Glossary
Chapter 5 Contextualising the Study
5.5 Profile of Participants in the Study Priya
Priya was an Indian, female educator in her fifties. Her academic qualifications were a Bachelor of Arts Degree, a Higher Diploma in Education and a Bachelor of Education Degree (Honours), all obtained through the University of South Africa. She was a non-
science specialist, meaning she had no formal training in the subject. Nevertheless, she taught Natural Science to Grade 4 learners at the school under study. Priya also offered instruction in Economic Management Sciences, English and Social Science from Grades 4-7. Her areas of expertise in terms of her qualifications were English, History and School Guidance and Counselling at high school level. However, she had been teaching at a primary school since the very beginning of her teaching career, meaning that although she was trained to teach in a secondary school (Grades 8 - 12), she taught in a primary school. The reason for Priya's
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situation was that when she qualified with her initial teaching degree, the first available position that became vacant for her to occupy was in a primary school.
In total, she had 19 years of teaching experience. Priya was assigned the status of “Senior Teacher” as a result of being awarded an overall performance rating of three “goods” within a five-year period (within the departmental appraisal system of integrated quality
management system) and for having more than 10 years of continuous service in the teaching fraternity. Although Priya had been teaching for 19 years she did have a break in service for about five years, spent bringing up her biological children in their infant years. Therefore her 19 years of service was not considered continuous by the DoE.
Priya was first exposed to forms of assessment other than tests in Comparative and
International Education, which she had a completed during her postgraduate degree. It was here that she was made aware of the different forms of assessment used in different parts of the world. Furthermore, when outcomes-based education was introduced, she was called on to facilitate and pilot classroom activities pertaining to the intermediate phase of teaching.
The focus of these sessions was on how to draw up work schedules and lesson plans, rather than on assessment per se.
Priya was enthusiastic about her teaching and this presented itself in various ways. Firstly, she showed an enormous level of interest in the subject. She also used every opportunity to learn more about Science through her own interaction with policy documents, textbooks and learning reference materials and through her engagement with fellow professionals in the field. She prided herself on the positive feedback she received from other teachers about her growing knowledge of the subject.
Priya referred to her learning as being “self-initiated”. She explained that this was a result of her not being a science specialist teacher. Priya was of the belief that through delving into the subject matter by herself she was better prepared to confront the challenges posed with regard to assessing learners in the classroom context.
Her lack of qualifications and training in the subject drove her to read and find out more about Science as a learning area. She claimed that she had to familiarise herself with basic scientific concepts and principles before she went on to teaching her Grade 4 learners Priya added that her will to acquire scientific knowledge was what prompted her to increase
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her knowledge base in Science. In this regard, she spoke of the notion of her knowledge of Science as being “self-taught”. Her knowledge base was increased through her own reading and research into the teaching of Science. Priya added that with the variation of activities advocated by the new assessment policy, she was still not sure if core knowledge was being covered. She used a variety of textbooks including older ones, as she believed that NCS textbooks were scanty in their coverage of content, especially in their coverage of scientific concepts. It was from these resources that she planned her lessons and compiled her assessment activities.
It was through this process of individual learning that she developed an interest in the subject.
As she so enthusiastically asserted:
“It‟s amazing that how when one is thrown into the deep-end, they try to find their way, but you have to be interested in getting the maximum of that learning experience.”
Kajil
Kajil was an Indian female in her late forties. She has been teaching for a period of 24 years.
Her academic qualifications included a teaching diploma at senior primary level. She had specialised in General Science in the old order of education. This qualification was obtained at the Springfield College of Education. It was this qualification that had given her the status of a Science specialist teacher, seeing that she had majored in General Science at College. In addition, she completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree through the University of South Africa.
Kajil was assigned the status of „Master Teacher‟ as a result of being awarded an overall performance rating of three “goods” within a five-year period (within the appraisal system of integrated quality management system) and for teaching for more than 15. All of Kajil‟s teaching experience was in a primary school and more specifically in the senior primary (Grades 4-7). At the time of this study Natural Science was taught to Grade 5 learners by this educator. She also taught Social Science and Afrikaans to Grades 6 and 7 learners,
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Kajil was a teacher who believed in compliance. She was of the belief that if the policy and departmental heads stipulated that assessment had to be performed in a particular way, it should be done accordingly. Kajil was also keen to constantly receive the approval of her principal with regard to the way she taught and assessed her learners. She also feared being seen as lacking in any respect by DoE officials and therefore made every effort to present an image of strictly abiding by DoE requirements for that learning area. In short, Kajil appeared to submit to authority.
