Relationally Enhancing Teacher Education in Early Childhood Learning Environments towards Sustainability

Abstract

Teacher education in early childhood learning environments (ECLE) is a generally neglected space in teaching and learning, more so when the focus is on relationality and sustainability. ECLE refers to the Care and Education of children between 2-4 years of age. The focus of this paper is on ECLE from a post-humanist perspective, which goes in tandem with UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Emphasis is on inclusive economic development through environmentally sustainable social inclusion for all. Relationality has been chosen because of its power to advance the deconstruction of the hitherto taken for granted canons of humanism and enlightenment that promote hierarchies in knowledge and its production. These hierarchies disregard the voices of the vulnerable and the excluded, in terms of social class and other markers like age, but most importantly their erroneously assumed lack of knowledge. To date, the voices of the aspirant teachers in ECLE, as well as those of the children and parents, are non-existent when teacher education programmes are designed and implemented. This paper reveals that including the voices of these beneficiary communities enhances the quality of the discourse, theorisation and praxis in the provision of ECLE, as well as in the crafting of relevant teacher education programmes. Thus, the design and delivery of a programme is better based on the relationalities among humans, animals and plants; and between them and inanimate entities like infrastructure and resources. The relationality among all of these in the crafting of the beyond human is enhanced using advanced digital technologies. A relational approach recognises our entanglement with our entire universe in a manner that does not centre on identity. Quality therefore is about the ever-increasing complexity of diffractions of multi-layered and multi-perspective engagements across borders.

Foundation Phase Educators’ Views on the Management of Professional Development in Historically Disadvantaged Schools

“…The dilemma of crisscrossing between class teaching and TPD duties renders their fitness to transform educators' teaching skills questionable (Blandford, 1997). This is especially at the present moment when ineffectively trained educators besiege the schooling system (Mourshed & Barber, 2007), while poor early grade learning outcomes (Pretorius et al, 2020) and the neglect for early grade educators' capacity development (Mahlomaholo et al, 2023) are a cause for the dysfunctionality of FP education in historically disadvantaged schools (Petersen & Gravett, 2014). Moreover, in Mpumalanga Province where Grade 3 learners recoded 27% for literacy and 19% for numeracy in the Annual National Assessments [ANA] (Bipath & Nkabinde, 2018).…”

“…The use of the purposive sampling technique implied that these schools were selected because of being reflective of a range of variations in quality and the general outlook of the challenges that occur in other schooling contexts of a similar nature (Wills & Hofmeyer, 2018). This includes the neglect for early grade learning interventions and capacity development of early grade educators (Mahlomaholo et al, 2023). Hereunder lies the profile of the sampled schools.…”

“…The HoDs' way of treating TPD as a continuous process (David, 2016) ensures that their schools are professional spaces where learning is a collaborative, developmental and, most importantly, a continuous journey (Senge, 1990, p.3). Further to that, their commitment acted as a motivating factor for educators to adapt to contextual challenges (Bobek, 2002) and "situations of acute and disadvantage in education" (McKay, 2020, p.70) that are endemic to early grade or FP teaching and learning in South African schools (Mahlomaholo et al, 2023;Petersen & Gravett, 2014). c.…”

“…In summing up educators' lived experiences of FP teaching in the studied schools (Mtshatsha & Omodan, 2022), the study concludes that educators' enjoyment of collegiality between themselves and their leaders (HoDs) (Jarzambowski, 2012) heightened their "ability to adjust to varied situations and increase [their] competence in the face of adverse conditions" (Bobek, 2002, p.202). These conditions beset early grade or FP teaching and learning (Mahlomaholo et al, 2023;Petersen & Gravett, 2014) in a majority of South Africa's historically disadvantaged schools.…”

Improving the Quality of Education Through Environmentally Based Learning

“…The importance of a holistic approach in improving the quality of early childhood education, by paying attention to relational aspects between teachers and students, as well as their relationship with the surrounding environment. It is hoped that this effort can create meaningful learning and be oriented towards a more sustainable future development (Mahlomaholo et al 2023).…”