Browsing by Author "Thomson, Carol Irene."
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Item An investigation into the use of pages of Learn with Echo newspaper supplement as an educational/pedagogical tool in classrooms of adults in the greater Pietermaritzburg area.(2006) Buthelezi, Zanele Gladness.; Thomson, Carol Irene.This study investigates the use of the Learn with Echo newspaper supplement as an educational/pedagogical tool in classrooms of adults in the Greater Pietermaritzburg area. The Learn with Echo newspaper supplement is supplied to many adult education centres in Pietermaritzburg and other areas once a week, but there is little empirical evidence of how it is used. Learn with Echo is a four page weekly adult literacy and basic education newspaper supplement. It is produced by the Centre of Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg. This newspaper supplement was founded partly as a response to one of the deeply rooted social problems that we have in South Africa, illiteracy. This problem is prevalent particularly among older persons who were marginalised from educational opportunities during the apartheid era. Current national statistics reveal that about half the country's adults have less than nine years of schooling, and three million no education at all (Baatjes et al, 2002). This study worked within a qualitative, as opposed to a quantitative research approach and used interviews and classroom observations as tools to elicit data. The variety of techniques used enhanced the validity, reliability and authenticity of this research.Item Knowledge and knowers in the discipline of marketing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.(2012) Arbee, Aradhna.; Thomson, Carol Irene.; Hugo, Wayne.This study, which is set in a Faculty of Management Studies at a higher education institution in South Africa, is concerned with facilitating students' epistemological access to the discipline of Marketing. It takes the position that each discipline has its own Discourse or 'ways of being' (Gee, 2005), and that this is influenced by the discipline's underlying knowledge structure (Maton, 2003). The ability of Marketing lecturers to help students to become effective participants in the Discourse of Marketing rests on an understanding of what legitimate participation in the Discourse of Marketing entails. However, because such understandings are often tacit and contested, inducting students into disciplinary Discourses is made difficult. Thus the first research question that this study seeks to address is: What constitutes epistemological access to the discipline of Marketing? The second question is: How do educational practices in Marketing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) impact on the achievement of epistemological access to the discipline? Theoretically, the study draws on Maton's (2005a) Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and work undertaken from a New Literacy Studies (NLS) perspective, such as Gee‟s theory of Discourse (2005) and "academic literacies‟ research. LCT allows for an analysis of the underlying principles that structure the discipline of Marketing, thus conceptualising the "rules of the game‟ of the discipline and highlighting what counts as relevant meaning in Marketing. This analysis is therefore pertinent in addressing the first research question. NLS allows for an understanding of how lecturers and students operate in the discipline to construct legitimate meaning by engaging in appropriate practices and communication. Methodologically, the analysis of data also draws on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). An understanding of the "rules of the game‟ of Marketing, given by the LCT analysis, provides a backdrop against which educational practices in the discipline of Marketing at UKZN are explored. The analysis using CDA gives insight into how students' Marketing identities are being built in the discipline of Marketing at UKZN and what the ramifications are for their epistemological access to the discipline, thus addressing the second research question. In combination, these analyses reveal that students‟ Marketing identities are not being specialised in ways that are appropriate to the disciplinary Discourse. Possible reasons for the inconsistency between the type of knower espoused and the type of knower actually produced in the discipline are explored.Item A qualitative inquiry into the role of the principal and deputy principal in decision making processes in three rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal.(2011) Mbedla, Hloniphile.; Thomson, Carol Irene.Decision making is a key function of leadership. During Apartheid rule in South Africa, decision making in schools was determined at the national level. A principal’s role was to implement those decisions. Post 1994, decision making has been decentralised and more participation and involvement of teachers, heads of department, deputy principals, principals and parents is encouraged in schools. The purpose of this study was to find out more about the role that the principal and deputy principal of a school play in decision making in a school, particularly rural schools, in this, the democratic era in which we all now live. To achieve this aim, this research was conducted in the Umzimkulu district in KwaZulu-Natal in three schools, all in deep rural areas but selected for their accessibility to the school at which I work which is also situated in a remote rural area. From each school three participants were selected i.e. the principal, deputy principal and one Post Level one educator. This study was conducted within the interpretive paradigm and was qualitative in nature. Thus, to collect data, semi-structured interviews were the primary source. However, observations of one staff meeting per school were also conducted, and document analysis of minute books from previous staff meetings was undertaken to ensure an important level of trustworthiness of the data. No attempt has been made to generalise the findings as the participants were very few, but as under-resourced schools in remote areas constitute the majority of schools in this country, I believe that the study is warranted and that the findings have relevance for more schools than those in which the research was conducted. The theoretical framework for this study is that of distributed leadership which considers the expertise of all stakeholders i.e. teachers, heads of department, deputy principals, principals, parents and learners, within a school, irrespective of the formal position or role they hold. This theory is characterised as a form of collective leadership in which all the stakeholders work together and learn from one another. This ensures participation of all the stakeholders in decision making. The key findings of the study are that: a) there is variation in the degree to which principals and deputy principals share decision making; b) that educators are given greater opportunities to make autonomous decisions in extra mural activities and mundane aspects of school life, than they are around key policy areas; c) that hierarchical structures are still noticeable in all 3 schools in the study; and d) that the three most significant barriers to distributed leadership, v at least in the schools in this study, are: (i) the traditional belief that says the principal is ‘the boss’ of the school; (ii) the lack of trust by a principal in her/his staff to make and carry out decisions responsibly; and (iii) the sense of accountability a principal holds in terms of constructing her/himself as the only one who will be cross-questioned by the departmental officials if something goes wrong in the school.Item Writing experiences of B.Ed honours students registered for the Language in Learning and Teaching (LILT) module : a case study.(2001) Thomson, Carol Irene.; ; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.This dissertation examines the writing! literacy practices of a small group of first year Bachelor of Education Honours students, who registered for the Language in Learning and Teaching module, as first year students, in 1998. The primary sources of data were (a) questionnaires (focusing on existing literacy practices with which students engage outside of the university context), (b) Literate Life Histories, and (c) individual interviews. The purpose of the research was to consider the 'fit' between students' literacy practices outside of the university and those demanded within the university. Explicitly linked to this was a consideration of the extent to which assessment processes could or should be modified to accommodate this 'fit'. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1965,1972,1991,1992), and his notions of habitus, field and capital, Critical Linguistics and Critical Pedagogy, the study explores the concept of 'difference', notions of literacy and institutionalised power. It also offers suggestions for a pedagogical framework that might effectively foreground a critical position in relation to these issues. Findings from this study indicate that very few literacy practices with which student engage 'fit' directly with those demanded of them by the university. Despite this, students 'take on' the academic literacy demands of the university relatively uncritically and do not attach undue emphasis to this aspect of their performance. What is of particular significance to them are the experiences of empowerment they enjoy during their studies, and the' capital' they take with them in the form of a recognised university qualification. Staff, on the other hand, tend to foreground the need to master academic discourse in order to 'succeed', and rate general student performance as low and inadequate against this criterion. These discrepancies and contradictions between what students perceive their sojourn in the B.Ed Hons programme to be about, and their notions of what constitutes 'success' vis a vis that of staff, make for thought provoking and important considerations, particularly with regard to future research possibilities.