The ultimate purpose of conducting this research project was to prepare for the phased implementation of a school-based educational broadcasting service, which supports teaching, learning, and whole school development in South Africa. Thus, the research project has focused on conducting preparatory work for this service, developing a strategic plan that will ensure that the service is educationally relevant and financially sustainable. Implementation of this service was envisaged – before this research project began – to include the following components:

• A broadcast service providing radio and television resources for use in support of the school curriculum;
• A broadcast service to support whole school development;
• A broadcast service providing ongoing support and professional development for educators in the primary and secondary school sectors;
• Non-broadcast strategies to motivate teachers to use the broadcast materials;
• Non-broadcast professional development strategies to support teachers in the use of the materials;
• Increased physical infrastructure and hardware in schools to expand access to the broadcast materials;
• Mixed media strategies to support the school-based educational broadcasting service (in line with broader SABC approaches to the use of technologies other than radio and television - see project four below); and
• Evaluation of the quality and use of the school-based service.

The research project focused on exploring appropriate roles for the school-based service in line with the objectives stated above, and on developing realistic plans to ensure the implementation of these roles. The information contained in this documents how these different elements have been conceptualized through an intensive research process running over five months.

The focus of this report is on educational broadcasting and its roles within a wider process of transformation of schooling in South Africa. For this reason, many familiar terms drawn from the intersection of discourses on schools, education, broadcasting, teaching, and learning, amongst others, have been used in this report. This means that the definitions of some terms need to be explicitly clarified or, in cases of possible contestation, a critical choice about preferred definition made. It is, therefore, recommended that, in order to avoid confusion or misunderstanding, that the reader refer to the definitions below regularly during the process of reading of this report.

Educational policy processes in South African aim to transform the values and goals of the education system as a whole. Those individuals participating in the educational sector are required to take on, or already have taken, on new responsibilities, roles, and status. This is especially true of teachers. In this report, the term teacher has been used to refer specifically to those individuals employed in the formal school educational settings as:

A potential agent of transformation as well as an organiser of learning [who must pursue] a holistic approach to learner development…in collaboration with other change agents such as social workers or health workers.(Gauteng TSUD Project. (1997))

Teachers are educators, in the sense that teachers as a group constitutes one type of professional employed in the educational sector. The term educator is, however, an umbrella term that refers to a range of professionals working in the educational sector. An educator is not narrowly defined as only a teacher, but refers, amongst others, to a: subject specialist; staff development facilitator; a principal; or school resource manager. Educators are also potential agents of transformation, but their responsibilities, roles, and key functions may vary.

It should be clear that not all educators are teachers. For the purposes of this report, the term teacher has been used to refer specifically to those educators who interact on a daily basis with students in the classrooms.

Like ‘teacher’ and ‘educator’, ‘learner’ and ‘student’ are terms that have been used interchangeably in many educational documents. Policy processes have also transformed our understanding of what a student and learner means.

The term learner is an umbrella term used to refer to anyone engaged in learning, irrespective of the site of learning or age of the person, who shares with others an active engagement in the learning process. It is essential that the definition include the use of ‘active’ learning, as learners are understood to mean those who are actively transforming and being transformed by the learning process. In some documents, the term learner has been used loosely. In this report, use of the term ‘learner’ is meant as an intentional reference to an individual who, irrespective of whether or not the learner is a ten-year old school student or 60-year old ABET learner, is an active agent of social or knowledge transformation.

The term ‘student’ has been used to refer to individuals whose occupation is studying in formal educational settings such as a school or technical college. Thus, not all learners are students. Students are those learners involved in formal learning opportunities, which, in this report, are primarily traditional schooling opportunities.

The term curriculum in informal discussions has often been used interchangeably (and incorrectly) with terms such as syllabus or outcome. In formal use, such as in documents like the discussion document on lifelong learning through a National Qualifications Framework(Committee for Development Work on the NQF. (1996). Discussion Document: Lifelong learning through a National Qualifications Framework. Report of the Ministerial Committee for Development Work on the NQF. Pretoria: Department of Education), it has been defined in technical, often obscure, terms. What results then is considerable confusion in understanding and use of the term.

In this report, curriculum is a term that refers to all aspects of teaching and learning, including intended outcomes, content, teaching and learning strategies, assessment strategies, and system values. Curriculum is hence a much wider concept than the term ‘syllabus’.

