OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Ensor, Paula"

Browsing by Author "Ensor, Paula"

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Open Access
An analysis of the constitution of a school subject through recontextualizing : the case of the NAC drama syllabus (1994)
(1997) Hoadley, Ursula Kate; Ensor, Paula; Jacklin Heather
This study sets out to develop a framework for the analysis of a school subject and uses as a focal study the NAC drama syllabus developed in1994. Drawing in the main on Basil Bernstein's theory of curriculum, an analysis is made of how a syllabus is constituted through recontextualizing, using the theoretical concepts of voice and identity, classification and framing, and hierarchy. The discourses that have been recontextualized in the formation of the syllabus are identified. Two sets of discourses are identified: educational policy discourses (namely the discourses of progressivism, utilitarianism and reconstruction and development) and educational drama discourses. The specialization of voice in the syllabus marks out the academic identity, and is an indicator of educational drama discourses evident in the syllabus. The specialization of identity marks out projected social identities, indicating the recruitment of educational policy discourses in the constitution of the syllabus. The field in which the syllabus is constructed is also examined, which following Bernstein is defined as the recontextualizing field. The syllabus writers, located in this field, act selectively on the educational policy and educational drama discourses in constituting the syllabus. The rules for selection in the development of the syllabus are examined, and these are related to the syllabus writers' situation within the recontextualizing field. It is argued that the syllabus writers are positioned subordinately within the field, and that this factor to a large extent regulates the operation of educational policy discourses as rules for selection in the drawing up of the syllabus .
Open Access
Bridging the boundaries? A study of mainstream mathematics, academic support and "disadvantaged learners" in an independent, secondary school in the Western Cape
(1998) Swanson, Dalene M; Ensor, Paula
A small-scale study was conducted within a historic and traditional, independent, all-boys secondary school in the Western Cape, the focus of which is the exploration of subject positions potentially available to the black male students of the "Black Scholarship Programme" in their study of school mathematics. This includes an examination of the particular nature of the schooling ethos and culture, and its role in creating and maintaining boundaries, producing and reproducing forms of power and control which assist in holding these black students to positions of subordination. It is proposed that the hierarchical and differentiating rituals and codes within the school context provide the means by which the Black Scholarship students are constructed as disadvantaged. Particular emphasis is placed on the discourse of mathematics within the Academic Support Programme of the school, designed to assist these black students in "bridging the gap" in their academic knowledge and experience; and in the differentiated nature of the mathematics discourse available to the Black Scholarship students within the Mainstream Programme. There is an examination of the power relations between these two discourses and other discourses within the social domain which shape the way in which these students are positioned in terms of deficit and disadvantage. Four students of the Black Scholarship Programme were interviewed in their initial year at the secondary school (Standard Six) as were the two teachers of the Academic Support Programme. The discussions were taped and transcribed and formed the basis of the analysis. Field notes were taken of discussions with academic staff within the Mathematics Department and school documentation reflecting school policies and discussions within the school were used, where relevant, in relation to the Black Scholarship students and mathematics. The methodological framework was drawn, in the main, from the work of Basil Bernstein and Paul Dowling in focusing on context, discourse and subjectivity. The study was used to interrogate previous research work in the area of Social Inequality and Mathematics Education. It also raised questions about taken-for-granted assumptions, both within the school as well as the wider community, regarding race, social class, language and cultural difference. The study attempts to investigate and bring into focus how "difference" is created and maintained, produced and reproduced within the context of the school, providing boundaries rather than bridges, and how this difference is recontextualised into disadvantage in relation to the Black Scholarship students and mathematics.
Open Access
A case study investigation of how assessment practices construct teachers' and pupils' views of mathematics
(1995) Cilliers, Peter Steven; Ensor, Paula
Assessment practices are an integral part of schooling. The prominence of assessment within schooling in providing information to students and teachers about students' "ability" in learning school subjects, raises an important question: what sort of influence do assessment practices have on how school subjects are perceived by students and teachers? This dissertation focuses on two themes - the way in which assessment practices construct school mathematics, and the way in which these constructions of school mathematics work dynamically with assessment practices to produce descriptions of students.
