Masculinity, citizenship and political objection to compulsory military service in the South African Defence Force, 1978-1990
- Authors: Conway, Daniel John
- Date: 2013-08-15
- Subjects: Conscientious objectors -- South Africa End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) National service -- South Africa Draft -- South Africa South Africa -- Military policy Masculinity -- South Africa South Africa. South African Defense Force Gays in the military -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2601 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008383
- Description: This thesis conceptualises compulsory military service and objection to it as public performative acts that generate gendered and political identity. Conscription was the primary performance of citizenship and masculinity for white men in apartheid South Africa. Conscription was also a key governance strategy both in terms of upholding the authority of the state and in engendering discipline in the white population. Objection to military service was therefore a destabilising and transgressive public act. Competing conceptualisations of masculinity and citizenship are inherent in pro and anti-conscription discourses. The refusal to undertake military service places men outside the accepted means of graduating to ' real' manhood and patriotic citizenship. Although objection can be an iconic and transgressive act, objectors have an essentially ambivalent subjectivity in the public realm. Objectors are 'strangers' in a socially constructed and gendered binary of 'insiders' and 'outsiders' . This ambivalent status creates opportunities but also constraints for the performance of objection. The thesis analyses the effectiveness of objectors' performances and argues that there is a distinction between a radical challenge to hegemonic conceptions of militarised masculinity and citizenship and assimilatory challenges. The tension between radicalism and assimilation comes to the fore in response to the state's attacks on objectors. The militarised apartheid state is defined as not only masculine but heteronormative terms and it is the deployment of sexuality that is its most effective means of stigmatising and restricting the performance of objection. The thesis uses interview material, archival data and case studies and concludes that objectors (and their supporters) weaved multiple narratives into their performances but that as the 1980s progressed, the performance of objection to conscription became assimilatory and this demonstrates the heteronormativity of the state, military service and the public realm. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Conway, Daniel John
- Date: 2013-08-15
- Subjects: Conscientious objectors -- South Africa End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) National service -- South Africa Draft -- South Africa South Africa -- Military policy Masculinity -- South Africa South Africa. South African Defense Force Gays in the military -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2601 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008383
- Description: This thesis conceptualises compulsory military service and objection to it as public performative acts that generate gendered and political identity. Conscription was the primary performance of citizenship and masculinity for white men in apartheid South Africa. Conscription was also a key governance strategy both in terms of upholding the authority of the state and in engendering discipline in the white population. Objection to military service was therefore a destabilising and transgressive public act. Competing conceptualisations of masculinity and citizenship are inherent in pro and anti-conscription discourses. The refusal to undertake military service places men outside the accepted means of graduating to ' real' manhood and patriotic citizenship. Although objection can be an iconic and transgressive act, objectors have an essentially ambivalent subjectivity in the public realm. Objectors are 'strangers' in a socially constructed and gendered binary of 'insiders' and 'outsiders' . This ambivalent status creates opportunities but also constraints for the performance of objection. The thesis analyses the effectiveness of objectors' performances and argues that there is a distinction between a radical challenge to hegemonic conceptions of militarised masculinity and citizenship and assimilatory challenges. The tension between radicalism and assimilation comes to the fore in response to the state's attacks on objectors. The militarised apartheid state is defined as not only masculine but heteronormative terms and it is the deployment of sexuality that is its most effective means of stigmatising and restricting the performance of objection. The thesis uses interview material, archival data and case studies and concludes that objectors (and their supporters) weaved multiple narratives into their performances but that as the 1980s progressed, the performance of objection to conscription became assimilatory and this demonstrates the heteronormativity of the state, military service and the public realm. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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A phenomenological study of women primary school heads' experiences as educational leaders in post colonial Zimbabwe
- Authors: Muzvidziwa, Irene
- Date: 2013-06-26
- Subjects: Educational leadership -- Zimbabwe Women school administrators -- Zimbabwe School management and organization -- Zimbabwe Women in education -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1949 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008200
- Description: This research study was carried out in order to gain an understanding of the experiences of women primary school heads, their perceptions of their roles as leaders, the challenges they face and how they dealt with them. The study focused on the lived experiences of five women in Zimbabwe's primary schools. Literature relating to the issues and experiences of women in educational leadership within school contexts and the conceptual framework is examined. The importance of leadership has been emphasised in the literature of school effectiveness. Leadership theories tended to emphasise measurability and effectiveness of leadership, oversimplifying the complexity of leadership phenomenon. These features reflect research approach adopted by researchers from a positivist orientation. This study is an in-depth qualitative study conducted along the lines suggested by a phenomenological-interpretivist design with emphasis on rich contextual detail, close attention to individual's lived experience and the bracketing of pre-conceived notions of the phenomenon. Views and experiences based on the participants' perspectives are described through in-depth interviews which were dialogical in nature. Through this approach, I managed to grasp the essences of the lived experiences of women The research highlights the women's perceptions of themselves as educational leaders. What emerges is the variety of approaches to handling challenges. My findings show a rich and diverse culture of creativity in the way participants adopted a problem-solving strategy, which is not reflected in the mainstream leadership. Though educational leadership emerges as a complex phenomenon, with alternative approaches to educational research, there is high potential for increased understanding of woman's leadership, its importance and implications for school. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Muzvidziwa, Irene
- Date: 2013-06-26
- Subjects: Educational leadership -- Zimbabwe Women school administrators -- Zimbabwe School management and organization -- Zimbabwe Women in education -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1949 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008200
- Description: This research study was carried out in order to gain an understanding of the experiences of women primary school heads, their perceptions of their roles as leaders, the challenges they face and how they dealt with them. The study focused on the lived experiences of five women in Zimbabwe's primary schools. Literature relating to the issues and experiences of women in educational leadership within school contexts and the conceptual framework is examined. The importance of leadership has been emphasised in the literature of school effectiveness. Leadership theories tended to emphasise measurability and effectiveness of leadership, oversimplifying the complexity of leadership phenomenon. These features reflect research approach adopted by researchers from a positivist orientation. This study is an in-depth qualitative study conducted along the lines suggested by a phenomenological-interpretivist design with emphasis on rich contextual detail, close attention to individual's lived experience and the bracketing of pre-conceived notions of the phenomenon. Views and experiences based on the participants' perspectives are described through in-depth interviews which were dialogical in nature. Through this approach, I managed to grasp the essences of the lived experiences of women The research highlights the women's perceptions of themselves as educational leaders. What emerges is the variety of approaches to handling challenges. My findings show a rich and diverse culture of creativity in the way participants adopted a problem-solving strategy, which is not reflected in the mainstream leadership. Though educational leadership emerges as a complex phenomenon, with alternative approaches to educational research, there is high potential for increased understanding of woman's leadership, its importance and implications for school. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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"Glory is temporary, brain injury may be forever" : a neuropsychological study on the cumulative effects of sports-related concussive brain injury amongst Grade 12 school boy athletes
- Authors: Whitefield, Victoria Jane
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Sports injuries Sports injuries -- Psychological aspects Brain damage Brain -- Concussion Neuropsychological tests Head -- Wounds and injuries -- Complications Head -- Wounds and injuries
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DSc
- Identifier: vital:3104 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004471
- Description: The study investigated the long-term neuropsychological effects of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) due to participation in a contact sport amongst South African final year male high school athletes (N=189). The sample was divided by sports affiliation (Contact n = 115; Non-Contact n = 74) and concussion history (2+ Concussion n = 43; 0 Concussion n = 108). Comparative subgroups were statistically equivalent for age, education and estimated IQ (P > 0.05), with the Contact sport groups having markedly higher incidences of concussion than controls (p < 0.000). Measures included the ImPACT Verbal and Visual Memory, Visuomotor Speed and Reaction Time Composites, Digit Symbol Substitution and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall (immediate and delayed), the ImPACT Symptom Scale and a Post-concussion Symptom (PCS) questionnaire. Independent t-tests on cognitive measures at pre-and post-season revealed a predominant trend of Contact and 2+ Concussion groups performing worse, although only ImPACT Reaction Time at pre-season reached significance (p = 0.014). PCS comparisons revealed an overwhelming tendency of enhanced symptoms for Contact and 2+ Concussion groups with total scores being significantly different in most instances at pre-and post-season. Fatigue and aggression were the symptoms most pervasively high for the Contact and 2+ Concussion groups. Dependent t-test analyses at pre- versus post-season, revealed significant practice effects for the Contact group, not in evidence for controls on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall-Delayed. Overall the results imply the possible presence of lingering neurocognitive and symptomatic concussion sequelae amongst South African final year high school participants of a contact sport. The indications gain potency when understood against the background of (i) Brain Reserve Capacity threshold theory, and (ii) the known risk of Type II error in group MTBI research, that might result in under-emphasis of subtle effects and miscalculation of cost-benefit risks. Clinical implications, and the need for prospective case-based research to ratify the results of this predominantly cross-sectional study, are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Whitefield, Victoria Jane
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Sports injuries Sports injuries -- Psychological aspects Brain damage Brain -- Concussion Neuropsychological tests Head -- Wounds and injuries -- Complications Head -- Wounds and injuries
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DSc
- Identifier: vital:3104 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004471
- Description: The study investigated the long-term neuropsychological effects of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) due to participation in a contact sport amongst South African final year male high school athletes (N=189). The sample was divided by sports affiliation (Contact n = 115; Non-Contact n = 74) and concussion history (2+ Concussion n = 43; 0 Concussion n = 108). Comparative subgroups were statistically equivalent for age, education and estimated IQ (P > 0.05), with the Contact sport groups having markedly higher incidences of concussion than controls (p < 0.000). Measures included the ImPACT Verbal and Visual Memory, Visuomotor Speed and Reaction Time Composites, Digit Symbol Substitution and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall (immediate and delayed), the ImPACT Symptom Scale and a Post-concussion Symptom (PCS) questionnaire. Independent t-tests on cognitive measures at pre-and post-season revealed a predominant trend of Contact and 2+ Concussion groups performing worse, although only ImPACT Reaction Time at pre-season reached significance (p = 0.014). PCS comparisons revealed an overwhelming tendency of enhanced symptoms for Contact and 2+ Concussion groups with total scores being significantly different in most instances at pre-and post-season. Fatigue and aggression were the symptoms most pervasively high for the Contact and 2+ Concussion groups. Dependent t-test analyses at pre- versus post-season, revealed significant practice effects for the Contact group, not in evidence for controls on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed and Digit Symbol Incidental Recall-Delayed. Overall the results imply the possible presence of lingering neurocognitive and symptomatic concussion sequelae amongst South African final year high school participants of a contact sport. The indications gain potency when understood against the background of (i) Brain Reserve Capacity threshold theory, and (ii) the known risk of Type II error in group MTBI research, that might result in under-emphasis of subtle effects and miscalculation of cost-benefit risks. Clinical implications, and the need for prospective case-based research to ratify the results of this predominantly cross-sectional study, are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A critical assessement of socially responsible investing in South Africa
- Authors: Viviers, Suzette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Investments -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DCom
