Migrating Selves: Counteracting an Unwelcoming Ethos of Reception

Utilising the research methodology of narrative inquiry, this study set out to explore how Nigerian immigrant academics counteracted an unwelcoming ethos of reception at a South African university. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations, field notes and a researcher journal. Data was analysed utilising qualitative content analysis. Findings reveal that the resiliency process of Nigerian immigrant academics was triggered by ecological sources within the context of the academe and surfaced in the form of resilient qualities. Nigerian immigrant academics drew on specific internal assets and external resources to circumvent the effects of various stressors as well as social and institutional barriers to reconstruct their professional identities and become academically successful. The religious creed of Nigerian immigrant academics seemed to provide a mainstay and guiding force in their lives

ICT policy appropriation: Teachers as transformative ICT agents

This qualitative instrumental case study set out to explore how the national e-Education policy is appropriated by teachers in South African schools. The meta-theoretical paradigm was social constructivism and the research strategy of inquiry utilised backward mapping principles. A socio-cultural approach to policy analysis and emancipatory theory provided the theoretical framings of this study. The case study design included a mix of data collection methods namely, interviews, classroom observations, document analysis and a researcher journal. Findings revealed that the existence of an “invisible national E-education policy” served as a catalyst for teacher agency in the formulation and implementation of a school ICT policy. Second, a change in the implementation paradigm of these teachers highlighted their role as transformative ICT agents. Their stance shifted from being merely conduits of policy, to becoming proactive socio-cultural actors in the formulation and appropriation of a school-based policy. Third, a new construct to policy appropriation emerged, namely the ignorance of teachers about the national e-Education policy led to their practice informing policy. Teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, will and professionalism are key to ICT policy formulation. Teachers’ experiences of policy implementation are valuable assets that should be incorporated in the formulation of policy

Ternary derivations of triangular algebras

Ternary derivations extend the concept of derivations to triples of linear maps. In this thesis, we describe ternary derivations of triangular algebras. We use category theory to approach our study of ternary derivations, while also offering some straightforward computational proofs. Furthermore, we investigate some related maps, called ternary automorphisms and generalised derivations, an intermediary between derivations and ternary derivations. Finally, we suggest areas for further research into different flavours of ternary derivations, such as ternary Lie and Jordan derivations

The jagged paths to multicultural education: international experiences and South Africa's response in the new dispensation

An ideal form of multicultural education is one that not only recognizes and acknowledges diversity, practices tolerance and respect of human rights, but works to liberate cultures that have been subjugated. Such an education would go beyond being "nice to those less fortunate" to working to promote equality of cultural trade. For what it is worth, pre-1994 multicultural education in South Africa did recognize diversity, but it was diversity as a strategy for containment. It was of a variety that was exclusionary in nature and constituted a cruel inscription of those colonized "Others" into the mainstream. From here, international experiences of multicultural education do not offer much inspiration. Multicultural education in the US, Canada, UK , and Australia is driven and fuelled in large part by an assimilationist agenda that denies authenticity to the marginalized cultures. In the South African situation, the Constitution, which is hinged on ten powerful principles, seeks to promote tolerance and respect for all cultures and to promote common values across the rainbow nation of South Africa. However, there is no attempt at this point to valorize the content of the culture of the different groups. This paper argues that silence is also policy. South Africa should therefore work towards a deeper and proactive diagnosis of the content of the culture of its diverse peoples and find spaces for dialogue based on equity within the education system. In order to do this, deeper analysis of the forms of cultural violence, their alibis, etc. that characterized the apartheid system, but which is now couched as mainstream, needs to be undertaken. In this regard, emerging pers pectives from the South African History Project and the Indigenous Knowledge Systems movement, (especially its message of transcendence and cultural he aling) need to be considered . South African Journal of Education Vol.23(3) 2003: 193-19

Born-freei learner identities: Changing teacher beliefs to initiate appropriate educational change

