In this essay the authors provide arguments that teaching is an art and that teachers can learn m... more In this essay the authors provide arguments that teaching is an art and that teachers can learn much about their trade from a careful study of the performances of other artists. Artists and teachers have the same basic challenge: in order to be successful, both groups have to obtain and retain peoples’ attention. This also holds for popular music artists. Ten female student teachers specializing in the Pre-school and Foundation phases of schooling (four-to-six-year olds), and six lecturers from the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, participated in a workshop at a local game lodge. During the workshop, videos of ABBA songs and Mamma Mia! The Movie were analyzed and discussed. The theme of the workshop was “Being an Excellent Teacher: Appreciating ABBA.” The 4D-cycle of Appreciative Inquiry– Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny–was used as a methodological framework to identify numerous positive themes with possible classroom applicat...
National Research Foundation’s Sabbatical Grant Project (Grant Number 89692: 2014). Financial Ass... more National Research Foundation’s Sabbatical Grant Project (Grant Number 89692: 2014). Financial Assistance from the Department of Higher Education (DHET) and the European Union (EU) in the form of the DHET and EU Grant, distributed through Professor Dennis Francis provided additional financial support for this doctoral research.
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2021
Background: One can argue that literacy practices work to produce forms of literacy knowledge and... more Background: One can argue that literacy practices work to produce forms of literacy knowledge and literate children in early childhood contexts. However, one needs to interrogate how these literacy practices create technologies of power that construct and normalise the school ready literate child. Aim: The ethnographic study employed in this article explored everyday literacy practices in early childhood contexts that were considered ‘usual’, the kinds of literate children these practices engendered and its normalising effects on children and teachers. Settings: The study was conducted in two early childhood centres with two early childhood teachers and teaching children between the ages of 3 and 4. Methods: The study was qualitative in nature and used participant observation. A genealogical analysis of literacy practices showed how technologies of power were embodied in different literacy practices that worked to construct and normalise the school ready child in different ways. Res...
The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educator’s ... more The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educator’s conceptions of teaching and learning. The study was undertaken to inform the development of the new Bachelor of Education in the Early Childhood and Foundation Phase (ECFP) at the University of Free State. The data for the study was produced with six teacher educators participating in blogs and group meetings. The findings show that teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching and learning are drawn from a variety of frames of reference and theoretical ideas. Although this is the case, their conceptions all point towards process-oriented and constructivist views of teaching and learning. This study draws attention to actions required for enabling teacher educators to function in more argentic ways.
The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educators&#... more The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educators' conceptions of teaching and learning. The study was undertaken to inform the development of the new Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree in the Early Childhood and Foundation Phase (ECFP) at the University of the Free State (UFS), Bloemfontein, South Africa. The data for the study was produced by six teacher educators participating in blogs and group meetings. The findings showed that teacher educators' conceptions of teaching and learning are drawn from a variety of frames of reference and theoretical ideas. Although this is the case, their conceptions all point towards process-oriented and constructivist views of teaching and learning. The study draws attention to actions required for enabling teacher educators to function in more argentic ways.
The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March 2020 b... more The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March 2020 brought many changes to the early childhood sector internationally. The South African response is best understood in the context of an under-developed sector with pre-existing vulnerabilities. In this article, we present a contextual understanding of the lived experiences of early childhood development (ECD) teachers and managers during the lockdown and the opening phases of a risk-adjusted approach. Our use of a phenomenological lens together with systems theory provides a reality check through a focus on lived experiences. Data were produced through an online survey with 28 ECD teachers and managers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a subset of 8 of these participants. Findings show that disruptions of COVID-19 led to entrenching inequities in service provision and early learning opportunities. These intersecting dimensions have implications for building effective ECD systems.
