Multicultural education in secondary schools in South Africa : an analysis of teachers' needs

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: The aim of this research was to determine the perceptions and problems of teachersregarding their black pupils in the areas of language, cognitive, inter-personal, andintra-personal development in selected secondary schools in which these pupils hadbeen enrolled, with the purpose of determining the implications for the development ofteacher training programmes pertaining to multicultural education. In addition, thestudy aimed to determine the extent ·of the teachers' training in these fields and theextent of their needs to address these problems.The opinions of 106 teachers Were obtained via an extensive needs analysisquestionnaire for teachers, which was compiled with the assistance of the HumanSciences Research Council (HSRC) (Cape) and specialists in the areas covered in thequestionnaire.The results indicated that the majority of respondents regarded language and the lackof self-esteem as the two main problems regarding the black pupils in their classes.Most problems were found to be in the areas of intra-personal skills and language skillsand to a lesser extent in the areas of cognitive development or inter-personal skills.Most teachers regarded problems relating to the inter-personal skills of black pupils asOf minor importance. The respondents on the whole did not perceive their black pupilsas having problems with general cognitive development.The majority of respondents had received little or no formal training in inter-personalskills or intra-personal skills; and indicated a strong need to be trained in these areas,especially regarding the understanding of the black pupil's home environment. Inaddition they need knowledge of second language methodology in order to assist theirblack pupils to cope with the English language.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University