The specialisation of pedagogic identities in initial mathematics teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the differential specialisation of the consciousness and conscience of mathematics teachers through initial mathematics teacher education programmes in post-apartheid South Africa. The focus is specifically on the organisation of knowledges and practices in the new Bachelor of Education for secondary teachers (Grades 8 – 12), and the specialisation of pedagogic identity through these programmes. The study is located at different levels within the system as a whole, beginning with policy and regulations for teacher education curricula produced within the Official Recontextualising Field (ORF), moving to consider the production of curricula within the Pedagogic Recontextualising Field (PRF) as a whole and the positioning of different Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the PRF with respect to the ORF, and finally moving to focus on two specific HEIs selected in terms of their positioning within the teacher education landscape. The study is therefore divided into three parts. The first part examines the policy, curriculum and institutional context of the teacher education landscape in post apartheid South Africa. It draws on the theoretical insights of Basil Bernstein (1996, 1999, 2000) to analyse the context of teacher education and the regulatory conditions under which HEIs operate and produce their curricula for initial mathematics teachers in and for South Africa. It provides a description of the ORF and official pedagogic identities projected from South African policy, in terms of the kind of teachers and knowledge expected by the post-apartheid education system. This includes an examination of official school mathematical knowledge and practices embedded within new curriculum statements, and identification of orientations to school mathematical knowledge expected by the new policies. The second part of the study is a survey of the design of initial mathematics teacher education programmes offered by all public HEIs across the system in response to post apartheid regulatory frameworks and policies analysed in the first phase of the study. An analysis of the curriculum documents produced within the pedagogic recontextualising field, specifically different knowledge forms and practices that different HEIs include in their design documents, is provided. This shows that there are a range of differences in curricula across the system and institutions interpret and implement policy in a variety of ways. The analysis is used to identify the positioning of the various institutions with respect to the official recontextualising field, and provides a basis for the selection of two institutions in which in-depth case studies are carried out. The third part of the study focuses on the two cases selected from the analysis of curricula in the PRF. These cases represent two extremes within the institutional landscape of teacher education in South Africa. One institution is urban, historically advantaged, relatively wealthy and connected into contemporary networked society and the information economy. The other is rural, historically disadvantaged, relatively poor and isolated. The case studies are carried out in two phases. In the first, the cases are considered from the perspective of the three message systems operating at the institutional level: curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Using a methodology of interpretation and theoretical referents which draw on Bernstein (1996, 2000) and Hegel as recontextualised by Davis (2005), layered descriptions of the three message systems operating at each institution are produced. The analyses enable a description of pedagogic subjects (knowledge and persons) projected from each institutional context. In the second phase a selection of the institutions ‘good’ pedagogic subjects (successful student teachers) are considered. Drawing on Bernstein (1996, 2000), Davis (2005), Lacan (2002) and Zizek (1989, 2006), students’ talk and writing are analysed and narratives are produced which enable an interpretation of identification and identity fields operating within each pedagogic context. The case studies produce ‘thick’ descriptions and theorised interpretations of what is offered by the institutions in their initial mathematics teacher education programmes together with descriptions of their intended ‘good’ subjects (knowledge and persons). These are rubbed up against the identities projected by the ‘good’ pedagogic subjects (student teachers) themselves. A cross-case analysis enables insights into the way in which the different curricula differentially specialise the consciousness and conscience of their initial teachers and raises questions for the field of mathematics teacher education more broadly. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. Firstly it contributes methodologically by using a combination of Thompson’s (1990) methodology of interpretation together with Bernstein’s (1996) notion of languages of description and thus enables the production and extension of a number of complementary models for analysing curricula, pedagogy and assessment in teacher education, as well as a methodology for examining the identities of pedagogised subjects (student teachers). Secondly the thesis points to further research that should focus on relationships between different agents and agencies in the production of new teachers and consider the relations between different aspects of knowledge and practices selected into the initial teacher education programme as central to understanding quality in teacher education.