Community entomology: insects, science and society
- Weaver, Kim N, Hill, Jaclyn M, Martin, Grant D, Paterson, Iain D, Coetzee, Julie A, Hill, Martin P
- Authors: Weaver, Kim N , Hill, Jaclyn M , Martin, Grant D , Paterson, Iain D , Coetzee, Julie A , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123343 , vital:35429 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-c859bebd5
- Description: Educative outreach programmes have been found to be effective ways in which to raise awareness around basic scientific concepts. The Biological Control Research Group (BCRG) in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at Rhodes University, South Africa, is involved in community engaged initiatives that aim to be interactive and informative around entomology, and more specifically, the use of biological control against invasive alien plants. As a higher education institution, Rhodes University has a civic responsibility to engage with local communities and work with them around local challenges. Three groups of activities undertaken by the BCRG in partnership with local schools and other community partners are described and assessed in this paper as a way of assessing them and exploring future research areas around the aims and outcomes of these programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Weaver, Kim N , Hill, Jaclyn M , Martin, Grant D , Paterson, Iain D , Coetzee, Julie A , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/123343 , vital:35429 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-c859bebd5
- Description: Educative outreach programmes have been found to be effective ways in which to raise awareness around basic scientific concepts. The Biological Control Research Group (BCRG) in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at Rhodes University, South Africa, is involved in community engaged initiatives that aim to be interactive and informative around entomology, and more specifically, the use of biological control against invasive alien plants. As a higher education institution, Rhodes University has a civic responsibility to engage with local communities and work with them around local challenges. Three groups of activities undertaken by the BCRG in partnership with local schools and other community partners are described and assessed in this paper as a way of assessing them and exploring future research areas around the aims and outcomes of these programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Community ‘Broadband Islands’ for digital government access in rural South Africa
- Terzoli, Alfredo, Siebörger, Ingrid, Gumbo, Sibukelo
- Authors: Terzoli, Alfredo , Siebörger, Ingrid , Gumbo, Sibukelo
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431248 , vital:72758 , https://www.academic-bookshop.com/ourshop/prod_6128029-ECDG-2017-PDF-Proceedings-of-the-17th-European-Conference-on-Digital-Government.html
- Description: In the developing world, one of the main obstacles to the realization of the potential of digital government in rendering services to citizens is the lack of access infrastructure. In this paper we present a model for the diffusion of Internet connectivity and access to computing infrastructure in rural communities in South Africa, through the aggregation of inde-pendent small and micro networks. The model is based on multi-year experimentation in the Siyakhula Living Lab, a long term joint venture between the Telkom Centres of Excellence hosted at Rhodes Universi-ty and the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. At the core of the model is the concept of ‘Broadband Island’, a high speed LAN realized through easy-to-deploy wireless technologies connecting groups of nearby schools. Each connected school, doubling as Digital Access Nodes for the community, hosts computing infrastructure in a serv-ers/thin clients configuration. Two schools belonging to the Broadband Island are then connected to the Internet with whatever technique makes sense within that specific geographical area: VSAT, microwave link, fibre etc. Each Broadband Island can be provisioned and support-ed by a variety of independent entities (such as Municipalities, Educa-tion Districts, NGOs, local action groups etc), possibly combined in con-sortia and in some cases using a Public Private Partnership format.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Terzoli, Alfredo , Siebörger, Ingrid , Gumbo, Sibukelo
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431248 , vital:72758 , https://www.academic-bookshop.com/ourshop/prod_6128029-ECDG-2017-PDF-Proceedings-of-the-17th-European-Conference-on-Digital-Government.html
- Description: In the developing world, one of the main obstacles to the realization of the potential of digital government in rendering services to citizens is the lack of access infrastructure. In this paper we present a model for the diffusion of Internet connectivity and access to computing infrastructure in rural communities in South Africa, through the aggregation of inde-pendent small and micro networks. The model is based on multi-year experimentation in the Siyakhula Living Lab, a long term joint venture between the Telkom Centres of Excellence hosted at Rhodes Universi-ty and the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. At the core of the model is the concept of ‘Broadband Island’, a high speed LAN realized through easy-to-deploy wireless technologies connecting groups of nearby schools. Each connected school, doubling as Digital Access Nodes for the community, hosts computing infrastructure in a serv-ers/thin clients configuration. Two schools belonging to the Broadband Island are then connected to the Internet with whatever technique makes sense within that specific geographical area: VSAT, microwave link, fibre etc. Each Broadband Island can be provisioned and support-ed by a variety of independent entities (such as Municipalities, Educa-tion Districts, NGOs, local action groups etc), possibly combined in con-sortia and in some cases using a Public Private Partnership format.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Community-based natural resource use and management of Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, Uganda, for livelihood benefits
- Gosling, Amanda, Shackleton, Charlie M, Gambiza, James
