An exploration of selected South African history teachers’ content knowledge of African history.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
The dissertation presents an exploration of selected South African history teachers’
content knowledge of African history. Available literature says that teachers should
have some benchmarks in order for them to be considered historically literate so that
their learners benefit from them. The literature also reveals that, although it is
impossible to measure how much content knowledge a history teacher should have,
there is a certain level of content knowledge that is expected of them. The conceptual
framework for this study that I use is called historical literacy as content knowledge. It
consists of different four aspects: knowledge of historical dates, knowledge of
historical figures, knowledge of historical places, and knowledge of historical events.
This study was conducted in Mtubatuba, in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal
province, South Africa. Ten (10) history teachers were conveniently sampled, and data
was generated through a focus-group discussion and individual interviews (which
included evaluative questions). The selected history teachers were asked questions
which revealed their content knowledge of African history, and their views on their
respective content knowledge. The findings are thematically presented in response to
the two key research questions. The data revealed that the participants were able to
display differing levels of content knowledge such as average level, below average
level, above average level, and a level of excellence. While some were able to respond
to the evaluative questions, some could barely respond, demonstrating below average
content knowledge. The participants demonstrated higher levels of content knowledge
of South African history, but performed poorly when responding to questions about
other African countries. The participants who struggled to answer the evaluative
questions believed that some questions were not fair to them, as they had not taught
on the topics recently, and had even forgotten content. The participants who did well
said that they were satisfied with their performance since the questions they were
asked required their basic knowledge as answers. These participants said that they
were asked questions that required them to give answers based on the information
they had already known even before they started school. The participants were proud
of answering questions correctly; there was also a feeling that questions that were
asked empowered them in terms of content knowledge.
The participants acknowledged that it was important to own a certain level of content knowledge so
that a history teacher could be regarded as historically literate.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.