In this report, syllabus is used to refer to those specific components - largely the content of a subject (for example, history) – as taught using conventional teaching methods. Recently, educational policy documents have replaced the term ‘syllabus’ with ‘learning programme’ in an attempt to move away from the prescriptive and conventional associations of syllabus. Clearly, the shift towards lifelong learning and outcomes-based education requires teachers, as organizers of learning, to move away from narrow syllabi or ‘chalk-and-talk’ delivery modes towards integrating a wide range of resources into flexible and varied modes of delivery that support attainment of learning outcomes.

Educational broadcasting has undergone several changes over the last few decades, one of which has been a move away from the production of overtly pedagogic radio or television broadcasts. In order to understand the impact of these broadcast interventions, it is necessary to clarify what is implied in the use of ‘didactic’ or ‘overtly pedagogic’ broadcasts. In the first instance, overtly pedagogic programmes refer to

Broadcasts in which, it is the intention of the producer to teach and the viewers’ intention to learn [is] assumed.

‘Overtly pedagogic’ is used to describe the primary defining and qualitative features of one particular type of teaching process. A programme’s way of conveying information is overtly pedagogical because the content and format are instructionally designed to teach content. For example, William Smith is a ‘TV teacher’ who teaches algebraic theorems using a traditional ‘talk-and-chalk’ method. He conveys information about a body of mathematical knowledge to an audience of ‘novices’. In both format and content, the broadcast is overtly pedagogical.

There is obviously a continuum of possibility within this definition. One could consider broadcasts that adopt a style of teaching as ‘telling’ at the one extreme. The other extreme may be documentary programmes, in which the producer wants to illustrate or explain a point, and the viewer watches in order to extend his/her general understanding. In the former, the learning outcomes are overt and quantifiable, while in the latter the learning outcomes are more vague and would differ from viewer to viewer. The terminology used in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) can be used to further refine the use of ‘didactic’. The NQF gives the following definitions:

• Outcomes are the results of a learning process whether formal, non-formal or informal. In outcomes-based education and training, curriculum developers work backwards from agreed desired outcomes within a particular context which clearly state what the learner should be able to demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply appropriately. Programmes of learning are then designed to help the learners achieve these outcomes. Outcomes are of two types: essential and specific.
• Essential outcomes are cross-curricular, broad generic outcomes that inform teaching and learning
• Specific outcomes are contextually demonstrated knowledge skills and values, reflecting essential outcomes
• Unit standards are nationally agreed and internationally comparable statements of specific outcomes and their associated performance/ assessment criteria together with administrative and other necessary information.
• Learning programmes consist of course, modules or units of learning (learning materials combined with a methodology) by which learners can achieve agreed learning outcomes spelt out in unit standards(Committee for Development Work on the NQF. (1996)).

Overtly pedagogic broadcasting refers to broadcasts in which the producer of a programme adopts the role of a curriculum developer. Desired outcomes are identified for a specified level (these may be based on a curriculum framework), and the broadcast is purposefully designed to lead the student to a point at which specific outcomes can be assessed in terms of identified assessment and performance criteria. A single part of the broadcast may focus on a single, specific or essential, outcome. In its totality, the broadcast series may lead the viewer to the attainment of a unit standard.

Didactic learning materials can be didactic because they are either:

1. Intentionally didactic or overtly didactic which means that the content and format are chosen to transfer information (for example, this is what happened in World War II) from ‘expert’ (TV teacher) to ‘novice" (real viewer); or
2. Indirectly didactic or covertly didactic in that the format or delivery by the presenter takes on a very traditional, expert-novice way but the content may not be overtly linked to a school subject (e.g. a doctor telling students that they must eat apples for nutritional reasons.)

Access is commonly used to refer to channels or pathways of entry, typically into or between educational settings such as schools and universities. In this report, access is used to refer to the ability to actively participate in a process, and therefore requires that certain social and material resources provide the necessary conditions for participation to occur. For example, the statement that ‘out-of-school youth should be able to access educational broadcasts’ implies that physical infrastructure such as community learning centres containing televisions and video cassette recorders will be provided so that this group of learners have the potential to watch or listen to broadcasts. It also implies that youth organizations, might, in partnership with the SABC, provide non-broadcast support that encourages and enhances use of broadcast materials by this group of learners. Access therefore means more than just physical or material associations but also creating conditions for successful attainment of educational outcomes.

