Learning to fly: pedagogy in the Foundation Phase in the context of the CAPS reform

Abstract

Learning to fly: pedagogy in the Foundation Phase in the context of the CAPS reform1 Ursula Hoadley (Received 25 July 2016; accepted 12 October 2016) Abstract This paper presents an empirical analysis of pedagogy in relatively well-performing classrooms in poor contexts in the context of the most recent curriculum reform, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Amongst a set of teachers from a recent research project, shifts in pedagogy from what had been prevalent practices in classrooms (see Hoadley, 2012) were found. These shifts, however, appeared to be largely surface rather than substantive. What the study found was surface compliance to policy dictat; taking on of the form rather than substance of a different pedagogy. A subsequent, closer analysis of the pedagogy of eight of the ‘best’ performing teachers allowed for the theoretical development of the distinction between surface and substantive change, and to consider more closely questions of curriculum, knowledge and pedagogy at the Foundation Phase level. This was accomplished primarily by drawing on Bernstein’s (1996) notion of evaluation and extending it in relation to other studies that have begun to explore the relationship between knowledge and pedagogy, especially Venkat (2013) and Shalem and Slonimsky (2010a; 2010b).