Browsing by Author "Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry."

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Case studies of economics teaching in secondary schools.
(1998) Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.; Harley, Keneth Lee.
The purpose of this research study was to establish the perceptions of economics teaching of two teachers of economics who were functioning in two contrasting contexts. The intention was to examine their practice and to ascertain the extent to which the relationship between their beliefs and their practice was constrained or facilitated by the context in which they taught. The study made use of interviews and classroom observations to address these issues. The research confirmed that there was a disjunction between the teachers' theories of economics teaching and their actual practice and that their practice was mediated by the context in which they functioned. Both teachers shared very similar epistemologies. They concurred on assessment techniques and teaching methodology in economics. They also agreed that the goal of economics teaching was to engender a love of the subject. However, the vastly different contexts in which they taught spawned unique coping strategies to deal with their peculiar teaching environments. The 'macro' c~nstraints which they faced emanated from external institutions that imposed overt and hidden rules and expectations upon them. Internal constraints were derived from the peculiar context of each school. The study revealed that the teacher operating in the more repressive context displayed a greater degree of dissonance between beliefs and practice as compared to the teacher in the more favourable context. The teacher in the favourable context was better able to implement her beliefs about economics teaching. However, she was faced with new challenges created by the information explosion as a result of the school's access to the Internet. Though the nature of the discipline urges a problem-solving approach to economics teaching and even though both teachers concurred with this view, the constraints of the context were compelling factors that hindered teachers' educational ideals. Of note , was the fact that the more repressive the context, the greater were the constraints facing the teacher, and the more complex were the strategies employed by the teacher in order to cope. The more complex the coping strategy, the greater was the disjunction between teachers' theories about economics teaching and their practice.
A comparative analysis of Technical and Vocational Education and Training policy in selected African countries.
(2015) Arfo, Ezekiel Bangalu.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
In a number of countries, the need to provide knowledge, attitude and skills necessary for employment, economic, technological and national development has renewed demand for improvement and reform in TVET systems to make them fit for this task. This is a qualitative, interpretive, cross-national comparative study which explores, analyses and compares the TVET policies of South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria to identify their nature, similarities and differences. The study has the potential to provide insight for educationists, researchers and policy developers, particularly in Africa, regarding the policies, practices and experiences of technical and vocational education and training in other countries, which can in turn be used as a basis for on-going TVET reform. Gaps, silences and positive aspects of the policies analysed were revealed for improvement and consolidation to meet international requirements, standards and recognition. The study revealed that TVET policy implementations is poor in all the countries covered by the study and the system has failed in providing the much needed skills required for employment, economic and national development. TVET practitioners reflected on the fact that graduates of technical and vocational education and training were poorly trained and are not responsive to the needs of the labour market. The technical and vocational education and training sector is bedevilled by numerous challenges, which include under-funding, inadequate teaching and learning facilities, and poor governance. Other serious challenges facing the sector included inadequate qualified personnel and poor public perception of the sector. Experiences of practitioners of technical and vocational education and training indicate that the system has a very poor track record and suffers from lack of recognition, under-funding, poor public perception of the sector, lack of adequate learning facilities and lack of qualified staff and inadequate training. This policy learning however has to proceed with caution as this study revealed that TVET policy variants appear to be located in multiple documents which may present challenges for practitioners.
Doctoral research supervision experiences of business education students in Nigeria.
(2019) Okoli, Mercy.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Research supervision has been an integral process in doctoral education for the development of researchers or scholars. However, until recently this important pedagogical process has received little attention. The recent awareness of the centrality of research supervision in the development of new generation researchers and knowledge workers has been attributed to the global move towards a knowledge-based society where nations strive to produce quality intellectual human capital in order to be able to compete favourably at the level of the global knowledge economy. The persistent high rates of doctoral attrition and late completions, as well as the declining quality of research outputs has sparked debates about ways to improve the quality of learning, student satisfaction, and research productivity. Although most advanced countries, in an attempt to make all stakeholders accountable, have now placed the focus on what has hitherto been regarded as a clandestine relationship or the supervision relationship little is known regarding the contexts in developing African countries. Research evidence has shown that, even though doctoral students are central to the supervision and knowledge production processes, their voices have been under-represented. Available studies in that regard have mostly focused on contexts in developed Western countries. Thus, there is an acute lack of research on the experiences of doctoral students with respect to research supervision in developing African countries such as Nigeria. The aim of this thesis was, therefore, to explore the research supervision experiences of doctoral students in Nigeria. To this end, this study used an interpretive research design which specifically employed the phenomenographic approach with which to explore the experiences of a purposive sample of fifteen doctoral students selected from four different universities in Nigeria. The need to obtain a broad range of student experiences related to research supervision led to the selection of participants from different stages of their candidature. The study was underpinned by the Ecological Systems Theory developed by Bronfenbrenner (1979) and draws on the Conceptual Framework of Research Supervision by Lee (2012) and the discourses of analysis of supervision by Grant (2005). The presented findings of my research thesis were based on the analysis of interview transcripts across the whole group of participants. The main findings of this study were that participants experienced research supervision in three qualitative ways – 1) as apprenticeship-like/power relationship; 2) as transacting in the social space; and 3) participants expressed a yearning for positive supervision relationship. These three ways of experiencing research supervision were found to be characterised by strong power dynamics that for the most part impacted negatively on the participants’ learning experiences. These findings, therefore, have important implications for opening up debates on the subject of power in academic supervisory relationships within the African context. The study concludes that in order to improve students’ learning experiences and productivity; and to align with international good practices, there is a need to disrupt the way in which supervision happens within the Nigerian context. By institutionalising and operationalising policies that empower postgraduate students to become more active in the supervision’s proximal processes, the ultimate personal, institutional and national goals of undertaking a doctorate would be realised.
