Lee Rusznyak | University of the Witwatersrand (original) (raw)

Papers by Lee Rusznyak

Journal of Nursing Research & Professional Knowledge, 2024

This study explores Honours students’ enactment of home-based nursing during their internships. T... more This study explores Honours students’ enactment of home-based nursing during their internships. The emphasis is on examining how the structure of these internships impacts the students’ chances for knowledge building and, consequently, enhances the quality of their learning experience.
The study employs a case-based approach, concentrating on four Honours nursing students who were meticulously observed over a period of two days each, using shadowing ethnography, as they provided home-based care. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with the students, one supervisor, and individuals overseeing the internships. We utilized analytical tools from the Semantics dimension of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to analyse the students' enactment of practice based on their reflections and actions. Notable differences were identified between how the students drew on knowledge and principles when they were with a supervisor who was actively mediating the home-based visit versus when home-based visits were completed by themselves, without supervision. This was recognized, in LCT terms, as differences in the codes the students’ enacted and the semantic range of their knowledge-building. This study emphasizes the importance of the organization of the students' internships, so that the individual - through supervision - is given the opportunity to deepen the quality of their learning with intentional practice through insights, according to the learning components of the education specifically and the subject field of nursing in general.

Education as Change, 2024

Although preservice teachers are familiar with classroom life, they are largely unfamiliar with t... more Although preservice teachers are familiar with classroom life, they are largely unfamiliar with teachers' intentions and reasoning. Those completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) have just one year to acquire new insights into teaching. This article investigates whether their school-based learning can be enhanced by preparing them to analyse the classroom practices of diverse teachers. A module used to augment work-integrated learning, Teacher Choices in Action, has introduced more than 70,000 South African preservice teachers to key choices that all teachers make. They see how diverse teachers enact these choices through guided studies of recorded lessons. We use Legitimation Code Theory to compare lesson observation reports written by 83 PGCE preservice teachers at the start and end of completing this module. Initially, most participants gave superficial descriptions of classroom activities with basic explanations of what teachers do and why. Afterwards, their reports contained more complex interpretations of teaching, with more connections between their lesson observations and insights from their coursework. Guided lesson study potentially empowers them to interpret prevalent teaching practices and consider pedagogic choices for their lessons more thoughtfully and systematically, regardless of their educational backgrounds. It may also address some concerns about vastly different mentoring that preservice teachers receive during the practicum.

Education as Change, 2024

A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum exper... more A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum experiences afforded to preservice teachers. Although some variability is due to their personal attributes, preservice teachers often find it difficult to connect theoretical insights to teachers' classroom practices. These challenges can be exacerbated when teachers do not explain the reasoning for what they do and why. School closures during the pandemic provided South African teacher educators with an opportunity to address this concern. We participated in developing a national online module that prepares preservice teachers for school-based learning through guided lesson study. This article adopts a self-study approach to account for the curriculum choices in developing this module. Three tensions needed consideration: portraying teaching as an individualised pursuit and/or a social practice, focusing on generic and/or specialised pedagogies, and focusing on the tacit and/or explicit reasoning that teachers do. We account for how we worked within and between these tensions. A module of this nature potentially enhances school-based learning by making the reasoning of teachers explicit to preservice teachers. To achieve this potential and to advance work-integrated learning as a scholarship, the conceptual underpinnings of the module and its curriculum design must be open to reflection and scrutiny.

Journal of Education, 2023

This special issue was motivated by a need to respond to two discourses on teacher education that... more This special issue was motivated by a need to respond to two discourses on teacher education that have recently become prevalent in South Africa. The first is informed by size and shape concerns such as teacher supply and demand (Green et al., 2014), graduation and attrition rates, and the need for teachers in particular subjects (van der Berg et al., 2020). These concerns guide decisions about enrolment planning and the allocation of student funding into priority subjects and phases. The second is about the quality and substance of teacher preparation that ensures that future teachers have the knowledge, skills, and commitment to offer quality learning opportunities to those whom they teach.
There are tensions between these two priorities. Faced with projected short-term teacher shortages, proposals have been made for school-based internships as a cost-effective way of rapidly increasing the number of qualified teachers in the education system (Hofmeyr, 2016; Shiohira et al., 2022). However, claims that alternative routes potentially address concerns about the quality of teaching preparation have yet to be supported by an empirical research base grounded in the South African context. Some versions of the internship route, with their emphasis on school and classroom exposure, run the risk of either privileging practice over theory, or treating them as entirely disconnected components of teacher preparation. Our concern is that what is often missing from the consideration of alternative models and school-based interventions for preparing teachers for the South African context is a deep appreciation of the complexities of learning to teach, and an acknowledgement of the growing body of evidence-based research that supports quality teacher preparation.
As a contribution to the debate and to this research base, the Special Interest Group on Initial Teacher Education of the South African Education Research Association (SAERA) invited teacher educators and researchers to consider the complexities involved in developing curricula and interventions that support pre-service teachers as they learn to teach. Authors were invited to submit studies on how future teachers are being prepared to consider a range of priorities in their pedagogic choices. These include subject/phase specific pedagogic considerations, varying contextual priorities, ethical imperatives, linguistic complexities, diverse learning needs, new modes of curriculum delivery, and national priorities for inclusion, transformation, and decolonisation. The group sought papers that could contribute conceptual debates, empirical research, theoretical explorations, and innovative practices that illustrate how South African teacher educators work within and between these complexities to prepare students for conceptually informed, contextually responsive teaching practices.

