Linda van Laren - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Linda van Laren

Perspectives in Education, 2014

Researchers using participatory methods that are engaging, purposeful and facilitate social chang... more Researchers using participatory methods that are engaging, purposeful and facilitate social change may need further pragmatic strategies to encourage the required change. Using pencil-and-paper drawings to introduce HIV & AIDS integration in a discipline such as Mathematics Education is an innovative participatory strategy to initiate change. However, following up on such innovations to encourage take-up of HIV & AIDS integration would benefit the initiative. The following research question guides this study: What pragmatic strategy could I use in pre-service Mathematics Education to further take-up of HIV & AIDS education integration in school disciplines? I explore HIV & AIDS integration in a pre-service Primary Mathematics Education module that I taught at a higher education institution in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, by studying the drawings and experiences of eight final-year pre-service teachers. I use a metaphor-drawing activity to disrupt the 'comfort zone' of teachi...

South African journal of higher education, 2016

This article explores how academics make the transition from teaching mainly on undergraduate pro... more This article explores how academics make the transition from teaching mainly on undergraduate programmes to teaching a postgraduate module. It reflects on whatenables learning to occur through participation in a community of practice, where the community comprises academics at different levels who teach the same postgraduate module. Through self-study methodology, where data was sourced from the reflective diaries of the authors, entry into and sustained participation in the postgraduate terrain are detailed. The findings reflect the types of support which facilitate professional development of academics. A view is provided into the private narratives of academics as they assume a 'boundary identity trajectory' when they approach the nexus of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

The South African Higher Education Policy Framework on HIV and AIDS tasks universities to address... more The South African Higher Education Policy Framework on HIV and AIDS tasks universities to address HIV and AIDS in teaching, research and community engagement. In a global economy, integration in academic disciplines is a cost-effective method, simultaneously allowing for multiple perspectives of engaging with the epidemic. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore the sharing experiences of academics who integrate HIV and AIDS issues into the curriculum. Academics from three South African higher education institutions were interviewed. Three themes emerged from an analysis of their experiences: to share or not to share; how academics view integration in terms of their role as an academic, and who is integrating what. The findings indicate that academics are taking up the challenge, but that they require collegial support. 'Ontsnap uit die kokon': akademici se ervarings oor die integrasie van MIV en VIGS in die kurrikulum Die Suid-Afrikaanse hoeronderwys beleidsraamwe...

Perspectives in Education, 2015

As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers&... more As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers' perspectives on using digital technologies and social media to address socially relevant issues in science teaching. The rationale for teaching socially relevant science was embedded in the concept of renaiscience, thus underscoring the need for science to be perceived as a human activity. We drew on generational theory to consider the educational significance of digital technologies and social media. Two different activities were used to elicit the pre-service science teachers' perspectives. First, we invited them to reflect on a digital animation that we had produced, and they highlighted the advantages of digital animation as a medium to communicate a socially relevant message more appealingly to the Millennial generation. We then engaged these pre-service teachers in a structured concept-mapping activity to consider how digital technologies and social media might be used to ...

In multilingual countries, international and national studies indicate that issues around languag... more In multilingual countries, international and national studies indicate that issues around languages of instruction are challenging because of complex social, political and economic factors associated with language usage. However, the South African Language in Education Policy (1997) stipulates that foundation phase learners need to be taught in their mother tongue. Therefore, appropriate modules are required at higher education institutions to prepare foundation phase pre-service teachers for mother-tongue instruction. As mathematics teacher educator researchers, we acknowledge the challenges faced in teacher preparation for multilingual mathematics classrooms. Our findings indicate that some South African higher education institutions have responded to these challenges by using simultaneous translation methods or offering modules with an African language of instruction. We argue that it is important to identify these challenges but also to ‘start with ourselves’ to explore ways of ...

There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Afri... more There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Africa can and should play in keeping students not only alive, well and productive but also prepared to face the multiple challenges associated with living and working in the context of the HIV & AIDS pandemic. This article reports on part of a larger research project that explores the experiences and work of university educators who are involved in curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in their teaching at a South African university. The objectives of the larger study are to locate, document, highlight, encourage and explore further possibilities for curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in Higher Education teaching. This article responds particularly to the following research question: What are the lived experiences – personal and professional – of curriculum innovators who integrate HIV & AIDS into their teaching? We point to three significant aspects of the ...

