Exploring Single Black Mothers' Resistance Through Homeschooling


Book Description

This book expands the concept of homeplace with contemporary Black homeschooling positioned as a form of resistance among single Black mothers. Chapters explore each mother’s experience and unique context from their own perspectives in deciding to homeschool and developing their practice. It corroborates many of the issues that plague the education of Black children in America, including discipline disproportionality, frequent referrals to special education services, teachers’ low expectations, and the marginalization of Black parents as partners in traditional schools. This book demonstrates how single mothers experience the inequity in school choice policies and also provides an understanding of how single Black mothers experience home-school partnerships within traditional schools. Most importantly, this volume challenges stereotypical characterizations of who homeschools and why.




Education Studies in South Africa


Book Description

The thesis of this volume is that the fields of scholarly enquiry of Education — internationally as well as in South Africa in particular — despite being fields of virile scholarly activity and output, are in need of a major overhaul. In this collected work this want in research is encapsulated in three words: relevance, rigour and restructuring. Research in the scholarly field(s) of Education is predominantly of small scale, non-accumulative, widely condemned as not of a comparable standard to research done in other social sciences, much less upon a par with research in the natural sciences, and lacking structure in the sense of being anchored in a firm theory. To make matters worse, scholars in Education internationally and in South Africa have till very recently eschewed discussion as to the packaging or structuring of knowledge produced by Education research. The book consists of chapters containing original research unpacking these desiderata from a variety of angles. The authors had them served by a variety of methods, from deductively argued position papers, to empirical research, the latter both quantitative (survey research) and qualitative.




Academic Performance


Book Description

Academic performance is an unavoidable topic for educational scientists, instructional experts, students, faculty staff, academic managers, parents, families, and policymakers. While student academic performance is a topic of passionate discussion, it is also interconnected with both faculty staff and higher education institutions. Achieving academic success requires more than just the efforts of the student. The teaching profession in higher education increasingly demands measurable results to attest to its efficiency. And the need for the accountability required from higher education institutions tends to influence institutional strategic plans according to tangible and measurable goals. This book will aim to cover the different perspectives of academic performance, placing on the stage the different actors in higher education: students, faculty, and institutions.




Comparative and International Education


Book Description

This book explores the evolution and current state of the scholarly field of comparative and international education over 200 years of development. Experts in the field explore comparative and international education in each of the major world regions.




Decolonising Schools in South Africa


Book Description

This book explores the challenge of dismantling colonial schooling and how entangled power relations of the past have lingered in post-apartheid South Africa. It examines the ‘on the ground’ history of colonialism from the vantage point of a small town in the Karoo region, showing how patterns of possession and dispossession have played out in the municipality and schools. Using the strong political and ontological critique of decoloniality theories, the book demonstrates the ways in which government interventions over many years have allowed colonial relations and the construction of racialised differences to linger in new forms, including unequal access to schooling. Written in an accessible style, the book considers how the dream of decolonial schooling might be realised, from the vantage point of research on the margins. This Karoo region also offers an interesting case study as the site where the world’s largest radio telescope was recently located and highlights the contrasting logics of international ‘big science’ and local development needs. This book will be of interest to academics and scholars in the education field as well as to social geographers, sociologists, human geographers, historians and policy makers. Chapters 1 and 10 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.




Education Studies


Book Description

Education studies: History, Sociology, Philosophy addresses the study of education and its foundations. It is the first textbook in South Africa that introduces education students to the scholarly fields of education. The approach is consistent with recommendations in the Policy for the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education and covers the following modules within Education Studies courses: History of Education Comparative Education Sociology of Education Philosophy of Education Diversity and pedagogy Education Studies adopts a scaffolded learning approach to guide and support students while developing their conceptual framework. It contextualises knowledge for students, explaining the relevance of South African history, sociological issues, and philosophy to understanding current South African society and the school system. The book includes a variety of pedagogical features that make the text accessible to undergraduate students.