In order to reconceptualise and redesign initial teacher education programmes it is imperative to... more In order to reconceptualise and redesign initial teacher education programmes it is imperative to critically examine what exists. The aim of this article is to shed light on the dialogical processes a team of early childhood teacher educators undertook to make explicit their current understandings of teacher education in an undergraduate Bachelor of Education qualification. The sensitising concepts of dialogue, communication, transformatory learning and reflection informed the study. A qualitative approach enabled through documentary analysis, conversations amongst teacher educators and their narratives were used to produce the evidence. The findings of the study show that dialogical processes unfolded as action-oriented strategies towards achieving a particular goal (i.e., change in teacher education) have the potential to allow teacher educators to reflect on, participate in and trouble existing frames of reference and develop sensitivity to new framings. * Professor Hasina Banu E...
This article reports on a study that examined the levels of young children’s wellbeing and involv... more This article reports on a study that examined the levels of young children’s wellbeing and involvement in centre-based provision (birth to five years) at child, group and setting level1 in Free State, South Africa. The study was funded by the Flemish<br />Department of Education and was executed in collaboration with the Free State Department of Education and the University of Free State. Nineteen settings were included in the study. The average setting was registered for 121 children (with ratio’s<br />varying from 30 to 326 children registered). Foundation Phase students from the 2nd and 3rd year of study at the University of Free State collected data through observation tools designed by the Centre for Experiential Education at Leuven University, Belgium. The core instrument uses the Leuven scales for well-being and involvement. Results of the study indicate that overall scores for well-being and involvement are low, but also that there are huge differences between di...
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2016
This article examines two teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and d... more This article examines two teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and disadvantaged early childhood centres for three- to four-year-olds. The intention is to make sense of the dominant discourse of literacy, its constitutive nature and its effects on children, teaching and learning. Foucault’s theory of discourse is used to make salient the influence of interpretive frames of references on the understanding and practice of literacy. The data for the study was produced through a qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings show that teachers in both the advantaged and disadvantaged contexts are located in the dominant discourse of early literacy as a technical, autonomous skill. This discourse foregrounds children as adults-in-the-making (the becoming child) and a maturationist-environmentalist view of readiness for early literacy development. This narrow view of literacy discounts young children’s positioning as social actors...
In this essay the authors provide arguments that teaching is an art and that teachers can learn m... more In this essay the authors provide arguments that teaching is an art and that teachers can learn much about their trade from a careful study of the performances of other artists. Artists and teachers have the same basic challenge: in order to be successful, both groups have to obtain and retain peoples’ attention. This also holds for popular music artists. Ten female student teachers specializing in the Pre-school and Foundation phases of schooling (four-to-six-year olds), and six lecturers from the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, participated in a workshop at a local game lodge. During the workshop, videos of ABBA songs and Mamma Mia! The Movie were analyzed and discussed. The theme of the workshop was “Being an Excellent Teacher: Appreciating ABBA.” The 4D-cycle of Appreciative Inquiry– Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny–was used as a methodological framework to identify numerous positive themes with possible classroom applicat...
National Research Foundation’s Sabbatical Grant Project (Grant Number 89692: 2014). Financial Ass... more National Research Foundation’s Sabbatical Grant Project (Grant Number 89692: 2014). Financial Assistance from the Department of Higher Education (DHET) and the European Union (EU) in the form of the DHET and EU Grant, distributed through Professor Dennis Francis provided additional financial support for this doctoral research.
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2021
Background: One can argue that literacy practices work to produce forms of literacy knowledge and... more Background: One can argue that literacy practices work to produce forms of literacy knowledge and literate children in early childhood contexts. However, one needs to interrogate how these literacy practices create technologies of power that construct and normalise the school ready literate child. Aim: The ethnographic study employed in this article explored everyday literacy practices in early childhood contexts that were considered ‘usual’, the kinds of literate children these practices engendered and its normalising effects on children and teachers. Settings: The study was conducted in two early childhood centres with two early childhood teachers and teaching children between the ages of 3 and 4. Methods: The study was qualitative in nature and used participant observation. A genealogical analysis of literacy practices showed how technologies of power were embodied in different literacy practices that worked to construct and normalise the school ready child in different ways. Res...
