Poverty &amp; privilege: Primary school inequality in South Africa

Spaull, Nicholas

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.09.009

Cited by 300 publications

(261 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…-If you live in a poor, rural community your chances of succeeding at school are low (Fiske and Ladd 2004;South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) 2006, 18;Taylor 2007, 4;Taylor, Fleisch, and Schindler 2008, 41;Spaull 2012) -The quality of education learners' experience is unequal, resulting in disadvantage based on social class and race (Fiske and Ladd 2004;SAHRC 2006, 39) -The language of learning in the classroom needs to be bolstered in the home environment but this is not happening. Children are not learning to read even in their home language (Taylor 2007, 4;Taylor, Fleisch, and Schindler 2008, 43) -Teachers' knowledge of their subject is generally inadequate (Taylor, Fleisch, and Schindler 2008, 50;Hoardley and Ward 2009, 59-60) It is heartening to note that different drivers in education are putting school library provision back on the agenda.…”

Section: The South African Education Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Literacy Education in the South African Classroom: Reflections from Teachers’ Journals in the Western Cape Province

Zinn

Stilwell

Hoskins

2016

Libri

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This qualitative study reports on teachers in the Western Cape as they attempt to embed information literacy in their classrooms. It explores how teachers come to understand information literacy and the extent to which they change their beliefs about guiding research projects in a more concerted way. The research questions were: (1) how do teachers understand information literacy education? (2) how do teachers make their information literacy explicit in the classroom? and (3) at what level are teachers' web knowledge and skills? The teachers, who were part of an information literacy education course, formed a purposive sample. The data for this study emanated from solicited, reflective journals which participants kept over a period of eight to 10 weeks. Information seeking and use theory and an inquiry-based approach to learning frame this research. Motivation for the study is rooted in a curriculum which embodies information literacy characteristics. Traditionally, information literacy has been the domain of the school librarian. Only 16.82 % of South African schools have a stocked library. With so few school libraries and no official position in schools for a qualified school librarian, the onus for teaching information literacy thus rests on the teacher. This article provides the context for South African education and a review of the information literacy literature with an emphasis on South Africa and teachers' information literacy. The results show that, despite many obstacles in these teachers' paths, they express a fairly sound understanding of information literacy education by the end of the journaling exercise. However, fewer teachers can competently mediate information literacy in the classroom. One of the major barriers to information literacy is the teachers' slow adoption of the World Wide Web. Recommendations for further study include examining teacher education programmes for their inclusion of information literacy education; for awareness of plagiarism and the ethics of information use in the school environment; and the effect of information and communication technology on learners' information literacy.

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Section: The South African Education Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Literacy Education in the South African Classroom: Reflections from Teachers’ Journals in the Western Cape Province

Zinn

Stilwell

Hoskins

2016

Libri

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“…Finally, this is also a socio-economic rights issue. If the Post-2015 Development Agenda requires that no one is left behind, the inequality between the learning environment offered by mud schools and other public schools in South Africa is simply unacceptable (Spaull, 2013a). Accountability is also identified as a crucial element of that Agenda (High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons, 2013; Report of the Special Rapporteur, August 2013).…”

Section: Does Infrastructure Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging funds for school infrastructure: The South African ‘mud schools’ case study

Skelton¹

2014

International Journal of Educational Development

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“…There is no denying that the situation in South African schools is complex, with historic inequalities, high levels of poverty, low parental literacy levels, lack of educational resources and teachers without the educational background to understand how to develop learners' reading literacy contributing to the problem (Pretorius & Klapwijk, 2016;Spaull, 2013;Zimmerman, 2011). Poor school management of the literacy programme may be a specific issue leading to non-conducive professional organisation and environments for teaching reading literacy .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from the best: reading literacy development practices at a high-performing primary school

Zimmerman¹

2017

PLING

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Poverty & privilege: Primary school inequality in South Africa

Cited by 300 publications

References 12 publications

Information Literacy Education in the South African Classroom: Reflections from Teachers’ Journals in the Western Cape Province

Information Literacy Education in the South African Classroom: Reflections from Teachers’ Journals in the Western Cape Province

Leveraging funds for school infrastructure: The South African ‘mud schools’ case study

Learning from the best: reading literacy development practices at a high-performing primary school

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