Browsing by Author "Martin, Melanie Yvette."

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Bullying at a high school in KwaZulu-Natal : narratives of eight grade 10 learners.
(2015) Sikhakhane, Hamilton Ndati.; Muthukrishna, Anbanithi.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
This study sought to research bullying – a phenomenon which is seen as a major social problem that has a serious impact on the wellbeing of children and youth. The study contributes to the small body of research that has emanated from South Africa in the last decade or so and was conducted at one of the high school situated in Durban, province of KwaZulu-Natal. The study was a narrative inquiry and participants were eight (8) grade 10 learners; four male and four female learners selected through a process of purposive and stratified ransom sampling. Data generation involved individual and focus group interviews. In addition, a participatory research tool, mapping, was used to explore with the participants the places and spaces of bullying at the school. The findings of the study showed that bullying was a problem at the school and operates in varied and complex ways. The findings in the study revealed that bullying happens at the school in pervasive and varied ways very much in line with international studies. Overall, participants referred to bullying acts as harassment, teasing, spreading rumours about a learner, name-calling, physical aggression and verbal abuse. Learners were unanimous in their view that bullying is a form of aggression that leads to physical and emotional suffering in victims. Listening to the voices of the child participants in the study, who are clearly social actors in their own right and who have views on the issue, provided important insights into the phenomenon. Their stories showed that bullying occurs in many power-laden spaces and places of the school and is for most part invisible to school management and teachers. The school as an institution has clearly not engaged with the problem of bullying which often goes unreported by learners. The study suggests that school leadership and teachers need to understand the complex contextual factors that sustain bullying in the school. Interventions to address bullying need to involve partnerships between school personnel, parents, community members and most important, learners.
Children's conception of spirituality and morality : narratives of eight Grade 3 learners.
(2015) Gumede, Gugulethu Mable.; Muthukrishna, Anbanithi.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Influenced by debates from the paradigm of New Childhood Studies and the sociology of childhood, the epistemological and ontological stance of this study was that children are individuals in their own right, and active social beings who are able to construct and make meanings of events and issues in their lives. The study was also framed by debates from the sub-field of ‘Children’s Geographies’ that enabled the analysis of the meanings children assigned to experiences of spirituality and morality in various experiential spaces and places of their lives. In essence, the study was about exploring children’s conceptions of spirituality and morality and mapped out the spaces and places of spirituality and morality in relation to young children. This was a qualitative case study conducted at one primary school situated in an urban township in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Participants in the study were eight (8) Grade three learners (three male; five female), aged between seven (7) and 11 years. The various creative participatory research techniques utilised in the study to produce data were found to be the most appropriate when engaging with child participants. These included children’s drawings, vignettes, or scenarios that contained a moral dilemma viz. conversation with a picture and a letter to God. A justice orientation was strongly evident in the children’s responses to the two scenarios as children clearly had a sense of right and wrong. Data revealed that children reason in terms of the norms they have been socialised to value, for example, justice. Morality is also interpreted as a goal of pleasing others by acting as a good person in society thus its stands to reason that morality is external to children. However, there was evidence that some reason at a more advanced level beyond the stage of obedience and punishment when they focused on themselves as members of a society or community i.e. maintaining the social order. The focus of the children was on obeying laws and maintaining social order and as in the case of the respondents of the study, keeping the school and community safe. The ethics of care was evident in the responses of the children such as fairness, compassion, empathy, care for the welfare of others, protection from physical and emotional harm and hurt. The study did not examine gender differences in the care orientation of the participants.
Experiencing gender: a case study of Grade 7 learners.
(2006) Martin, Melanie Yvette.; Muthukrishna, Anbanithi.
Abstract available in pdf.
An exploration of how black, successful university students from low socio-economic backgrounds experience and negotiate the university space.
