Browsing by Author "Joorst, Jerome"
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- ItemDie navigasiepraktyke van leerders uit arm, landelike gebiede(LitNet, 2017) Joorst, JeromeHierdie artikel handel oor ’n groep arm, landelike leerders se belewing van hulle skoling in ’n landelike woongebied. Dit beskryf die hoërskoolleerders se aanpassings- en navigasiestrategieë in eendimensionele eendersmakende skoolomgewings wat dikwels nie leerders se unieke vorme van kapitaal in ag neem nie. Met behulp van etnografiese metodes ondersoek hierdie bydrae hoe dié leerders hulle posisioneer in én sin gee aan ’n skoolstelsel wat almal oor dieselfde prestasiegedrewe kam skeer. Bourdieu se teoretiese lens van gebied, habitus en kapitaal is gebruik om aan te voer dat leerders uit arm, landelike gebiede se navigasiepraktyke verstaan behoort te word aan die hand van die wisselwerking tussen hulle liggame en die gebied waarin hulle funksioneer. Bourdieu se teorieë word in die artikel meer breedvoerig verduidelik. Die klem van die artikel val op hoe die leerders se beperkende leeromgewings hulle dwing om navigasiepraktyke te skep om deur hulle skoolloopbane koers te hou. Dít behels onder meer die gebruik van alternatiewe vorme van kapitaal soos strewing, geloof en verbeelding as ’n platform om ’n sogenaamde selfgeskoolde habitus te ontwikkel.
- ItemOpvoederwees te midde van die realiteite van landelike geenskoolfondslaerskole(LitNet, 2019) Joorst, JeromeENGLISH ABSTRACT : At the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994 the new government was faced with the challenge of participating in a global neoliberalist world while at the same time having to address historical inequalities in its education system. No-fee schools came about as a government strategy to address the negative impact of poverty and rising school costs on the poor in South Africa. These are public schools where no school fees are charged to parents with a limited income because the state pays for every schoolgoing learner in the school, for the learning materials needed, as well as the costs for the upkeep of the school. The problem is that hegemonic ideas about what the ideal teacher ought to be as well as the predominant focus on school results very often prevent us from gaining the analytical understanding of the complex challenges that face some educators in performing their duties. Furthermore, studies about the impact of the no-fee-school policy on educators working in such schools have thus far focused mainly on challenges in the management of these schools and have not yet explored educators‘ experiences in these schools. This article focuses on the experiences of educators in rural no-fee schools and more specifically on how they make sense of being teachers in the midst of contextual and institutional challenges in rural contexts. My central thesis is that constant changing departmental expectations of educators concerning the delivery of the curriculum without taking contextual and institutional factors into account not only bring about changes in educators‘ pedagogical habitus, but also changes the nature of schooling in a school. One of the biggest challenges for the post-1994 government was to adress deep historical inequalities in the South African education system (Bush and Heystek 2006). These inequalities, argue Hungi, Makuwa, Ross, Saito, Dolata and Van Capelle (2011, in Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien 2016), revolved around higher levels of poverty and black schools1 compared with historically white schools and even schools in other parts of Africa. No-fee schools is the government‘s attempt to protect low income-parents from rising school costs. The state supports such schools by paying for its personnel and non-personnel expenditures. Four considerations are taken into account when the state subsidises such schools, namely the rights of learners, the minimum basic package to ensure quality education, the national distribution of income differences and poverty, and the state‘s budget. The parents of children in such schools are expected to support the school where there are still shortcomings. If these schools are relieved of the burden of costs, what, then, could still be problematic? Dominant perceptions of what an ideal teacher is, as well as an overemphasis on school results as an indicator of quality education prevent us from gaining an analytical understanding of the complex contextual and institutional realities that educators in these schools face. Furthermore, poor literacy and numeracy results in these schools often contribute to narrow and often untested criticism and stereotyping of the work ethic and professionalism of educators. This article is an attempt to offer insight into the complex contextual and institutional realities that contribute to specific perceptions of being an educator in no-fee rural schools. The study shows that educators in rural no-fee schools draw on capital forms that inform their teaching practices which enable them to mediate between the constant quantitative expectations from their employer and the humanitarian needs of their learners. The aim and purpose of this research was to provide some insight into the complex contextual and institutional realities that educators in rural no-fee schools face which contribute to their perceptions of and approaches to teaching. A qualitative approach, and integrating empirical and descriptive data, was followed. This approach was useful because it allowed the researcher to describe the lived world realities of people from the inside out and from the perspectives of the participants (Flick, Von Kardoff and Steinke 2004:3). After obtaining ethical clearance from the Western Cape Education Department, I conducted semi-structured interviews with six experienced educators representing three different school phases in three different no-fee primary schools in Circuit 4 on the West coast of South Africa. Purposive sampling was used because of the participants‘ intimate knowledge and experiences of being teachers in rural no-fee schools. Narrative data analysis helped me to categorise the participants‘ different experiences into themes (Carr 1986, Webster and Mertova 2007:3). I employ Bourdieu‘s interrelated theoretical concept of habitus (1990:53) to explain educatorsꞌ behaviour because of prolonged exposure to specific circumstance and the concept of field(1998) to explain schools as examples of spaces which take on different forms because of specific institutional discourses, value systems and rules in them. Furthermore, Yosso's notion of community cultural wealth (2005) with alternative forms of resistance and navigational capital (2005:80) employed by marginalised people in particular, further helped to explain how educators are able to stay on course, navigating through the contextual and institutional obstacles they face in such schools. The research findings show that rural no-fee schools predominantly serve poor black learners who, despite not having to pay school fees, still struggle with historical socio-welfare challenges. Educators in rural no-fee primary schools are highly frustrated by the demanding performative departmental curriculum delivery expectations which completely ignore the contextual and institutional realities of educators in such schools. The one-size-fits-all approach of the department ignores the fact that learners bring their contextual challenges in their homes and community with them to school. The practices of educators in these schools are very often informed by challenges to attend to the humanitarian needs of their learners before they attend to curriculum imperatives. This, coupled with little support from parents, often leads to low pass rates, which in turn portrays them as underperforming and even unprofessional. Despite the unfavourable schooling conditions under which they have to perform their duties, these educators draw their resilience from different forms of capitals and make the most of their profession.