Epistemological access and authentic learning practice: a case study in hospitality financial management.
(2018) Maniram, Rekha.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
The recent widespread Fallist student movement taking hold of South African Higher Education has raised debates and tensions relating to the economic and social transformation of academic institutions. Despite National Higher Education funding relief (NSFAS), relentless patterns of economic and social inequalities in South Africa perpetuate unequal access for many first year undergraduates that are working class, first generation and English second language students. Providing students with epistemological access is essentially the counterpart to physical and financial access. How students access these academic ways of knowing, is indeed a cause for concern. At the Durban University of Technology (DUT), compounding this precarious situation, most Hospitality Financial Management (HSFM101) students struggle to access a financial disciplinary identity. Students find engaging with complex assessment tasks, particularly challenging especially as it requires them to align abstract theory to practical contexts. In addition, many students often report that they struggle to understand the relevance of hospitality accounting and its potential contribution to their hospitality careers. Importantly, accessing the tenets of the discipline, its discourse and practice appears to remain elusive to many students. While Morrow (2009) argued that fostering epistemological access (EA) calls for carefully constructed pedagogical and curricula processes, he did not go on to identify the particular pedagogy that could be employed in higher education teaching. In this study, I recognise the different levels of preparedness of prospective university students, and their potential lack of efficacy in gaining access to the epistemologies of their chosen discipline (HSFM101). This study explores student experiences in an HSFM101 programme, carefully designed to integrate the principles of Authentic Assessment with the view to creating enabling conditions for student learning. In addition, this study is a response to a lacuna in South African Higher education scholarship on how students learn and are assessed in Hospitality programmes. The study was guided by the principles of social constructivism and subscribed to an interpretive paradigm. A qualitative, case study design served as the framework to underpin the research. A purposive sample of 20 participants was selected from a cohort of Hospitality Financial Management students at DUT. Due consideration was given to a balanced representation in relation to race and gender. The rigor offered by Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004) was particularly appealing as it provides a systematic protocol that makes explicit both data generation and analysis processes. Data was generated through individual in-depth interviews, student reflective online journals and IQA focus group interviews. The interpretive and qualitative lens adopted for this study enabled a rich contextual understanding of how students experienced learning and acquired epistemic access through an Authentic Assessment (AA) strategy. Following the IQA protocol, focus groups generated ten affinities or themes of their experiences of being assessed in an Authentic learning environment. The primary theme that drove students learning experiences was Life’s Contradictions, whilst the main outcome or primary outcome of the study was getting it right. Despite the tensions, struggles and contradictions that students experienced in authentic learning situations, it was recognised that a pedagogy of authentic learning (the AA strategy in this case) does have the propensity to afford many students EA. According to this study, an AA strategy further revealed that, by affording students scaffolding opportunities, they were able to seek solutions autonomously, share their ideas, or even take the lead in improving collaborative learning. In addition, students wanted to feel included and so by creating and nurturing learning spaces that value diversity in HEIs; does in fact promote cohesive learning which enables EA. The fact that AA allows for students to engage in different ways and challenge their prior beliefs and assumptions; implies that there is transformation in learning. The results of this study further suggest that learning tolerance and accepting diversity was able to advance epistemic growth and emotional intelligence. This fortifies the nexus between social participation and prosperity; hence enabling EA (Sen, 2001). Whilst this study explored the learning experiences of HSFM101 it certainly does have wider implications for curriculum planning and reform towards transformative assessment pedagogies in various Higher Education curricula.
An exploration of curriculum integration in the GET phase of education a case study.
(2010) Ali, Hassin.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
No abstract available.
An exploration of first-year, non-major accounting students' learning experiences at a private higher education institution in South Africa.
(2012) Naidoo, Tamara.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
This research project focuses on Accounting education at tertiary level. There is limited understanding of students' experiences of learning Accounting in higher education institutions. Furthermore, Accounting is generally perceived as a difficult discipline, especially for novice first-year, non-major Accounting students. In this research study the purpose and focus were to explore first-year, non-major Accounting students' experiences when learning Accounting. The study attempts to answer two key research questions pertaining to first-year, non-major Accounting students' experiences when learning Accounting, and to show how their experiences influence their learning of Accounting. The study was conducted at a private higher education institution in South Africa where first-year Accounting is a compulsory element of an undergraduate commerce degree. The research participants sampled for this study were six first-year, non-major Accounting students, some of whom were novice Accounting students while others had studied Accounting in high school up to Grade 12. A qualitative research methodology was adopted to generate data using an interpretive case study approach. Research methods included semi-structured interviews and participant reflective journals. Data were analysed using open coding, and the findings categorised according to themes. Some of the key findings of this study revealed that students' experiences were influenced by teacher/lecturer qualities, students' perceptions and preconceptions of Accounting as a discipline, and the abstract nature of the Accounting discipline and its discourse. Other factors influencing students' learning experiences included their agency, resilience and determination, the effect of Accounting assessments, and ability streaming. This study concludes with a discussion of recommendations based on the findings. These point to the need for staff development workshops for Accounting lecturers, with an emphasis on students' emotions and perceptions when learning Accounting, so that lecturers are more aware of the extent of students' anxieties, insecurities and negative perceptions. Other recommendations include more post-plenary workshops for first-year Accounting students and development of different programmes for novice, non-major and Accounting major students, since these cohorts of students have differing career Accounting competence expectations.
