Shame is valuable
- Authors: Euvrard, Jonathan George
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Shame Ethics Self-evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2708 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002838
- Description: In this thesis I argue that shame is valuable because it contributes to the moral life by promoting coherence. I start by developing and defending a conception of shame. On my conception, rational shame involves a negative self-assessment, in which I am both the assessor and the object of assessment, and in which the standard of assessment is my own. I then develop a notion of coherence, and apply it to the relationship between values, and the relationship between values and actions. I also tie the notion of coherence to what I call “the moral life”. I then discuss two ways in which shame can work to promote coherence. Firstly, I describe a process of critical reflective self-assessment, and show how this is a particularly effective method of promoting coherence when coupled with shame. Secondly, I discuss the connection between my emotions and my values, arguing that this connection promotes coherence, and that shame works to reinforce this connection and thereby to promote coherence.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Euvrard, Jonathan George
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Shame Ethics Self-evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2708 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002838
- Description: In this thesis I argue that shame is valuable because it contributes to the moral life by promoting coherence. I start by developing and defending a conception of shame. On my conception, rational shame involves a negative self-assessment, in which I am both the assessor and the object of assessment, and in which the standard of assessment is my own. I then develop a notion of coherence, and apply it to the relationship between values, and the relationship between values and actions. I also tie the notion of coherence to what I call “the moral life”. I then discuss two ways in which shame can work to promote coherence. Firstly, I describe a process of critical reflective self-assessment, and show how this is a particularly effective method of promoting coherence when coupled with shame. Secondly, I discuss the connection between my emotions and my values, arguing that this connection promotes coherence, and that shame works to reinforce this connection and thereby to promote coherence.
- Full Text:
Sigtuna think piece 6: A case of exploring learning interactions in rural farming communities of practice in Manicaland, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Pesanayi, Tichaona V
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386427 , vital:68140 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122802"
- Description: Food insecurity is one of the major threats to sustainable development in Africa, and particularly southern Africa. Climate change is increasingly having negative impacts on food production, further increasing the vulnerability of resource-poor communities. This paper outlines a research study conducted in two Zimbabwean smallholder communities of practice, with the aim of understanding learning interactions taking place within the community of practice that influence its choice of cultivated food plants. This would hopefully inform capability-centred teaching and learning. The study was conducted in the context of vulnerability to environment risk, socio-political pressures and a market-oriented agro-based economy in recession. Various causal mechanisms influencing plant-food choice were identified using critical realist ontological analysis. These included mixed messages from external influences in conflict with local knowledge due to power knowledge relationships. A number of learning interactions were found to be important in promoting the adaptive capacity of the farmers to chronic drought, which included inter-generational knowledge sharing; farmer to farmer exchange and reflective dialogue; experiential learning; farmers ‘passing on’ part of their harvests to other farmers; farming communities learning from risk and responding to risk; and learning from trying things out. The implications for capability-centred social learning processes were that it is important to understand the causal mechanisms that influence choices; and to confront tensions, while reducing ambivalence. A focus on more sustainable alternatives, feasible and practical for farmers, was recommended. These findings, in the context of one case study, create research questions to be examined in other case contexts in environmental education research focusing on climate change learning and adaptation.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Pesanayi, Tichaona V
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386427 , vital:68140 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122802"
- Description: Food insecurity is one of the major threats to sustainable development in Africa, and particularly southern Africa. Climate change is increasingly having negative impacts on food production, further increasing the vulnerability of resource-poor communities. This paper outlines a research study conducted in two Zimbabwean smallholder communities of practice, with the aim of understanding learning interactions taking place within the community of practice that influence its choice of cultivated food plants. This would hopefully inform capability-centred teaching and learning. The study was conducted in the context of vulnerability to environment risk, socio-political pressures and a market-oriented agro-based economy in recession. Various causal mechanisms influencing plant-food choice were identified using critical realist ontological analysis. These included mixed messages from external influences in conflict with local knowledge due to power knowledge relationships. A number of learning interactions were found to be important in promoting the adaptive capacity of the farmers to chronic drought, which included inter-generational knowledge sharing; farmer to farmer exchange and reflective dialogue; experiential learning; farmers ‘passing on’ part of their harvests to other farmers; farming communities learning from risk and responding to risk; and learning from trying things out. The implications for capability-centred social learning processes were that it is important to understand the causal mechanisms that influence choices; and to confront tensions, while reducing ambivalence. A focus on more sustainable alternatives, feasible and practical for farmers, was recommended. These findings, in the context of one case study, create research questions to be examined in other case contexts in environmental education research focusing on climate change learning and adaptation.
- Full Text:
Sigtuna Think Piece 8: Piecing together conceptual framings for climate change education research in southern African contexts
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
- Full Text:
Simulating crowd phenomena in african markets
- Tasse, Flora P, Glass, Kevin R, Bangay, Shaun D
- Authors: Tasse, Flora P , Glass, Kevin R , Bangay, Shaun D
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433285 , vital:72959 , https://doi.org/10.1145/1503454.1503463
- Description: Crowd simulation is an important feature in the computer graphics field. Typical implementations simulate battle scenes, emergency situations, safety issues or add content to virtual environments. The problem stated in this paper falls in the last category. We present a crowd simulation behavioural model which allows us to simulate identified phenomena in popular local African markets such as narrow street flows and crowd formation around street performances. We propose a three-tier architecture model enable to produce intentions, perform path planning and control movement. We demonstrate that this approach produces the desired behaviour associated with crowds in an African market, which includes navigation, flow formation and circle creation.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Tasse, Flora P , Glass, Kevin R , Bangay, Shaun D
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433285 , vital:72959 , https://doi.org/10.1145/1503454.1503463
- Description: Crowd simulation is an important feature in the computer graphics field. Typical implementations simulate battle scenes, emergency situations, safety issues or add content to virtual environments. The problem stated in this paper falls in the last category. We present a crowd simulation behavioural model which allows us to simulate identified phenomena in popular local African markets such as narrow street flows and crowd formation around street performances. We propose a three-tier architecture model enable to produce intentions, perform path planning and control movement. We demonstrate that this approach produces the desired behaviour associated with crowds in an African market, which includes navigation, flow formation and circle creation.
