Framing of transitional pedagogic practices in the sciences: enabling access

ABSTRACT

Educational literature shows that students from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to persist to completion in higher education than middle-class students. This paper draws theoretically and analytically on Bernstein’s ([1990. Class, Codes and Control, Volume IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge; 2000. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield]) thesis that, through differential framing of pedagogic practices, the curriculum has capacity to accommodate all groups of students. Pedagogic practices in both a science foundation course and four first-year mainstream science courses in a higher education institution in the South African context are examined. Whilst the foundation course exhibits modalities that generally favour access, the mainstream courses have some modalities that appear to be constraining. It is argued from a social justice perspective that holistic curriculum transformations that better enable epistemic transitions are an urgent imperative, and that consideration of differential framing of pedagogic modalities offer a close-up empirical means of conceptualising such reforms.

KEYWORDS:

• Bernstein
• framing
• pedagogic modalities
• science access
• social justice

Acknowledgments

Professor Chrissie Boughey is sincerely thanked for her contribution to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A system of legislated segregation and discrimination in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 based on the grounds of race. The system advantaged whites and disadvantaged all other racial groups.

2. In keeping with terminology in the CHE Report (2013) the following race categorisations are used: African (black), coloured (mixed descent), Indian and white.

3. Axiology is about values (O’Reilly and Kiyimba 2015) and in this study it relates to personal, moral, social and affective values primarily associated with the learning context.

4. The term ‘knower’ comes from Maton’s (2014) work on knowledge and knowers.

5. Literacies are viewed both as multiple literacies (rather than one) and as social practices rooted in context (Gee 2012).

6. Pseudonyms used.

7. Whereas class tutorials are post-graduate student-led tutorials for all students, lecturer-led augmenting tutorials, available only in select courses, are designed to assist poorly performing students.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by funding from the National Research Foundation [grant number 92685] and Rhodes University.