Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)

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A social realist perspective of academic advising in a South African higher education context: A study of practices and practitioners
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) De Klerk, Danie; Dison, Laura
The South African higher education sector has numerous challenges to contend with. Students' prospects of success are often vulnerable to uneven secondary schooling, structural and material constraints, massification of the sector, and a range of other factors. In this thesis, I argue that academic advising has the potential to help find responsive and sustainable solutions to address these challenges. Academic advising is well established in the global north. In contrast, it remains an emerging field of practice in South Africa, with a dearth of literature about how advising is developed and practiced within the country’s unique higher education context. This thesis aims to contribute to the limited knowledge base about advising as a practice and the work of academic advisors as practitioners in South Africa. The study provides a social realist perspective of the emergence of advising within a South African higher education context. It draws on Margaret Archer’s work on structure, culture, and agency, the morphogenetic approach, and the notion of stratified layers of social reality to analyse data, make inferences, and draw conclusions. This is a qualitative study that adopts a mixed methods approach. The research paradigm is phenomenological, while phenomenographic principles are used selectively to advance the objectives of the study. The data that informs the study consists of a quantitative baseline dataset and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 academic advisors working at the University of the Witwatersrand. As this is a PhD by publication, the thesis consists of four interconnected papers (i.e., chapters), bookended by introduction and conclusion chapters. The first paper provides insights about advising as gleaned from the baseline data, while the second draws on the same data to highlight the impact of students’ structural and material constraints on the work of academic advisors. Papers three and four use interview data to glean academic advisor insights about advising prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. The thesis concludes by highlighting the transformative potential of academic advising for South African higher education yet cautions that a major shift in the way advising is perceived and practiced is required for its potential to be realised.
Investigation of complex multilingual practices of learners and teachers in a Johannesburg school
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Matariro, Mariyeni; Makalela, Leketi
This thesis investigates the experiences and affordances of using more than two languages for literacy development for Grade 8 learners in a Johannesburg multilingual school. It investigates how languages are used in the teaching and learning of multilingual senior phase learners and what this affords them in the development of literacy in selected subjects. Underpinned by the sociolinguistic view of literacy the study adopted translanguaging and Ubuntu translanguaging as both conceptual and theoretical frameworks. A Johannesburg high school was purposefully chosen as the research site. Adopting an ethnographic case study design a single class was purposefully chosen to participate in this study. Over a period of 16 weeks data was collected in the form of observations, semi structured interviews, metacognitive reflections, focus group discussions and mediated translanguaging. Three teachers who taught this class, Natural Sciences, English, and Social Sciences also took part in this study. Data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The collected data was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In analyzing the collected data, the thesis demonstrated a huge mismatch between the learner’s language practices and the ways they are expected to use language in the school setting. The hegemony of the English language is overpowering even though the context is a rich multilingual space among both the teachers and the learners. This was evident in classroom language use, school notices, classroom display charts and the absence of any other language except English and very little Afrikaans within the school. Besides this, teacher practices indicated a huge monolingual bias which favors English even though both learners and teachers are fluent in the same languages that are not languages of the school. The study also demystifies the myth that learners do not want to be associated or to learn in their own languages. This cohort of learners who participated in this study demanded the use of their languages within the school for teaching and learning. However, for as much as the learners would want their languages included, they are not familiar with the orthography of the languages and as a result they cannot read or write in those languages. The study also found that translanguaging and UT are a good starting point for teaching learners with complex linguistic profiles. However, besides the work on UT there is very little translanguaging work that is informed by research carried out in Africa. Consequently, most translanguaging work refers to the use of two languages, a Western view that does not hold in this context. The study gravitates from this weak view of translanguaging and calls for further research for translanguaging work, which delves deeper into the realities of African contexts to understand and appreciate the pervasiveness of multilingualism in this context and leverage on it as a resource for teaching and learning.