- Full Text:
Smuggling the vernacular into the classroom: conflicts and tensions in classroom codeswitching in townshiprural schools in South Africa
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/483761 , vital:78796 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802153137
- Description: In South Africa, as in many parts of postcolonial Africa, English dominates the political economy and as a result is the medium of instruction chosen by the majority of South African schools, despite the fact that most learners do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the levels necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum. Where teachers and learners share a common home language, there is frequently a gap between language policy and practice, and codeswitching by teachers and learners is a common strategy to achieve a range of social and pedagogical goals. However, in teachers’ training the multilingual realities of the classroom have most often been framed in terms of a linguistic problem, with a deficit view of codeswitching. As a result, the potential to use two languages in the classroom in a structured and systematic way to support learning has not been generally recognised or developed. In addition, codeswitching practices are often covert with teachers ‘smuggling the vernacular into the classroom’ and adopting very different linguistic practices when observed, with serious implications for classroom-based research. This paper explores the conflicts and tensions in classroom codeswitching in the context of macrolevel contestations around language status and rights.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/483761 , vital:78796 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802153137
- Description: In South Africa, as in many parts of postcolonial Africa, English dominates the political economy and as a result is the medium of instruction chosen by the majority of South African schools, despite the fact that most learners do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the levels necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum. Where teachers and learners share a common home language, there is frequently a gap between language policy and practice, and codeswitching by teachers and learners is a common strategy to achieve a range of social and pedagogical goals. However, in teachers’ training the multilingual realities of the classroom have most often been framed in terms of a linguistic problem, with a deficit view of codeswitching. As a result, the potential to use two languages in the classroom in a structured and systematic way to support learning has not been generally recognised or developed. In addition, codeswitching practices are often covert with teachers ‘smuggling the vernacular into the classroom’ and adopting very different linguistic practices when observed, with serious implications for classroom-based research. This paper explores the conflicts and tensions in classroom codeswitching in the context of macrolevel contestations around language status and rights.
- Full Text:
Social learning processes of HIV/AIDS women caregivers on their use of traditional foods and medicinal plants : the case of Raphael Centre and Keiskamma Art and Health Centre communities of practice, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Shonhai, Venencia F
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Keiskamma Art Project (South Africa) , Women caregivers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , HIV infections -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , AIDS (Disease) -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , HIV-positive persons -- Care -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Medicinal plants -- South Africa , Natural foods -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1768 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003653
- Description: The scale of people being infected by HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus /Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has meant that the family and the community have had to become involved in caring for the sick (Van Dyk, 2005). This has inevitably led to the emergence of informal caregivers in the form of family members caring for their relatives (Kipp, Nkosi, Laing & Jhangri, 2006). The research investigated the social learning of women caregivers looking after people living with HIV/AIDS, with emphasis on caregiving practices related to how they use traditional foods and medicinal plants. The research was undertaken in Grahamstown at the Raphael Centre and in Hamburg at Keiskkamma Health Centre and Art Project, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Data was collected using interviews, focus group discussions and diaries written by participants. The data was analyzed in two phases: the first phase involved reading the interview transcripts and collating the responses into analytical memos that were captured into broad categories, while the second phase made use of the community of practice analytical framework to further analyze the data to get better understanding of the social learning processes. This study reveals that participating in a community of practice like Raphael Centre and Keiskamma Health Centre enables caregivers to learn about caregiving. It also reveals that within these communities of practice there are varied learning processes that take place, such as observational and collaborative learning. The research also revealed that caregivers learn from the communities from which they come, for example caregivers learn about traditional food and medicinal plants which they use from their family members, friends, other caregivers as well as non governmental organizations. The research found that caregivers are influenced in their learning and practices by a number of factors which include their own experiences, ambivalent messages from different stakeholders concerned with fighting HIV/AIDS and exposure to new information. The research recommends that diverse learning processes in a community of practice and outside a community of practice should be encouraged and strengthened. It also recommends that HIV/AIDS caregiving options should be strengthened by drawing on experience and knowledge of caregivers. Caregivers should be encouraged to be selfsustaining to improve their caregiving practices. Stakeholders in the field of HIV/AIDS should be alert to and address ambivalence on use of medicinal plants. Existing programmes that enable women to learn about new information on HIV/AIDS should be strengthened.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Shonhai, Venencia F
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Keiskamma Art Project (South Africa) , Women caregivers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , HIV infections -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , AIDS (Disease) -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , HIV-positive persons -- Care -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Medicinal plants -- South Africa , Natural foods -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1768 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003653
- Description: The scale of people being infected by HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus /Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has meant that the family and the community have had to become involved in caring for the sick (Van Dyk, 2005). This has inevitably led to the emergence of informal caregivers in the form of family members caring for their relatives (Kipp, Nkosi, Laing & Jhangri, 2006). The research investigated the social learning of women caregivers looking after people living with HIV/AIDS, with emphasis on caregiving practices related to how they use traditional foods and medicinal plants. The research was undertaken in Grahamstown at the Raphael Centre and in Hamburg at Keiskkamma Health Centre and Art Project, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Data was collected using interviews, focus group discussions and diaries written by participants. The data was analyzed in two phases: the first phase involved reading the interview transcripts and collating the responses into analytical memos that were captured into broad categories, while the second phase made use of the community of practice analytical framework to further analyze the data to get better understanding of the social learning processes. This study reveals that participating in a community of practice like Raphael Centre and Keiskamma Health Centre enables caregivers to learn about caregiving. It also reveals that within these communities of practice there are varied learning processes that take place, such as observational and collaborative learning. The research also revealed that caregivers learn from the communities from which they come, for example caregivers learn about traditional food and medicinal plants which they use from their family members, friends, other caregivers as well as non governmental organizations. The research found that caregivers are influenced in their learning and practices by a number of factors which include their own experiences, ambivalent messages from different stakeholders concerned with fighting HIV/AIDS and exposure to new information. The research recommends that diverse learning processes in a community of practice and outside a community of practice should be encouraged and strengthened. It also recommends that HIV/AIDS caregiving options should be strengthened by drawing on experience and knowledge of caregivers. Caregivers should be encouraged to be selfsustaining to improve their caregiving practices. Stakeholders in the field of HIV/AIDS should be alert to and address ambivalence on use of medicinal plants. Existing programmes that enable women to learn about new information on HIV/AIDS should be strengthened.
