Foundation Phase Research Articles

IV. Murat Dönemi Osmanlı Seferlerinde KonarGöçerlerin Et Temini ve Taşımacılık Hususundaki Rolleri

Bilindigi uzere Osmanli Devleti’nin kurulusunu saglayan en temel etkenlerden birisi konar-gocer Turkmenlerin sagladigi katkiydi. Nitekim konar-gocer Turkmenler Osmanli Devleti’nin kurulus asamasinda sagladiklari dinamizmin yaninda, askeri catismalara verdikleri destek ile de yeni devletin olusumunda etkili olmustu. Ancak devletin kurulus surecinin tamamlanmasi, merkez, tasra ve askeri teskilatinin gelismesiyle beraber konar-gocer gruplarin askeri sahada ustlendikleri rol de degismisti. Osmanli Devleti’nin ilk zamanlarindaki durumunun aksine konar-gocerler savasin merkezindeki rollerini kaybetmisse de ilerleyen donemlerdeki Osmanli savaslarinda ustlendikleri rolleri degiserek devam etmisti. Bu calismada merkeziyetci yapinin olusup devlet teskilatinin gelismesine bagli olarak, XVII. yuzyildaki ornekler dâhilinde Osmanli Devleti’nin askeri faaliyetleri icerisinde konar-gocerlerin savaslardaki degisen rolu ele alinmaktadir. Buna gore konar-gocerlerin beyligin kurulus surecinde verdikleri askeri destekten, zaman icerisinde uretim yapan ve vergilerini odeyen tebaaya donusmeleriyle birlikte, savaslarda ustlendikleri ayni yukumluluklere yer verilmistir. Bu kapsamda incelenen sefer orneklerinde, konar-gocerlere tarh edilen ayni vegiler ve bu cemaatlerden yapilan koyun satin alimlariyla ordunun iase meselesine sagladiklari katkidan bahsedilmistir. Yine ordunun tasima isinde kullanilmak amaciyla konar-gocer cemaatlerden hangi yontemlerle, ne sekilde yuk hayvanlarinin temin edildigi incelenmistir. Tum bu surecte konargocerlerin yukumluluklerini hangi olcude yerine getirdigi calismanin bir diger odak noktasini olusturmustur.

Recognising developmental coordination disorder in Foundation Phase classrooms

Background: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental motor disorder affecting 5% to 6% of children globally. The motor skills deficit associated with DCD is characterised by its impact on academic productivity, activities of daily living and play. Although the Department of Education’s ( 2014 ) policy on screening, identification, assessment and support (SIAS) calls for teachers to be the first line of identification of learning barriers, teachers are often unaware of the characteristics of DCD and have difficulty in recognising the condition. Aim: This study explored the recognisable characteristics of DCD, which Foundation Phase learners may display, to assist teachers in effectively recognising this potential learning barrier. Setting: Occupational-, speech- and physiotherapists, remedial teachers and educational psychologists working with Foundation Phase learners in Johannesburg, South Africa, participated in the study. Methods: Within a generic qualitative design, semistructured interviews were conducted. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and the content coded into meaningful units to derive themes relating to the study’s aim. Results: Developmental coordination disorder has multidomain and cascading characteristics. Learners present with fine and gross motor challenges, difficulties with social interaction, frustration and associated aggression, and task avoidance. Challenges regarding planning, sequencing, organisation, slow task completion and difficulties with academic skills may be observed. Conclusion: Developmental coordination disorder is recognisable in Foundation Phase classrooms, provided that teachers carefully observe learners’ behaviour. Early recognition of symptoms may lead to accurate diagnosis, increased understanding and the provision of appropriate supportive interventions.