An exploration of grade 10 teachers' experiences of the new further education and training (FET) economics curriculum.
(2008) Mtshali, Muntuwenkosi Abraham.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Political changes of the post 1994 general elections witnessed significant innovations within the education sector of the Republic of South Africa. Most significant of these was the rapid transformation of the existing school curriculum into the new curriculum 2005 (C2005). This confirmed the removal of the unnecessary variations in the curricula used by the different departments, created alongside racial groups. This brought about new challenges for teachers as it was to influence their experiences of how teaching was to be conducted in the context of these changes. As a teacher of Economics, I developed an interest in seeking ways in which teachers could be professionally developed to teach Economics in the new curriculum currently implemented in the FET band, acknowledging that the Department of Education supported the new curriculum by a training programme in the form of a cascading model.
An exploration of grade 9 teachers' understanding and practice of assessment as it relates to the economic management sciences learning area.
(2010) Cassim, Tohida.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
A key purpose of this qualitative study was to explore grade 9 teachers’ understanding and practices of assessment as it relates to the Economic Management Sciences (EMS) learning area. The process of data collection included interviews of three teachers’ and the observation analysis of learner portfolios. The three participants were grade 9 EMS teachers’ from a secondary school in Chatsworth, Durban. The findings of this study indicated that teachers’ understand and practise assessment by using summative forms of assessment as required by the school’s assessment policy. There were several constrictive factors which influenced teachers’ understandings and practices of assessment. This influenced teachers’ to adopt an ‘assessment of learning’ approach. It was revealed that inadequate resources, time, policy interpretation and large number of learners’ classes were major influences which shaped teacher’s understanding and practice of assessment. The contest of the school’s rigid and structured assessment policy was a key inducing factor which influenced teachers’ assessment practices. This study suggests that if classroom teachers are to become effective ‘mediators’ of assessing they must be provided with a better theoretical grounding of assessment. The Department of Education needs to provide more guidelines, practical demonstrations and workshops to assist to teachers to understand and implement new concepts of assessment practices. Reduction of the number of learners in the classes and stipulated assessment requirements must be considered by the Department of Education. Schools and teachers must be provided with the necessary and appropriate resources. Facilitation of adequate professional development courses for teachers, head of department and principals will support teachers to accept change and remove feelings of reluctance towards assessment, thus this will promote teachers’ understanding and practices of assessment towards an ‘assessment for learning’ approach.
Exploration of ideological discourses of globalisation in South African Grade 12 Economics textbooks.
(2018) David, Roshnee.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Globalisation appears to offer many benefits to countries and is a phenomenon that is often punted by economists and politicians as beneficial and necessary. For protagonists of globalisation, mankind has significantly gained from the practices of globalisation. Sceptics of globalisation however see it as exacerbating the gap between rich and poor and according to critics (Vally & Spreen, 2014), nowhere is this more evident than in South Africa, with its abysmal levels of inequality. The expectations of prosperity for most South Africans remain a pipe dream as poverty, unemployment and inequality abound. With a Gini coefficient of 0.63 (Oxfam, 2018; UNDP, 2013), the country shows the highest inequality levels in the world. South Africa’s exposure to the international economic world, after more than two decades of post-apartheid trade liberalisation, has not made any significant difference to the lives of the poor and destitute. If anything, South African society has become even more unequal, amidst sustained levels of unemployment (Fioramonti, 2017; Oxfam, 2018). Given the contentious nature of the benefits of globalisation, this study thus set out to examine what notions of globalisation might be prevalent in South African grade twelve Economics textbooks. Moreover, the representations of knowledge were explored to signal whether these textbooks are used as instruments to serve global markets by presenting the discourses of globalisation as natural and inevitable. This qualitative study was grounded in Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis framework (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1992; Fairclough, 1989; 1992; 2003; 2011). Tools used to analyse visual images were also employed as images can reinforce the presentation of knowledge with a particular ideological slant (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; 2001; Kress, 2010; Machin & Mayr, 2012). The analysis of the linguistic and visual data used the conceptual lens provided by Appadurai (1990; 1996) particularly with reference to the vocabulary he appropriated to describe the various discourses of globalisation. These discourses were financescapes (trade, capital), ethnoscapes (people, society), ideoscapes (policies and practices of governments and institutions), mediascapes (culture and media) and technoscapes (technology) (Appadurai, 1990; 1996). vi The critical analysis of the data evidenced unbalanced and biased portrayals of global trade as inevitable and desirable. The textbooks appeared to persuade the readers towards the acceptance of globalisation by ‘selling’ the concept of globalisation. The textbooks appeared to implicitly and overtly assist in the construction of worldviews favouring the outward-looking economic policies of globalisation, free trade and export promotion. Thus this subtly-embedded representation of globalisation is ideological as it serves to give hegemony to the universal and seemingly unquestionable factuality of globalisation. The evidence showed that the discourses constituted, disseminated and reproduced a particular view of globalisation. Hence the neoclassical economic canon continues to reign supreme in the official South African grade twelve Economics textbooks. The textbooks constructed and validated worldviews which can disregard the cogency of alternative views. From the analysis of textual data, the worldview of the ‘normalcy’ of global capitalism was seen in its domination of the social, political, cultural, technological and economic spheres of human existence. Given this portrayal in the textbooks, it is unlikely therefore that alternative economic policies will gain currency. Of significance too, was the revelation that the structural procedure of textbook selection, ideologically centres the state in the monopolistic role of mediator and prescriber. This study is a major contribution to the existing body of knowledge in textbook research both locally and internationally as it theorises the notion of knowledge representation. It uniquely provides an extension to the knowledge of high school economics education, as the study reveals that the grade twelve Economics textbooks are captured by a globalised neoliberal and capitalistic agenda.
