Research 

This study, embedded in a sociology of education framework, uses Bernstein’s concept of framing to compare and contrast two Grade R classes in the Western Cape, South Africa. It seeks to answer the following question: What are the differences, if any, between pedagogic practices in two Grade R classes, particularly in the transmission of literacy. One Grade R class is attached to an early childhood development centre, the other to a formal primary school. Using a qualitative approach to investigate the transmission process between teacher and learners, it combines a deductive approach, derived from the work of Dickenson and Smith’s studies on interactions during storybook reading, and an inductive approach, which develops categories for analysis from the data. First looking broadly at all tasks related to literacy development, the study narrows its focus to engagement with narrative tasks in order to make visible the nature of the transmission of literacy, particularly the degree of control that was applied by the teachers in both settings. It found that, despite their difference in location and formality, both classes offer remarkably similar pedagogic relationships within which learners receive minimal exposure to text, where the organisation of the tasks is communalised and the task requirements are restricted in nature. It concludes that the teachers in both settings exercise a strong degree of control (framing) over the learning process, resulting in limited opportunities for literacy engagement on the part of the learners. 

Thesis (MEd)--University of Cape Town, 2014