Teachers’ Philosophies on Literacy Teaching and Learning in Five Rural Primary Schools in the Western Cape-George District

This qualitative study analysed Foundation Phase teachers’ philosophies on literacy teaching and learning. The analysis revealed a range of understandings that teachers’ tuition varied from drill work in class, to imaginative and engaging education that drew upon the inner resources of learners’ own knowledge. In most cases in this study, those teachers who displayed a limited and unreflective philosophy of learning literacy, mirrored their limitations in class; while the teachers with a broader understanding of the ethos, ethics and stipulations of literacy requirements demonstrated, even in trying circumstances, to deliver inspiring and quality literacy instruction. Five schools with eight Foundation Phase teachers in a rural area near George in the Western Cape Province of South Africa participated in this study. One-on-one, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were the methods of gleaning data which were analysed and categorised to reveal dominant patterns of thought, behaviour and pedagogy.