Perspectives on Multigrade Teaching: Research and practice in South Africa and Australia

This book contains the results of research projects carried out in relation to multigrade teaching in Australia and South Africa. Research in multigrade contexts is not commonly reported and rarely in book form. The research results have implications for multigrade teachers, government education personnel, and university teacher educators. The book also contains chapters with practical advice for multigrade teachers, including examples of multigrade teaching used in an Australian seven-grade class (kindergarten to grade 6). Other chapters contain suggestions for practical strategies a multigrade teacher can use to reduce the workload involved in planning for multiple grades. Very little is published in the area of multigrade teaching, yet the number of multigrade schools worldwide is huge. Developed countries still have a significant proportion of multigrade schools (commonly one fifth to one third of all primary schools or classes). Despite decades of centralisation of schools and expansion of transport networks, the number of these schools remains high, mostly in rural areas. Developing countries established multigrade schools in rural areas in order to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education. Yet, specific training to teach a multigrade class remains virtually non-existent in initial teacher education programs worldwide. The value of this book is thus to report specific research carried out in multigrade contexts but also to provide practical help for multigrade teachers. This help is needed as the teachers strive to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal of a quality education, through helping their students develop the skills and behaviours required for 21^st-century learning.

Linley Cornish has had a successful teaching career in initial teacher education, winning both local and national teaching awards and the title of Education Scholar. She has widely published in the areas of mixed-grade teaching and gifted and talented education. For many years, she has been an editor of TalentEd, a journal for parents and teachers of gifted and talented students. In recent years, she has been responsible for professional accreditation of her university’s ten initial teacher education programs.

 

Matshidiso Joyce Taole is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies, University of South Africa, with interests in multi-grade teaching, curriculum studies, rural education, and online learning and teaching. She is presently involved in teaching, postgraduate supervision, community engagement projects, giving conference papers in the fields of curriculum studies and rural education, and publishing the results of her research.