Browsing by Author "Jackson, Fiona Margaret."

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An ethnographic audience study of isiZulu-speaking UKZN students' responses to constructions of male characters in Muvhango.
(2015) Nzimande, Melba Belinda Melissa.; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.
This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the constructions of masculinity in soap opera, and focuses specifically on how a group of isiZulu-speaking students who study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal interpret Muvhango, a Tshivenda soap opera. This study also presents how these viewers interpret, analyse, understand and group these constructions of masculinity. An analysis of how the students view each of the male characters is presented, and this is contextualised in terms of current and previous research on soap operas, on masculinity broadly, and on masculinity in South Africa. Group in-depth interviews were conducted with three different groups — a group consisting of women only, a group consisting of men only, and a mixed group made up of both men and women. The students’ reasoning as to why they watched soap opera was investigated. This study purposefully chose to interview isiZulu-speaking Black students as subjects, to understand why a soap opera that is predominantly Tshivenda, with Tshivenda discourses, has an impact on the lives of the isiZulu-speaking viewers who watch. It surfaced during the interviews that watching soap opera is a communal activity that creates a discursive space for multiple responses and for debating the social acceptance of some of the topics expressed by the soap opera. How the respondents responded to the male characters of Muvhango was examined. The students responded negatively to male characters who were passive, as well as those who generally represented hegemonic and aggressive masculinities. The respondents identified with certain male characters whom they recognised as typical of the types of men they would encounter in their everyday lives; however, they found other characters to be distasteful to such an extent that in addition to disliking the characters on screen, they formed negative opinions of the actors as private individuals separate from their acting roles. In summary, this dissertation examines the consumption of a Tshivenda soap opera by Black isiZulu-speaking students who all attend the same Christian church and who all reside in Pietermaritzburg.
Mapping the pedagogic practice of grade ten English teachers: a qualitative multi-lensed study.
(2019) Jackson, Fiona Margaret.; Hugo, Wayne.
This study addresses the issue of how to track the classroom talk of subject English teachers in Grade Ten classrooms in KwaZulu-Natal. Subject English, as a horizontal knowledge structure, presents particular challenges of content and methodological specification: what may be included, and the means of teaching and assessment, are contested, wide-ranging, and frequently opaque. English teachers are central to the construal of the subject in the classroom and their classroom talk is central to their construal of the subject to their learners. Classroom observations were conducted in four purposively selected KwaZulu- Natal state high schools, spanning the socio-economic spectrum, across the period 2005-2009. Twenty-six lessons were analysed using code theory’s concepts of classification and framing. This analysis presented broadly similar categorisations of strong classification and framing for most of the lessons, apart from some framing differences with respect to evaluation. However, my field observations had identified differences between the teachers’ classroom talk that were not captured. This led to the quest of finding pedagogically well theorised languages of description of teacher talk capable of capturing the range of variation and flow with greater nuance. Application of the lenses of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), Jacklin’s tripartite typology extending code theory (2004), Brodie’s expansion of classic classroom discourse analysis (2008, 2010), Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) (2014), and conceptual integration theory (2015), were successful in describing and discriminating more fully the range of pedagogy. Detailed analysis of four literature lessons (two teaching novels, two teaching poetry) from the two schools at opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum, are presented as exemplars of these lenses’ capacity as languages of description for subject English teacher classroom talk. The multi-lensed descriptions highlighted variations such as: o the degree of use of nominalised discourse (SFL); o more dominantly discursive pedagogy or more dominantly conventional pedagogy (Jacklin); o more overt or more implicit evaluations, greater use of insert moves versus greater use of elicit moves (Brodie); and o cultivation of a cognitively associative literary gaze versus cultivation of a decoding of the text gaze and intricate movements by the teachers between relatively stronger and weaker epistemic and social relations; more frequent and deeper versus less frequent and flatter semantic waving (LCT). A fifth lesson, focused on learner oral performances of infomercials, is analysed using conceptual integration theory, as the sole example in the data set, of pedagogic conceptual integration. These analyses highlight the potential of these lenses as tools for the unpacking and specification of teachers’ pedagogic practice, particularly their pedagogic content knowledge, an undertaking which has been protractedly difficult to achieve beyond localised, intuitive description. They also illuminated the intricate complexity of pedagogy, and the propensity for pedagogic meaning to disintegrate when the level of analysis shifts down to too small a micro-focus. This highlights the ongoing need for research to pinpoint the ‘sweet spot’ of the optimally smallest unit of a pedagogic act. Key components of the pedagogic process emerged that we need more refined understanding of in relation to what teachers do and the impact of this on the epistemic access of learners: teacher pedagogic mobility, pedagogic coherence and pedagogic flow. The study points to the Jacklinian and LCT lenses as offering the most potential for the ongoing investigation of these dimensions.
The re-contextualisation and representation of women’s roles in the television series Once Upon a Time.
