Under-resourced Schools Research Articles

Clearing Hurdles: The Challenges of Implementation of Mental Health Evidence-Based Practices in Under-resourced Schools.

Schools have become the main provider of services to children with mental health needs. Although there is substantial literature on barriers to implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in under-resourced school districts, less has been written on how to overcome those barriers. Providing mental health services in the school setting presents a tremendous opportunity to increase access to quality mental health care for underserved youth. This review provides a brief overview of the barriers to successful implementation and sustainment of EBPs in under-resourced public schools and provides recommendations for overcoming them. The discussion is organized around an established conceptual framework adapted for the delivery of services in under-resourced schools that focuses on interdependent factors that exist at the individual-, team, school-, and macro-levels. This manuscript explores some recommendations and strategies for effectively addressing challenges related to implementation of EBPs. Research ideas are offered to bridge the research-to-practice gap that impacts many under-resourced public school districts.

School Gardens as Sites for Forging Progressive Socioecological Futures

In this article we approach school gardens as sites of socioecological change where experiential politics work through the establishment of sustainable and socially just practices. We argue that for some children in “struggling schools,” school gardens become spaces where the alienating aspects of neoliberal school reform in the United States can be overcome by forging connections with classmates, university students, plants, and animals. In these intimate urban ecologies, affective and playful labor become the bases for knowledge production that exceeds the disciplinary functions of standardized testing, individual achievement, and accountability emphasized in neoliberal school reform. Our empirics derive from garden projects involving university interns and school children in two underresourced schools in poor neighborhoods in Tucson, Arizona.

Superheroes and Transformers: Rethinking Teach for America's Leadership Models

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many young children enjoy playing superheroes and Transformers. Often they can be found acting out fantasies in which they assume the identities of these all-powerful characters. The drama usually unfolds the same way: Villains use their power to abuse others until a bold, relentless protagonist uses novel talent and transformative strength to crush the evil forces. The hero/ine, motivated by a fierce sense of urgency, bravely resolves the victims' plights--often by blowing up things and leaving a path of destruction in his/her wake as he/she metes out justice and order. This pretend play carries several benefits during early childhood. Children can try different forms of power in both good and bad roles. They can develop social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills. But these simplified tropes don't necessarily serve us well as adults seeking to solve complex social dilemmas. Without deliberation and cooperation, a focus on superhero solutions can minimize our attention to more nuanced human concerns. Worries over competition, valuing fierce individualism and dramatic results, and charismatic heroes can edge out considerations about empathy for others, civic awareness, collaboration, creativity, equity, and social justice. Nevertheless, our yearning for heroic leaders persists throughout society. Education is no exception. In fact, in our study of Teach For America (TFA), we found these themes of heroism and individualism repeating themselves among many TFA alumni and current corps members when they reflected on the educational leadership they deemed most desirable for redressing educational inequities. For our respondents, most of whom were on a professional fast track to become leaders themselves, the archetype of the valiant leader in a relentless pursuit of excellence and justice was by far the most frequently cited model of leadership. They were enchanted with the image of a morally virtuous, epic hero. Studying Teach For America In 1990, TFA began as an alternative teacher preparation and placement organization. Today its mission has shifted to building a movement to eliminate educational inequity by selecting and preparing our nation's most promising leaders. TFA has successfully seeded its leaders across a wide range of charter management organizations, school districts, corporate-funded education reform agencies, and government offices. Yet many of TFA's highest-profile leaders seem to stir up strong reactions from observers of all political persuasions. For three years, we've been researching TFA alumni and current members' notions about the leadership they believe could best increase educational equity. We've also talked with them about their diagnoses of educational inequality and ideas for policies that can effectively redress them. In this article, we report on what we found from one subset of our data, our interviews. In total, we interviewed a representative sample of 117 alumni and 47 current corps members, all of whom participated in the program between 1991 and 2013 and who worked in 25 different TFA placement regions across the country. The knowledge base on TFA Most literature on TFA falls into four general categories. The first, the conceptual debates, considers the most promising ways to prepare teachers to serve in hard-to-staff, under-resourced schools, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of relying on TFA teachers, most of whom are white and from elite backgrounds, to serve primarily children of color in low-income communities. Other literature investigates TFA's test-based effectiveness. This research tends to show that students of TFA teachers have mixed results, and the effects of these results are usually small. The third category contains journalistic and biographical narratives that detail corps members' conflicts and joys as novices working in communities in which they are usually professional and cultural outsiders. …