Exploring Grade 10 physical science teachers’ pedagogical approaches to the Electricity topic in selected Vryheid rural schools, KwaZulu-Natal Province
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Zulu, Sphamandla Innocent; Nkambule, Thabisile
In a context often characterised by lack of resources, with its peoples’ agencies often ignored, how do teachers teach difficult yet practical science topics in rural classrooms? This question was asked in a context where teaching is described as a complex task. Without overlooking teachers‘ individual agency, teaching science in rural schools is an arduous undertaking. Science teachers require sufficient and appropriate content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge for enhanced science teaching and learning experiences. Understanding teachers‘ pedagogical knowledge was the interest of this study. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore teachers‘ pedagogical approaches during the Electricity lessons in Grade 10 rural classrooms and examine teachers‘ pedagogical reasoning for the observed teaching approaches. The paucity of physical science education research in rural schools has not been able to offer an account of teachers‘ pedagogical approaches and what influences their pedagogical practices within rural classrooms. Hence, the current study as introductory for other science education researchers in researching physical science teaching and learning in rural schools. The present study used Mavhunga‘s (2012) topic specific pedagogical content knowledge (tsPCK) as a theoretical framework focusing on all five components of the theory. To supplement tsPCK, Scott et al.‘s. (2011) pedagogical link-making (PLM) was also used in identifying and discussing the nuances of teachers‘ pedagogical approaches during electricity lessons. I used a collective case study design and adopted a qualitative research approach and classroom observations, video-stimulated recall interviews (VSRI‘s), and semi-structured interviews as methods of data generation. The case study focused on three teachers from Vryheid rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, to investigate their classroom practices, particularly, pedagogical approaches to Electricity topic and factors that shape their teaching of the topic. The three teachers were purposefully and conveniently selected. To guide this case study investigation, the main research question of the study was: How do Grade 10 rural physical science teachers teach the Electricity topic? The findings of this study revealed that the teaching of Electricity topic requires multiple representations at symbolic, macro, and sub-microscopic levels; and that explicit links of these representations are vital for science knowledge building. Teachers used mostly symbolic level, with some teachers limitedly representing the Electricity topic macroscopically through practical work (hands-on practical work and demonstrations). Important also was the contextualized level of representations including analogies that teachers used to teach the topic. Moreover, teachers constantly worked with learners‘ prior knowledge in their facilitation methods while also considering curricular sequencing and content skills linkage made within and across the lessons. Also, some observed electricity concepts or processes proved to be difficult for teachers to teach, while, I acknowledge the various conceptual teaching approaches that teachers used to ensure deep understanding of the topic of Electricity including those concepts that seemed difficult to teach. Other observable teachers‘ approaches included the dominance of question and answer teaching approach and teacher-centered approach, with some subject-matter centered approach and limited learner-centered approach. All three teachers taught the same topic differently. During VSRI and semi-structured interviews, teachers commented on their teaching for assessment purposes. Teachers‘ pedagogical approaches were influenced by various factors including teachers‘ teaching and learning experiences, learners‘ prior knowledge, teaching for compliance, teaching for assessment (examination), availability and appropriate use of science laboratory apparatus for Electricity topic. Given the findings of this study, I recommend among other things, research intervention intending to equip rural teachers with pedagogical skills for teaching physical science topics including Electricity topic.
Professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy: What teacher talk in professional communities reveals about teacher professional identity and agency
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Kimani, Wacango Muguro; Brodie, Karin; Walton, Elizabeth
In-service teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy seeks to address the perceived lack of capacity for teaching in inclusive classrooms in South Africa. Research suggests that teachers feel underprepared for this task, and that the prevalent delivery models for this learning, workshops, and short courses, have done little to enable sustained inclusive practices. This study took a new direction, arguing that simply acquiring knowledge and skills for inclusive teaching misses the need to focus on teacher professional identity and agency. The professional and institutional change required for teachers to be pedagogically responsive to a range of learners, demands that professional learning address teachers’ immediate realities, be a long-term, school-based professional learning programme. A three-year study in a full-service school in Johannesburg, South Africa, investigated teacher talk within professional learning communities (PLCs). PLCs are situated in practice and can promote and sustain teachers’ learning over an extended period. Wenger’s (1998) theory of learning as social practice and Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) theory of identity as narrative provided analytical insights into identity and agency in the PLCs. The subject focus of the PLCs was inclusive pedagogy, and the analysis was based on the Inclusive Pedagogical Approach in Action (IPAA) (Florian & Spratt, 2013). Using a Critical interpretivism perspective, teacher talk in the PLCs and individual teacher interviews were analysed. Analysis of teacher talk in relation to the IPAA revealed two themes of talk: Inclusive Talk and Difference Talk. “Difference Talk” showed that the enactment of inclusion cannot be rigidly defined and demarcated in advance in every situation or in every instance or be abstracted from time and place. A nuanced interpretation of difference may help researchers avoid the binary distinctions about inclusive education and inclusive pedagogy and deficit interpretations about teachers’ practices. The findings show that even though teachers talked about enacting inclusive pedagogy they did not consider themselves inclusive educators. They implied that since they had not had ‘special education training’ they could not consider themselves as inclusive educators despite saying that they had taught in an inclusive manner. Participation in the PLCs enabled teachers to negotiate meaning and create a coherent community. A coherent community allowed teachers to challenge their perspectives about teaching inclusively and to share their experiences. This study contributes a conceptual understanding of the interplay between teachers’ professional identity and the sociocultural contexts of PLCs, and how teacher talk can mediate teacher learning for inclusive pedagogy. The findings could be of interest to teacher educators in designing professional learning communities for inclusive pedagogy.