Open Access
A case study investigation of the use of a textbook in a secondary mathematics classroom : issues of regulation and control
(1995) Mulcahy, Diana Leonie; Ensor, Paula
This dissertation is concerned with aspects of the role of the textbook in school mathematics. An attempt is made to uncover control strategies used by the teacher in textbook use in the classroom, and those implicit in a mathematics textbook. It is argued that these forms of regulation place constraints on the transformative role sometimes attributed to textbooks. The following research question is addressed: how does the teacher recruit the textbook in the classroom, how is he/she 'recruited' by it and how are both recruited by school mathematics? A case study methodology is described, involving a video-recording of a fifty minute mathematics lesson and a follow-up interview with the teacher. Transcriptions are used and a fine-grained analysis of data is attempted. A literature survey examines other research in the areas of content selection, content control and content expression. Content selection refers to choices and omissions, content control refers to sequencing, pacing and authority in the pedagogic relationship, and content expression includes verbal and textual modes of expressing content. Theoretical ideas are drawn from Bernstein (1976, 1991, 1993) and Dowling (1993). Although these works are methodologically different, they both describe aspects of regulation and control. Of particular interest are Bernstein's notions of classification and framing, and Dowling's ideas on discourse and procedure. The hypothesis is put forward here that there is a dialectical relationship involving the positioning of teacher and textbook. The teacher recruits the textbook to regulate pupils and knowledge, but s/he is at the same time constrained by strategies implicit in the textbook. In other words the teacher both positions and is positioned by the textbook. Both in tum are positioned by school mathematics. The data analysis examines the 'how', 'what' and 'who' of control. It considers the regulation of speech, silence, working and listening, as well as the sequencing, pacing, selecting, presenting and authorising of content. It argues that the teacher both recruits and is 'recruited' by the textbook, and that although the framing is strong and the teacher has a high degree of control in the pedagogic relationship, the classification is also strong and the teacher lacks control over what she can teach and the relationship between contents. The research concludes by suggesting that the transformative role sometimes attributed to the textbook is problematic. The strategies of regulation and control operating in the classroom, implicit in the textbook and in school mathematics, limit the possibilities of how textbooks can be used by the teacher and constrain transformation to a significant degree.
Open Access
Cognitive change in out-of-school learners in a Western Cape intervention programme
(2005) Mosito, Cina P; Ensor, Paula; Muller, Johan; Hardman, Joanne
The study reported on here, analysed and described cognitive change in out-of-school and overage learners who were involved in a 12 month educational intervention informed by Mediationla Learning Experience (MLE). The questions which the thesis addressed are as follows: 1. What kind of cognitive change(s), if any, do learners on a 12 month intervention project undergo? 2. What is the meaning of this change or lack thereof?
Open Access
An investigation of mathematical misconceptions through an analysis of Grade 7 learners' responses to test items on decimals, percentages and measuremnt
(2001) Tawodzera, George; Ensor, Paula; Gumedze, Freedom Nkhululeko
This research dissertation emerges as a component of a broader research study, which sought to determine the impact of a mathematics textbook, Maths for all (Mfa) on teaching and learning, in general, and on learners' performance, in particular. The impact evaluation study focused on Grade 7 learners, from a sample of formerly DET primary classrooms in townships near Cape Town. It focused particularly on the teaching of decimals, percentages and measurment which 14 teachers in these schools agreed to teach in the second term of 2000. The 538 learners, from 10 experimental classrooms (with access to Mfa) and 4 control classrooms (with no access to Mfa), were given a pre-test at the beginning of the second term, and the same test as a post-test towards the end of the same term of the year 2000. The present study aims to analyse possible patterns of error in learners' responses to the test and investigate whether these patterns suggest underlying misconceptions held by the learners on decimals, percentages and measurement. As a secondary aspect, the study also set out to evaluate the test instrument as a measure of achievement and of potential misconceptions.
Open Access
A learning theory approach to students' misconceptions in calculus
(1998) Bowie, Lynn Heather; Ensor, Paula; Webb, John
This study analyses students' errors in calculus through the lens of learning theories. The subjects in this study were 117 students enrolled in a calculus course for students from disadvantaged educational backgrounds at the University of Cape Town. A coding scheme to categorise the errors that these students made in the final examination was developed. This categorisation was supported by error data generated through the administration of a conceptual test and follow-up interviews. The pattern of errors in the coding scheme suggests that the students' perception of algebra is largely that of a "game of letters". As a result of this their construction of calculus knowledge is based on the rehearsal of algorithmic procedures. Their errors indicate that they develop linking and extending mechanisms to deal with the multiplicity of rules that are generated from this process of rehearsal.