- Authors: Gosling, Amanda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Gambiza, James
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60844 , vital:27839 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9546-y
- Description: publisher version , Conservation and sustainable management of wetlands requires participation of local stakeholders, including communities. The Bigodi Wetland is unusual because it is situated in a common property landscape but the local community has been running a successful community-based natural resource management programme (CBNRM) for the wetland for over a decade. Whilst external visitors to the wetland provide ecotourism revenues we sought to quantify community benefits through the use of wetland goods such as firewood, plant fibres, and the like, and costs associated with wild animals damaging farming activities. We interviewed 68 households living close to the wetland and valued their cash and non-cash incomes from farming and collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and water. The majority of households collected a wide variety of plant and fish resources and water from the wetland for household use and livestock. Overall, 53% of total household cash and non-cash income was from collected products, mostly the wetland, 28% from arable agriculture, 12% from livestock and 7% from employment and cash transfers. Female-headed households had lower incomes than male-headed ones, and with a greater reliance on NTFPs. Annual losses due to wildlife damage were estimated at 4.2% of total gross income. Most respondents felt that the wetland was important for their livelihoods, with more than 80% identifying health, education, craft materials and firewood as key benefits. Ninety-five percent felt that the wetland was in a good condition and that most residents observed the agreed CBNRM rules regarding use of the wetland. This study confirms the success of the locally run CBNRM processes underlying the significant role that the wetland plays in local livelihoods.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Gosling, Amanda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Gambiza, James
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60844 , vital:27839 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9546-y
- Description: publisher version , Conservation and sustainable management of wetlands requires participation of local stakeholders, including communities. The Bigodi Wetland is unusual because it is situated in a common property landscape but the local community has been running a successful community-based natural resource management programme (CBNRM) for the wetland for over a decade. Whilst external visitors to the wetland provide ecotourism revenues we sought to quantify community benefits through the use of wetland goods such as firewood, plant fibres, and the like, and costs associated with wild animals damaging farming activities. We interviewed 68 households living close to the wetland and valued their cash and non-cash incomes from farming and collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and water. The majority of households collected a wide variety of plant and fish resources and water from the wetland for household use and livestock. Overall, 53% of total household cash and non-cash income was from collected products, mostly the wetland, 28% from arable agriculture, 12% from livestock and 7% from employment and cash transfers. Female-headed households had lower incomes than male-headed ones, and with a greater reliance on NTFPs. Annual losses due to wildlife damage were estimated at 4.2% of total gross income. Most respondents felt that the wetland was important for their livelihoods, with more than 80% identifying health, education, craft materials and firewood as key benefits. Ninety-five percent felt that the wetland was in a good condition and that most residents observed the agreed CBNRM rules regarding use of the wetland. This study confirms the success of the locally run CBNRM processes underlying the significant role that the wetland plays in local livelihoods.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Comparing the fish assemblages and food web structures of large floodplain rivers
- Taylor, Geraldine C, Weyl, Olaf L F, Hill, Jaclyn M, Peel, Richard A, Hay, Clinton J
- Authors: Taylor, Geraldine C , Weyl, Olaf L F , Hill, Jaclyn M , Peel, Richard A , Hay, Clinton J
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68961 , vital:29343 , https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13032
- Description: The Upper Zambezi, Kavango and Kwando are large floodplain rivers with substantial biodiversity, providing water and ecosystem services to a large tract of southern Africa. These rivers differ in hydrological regime. The Upper Zambezi and Kavango rivers are in flood for 4 months (March, April, May, June) while, in the Kwando River, floods are later and last for 1–2 months in July and August. The Upper Zambezi River has the largest annual flood pulse, followed by the Kavango River, while the Kwando River experiences small and unreliable floods. During years of exceptional flooding of the Upper Zambezi and Kavango rivers, the rivers are interconnected at peak flows and therefore share a common ichthyofauna. This provided a natural experiment to investigate the responses of fish communities comprised of the same species to differing flood regimes by comparing the fish assemblages and food‐web structures between rivers.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Taylor, Geraldine C , Weyl, Olaf L F , Hill, Jaclyn M , Peel, Richard A , Hay, Clinton J
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68961 , vital:29343 , https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13032
- Description: The Upper Zambezi, Kavango and Kwando are large floodplain rivers with substantial biodiversity, providing water and ecosystem services to a large tract of southern Africa. These rivers differ in hydrological regime. The Upper Zambezi and Kavango rivers are in flood for 4 months (March, April, May, June) while, in the Kwando River, floods are later and last for 1–2 months in July and August. The Upper Zambezi River has the largest annual flood pulse, followed by the Kavango River, while the Kwando River experiences small and unreliable floods. During years of exceptional flooding of the Upper Zambezi and Kavango rivers, the rivers are interconnected at peak flows and therefore share a common ichthyofauna. This provided a natural experiment to investigate the responses of fish communities comprised of the same species to differing flood regimes by comparing the fish assemblages and food‐web structures between rivers.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Conceptualising knowledge for access in the sciences: academic development from a social realist perspective