Transforming Society through Quality Primary Education in South Africa: Lessons from Two Decades after Apartheid

All families would like to see their children attain success through formal education. The child is also under pressure to learn culture, discipline and morality. Effective education is seen by many as an act that not only should help build the children through these societal values but also expects the children to learn from the demands of a constantly changing globalising world. There is however, much need to review primary education as well as methods used to teach children. This paper explores the challenges faced by many historically disadvantaged schools in South Africa and why it has become insurmountable to improve learner achievement. Many learners who start primary school encounter many challenges in under-resourced schools and a few drop out before high school. Some critics aver that the apartheid legacy in South Africa still looms large and is thwarting some of the progress that would have been made. Furthermore, the paper explores the poor performance in the national assessment of learners examining aspects such as social and cultural capital. The presentation concludes by focusing on strategies that can be implemented to improve learner achievement and these include enhancing school management, improving teacher education programs and developing poor and under-resourced schools. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n6p339

Commentary on two classroom observation systems: Moving toward a shared understanding of effective teaching.

In this commentary, I make five points: that designing observation systems that actually predict students' outcomes is challenging; second that systems that capture the complex and dynamic nature of the classroom learning environment are more likely to be able to meet this challenge; three, that observation tools are most useful when developed to serve a particular purpose and are put to that purpose; four that technology can help; and five, there are policy implications for valid and reliable classroom observation tools. The two observation systems presented in this special issue represent an important step forward and a move toward policy that promises to make a true difference in what is defined as high quality and effective teaching, what it looks like in the classroom, and how these practices can be more widely disseminated so that all children, including those attending under-resourced schools, can experience effective instruction, academic success and the lifelong accomplishment that follows.

Managing the National School Nutrition Programme in under-resourced schools in Limpopo – practice, successes and challenges

This study investigates the manner in which the implementation of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) is managed by the principals in under-resourced primary schools in the Waterberg district of Limpopo province, and as such forms part of a larger joint UP and NENU study of the state of the principalship in both urban and rural settings in the two countries. Data for this qualitative study was collected within the framework of the four management functions described by Van Deventer and Kruger: planning, organising, leading and directing, as well as controlling and evaluating, by interviewing and observation. The study’s primary finding is that, although principals are aware of the guidelines and practices for the implementation of the NSNP, prescribed by the Department of Basic Education, they rely almost entirely on other role player at school level to manage the programme, without any day-to-day involvement in the process or any recognition of their own roles and responsibilities in this regard.

Successful first-year learning: A social cognitive view of academic literacy

The research data used in this article are drawn from a study conducted in a business faculty at a Historically Black South African University during 2009 and 2010. A comparison was made in the study between two groups of first-year students: a group that had passed all their modules and a group that had failed some of their modules at the end of their first year of study. The aim was to investigate factors that had an impact on the successful completion of the first year of study by problematising the perception that those students from disadvantaged backgrounds or under-resourced schools are necessarily disadvantaged and destined to fail. In this article the focus is on the successful group of students and their mastery of academic discourse situated in the complexity of social and academic interaction. The findings indicate that the inter-relatedness of personal, academic, social and institutional factors mirror the inter-related way in which the students had experienced them. These findings further underline the fact that successful learning is a complex and multi-layered process that is ongoing and that needs to be monitored, sustained and evaluated throughout students' study careers. The students' personal perspectives on academic study provided not only evidence that the development of academic literacy is socially situated and constructed but also showed how successful students manage their academic learning to mitigate under-preparedness and adverse personal circumstances.

