Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The doctoral research presented in this poster session seeks to examine the selective pedagogic choices that are made on the Grade 10 Dramatic Arts Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) by teachers. It examines what pedagogic meanings are being enhanced or restricted as a result of this. As such, it seeks to observe the recontextualization of the Dramatic Arts Grade 10 CAPS into the classroom and discern how this results in certain types of pedagogic communications. Based on these observations, it seeks to analyse the ways in which this recontextualization is mediated by social class, and to discover whether or not certain types of pedagogies (which promote abstract, context independent modes of thinking) are more prevalent at different types of schools. Where similar pedagogic choices are made by different teachers, the study seeks to reveal possible differences in how this is realised in the classroom with different learner profiles. It seeks to examine the modes of abstraction that result from the process of recontextualization and assess whether or not the pedagogic choices that are being made by teachers create further inequality in education (and specifically within Dramatic Arts) in South Africa. The research makes use of extensive and detailed observations at three South African high schools and uses a Bernsteinian lens in analysing these.