- Authors: Ellery, Karen
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59863 , vital:27671 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0085-x
- Description: Whilst arguing from a social realist perspective that knowledge matters in academic development (AD) curricula, this paper addresses the question of what knowledge types and practices are necessary for enabling epistemological access. It presents a single, in-depth, qualitative case study in which the curriculum of a science AD course is characterised using Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Analysis of the course curriculum reveals legitimation of four main categories of knowledge types along a continuum of stronger to weaker epistemic relations: disciplinary knowledge, scientific literacies knowledge, general academic practices knowledge and everyday knowledge. These categories are ‘mapped’ onto an LCT(Semantics)(how meaning relates to both context and empirical referents) topological plane to reveal a curriculum that operates in three distinct but interrelated spaces by facing towards both the field of science and the practice of academia. It is argued that this empirically derived differentiated curriculum framework offers a conceptual means for considering the notion of access to ‘powerful’ knowledge in a range of AD and mainstream contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Ellery, Karen
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59863 , vital:27671 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0085-x
- Description: Whilst arguing from a social realist perspective that knowledge matters in academic development (AD) curricula, this paper addresses the question of what knowledge types and practices are necessary for enabling epistemological access. It presents a single, in-depth, qualitative case study in which the curriculum of a science AD course is characterised using Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Analysis of the course curriculum reveals legitimation of four main categories of knowledge types along a continuum of stronger to weaker epistemic relations: disciplinary knowledge, scientific literacies knowledge, general academic practices knowledge and everyday knowledge. These categories are ‘mapped’ onto an LCT(Semantics)(how meaning relates to both context and empirical referents) topological plane to reveal a curriculum that operates in three distinct but interrelated spaces by facing towards both the field of science and the practice of academia. It is argued that this empirically derived differentiated curriculum framework offers a conceptual means for considering the notion of access to ‘powerful’ knowledge in a range of AD and mainstream contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Cosmopolitanism and the unfollowable routines and rituals in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret:
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142531 , vital:38088 , DOI: 10.1080/02564718.2017.1290382
- Description: This article explores how Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret critiques the limited and severely uneven forms of hospitality that characterise post-9/11 Britain. It also examines how the text gestures towards the possibility of a non-violent, inclusive cosmopolitanism. The piece begins by relating recent debates surrounding the “War on Terror”, as well as Britain’s decision to leave the European Union to the novel’s major concerns. It then turns to the novel, and summarises incidents in which the principal character, Issa Shamshuddin, is traumatised and harmed by the Islamophobia and anti-immigration policies evident in the London portrayed in the text. Next, it turns to an analysis of the strange and irreproducible rituals of Issa’s neighbour, Frances. The article concludes that that these unfollowable rituals posit how a truly cosmopolitan society would function.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142531 , vital:38088 , DOI: 10.1080/02564718.2017.1290382
- Description: This article explores how Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret critiques the limited and severely uneven forms of hospitality that characterise post-9/11 Britain. It also examines how the text gestures towards the possibility of a non-violent, inclusive cosmopolitanism. The piece begins by relating recent debates surrounding the “War on Terror”, as well as Britain’s decision to leave the European Union to the novel’s major concerns. It then turns to the novel, and summarises incidents in which the principal character, Issa Shamshuddin, is traumatised and harmed by the Islamophobia and anti-immigration policies evident in the London portrayed in the text. Next, it turns to an analysis of the strange and irreproducible rituals of Issa’s neighbour, Frances. The article concludes that that these unfollowable rituals posit how a truly cosmopolitan society would function.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Counting on demographic equity to transform institutional cultures at historically white South African universities?:
- Booi, Masixole, Vincent, Louise, Liccardo, Sabrina
- Authors: Booi, Masixole , Vincent, Louise , Liccardo, Sabrina
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141946 , vital:38018 , DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2017.1289155