- Identifier: vital:9293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011340 , Investments -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Description: This research deals with socially responsible investing (SRI) in its broadest context in South Africa and includes an analysis of the risk-adjusted performance of local SRI funds. SRI refers to an investment strategy whereby investors integrate moral as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations alongside conventional financial criteria in evaluating investment opportunities. Typical SRI strategies include screening, shareholder activism and cause-based (targeted) investing. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a deeper understanding of SRI in South Africa as it represents a powerful means whereby private sector capital can be channelled into areas of national priority. Data and methodological triangulation strategies were adopted to investigate the research problem, respond to the research questions and test the research hypotheses of this study. The phenomenological component of the research consisted of an extensive literature review as well as in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted with twelve SRI fund managers and industry experts. The positivistic dimension of this research centred on the construction of the first complete database of SRI funds in South Africa, the sourcing of quantitative primary data and the testing of eight pairs of null and alternative hypotheses. Risk-adjusted performance was evaluated by means of the Sharpe, Sortino and Upside-potential ratios during three sub-periods, namely 1 June 1992 to 31 August 1998, 1 September 1998 to 31 March 2002 and 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006. Forty-three SRI funds have been launched in South Africa since June 1992 and it is estimated that SRIs constitute approximately 0.7 percent of the total investment capacity in the country. It was found that most local SRI funds combine a cause-based investment strategy with a positive or best-of-sector screening approach. ESG screens were found to focus on the promotion of broad-based Black Economic Empowerment and the development of social infrastructure in South Africa. The FTSE/JSE SRI Index and the Financial Sector Charter were identified as the most prominent drivers of SRI in South Africa, whereas a lack of skills and a shortage of new SRI opportunities, asset classes and funds were seen as impediments to the growth of the local SRI sector. The empirical evidence shows that: - local SRI funds underperformed relative to their respective benchmark indices during the first two sub-periods but significantly outperformed them during sub-period three (the resurgence period of SRI in South Africa); - local SRI fund performance is not significantly different from that of a matched sample of conventional (non-SRI) funds; and - local SRI funds significantly underperformed relative to the general equity market in South Africa during sub-period two (the decline period of SRI in South Africa) but performed on a par with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index during sub-periods one and two. The findings of this research therefore suggest that investors can consider SRI funds as part of a well-diversified investment strategy. It is strongly recommended that a Social Investment Forum be established in South Africa to address the educational needs of stakeholders in the local SRI sector. It is also recommended that local asset managers adopt a focused differentiation strategy to take advantage of the growing SRI sector in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Viviers, Suzette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Investments -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DCom
- Identifier: vital:9293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011340 , Investments -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Description: This research deals with socially responsible investing (SRI) in its broadest context in South Africa and includes an analysis of the risk-adjusted performance of local SRI funds. SRI refers to an investment strategy whereby investors integrate moral as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations alongside conventional financial criteria in evaluating investment opportunities. Typical SRI strategies include screening, shareholder activism and cause-based (targeted) investing. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a deeper understanding of SRI in South Africa as it represents a powerful means whereby private sector capital can be channelled into areas of national priority. Data and methodological triangulation strategies were adopted to investigate the research problem, respond to the research questions and test the research hypotheses of this study. The phenomenological component of the research consisted of an extensive literature review as well as in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted with twelve SRI fund managers and industry experts. The positivistic dimension of this research centred on the construction of the first complete database of SRI funds in South Africa, the sourcing of quantitative primary data and the testing of eight pairs of null and alternative hypotheses. Risk-adjusted performance was evaluated by means of the Sharpe, Sortino and Upside-potential ratios during three sub-periods, namely 1 June 1992 to 31 August 1998, 1 September 1998 to 31 March 2002 and 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006. Forty-three SRI funds have been launched in South Africa since June 1992 and it is estimated that SRIs constitute approximately 0.7 percent of the total investment capacity in the country. It was found that most local SRI funds combine a cause-based investment strategy with a positive or best-of-sector screening approach. ESG screens were found to focus on the promotion of broad-based Black Economic Empowerment and the development of social infrastructure in South Africa. The FTSE/JSE SRI Index and the Financial Sector Charter were identified as the most prominent drivers of SRI in South Africa, whereas a lack of skills and a shortage of new SRI opportunities, asset classes and funds were seen as impediments to the growth of the local SRI sector. The empirical evidence shows that: - local SRI funds underperformed relative to their respective benchmark indices during the first two sub-periods but significantly outperformed them during sub-period three (the resurgence period of SRI in South Africa); - local SRI fund performance is not significantly different from that of a matched sample of conventional (non-SRI) funds; and - local SRI funds significantly underperformed relative to the general equity market in South Africa during sub-period two (the decline period of SRI in South Africa) but performed on a par with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index during sub-periods one and two. The findings of this research therefore suggest that investors can consider SRI funds as part of a well-diversified investment strategy. It is strongly recommended that a Social Investment Forum be established in South Africa to address the educational needs of stakeholders in the local SRI sector. It is also recommended that local asset managers adopt a focused differentiation strategy to take advantage of the growing SRI sector in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A critical ethnographic study of report writing as a literacy practice by automotive engineers
- Authors: Harran, Marcelle
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Written English -- South Africa Written communication -- South Africa Literacy -- Social aspects -- South Africa Engineers -- Language -- South Africa Communication in engineering -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1476 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003357
- Description: This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power relations, values and identities are manifested rhetorically. The basis for this critical theory of literacy is the assertion that literacy is a social practice which involves not only observable units of behaviour but values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. As the institution’s socio-cultural context in the form of embedded historical and institutional forces impact on writer identity and writing practices or ways of doing report writing, notions of writing as a transparent and autonomous system are also challenged. As critical ethnography is concerned with multiple perspectives, it was selected as the preferred methodology and critical realism to derive definitions of truth and validity. Critical ethnography explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings providing a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. As human experience can only be known under particular descriptions, usually in terms of available discourses such as language, writing and rhetoric, the dominant practices emerging in response to the report acceptance event are explored, especially that of supervisor feedback practices as they causally impact on report-writing practices during the practice of report acceptance. Although critical realism does not necessarily demonstrate successful causal explanations, it does look for substantial relations within wider contexts to illuminate part-whole relationships. Therefore, an attempt is made to find representativeness or fit with situated engineering literacy practices and wider and changing literacy contexts, especially the impact of Higher Education and world Englishes as well as the expanding influence of technological and digital systems on report-writing practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Harran, Marcelle
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Written English -- South Africa Written communication -- South Africa Literacy -- Social aspects -- South Africa Engineers -- Language -- South Africa Communication in engineering -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1476 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003357
- Description: This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power relations, values and identities are manifested rhetorically. The basis for this critical theory of literacy is the assertion that literacy is a social practice which involves not only observable units of behaviour but values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. As the institution’s socio-cultural context in the form of embedded historical and institutional forces impact on writer identity and writing practices or ways of doing report writing, notions of writing as a transparent and autonomous system are also challenged. As critical ethnography is concerned with multiple perspectives, it was selected as the preferred methodology and critical realism to derive definitions of truth and validity. Critical ethnography explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings providing a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. As human experience can only be known under particular descriptions, usually in terms of available discourses such as language, writing and rhetoric, the dominant practices emerging in response to the report acceptance event are explored, especially that of supervisor feedback practices as they causally impact on report-writing practices during the practice of report acceptance. Although critical realism does not necessarily demonstrate successful causal explanations, it does look for substantial relations within wider contexts to illuminate part-whole relationships. Therefore, an attempt is made to find representativeness or fit with situated engineering literacy practices and wider and changing literacy contexts, especially the impact of Higher Education and world Englishes as well as the expanding influence of technological and digital systems on report-writing practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A model for a context aware machine-based personal memory manager and its implementation using a visual programming environment
- Authors: Tsegaye, Melekam Asrat
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Visual programming (Computer science) Memory management (Computer science) Memory -- Data processing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4640 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006563
- Description: Memory is a part of cognition. It is essential for an individual to function normally in society. It encompasses an individual's lifetime experience, thus defining his identity. This thesis develops the concept of a machine-based personal memory manager which captures and manages an individual's day-to-day external memories. Rather than accumulating large amounts of data which has to be mined for useful memories, the machine-based memory manager automatically organizes memories as they are captured to enable their quick retrieval and use. The main functions of the machine-based memory manager envisioned in this thesis are the support and the augmentation of an individual's biological memory system. In the thesis, a model for a machine-based memory manager is developed. A visual programming environment, which can be used to build context aware applications as well as a proof-of-concept machine-based memory manager, is conceptualized and implemented. An experimental machine-based memory manager is implemented and evaluated. The model describes a machine-based memory manager which manages an individual's external memories by context. It addresses the management of external memories which accumulate over long periods of time by proposing a context aware file system which automatically organizes external memories by context. It describes how personal memory management can be facilitated by machine using six entities (life streams, memory producers, memory consumers, a memory manager, memory fragments and context descriptors) and the processes in which these entities participate (memory capture, memory encoding and decoding, memory decoding and retrieval). The visual programming environment represents a development tool which contains facilities that support context aware application programming. For example, it provides facilities which enable the definition and use of virtual sensors. It enables rapid programming with a focus on component re-use and dynamic composition of applications through a visual interface. The experimental machine-based memory manager serves as an example implementation of the machine-based memory manager which is described by the model developed in this thesis. The hardware used in its implementation consists of widely available components such as a camera, microphone and sub-notebook computer which are assembled in the form of a wearable computer. The software is constructed using the visual programming environment developed in this thesis. It contains multiple sensor drivers, context interpreters, a context aware file system as well as memory retrieval and presentation interfaces. The evaluation of the machine-based memory manager shows that it is possible to create a machine which monitors the states of an individual and his environment, and manages his external memories, thus supporting and augmenting his biological memory.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Tsegaye, Melekam Asrat
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Visual programming (Computer science) Memory management (Computer science) Memory -- Data processing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4640 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006563
- Description: Memory is a part of cognition. It is essential for an individual to function normally in society. It encompasses an individual's lifetime experience, thus defining his identity. This thesis develops the concept of a machine-based personal memory manager which captures and manages an individual's day-to-day external memories. Rather than accumulating large amounts of data which has to be mined for useful memories, the machine-based memory manager automatically organizes memories as they are captured to enable their quick retrieval and use. The main functions of the machine-based memory manager envisioned in this thesis are the support and the augmentation of an individual's biological memory system. In the thesis, a model for a machine-based memory manager is developed. A visual programming environment, which can be used to build context aware applications as well as a proof-of-concept machine-based memory manager, is conceptualized and implemented. An experimental machine-based memory manager is implemented and evaluated. The model describes a machine-based memory manager which manages an individual's external memories by context. It addresses the management of external memories which accumulate over long periods of time by proposing a context aware file system which automatically organizes external memories by context. It describes how personal memory management can be facilitated by machine using six entities (life streams, memory producers, memory consumers, a memory manager, memory fragments and context descriptors) and the processes in which these entities participate (memory capture, memory encoding and decoding, memory decoding and retrieval). The visual programming environment represents a development tool which contains facilities that support context aware application programming. For example, it provides facilities which enable the definition and use of virtual sensors. It enables rapid programming with a focus on component re-use and dynamic composition of applications through a visual interface. The experimental machine-based memory manager serves as an example implementation of the machine-based memory manager which is described by the model developed in this thesis. The hardware used in its implementation consists of widely available components such as a camera, microphone and sub-notebook computer which are assembled in the form of a wearable computer. The software is constructed using the visual programming environment developed in this thesis. It contains multiple sensor drivers, context interpreters, a context aware file system as well as memory retrieval and presentation interfaces. The evaluation of the machine-based memory manager shows that it is possible to create a machine which monitors the states of an individual and his environment, and manages his external memories, thus supporting and augmenting his biological memory.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A multiple case study of parent involvement with grade 8 learners of mathematics
