An Examination of Communities of Practice in a Disadvantaged Context in South Africa: The Shared Experiences From Early Childhood Practitioners
Glynnis Daries 
Issue: Vol.4 No.12 Special Issue Article 20 pp.241-253
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202341221 | Published online 20th January, 2024
© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
As early childhood rises on state agendas in low and middle-income countries, the concern for building a quality workforce continues to be a challenge due to many epistemic injustices. South Africa is in the process of professionalising its early years. It is thus timely and critical to examine issues of practitioner knowledge and context-responsiveness. This article thus used the notions of Funds of Knowledge and Community of Practice as an asset-based lens. The conceptual framework was used to understand how practitioners operate as a Community of Practice to inform their work in early childhood centres in a vulnerable context with three- and four-year-olds. A qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews with eight under-qualified practitioners informed the study. The findings suggested that practitioners use informal and personal sources of knowledge while working as Communities of Practice to navigate sustainable outcomes for young children. These illustrative sources function both as enablers and disablers for shaping inclusive and quality practices. Practitioners are able to use their knowledge to be responsive, but they also have unexamined assumptions which are in need of disruption. The article concluded with a call for a more bottom-up model of professionalism that speaks to context-responsiveness, intentionality development and fostering of an ethic of care.
Keywords: Funds of Knowledge, Sustainability, Early Childhood Practitioners, South Africa, Disadvantaged Context, Professional Development
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Glynnis Daries (Ph.D.) is a senior lecturer in Foundation Phase Teaching at Sol Plaatje University. She is the acting Head of Department in Education Studies. In a career that spans over 14 years, she has played the role of a teacher, facilitator, manager, academic, researcher, mentor, and advocate for the early years. She completed her Ph.D. in early childhood care and education in January 2017 at the University of the Free State. Her Ph.D. focused on the ‘funds of knowledge’ of practitioners and young children at community and privately owned early years centres. The study contributed to a deeper understanding of the sources of knowledge and the daily practise of practitioners with very young children. She contributed to new thinking about the professionalism of early childhood practitioners. She is currently part of two inter-university research projects that focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). The first project focusses on how teachers, principals, parents,university lecturers, and Department of Education subject advisors work successfully as a Community of Practise (CoP) to stimulate change for Foundation Phase learners and parents. The Family Maths project incorporates the use of mother tongue instruction and the manipulation of concrete Teaching and Learning aids to develop mathematical knowledge and skills in Foundation Phase. Parental involvement, homework support and, the use of concrete manipulatives is emphasised. The second research project in ECCE centres is designed around a Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) approach to family and community involvement. Different community stakeholders and participants come together and use hands-on activities to promote the perceptual development and emergent numeracy skills of young children in early childhood centres. The aim is to work with participants in ways which will sustain contextually relevant and age-appropriate early education amongst practitioners, children, and parents.
Daries, Glynnis. “An Examination of Communities of Practice in a Disadvantaged Context in South Africa: The Shared Experiences From Early Childhood Practitioners .” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 4, no.12 Special Issue (2023): 241-253. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202341221
© 2023 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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