Faculty of Education
School of Educational Studies
Department of Curriculum Studies
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Prof Kobus Maree and his team introduced Emotional Intelligence (EI) programmes into a number of schools in South Africa as part of a pilot study. To facilitate the inculcation of community-based EI skills, learners, teachers and parents in four provinces, namely Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West Province were targeted. The programmes have been introduced in two schools per province. Teachers and learners are introduced to the concept of “emotional intelligence” through the provision of guidelines on ways to optimize their own EI skills. They facilitate EI skills acquisition through the process of peer-teaching learning thereby empowering many other colleagues and learners. As a result of the study, networking between schools and communities is growing, and this is activating community-based support structures/assets for children in South Africa’s largely traumatized society. An example of this is the financial support that was obtained from First Rand Foundation, Trees for Africa, Momentum Life and Investec to establish a vegetable garden at a clinic in the remotest part of Bochum, close to a school in a particularly disadvantaged sector of the region. The project team is, in a sense, conducting action research by tackling typical problems experienced in South African classrooms in cycles, attempting to solve these problems and applying what it learnt in the course of previous sessions in subsequent cycles. Findings of the pilot study indicate that both learners and teachers are of the view that EI should be introduced in all South African schools. The data obtained from the research is being used to standardize the BarOn Emotional Quotient (EQ) Inventory questionnaire: Youth Version further and the researchers are broadening their theory base in social and emotional counselling to include one that is contextual and multicultural. (The BarOn EQ is designed to measure a number of constructs related to emotional intelligence. A growing body of research suggests that emotional intelligence is a better predictor of success than the more traditional measures of cognitive intelligence (IQ).) Recommendations include that An EI counselling strategy needs to be developed for all learners in South Africa, including even the traditionally most disadvantaged, and not only a privileged few. The focus of EI counselling internationally needs to be implemented locally. It is envisaged that their model for the facilitation of social and emotional intelligence in schools in South Africa.
Contact person: Prof JG Maree.
Maree is also involved in a research project aimed at facilitating post-modern Narrative Career Counselling in four provinces; namely Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North-West, and Limpopo. Previous research findings indicate that post-modern career counselling can be accomplished successfully for learners from all cultures in South Africa. In administering this post-modern approach to career counselling process, we view learners as active agents in their personal development. The overriding aim of the research is to develop a narrative that can be used to help many thousands of learners to make well-informed career choices. The need for a concise narrative to help (inter alia) disadvantaged school-leaving learners to choose their future careers in a relatively short space of time cannot be overemphasised. Researchers are advising that innovative ways to administer career counselling, for example combining quantitative and qualitative approaches – should be developed. To this end, Maree is engaged in designing a combined qualitative-quantitative narrative to evaluate and assess learners with a view to administering career counselling in collaboration with co-researchers, some of whom are international experts in this field.
Contact person: Prof JG Maree.
The aim of this research project is to illustrate the potential and flexibility of a post-modern narrative for career counseling, to highlight possibilities for a potential post-modern narrative and to illustrate its value. Career counseling from a post-modern perspective requires reconsidering the traditional (modern) approach of the 20th century. Approximately sixty teachers are directly involved in four provinces; namely Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North-West. Five teachers per three schools per province have been targeted and the focus is on traditionally disadvantaged regions. These teachers have been exposed to the concept of “Life story counseling” for the first time. Through a series of workshops, teachers are being provided with guidelines regarding ways to optimize the Life story counseling skills of learners. These teachers will facilitate Life story counseling skills acquisition for many others via the process of peer-teacher learning, potentially empowering many other colleagues. A significant number of learners are benefiting greatly from the proposed intervention. The research team’s current emphasis is on learners and teachers. However, parents, psychologists and other health professionals involved with learners are being included as well in order to bring about a joint strategy. Our overriding objective is to set a trend in our schools that might provide all our provincial Education Departments with a road map for the future. Some of the findings including that education departments countrywide should consider training all life skills teachers’ to understand and acquire a post-modern (narrative) approach to career counseling, thereby enabling South Africa to benefit from such research conducted throughout the world. In doing so, it will contribute towards a framework for educator development that develops the broader landscape of counseling, empowerment and affirmation as key ingredients for achieving genuine transformation of counselors, teachers and teaching.
Contact person: Prof JG Maree.
The researcher focuses on three levels of curricular community engagement (CCE) at higher education institutions (HEIs); namely national, institutional and programme/curriculum development. The researcher based her research on the theories of educational change and eco-systems. She used a qualitative research design and case studies, applying the methods of reflective inquiry and critical content analysis to understand the politics, processes and challenges in the community engagement movement in South Africa. Research findings indicate that the external forces of change (national policies and audit criteria) influencing CCE and specifically Academic Service-Learning (ASL) are dominant but internal processes at HEIs and the personal beliefs and missions of academics should become more dominant. It is argued that, as well as external and internal segments, increasing attention will need to be paid to the personal missions and purposes which underpin academic staff members' commitment to change processes for curriculum reform. Without a fully conceptualised notion of how the external, internal and personal will interlink, the existing educational change for CCE and specifically ASL will remain underdeveloped and of progressively less use at HEIs in South Africa.
Contact person: Dr CJG Bender.
|