(2021) Khuzwayo, Nomthandazo Immaculate.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Legislation and policies developed for the transformation of higher education in South Africa, has led to significant gains for the beneficiaries of the sector. For instance, there has been a significant increase in access to higher education. However, although there has been significant progress, there is still a long way to go. This study sought to explore the experiences of black successful students from low socio-economic backgrounds at university. In essence, the study set out to understand the enabling and constraining factors that the students experienced. The study was a qualitative study, located within the critical research paradigm. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect the data for the study. Bourdieu’s notions of capital, field and habitus were deployed to understand the experiences of the students. Findings of the study revealed that, while the participants reproduced some aspects of middle-class culture, they resisted its social and political logic and did not assist it to achieve its mission of reproducing and legitimising inequality. That is, the participants used their agency to demand from education what it had committed to, but had not given, in order to achieve academically. For instance, higher education demanded possession of linguistic capital, which basic education had not given. However, in response, students, often with the help of the university, found ways to push against middle class codes framing access to higher education in order to achieve academically. However, in certain cases, the collision of their working-class upbringing with middle-class thinking presented difficulties for some participants. These participants often struggled to maintain positive ties with their family and friends, who began to see them as outsiders. For example, the participants reported estrangement from their families and friends. However, participants’ narratives revealed that, for some of their families, this was a product of deprivation, which required all of their attention. Findings suggests that deficiency and lack of technological and laboratory skills are not a given for students from low socio-economic backgrounds; they must be fought for. However, with the appropriate support, students from these contexts can deploy their agency to push boundaries, navigate the toxic mix of disadvantage and succeed academically.
An exploration of how black, successful university students from low socio-economic backgrounds experience and negotiate the university space.
(2021) Khuzwayo, Nomthandazo Immaculate.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Legislation and policies developed for the transformation of higher education in South Africa, has led to significant gains for the beneficiaries of the sector. For instance, there has been a significant increase in access to higher education. However, although there has been significant progress, there is still a long way to go. This study sought to explore the experiences of black successful students from low socio-economic backgrounds at university. In essence, the study set out to understand the enabling and constraining factors that the students experienced. The study was a qualitative study, located within the critical research paradigm. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect the data for the study. Bourdieu’s notions of capital, field and habitus were deployed to understand the experiences of the students. Findings of the study revealed that, while the participants reproduced some aspects of middle-class culture, they resisted its social and political logic and did not assist it to achieve its mission of reproducing and legitimising inequality. That is, the participants used their agency to demand from education what it had committed to, but had not given, in order to achieve academically. For instance, higher education demanded possession of linguistic capital, which basic education had not given. However, in response, students, often with the help of the university, found ways to push against middle class codes framing access to higher education in order to achieve academically. However, in certain cases, the collision of their working-class upbringing with middle-class thinking presented difficulties for some participants. These participants often struggled to maintain positive ties with their family and friends, who began to see them as outsiders. For example, the participants reported estrangement from their families and friends. However, participants’ narratives revealed that, for some of their families, this was a product of deprivation, which required all of their attention. Findings suggests that deficiency and lack of technological and laboratory skills are not a given for students from low socio-economic backgrounds; they must be fought for. However, with the appropriate support, students from these contexts can deploy their agency to push boundaries, navigate the toxic mix of disadvantage and succeed academically.
Exploring learners’ understanding of environmental issues: narratives of grade 7 learners in a rural uMgungundlovu district.
(2024) Gwala, Nokulunga Lorraine.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Water scarcity, pollution, deforestation, and poor infrastructure represent critical environmental challenges facing developed and developing nations worldwide. These issues are particularly pronounced in rural communities, where inequalities persist between urban and rural populations. In South Africa’s uMgungundlovu Education District, such challenges are exacerbated by socio-economic disparities. Despite limited resources for disseminating information, children in rural areas fundamentally understand environmental issues and their implications for human survival. This study adopts a qualitative narrative inquiry approach within the critical paradigm to explore children’s perceptions of environmental challenges in rural settings. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and mapping exercises with eight purposively selected participants. Findings indicate that children possess a nuanced awareness of environmental issues, recognising the impact of deforestation and pollution on the natural ecosystem and human well-being. They also demonstrate an understanding of societal inequities, including marginalisation and exclusion experienced by rural communities. Key factors contributing to environmental degradation include the unsustainable use of natural resources, such as wood for fuel, and inadequate waste management practices. Moreover, poor infrastructure, particularly during rainy seasons, hinders access to essential services like education and healthcare. Power dynamics between political entities and private corporations further complicate addressing these challenges, often resulting in incomplete infrastructure projects. The study highlights and elevates the importance of collaborative efforts among schools, communities, government agencies, and external stakeholders to promote environmental awareness and advocate for environmental justice in rural areas. It emphasises children’s agency as active community participants, deserving recognition and respect for their perspectives and experiences. Ultimately, the findings highlight the need for sustained environmental campaigns and projects to foster conservation efforts and ensure equitable access to a conducive environment.
