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The European Union's Sector Policy Support Programme “Strengthening Foundation Phase Teacher Education” (EU SPSP FP), under the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), consists of 9 projects involving 16 universities throughout South Africa. The overall goal of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of the higher education system to provide more and better Foundation Phase teachers. Sheila Drew provides more information on one of the projects.
The Programme has seven objectives:
- Research into Foundation Phase teacher education
- Seminars on Foundation Phase education to share and disseminate the research
- The development and production of Foundation Phase teacher education learning support materials
- Design and development of new Foundation Phase initial teacher education for B.Ed and PGCE programmes and courses
- Supporting the establishment of a Foundation Phase teacher education forum
- Recruitment and advocacy campaigns to encourage more young people to move into careers as Foundation Phase teachers
- The provision of Foundation Phase initial teacher education bursaries for African language students.
Saide is contributing to this important programme as part of a consortium of Rhodes University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC), known as the Cape Consortium. The Cape Consortium's focus is on “Quality teaching and teacher education research”, addressing three of the EU programme's seven objectives, namely
- Research into teaching practices and teacher education practices
- Programme design of Initial Teacher Education courses, and
- Materials development for teacher education.
Research and Programme Design
Each of the four HEI partners in the Cape Consortium will research a different aspect of the overall conceptual framework:
- NMMU – Identity (with an emphasis on teacher identity)
- Rhodes – Quality in education
- UWC – Access (with an emphasis on epistemological access)
- WSU – Practices (with an emphasis on teaching and teacher education).
In addition to this overall conceptual research work the project will produce a number of PhD and Masters theses on a range of topics relevant to teacher education in the Foundation Phase.
The research will also contribute to the Programme Design component of the project. Over the three-year project period new Foundation Phase Initial Teacher Education programmes will be initiated at UWC and WSU, and the Foundation Programmes at NMMU and Rhodes will be strengthened and revived respectively.
Materials Design and Development
Saide's role is to develop the conceptual framework for the teacher education support materials, and to co-ordinate the development of those materials. This includes developing tools for analysing current teacher education support materials (and their use) as well as guiding principles for developing quality teacher education support materials.
There is an important connection between the development of the support materials and the research.The materials will be conceptualised within the overall framework of these four concepts. The key question for the support materials is “What kind of teacher education support materials will improve the quality of teacher education programmes and the quality of classroom teaching practice of graduates of those programmes?” This is supported by questions in relation to each of the four concepts:
- What constitutes quality materials?
- How can materials give epistemological access for students?
- How do teacher education support materials influence and support the development of teacher identity?
- What is the effect of teacher education support materials on teaching / teacher practice?
The macro concepts, and other PhD and Masters research in the Cape Consortium, will help to inform the kinds of materials we produce and how the materials are written. We will be able to analyse, develop and refine theories of quality, access, teacher identity and teacher practice and apply those in the way we design and develop teacher education support materials.
A Materials Development Interest and Writing Group moodle space has been set up to facilitate project members discussing and exploring issues around materials design and development. We intend that this will become a community of practice in which members learn about materials design and development through sharing of expertise and experience, supported by Saide playing a mentoring role, particularly for the writers.
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