Faculty of Education
Department of Humanities Education
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The overall aim of this study is to investigate how indigenous Black ethnic students negotiate and mediate their identity within the South African schooling context.
Research Objectives
This study therefore sets out to explain this complex phenomenon, guided by the following research objectives:
1. To describe how indigenous Black ethnic student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the institutional cultures of schools.
2. To evaluate the extent to which the ethos of these schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense and to determine how indigenous Black ethnic students perceive this in practice?
3. To determine if there are any new forms of indigenous Black ethnic student self-identities that are beginning to emerge. 4. To determine the extent to which racial desegregation has been accompanied by social integration between indigenous Black ethnic groups.
5. To determine the impact of the South African social/schooling context on indigenous Black ethnic student identity formation.
6. To identify critical lessons and best practice that could be learnt and used to accelerate the racial desegregation and social integration of indigenous Black ethnic students in South African schools
Contact person: Prof S Vandeyar.
Since the 1980s many writing scholars have argued that a subject-specific focus is preferable to a generic focus in the teaching of academic writing. While it seems plausible that interventions focusing on a particular academic discipline would be more effective than those seeking to improve academic writing through wide-angled interventions the latter may contribute to a better understanding of the values and conventions of different academic discourse communities, and create a more favourable balance between efficiency and effectiveness. This study sought to determine, through a quasi-experimental investigation, which of the two intervention types would be most beneficial to second-year students of the humanities. The theoretical framework draws upon Systemic Functional Grammar, Constructivism and Critical Literacies. A mixed methods design was used, including a survey of writing tasks, discourse analyses, an opinion survey, and a comparison of pre- and posttest essay ratings. Statistical analyses of pre- and post-intervention essay scores indicate that although both interventions were effective the subject-specific (History) group performed significantly better than the cross-disciplinary group. Their performance was also more consistent. In addition, the History students reported significantly higher levels of skills transfer. This could be attributed to their intensive engagement with scholarly sources, extensive writing linked to the History curriculum, and enhanced motivation. The outcomes of this research have served as the rationale for designing a subject-specific academic literacy intervention for education students, JLZ 100 Literacies in Education
Contact person: Prof A Carstens.
Textbooks and their relevance to society have been prominent in the international educational reform debate during the past few decades. Studies undertaken in the Department of Humanities Education departed from the premise that textbooks are agents of the social control of the hidden curriculum which shapes the selection, interpretation and omission of facts into a theoretical structure that, for learners, becomes ‘a picture of the world’. One of the studies focused on the analysis of history and language textbooks to provide insight into the role of textbooks in the maintenance and legitimization of ethnic power relations, specifically the reproduction of cultural stereotypes. The illustrations in nine series of primary school history textbooks (grade 4-6) were examined to determine racial representation. The data suggest that Afrikaner nationalist views have been replaced by African nationalist views, which portray a single, simplistic perspective on the past. Another strand of the research focused on the comparison of the ways in which Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans language textbook series foster cultural stereotyping of the 'other'. The findings showed that visuals in the Dutch data project the 'other' as problematic, poor and different. The Flemish series emphasises cultural exclusion, but incorporates counter-symbols to encourage self-reflectivity among Flemish learners, thus countering automatic stereotyping. Afrikaans textbooks, because of their highly politicised past, over-emphasize a utopian ‘new South Africa’ where race and difference are not contentious, and Afrikaans is demythologised as a 'white' language
Contact person: Dr A Engelbrecht.
The easing of legal and unauthorized entry to South Africa has made the country a new destination for Black asylum-seekers, long-distance traders, entrepreneurs, students and professionals. As this population continues to grow, its children have begun to experience South African schools in an array of uniquely challenging ways. For these immigrant youth, forging a sense of identity may be their single greatest challenge. There is however, very little research on the ways in which immigrant student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the dominant institutional cultures of schools. Accordingly, this study asks how do immigrant students construct, negotiate and represent their identities within the South African schooling context. Utilising the theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory and Figures of identification, this research study attempts to understand the unique experiences of Black immigrant youth inside South African schools. Findings were multi-fold in nature. First, although immigrant students’ ease of assimilation into the chosen reference group was to some degree sanctioned by their phenotypic racial features, their attempt at ‘psychosocial passing’ was politically motivated. Second, immigrant students did not readily classify themselves according to skin pigmentocracy. Third, the majority of immigrant students heightened their ethnic self-awareness in forming their identity, but also assumed hyphenated identities. Fourth, immigrant students were not seen as having an identity, but rather as being ‘plugged into a category with associated characteristics or features’. Fifth immigrant students forged a ‘continental identity’. And sixth, the self-agency of immigrant students was twofold in nature; not only did they want to improve their own condition, but there seemed to be an inherent drive to improve the human condition of others
Contact person: Prof S Vandeyar.
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