An exploration of the ideology in economic and management sciences textbooks : a critical discourse analysis.
(2012) David, Roshnee.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Pupils acquire skills, knowledge, values and attitudes through the important institution of education. An essential tool used in the transmission of these socially approved attitudes and values is the textbook. Because teacher content knowledge is an ongoing challenge in South Africa, school textbooks are being viewed as an important source of content knowledge. Textbooks used in the apartheid era in South Africa were subjects of numerous studies which found that textbooks were capable of transmitting the dominant ideology of the then apartheid government. Given the important role that textbooks are expected to play in postapartheid South African classroom, it becomes crucial to examine the ideologies being reflected and transmitted through this medium of instruction in the post-apartheid era. This study therefore set out to explore the ideologies that are manifest in Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) textbooks. This study adopted a qualitative research approach and engaged the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its methodological framework. The use of CDA revealed how the content of the selected EMS textbooks represent particular ideologically orientations. The dominant discourses that emerged from the analysis were the stereotypical positioning of gender roles (a subjugation of women; contingency of women‟s success on male support); entrepreneurship leads to wealth creation; the advocacy of a free-market system; reinforcement of the hegemonic positioning of business; deficient service provisioning as a normality; business and production‟s precedence over the environment and finally that globalisation is natural and unproblematic. These discourses disclose that the textbooks under study have profound strains of neoliberal ideology. The content of the textbooks legitimates the values of the free market system and neoliberalism as it reinforces and reifies the normality of personal wealth accumulation and individual endeavour. EMS textbooks were thus found to have potential as hegemonic tools capable of influencing pupils toward assimilating and accepting the ideology of neo-liberalism as being natural, ethical, moral and acceptable.
Formative assessment in accounting : exploring teachers' understanding and practices.
(2012) Ngwenya, Jabulisile Cynthia.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.; Samuel, Michael Anthony.
This study notes the relationship between changing conceptions and focus of Accounting as a discipline and its influence on the changed South African school education curriculum. The study probes whether these above conceptual and curricular changes influence teachers’ understandings of their daily practices as Accounting teachers or not, especially with regard to formative assessment and the selected pedagogy of their classrooms. In particular, the study was interested in exploring the practices of rural teachers, a relatively under-explored area of South African educational research. The study utilised a case study design focusing on one rural school in Umgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal. This qualitative, interpretive inquiry was characterised by multiple data collection methods. Three Accounting teachers who were teaching Accounting in the further education and training band were purposively selected at the school, based on their experience and expertise in Accounting. Data were collected from interviews, lesson observations and document analysis to respond to the key research questions of the study. Field-notes were used to elaborate further on the data produced from interviews and lesson observations. The critical research questions explore teachers’ understandings of formative assessment and their use of it in their classroom, attempting to explain why they understand and apply formative assessment in the way that they do with respect to Accounting teaching in their specific contexts. The study revealed that teachers ostensibly seemed to know about the changes in the official curriculum expectations of the new educational policy. However, these shifts in understanding were relatively superficial and procedural; hence the teachers were not able to translate them into any deep cognitive level in their teaching practice. Their changes in practices were also marginal and limited with respect to the nature of the reconceptualisation of Accounting as a discipline. This was reflected in simple operational level of implementation of the specified curriculum requirements. Their practices placed their learners and their backgrounds as central to their selected teaching choices, instead of the nature of their rural schooling context. Findings of this study revealed that the over-specification of the formal curriculum, teachers’ under-developed understandings of the discipline and the new curriculum and their interpretation of contextual pedagogical responsiveness appear to be possible impediments to teachers’ practices. In an attempt to cope with these challenges teachers devised their strategies to sustain their practices. What emerged from the study is a kind of ‘communal pedagogy’ which teachers developed through their practices in a rural context. Although these practices are not regarded as of a qualitatively sophisticated progressive kind of pedagogy, teachers see contextually appropriate value in them. The study emphasises the need to look beyond the overt practices of rural school teachers, and instead to focus on what informs these practices. While the study is not celebratory of the communal pedagogy, it does attempt to shift the thinking about these practices by focusing on understanding what they are trying to respond to. The study therefore highlights the need to understand teachers’ own explanations of their practices, rather than condemning them. The study suggests that the teaching practices within rurality should not be judged and pathologised because of their specificities of responsiveness to highly contextualised and more likely appropriate factors.
Gender representation in contemporary Grade 10 Business Studies textbooks.