Open Access
Mathematics, pedagogy and textbooks : a study of textbook use in Grade 7 mathematics classrooms
(2001) Jaffer, Shaheeda; Ensor, Paula
This dissertation is concerned with a systematic description of the recontextualization of the practices of a textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, when it is incorporated into grade 7 mathematics teachers' classroom practices. In particular, the research described here focuses on the impact of the textbook on four grade 7 mathematics teachers' classroom practices. My study forms a sub-project of a larger research project which explores the impact of the textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, in 14 grade 7 mathematics classrooms. The research design of my study comprised two aspects: an analysis of a chapter from the textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, and an analysis of its use in classrooms. Data collected included a textbook chapter on measurement and the accompanying chapter in the teacher's guide, questionnaires (learner, teacher and school), teacher interviews, video recordings of observed lessons and learner notebooks. Drawing largely on Paul Dowling's Social Activity Theory and Paula Ensor's extension of this work in her study on teacher education, a theoretical model was developed for the analysis of data. The theoretical model was supplemented with theoretical concepts from Basil Bernstein's sociological theory of pedagogic discourse. While the model was developed in relation to the content and use of a specific textbook, the model can potentially be used for other mathematics textbooks or textbooks from other disciplines. Analysis shows that the textbook, which embodies an inductive, exploratory pedagogy, cannot on its own achieve learner's apprenticeship into mathematics, or teacher's apprenticeship into its privileged mode of teaching mathematics. The analysis of the teachers' use of textbook shows that in most cases, the privileged pedagogy of the textbook differed considerably from the preferred pedagogy of the teachers. Most teachers preferred a deductive pedagogy and used the textbook in ways which fragmented the mathematical knowledge presented to learners, reduced the mathematical complexity of the textbook tasks and consequently transformed the pedagogic intentions of the textbook. The research therefore concludes that the transformative role of the textbook needs to be accompanied by teacher development programmes.
Open Access
New technology, new pedagogy? : an activity theory analysis of pedagogical activity with computers
(2008) Hardman, Joanne; Ensor, Paula
This thesis addresses the question: how does pedagogy vary, if at all with the use of computers in four disadvantaged grade 6 mathematics classrooms in the Western Cape province of South Africa'? To address this question an exploratory multiple case study design allowed for the collection of data in the form of questionnaires interviews and, primarily classroom observations over the course of a year in four disadvantaged schools.
Open Access
Pedagogic evaluation, computational performance and orientations to mathematics: a study of the constitution of Grade 10 mathematics in two secondary schools
(2018) Jaffer, Shaheeda; Davis, Zain; Ensor, Paula
This study takes as its starting point Bernstein’s proposition that evaluation is central to pedagogy. Specifically, along with many researchers who draw on his work, Bernstein claims that explicit evaluative criteria are critical to the academic success of learners from working-class families and low economic status communities. The research problem stems from a hypothesis, derived from the literature, that social class differences in learner performances in school mathematics suggest differences in the functioning of pedagogic evaluation, and therefore differences in what is constituted as mathematics, and how, in pedagogic situations differentiated by social class (e.g. Dowling). The contention of this study is that insufficient finegrained analyses have been undertaken to surface the computational specificity of what it is that constitutes evaluative criteria in mathematics education studies of pedagogy. The study examines the functioning of pedagogic evaluation in what comes to be constituted as mathematics by teachers and their learners, and in the specialisations of mathematical thought in pedagogic situations. The study set out to investigate the functioning of pedagogic evaluation in two schools differentiated with respect to the social class membership of learners. Two Grade 10 teachers and their learners in each school served as research participants. Methodological resources for describing the functioning of pedagogic evaluation in terms of the computational activity of teachers and learners derive from the work of Davis, which draws on a computational theory of mind (e.g., Chomsky; Gallistel & King; Spelke). Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device, with its focus on who gets what knowledge and how, serves as a general descriptive frame structuring the study. The analysis reveals the following: (1) the commonly used descriptions of evaluative criteria as explicit/implicit are analytically blunt and consequently mask the complexity of criteria operative in pedagogic contexts; (2) differences as well as strong similarities in the functioning of evaluation and, therefore, differences and similarities in what is constituted as mathematics are evident in pedagogic situations differentiated with respect to social class; (3) an orientation to mathematics that constitutes mathematics as computations on the typographical elements of mathematical expressions is common to pedagogic situations involving learners from both upper-middle-class/elite families and working-class families; and (4) greater variation and inter-connectedness in computational