- Authors: Govender, Vasuthavan Gopaul
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education, Secondary -- Parent participation , Parent-teacher relationships , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: vital:9556 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/511 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011913 , Education, Secondary -- Parent participation , Parent-teacher relationships , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Description: The learning of mathematics is a worldwide concern. International studies over the last decade place South African learners amongst the lowest achievers. Although various initiatives have been tried there does not seem to be any improvement. In the USA and UK initiatives include the involvement of parents and these have been implemented with great success. One of the parent involvement programmes from the USA, the Family Maths Programme has been in South Africa since 1996. This programme has been successful in South Africa but is confined to parents of grades 4-7 children. However, there is no programme for parents of high school learners. As grade 8 is usually the first high school year in South Africa, this study focuses on parents of grade 8 children and their involvement in their children’s mathematics learning. It consists of an initial survey of grade 8 parents’ (from an urban school) mathematical backgrounds and experiences and their involvement in their children’s education. Using key points from the survey and elements from the literature review and other sources, the researcher designed a parent assistance programme for mathematics which was conducted with three groups of parents of grade 8 children from the same high school. Each group of parents was exclusive and the same set of procedures was applied to each group, making this study a qualitative multiple case study, within the interpretive research paradigm. The parent-assistance programme consists of a parents’ workshop and completion of journals over a 7-week period. Parents documented their interactions with their children in structured journals, a process known as participant journaling. After this journaling period, parents and children were surveyed on this interaction by means of follow-up questionnaires. This was followed later in interviews with the parents and mathematics teachers, separately. After the completion of all three case studies parents and children participated in focus group discussions to discuss and share experiences of the programme. The interrogation of the data, on two levels, suggests parents’ and children’s perceptions of mathematics were likely to be positively influenced. The data also suggest that children were likely to become more confident and to improve in mathematics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Govender, Vasuthavan Gopaul
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education, Secondary -- Parent participation , Parent-teacher relationships , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: vital:9556 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/511 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011913 , Education, Secondary -- Parent participation , Parent-teacher relationships , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
- Description: The learning of mathematics is a worldwide concern. International studies over the last decade place South African learners amongst the lowest achievers. Although various initiatives have been tried there does not seem to be any improvement. In the USA and UK initiatives include the involvement of parents and these have been implemented with great success. One of the parent involvement programmes from the USA, the Family Maths Programme has been in South Africa since 1996. This programme has been successful in South Africa but is confined to parents of grades 4-7 children. However, there is no programme for parents of high school learners. As grade 8 is usually the first high school year in South Africa, this study focuses on parents of grade 8 children and their involvement in their children’s mathematics learning. It consists of an initial survey of grade 8 parents’ (from an urban school) mathematical backgrounds and experiences and their involvement in their children’s education. Using key points from the survey and elements from the literature review and other sources, the researcher designed a parent assistance programme for mathematics which was conducted with three groups of parents of grade 8 children from the same high school. Each group of parents was exclusive and the same set of procedures was applied to each group, making this study a qualitative multiple case study, within the interpretive research paradigm. The parent-assistance programme consists of a parents’ workshop and completion of journals over a 7-week period. Parents documented their interactions with their children in structured journals, a process known as participant journaling. After this journaling period, parents and children were surveyed on this interaction by means of follow-up questionnaires. This was followed later in interviews with the parents and mathematics teachers, separately. After the completion of all three case studies parents and children participated in focus group discussions to discuss and share experiences of the programme. The interrogation of the data, on two levels, suggests parents’ and children’s perceptions of mathematics were likely to be positively influenced. The data also suggest that children were likely to become more confident and to improve in mathematics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A preliminary examination of selected biological links between four Eastern Cape estuaries and the inshore marine environment
- Authors: Vorwerk, Paul D
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Estuaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Marine fishes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Marine ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Estuarine ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5747 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005434
- Description: The coastal transition zone (CTZ), which links the terrestrial and marine environments, has been identified as a region of high biological diversity and elevated production. Results of studies conducted in the northern hemisphere indicate that the links between estuaries and the adjacent marine environment is critical to ecological functioning within the CTZ. This study assessed the influence of selected estuaries with different hydrodynamic characteristics on the adjacent marine environment along the south-eastern coastline of southern Africa. Four estuaries were examined, including two permanently open systems, the fresh water deprived Kariega and fresh water dominated Great Fish, and two temporarily open/closed estuaries (TOCE), the Kasouga and East Kleinemonde. Results of the study indicated that outflow of estuarine water from the Great Fish Estuary contributed to a plume of less saline water being evident within the adjacent marine environment. The plume of water was associated with increased zooplankton biomass and particulate organic matter (POM) and chlorophyll-a concentrations. Adjacent to the Kariega Estuary, no evidence of fresh water outflow into the marine environment was observed. However, in the sea directly opposite the mouth of the estuary an increase in zooplankton abundance and biomass was evident. Results of numerical analyses indicated that the increase in zooplankton abundance observed adjacent to the mouth of both permanently open estuaries could not be attributed to the export of zooplankton from the estuary, but rather the accumulation of marine species within the region. The mechanisms responsible for this accumulation were not determined, but it was thought to be associated with increased food availability in the estuarine frontal zone. A similar, but less dramatic biological response was also observed in the marine environment adjacent to the two TOCEs. It is suggested that the increase in biological activity within these regions could be ascribed to seepage of estuarine or ground water through the sand bar that separates these estuaries from the sea. Results of stable carbon isotope analyses indicated that both the Great Fish and Kariega estuaries exported carbon to the nearshore marine environment. The area influenced by estuarine derived carbon was dependent on the volume of estuarine outflow to the marine environment. Adjacent to the fresh water dominated Great Fish Estuary, estuarine derived carbon was recorded up to 12km from the mouth, while adjacent to the fresh water deprived Kariega, estuarine derived carbon was only evident directly opposite the mouth. The recruitment of macrozooplankton (> 2cm) into the fresh water deprived Kariega Estuary was in the range recorded for other permanently open southern African estuaries with higher fresh water flow rates. This indicates that the mechanisms which allow estuarine dependent larvae to locate and enter estuaries are not related to fresh water inflow. In conclusion, this study has demonstrated that despite their small size relative to European and North American systems, South African permanently open and temporarily open/closed estuaries also influence biological activity within the adjacent nearshore marine environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Vorwerk, Paul D
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Estuaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Marine fishes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Marine ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Estuarine ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5747 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005434
- Description: The coastal transition zone (CTZ), which links the terrestrial and marine environments, has been identified as a region of high biological diversity and elevated production. Results of studies conducted in the northern hemisphere indicate that the links between estuaries and the adjacent marine environment is critical to ecological functioning within the CTZ. This study assessed the influence of selected estuaries with different hydrodynamic characteristics on the adjacent marine environment along the south-eastern coastline of southern Africa. Four estuaries were examined, including two permanently open systems, the fresh water deprived Kariega and fresh water dominated Great Fish, and two temporarily open/closed estuaries (TOCE), the Kasouga and East Kleinemonde. Results of the study indicated that outflow of estuarine water from the Great Fish Estuary contributed to a plume of less saline water being evident within the adjacent marine environment. The plume of water was associated with increased zooplankton biomass and particulate organic matter (POM) and chlorophyll-a concentrations. Adjacent to the Kariega Estuary, no evidence of fresh water outflow into the marine environment was observed. However, in the sea directly opposite the mouth of the estuary an increase in zooplankton abundance and biomass was evident. Results of numerical analyses indicated that the increase in zooplankton abundance observed adjacent to the mouth of both permanently open estuaries could not be attributed to the export of zooplankton from the estuary, but rather the accumulation of marine species within the region. The mechanisms responsible for this accumulation were not determined, but it was thought to be associated with increased food availability in the estuarine frontal zone. A similar, but less dramatic biological response was also observed in the marine environment adjacent to the two TOCEs. It is suggested that the increase in biological activity within these regions could be ascribed to seepage of estuarine or ground water through the sand bar that separates these estuaries from the sea. Results of stable carbon isotope analyses indicated that both the Great Fish and Kariega estuaries exported carbon to the nearshore marine environment. The area influenced by estuarine derived carbon was dependent on the volume of estuarine outflow to the marine environment. Adjacent to the fresh water dominated Great Fish Estuary, estuarine derived carbon was recorded up to 12km from the mouth, while adjacent to the fresh water deprived Kariega, estuarine derived carbon was only evident directly opposite the mouth. The recruitment of macrozooplankton (> 2cm) into the fresh water deprived Kariega Estuary was in the range recorded for other permanently open southern African estuaries with higher fresh water flow rates. This indicates that the mechanisms which allow estuarine dependent larvae to locate and enter estuaries are not related to fresh water inflow. In conclusion, this study has demonstrated that despite their small size relative to European and North American systems, South African permanently open and temporarily open/closed estuaries also influence biological activity within the adjacent nearshore marine environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A social realist account of the emergence of a formal academic staff development programme at a South African university
- Authors: Quinn, Lynn
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Education, Higher -- South Africa Graduate students -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003954
- Description: Using social realist theory and particularly the morphogenetic/morphostatic methodology advocated by Margaret Archer, this study offers a critical examination of the emergence of a formal academic staff development programme at a small South African university (SSAU). Archer’s morphogenetic approach enabled an investigation of the interface between culture, structure and agency (at macro, mezo and micro levels) in order to theorize about the material, ideational and agential conditions that obtained and which in turn enabled the emergence of the Postgraduate Diploma of Higher Education (PGDHE) at the SSAU. The study therefore advances concrete propositions about the cultural, structural and agential conditions for transformation which existed at a particular time in the history of higher education (and the subfield of educational development) which enabled the introduction of the PGDHE. Analysis of the data suggests that what occurred at SSAU was a disruption of the morphostatic synchrony between structure and culture brought about by new discourses and structures emanating from the broader international and national higher education context. In particular, it seems that attempts at reconciling the constraining contradictions between the discourses and structures related to quality assurance on the one hand and educational development on the other resulted in a conjunction between transformation at the levels of both the cultural system and social structure. This conjunction, along with the actions of key Institutional agents and the morphogenesis of the staff of the Educational Development Unit, created sufficiently enabling conditions in the Institution for the introduction of the PGDHE. The research adds to knowledge through insights into the contribution that the ideas, beliefs, values, ideologies and theories about higher education broadly and about educational development specifically make to enabling or constraining conditions for the professionalization of academic staff in higher education institutions. It uncovers how relevant structures at the international, national and institutional levels can shape the practice of educational development and specifically staff development. It has generated insights into how the relevant people and the positions they hold can impact on staff development practices. In summary, the research could contribute towards emancipatory knowledge which could be used by SSAU and educational development practitioners elsewhere to inform future planning and decision making in relation to educational development and more specifically staff development practices in their contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Quinn, Lynn
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa Education, Higher -- South Africa Graduate students -- South Africa Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003954
