It attempts to trace the gradual movement from the prison of my past to my development as a teacher in a South African classroom in a new democratic period. During the writing of this thesis, I relied heavily on the strength of my family.
Introduction
They discourage it because of the claim that using first-person active voices carries some risk. I tend to disagree with his position because writing in the first person carries a personal responsibility and researchers must distance themselves from the fear of personal exposure.
Background and context
By recounting my life story or how I became an art teacher through this study, previous definitions of "who I am" will be challenged and revisited. Finding myself confused and alienated in a school as an art teacher gave me a considerable edge and confidence to begin the process of this research.
What is happening in schools today?
After 1994, the National Education Forum began the process of curriculum revision with the aim of laying the foundations for a unified national core curriculum. The White Paper on Education and Training (1995) was the first curriculum document produced by the National Education Forum with a vision to transform teaching and learning in our schools in South Africa.
Rationale
Why teachers‟ personal and professional journeys are important
Change in a country's constitution or in its education policy and curriculum does not always guarantee change in our consciousness and practices. Arendt (2003: 9) makes it clear that it is not just about having a conscious need for change, or the need to change, but that it is about 'shifting the perceptual' due to a change in consciousness.
Policy Context Pre-1994
Craftsmen from the rural areas (such as Matubatuba, Eshowe and Msinga) began to gain recognition for traditional skills specific to their region and were represented in exhibitions locally and internationally. The changes in South Africa in the 1990s saw the introduction of a ministry for arts and culture for the first time in the country's history.
Art Education post-1994
According to the Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996), everyone has the right to a basic education, including. As we stand today, South Africa maintains one of the best constitutions in the world.
Research Focus
The NCS (Grades R to 9 for schools) builds on the vision and values of the Constitution and Curriculum 2005. This is crucial given that my socialization to become an art teacher was not in line with the assumptions of the new curriculum, supported by the notions of equality. , social justice and emancipation.
Critical Questions
Conclusion
CHAPTER TWO
Outlines of a Self-Portrait
- Literature review .1 Introduction
- Review of Literature in South Africa
- Review of International Literature
- Connecting critical theory to issues of self
- Conclusion
For most people, self-reflection is a one-time event, but for me, inquiry is an ongoing process in which I try to understand my past choices and shortcomings and influence the adjustments I might make in the future. I realize that it is impossible to separate the literature on questions of the "self" that exists in a particular culture from autoethnography.
CHAPTER THREE Research Methodology
Research Methodology
- Definition of Autoethnography
- Different perspectives on Auto-ethnography
- Justifying the choice of my research methodology
I start this chapter by defining auto-ethnography, giving different authors' definitions of what auto-ethnography is. The main reason for this is that auto-ethnography is a self-narrative that places the self at the center in a social context.
3.1.4 „Self‟ in Auto-ethnography
- Metaphors in my Auto-ethnography
- Art in my Auto-ethnography
- My methods of data production
- Limitations of my Auto-ethnography
In the auto-ethnographic tradition, the use of the investigator's self as the focus of the research is problematic, according to Holt (2003). Although outside the scope of auto-ethnographic discussion, Eisner (2004) offers an alternative view of the role of the arts in schools. In my auto-ethnography, I see art and art education as a channel or catalyst (also metaphors!) to allow an in-depth understanding of the world.
Or even to call it a reconstruction of the work of art (a self-portrait). In the autoethnographic tradition, the use of the researcher's self as the focus of research is problematic, but, as Sparkes (2002b) asks, why are personal narratives seen as offensive in research?
CHAPTER FOUR
Bongani Mkhonza‘s Journal: My Dear Friend
The title of my diary is 'My Best Friend'; it is a summary of my critical junction moments. At the high school I attended, art was not formally taught as part of the school curriculum. This painting was painted based on the photo I took in the harbor and secondly maybe due to the fact that I had never painted before in my life.