- Full Text:
Social policy, welfare in urban services in South Africa : a case study of free basic water, indigency and citizenship in Eastwood, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal (2005-2007)
- Authors: Smith, Julie
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Municipal water supply -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Water-supply -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Poor -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Water-supply -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:6060 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015231
- Description: This is an in-depth case study of urban water services to poor households and their interactions with local state power in the community of Eastwood, Pietermaritzburg, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, for the period 2005-2007. It draws especially on the experiences of poor women, exploring the conceptions and implications of the movement of municipal services into the realm of welfare-based urban service concessions. It interrogates what value municipal services, framed in the language and form of welfare but within a commodification milieu and in the context of shifting citizen-state relations offer the state apparatus and how such free basic service offerings are experienced by poor households at the level of domestic, social and economic functioning. The study adopts a fluid mixed-methodological approach to optimise exploration and interpretation. It argues that the interface of state service delivery and citizens is fraught with contradictions: core to this is the nature of state ' help.' Free basic water encompassed in the social wage did not improve the lives of poor households; instead it eroded original water access. Free basic water stole women's time spent on domestic activities; compromised appropriate water requirements, exacerbated service affordability problems and negatively affected household functioning. Poor households experienced the government's policy of free basic services as containment and punishment for being poor. The Indigent Policy activated the state's surveillance, disciplinary and control apparatus. In the absence of effective national regulation over municipalities and with financial shortfalls, street-level bureaucrats manipulated social policies to further municipal cost recovery goals and subjugate poor households. Social control and cheap governance were in symmetry. Citizens, desperate for relief, approached the state. Poor households were pushed into downgraded service packages or mercilessly pursued by municipally outsourced private debt collectors and disconnection companies. Municipalities competing for investments brought about by favourable credit ratings abandoned the humanity of their citizens. Such re-prioritisation of values had profound implications for governance and public trust. Citizens were jettisoned to the outskirts of municipal governance, resulting in a distinct confusion and anger towards the local state - and with it, major uncertainties regarding future stability, redistribution and equity.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Smith, Julie
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Municipal water supply -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Water-supply -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Poor -- South Africa -- Pietermaritzburg , Water-supply -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:6060 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015231
- Description: This is an in-depth case study of urban water services to poor households and their interactions with local state power in the community of Eastwood, Pietermaritzburg, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, for the period 2005-2007. It draws especially on the experiences of poor women, exploring the conceptions and implications of the movement of municipal services into the realm of welfare-based urban service concessions. It interrogates what value municipal services, framed in the language and form of welfare but within a commodification milieu and in the context of shifting citizen-state relations offer the state apparatus and how such free basic service offerings are experienced by poor households at the level of domestic, social and economic functioning. The study adopts a fluid mixed-methodological approach to optimise exploration and interpretation. It argues that the interface of state service delivery and citizens is fraught with contradictions: core to this is the nature of state ' help.' Free basic water encompassed in the social wage did not improve the lives of poor households; instead it eroded original water access. Free basic water stole women's time spent on domestic activities; compromised appropriate water requirements, exacerbated service affordability problems and negatively affected household functioning. Poor households experienced the government's policy of free basic services as containment and punishment for being poor. The Indigent Policy activated the state's surveillance, disciplinary and control apparatus. In the absence of effective national regulation over municipalities and with financial shortfalls, street-level bureaucrats manipulated social policies to further municipal cost recovery goals and subjugate poor households. Social control and cheap governance were in symmetry. Citizens, desperate for relief, approached the state. Poor households were pushed into downgraded service packages or mercilessly pursued by municipally outsourced private debt collectors and disconnection companies. Municipalities competing for investments brought about by favourable credit ratings abandoned the humanity of their citizens. Such re-prioritisation of values had profound implications for governance and public trust. Citizens were jettisoned to the outskirts of municipal governance, resulting in a distinct confusion and anger towards the local state - and with it, major uncertainties regarding future stability, redistribution and equity.
- Full Text:
Solvent and central metal effects on the photophysical and photochemical properties of peripherally tetra mercaptopyridine substituted metallophthalocyanines
- Moeno, Sharon, Nyokong, Tebello
- Authors: Moeno, Sharon , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263522 , vital:53635 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochem.2009.01.021"
- Description: The synthesis of peripherally tetra 2-mercaptopyridine substituted phthalocyanines containing Si, Ga, Sn and In as central metal ions is reported for the first time in this study. Photophysical and photochemical studies were carried out on these compounds in order to determine the potential of the complexes as photosensitizers for use in photodynamic therapy. Fluorescence quantum yields (ΦF) ranged from 0.012 to 0.2 and triplet quantum yields (ΦT) from 0.54 to 0.89 in dimethylformamide (DMF) and from 0.65 to 0.93 in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The triplet lifetimes ranged from 20 to 130 μs, the low values are due to the heavy atom effects of the central metal. The triplet lifetimes were larger in DMSO when compared with DMF.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Moeno, Sharon , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263522 , vital:53635 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochem.2009.01.021"
- Description: The synthesis of peripherally tetra 2-mercaptopyridine substituted phthalocyanines containing Si, Ga, Sn and In as central metal ions is reported for the first time in this study. Photophysical and photochemical studies were carried out on these compounds in order to determine the potential of the complexes as photosensitizers for use in photodynamic therapy. Fluorescence quantum yields (ΦF) ranged from 0.012 to 0.2 and triplet quantum yields (ΦT) from 0.54 to 0.89 in dimethylformamide (DMF) and from 0.65 to 0.93 in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The triplet lifetimes ranged from 20 to 130 μs, the low values are due to the heavy atom effects of the central metal. The triplet lifetimes were larger in DMSO when compared with DMF.