In an attempt to describe more precisely how broadcast materials can be used, it was necessary to evaluate terms such as ‘live’ or ‘as-it-happens’. It was clear that relying on these terms did not capture adequately the intricacies of broadcast use. For this reason, the phrase ‘synchronous use of broadcasts’ has been used to refer to the process where broadcast programmes are viewed or listened to as the service provider broadcasts them. Associated with this are the concepts of agency and control, which, under these conditions, are in the hands of the broadcaster, and not the teacher or learner. It also implies that the type of technological equipment required for synchronous use will include most often a radio and/or television. For example, a foundation phase teacher uses broadcast materials ‘synchronously’ when s/he and the class of students watches Open Sesame on Thursday mornings between 10h00 and 10h30 on television.

Likewise, the phrase, ‘asynchronous use of broadcasts’, refers to use of broadcast materials at a time which is different from that scheduled by the broadcaster. Associated with this is a shift in agency and control from broadcaster to the teacher or learner. Although the broadcaster or producer of the broadcast material retains control over the programme format or language, the teacher or learner is able to determine and use more flexibly the broadcast materials. The technological equipment required for asynchronous use of broadcasts most often includes a videocassette player and viewing mechanism provided by either a television or monitor; and/or an audiocassette player and listening mechanism provided by speakers or headphones. For example, a learner uses broadcast materials asynchronously when s/he determines the duration, frequency and depth of listening to an audiocassette recording on a audiocassette player.

Informal use of the term ‘media’ usually refers to a group of professionals employed in mass communication sectors. For example, the statement ‘the media distorted events’ implies that journalists working for a mass communication organisation such as CNN did or did not report an event in a particular way. Informal use of the term technology, such as ‘the technological age’, implies that technology equals computing.

As used in this report, it is clear that these types of use of terms are imprecise; but even in formal discussions, the two concepts are often used interchangeably. Such use masks important conceptual differences in the way the terms are used throughout this document. Tony Bates developed a useful grid to highlight the differences, and relationships, between media and technologies. This table was amended by the TELI Research Team, and has been further amended for inclusion below(Adapted from Bates, A., 1995). It is by no means a comprehensive map of the full range of media and technologies, but helps to illustrate the relationship between the two.

The above grid is complicated by the rapid convergence in both form and functionality of many information, communications, and broadcasting technologies. The convergence, however, makes the distinction between technology and medium even more important, particularly when trying to understand potential educational roles for different technologies. Technologies are the means of delivery. Using a simplistic analogy, the technology might be considered to be the type of pipe used while the medium (or media) is the form of the substance (or combination of substances) flowing down the pipe. Thus, a key criterion in assessing the potential educational value of a particular technology is to understand which medium - or combination of media - can travel down the ‘pipe’ under evaluation and in which directions it can travel. This understanding can then be related back to predetermined educational goals and objectives in order to determine whether or not a specific technology can be used to support or enhance an identified teaching and learning environment. Naturally, this process will need to take into account financial constraints and cost-effectiveness.

‘School educational broadcasting service’ is used to describe the full range of services that the SABC might provide in support of school educational provision, regardless of when these services are offered or where users access them. Thus, a school service would incorporate many of those services already offered by the SABC.

‘School-based educational broadcasting service’ is used to describe those services offered by the SABC in support of school educational provision that are offered specifically during school hours and are intended for use at schools. Thus, a school-based service is a subset of the broader school service. Developing a focus for a school based service, therefore, involves combining those possible elements of a school educational broadcasting service that are most appropriately broadcast during school hours for use in the school environment.

A programme is used to describe a video and/or audio artefact, conceptualized, produced, and edited as a coherent package. This could be accessed either via live broadcast or off cassette. A series refers to a group of programmes linked by common topics, focuses, themes, and/or production styles. Importantly, though, in the way each term is used below, there is an implicit understanding that a programme or series does not exist in isolation from a range of non-broadcast strategies that might accompany it (for example, marketing materials, print or computer-based support resources, or professional development strategies). Thus, the use of the terms below assumes the possibility that programming will not be isolated media packages, but will be distributed as part of broader support strategies.

It is also worth differentiating here between broadcast programmes and educational programmes. In its educational sense, a programme might be described as a group of courses, how they combine to realize a general educational goal or set of outcomes (such as a degree, diploma, or certificate), as well as the procedures governing access and articulation with other programmes (see below for a discussion of these terms).