These are the issues of absence of the main source in the representation of Black people's cultures and arts. To me, this sculpture symbolizes the emptiness in the content of the directly interpreted Zulu art and cultures to the English Western understanding. I am one of the few formally trained Black African male art teachers in KwaZulu Natal.
Here are the photos from the trip that mark the biggest change in my life.
Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE
Chapter Five
A Further Self-portrait - Fragments of a Life 5.1.1 Findings
Section A
My experiences with this crisis were amplified by the changes in the arts curriculum and the changes in racial and cultural diversity in my classroom. I felt irrelevant because of my preconceived knowledge of art, which I felt was becoming outdated, and because I could not choose which part of the art curriculum I would like to teach. Maybe I should stick to the art I learned at the North Natal Technikon, but a lot has changed in the art curriculum, I feel frustrated by these changes.
I felt frustrated about the changes in the racial demographics in the school where I taught, Ridge West High School. It was the moment of crisis that made me ask: How did I become the art teacher that I am.
Section B
Nodal moments
For me, enrolling to study fine arts was a daring move, a move that went against the historical codes of the time in South Africa. This could have been the result of the kind of experiences that I had gone through at the Technikon in northern Natal. As a black person studying Fine Arts at the college level at the time, that means I was one of the first products of our freedom.
For me, the change to study at UNP was one of the critical moments in becoming an art teacher. Most of my struggles, even today, are the result of the false meanings I have absorbed and adopted into my identity as an art teacher.
Moments and Meanings
Section C
Section C offers an understanding of my moments of crisis as spaces in and through which I constituted myself and how I make sense of my life as an art teacher. At the beginning of my journal, I reflect at length on the excitement and fear I experienced as a result of the contextual change. On reflection, money issues, entering a new field of study and fear of failure were some of my main limitations.
In most of my art history classes, I didn't understand the tone and content. Some of the content in Art History contained words of Greek and Roman origin that are very unfamiliar to me as a black African male.― … most of the art they refer to is so Eurocentric.
Crafting Curriculum – “A different learning”
Black students toyi-toyi for no reason come thugs from the townships here on campus and. I spoke the language and got along very well, but externally in the residence the feeling was different. This analysis has helped me understand that even though I am now an art teacher in a multicultural classroom, I still carry with me the previously constructed meanings of who I am.
Navigating my style of drawing self-portraits helped analyze the types of meaning-making that still exist with me. Section D analyzes data from my diary to shed light on the different types of challenges I faced as an art teacher in a multicultural classroom.
Contrived relationships: “A different living”
Section D
Section D shows how this reflective narrative self-exploration helped me achieve a level of emancipation that allowed me to understand who I was so that I could improve my practices as an art teacher and step out of false consciousness. My newly adopted identity as a so-called 'coconut' hindered my practice as an art teacher. This research made me understand that there was first a crisis in my practice as an art teacher.
Finally, I had to go through a process of reconstructing my own identity to understand and rediscover myself in order to improve my practice as an art teacher. In conclusion, this chapter deals with how the meanings of "who I am as an art teacher in a multicultural classroom" as present in my journal were formed.
CHAPTER SIX
My journey ahead…
The recommendations I make in this study will primarily influence teachers, arts education researchers and policy makers. Chapter Two (Literature Review) of this study revealed that there remains a significant gap in research highlighting the lived stories of teachers in South Africa. This means that we must regularly examine what has and has not worked in the classroom, despite how painful looking in the mirror can sometimes be (Lewis, 2008).
As chapter two has shown, not much critical research has been done in South Africa until recently. Finally, it must be recognized that changes in the education policies are not complete unless they try to integrate teachers from the old separate education system into the new democratic education system in South Africa.
Bibliography
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Goodson, I and Sikes, P. (2001) "Life history research in educational settings". 1963) Implications of Comparative Literacy Studies in Society and History, 5. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of KwaZulu Natal: Durban, South Africa. In Search of Subjectivity - Own Alan Peshkin, Office of Educational Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