Exploring Life Orientation Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Teaching of Recreation and Physical Well-being

Since 1994, there have been many new policy formulation in Education such as National Curriculum Statement (NCS) (2002), White Paper Six (2001) and the Constitution of South Africa (1996). All these above policies are important in the teaching of recreation and physical well-being because they focus on addressing the imbalances of the past. The introduction of Life Orientation (LO) in schools is guided by Learning Outcomes which focus on personal, social, career and recreation and physical well-being. LO also focuses on the learners in their totality and the self in relation to society. Based on the preceding discussion, the research therefore focuses on the Life Orientation teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching of recreation and physical well-being in South African disadvantaged high schools. The aim of this study is therefore to explore Life Orientation teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching of recreation and physical well-being in South African disadvantaged high schools. The research adopted a qualitative design and data was collected through focus group interviews. All LO teachers at that particular disadvantaged high school were used as participants. The findings revealed that recreation and physical well-being as a Learning Outcome of LO was not seriously taught. Address for correspondence: Mabatho Sedibe Department of Educational Psychology, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524. Auckland-park. Johannesburg. 2006. South Africa Fax: 011 559 2262, E-mail: mabathos@uj.ac.za INTRODUCTION Studies conducted by Rooth (2005) and Prinsloo (2007) focused on the investigation and implementation of LO in South African schools. Little has been written about Life Orientation teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching of recreation and physical well-being in South African disadvantaged high schools, yet it is a problem because there are insufficient Learner Teacher Support Materials (LTSMs) and sports equipment in the teaching of recreation and physical well-being. Recreation and physical well-being from South African context in this study refers to Physical Education where some form of exercises such as running and playing games are done in order to keep learners fit and healthy for everyday life. These exercises are important because they contribute to the improvement of muscular strength, health and physical fitness. Disadvantaged schools on the other hand in this study refer to poor under-resourced schools. The other problem is that some schools focus more on the teaching of old Physical Education at the expense of recreation and physical well-being as a learning outcome of LO. This poses a problem to some of the LO teachers, that is the reason why as a researcher has opted to explore Life Orientation teachers’ perceptions on teaching recreation and physical well-being. The Context of the Inquiry Permission to conduct the research was obtained from the principal and School Management Teams (SMTs) of the school. Focus group interviews were conducted, consisting of one group of ten LO teachers. The teachers were diverse because they came from different provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and North-West. One teacher was a newly appointee coming from overseas.

Student agency: success, failure, and lessons learned

Students in urban under-resourced schools are often disengaged from the curriculum. Distributing voice (agency) to them would seem an obvious counter to their alienation, allowing them to be co-constructors rather than objects of their education. Beyond being pragmatically sound, student agency is, arguably, a psychological and moral imperative. However, what is imperative is not necessarily doable as we illustrate in two student agency high school projects. We analyze the outcomes using four previously identified factors: school context, project scope, personal gratification, and assumption of genuine authority (rather than teacher delegated power). In conclusion, we raise two issues requiring more reflection and investigation: what is the role of a teacher who is an employee of the school yet wants to help her students protest against injustice? How can agency be developmentally staged so that students become skilled in assuming responsible leadership in their schools?

