Literacy instruction in an examination-oriented environment: Perceptions of secondary school teachers in Botswana by Molosiwa, Annah Anikie, Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2007, 207 pages.

Abstract (Summary)

Botswana has set for itself goals towards having an educated an informed nation by the year 2016 (Republic of Botswana, 1997). To a large extent, the attainment of this goal entails concerns about literacy. Botswana's education system follows a national curriculum, with close prescriptions of content, modes of teaching and forms of assessment mandated by the Ministry of Education. The purpose of this study was therefore to uncover, interpret and illustrate the meanings teachers in secondary schools associate with literacy teaching and learning given the constraints of these planned school policies and curricula. The study followed a qualitative approach, using ethnographic techniques to gather and analyze data. Data sources included a survey questionnaire, interview transcripts from audio-taped interviews, official documents, teacher documents and ethnographic field notes. An open-ended survey questionnaire was administered to 30 teachers of English and Setswana in selected senior secondary schools. Based on the teachers' willingness to volunteer and share information, 5 teachers who were a subset of those who completed the survey questionnaire were selected to be key informants. The study was informed by both sociocultural and postcolonial theoretical frameworks. The sociocultural theory views literacy as a social practice. It assumes that people formulate ideas, beliefs and conceptualizations from experiences they have had within a sociocultural context. The postcolonial theory was employed to illustrate how the teaching of Setswana is embedded within and shaped by colonial discourse. The data revealed that although policies have been developed about the teaching and learning of literacy that are aimed at moving the country into the 21 st century, they have not translated into practice. This is due to a number of factors: societal and institutional constraints, inadequate teacher preparation, lack of a culture of reading and lack of teachers' professional development. The findings have implications at both teacher education and policy formulation levels. Teacher education institutions have the major responsibility of equipping teachers with pedagogical content knowledge. It is mainly through skillful teachers that the school curricula can be planned accordingly and implemented effectively. Since assessment indicates what type of knowing and learning are valued, the study sheds light on ways in which national examinations constrain the teaching of literacy.