The social regulation of literacy through teacher expectations

This study is motivated by the problematic of underdeveloped literacy skills, particularly the reading and writing skills of at-risk learners, and draws theoretical support from Basil Bernstein’s sociology of education linked with the ‘school effectiveness’ theory of teacher expectations. I suggest a relation between the social context or community of a school, the culture and order of the school, and forms of teacher expectations, to propose a school-level expectation orientation that suggests a particular theory of instruction. For my investigation of teacher expectations, I select two contrasting, relatively high-performing, primary schools in working-class contexts in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, and I interview grade 3 and grade 6 language teachers. Interview questions are based upon a novel conceptualization of expectations.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Wilburn, Shelly

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoadley, Ursula
• Muller, Johan

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12018

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12018