- Description: The post-apartheid higher education transformation project is faced with the challenge of recruiting and retaining black academics and other senior staff. But when we shift the focus from participation rates to equality–inequality within historically white universities (HWUs), then the discourse changes from demographic equity and redress to institutional culture and diversity. HWUs invoke the need to maintain their position as leading higher education institutions globally, and notions of ‘quality’ and ‘excellence’ have emerged as discursive practices, which serve to perpetuate exclusion. The question then arises as to which forms of capital comprise the Gold Standard at HWUs? Several South African universities have responded to the challenge of recruiting and retaining black academics by initiating programmes for the ‘accelerated development’ of these candidates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Booi, Masixole , Vincent, Louise , Liccardo, Sabrina
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141946 , vital:38018 , DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2017.1289155
- Description: The post-apartheid higher education transformation project is faced with the challenge of recruiting and retaining black academics and other senior staff. But when we shift the focus from participation rates to equality–inequality within historically white universities (HWUs), then the discourse changes from demographic equity and redress to institutional culture and diversity. HWUs invoke the need to maintain their position as leading higher education institutions globally, and notions of ‘quality’ and ‘excellence’ have emerged as discursive practices, which serve to perpetuate exclusion. The question then arises as to which forms of capital comprise the Gold Standard at HWUs? Several South African universities have responded to the challenge of recruiting and retaining black academics by initiating programmes for the ‘accelerated development’ of these candidates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Crossing conceptual thresholds in doctoral communities
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66719 , vital:28986 , ISSN 1470-3300 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1155471
- Description: Pre-print , The traditional apprenticeship model of supervision in which the single scholar charts her individual research path is giving way to more collaborative learning environments. Doctoral programmes, in which communities of scholars work together, have become increasingly common. This study interrogated how being part of such a community enables the conceptual depth we expect at doctoral level. It draws on the notion of conceptual threshold crossing to make sense of the learning experiences of 28 education PhD scholars. Working in a community of doctoral scholars was found to have conceptual impact (i) when the community is supportive, (ii) encourages risk-taking and facilitates conversations across different issues and disciplines, (iii) when the scholars have to regularly articulate their position and (iv) because the programme structure enhances the likelihood of fortuitous encounters with theories and concepts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66719 , vital:28986 , ISSN 1470-3300 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1155471
- Description: Pre-print , The traditional apprenticeship model of supervision in which the single scholar charts her individual research path is giving way to more collaborative learning environments. Doctoral programmes, in which communities of scholars work together, have become increasingly common. This study interrogated how being part of such a community enables the conceptual depth we expect at doctoral level. It draws on the notion of conceptual threshold crossing to make sense of the learning experiences of 28 education PhD scholars. Working in a community of doctoral scholars was found to have conceptual impact (i) when the community is supportive, (ii) encourages risk-taking and facilitates conversations across different issues and disciplines, (iii) when the scholars have to regularly articulate their position and (iv) because the programme structure enhances the likelihood of fortuitous encounters with theories and concepts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Cu (III) triarylcorroles with asymmetric push–pull meso-substitutions
- Liang, Xu, Niu, Yingjie, Zhang, Ojanchong, Mack, John, Yi, Xiaoyi, Hlatshwayo, Zweli, Li, Minzhi, Zhu, Weihua, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Liang, Xu , Niu, Yingjie , Zhang, Ojanchong , Mack, John , Yi, Xiaoyi , Hlatshwayo, Zweli , Li, Minzhi , Zhu, Weihua , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232947 , vital:50040 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C7DT00716G"
- Description: The synthesis of four low symmetry A2B type Cu (III)triarylcorroles with meso-aryl substituents that provide electron donating (push) and withdrawing (pull) properties is reported, along with their structural characterization by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. An analysis of the structure–property relationships in the optical and redox properties has been carried out by comparing their optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and spectroelectrochemistry to trends predicted in DFT and TD-DFT calculations. The results demonstrate that A2B type Cu(III)triarylcorroles are highly efficient catalysts for electrocatalyzed hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) and that their reactivity can be modulated by changing the nature of the B-position meso-substituent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Liang, Xu , Niu, Yingjie , Zhang, Ojanchong , Mack, John , Yi, Xiaoyi , Hlatshwayo, Zweli , Li, Minzhi , Zhu, Weihua , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232947 , vital:50040 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C7DT00716G"
- Description: The synthesis of four low symmetry A2B type Cu (III)triarylcorroles with meso-aryl substituents that provide electron donating (push) and withdrawing (pull) properties is reported, along with their structural characterization by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. An analysis of the structure–property relationships in the optical and redox properties has been carried out by comparing their optical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and spectroelectrochemistry to trends predicted in DFT and TD-DFT calculations. The results demonstrate that A2B type Cu(III)triarylcorroles are highly efficient catalysts for electrocatalyzed hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) and that their reactivity can be modulated by changing the nature of the B-position meso-substituent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Customary management as TURFs: social challenges and opportunities
