CHAPTERS
5.2 Implications for Teaching, Teacher Training and Further Research
The central implication for teaching that arises from the conclusions is the reevaluation ofthe role and status of writing in the curriculum. This will involve issues ofclassroom practice,syllabuses, curriculum change, textbooks and pupil/teacher ratios.
• Macdonald (1990a,b) indicated that pupils in many schools experienced little reading and writing, a finding corroborated by this research. The centrality of writing in the development of higher order skills has been emphasised by many of the commentators mentioned in this research (Vygotsky 1962, Bernstein 1996, Macken-Horarik 1996). Cazden (1994) reported on the improvement in the matriculation pass rate of pupils at the Educational Programmes Centre (EPC) in Johannesburg from 76% in 1991 to 96% in 1992 and more than 30 distinctions in English in 1993. The EPC director attributed this success to an emphasis on writing:
The only thing [different in the last two years] was the students were directed through writing.We were brought up to believe, and honestly believe, that writing is not our turf at all... We are of the oral tradition and I believe that thousands of kids that fail the 12th grade fail not because they haven't put in sufficient work to enable them to pass; they fail because writing is not in their culture, as they are not able to write as lucidly as they want.
(173-174) Cazden summing up her experience of the programme stated that through 'many, varied writing experiences, EPC students become able to write what they know on the matric exam;
and they come to believe in themselves as writers and learners' (174). These experiences and this belief was missing in the pupils interviewed for this research.
• The 'rehabilitation' of writing in the classrooms will require changes in a number of areas.
Syllabuses will have to explicitly state the central role ofwriting and provide clear guidelines for teachers as to how this might be accomplished. This research suggests that genre-based approaches would be most appropriate in the South African context.Itexplicitly foregrounds the interface between the specialised domain of schooling with learners' primary discourses on the one hand, and the multi generic world of work beyond the classroom on the other.
Programmes would thus have to validate learners' own discourse practices (Stein 1995 ), develop their confidence in their own voices, and provide explicit teaching across a range of genres in different subject disciplines. As Martin (1989) has also suggested, learners should experience writing in a range of factual genres early in their school careers to build their capacities to communicate effectively for a variety of social purposes.
• If writing is to be effectively rehabilitated in the curriculum then these changes must be unambiguous and well supported in terms of teacher development. Both this research and Ndlovu (1993) have illustrated the dangers of contradictory syllabus and teacher guides and
inappropriate implementation ofcurriculum change.Itenables teachers to maintain practices
that hinder the literate development of learners.Italso builds resistance to change. There is already evidence of problems with the implementation of Outcomes based Education (OBE) in South Africa as reported in newspaper reports (Natal Witness, January 12,2000) the PEI research (Taylor and Vinjevold 1999: 273). Conversations and meetings with a language project coordinator working with teachers on the implementation of OBE have confirmed these reports.Teachers have become confused by an over emphasis on difficult concepts such as 'range statements' and have lost sight of the major issue of developing lessons and activities that achieve the desired outcomes. The PEI research states that 'most teachers continue to teach as they did before OBE, the only difference being the recording of assessment under the new curriculum' (ibid). As one of the key outcomes of the new curriculum is the development of learners' literate competence it is important that this opportunity is not lost in confusing curriculum design and implementation.
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The proVISIOn of appropriate textbooks across different subjects which exemplify the approaches mentioned above must be a priority. The prevalence of copying from the board in the absence or non-use oftextbooks in the school is obviously detrimental to the learners' literate development. The PEI research indicated the importance of textbooks and teaching materials in the development of higher order skills and the knowledge base of learners.
Macken-Horarik (1996) has indicated the importance of a knowledge base for the development of reflexive and critical social literacy.
Assessment practices must be reassessed and revised at all levels of schooling and across disciplines. A linguistically principled and criterion-referenced model for effective assessment has been described in this research (Macken and Slade 1993).Itenables explicit criteria to be developed which enable 'writing to be evaluated against a background knowledge of the purpose and context of a text' (211). In addition, Gee states that in order to help non- mainstream students to gain access to secondary discourses, attention should be focussed on
the development of wider and more humane concepts of 'gatekeeping' (1990: 157). This suggests that assessment practices would need to validate the discourses of all the communities represented in the classroom. Stein (1995, 1998) has provided some examples of how this might be accomplished in the South African context.
• The implications described above will, in turn, have implications for both in-service and pre- service training ofteachers. As mentioned before, the conceptual knowledge ofteachers needs to be developed to enable them to: use textbooks and learning materials appropriately and effectively; develop students' literacy competences in different disciplines; and provide explicit guidance into the linguistic and structural conventions ofa range of genres. Teachers' own literacy competences need to be developed in order for them to provide adequate models for their learners.
• Lastly, large classes have been shown to have an extremely negative impact on the quality of literate development in the classroom. The adequate supply of appropriately trained teachers is crucial ifthere are to be equitable outcomes in our classrooms.The impact ofredeployment and retrenchment has meant that teachers are teaching in areas they are not trained for. This and other research has indicated the detrimental effect of this on the ability of teachers to induct students into the literacy requirements of different subjects.
• A major implication for further research that emerges from the findings is research into the interface between community literate practices and that of the educational system on the lines ofthe research done by Heath (1983). This would enable a clearer understanding of how this interface can be equitably managed to enable community practices to be validated at the same time as providing appropriate bridging experiences into the domain ofeducational know ledge. This process has been shown to be crucial to the development of critical social literacy at the other end of the continuum.
This research has painted a picture of a school environment that is likely to be found across many schools in the South African context. It provides a picture of pupils involved in learning experiences that will have a significantly negative effect on their life trajectories, their chances of employment and their participation and power in society. Heath and Branscombe (1985) write about a similar situation in the American education system, where children deemed mentally
inferior were only allowed to write in single words or short phrases, and not in paragraphs or essays.They commented that,
Schooling had in essence denied writing as a form of communication to these students; in many ways, this extended denial of a channel of communication by an institution is analogous to the severe and extremely rare cases of parents who shut their children offfrom verbal and social interaction at birth, and prevent them from learning to talk (p.225).
The consequences of this sort of scenario in our context is that ESL students in many schools are increasingly deprived of the experiences and interactions they need to develop their literacy competences adequately. This ultimately creates inequalities within the education system with detrimental consequences for second language students. My research indicates that this inequality is evident in the development of writing where both the content, teaching methodology and assessment practices in the classrooms are depriving students of the opportunities to develop control across a broad range of powerful and important gemes. As far as acritical social literacy is concerned there is little to suggest students are developing 'the capacity to use text as a means for learning and decision making...or to use text to...critically assess and influence their positions ..' (Luke, 1994, p. 7). The last word should belong to one of the students, Thulani: "We know a little about writing'.