- Description: Using social realist theory and particularly the morphogenetic/morphostatic methodology advocated by Margaret Archer, this study offers a critical examination of the emergence of a formal academic staff development programme at a small South African university (SSAU). Archer’s morphogenetic approach enabled an investigation of the interface between culture, structure and agency (at macro, mezo and micro levels) in order to theorize about the material, ideational and agential conditions that obtained and which in turn enabled the emergence of the Postgraduate Diploma of Higher Education (PGDHE) at the SSAU. The study therefore advances concrete propositions about the cultural, structural and agential conditions for transformation which existed at a particular time in the history of higher education (and the subfield of educational development) which enabled the introduction of the PGDHE. Analysis of the data suggests that what occurred at SSAU was a disruption of the morphostatic synchrony between structure and culture brought about by new discourses and structures emanating from the broader international and national higher education context. In particular, it seems that attempts at reconciling the constraining contradictions between the discourses and structures related to quality assurance on the one hand and educational development on the other resulted in a conjunction between transformation at the levels of both the cultural system and social structure. This conjunction, along with the actions of key Institutional agents and the morphogenesis of the staff of the Educational Development Unit, created sufficiently enabling conditions in the Institution for the introduction of the PGDHE. The research adds to knowledge through insights into the contribution that the ideas, beliefs, values, ideologies and theories about higher education broadly and about educational development specifically make to enabling or constraining conditions for the professionalization of academic staff in higher education institutions. It uncovers how relevant structures at the international, national and institutional levels can shape the practice of educational development and specifically staff development. It has generated insights into how the relevant people and the positions they hold can impact on staff development practices. In summary, the research could contribute towards emancipatory knowledge which could be used by SSAU and educational development practitioners elsewhere to inform future planning and decision making in relation to educational development and more specifically staff development practices in their contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A sociological analysis of intermediary non-governmental organizations and land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk David
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Non-governmental organizations -- Zimbabwe Land reform -- Zimbabwe Land use -- Zimbabwe Sociology -- Philosophy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003091
- Description: The thesis offers an original sociological understanding of intermediary Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the modern world. This is pursued through a study of NGOs and land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe. The prevailing literature on NGOs is marked by a sociological behaviourism that analyses NGOs in terms of external relations and the object-subject dualism. This behaviourism has both ‘structuralist’ and ‘empiricist’ trends that lead to instrumentalist and functionalist forms of argumentation. The thesis details an alternative conceptual corpus that draws upon the epistemological and theoretical insights of Marx and Weber. The epistemological reasoning of Marx involves processes of deconstruction and reconstruction. This entails conceptualizing NGOs as social forms that embody contradictory relations and, for analytical purposes, the thesis privileges the contradiction between ‘the global’ and ‘the local’. In this regard, it speaks about processes of ‘glocalization’ and ‘glocal modernities’ in which NGOs become immersed. The social field of NGOs is marked by ambiguities and tensions, and NGOs seek to ‘negotiate’ and manoeuvre their way through this field by a variety of organizational practices. Understanding these practices necessitates studying NGOs ‘from within’ and drawing specifically on Weber’s notion of ‘meaning’. These practices often entail activities that stabilize and simplify the world and work of NGOs, and this involves NGOs in prioritizing their own organizational sustainability. In handling the tension between ‘the global’ and ‘the local’, NGOs also tend to privilege global trajectories over local initiatives. The thesis illustrates these points in relation to the work of intermediary NGOs in Zimbabwe over the past ten years. Since the year 2000, a radical restructuring of agrarian relations has occurred, and this has been based upon the massive redistribution of land. In this respect, local empowering initiatives have dramatically asserted themselves against globalizing trajectories. These changes have posed serious challenges to ‘land’ NGOs, that is, NGOs involved in land reform either as advocates for reform or as rural development NGOs. The thesis shows how a range of diverse ‘land’ NGOs has ‘handled’ the heightened contradictions in their social field in ways that maintain their organizational coherence and integrity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Helliker, Kirk David
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Non-governmental organizations -- Zimbabwe Land reform -- Zimbabwe Land use -- Zimbabwe Sociology -- Philosophy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003091
- Description: The thesis offers an original sociological understanding of intermediary Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the modern world. This is pursued through a study of NGOs and land reform in contemporary Zimbabwe. The prevailing literature on NGOs is marked by a sociological behaviourism that analyses NGOs in terms of external relations and the object-subject dualism. This behaviourism has both ‘structuralist’ and ‘empiricist’ trends that lead to instrumentalist and functionalist forms of argumentation. The thesis details an alternative conceptual corpus that draws upon the epistemological and theoretical insights of Marx and Weber. The epistemological reasoning of Marx involves processes of deconstruction and reconstruction. This entails conceptualizing NGOs as social forms that embody contradictory relations and, for analytical purposes, the thesis privileges the contradiction between ‘the global’ and ‘the local’. In this regard, it speaks about processes of ‘glocalization’ and ‘glocal modernities’ in which NGOs become immersed. The social field of NGOs is marked by ambiguities and tensions, and NGOs seek to ‘negotiate’ and manoeuvre their way through this field by a variety of organizational practices. Understanding these practices necessitates studying NGOs ‘from within’ and drawing specifically on Weber’s notion of ‘meaning’. These practices often entail activities that stabilize and simplify the world and work of NGOs, and this involves NGOs in prioritizing their own organizational sustainability. In handling the tension between ‘the global’ and ‘the local’, NGOs also tend to privilege global trajectories over local initiatives. The thesis illustrates these points in relation to the work of intermediary NGOs in Zimbabwe over the past ten years. Since the year 2000, a radical restructuring of agrarian relations has occurred, and this has been based upon the massive redistribution of land. In this respect, local empowering initiatives have dramatically asserted themselves against globalizing trajectories. These changes have posed serious challenges to ‘land’ NGOs, that is, NGOs involved in land reform either as advocates for reform or as rural development NGOs. The thesis shows how a range of diverse ‘land’ NGOs has ‘handled’ the heightened contradictions in their social field in ways that maintain their organizational coherence and integrity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A study of the summarizing strategies used by ESL first year science students at the University of Botswana
- Authors: Chimbganda, Ambrose Bruce
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching (Foreign speakers) -- Botswana English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Botswana Science -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Botswana Language and education -- Botswana College students -- Botswana -- Language
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2341 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002623
- Description: One of the major problems faced by speakers of English as a second language (ESL) or non-native speakers of English (NNS) is that when they go to college or university, they find themselves without sufficient academic literacy skills to enable them to navigate their learning successfully, such as the ability to summarize textual material. This thesis examines the summarizing strategies used by ESL first year science students at the University of Botswana. Using multiple data collection methods, otherwise known as triangulation or pluralistic research, which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, one hundred and twenty randomly sampled students completed questionnaires and summarized a scientific text. In order to observe the students more closely, nine students (3 high-, 3 average- and 3 low-proficiency) were purposively selected from the sample and wrote a further summary. The nine students were later interviewed in order to find out from them the kinds of strategies they had used in summarizing the texts. To obtain systematic data, the summaries and the taped interview were coded and analyzed using a hybrid scoring classification previously used by other researchers. The results from the Likert type of questionnaire suggest that the ESL first year science students are 'aware' of the appropriate reading, production and self-assessment strategies to use when summarizing. However, when the data from the questionnaire were cross-checked against the strategies they had used in the actual summarization of the text, most of their claims, especially those of the low-proficiency students, were not sustained. As a whole, the results show that high-proficiency students produce more accurate idea units and are more capable of generalizing ideas than low-proficiency students who prefer to "cut and paste" ideas. There are also significant differences between high- and low proficiency students in the manner in which they decode the text: low-proficiency students produce more distortions in their summaries than high-proficiency students who generally give accurate information. Similarly, high-proficiency students are able to sort out global ideas from a labyrinth of localized ideas, unlike average- and low-proficiency students who include trivial information. The same trend is observed with paraphrasing and sentence combinations: high-proficiency students are generally able to recast and coordinate their ideas, unlike low-proficiency students who produce run-on ideas. In terms of the discrete cognitive and meta-cognitive skills preferred by students, low proficiency students are noticeably unable to exploit pre-summarizing cognitive strategies such as discriminating, selecting, note-making, grouping, inferring meanings of new words and using synonyms to convey the intended meanings. There are also greater differences between high- and low-proficiency students when it comes to the use of meta-cognitive strategies. Unlike high-proficiency students who use their reservoir of meta-cognitive skills such as self-judgment, low-proficiency students ostensibly find it difficult to direct their summaries to the demands of the task and are unable to check the accuracy of their summaries. The findings also show that some of the high-proficiency students and many average- and low-proficiency students distort idea units, find it difficult to use their own words and cannot distinguish between main and supporting details. This resulted in the production of circuitous summaries that often failed to capture the gist of the argument. The way the students processed the main ideas also reveals an inherent weakness: most students of different proficiency levels were unable to combine ideas from different paragraphs to produce a coherent text. Not surprising, then, there were too many long summaries produced by both high- and low-proficiency students. To tackle some of the problems related to summarization, pre-reading strategies can be taught, which activate relevant prior knowledge, so that the learning of new knowledge can be facilitated. During the reading process students can become more meta-cognitively aware by monitoring their level of understanding of the text by using, for example, the strategy suggested by Schraw (1998) of "stop, read and think". Text analysis can also be used to help the students identify the main themes or macro-propositions in a text, and hence gain a more global perspective of the content, which is important for selecting the main ideas in a text. A particularly useful approach to fostering a deeper understanding of content is to use a form of reciprocal or peer-mediated teaching, in which students in pairs can articulate to each other their understanding of the main ideas expressed in the text. As part of the solution to the problems faced by students when processing information, we need to take Sewlall's (2000: 170) advice that there should be "a paradigm shift in the learning philosophy from content-based to an emphasis on the acquisition of skills". In this regard, both content and ESL teachers need to train their students in the explicit use of summarizing strategies, and to plan interwoven lessons and learning activities that develop the learners' intellectual ways of dealing with different learning problems so that they can make learning quicker, easier, more effective and exciting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Chimbganda, Ambrose Bruce
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching (Foreign speakers) -- Botswana English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Botswana Science -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Botswana Language and education -- Botswana College students -- Botswana -- Language
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2341 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002623
- Description: One of the major problems faced by speakers of English as a second language (ESL) or non-native speakers of English (NNS) is that when they go to college or university, they find themselves without sufficient academic literacy skills to enable them to navigate their learning successfully, such as the ability to summarize textual material. This thesis examines the summarizing strategies used by ESL first year science students at the University of Botswana. Using multiple data collection methods, otherwise known as triangulation or pluralistic research, which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, one hundred and twenty randomly sampled students completed questionnaires and summarized a scientific text. In order to observe the students more closely, nine students (3 high-, 3 average- and 3 low-proficiency) were purposively selected from the sample and wrote a further summary. The nine students were later interviewed in order to find out from them the kinds of strategies they had used in summarizing the texts. To obtain systematic data, the summaries and the taped interview were coded and analyzed using a hybrid scoring classification previously used by other researchers. The results from the Likert type of questionnaire suggest that the ESL first year science students are 'aware' of the appropriate reading, production and self-assessment strategies to use when summarizing. However, when the data from the questionnaire were cross-checked against the strategies they had used in the actual summarization of the text, most of their claims, especially those of the low-proficiency students, were not sustained. As a whole, the results show that high-proficiency students produce more accurate idea units and are more capable of generalizing ideas than low-proficiency students who prefer to "cut and paste" ideas. There are also significant differences between high- and low proficiency students in the manner in which they decode the text: low-proficiency students produce more distortions in their summaries than high-proficiency students who generally give accurate information. Similarly, high-proficiency students are able to sort out global ideas from a labyrinth of localized ideas, unlike average- and low-proficiency students who include trivial information. The same trend is observed with paraphrasing and sentence combinations: high-proficiency students are generally able to recast and coordinate their ideas, unlike low-proficiency students who produce run-on ideas. In terms of the discrete cognitive and meta-cognitive skills preferred by students, low proficiency students are noticeably unable to exploit pre-summarizing cognitive strategies such as