Browsing by Author "Esau, Omar"

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    Enhancing critical multicultural literacy amongst pre-service teachers in a Bachelor of Education programme
    (Stellenbosch University, 2014) Esau, Omar
    In this article I reflect on how I attempted to inculcate and enhance critical multicultural literacy in my Bachelor of Education classroom. Critical multicultural literacy educators focus not only on curtailing bias and inequity in the classroom, but also on promoting social justice in society at large. In this article I argue that the development of critical literacy promotes social justice and the exploration of language and literature in many forms. Using a grounded theory approach, I analyse data sources, including interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Findings suggest that exposing pre-service teachers critically to multicultural literacies develops and nurtures much needed social consciousness and social justice in future educators. From an action research perspective, I also discuss implications for future practice.
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    The impact of COVID-19 on chess in South Africa
    (CSSALL Publishers, 2020) Esau, Omar
    In this chapter I address the question of the way that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with its new normal and social distancing, impacts the sport code of chess in South Africa. This pandemic has already drastically altered the fixtures of numerous sport codes including the planned events and outcomes of some elite professional leagues. Chess as an Olympic sport code, although more amateur in South Africa, offers benefits across the socio-economic spectrum in terms of administrators, players, coaches and referees (arbiters). I employ an auto-ethnographic case study methodological approach, which enables one to draw on ‘personal and experiential data,’ for example, my own observations and experiences as a chess player and administrator. Amidst the uncertainty of the future and in anticipation of perhaps a large-scale devastation, the COVID-19 pandemic imposes the need for innovative and creative thinking to keep future aspirations of chess alive. Drawing on my lived experiences, I employ an auto-ethnographic approach to inspire hope for the future.
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    Preparing pre-service teachers as emancipatory and participatory action researchers in a teacher education programme
    (Education Association of South Africa, 2013) Esau, Omar
    In this paper I analyse the potential that participatory action research holds for educating pre-service teachers to become more critically reflective and socially conscious. I also describe the rationale for and process of engaging pre-service teachers in their teacher education programme. Involving these candidate teachers in participatory action research (PAR) projects may provide opportunities for aspiring teachers to develop pedagogical content knowledge, examine their beliefs about teaching, and gain confidence in addressing social justice issues. More than merely exposing them to applying the technique of action research, the PAR project encouraged them to become more socially conscious, critical, imaginative and argumentative as teacher-researchers. In the project I used a participatory approach in action research to prepare the pre-service teachers to become emancipatory action researchers. Supporting and fostering inquiring practices is a strategy to help pre-service teachers move beyond just receiving hand-outs in a teacher education programme and beginning to focus on their work with learners and challenges in the real school environment.
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    Towards a critical pedagogy of global citizenship: breaking the silence as a trained dancer in post-apartheid South Africa
    (Springer Nature, 2024-01 ) Esau, Omar; Jones, Danielle‑Marie
    This article reveals a reflective journey of a dancer through unpacking two performances experienced over the course of two years. It examines and navigates ways of decolonizing oppressive dominance and investigating the ramifications of indoctrination in dance. It depicts how a trained dancer evolved and became more conscious by breaking the “culture of silence” and changed in becoming a more critical reflective dancer in a post-apartheid South Africa. This project aligns itself with global citizenship education (GCE) as it re/imagines traditional forms of civic and citizenship education in a more critical and decolonial perspective. In writing this paper, we are reminded of “the myriad shifts of thinking, strategies and back-and-forth debating” with each other and can also see our “encounters as a dance” (Waghid in Dancing with doctoral encounters: Democratic education in motion, African Sun Media, 2015). In breaking the silence surrounding dance and its conservative elements, we question the technocratic practices and accepted norms in the performance arts and the dancing arena. How does a classical dancer redress the colonial past in a performance arts classroom? The significance of this paper lies in the argument that decolonization becomes an imperative within GCE if one is striving for social justice and intends to commit oneself to a more equitable society where crossing borders must be a seamless act.
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    Towards the decolonisation of religion education in a pre-service education classroom
    (Routledge, 2020) Esau, Omar
    In this article, I reflect on my attempts to decolonise religious education at a historically white university in a post-apartheid South Africa. This pre-service education project conducted in 2017 happened against the backdrop of two events, namely, a renewed curriculum policy, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and the #RhodesMustFall (RMF) and #FeesMustFall (FMF) protests. These events encouraged me to reflect on my academic role as a teacher-educator preparing pre-service teachers to teach religion in schools. This led to me asking many questions such as, what is the effect of my teaching religious education?, How do teacher-educators prepare religious education pre-service teachers for a multicultural and multireligious society?, How does my teaching align itself with the decolonisation of education? and How do I redress the colonial past in my religious education classroom? The data which included reflective reports, student experiences and self-reflexivity acknowledged the findings that religion education served as a unifying factor in building social cohesion. The significance of this paper lies in the argument that decolonisation becomes an imperative if one is striving for social justice and intends to commit oneself to a more equitable society where crossing borders must be a seamless act.