- Full Text:
Some (more) features of conversation amongst women friends:
- Authors: Hunt, Sally
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139149 , vital:37709 , DOI: 10.2989/16073610509486400
- Description: This paper provides an analysis of a conversation between young women friends, which is analysed in terms of Coates’ (1988; 1997; 1999) work on the features of conversation amongst female friends. Coates identifies a number of features which, she says, are typical of conversation between (adult) female friends: a domestic setting, female participants, topics relating to people and feelings, and various formal features including smooth topic development, frequent minimal responses, supportive forms of simultaneous speech and epistemic modality (‘softening’ strategies, including tag questions) (Coates, 1988: 97). The overarching function, she claims, is one of solidarity-building and support: ‘the maintenance of good social relationships’ and ‘the reaffirming and strengthening of friendship’ (Coates, 1988: 98). While this last feature, the function of conversation between women friends, is borne out by the extract to be analysed, the participants in my study utilise different strategies to accomplish it and, in several respects, do not utilise the other features Coates claims to be typical. The research shows, through a detailed analysis of a nineminute extract from a conversation between three women friends, that the features assumed by Coates to be central conversational strategies in the building of female friendship are not the only ways for women to accomplish this function.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hunt, Sally
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139149 , vital:37709 , DOI: 10.2989/16073610509486400
- Description: This paper provides an analysis of a conversation between young women friends, which is analysed in terms of Coates’ (1988; 1997; 1999) work on the features of conversation amongst female friends. Coates identifies a number of features which, she says, are typical of conversation between (adult) female friends: a domestic setting, female participants, topics relating to people and feelings, and various formal features including smooth topic development, frequent minimal responses, supportive forms of simultaneous speech and epistemic modality (‘softening’ strategies, including tag questions) (Coates, 1988: 97). The overarching function, she claims, is one of solidarity-building and support: ‘the maintenance of good social relationships’ and ‘the reaffirming and strengthening of friendship’ (Coates, 1988: 98). While this last feature, the function of conversation between women friends, is borne out by the extract to be analysed, the participants in my study utilise different strategies to accomplish it and, in several respects, do not utilise the other features Coates claims to be typical. The research shows, through a detailed analysis of a nineminute extract from a conversation between three women friends, that the features assumed by Coates to be central conversational strategies in the building of female friendship are not the only ways for women to accomplish this function.
- Full Text:
South Africa's financial press and the political process: the global financial crisis
- Authors: Brand, Robert
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/454504 , vital:75351 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139949
- Description: Robert Brand takes an historical approach to show that the financial press has always reflected and interpreted not mass opinion but the values and views of a narrow elite, including business men, economists and political agents. In this way, the financial media play a crucial role in spreading economic ideas and ideologies, setting the parameters of debate.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Brand, Robert
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/454504 , vital:75351 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139949
- Description: Robert Brand takes an historical approach to show that the financial press has always reflected and interpreted not mass opinion but the values and views of a narrow elite, including business men, economists and political agents. In this way, the financial media play a crucial role in spreading economic ideas and ideologies, setting the parameters of debate.
- Full Text:
South Africa: Applied competence as the guiding framework for environmental and sustainability education
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Raven, Glenda C
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Raven, Glenda C
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437395 , vital:73375 , ISBN 978-1-4020-8194-1 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_22
- Description: Following the demise of apartheid rule in South Africa in 1994, the new government adopted the South African Qualifications Act (RSA, 1995a) which established the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). The SAQA was tasked with the responsibility for developing and im-plementing a national qualifications framework (NQF) based on princi-ples of quality, equity and redress. A primary objective of the NQF was to establish a portable and responsive model for lifelong learning and one which could recognize prior learning according to an outcomes-based education and training framework. In addition to this mandate and amongst other responsibilities, SAQA has had a responsibility to design and develop qualifications that respond to the environmental rights and sustainable development clauses of the Constitution and as-sociated national policies. Through this, environment and sustainability education was placed on the national education and training agenda (see Lotz-Sisitka and Olvitt in this volume).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Raven, Glenda C
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437395 , vital:73375 , ISBN 978-1-4020-8194-1 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_22
- Description: Following the demise of apartheid rule in South Africa in 1994, the new government adopted the South African Qualifications Act (RSA, 1995a) which established the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). The SAQA was tasked with the responsibility for developing and im-plementing a national qualifications framework (NQF) based on princi-ples of quality, equity and redress. A primary objective of the NQF was to establish a portable and responsive model for lifelong learning and one which could recognize prior learning according to an outcomes-based education and training framework. In addition to this mandate and amongst other responsibilities, SAQA has had a responsibility to design and develop qualifications that respond to the environmental rights and sustainable development clauses of the Constitution and as-sociated national policies. Through this, environment and sustainability education was placed on the national education and training agenda (see Lotz-Sisitka and Olvitt in this volume).
- Full Text:
South Africa: Strengthening responses to sustainable development policy and legislation
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437382 , vital:73374 , ISBN 978-1-4020-8194-1 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_23
- Description: A key objective of the newly established South African national qualifi-cations framework (NQF) is to enable the transformation of society, fol-lowing the demise of apartheid in 1994. Through the South African Constitution, which enshrines the right to a healthy environment for all citizens, and the sustainable utilization of resources for current and fu-ture generations (RSA, 1996), South African society adopted a devel-opment path that is oriented towards sustainable development. The de-velopment and implementation of the NQF (established by the South African Qualifications Authority Act in 1995) has involved various initia-tives to design and develop qualifications that respond to the environ-mental rights and sustainable development clauses of the Constitution and associated national policy. The past 10 years have been an active period for reconceptualizing education and training in South Africa, par-ticularly in the previously neglected1 area of workplacebased learning. New structures were put in place to develop and approve flexible and portable qualifications in unit-standard format, new service delivery structures and mechanisms have been established which allow for flex-ible forms of programme delivery and new learning programmes have been designed to respond to the outcomes-based, flexible format of the NQF. The NQF has created new opportunities for lifelong learning and new possibilities for those formerly disadvantaged by apartheid exclu-sionary policies and systems to gain access to education and training, and recognition for their skills and competencies. It has also created the space for new innovative programmes to emerge that respond to emerging issues in society, such as increased environmental degradation, increased health risks and new social and economic challenges.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437382 , vital:73374 , ISBN 978-1-4020-8194-1 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_23
- Description: A key objective of the newly established South African national qualifi-cations framework (NQF) is to enable the transformation of society, fol-lowing the demise of apartheid in 1994. Through the South African Constitution, which enshrines the right to a healthy environment for all citizens, and the sustainable utilization of resources for current and fu-ture generations (RSA, 1996), South African society adopted a devel-opment path that is oriented towards sustainable development. The de-velopment and implementation of the NQF (established by the South African Qualifications Authority Act in 1995) has involved various initia-tives to design and develop qualifications that respond to the environ-mental rights and sustainable development clauses of the Constitution and associated national policy. The past 10 years have been an active period for reconceptualizing education and training in South Africa, par-ticularly in the previously neglected1 area of workplacebased learning. New structures were put in place to develop and approve flexible and portable qualifications in unit-standard format, new service delivery structures and mechanisms have been established which allow for flex-ible forms of programme delivery and new learning programmes have been designed to respond to the outcomes-based, flexible format of the NQF. The NQF has created new opportunities for lifelong learning and new possibilities for those formerly disadvantaged by apartheid exclu-sionary policies and systems to gain access to education and training, and recognition for their skills and competencies. It has also created the space for new innovative programmes to emerge that respond to emerging issues in society, such as increased environmental degradation, increased health risks and new social and economic challenges.
