e.What sort of a learner am I?

148 The shaping of bilingual participants’ learner identity during their college course Other learning experiences ‘school of life’, work, training Past education schooling, college, university Beliefs about formal learning Beliefs about other learning Learner identity • What counts as knowledge? • What kind is worth having? • How do I tackle acquiring it? i.e.What sort of a learner am I? • What who helps or hinders me? Progressfeedback during the course Opportunities to use skills knowledge Friends family Classroom experience: classmates teachers Acceptance sense of belonging Language support On the course What evidence do the research data provide about the evolving of participants’ learner identity during the college course? References Arthur, J. 2003 ‘Baro Afkaaja Hooyo’ A Case study of Somali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool. In A. Creese and P. Martin Multilingual Classroom Ecologies: Inter- relationships, Interactions and Ideologies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Cummins, J. 2005What am I doing here? The role of teacher and pupil identity in developing English Academic Proficiency Paper given at NALDIC conference 9 http:www.naldic.org.uk Accessed 4.4.06. Gee,J.P. 1990 Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses London: Falmer Press Ivanic,R., Fowler,Z., Brzeski,A.,Wilcock,S. and Satchwell,C. 2005 Textuality of learning contexts in FE . Paper given in ESRC Teacher and Learning Research Programme Thematic Seminar Series: Contexts, communities, networks: Mobilising learners’ resources and relationships in different domains http:www.tlrp.orgdspacehandle123456789428 Accessed 1.10.05. Lave,J. and Wenger,E 1991 Situated Learning. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Lemke,J.L. 2002 Becoming the Village: Education Across Lives. In G.Wells and G.Claxton eds. Learning for Life in the 21 st Century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Martin,P.W., Bhatt,A.,Bhojani,N.,and Creese,A.2004 Final Report on Complementary Schools and their Communities in Leicester. University of LeicesterUniversity of Birmingham. ESRC R000223949 Miller,J. 2003 Audible Difference: ESL and Social Identity in Schools. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ofsted report March 2003 More advanced learners of English as an additional language in secondary schools and colleges. HMI 1102 Pavlenko,A. and Blackledge,A. eds.2003 Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Pavlenko,A. and Lantolf,J.P.2000 Second language learning as participation and the reconstruction of selves. In J.P.Lantolf ed. Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford University Press: Oxford Skilton-Sylvester,E. 2003 Legal Discourse and Decisions, Teacher Policymaking and the Multilingual Classroom : Constraining and Supporting KhmerEnglish Biliteracy in the U.S. In A.Creese and P.Martin eds. Multilingual Classroom Ecologies: Inter-relationships, Interactions and Ideologies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Skutnabb-Kangas,T. 2000 Linguistic Genocide in Education – or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? Mahwah N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Thesen,L. 1997 Voices, discourse and transition: In search of new categories in EAP. TESOL Quarterly 31, 487-512 149 PERSPECTIVES OF YOUNG OFFENDERS AND TEACHERS IN A YOUTH CENTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA: REHABILITATION THROUGH EDUCATION? Joel Mamabolo Abstract The aim of the present paper was to explore the opinions of teachers and young offenders about curriculum and their attitude to it in a prison in South Africa. In an attempt to achieve this, 6 teachers and 13 offenders were interviewed and 28 lessons observed as well as curricular documents analysed. The study was premised on case study approach with a focus on one prison centre. The results showed that the offenders in the centre appreciated the curriculum although the rehabilitation processes seemed incoherent. The study showed that there is a need to improve the rehabilitation programmes in the centre to ensure that the young offenders return to society ready to reintegrate without the possibility of reverting back to felony. Furthermore, the findings showed that education can play a significant role in changing the lives of the offenders. In spite of the minor setback vis-à-vis the process of rehabilitation, prospects for improvement prevail. 1 Introduction This paper investigated the perspectives of young offenders and teachers in a prison relating to curriculum and its impact on the rehabilitation of youth offenders in South Africa. I argue that given the current high rate of youth crime and violence in the country it is important to know the significance of education in contributing to the reduction of crime and violence in the country. The issue of crime and violence is recognised on global scale and opinions on solutions to the problem vary from country to country; and in the context of South Africa as in all other countries, the criminal code is interspersed with education. By doing this, it is hoped that the offenders would transform into responsible citizens upon their release from prisons thus reducing the urge to commit crime. The present paper therefore, attempts to explore the opinions of the participants to establish how they view this and what their feelings are about it. I argue further that in spite of government efforts to stem the tide, the present curriculum is ineffective to yield significant results. Studies already conducted on youth offenders largely addressed violent actions of youths and further explored ways of dealing with the challenge Visser, 2000; Boswell, 1996; Howell et al, 1995; Wolgang, 1995. In the context of these studies the victim’s voice is almost non-existent on the subject of attitude, feelings and opinions towards curricular activities in prison. I further contend that in the interest of crime control and curriculum efficacy, it is important to understand what impact there is for those young people who moved away from mainstream curriculum in schools to curriculum in prisons. The present paper therefore attempts to provide such a platform to enable them as well as their teachers to express, in their own way, feelings and views about the curriculum as they see and understand it. The paper is made up of two sections, i.e. section one focuses on the 150 background of the research site code-named Peace-Hope prison as well as the theoretical framework of the paper. Section two addresses some of the findings and conclusion. SECTION ONE 1.2 Background The prison is made up of single structure buildings each almost the size of a football pitch. The whole prison site may be equivalent to four football stadiums. The education unit is one of the sections in the whole prison organisation and was established in the year 2000. At its inception, the unit was manned by two teachers, viz. the supervisor and his assistant; and they assert that the work was too heavy for them at the time. However, at the time of my visit the teaching personnel had increased to six officials including the supervisor. The total number of learners, as stated by the assistant supervisor was ten, i.e. eight males and two females. Contrary to this figure however, during my lesson observations I counted twenty two learners in some lessons in the academic stream. The number of female learners was two in line with the assistant supervisor’s account. It was baffling that the official records as provided were sharply in disparity with the records taken during my daily classroom lesson observation. Perhaps the disparity may be attributed to records not being updated appropriately. The academic stream which largely occupied the centre of my research was made up of the following subjects: languages English, Sepedi and Tsonga; commercial subjects business economics, economics and accounting; science subjects physical science, mathematics, biology and agricultural science; and social science subjects history, geography, travel and tourism.

1.2 Methodology The methodological focus of the research was largely informed by two factors, viz.