Identifying Potential for Equitable Access to Tertiary Level Science


Book Description

Higher education internationally is in a state of transition and transformation, leading to an increase in the level of participation, and a consequent increase in number of non traditional and underprepared students. The appearance of these students provides a particular challenge in the sciences where adequate grounding is crucial. One response to this challenge has been the provision of access, foundation or "second chance programmes" which operate on different models internationally. In South Africa, where the push for equity is strong in the wake of the apartheid era, programmes have generally been established at all tertiary institutions with some of the most successful of these programmes based at universities characterised by a high research output. Consequently in the last decade there has been a great deal of research into the effectiveness of these programmes both at a micro and macro level. Similar research in other countries exists, but is patchy and often based on small groups of students. This book provides valuable information on what research has to say about disadvantaged and under prepared science students and how they learn - what works and what does not work. It provides an examination of issues related to the programmes, their structure, student selection and adjustment. Issues such the learning of these students, their communicative ability and laboratory work come under the spotlight. Although examining the issue internationally, the book draws heavily on lessons from South Africa where there has been considerably experience of such programmes.




Currere from Apartheid to Inclusion


Book Description

This volume demonstrates the instrumental use of Currere as a methodology to bring about Deracialisation through transformational learning by a white educator in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Offering an honest and vulnerable recognition of privilege and exclusivity, it disrupts deep-seated racial bias and assumptions, unveils racial blind spots, and confronts the discourse that South African "white" educators are, overtly or covertly, perpetuating systemic racism within schools. Based on autoethnographic analyses of the author’s lived educational experiences within the Apartheid regime, it uses the theoretical concepts of Currere to initiate her journey towards Deracialisation and transform her current pedagogical practice. In doing so, the book demonstrates how critical self-examination of underlying beliefs that lead to actions, and how the past – in this case, being born, raised, and educated within the Apartheid era – can influence one’s teaching in ways that harm the educational development of culturally diverse learners. Grappling with how autoethnographical experiences in a specific setting can inform current pedagogy, and be used to bring about professional and personal transformation, this book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduate students, and educational researchers with interests in curriculum theory, race and education, transformative learning, Deracialisation, and autoethnography.




Mathematics Education in Africa


Book Description

This book is about mathematics teaching and learning in Africa during the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has evolved to utilize new technologies in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. It is characterized by the fusion of the biological, physical and digital worlds and embodies a new era of innovation in mathematics education, leading to the rapid emergence of new technologies for mathematics teaching and learning. Because 4IR in mathematics education is happening differently in various parts of Africa, the authors of the various chapters in this volume have positioned their work in their respective local contexts. The chapters address a wide variety of interests, concerns, and implications regarding 4IR and Mathematics Education in Africa. Additionally, a number of chapters address teaching mathematics in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world. Other chapters discuss the implications of inequalities in Africa that effect mathematics education during 4IR. Chapters also incorporate arguments, observations, and suggestions to, improve and transform the teaching and learning of mathematics in Africa during the 4IR. This book highlights a new era of innovation in mathematics education in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, leading to the rapid emergence of new technologies in mathematics teaching and learning. It is a valuable resource for graduate students, people with research interests in the fourth industrial revolution and mathematics educators at any level, including all mathematics teachers; mathematics education curriculum designers and policymakers.




Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies


Book Description

The study of curriculum, beginning in the early 20th century, first served the areas of school administration and teaching and was used to design and develop programs of study. The field subsequently expanded and drew upon disciplines from the arts, humanities, and social sciences to examine larger educational forces and their effects upon the individual, society, and conceptions of knowledge. Curriculum studies now embraces an array of academic scholarship in relation to personal and institutional needs and interests while it also focuses upon a diverse and complex dynamic among educational experiences, practices, settings, actions, and theories. The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies provides a comprehensive introduction to the academic field of curriculum studies for the scholar, student, teacher, and administrator. This two-volume set serves to inform and to introduce terms, events, documents, biographies, and concepts to assist the reader in understanding aspects of this rapidly changing, expansive, and contested field of study. Key Features Displays different perspectives by having authors contribute independent essays on the nature and future of curriculum studies Presents a unique and in-depth treatment of the Twenty-Sixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE), a 1927 publication that has taken on legendary dimensions for the field of curriculum studies Contains bibliographic entries which feature specific publications by curriculum leaders that helped to define the field Helps readers to learn unfamiliar terms and concepts, to become more comfortable with specialized phrases, and to understand the many significant and perplexing concepts and questions that characterize the field Key Themes Biography and Prosopography Concepts and Terms Content Descriptions Influences on Curriculum Studies Inquiry and Research Nature of Curriculum Studies Organizations, Schools, and Projects Publications Theoretical Perspectives Types of Curricula The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies offers the careful reader a surprisingly revealing depiction of the conventions, mores, and accepted research and writing practices of the field of curriculum studies as it continues to expand and change. Availability in print and electronic formats provides students with convenient, easy access, wherever they may be.