The Development and Validation of a Theoretical Construct Describing Content Knowledge for Teaching Science: A Case Study with Organic Chemistry
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Ndlovu, Bongani Prince; Mavhunga, Elizabeth
The distinction between academic disciplines and school subjects has not found enough attention in teacher education research. Thus, a question about the nature of content knowledge suitable for pre-service teacher education and as a base for PCK development in science was raised. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize and validate a theoretical construct that describes a version of content knowledge appropriate for training secondary school science teachers. This construct was termed Teacher-related Science Content Knowledge (TerSCK). The study followed the traditional two-step process of developing a theoretical construct. The first phase entailed the conceptualization of the envisaged theoretical construct through a systematic literature review. This was followed by the second phase which empirically proved the validity of the conceptualization as a theoretical construct TerSCK. The validation of the conceptualization was located in the methodology class of the 3rd year pre-service science teachers (PSTs), who majored in physical sciences. As such, the study employed a mixed-method research design with a whole class sample of 35 PSTs. The PSTs were exposed to a TerSCK-based intervention to explore various shifts in the quality of their content knowledge for teaching Organic Chemistry. The findings from the systematic review presented TerSCK as a unique construct located between the academic discipline content and the school science content knowledge. The construct is described through three dimensions that describe the relationship between academic discipline and school subjects. These relational dimensions are the “logical, epistemological and social dimensions”. Translating the relational dimensions into the curriculum through Schwab’s three faces yielded five curriculum elements of TerSCK. These are (i) Fundamentals of the discipline on the topic, (ii) Interconnections between the concepts that make up the fundamental concepts, (iii) Tensions emerging from the process of filtering the discipline fundamentals into the school curriculum scope, (iv) Scientific and other modes of inquiry from other disciplines, and (v) Cultivating social agency. Findings emerging from the empirical study presented the TerSCK construct as valid based on the acceptable calculated fit statistics values at 0.5 to 1.5 and -2.0 to +2.0 for MNSQ and ZSTD, respectively. The empirical findings further indicated that participant PSTs experienced a significant improvement in the quality of TerSCK after the intervention. Implications for initial teacher education have been drawn and the recommendations include large-scale research on the nature of TerSCK in organic chemistry and other chemistry curriculum topics.
