Life Orientation Grade 8 Learning Outcome 2 Social Development
The vision of ODAC attempts to reach not just adults but also young South Africans as they face these day to day challenges, the difficult choices that may confront them and the pressures they may face. Building and sustaining democracy includes being able to recognise and address those things that potentially threaten or undermine it. This skill depends upon a sound knowledge and understanding of democracy, the ability to engage constructively with its challenges and the values to navigate through them.
Schools provide an environment where these issues can be explored, tested and practised in a meaningful way. They are also a spring board into broader society and thus have the potential to multiply the impact of the lessons learned by young people taking them home with them and into their broader communities, youth groupsand sports clubs.
It is with these ideas in mind that this programme has been developedby Open Democracy Advice Centre for young people in schools. It will be implemented in collaboration with the Department of Education and other stakeholders. Tthe programme has been developed in such a way that it is suitable for use with high school learners in both Grades 8 and 9 in the Senior Phase. It has been developed to cut across the Languages and Life Orientation Learning Areas with links to other Learning Areas flagged.
This project is being piloted in 24 schools in the Western Cape and after feedback from the department of education, educators and learners ODAC will be able to prepare materials for the national roll out of the project.
Workshops were held in all the Education Management Districts in the Western Cape. They were held in Parow, Kuils River, Mowbray, Paarl, Saldanha, Caledon, George and Mitchells Plain. Twenty two schools attended these workshops as well as the curriculum advisors for the Grade 8 Life Orientation learning Area.
Initial Feedback from Educators
All the educators liked the materials very much. The overall response from the educators was very positive. They liked the topics covered as well as the array of activities e.g. debates, letter-writing, role plays and producing flyers. They think that we should include a formal assessment structure in the materials. This will need to be discussed with the relevant authority. I asked the educators when would be the best time for them to teach these lessons and most of them indicated that the third term would be the best time. We then decided that the essays and teacher feedback form should reach ODAC by the end of the third term.
The following were raised by the educators:
• Too many activities in one lesson• Some lessons involve homework and some children don't do homework
• Essays are problematic for weaker pupils and for non English mother tongue speakers
• Perhaps the materials could include a glossary
• All the educators liked the task on the anti bullying policy and some even asked that we should include this as a
formal assessment
• There could be overlapping with the language teachers
• It could be integrated with the Arts and Culture lessons
Once ODAC has received the teacher feedback form and the essays ODAC will assess the position and preparation of the materials for the National programme will begin.
Programme Rationale and Description
What is the rationale for implementing a programme on whistle-blowing in the Senior Phase?
Learners at this stage of their intellectual and moral development are able to engage with the kinds of moral decisions, issues, choices and judgments that would inform the actions of a 'whistleblower'.
Exposing them to the dilemmas associated with democracy, accountability, transparency and corruption before they leave school and enter society as citizens is imperative. It creates the opportunity for them to develop the capacity they need to be effective democratic citizens, able to play a responsible role in society.
For the purposes of this programme, ODAC has developed a two prong strategy to bring these issues into the classroom. The first is through the provision of curriculum linked learning and teaching resources for teachers. Teachers will be given a set of six developed lesson guides and supporting worksheets. These will serve as tools for facilitating classroom activities using and developing the basic concepts and ideas related to democracy and its values of accountability, transparency, openness and responsibility.
The materials will draw on and develop the outcome for the Life Orientation and Languages Learning Areas and will also provide opportunities for integration into other Learning Areas across the curriculum. Secondly, the classroom learning process will lead into a school based competition on whistle-blowing. This will take the form of an essay/play-writing competition, which will provide learners with the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to and understanding of democratic accountability.
The Open Democracy Advice Centre commissioned a Markinor survey of awareness of the right to know, whilst some of the key findings indicated that by far the majority of people did not know about the whistleblowing legislation (71,6%), 38% of young people felt that whistleblowers should not be protected.
The survey findings make it clear that there is a need for education about this law, its intention and how it can be made a reality through the actions of a cross sectoral grouping of people, i.e., public services, civil society, government, business and so on.
