The action research journey of Vuyelwa Khanya, Learning Support Advisor
During her first action research trajectory, Learning Support Advisor Vuyelwa Khanya (Vovo) volunteered to investigate the functionality of school-based support teams (SBSTs). In 2020, she co-facilitates the next VVOB action research cohort. ‘Each small action leads to the next.’
Vuyelwa Khanya (Vovo) is a Learning Support Advisor in the Motheo district, Free State province. She volunteered in the Free State’s action research cohort that started in March 2018, during which she collaborated with school-based support teams (SBSTs) to help them improve their functionality. From 2019, she started co-facilitating our AR cohorts.
Sustainable improvement starts with a thorough understanding of the challenge. ‘I’ve learned that I should be more of a listener than a problem solver’, Vovo explains. ‘If teachers are not given the opportunity to say what they think and what they know, then I will not know either.’ She shared her contact details with the teachers. ‘Many of them have a lot of questions, but there is not always a platform where they can express these.’ Instead of imposing solutions, she now follows the teachers’ suggestions. ‘We lead, all of us now, the transformation of the school.’
Confident teachers
Teachers gave feedback on the support she provided and how it affected their practices and learners. Vovo changed her approach, which empowered the teachers to stand in front of the classroom with more confidence. ‘Thanks to some very practical examples, teaching phonics with pictures of letters, my learners now learn through play’, a teacher testified. SMT-members also indicate that they have improved their understanding on inclusive education.
‘I’ve grown closer to my teachers.’ Vovo explains how she feels empowered in her job. Her facilitation skills have improved, and she feels more confident in her role. She found out that many barriers were caused by the department itself. A simple example: because of transport challenges, officials were not able to visit their schools sufficiently.
Participant becomes facilitator
Vovo encourages teachers to embark on their own AR journey. Together with other volunteers from previous cohorts, she facilitated the second AR cohort in the Free State last year. This group of co-facilitators teams up again in 2020 to support a new generation of action researchers. Their trajectory runs parallel to the AR journey of the Free State Department of Education. These fresh groups will be the fifth and the sixth action research cohorts that VVOB supports in South Africa. Vovo concludes: ‘Each small action leads to the next.'