Towards a Decolonized and Africanized School History Curriculum in post apartheid South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Maluleka, Paul; Ramoupi, Neo Lekgotla; Mathebula, Thokozani
This study explores and discusses ways in which the School History Curriculum (SHC) in South Africa was designed by colonialists to depict their history favourably and how this continues to be the case after independence. The study also investigates ways in which the SHC could be decolonized and Africanized, especially where knowledge building is a concern. This is done both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, a critical decolonial conceptual framework strengthened with Bernstein’s Code Theory and Pedagogic Device, Maton’s Epistemic-Pedagogic Device, and Legitimation Code Theory’s Autonomy dimension were employed. Firstly, to highlight how the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, coloniality, and their monolithic epistemic nature, and to some extent, their alienating pedagogic and assessment practices, continue to underpin the SHC in post-apartheid South Africa. Secondly, to explore conceptual ways in which decoloniality could be applied in curriculum knowledge building and its structures in cumulative and principled ways. This was done to counter much of the knowledge blindness that characterize sociology of education including many of the calls for decolonization and Africanization. In turn, this was meant to reposition scholarship on decolonization and Africanization to also be vested in a sociological approach to knowledge and curriculum that is vested in investigating the relations within knowledge and curriculum and their intrinsic structures. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were used as methods of generating empirical data, with descriptive and interpretive elements of data analysis used to engage the data. Empirically, four in-service history educators from Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces were purposefully and conveniently selected. The purpose of interviewing in-service history educators was to gain insights into how they thought of the current SHC. Whether, according to them, calls to decolonize and Africanize the SHC were imperative and justified, and how they could be carried out. Both the conceptual and empirical findings reveal that there is a need to decolonize and Africanize SHC in post-apartheid South Africa given that its knowledge base is still characterized by the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, and coloniality. To achieve this, both the conceptual and empirical findings pointed out the need to reimagine and construct epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies that not only move beyond universal explanations of the world; but embrace trans-modernist and pluriversal explanations of the world. These are informed and shaped by time and the place, perspective, orientation, and situatedness of their authors. Secondly, the findings of the study revealed how historical knowledge is both dialectically and intersectionally produced, recontextualized and reproduced in the three fields of practice. Interrogating critically who are the knowers that are legitimated and de-legitimated in all these processes, can enable us to better understand the colonizing gaze that continues to characterize the SHC. It can also allow us to better understand how these fields of practice can also be seen as spaces where de-legitimated knowledge and knowers are recentred and where decolonization and Africanization can happen. This would see the continued marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and cultural practices in the SHC at the altar of Eurocentric methods being disrupted. Thirdly, the findings also pointed out that presently CAPS SHC does not have a settled African philosophy (of education): it is torn between two worlds, i.e., the universal and the particular. In a strict education for Africanization sense, the SHC in post-apartheid South African schools should be perceived first and foremost as a professional philosophical project that African philosophers in higher education devote their time and energy to. Second, a sage project that oMakhulu’s as part of the broader school communities help in-service history educators and their learners through oral history and research projects to address problems and deal with issues facing locals. Last, but not least, it should be perceived as a hermeneutic project that brings philosophy down from the sky, i.e., helps both in-service educators and their learners to make practical sense of deep philosophical issues in post-apartheid South African schools.
Investigating the Emotional Dimension of Subject Advisers’ Work with Teachers
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Nwachukwu, Chioma; Steinberg, Carola
This doctoral thesis investigates the emotional dimension of subject advisers’ work with teachers. The emotional aspect of subject advisers’ work is relatively under-researched. So, this study aims to find out how subject advisers in two differently performing Gauteng districts think and feel about their work with teachers. A conceptual framework was developed using Nussbaum’s (2003) understanding that emotions are always directed at an “object”, Turner’s (2014) understandings that emotions are a valued resource and are unequally distributed, and Frijda’s (1986) understanding that emotions are relevance signalling mechanisms. The conceptual framework also draws on Hochschild (1979; 1983), Zembylas (2002; 2006) and Steinberg (2008; 2014) to operationalize the concepts of emotional rules and emotional labour. The conceptual framework comprises of three concepts: emotions, emotional rules and emotional labour, utilized as a conceptual and analytical lens for analysing subject advisers’ work. The conceptual framework opens opportunities for further research into subject advisers’ emotions. Using a basic interpretive qualitative approach, the study focuses on nine subject advisers’ experiences of their work with teachers. Individual interviews and document reviews provided most of the data for this study. Key findings that arise from this study are that the subject advisers are frustrated at the inability to mediate their monitoring and support roles, which generates tensions that complicate the interaction between subject advisers and teachers. Additionally, the disempowering emotions of subject advisers is caused by lack of influence. Even so, the subject adviser-teacher relationship is complicated by competing power dynamics. However, subject advisers are committed to their jobs despite the challenges they encounter. Their emotional labour shows that subject advisers struggle to escape the negative impressions teachers have about them, while aiming to better support teachers. Their emotional rules show how they strive to fulfil their personal moral mandate of improving the education system. The key insight gained is that subject advisers’ relationship with teachers can be improved, if both teachers and subject advisers commit themselves to an open trusting relationship through proper teacher support. Real cooperation between teachers and subject advisers is possible if the work subject advisers do with teachers is premised on knowledge sharing, rather than on monitoring for compliance.