(2013) Pillay, Preya.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Since 2009 the textbook has emerged as a key educational resource in South African classrooms. This has been a direct response to rapid curriculum change, and real and perceived inadequacies in teacher content and pedagogic knowledge. Of significance though is that there is limited understanding of the nature of content selections that textbook authors invoke and the subtext thereof. The purpose of this study therefore is to understand how gender is represented in Business Studies textbooks available to teachers and pupils in the Further Education and Training (FET) band in South African classrooms. This qualitative study is located in the critical paradigm and engaged the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis as the key analytical frame. A purposive sample of two contemporary Business Studies textbooks was selected to investigate the phenomenon of gender representation. Findings reveal that stereotypes of women and men are reinforced in the selected textbooks under study. Women were shown more frequently in home settings than were men. Men were shown in a wider variety of occupational roles than women. Textbooks portrayed men in a wide range of highly-paid, high-status occupations such as managing directors, doctors, lawyers etc. In both texts more males have been represented in leadership positions in government, economic and corporate institutions. The textbooks further represented women as being disabled and destitute. Males were portrayed as confident and educated in the usage of technology while women were portrayed as illiterate. Additionally men were portrayed as assertive and forthright business individuals, while women were also portrayed as emotional and as more reliant on, or needing, the advice of men to deal with business-related issues. Finally, the portrayal of firstness presented the male pronoun first in sentences and conversation as opposed to the female pronoun. The findings indicate that representations in the textbooks are gender-biased and gender-insensitive. Of concern is that these representations may be transmitted to school learners. A critical approach to the selection and use of textbooks is thus necessary. Much work needs to be done by key role players in the educational sectors to ensure that gender inclusivity becomes a feature of South African Business Studies textbooks.
Gender representation in four SADC high school Business Studies textbooks.
(2017) Pillay, Preya.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.; Singh, Shakila.
This study assumes that text – the printed word and visual representations – is never neutral; it is always embedded with ideological representations. Textbooks, which are the dominant defining authorities of the curriculum in schools, can therefore be regarded as a key contributor to the curriculum as a site of ideological struggle. Significantly, there may be limited understanding among educators and educational authorities of the ideological nature of the contents of textbooks. As instruments of socialisation, textbooks are important vehicles in the construction of beliefs and attitudes about gender that may not be immediately apparent to the untrained eye. The purpose of this study is to understand the way in which gender is represented in four Business Studies textbooks selected from countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and to theorise their particular representation. More specifically, the focus of this study is to understand how gender is represented in the four SADC textbooks and to develop a theoretical explanation for how the phenomenon presents. This qualitative study is located in the critical paradigm and engages the tenets of feminist critical discourse analysis as the key analytical frame. The purposive sample comprised four contemporary Business Studies textbooks from the last phase of schooling preceding tertiary education. Feminist poststructuralist theory was used in order to examine gender representation in the selected textbooks. Both semiotic and textual representations were examined. The findings reveal that the representations of women and men in these textbooks are indeed ideologically invested and contribute to the perpetuation of patriarchal constructions. At a semantic level, the mention of the male pronoun first in sentences and conversation and not the female pronoun endorses the principle of the firstness and superiority of the masculine. In terms of representation, intersectionality of race, gender and disability is pervasive in the four textbooks. This reinforces the ideology of the able-bodied, heterosexually masculine and white person as the norm for entrepreneurial success. Management, leadership and entrepreneurial knowledge are scripted almost exclusively in favour of the male gender. Representations related to sexual diversity are also absent, thereby endorsing a construct of the idealised businessperson as a white, heterosexual, able-bodied male, excluding females, those of another race or gender, and the disabled. In terms of ‘ideal’ business personality traits, women and others are constructed as relatively incompetent and dependant, while men are portrayed as assertive and forthright. Gender and race bias in occupational roles and careers is also evident in the texts, with women and ‘others’ shown in low-paid occupations or domestic settings, whereas white men are shown in high-paying, high-status, technological occupations, and are mostly absent from domestic settings. The four textbooks promoted Western ideals in which the Western male white canons were reinforced as the norm for business success. These Western ideals are responsible for the different manifestations of marginalisation stereotyping, silencing and limited representation of women and minorities in exceptional roles. This may not be done intentionally – textbook knowledge appears to be constructed ‘unconsciously’ or in ways that reflect oblivion to institutionalised prejudice. The implication of these findings is that development of a more gender-inclusive curriculum is needed, where there is not only representation of the idealised businessperson as a white, heterosexual male. This research suggests that teachers, pre-service teachers and learners may need to engage with the textbooks critically and examine how particular texts are written and why they are written in particular ways. Teachers, pre-service teachers and learners are encouraged to interrogate textbook content. There is also a need for textbook writers to question their own ideological assumptions of gender. This demands a robust introspection of possible stereotypes and uncritical assimilation of regressive gender ideologies that may be perpetuated. It is only by reflecting on and reworking oppressive gender norms, that a gender-inclusive curriculum might be contemplated.
Grade 9 teacher attitudes towards common tasks for assessment (CTA) : a case study of economic and management sciences (EMS) in two schools.