Teachers’ understanding and use of visual tools in their numeracy classrooms: A case study of two primary schools in Gauteng

Background: Previous studies have shown the significance of visual objects in facilitating teaching and learning in the numeracy classrooms; however, what we do not know is how South African teachers negotiate the use of visual tools. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore teachers’ understanding and the use of visual tools in their numeracy classrooms. Setting: This study was conducted in two rural primary schools in Tshwane District, Gauteng. Methods: The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was followed. Five Foundation Phase teachers were purposively sampled from two primary schools. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to solicit information from the sampled teachers. The collected data were analysed thematically. Results: The findings revealed that the majority of teachers had a limited knowledge of visual numeracy tools, and as such their implementation was restricted to a few familiar ones. This manifested itself in the fact that the majority of teachers (three out of five) mentioned the general use of the visual tools without clearly relating them to their own classroom experiences. Finally, the findings of the study revealed that all the teachers were desperately in need of training on how to use visual tools in their numeracy classrooms. Conclusion: The authors concluded that the teachers’ limited knowledge about a variety of visual numeracy tools restricted their utilisation of such tools in their classrooms.

How language challenges affect the behaviour of immigrant learners in the Foundation Phase at three schools in Gauteng, South Africa

Background: The education of immigrant children is influenced by many factors that emanate from global socio-economic and political issues. In the South African education system, teachers do not have guidelines on how to include immigrant children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The question that arose was ‘what effect does poor language proficiency have on immigrant learners’ psychosocial development?’ Aim: This study focused on how language challenges experienced by immigrant children influence their relationships with themselves and others in the learning environment. The second objective was to find out how teachers are coping with immigrant learners. Setting: Learners were purposively selected from former Model C Foundation Phase classrooms in three selected schools in Gauteng province, South Africa. Former Model C schools are schools that accepted only white children prior to the early 1990s. Methods: This study uses an interpretive research paradigm with thematic analysis of data from focus group interviews and individual interviews. Participants were 48 Foundation Phase learners, 24 female educators and three school principals. Results: The results suggest that language barriers create a vicious cycle of negative emotions and unhealthy interactive patterns between immigrant and local children. Immigrant learners experience cognitive and social inhibition, isolation and bullying by the local learners. Conclusion: There are implications for the integration of psychosocial content in teaching a language. This could empower Foundation Phase teachers with guidelines for teaching English to all second language learners in a way that fosters positive adjustment of immigrant children and prosocial behaviour in the learning environment.

Conceptual and representational confusion: An analysis of three foundation phase teachers’ descriptions of how they teach division

Background: In the foundation phase, division is split along the lines of grouping (quotition) and sharing (partition). Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) recommends that representations such as drawings, concrete apparatus, and symbols are used to teach all math concepts, including division. Aim: In this article, the author investigates how three foundation phase teachers describe teaching division and the representations they would use to do this. Setting: Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers in one previously disadvantaged urban school were selected for this study. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information about how the teachers say they teach division. They were invited to use or talk about any representations such as actions, apparatus, drawings or writings that they would use during their teaching. Results: Using a grounded theory approach, analysis of the data showed that all three teachers talked about how they would transform the mathematics in a division word problem into actions, drawings and symbols. However, none of them was able to use their representations to find the answer to the problem or to provide a division number sentence. The representations they used were relegated to end results and served no purpose in solving the mathematical problems. Conclusion: The results show areas in which teachers need support: Their own mathematical knowledge – specifically division in the case of this study How to teach division in the foundation phase. They lack both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge.

