title: The development of pre-service teachers’ competence to teach mental calculation strategies

authors: Vale, Pamela

subjects: pre-service teachers

abstract: Background: There is a concern in South Africa that pre-service teachers do not have the required knowledge to teach mathematics in primary school and to develop learners’ number sense. In this study, pre-service teachers taught the mental strategy of bridging through ten through a structured teaching sequence from the Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP) materials as a work-integrated learning opportunity.

Aim: We ask the question: How do the MSAP materials support pre-service teachers in competently teaching mental mathematics?

Setting: Thirty-eight Bachelor of Education (Foundation Phase) third-year preservice teachers from an Eastern Cape university participated in this study.

Methods: Participants taught the strategy during their Teaching Practice, quantitatively analysed the results of their classes and reflected on the experience in a questionnaire and focus group interviews.

Results: Results indicate that the teachers were relatively successful in their teaching of the strategy; however, all indicated that they taught the sequence for a more extended period than recommended. Qualitative responses provide evidence of the teachers’ development in their knowledge of learners and their characteristics, general pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of educational contexts.

Conclusion: This study offers evidence of the professional learning of pre-service teachers that resulted from taking an integrated approach to facilitating a mathematics teaching methodology course through requiring a work-integrated learning component.

Contribution: We argue that such an approach is necessary for pre-service teachers to be adequately prepared for the challenges of teaching mathematics in the South African classroom.

text: The development of pre-service teachers’ competence to teach mental calculation strategies Background: There is a concern in South Africa that pre-service teachers do not have the required knowledge to teach mathematics in primary school and to develop learners’ number sense. In this study, pre-service teachers taught the mental strategy of bridging through ten through a structured teaching sequence from the Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP) materials as a work-integrated learning opportunity.

Aim: We ask the question: How do the MSAP materials support pre-service teachers in competently teaching mental mathematics?

Setting: Thirty-eight Bachelor of Education (Foundation Phase) third-year preservice teachers from an Eastern Cape university participated in this study.

Methods: Participants taught the strategy during their Teaching Practice, quantitatively analysed the results of their classes and reflected on the experience in a questionnaire and focus group interviews.

Results: Results indicate that the teachers were relatively successful in their teaching of the strategy; however, all indicated that they taught the sequence for a more extended period than recommended. Qualitative responses provide evidence of the teachers’ development in their knowledge of learners and their characteristics, general pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of educational contexts.

Conclusion: This study offers evidence of the professional learning of pre-service teachers that resulted from taking an integrated approach to facilitating a mathematics teaching methodology course through requiring a work-integrated learning component.

Contribution: We argue that such an approach is necessary for pre-service teachers to be adequately prepared for the challenges of teaching mathematics in the South African classroom.

year: 2024

title: 'You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever': Sapphic desire, vampires, and constructing kinship

authors: Theunisz, Marie

subjects: vampire

abstract: This thesis explores the figure of the sapphic vampire in Carmilla (1872) by J. Sheridan Le
Fanu, The Blood of the Vampire (1897) by Florence Marryat, The Gilda Stories (1991) by
Jewelle Gomez, and Fledgling (2005) by Octavia Butler. I argue that these texts present the
sapphic vampire as the embodiment of the death drive and display ambiguous familial/sexual
relationships in order to challenge heteronormative constructs of family. I utilise Lee
Edelman’s arguments from No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive to analyse
vampiric, queer kinship as a future that does not focus on the child, and Kath Weston’s
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship to unpack the concept of the chosen family
and its value for queer people who desire kin, examining the way familial structures are
broken down and biological ties rendered secondary to chosen ones. In Chapter One I analyse
the scenes in which the vampire feeds, unpacking the use of breastfeeding imagery to show
the tension between maternal roles and sapphic relationships inherent in the texts. I show how

the narratives respond to idea of love and lust, as well as their troubled relationship with post-
menopausal women. Chapter Two considers how, lacking a biological family of her own, the

sapphic vampire creates familial bonds through recruitment or reproduction. Given the
correlation these texts create between queerness and vampirism, I argue that the family
building within these narratives presents alternatives to heteronormative constructs of
kinship. Throughout I compare the contemporary texts to their Victorian counterparts, tracing
the ways in which the depictions of queer kinship that the Victorian texts had to eradicate
could be celebrated in those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. I will explain
the significance of what has or has not changed, and how this affects or is representative of
shifts in attitude towards queer people and the families that they choose. This thesis
demonstrates the power of the desire that the literary sapphic vampire feels, and the value of
the family she chooses.