- ItemDie rol van nie-akademiese mentorskap om studente uit gemarginaliseerde groepe by 'n universiteit te laat inskakel – 'n gevallestudie(LitNet, 2021) Joorst, JeromeDie protesoptrede van universiteitstudente wêreldwyd en veral in Suid-Afrika het die afgelope tyd die soeklig op toegang tot die hoër onderwys gewerp. Die gewysigde kriteria vir programakkreditasie van die Hoëronderwysgehaltekomitee moedig universiteite egter nou aan om hulle toelatingsbeleide met die Nasionale Plan vir Hoër Onderwys te versoen en toegang tot hoër onderwys te verbreed deur vir “buigsame toegangsroetes” voorsiening te maak (RHO 2004:9). Een so ’n buigsame toegangsroete aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch (US) is SciMathUS, ’n jaar lange oorbruggingsprogram vir wetenskap en wiskunde, wat benadeelde studente ’n tweede geleentheid bied om hulle prestasie in dié vakke te verbeter om universiteitstoelating te bekom. As gevolg van historiese maatskaplike en onderwysongelykhede betree baie swart SciMathUSstudente dikwels die universiteit met “gebrekkige” vakkennis en leervaardighede – kennis en vaardighede wat strydig is met dít waaraan die universiteit waarde heg. Dit dra dikwels by tot ’n hoër uitsaksyfer onder swart studente (Van der Berg en Gustafsson 2019). Daarteenoor verkry die meeste SciMathUS-studente nie net universiteitstoelating nie – hulle hou ook koers en gradueer. Hierdie studente ontvang ’n jaar se gratis verblyf in universiteitshuisvesting, waar hulle ook nie-akademiese mentorskap ontvang. In teenstelling met vorige navorsing oor die SciMathUS-program, wat hoofsaaklik om die akademiesesteunkomponent sentreer (Malan 2008; Lourens 2013), ondersoek ek in hierdie artikel die impak van nie-akademiese mentorskap op die SciMathUS-student se inskakeling by die universiteit. Na aanleiding van ’n studie van beleid vir en literatuur oor studentementorskap, sowel as onderhoude met mentors, is die gevolgtrekking dat nie-akademiese mentorskap produktiewe interaksies met die kapitaalvorme van studente uit gemarginaliseerde omstandighede fasiliteer, ook dat dit die suksesvolle navigasie van sodanige studente in hoëronderwysinstellings ondersteun.
- ItemDie selfgeskoolde habitus van jeugdiges op 'n plattelandse dorp(2013-12) Joorst, Jerome; Fataar, Aslam; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In a post apartheid South African educational environment, learners’ academic achievement is generally seen as a barometer of the quality of education in schools. The low academic performance of black learners has contributed to an overall, but narrow and decontextualised view, that these learners generally produce poor results because of something inherently wrong with their abilities to learn. Educational research has hitherto focused on unproblematized pedagogical approaches that result in narrow and decontextualized, functionalist views that working class learners’ learning is problematic. What is less known are the challenges that working class learners have to face on a daily basis as they try to navigate deeply constraint lived spaces of their homes, communities and schools in their quest to realise their educational goals. The study explores selected working class high school learners’ navigation and mediation practices as they engage with their schooling over different spaces of their rural town. I assert that these learners have the ability to shift their habitus just enough to enable them to stay on course in their quest for educational achievement and a better future. I argue that, through the optimal utilisation of available resources in their lived spaces and the strategic deployment of embodied adaptive practices, these youth develop a ‘self-schooled’ habitus that enable them to re-imagine their daily realities and aspire to better futures despite their adverse living conditions. In order to study these learners’ habitus adaptations, I utilise Bourdieu’s theoretical lenses of field, capital and habitus to argue that the youth in this study are not mere passive recipients of global influences and changing environments, but active agents in the shaping of their local realities. Through ethnographic study I explore the self- schooled navigation practices that these youth employ to help them mediate between the structural reproductive influences of their educational environments and their educational aspirations. The thesis is motivated by the position that qualitative research can offer a view of the intersections of fast changing macro-community processes and young people’s micro-lived educational dimensionalities.