(2020) Reddy, Dashentha.; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.
This dissertation explores the representation and re-contextualisation of female roles in the contemporary television series, Once Upon a Time. Women in the media and society have long been undermined. Women, especially in the fairy tale genre, have been assigned stereotypically feminine roles that underline the roles that women in society are expected to follow. In a more contemporary world, representations of women in the media and the role they play in society have changed. Playing a critical role in changing this has been feminist thought and activism, which has resulted in an increased number of texts that showcase women in roles that are not only stereotypically feminine. A qualitative research approach was employed for this study, informed by an interpretivist paradigm. Two fairy tale characters, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, were analysed across three filmic texts that were purposively sampled: Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Jetlag’s Little Red Riding Hood (1995) were analysed in order to understand more traditional representations of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, and the third text, season one of Once Upon a Time (2011), was analysed in order to understand a contemporary representation and re-contextualisation of these characters. This study used three analytical methods: content analysis, visual/semiotic analysis, and actantial analysis, all of which incorporated textual analysis to support and further develop the findings. Ottosson and Cheng’s (2012) feminine and masculine trait categories were used to inform the content analysis. The study finds that Once Upon a Time highlights a world that is not male dominated but still contains some of the values of patriarchal society. It also challenges the heteronormative desire for love that is expressed by most fairy tale characters. Furthermore, the study suggests that the society you live in affects the privileges that you have. For example, white middle-class females have more options with regards to independence and being open about their sexuality, while women from poorer areas have limited choices due to their financial status and the society they live in.
A study of how first language teachers of English organise their classrooms and their teaching to promote the language development of English as second language learners in selected racially mixed schools.
(1995) Pillay, Gopaul.; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.; Inglis, Margaret Janet.
By gleaning information derlv lr.RJ!Uwo classrooms that I observed, I attem ted in this study, to examine the nature of the interaction between teachers of English as a first language, and the second language learners in their classrooms. I used the theoretical model developed by Cummins (1981), whereby Cummins has categorised curriculums for second language learners into two groups : (a) the transmission model; and (b) the interactive model. It is the interactive model which is said to be compatible with recent theories of second language acquisition and therefore by implication, supportive of second language development. The transmission model, on the other hand, is thought to be inimical to language development. I am of the view that the methodology used in all-African classrooms may be reflecting a type of adaptation to the changed composition of learners that is inclined towards the teaching of low order thinking abilities such as factual recall and rote learning. In classrooms where the second language learners are in the minority, there exists a danger that the African pupils may be marginalised. In order for teachers to provide, meaningful instruction to second language learners, teachers l(, v 1,v-,._j who can speak English only, will have to learn the organisational skills that are known to 1 enhance teachers' proficiency as mediators of the curriculum, particularly in the context of English as medium instruction for second language students. The transmission model is said to be deeply entrenched in our school system. In order to promote language development, teachers will have to develop approaches that shift toward interactive learning. Interactive learning involves more learner participation and the bridging of pupils' real life experiences with the academic content of subjects. The study reflects personal opinion and interpretations of a research project at two schools and may not necessarily be applicable to other situations.
Writing experiences of B.Ed honours students registered for the Language in Learning and Teaching (LILT) module : a case study.
(2001) Thomson, Carol Irene.; ; Jackson, Fiona Margaret.
This dissertation examines the writing! literacy practices of a small group of first year Bachelor of Education Honours students, who registered for the Language in Learning and Teaching module, as first year students, in 1998. The primary sources of data were (a) questionnaires (focusing on existing literacy practices with which students engage outside of the university context), (b) Literate Life Histories, and (c) individual interviews. The purpose of the research was to consider the 'fit' between students' literacy practices outside of the university and those demanded within the university. Explicitly linked to this was a consideration of the extent to which assessment processes could or should be modified to accommodate this 'fit'. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1965,1972,1991,1992), and his notions of habitus, field and capital, Critical Linguistics and Critical Pedagogy, the study explores the concept of 'difference', notions of literacy and institutionalised power. It also offers suggestions for a pedagogical framework that might effectively foreground a critical position in relation to these issues. Findings from this study indicate that very few literacy practices with which student engage 'fit' directly with those demanded of them by the university. Despite this, students 'take on' the academic literacy demands of the university relatively uncritically and do not attach undue emphasis to this aspect of their performance. What is of particular significance to them are the experiences of empowerment they enjoy during their studies, and the' capital' they take with them in the form of a recognised university qualification. Staff, on the other hand, tend to foreground the need to master academic discourse in order to 'succeed', and rate general student performance as low and inadequate against this criterion. These discrepancies and contradictions between what students perceive their sojourn in the B.Ed Hons programme to be about, and their notions of what constitutes 'success' vis a vis that of staff, make for thought provoking and important considerations, particularly with regard to future research possibilities.