discriminating, selecting, note-making, grouping, inferring meanings of new words and using synonyms to convey the intended meanings. There are also greater differences between high- and low-proficiency students when it comes to the use of meta-cognitive strategies. Unlike high-proficiency students who use their reservoir of meta-cognitive skills such as self-judgment, low-proficiency students ostensibly find it difficult to direct their summaries to the demands of the task and are unable to check the accuracy of their summaries. The findings also show that some of the high-proficiency students and many average- and low-proficiency students distort idea units, find it difficult to use their own words and cannot distinguish between main and supporting details. This resulted in the production of circuitous summaries that often failed to capture the gist of the argument. The way the students processed the main ideas also reveals an inherent weakness: most students of different proficiency levels were unable to combine ideas from different paragraphs to produce a coherent text. Not surprising, then, there were too many long summaries produced by both high- and low-proficiency students. To tackle some of the problems related to summarization, pre-reading strategies can be taught, which activate relevant prior knowledge, so that the learning of new knowledge can be facilitated. During the reading process students can become more meta-cognitively aware by monitoring their level of understanding of the text by using, for example, the strategy suggested by Schraw (1998) of "stop, read and think". Text analysis can also be used to help the students identify the main themes or macro-propositions in a text, and hence gain a more global perspective of the content, which is important for selecting the main ideas in a text. A particularly useful approach to fostering a deeper understanding of content is to use a form of reciprocal or peer-mediated teaching, in which students in pairs can articulate to each other their understanding of the main ideas expressed in the text. As part of the solution to the problems faced by students when processing information, we need to take Sewlall's (2000: 170) advice that there should be "a paradigm shift in the learning philosophy from content-based to an emphasis on the acquisition of skills". In this regard, both content and ESL teachers need to train their students in the explicit use of summarizing strategies, and to plan interwoven lessons and learning activities that develop the learners' intellectual ways of dealing with different learning problems so that they can make learning quicker, easier, more effective and exciting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A taxonomic revision of the southern African endemic genus Gazania (Asteraceae) based on morphometric, genetic and phylogeographic data
- Authors: Howis, Seranne
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Compositae Plant genetics DNA Endemic plants -- South Africa Plant ecology -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4200 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003769
- Description: Gazania is a small genus of the subtribe Gorteriinae, tribe Arctoteae, that is endemic to southern Africa. The genus was last revised in 1959 by Roessler, who noted that delimitation of the species of Gazania can be “extraordinarily difficult”. Morphometric data was collected to test the reality of the 16 species as delimited by Roessler, who based species boundaries on morphological characters. Only six taxa were found to be morphologically distinct, while the remaining samples showed no species cohesion. DNA sequence data from two nuclear spacer regions (ITS and ETS) and four chloroplast noncoding regions (the trnL and rpS16 introns, and the psbA-trnH and trnL-F spacers) of 43 samples were utilised to create a species level phylogeny and to investigate correlations between genetically delimited units and morphologically defined taxa. DNA sequence data reveal that seven species (as delimited by Roessler) are morphologically and genetically distinct. The remaining nine of Roessler’s species fall into a morphologically and genetically overlapping continuum that forms an ochlospecies. Phylogeographic methods (based on an expanded ITS and ETS DNA sequence data set from 169 samples) were employed to further resolve the limits of species, with special focus on the clades within the ochlospecies. These genetically defined clades were correlated with their geographical distributions, and in combination with molecular dating techniques, used to elucidate the recent climatic or environmental factors that may have shaped the phylogeographic structure of the genus. Phylogeographic patterns and molecular dating reveals that the genus Gazania is an example of a South African endemic clade that has undergone episodic cladogenesis in response to fluctuating climatic conditions over the last seven million years. The ochlospecies within Gazania is a result of repeated cycles of climate driven isolation in refugia and subsequent expansion and hybridization events during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Comparisons with phylogeographic studies on other organisms reveal a common pattern indicative of the presence and evolutionary importance of an ancestral refugium in the arid Richtersveld / Namib region of southern Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Howis, Seranne
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Compositae Plant genetics DNA Endemic plants -- South Africa Plant ecology -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4200 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003769
- Description: Gazania is a small genus of the subtribe Gorteriinae, tribe Arctoteae, that is endemic to southern Africa. The genus was last revised in 1959 by Roessler, who noted that delimitation of the species of Gazania can be “extraordinarily difficult”. Morphometric data was collected to test the reality of the 16 species as delimited by Roessler, who based species boundaries on morphological characters. Only six taxa were found to be morphologically distinct, while the remaining samples showed no species cohesion. DNA sequence data from two nuclear spacer regions (ITS and ETS) and four chloroplast noncoding regions (the trnL and rpS16 introns, and the psbA-trnH and trnL-F spacers) of 43 samples were utilised to create a species level phylogeny and to investigate correlations between genetically delimited units and morphologically defined taxa. DNA sequence data reveal that seven species (as delimited by Roessler) are morphologically and genetically distinct. The remaining nine of Roessler’s species fall into a morphologically and genetically overlapping continuum that forms an ochlospecies. Phylogeographic methods (based on an expanded ITS and ETS DNA sequence data set from 169 samples) were employed to further resolve the limits of species, with special focus on the clades within the ochlospecies. These genetically defined clades were correlated with their geographical distributions, and in combination with molecular dating techniques, used to elucidate the recent climatic or environmental factors that may have shaped the phylogeographic structure of the genus. Phylogeographic patterns and molecular dating reveals that the genus Gazania is an example of a South African endemic clade that has undergone episodic cladogenesis in response to fluctuating climatic conditions over the last seven million years. The ochlospecies within Gazania is a result of repeated cycles of climate driven isolation in refugia and subsequent expansion and hybridization events during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Comparisons with phylogeographic studies on other organisms reveal a common pattern indicative of the presence and evolutionary importance of an ancestral refugium in the arid Richtersveld / Namib region of southern Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
A transdisciplinary explanatory critique of environmental education
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Environmental education Business enterprises -- Environmental aspects Corporations -- Environmental aspects Social responsibility of business Social responsibility of business -- Study and teaching Environmental education -- Philosophy Environmental ethics -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1804 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003689
- Description: This study originates out of my experience as an environmental educator working within business and industry in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is motivated by my observation that, despite much environmental rhetoric and training, environmental education in industry rarely leads to significant advances towards environmental protection. I assume that the problem of the mismatch between rhetoric and action involves both semiotic and non-semiotic components and therefore, after a thorough exploration of my methodological options, I adopt a qualitative transdisciplinary textual analysis of relevant documents using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Bhaskar’s Dialectical Critical Realism, with some insights taken from Bhaskar’s more recent concept of Meta-Reality. My main conclusions from the study indicate that causally efficacious philosophical mistakes, relating to theories of structure/agency and theories of epistemology, are an important aspect of the problem being considered. Specifically, I demonstrate that these mistakes function to buttress ideology and its attendant contradictions which in turn function to provide the preconditions that maintain inequalities and poor environmental practice in business and industry. Prior and current events, such as climate change and the trend towards globalisation, the ‘free market economy’ and psychological characteristics of the author, relevant to the problem, are also important. In line with Bhaskar’s emancipatory aim for explanatory critique, I end with tentative recommendations for a re-imagined environmental education for business and industry which require (un)action. Consistent with my methodological choices, my recommendations have a (qualified) universal application, despite my focus on texts from South Africa and Zimbabwe. My recommendations are summarised below: • there should be consistency between theory and practice such that performance contradictions are avoided; • we should not act from a fear of survival based on past, no longer relevant experiences (e.g. from childhood) as this is unlikely to be an adequate base for present actions; • we should avoid voluntarism by acting with the resources at our disposal, based on a true understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and our own specificities; • we should avoid assuming the stance of the ‘victim’ by refusing to blame other agents or circumstances, without distorting or underestimating the causal efficacy of those agents or circumstances (related to avoiding voluntarism, whilst nevertheless not resorting to determinism either); • we should direct our action towards the abolition of inequalities and master-slave relationships (related to the avoidance of performance contradictions); • we should act from the position of epistemological humility, rather than from the position of epistemological privilege; • we should consider action as ‘shedding’ based on an understanding of the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA); and • we should consider learning to be ‘shedding’ based on the necessity of (un)knowledge, or ignorance, as a requirement of arriving at relatively new knowledge. This study is also a contribution to contemporary methodological discussions relevant to Critical Discourse Analysis in that it extends these discussions to include psychoanalytical (as well as the more familiar phenomenological and ideological) depth explanations of lived illusion. Furthermore, this study is an experimental attempt to apply the concept of ‘meta-reflexivity’ in Critical Discourse Analysis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Environmental education Business enterprises -- Environmental aspects Corporations -- Environmental aspects Social responsibility of business Social responsibility of business -- Study and teaching Environmental education -- Philosophy Environmental ethics -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1804 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003689
- Description: This study originates out of my experience as an environmental educator working within business and industry in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is motivated by my observation that, despite much environmental rhetoric and training, environmental education in industry rarely leads to significant advances towards environmental protection. I assume that the problem of the mismatch between rhetoric and action involves both semiotic and non-semiotic components and therefore, after a thorough exploration of my methodological options, I adopt a qualitative transdisciplinary textual analysis of relevant documents using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Bhaskar’s Dialectical Critical Realism, with some insights taken from Bhaskar’s more recent concept of Meta-Reality. My main conclusions from the study indicate that causally efficacious philosophical mistakes, relating to theories of structure/agency and theories of epistemology, are an important aspect of the problem being considered. Specifically, I demonstrate that these mistakes function to buttress ideology and its attendant contradictions which in turn function to provide the preconditions that maintain inequalities and poor environmental practice in business and industry. Prior and current events, such as climate change and the trend towards globalisation, the ‘free market economy’ and psychological characteristics of the author, relevant to the problem, are also important. In line with Bhaskar’s emancipatory aim for explanatory critique, I end with tentative recommendations for a re-imagined environmental education for business and industry which require (un)action. Consistent with my methodological choices, my recommendations have a (qualified) universal application, despite my focus on texts from South Africa and Zimbabwe. My recommendations are summarised below: • there should be consistency between theory and practice such that performance contradictions are avoided; • we should not act from a fear of survival based on past, no longer relevant experiences (e.g. from childhood) as this is unlikely to be an adequate base for present actions; • we should avoid voluntarism by acting with the resources at our disposal, based on a true understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and our own specificities; • we should avoid assuming the stance of the ‘victim’ by refusing to blame other agents or circumstances, without distorting or underestimating the causal efficacy of those agents or circumstances (related to avoiding voluntarism, whilst nevertheless not resorting to determinism either); • we should direct our action towards the abolition of inequalities and master-slave relationships (related to the avoidance of performance contradictions); • we should act from the position of epistemological humility, rather than from the position of epistemological privilege; • we should consider action as ‘shedding’ based on an understanding of the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA); and • we should consider learning to be ‘shedding’ based on the necessity of (un)knowledge, or ignorance, as a requirement of arriving at relatively new knowledge. This study is also a contribution to contemporary methodological discussions relevant to Critical Discourse Analysis in that it extends these discussions to include psychoanalytical (as well as the more familiar phenomenological and ideological) depth explanations of lived illusion. Furthermore, this study is an experimental attempt to apply the concept of ‘meta-reflexivity’ in Critical Discourse Analysis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Academic literacy right from the start?: a critical realist study of the way university literacy is constructed at a Gulf university
- Authors: Picard, Michelle Yvette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Gulf University Education, Higher -- Persian Gulf Literacy -- Persian Gulf Academic writing -- Study and teaching -- Persian Gulf English language -- Study and teaching -- Persian Gulf
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004121
