Browsing by Author "Ramsuran, Anitha."

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Exploring the relationship between policy and practice : a study of continuous assessment.
(1997) Ramsuran, Anitha.; Jansen, Jonathan David.
Research reveals that policy intentions seldom define classroom practice. This research study uses continuous assessment as the 'case' to explore the policy-practice relationship. The research approach adopted involved a critical review of policy documents on continuous assessment; interviews with Department officials; a survey questionnaire on continuous assessment distributed to teachers in ten secondary schools; and a detailed exploration of continuous assessment practice in three institutional settings. The findings show that continuous assessment is rarely implemented as policy intended; teachers at the classroom level have transformed the aims of policy-makers to the extent that implementation proceeds at some distance from the original policy intentions; and teachers are experiencing numerous problems in attempting to implement continuous assessment.
Ideological influences in the national curriculum statements for the further education and training band.
(2006) Maharaj, Asha.; Ramsuran, Anitha.
Since it assumed power in 1994, the government of South Africa had to meet the challenges of changing an education system that was established along racial lines. OBE and Curriculum 2005 were adopted into the school system. In the Further Education and Training Band Report 550 which was a 'cleansed' curriculum was introduced. The Framework for the Transformation of Further Education and Training in South Africa was published and promoted equality, economic competitiveness, redress, productivity and quality learning. On 28 October 2002 the draft National Curriculum Statements were published. The purpose of this study was to examine some of the policy intentions, influences and dominant ideologies in the FET policy documents. The study also examines the policy process and the recontextualization of policy discourses. A qualitative approach was used. Data was collected from questionnaires and interviews. The data obtained from the completed questionnaires and interviews was processed. The dominant ideology in the policy documents for English, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Science were identified. The findings of the study shows that policy makers, designers and trainers adopted particular discourses that were at times aligned to the official policy discourse and at times they drew on new discourses based on their own histories, biographies and experiences of teaching in South African schools. Finally recommendations were made concerning the policy process in the form of three propositions: (i)Timing determined what was possible for the NCS: the policy development process was driven by a political need to deliver on a new curriculum; (ii) In a system that is not currently functioning efficiently, new policy initiatives exacerbate rather than reform the conditions on the ground; (iii) Government rationality was driven by a transformative agenda yet constrained by technicist management theories.
Participatory methodology : an investigation into its use with primary school children in mapping HIV/AIDS as a barrier to learning in Kwazulu-Natal.
(2008) Murugen, Veshanti.; Ramsuran, Anitha.; Ebrahim, Hasina Banu.
This study examines the use of participatory methodology with primary school children in mapping HIV/AIDS as a barrier to learning in KwaZulu-Natal. The study draws on a larger National Research Funded (NRF) Project1 undertaken in the Richmond area of KwaZulu-Natal. Data was produced through semi-structured interviews of six researchers involved in the NRF project; through document analysis of the data sets involving the learners and facilitators, the NRF project report and the related journal articles based on the project; and through field observation conducted by me. The findings of the study suggest that in research on HIV/AIDS it is essential to seek participatory ways of enabling children’s voices on the pandemic as it unfolds in their context. High researcher reflexivity is necessary in order to become sensitive and responsive to the challenges of including children’s voices in vulnerable circumstances. Findings also suggest the importance of viewing ethics as situated practice. The study ends with implications for research methodology courses, researcher training and evidence from children for policy on HIV/AIDS.
The politics of knowledge : tracing the trajectory of the natural science curriculum.
(2005) Ramsuran, Anitha.; Malcolm, Clifford Keith.
Knowledge production or research in South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, does not occur within 'innocent' spaces devoid of personal, social, political, economic and cultural contexts (Singh, 2000). This study explores knowledge production at the level of policy. It questions in the review of the school's curriculum policy in general, and the science curriculum policy in particular: What becomes new? What is different? What remains the same? What is the policy problem? Who is the policy population that is the target of such policies? Why is there such a universal dimension of what should be taught in science, and hence what science is? Why is the conceptual knowledge of the science curriculum and the conception of scientific literacy around the world much the same? At the level of research, what is the most illuminative way to seek answers to these questions? The study explores the theoretical, methodological and contextual constructs that frame the conception of scientific literacy. This thesis presents a critical analysis of the policy process and policy documents for two reform periods in South Africa. The theoretical constructs deployed are policy archaeology, ideology, inclusivity, governmentality and professionalisation. I argue in this study that the latter two constructs are regularities that are necessary for the emergence of the policy problem, they shape the social construction of the policy problem and they constitute and shape the range of policy solutions. I posit that these regularities are necessary for the social construction of the policy problem in both the C2005 and the RNCS processes. These regularities intersect in a complex, grid-like fashion on the policy-problem axis. These intersecting regularities makes it possible for the policy problem to emerge as a problem, constructs the problem, and constitutes the problem as an 'object' of social visibility. I argue that ideological shifts in the conception of scientific literacy are constituted by these two regularities. I conclude the thesis by drawing out five significant policy lessons: (i) An 'ideal' that makes intellectual sense but does not fit conditions in society can exacerbate the problems it seeks to solve; (ii) 'Change is only as effective as the smallest unit': in the policy-making arena the smallest unit is the policy writers, in the arena of practice it is the classroom teacher; (iii) Timing determines what is possible: the socio-political climate of 1994 resulted in some important silences- especially from conservatives and scientists; (iv) In the science policy documents the definition of scientific literacy is epistemological at two levels: the idea that scientific literacy can be defined and constitutes individual knowledge,and the view of knowledge in the policy documents; and (v) The policy process and the policy documents challenged hegemony of structure and the epistemology of knowledge.