What counts as literacy in Windhoek urban pre- and primary schools in Namibia?

Hengari, Job Uazembua

What counts as literacy in Windhoek urban pre- and primary schools in Namibia?

Doctoral Thesis

2019

Abstract

This study aims to investigate what counts as literacy in Windhoek urban pre-and primary schools in Namibia. Using an ethnographic-style research paradigm the study examines literacy practices in social contexts to answer the question as to what counts as literacy in these schools. As teachers and learners and parents/caregivers and their children occupy the classroom/home as a social space, they engage each other in literacy events, during which literacy development is scaffolded and encouraged as a culturally valued activity. The study focused on three children and studied their early literacy development in their classrooms and at home by observing them and recording them during those practices. The data was collected in two phases, each stretching over a six months’ period. The focus during phase one was on the preschool phase of early literacy learning, while phase two continued to collect the data at lower primary school phase. At pre- and primary school, the classroom is the place where teachers provide literacy practice and guidance to the learners. It is this ‘school literacy’ that defines what counts as literacy, a specific kind of literacy that is planned and offered to learners in a classroom setting. In Windhoek urban settings, the ‘traditional’ conception of literacy as a largely psychological ability – something true to do with our intellect, and thus a private possession – remains dominant. As some literacy is more dominant, visible and influential than others, the ‘school-based literacy’ in this study dominates and marginalizes the vernacular and techno-literacies that occur at home. I want to suggest that Namibia endorse the sociocultural approach to literacy learning by way of a paradigm shift in order to create room for other literacy practices outside of school, in homes and in communities, so as to become recognized and legitimized as they already are broadening what counts as literacy. I argue for a new curriculum that can account for similar variations in children’s home backgrounds.

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

Full item page