text: 'You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever': Sapphic desire, vampires, and constructing kinship This thesis explores the figure of the sapphic vampire in Carmilla (1872) by J. Sheridan Le
Fanu, The Blood of the Vampire (1897) by Florence Marryat, The Gilda Stories (1991) by
Jewelle Gomez, and Fledgling (2005) by Octavia Butler. I argue that these texts present the
sapphic vampire as the embodiment of the death drive and display ambiguous familial/sexual
relationships in order to challenge heteronormative constructs of family. I utilise Lee
Edelman’s arguments from No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive to analyse
vampiric, queer kinship as a future that does not focus on the child, and Kath Weston’s
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship to unpack the concept of the chosen family
and its value for queer people who desire kin, examining the way familial structures are
broken down and biological ties rendered secondary to chosen ones. In Chapter One I analyse
the scenes in which the vampire feeds, unpacking the use of breastfeeding imagery to show
the tension between maternal roles and sapphic relationships inherent in the texts. I show how

the narratives respond to idea of love and lust, as well as their troubled relationship with post-
menopausal women. Chapter Two considers how, lacking a biological family of her own, the

sapphic vampire creates familial bonds through recruitment or reproduction. Given the
correlation these texts create between queerness and vampirism, I argue that the family
building within these narratives presents alternatives to heteronormative constructs of
kinship. Throughout I compare the contemporary texts to their Victorian counterparts, tracing
the ways in which the depictions of queer kinship that the Victorian texts had to eradicate
could be celebrated in those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. I will explain
the significance of what has or has not changed, and how this affects or is representative of
shifts in attitude towards queer people and the families that they choose. This thesis
demonstrates the power of the desire that the literary sapphic vampire feels, and the value of
the family she chooses.

year: 2024

title: Culturally-Oriented Environmental Identity Transitions: Migrant Indian Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education

authors: Rathore, Devika

abstract: An increasingly multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape that includes a growing number of migrant teachers forms the context for my doctoral study. In this country, respect for the natural world and kaitiakitanga are integral to the ECE bicultural curriculum framework Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017) which is grounded in Indigenous Māori worldviews that acknowledge strong spiritual connections to land and place. The natural environment is considered an integral part of the national identity and early childhood has been recognised as an important stage when Environmental and Sustainability Education should begin.   

Within the context of this superdiverse nation, a significant number of migrant teachers transfer their cultural and environmental knowledge, practice, and identity as they transition into the Aotearoa New Zealand context. This thesis explored migrant Indian teachers’ understandings of their culturally-oriented and negotiated environmental identities. I was keen to examine if the environment might hold different meanings and places in their home (Indian) and host (Aotearoa New Zealand) cultural systems.   

Through this study, insights were gained into migrant Indian teachers’ perceptions of the influence of cultural identity on their environmental identities in Aotearoa New Zealand ECE. A sociocultural theoretical perspective informed this study, drawing primarily on Sauvé’s (2009) model of personal and social development of the self in relation to other humans and the environment. Primary data for this interpretivist study were gathered through in-depth interviews with nine Indian ECE teacher participants. Interviews with their ECE setting managers/head teachers were conducted to support and supplement the teachers’ practices and experiences. The audio-recorded interview data were transcribed and examined using thematic analysis. Observations of teacher participants’ workplaces were used to provide a contextual profile for each of the nine Indian teachers. I also obtained a small number of assessment documents in the form of Learning Stories which the teachers had prepared, to analyse them for cultural and environmental themes and experiences.   