University of Mpumalanga Students' Use of Moodle in Promoting Mathematics Self-Directed Learning
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Makhubele, Yeyisani Evans; Makonye, Judah Paul
Research indicates that most students admitted at universities are underprepared in terms of self-directed learning. There is evidence that suggests that students who are not self-directed learners face a greater risk of failure when placed in the rich but complex environment of online learning. This mixed-method study investigates the students’ experiences on Moodle in promoting mathematics self-directed learning (SDL). This study utilises an explanatory sequential mixed method design and a pragmatic paradigm for data collection. The study used four data sources, namely, the pre-evaluation questionnaires (150 participants), the post evaluation questionnaires (150 participants), the action logs and semi-structured interviews with six (N = 6) participants who were randomly selected. Two students were selected from one standard deviation of the mean, two from one standard deviation above the mean, and two from one standard deviation below the mean. This selection provided a varied reflection of the students’ experiences than concentrating solely on the high or low end. The study sought to answer the following research question: What relationship exists between Moodle Learning Management system and students’ self-directed learning? And how do students use Moodle Learning Management system for self-directed learning? These research questions were underpinned by a specific set of research objectives. These research objectives were aimed at identifying the relationship that exists between Moodle Learning management system and students’ self-directed learning, and also evaluating the readiness level of self-directed learning among first year students. This study utilises the Planned E-learning Interactions Framework. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The pre-evaluation questionnaire was used to measure the higher or lower readiness for students’ SDL. 150 students completed this pre-evaluation questionnaire. The overall data analysis of the pre-evaluation questionnaire shows that the total mean for all the questions is 2.87, and the standard deviation is 0.88. The relative standard deviation (RSD) is therefore 2.9 ± 30.7%. This shows that the data is tightly clustered around the mean which is 2.9. The data is spread around the undecided score which is three. The main findings from the pre-evaluation questionnaire indicate that the majority of first year students lacked the technological skills needed to manoeuvre the Moodle platform. Their self-directed learning skills were low, and they display a low positive attitude towards Moodle learning. A post-evaluation questionnaire was then administered to measure the higher or lower readiness for students’ SDL after Moodle learning intervention strategies were implemented. 150 students completed this post-evaluation questionnaire. used. In terms of the post evaluation questionnaire, the overall data analysis shows that the total mean for all the questions is 4.43, and the standard deviation is 0.68. The relative standard deviation (RSD) is 4.3 ± 15.3%. This shows that the data is tightly clustered around the mean which is 4.3. The 15.3% shows more data is spread around four relative standard deviation which confirms that the participants’ choices are closer to the mean, which is itself closer to the undecided score. The data shows that students have high self-management skills, high desire for mathematics learning and display high self-concept skills in their learning. Students therefore display high positive attitude towards Moodle teaching and learning. The qualitative findings indicate that students have the capacity to take ownership of their learning in ways exemplified by self-directed learners. This study recommends that universities should invest a significant amount of energy and resources in orientation programs designed to assist first-year students in developing a sense of self as students and a sense of affiliation with their institution and course. With increasing use of information and communication technologies in education, students entering university need a basic level of computer proficiency to be able to access course material and complete assignments. Computer basic skills assist and encourage students to be self-directed, autonomous learners.
