Reflective practitioners : a case study in facilitating teacher development in four African primary schools in Cape Town

The thesis is an action research study of the work of a university-based facilitator and a total of 34 teachers from four african primary schools in Cape Town between 1987 and 1989. The study is premised on the argument that teachers are important in developing quality schooling, and that teachers should be active producers of pedagogical knowledge, shaping the curriculum through their engagement in a process of reflection-on-practice. It examines a relatively under-researched area in action research studies - namely the role of the facilitator in the process of educational change. The reflective practitioners of the thesis title are both the university-based facilitator conducting 'second-order' action research into her own educational of practice, and the teachers Both levels of the 'first order' reflective practice which the facilitator tried to encourage reflection shape and are shaped as facilitator and teachers explore together the limits and possibilities of curriculum development. The second order research thus: informs the facilitator's action with teachers; generates practical knowledge for INSET; contributes to knowledge of staff development processes; contributes to the general literature on action research; and also provides a comparative dimension for those working in developing countries. The study outlines the historical and political context shaping educational work in schools between 1987 and 1989, including an account of the nature of intellectual production at african teachers' colleges. It highlights two key dilemmas in the facilitator's practice the dilemma of democratic vs directive practice, and the dilemma of only reforming the form and content of the curriculum vs the transformation of teaching. The study found that a recessive role for the facilitator was not appropriate where bantu education has severely limited teachers' exposure to alternative ideas of teaching and learning. The tension was for the facilitator to learn how to share expertise within a participatory framework in which teachers would take responsibility for their own learning. The study explains how teachers changed, or failed to change, in the areas of new methods, new materials and changing pedagogical assumptions - and the influence of the facilitator's interventions in all this. The limits of technical knowledge divorced from critical thinking, and the limits of emancipatory knowledge without technical skills are revealed in the work of both the facilitator and the teachers. A more nuanced reading of the reform-transformation dilemma, arising from the concrete experience of participants in this study, is suggested. Action research is evaluated as a project of possibility, both for teachers and for teacher-educators to research their own practice in pre- and in-service work. Based on the findings generated by this study, suggestions are made for democratic and reflective forms of INSET for teachers, as a contribution to the reconstruction of education in a democratic South Africa.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Walker, Melanie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cooper, David

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14248

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14248