CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
5.2 C ONTEXT OF THE S TUDY
The broader context in which this study was conducted is described in Chapter 3. This context has remained broadly the same up to the time of writing this dissertation, though a process of curriculum revision is underway. This section of the dissertation briefly sets out the particular context of the study, beginning with a description of the area in which the study was conducted, then describing the school, providing an overview of the three classrooms studied and finally providing brief biographical sketches of the teachers whose practice is reported later in the chapter.
5.2.1 The area
This study was conducted in a junior primary school in a peri-urban residential township of a large town in KwaZulu-Natal. This township has high levels of poverty and unemployment, and like similar communities, a high incidence of HIV/AIDS. It is difficult to determine clearly the size of the population of the township. In 2000, two municipal councillors from the area estimated the population at 30 000 (Boqo, 2001, p. 6), which is possibly a more likely figure than the report of the 1996 census which put it at 7 807 (Boqo, 2001, p. 6).
Many people live in informal housing and in backyard rented accommodation in overcrowded conditions. A number of informal settlements border the township, with residents attending school in the township. A substantial proportion of the population derive their main income from pensions or other grants, informal family financial support, letting rooms or sheds constructed in backyards, or crime (Personal Communication, Principal E, April 2007).
During the apartheid period, the township in which this study was conducted was relatively well-off (Wittenberg, 2003). Compared to other townships, it was closer to job opportunities, it had better services as a result of the administrating authority under which it fell, and, importantly for this study, education was provided by the Department of Education and Training (DET), which meant better access to funding than education provided by the KwaZulu Department of Education and Culture. The township has a vibrant political history, and was an important locus for resistance against the apartheid government. A number of provincial and national politicians come from the area.
5.2.2 The school
Mthembu Junior Primary School (a pseudonym) is one of three schools serving the children from the township and the surrounding informal settlements. The three schools, this junior primary school (teaching Grades R-4), a senior primary school (Grades 5-7) and a high school (Grades 8-12) are positioned in a row, bounded by the local soccer stadium on one side and residential buildings on the other sides. As indicated above, all three of these schools formerly fell under the administration of the national Department of Education and Training.
As already indicated, the school is typical of mainstream or numeric norm schools in South Africa in terms of the socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds of learners and teachers and the challenges it faces.
Established in 1948, Mthembu has 21 classrooms (some of which were used as storerooms in 2007), and in 2006 had 230 pupils and a staff of 15, including the principal, who has worked at the school for nearly 40 years. The principal retired in June 2010. The school management team consisted of the principal, the Head of Department (Foundation Phase), who was a Grade 2 teacher, and one of the three teachers who was part of this study, Ms A. The school has an administrative secretary who was on extended sick leave in 2006, requiring functions to be carried out by other staff members. School fees in 2006 were R140 a year. The school operates a feeding scheme for learners – a mid-morning meal is cooked outside on a fire made of old pallets, and distributed to children in their classrooms in buckets.
Physically, the school looks different from its neighbours. There are flowers planted in beds at the gate and learners keep a small vegetable garden. The grass is neatly maintained, there is far less dust in the yard than in the other schools and learners can be seen picking up rubbish and cleaning gutters early every Friday morning. During school hours the gate is kept closed and usually locked. This sense of pride in the environment is echoed in the appearance of the learners, who, though many are from very poor backgrounds, are largely neatly dressed in the school‘s uniform.
Up until the beginning of 2006, Mthembu JPS was an isiZulu-medium school. However, parents, through the School Governing Body, placed pressure on the school to teach through the medium of English, which they argued was the language of opportunity for their children.
The school agreed to do this in the face of dwindling numbers as local parents attempted to
get their children accepted into English-medium schools in town. The move was not entirely popular with the teachers, but they felt that they ―had no option‖ but to comply if they were to keep the school open and retain their jobs there (Personal communication with Principal E, April 2006). In January 2010 the school reverted to teaching through the medium of isiZulu, to the unanimous approval of staff, who argue that they can ―see the difference‖ in pupil performance as a result of this decision.