- Full Text:
South African music libraries : collegial, institutional and geographic isolation, an examination
- Authors: Still-Drewett, F
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6984 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006723
- Description: Music libraries are relatively recent additions to South African library collections and attempts at forming a music library association have been thwarted through a number of financial and historical societal limitations. Consequently, many South African music librarians feel isolated from the field. This paper examines the effects of this isolation and the benefits that closer association for the librarian could bring. Future outlooks for music libraries in South Africa are discussed and suggestions made for a more positive future. Les bibliothèques de musique sont des additions relativement récentes aux collections des bibliothèques en Afrique du sud. Les tentatives de création d'une aßociation de bibliothécaires de musique ont été contrariées pour des raisons financières, historiques et sociales. Par conséquent, beaucoup de bibliothécaires de musique se sentent isolés du milieu. Cet article examine les effets de cette isolation et les bénéfices que pourrait apporter une aßociation qui rapproche les bibliothécaires. Il aborde des discußions sur des perspectives futures et émet des suggestion afin d'appréhender un avenir plus positif. Musikbibliotheken sind eine relativ neue Erscheinung im Bibliothekswesen Südafrikas. Die Gründung einer musikbibliothekarischen Vereinigung ist aus finanziellen und anderen Gründen heraus immer wieder gescheitert. Daher fühlen sich viele südafrikanische Musikbibliothekare beruflich isoliert. Der Artikel untersucht die Auswirkungen dieser Isolation und die Vorteile, die ein engerer Zusammenschluß den Bibliothekaren bringen könnte. Er wagt einen Ausblick in und macht Vorschläge für die Zukunft südafrikanischer Musikbibliotheken.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Still-Drewett, F
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6984 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006723
- Description: Music libraries are relatively recent additions to South African library collections and attempts at forming a music library association have been thwarted through a number of financial and historical societal limitations. Consequently, many South African music librarians feel isolated from the field. This paper examines the effects of this isolation and the benefits that closer association for the librarian could bring. Future outlooks for music libraries in South Africa are discussed and suggestions made for a more positive future. Les bibliothèques de musique sont des additions relativement récentes aux collections des bibliothèques en Afrique du sud. Les tentatives de création d'une aßociation de bibliothécaires de musique ont été contrariées pour des raisons financières, historiques et sociales. Par conséquent, beaucoup de bibliothécaires de musique se sentent isolés du milieu. Cet article examine les effets de cette isolation et les bénéfices que pourrait apporter une aßociation qui rapproche les bibliothécaires. Il aborde des discußions sur des perspectives futures et émet des suggestion afin d'appréhender un avenir plus positif. Musikbibliotheken sind eine relativ neue Erscheinung im Bibliothekswesen Südafrikas. Die Gründung einer musikbibliothekarischen Vereinigung ist aus finanziellen und anderen Gründen heraus immer wieder gescheitert. Daher fühlen sich viele südafrikanische Musikbibliothekare beruflich isoliert. Der Artikel untersucht die Auswirkungen dieser Isolation und die Vorteile, die ein engerer Zusammenschluß den Bibliothekaren bringen könnte. Er wagt einen Ausblick in und macht Vorschläge für die Zukunft südafrikanischer Musikbibliotheken.
- Full Text:
South African Shakespeare in the twentieth century
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:7061 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007425
- Description: This special section of the Shakespearean International Yearbook asks a series of questions about South African Shakespeare, chapter by chapter, focusing on the twentieth century. The temporal emphasis is deliberate, because it was particularly in the last century that Shakespeare became an issue, albeit a minor one, in relation to the titanic political and ideological struggles that convulsed the country throughout the period. The articles set out to examine and re-assess, in historical sequence, some of the acknowledged highlights of Shakespeare in South Africa in the last century. These are the moments when, for a range of different reasons, Shakespeare troubles the public sphere to claim attention in excess of that normally accorded ‘routine Shakespeare,’ that haphazard succession of productions, tours, educational debates, academic publications, reviews and commentary that comprises the internal history of the subject.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:7061 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007425
- Description: This special section of the Shakespearean International Yearbook asks a series of questions about South African Shakespeare, chapter by chapter, focusing on the twentieth century. The temporal emphasis is deliberate, because it was particularly in the last century that Shakespeare became an issue, albeit a minor one, in relation to the titanic political and ideological struggles that convulsed the country throughout the period. The articles set out to examine and re-assess, in historical sequence, some of the acknowledged highlights of Shakespeare in South Africa in the last century. These are the moments when, for a range of different reasons, Shakespeare troubles the public sphere to claim attention in excess of that normally accorded ‘routine Shakespeare,’ that haphazard succession of productions, tours, educational debates, academic publications, reviews and commentary that comprises the internal history of the subject.