Teachers’ engagement with learners in inclusive foundation phase classrooms

Background: The research study responded to the need for a deeper understanding of the engagement of foundation phase teachers with learners in our ordinary, public, primary school classrooms in South Africa and the extent to which classroom practices are inclusive. Aim: To examine how inclusive education was enacted by teachers in real classroom settings, with attention paid to ways in which learners experience barriers to learning and the provision of necessary support for these learners. Setting: This study provides an in-depth critical analysis of the engagement of three foundation phase teachers from classes in each of Grades 1–3, with learners in their classrooms at an Eastern Cape public school. Methods: A micro-level analysis was conducted in a single unit case study, using a qualitative research approach in an interpretive paradigm. Questionnaires, in-depth observations and semi-structured interviews generates in-depth data. Results: The study provides evidence of inclusive education practices enacted at the school and in the classrooms, providing examples of what can work in the South African context. It includes an organisational tool for analysing inclusive practice at the micro-level of the classroom. Criteria were identified as indicators of inclusive education of learners in the classroom, including those experiencing barriers to learning. Conclusion: The three foundation phase teachers used numerous inclusive teaching and learning practices, strategies, features, skills and techniques when engaging with learners in their classrooms. There remain various challenges faced by the school, teachers and the Department of Basic Education in enabling the implementation of inclusive education.

Strengthening comprehensive sexuality education in the curriculum for the early grades

Background: The continuing high rate of child abuse and sexual violence has highlighted the need for a focused intervention in the form of educating young learners on sexual risks and protection against harmful behaviours and making them aware of their right to be protected. Aim: The aim of this article is to strengthen the comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) curriculum for the early grades and to gain an understanding of teachers’ knowledge of CSE and how it is linked to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS): Life Skills. Setting: This study was conducted at two schools in different districts in the Gauteng Province, in environments where rich data could be solicited from the participants regarding their knowledge of how to strengthen CSE in the curriculum. Methods: A qualitative case study was conducted that included eight Foundation Phase teachers and two subject advisors. One focus group interview was held with teachers and subject advisors. The analysis of documents containing teachers’ and subject advisors’ notes was examined through the lens of the Behaviour-Determinant-Intervention (BDI) Logic Model. Results: The data gathered showed the following significant gaps in CAPS: Life Skills CAPS need to be addressed and aligned to the International Technical Guidelines on Sexuality Education (ITGSE), and teachers need to be adequately trained in the content and teaching methodologies of CSE in the early grades. Conclusion: The CAPS curriculum must be aligned to the ITGSE. Teachers need to be trained; detailed scripted lesson plans should be made available to all early-grade teachers and appropriate resources should be provided to support teaching and learning to strengthen the CSE implementation.

“Urban by nature”: The Sokoto jihadist approach to urban planning

Like other Islamic reform and state-building movements across the pre-colonial Sahel, the Sokoto Jihad of 1804 had started genuine urbanization processes with architectural references to Islamic ideals of inhabited space. But in the early Sokoto Empire, jihadist urban planning met with a Hausa environment already divided into urban centers and rural areas. Existing Hausa towns were often restructured and enlarged, with a shift from the central position of the palaces towards that of the new mosques built under the aegis of the Jihadist leaders. This article hence analyses the construction of Sokoto as a capital city from the “drawing board” as a case study. In addition, it discusses the location and style of Jihadist mosques in Sokoto, Kano and Zaria within a new concept of Muslim urbanity. Although urban planning in Sokoto was not carried out by map sketches, several maps produced in the Sokoto Empire will be used to study the graphical understanding of Sokoto Jihadist urbanity expressed by rectangular walls and a special mosque-palace order with only very simple and puritan décor. But despite the private activities in mosque building among the male Jihadist elite, Sokoto lacked a state-owned and constant central mosque, because donors and their offspring personally had to care for the upkeep of the buildings. And with the second Sokoto Sultan, Muhammad Bello, urbanization activities gradually shifted from the “old” centers to the frontier of the Empire: on the one hand, militarized border towns (Arabic ribāt, pl. arbita) were erected as profane material protection against military enemies in the periphery. Yet on the other hand, they served as a reference in the Jihadist ideology contrasting the Land of Islam with the Land of Unbelief. The ribāt was a planned city attracting mainly slaves longing for freedom and salvation by the Jihadist promise that any inhabitant of the frontier city would eventually be liberated and enter Paradise. But only for a limited time span did they serve as social and ethnic melting pots on the frontier, before many of them were turned into slave plantations. This phase of intense foundation of fortified settlements must also be understood as a process of sedentarization and aging of the first Jihad soldiers. Equipped with land, wives and slaves from the booty, many soldiers and commanders were settled in new towns and established a living there with their families. The article will thus finally analyze the Sokoto utopia of a completely sedentarized and urbanized Muslim state—a policy propagated both against fellow Fulbe pastoralists and mobile Tuareg allies. This study engages with Sokoto Jihadist urbanization in their theories and practices in the first half of the 19th century and unfolds the Jihadist claims to be “urban by nature.”

