School of Education

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Start date: 2010Subject: search.filters.subject.Boundary crossing

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    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, Caleb
    Few 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.
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    Boundary objects and boundary crossing for numeracy teaching
    (Springer, 2015) Venkat, Hamsa; Winter, Mark
    In this paper, we share analysis of an episode of a pre-service teacher’s handling of a map artefact within his practicum teaching of ‘Mathematical Literacy’ in South Africa. Mathematical Literacy, as a post-compulsory phase subject in the South African curriculum, shares many of the aims of numeracy as described in the international literature— including approaches based on the inclusion of real life contexts and a trajectory geared towards work, life and citizenship. Our attention in this paper is focused specifically on artefacts at the boundary of mathematical and contextual activities. We use analysis of the empirical handling of artefacts cast as ‘boundary objects’ to argue the need for ‘boundary crossing’ between mathematical and contextual activities as a critical feature of numeracy teaching. We pay particular attention to the differing conventions and extents of applicability of rules associated with boundary artefacts when working with mathematical or contextual perspectives. Our findings suggest the need to consider boundary objects more seriously within numeracy teacher education, with specific attention to the ways in which they are configured on both sides of the boundary in order to deal effectively with explanations and interactions in classrooms aiming to promote numeracy.