(2009) Sithole, Alec Wittie.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
This study examines the standardised tests as administered in Grade 9 in the form of Common Tasks for Assessment (CTA). The main focus of the study was to understand the attitudes of Economic Management and Sciences teachers toward the CTA (EMS) and how they were engaging with the CTA (EMS) during the ‘normal’ course of curriculum development. The study was undertaken in response to my observation of the negative attitude of EMS teachers toward the CTA (EMS) during the EMS workshops. The literature revealed that standardised tests have negative consequences such as the narrowing of curriculum, over-reliance on tests preparation materials, unethical test practices, unfair test results, unintended bias against population subgroups, increased tension and frustration in schools, increased grade retention, and regression of pedagogical practice. In responding to the pressure and stress associated with the standardised tests, teachers end up leaking test papers prior to test writing and gave answers to learners during the writing of tests. Teachers in ‘high-stakes testing’ environment tended to feel more pressure to increase test scores than their counter-parts in low- or moderate-stakes testing environments. The data was generated through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and lesson observations. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of the participants. Results indicated that: (1) teachers and learners experienced problems with the language used in the CTA (EMS); (2) the content of the CTA (EMS) was biased; (3) CTA (EMS) put pressure and stress on EMS teachers; and (4) the CTA imposed unfair curriculum expectations on EMS teachers. These problems made EMS teachers develop a negative attitude toward the CTA (EMS). It was also found that EMS teachers had difficulty in engaging CTA (EMS) during the ‘normal’ course of curriculum development. It is recommended that policy makers should regularly interact with schools in order to acquaint themselves with teachers’ experiences during CTA (EMS) administering. Furthermore they should take the views of the teachers into consideration during the policy formulation on CTA (EMS) administering. If the policy makers continue to ignore the concerns of the EMS teachers and to distance themselves from the reality in schools as far as the CTA (EMS) administering is concerned, the implementation of assessment policy will remain an elusive reality.
Imagining an authentic workplace using simulation: exploring simulation pedagogy in auditing education.
(2019) Lathleiff, Charmaine.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Over the last forty years, there have been frequent calls for a change in the way that accounting programmes are presented at higher education institutions. Central to this argument is the gap that exists between what accountants and auditors do in practice and what accounting education teaches. This gap may be attributed in part to students’ inability to apply their theoretical knowledge in a practical real‐like setting. Furthermore, most accounting students have had limited exposure to the business world, leaving them with little context in which to apply their theoretical knowledge. Coupled with a schooling background that encouraged rote learning rather than the development of a deeper understanding of concepts and principles, students often adopt a surface, rote‐learning approach that does not promote deeper understanding either. In response to calls for a more practical approach to teaching and learning in accounting, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants recently introduced a competency framework that is built on the principles of experiential learning, calling for students to be able to apply their theoretical knowledge in a practical real‐world‐like setting. Given the gap that exists between students’ theoretical knowledge and graduates who are able to apply this knowledge immediately upon entering the workplace (Rudman and Terblanche, 2012), there appears to be the need for a teaching model that moves away from the typical lecturing model. Such a model should allow students to be more actively involved in the learning process, and encourage students to develop skills that will allow them to apply theoretical knowledge and develop pervasive skills for use in such settings. Some educators have turned to simulation to assist with this. To address this gap, and against the backdrop of attempts to reform accounting education, an in‐depth qualitative case study was conducted, exploring students’ experiences of simulation pedagogy in a final year undergraduate Auditing module at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal. The study’s use of multiple data sources, including focus group interviews, individual interviews, written questionnaires, and reflective journals yielded rich insights into the phenomenon. Purposive sampling was used to select twenty participants from the Westville campus student cohort. The data was analysed using a content and thematic analysis approach. Confirming the literature, students experienced the active nature of the simulation favourably. In addition, they reported that the simulation afforded them the opportunity to grapple with its contents and learn from mistakes made during the process; this quality of simulation provided the key to unlocking a deeper understanding of the auditing concepts and principles and the practical application thereof. The visual aspect of the simulation allowed students to create mental images and motion pictures of the procedures performed, which could subsequently be retrieved for later referral in a similar situation, and in the development of abstract concepts. Although the simulation had been received favourably by the study’s student participants, there were aspects of the pedagogy that met with resistance. Many of the students did not respond favourably to the call for group work. Although the students agreed that simulation pedagogy could be valuable to their development for their future careers, they did not believe that it would assist them to pass their examinations. They cited the manner in which assessments are structured, and argued that a more lectureintensive, rote‐learning approach was required for the current examination structure. A unique contribution of the study to accounting education literature was its highlighting of the underlying factors that impact students’ ability to learn and develop their understanding of auditing concepts and principles through audit simulation. A further unique contribution of the study to accounting education literature was the researcher’s use of self‐study, as well as an introspective reflection of her role as facilitator. This approach provided an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of the simulation, as well as consider possible ways to strengthen teaching practice in simulation‐led learning.
In search of a sustainability marketing curriculum : a critical exploration.