Özgürlüğün Temsili Gökkuşağının Renkleri: Endüstriyel Futbol İçerisinde Karşı Lig, Özgür Lig ve LGBT+ Takımlar

Cinsiyet ayrımının ve erilliğin son derece yaygın olduğu alanlardan birisi olan spor alanında, sadece kadınların ötekileştirilmesinden bahsetmek mümkün değildir. Spor alanında yer alan ve görünürlük arayışındaki LGBT+ bireyler de, çeşitli dışlanma, ötekileştirme, aşağılanma, yok sayılma ve hatta çok daha travmatize edici davranışlara maruz kalmaktadır. Türkiye'deki LGBT+ futbol takımlarının kurulma süreçlerinin incelenmesinden oluşan bu yazının amacı; böyle bir ihtiyacın nereden doğduğu, buradan hareketle; takımların kuruluş aşamasında yaşadığı zorluklara dikkat çekip toplumsal var olma sürecinin nasıl yer aldığına odaklanmaktır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma tekniklerine uygun biçimde hazırlanan görüşme formu kullanılarak dört futbol takımının kurucuları ve oyuncuları ile görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Gerçekleştirilen görüşmeler doğrultusunda, LGBT+ takımların ve liglerin kurulma süreçleri ortaya konmuş ve LGBT+ takımlarla ilgili olarak iç ve dış dinamikler olmak üzere çeşitli bulgular elde edilmiştir. Misyon, üye kabulü, görünürlük, sürdürülebilirlik, branş seçimi, sosyal sorumluklar ve içsel faktörlere ilişkin bulgular iç dinamiklerin içerisinde yer almaktadır. Manevi destek, maddi destek, çevresel koşullar, yaşam alanı ve medyaya ilişkin bulgular ise dış dinamiklerin içerisinde yer almaktadır. Toplumlar içerisinde genellikle geniş tabanlı kabul görme hususunda problem yaşayan LGBT+ bireylerin, bu oluşum içerisinde yaşadığı sorunlar ve var olma çabalarının ortaya konması ve toplumun bilinçlendirilmesi çalışmanın önemini ortaya koymaktadır.

Foundation Phase teachers’ understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at Johannesburg independent schools

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) disorder is a common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. The symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention often become evident in a structured classroom setting. Teachers play a key role in identifying these features and referring these pupils for assessments.Aim: This study investigated the understanding and perceptions of ADHD amongst Foundation Phase teachers at independent schools in Johannesburg.Setting: This study was conducted at nine independent schools in the Johannesburg area.Methods: A total of 95 teachers filled out a standardised questionnaire, the Knowledge of Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (KADDS), which looks at three aspects of ADHD, namely, associated features, symptoms and treatment. The teachers also answered several demographic questions such as their sex, age, level of education, knowledge of a person outside the school with ADHD and confidence to teach a child with ADHD. An informal directed discussion group was conducted, which comprised 32 teachers who had filled in the questionnaire. Open-ended questions were asked during the discussion group.Results: The overall results were the highest obtained compared to similar previous studies. These teachers had a very good knowledge with regard to the symptoms of ADHD, they had a fair understanding about the treatment of ADHD and their knowledge about the associated features of ADHD was limited. Exposure to children with ADHD and higher number of ADHD workshops attended and ADHD articles read were beneficial to the teachers’ overall knowledge about ADHD. Years of experience and the age of the teacher were not associated with a greater knowledge about ADHD.Conclusion: Independent school Foundation Phase teachers displayed a good level of knowledge about ADHD. This knowledge was enhanced by continual ADHD education and exposure to children with ADHD.

