Teaching methods

During the period 1948–1994, various methods of teaching history were employed in black secondary schools. The teaching method which an educator uses will to a large extent reveal his or her underlying perceptions about the subject, and the values which he or she attaches to it. On a more immediate level, the teaching methods employed by an educator also reveal a great deal about issues such as work ethics and habits. The general consensus among those who have analysed black secondary school education is that most black secondary school educators have lacked both the resources and the imagination to present vibrant and effective history lessons.

77

Lekgoathi, ‘Teacher Militancy’, p. 232.

Various history teaching methods have been employed in black secondary school classrooms. The narrative method should be used to tell an interesting story. Zwane asserts that this method has been poorly used. Learners remain passive and uninterested, while simply listening to content that has no lasting value to them.79

Interestingly, Nuxumalo notes that narration has in fact been the traditional way of teaching and transmitting information and knowledge in black society. But Nuxumalo points out that this narration was differently done. Dramatic gesticulation and tonal emphasis enlivened the subject and inspired listeners into action. The emphasis was on action. Nuxumalo notes that the narrative method of teaching is in contrast simply an exercise in getting learners to know enough factual detail to be able to pass examinations. It does very little to introduce learners to the values (physical, emotional, intellectual and moral) that prepare people for adulthood.80 Knowledge may be transmitted to learners which is not connected to the realities of their lives. This knowledge may be little more than hollow, alienated ‘verbosity’.81 Freire points out that narrative education leads to an educator speaking about reality as though it were static, motionless, compartmentalised and predictable.82 According to Freire, this way of communicating knowledge is termed a ‘banking concept of education’, wherein ‘… knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those they consider to know nothing’.83

Rusen denigrates historical knowledge which is ‘learned simply by receiving’, since such knowledge cannot be used for orientating the problems of practical life.84 Fielding posits that learners should not be seen as the objects of educators’ professional attentions, but rather as co- constructors of new meanings and shared understandings. The way of achieving this is through dialogue.85

79 _{Zwane, ‘An Examination of the Position and Role of History’, p. 176.}

80 _{Nuxumalo, ‘Sociological Significance of the Teaching of History’, p. 198.} 81 _{Ibid., p. 199.}

82

P. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York, 1968), p. 57, as quoted by Nuxumalo, ‘Sociological Significance of the Teaching of History’, p. 198.

83 _{Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, p. 58, as quoted by Nuxumalo, ‘Sociological Significance of the}

Teaching of History’, p. 200.

84

J. Rusen, Studies in Metahistory (Pretoria, 1993), p. 91, as quoted by Mazabow, ‘The Development of Historical Consciousness’, p. 164.

Mazabow quotes Collins86 et al expressing an idea which is echoed in Maree’s observations about the teaching of history within black Soweto secondary schools in 1975.87 The notion that learners should be allowed to ‘talk back’ to their educators may be ‘potentially frightening for individual teachers and threatening for institutions’, since learners are traditionally expected to know their place in the scheme of things.

The above critique of the narrative method of history teaching should not be taken as asserting that all narrative teaching is bad. Cooper points out that story has a powerful heuristic function for learners in schools, helping them to address abstract ideas and make sense of the past. Stories have an important role to play in the cognitive development of learners. Imagination should empower learners to create new worlds as their imaginations are unleashed. Learners’ perceptions of the world around them may be extended through the use of story-telling.88 Husbands suggests that story-telling has an important role to play in history teaching, provided that it is not substituted for the use of structured logic, argument and development, and ideas of causation, continuity and change – in other words, for complex historical discourse.89

The issue with the narrative method of history teaching in black secondary schools is not the fact that it is wrong, but that it has been overused, to the detriment of other teaching methods, ultimately depriving learners of as full a history education as they might otherwise have received.

Another approach, the question-and-answer method can be effectively used, if planned and guided questions are organized around a specific area. Zwane’s research however, led him to believe that in black secondary schools, the questions set were illogical and haphazard, with few

Cambridge Journal of Education, 29, 2 (1999), p. 286, as quoted by Mazabow, ‘The Development of Historical Consciousness’, p. 190.

86 _{J. Collins, et al., Manifesto for Learning (London, 2002), pp. 78–79, as quoted by Mazabow, ‘The}

Development of Historical Consciousness’, p. 189.

87 _{Maree, ‘The Hearts and Minds of the People’, p. 155.}

88 _{H. Cooper, History in the Early Years (London, 1995), p. 50, as quoted by Mazabow, ‘The Development of}

Historical Consciousness’, p. 151.

89

C. Husbands, What is History Teaching? Language, Ideas and Meaning in Learning about the Past

(Buckingham, 1996), pp. 50–51, as quoted by Mazabow, ‘The Development of Historical Consciousness’,

questions coming from learners. In the context of history teaching within black secondary schools, Zwane noted that the method was of little consequence.90

The aim of the discussion method is to involve both educators and learners in the lesson.91 Holden and Mathabatha noted that some black secondary school history educators in Mpumalanga did involve their classes in debate and discussion.92 However, it is clear that many history educators did not encourage their learners to engage in discussion or questioning of any sort.93

The source method makes use of original historical sources to reconstruct the past. The main difficulty in black secondary schools has been the lack of libraries. Lack of books, other relevant material and generally under-qualified educators meant that this method of history teaching enjoyed limited success in black secondary schools during the apartheid era. Zwane notes that black secondary schools have become enslaved to the textbook method of history teaching. He asserts that this method of history teaching has only succeeded in lowering the interest in South African history.94 Mazabow refers to June Bam who maintains that the real challenge for history as a school subject is to find alternative ways of teaching history that are not tied to school textbooks with particular interpretations of the past.95

In summary, it would appear that during the apartheid era, both the syllabus and methods of teaching history were examination orientated.96

90

Zwane, ‘An Examination of the Position and Role of History’, p. 177.

Nuxumalo notes that because of this, educators

91 _{Ibid., pp.177–179.}

92 _{Holden and Mathabatha, ‘The Politics of Resistance’, p. 405.} 93

Maree, ‘The Hearts and Minds of the People’, p. 155.

94 _{Zwane, An Examination of the Position and Role of History’, pp. 179, 184.} 95 _{J.Bam in ‘Comments on Memory, Politics and History Education’,}

http://www.hum.ku.dk/histnet/publikationer/arbejdspapiers5/poulsen.html. Quoted by Mazabow, ‘The Development of Historical Consciousness’, p. 152. No access date provided.

96 _{Of course it must be noted that limited and uninspired teaching methods which were slavishly examination}

orientated prior to the introduction of Outcomes-based education (OBE) were not the exclusive domain of some educators within black secondary schools but could be found within other types of secondary schools too. It goes without saying that lazy teaching methods can be found within history classrooms at any kind of secondary school, past or present. Smith, Nuxumalo and others are simply commenting that narrative, textbook-bound, examination-orientated history teaching was common in pre OBE black secondary schools.

saw little need to go beyond the requirements of the syllabus.97 Malie, quoting Stevens states the problem well:

The trouble with the teaching of history is that too many have no clear conception of exactly why we teach history in our schools at all. Because of that Matriculation Certificate, too many teachers have lost sight of the true aims of teaching history, and have become obsessed with an examination phobia to the detriment of the real value of history as a subject. Yet let me state emphatically that the fundamental object of teaching history at school is not to prepare candidates to pass the matriculation examination.98

Referring to history learners during the apartheid era, Nuxumalo comes to a damning conclusion: learners know less about history than is known by someone reading newspapers, magazines and library books.99