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145403 , vital:38435 , DOI: 10.5343/bms.2015.1084
- Description: There is a growing interest in working with customary management (CM) systems to effectively manage benthic resources and small-scale fisheries. The underlying notion is that CM institution as territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) can be sufficiently adaptive and dynamic to create the local incentives that are necessary for promoting sustainable fishing practices and marine conservation more generally in a given region. This paper reviews the social opportunities and challenges of working with CM systems as a form of TURF, particularly in Oceania. A key conclusion is that policy makers and managers not only need to recognize natural interconnectivity in any one marine space, but also consider the social interconnectivity of stakeholders that covers customary TURFs. Only by recognizing and working with the existing social networks that overlay any given marine territory can the operational principles of CM (as reviewed in this paper) be effectively deployed for achieving some kind of bioeconomic efficiency and creating an equitable rights-based fisheries management system.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145403 , vital:38435 , DOI: 10.5343/bms.2015.1084
- Description: There is a growing interest in working with customary management (CM) systems to effectively manage benthic resources and small-scale fisheries. The underlying notion is that CM institution as territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) can be sufficiently adaptive and dynamic to create the local incentives that are necessary for promoting sustainable fishing practices and marine conservation more generally in a given region. This paper reviews the social opportunities and challenges of working with CM systems as a form of TURF, particularly in Oceania. A key conclusion is that policy makers and managers not only need to recognize natural interconnectivity in any one marine space, but also consider the social interconnectivity of stakeholders that covers customary TURFs. Only by recognizing and working with the existing social networks that overlay any given marine territory can the operational principles of CM (as reviewed in this paper) be effectively deployed for achieving some kind of bioeconomic efficiency and creating an equitable rights-based fisheries management system.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Dangers of generic pedagogical panaceas: implementing sevice-learning differently in diverse disciplines
- Hlengwa, Amanda I, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Hlengwa, Amanda I , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61051 , vital:27933 , http://joe.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/No_67_2017/Dangers_of_generic_pedagogical_panaceas_Implementing_service-learning_differently_in_diverse_disciplines.sflb.ashx
- Description: Descriptions of service-learning in the literature tend to position it as a powerful pedagogic tool as well as an exemplar of ‘best practice’ applicable across all disciplines and institutional contexts. Furthermore service-learning is couched as a moral imperative. In the South African context, this moral imperative is translated into policy pronouncements driving institutions of higher education to demonstrate responsiveness to the transformation needs of broader society. In this article, two departments, Philosophy and Environmental Science, at one university are used as case studies to interrogate what enables the uptake of service-learning as a pedagogic tool. Drawing on the work of Fairclough, this paper identifies the dominant discourses at play and considers how they constrain or enable the uptake of service-learning. We advocate for the infusion of service-learning in curricula, but argue that institutional culture, disciplinary values and the structure of knowledge impact on its uptake and should not be dismissed in the implementation process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Hlengwa, Amanda I , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61051 , vital:27933 , http://joe.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/No_67_2017/Dangers_of_generic_pedagogical_panaceas_Implementing_service-learning_differently_in_diverse_disciplines.sflb.ashx
- Description: Descriptions of service-learning in the literature tend to position it as a powerful pedagogic tool as well as an exemplar of ‘best practice’ applicable across all disciplines and institutional contexts. Furthermore service-learning is couched as a moral imperative. In the South African context, this moral imperative is translated into policy pronouncements driving institutions of higher education to demonstrate responsiveness to the transformation needs of broader society. In this article, two departments, Philosophy and Environmental Science, at one university are used as case studies to interrogate what enables the uptake of service-learning as a pedagogic tool. Drawing on the work of Fairclough, this paper identifies the dominant discourses at play and considers how they constrain or enable the uptake of service-learning. We advocate for the infusion of service-learning in curricula, but argue that institutional culture, disciplinary values and the structure of knowledge impact on its uptake and should not be dismissed in the implementation process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Data structures and algorithms for bioinformatics
- Authors: Machanick, Philip
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439172 , vital:73552 , https://homes.cs.ru.ac.za/philip/Courses/BioinfMScAlgorithms/BioinfAlgorithms.pdf
- Description: WHY THIS MATERIAL? Bioinformatics is a difficult subject because it integrates so much from multiple disciplines. The emphasis here is on algorithmic thinking–working from a problem to an implementation while thinking analytically about efficiency concerns. The picture illustrates a general plan for algorithmic thinking. Anything that can be classed as an algorithm can be analysed and your design choices are not always to find the most efficient algorithm possible. The aim is to solve a problem as efficiently as possible; if it is something you do only once, that results in a rather different set of choices than if you are going to do it many times. And–of course–size counts. That is what this course is am I doing this once
