South Africa’s education system has undergone substantial changes in the last
ten years. The shift to Inclusive Education attempts to provide all learners,
regardless of their disability, learning difficulty, or disadvantage with access to
education (Department of Education1, 2001). Curriculum 2005, in the context of
an Outcomes Based Education (OBE) philosophy was an attempt by the
Education Department to address the inadequate ‘Bantu’ education of the past.
OBE was intended to replace teacher-centred approaches by encouraging
children to become actively involved in the learning process, to gain knowledge
as well as skills, and to think independently and creatively (DoE, 1998b). School
‘subjects’ of the past were changed to ‘Learning Areas’ some undergoing
dramatic shifts in content and teaching strategies. These new Learning Areas
also emerged with alternative assessment practices. Life Orientation (LO) is one
such learning area. Many educators were suddenly required to teach these new
Learning Areas, despite having little or no training in them. As a result many
educators experienced frustration with the demands now placed upon them, and
some felt unable to teach effectively. This study used a qualitative actionresearch
design to obtain an in-depth understanding of the educators’ capacities
to change their teaching practices in their Life Orientation classrooms. Six
educators in a public primary school setting participated in a series of workshops
aimed to introduce them to drama methods to be used in their Life Orientation
teaching. The workshops were highly experiential in nature and were designed
with the specific personalities and needs of each educator in mind. The results of
the research indicate that educators are highly responsive to training, provided
that they feel acknowledged as individuals and provided that the training builds
upon their current expertise rather than attempting to change their practices
altogether. Another key finding from the training was the opportunity for the
educators to engage in the training as human beings with their own difficulties
and frustrations being openly acknowledged. Many of the educators experienced
the workshops as therapeutic and reported that this made the training both useful
and personally fulfilling