Exploring teachers’ emotions: narratives of teachers teaching learners with disabilities in an independent preparatory school.
(2019) Greaves, Kirsten.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Schools in South Africa have included learners with disabilities since the introduction of the Constitution in 1996. This has been a slow process and although policies around inclusive education were legislated, they have not been fully or effectively implemented or even understood. As a result, there is a large gap between policy and reality which has caused a knock-on effect for learners and teachers. Teachers are set up for failure as they are placed in classrooms where they are expected to accommodate learners with disabilities, despite having little training and experience. As a private school teacher in this position, I have felt frustrated, alienated and disempowered as I have attempted to navigate my way around appropriate teaching pedagogies and self-regulation tools, while balancing the desire to be a competent and effective teacher. This study therefore aimed to explore the emotional experiences of teachers who teach learners with disabilities in an environment like mine (an independent school), to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances and surrounding influences behind their emotions. In this qualitative narrative study, I take on the role of researcher-participant along with four colleagues from the same independent preparatory school. I used semi-structured interviews and journal writing as participatory data collection tools, allowing me to gather the participants' narratives over a month. It was through these narratives that I was able to delve more deeply into the types and range of emotions experienced. Additionally, I draw attention to the impact emotions have on shaping and influencing teachers' teaching pedagogies as well as their abilities to navigate their emotions. I used Zembylas' genealogies of emotion and Hochschild's concept of emotional labour to analyse my data. Findings revealed that teachers experience fluctuating emotions, including both positive and negative emotions, in a short space of time. These fluctuations influenced their teaching practices and their relationships with fellow staff and students. Factors found to contribute to their emotions were the process of constructing and reconstructing identities, their social interaction with learners and parents, and school structures such as time demands and disruptions in the school day. The teachers navigated their emotions by drawing on self-preservation techniques, personal support networks and adaptations to their pedagogical practices.
Exploring the experiences of teaching learners with visual disability: narratives of seven teachers.
(2021) Dladla, Beryl Busisiwe Ntombenhle.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
The constitutional dispensation and the subsequent recognition of education as a basic human right placed an obligation on government to accord to vulnerable sections of society an egalitarian status. For the education system, this meant that it had to ensure access to quality education for all learners, including those with disabilities, in order to enable them to reach their potential and meaningfully participate in and contribute to the wellbeing of society. This study sought to explore the experiences of teachers teaching learners with visual disability. Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to generate the data for this study. Semi-structured interviews sought to delve into the teachers’ experiences of teaching learners with visual disability, while structured lesson observations sought to elucidate these understandings by studying teachers in action. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, located within a critical research paradigm. The participants in the study were seven (7) teachers, who taught learners with visual disability. Findings revealed that teachers were influenced by normative discourses that underpin inclusive education. Participants responded to these discourses in two ways. Some participants used the inclusive education policy as a means to accommodate learners’ needs, while others had a perfunctory understanding of inclusive education, which often made them lose focus, leaving them to question their abilities to teach learners with visual disability. Secondly, findings revealed that participants’ experiences were mostly negative, with lack of professional development programmes as a major barrier. However, participants used their agency to ensure that their learners learned, despite these challenges. For this study, participants concluded that curriculum planners and policy makers did not have learners with visual disability in mind when they were setting up the system. From this study, it could be concluded that, as much as Education White Paper 6 was promulgated to build an inclusive education and training system, implementation must consider the fact that education systems are power laden spaces, where practices are likely to reflect dominant values, norms and beliefs about disability. That is, inclusive education can only be effectively implemented if these normative configurations are diligently interrogated and troubled, and new realities are established.
Geographies of career aspirations: narratives of rural teen parents.
(2017) Kheswa, Nana Joyce.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.; Sader, Saajidha Bibi.