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2012

South African Journal of Higher Education

ABSTRACT

South African Journal of Higher Education

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

We are teacher educators and researchers in South Africa. In our doctoral studies we used self-st... more We are teacher educators and researchers in South Africa. In our doctoral studies we used self-study methodologies to improve our professional practice in relation to the challenges of teaching and learning in the South African HIV and AIDS context. This article demonstrates how we, as teacher educator-researchers, explored the "afterlife" of our doctoral research. We used self-selected exemplars from our own doctoral theses as research artefacts to investigate the relationship between our doctoral research and our professional development and practice. We combined memory-work and reflexive dialogue, using questions posed by a fictitious critical friend to examine our exemplars that consisted of short pieces of writing from our doctoral theses. We concluded that our dialogic memory-work method allowed for collaborative exploration of the afterlife of our doctoral research and this, in turn, facilitated our professional practice growth as teacher educator-researchers in the South African context of HIV and AIDS.

South African Journal of Higher Education

Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in So... more Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in South African higher education institutions, for several reasons, ranging from lack of interest to complaints of belabouring the issue of HIV and AIDS, especially from the biomedical perspective. Through such integration the academic curriculum could be a key space and engine for persuading change and abating the effects of HIV and AIDS in higher education as well as in the communities served by the universities. We reflect on our three-year research project engagement and explore how collaboration facilitated integration of HIV and AIDS issues in our academic curriculum. Working from a critical paradigm and using a collaborative self-study approach, we utilised drawings and responses from questions which we compiled for ourselves. Textual and visual data generated were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that collaboration counteracts isolation; enables capacity development in integration for the collaborating researchers; and permits engaging with participatory visual methodologies to encourage integration. We conclude that collaboration is key in facilitating integration of HIV and AIDS in the higher education curriculum, and that collaboration using participatory visual methodologies enhances entry-points in engaging with HIV and AIDS in South Africa and beyond. This work has implications for integrating HIV and AIDS issues into the higher education curriculum.

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2008

The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 2014

Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in So... more Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in South African higher education institutions, for several reasons, ranging from lack of interest to complaints of belabouring the issue of HIV and AIDS, especially from the biomedical perspective. Through such integration the academic curriculum could be a key space and engine for persuading change and abating the effects of HIV and AIDS in higher education as well as in the communities served by the universities. We reflect on our three-year research project engagement and explore how collaboration facilitated integration of HIV and AIDS issues in our academic curriculum. Working from a critical paradigm and using a collaborative self-study approach, we utilised drawings and responses from questions which we compiled for ourselves. Textual and visual data generated were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that collaboration counteracts isolation; enables capacity development in in...

South African Journal of Education, 2011

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016

We worked together as a group of four researchers at two different institutions to explore scrapb... more We worked together as a group of four researchers at two different institutions to explore scrapbooking as a tool for professional learning about HIV and AIDS curriculum integration in higher education. Through a scrapbooking activity we individually and collectively made visible experiences and understandings of being HIV and AIDS curriculum integrators that are hard to put into words. We used found poetry as a research practice to gain deeper understanding of HIV and AIDS curriculum integration, while also learning more about how visual and literary arts-based methods can enhance individual and collaborative professional learning. Our scrapbook pages and poem offered a multifaceted, nuanced portrayal of curriculum integration as complex, challenging and rewarding. Through collaborative interactions and sharing of our personal images of HIV and AIDS curriculum integration we were able to extend our professional learning in a supportive and creative manner, which fuelled optimism and agency.

South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2011

South African Journal of Education, 2012

There appears to be a mounting consciousness in academia that knowledge production and the schola... more There appears to be a mounting consciousness in academia that knowledge production and the scholarly dissemination of knowledge do not necessarily lead to general well-being or improvement in society. In this article we start with ourselves by initiating an exploration into generative possibilities for becoming agents of social change through our own educational research. We take a collaborative self-study approach to our inquiry, using artefact retrieval as a visual method to reexamine our own research interests. Our individual reflections on our chosen artefacts are brought together into a reflexive dialogue. We follow this with a collaborative reflection, in which we explain how we have noticed similarities in both the connotative and denotative histories of our artefacts and gained an alternative perspective on our interests and practices as educational researchers. The article demonstrates how, by working with visual artefacts from our professional spaces, we were afforded the opportunity to collaboratively rethink our research endeavours. As 'critical friends' we were able to recognise the importance of moving beyond advocating change, and to explore how 'starting with ourselves' research approaches can facilitate social action for the benefit of others.

There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Afri... more There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Africa can and should play in keeping students not only alive, well and productive but also prepared to face the multiple challenges associated with living and working in the context of the HIV & AIDS pandemic. This article reports on part of a larger research project that explores the experiences and work of university educators who are involved in curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in their teaching at a South African university. The objectives of the larger study are to locate, document, highlight, encourage and explore further possibilities for curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in Higher Education teaching. This article responds particularly to the following research question: What are the lived experiencespersonal and professionalof curriculum innovators who integrate HIV & AIDS into their teaching? We point to three significant aspects of the lived experiences of curriculum innovatingselfing, distancing and valuingand highlight the commitment of these curriculum innovators to making a difference as well as drawing attention to the emotional and professional challenges they encounter.

