Browsing by Subject "School integration"

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    The assessment of the impact of desegregated schooling on young children, utilizing their drawings
    (1991) Cowley, Brenda Barbara; Van der Hoorn, Svea
    This study concerns the assessment of the racial awareness and attitudes (intra- and interpersonal) of a small group of Sub A children in a recently racially desegregated school in Cape Town in 1991. This issue was seen to be of importance in South Africa because of changes within the educational sector whereby many schools were in the process of becoming racially desegregated. A case study design and methodology was used in both the pilot and main studies. Three drawings together with collateral information were obtained from each of the twenty-five children. The measurement instruments used were the Human Figure Drawing (HFD), the Kinetic School Drawing (KSD) and an instrument which was devised by the researcher during the pilot study, namely the Peer Group Drawing. Data analysis involved each drawing being analysed separately according to the analysis systems of Klepsch and Logie (1982), and Koppitz (1968), and further informed by Burns (1982) and Furth (1988). Within subject comparisons were undertaken which resulted in the data being clustered into four groups. The grouped data was then analysed and interpreted in terms of the aim of the study. Findings generally concurred with the literature: the children were found to be racially aware and held definite racial attitudes, and these were related to socio-cognitive and affective development. More than half of the subjects were found to be experiencing difficulties which in some cases could be clearly linked to adjusting to classroom desegregation. A central recommendation was for active mediation by educators and psychologists in the process of transition from desegregation to integration.
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    Non-racial schooling in selected Cape Town schools : language, attitudes and language learning
    (1994) Schlebusch, Anne; Young, D N
    This study examines some elements of the language environment, language learning processes, and language inter-actions between child and teacher, and child and child in the changing South African education system. As more classrooms become non-racial, new dimensions are arising in language use and in learning: classrooms are perforce multilingual as different language groups come together to receive instruction through the medium of English. What dynamic do these multilingual elements bring to the standard classroom? I focus on part of the Standard Six population of 5 Western Cape English medium schools. The schools are different in many respects and similar in others; some have more Black pupils than others. By using a variety of research methods, including questionnaires, worksheets, personal observation, interviews and essays, I explore the experiences and attitudes of pupils, teachers and principals. My object is to try to identify trends: to look for positive features arising out of present classrooms and to look for possible points of tension as well, in order to extract central features to analyse. These are highlighted, and cross-referenced with relevant international studies, as matters of interest for practitioners in the classroom and for education planners. The field is immense: the study essentially provides a broad-based platform for further research. I tried not to have any preconceptions about what I would find, so made it a comprehensive and far-ranging study. It uncovers important elements which teachers and schools may attend to, relatively easily, indicates the importance of development of one's Mother Tongue and exposes deeply-felt emotions about Language and identity. It asks questions about Bridging Programmes and about the language of the teacher in the classroom and in testing. I also ask about the future of English in this country, about feelings about learning Afrikaans and about learning Xhosa. The main target in the recommendations is the teacher, as the generator of learning opportunities in the classroom. I call for more specific communication between teacher and pupil and the evolution of child-specific language learning processes. It is every teacher in every classroom who needs to adjust consciously to the new classroom profiles. Differing patterns clearly emerge from the schools with different intake profiles. This suggests the need for further studies to examine these findings for generalisability. The situation in schools is both volatile and exciting, calling for concrete and imaginative attention to aspects emerging from the personal, perceptive and wide-ranging input of the sample studied in this research project.