Department of Educational Psychology

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Browsing by Author "du Plooy, Lucinda"

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    Action research in the graphics classroom: reflections of educational change initiatives in two schools
    (University of the Western Cape, 1990) Cowan, Gillian Margaret; du Plooy, Lucinda
    This thesis is an account of my experiences as a Graphics teacher using critical action research to examine my educational practice while working with standard nine students in two white high schools in Cape Town. The subject that I taught, since it was predominantly a "practical" one, was primarily for students who were often labelled, not only by teachers but by the students themselves, as academically "weak" or "stupid" as well as "delinquent". While my initial intention was to try to improve my own educational practice and, as a consequence be better able to help my students, it became apparent that I could not begin to understand the emerging issues in isolation from the context in which the research was undertaken. Issues, which at first seemed relatively simple, became increasingly complex as the research cycles proceeded. Three particular issues are further discussed: i) The problems of qualitative research, particularly those of data collection and narrative language; The value of "thick" description as opposed to the surface representations of positivistic research modes justifies the difficulty of following the qualitative research method. ii) The ways in which the curriculum and school organisation can perpetuate social inequalities and injustices, which may be further reinforced by student resistance; my experience of my project students strongly suggested that for whatever other reasons they were doing so badly at school, it certainly was not because they were academically "weak" or "stupid". iii) The value that critical action research has as a form of praxis or critical pedagogy. By closing the gap between theory and practice, it has enabled me to come to understand better the ideological nature of organised education and the consequences thereof.