July 17, 2013

Assessment

COLLAPSE

I want to understand more about the state of assessment and testing in South African schools.  As learners switch from their mother tongue as a medium of instruction to English or Afrikaans after grade three, I wonder whether teachers use language assessment formatively.  Language assessment is a tool to identify student needs in terms of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 

Language assessment harkens to the larger issue of testing in general.  I need to learn more about testing views and practices in South Africa.  South Africa has participated in the TIMMS, however, I would like to know about additional testing.  South Africa uses the National Senior Certificate examinations (“matric”) in 12^th grade as a culminating exam, which appears to be a combination of short answer and essay.  During my time here I would like to research three aspects of this exam: 1) reliability, 2) validity evidence, and 3) use of the results.

-Tim Guetterman

 Visit to Tamil Hindu temple with Prof Vandeyar

Dinner with Michelle Finestone to celebrate the end of a successful seminar week.

Some select photos....

                             Students from Mixed Methods Seminar at the University of Pretoria

                                      The ubiquitousness of an ailing hero.

                                         At Mandela's house

 

                         At Lesedi African Village for a night of African food and culture including spectacular       traditional dances.

Reactions to the first week

The first week

COLLAPSE

It was a terrific week meeting, interacting, and talking with University of Pretoria students and faculty.  I made some wonderful connections that I hope to keep for a long time.  I talked with many students who had questions about methods or methodological issues with their research. I really enjoyed providing consultation and individual coaching.  I felt like I was helping others, but I also learned from the process.  I learned from their studies, designs, and perspective.  Hearing and responding to methodological questions encourages me to think more deeply and clarify my knowledge of methods. I hope to continue this type of work in the future. 

The Apartheid museum was quite fascinating.  It traced a history of modern South Africa from the inception of Apartheid through its end and ANC’s assumption of power.  The exhibition on the life of Mandela was excellent.  I can (and did) spend an hour listening to him speak and inspire.  The museum allows visitors to construct their own experience and meaning from it.  For me, visiting was especially interesting as I am currently reading Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela’s autobiography.  I highly recommend the book, especially to provide background and context to those visiting the museum.  In essence, it gave me a deeper experience. 

-Tim Guetterman

Transformative Education

Today in our trip visiting an African Flea Market and, then, at the Sterkfontein Caves, I was able to learn a little more about this country and its people. For me it has been very interesting to recognize that, despite being thousands of miles away from home, this place has several commonalities with the United States and Latin America, the region where my country is located. The historical and symbolic load about race and language of many Africans, which affects their relationships and ideologies, reminds me mainly of the U.S. On the other hand, the high social segregation illustrated for instance in who are most likely to enroll in universities and attend museums and/or historical sites, reminds me mostly of Latin American countries. Moreover, talking with my African classmates it was encouraging to hear about how most of them, like us, are studying a graduate program in order to develop knowledge and skills that will allow them in the future to work on their country's problems. In this framework, education constitutes a transformative space with direct or indirect social consequences and, personally, I think this program reinforces the idea that knowledge should be a product from our personal experiences and each socio-cultural context where our lives have been built.

-Andrea Flanagan Borquez

Involvement of the Community: Issues in Language Planning

In

COLLA

Involvement of the Community in Language Planning

Involvement of the Community in Issues of Language Planning

As we did our presentations today, one of the topics that came up frequently and resignated with me was how the lack of involvement of the community in the development of language policy makes its implementation ineffective. If teachers and members of the community, the ones who have to implement the policy and the ones who will use the language selected in such policy, respectively, play a role in what needs to be addressed by the policy, and more importantly, what are the resources and institutional support needed in the implementation phase, the line -as the metaphor I used in my presentation- would not be so irregular. An interesting comment regarding this issue was the lack of democracy in language policy, illustrated as "CEO's vs. educators" or "democracy vs. control and manipulation." The administrator in the Philadelphia district believed in the research literature more than in the teachers, which makes me think of the kind of research that needs to be conducted in this area, research that demonstrates how the involvement of the community has a positive effect in the implementation of the policy.

-Carolina Bustamante

July 12, 2013

Languaging

Travels around the world have made me appreciate languaging more than I ever imagined. With each encounter with a new person in a new context, I find myself noticing more and more details about the act of doing language, the act of communicating, the act of relating. This week has provided several opportunities to converse with graduate students with broad research interests: math and English education, integration of students with special needs, HIV and AIDS research, STEM etc. etc. But each of these conversations included much more language than the words we shared. I enjoy the proximity of space my African classmates are willing to share with me and the slight touches of the hand to acknowledge understanding. When I begin a conversation, I feel as if I enter an intimate space of communication that extends through the physical body: messages are shared through eye contact, facial expressions and stature. We communicate with our bodies everyday, but it is not until we do language with someone who does it slightly different than us that we recognize our own patterns. I often worry so much about learning (some of) the spoken language(s) of a new place that I forget how much other languaging and relating happens without words.


-Jen Stacy

Tiffany contemplates the eternal flame at Freedom Park