- Full Text:
Spectroscopic and photophysicochemical behaviour of novel cadmium phthalocyanine derivatives tetra-substituted at the alpha and beta positions
- Nyokong, Tebello, Chidawanyika, Wadzanai J U
- Authors: Nyokong, Tebello , Chidawanyika, Wadzanai J U
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6582 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004147
- Description: The syntheses of three cadmium phthalocyanine derivatives tetrakis{1,(4)-(4-benzyloxy)phenoxyphthalocyaninato} (5a), tetrakis{1,(4)-(2-pyridyloxy)phthalocyaninato} (5b) and tetrakis{2,(3)-(4-benzyloxy)phenoxyphthalocyaninato} (6a) are reported here for the first time. Spectroscopic and photophysical properties have also been determined and the results are discussed here paying particular attention to the influence of various organic solvents in relation to the position and type of substitution. Singlet oxygen quantum yields (ΦΔ) and photodegradation quantum yields (ΦPd) have also been discussed. The triplet quantum yields have been determined and ranged from ΦT = 0.36 to 0.85, where the peripherally (β) substituted derivatives generally give higher values than those substituted at the non-peripheral (α) positions. The triplet lifetimes ranged from τT = 5 to 40 μs. In all cases (except toluene, due to the lack of data), the highest singlet oxygen quantum yields obtained were for the pyridyloxy-substituted derivatives 5b (ΦΔ = 0.60 in DMF) and 6b (ΦΔ = 0.74 in DMSO).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nyokong, Tebello , Chidawanyika, Wadzanai J U
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6582 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004147
- Description: The syntheses of three cadmium phthalocyanine derivatives tetrakis{1,(4)-(4-benzyloxy)phenoxyphthalocyaninato} (5a), tetrakis{1,(4)-(2-pyridyloxy)phthalocyaninato} (5b) and tetrakis{2,(3)-(4-benzyloxy)phenoxyphthalocyaninato} (6a) are reported here for the first time. Spectroscopic and photophysical properties have also been determined and the results are discussed here paying particular attention to the influence of various organic solvents in relation to the position and type of substitution. Singlet oxygen quantum yields (ΦΔ) and photodegradation quantum yields (ΦPd) have also been discussed. The triplet quantum yields have been determined and ranged from ΦT = 0.36 to 0.85, where the peripherally (β) substituted derivatives generally give higher values than those substituted at the non-peripheral (α) positions. The triplet lifetimes ranged from τT = 5 to 40 μs. In all cases (except toluene, due to the lack of data), the highest singlet oxygen quantum yields obtained were for the pyridyloxy-substituted derivatives 5b (ΦΔ = 0.60 in DMF) and 6b (ΦΔ = 0.74 in DMSO).
- Full Text:
St. Petersburg
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229818 , vital:49713 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47812"
- Full Text:
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229818 , vital:49713 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47812"
- Full Text:
Steps by steps: the making of the Steps for the Future documentary series, likka Vehkalathi and Don Edkins: book review
- Authors: Schoon, Alette
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159348 , vital:40290 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139902
- Description: In a frank, offbeat memoir, Finnish filmmaker Iikka Vehkalahti and his South African partner Don Edkins, tell their story of how they developed an infectious concept, charmed big broadcasters - and nearly didn't get the films made. Alette Schoon gets taken along for the ride.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Schoon, Alette
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159348 , vital:40290 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC139902
- Description: In a frank, offbeat memoir, Finnish filmmaker Iikka Vehkalahti and his South African partner Don Edkins, tell their story of how they developed an infectious concept, charmed big broadcasters - and nearly didn't get the films made. Alette Schoon gets taken along for the ride.
- Full Text:
Stronger induction of callose deposition in barley by Russian wheat aphid than bird cherry-oat aphid is not associated with differences in callose synthase or ≤-1,3-glucanase expression
- Saheed, Sefiu A, Cierlik, Izabela, Larsson, Kristina A E, Delp, Gabriele, Bradley, Graeme, Jonsson, Lisbeth M V, Botha, Christiaan E J
- Authors: Saheed, Sefiu A , Cierlik, Izabela , Larsson, Kristina A E , Delp, Gabriele , Bradley, Graeme , Jonsson, Lisbeth M V , Botha, Christiaan E J
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6542 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005984
- Description: The effects of infestation by the bird cherry-oat aphid (BCA), (Rhopalosiphum padi L) and the Russian wheat aphid (RWA) (Diuraphis noxia Mordvilko) on callose deposition and gene expression related to callose accumulation were investigated in barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Clipper). The BCA, which gives no visible symptoms, induced very limited callose deposition, even after 14 days of infestation. In contrast, RWA, which causes chlorosis, white and yellow streaking and leaf rolling, induced callose accumulation already after 24h in longitudinal leaf veins. The deposition was pronounced after 72 h, progressing during 7 and 14 days of infestation. In RWA-infested source leaves, callose was also induced in longitudinal veins basipetal to the aphid-infested tissue, whereas in sink leaves, more callose deposition was found above the feeding sites. Nine putative callose synthase genes were identified in a data base search, of which eight were expressed in the leaves, but with similar level of expression in control and aphid-infested tissue. Four out of 12 examined β-1,3-glucanases were expressed in the leaves, and three of them were up-regulated in aphid-infested tissue. They were all more strongly induced by RWA than BCA. The results suggest that callose accumulation may be partly responsible for the symptoms resulting from RWA feeding and that a callose-inducing signal may be transported in the phloem. Furthermore it is concluded that the absence of callose deposition in BCA-infested leaves is not due to a stronger induction of callose-degrading β-1,3-glucanases in this tissue, as compared to RWA-infested leaves.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Saheed, Sefiu A , Cierlik, Izabela , Larsson, Kristina A E , Delp, Gabriele , Bradley, Graeme , Jonsson, Lisbeth M V , Botha, Christiaan E J
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6542 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005984
- Description: The effects of infestation by the bird cherry-oat aphid (BCA), (Rhopalosiphum padi L) and the Russian wheat aphid (RWA) (Diuraphis noxia Mordvilko) on callose deposition and gene expression related to callose accumulation were investigated in barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Clipper). The BCA, which gives no visible symptoms, induced very limited callose deposition, even after 14 days of infestation. In contrast, RWA, which causes chlorosis, white and yellow streaking and leaf rolling, induced callose accumulation already after 24h in longitudinal leaf veins. The deposition was pronounced after 72 h, progressing during 7 and 14 days of infestation. In RWA-infested source leaves, callose was also induced in longitudinal veins basipetal to the aphid-infested tissue, whereas in sink leaves, more callose deposition was found above the feeding sites. Nine putative callose synthase genes were identified in a data base search, of which eight were expressed in the leaves, but with similar level of expression in control and aphid-infested tissue. Four out of 12 examined β-1,3-glucanases were expressed in the leaves, and three of them were up-regulated in aphid-infested tissue. They were all more strongly induced by RWA than BCA. The results suggest that callose accumulation may be partly responsible for the symptoms resulting from RWA feeding and that a callose-inducing signal may be transported in the phloem. Furthermore it is concluded that the absence of callose deposition in BCA-infested leaves is not due to a stronger induction of callose-degrading β-1,3-glucanases in this tissue, as compared to RWA-infested leaves.