Indian teacher participants’ perceptions of their own culturally-oriented environmental identities highlighted the significance of teachers’ own early childhood environmental experiences and home cultural context influences on their environmental identities. Teacher participants’ perceptions shed light on their cultural and environmental identity transitions and acculturation process. These teachers brought their cultural and environmental identities from their home cultural context and used their cultural lens to interpret the connections between the host cultural context and environmental worldviews.   

The Indian teacher participants perceived close connections between their cultural and environmental identities. At the same time, they recognised cross-cultural connections between their culturally-oriented environmental identities and tikanga Māori (Māori ways of doing including practices, customs and rituals) and te ao Māori (the Māori world). These perceived connections were most evident through the significance of Indian philosophies of spirituality, relationships, belonging, and cultural recognition and exchange in their specific ECE contexts. These connections facilitated teachers’ cultural and environmental identity transitions and had a positive impact on their cultural and environmental teaching practices when supported within the ECE setting and by management/leadership.   

Cultural and environmental transitions for this steadily growing group of migrant teachers require further investigation to facilitate their cultural and environmental participation and acculturation into the Aotearoa New Zealand ECE context. In these ways, the existing cultural, environmental, and sustainability connections within ECE could be strengthened to foster children’s culturally-oriented environmental identities.

text: Culturally-Oriented Environmental Identity Transitions: Migrant Indian Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education An increasingly multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape that includes a growing number of migrant teachers forms the context for my doctoral study. In this country, respect for the natural world and kaitiakitanga are integral to the ECE bicultural curriculum framework Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017) which is grounded in Indigenous Māori worldviews that acknowledge strong spiritual connections to land and place. The natural environment is considered an integral part of the national identity and early childhood has been recognised as an important stage when Environmental and Sustainability Education should begin.   

Within the context of this superdiverse nation, a significant number of migrant teachers transfer their cultural and environmental knowledge, practice, and identity as they transition into the Aotearoa New Zealand context. This thesis explored migrant Indian teachers’ understandings of their culturally-oriented and negotiated environmental identities. I was keen to examine if the environment might hold different meanings and places in their home (Indian) and host (Aotearoa New Zealand) cultural systems.   

Through this study, insights were gained into migrant Indian teachers’ perceptions of the influence of cultural identity on their environmental identities in Aotearoa New Zealand ECE. A sociocultural theoretical perspective informed this study, drawing primarily on Sauvé’s (2009) model of personal and social development of the self in relation to other humans and the environment. Primary data for this interpretivist study were gathered through in-depth interviews with nine Indian ECE teacher participants. Interviews with their ECE setting managers/head teachers were conducted to support and supplement the teachers’ practices and experiences. The audio-recorded interview data were transcribed and examined using thematic analysis. Observations of teacher participants’ workplaces were used to provide a contextual profile for each of the nine Indian teachers. I also obtained a small number of assessment documents in the form of Learning Stories which the teachers had prepared, to analyse them for cultural and environmental themes and experiences.   

Indian teacher participants’ perceptions of their own culturally-oriented environmental identities highlighted the significance of teachers’ own early childhood environmental experiences and home cultural context influences on their environmental identities. Teacher participants’ perceptions shed light on their cultural and environmental identity transitions and acculturation process. These teachers brought their cultural and environmental identities from their home cultural context and used their cultural lens to interpret the connections between the host cultural context and environmental worldviews.   

The Indian teacher participants perceived close connections between their cultural and environmental identities. At the same time, they recognised cross-cultural connections between their culturally-oriented environmental identities and tikanga Māori (Māori ways of doing including practices, customs and rituals) and te ao Māori (the Māori world). These perceived connections were most evident through the significance of Indian philosophies of spirituality, relationships, belonging, and cultural recognition and exchange in their specific ECE contexts. These connections facilitated teachers’ cultural and environmental identity transitions and had a positive impact on their cultural and environmental teaching practices when supported within the ECE setting and by management/leadership.   

Cultural and environmental transitions for this steadily growing group of migrant teachers require further investigation to facilitate their cultural and environmental participation and acculturation into the Aotearoa New Zealand ECE context. In these ways, the existing cultural, environmental, and sustainability connections within ECE could be strengthened to foster children’s culturally-oriented environmental identities.

year: 2024