Abstract:

Student backgrounds foreground their experiences of struggle even after graduation and the need to upgrade qualifications so as to better remuneration packages in the teaching profession. The paper describes experiences of innovation in teaching and learning of students from disadvantaged backgrounds studying at a distance. Having completed the qualification, remuneration was very low and the participants needed to upgrade the qualification for better outcomes of evaluation for income purposes.

The study is located in critical ethnography where the extended case methodology is utilised. Critical ethnography prioritises empowerment and transformation of study participants. The data collection method is autoethnography where the researcher is not only the data collection instrument but is also learning the systems while striving for the empowerment of the participants in the study. The sample of six derives from sixteen Grade R diploma graduates participants from the South African Government's Community Work Programme, later enrolled on the Bachelor of Education degree on a different human resource capacitation bursary from the department of education. The six had successfully fufilled the requirements for admission onto the Bachelor of Education programme on grounds that they were employed by the Department of Education. The data analysis utilises Pierre Bourdieu's field theory concepts of field,habitus and capital.
The students struggled to acclimatise themselves with the online learning and submission of assignments, but with support from the researcher they later became better and are proceeding with studying for the qualification with better prospects and income potential still at a distance. Participants income levels denied them access to gadgets and the home environment was not conducive to studying, i.e. there was no quiet room for studying, studying on eFundi (a learning management system) needed data, access to the lecturer was restricted to the eFundi Platform; no assignment submission was allowed outside of the platform; learners were afraid of sending communication to their lecturers; the student academic development platform was insensitive to digital illiteracy by the students from the margins.

Using the Extended Case Methodology, the researcher intervened by providing scaffolds to the students on most of the challenges. Therefore, with support, including for access to a smart cellular device, a laptop, data and knowledge of WhatsApp web, and connection to Microsoft office, and so on, a student can become successful in studying at a distance. Where the student was familiar with using the cellular phone, the transfer of information from the phone to the computer was facilitated by WhatsApp web. Where utilisation of the MS Teams app for online video communication was possible, WhatsApp on Windows was utilised instead, for researcher and participant students interaction online on video. WhatsApp on cellular phone video calls also assisted viewing of content. Data connection to the computer was facilitated via both WiFi and hotspot-ing using the cellular phone and the portable MiFi given the rural nature of spaces the students stayed in. The students capitals they brought to the higher education field were undervalued and rendered irrelevant as there is hegemonic influence of academic capital and university habitus.

Keywords:

Teaching , distance education, bachelor of education, online learning devices, WhatsApp web, microsoft office, throughput, bursary, habitus, Bourdieu.