Multiliteracies, Media Education and Change: Some Thoughts on Appropriate Teacher Education Curricula for South African EducatorsJeanne Prinsloo, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. AbstractThe nineties in South Africa mark a critical time for a range of disciplines. The social changes enabled by the transition to a democratic system of government have resulted in a range of new debates being opened, and this applies to questions of literacies as well. Media education or literacy, as it has come to establish itself, has developed from discussions and theoretical debates originating in northern countries of Europe and the USA. Important differences exist between those contexts and that of countries in the south. In South Africa critical approaches to texts, described elsewhere as multiliteracies, historically found their way into the relatively more economically privileged arenas of education, and more specifically Media Education offered a location where such interests were addressed. A range of innovations have resulted in registration of students who have had no experience in textual studies and who have worked within education authorities that have subscribed to content based and transmission mode education. Within such schools realist approaches to texts allowed little or no exposure to critical responses to texts. As the latter is the business of Media Education, consequently what Media Education proposes is far less familiar for these students. This demands a serious reappraisal of the structure and delivery of courses in Media Education for education students. This paper reflects upon such course within teacher education at post-graduate levels at the university at which the author teaches. It attempts to problematise the situation and propose ways to respond to the changing student needs and pedagogical demands of the shifting curriculum. |
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