Pedagogical responsiveness in complex contexts, 2022

Pedagogical responsiveness is both a construct to be understood and a principle to be enacted. Th... more Pedagogical responsiveness is both a construct to be understood and a principle to be enacted. This chapter considers how both are addressed by a module that enabled more than 44 000 South African preservice teachers to complete their work-based learning during the coronavirus pandemic. The Teacher Choices in Action module emerged as a pedagogical response that supplemented work-based learning when pre-service teachers could not complete their practicum requirements in schools. The module addressed a priority need, but also responded to some long-standing concerns about the uneven quality of work-based learning experiences. To do this, the module seeks to show pre-service teachers how to look beyond visible actions and routines when observing teachers at work. If pre-service teachers are to develop pedagogically responsive teaching practices, they need to become aware of the different grounds on which teachers make choices in their lessons. This includes being responsive to the knowledge they teach, the needs of students, and the contextual realities in which they work. An important way in which teachers enact responsiveness is how they bring together complex concepts and real-world experiences in their classroom conversations and activities. The chapter discusses how semantic waves from Legitimation Code Theory are used in the Teacher Choices in Action module to offer pre-service teachers a principled yet responsive approach for sequencing lesson steps. The chapter argues that preparing pre-service teachers for work-based learning needs to move beyond logistics and expectations. Preparing pre-service teachers to observe and analyse teacher reasoning is crucial if they are to understand how teaching is enacted in pedagogically responsive ways.

South African Journal of Education, 2022

Teacher educators in South Africa face challenges of preparing new teachers for an inclusive educ... more Teacher educators in South Africa face challenges of preparing new teachers for an inclusive education system that has been accepted as policy but is not yet fully realised in school contexts. Pre-service teachers entering teacher preparation programmes are themselves a product of a schooling system in which many inequalities and marginalising practices are still prevalent. In this article, we present an analysis of the extent to which pre-service teachers' personal experiences within the schooling system influenced their perceptions about the benefits and drawbacks of 2 common organisational arrangements made for learners who experience barriers to learning. An analysis of empirical data from a questionnaire and individual interviews suggests that participants who had personally observed or experienced particular arrangements were more likely to hold fixed views about their potential benefits or drawbacks. We consider the implications of this finding for teacher education programmes that seek to produce teachers who can teach inclusively in the South African schooling system.

Education as Change, 2022

During teacher preparation programmes, pre-service teachers need to reflect meaningfully on their... more During teacher preparation programmes, pre-service teachers need to reflect meaningfully on their classroom experiences. However, some pre-service teachers tend to provide narrative accounts of classroom events and interactions. Mentors and assessors urge them to "probe more deeply" but give little guidance about what this entails. This study reports on an intervention in which reflection guidelines were changed after noticing how guidelines asked questions that limited professional learning. The revised set of guidelines prompted preservice teachers to make iterative links between the theoretical insights gleaned from coursework and their experiential learning in classroom settings. The Semantics dimension from Legitimation Code Theory is used to compare the reflections written in response to the original and revised guidelines. Using the revised guidelines, two thirds of participants drew more intentionally on theoretical insights to interpret and explain their classroom experiences. The article concludes by suggesting several conditions for enabling pre-service teachers to write "deeper" reflections that are both theoretically informed and contextually responsive. These conditions include access to relevant concepts, guidelines that make expectations visible and access to a language of practice for providing feedback about what "probing more deeply" looks like. I argue that the concepts from Legitimation Code Theory offer such a language.

