Research Articles (Education Policy Studies)
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- ItemKnowledge-building and knowers in educational practices(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2021) Rusznyak, Lee; Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile; Fataar, Aslam; Blackie, MargaretThe South African education system continues to be confronted with calls for free decolonial quality education. Sparked by the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests in 2015 and 2016, students pushed for the need to re-think and reimagine teaching and learning and the kinds of knowledge(s) that are valued and legitimated in curricula (Fataar, 2018; Heleta, 2018; Maxwele, 2016; Ngcobozi, 2015). Part of realising a more inclusive education system requires paying attention to knowledge-building in practices and intellectual fields.
- ItemPublic-private partnerships in South African education : risky business or good governance?(Unisa Press, 2020-08-13) Feldman, Jennifer AnnThis article discusses the globalised phenomenon of public-private partnerships, which involve the private and public sector collaborating to provide infrastructure and service delivery to public institutions. Within the education sector, the most commonly known public-private partnerships exist in the United States as charter schools and the United Kingdom as academies. Discussing this phenomenon in the South African context, this article draws on the Collaboration Schools Pilot Project as an example for understanding how the involvement of private partnerships within public schooling is being conceptualised by the Western Cape Education Department. Framed within the debate of public-private partnerships for the public good, the article provides a critical discussion on how these partnerships are enacted as a decentralisation of state involvement in the provision of public schooling by government. The article concludes by noting that the Collaboration Schools Pilot Project, which involves significant changes in policy regarding how schools are governed and managed, requires more rigorous and critical dialogue by all stakeholders as the model unfolds in schools in the Western Cape.
- Item‘Cultural capital in the wrong currency’: the reflective accounts of scholarship students attending elite secondary schools(Taylor and Francis Group, 2021-07-21) Feldman, Jennifer; Wallace, JenniferThis article investigates the awarding of scholarships to students from historically disadvantaged communities to attend elite schools in South Africa. Specifically, the article analyses the narrated accounts of a sample of former scholarship recipients who reflect back on their experiences of entering an elite secondary school as scholarship students. Using Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital and symbolic violence to explain the interviewees’ experiences in the elite school space, the article shows that in the educational setting of post-apartheid South Africa, success in one part of an educational field does not necessarily equate to success in another. Further, providing students with the financial means to access elite education does not mean that they enter into the school contexts as ‘equal players’. As such, what the article highlights, is that the acceptance of a scholarship for students from historically disadvantaged communities, is far more complex and multi-layered than is anticipated by all stakeholders.
- ItemDie gemarginaliseerde posisionering van onderwysers by ’n spesiale skool in Kaapstad deur neoliberale bestuurspraktyke(LitNet, 2021) Rinquest, ElzahnIn hierdie artikel bied ek ’n sosiologiese beskrywing van die vorming van skoolkultuur by ’n spesiale skool in Kaapstad, wat vir die doel van hierdie bespreking Kanaänskool genoem sal word. Ek verduidelik in die besonder die aard van die institusionele kultuur van die skool as plek deur van die konsep van plekinruiming gebruik te maak. Die bespreking is gegrond op die bevindinge van ’n groter kwalitatiewe etnografiese studie van 2019 wat die klaskamerpraktyke van onderwysers by die skool ondersoek het. Hierdie artikel beantwoord die vraag: Watter dimensies vorm die skoolkultuur by ’n Kaapstadse skool vir leerders met spesiale onderwysbehoeftes? Met Lefebvre se teorie (1991) oor ruimteskepping as grondslag konsentreer die bespreking op twee onderling verwante faktore – eerstens, die institusionele ontwikkeling van plek oor tyd, waarvoor die term wit toon (white tone, Hunter 2019) gebruik sal word, en tweedens, die teoretiese toepassing van Lefebvre (1991) se ruimtelike triade om die institusionele kultuur te verstaan. Data is vir ’n volle skooljaar deur middel van uitgebreide deelnemerwaarneming sowel as ongestruktureerde en semigestruktureerde onderhoude versamel. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat die histories ontvouende institusionele kultuur die skool en die onderwysers op spesifieke wyses posisioneer. Die skool se Afrikaanse, Christelike wit toon kom tot uiting in die ongeskrewe reëls wat oor die algemeen vir die skool se daaglikse bedrywighede geld. Ek voer ook aan dat die skool se aangepaste institusionele toon gekenmerk word deur ’n bestuursdiskoers wat tot stand gekom het deur neoliberale bestuurspraktyke met betrekking tot die institusionele funksionering van die skool. Die artikel toon hoe die oorheersende neoliberale bestuurstyl en ’n diskoers van bestuursheerskappy die institusionele kultuur by Kanaänskool vestig en die onderwysers as geïsoleerd in hulle klaskamers posisioneer.
- ItemFoundation phase teachers' experiences of teaching the subject, coding, in selected Western Cape schools(Education Association of South Africa, 2021) Geldenhuys, Cindy Jean; Fataar, AslamSeveral teachers have recently started introducing coding into their teaching in primary schools. This comes on the back of the emerging prominence of educational technology and the teaching of computational skills at school level, in light of the country’s policy commitment to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Coding has been punted as 1 of 2 essential subjects to be launched in schools countrywide from 2020; the other being robotics. In this article we focus on the implementation of coding as a subject in selected Foundation Phase classes in the Western Cape. We aim to gain an understanding of coding as a subject from the perspective of teachers who are implementing this very new subject in the Foundation Phase. We specifically discuss the experiences and challenges of teachers who have been teaching the subject over the last few years, based on in-depth qualitative interviews with 4 Foundation Phase teachers. Overall, we provide a set of considerations for the optimal implementation of coding as a subject in Foundation Phase in South African schools. The participants’ experiences highlight the challenges associated with implementation, teachers’ pedagogical skills and competences, and resource requirements. We raise the following areas that need to be addressed for the successful implementation of coding: professional development addressing teaching methodologies on the development of computational thinking skills in young learners, providing support for teachers, addressing time constraints in the teaching of the subject, and providing resources.