Novice teachers’ professional discourse on teaching natural science in the Foundation Phase in the Western Cape, South Africa

In this article we report on the initial professional discourse on teaching natural science (NS) in the Foundation Phase among a sample of novice teachers in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The sample comprised 7 novice teachers (NTs) with 3 or fewer years of teaching experience. We investigated the NTs preparedness to teach NS, exploring their interpretation of the foundation phase (FP) life skills (LS) curriculum and assessment policy statement (CAPS). We identified and examined gaps in the NTs’ understanding and knowledge of teaching NS to formulate an intervention programme (IP), and an 8-week IP integrating theoretical and practical elements was subsequently developed. The data collection instruments included a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Inductive and deductive analysis were employed in coding the data, defining common trends and categorising these into themes. The findings highlight the teachers’ lack of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for NS teaching. The study underscores the need for effective approaches to teaching NS, such as a pedagogy of inquiry with specific strategies to foreground learner agency. Instruction in these approaches should be incorporated into teacher training curricula at higher education institutions (HEIs), which is recommended as a topic for future research.