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Opportunity Matters: The Ithuba Writing Project in South African Schools
Abstract
Our lead article explores the impact the authors witnessed when they helped South African teachers create culturally relevant books written in their students’ languages. Through participation in the Ithuba Writing Project, these teachers were able to relate transformative stories about their lives through books that they subsequently shared in the classroom. South African teachers were able to explore what it means to be a writer, refining their definitions of “writer” and their own instruction. The authors document the changes in these teachers as writers and teachers of writing.
The author argues that the field of literacy research has languished through its ties to research methods rooted in traditional, experimental methods. If literacy teaching practices are to improve, we must shift our attention to the promising arena of design research that invokes imagination, innovation and transformation. The author offers examples on several programs of literacy research that has focused on the identification of design principles for practice.
This critical, integrative qualitative review explores how researchers approach, describe, and justify culturally relevant, culturally responsive, or culturally sustaining literacy instruction in prekindergarten through fifth-grade (P–5) classrooms. We reviewed 56 studies published between 1995 and 2018. We documented terms researchers use, theorists cited, methods, student outcomes, and student populations. We also analyzed how researchers talked about achievement gaps, addressed their own positionality, and determined that specific literacy instructional practices were culturally informed. We found that researchers most commonly claim to document culturally relevant or responsive instruction, in some cases conflating the terms and related theorists. Most studies were qualitative, occurred with traditionally marginalized students (usually Black or Latinx) in the United States, and involved students reading a text that researchers deem culturally informed. We make recommendations for teachers and researchers to move the field of culturally informed literacy forward.
This paper provides a sociolinguistic (rather than an applied linguistic or political) appraisal of policy-related language developments in South Africa, with a main focus on recent trends in applied linguistic writing on the subject. The paper first briefly summarises the trends leading to the constitutional ideals and their modifications. Thereafter it highlights the dilemmas surrounding implementation, and criticisms of implementation by applied linguists. The paper argues that greater bottom-up sociolinguistic awareness and less faith in bureaucratic top-down policies are needed to understand developments (and, more often, lack of developments) around language.
ABSTRACTS
This interpretive study explored the qualities of six high‐performing schools that served low‐income South African students. The theoretical framework and methodology derived from research on effective schools conducted, for the most part, in the United States. Data consisted of interviews and classroom observations over the course of two collection phases, focusing on experiences and beliefs held at individual schools. Within a case‐study framework, the authors used a constant‐comparison approach and cross‐case analysis to identify five broad themes associated with these high‐performing schools. These schools were safe, orderly, and positive learning environments, were guided by strong leaders and staffed by excellent teachers who had a shared sense of “competence, pride, and purpose” that included high levels of school and community involvement. Not all was perfect in these schools; they struggled with issues of class size, highly qualified replacement teachers, the future of the graduates of their schools, and writing instruction. In spite of these struggles, these schools demonstrated determination, resiliency, and purpose.
Este estudio interpretativo exploró las características de seis escuelas de alto rendimiento que trabajaban con estudiantes sudafricanos de bajos ingresos. El marco teórico y la metodología se tomaron de investigaciones sobre escuelas eficientes, en su mayoría, de los Estados Unidos. Los datos consistieron en entrevistas y observaciones de aula hechas en dos fases de recolección. Se puso el acento en las experiencias y creencias propias de cada escuela en particular. En el marco de los estudios de caso, los autores usaron un enfoque de comparación de constantes y análisis inter‐casos para identificar cinco grandes temas asociados a estas escuelas de alto rendimiento. Las mismas eran seguras, ordenadas y contextos de aprendizaje positivos, estaban dirigidas por líderes fuertes y contaban con docentes excelentes que compartían sentimientos de “capacidad, orgullo y determinación” que resultaban en altos niveles de compromiso con la escuela y la comunidad. No todo era perfecto en estas escuelas; se luchaba por temas como tamaño de las clases, docentes suplentes bien capacitados, el futuro de los graduados y la enseñanza de la escritura. A pesar de estos conflictos las escuelas demostraron determinación, resiliencia y voluntad.
