ERIC Number: EJ1348158
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0258-2236
EISSN: EISSN-2519-593X
Available Date: N/A
A Quasi-Ethnographical Exploration of How Young Learners Establish Their Learning Practices in Their Environmental Space: The Township Community and Their Homes
Perspectives in Education, v40 n2 p52-68 2022
This paper explores how two selected learners establish their learning practices in their environmental space, that is, their township community and home space. The study combines the lenses of "Space" and "Learning" to capture their movement in and around the township showing how they inhabit space, how they interact with networks and processes in their environment, and how they ultimately transcend their spatial positioning. Methodologically, this quasi-ethnographic study, underpinned by an interpretivist metatheoretical framework, draws on my field notes, verbatim responses acquired through interviews with these children and their parents, observations of their neighbourhood and their homes, photographs and artefacts. These qualitative research tools helped to address the main research question: What is the nature of the learning practices of learners in the environmental space; that is: the space of the township community and home? The results show that these learners and their parents produce multiple and hybrid literacies and engage in rich educational practices despite the lived realities of the township space. Furthermore, it shows that learners develop a productive agency to counterpoise their spatial positioning enabling them to become co-constructors of their lived space.
Descriptors: Ethnography, Learning Processes, Educational Practices, Neighborhoods, Family Environment, Social Networks, Multiple Literacies, Foreign Countries, Friendship, Children
University of the Free State Faculty of Education. P.O. Box 339, Bioemfontein 9300, South Africa. Tel: +27-51-401-2368; e-mail: PiE@ufs.ac.za; Web site: https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A