College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item TEACHING CITIZENSHIP & DEMOCRACY IN A NEW DEMOCRACY: PEDAGOGY, CURRICULUM & TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN SOUTH AFRICA(2017) Fogle-Donmoyer, Amanda; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 2014, twenty years had passed since the first free elections, the birth of democracy and implementation of transitional educational reforms in South Africa. While efforts to create an education system based on human rights, democracy, equality, and unity were made, questions remain about how teachers should address these principles in their classrooms. It is difficult to determine, therefore, how citizenship and democracy education should be taught and how teachers perceive their role as educators of South Africa’s new generation of democratic citizens. Using Davies’ and Jansen’s concepts of post-conflict pedagogy, this dissertation investigates how teachers responsible for citizenship and democracy education in South Africa perceive the abstract topics of citizenship and democracy and how their beliefs, backgrounds, and life experiences influence how they present the national curriculum to their learners. In order to answer these questions, a multiple and comparative case study of sixteen teacher participants at three schools was carried out in Durban, South Africa. Using in-depth interviews, classroom observation, and document review as data collection methods, the dissertation investigates how teachers’ beliefs, the national curriculum and teaching methods intersected. Data analysis was conducted through thematic coding. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs and experiences with democracy shape how they teach civic education topics, especially concerning their racial background and experiences during apartheid and the democratic transition. Inequalities in school resources also limit pedagogical choices, especially in methods designed to educate active and informed citizens.Item Living Feminism in the Academy: South African Women Tell Their Stories(2009) Corneilse, Carol; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies about North American and European women predominate the literature on gender issues in higher education, particularly research that focuses on female academics who are self-described feminists. The literature tells us that there are differences between the institutional experiences of feminist faculty, as opposed to female faculty in general. Most universities are male-dominated institutions and inequalities in status, rank, and salary persist, although the gaps have shrunk over time. Female faculty who self-identify as feminists are more likely to challenge discriminatory institutional practices, because feminism, by its nature, challenges the status quo. And they are more likely to be ostracized and ridiculed when they confront unequal treatment. Yet the presence of feminists in the academy signals their belief in its value as an institution. Universities offer the intellectual space to theorize about women's position in society, to generate knowledge that brings about greater understanding of women's lives, and to develop strategies for change. There is a small, but growing, body of literature documenting the experiences of female faculty in South Africa's higher education institutions. Few studies have focused on feminist faculty, however. In this qualitative study, six diverse women share their experiences of being feminist faculty in South African universities over a thirty-year period, beginning in the early 1970s. Their personal narratives begin in their formative childhood years when they first become aware of social injustice. The study documents their growing feminist consciousness, their initial encounters with feminist theories, their struggles as university and community activists, and as young faculty. The women recall pivotal events and experiences that have shaped them, and describe what it has been like to live out their feminist values on a daily basis in South Africa's universities.Item Encountering Faces Of The Other: A Phenomenological Study Of American High School Students Journeying Through South Africa(2004-07-06) Garran, Christopher Scott; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT TITLE OF DISSERTATION: ENCOUNTERING FACES OF THE OTHER: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS JOURNEYING THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA Christopher Scott Garran, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Francine Hultgren Department of Education Policy & Leadership In this phenomenological study, I explore the lived experience of American high school students encountering the Other within South Africa. My research question wonders, "While dwelling with one-an-Other, what is the experience like for my students to journey to the place of South Africa and to encounter the primary Other of the people, the Other of nature and the Other of social justice?" My exploration relies heavily upon the works of Levinas, Heidegger and Freire. As a research guide, van Manen keeps me attuned pedagogically. Through the de-tour and the tension of the encounter experience, I follow my students' voices. As I dig deep into their lived experience of encountering the face of the South African Other, I unearth the phenomenon's essential structures. A preliminary study with two students reveals in the initial encounter a "starting from oneself" where they feel a captured, advertised and alienated presence. In going face-to-face and in unpacking their prejudices, they place the Other behind an exotic mask. Considering the lived place of South Africa, these two students speak to a dwelling together and a wandering-out. As I dig deeper, the eight students of my study lead me toward the tensions within South Africa's beautiful, poor places. In these lived places, the Other's face summons my students and guilt spreads across their being. In seeing the Other, my students begin to realize that they, too, are watched. They begin to recognize the Other in the self and the self in the Other. Fractured by their encounter, my students step away from the ego-self. They begin to homestead and to construct an-Other-self. Standing on the frontier of transformation, my students begin to cultivate a self that crosses borders, holds an awareness of its attachment to the world and feels its unfinishedness. Finally, I suggest that teachers and students must lend their presence to one-an-Other while re-implacing themselves out in the world of lived experience. Intervening in the world, together as teacher and students, we cultivate the pedagogical conditions for transformative, social justice education.