Perspectives in Education, 2014

Researchers using participatory methods that are engaging, purposeful and facilitate social chang... more Researchers using participatory methods that are engaging, purposeful and facilitate social change may need further pragmatic strategies to encourage the required change. Using pencil-and-paper drawings to introduce HIV & AIDS integration in a discipline such as Mathematics Education is an innovative participatory strategy to initiate change. However, following up on such innovations to encourage take-up of HIV & AIDS integration would benefit the initiative. The following research question guides this study: What pragmatic strategy could I use in pre-service Mathematics Education to further take-up of HIV & AIDS education integration in school disciplines? I explore HIV & AIDS integration in a pre-service Primary Mathematics Education module that I taught at a higher education institution in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, by studying the drawings and experiences of eight final-year pre-service teachers. I use a metaphor-drawing activity to disrupt the 'comfort zone' of teachi...

South African journal of higher education, 2016

This article explores how academics make the transition from teaching mainly on undergraduate pro... more This article explores how academics make the transition from teaching mainly on undergraduate programmes to teaching a postgraduate module. It reflects on whatenables learning to occur through participation in a community of practice, where the community comprises academics at different levels who teach the same postgraduate module. Through self-study methodology, where data was sourced from the reflective diaries of the authors, entry into and sustained participation in the postgraduate terrain are detailed. The findings reflect the types of support which facilitate professional development of academics. A view is provided into the private narratives of academics as they assume a 'boundary identity trajectory' when they approach the nexus of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

The South African Higher Education Policy Framework on HIV and AIDS tasks universities to address... more The South African Higher Education Policy Framework on HIV and AIDS tasks universities to address HIV and AIDS in teaching, research and community engagement. In a global economy, integration in academic disciplines is a cost-effective method, simultaneously allowing for multiple perspectives of engaging with the epidemic. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore the sharing experiences of academics who integrate HIV and AIDS issues into the curriculum. Academics from three South African higher education institutions were interviewed. Three themes emerged from an analysis of their experiences: to share or not to share; how academics view integration in terms of their role as an academic, and who is integrating what. The findings indicate that academics are taking up the challenge, but that they require collegial support. 'Ontsnap uit die kokon': akademici se ervarings oor die integrasie van MIV en VIGS in die kurrikulum Die Suid-Afrikaanse hoeronderwys beleidsraamwe...

Perspectives in Education, 2015

As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers&... more As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers' perspectives on using digital technologies and social media to address socially relevant issues in science teaching. The rationale for teaching socially relevant science was embedded in the concept of renaiscience, thus underscoring the need for science to be perceived as a human activity. We drew on generational theory to consider the educational significance of digital technologies and social media. Two different activities were used to elicit the pre-service science teachers' perspectives. First, we invited them to reflect on a digital animation that we had produced, and they highlighted the advantages of digital animation as a medium to communicate a socially relevant message more appealingly to the Millennial generation. We then engaged these pre-service teachers in a structured concept-mapping activity to consider how digital technologies and social media might be used to ...

In multilingual countries, international and national studies indicate that issues around languag... more In multilingual countries, international and national studies indicate that issues around languages of instruction are challenging because of complex social, political and economic factors associated with language usage. However, the South African Language in Education Policy (1997) stipulates that foundation phase learners need to be taught in their mother tongue. Therefore, appropriate modules are required at higher education institutions to prepare foundation phase pre-service teachers for mother-tongue instruction. As mathematics teacher educator researchers, we acknowledge the challenges faced in teacher preparation for multilingual mathematics classrooms. Our findings indicate that some South African higher education institutions have responded to these challenges by using simultaneous translation methods or offering modules with an African language of instruction. We argue that it is important to identify these challenges but also to ‘start with ourselves’ to explore ways of ...

There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Afri... more There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Africa can and should play in keeping students not only alive, well and productive but also prepared to face the multiple challenges associated with living and working in the context of the HIV & AIDS pandemic. This article reports on part of a larger research project that explores the experiences and work of university educators who are involved in curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in their teaching at a South African university. The objectives of the larger study are to locate, document, highlight, encourage and explore further possibilities for curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in Higher Education teaching. This article responds particularly to the following research question: What are the lived experiences – personal and professional – of curriculum innovators who integrate HIV & AIDS into their teaching? We point to three significant aspects of the ...

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2012

South African Journal of Higher Education

ABSTRACT

South African Journal of Higher Education

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

We are teacher educators and researchers in South Africa. In our doctoral studies we used self-st... more We are teacher educators and researchers in South Africa. In our doctoral studies we used self-study methodologies to improve our professional practice in relation to the challenges of teaching and learning in the South African HIV and AIDS context. This article demonstrates how we, as teacher educator-researchers, explored the "afterlife" of our doctoral research. We used self-selected exemplars from our own doctoral theses as research artefacts to investigate the relationship between our doctoral research and our professional development and practice. We combined memory-work and reflexive dialogue, using questions posed by a fictitious critical friend to examine our exemplars that consisted of short pieces of writing from our doctoral theses. We concluded that our dialogic memory-work method allowed for collaborative exploration of the afterlife of our doctoral research and this, in turn, facilitated our professional practice growth as teacher educator-researchers in the South African context of HIV and AIDS.