resources is realised in pedagogic situations involving learners from upper-middle-class/elite families than in those involving learners from working-class families, where computational resources are relatively restricted and weakly connected. The differences between the two types of situations appear to be enabling of greater flexibility in mathematical thought and action for upper-middle-class/elite learners, on the one hand, and restricting for working-class learners, on the other. The contribution of the thesis is four-fold. The study: (1) provides a methodology for exploring the complexity of pedagogic evaluation by describing the computations performed by learners and teachers in mathematical terms, thus contributing to Bernstein’s account of pedagogic discourse as it applies to the teaching and learning of mathematics; (2) contributes to our understanding of the structuring effect of evaluation on learners’ mathematical thought; (3) contributes to the methodological resources developed by Davis for describing the constitution of mathematics in pedagogic situations; and (4) extends analyses of the constitution of mathematics in pedagogic situations to those populated by learners from upper middleclass/elite families in the South African context, albeit in a limited way.
Open Access
Pedagogical interactions and opportunities for literacy engagement in two South African Grade R classes
(2014) Lubowski, Nadia; Hoadley, Ursula Kate; Ensor, Paula
This study, embedded in a sociology of education framework, uses Bernstein’s concept of framing to compare and contrast two Grade R classes in the Western Cape, South Africa. It seeks to answer the following question: What are the differences, if any, between pedagogic practices in two Grade R classes, particularly in the transmission of literacy. One Grade R class is attached to an early childhood development centre, the other to a formal primary school. Using a qualitative approach to investigate the transmission process between teacher and learners, it combines a deductive approach, derived from the work of Dickenson and Smith’s studies on interactions during storybook reading, and an inductive approach, which develops categories for analysis from the data. First looking broadly at all tasks related to literacy development, the study narrows its focus to engagement with narrative tasks in order to make visible the nature of the transmission of literacy, particularly the degree of control that was applied by the teachers in both settings. It found that, despite their difference in location and formality, both classes offer remarkably similar pedagogic relationships within which learners receive minimal exposure to text, where the organisation of the tasks is communalised and the task requirements are restricted in nature. It concludes that the teachers in both settings exercise a strong degree of control (framing) over the learning process, resulting in limited opportunities for literacy engagement on the part of the learners.
Open Access
Pleasure and pedagogic discourse in school mathematics : a case study of a problem-centred pedagogic modality
(2005) Davis, Zain; Ensor, Paula
thesis is concerned with the production of an account of the relation between the reproduction of specialised knowledge and the moral discourse within pedagogic practice. The internal mechanism that knots together knowledge and moral discourse is elaborated by way of an analysis of texts produced by the originators of a pedagogic modality they refer to as the "problem-centred approach." The particular texts analysed are: (1) the Grade 1 to 4 textbooks and the corresponding teacher's guides, and (2) video records, supplied by the originators, of what they consider to be exemplary realisations of the pedagogy in practice of the "approach." The thesis opens with a discussion of a proposition, derived from Bernsteinian studies of curriculum and pedagogy, stating that everyday and academic know ledges are incommensurable, and from which it is claimed that the insistent contemporary attempts at incorporating the everyday into the academic in curricula and pedagogy, under the banner of "relevance," are educationally problematic. Against the Bernsteinian position, a central feature of the "problem-centred approach" is the extensive recruitment of extra-mathematical referents for the purposes of the reproduction of school mathematics. A more general examination of school mathematics texts that recruit the everyday reveal that such texts also associate the everyday with the pleasure of the student, so rendering "relevance," and hence moral discourse, as utilitarian. The manner in which the moral discourse operates within pedagogy was described in terms of Hegel's theory of judgement and Freudian-Lacanian accounts of imaginary and symbolic identification. Hegel enabled a description of pedagogic discourse at the level of the instructional content, and Freud-Lacan at the level of moral discourse. Hegel also enabled the location of the point at which the moral attaches to the instructional. What our analysis revealed is as follows: (1) the "problem-centred approach" is a competence-type pedagogy that employs strategies encouraging an initial imaginary identification with the everyday and pleasure, which is used to effect symbolic identification with school mathematics; (2) moral discourse drives pedagogic judgement by means of the imaginary-symbolic dialectic pertaining to identification; (3) evaluation drives pedagogic judgement aimed at the knowledge statements produced by students; and that (4) while the moral discourse is a pervasive and formally necessary component of pedagogy, it is ultimately embedded in the organisation and elaboration of the instructional contents, working in the service of the reproduction of instructional contents, but in accord with dominant ideological imperatives.