The rights of pregnant and parenting learners have recently taken centre stage, with the recent provisions in the South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) and court judgments outlawing practices that discriminate against pregnant and parenting learners. These developments have been significant in that they have allowed space for teen parents to return to schools after pregnancy to pursue their career aspirations. This study sought to understand career aspirations of teen parents, the contextual factors that enabled and/or restricted the realisation of such aspirations and how teen parents navigated and negotiated these contextual factors in their efforts to pursue their career aspirations. The research questions were explored using in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and photovoice. The participants in the study were seven (7) teen parents (i.e. two teen fathers and five teen mothers), aged between 17 and 23, who were currently doing Grade 12 in a secondary school in Ingwe Municipality, Harry Gwala District, KwaZulu-Natal. This study was guided by and framed within the theory of New Childhood Studies, which is a sub-field of Children’s Geographies and critical theory. The rationale for deploying this framework was to position teen parents as active social actors in the construction of their own lives. The findings of the study revealed that all the teen parents who participated in the study had some form of career aspirations, even though they were sometimes uncertain about their ultimate choice. Their career choices had largely been influenced by their experiences of socio-economic deprivation in their communities. This included poor service delivery in both schooling and community spaces, which prevented teen parents from exploring available career opportunities outside of their context. The construction of teenage pregnancy as moral deviance gave rise to a catalogue of challenges for teen parents’ pursuance of their career aspirations. However, three factors, namely, understanding the importance of obtaining an education; a supportive family; and personal experience of the difficulties facing their own community, stood out as sources of inspiration for teen parents to return to school and to continue with their studies. The findings point to the fact that the inclusion of pregnant and parenting teenagers is a significant step towards the protection of the uninhibited enjoyment of the right to a basic education. Given the disadvantaged educational, social, economic and employment background of rural teen parents, career development skills should be incorporated in education to enable them to pursue careers that will assist them to achieve economic independence and become full participants in society.
The influence of children’s literature on their understanding of race and racism at an independent school in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2023) Duckworth, Samantha Megan.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Despite being exposed to racism in their everyday lives, young children are often left out of discussions about race. Recently located literature within the field of social justice education reveals that these discussions are not out of their grasp, issuing a call for methods to be developed to allow children to learn about race through informed discussions between teachers and learners. These informed discussions have a role to play in the interruption and avoidance of reproducing systems of inequity and oppression, such as racism. Drawing on concepts from racial identity theory, Paulo Freire and Rudine Bishop, this study focused on and aimed to investigate how children’s literature influences primary school learners’ understandings about race and racism. Further, the study aimed to uncover what the learners’ understanding of race and racism were; what learning was made possible about race and racism using children’s literature; and how the participants used their learning to negotiate their own racial identities in their homes and school. The authentic voices of 18 Grade 5 learners from an independent school in KwaZulu-Natal were gleaned through participatory mini-workshops and focus group discussions in this action research study. The findings indicated that the children’s literature used in the study functioned as metaphorical windows, doors and mirrors to influence the learners’ understandings of race and racism, depending on the identities of the learners. The books became windows, providing views into the racial experiences of others; doors through which learners could step into the worlds presented; and mirrors to reflect learners’ experiences back at them. Based on the key findings, this study argues two points. First, that children’s literature can be used to develop learners’ understandings about race and racism in ways which are affirming of their own racial identities as well as those of their peers. Second, I argue that access to learning opportunities needs to be provided in schools through children’s literature so that learners can develop the ability to challenge dominant negative and oppressive ideas that surround race and racism, as well as racial relationships, towards transformation that is desperately needed in South Africa.
The influence of religious identity in teaching: narratives of six Life Science teachers in the Further Education and Training phase.
