by Patricia A. Edwards

IRA delegation broadens understanding of country’s culture, education system

My President’s Messages this year revolve around several key issues, including global literacy. This column describes the journey of a Language and Literacy Education delegation of 48 IRA members that I led through South Africa in August. Our initial goal was to seek a better understanding of literacy challenges facing girls and women in South Africa, but the visit ultimately addressed many other issues concerning post-apartheid education, including progress that has already been made and challenges that remain.

Sponsored by the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program, the program facilitated professional meetings between delegates—who included K–12 teachers, literacy coaches, administrators, librarians, university professors, and a publishing representative—and South African educators and administrators. Together the delegates represented 17 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.

During the trip, delegates visited six schools, universities, and educational agencies across Johannesburg, Soweto, and Cape Town. For many of the delegates, this was their first trip to South Africa. Through the professional and cultural exchanges, participants were able to broaden their understanding of apartheid and change many of their preconceived notions about South African culture and education.

The South African education system

Members of the Reading Association of South Africa (RASA) described to delegates how the South African educational system has undergone extensive change over the past decade and how the government has attempted to improve educational infrastructure and resources. The new system is based on the principles of equity, quality, and access. The policies reflect high aspirations, which are challenging given the realities of the South African context.

RASA members noted that curriculum, language, and reading policies have greatly influenced and continue to affect the education that is provided for South African children. They also noted that outcomes-based education has played a central role in influencing teaching methodology.

Teacher education and training

Many of the issues surrounding teacher preparation and training in South Africa are similar to those discussed in the United States. One study that a South African educator shared with delegates stimulated a lively discussion. The educator noted that very few teachers in the Black townships were able to provide explicit theoretical explanations of their pedagogy.

Furthermore, the educator cited a disjuncture between beliefs and practices regarding the purposes of literacy. Even though most teachers talked of literacy as a life skill and as central to cultural and societal development, there was a lack of evidence of literacy practices building cultural identity or self-expression. In addition, very few of the teachers viewed reading as a pleasurable activity or themselves as avid readers. The South African educator noted that perhaps inadequate apartheid teacher education may be cited as the cause.

The University of Johannesburg has begun to aggressively address the issue of teacher preparation and training in South Africa by founding the Funda UJabule Elementary School in Soweto as a teacher training and research school. In addition to its educational and training functions, the school is the site of unique, integrated research on cognitive development in children, language and literacy practice in the early school grades, mathematics and science learning, and home and caregiver roles in formal education. The school also hosts community engagement projects related to childhood education and early childhood development.

Preservice teachers at the University of Johannesburg spend an average of three hours per week during the first three years of their education as classroom observers and as assistants in the school. Students also study child development over four years by writing up longitudinal case studies.

Students, school staff, and the university faculty collaborate in this integrated preservice education of teachers. One important aspect involves empha-sizing the role of families and caregivers in early formal education. This model of educating teachers as community service agents has been in practice in other parts of the Faculty of Education for many years and is unique in the South African context.

Equity issues

South African educators shared with us two initiatives designed to address equity issues—Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Af-rica (PRAESA) and LEAP Science and Maths School. PRAESA is an independent research and development unit attached to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. Established in 1992, PRAESA emerged from the struggle against apartheid education. Circumstances since 1995 have focused the project’s works on language policy in education. Today, the project’s research and development activities continue to focus on the democratization of South African society, particularly in the key area of language-in-education policy implementation.

LEAP Science and Maths School started in 2004 with the aim of creating a model that could begin to address the inequalities in the South African education system. The value-based framework of the three LEAP sites—serving Langa, Gugulethu (Cape Town), and Alexandra (Johannesburg)—creates an empowering educational environment that enables each learner to develop fully as a human being with a positive, caring lifestyle and healthy work ethic. LEAP actively seeks to share its innovations and entrepreneurial approach with other schools and contributes positively within the national education framework.

Language issues

A critical factor affecting South African learners is the language of learning. The Language in Education Policy (Act 27 of 1996) and the Norms and Standards Regarding Language Policy are critical in shaping the curriculum that frames the learning experiences in South African schools.

South African educators discussed with delegates how language issues affect South African students’ performance on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). There are 11 official languages in South Africa, and the test was administered in all 11 languages. Analysis indicated that learners who wrote the assessment in Afrikaans achieved the highest scores. However, even the scores for grade 4 Afrikaans girls were 81 points below the international average.

In order to further disentangle the impact of different languages on reading literacy achievement, learners’ home language was also considered. As a result of the change in migration patterns in South African schools over the past 15 years, many Black African vernacular learners attend a school where English is the medium of instruction, meaning that they receive instruction in a second language.

Home and school communication

Citing the famous Coleman report of 1966, South African educators believe strongly in the important role of home background in relation to achievement. They noted that young learners with educationally advantaged parents, dual-income parents, or parents with access to more literacy resources for learners appear to have a better chance at succeeding in achieving literacy than their peers who have fewer resources. Furthermore, they noted that parental engagement in educationally stimulating activities prior to their child’s entrance into formal schooling appeared to be beneficial for learners’ later scholastic performance in reading literacy.

Conclusion

As delegates exchanged ideas with their South African colleagues, they were struck by how many common issues educators in different countries face. Although the contexts may be different, preparing new teachers, helping language learners succeed, and encouraging family involvement are hot topics in many areas of the world. Exchange programs such as People to People reinforce our commonalities and remind us how much all of us can learn from our colleagues throughout the world.

IRA President Patricia A. Edwards is a Distinguished Professor of Teacher Education and a Senior University Outreach Fellow at Michigan State University.

President's Message: South African odyssey. (October 2010). Reading Today 28(2), 20–21.