Phenomenology in Teacher Education Contexts: Enhancing Pedagogical Insight and Critical Reflexive Capacity

Abstract

This paper draws on a phenomenological study of students’ experience of the demands of a module, Reading and Writing Academic Texts (RWAT), designed with the specific aim of developing students’ academic literacy. This module is a core, compulsory component of the mixed-mode Bachelor of Education Honours programme offered by the School of Education and Development at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. The study thus foregrounds issues of language and literacy, and is contextualized within a “distance” model of teacher education.