Exploring schemas in the Welsh curriculum: A coming to know for practitioners and children

This paper explores one child’s use of their schema to construct their knowledge and understanding within the early years curriculum for Wales – the Foundation Phase (FP). It considers how a knowledge of schemas can facilitate practitioners in supporting children along their learning continuum and inform classroom pedagogy. This paper explores and defines what schemas are and examines prior research into schemas. It examines FP practitioners’ lack of knowledge and understanding of schemas within the chosen setting, thus providing the rationale for the research. Lastly, it charts Harri’s learning journey over two terms and how a coming to know about Harri’s trajectory schema facilitated a different understanding of his actions by practitioners and helped shape classroom pedagogy. The paper highlights how an informed knowledge of schemas supported Harri’s engagement in tasks and fostered his collaboration with others. This paper is useful for policy makers, practitioners and researchers, particularly in Wales, in understanding how nurturing and nourishing a child’s schema supports knowledge construction within a play-based curriculum such as the Foundation phase.

Teachers’ perceptions in creating an invitational learning environment in culturally diverse Foundation Phase classrooms

Research surrounding classroom practice is changing the way principals, School Management Teams and teachers organise their learning spaces as well as their methods of teaching and learning. In this paper, we aim to explore teachers’ experiences of an invitational learning environment in culturally diverse Foundation Phase classrooms. The paper will review the research conducted with Foundation Phase teachers as well as members from the School Management Team who were identified as participants to elicit in-depth information on their experiences. An interpretivist research paradigm was used to portray the lived experiences and personal responses of the participants. It was decided that a combined theoretical framework consisting of the Open Systems Theory and the Invitational Learning Theory would best guide this research. Semi-structured interviews, observation and visual data formed the data collection instruments. Data were coded, examined and emerging themes identified. The aim of this paper was to share the participants’ insight on how to create invitational learning environments as well as the challenges they experienced in such creation. This paper argues that teachers who create an invitational learning environment contribute to the successful functioning of teaching and learning in the Foundation Phase classroom.

Mentoring and preparing primary school mathematics teachers

This article reports on the mentoring of foundation phase teachers and their development of disciplinary-specific knowledge, particularly how the practicum provides a space for mathematics content knowledge (MCK) and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) for student teachers, given the generalist knowledge base of many primary school teacher mentors. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with two Grade 2 mentors and focus group interviews with third-year student teachers in an urban university setting. A two-step process of analysis comprising open-ended coding, followed by a form of deductive coding, within a framework derived from literature on the development of MCK and MPCK, lead to two main findings. Firstly, mentors might have hindered student teachers’ development of MCK and MPCK, thus impacting on the building of comprehensive conceptual models of good mathematics teaching practice. Secondly, the efficacy of the university-led training is questioned. We therefore recommend that greater emphasis be placed on the development of subject-specific mentoring practices, especially in scarce-skills areas such as mathematics, and argue for a set of standards for mathematics-specific mentoring practices in South African primary school teacher education.

Business Education Learners in the Further Education and Training Phase: Towards the Development of a South African Readiness Model to Strengthen Learners’ Academic Performance