Teachers as social capital agents: an exploratory study from Brazil

While socialisation aspects of schooling are widely considered as significant mechanisms of reproducing social inequalities, teacher contributions are rarely examined in terms of the social-relational dimensions of student outcomes. This paper employs a social capital framework to examine teacher-student engagement in two under-resourced urban public schools in Brazil. Extended interviews with teachers reveal that inspired educators do take great initiatives to transform the nature of their relationships with low-income students into sources of critical institutional and psycho-social support. The study offers critical policy perspectives on how teachers could be enabled to potentially become social capital agents for their students. Les enseignants comme agents de capital social : une étude exploratoire menée au Brésil Si les aspects de la scolarisation relatifs à la socialisation sont considérés par beaucoup comme des mécanismes considérables de reproduction des inégalités sociales, les contributions des enseignants sont rarement examinées en termes des dimensions sociales-relationnelles des résultats pour les étudiants. Cet article a recours à un cadre de capital social pour examiner le dialogue enseignant-étudiant dans deux écoles publiques urbaines brésiliennes disposant de moyens insuffisants. Des entretiens étendus avec les enseignants révèlent que les pédagogues inspirés prennent effectivement de fantastiques initiatives visant à transformer la nature de leurs rapports avec des étudiants issus de familles à faible revenu en sources cruciales de soutien institutionnel et psychosocial. Cette étude offre des manières de voir cruciales sur le plan des politiques en ce qui concerne la manière dont les enseignants pourraient avoir la possibilité de devenir peut-être des agents de capital social pour leurs étudiants. Los maestros como agentes de capital social: un estudio exploratorio en Brasil Si bien los aspectos socializantes de la educación son ampliamente considerados como mecanismos significativos de reproducción de las desigualdades sociales, pocas veces se examinan las contribuciones que los maestros realizan en términos de las dimensiones social-relacionales de los resultados obtenidos por los estudiantes. Con el fin de analizar la interacción que tiene lugar entre maestros y estudiantes de dos escuelas públicas de escasos recursos localizadas en el ámbito urbano de Brasil, el presente artículo utiliza un marco de capital social. Las entrevistas a profundidad aplicadas a los maestros revelaron que los educadores inspirados implementan muchas iniciativas con el objetivo de modificar la naturaleza de sus relaciones con los estudiantes de bajos recursos, pretendiendo transformar tales relaciones en cruciales fuentes de apoyo institucional y psico-social. El estudio propone varias ideas políticas fundamentales vinculadas a la forma en que los maestros podrían ser capacitados de modo de convertirse en agentes de capital social para sus estudiantes. Professores enquanto agentes de capital social: um estudo investigativo do Brasil Embora os aspectos de socialização do ensino sejam amplamente considerados mecanismos importantes de reprodução de desigualdades sociais, as contribuições dos professores são raramente examinadas em termos das dimensões sociais-relacionais dos resultados dos estudantes. Este artigo emprega uma estrutura de capital social para examinar o engajamento professor -estudante em duas escolas públicas urbanas com recursos insuficientes no Brasil. Entrevistas mais longas com professores revelam que educadores inspirados realmente têm grandes iniciativas para transformar o recurso de sua relação com estudantes de baixa renda em fontes de apoio crítico institucional e psicossocial. O estudo oferece perspectivas de políticas críticas sobre como professores podem ser capacitados para tornarem-se potencialmente agentes de capital social para seus estudantes.

<em>Who's Got Next: SOTA's KEMET Academy as a Model to Improve the Community College to PhD Pipeline</em>

