Doctoral Degrees (Educational Psychology)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/746

Browse

Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Educational Psychology) by Subject "Adult education"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Teacher learning during the implementation of the Index for Inclusion in a primary school
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-03) Oswald, Marietjie M.; Engelbrecht, P.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was designed to explore affordances and constraints to teacher learning as workplace learning during a time of change as initiated by the Index for Inclusion process. In particular the study investigated features on the macro-social and macro-educational level that impact on teacher learning in the workplace and the affordances and constraints to teacher learning that could be identified on the institutional-community plane as the pivotal plane of analysis for this study. It also explored features on the personal plane that impact teacher learning in the workplace. The theoretical framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) provided a broad platform from which to engage with the study. In particular, the work of Engeström, as a contemporary contributor in the field of CHAT, informed this study. The investigation into teacher learning in the workplace during a time of change was designed as a critical ethnographic study and was conducted in a primary school in a disadvantaged community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A qualitative methodology was employed. The study allowed for a critical in-depth analysis of affordances and constraints to teacher learning in the workplace by making use of an abductive process of data analysis and presentation, which implies a movement between an inductive and deductive process of knowledge creation. The data was presented in broad themes, an ethnographic narrative using the triangular structure of activity as developed by Engeström, and in pen sketches depicting the learning trajectories of two teachers. The data revealed that the Index for Inclusion employed as tool of change in this study did indeed allow for teacher learning for inclusion in the workplace. It raised awareness of inclusive education, contributed to a shared language for inclusion in the school and created the platform for teachers to engage with own attitudes and practices in a safe and supportive environment. Certain teachers attested to significant learning gains. However, the study also highlighted how a school could act as a restrictive environment for teacher learning and the complex processes involved in changing such an environment to become more expansive in support of teacher learning for inclusion. Several factors acted as severe constraints to teacher learning. On the macro-social level, poverty and the consequences of apartheid in South Africa acted as significant constraints to expansive teacher learning. With regard to the macro-educational level, teachers struggled with innovation overload and the absence of meaningful training and support for change that negatively affected their morale, motivation and self-efficacy. On the institutional level the leadership approach in the school proved particularly detrimental to expansive teacher learning. Teacher cognition, attitude and emotion also constrained their own engagement with the learning opportunity afforded by the Index for Inclusion process in the school. The students were not allowed a platform for their voices to be heard. Furthermore, neither their parents nor the community was invited into collaborative partnerships with the staff. On the personal level the study engaged with the possibility that individual teachers could gradually bring the necessary changes into the school on the grounds of their own positive learning experience through the Index for Inclusion process. The hope for change in the school was thus embodied in individual teachers’ agency, energy and incentive to work towards sustaining the progress that had been made by means of the Index for Inclusion process in the school. Keywords: teacher learning, workplace learning, inclusive education, Index for Inclusion, culturalhistorical activity theory (CHAT).