African and coloured students continue to perform poorly both at public schools and institutions of higher learning. There are two main reasons for their weak performance - a lack of literacy and numeracy skills, and being under-prepared. This article reports on two findings of a study that wasconducted at two high schools in the Western Cape Province. The one high school was a quintile 1, and the other a quintile 4 school. The study aimed to implement intervention strategies over a three year period for Grade 10 to 12 learners in the business-related subjects, Accounting, Business Studies,and Economics. The objective was to develop a readiness model that public schools in South African could use to overcome the challenges so that learners could be equipped with a strong foundation in their primary schooling. The study was situated within a critical education science paradigm and useda critical participatory action research design. Two groups of 30 learners formed the main research participants. Interventions strategies were implemented with the learners when they were in Grade 10 in 2017, in Grade 11 in 2018, and in Grade 12 in 2019. The results show that both groups oflearners did not have an adequate rating of 50% and more subject content knowledge and skills when they arrived in Grade 10 in 2017 in all three subjects, and they did not manage to obtain a 50% or more rating in the three subjects in their final examinations at the end of Grade 12 in 2019. Based on the four key principles of the readiness model, recommendations are proposed that would assist public schools to develop and support the learners during the early childhood and foundation phase so that asolid foundation in literacy and numeracy skills could be laid.

Pedagogical approaches to develop social skills of learners with autism spectrum disorder: Perceptions of three foundation phase teachers

There are limited studies into the exact pervasiveness of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in sub-Saharan Africa, and fewer still into early intervention for learners with autism. This paper focuses on how three foundation phase teachers provided explicitly structured classroom experiences to develop social skills training, particularly independence, behavioural etiquette and self-esteem of their learners. Some learners with ASD do become well- adjusted independent adults, but others experience challenges in interpreting emotions or forming and sustaining healthy interpersonal relations. This study was underpinned by Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory which highlights the importance of social learning in the education of children with disabilities. A qualitative research design and an interpretivist paradigm were used for generating the data needed to track the development. Three purposively selected foundation phase (FP) teachers in three different types of schools were selected as the sample. Three vignettes provide the background to the discussions. Knowing that ASD is characterised by order and disorder, some pedagogical approaches may generate new divisions, while those presented here have noticeably benefited the learners with ASD; the teachers created learning opportunities to elevate the social skills of their high functioning learners with ASD.

Teachers' views on a double transit in Grade 4: From Foundation Phase to Intermediate Phase and from Indigenous Language to English

South African Grade Four learners cannot read and comprehend written language in their own mother-tongue. In the midst of this challenge, the Language in Education policy prescribes that these learners should use English as Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effects of double exit experienced in the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4; and from indigenous language learning to learning in English. The study used semi-structured interviews in collecting data from 6 purposively sampled participants who teach Grade Four classes. Qualitative thematic and narrative analysis were used to scrutinize data. The research findings identified negative impact of transition on teaching and learning, teachers' diffidence and incompetence to teach in English, the overuse of code switching and lack of support by authorities, schools lack of focus and direction in mitigating the transition challenges, and participants' suggestions on how to mitigate the challenges of transition. The study recommends that the use of English as LoLT should be introduced at an advanced stage for second language learners.

Investigating the interpretation and implementation of policies that guide the teaching of reading in the Foundation Phase

Background: There is growing international awareness of the dividends of early reading success and the consequences of early reading failure. Many studies have shown that the educational achievement of South African learners is unacceptably poor. There are shortcomings in the curriculum for English home language (EHL) which could be the reason for educators’ uncertainties and frustration with the teaching of reading. Objectives: To identify policies that guide the teaching of reading and to investigate the management of their interpretation and implementation. Method: A qualitative case study design was employed, underpinned by the sense-making theory which was used as a theoretical framework. Three primary schools in the Lichtenburg circuit were selected as study sites. Participants were selected purposively and data generation methods included document analysis, observations and interviews. Inductive data analysis was applied through the identification of patterns, categories and themes. Results: The results indicate that the EHL curriculum document is the only policy document that teachers in this study used as a guideline for the teaching of reading in the Foundation Phase. However, this document lacks explicit guidance on how reading should be taught. Conclusion: The main policy that guides the teaching of reading in the Foundation Phase is the EHL curriculum. However, participants do not always understand the stipulations of this document and make partial use of the guidelines because they do not know how to interpret them. The curriculum lacks step-by-step guidelines on teaching activities for reading. Thus, we suggest that professional development should be based on the needs of the educators.

