BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR STUDY
1.14 Structure of the Dissertation
This Chapter commenced with a discussion on the education system in South Africa from the period of democracy, paying particular attention to the need for redress and inequity which existed because of the educational disparities rendered by the injustices of apartheid.
Consequently, issues of ‘disadvantage’; ‘underpreparedness’ for higher education and perceptions of ‘deficit’ and ‘deficiency’ were outlined. In order to place current foundation programmes at HEIs in perspective, it was thus essential to trace the evolution and purpose of institutional support measures such as ASPs and ADPs. This Chapter offered a preamble on the philosophy of the foundation programme, the context of this study, and SCOM, the course where literacies needed for science discourse are introduced and reinforced. It concluded with a reference to the rationale for undertaking this study, outlining the critical research questions that are to be answered in this dissertation.
Chapter 2 serves as a literature review of academic literacy in this dissertation. It pays attention to the entry of students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds into the tertiary environment and the barriers that they encounter in respect of the LoLT as well as the complex nature of academic reading and writing. I have considered it essential to outline concepts and studies relating to literacies, especially since it is the specific focus of each of the critical research questions devised for this study.
Chapter 3 deals with the theoretical and conceptual framework that guides this study. This Chapter provides the literature associated with the New Literacy Studies (NLS) (Street, 1984; Gee, 1990), paying particular attention to its role in the acquisition of academic
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discourse. This is followed by the discussion on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Halliday (1978; 1985a) and Grammatical Metaphor (GM) (Halliday and Martin, 1993), exploring the role of each in relation to the literacies required for science, thus necessitating a reference to appropriate pedagogic practices needed for science.
I then chose to use Chapter 4 as the arena to explore the subject matter of this dissertation which is the issue of the language of science needed at tertiary level. The rationale for the inclusion of this Chapter lies in the nature of the focus of this study which is the meaning of science discourse. This Chapter is presented in four parts. The first part of the Chapter explains the role of the higher education sector in satisfying the demand for science graduates in South Africa. This is followed by the way in which this sector can contribute to helping students to acquire an identity in science. Part three of the Chapter explores the literacies required by students to convey science knowledge in specific disciplines in science. It is on account of this that the final part of the Chapter offers a review of literature outlining students’ underpreparedness for tertiary science by referring to studies at both secondary education and tertiary levels. Each of these parts in this Chapter is crucial in addressing the critical research questions that guide this study.
Then, in Chapter 5, I offer an outline of the research methodology that guided this study. I identify the research paradigm, the research approaches and the research instruments that were adopted to analyse and evaluate the data gathered in this study. I include the reliance on case study as a research strategy to help interpret the emerging data.
In order to effectively understand the discipline-specific literacies required by students engaged in studying science at the research site selected for this study, I considered it essential to understand the profile of the students and their preparedness for tertiary level.
As a preliminary discussion to the critical research questions that frame this study and in order to contextualise the research problem more clearly, I begin Chapter 6 by enquiring from the research participants whether the modules of science isolated in this research had undergone any particular changes. I then set out to ascertain the reason for such changes and the way/s in which the change was accommodated and effected. In an effort to understand the perceived challenges in discipline-specific literacies that manifest in the foundation modules in science, I had to field responses from the research participants with regard to the possible contributory factors. This helped in the interpretation of the verbal
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data in respect of critical research question 1. Data for critical question 1 was gathered from the semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence and observations.
Chapter 7 is a continuation of the analysis of the data gathered in response to critical research questions 2 and 3. The data gathered with regard to these critical research questions had emerged from the semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence and observation. From these research instruments I was able to glean an understanding of the meaning of science discourse. This data is linked to the literature around the literacies required ‘in’ and ‘for’ science discussed in Chapter 4 of this study. The data in relation to critical research question 2 explored the perceived challenges that emerged in respect of the language of science and the discipline-specific literacies in the modules offered in the BSs4 (Foundation) programme. Critical research question 3 focuses on the way/s in which the disciplinary specialists assist the students in the BSc4 (Foundation) programme with the acquisition of the discipline-specific literacies needed for science discourse. A proper understanding of the responses to critical research question 3 is facilitated by the theoretical and conceptual framework explored in Chapter 3.
Chapter 8 brings this study to a close. The crux of this Chapter being the conclusions drawn from the data and the suggestions arising from this study. It also presents the possibility for further studies that may have arisen from this study.
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CHAPTER 2
SCHOLARSHIP ON THE PHENOMENON UNDER STUDY
Introduction
Chapter 1 commenced with an overview of the system of higher education in South Africa drawing attention to several pertinent issues. Firstly, it offered a discussion on differentiation in HEIs. Apartheid dictated institutional segregation of higher education institutional structures, leading to the establishment of HWUs and HBUs. This historical fact was included in the introductory Chapter in this dissertation in order to understand how race determined the quality of education in the country. Secondly, it drew attention to the issue of student underpreparedness for higher education studies. Thirdly, it portrayed the provision of higher education academic support structures with specific attention to the establishment of mechanisms such as the ASPs and ADPs to address the issue of underpreparedness. Fourthly, it explored the objectives and the nature of the foundation programmes in science initiated at tertiary institutions, more especially foregrounding the philosophy of the foundation programme in science at UKZN as an institutional measure to help underprepared but academically capable, black students to pursue tertiary studies in science and to help students fit into the university culture and community. The Chapter also offered a discussion on SCOM, contextualising its role in the BSc4 (Foundation) programme. Chapter 1 was interspersed with an explanation of various terminology relevant to this study such as ‘transition’; ‘transformation’; ‘equity’; ‘redress’;
‘disadvantage’; ‘deficit’; ‘underpreparedness’; and, ‘remediation’ which guided its discourse.
This Chapter begins by first paying specific attention to the entry of mainly educationally disadvantaged students into the higher education sphere in South Africa where the LoLT is usually English which is not their native language. An explanation of the double barriers experienced by students in respect of the language of instruction and the complexities of academic reading and writing is then given. This, thus, necessitated the distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1979). Included are the varying definitions of literacy and its role in negotiating academic texts. The second major issue portrayed in this Chapter is the reference to institutional support measures offered at higher education level, isolating
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the development of academic literacy as the area for discussion and paying specific attention to SCOM as a consequence of its inclusion in the BSc4 (Foundation). Academic Literacy (AL) is explored with specific reference to perceptions of it and the different models implemented to facilitate its acquisition and development. The third issue explained here is academic writing, a crucial domain in higher learning contexts. This is followed by a presentation of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom et al. 1956), a model frequently used in the learning contexts to formulate module objectives and direct assessment practices. The final issue clarified in this Chapter is discourse facilitation.