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Machanick, Philip
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439172 , vital:73552 , https://homes.cs.ru.ac.za/philip/Courses/BioinfMScAlgorithms/BioinfAlgorithms.pdf
- Description: WHY THIS MATERIAL? Bioinformatics is a difficult subject because it integrates so much from multiple disciplines. The emphasis here is on algorithmic thinking–working from a problem to an implementation while thinking analytically about efficiency concerns. The picture illustrates a general plan for algorithmic thinking. Anything that can be classed as an algorithm can be analysed and your design choices are not always to find the most efficient algorithm possible. The aim is to solve a problem as efficiently as possible; if it is something you do only once, that results in a rather different set of choices than if you are going to do it many times. And–of course–size counts. That is what this course is am I doing this once
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Death of the PhD: when industry partners determine doctoral outcomes
- Frick, Liezel, McKenna, Sioux, Muthama, Evelyn
- Authors: Frick, Liezel , McKenna, Sioux , Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66680 , vital:28981 , ISSN 1469-8366 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1263467
- Description: Pre-print , The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar’s rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39 examiners’ reports on 13 PhDs produced over a five-year period by scholars from the Higher Education Research doctoral studies programme at Rhodes University in South Africa. Drawing on aspects of Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), this study uses the dimensions of LCT:Specialisation and LCT:Semantics to explore what kinds of knowledge, skills and procedures and what kinds of knowers are validated in the field of Higher Education Research through the examination process. The study found that despite concerns in the literature about the a-theoretical nature of the Higher Education Studies field, examiners valued high-level theoretical and meta-theoretical engagement as well as methodological rigour. In addition, examiners prized the ability to demonstrate a strong ideological position, to use a clear doctoral voice, and to recognise the axiological drive of the field. The analysis showed that examiners were interested in strong contextualisation of the problem-spaces in higher education in South Africa but also commented positively on candidates’ ability to move from troubling an issue within its context to being able to abstract findings so as to contribute to the field as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Frick, Liezel , McKenna, Sioux , Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66680 , vital:28981 , ISSN 1469-8366 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1263467
- Description: Pre-print , The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar’s rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39 examiners’ reports on 13 PhDs produced over a five-year period by scholars from the Higher Education Research doctoral studies programme at Rhodes University in South Africa. Drawing on aspects of Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), this study uses the dimensions of LCT:Specialisation and LCT:Semantics to explore what kinds of knowledge, skills and procedures and what kinds of knowers are validated in the field of Higher Education Research through the examination process. The study found that despite concerns in the literature about the a-theoretical nature of the Higher Education Studies field, examiners valued high-level theoretical and meta-theoretical engagement as well as methodological rigour. In addition, examiners prized the ability to demonstrate a strong ideological position, to use a clear doctoral voice, and to recognise the axiological drive of the field. The analysis showed that examiners were interested in strong contextualisation of the problem-spaces in higher education in South Africa but also commented positively on candidates’ ability to move from troubling an issue within its context to being able to abstract findings so as to contribute to the field as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Decoupled reciprocal subsidies of biomass and fatty acids in fluxes of invertebrates between a temperate river and the adjacent land:
- Moyo, Sydney, Chari, Lenin D, Villet, Martin H, Richoux, Nicole B
- Authors: Moyo, Sydney , Chari, Lenin D , Villet, Martin H , Richoux, Nicole B
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140843 , vital:37923 , DOI: 10.1007/s00027-017-0529-0
- Description: Streams and riparian areas are tightly coupled through reciprocal trophic subsidies, and there is evidence that these subsidies affect consumers in connected ecosystems. Most studies of subsidies consider only their quantity and not their quality. We determined the bidirectional exchange of organisms between the Kowie River and its riparian zone in South Africa using floating pyramidal traps (to measure insect emergence) and pan traps (to capture infalling invertebrates).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moyo, Sydney , Chari, Lenin D , Villet, Martin H , Richoux, Nicole B
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140843 , vital:37923 , DOI: 10.1007/s00027-017-0529-0
- Description: Streams and riparian areas are tightly coupled through reciprocal trophic subsidies, and there is evidence that these subsidies affect consumers in connected ecosystems. Most studies of subsidies consider only their quantity and not their quality. We determined the bidirectional exchange of organisms between the Kowie River and its riparian zone in South Africa using floating pyramidal traps (to measure insect emergence) and pan traps (to capture infalling invertebrates).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Deep wounds... left... in hearts and minds: South African public history
- Authors: Wells, Julia C
