Masters Degrees (Education, Development, Leadership and Management)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7169

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Exploring orientation speeches of school principals : inspirational invitations to student teachers.
(2011) Naidoo, Somadhanum.; Mthiyane, Siphiwe Eric.; Amin, Nyna.
The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the messages conveyed by principals in one context, that of well resourced schools. The contents of the messages and how these messages are influenced by the context of the schools were interrogated. Also of relevance are principals presenting a desirably, inviting message about the teaching profession. This study is part of the TP120 project that is being conducted by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal to evaluate the placing of context at the centre of a learning to teach approach. The school environment has become diverse and dynamic since the implementation of changes after 1994. Teacher training institutions are faced with trying to adequately prepare teachers to adapt and adjust. The thinking therefore, is to include diverse contexts as one of the major components in the teacher education curriculum. One initiative to achieve this is to enlist the help of principals, who are the experienced counterparts in schools, to assist university personnel with the training of student teachers. This is done when first year student teachers are taken to schools of varying contexts and where principals are given an opportunity to address these students. The belief is that, what principals say prepares students teachers for the world of work in a particular context. A case study using the interpretivist paradigm was conducted with the participants being principals in well resourced schools. The participating schools and the participants were selected by pre-determined criteria in keeping with the requirements of the TP120 project. The principals’ speeches were recorded and transcribed. Thereafter a discourse analysis was embarked on. The theories that underpin this study are the invitational theory of Purkey and Novak (1996) and the learning to teach approach of Amin and Ramrathan (2009). The findings show that a well resourced context is established and maintained through hard work, dedication, commitment and support of all stakeholders. The messages conveyed by the principals prepare the student teachers for the teaching profession in general and for the well resourced context in particular. The main conclusion of this study is that principals can be an invaluable source of knowledge to student teachers and can assist in teacher training. They articulated a sense of purpose and direction and inspire the student teachers by motivating, encouraging, guiding and inviting them to the teaching profession. Recommendations of the study were that the universities should continue to provide student teachers with the opportunity of experiencing different contexts, principals can be provided with guidelines on what to talk about in their orientation speeches, student teachers should prepare questions to get clarity on issues in particular contexts and principals can be provided with professional development around communicating motivational and inspirational orientation speeches. Recommendations for further research are that a variety of contexts be researched or the student teachers can be interviewed to gauge the exact message that they go away with.
Exploring principals' orientation speeches: sensitising student teachers to school context.
(2011) Poovan, Devakumari.; Mthiyane, Siphiwe Eric.; Amin, Nyna.
Abstract available in the PDF.
The influence of context on teachers' conceptions of professional expertise.
(2012) Moodley, Sathiaveni Duel.; Amin, Nyna.
This research involved the contextual influences on teacher professional expertise in the Central Urban area in Durban. It explores what happens to teachers when their context changes and how they cope with a challenging environment. This study documents and describes a particular group of foundation phase teachers’ experiences in a specific school and how the context of this school influences their professional expertise. The study draws on Dryfus and Dryfus (1986) five stage typology which describes how and why teachers’ abilities, attitudes, capabilities and perspectives change according to the skill levels. An empirical investigation involving a qualitative research methodology was done using the case study method to present this research. The instruments used in this exploration were individual semi-structured interviews with six foundation phase educators and a focus group interview with a group of five foundation phase teachers. A City centre school was used as a sample. One male teacher and five female teachers were selected. All the participants were Indian. Interviews were used because of the need to observe the teachers facial expressions and emotions during the interview. The study was able to identify the various challenges that presented itself to both novice and expert teachers in the profession. The findings are organised under eight themes which are: the conceptions of a novice teacher; the conceptions of an expert teacher; novice teachers and school context; expert teachers and school context; novice teachers and change in curriculum; expert teachers and change in curriculum; the role of experience for novice and expert teachers and novice and expert teachers relationships with peers/leaders and mentors. Emergent findings suggest that both expert and novice teachers experience difficulties in a complex and challenging context are further presented under seven themes in which the researcher did a cross analysis. Cross theme analysis was used to present the findings of a further seven themes which are; conceptions of expert and novice teachers are different, teaching and school context are experienced differently by novice and expert teachers, curriculum change makes teaching challenging for expert and novice teachers, experience is important for expert and novice teachers, every teacher needs a mentor, all teachers are always a novice and the need for flexibility.
The relationship between teachers' conceptions of "globalisation" and professional learning.
(2012) Cafun, Wade Cesaree.; Amin, Nyna.
At present globalisation has engulfed the world in what has been described as a whirl wind effect, in that is has swirled around the globe and encapsulated it; almost to the extent that the effects of globalisation appear completely inescapable to most nations and citizens. One can assume thus that the influence of globalisation on education, and in particular teacher education, is inevitable. This study focuses on teachers' conceptions of globalisation and its relationship to teacher professional learning with an aim to understand how six teachers exposed to global discourses conceive globalisation and its effect on their professional learning. Given that an effect of globalisation is the merging of various ideas and the exertion of simultaneous influences on such ideas from a variety of sources, a single focus group discussion was used for the generation of dat in this study to produce an environment very similar to the one achieved by globalisation (i.e. an environment in which various ideas are generated simultaneously and are subjected to influences from a variety of sources). From this, rich data emerged highlighting that the teachers in this study have very similar and in some cases very different conceptions of globalisation, teacher professional learning, and the relationship between the two. Interestingly, what stands out is the teachers involved in this study conceive that context, plays an integral role in contemporary teacher learning. The analysis generated theses such as retrogression, inequity, contradictions as well as the experiences of these teachers in learning and not learning. In essence, globalisation and teacher professional learning are shown to be inseparable in this area in which teachers are currently forced to learn for specific contexts and in most cases have to relearn as their contexts change in accordance with the ever evolving nature of globalisation. Indeed teacher professional learning at present is placed under tremendous strain, and so an understanding of the links between globalisation and teacher professional learning is expressed in this study. In addition, what emerges as a plausible solution to the problem of how teacher professional learning may keep up with globalisation, appears to be a need for teachers to take charge of their professional learning and to move away from positions of dependency and passivity to a position of active agency.

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Education, Development, Leadership and Management) by Author "Amin, Nyna."