forces of conservatism, the article argues that teacher professional growth can flourish when it is able to understand deeply the biographical, contextual, institutional and programmatic forces that impinge on teacher identity. The Force Field Model of Teacher Development thus provides stimulus for creative dialogue and renewal
Values and Purposes of a PhD : Comparative responses from South Africa and Mauritius
This paper compares the motivations of two developing countries, South Africa and Mauritius, in promoting doctoral education. Both are concerned about addressing their underproduction of PhDs, but is this focus a luxury in the face of prevalent societal issues, e.g., the HIV/AIDS pandemic, crime and unemployment in South Africa? Are PhDs resolving post-apartheid societal problems? Is their pursuit primarily about developing a competitive advantage? In Mauritius, alignment of the state agenda and the higher education system provides pragmatic interventions to establish itself as the knowledge hub of the Indian Ocean islands. However, the philosophically-driven PhD infuses potentially a critical disruption of ācomfortable collaborationsā with the state agenda. So what is the worth of a PhD, especially in the field of education? This paper suggests that the value of an educational PhD in developing world contexts has both enabling and constraining potential: to personal, institutional, social and nationalistic agendas
Novice rural principalsā successful leadership practices in financial management: Multiple accountabilities
Research studies on financial management in South African public schools expands recurrent literature, most of which have largely pathologised school leadership and management, and rural schools in particular. This article instead draws from a qualitative case study of success, which examined how five novice principals in a rural setting went beyond the prescriptive administrative requirements to generate context-responsive and creative ways of managing school finances, working with the parent community, with educational peers and the departmental policies to activate situated relevant governance relations. The data is drawn from interviews and documents produced within the setting. Our findings reveal a new set of accountability relations, which counter the hierarchical relations between schools and the community, or between the department and the rural context. These principals began a trajectory of overt training in financial management to ensure their own and collaborating participantsā clarity and involvement in a participative management approach. Whilst the school-formulated policies serve as a backdrop to the terms of operations, these principals generate multiple accountabilities in their role as chief financial officers. The study recognises vertical, horizontal and downward accountabilities, which are underpinned by self-driven motivation, moral integrity and social developmental responsibilities. Rather than being a pathological problem, school financial management offers policy and practice potential to develop co-responsible governance.Keywords: financial management; financially accountability; multiple accountabilities; novice principals; school finances; successful school
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