School of Education
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Item Using students’ experiences of lectures as a lens for learning about teaching pre-service teachers: A methodological approach to transformative practice through self-study.(Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Education (NMMU), 2018-09) Nyamupangedengu, Eunice; Mandikonza, CalebFew higher education institutions have training or induction programmes that prepare academics to teach pre-service teachers. How can academics develop and ascertain teaching practices that are appropriate and effective for teaching pre-service teachers? In this self-study, I used Brookfield’s four lenses to inform my teaching. Together with a critical friend, I used the community of practice theory and the metaphors of boundary crossing and boundary objects to interrogate my teaching and students’ learning using students’ experiences as the stimulus for reflection. Findings from this study revealed that pre-service teachers take on multiple identities of teacher, learner, and university student during teaching and learning activities that influence what they learn. The study showed that the pedagogical choices teacher educators make can hinder meaningful learning if they are not aligned to students’ identities. The study also showed that investigating and critically reflecting on students’ experiences of lectures can be an effective methodological approach for identifying and understanding effective practices for teaching and preparing pre-service teachers. The article concludes by arguing and advocating for teacher educators, as experts in a community of practice, to decolonise their classrooms by making them safe spaces for critical dialogue that allows students’ voices and experiences to be heard. Such a practice has the potential to create a community of practice that is characterised by shared knowledge, values, and standards.Item Finding a voice: Reflections on a long journey from silent student to confident teacher educator(Unisa, 2014) Nyamupangedengu, EuniceIn this article, the author narrates and reflects on challenges that she has faced throughout her academic journey from being a school learner and a university student to a teacher and a teacher educator – challenges that she attributes mainly to her limited communicative competence in English. This reflective examination of her experiences is informed by Bourdieu’s (1991) cultural capital theory (CCT), specifically the concepts of habitus, field and linguistic capital. The author argues that the ability to speak, read and write English in Zimbabwe, her own country, and in South Africa constitutes linguistic capital and that those who do not possess such capital may have limited access to a country’s desirable goods and positions. Based on what she has experienced, she makes some recommendations for recognising and nurturing students’ home language, while at the same time, because English has become such a powerful language locally and globally, creating chances for students to become proficient in this language in order to maximise their opportunities in life.