The authors present Sisters of the Academy's (SOTA) adaptation of the KEMET Academy model, an academic and cultural enrichment program for African American students attending underresourced schools, to strengthen the pipeline for community college students from undergraduate through professional school. The KEMET model was designed by SOTA members and affiliates at a Southern land-grant institution and implemented over a five-year period as a competency-based program to increase the numbers of secondary students who chose to enter undergraduate schools. The programmatic outcomes yielded the KEMET Competencies Associated with Success for Rural Youth (CASRY). The authors believe that the CASRY framework may be applied to efforts at levels beyond the K-12 to four-year college transition. The KEMET Model components, combined with SOTA 's conceptualization of socialization, presents a comprehensive, culturally competent, value specific, model that can be used to prepare and socialize African American community college students.Keywords: community college pipeline, outreach, competencies, SOTA, Black undergraduatesIntroductionTo a great extent, much of the discussion and research related to African American youth and young adults has been restricted to their portrayal as social problems. In the very same contexts where youth struggle with poor educational opportunities among other social challenges, there are African American youth displaying high levels of competence, cognitive productivity, and aspirations toward higher education. As a result of few investigations on these healthy and resilient young people, little knowledge has been developed related to their motivation(s), life trajectory planning, and attitude or aspiration formation. Limited research exists about these youth, who despite socioeconomic challenges, experience success, feelings of hope and self-worth, resilience and competence, and academic achievement. This is also the case as it relates to Black students and their successful transition from community college to four-year colleges and beyond.Many young African Americans begin their higher education matriculation at community colleges. Of Black undergraduates in the United States, 49% are community college enrollees (Mullins & Phillippe, 2013). This figure would suggest that there might be an equivalent undergraduate enrollment and moreover similar levels of baccalaureate degree attainment. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that students who would gain the most from accessing the benefits of postsecondary education are often directed to options other than community colleges, including newly burgeoning for-profit institutions which appear to heavily recruit among the populations upon which this article is focused. But even those who make it to community colleges, as the authors will discuss later in this article, face barriers to successfully traverse pathways between community colleges and senior colleges. This is particularly the case for marginalized Black students.The authors present Sisters of the Academy's (SOTA's) adaptation of the KEMET Academy as a model for strengthening the pipeline for community college students into undergraduate, graduate, and professional study (Davis et al., 2011). KEMET (Knowledge and Excellence in Mathematics, Equilibrium, and Technology) Academy was implemented as a competency-based program to increase the numbers of secondary students who choose to pursue undergraduate study. The programmatic outcomes yielded the development of the KEMET Competencies Associated with Success for Rural Youth (CASRY), a set of skills that benefit rural youth (and all young people) and aid in achieving goals that require adaptation and persistence. The authors contend that the KEMET model may be applied to efforts at levels beyond the K-12 to four-year college transition. This article presents the KEMET model as an organizational mechanism used for socializing African American students and is aimed at enhancing the community college and beyond pipeline. …

Unequal Fortunes: Snapshots from the South Bronx (review)

Reviewed by: Unequal Fortunes: Snapshots from the South Bronx Beth Hatt Arthur Levine and Laura Scheiber. Unequal Fortunes: Snapshots from the South Bronx. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010. 170 pp. Paper: $25.95. ISBN-13: 978-0-8077-5075-9. Award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar (1996) states, “Anthropology that doesn’t break your heart just isn’t worth doing anymore” (p.177). Arthur Levine and Laura Schreiber have followed Behar’s advice in their book, Unequal Fortunes. They provide a street-level perspective of life in the South Bronx through the words and experiences of the people who have lived there and those who continue to do so. The book concludes by tying lived experience to policy on many levels and depicting the ways they are interrelated. Through reading the stories, policy becomes personal and the vulnerability of living in urban poverty is revealed. Arthur Levine lays the groundwork for the book’s premise by describing his return to the apartment in which he grew up in the South Bronx and which he had not visited for 30 years. He discovered that his old bedroom now belonged to 14-year-old Carlos from the Dominican Republic. Carlos’s bed and dresser were in the exact location that Levine’s had been. Arthur Levine became fascinated at the possibility of understanding his old neighborhood 30+ years later through the eyes of a young man who now lived in his old apartment, slept in his old bedroom, and observed the neighborhood through his old bedroom window. Arthur and his research associate, Laura Scheiber, who is bilingual in English and Spanish, embarked on a decade-long research study to better understand the decline of U.S. inner cities, the impact of poverty, and the possibilities of urban renewal by exploring the lived experience of these issues through Carlos and his two best friends, Juan Carlos and Leo. The authors compare the experiences of these Latino teenagers with those of Arthur as a young Jewish teenager in the same neighborhood three decades earlier. Carlos, Juan Carlos, and Leo agreed to keep diaries of their daily lives for five years. When Leo was shot and killed by a police officer in 2005, the study became more personal. Levine and Schreiber focused on his life and death to represent the harsh realities of Levine’s old neighborhood today. The first part of the book details the context of Arthur’s youth, including his family, the neighborhood, and his schooling experiences. Arthur’s family included a two-parent household, Jewish traditions, and high expectations for academic and economic success. The neighborhood was largely White and working class with 36% of the population being immigrants from Eastern Europe, especially Russia and Poland. The community was close-knit with neighborhood parents keeping an eye on each other’s children and reporting any misbehavior immediately. Arthur describes the community as having a common “belief in the power of education and a commitment to the American dream” (p. 30). The older kids in the neighborhood provided evidence that the dream was possible by becoming teachers, lawyers, and doctors. Part 1 concludes by discussing Arthur’s departure from the Bronx to attend college in Massachussetts. Upward class mobility meant he would not return to live in the same neighborhood once he graduated. He chose education as a career because of his belief that “education is the only effective way to improve the world” and the best way to give low-income kids a chance to escape poverty (p. 38). Levine did not return to New York City for 28 years, when he became president of Teachers College. The changes he found in his former neighborhood gave him a profound sense of loss. The neighborhood had more graffiti and trash. Broken glass, the occasional used condom, and empty crack vials littered the street. The children living in the neighborhood were mostly Latino, low income, and living with single parents, many of whom worked long hours to survive. Arthur felt that, due to many structural issues such as White flight, “planned shrinkage,” a lack of bank investment, and under-resourced schools, the American Dream had died in his old neighborhood. Part 2 introduces...

