Rhymes, poetry, stories, wrestling, music and dancing were essential cultural elements through which childhood play was promoted in traditional Africa. “Modernisation” brought about by colonialism led to distortion and decline in the use of traditional play for childhood education in many parts of Africa. This work assessed the value of play in Africa’s childhood education, using documentary analysis and a survey of views from South African and Nigerian childhood educators. The documentary analysis involved a review of existing research to give an overview of traditional play in Africa, while survey data generated from 62 respondents in South Africa (SA) and Nigeria (Nig) were used to illustrate the findings of the review. Traditional African play, when properly deployed, could enhance children’s physical, mental, social and emotional development. This study identified 5 major obstacles to the integration of traditional and modern forms of children’s play. It therefore calls for concerted efforts by policymakers, educators and parents to address the challenges associated with the identified obstacles within a trado-modern paradigm.

Starting from current views on pre-service teacher education, this article presents the findings of an inquiry into new teachers’ perceptions of their university education. The authors argue for a specific view of pre-service teacher education, in which students are given the opportunity to seriously study the content of the subjects they will be teaching, while learning some skills to deliver the school curriculum and to begin to understand, and deal with, learners’ sociological and psychological dispositions. They also argue that the expectation that universities should prepare teachers fully for practice is not feasible, as the school itself as a place of work is the optimal setting for getting to know – in an authentic and non-trivialising way – the hardships and challenges of what constitutes teaching in a country like South Africa. The findings of the study show that teachers are confident about their preparation in content knowledge. They are also comfortable with some aspects of pedagogy, but they do not think they are prepared for the tough social world of teaching or for its logistics. It was also found that teachers who do not teach learners in the age groups for which their programmes had prepared them, struggle far more than others.

This article describes student engagement in simulation games in a field trip retreat for first-year Education students. The authors propose that the methodology can be a useful vehicle to address key social elements of pre-service teachers’ professional learning. They explore a theoretical view of such collaborative learning from the neo-Vygotskian perspective of activity theory, in which the simulation games are viewed as the main tool for mediating learning. From this position they suggest that field trips hold some promise for exploring HIV/AIDS education, issues of race and racism, and an understanding of poverty and food security in education.

This article gives a glimpse of the lifeworld of newly qualified teachers as they are introduced to the workplace. The inquiry that is reported was conducted on the premise that new teachers are especially vulnerable to attrition pressures. A case study research design was used to study a group often new1 teachers in a single school environment. Components of cultural-historical and activity theory (CHAT) were employed as theoretical framework for this research, focusing on the tensions between the teachers and their new practitioner 'community', which was found to be a "pseudocommunity". The analysis of the data showed that novice teachers felt that they were not readily accepted in the professional 'community' of the school. The nature of micro socio-political relations within the school as institution and the positioning of novices within hierarchical structures inhibited their interaction with other teachers and contributed to their isolation. The authors conclude that new teachers are disempowered in the face of the lack of professional community values.