South African Journal of Higher Education

Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in So... more Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in South African higher education institutions, for several reasons, ranging from lack of interest to complaints of belabouring the issue of HIV and AIDS, especially from the biomedical perspective. Through such integration the academic curriculum could be a key space and engine for persuading change and abating the effects of HIV and AIDS in higher education as well as in the communities served by the universities. We reflect on our three-year research project engagement and explore how collaboration facilitated integration of HIV and AIDS issues in our academic curriculum. Working from a critical paradigm and using a collaborative self-study approach, we utilised drawings and responses from questions which we compiled for ourselves. Textual and visual data generated were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that collaboration counteracts isolation; enables capacity development in integration for the collaborating researchers; and permits engaging with participatory visual methodologies to encourage integration. We conclude that collaboration is key in facilitating integration of HIV and AIDS in the higher education curriculum, and that collaboration using participatory visual methodologies enhances entry-points in engaging with HIV and AIDS in South Africa and beyond. This work has implications for integrating HIV and AIDS issues into the higher education curriculum.

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2008

The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 2014

Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in So... more Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously enough in South African higher education institutions, for several reasons, ranging from lack of interest to complaints of belabouring the issue of HIV and AIDS, especially from the biomedical perspective. Through such integration the academic curriculum could be a key space and engine for persuading change and abating the effects of HIV and AIDS in higher education as well as in the communities served by the universities. We reflect on our three-year research project engagement and explore how collaboration facilitated integration of HIV and AIDS issues in our academic curriculum. Working from a critical paradigm and using a collaborative self-study approach, we utilised drawings and responses from questions which we compiled for ourselves. Textual and visual data generated were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that collaboration counteracts isolation; enables capacity development in in...

South African Journal of Education, 2011

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016

We worked together as a group of four researchers at two different institutions to explore scrapb... more We worked together as a group of four researchers at two different institutions to explore scrapbooking as a tool for professional learning about HIV and AIDS curriculum integration in higher education. Through a scrapbooking activity we individually and collectively made visible experiences and understandings of being HIV and AIDS curriculum integrators that are hard to put into words. We used found poetry as a research practice to gain deeper understanding of HIV and AIDS curriculum integration, while also learning more about how visual and literary arts-based methods can enhance individual and collaborative professional learning. Our scrapbook pages and poem offered a multifaceted, nuanced portrayal of curriculum integration as complex, challenging and rewarding. Through collaborative interactions and sharing of our personal images of HIV and AIDS curriculum integration we were able to extend our professional learning in a supportive and creative manner, which fuelled optimism and agency.

South African Journal of Childhood Education, 2011

South African Journal of Education, 2012

There appears to be a mounting consciousness in academia that knowledge production and the schola... more There appears to be a mounting consciousness in academia that knowledge production and the scholarly dissemination of knowledge do not necessarily lead to general well-being or improvement in society. In this article we start with ourselves by initiating an exploration into generative possibilities for becoming agents of social change through our own educational research. We take a collaborative self-study approach to our inquiry, using artefact retrieval as a visual method to reexamine our own research interests. Our individual reflections on our chosen artefacts are brought together into a reflexive dialogue. We follow this with a collaborative reflection, in which we explain how we have noticed similarities in both the connotative and denotative histories of our artefacts and gained an alternative perspective on our interests and practices as educational researchers. The article demonstrates how, by working with visual artefacts from our professional spaces, we were afforded the opportunity to collaboratively rethink our research endeavours. As 'critical friends' we were able to recognise the importance of moving beyond advocating change, and to explore how 'starting with ourselves' research approaches can facilitate social action for the benefit of others.

There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Afri... more There is a growing realisation of the vital role that Higher Education institutions in South Africa can and should play in keeping students not only alive, well and productive but also prepared to face the multiple challenges associated with living and working in the context of the HIV & AIDS pandemic. This article reports on part of a larger research project that explores the experiences and work of university educators who are involved in curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in their teaching at a South African university. The objectives of the larger study are to locate, document, highlight, encourage and explore further possibilities for curriculum innovating through integrating HIV & AIDS in Higher Education teaching. This article responds particularly to the following research question: What are the lived experiencespersonal and professionalof curriculum innovators who integrate HIV & AIDS into their teaching? We point to three significant aspects of the lived experiences of curriculum innovatingselfing, distancing and valuingand highlight the commitment of these curriculum innovators to making a difference as well as drawing attention to the emotional and professional challenges they encounter.