Seeking professional fulfillment: US symphony orchestra members in schools

Symphony orchestra musicians have characterized their careers as stressful, boring, and lacking in artistic integrity. In addition, they typically do not score high on job satisfaction inventories. This study describes how symphony orchestra members seek professional fulfillment through participating in school-based programs. Forty-seven musicians from two US orchestras who were participating in their orchestra’s education program were interviewed and observed in schools working with children. The interview transcriptions and classroom observation field notes and summaries were analyzed and coded for emergent themes. The results indicated that the musicians valued four major outcomes of their work in classrooms: the opportunity to express their creativity that the development of their presentations provided, the relationships forged with schools and children, the impact they could have on individual students’ lives, and the opportunity to serve the community. Orchestra musicians’ perspectives of their career paths appear to be enhanced by providing opportunities for them to work closely with students, particularly in under-resourced schools in their communities.

Building New Bridges to America's Schools: Lessons From the University of Notre Dame

This article tells the story and explores the significance of Notre Dame's efforts over the past 18 years to serve the pressing needs of underresourced elementary and secondary schools throughout the United States, with a special focus on the faith-based sector—and more particularly, Catholic schools. These schools are increasingly fragile but possess a well-documented track record of success educating low-income minority students. The closure in 1976 of Notre Dame's Department of Education left open an institutional space for entrepreneurial initiatives and new partnerships responsive to the needs of schools across the nation. Attentive to the manifold ironies inherent in the founding (in the mid-1990s) and growth of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program and Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives in which ACE is housed, the authors discern a pattern in which seeming deficits and obstacles repeatedly spark innovative responses and powerful alliances among a diverse range of stakeholders united by common goals. Drawing upon lessons learned, both through failures and successes, these reflections suggest roles that institutions of higher learning might play to improve the quality of education in faith-based, private, and public schools.

Using a social justice framework to assess educational quality in Tanzanian schools

This paper uses a social justice framework to assess the educational quality of over 100 primary and secondary schools surveyed in northern Tanzania from 2009 to 2011. Significant shortages of teachers, infrastructure, and teaching resources were observed in all government schools. National test exam scores for secondary school students highlighted the growing inequities between private and public schools as a learning environment. Although Tanzania has made some progress, severely under-resourced schools and dismal exam scores raise questions about the quality of education offered. This paper calls for a radical transformation of the current curriculum, strategies, and accountability systems.

Inspiring Academically Talented High School Students to Consider Teaching Careers in Urban Schools

This article addresses a unique effort to implement a summer residential program that identifies and inspires potential educators by reaching down the pipeline to academically talented high school students. The primary goal of the program was to introduce participants to various dimensions of urban teaching. The research and evaluation for the program was designed to include diverse forms of data (quantitative and qualitative) from both staff and program participants. This study’s findings indicate that participants became more informed about prevalent issues in under-resourced urban schools, better understood the need for teachers’ ongoing professional development and felt more comfortable in urban schools. A number of the focal participants also expressed sustained or increased aspirations for teaching youth in urban schools.