- Description: The aim of this research was to examine how university literacy is constructed at a university in the Arabian Gulf and to evaluate the appropriateness of this construction where students of a low level of English are exposed to academic English (Right from the Start). Unpacking this construction is a complex task and to gain even a limited insight into the numerous Discourses, epistemologies and pedagogies constituting the construction of university literacy at Gulf universities, a stratified approach that probes the layers of ‘reality’ is necessary. Therefore, a critical realist approach is engaged, along with a variety of methods to probe the layers of the phenomenon. In terms of thesis organization, the traditional empirical structure common to the Social Sciences and the argumentative structure common to the Humanities are integrated. While the information obtained by a variety of methods is analysed and conclusions are reached, this material is also used along with additional literature to support the central contention that university literacy and academic English are possible ‘right from the start’, if the students’ literacy is examined from a certain perspective and if there is an appropriate pedagogy which promotes the desired literacies. This combination of thesis structures would be deemed appropriate in the critical realist ontological framework since the rigour of the thesis lies both in its “reliability” resulting from the empirical data and its focus on the ‘real’; and its “reflexivity” and “persuasivness” arising from the transparently ‘critical’ argument of the thesis (Cadman 2002). In order to conduct the empirical research, the lenses suggested by each of the major views of literacy as outlined by Lea and Street (1998) - namely the “study skills” view, the narrow “academic socialization view” and the “academic literacies view” are utilized in succession. However, the central argument is revealed as the manifestations of each ‘view’ of literacy in the specific context are examined, the research outcomes obtained by utilizing each view in succession are outlined and both are critiqued from the perspective of the “academic literacies” view. Corpus research is undertaken from a “study skills” perspective and the effect of the vocabulary taught to the students on their use of vocabulary in their writing is examined. Also, using the “study skills” lens, the students’ “global language development” in terms of changes or fluctuations in “fluency, accuracy and complexity” (Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki et al. 1998) over a period of at least three semesters is examined. Utilizing a narrow “academic socialization lens”, studies conducted at the University on learning strategies and motivation and the comments made by respondents in interviews and on an electronic discussion board are compared to comments made by teachers and lecturers. Major flaws in these views of academic literacy are acknowledged and the way each view manifests itself in the Discourse(s) prevalent at this particular university is demonstrated. Finally, Discourses evidenced in the student interviews in particular, are unpacked and then compared and contrasted with those in the lecturer interviews as well as the curriculum and other university documents. The limitations of the study are examined and suggestions for further research and ways to address ‘problems’ associated with university literacy are given.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Picard, Michelle Yvette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Gulf University Education, Higher -- Persian Gulf Literacy -- Persian Gulf Academic writing -- Study and teaching -- Persian Gulf English language -- Study and teaching -- Persian Gulf
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004121
- Description: The aim of this research was to examine how university literacy is constructed at a university in the Arabian Gulf and to evaluate the appropriateness of this construction where students of a low level of English are exposed to academic English (Right from the Start). Unpacking this construction is a complex task and to gain even a limited insight into the numerous Discourses, epistemologies and pedagogies constituting the construction of university literacy at Gulf universities, a stratified approach that probes the layers of ‘reality’ is necessary. Therefore, a critical realist approach is engaged, along with a variety of methods to probe the layers of the phenomenon. In terms of thesis organization, the traditional empirical structure common to the Social Sciences and the argumentative structure common to the Humanities are integrated. While the information obtained by a variety of methods is analysed and conclusions are reached, this material is also used along with additional literature to support the central contention that university literacy and academic English are possible ‘right from the start’, if the students’ literacy is examined from a certain perspective and if there is an appropriate pedagogy which promotes the desired literacies. This combination of thesis structures would be deemed appropriate in the critical realist ontological framework since the rigour of the thesis lies both in its “reliability” resulting from the empirical data and its focus on the ‘real’; and its “reflexivity” and “persuasivness” arising from the transparently ‘critical’ argument of the thesis (Cadman 2002). In order to conduct the empirical research, the lenses suggested by each of the major views of literacy as outlined by Lea and Street (1998) - namely the “study skills” view, the narrow “academic socialization view” and the “academic literacies view” are utilized in succession. However, the central argument is revealed as the manifestations of each ‘view’ of literacy in the specific context are examined, the research outcomes obtained by utilizing each view in succession are outlined and both are critiqued from the perspective of the “academic literacies” view. Corpus research is undertaken from a “study skills” perspective and the effect of the vocabulary taught to the students on their use of vocabulary in their writing is examined. Also, using the “study skills” lens, the students’ “global language development” in terms of changes or fluctuations in “fluency, accuracy and complexity” (Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki et al. 1998) over a period of at least three semesters is examined. Utilizing a narrow “academic socialization lens”, studies conducted at the University on learning strategies and motivation and the comments made by respondents in interviews and on an electronic discussion board are compared to comments made by teachers and lecturers. Major flaws in these views of academic literacy are acknowledged and the way each view manifests itself in the Discourse(s) prevalent at this particular university is demonstrated. Finally, Discourses evidenced in the student interviews in particular, are unpacked and then compared and contrasted with those in the lecturer interviews as well as the curriculum and other university documents. The limitations of the study are examined and suggestions for further research and ways to address ‘problems’ associated with university literacy are given.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
An analysis of oral literary music texts in isiXhosa
- Authors: Mpola, Mavis Noluthando
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music -- History , Xhosa (African people) -- Folklore , Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa , Folk literature, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012909
- Description: This study examines the relationship between composed songs in isiXhosa and the field of oral literature. In traditional Xhosa cultural settings, poetry and music are forms of communal activity enjoyed by that society. Music and poetry perform a special social role in African society in general, providing a critique of socio-economic and political issues. The research analyses the relationship that exists between traditional poetry, izibongo, and composed songs. It demonstrates that in the same way that izibongo can be analysed in order to appreciate the aesthetic value of an oral literary form, the same can be said of composed isiXhosa music. The art of transmitting oral literature is performance. The traditional izibongo are recited before audiences in the same way. Songs (iingoma) stories (amabali) and traditional poetry (izibongo) all comprise oral literature that is transmitted by word of mouth. Opland (1992: 17) says about this type of literature: “Living as it does in the performance is usually appreciated by crowds of people as sounds uttered by the performer who is present before his/her audience.” Opland (ibid 125) again gives an account of who is both reciter of poems and singer of songs. He gives Mthamo’s testimony thus: “He is a singer… with a reputation of being a poet as well.” The musical texts that will be analysed in this thesis will range from those produced as early as 1917, when Benjamin Tyamzashe wrote his first song, Isithandwa sam (My beloved), up to those produced in 1990 when Makhaya Mjana was commissioned by Lovedale on its 150th anniversary to write Qingqa Lovedale (Stand up Lovedale). The song texts total fifty, by twenty-one composers. The texts will be analysed according to different themes, ranging from themes that are metaphoric, themes about events, themes that depict the culture of the amaXhosa, themes with a message of protest, themes demonstrating the relationship between religion and nature, themes that call for unity among the amaXhosa, and themes that depict the personal circumstances of composers and lullabies. The number of texts from each category will vary depending on the composers’ socio-cultural background when they composed the songs. Comparison will be made with some izibongo to show that composers and writers of izibongo are similar artists and, in the words of Mtuze in Izibongo Zomthonyama (1993) “bathwase ngethongo elinye” (They are spiritually gifted in the same way).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Mpola, Mavis Noluthando
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Music , Xhosa (African people) -- Music -- History , Xhosa (African people) -- Folklore , Composers, Black -- South Africa , Hymns, Xhosa , Folk literature, Xhosa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012909
- Description: This study examines the relationship between composed songs in isiXhosa and the field of oral literature. In traditional Xhosa cultural settings, poetry and music are forms of communal activity enjoyed by that society. Music and poetry perform a special social role in African society in general, providing a critique of socio-economic and political issues. The research analyses the relationship that exists between traditional poetry, izibongo, and composed songs. It demonstrates that in the same way that izibongo can be analysed in order to appreciate the aesthetic value of an oral literary form, the same can be said of composed isiXhosa music. The art of transmitting oral literature is performance. The traditional izibongo are recited before audiences in the same way. Songs (iingoma) stories (amabali) and traditional poetry (izibongo) all comprise oral literature that is transmitted by word of mouth. Opland (1992: 17) says about this type of literature: “Living as it does in the performance is usually appreciated by crowds of people as sounds uttered by the performer who is present before his/her audience.” Opland (ibid 125) again gives an account of who is both reciter of poems and singer of songs. He gives Mthamo’s testimony thus: “He is a singer… with a reputation of being a poet as well.” The musical texts that will be analysed in this thesis will range from those produced as early as 1917, when Benjamin Tyamzashe wrote his first song, Isithandwa sam (My beloved), up to those produced in 1990 when Makhaya Mjana was commissioned by Lovedale on its 150th anniversary to write Qingqa Lovedale (Stand up Lovedale). The song texts total fifty, by twenty-one composers. The texts will be analysed according to different themes, ranging from themes that are metaphoric, themes about events, themes that depict the culture of the amaXhosa, themes with a message of protest, themes demonstrating the relationship between religion and nature, themes that call for unity among the amaXhosa, and themes that depict the personal circumstances of composers and lullabies. The number of texts from each category will vary depending on the composers’ socio-cultural background when they composed the songs. Comparison will be made with some izibongo to show that composers and writers of izibongo are similar artists and, in the words of Mtuze in Izibongo Zomthonyama (1993) “bathwase ngethongo elinye” (They are spiritually gifted in the same way).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
An evaluation of the application of specific conflict management mechanisms in the South African transition to democracy, 1985-2004 : a conflict resolution perspective
- Authors: Bradshaw, Gavin John
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Conflict management -- South Africa , Mediation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8160 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/482 , Conflict management -- South Africa , Mediation -- South Africa
- Description: South Africa has always been cited as an example of protracted social conflict by the analytical conflict resolution school. Given that appellation, the conflict, in terms of the understanding of that school of thought, would not have been amenable to resolution, and yet many observers hail the South African democratic transition as a miracle of transformation. This thesis, using a detailed application of the various elements of protracted or deep-rooted social conflict, demonstrates that South Africa is indeed an example of protracted social conflict. Given the application of pre-negotiation initiatives, and the establishment of a unique National Peace Accord, negotiations were enabled, and successfully delivered a democratic election, and so far, also a sustainable democracy. The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the result of a realization on the part of a wide spectrum of South African leadership and conflict resolution professionals, that negotiation alone would not provide conflict resolution for South Africans, and that there was therefore an additional need to deal with the deeper issues of conflict, if the settlement were to prove sustainable. The question remains whether ours represents a successful resolution of the conflict from the theoretical perspective of the analytical conflict resolution school. A close examination of South African socio-political issues across a number of domains regarded by the analytical conflict resolution school as important, indicates that while the requirements for conflict resolution were indeed met in the South African case, their more advanced stage of resolution; conflict provention has not been satisfied. That explains the fact that many tensions, much violence and intolerance remain. South Africa’s democracy has not been infused with analytical conflict management institutions, basic human needs have not been substantially met and valued relationships remain elusive. Because protracted social conflict is cyclical, we can expect high-levels of conflict behaviour to haunt, and even threaten our fledgling democracy. It is argued here that a coherent theoretical approach to the South African conflict management process would have produced a more sustainable outcome, and we recommend the continued use and institutionalization of analytical conflict provention processes to secure the future of our country.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Bradshaw, Gavin John
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Conflict management -- South Africa , Mediation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:8160 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/482 , Conflict management -- South Africa , Mediation -- South Africa
