PRELUDE TO CHAPTER 5
PHASE 2 PHASE 2 - INDIVIDUAL ADMINISTRATION OF RAPT, FOCUS GROUPS AND INTERVIEWS
6. What has happened to the girl?
EXPECTED RESPONSE IN RAPT RESPONSE BY CHILDREN IN STUDY Fall, trip, slide, slip down, on, over, stairs,
steps, break, crack, smash, glasses, spectacles
Fall/fall down, stairs, break, glasses, cry, rolled ,girl, floor, mother, steps
SUMMARY OF VOICE OF ALL CHILDREN
They could relate to the picture as they had fallen down stairs themselves or had witnessed others doing so at home, school, on TV or in books. They commented that parents or teachers had glasses. No concerns or comments on race were raised by the urban children.
ACADEMICS PARENTS & COMMUNITY
Clear picture, child can relate but more for an urban child
Steps and spectacles are not common in African settings, especially rural ones
Children would be able to relate to the picture as it reflects a typical daily event that can occur. A child can fall down stairs at home or school.
COMMENTARY
The responses of all the academics, community members and parents, were consistent with those of the children; however, the academics’ assumption that the rural children would not have been exposed to glasses was inaccurate. Children in rural areas also had parents, teachers or relatives who wore glasses. The media also depicted people wearing glasses.
The children used in the study are living in an era where there are numerous, intricate and rapidly changing technological advances in media. These advances have resulted in greater exposure to knowledge of populations and areas from which they were previously sheltered.
Foucault maintains that knowledge is reinforced by the principles of exclusion and
prohibition (Rajchman, 1985). In media, these principles are reflected in the influence of the of the reporting and presenting of the knowledge or truth, validating certain discourses while discrediting others (P. Barker, 1998). If the media emerges from a society that is dominated by Western principles, the truth, subject of discourse and picture it will present will be reflective and will be validating thereof. Adult figures who wear glasses would be more common in music videos, local soapies and on newsreaders on television stations with news in indigenous languages.
There are also many projects, such as mobile trains to rural areas providing eye screening, surgical operations and other interventions, including supplying glasses, thereby increasing the access of populations that would previously not have been exposed to these services. The rural children in this research are part of these communities, seeing either adult family or community members getting glasses or they themselves getting glasses.
Personal Reflection
As I reflect on my own childhood, which included both urban and rural experience, glasses have been part of each of these environments. My sister wore glasses from Sub A (currently Grade 1). My father always wore glasses. When we went to Healdtown, a rural area in the Eastern Cape, during the school holidays, my granny, who was a teacher in a school, also wore glasses. As children, we were always sent to fetch her glasses for her to read. As glasses formed part of our daily experience, adults, especially fathers, also wore glasses when we played 'house’.
MOTIVATION FOR THE CHANGES MADE TO PICTURE 3 OF THE RAPT
PICTURE CHANGES
As most of the children, from both urban and rural areas, could relate to this picture, the picture was retained as it was. The only modification related to the context in which children
are exposed to steps. None of the rural children had steps at home but some of the urban children resided in flats, which had stairs. The rural children, however, had experience of steps from school as most of the schools used in the research were not located on flat land.
They were thus exposed to steps at school. The experiences they related of falling down steps were linked to school. The girl falling down the steps was thus changed to portray a girl wearing a school uniform, to reflect the children’s experience.
VOCABULARY CHANGES
The words ‘trips’, ‘slide’, ‘slip down’, ‘smash’ and ‘spectacles’ were not used by the children.
The words ‘trip’, ‘slide’ and ‘trip down’ indicate a specific type of falling e.g. ‘slide’ implies there is a slippery surface. A child who is an EAL speaker from an in indigenous linguistic and cultural background may still be in the process of expanding their vocabulary, and may be using the word ‘fall ‘for every type of fall that could be described in a more specific manner.
The same argument could be used for ‘smash’, ‘crack’ and ‘break’. The word ‘spectacles’ is usually the more formal word used for glasses so the children predominantly used the informal term ‘glasses’. The children also used the word ‘floor’ frequently referring to where the glasses fell. According to the guidelines of the RAPT, ‘floor’ does not receive a full point as it is non-specific. All the more specific words that were not used by the children were omitted from the revision of the test and ‘floor’ was added as one of the most commonly used words by the children.
PICTURE CARD SEVEN: FROM THE RAPT (1997)(© Speechmark Ltd)