(2021) Khumalo, Semkelile Lydia.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Life Sciences has potential to open opportunities for learners to create a better future for themselves. Such access to opportunities, however, lies in the hands of teachers, especially those teaching this subject. Thus, teachers must ensure that learners’ rights are upheld in this regard. However, teaching is often influenced by a complex matrix of social, cultural, economic and religious factors. This study sought to understand the experiences of selected Life Sciences’ teachers of teaching contentious content. Further, the manner in which teachers negotiated tensions in this regard and the implications thereof for their teaching was explored. This study adopted a qualitative, narrative approach as a template for understanding the experiences of six Life Sciences’ teachers teaching content that caused tension between their religious and professional identities. Located within the interpretivist paradigm, the study used in-depth semi-structured interviews and unstructured lesson observations to generate data. Semi-structured interviews sought to delve into the teachers’ experiences of teaching contentious content, while unstructured lesson observations sought to illuminate these understandings by studying teachers in action. Day and Gu’s (2007) conceptual framework of identity as comprising personal, situated and professional dimensions, was used as a lens for understanding the complex intermeshing of aspects of teachers’ identities. Findings revealed a deeply ingrained nature of identity construction, with socialisation into religion deeply implicated as the strongest influence extending into teachers’ later lives. In this study, Life Sciences teachers projected their religious beliefs into their classrooms, resulting in unhealthy tensions with their professional obligations. Findings further revealed that, when faced with challenges from this tension, teachers deployed their religious framings as an exonerating device. This reveals a fragile professional identity, incapable of providing the capital required for teachers to fulfil their professional obligations. Whilst teachers acknowledged the importance of using their professional learning as an absolving device when faced with difficult pedagogical situations, they always elevated their religious framings as the highest priority, relegating educational rights of learners to the lowest rung. Findings of this study suggests that critical professional development is required to trouble earlier framings and empower teachers to teach contentious curriculum content.
Investigating parents’ understanding of the role of education in the lives of their children.
(2012) Ngubane, Sthabile Lucia.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
The question of parents recognising the importance of education in their children's lives has become a social justice and human rights imperative. Policies and legislation have been developed to enable parents to participate in their children’ education. Despite these progressive actions, research suggests that parents have different views of the role of education and schooling in the lives of their children. The aim of this research was to investigate parents' understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children. To address this question, six parents’ understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children were investigated using a qualitative narrative inquiry, located within the critical paradigm. To investigate the key research questions of the study, in-depth semi-structured interviews and mapping were used to generate data. The study used Bourdieu's (1986) theory of practice, especially his concepts of habitus and capital, to understand and make sense of the participants’ understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children. Findings of the study revealed that participants, regardless of their socio-economic status, recognised the importance of education as a means escaping the cycle of disadvantage. For instance, participants reported that it was important for them for their children to receive education, because they did not want them to be like them. This was largely fuelled by their own experiences of education and schooling. However, ensuring that their children accessed education was not without challenges. For instance, one of the major challenges that participants reported was socioeconomic disadvantage, especially poverty. However, despite challenges, participants used their agency to push boundaries of disadvantage to ensure that their children received education. The findings of the study suggest that parents, despite the negative experiences that they might have had during their years of schooling, they still regarded education as a vehicle for improving the lives of their children, families and communities. However, findings also suggest it is important for schools to establish and nurture good and positive relationships with parents, with a view to strengthening their capacity, competence and commitment to support the education of their children.
Investigating parents’ understanding of the role of education in the lives of their children.
(2021) Ngubane, Sthabile Lucia.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
The question of parents recognising the importance of education in their children's lives has become a social justice and human rights imperative. Policies and legislation have been developed to enable parents to participate in their children’ education. Despite these progressive actions, research suggests that parents have different views of the role of education and schooling in the lives of their children. The aim of this research was to investigate parents' understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children. To address this question, six parents’ understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children were investigated using a qualitative narrative inquiry, located within the critical paradigm. To investigate the key research questions of the study, in-depth semi-structured interviews and mapping were used to generate data. The study used Bourdieu's (1986) theory of practice, especially his concepts of habitus and capital, to understand and make sense of the participants’ understandings of the role of education in the lives of their children. Findings of the study revealed that participants, regardless of their socio-economic status, recognised the importance of education as a means escaping the cycle of disadvantage. For instance, participants reported that it was important for them for their children to receive education, because they did not want them to be like them. This was largely fuelled by their own experiences of education and schooling. However, ensuring that their children accessed education was not without challenges. For instance, one of the major challenges that participants reported was socioeconomic disadvantage, especially poverty. However, despite challenges, participants used their agency to push boundaries of disadvantage to ensure that their children received education. The findings of the study suggest that parents, despite the negative experiences that they might have had during their years of schooling, they still regarded education as a vehicle for improving the lives of their children, families and communities. However, findings also suggest it is important for schools to establish and nurture good and positive relationships with parents, with a view to strengthening their capacity, competence and commitment to support the education of their children.
