4.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.2.1. Theme 1: Rationale
Participants gave different reasons for teaching the module based on curricular spider web concept which sought to find lectures’ rationale behind the teaching of English major 420. By looking at participants’ responses through reflective activity and one on one interviews, reasons for teaching this module trace across all rationale levels (professional, personal and societal), as will be seen in the excerpts below.
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P1: “I’ve always loved teaching and English happened to be one subject I was good at in school… I was at some stage in my life involved in ABET, the teaching of adults to write and to read, as far as languages are concerned in this country… it’s a reality that for social stability one has to be literate in English.”
P2: “I think I’ve always been interested in studying English at school, I read very widely as a child … I also realised that reading is seriously undervalued by people, by children, by adolescents, by parents. I wanted to share that with people who were not exposed to reading… I’m teaching English understanding that it’s a global language understanding what it can do for people but also understanding how much students want English to go further in life.”
P3: “I realised how important English teachers are and how crucial it is to be literate in English and that if it is not taught well then students cannot understand the language, then every other module is going to suffer… I worked in deep rural areas in Empangeni, and it was then I saw how valuable education is and how important English is as a gateway to success, so I felt this sense of social responsibility to teach it well and to send good English educators out there and people who are readers and encourage others to read.”
P4: “I decided to teach English because the majority of students I deal with are second language speakers so I wanted them to be proficient in the use of English language… I have realised that in the society to be economically viable we need English.”
P5: “When I was in high school I didn’t have good English teachers so I wanted to come back and be a teacher I never had probably as a high school student… people always think that English is associated with whiteness I wanted to bridge that gap between English and African communities and to bring back the English into our communities. For example now I have academic literacy that I teach adults… I have passion for English that love for the language, because if you love the language I mean you cross the boundaries… English is growing so fast that everyone must understand it.”
P1, P2, P3 and P5 outlined that they teach English Major 420 to assist students as members of society to be proficient in the language. As P3 reported:
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“I realised how important English teachers are and how crucial it is to be literate in English…
I worked in deep rural areas in Empangeni, and it was then I saw how valuable education is and how important English is as a gateway to success, so I feel this sense of social responsibility to teach it well and to send good English educators out there and people who are readers and encourage others to read.”
In line with this, P2 also agreed with the social rationale behind the teaching of English major 420 and added “I also realised that reading is seriously undervalued by people, by children, by adolescents, by parents, I wanted to share that with people who were not exposed to reading” (social rationale). P2 agreed with P4 when she stated that “I’m teaching English understanding that it’s a global language, understanding what it can do for people but also understanding how much students want English to get further in life.” (professional rationale).
In addition, P1, P2 and P5 indicated their interest in and love for teaching the module. P5 outlined that “I have passion for English that love for the language, because if you love the language I mean you cross the boundaries.” In line with this assertion, P2 further stated that
“I think I’ve always been interested in studying English at school…” P1 also agreed with both P2 and P5 in sharing the love and passion for teaching English (personal rationale).
(Berkvens et al., 2014; Khoza, 2016b; Uysal & Bardakci, 2014; Zhang & Wang, 2016) suggested that rationale should be the driving force for lecturers teaching their modules in order to make strategies to improve their teaching methods. The above-mentioned studies further outlined that the rationale that may drive teaching and learning can be professional, personal or social. Furthermore, studies refer to personal rationale as individual reasons for doing a particular action; in this case lecturers may be driven by passion to teach English Major 420 (Barrot, 2016; Gul & Rafique, 2017). In addition, according to Plonsky (2011) a personal rationale may be influenced by habitual strategies which cause lecturers to plan individually or to use personal habits and beliefs to solve a particular problem. On the other hand, Bridgstock (2016) reminds us that the social rationale was said to be influenced by different parties to benefit society; in this case a lecturer may be teaching English with the aim of uplifting the students’ (society) communication skills. As a result the social rationale may be driven by verbal strategies which may cause different lecturers to work collaboratively to meet society’s needs (Bianchini et al., 2015; Zhang & Wang, 2016). Moreover, Khoza (2015c) asserts that professional rationale may be influenced by formal reasons behind doing a particular action; in this case lecturers might be teaching English because it’s a global language and it is
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documented in the module templates as to what content is prescribed in order to meet international standards. As a result, professional rationale may be influenced by written strategies since lecturers may use institutional policies to strategise. The literature reviewed in chapter two suggested that lecturers can effectively strategise using all rationale propositions (professional, personal and societal) rationale (Bianchini et al., 2015; Bridgstock, 2016; Gul &
Rafique, 2017).
During the data generation process lecturers outlined their reasons behind the teaching of English Major 420 on the basis of the three rationales (professional, personal and societal).
However, the findings revealed that all of the lecturers’ (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) reasons for teaching English Major 420 relate to the social rationale. For instance, P4 agreed with P3 when she highlighted that her teaching of English in a rural area made her realise how important it is for students to be literate in English, and that she is willing to groom and send good English teachers into the field. Moreover, P2 also outlined that she teaches English to develop students who are readers and who will encourage their learners to read, also with the aim to create a reading generation. In addition, P3 agreed with P5 when she added that she wanted to make students unlearn the notion that knowing English is related to whiteness; thus, she wanted her students to realise that they can do well in the language.
On the other hand, lecturers also outlined their personal reasons for teaching English Major 420. P1, P2 and P3 agreed with P5 and outlined that they teach English because they are driven by love and passion for the language. Only two participants stated their professional reasons for teaching the module: P4 and P5 asserted that they realised that English is growing fast which makes it necessary for everyone around the world to know the language in the professional setting.
The findings indicated that the majority of English lecturers were driven by a societal rationale when teaching English Major 420. Moreover, findings indicated that few lecturers were driven by the personal and professional rationale in their teaching of the module. Consequently, this suggests that few English lecturers are influenced by written and habitual strategies which may seek them to base their teaching on written documents, rather they are driven by the love and passion they may have for the module.
The English Major 420 module outline (2018) also showed that most reasons for teaching the module were related to the societal rationale. The document revealed that the teaching of English Major 420 is also influenced by the professional rationale which draws much from
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written policies, in this case the teaching of language command. However, the document was silent on the use of personal rationale in teaching the English module. The overall findings suggest that English lecturers were much influenced by verbal strategies to decolonise the curriculum, which draws a great deal from what is suggested by public ideas (society).