- Description: South Africa has always been cited as an example of protracted social conflict by the analytical conflict resolution school. Given that appellation, the conflict, in terms of the understanding of that school of thought, would not have been amenable to resolution, and yet many observers hail the South African democratic transition as a miracle of transformation. This thesis, using a detailed application of the various elements of protracted or deep-rooted social conflict, demonstrates that South Africa is indeed an example of protracted social conflict. Given the application of pre-negotiation initiatives, and the establishment of a unique National Peace Accord, negotiations were enabled, and successfully delivered a democratic election, and so far, also a sustainable democracy. The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the result of a realization on the part of a wide spectrum of South African leadership and conflict resolution professionals, that negotiation alone would not provide conflict resolution for South Africans, and that there was therefore an additional need to deal with the deeper issues of conflict, if the settlement were to prove sustainable. The question remains whether ours represents a successful resolution of the conflict from the theoretical perspective of the analytical conflict resolution school. A close examination of South African socio-political issues across a number of domains regarded by the analytical conflict resolution school as important, indicates that while the requirements for conflict resolution were indeed met in the South African case, their more advanced stage of resolution; conflict provention has not been satisfied. That explains the fact that many tensions, much violence and intolerance remain. South Africa’s democracy has not been infused with analytical conflict management institutions, basic human needs have not been substantially met and valued relationships remain elusive. Because protracted social conflict is cyclical, we can expect high-levels of conflict behaviour to haunt, and even threaten our fledgling democracy. It is argued here that a coherent theoretical approach to the South African conflict management process would have produced a more sustainable outcome, and we recommend the continued use and institutionalization of analytical conflict provention processes to secure the future of our country.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
An investigation into masculine-atypical behaviour : a study among Moi university students Western Kenya
- Authors: Simiyu, Catherine Kituko
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Sex role -- Kenya , Masculinity -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: vital:9530 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/851 , Sex role -- Kenya , Masculinity -- Kenya
- Description: We are presented with a situation in which ‘the male identity is a fragile and tentative thing with no secure anchorage in the contemporary world’ (Brittan, 1989:3). However, empirical evidence surrounding the commonly perceived contemporary crisis of masculinity fails to support any overall crisis of masculinity thesis (Edwards, 2006:16). Instead, the different perceptions of the crisis tend to rest on at least one of the three propositions pointed out by Edwards (2006:17): Firstly; masculinity as a set of values, practices or dispositions may be suffering a crisis in so far as it is being undermined and devalued, or, moreover that masculinity per see is now to a greater or lesser degree equated with a series of negative rather than positive associations and connotations. Secondly; masculinity may be in crisis due to its perceived tendency to implore into femininity, whether through an undermining of any gender role distinctions or through feminization of some forms of masculinity as, for example, in the case of the rise of contemporary consumerist, fashion conscious or sexually uncertain masculinities such as metrosexuality. Thirdly, the crisis of masculinity may relate to the sense that masculinity in terms of the male sex role is itself ipso facto crisis-inducing. In this sense, masculinity is not in crisis, it is crisis. This study was based on the second proposition. In the patriarchal Kenyan society where gender roles are fairly traditional, and the male person perceived superior to the female and male things valued above female things, the aspect of feminization of masculinity is not just new but indeed strange. This investigation was intended to find explanations for the feminizing behaviour by males. The sex role paradigm developed in the 1970s explains acquisition of masculinity through socialization, sex role learning and social control. These mainstream theories of learning gender were explored in the assumption that they form the basis for the contemporary theories, and further, although much had changed with the times, a large part of the society still perceived gender roles from this traditional viewpoint. The masculine crisis theory and the constructionist views of gender constituted the theoretical framework of the study. This was due to the researcher’s acknowledgement that individuals were active participants in the construction of their own gender identity, and that there was likelihood for the individuals to deviate from the social expectations of what masculinity means and should be. As a result they could construct a masculinity that did not reflect normality, hence portraying a crisis. Data relating to the respondents’ perception of and reasons for feminine behaviour among young male adults was gathered from young males, young females, and both male and female parents through questionnaire and interview methods. Information about the home environment of the respondents was also necessary to help explore environmental factors that contribute to gender construction. In addition, observation was used to obtain information to dispute, confirm or complement the findings from the other mentioned methods. An exploratory-descriptive qualitative type of research was undertaken at Moi University, Eldoret in Kenya, where the feminization of masculinity was observed. 100 male students chosen through both purposive and simple systematic sampling responded to the open-ended questionnaire which contained perception-eliciting items. A discussion with two focused groups of seven female students each, from the same institution obtained their opinion on the subject of cross-gender behaviour of their male colleagues. Selection of the females was based on willingness to participate. An in-depth interview with two male and three female parents of young male adults whose selection was upon availability, was done on a one-on-one basis to capture the view of adults (likely reasons for, and attitudes) on the matter of feminine behaviour among boys. Data was qualitatively processed and analyzed, taking into account issues of dependability and accuracy. Explanations, findings and conclusions were made, based on the fairly rich data. Overall, the researcher concluded that an interplay between various factors in the young males’ environments, including peers, media, parents and the general dynamics of society (including the feminist movements) explained the feminization of the masculine identity. All these were perceived as influenced by the postmodern movement that had transcended boundaries, thanks to modern communication techniques, to reach the initially very traditional societies. The researcher acknowledged the irreversibility of the clock of time and behaviour trends, hence suggested inclusiveness of this group of males for overall society development, but against the backdrop of responsible guidance and understanding. The study was seen as significant, both for education as an institution that empowered individuals for social function, as well as for peaceful coexistence for the society at large. Conclusively, a redefinition of ‘masculinity’ and a change in the current social attitudes about masculinity and femininity was recommended. Hopefully this was a step towards enhancing an understanding of behaviour dynamics in the largely changing social systems which, in the same vein, remained the touchstone for behaviour formation, modification and prediction not only in Kenya, but Africa as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Simiyu, Catherine Kituko
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Sex role -- Kenya , Masculinity -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: vital:9530 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/851 , Sex role -- Kenya , Masculinity -- Kenya
- Description: We are presented with a situation in which ‘the male identity is a fragile and tentative thing with no secure anchorage in the contemporary world’ (Brittan, 1989:3). However, empirical evidence surrounding the commonly perceived contemporary crisis of masculinity fails to support any overall crisis of masculinity thesis (Edwards, 2006:16). Instead, the different perceptions of the crisis tend to rest on at least one of the three propositions pointed out by Edwards (2006:17): Firstly; masculinity as a set of values, practices or dispositions may be suffering a crisis in so far as it is being undermined and devalued, or, moreover that masculinity per see is now to a greater or lesser degree equated with a series of negative rather than positive associations and connotations. Secondly; masculinity may be in crisis due to its perceived tendency to implore into femininity, whether through an undermining of any gender role distinctions or through feminization of some forms of masculinity as, for example, in the case of the rise of contemporary consumerist, fashion conscious or sexually uncertain masculinities such as metrosexuality. Thirdly, the crisis of masculinity may relate to the sense that masculinity in terms of the male sex role is itself ipso facto crisis-inducing. In this sense, masculinity is not in crisis, it is crisis. This study was based on the second proposition. In the patriarchal Kenyan society where gender roles are fairly traditional, and the male person perceived superior to the female and male things valued above female things, the aspect of feminization of masculinity is not just new but indeed strange. This investigation was intended to find explanations for the feminizing behaviour by males. The sex role paradigm developed in the 1970s explains acquisition of masculinity through socialization, sex role learning and social control. These mainstream theories of learning gender were explored in the assumption that they form the basis for the contemporary theories, and further, although much had changed with the times, a large part of the society still perceived gender roles from this traditional viewpoint. The masculine crisis theory and the constructionist views of gender constituted the theoretical framework of the study. This was due to the researcher’s acknowledgement that individuals were active participants in the construction of their own gender identity, and that there was likelihood for the individuals to deviate from the social expectations of what masculinity means and should be. As a result they could construct a masculinity that did not reflect normality, hence portraying a crisis. Data relating to the respondents’ perception of and reasons for feminine behaviour among young male adults was gathered from young males, young females, and both male and female parents through questionnaire and interview methods. Information about the home environment of the respondents was also necessary to help explore environmental factors that contribute to gender construction. In addition, observation was used to obtain information to dispute, confirm or complement the findings from the other mentioned methods. An exploratory-descriptive qualitative type of research was undertaken at Moi University, Eldoret in Kenya, where the feminization of masculinity was observed. 100 male students chosen through both purposive and simple systematic sampling responded to the open-ended questionnaire which contained perception-eliciting items. A discussion with two focused groups of seven female students each, from the same institution obtained their opinion on the subject of cross-gender behaviour of their male colleagues. Selection of the females was based on willingness to participate. An in-depth interview with two male and three female parents of young male adults whose selection was upon availability, was done on a one-on-one basis to capture the view of adults (likely reasons for, and attitudes) on the matter of feminine behaviour among boys. Data was qualitatively processed and analyzed, taking into account issues of dependability and accuracy. Explanations, findings and conclusions were made, based on the fairly rich data. Overall, the researcher concluded that an interplay between various factors in the young males’ environments, including peers, media, parents and the general dynamics of society (including the feminist movements) explained the feminization of the masculine identity. All these were perceived as influenced by the postmodern movement that had transcended boundaries, thanks to modern communication techniques, to reach the initially very traditional societies. The researcher acknowledged the irreversibility of the clock of time and behaviour trends, hence suggested inclusiveness of this group of males for overall society development, but against the backdrop of responsible guidance and understanding. The study was seen as significant, both for education as an institution that empowered individuals for social function, as well as for peaceful coexistence for the society at large. Conclusively, a redefinition of ‘masculinity’ and a change in the current social attitudes about masculinity and femininity was recommended. Hopefully this was a step towards enhancing an understanding of behaviour dynamics in the largely changing social systems which, in the same vein, remained the touchstone for behaviour formation, modification and prediction not only in Kenya, but Africa as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
An investigation of statistical methodologies for evaluating natural herbicides for the control of yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus)
- Authors: Asquith, Ilse Bernadette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Chemometrics , Weeds
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DTech (Chemistry)
- Identifier: vital:10376 , Chemometrics , Weeds
- Description: The present study was undertaken with the view to evaluate methodologies based on traditional Scheffé experimental designs that study mixtures as a tool for discovery research particularly when seeking new and or improved uses of existing mixtures. For the purpose of this study, the topic of controlling the problematic weed known as Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus L. var. esculentus) or “Geel Uintjie”, was selected on a rather ad hoc basis. Yellow Nutsedge is a troublesome perennial weed found in most agricultural countries in the world. Herbicidal control is often difficult because of the weeds’ ability to propagate via tubers, which can remain dormant for a number of years and are also resistant to most synthetic herbicide controls. As a first step the study involved the selection of a group of chemical compounds that would be used in suppressing the germination of Yellow Nutsedge tubers. Treatment with various combinations of these chemical compounds as determined by statistical experimental designs was carried out. A review of the literature, particularly literature concerned with the study of the phenomenon of allelopathy, suggested that various phenolic-D-glucopyranosides could show promise in the suppressing the germination of Yellow Nutsedge tubers. This led to the selection of this group of compounds as the target group of “active” substances for the study. Since the group of phenolic-D-glucopyranosides is quite large, and in order to keep the study to a reasonable size, only four phenolic-D-glucopyranosides were selected namely: 4-nitrophenyl-D-glucopyranoside, 4-chlorophenyl--Dglucopyranoside, arbutin and salicin. This selection was based firstly based on a particular phenolic-D-glucopyranoside being a suspected allelochemical, and secondly the ease of technical synthesis using a catalytic process. In addition to the four selected phenolic-D-glucopyranosides, their aglycones (4,nitrophenol, 4,chlorophenol, hydroquinone and salicyl alcohol) were also included as potential “active” substances in order to discern any potential activity between the phenolic-D-glucopyranosides and the aglycones. iii The selected “active substances” were combined in various combinations according to various mixture designs in such a manner that the sum of the proportions of the various actives in any one mixture was always equal to 1. The mixtures of actives were then used in various germination experiments and three experimental responses were measured namely the germination, average dry mass and length of longest shoot. From the results of these germination studies the canonical form of the polynomial equation describing the variation in each of the three germination responses was calculated and evaluated statistically. These equations were then used to estimate the presence of, and the magnitude of synergism between the various active substances. The results from these screening experiments and their detailed statistical analysis indicated that the response surface model for the germination response contains three synergistic blends (4-nitrophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + arbutin; 4-nitrophenyl--Dglucopyranoside + hydroquinone; and 4-chlorophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + salicin) and one antagonistic blend (4-nitrophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + 4- chlorophenol--D-glucopyranoside). The response surface model for the average dry mass response contains two synergistic blends (4-nitrophenyl--Dglucopyranoside + hydroquinone; and 4-chlorophenol--D-glucopyranoside + salicin) and the same antagonistic blend as for germination response. For both germination and average dry mass responses, the most synergistic blend was found to be the combination of 4-chlorophenyl--D-glucopyranoside and salicin. Two additional tests were conducted and both confirmed the results obtained from the screening designs. These tests involved the identification of the two components responsible for the synergistic activity that resulted in the suppression of the germination of the tubers and growth of the seedlings. The experimental response measuring the longest shoot proved to be erroneous and was excluded from the statistical analysis. In summary, this study has clearly shown that statistically designed experiments based on mixture designs can be used as a powerful tool in identifying and quantifying synergistic (or antagonistic) effects of chemicals on the germination ability of plant seeds.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Asquith, Ilse Bernadette