Diese ausführliche Studie untersuchte die Eigenschaften von sechs hochbewerteten Schulen, die südafrikanische Schüler aus niedrigen Einkommensverhältnissen helfen. Die theoretische Rahmenstruktur und die Methodologie wurden aus Untersuchungen bereits erfolgreicher Schulen abgeleitet, im wesentlichen aus den Vereinigten Staaten. Im Verlauf von zwei Kollektionsphasen bestanden die Daten aus Interviews und Beobachtungen im Klassenzimmer, ausgerichtet auf die in bestimmten Schulen gewonnenen Erfahrungen und überzeugungen. Innerhalb der Rahmenbedingungen ihrer Untersuchung nutzten die Autoren eine konstante Vergleichsanalyse und eine querverbindende Verhaltensanalyse zur Identifizierung von fünf umfangreichen Themen, die mit jenen Hochleistungsschulen assoziiert sind. In diesen Schulen gab es sichere, geordnete und positive Lernbedingungen, geleitet durch eine straffe Führung und ausgestattet mit exzellenten Lehrern, die ein gleichgesinntes Streben an ‘Kompetenz, Ehrgeiz und Entschlußkraft’ hatten, welche hochgradige Schul‐ und Gemeinschaftsengagements miteinbezogen. Jedoch war nicht unbedingt alles in diesen Schulen perfekt; sie hatten mit den Folgen von Klassengröße, dem Nachschub an hochqualifizierten Lehrern, den Zukunftsausichten ihrer Schulabgänger, und den Schreibunterweisungen zu kämpfen. Trotz dieser Auseinandersetzungen veranschaulichten diese Schulen Entschlossenheit, Schwung und Zweckerfüllung.
Cette étude interprétative analyse les caractéristiques de six écoles obtenant de bons résultats avec des élèves sud‐africains de milieu défavorisé. Le cadre théorique et la méthodologie issus des recherches sur les écoles efficaces proviennent le plus souvent des Etats‐Unis. Les données consistent en entretiens et observations en classe au cours de deux phases de collecte, en se centrant sur ce qui est fait dans chaque école et ce en quoi elle croit. Procédant par étude de cas, les auteurs ont procédé constamment par comparaison et analyse croisée, ce qui conduit à identifier cinq thèmes larges associés aux bons résultats observés. Ces écoles étaient sûres, en ordre, ayant un environnement d'apprentissage positif, dirigées par des chefs d'établissement solides avec un personnel d'excellents enseignants ayant en commun un solide sens de « compétence, de fierté, et des objectifs », ainsi qu'un haut niveau d'attente et d'implication de la communauté. Tout n'était pas parfait dans ces écoles; elles devaient se battre sur des questions d'effectif des classes, de remplacement par des professeurs très qualifiés, d'avenir des jeunes diplômés, et d'enseignement de l'écriture. En dépit de ces luttes, ces écoles manifestaient détermination, résilience, et objectifs.
В рамках данного исследования изучались школы, успешно работающие в бедных общинах Южной Африки. При этом использовались теоретические обоснования и методология исследования эффективности школ, которые до сих пор применялись, главным образом, в Соединенных Штатах. Собранные данные состоят из интервью и наблюдений на уроках, которые осуществлялись в два этапа и были посвящены опыту каждой отдельной школы и установкам, на которых школы строят свою деятельность. Авторы использовали “метод кейсов”, а внутри него – константно‐сравнительный метод и аналитическое сравнение отдельных кейсов. В итоге были выделены пять достаточно емких параметров, характеризующих эти успешные школы: в них создана безопасная, упорядоченная, позитивная обстановка для учащихся, ими руководят сильные лидеры, а педагогический коллектив состоит из превосходных учителей, которых объединяет чувство “собственной компетентности, гордости за школу и общей цели”, к достижению которой школа активно приобщает все сообщество. Эти школы далеки от совершенства, в них серьезно стоят проблемы переизбытка учеников в классах и отсутствия высоко квалифицированных кадров для замены заболевших учителей, их весьма беспокоит будущее трудоустройство выпускников, в них не очень хорошо учат письму. Несмотря на все эти сложности, эти школы настойчиво и неуклонно двигаются к поставленной цели.
In this paper it is argued that language policy can play a central role in enabling citizens of a country to participate in the political, educational, social and economic life of that country. Or it can deny them that right. In discussions on the role of African languages, there is a tendency to confine the discussion to language in education. I argue that unless we locate the discussion in a broader context, we are not going to make much progress in extending the use of African languages beyond the home domain. The paper therefore consists of three sections. The first section looks broadly at the domains where language has an impact. The second section briefly outlines a process underway in South Africa to develop a framework for a national language policy, whilst the final section looks at the implications of this for education. Here I look at language in Education Policy in Practice. I give examples from a piece of primary research that I have conducted with Xhosa -speaking Grade 4 and Grade 7 learners who have been given pictures to describe first in Xhosa and then in English. The examples show the rich vocabulary children have when they express themselves in Xhosa and the poor vocabulary they have when they express themselves in English.
Issues of language and education are central to the process of nation building in the new South Africa. In this paper, I examine the rhetoric and the practice of the intersections of South Africa's language and education policies. While early education policy documents are predicated on the need to reassert the importance of African languages in relation to English and Afrikaans, the official languages during apartheid, these discourses of language equality are now being replaced with discourses of utility. I examine this change at the level of national policy, and also in practice in the province of Mpumalanga, where English is increasingly coming to dominate the spaces of education, and Afrikaans and African languages are becoming more marginalised. I argue that this policy shift and related practices fundamentally undermine broader claims to racial and ethnic equality in the new South Africa. Copyright (c) 2004 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.
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