The Free State Department of Education wants to evaluate the impact of Mobile Libraries on schools, teachers and learners to inform and improve future practices. Mobile libraries service rural schools without libraries since 2007. VVOB supports this impact study as a means to build research capacity with District Teacher development Centre staff which can later also be applied to other research topics. Since the start of 2015, 13 officials engaged in a participatory action research, guided by the School of Education of the University of the Free State.
Cycle 1: documenting current practices
The first cycle of the research aimed at finding and documenting challenges, strengths and weaknesses of the current mode of delivery. Interviews were conducted with Media Subject Advisors, Resource Coordinators and Library Assistants who use the service. Researchers also interviewed teachers on their needs and expectations. Interviews were complemented by classroom observations in which the existing monitoring tool was used.
Books in schools
The schools participating in the study are in a radius of 100 km from the District Teacher Development Centre and its resources. There are no libraries nearby, access to towns is difficult and the schools have very few own resources and limited budgets for the purchase of multimedia library resources. Books are provided in the home language of the children, as well as the language of learning and teaching.
Changed practices
Teachers from schools that are visited by the mobile libraries show a change in reading instruction and their attitude towards reading: books are on display for learners to choose what interests them (the beginnings of a library); an attempt is made to make the classroom “print rich” and encourage reading; the time-table reflects reading periods where learners are encouraged to read for pleasure and information; reading strategies and skills are modelled and prompted during instruction time. Teachers apply different reading techniques, e.g. group reading, shared reading, paired and individual reading.
Learners and parents
Learners from the selected schools are being taught information skills, such as accessing, processing and using information, e.g. fact/fiction, table of contents and summarising & organising information. Learners experience that reading is fun. The children celebrate literacy days and participate in reading competitions with other rural schools.
Teachers report the excited reactions of the children at a school where the Mobile Library visited for the first time. Children are keen to read and eager to show off their reading skills. Teachers report that learners’ reading speed, fluency and comprehension has improved, as well as their grammar and vocabulary. Learners are showing an improvement in academic performance
At present, learners are not encouraged to take books home because it is thought that the books will get lost or damaged. But this is changing. The FSDoE wants to allow the learners to take books home. Many of the parents are illiterate. This will help expanding their rural frontiers and introducing them to the printed word.
Presenting preliminary data to the research community
From 27 to 30 October 2015 the third South African Education Research Association (SAERA) took place at the University of the Free State. The paper, entitled "We take library books to farms schools" -Appraising the work of the Mobile Libraries, was presented by Dr. Lynette Jacobs (research leader project), Norman Proctor (Media Subject Advisor DTDC Lejweleputswa), Olga Lekitlane (Media Subject Advisor DTDC Lejweleputswa), Anna-Marié Jonker (Resource Coordinator, DTDC Lejweleputswa), Ernst Stals, Chief Education Specialist DTDCs and Lieve Leroy, Education advisor VVOB.
Closing the first cycle
A workshop on November 5 at UFS marked the closing of the first cycle of the participatory research: analysis of collected data and reflection on areas of improvement.
During the 1 day workshop participants learned how to analyse qualitative data, in particular, how to identify themes, identify data that relate to the themes and identify possible gaps in the data. They tried writing a basic research report. Participants also learned how to identify aspects of the mobile library programme that could be improved.
The next cycle will focus on taking action towards improvement and recording the effects of this action. Researchers will work collaboratively with the teachers on how to get more out of the mobile libraries.
Related articles:
http://vvob.be/southafrica/content/par-2
http://www.vvob.be/southafrica/content/researching-molly
http://www.vvob.be/southafrica/content/loi-sapesi-vvob
http://www.vvob.be/southafrica/content/road-mobile-library
More pictures can be found here.