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69742 , vital:29574 , http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/phrj.v24i0.5781
- Description: Public history practise in South Africa holds out much promise of further things to come. It can close the gulf between history and heritage. This chapter argues that the role of the public historian should not be conflated with the dynamics of the heritage sector, but suggests how trained academics can indeed put their skills to work in a society that is passionately interested in understanding itself and how its pasts created the present. The student movement sharply raised the image of universities in crisis, requiring a whole new, relevant curriculum and rethinking the ways that universities relate to their publics. Public historians can work towards creating invented spaces for co-production of knowledge, moving beyond the traditional oral history interview. The divide between academia and communities is huge and needs to be constantly tackled, providing access to the secluded information of the professional world. I suggest that due to their privileged place in society, many historians have been unable or unwilling to engage with the recovery agenda – the massive need for affirmation of African identity, capacity and culture. A handful of dedicated public historians do not fit this mould and have been exemplary in rolling up their sleeves and boldly engaging with the messy complications of dealing with non-academic communities to produce new forms of historical knowledge, based on inclusiveness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Wells, Julia C
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69742 , vital:29574 , http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/phrj.v24i0.5781
- Description: Public history practise in South Africa holds out much promise of further things to come. It can close the gulf between history and heritage. This chapter argues that the role of the public historian should not be conflated with the dynamics of the heritage sector, but suggests how trained academics can indeed put their skills to work in a society that is passionately interested in understanding itself and how its pasts created the present. The student movement sharply raised the image of universities in crisis, requiring a whole new, relevant curriculum and rethinking the ways that universities relate to their publics. Public historians can work towards creating invented spaces for co-production of knowledge, moving beyond the traditional oral history interview. The divide between academia and communities is huge and needs to be constantly tackled, providing access to the secluded information of the professional world. I suggest that due to their privileged place in society, many historians have been unable or unwilling to engage with the recovery agenda – the massive need for affirmation of African identity, capacity and culture. A handful of dedicated public historians do not fit this mould and have been exemplary in rolling up their sleeves and boldly engaging with the messy complications of dealing with non-academic communities to produce new forms of historical knowledge, based on inclusiveness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Design and application of link: A DSL for network frame manipulation
- Pennefather, Sean, Irwin, Barry V W
- Authors: Pennefather, Sean , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429230 , vital:72569 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8251774
- Description: This paper describes the design and application of Link, a Domain Specific Language (DSL) targeting the development of network applications focused on traffic manipulation at the frame level. The development of Link is described through the identification and evaluation of intended applications and an example translator is implemented to target the FRAME board which was developed in conjunction with this research. Four application examples are then provided to help describe the feasibility of Link when used in conjunction with the implemented translator.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Pennefather, Sean , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429230 , vital:72569 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8251774
- Description: This paper describes the design and application of Link, a Domain Specific Language (DSL) targeting the development of network applications focused on traffic manipulation at the frame level. The development of Link is described through the identification and evaluation of intended applications and an example translator is implemented to target the FRAME board which was developed in conjunction with this research. Four application examples are then provided to help describe the feasibility of Link when used in conjunction with the implemented translator.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Determination of species and instars of the larvae of the Afrotropical species of Thanatophilus Leach, 1817 (Coleoptera, Silphidae)
- Daniel, Claire A, Midgley, John M, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Daniel, Claire A , Midgley, John M , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59682 , vital:27638 , doi: 10.3897/afrinvertebr.58.12966
- Description: Thanatophilus micans and T. mutilatus have significance for forensic entomology. Their larvae are therefore described and a key is provided for identifying the larvae of Afrotropical Silphidae based on morphological characters. It is shown that seven common species of Thanatophilus can be distinguished by a 360 bp mtDNA sequence from the cytochrome oxidase I gene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Daniel, Claire A , Midgley, John M , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59682 , vital:27638 , doi: 10.3897/afrinvertebr.58.12966
- Description: Thanatophilus micans and T. mutilatus have significance for forensic entomology. Their larvae are therefore described and a key is provided for identifying the larvae of Afrotropical Silphidae based on morphological characters. It is shown that seven common species of Thanatophilus can be distinguished by a 360 bp mtDNA sequence from the cytochrome oxidase I gene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Determination of species and instars of the larvae of the Afrotropical species of Thanatophilus Leach, 1817 (Coleoptera, Silphidae)
