A case study of teachers' understandings of literacy and its enactment in two Grade R classrooms.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) is a time of ‘critical opportunity’ (DOE, 2001) when learning is paramount and when the foundation for lifelong learning and successful living is laid. In South Africa the educational sector in ECD has a history of being marginalized and fragmented and deprived of infrastructure, sufficient educational resources and properly trained educators (Willenberg, 2003). The notable shift to increase access and promote equity for all children has been the foregrounding of the Grade R year in the Foundation Phase of schooling (DOE, 2001). However, the lack of effective management and curriculum and pedagogical changes brought about by this massive restructuring places Grade R in a tenuous position (Phatudi, 2007); greatly affects the quality of education offered. It is in this context that this research explored what two Grade R teachers understand literacy to be and how it is enacted in their classrooms. The sites included a preschool and primary school to compare pedagogical approaches. Using a qualitative framework a case study design was used. Semi-structured interviews were supplemented with video-taped classroom observations and documentation. The findings show that teachers understand literacy in a sophisticated way: literacy is about meaning making and communication. The observations reveal this understanding is enacted in practice. Children have access to multimodal and semiotic resources and learn that literacy has a range of social uses and purposes. The major differences are in approach: the preschool teacher views literacy as an act of creative expression and her pedagogy is more implicit. The teacher in the primary school provides more explicit instruction focusing on how texts and language work. However, all the children gain a knowledge of print, the visual and a range of genres. High-functioning classrooms with qualified teachers prepare children to grow up being literate. Neither approach is totally play-based or ‘a mini-Grade 1’; and while the concern of the formalization of Grade R is valid, neither approach is one-dimensional

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

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs

Web Analysis and Design - Project Planning

This reading material forms part of the "Project Planning" topic in the Web Analysis and Design module

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs

Celebrating 50 years of ACAL: Selected papers from the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs