Contemporary Shifts
Role of Projects Towards Water Education in Primary Schools
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matlala Makokotlela
Recently, research has shown an increased interest in the role of projects towards water education. Despite the availability of research on the role of projects towards water education, this topic is under researched in primary schools. This study explores the role of projects towards water education in primary schools in a district of Limpopo Province. A qualitative approach, phenomenological design, interpretive paradigm, and social constructivism theory were employed to have an in-depth understanding of the investigation in question. Documents reviewed were purposively selected to provide informative insight. Data were gathered through telephonic semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. Ethical issues were obtained prior the commencement of this study while data were analysed thematically. Findings show that the curriculum provide an opportunity for water education in schools, projects play a critical role in water conservation, projects enable active teachers and learners’ active participation in water conservation strategies. Challenges are that the learners needs close monitoring to conserve water since they are young, the school is under-staffed. This investigation communicates conclusion and recommendations.
Pluricultural Classrooms for Multilingual Learners: What Can We Learn from the Curricula?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Camila Höfling, Patricia De Oliveira Lucas
Portuguese is the official language in Brazil, and being the largest country in South America, Brazil is by its own nature a multilingual country that presents a huge variety from North to South of regional dialects in addition to a sort of spoken language. In the last decade, the country has faced significant social, economic, and cultural changes that directly reflected how we have been preparing future foreign language teachers in higher teacher education programs. In this paper, we discuss how two different curricula from two different regions of Brazil have addressed language teacher education regarding contemporary topics, according to the national guidelines. In order to understand it, we compare both curricula according to their Pedagogical Political Project (PPP), having the purpose of discussing both to comprehend if cultural differences may influence our practices in the way we prepare our pre-service teachers. In our analysis, we find out that after the COVID-19 pandemic, some themes such as educational technologies are even more needed and curricula are an important means to help to implement them in teacher education. However, adding contemporary topics to them, without offering ongoing preparation for both pre and in-service teachers from different cultural backgrounds, may reinforce the lack of reflection in the teacher education area and this may contribute to the perpetuation of prescribed teaching that we have to fight against, at any cost.
The Concept of Innovation in Education and Digital Culture: An Interdisciplinary Study in the Context of Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Márcio Luiz Corrêa Vilaça
Defining innovation in education has never been a very simple task. The concept is broad, polysemic and changes over time. Authors point out that digital technologies can significantly contribute to innovation, but they are not essential requirements for innovative educational practices. This interdisciplinary study discusses the concept of innovation and, more specifically, of innovation in education. During the pandemic, discussions on innovative education and digital culture gained space in the media, educational institutions and teacher education activities. Even in 2020, it is possible to perceive a change in the discourse from adaptation to innovation in education. However, it is worth questioning what is meant by innovation and whether these discussions will not be predominantly in terms of discourse and marketing, taking advantage of the concept's polysemy. The research methodology consists of interdisciplinary theoretical research and document analysis. The research corpus is based on academic articles, research and reports published between 2020 and 2022 on education in the pandemic.