Dental occupations in transition: Boundary contestation and curricula for Oral hygienists in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Vergotine, Glynnis; Allais, Stephanie; Shalem, Yael
This study sought to understand how changes to the scope and autonomy of the oral hygiene occupation in South Africa have influenced relations among dental occupations. Over the past two decades, legislative advances in South Africa have sanctioned new possibilities for mid-level dental occupations such as oral hygienists, allowing them greater independence and additional procedures. The division of labour within the dental profession is that oral hygienists and dental therapists supplement the work that dentists do by offering some of the basic dental services. The changes to oral hygienists’ scope and independence have initiated boundary contestations around the work and training of dental professionals. The qualitative study involved analysing relevant regulatory documents and included semi-structured interviews with representatives of professional bodies and regulatory bodies as well as practitioners and lecturers representing the three dental occupations, and curriculum analyses. A key empirical finding is that the regulatory changes have not been implemented and this is so not only because of contestations by dentists. The study highlights boundary contestations between dentists and oral hygienists. These contestations are about specific procedures in the expanded scope of practice and the opportunity for hygienists to practice independently. The study found that boundaries have been established from outside of the oral hygiene occupation by dentists, to control their work and training. Dentists’ power is exhibited in the labour market and the education and training arena and provides justifications for why the official legislative changes in scope are not being implemented. Despite this, hygienists also place boundaries on themselves, so within the occupation, there are various ways in which hygienists limit their advancement. The hygienists are hesitant to perform certain procedures and have not opened independent practices. This suggests that pressure to narrow the scope and autonomy may not only come from outside of occupations but also from the inside of an occupation. The thesis shows a web of power relations between occupations and provides insights into a dominant occupation controlling the jurisdiction of subordinate occupations; but more unusually, it reveals the dynamics within the mid-level occupation that stifle its advancement.
Exploring a culture of reading: A case study in an under-resourced South African primary school
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Biesman-Simons, Claire; Dixon, Kerryn
South Africa faces an undeniable literacy crisis. Since 2000, there have been increasing calls for the creation of a culture of reading to address this crisis. This has been on the part of the South African government, academia and civil society. However, this has occurred without clear consensus on the term’s meaning and with little explanation of how a poorly-defined concept with its origins in the Global North would achieve this outcome. How this term has achieved such national prominence and the ways it affects school practices motivated this research. The first phase of the study investigated how the term “culture of reading” functions in national government education discourse, and its impact on the country’s reading landscape. This was followed by an ethnographic-style case study exploring the factors that shaped a culture of reading at a no-fee primary school, situated on the Cape Flats in Cape Town. Drawing on a review of more than 400 South African, African and global texts that reference “culture of reading”, this study provides a definition of a culture of reading that is appropriate for the African context, and central to the analysis of this study. To investigate how the term “culture of reading” functions in government discourse, I performed a textual analysis of a corpus of 58 publicly available texts produced by the South African government from 2000 to 2019. The analysis reveals an uncritical faith in a culture of reading as fundamental to improved reading levels despite there being no clarity on the term’s meaning or evidence of tangible outcomes in learners’ reading achievement. Bourdieu’s notion of doxa is drawn on to demonstrate how the government’s consistent return to an ill-defined Global Northern ideal is indicative of a misunderstanding of what reading is and can achieve, and of a need to further grapple with the complexities of South Africa’s reading landscape. Approaching reading from a socio-cultural perspective, the ethnographic-style case study investigates how habitus, capital and field (Bourdieu, 1990b) interact to shape school reading practices, and how the resulting culture of reading is reflected in one school’s reading practices. The case study shows the contextual realities and conditions in the field that affect the promotion of a culture of reading. Data was generated from interviews with 51 participants, classroom and schoolwide observations, photo elicitation, and document reviews which were subjected to a thematic analysis. Findings indicate that despite the evident value that staff and most learners attribute to reading and their positive dispositions towards reading (i.e. their habitus), the school’s culture of reading is undermined by external and internal forces. This is most notably with regard to inappropriate curriculum demands, a multilingual learner body restricted to learning in English, the impact of a community fraught with violence, as well as a dysfunctional culture of teaching and learning that has resulted in a divided staff body and poor discipline. Bourdieu’s attention to how no field exists in isolation is demonstrated by educators’ battles to promote reading in an education field that does not account sufficiently for social, cultural and economic contextual realities. Data generated in the Grade 5 classroom evidenced that agentive educators, equipped with the necessary cultural capital, can construct a sub-field that supports a culture of reading in spite of these constraints. However, this is precarious, and findings from the Grade 1 classroom demonstrated how overlapping fields and a dysfunctional culture of teaching and learning constrained an experienced educator, impacting on her wellbeing. The study highlights that there are many ways in which schools and educators can navigate and overcome institutional constraints that threaten South African learners’ reading development. The research highlights the need for closer alignment between government’s expectations of schools and their contextual realities, with educators’ professional and emotional wellbeing needing to be prioritised. Recommendations for research include further investigation into learners’ home and community language and literacy practices and how these practices can be built on at school.

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