Open Access
Problem solving in chemical engineering : a study of the solution of mass balance problems by second year students
(2002) Dhliwayo, Evelyn Chengetanai; Fraser, Duncan McKenzie; Ensor, Paula; Case, Jenni
Bibliography: leaves 106-111
Open Access
The recontextualising of pedagogic discourse: a case study drawn from an inservice mathematics education project
(1995) Davis, Zain; Ensor, Paula
The dissertation is concerned with the production of a systematic account of the recontextualising of pedagogic discourse across two contexts: mathematics INSET provision and school mathematics teaching. Drawing on the work of sociologists Basil Bernstein and Paul Dowling, an attempt is made to construct a theoretical model which is applied to produce a reading of the interactions between an INSET provider and a teacher, and the teacher and school students. The dissertation opens with a description and discussion of the conceptualising of the research project, the production of data, and the use of the literature survey and theoretical resources in the production of a methodology. The second chapter presents a review of the literature on INSET in which three chief components of conceptions of good INSET practice are highlighted: teachers should define their own needs; INSET should be concerned with the professional development of teachers, where professionalism implies an exclusion or marginalising of academic concerns; and INSET should be school-focused. The chapter moves on to consider NGO-provided INSET and concludes with a discussion of INSET in terms of Bernstein's categories horizontal and vertical discourses. In the third chapter, elements of Bernstein's code theory and Dowling's language of description are appropriated to construct a model which contextualises the study, produces an account of the transmission and acquisition of pedagogic discourse which attends to the interactions between transmitters and acquirers, and generates data for analysis. The chapter concludes with a summary of the model. Chapter 4 is devoted to an analysis of written materials from an INSET course which the teacher attended as well as the interactions between the INSET provider and teacher. An analysis of the use of wall displays and the arrangement of the classroom is produced in chapter 5, followed by an analysis of the interactions between the teacher and students. The analysis focuses on the way in which the utterances of the transmitter and acquirer are redescribed to produce pedagogic texts. The dissertation is concluded in chapter 6 which opens with a discussion of the resources and strategies implicated in the recontextualising of pedagogic discourse after which a summary of the analysis is produced. The last section of the chapter discusses the limitations of the research and the model.
Open Access
The recruitment and recognition of prior informal experience in the pedagogy of two university courses in labour law
(2003) Breier, Mignonne; Muller, Johan; Ensor, Paula
This thesis explores the epistemological complexities associated with the long-standing principle in adult education that the experience of the adult student should be valued, taken account of and built upon in the pedagogic process, to the extent that it can even be 'recognized' for purposes of access or credit. It asks how prior experience is recruited and recognized in a higher education context where commitment to the adult student is espoused but the curriculum is non-negotiable . Multiple research methods are used to pursue this question in two courses in Labour Law at separate universities . One, a certificate course, had admitted students with Grade 10 or less. The other, a post-graduate diploma, had admitted students without degrees. The thesis opens with a discussion of the ways in which formal and informal knowledge have been constructed in various theories of knowledge and thought, as well as in discourses on the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Thereafter, drawing on Bernstein, Dowling and Bourdieu , and in dialogue with the empirical data, a language of localizing and generalizing strategies is developed to identify various forms of informal and formal knowledge and to describe their interplay. The range and interrelationships of these strategies is shown in the form of semantic networks. Attention is paid to the structure of law and its sub-field labour law as fields of practice and of study and it is noted that both are characterized by a deductive relationship between formal and informal knowledge. The practice of law is essentially about the application of rules, concepts and principles to actual events (a deductive process) while the development of laws themselves is in response to social conditions (an inductive process). There is always the potential for inequity between the generality of the law and the particularities of an individual case. The courses differ in the extent to which they follow the deductive logic of the practice of law. It is argued that the higher level course which explores the complexities of labour law and its application to actual reported cases and events, is closer to that logic than the lower level course which presents the law in terms of sets of rules and procedures