- Full Text:
Student's van Hiele levels of geometric thought and conception in plane geometry: a collective case study of Nigeria and South Africa
- Authors: Atebe, Humphrey Uyouyo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1777 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003662
- Description: This study is inspired by and utilises the van Hiele theory of geometric thought levels, currently acclaimed as one of the best frameworks for studying teaching and learning processes in geometry. The study aims both to explore and explicate the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking of a selected group of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Nigerian and South African schools. The study further aims to provide a rich and indepth description of the geometry instructional practices that possibly contributed to the levels of geometric conceptualisation exhibited by this cohort of high school learners. This collective case study, presented in two volumes, is oriented within an interpretive research paradigm and characterised by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample for the study comprised a total of 144 mathematics learners and 6 mathematics teachers from Nigeria and South Africa. They were selected using both purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In using the van Hiele model to interrogate both learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation and teaching methods in geometry classrooms, the study employs a qualitative and qunatitative approach to the data-collection process, involving the use of questionnaires (in the form of various pen-and-paper tests, hands-on activity-based tests), interviews and classroom videos. Although the data analysis was done largely through descriptive statistics, the whole process inevitably incorporated elements of inferential statistics (e.g. ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc test) in the quest for indepth analysis and deeper interpretation of the data. Learners were assigned to various van Hiele levels, mainly according to Usiskin’s (1982) forced van Hiele level determination scheme. The whole process of analysing the classroom videos involved a consultative panel of 4 observers and 3 critical readers, using the checklist of van Hiele phase descriptors to guide the analysis process. Concerning learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation, the results from this study reveal that the most of the learners were not yet ready for the formal deductive study of school geometry, as only 2% and 3% of them were respectively at van Hiele levels 3 and 4, while 47%, 22% and 24% were at levels 0, 1 and 2, respectively. More learners from the Nigerian subsample (53%) were at van Hiele level 0 than learners from the South African subsample (41%) at this level. No learner from the Nigerian subsample was at van Hiele level 4, while 6% of the South African learners were at level 4. In general, learners from the Nigerian subsample had a poorer knowledge of school geometry than their peers from the South African subsample, as learners from the latter subsample obtained significantly higher mean scores in the van Hiele Geometry Test (VHGT) and each of the other tests used in this study. Results relating to gender differences in performance generally favour the male learners in this study. For each of the participating schools, learners’ van Hiele levels (as determined by their scores on the VHGT) strongly correlate with their performance in geometry content tests and mathematics generally. For each of the Nigerian and South African subsamples, for n ≤ 2, learners at van Hiele level n obtained higher means on nearly all the tests administered in this study than their peers at level n–1. This finding provides support for the hierarchical property of the van Hiele levels.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Atebe, Humphrey Uyouyo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1777 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003662
- Description: This study is inspired by and utilises the van Hiele theory of geometric thought levels, currently acclaimed as one of the best frameworks for studying teaching and learning processes in geometry. The study aims both to explore and explicate the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking of a selected group of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Nigerian and South African schools. The study further aims to provide a rich and indepth description of the geometry instructional practices that possibly contributed to the levels of geometric conceptualisation exhibited by this cohort of high school learners. This collective case study, presented in two volumes, is oriented within an interpretive research paradigm and characterised by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample for the study comprised a total of 144 mathematics learners and 6 mathematics teachers from Nigeria and South Africa. They were selected using both purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In using the van Hiele model to interrogate both learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation and teaching methods in geometry classrooms, the study employs a qualitative and qunatitative approach to the data-collection process, involving the use of questionnaires (in the form of various pen-and-paper tests, hands-on activity-based tests), interviews and classroom videos. Although the data analysis was done largely through descriptive statistics, the whole process inevitably incorporated elements of inferential statistics (e.g. ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc test) in the quest for indepth analysis and deeper interpretation of the data. Learners were assigned to various van Hiele levels, mainly according to Usiskin’s (1982) forced van Hiele level determination scheme. The whole process of analysing the classroom videos involved a consultative panel of 4 observers and 3 critical readers, using the checklist of van Hiele phase descriptors to guide the analysis process. Concerning learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation, the results from this study reveal that the most of the learners were not yet ready for the formal deductive study of school geometry, as only 2% and 3% of them were respectively at van Hiele levels 3 and 4, while 47%, 22% and 24% were at levels 0, 1 and 2, respectively. More learners from the Nigerian subsample (53%) were at van Hiele level 0 than learners from the South African subsample (41%) at this level. No learner from the Nigerian subsample was at van Hiele level 4, while 6% of the South African learners were at level 4. In general, learners from the Nigerian subsample had a poorer knowledge of school geometry than their peers from the South African subsample, as learners from the latter subsample obtained significantly higher mean scores in the van Hiele Geometry Test (VHGT) and each of the other tests used in this study. Results relating to gender differences in performance generally favour the male learners in this study. For each of the participating schools, learners’ van Hiele levels (as determined by their scores on the VHGT) strongly correlate with their performance in geometry content tests and mathematics generally. For each of the Nigerian and South African subsamples, for n ≤ 2, learners at van Hiele level n obtained higher means on nearly all the tests administered in this study than their peers at level n–1. This finding provides support for the hierarchical property of the van Hiele levels.