(2016) Pillay, Devika.; Amin, Nyna.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Sustainability has emerged as a broad-based global trend that impacts on the concept of ‘planet and people’. Consequently, the emergence of sustainability issues in the context of marketing theory, marketing curriculum and marketing practice is what is interrogated in this research study. Accordingly, this resulted in the formulation of questions around the conceptualisations of sustainability marketing and the relevance of sustainability marketing in the marketing curriculum. In order to facilitate the “Search for a sustainability marketing curriculum” the first research question was designed to identify the status and presence of sustainability marketing in the existing marketing curriculum. This initial phase of the research process involved a content analysis of higher education institutional handbooks and in some cases, marketing course outlines. The information from this phase of the research revealed the extent to which sustainability marketing was included or silenced within the marketing curriculum. The second research question of this study focused on uncovering the perspectives of those that have influence in the design and construction of marketing curriculum. These perspectives were linked to the ideological context in which marketing theory was viewed and how this may contribute to marketing curriculum transformation. This served as the catalyst to the second phase of the research study where a qualitative researcher lens was used to explore issues around sustainability marketing and the sustainability marketing curriculum. Additionally, the critical marketing paradigmatic context justified the use of critical case studies in accessing and producing data. The method used in the acquisition of this information was through participant interviews. The paradox between the Dominant Social Paradigm in existing marketing curricula and the ‘provocation’ for a socially responsive marketing curriculum such as a sustainability marketing curriculum was included as areas of enquiry in the participant interviews. Resultantly, the extension of this debate was facilitated through an understanding of the historical context of the development of marketing theory and the use of the theoretical and conceptual framework of the academic response to marketing by Arnold and Fisher (1996). Therefore, the participants’ accounts were displayed utilising a metaphorical lens in the form television screen imagery to represent historical eras in marketing theory development, television programme channels to represent participant’s paradigmatic orientation and television programme contents to represent the individual participant voices. Hence, the participants were portrayed as “The History Channel: The Apologists”, “The Business Channel: The Social Marketers” and “The Discovery Channel: The Reconstructionists”. The third research question of the study related to the theorising component of the study through an examination of why the participants held specific viewpoints related to sustainability marketing and the sustainability marketing curriculum. The data findings from the participant portrayals were further abstracted and resulted in the creation of a new curriculum response to marketing sustainability through the proposition of three new sustainability marketing curriclulum paradigms. The new sustainability marketing curriculum paradigm responses have been entitled “Curriculum Stagnators”, “Curriculum non-Traditionalists” and “Curriculum Transformers”. Additionally, this thesis proposed four different thematic categories in the understanding of the new curriculum paradigms namely: “The Sustainability discourse trend/fad; “The Skilling rhetoric”; “Restricted academic agency” and “Student participation in curriculum development. This resulted in three Meta themes which were used in the conceptualisation of a “Sustainability consciousness and curriculum redesign hierarchy”. The hierarchy suggested that higher levels of sustainability marketing consciousness would encourage marketing curriculum transformation and redesign. In so doing these new theorisations (sustainability marketing curriculum paradigms and the sustainability marketing consciousness and sustainability marketing curriculum redesign hierarchy) have advanced knowledge in the field of marketing theory and could potentially be used in the formulation of new marketing knowledge and marketing curricula. Additionally, the advancement of knowledge in the field of marketing can be extended through the recommendation for future research in suggested areas such as student perspectives of sustainability marketing in the marketing curriculum, academic agency and competencies in sustainability marketing and pedagogical approaches to teaching sustainability marketing in the South African context.
Managerial accounting and financial management students' experiences of learning in a writing intensive tutorial programme.
(2012) Bargate, Karen.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Managerial and Financial Management (MAF) has traditionally been perceived by students as a difficult subject. Students do not fully grasp the underlying disciplinary concepts and struggle to transfer knowledge from one context to another. There is a dearth of research, particularly in South Africa, into how students learn in accounting programmes. This study sought to explore MAF students’ experiences of learning in a Writing Intensive Tutorial (WIT) programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The WIT programme is based on the principle of using informal exploratory writing, writing-to-learn, to support students’ learning of MAF. Informal writing is low stakes, ungraded, and encourages critical thinking and the learning of concepts, rather than focusing on grammatical correctness. The study was informed by the tenets of social constructivism and was conducted within a qualitative interpretative framework. Principles of case study research were applied in the data generation process. Purposive sampling was applied that reflected the MAF population in regard to race and gender demographics and academic ability. The participants were 15 MAF students who voluntarily participated in an 18-week WIT programme. Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004) was used for the research design and as a data analysis tool. Following IQA protocol, focus groups were used to generate affinities (themes) of students’ experiences of learning in the WIT programme. From the affinities generated a system diagram was constructed. In-depth semi-structured individual interviews were conducted at the end of the programme to further probe participants’ learning experiences. The primary affinity driving the system was the programme structure. which drove the other affinities – understanding of concepts, challenging the participants, the written tasks undertaken (secondary drivers), making learning fun, improved study techniques and test preparation, criticism of the programme (secondary outcomes), increased personal confidence and the interactive nature of the programme (primary outcomes). The thesis concludes with a proposal of an inductively theorised model. The model derives from the major findings in the study regarding students’ experiences of learning in the WIT programme. The model offers insights for higher education programme designs that utilise writing-to-learn pedagogies and can provide opportunities for students’ to develop deep, conceptual learning in higher education.
Perspectives on legalistic („formal‟) and indigenous („informal‟) child adoption in a rural IsiZulu-speaking community.