According to the principal, the school is classified by the National Department of Education as a Quintile 4 school. Quintiles are a factor used for pro-poor targeting of per-learner state funding to schools, determined by the socioeconomic status of the community around the school. Scores are based on national census data for the school catchment area, taking into account income, unemployment rate and literacy rate (Kanjee, 2009). Quintile 1 schools are the poorest and Quintile 5 schools the least poor. According to research by Kanjee, the quintile system effectively identifies schools in the highest and lowest categories, but schools in the middle are ―often incorrectly identified‖ (Kanjee, 2009). In 2006, the school operated on a budget of approximately R 56 479.20 for non teaching expenses (electricity, water, telephone and photocopying), with an additional R84 718.80 allocated for Learning and Teaching Support Materials (i.e. stationery, text books and furniture). In 2006 the actual textbook budget was R40 000 for the whole school (Interview with Principal E, August 2007). This amounts to expenditure by the state of R613.90 per student per year.
Many of the teachers at Mthembu live in the area or have family members in the area, and some attended the same school in their youth. Teachers received their initial teacher training in a variety of institutions under various apartheid- and post-apartheid era authorities. There appears to be an ethos of life-long learning among the teachers: in 2006, three teachers celebrated completing further degrees or diplomas. Grant (2007, p. 12) remarks that the leadership in the school is ―fluid and emergent… with real collaboration where teachers were working effectively, supporting each other and working collegially.‖ The school principal has much to do with encouraging this.
One Grade R class (Reception year) was established at the school in 2006. This catered for 75 children. Approximately 50% of learners in Grade 1 at the school in 2006 had attended a Grade R class either at Mthembu or elsewhere. The Grade R teacher is not qualified as a teacher, but has done a short course in Early Childhood Development run by a non-
governmental organisation in the area. Grade R pupils pay a once-off fee of R350 per year for their tuition and the school receives no further allocation of funds for these pupils.
There are three classes for each of Grades 1 – 4 at the school, with roughly the same number of children in each Grade. In 2006 the average class size was 38 children per class. The classes are not ―streamed‖ according to ability. In Grades 3 and 4 the teachers divide up their work so that one teacher teaches Numeracy to all three classes in the Grade, while another teacher teaches English Literacy, and another teaches isiZulu and so on. In 2006 this did not occur in Grades 1 and 2. The teachers argue that this reduces their preparation load and ensures cross-class consistency. The movement of teachers between classes is informally regulated: the school bell rings only for break times.
Mthembu J.P. has 8 computers, which are housed in the staffroom. All pupils who have paid the required extra fee of R150 per year receive one ICT lesson a week from a dedicated ICT teacher paid for by these contributions.
The school has a library, housed in a large, sunny room. A collection of approximately 1500 books is housed here, as are various teaching resources including cupboards full of text books in isiZulu which are no longer used because of the school‘s language policy. During 2006, a donation of R15 000 worth of books was received for the library from Rotary Pietermaritzburg. The books have been properly accessioned and classified, with the help of students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Department of Education‘s Education Library and Information Services, but are arranged in a rather haphazard fashion on shelves which are prone to tip over. The room is kept locked, and although all classes have an allocated period during each week to visit the library, this does not happen regularly.
Learners are not allowed to take books out of the library, but teachers may do so.
