Collaborative Space in South African Schools: A Comparative Perspective

Abrahams, Mark

doi:10.2307/2668168

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Researchers have discussed the importance of the relationships that occur in the teachers' lounge (Abrahams 1997;Ben-Peretz and Schonmann 2000;Ben-Peretz, Schonmann, and Kupermintz 1999;Kainan 1997Kainan , 2002McGregor 2003;Paine, Fang, and Wilson 2003;Woods 1984), but little research exists on how these places came to be and why they are seen as valuable to teachers. This ethnography addresses this gap by taking a step back to examine the history and the teachers' continual adaptability, as they established and maintained these restorative places.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(506) Applied to the school context, teachers often pick restorative places that are connected to the people within it. The people and interactions create meaning and value, and the psychological support to cope with the profession (Abrahams 1997;Mawhinney 2008Mawhinney , 2010Paine, Fang, and Wilson 2003;Woods 1984). Thus, it is important to understand how teachers use these places restoratively.…”

Section: Restorative Placesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, the people in these places use humor to cope with the stresses of the profession (Mawhinney 2008;Woods 1984). Lastly, educators use teachers' lounges as a place to share professional ideas (Abrahams 1997;Mawhinney 2010;Paine, Fang, and Wilson 2003) and discuss with colleagues about supports for classroom instruction (Ben-Peretz, Schonmann, and Kupermintz 1999). Additionally, Betrabet Gulwadi (2006) looks at the restorative places that teachers chose outside of school grounds.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Creation of Restorative Places for Teachers in an Urban School

Mawhinney

2012

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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This article chronicles a two-year ethnography focused on teachers' restorative places. Restorative places, in school contexts, are where teachers congregate with colleagues for solace during the workday. In this article, I outline teachers' perceptions at one urban school, from their own voice, of how restorative places are created, while also exploring their thoughts on the interactions and relationships developed within these places. This understanding can help guide teachers and administrators to establishing restorative places that are best suited to support teachers' professional needs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Restorative Placesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Creation of Restorative Places for Teachers in an Urban School

Mawhinney

2012

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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“…Low student academic performance and high student unemployment rate Dating back to 1997, when TVET colleges were still called technical colleges, among the dominant or rather common findings drawn from studies on a wide range of topics involving the sector, students' poor academic results took precedence (e.g., Abrahams, 1997;Buthelezi, 2018;Makgatho, 2019;Ncobela, 2022a;Sithole, 2020;van der Bijl & Taylor, 2016). Cohen (2019) and Makgatho (2019) concede that TVET low academic achievement levels of the sector create a cloud of doubt around the potential of the students who went through the system, which -according to recent statistics -is said to be at 30%.…”

Section: Lack Of Political Oversightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eradicating a Culture of Public Mistrust in TVET College Education in South Africa: A Manifesto for the Sector’s Sustainability Ahead of 4IR

Nkambule,

Ngubane

2023

RESSAT

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The consumption of technical and vocational education and training has increased exponentially over the past two decades. In terms of inclusion, it is without a doubt that today’s TVET sector is a far cry from what it was before the democratic government took over the baton from the apartheid government. TVET has become a refuge to many hopefuls from the historically disadvantaged sectors of society who, due to a range of apparent reasons, would ordinarily not have managed to partake in tertiary education. To many South African youth, TVET presents an avenue for the acquisition of a skill that will give them a fighting chance at escaping the harsh recurrence of poverty, economic inactivity and resource deprivation they are subjected to almost on a daily basis. However, beneath this silver lining lies a growing public disgruntlement over the TVET system’s ability to steadfastly deliver quality education and transform the lives of students, by instilling in them agency for self-regulated and collaborative innovation that will turn them into formidable and assertive role players in the knowledge societies, come the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). To understand the crux of public mistrust in TVET college education in South Africa, an extensive body of literature was reviewed. The findings of the paper point to strategic factors (which in the main are attributed to a lack of effective leadership and managerial skills) and contextual factors that occur at a campus level, as major causes of public mistrust in TVET education. The paper concludes by tabling a manifesto for changing the status quo ahead of the advent of 4IR.

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“…The scarcity of published PLC research in English from non-English speaking countries has been acknowledged by Toole and Louis (2002) Still, some findings from this previous research on PLCs in low-and middle-income countries are worth highlighting. Recent studies on South-Africa include a study on teacher collaboration by Abrahams (1997); teacher agency by Brodie (2019), professional learning in private higher education in South Africa (Conje and Blitzer, 2019), and pre-teacher professional learning experiences during rural teacher practice (Nkambile and Mukeredzi, 2017 Groups. This emerging literature, however, focuses more on the interaction between PLCs and the broader cultural, political and education contexts in which they are inserted, rather than on how PLCs operate (an exception being the study by Avalos, 1998).…”

Section: Limitations Of Existing Conceptualizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Typology of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) for Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case study of Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Nigeria

Soares

Galisson

Laar

2020

AJOTE

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In the bid to improve teaching quality and promote an approach to teacher development that is grounded in the context in which teachers are inserted, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become a popular alternative model of teacher professional development in many countries. PLCs, however, have been more widely studied in high-resource contexts. In a recognition that existing conceptualizations from the Western literature may not reflect how PLCs are functioning in developing countries, this research aims to inductively create a typology of PLCs that incorporates elements that might be specific to these countries, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa in general and based on the cases of Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Nigeria in particular. This study employs a multimethod approach, encompassing document analysis, semi-structured interviews with PLC experts and expert validation. The resulting typology categorizes PLCs into three models - autonomous, structured and scripted. This typology of PLCs is further integrated with dimensions previously proposed by the Western literature to form one cohesive conceptual framework. By acknowledging PLC variability, we are able to incorporate into a framework modes of PLC operation that are specific to our case countries, and possibly to Sub-Saharan African and low- and middle-income countries more generally.

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Collaborative Space in South African Schools: A Comparative Perspective

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

The Creation of Restorative Places for Teachers in an Urban School

The Creation of Restorative Places for Teachers in an Urban School

Eradicating a Culture of Public Mistrust in TVET College Education in South Africa: A Manifesto for the Sector’s Sustainability Ahead of 4IR

A Typology of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) for Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case study of Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Nigeria

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