The social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa: Bridging inequalities among the various language groups

Boakye, Naomi Adjoa Nana Yeboah

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2015-0008

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Students' home languages and literacy practices could be used as a resource for comprehension before they engage deeply with English texts. It is hoped that this will lead to better and easier understanding of concepts and theories, provide social relevance, and promote cultural consciousness among students (Boakye, 2015b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Students’ Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

Boakye¹

2017

ELT

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There have been a number of studies on reading interventions to improve students' reading proficiency, yet the majority of these interventions are undertaken with the assumption that students' reading challenges are obvious and generic in nature. The interventions do not take into consideration the diversity in students' reading backgrounds and the specific nature of the challenges. Thus interventions may not address students' specific reading needs. This paper reports on a study that explored students' reading profiles as a needs analysis for an intervention programme to improve the reading proficiency of first-year Sociology students. The aim was to investigate the students' reading backgrounds to determine their specific reading needs. A Likert scale questionnaire with an open-ended section was used to explore the students' reading profiles. The Likert scale questions were analysed quantitatively, while the open-ended questions were analysed qualitatively. In addition, a regression analysis was conducted to determine the correlation between students' use of strategies and their self-efficacy levels. The findings show that a number of students have little reading experience, use inappropriate reading strategies, and have low self-efficacy and poor reading habits. In addition, students identified comprehension, language, vocabulary, length and density of Sociology texts as factors compounding their reading challenges. This paper discusses the implications of these findings in designing an appropriate reading intervention programme for this cohort.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10, No. 7;2017 exposure to texts owing to, among others, a lack of resources (Boakye, 2015b;Boakye & Southey, 2008;Taylor & Yu 2009). It is therefore important to identify the backgrounds and reading profiles of these students in order to tailor interventions that meet their reading needs.…”

Section: Attitude Towards Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Students’ Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

Boakye¹

2017

ELT

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“…If such principles may emerge in experiences of higher education governance, then possibly, those rich values from ancient Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which are still active in local communities, may aid in creating hope for the youth and future experts. Future studies of BRICS higher educational governance that apply a social realist ontology should consider how trans-languaging strategies, a method of drawing on cultural principles embedded in indigenous languages while still applying mainstream vernaculars, may be incorporated into our curricula (Boakye, 2015). This is because our languages are amongst the riches of cultural sources, embodying the very identities of nations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Realist Ontology for Analysing BRICS Educational Governance: A Higher Education Perspective

Eybers

2020

SACI

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This study advocates a social realist ontological framework as an effective, analytical blueprint for identifying problems and solutions in BRICS, educational governance systems; specifically as related to the higher education domain. The methods of the study include a textual analysis and description of a social realist ontology to illustrate how it may be applied towards mapping human experiences, including our undergoing processes of educational governance and their tangible outcomes in society. The study also highlights media and scholarly texts from BRICS nations to illustrate shared, yet contextually diverse educational challenges in the tertiary system. The value of comparing contemporary BRICS-related educational challenges, within a social realist ontology, is that it was possible to identify similar and diverging mechanisms which BRICS nations applied towards solving them. The results of the study indicate that a social realist ontology is also an applicable methodology for comparing challenges in the higher education sector and diverse educational governance responses to them by BRICS nations. The study highlights that in each nation, social structures including statutory bodies, culture, including those of citizens, as well as agency, including administrators and students, equally impacts on the efficacy of educational governance and its goals. The study concludes that by highlighting the powers of culture, social structures and agency in BRICS nation’s educational governance processes, member states may effectively direct necessary human, social and financial capital where they are needed in educational systems. Further, it was found that a social realist ontology enables BRICS nation-states to compare best practices of educational governance in the higher education sphere in order to learn from each other.

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“…The study pointed out some intervention strategies that teachers suggested for the improvement of reading amongst the learners (Mudzielwana, 2011). Boakye (2015) highlights in a research into the social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa -'Bridging inequalities among the various language groups' -that different communities, such as language groups and different socio-economic status (SES) families, widely acknowledge the practice of literacy in different ways. Certain language communities of low SES observe literacy interactions differently from the traditional "schooled literacy", which may influence learners' reading literacy.…”

Section: Causal Factors Of Literacy and Reading Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic literature review of literacy and reading in South Africa

Motilal¹

2021

Systematic Reviews of Research in Basic Education in South Africa

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This chapter reports on a critical literature review of scholarship in literacy and reading in South Africa from 2010 to 2020 that draws on critical discourse analysis. Key issues, trends, and criticisms in the field are discussed. A threestaged methodology has been utilised; which starts with searching educational databases to locate literature focused on Literacy and Reading scholarship. Each article and data is then categorised. The second stage was the development of schemata to interpret the complexity of issues related to research design. The third stage involves the examination of literacy-focused empirical studies and theoretical papers in scholarly journals to reveal trends in the questions that researchers find interesting enough to pursue, the theories they find useful, and the kinds of interactions that capture their attention. The findings demonstrate that Literacy and Reading scholarship has been conducted in many areas of literacy studies, including policy, academic writing, the preparation of literacy teachers, professional development, textbook content, curricular design, assessment, and bilingual education. The review also found evidence of impact and identifies directions for future scholarship.

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The social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa: Bridging inequalities among the various language groups

Cited by 5 publications

References 11 publications

Exploring Students’ Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

Exploring Students’ Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

Social Realist Ontology for Analysing BRICS Educational Governance: A Higher Education Perspective

Systematic literature review of literacy and reading in South Africa

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