In research, the intention of producing a research report serves several purposes. Most obviously, the production of a report provides the reader with a sense of who performed various research activities, on whom, for what purposes, and with what results. By recording this information, the reader is stimulated into awareness, debate or action. But what the process of writing also does is provide the researcher with any opportunity to collate large and often diverse amounts of information into a coherent description or evaluation. For this reason, research reports can run the risk of over-simplification and/or insensitivity to some issues because of brevity or assumptions made about the reader’s knowledge and familiarity with concepts used or arguments made.

Research reports, too, tend to describe the types of research activities undertaken in dry, technical terms. For example, ‘an availability sample was used’ or ‘non-parametric statistical analysis was performed on the data.’ This formality may serve to clarify for readers what techniques were used but it has a negative consequence in that it strips from the description of the research process, the full array of experiences, thoughts and feelings of the researchers. For example, in appendix two of this report, a footnote indicates that the data was obtained by fax and e-mail distribution of requests for assistance. What that statement disguises is the anxiety and frustration experienced when the response rate was low; or the whoops of joy when one of European broadcasters sent through several books and reports on schools television in Europe.

Many of the research activities were difficult, often frustrating, but as a whole, the research process was characterized by professional support among SAIDE staff, and generous amounts of comment, debate, and discussion from all participants.

An important activity in this research process was consultation. SAIDE made appropriate use of a wide range of consultation opportunities to discuss a school broadcasting service. SAIDE management met SABC Educational staff on a weekly basis to discuss the research process, and to ensure that SABC Educational staff and Department of Education representatives were actively involved in all stages of the research process. Additional discussions were held at regular intervals during the research process about scheduling, commissioning programming briefs, costing productions, visits to provincial Education Departments, and print support, while several interviews were conducted with SABC Educational Radio and Television staff members.

Wider discussions were held with, amongst others: teacher union representatives; teachers; teacher education training staff; education academics and researchers; teacher centre coordinators; regional schools’ network representatives; and SAIDE consultants. Two of the most important of these were day-long workshops (see appendix nine for a list of participants at both workshops). At the first workshop, the focuses of discussions were initial conceptualization of a school broadcasting service and of some of the challenges of planning and implementation. A conceptual workshop held in June assisted with refining what was meant by a school broadcasting service; the priorities of a school-based broadcasting service; and decisions and strategies required to develop an integrated service that would support whole school development.

Consultation processes have been central to the success of this project. The discussions provided opportunities to refine and extend many of the proposals made by SAIDE, and to identify gaps in the research.

Contextual information is essential for planners and implementers of any initiative. Educational broadcasting initiatives, especially, require contextual information, but the breadth of information required differs from many other educational initiatives. For this reason, SAIDE researchers collected and assimilated vast amounts of data on a range of factors that impact on educational broadcasting plans. Various research activities were undertaken to produce the final report outputs on contextual information, and, for the sake of brevity, a general description is provided for physical, teaching and learning contexts in schools.

Physical infrastructure and technology resource availability in schools was critical in determining and ensuring the sustainability of a school service. The lack of televisions or radio in schools would mean that students and teachers would have limited opportunities to use broadcasts during school hours. For this reason, it was essential to describe the resource infrastructure and availability of technological equipment in schools. Two main research activities were combined to generate the analytical descriptions in this report. The first process consisted of collecting raw data from the School Register of Needs research consortium on a range of variables. Some of the most important variables were: school type; school enrolment; student to teacher ratios; provision of services (for example, power, water, security, sanitation); educational spaces (for example, classroom sizes, specialist rooms, strong rooms); and availability of equipment (for example, radio, television, computers). The raw data were analysed to generate national, provincial and district-level descriptions of schools. These descriptions were enhanced with information extracted from reports on electrification of rural schools; national library resource infrastructure; population census information; and broadcast footprints for SABC radio and television.

The second process consisted of case study research. An availability sample was used, and, while the qualitative data collected matched the trends identified in the School Register of Needs research, it is not possible to generalize to all schools. SAIDE researchers used semi-structured interviews to collect data about schools in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Province. An interview guide was developed to collect data on availability of technological equipment (for example, radio, tape recorder, televisions, videocassette recorders, and computers); and the repair and maintenance policies and practices within those schools. The researchers identified principals as key informants who provided information about overall management and teaching practices at schools. In a few instances, teachers participated in the interviews. A total of 32 schools was included in this research, and schools were targeted on the basis of provincial location (for example, KwaZulu-Natal; Northern Province; and Gauteng); school type (for example, former-DET; former-Model C); and geographic location (for example, suburb, township or rural). The data were analysed to provide qualitative information about practices and policies of technology-enhanced education processes.