(2017) Motebang, Bonane.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
This is a study about the representation of theoretical perspectives in accounting textbooks used in the last phase of senior secondary education in Lesotho and South Africa. The study examined the use of language in the construction of meaning. The systemic functional linguistics transitivity model was, therefore, used to analyse the selected text from the sampled textbooks. In addition, the social semiotic approach was applied in analysis of the accounting schematics.The findings show that representation of processes is dominated by material and relational processes and that material processes represent economic activities undertaken in business and professional accounting processes. Material processes are mostly realised in agentless passive voice. Consequently, the medium dominates representation. In a few cases,generic agents in the form of institutions, institutional structures, professionals and professional bodies are represented.The participants of the relational clauses are realised in long complex nominal phrases involving embedded finite and non-finite clauses. In addition, some of the participants are realised by nominalisation and nominal groups formed through grammatical metaphors.These grammatical structures are used to build technical terms and theories in the field.The findings also show that the grammatical metaphors and nominalisation are used to construct nominal groups to which values can be attached. Since financial accounting focuses on the financial aspect of the economic transactions, the nominalised processes allow for formation of entities that can be quantified. The quantified entities related to each other in terms of cause effect relationships. The relationships in turn are functional in building taxonomic relations, which were found to be commonly represented in the accounting schematics.Based on the above findings the study concludes that, although functional, the grammatical structures realise meaning in generalising, abstract and complex terms. The dominant passive and the relational clauses indicate that the accounting phenomenon is represented from the perspective of the entities and the accounting processes. The implications of the findings are that decisions on teacher educations programmes and school curriculum policies must take into account the nature and structure of the subject matters as constituted in disciplines of knowledge and as represented in the programmatic curriculum, namely, the textbooks.
Situating professional development within the school context : a case study of a further education and training (FET) school.
(2007) Langa, Purity Phumzile Nokuthula.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Traditional professional development approaches to assist teachers to implement the new curriculum in South Africa have come under criticism. This is because these do not provide the ongoing, context sensitive support that teachers need to improve their practice. This has raised the importance of situating teacher learning within the school context. This study explored how a group of teachers gave meaning to and expressed their understanding of themselves and their experience of school-based professional development. The purpose of the study was to understand the nature of school-based professional development at an FET school. In attempting to address the research questions, this study adopted a qualitative, interpretive approach. Since human interaction and context are important in the qualitative interpretative study, the tenets of symbolic interactionism were drawn on to guide this research study. This study also drew on the concepts of situated learning theory, which stresses the importance of context and therefore supports, the notion that learning opportunities should be grounded in environments where problems arise. This was a case study of a secondary peri-urban school in KwaZulu-Natal. lt involved three teachers who were purposefully selected. Data was gathered through three qualitative methods i.e. observation, interviews and a reflective journal. A process of open coding was used to analyse and interpret data. Findings reveal that the school did recognise the importance of schools as places where teachers can learn. However, the contextual factors such as inside politics, staff relations within the school, as well as the way management handled their role in managing professional development in the school made it a challenge to organise and promote collective teacher learning. lt further reveals that as a result of the difficulties and inconsistency of the official professional development programme, teacher learning was in fact taking place in various other ways. These included department meetings';-infQr:mal-teacher collaboration and mentoring. The study also reveals that various contextual factors affected curriculum development implementation. These included a lack of resources, large classes and learners' backgrounds.
Students' experiences of online support in business management education.
(2015) Mtshali, Muntuwenkosi Abraham.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.; Govender, Desmond Wesley.
Learning using online technology has become a popular strategy for addressing diverse learning needs of students in higher education institutions. This strategy is often used to enable students in overcrowded classrooms to gain extended access to their lecturers as not all students are able to consult with their lecturers during normal consultation times. This study was also conducted in the context of a course offering with a large class size where students encountered problems with consultation times that clashed with other lectures they had to attend. The use of online support to complement face-to-face lectures in this course was inspired by the adoption of the Modular-object-oriented and dynamic learning environment (Moodle) learning management system (LMS) by the university as its official LMS. LMS was initially used as an online consultative-forum but was then used as a mechanism to support teaching and learning.by using its various functional properties. Case studies as learning activities were analysed and discussed through online chats and online discussion forums while assignments were accomplished and submitted electronically via Turnitin. Learning resources such as lecture notes and work schedules were also conveyed to students through the LMS. The purpose of this study therefore was to explore students’ experiences of online support in Business Management Education by pursuing the following critical research questions: 1. What are student’s experiences of online-support in Business Management Education? 2. How do these experiences relate to students learning in Business Management Education? 3. Why do these experiences relate to students’ learning in Business Management Education the way they did? Fifteen students in a BME second-year level of study were selected using phenomenographic sampling for purposive variation. This sample was varied according to age, gender, race, background and the regularity with which students engaged with the LMS during the semester. A Mixed-method research was used where a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of collecting data were deployed. Phenomenography was used as an approach to qualitative research. This approach guided the methods according to which qualitative sampling was conducted, data was collected and also analyzed. A questionnaire was used as a means to confirm the validity of qualitative findings. The research process led to the emergence of the following categories of description as findings in phenomenographic research: repository of resources, support for learning, complexities of epistemological access, conduit for communication, the social effect on learning, and the cognitive effect on learning. The study proposes insights for pedagogy in BME. It goes on to suggest the design of a method of socializing students into online-supported learning, and also to augment the basic computer-literacy course offered to new students at entry level to include elements of online learning. It also proposes a shift from traditional ways of transacting teaching and learning in BME that heavily rely on face-to-face lectures, to include online learning. Importantly, the study deepens insights into the epistemological access challenges that contemporary South African students are likely to encounter. Finally, this study proposes a model for LMS mediated case-based pedagogy for Business Management Education.