- Daniel, Claire A, Midgley, John M, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Daniel, Claire A , Midgley, John M , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440652 , vital:73800 , https://doi.org/10.3897/ AfrInvertebr.58.12966
- Description: Thanatophilus micans and T. mutilatus have significance for forensic entomology. Their larvae are therefore described and a key is provided for identifying the larvae of Afrotropical Silphidae based on morphological characters. It is shown that seven common species of Thanatophilus can be distinguished by a 360 bp mtDNA sequence from the cytochrome oxidase I gene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Daniel, Claire A , Midgley, John M , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440652 , vital:73800 , https://doi.org/10.3897/ AfrInvertebr.58.12966
- Description: Thanatophilus micans and T. mutilatus have significance for forensic entomology. Their larvae are therefore described and a key is provided for identifying the larvae of Afrotropical Silphidae based on morphological characters. It is shown that seven common species of Thanatophilus can be distinguished by a 360 bp mtDNA sequence from the cytochrome oxidase I gene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Developing academic literacies through understanding the nature of disciplinary knowledge
- Clarence, Sherran, McKenna, Sioux
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61062 , vital:27942 , https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.15.1.04
- Description: Much academic development work that is framed by academic literacies, especially that focused on writing, is concerned with disciplinary conventions and knowledges: conceptual, practical, and procedural. This paper argues, however, that academic literacies work tends to conflate literacy practices with disciplinary knowledge structures, thus obscuring the structures from which these practices emanate. This paper demonstrates how theoretical and analytical tools for conceptualizing disciplinary knowledge structures can connect these with academic literacies development work. Using recent studies that combine academic literacies and theories of knowledge in novel ways, this paper will show that understanding the knowledge structures of different disciplines can enable academic developers to build a stronger body of practice. This will enable academic developers working within disciplinary contexts to more ably speak to the nature of coming to know in higher education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran , McKenna, Sioux
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61062 , vital:27942 , https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.15.1.04
- Description: Much academic development work that is framed by academic literacies, especially that focused on writing, is concerned with disciplinary conventions and knowledges: conceptual, practical, and procedural. This paper argues, however, that academic literacies work tends to conflate literacy practices with disciplinary knowledge structures, thus obscuring the structures from which these practices emanate. This paper demonstrates how theoretical and analytical tools for conceptualizing disciplinary knowledge structures can connect these with academic literacies development work. Using recent studies that combine academic literacies and theories of knowledge in novel ways, this paper will show that understanding the knowledge structures of different disciplines can enable academic developers to build a stronger body of practice. This will enable academic developers working within disciplinary contexts to more ably speak to the nature of coming to know in higher education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Development of an item bank of health literacy questions appropriate for limited literacy public sector patients in South Africa:
- Marimwe, Chipiwa, Dowse, Roslind
- Authors: Marimwe, Chipiwa , Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156618 , vital:40031 , https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2017.1380577
- Description: The majority of current health literacy measures emanate from high-income countries. In South Africa, there is no appropriate measure available for use by the diverse public sector population, many of whom have some literacy limitations. The objective was to develop a bank of questions for this population informed by a broader definition of health literacy, which acknowledges both traditional cognitive skills and explores the influence of the collective social environment on health literacy. Thirty questions for the Item Bank were developed to ensure cultural, contextual and educational appropriateness, and were continuously subjected to critical review by an expert consultant panel. Patients (n = 120) were recruited from a local primary care clinic and individually interviewed with the assistance of an interpreter to collect data on the Item Bank, Multidimensional Screener of Functional Health Literacy (MSFHL) and sociodemographics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Marimwe, Chipiwa , Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156618 , vital:40031 , https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2017.1380577
- Description: The majority of current health literacy measures emanate from high-income countries. In South Africa, there is no appropriate measure available for use by the diverse public sector population, many of whom have some literacy limitations. The objective was to develop a bank of questions for this population informed by a broader definition of health literacy, which acknowledges both traditional cognitive skills and explores the influence of the collective social environment on health literacy. Thirty questions for the Item Bank were developed to ensure cultural, contextual and educational appropriateness, and were continuously subjected to critical review by an expert consultant panel. Patients (n = 120) were recruited from a local primary care clinic and individually interviewed with the assistance of an interpreter to collect data on the Item Bank, Multidimensional Screener of Functional Health Literacy (MSFHL) and sociodemographics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017