Chair Integrated Studies of Learning Language, Mathematics and Science in the Primary School

About the Chair

The Chair is situated on the Soweto campus of the University.  The Chair continued to work from the Centre For Education Practice Research, which was founded in 2007 with the brief to research education on the ground. Existing projects were incorporated into the work of the SARChI Chair in 2016.

The Chair is home to a number of research projects on child development and learning as well as teacher education for the primary school. The main programme of research is  early reading and primary school mathematics and science learning. The recent additions to the  research portfolio is robotics and coding for foundation phase teachers and learners  and neuroimaging with a functional near-infrared spectroscopy device.

The UJ Cognition Lab is also situated in the Chair (GNA 104, Soweto campus)

In addition to the research projects, the editorial office of the South African Journal of Childhood Education is located within the Chair. www.sajce.co.za

Investing in the Early School Years: Lessons from a Community of Practice for Strengthening School-Based Care and Support Services (11 June 2024 at JBS)

This two-day event was hosted by Prof. Leila Patel, former South African Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development; Prof. Jace Pillay, South African National Research Foundation Research Chair in Education and Care in Childhood; and Prof. Elizabeth Henning, South African Research Chair in Integrated Studies of Learning, Language, Mathematics, and Science in the Primary School, all from the University of Johannesburg. The event was cohosted by the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, and the Centre for Excellence in Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand.

The symposium marked the conclusion of a four-year study, supported by the National Research Foundation, aimed at strengthening school-family and community-based social systems for foundation phase learners. The Community of Practice (CoP) presented their work, developed and implemented in five urban and one rural school, as an innovative example of multidisciplinary practice. They identified strategies and policies necessary to improve learning and child wellbeing outcomes in disadvantaged communities facing high rates of poverty, malnutrition, violence, and poor health and psychosocial wellbeing.

The findings, shared by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, social service practitioners, civil society organisations, international development agencies, and public sector specialists, offered valuable lessons on the potential to scale up and institutionalise the CoP in more schools in Gauteng and beyond.

The South African Research Chair in Integrated Studies of Learning, Language, Mathematics, and Science in the Primary School was involved in the study with testing and assessing the children’s reading comprehension and numeracy skills. Prof Henning and her team was also involved with teacher development in this regard.