- Full Text:
Student-athletes' attitude formation towards sport or other psychology services
- Wilmot, Gregory Thomas Charlton
- Authors: Wilmot, Gregory Thomas Charlton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Sports -- Psychological aspects Attitude (Psychology) Stereotypes (Social psychology) Clinical psychology Athletes -- Counseling of Athletes -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3086 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002595
- Description: This qualitative study aims to explore attitude formation within a small sample of Tertiary level student-athletes in relation to their antecedent experiences, individual knowledge about psychology and the social factors impacting on their attitude formation. The study is intended to allow for the development of themes related to the participants’ personal responses to the questions posed to them. The participants’ answers from the interviews will allow for an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the constituents influencing attitude formation towards sport psychology consultation. Primarily, the study aims to explore how attitudes towards clinical and sport psychology practitioners are constructed in this sample. Clinical psychology is used as a contrasting reference point to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. The participants’ beliefs, knowledge sources and attitude toward clinical psychology are examined to understand the fundamental constituents of their attitudes and to understand how this might be related to attitude formation towards sport psychology. It is intended that exploration of the participants’ knowledge sources (e.g. parents, peers, media and coaches) and additional influences on attitudes towards clinical psychology are used to provide insight into how they might shape attitude formation toward sport psychology. This is viewed as particularly important as sport psychology is an increasingly important tool in assisting the enhancement of sporting performance output. This qualitative study uses four elite student-athletes from the same sporting discipline and contextual background to allow for close linkages between the participants’ responses about attitude formation to be made. The study further aims to explore and understand how similarities and differences occur between the participants’ responses which will be completed through analysing and drawing parallels within themes relating to the literature or emerging separately. The Literature Review is intended to help guide the research through providing a reference source for contextualizing individual, public and socially generated beliefs and knowledge (literacy) about mental health / psychology, the constituents of attitude formation and the student-athlete’s context. These factors were identified in the literature as crucial components in attitude formation and also assisted in the development of initial themes, thus guiding the research. Unfortunately, there was limited literature pertaining to attitude formation in relation to sport psychology services and thus provide justification for using clinical psychology to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. This initial exploration of attitude formation in clinical psychology was used as a ‘template’ for contrasting attitude formation in the sample student-athletes as an indication of attitude formation in sport psychology. The Literature Review is viewed as an integral and active component of the study that is used as a body of reference guiding the exploration and interpretation of the emergent themes. This is done through the iterative reference to past research relating to attitude formation, health beliefs, and the numerous sources of information influencing attitude formation within clinical psychology and the student-athlete context. Most importantly, the Literature Review provides a significant base of information that guides the Research Question and the particular factors that have been noted as the most significant to the research. The Literature Review is intended to guide the Research Question and highlight the significant components that need to be taken into consideration in exploring attitude formation. This study, having taken the numerous individual, social, contextual and other factors into consideration, seeks to understand how such factors combine to shape attitudes and influence attitude formation. The collection of literature on social, knowledge and antecedent factors are significant in their role of shaping attitude formation and thus have been included within the Research Question. Furthermore, the Research Question and Literature Review had an impact on the Methodology and why Thematic Analysis was selected. Given the similarities in the participants’ sporting and contextual backgrounds (e.g., being in the same crew, university and social context), it was felt that the primary determinants of attitude formation, within antecedent experiences, knowledge and social influences, would emerge in related themes and thus provide greater insight into attitude formation within the student-athlete context. A limiting factor however, does lie in the small number of participants from a limited diversity of backgrounds, experiences or factors that could assist in allowing broader generalisations of the findings. However, this study aims to understand how the particular factors influence or shape attitudes towards sport and other psychology services and aims to understand the more specific or ‘fundamental’ components of attitude formation that are experienced within the student-athlete’s context and environment.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wilmot, Gregory Thomas Charlton
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Sports -- Psychological aspects Attitude (Psychology) Stereotypes (Social psychology) Clinical psychology Athletes -- Counseling of Athletes -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3086 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002595
- Description: This qualitative study aims to explore attitude formation within a small sample of Tertiary level student-athletes in relation to their antecedent experiences, individual knowledge about psychology and the social factors impacting on their attitude formation. The study is intended to allow for the development of themes related to the participants’ personal responses to the questions posed to them. The participants’ answers from the interviews will allow for an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the constituents influencing attitude formation towards sport psychology consultation. Primarily, the study aims to explore how attitudes towards clinical and sport psychology practitioners are constructed in this sample. Clinical psychology is used as a contrasting reference point to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. The participants’ beliefs, knowledge sources and attitude toward clinical psychology are examined to understand the fundamental constituents of their attitudes and to understand how this might be related to attitude formation towards sport psychology. It is intended that exploration of the participants’ knowledge sources (e.g. parents, peers, media and coaches) and additional influences on attitudes towards clinical psychology are used to provide insight into how they might shape attitude formation toward sport psychology. This is viewed as particularly important as sport psychology is an increasingly important tool in assisting the enhancement of sporting performance output. This qualitative study uses four elite student-athletes from the same sporting discipline and contextual background to allow for close linkages between the participants’ responses about attitude formation to be made. The study further aims to explore and understand how similarities and differences occur between the participants’ responses which will be completed through analysing and drawing parallels within themes relating to the literature or emerging separately. The Literature Review is intended to help guide the research through providing a reference source for contextualizing individual, public and socially generated beliefs and knowledge (literacy) about mental health / psychology, the constituents of attitude formation and the student-athlete’s context. These factors were identified in the literature as crucial components in attitude formation and also assisted in the development of initial themes, thus guiding the research. Unfortunately, there was limited literature pertaining to attitude formation in relation to sport psychology services and thus provide justification for using clinical psychology to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. This initial exploration of attitude formation in clinical psychology was used as a ‘template’ for contrasting attitude formation in the sample student-athletes as an indication of attitude formation in sport psychology. The Literature Review is viewed as an integral and active component of the study that is used as a body of reference guiding the exploration and interpretation of the emergent themes. This is done through the iterative reference to past research relating to attitude formation, health beliefs, and the numerous sources of information influencing attitude formation within clinical psychology and the student-athlete context. Most importantly, the Literature Review provides a significant base of information that guides the Research Question and the particular factors that have been noted as the most significant to the research. The Literature Review is intended to guide the Research Question and highlight the significant components that need to be taken into consideration in exploring attitude formation. This study, having taken the numerous individual, social, contextual and other factors into consideration, seeks to understand how such factors combine to shape attitudes and influence attitude formation. The collection of literature on social, knowledge and antecedent factors are significant in their role of shaping attitude formation and thus have been included within the Research Question. Furthermore, the Research Question and Literature Review had an impact on the Methodology and why Thematic Analysis was selected. Given the similarities in the participants’ sporting and contextual backgrounds (e.g., being in the same crew, university and social context), it was felt that the primary determinants of attitude formation, within antecedent experiences, knowledge and social influences, would emerge in related themes and thus provide greater insight into attitude formation within the student-athlete context. A limiting factor however, does lie in the small number of participants from a limited diversity of backgrounds, experiences or factors that could assist in allowing broader generalisations of the findings. However, this study aims to understand how the particular factors influence or shape attitudes towards sport and other psychology services and aims to understand the more specific or ‘fundamental’ components of attitude formation that are experienced within the student-athlete’s context and environment.
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