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2013

Debates about the relation between educational theory and teaching practice are embodied in asses... more Debates about the relation between educational theory and teaching practice are embodied in assessment tasks that prompt student teachers to relate theoretical concepts and simulated or directly experienced practice-based contexts in relation to one another. To establish clarity on the ways in which theory and practice can be positioned in relation to one another in application tasks, the authors revisit the debate between Hirst and Carr (2005) about the role of theory in and for education. They analyse examples of assessment tasks according to a typology showing how such tasks demarcate conceptual and contextual objects of study in ways that are more or less visible to students. They argue that the more visibly the concepts are demarcated, the greater the possibilities are for student teachers to develop systematised bodies of educational knowledge that are able to provide organising insights into their developing practice. While the authors concede that there might be valid pedagogical reasons for doing so, they argue that when conceptual objects are less visible to students, the underlying message that is transmitted to students is that educational theory is neither specialised knowledge nor is it distinctively different from their common-sense perspectives. This approach is less likely to promote their acquisition of systematised knowledge for and of practice.

The Journal of Geography Education in Africa

An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what c... more An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what constitutes meaningful learning in the study of Geography. This understanding is necessary for prospective and practising Social Science and Geography teachers to interpret existing and changing curricula as thinking professionals. This paper argues that there are several organising concepts that make classroom learning geographical in nature. These are place, spatial distribution, spatial processes, and human-environment interactions. The paper draws on the nature of geographical enquiry to consider what questions could steer classroom learning. This set of questions is then used as a lens to reflect on the way in which the current national curriculum (namely, CAPS) supports (and sometimes constrains) learners’ development of geographical thinking. To teach Geography effectively, Social Science teachers need to identify the central concepts they foreground in their lessons, as well as ho...

Journal of Geography Education in Africa , 2020

An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what c... more An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what constitutes meaningful learning in the study of Geography. This understanding is necessary for prospective and practicing Social Science and Geography teachers to interpret existing and changing curricula as thinking professionals. This paper argues that there are several organising concepts that make classroom learning geographical in nature. These are place, spatial distribution, spatial processes, and human-environment interactions. The paper draws on the nature of geographical enquiry to consider what questions could steer classroom learning. This set of questions is then used as a lens to reflect on the way in which the current national curriculum (namely, CAPS) supports (and sometimes constrains) learners’ development of geographical thinking. To teach Geography effectively, Social Science teachers need to identify the central concepts they foreground in their lessons, as well as how to develop geographical thinking around those concepts. I suggest that teachers need to regard themselves first as subject experts, and then as interpreters of curricula, in order to be able to interpret the geographical nature of the content to be taught.

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016

Degrees that prepare students for professional practice require that links be made across success... more Degrees that prepare students for professional practice require that links be made across successive courses (for conceptual progression) and across concurrent courses (for networking and coherence). This article analyses compulsory coursework offered by five universities that participated in the Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITERP). The analysis shows that the compulsory courses provide student teachers with opportunities to learn about different elements related to teaching: learners and learning, knowledge and curriculum, pedagogic decision-making, and the context of education in South Africa. However, the generic nature of compulsory coursework means that these topics are studied without links to students’ phase and subject specialisations. Making these potential links explicit requires intentional and sustained collaboration between the lecturing teams responsible for compulsory and elective courses. This article identifies conditions for enhancing the visibility of conceptual connections to students, including strong academic leadership of programmes, and ensuring that lecturing staff understand the conceptual framework that underpins programme design.

Southern African Review of Education, 2019

As inclusive education has gained traction internationally, there has been a demand for teachers ... more As inclusive education has gained traction internationally, there has been a demand for teachers who are equipped to teach diverse learners. This has led to attempts to capture the competences of inclusive teachers in scholarly literature and to the development of standards for professional teaching, generally, and for inclusive teaching in particular. Sets of national standards are expected to enhance the professional status of teaching, and to improve student outcomes by describing the
knowledge of teachers, developing a shared language of practice, promoting accountability, and directing professional development initiatives. This paper is concerned with the development of a set of standards for inclusive teaching to inform initial teacher education in South Africa. The conversations of people involved in the standards generation work were, with permission, recorded and analysed. Analysis of the data showed that, during deliberations, a number of dilemmas emerged. The first dilemma is whether standards for inclusive teaching should be described apart from the more general professional teaching standards applicable to all teachers. The second dilemma was a contest about whether the standards should adopt broad or narrow definitions of inclusive education. The third relates to the primacy of context, and the fourth dilemma concerns the significance of learner differences for teaching and learning. The resolution of these dilemmas is explained with Wiredu’s (1996) concept of the will to consensus and professional judgement of the participants.