5.2.3 The classrooms
At Mthembu Junior Primary School, the three Grade 1 classrooms are located in a row along a veranda directly behind the administration block. The rooms are all similar, with a blackboard covering almost the entire wall closest to the door, while the opposite wall is covered with pinboards in varying states of repair. One of the remaining walls has large windows from end to end, while opposite, on the same wall as the door and facing onto the
veranda, the windows are small and high, with pinboards beneath them. Each room has a wooden cupboard in which the teacher keeps supplies, and child-sized wood and steel tables, seating two, with small chairs for the children. Each teacher has a table and chair, placed in the centre-front in one room, centre-side in another and along the side wall next to the door in a third. A few additional tables are stacked along the sides of the rooms, and are used for storage of learners‘ exercise books and other papers. The walls of the rooms are painted a relatively shabby grey-blue colour. The floors are covered in grey Marley-tiles, and in each room there are large pieces of grey or brown carpet which are moved to the front when learners need to work ―on the mat‖ (a common practice in junior primary schools where children sit on the floor at the teacher‘s feet for an intimate lesson or work with the teacher).
As the nature and quality of the print text in the rooms are part of the subject of this study, teaching aids and other materials in the rooms will be described later in this chapter.
At the time of this study, the three Grade 1 classes had 40, 38 and 39 pupils respectively.
These children ranged in age between 5 and 11 years and 17% (20 pupils) were repeating the grade. There were roughly equal numbers of boys and girls in each class.
5.2.4 The teachers
The three Grade 1 teachers whose practice forms the basis of this study are referred to as Ms A., Ms G. and Ms N. The School Principal is referred to as Principal E.
Ms A. is in her 40s and has been teaching for more than 25 years, though 2006 was her first year as a Grade 1 teacher. A confident communicator in various contexts, she speaks English as a home language, but speaks isiZulu fluently. She has an easy, almost motherly relationship with students, but often raises her voice to achieve discipline. She is part of the School Management Team, and appears to be held in high esteem by her colleagues. Her initial teacher training was a 3-year Primary Teacher‘s Diploma from the Bechet Training College, which served the so-called coloured community during the apartheid era, where she majored in Home Economics. Later she upgraded to a Bachelor‘s Degree and obtained a B.Ed (Hons) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She studied a module on Adult Basic Education for this degree. Ms A. is computer literate and has ADSL computer access at
home. The school‘s computers were donated by her husband‘s corporate employer through her and her husband‘s efforts. She is in charge of the library at the school and frequently attends library-related training events organised by the Department of Education.
Subsequently to this research, she completed an Advanced Certificate in School Librarianship. Ms A. sent her own children to ex-model C schools in town. Ms A. is the informal leader of the Grade 1 teachers, taking initiative regarding planning and materials development. At lunch times, she can be seen sitting on the veranda with the children as they eat, or doing tasks in the administration block.
Ms G., who is older than 50 and speaks isiZulu at home, has been teaching for more than 20 years, and has considerable experience in Grade 1. Initially she did a 2 year teacher qualification at Indaleni College of Education, and then upgraded to a Junior Secondary Teaching Diploma at Umlazi College of Education. She has also completed training in Technical Drawing, a 2-year management course and is currently registered for a distance B.Ed through Potchefstroom University. Ms G. appears to be a gentle but firm teacher, aloof from her students, formal but reticent in communication with colleagues. She successfully maintains order in her class without raising her voice. One of her favourite admonishments in class is ―Listen a.. ? .. ttentively!‖ Her expectation of her students is high. At lunch times Ms G. tends to sit in her own classroom with the door closed, usually accompanied by her friend, a Grade 3 teacher.
In contrast, Ms N., an isiZulu mother tongue speaker in her 30‘s, started teaching in 1994 at the dawn of the new South Africa, having just completed a 3-year initial teacher training course through Mbumbulu College of Education under the previous dispensation. She has subsequently upgraded her qualifications with a Certificate in Adult Basic Education (ABET) from UNISA. Ms N. has worked at Mthembu JPS for 5 years. Previously she taught in a farm school which she regards as better equipped than Mthembu in terms of learning and teaching materials. Ms N. has an easy laugh and an enthusiastic approach to her work as a teacher.
She appears relaxed yet firm with her students. At lunch time she can often be seen sitting with a group of five or so teachers who like to eat together in the sun.
It should be noted that of the three teachers only Ms N. was specifically trained as a Foundation Phase teacher.