A Cultural-Historical Approach Towards Pedagogical Transitions : Transitions in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This book investigates pedagogical change across curricula and political transitions in the South African context, from 1994 to today. Tracing pedagogical transitions from post-apartheid to the demands of the 21st century, the book seeks to develop a novel approach to pedagogy that can meet the needs of students today. Adopting a cultural-historical lens, Hardman analyses the contradictions that arise due to transitions in the curriculum and describes the current state of teaching in primary schools in South Africa by focusing on how teachers teach scientific concepts. She goes on to examine the transitions from children’s indigenous science/maths understanding to school science/maths understanding, developing a pedagogy that can transform the learning of mathematics and science in developing contexts. Building on theories from Vygotsky, Davydov, Feuerstein, Freire, Bruner and Hedegaard, Hardman develops a new and inclusive, decolonial pedagogical approach that can meet the needs of a multicultural and multilingual contexts around the world. "This book investigates pedagogical change across curricula and political transitions in the South African context, from 1994 to today. Tracing pedagogical transitions from post-apartheid to the demands of the 21st century, the book seeks to develop a novel approach to pedagogy that can meet the needs of students today. Adopting a cultural-historical lens, Hardman analyses the contradictions that arise due to transitions in the curriculum and describes the current state of teaching in primary schools in South Africa by focusing on how teachers teach scientific concepts. She goes on to examine the transitions from children's indigenous science/maths understanding to school maths/science understanding and develops a pedagogy that can transform the learning of mathematics and science in developing contexts. Building on theories from Vygotsky, Davydov, Feuerstein, Freire, Bruner and Hedegaard, Hardman develops a new and inclusive, decolonial pedagogical approach that can meet the needs of a multicultural and multilingual contexts around the world. "-- Provided by publisher The series brings together books that present and explore empirical research and theoretical discussion on the themes of childhood and youth transitions. Special attention is directed to conceptualizing transitions holistically so that societal, institutional and personal perspectives are featured within and across books. Key to the series is presenting the processes of transitions between practices or activities and their relationship to the person, in contexts such as intergenerational family practices, the processes of care, a person's development, the learning of individuals, groups and systems, personal health, labour and birthing and ageing. All books take a broad cultural-historical approach of transitions across a range of contexts and countries and when brought together in one place make an important contribution to better understanding transitions globally. Books in the Transitions in Childhood and Youth series offer an excellent resource for postgraduate students, researchers, policy writers and academics. Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 10 Preface 11 Series Editors’ Foreword 13 Acknowledgements 14 1 Introduction 16 Part 1 Context 20 2 Vygotsky’s Pedagogical Legacy in the Twenty-first Century 22 3 Curriculum Transitions: 1994–2019 52 4 Pedagogical Transitions: 1994–2019 72 Part Two Cultural Historical Approaches to Pedagogy 90 5 School Science for Eight-year-olds: A Cultural Historical Analysis 92 6 Hedegaard’s ‘Double-Move’ in Teaching in Grade 2 112 Part Three Towards a Pedagogy of Inclusion 128 7 New Technology, New Pedagogy? Investigating Shifts in Pedagogy in Disadvantaged Grade 6 Mathematics Classrooms 130 8 The Transition from Face-to-face to Computer-based Pedagogy 148 9 Conclusion: The Case for Hedegaard’s Radical Local Model of Pedagogy 170 Appendix A 185 Appendix B 195 Appendix C 202 Notes 206 References 211 Index 229