An investigation of teachers’ experiences of teaching learners with learning disabilities in a rural primary mainstream school in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal.
(2022) Zondi, Sibusisiwe Thelma.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
The importance of education as a fundamental human right was first declared by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (United Nations, 1948). To this end, this study sought to explore the experiences of teachers teaching learners with learning disabilities in a rural primary school. Essentially, the intention was to explore the inclusionary and exclusionary factors that influenced whether teachers could meet the educational needs of these learners, and how the teachers negotiated exclusionary factors to ensure that their learners’ learned and succeeded. The study adopted the qualitative approach and was located within the critical paradigm. The study generated the data to respond to the key research questions using telephonic semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. The findings of the study revealed that teachers had different understandings of inclusive education. However, what was common was that inclusive education was understood as an aspect of accommodating all learners and ensuring that they can learn and succeed. Teachers reported a range of factors which made it difficult for them to effectively implement inclusive education for learners with learning disabilities, including inadequate skills arising from the lack of training; overcrowding in their classes; tensions between curriculum coverage and teaching at the pace of learners; effects of the outbreak of COVID-19; discrepancies in parents’ understandings of inclusive education; and inadequate parental involvement. Although the teachers reported experiencing a range of challenges and frustrations in ensuring that learners with learning disabilities had access to education, they did not give up on their learners. The findings point to the opportunity provided by the agency and the willingness of the teachers to ensure that learners with learning disabilities learned and succeeded. However, it also points to challenges and tensions that must be addressed to ensure the effective implementation of inclusive education. This suggests the interactional dynamics between inclusion and exclusion as two sides of the same coin, which must always be kept in mind if the implementation of inclusive education is to be effective.
Multi-grade teaching: a case study of a multi-grade primary school in a rural context in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2020) Dladla, Sebenzile.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Although a prominent feature of schooling in South Africa, multi-grade education has become an unwanted step-child of basic education. This is despite the constitutional promise, government’s commitment and international conventions that guarantee everyone uninhibited access to and enjoyment of the right to a basic education. For children in multigrade classes, the experience of inequality and marginalisation has become an inevitable and uncompromising reality of life. Often, teachers in these contexts receive sub-standard support, resulting in a toxic concoction of social disadvantage. This study sought to understand experiences of teachers teaching multi-grade classes in a rural primary school. The study further sought to investigate the pedagogical practices teachers used in their classrooms as well as the manner in which these pedagogical choices enabled or constrained learning. This study adopted a qualitative approach. A case study method was used to explore and study experiences of five teachers who were teaching multi-grade classes. In-depth semi-structured interviews and lesson observations were used to collect data. Semi-structured interviews were used to understand teachers’ experiences of teaching multi-grade classes. Lesson observations sought to understand the pedagogic strategies teachers used. Locating the study within the critical paradigm provided a platform for participants to share experiences and reflect on their practices. Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice was used to understand teachers’ experiences. The forms of capital teachers possessed were understood using Bourdieu’s theory of practice. In understanding the pedagogic practices teachers used, Bernstein’s theory was used. Findings revealed that teachers experienced challenges, with few positive experiences. Lack of support and inappropriate resources presented as challenges for teachers. However, despite the challenges experienced, teachers used their agency to create learning opportunities for learners. Teachers often did this without support from the Department of Education, universities or parents. However, positive experiences of multi-grade education were also reported, suggesting that multi-grade education is not absolutely inferior; it has positive aspects. Finally, the strategies teachers used, suggest that even though they were working in a difficult context, their learners were exposed to somewhat quality learning opportunities. Thus, teachers made the most of their situations to ensure access to quality education for their learners.
Performing social justice in South African education : how teachers negotiate the complexity of teaching in an unequal world.
Martin, Melanie Yvette.; Hugo, Wayne.; Muthukrishna, Anbanithi.
