Carol Thomson & Mike Hart

School of Education, Training and Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritizburg Campus

Swimming Upstream: Introducing the Genre Approach in South African Classrooms

In the context of post-1994 transformation of South African education, the authors will explore the implementation of genre approaches to literacy development in six secondary schools in the Pietermaritzburg area of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Entry into these schools arose through our introduction of a genre-based module, aimed at developing in-service teachers’ academic literacy, in a semi-distance BEd honours programme on the Pietermaritzburg campus, University of KZN. The module is a response to the high failure rates and low quality passes of educationally disadvantaged teachers in the programme and is informed by an awareness of the appropriacy of the genre approach as an intervention in this context. Trained tutors mediate the module materials at monthly contact sessions. As a result of the enthusiastic response of tutors to their training in genre theory and practice, a genre-based literacy research project in schools was established with six Pietermaritzburg-based tutors. This paper will explore:

  • the rationale for genre approaches in South African educational contexts;

  • the process of implementation and reflection in the school classrooms;

  • the reception of the approach and process by both teachers and learners;

  • the impact on learners’ academic literacy across the curriculum; and

  • the implications for further development of the project.