Journal of Education, 2021

Much South African research suggests that work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences of pre-servi... more Much South African research suggests that work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences of pre-service teachers are uneven. Their learning depends heavily on the functionality of the school and on the presence and commitment of the mentor teacher. Even then, mentor feedback tends to focus on generic comments on classroom routines rather than providing an account of their teaching practices. In this conceptual paper, we draw on a range of literature and studies to argue that the value of WIL would be greatly enhanced if pre-service teachers and their mentors discuss both the visible classroom routines and the less visible reasoning that inform the pedagogic choices that teachers make. This focus on pedagogic reasoning could foreground both the principled knowledge base that teachers need, as well as the contextual responsiveness and ethical orientations needed to become a specialised knower within the teaching profession. WIL therefore needs to provide preservice teachers with explicit, structured opportunities to consider how the teachers they observe enact their teaching and why. They also need to articulate the pedagogic choices they make in the design and delivery of their own lessons. We argue that structuring WIL as a space in which to recognise and engage in forms of pedagogic reasoning addresses some of the challenges of the uneven quality of student learning identified in research on WIL in the South African context.

Journal of Education for Teaching

European Journal of Teacher Education, 2019

Initial teacher education must respond to the demand that newly qualified teachers are able to te... more Initial teacher education must respond to the demand that newly qualified teachers are able to teach inclusively. This response has been the creation of opportunities for learning in coursework and field experiences. Research has identified the impact of these initiatives and also revealed challenges. One such challenge is the lack of a coherent conceptual framework that leads to a disconnection between coursework and field experiences. We frame this challenge as the need for cumulative knowledge-building as part of developing inclusive teaching as a knowledge-based practice. Drawing on the conceptual repertoire of Legitimation Code Theory, we argue for programme design that systematically develops pre-service teachers’ conceptual and contextual understandings of inclusive teaching through a structured interplay between coursework and field experiences. Assessment plays an important role in showing students what is important in a curriculum, so we suggest approaches to assessment of inclusive teaching competence that supports knowledge-building.

South African Journal of Education, 2018

Promoting teacher professionalism is regarded as a strategy to address the disparate quality of l... more Promoting teacher professionalism is regarded as a strategy to address the disparate quality of learning in South African classrooms. Through a qualitative analysis of initial teacher education (ITE) programmes offered by five universities, this paper analyses the messages of teacher professionalism transmitted to pre-service teachers. Findings show that professionalism in teaching is variously conveyed to pre-service teachers as being located in their personal appearance and attributes; within their personal morals and shared ethical imperatives; in the kinds of workplace relationships they build, and in their use of formal knowledge for reasoned judgment in practice. The Specialization dimension of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) (Maton, 2014) is used to show that when teacher professionalism is presented as highly individualised traits, the possibilities of developing shared knowledge-based teaching practices is reduced, and the importance of conceptually-informed judgments is obscured. This shuts down possibilities for systemic improvement. Conversely, if teacher professionalism is primarily located in what teachers know and can do with that knowledge, the social, moral and affective dimensions of teaching are underemphasised. Ideally, approaches to teacher professionalism ought to introduce students to teaching as a communally-owned practice, based on shared knowledge that enables reasoned judgment. The paper draws on the conceptual tools offered by LCT to suggest how social and epistemic relations can be weakened and strengthened to enhance the construct of teacher professionalism offered to prospective teachers through their ITE programmes.

Education as Change, 2018

Teaching and teacher education in South Africa have emerged from a highly fragmented past. Teache... more Teaching and teacher education in South Africa have emerged from a highly fragmented past. Teachers from diverse backgrounds, experiences and qualifications find themselves working together in schools where they do not necessarily have access to a common language of practice, nor a shared understanding of professional teaching practices. To address these challenges, the South African Council of Educators (SACE) has developed a set of professional teaching standards for use in the South African context. This is not the first time a policy framework has tried to articulate and direct teachers’ work. This paper analyses four other frameworks that have been used to regulate, monitor and evaluate the work of South African teachers over the past two decades. These other frameworks are The Roles of the Educator and Their Associated Competences, the SACE Code of Professional Ethics, the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) and the Basic Competences of a Beginner Teacher. Our analysis...

