RODAMIENTOS Y CHUMACERA

I ask myself, how does my research differ from previous and other post-graduate research on school libraries? I believe this research offers a unique picture of the use of school libraries and resources in disadvantaged urban communities. This dissertation has brought to the fore issues that need to be dealt with or considered in setting up a school library in a disadvantaged (or any) school and constitute some of the important lessons I have learned. Only a comprehensive and coherent approach will have a long term impact. It will definitely not be possible to put a school library in a school in isolation.

Effective change takes place within a social context that involves people from a community. The whole school community (school management, teachers, learners and parents) must understand the importance of literacy if they value development. Even more important is that the community must accept and share the responsibility to create a culture of reading and a sustainable literate environment. Everyone must work towards the recognition of the critical importance and central role of literacy to ensure success.

The existence of a physical school library and a book collection does not necessarily translate into the effective use of these resources. It became clear that a broader support base including resources is important, but the lack of it is not the main problem in the

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schools. Many teachers lack resource-based learning processes and the extent to which they promote the school library is low.

Many teachers do not read themselves and are the products of an education system which undervalued books. These teachers do not understand that good reading skills are crucial to the education process and that literacy is a key learning tool of primary school education and beyond. If they are not enabled to navigate the complex information environment, then they cannot help learners to achieve this.

Teachers are the crux of it all and it is imperative that they change. Many teachers pay lip-service to the value of literacy, but show only limited real effort in this direction and do not recognise the central role of literacy in teaching. This is a manifestation of their own schooling and teacher training with limited exposure to literacy and libraries.

The Foundation Phase teachers (regardless of age) at both schools bought into the Literacy Project to a large extent and made corresponding changes in their teaching and the use of storybooks in the classroom. The Intersen Phase teachers are less unified and functional. It might be that they perceived the knowledge imparted of less importance and relevance to their teaching. I also believe that they experience more difficulties in applying OBE principles to their own teaching. Changing education cannot just be achieved by changing the paradigm or curriculum. The teachers must be active agents in the process, not just passive subjects in intervention.

Even a long-term intervention with a supportive environment and affirmation of work well done as provided by the Literacy Project is insufficient. Many of the teachers I worked with show a lack of content knowledge and struggle, for example, to integrate reading into lesson planning and to integrate resources into the curriculum. They need continuous scripted support in order to effect real change and their motivation has to be revisited constantly. Some need more supervision than others. Variations in the quality and motivation of teachers necessitate modifications in the professional development of

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teachers. Political will is needed to succeed and the Department of Education is the only role player who can supply scripted support to teachers on a large scale.

The success and long-term impact of an intervention programme take much longer than anticipated. An initial time frame of two years was inadequate. The Literacy Project seems to have only scratched the surface of literacy issues and problems. However, project fatigue sets in after a period of involvement and it cannot continue ad infinitum for logistical and financial reasons. As the project leader said at the last meeting at Bantabethu:

Thus leaving a significant legacy will remain elusive for the short to medium term.

Bloch (2008:12) indicates that change is a long-term task and it will take at least thirty years to fix South African schools. Teachers have low work motivation and low expectations from learners. This will not disappear in the blink of an eye and there are no guarantees any project will make a marked difference. Changing people‟s attitudes and behaviour takes time and effort and cannot be achieved overnight. There is no magic wand and small steps forward may not be revolutionary, but can eventually make a difference.

The training of future teachers should move past the rhetoric of OBE and explicitly focus on expanding the number, range and kind of opportunities teachers and learners experience. Their training must include library skills and information literacy as well as knowledge about children‟s literature. School libraries are important regardless of the education paradigm and can make a significant difference in successful education. The new generation of teachers must be primed to understand the role of school libraries in the information and knowledge age.

If more “school librarians” can be appointed and trained on the job (as the Literacy Project has done at the two schools), one year in-service courses can be developed by library schools in consultation with schools of education. Students can be trained on a larger scale and receive a qualification as well while earning a salary. Due to the cutting

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of teacher-librarian/school librarian posts a number of Library Departments at tertiary institutions have closed down or discontinued teacher-librarian training. Current teacher training often includes nothing about school libraries, teaching information literacy and library skills, or anything about children‟s literature. In my department at UNISA the diploma course Information Services and Youth is in the process of being phased out. A course on children‟s literature offered by the Department of Afrikaans has also been cancelled. Only a few institutions in South Africa still offers school library training and none in Gauteng:

The University of the Western Cape (Advanced Certificate in Education: School Librarianship)

University of KwaZulu-Natal (Advanced Certificate in Education: School Library Development and Management)

University of Zululand (Diploma in Specialised Education: School Library Science)

Regardless of limiting issues and some problems experienced I regard my involvement and research in the Literacy Project as an investment that warranted the effort it took. I came to various insights and regard this as an essential intervention.