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Chemometrics , Weeds
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DTech (Chemistry)
- Identifier: vital:10376 , Chemometrics , Weeds
- Description: The present study was undertaken with the view to evaluate methodologies based on traditional Scheffé experimental designs that study mixtures as a tool for discovery research particularly when seeking new and or improved uses of existing mixtures. For the purpose of this study, the topic of controlling the problematic weed known as Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus L. var. esculentus) or “Geel Uintjie”, was selected on a rather ad hoc basis. Yellow Nutsedge is a troublesome perennial weed found in most agricultural countries in the world. Herbicidal control is often difficult because of the weeds’ ability to propagate via tubers, which can remain dormant for a number of years and are also resistant to most synthetic herbicide controls. As a first step the study involved the selection of a group of chemical compounds that would be used in suppressing the germination of Yellow Nutsedge tubers. Treatment with various combinations of these chemical compounds as determined by statistical experimental designs was carried out. A review of the literature, particularly literature concerned with the study of the phenomenon of allelopathy, suggested that various phenolic-D-glucopyranosides could show promise in the suppressing the germination of Yellow Nutsedge tubers. This led to the selection of this group of compounds as the target group of “active” substances for the study. Since the group of phenolic-D-glucopyranosides is quite large, and in order to keep the study to a reasonable size, only four phenolic-D-glucopyranosides were selected namely: 4-nitrophenyl-D-glucopyranoside, 4-chlorophenyl--Dglucopyranoside, arbutin and salicin. This selection was based firstly based on a particular phenolic-D-glucopyranoside being a suspected allelochemical, and secondly the ease of technical synthesis using a catalytic process. In addition to the four selected phenolic-D-glucopyranosides, their aglycones (4,nitrophenol, 4,chlorophenol, hydroquinone and salicyl alcohol) were also included as potential “active” substances in order to discern any potential activity between the phenolic-D-glucopyranosides and the aglycones. iii The selected “active substances” were combined in various combinations according to various mixture designs in such a manner that the sum of the proportions of the various actives in any one mixture was always equal to 1. The mixtures of actives were then used in various germination experiments and three experimental responses were measured namely the germination, average dry mass and length of longest shoot. From the results of these germination studies the canonical form of the polynomial equation describing the variation in each of the three germination responses was calculated and evaluated statistically. These equations were then used to estimate the presence of, and the magnitude of synergism between the various active substances. The results from these screening experiments and their detailed statistical analysis indicated that the response surface model for the germination response contains three synergistic blends (4-nitrophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + arbutin; 4-nitrophenyl--Dglucopyranoside + hydroquinone; and 4-chlorophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + salicin) and one antagonistic blend (4-nitrophenyl--D-glucopyranoside + 4- chlorophenol--D-glucopyranoside). The response surface model for the average dry mass response contains two synergistic blends (4-nitrophenyl--Dglucopyranoside + hydroquinone; and 4-chlorophenol--D-glucopyranoside + salicin) and the same antagonistic blend as for germination response. For both germination and average dry mass responses, the most synergistic blend was found to be the combination of 4-chlorophenyl--D-glucopyranoside and salicin. Two additional tests were conducted and both confirmed the results obtained from the screening designs. These tests involved the identification of the two components responsible for the synergistic activity that resulted in the suppression of the germination of the tubers and growth of the seedlings. The experimental response measuring the longest shoot proved to be erroneous and was excluded from the statistical analysis. In summary, this study has clearly shown that statistically designed experiments based on mixture designs can be used as a powerful tool in identifying and quantifying synergistic (or antagonistic) effects of chemicals on the germination ability of plant seeds.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
An investigation of the key mechanisms that promote whole school development in a secondary school pilot project context
- Authors: Westraad, Susan Fiona
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education -- South Africa Education, Secondary -- South Africa Education and state -- South Africa School improvement programs -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003291
- Description: Providing relevant and quality schooling for all South African learners is the paramount goal of the South African National Department of Education. South Africa 's historical and current socio-economic contexts provide many challenges for both the Department of Education and schools in this endeavour to provide quality teaching and learning. These challenges impact directly and indirectly on what happens in the classroom. Since 1994 a plethora of education and training policy has been introduced in South Africa to redress historical imbalances; to introduce a new education and training framework and approach; and to provide guidelines, principles and procedures for addressing some of the challenges that impact on schools. The National Whole School Evaluation Policy provides the legislative framework for the establishment of a quality assurance process in South African schools based on accountability and support. The subsequent Integrated Quality Management System attempts to provide a framework for integrating school evaluation and performance measurement. Policy frameworks are in place to guide quality assurance and school improvement, however, the reality of implementing this at a grass roots level is particularly challenging. The General Motors (GM) South Africa Foundation, a non-governmental development organisation, established by General Motors (GM) South Africa, commenced with the piloting the Learning Schools Initiative to investigate some of the challenges of whole school development and evaluation. This research documents the Learning Schools Initiative's intervention with the initial two pilot secondary schools situated in Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) over a four-year period. It reviews the relevant school reform and school development literature and adopts a critical realist evaluative research approach to investigate the key mechanisms that promote whole school development and change in this context. In keeping with this approach, the results of the research are analysed and discussed within a context-menchanism-outcome configuration that involves the identification of the key mechanisms that bring about desired outcome/s in a specific context. Seven key generative mechanisms are identified as critical at a school and classroom level (i) school culture, (ii) school structures, (iii) effective leadership and management, (iv) personal growth and meaning, (v) restoration of relationships, (vi) professional development of educators, and development of capacity to work together, and (vii) support and accountability. The need to structure school development interventions around the triggering of identified key mechanisms is also identified as an important overarching mechanism. Suggestions are made for further research required to facilitate a deeper understanding of how to bring about meaningful change that results in quality teaching and learning in South African schools.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Westraad, Susan Fiona
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Education -- South Africa Education, Secondary -- South Africa Education and state -- South Africa School improvement programs -- South Africa Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003291
- Description: Providing relevant and quality schooling for all South African learners is the paramount goal of the South African National Department of Education. South Africa 's historical and current socio-economic contexts provide many challenges for both the Department of Education and schools in this endeavour to provide quality teaching and learning. These challenges impact directly and indirectly on what happens in the classroom. Since 1994 a plethora of education and training policy has been introduced in South Africa to redress historical imbalances; to introduce a new education and training framework and approach; and to provide guidelines, principles and procedures for addressing some of the challenges that impact on schools. The National Whole School Evaluation Policy provides the legislative framework for the establishment of a quality assurance process in South African schools based on accountability and support. The subsequent Integrated Quality Management System attempts to provide a framework for integrating school evaluation and performance measurement. Policy frameworks are in place to guide quality assurance and school improvement, however, the reality of implementing this at a grass roots level is particularly challenging. The General Motors (GM) South Africa Foundation, a non-governmental development organisation, established by General Motors (GM) South Africa, commenced with the piloting the Learning Schools Initiative to investigate some of the challenges of whole school development and evaluation. This research documents the Learning Schools Initiative's intervention with the initial two pilot secondary schools situated in Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) over a four-year period. It reviews the relevant school reform and school development literature and adopts a critical realist evaluative research approach to investigate the key mechanisms that promote whole school development and change in this context. In keeping with this approach, the results of the research are analysed and discussed within a context-menchanism-outcome configuration that involves the identification of the key mechanisms that bring about desired outcome/s in a specific context. Seven key generative mechanisms are identified as critical at a school and classroom level (i) school culture, (ii) school structures, (iii) effective leadership and management, (iv) personal growth and meaning, (v) restoration of relationships, (vi) professional development of educators, and development of capacity to work together, and (vii) support and accountability. The need to structure school development interventions around the triggering of identified key mechanisms is also identified as an important overarching mechanism. Suggestions are made for further research required to facilitate a deeper understanding of how to bring about meaningful change that results in quality teaching and learning in South African schools.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Camphor-derived chiral auxiliaries: a synthetic, mechanistic and computational study
- Authors: Duggan, Andrew Robert
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Camphor Chirality Asymmetric synthesis
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006772
- Description: A broadly based approach has been undertaken to the development and use of camphor derivatives as chiral auxiliaries in asymmetric synthesis – an approach which has embraced synthetic, mechanistic and computational studies. The unambiguous characterization of mono- and dihydroxy-derivatives, obtained by reduction of chiral camphor ether dimers, has been achieved through detailed one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic analysis. The resulting data has been used to establish both the regio- and stereochemistry of the hydroxyl groups. A camphor-derived cyclic iminolactone has been shown to provide a convenient platform for the synthesis of chiral α-amino acids, stereoselective monoalkylation of the iminolactone affording a range of products in yields of 52 - 65 % with up to 85 % d.e. The attempted development of chiral bifunctional Morita-Baylis-Hillman substrates has revealed an unexpected equilibration between isomeric bornane 2,3-diol monoacrylates via acid-catalysed intramolecular transesterification. A detailed [superscript 1]H NMR-based kinetic study of the rearrangement in various media and at various temperatures has permitted the determination of the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. A computational study at the DFT level has been used to explore the potential energy surfaces of the acid-catalysed and uncatalysed transesterification of the monoacrylate esters. The theoretical data supports the involvement of cyclic intermediates and has provided a rational basis for predicting the favoured reaction pathways. Novel camphor-derived phenyl sulfonate esters and N-adamantylsulfonamides have been synthesised for use as chiral auxiliaries in the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction. Modeling at the Molecular Mechanics level has provided useful insights into possible conformational constraints and an adamantyl sulfonate auxiliary has been successfully used in the stereoselective synthesis of a range of products, generally in excellent yield and with up to 95 % d.e.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Duggan, Andrew Robert
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Camphor Chirality Asymmetric synthesis
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4415 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006772
- Description: A broadly based approach has been undertaken to the development and use of camphor derivatives as chiral auxiliaries in asymmetric synthesis – an approach which has embraced synthetic, mechanistic and computational studies. The unambiguous characterization of mono- and dihydroxy-derivatives, obtained by reduction of chiral camphor ether dimers, has been achieved through detailed one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic analysis. The resulting data has been used to establish both the regio- and stereochemistry of the hydroxyl groups. A camphor-derived cyclic iminolactone has been shown to provide a convenient platform for the synthesis of chiral α-amino acids, stereoselective monoalkylation of the iminolactone affording a range of products in yields of 52 - 65 % with up to 85 % d.e. The attempted development of chiral bifunctional Morita-Baylis-Hillman substrates has revealed an unexpected equilibration between isomeric bornane 2,3-diol monoacrylates via acid-catalysed intramolecular transesterification. A detailed [superscript 1]H NMR-based kinetic study of the rearrangement in various media and at various temperatures has permitted the determination of the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. A computational study at the DFT level has been used to explore the potential energy surfaces of the acid-catalysed and uncatalysed transesterification of the monoacrylate esters. The theoretical data supports the involvement of cyclic intermediates and has provided a rational basis for predicting the favoured reaction pathways. Novel camphor-derived phenyl sulfonate esters and N-adamantylsulfonamides have been synthesised for use as chiral auxiliaries in the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction. Modeling at the Molecular Mechanics level has provided useful insights into possible conformational constraints and an adamantyl sulfonate auxiliary has been successfully used in the stereoselective synthesis of a range of products, generally in excellent yield and with up to 95 % d.e.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007