Teaching and Learning Processes in Schools
Generating a description of the teaching and learning processes in schools demanded assimilation of vast, and often contradictory, information about what teachers and learners actually do in the classroom. The difficulty with generating these descriptions was that very little research had been conducted on actual classroom teaching practice. Information about teaching and learning therefore had to be extrapolated from information on curricula at teacher education institutions; professional development policies; national teacher audits; research on prepared access students; research articles and reports on maths phobia; students’ ability to use libraries; and homework practices among township youth.

Data currently collected by SAIDE researchers were incorporated into these descriptions. For example, focus group discussions with teachers from schools situated in Eldorado Park, Randburg, Pretoria West, and Mamelodi provided important information about teachers’ professional development needs. Information from the Teacher Supply, Utilization, and Development research process was also incorporated. Additional information was generated from interviews and focus group discussions held with a wide range of educators and educational stakeholders, such as teacher union representatives; teacher educators; educational researchers; policy makers; teacher centre coordinators; and others.

School broadcasting services have evolved over the last four decades; and the decision to develop a school broadcasting service in South Africa, demanded that information be collected about the strengths and weaknesses of South African initiatives; as well as lessons learnt by international broadcasters.

Broadcasting Initiatives: South Africa
Research was conducted on SABC as well as private and non-governmental organizations’ radio and television broadcasting initiatives.

In terms of private and NGO educational broadcasting initiatives, SAIDE researchers were confronted by the fact that there were very few initiatives. In instances were they existed, very few evaluations had been undertaken. Most of the information was based upon secondary research and reviews of evaluation reports produced by a number of research agencies on various aspects of these initiatives.

Collecting information on SABC initiatives was not an easy task. As an organization, the SABC is an enormous and complex entity. Information therefore had to be collected from a number of individuals and documents; which were then collated into situational analyses of television and radio. The radio analysis was compiled from interviews with SABC Educational Radio management, radio station managers, NGO managers and directors; broadcast schedules; and a range of evaluation reports, conference papers, and research literature.

Broadcasting Initiatives: International
The information on international broadcasting initiatives was gathered using a range of data collection methods. A literature survey on educational broadcasting was conducted, and web sites of broadcasters and relating to educational broadcasting were visited. Contact details for international broadcasters were collected; and following this, an initial facsimile/e-mail outlining information about the project was distributed, with requests to international broadcasters to participate in the survey. Additional telephonic contact was made to increase the response rate. A survey instrument, developed in consultation with other SAIDE researchers and SABC Education, was then distributed to respondents.

Data collected is skewed in favour of developed countries and broadcasters with electronic communication systems. English medium broadcasters are also favoured, although French and Belgium broadcasters provided information in English. From this, information about types of technology (radio and/or television) used, as well as policies affecting school broadcasting services were combined into a detailed report on international trends in school broadcasting services.

Generating Options for Promoting the Service
These research activities involved developing a critical understanding of key decisions made in any promotional process. These were then discussed in light of the types of decisions that would need to be made around promoting a schools service. In this regard, SAIDE researchers examined contextual factors, successful promotions of educational projects and organizations, interviewed marketing and promotion experts, and generated a range of options that could be used to promote a school service to teachers, students, and a range of other educational stakeholders.

Costing Non-Broadcast Support Resources
Current SABC print support resources were collected from SABC Educational Radio and Television, and after discussions with SABC Educational staff responsible for non-broadcast support, descriptions of SABC resources were generated.

These were compared with resources from other educational broadcasting initiatives. Based on information supplied by the situational analysis of private and NGO initiatives as well as the SAIDE Resource Centre staff, a list was compiled of educational providers who developed and used print resources to support broadcasts or audio or videocassette resources. Copies of some international broadcasters’ print support resources were included. Descriptions were generated, and after consulting literature on print processes and materials development, scenarios for print support resources were developed. These scenarios were then sent to printing organisations for quotation and comment. Additional information was obtained from major newspaper organizations, which provided quotations on inserts, among others. A brochure collected from the Post Office provided information about postage cost implications for each of these scenarios.

SAIDE staff reviewed over 40 hours of educational video resources. Two main reasons for this were: identification of common trends, formats, styles, content in educational resources; and identification of SABC and other video resources that could be reversioned and/or used as part of a schools broadcasting service in South Africa. A computer-learning resource audit sheet was adapted by SAIDE to provide an analytical and descriptive tool to guide the viewing and review processes. The results of this process are appended to this report.