and tries to simplify its application by the use of the hypothetical. The postgraduate course also offers students an opportunity to recruit prior experience in assignments, even though it has to be researched and recontextualized for the purpose. The research finds that both lecturers and students use localizing strategies, including the recruitment of prior personal experience. Three different pedagogic styles are identified, with the recruitment and recognition of prior informal experience as a major feature of variation . The lecturers' localizations have a generalizing trajectory in that they are expressed in relation to general rules, principles or concepts or case law. The localizations of students who have mastered or submitted themselves to the recognition and realization rules of the courses have a similar trajectory. A few students show a localizing trajectory, limited to personalizing strategies often used to challenge the general rule by asserting the particularity and difference of personal experience. These localizing orientations are associated with very limited formal education but not exclusively so. They are also associated with expectations that prior informal experience is valuable in a formal educational context and will be recognized. This promise, engendered by discourses on RPL and adult education, obfuscates the transmission/acquisition purposes of a formal education programme. The theoretical contribution of the thesis lies with the language of description which it develops to analyse the interplay between the multiple dimensions of formal and informal knowledge. The research also has important implications for two theories of Basil Bernstein's. It shows that it is difficult to identify horizontal discourse empirically and to separate it from vertical discourse. The two are inextricably intertwined. The discussion of students' orientation to the local and the general shows the relevance of Bernstein's notions of elaborated and restricted codes to adult education. At the same time it exposes the crudity of these notions, showing, through fine-tuned analysis, the multiple different ways in which context-dependent and -independent knowledge is combined in practice. Finally, the research shows that students with limited formal education can and do succeed in formal education programmes. Factors influencing their achievement include the nature of their work experience and the extent to which it has exposed them to formal literacies, and dispositional factors including a willingness to accept pedagogic hierarchy, to assume an individual rather than collective identity and to expend symbolic labour.
Open Access
The recruitment of experience in a university adult education diploma : a curriculum analysis
(2005) Haupt, Judith Marina; Ensor, Paula; Cooper, Linda
This is a study of the recruitment of experience in an Adult Education Diploma. Through an analysis of the written curriculum, three aspects of recruiting experience are addressed: the different kinds of experience that are recruited on the course, the ways in which these kinds of experience are recruited, and the purpose of recruiting experience as evident in the assessment of the course.
Open Access
The recruitment of the 'everyday' in fourteen Grade 7 mathematics classrooms
(2004) Nakidien, Mogamat Toyer; Ensor, Paula
Bibliography: leaves 97-101.
Open Access
A small-scale investigation into teachers' access to the regulating principles underlying the "new mathematics" curriculum in the Junior Primary phase
(1995) Long, Caroline; Ensor, Paula
This research project focuses on the "new primary mathematics" curriculum that has been implemented in the schools in the Western Cape over the past six years. The specific question I addressed was, 'What access do teachers have to the regulating principles underpinning the 'new primary mathematics' curriculum". The term "regulating principles" is drawn from the work of Paul Dowling (1993;98). In terms of this research, the regulating principles are the theoretical underpinnings to the new curriculum, which include substantially a theory of learning. I explore access to the regulating principles through semi-structured interviews with six teachers, who have implemented this new approach with different degrees of success, as measured in their own terms. I also investigate the official Teachers' Guide for Mathematics (Cape Education Department, 1993) for explicitness of theoretical underpinnings. An analysis of the teachers' guide indicated that the regulatory principles were not made explicit and the research indicates that the teachers in my sample have restricted access to these principles. I conclude that teachers who have little access to the regulating principles are constructed as a subordinate voice in relation to teacher educators, and must of necessity rely on procedure for their practice and be subject to external validation. This raises questions as to the successful implementation of the curriculum, in that it limits access by teachers to the educational debates surrounding theories of knowledge and theories of learning, and so inhibits teacher involvement in curriculum implementation. It also limits the ability of teachers to interrogate their own practice.
