Methodology lecturers’ pedagogical strategies used to prepare pre-service Intermediate Phase isiZulu teachers for teaching inclusive reading

Abstract

There is overwhelming evidence in the South African education context regarding reading challenges in schools. While the majority of studies conducted in the last decade focus heavily on learners’ inadequate age-appropriate reading skills, very few studies focus on teachers’ or teacher educators’ facilitation of effective reading comprehension skills, particularly for at-risk readers. In this study, the term at-risk readers refers to learners with reading difficulties in mainstream schools. Since pre-service teacher preparation is a responsibility of university teacher education departments, at the university level, effective pedagogical strategies for teaching inclusive reading to at-risk readers should be taught by university lecturers. The current study aims to analyse the pedagogical strategies used to prepare pre-service Intermediate Phase (IP) isiZulu teachers to teach inclusive reading in mainstream schools. This qualitative study is guided by the simple view of reading, which integrates word reading, language skills and reading comprehension for holistic literacy development. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven isiZulu methodology lecturers purposively selected from five South African universities. The researcher analysed the qualitative data through thematic analysis. The unit of analysis in this study was pre-service lecturers’ strategies used to prepare IP isiZulu teachers to teach inclusive reading. Findings reveal that university teacher education departments do not adequately equip pre-service IP teachers with the necessary pedagogical skills to teach inclusive reading to at-risk readers in mainstream schools. This study aims to extend the debate on teacher pedagogical content knowledge required for developing inclusive reading in mainstream schools.