The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educator’s ... more The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educator’s conceptions of teaching and learning. The study was undertaken to inform the development of the new Bachelor of Education in the Early Childhood and Foundation Phase (ECFP) at the University of Free State. The data for the study was produced with six teacher educators participating in blogs and group meetings. The findings show that teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching and learning are drawn from a variety of frames of reference and theoretical ideas. Although this is the case, their conceptions all point towards process-oriented and constructivist views of teaching and learning. This study draws attention to actions required for enabling teacher educators to function in more argentic ways.
The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educators&#... more The aim of this article is to report on a qualitative study that investigated teacher educators' conceptions of teaching and learning. The study was undertaken to inform the development of the new Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree in the Early Childhood and Foundation Phase (ECFP) at the University of the Free State (UFS), Bloemfontein, South Africa. The data for the study was produced by six teacher educators participating in blogs and group meetings. The findings showed that teacher educators' conceptions of teaching and learning are drawn from a variety of frames of reference and theoretical ideas. Although this is the case, their conceptions all point towards process-oriented and constructivist views of teaching and learning. The study draws attention to actions required for enabling teacher educators to function in more argentic ways.
The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March 2020 b... more The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March 2020 brought many changes to the early childhood sector internationally. The South African response is best understood in the context of an under-developed sector with pre-existing vulnerabilities. In this article, we present a contextual understanding of the lived experiences of early childhood development (ECD) teachers and managers during the lockdown and the opening phases of a risk-adjusted approach. Our use of a phenomenological lens together with systems theory provides a reality check through a focus on lived experiences. Data were produced through an online survey with 28 ECD teachers and managers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a subset of 8 of these participants. Findings show that disruptions of COVID-19 led to entrenching inequities in service provision and early learning opportunities. These intersecting dimensions have implications for building effective ECD systems.
In order to reconceptualise and redesign initial teacher education programmes it is imperative to... more In order to reconceptualise and redesign initial teacher education programmes it is imperative to critically examine what exists. The aim of this article is to shed light on the dialogical processes a team of early childhood teacher educators undertook to make explicit their current understandings of teacher education in an undergraduate Bachelor of Education qualification. The sensitising concepts of dialogue, communication, transformatory learning and reflection informed the study. A qualitative approach enabled through documentary analysis, conversations amongst teacher educators and their narratives were used to produce the evidence. The findings of the study show that dialogical processes unfolded as action-oriented strategies towards achieving a particular goal (i.e., change in teacher education) have the potential to allow teacher educators to reflect on, participate in and trouble existing frames of reference and develop sensitivity to new framings. * Professor Hasina Banu E...
This article reports on a study that examined the levels of young children’s wellbeing and involv... more This article reports on a study that examined the levels of young children’s wellbeing and involvement in centre-based provision (birth to five years) at child, group and setting level1 in Free State, South Africa. The study was funded by the Flemish<br />Department of Education and was executed in collaboration with the Free State Department of Education and the University of Free State. Nineteen settings were included in the study. The average setting was registered for 121 children (with ratio’s<br />varying from 30 to 326 children registered). Foundation Phase students from the 2nd and 3rd year of study at the University of Free State collected data through observation tools designed by the Centre for Experiential Education at Leuven University, Belgium. The core instrument uses the Leuven scales for well-being and involvement. Results of the study indicate that overall scores for well-being and involvement are low, but also that there are huge differences between di...
South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2016
This article examines two teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and d... more This article examines two teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and disadvantaged early childhood centres for three- to four-year-olds. The intention is to make sense of the dominant discourse of literacy, its constitutive nature and its effects on children, teaching and learning. Foucault’s theory of discourse is used to make salient the influence of interpretive frames of references on the understanding and practice of literacy. The data for the study was produced through a qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings show that teachers in both the advantaged and disadvantaged contexts are located in the dominant discourse of early literacy as a technical, autonomous skill. This discourse foregrounds children as adults-in-the-making (the becoming child) and a maturationist-environmentalist view of readiness for early literacy development. This narrow view of literacy discounts young children’s positioning as social actors...
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