This study explores teachers’ practices of social justice and equity in contexts that are steeped in historical inequality and injustice. Recognising that social justice and equity are difficult to realise but essential to making a difference in the lives of poor, marginalised learners, this study charts the lived social justice existential experiences of seven teachers. This lived social justice problematic analysed at the micro-level of the school and classroom, required a more subtle, nuanced and complex theoretical language that social justice and equity theory did not provide in consolidated form. Instead, the thesis used more finely-grained theoretical concepts to understand the complex, fraught and contested space of teachers’ practices of social justice and equity. Using a theoretical bricolage that included Boltanski, Bourdieu, Bernstein, Social Realism, and social justice theory, alongside conceptual knowledge from various empirical studies, the thesis positioned teachers at the epicentre of the research. This theoretical framing influenced by Boltanski in particular, foregrounded the voice and critical capacity of teachers. However, the complexity that surrounded their practices revealed the tensions, contradictions and difficulties that challenged and prevented them from exercising critical capacity and from being completely agential. Their inability to be agential was partly determined by structural inequality. Thus, the thesis is also respectful of Bourdieu’s emphasis on the structural conditions that reinforce and reproduce inequality. Teachers’ historical, social and political habitus influenced their pedagogical classroom practices as well as their personal and professional responses to learners illuminating how teachers’ practices are strongly conditioned and constrained. This thesis presents unique narratives of teachers’ struggles, resilience, despair, hope and perseverance, where teachers’ ways of knowing and being are valued and centralised, and their pragmatic responses to learners’ needs are understood. Methodologically and analytically, a grounded theory approach, together with narrative inquiry was used in the production and transformation of interviews, field observations and lesson observations conducted with the seven teachers who taught in poor schools that comprised predominantly black, African learners. This approach, which provided the means to remain close to the data, was informed by my theoretical decision to centralise the voice of the teacher. Significant to the study are the complexities that surround teachers’ identity negotiations and re-negotiations influenced by historical, religious, social, economic, community and political dynamics. Working within such unequal and deprived contexts teachers struggled to negotiate coherent, authentic selves and still remain responsive to their own internalised expectations and demands as well as that of learners and broader normative discourses of social justice and equity. This thesis posits a call for a re-framing of social justice and equity that is more cognisant of the complexity of teachers’ lived reality. When teachers fail to successfully negotiate the complex nexus of values, emotions, contextual challenges and expectations this results in fragile, divided selves. In such an emotional landscape they are unable to successfully negotiate sometimes untenable demands and expectations, and thus experience burnout, demoralisation and disquiet. This is compounded by their own pedagogical limitations, and a lack of expertise, that reinforces cycles of failure for both teachers and learners. But despite repeated failure, some teachers experience success in significant ways that motivate teachers to continue to work in the hope that they will help learners realise successful futures of their own.
The emotional experiences of teachers teaching learners with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(2024) Ntshangase, Sinethemba Gugu.; Martin, Melanie Yvette.
Inclusive education is legislated under the White Paper 6 policy which focuses on special needs education with the aim of addressing the barriers to learning for learners with disabilities. However, research consistently shows that inclusivity has been a slow-moving process and there has been little success in implementation. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed existing inequalities in schools for learners with disabilities. If anything, further inequality was revealed where inadequate provision of resources and curriculum planning was made for learners with disabilities. This study aimed to explore the emotional experiences of teachers teaching learners with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was able to gain insight into the factors that influenced their emotions at this time of upheaval for all in the country. This study adopted a qualitative narrative style as I wished to get rich in-depth data from the participants. To do this, semi-structured interviews and collages were used where teachers’ stories could be heard and centralised. This was in keeping with the critical paradigm which sought to hear the voices of teachers teaching learners with disabilities. Narrative inquiry allowed me to delve deeply into the emotions that teachers encountered when teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven participants were randomly selected in one special school in the King Cetshwayo District. In getting to understand teachers’ emotions, Hargreaves’ theory of emotions and teaching and learning was used to analyse data that were provided by the participants. The data were analysed both inductively and deductively using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that teachers teaching learners with disabilities during the pandemic encountered mostly negative emotions, revealing that emotions are intricate to teaching. Under broad themes of relationships with colleagues, principals, learners and the school context, findings revealed that relationships were complex and arduous and influenced the emotional well-being of teachers. The overriding concern for teachers was to ensure that learners achieved academically. The findings also revealed that teachers navigated their emotions, drawing on support from family and colleagues. They were resilient and proactive in making decisions about how to ensure the right to education for their learners were assured.