Journal of Nursing Research & Professional Knowledge, 2024

Education as Change, 2024

Journal of Education, 2023

Pedagogical responsiveness in complex contexts, 2022

South African Journal of Education, 2022

Education as Change, 2022

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2013

The Journal of Geography Education in Africa

Journal of Geography Education in Africa , 2020

An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what c... more An important aspect of preparing pre-service teachers is to develop their understanding of what constitutes meaningful learning in the study of Geography. This understanding is necessary for prospective and practicing Social Science and Geography teachers to interpret existing and changing curricula as thinking professionals. This paper argues that there are several organising concepts that make classroom learning geographical in nature. These are place, spatial distribution, spatial processes, and human-environment interactions. The paper draws on the nature of geographical enquiry to consider what questions could steer classroom learning. This set of questions is then used as a lens to reflect on the way in which the current national curriculum (namely, CAPS) supports (and sometimes constrains) learners’ development of geographical thinking. To teach Geography effectively, Social Science teachers need to identify the central concepts they foreground in their lessons, as well as how to develop geographical thinking around those concepts. I suggest that teachers need to regard themselves first as subject experts, and then as interpreters of curricula, in order to be able to interpret the geographical nature of the content to be taught.

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016

Southern African Review of Education, 2019

Journal of Education, 2021

Journal of Education for Teaching

European Journal of Teacher Education, 2019

South African Journal of Education, 2018

Education as Change, 2018

Teacher educators in South Africa face challenges of preparing new teachers for an inclusive educ... more Teacher educators in South Africa face challenges of preparing new teachers for an inclusive education system that has been accepted as policy but is not yet fully realised in school contexts. Pre-service teachers entering initial teacher education programmes are themselves a product of a schooling system in which many inequalities and marginalising practices are still prevalent. In this paper, we present an analysis of the extent to which prospective teachers' personal experiences within the schooling system influences their perceptions about the benefits and drawbacks of two common organisational arrangements made for learners who experience barriers to their learning. The analysis of empirical data from a questionnaire and individual interviews reveals that participants who had personally observed or experienced such arrangements had fixed views about their benefits or drawbacks. We consider the implications of this finding for teacher education programmes that seek to produce teachers who can teach inclusively in the complexities of South African schools.

South African Council for Educators, 2018

Teaching is complex work in which teachers create knowledge-rich learning opportunities for the l... more Teaching is complex work in which teachers create knowledge-rich learning opportunities for the learners in their classes. As professionals, teachers draw on different kinds of knowledge, namely subject, professional and contextual, to make suitable choices for their classroom activities. They need to consider the knowledge of the subjects they teach, and the learners with which they work, to decide how best to enable learning within the context in which they work. Teachers are expected to make wise decisions in situations that are often complex and unpredictable. Their teaching choices and classroom actions must therefore be guided by a moral obligation to act in the best educational interests of the learners they teach. For this reason, committed, knowledgeable and skillful teachers are among the country’s greatest assets.

Unpublished dissertation, 2008

This study analyses how a group of students develop their teaching over the four years of their B... more This study analyses how a group of students develop their teaching over the four years of their B Ed degree. The thesis shows that although the process of ‘learning to teach’ is not linear, students’ development is not random either. The thesis develops a multifaceted model of student teaching which reflects the complexity of ‘learning to teach’ and is also context-sensitive. The facets of their teaching include their content knowledge, their preparation, their teaching strategies, their classroom management and the ways in which they monitor learning. As students teach, these facets interact in various ways. Some of these interactions play a pivotal role in enabling students to conceptualise and execute worthwhile learning processes. In particular, their content knowledge establishes the logical conditions necessary for the development of their pedagogical thinking.

Pedagogical responsiveness in complex contexts, 2022

Retrieving teaching: Critical issues in curriculum, pedagogy and learning. , 2010

Teacher Education for Diversity, 2018

In South Africa, like many other countries in the global South, pre-service teachers come from va... more In South Africa, like many other countries in the global South, pre-service teachers come from vastly diverse communities. Teaching that is contextually responsive and inclusive of all learners depends on teachers developing the ability to engage in conceptually informed and pedagogically reasoned practice. Despite introductory coursework on the mediation of knowledge, a significant portion of participants found it difficult to distinguish between differences in teaching and learning, and differences in the school context itself. The rationale requires pre-service teachers to include a justification of how they have considered the nature of the content knowledge, the pedagogically significant aspects of learner diversity and their choice of teaching and learning strategies. Teaching had been regarded as the technical management of classroom environments that set up a series of stimulus/response/reinforcement cycles that prompted appropriate observable behavioural responses. Amid the complexity of classroom life, many decisions are made during a teaching day, and not all of them will be explicit subjects of reflection.