This article draws on Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to interrogate and extend Bernstein's theory of pedagogic framing. It develops a typology of modes of pedagogic practice differentiated in terms of the dominance of one of three potential organising referents. These are (a) the grammar of the instructional discourse configured by a regulative discourse, (b) conventions or models of practice circulated within, or generated through participation in, a practice community, and (c) habituated coordinations of contextual time/space and technology use as practice rhythms. The typology constitutes an analytic frame for classroom observation data drawn from a study conducted in two schools. On a theoretical level, the study concludes that pedagogy is a hybrid practice involving a variable and contingent relationship between its three organising referents: discourse, conventions or models within a practice community, and space/time technology practices.
This article examines the forms of knowledge that constitute ‘science’ in the early school curriculum in South Africa. We examine curriculum excerpts which represent the subject ‘science’ in key curriculum texts for Grade R, the year in which learners are generally sixyears- old. Drawing on neo-Vygotskian theory, these representations are described in relation to simple scientific concepts, i.e. concepts that are consistent with scientific criteria and function as entry level concepts leading to the acquisition of more complex scientific concepts. The study found that these key curriculum texts do not represent any science concepts in ways that conform to the criteria for simple scientific concepts. Instead, these texts represent most science knowledge in terms of everyday concepts while a few concepts are introduced in a way that could potentially prompt the Grade R educator to translate an everyday concept into a simple scientific concept, i.e. as ‘potential’ scientific concepts. The implications are that the curriculum is not oriented to giving Grade R learners the opportunity to acquire the form or content of scientific knowledge or to develop the cognitive skills required for formal schooling.
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