The Regional Subsystem Concept: From Heterogeneity to Pluralism

The study of regional subsystems dates back to the 1950s, when it became clear that the models developed to explain the logic behind the bipolar international system could not adequately reflect the specificities of regional processes. Therefore, there was a pressing need to complement traditional system level analysis with a new, subsystemic approach. The paper provides a comparative analysis of both Russian and Western definitions of the regional subsystem concept. The author examines the evolution of the regional subsystem concept research field, its current state and identifies the key competing approaches, as well as their methodological and theoretical foundations. The first section covers definitions of the subsystem concept developed by the Western researchers during the Cold War period. The author emphasizes that this initial foundational phase for the development of the research field was marked by extreme heterogeneity of views, opinions and assessments. The experts suggested various principles and criteria for identifying regional subsystems, while the very meaning of a ‘regional subsystem’ has not yet been settled. At the same time, the author shows that all the discussions during that period revolved around one central issue that is how the regional subsystem is linked to the ‘dominant’ one — a bipolar. In that regard, it is only natural that with the end of the Cold War the studies of regional subsystems faced new challenges but also gained a new momentum. The second section examines views of contemporary Russian and Western scholars. The author identifies the key discussion points, which include primarily the nature of relations between subsystem actors: whether they should necessarily be cooperative or not; if they need formal institutionalization and whether they should be organized hierarchically with a strong leading state. The author concludes that despite the absence of expert consensus on these issues, the studies of regional subsystems have come a long way from extreme heterogeneity, even fragmentation of the very basic theoretical premises, to a much greater terminological consistency but have retained the pluralism of views, opinions and assessments.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: The Use of Pictures to Promote Literacy and Reading in Foundation Phase and ABET-Level 1 Learners

Since time immemorial, pictorial images have been used to illustrate, document, map, narrate, and facilitate textual and verbal information. The facilitation and illustration of texts through pictorial support have an added advantage in the sense that it stimulates both spheres of the human brain, thus making lasting effects on the impression of cognitive understanding of the content read and boosting reading comprehension. These positive effects and benefits are observed in storybooks with illustrations that present an aesthetic appeal and typographic interplay to the reader. In recent years, texts and stories have been conveyed and disseminated through visual compositions, creative outputs and visual narrations that are presently enhanced by digital technology. This is a conceptual paper that is conducted from a constructivist point of view, reviewing literature on photo elicitation where pictures are used as aids to facilitate comprehension in textual readings. It is argued that the eradication of illiteracy through reading is a less intuitive and rather complex process that requires the reader to read the text at hand with good comprehension and understanding. The study concludes that pictorial images are worth being part of the typography of texts because they create the necessary visual appeal and support the reading process, especially for foundation phase and adult basic education and training (ABET) level 1 learners.

Experiences in a tutoring programme for BEd Foundation Phase isiXhosa first-language students

Background: IsiXhosa students enrolled for the BEd Foundation Phase qualification at a university in South Africa failed their first year in identified at-risk subjects, namely Mathematics in Education, Language in Education and Computer Literacy. The students stated the reasons for failure as not understanding the concepts and terms of the subjects presented to them in English. Objectives: A tutoring programme was initiated in the home language of the students with the aim of improving their understanding and chances at success. Method: Semi-structured interviews and reflective journals within a qualitative case study were used to understand how the tutees and tutors as key role players, the programme coordinator, lecturers in the three subjects and the tutor trainer experienced the tutoring programme. The study was framed within social constructivist theory and an interpretative paradigm employed for analysis of data. Results: The findings suggested that tutoring in their home language grants isiXhosa students an improved understanding of the concepts and terms of the course material, which they had difficulty understanding. Conclusion: Tutoring in the home language should become a mandatory practice for students whose home language is not the language of learning and teaching in the institution. The study contributes to knowledge on how tutoring in the home language provides isiXhosa students access to the curriculum by assisting them in minimising their struggles with English as the language of learning and teaching.