Kajil was thorough and meticulous with regard to her records, such as lesson plans,
assessment activities and recording of learner progress. With reference to the consulting of resources, Kajil admitted that she also used older textbooks to supplement the new NCS ones.
Furthermore, she would go through her old files and pull out activities that she deemed suitable for the learners for use in the classroom.
However, she added that she did so in conjunction with using the NCS planning and policy documents. She used the information given in policy documents as guidelines to draw up her assessment activities. Planning for questioning in her lessons was important to Kajil, as she believed that questioning her learners provided her with useful feedback with regard to her teaching. Also, questioning helped keep Kajil informed about the progress of her students and their learning.
Kajil was keen to learn from other more experienced teachers. In addition, she was more that obliging to assist other colleagues who required guidance. This was reflected in the
following sentiment:“We learn from each other all the time.”
Neel
Neel was an Indian male in his early fifties, who had belonged to the teaching fraternity for 27 years when the study was undertaken. He held the position of the Senior Primary Head of Department at the school. Neel had occupied this management position for the past 11 years.
His formal qualifications included a teaching diploma obtained from Springfield College of Education. He had majored in Physical Education and History, and was in possession of a
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Mathematics and Science diploma over and above his initial teacher training diploma.
This was supplemented with various intensive training sessions in these subjects, which took place on an ongoing basis in the 1980s. Upon entering the teaching profession he was
assigned to teach Mathematics. He was recently called upon to teach Natural Science as well.
At the time of the study he was teaching Natural Science in Grade 6 and Mathematics in Grade 7. By virtue of his training and experience in these two subjects, Neel was considered a subject specialist in both Mathematics and Natural Science.
Neel did not believe in “blind compliance”. Rather, he believed in challenging authority through questioning and engaging in dialogue and debate as well as discussion. Furthermore, he actively resisted change - especially if he perceived this to be counter-productive to the development of the learners. His words: “It‟s not about us, but what the learners can do”, bear testimony to this.
In addition, Neel continuously made reference to older planning documents to supplement his planning and was firm on his stance that old, tried and tested ways of assessing learners should still be used in the classroom.
Table: 1 - Profiles of the Participants
Priya Kajil Neel
Qualifications Bachelor of Education Degree
Higher Diploma in Education
Honours Degree in Education
Teaching Diploma in Senior Primary Phase
Bachelor of Arts Degree
Teaching Diploma in Senior Primary Phase
Diploma in Mathematics and Natural Science
Teaching Experience
19 years 24 years 27 years
Phase of schooling trained to teach
Primary School:
Intermediate Phase(Grades:
4-6) and Senior Phase (Grade:
7)
Primary School:
Intermediate Phase (Grades 4-6) and Senior Phase (Grade: 7)
Primary School:
Intermediate Phase (Grades 4- 6) and Senior Phase (Grade 7)
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Secondary School: Senior Phase (Grades 8 & 9) and Further Education and Training (Grades 10-12) Subject
Disciplines trained to teach
English
History
School Guidance &
Counselling
General Science
History
History
Physical Education
Subjects taught at The time of Study
Economic Management Sciences
English
Social Science
Natural Science
Social Science
Afrikaans
Natural Science
Mathematics
Natural Science
Professional Development Activities involved in
Facilitated pilot workshops in outcomes-based education upon its inception
Attended learning area workshops on NCS in the subjects being taught at the time of study
Attended learning area workshops on the NCS in the subjects being taught at the time of study
Attended learning area workshops on the NCS in the subjects being taught at the time of study
Attended additional, departmental workshops in Mathematics and General Science
Designation Senior Teacher Master Teacher Head of Department
The learning of the participants in the study was precipitated by two key external initiators:
the new policy initiatives and the challenge of being assigned a new subject discipline to teach. Consequently, a discussion of how these initiators influenced the form and contents of participants‟ learning and how these factors might have influenced the process of learning itself would prove useful in providing a backdrop against which the located study was set.
The ensuing section sets out to do this.