Commitment to Teach in Under-Resourced Schools: Prospective Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Dispositions

In this exploratory study, we sought to gain an understanding of what motivates prospective teachers who are Noyce Scholars at a research-intensive southeastern US university to commit to teaching secondary level science or mathematics in school districts that have a high proportion of students who come from low-socioeconomic households. An interpretive methodology revealed three themes associated with Noyce Scholars’ motivations to teach (1) awareness of educational challenges, (2) sense of belonging to or comfort with diverse communities, and (3) belief that one can serve as a role model and resource. The paper describes and compares the significance of each theme among six prospective teachers who identify with the schooling experiences of students who came from low-income or poor households and nine prospective teachers who identify with the schooling experiences in a middle-income school or district. The implication of this study supports the importance of recruiting prospective science and mathematics teachers who have knowledge of and a disposition to work with learners from low-income or poor households, even if those prospective teachers are not themselves the members of under-served populations.

Empowering first year (post-matric ) students in basic research skills: a strategy for education for social justice

Post-matric students from under-resourced (historically disadvantaged) black high schools generally encounter difficulties in their academic work at university. The study reported here was intended to empower first year (post-matric) students from these schools with basic research skills in a bid to counteract the effects of their high school under-preparedness. The context of an English and Academic skills module was used to offer a hands-on collaborative research skills experience based on John Dewey’s concept of “learning-by-doing”. The students were an intact class of Human and Social Sciences first year students involved in a research endeavour based on student-generated topics. The research project was carried out in small groups during the second semester of the year. Qualitative data were collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire and a written report at the end of the year. Students reported that the collaborative research experience had a positive effect on their basic research, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, and it empowered them to work in groups on a project. They had not been exposed to this experience at high school. Keywords: collaborative research experience; empowerment; learning-by-doing; post-matric students; social justice

Pedagogy of autonomy for difficult circumstances: from practice to principles

This article sets out to consider the place of learner autonomy in an African context by recounting the first author's experience of teaching a very large class of more than 200 teenage learners in an under-resourced secondary school setting in Cameroon. It describes the essentially pragmatic solution he adopted in this context of engaging pupils in group work under trees outside, having negotiated rules and work plans. The subsequent value of creative writing activities is also emphasised given the lack of textbooks in this context. On the basis of this narrative, we shed new light on issues in language learner autonomy including the cross-cultural relevance of autonomy, the distinction between a pedagogy of and a pedagogy for autonomy, and how a pedagogy of autonomy can be an appropriate response to otherwise ‘difficult circumstances’. The article ends with a number of principles derived from this practice that may equally be of broader relevance in the field of learner autonomy. Overall, the article is structured in an original manner that is presented as a possible model for future collaborative reports of bottom-up language teaching inquiry, in that an author's narrative of teaching experience is foregrounded and only subsequently related to (autonomy) theory.

A Research Tool for Analysing and Monitoring the Extent to which Environmental Issues are Integrated into Teachers’ Lessons

South Africa enjoys strong policy support for the integration of environmental issues into school curricula. However, much doubt exists over the extent to which this has been converted into appropriate classroom practice at the majority of under-resourced rural schools in the country. This article reports on a study which piloted a research tool which can be used to analyse teachers’ lessons, with the aim of gaining insight into the extent to which they integrate natural resource management issues. The research tool was based on Bernstein’s concept of classification and consisted of five indicators of natural resource management integration into Life Sciences lessons. The study contributes to the design of research tools that can be used to analyse and monitor the integration of environmental issues into teachers’ lessons. It also provides some insight into the environmental content of a sample of Grade 10 Life Sciences lessons at four rural underresourced schools in the Eastern Cape.