Open Access
Social class, pedagogy and achievement in art
(2005) Bolton, Heidi; Muller, Johan; Dunne, Tim; Ensor, Paula
This thesis explores pedagogy associated with high levels of achievement in art in the final year of secondary school, by learners in different social positions. It investigates first, achievement patterns in final-exhibition percentage grades, in relation to learners' social class, race, and gender. Second, based on comparison of high and lower-achieving school classes of socially similar learners, it examines specific pedagogic features linked to success in particular social contexts. The research asks whether or not specific pedagogic features are associated with achievement in art for learners in particular social positions, and if so, whether. These are similar to pedagogic features linked to success in science. It combines different methods to address these questions: a survey to identify art achievement patterns in relation to learners' social class, race and gender, and a multiple case study for detailed exploration of pedagogy and curriculum linked to performance in art, in six school classes. Finding achievement patterned more strongly in relation to social class than race or gender, analysis focuses on social class and achievement.
Open Access
Social class, pedagogy and the specialization of voice in four South African primary schools
(2005) Hoadley, Ursula Kate; Ensor, Paula; Muller, Johan
This thesis is concerned with the question of how social class differences are reproduced through pedagogy, and the role of the teacher in this process. The study is located in four primary schools in Cape Town, South Africa, school sites that, in terms of social class composition, were selected to show the reproduction of difference in very stark ways. Four teachers in two schools in an upper middle-class school context, and four teachers in two schools in a lower working-class school context constitute the sample. The ﬁrst part of the study question is concerned with how pedagogy in the different social class schooling contexts differs. The analysis examines how pedagogy in different classrooms is structured differently, and what strategies teachers deploy in the distribution of knowledge in classrooms. Through this analysis two pedagogic modalities are deﬁned - a vertical modality in the middle class schooling context, and a horizontal modality in the working class schooling context. In the consideration of the reproduction of social class differences, orientation to meaning is taken to be the crucial background variable associated with social class which makes a difference to children's schooling experience. Orientation to meaning refers to the transmission and acquisition of more context-independent meanings (elaborated codes) and more context-dependent meanings (restricted codes). The pedagogic modalities identiﬁed in the analysis of the transmission practices in the various classrooms have implications for the way in which students' voice is specialized, or the extent to which students' educational identity and speciﬁc skills are clearly marked and bounded. The theoretical resources for the analysis of pedagogic modalities are drawn from Bernstein (1975; 1990; 1996), especially the concepts of classiﬁcation and framing, specialization of voice and orientations to meaning; and from Dowling (1998), and his conceptualizing of domains of knowledge and strategies for the distribution of different messages in relation to these domains. In order to assess whether social class differences are in fact being reproduced through the observed modalities, tasks were conducted with students. These tasks considered the pedagogy as either an interrupter or ampliﬁer of the community code that all learners enter the classroom with, or as an ampliﬁer of an elaborated code, which middle class children are more likely to bring with them to the school from the home. In the working class schooling context, in particular, the study shows how the pedagogy fails to act as an 'interrupter' of the community code that students bring into the classroom from the home. That is, student's voice in the working class context is found to be weakly specialized with respect to the school code, or an elaborated orientation to meaning. In the ﬁrst part of the study, then, a relationship between social class, pedagogic modalities and the specialization of voice is established. The second part of the study is exploratory. It addresses the question of why social class differences are reproduced through pedagogy by focusing on the central role of teacher in the reproduction of social class differences through pedagogy. In this part of the analysis a particular explanation as to why different pedagogic forms are found in the different social class schooling contexts is explored. A tentative relation between the teachers own social class backgrounds (which varies between the different social class schooling contexts), their strategic dispositions and forms of solidarity in the schools is suggested, which may offer some insight into how the different pedagogic modalities come to predominate in certain schools and have particular outcomes for the specialization of student voice in those schools. The contribution of the thesis is two-fold. It offers a methodology for examining how it is that social class differences are reproduced through classroom processes, and it presents an analysis of pedagogic forms that could be said to represent a breakdown in pedagogy. Secondly, the thesis points forward to further research that places the teacher as a sub-relay in the reproductive processes of schooling at the centre of the analysis, and takes seriously the social class positioning of teachers, students and their schools.