An earlier paper focused on how born-free learners constitute, negotiate and represent their identities after almost two and half decades of democracy in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical framework of subjective realities of educational change, in this article I set out to explore what implications teachers’ beliefs hold for born-free learners, and how teachers’ beliefs can be changed or adapted to initiate appropriate educational change. The focus of this article is on the beliefs of teachers and how the change thereof can contribute to educational change, based on how learners perceive their identities. The epistemological lens of social constructivism and the research strategy of narrative inquiry was used. Fifty-eight born-free learners across 6 research sites participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews and field notes comprised the data capture, which were analysed using the qualitative content analysis method. Findings reveal that shifting and diverse selfidentifications of born-free learners hold fundamental and crucial implications that reside at the heart of educational change, namely a change in teachers’ beliefs and in teachers’ practice

Responses of South African teachers to the challenge of school integration

Recognizing that teacher commitments are consequential for classroom practice, this study sets out to determine the extent to which the ethos of South African schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense. Findings emanating from this research indicate that teachers do not enter their classrooms as ‘blank slates’ with respect to diversity questions; teachers respond differently to the challenge of school integration; and a few teachers went against the grain and responded to school integration in a way that holds immense promise for the South African schooling system

Teacher education for transformative agency: Critical perspectives on design, content and pedagogy

In this fascinating volume dedicated to illustrating transformative agency in teacher education by means of critical perspectives on design, content and pedagogy, editors Carina America, Nazeem Edwards and Maureen Robinson recognise the need to bring foreword the voices of teacher educators in the field, giving agency to and highlighting successful practices in culture-rich classrooms. Reading the introduction, I was reminded of the repeated call by James Martin (2004:7) to not only look at what is wrong with the world but instead provide “a complementary focus on community, taking into account how people get together and make room for themselves…in ways that redistribute power without necessarily struggling against it”. Hence, the focus of this book is on educational practices that inspire, encourage and revive us. In doing so, the book foregrounds the role of auto-ethnography in the telling of transformative stories by teacher educators that possess the knowledge and vocabulary to articulate these experiences largely within a critical pedagogy frame

Opposing gazes : racism and xenophobia in South African schools

Utilising a qualitative case study approach, this research study set out to understand discrimination experienced by immigrant students in their interactions with South African students and the prejudice immigrant students expressed against Black South African students. Findings reveal that the discrimination experienced by immigrant students could be clustered into four broad themes, namely categorisations and prototypes; practised stereotypes; academic and social exclusion; and work ethic. Furthermore, statements immigrant students make about South African students seem to fall into two broad categories, namely lack of value for moral integrity and lack of value for education. Educating students to value human dignity and to view each other as cosmopolitan citizens of the world could be a way to ensure social cohesion and harmony of future generations to come.http://jas.sagepub.comhb2017Humanities EducationScience, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

Shifting perceptions of black students in a South African university residence

Utilising the methodology of portraiture this qualitative case study set out to understand how students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds interpret their own experiences as they shared their personal space in a university residence with people who had previously been seen as the out-group. Data capture included semi-structured interviews, observations, and field notes. Theoretical moorings of this study were critical race theory and contact theory. Data was analysed by means of content analysis. Findings of this study reveal that contact between diverse students helped to reduce prejudices thus changing pre-conceived student perceptions. 

Rupturing the laws of discourse: Learner agency in the construction of their identity in school discourses

Utilising the theoretical frameworks of theory of power and theory of performativity, this case study explored how learners exercised agency in the construction of their identity in school discourses. Data capture incorporated a mix of a survey, semi-structured interviews and field notes. Data was analysed using content analysis. A total of 90 learners participated in the survey. Fifteen learners, three teachers and three principals participated in semistructured interviews. This paper reports on findings from the semistructured interviews. Findings were twofold. First, schools used Foucault’s mechanisms and instruments of constructing learner identity. Learners were subjected to a constant gaze at schools. Second, learners became agentic in schools and asserted their own identities. Some of these identities clashed with the identity of the ‘ideal learner’ of schools. Despite established subject positions in schools, learners created their own subject positions to counter limiting and constraining identities that were imposed by the school