Transformative, transgressive social learning: Rethinking higher education pedagogy in times of systemic global dysfunction
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Wals, Arjen E J , Kronlid, David O , McGarry, Dylan K
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/372794 , vital:66623 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.07.018"
- Description: The nature of the sustainability challenges currently at hand is such that dominant pedagogies and forms of learning that characterize higher education need to be reconsidered to enable students and staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge claims and inevitable uncertainty. In this contribution we identified four streams of emerging transformative, transgressive learning research and praxis in the sustainability sciences that appear generative of a higher education pedagogy that appears more responsive to the key challenges of our time: (1) reflexive social learning and capabilities theory, (2) critical phenomenology, (3) socio-cultural and cultural historical activity theory, and (4) new social movement, postcolonial and decolonisation theory. The paper critiques the current tendency in sustainability science and learning to rely on resilience and adaptive capacity building and argues that in order to break with maladaptive resilience of unsustainable systems it is essential to strengthen transgressive learning and disruptive capacity-building.
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Transformative, transgressive social learning: Rethinking higher education pedagogy in times of systemic global dysfunction
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Wals, Arjen E , Kronlid, David O , McGarry, Dylan K
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/392190 , vital:68729 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.07.018"
- Description: The nature of the sustainability challenges currently at hand is such that dominant pedagogies and forms of learning that characterize higher education need to be reconsidered to enable students and staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge claims and inevitable uncertainty. In this contribution we identified four streams of emerging transformative, transgressive learning research and praxis in the sustainability sciences that appear generative of a higher education pedagogy that appears more responsive to the key challenges of our time: (1) reflexive social learning and capabilities theory, (2) critical phenomenology, (3) socio-cultural and cultural historical activity theory, and (4) new social movement, postcolonial and decolonisation theory. The paper critiques the current tendency in sustainability science and learning to rely on resilience and adaptive capacity building and argues that in order to break with maladaptive resilience of unsustainable systems it is essential to strengthen transgressive learning and disruptive capacity-building.
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Trophic relationships of hake (Merluccius capensis and M. paradoxus) and sharks (Centrophorus squamosus, Deania calcea and D. profundorum) in the Northern (Namibia) Benguela Current region
- Authors: Iitembu, Johannes A , Richoux, Nicole B
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/443830 , vital:74157 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC183122
- Description: The trophic relationships of two hake species (Merluccius capensis and M. paradoxus) and three shark species (Centrophorus squamosus, Deania calcea and D. profundorum) were investigated using nitrogen and carbon stable isotope signatures (15N and 13C) of their muscle tissues. The sharks were more enriched in 15N than the hake, an indication of the apex predator status of sharks. Among the sharks considered, C. squamosus occupied the highest trophic level and fed primarily on benthic prey. The two species of shark from the genus Deania were not different based on 15N or 13C, so they had similar diets. The 13C signatures indicated that M. capensis and sharks fed on prey derived from similar basal resources. However, there was a significant difference in 13C between M. paradoxus and all other species examined, suggesting that they occupied different feeding niches. Isotope-based populationmetrics showed narrower trophic ranges in sharks than M. capensis. Carbon and nitrogen ranges indicated that hake fed on a more diverse pool of carbon sources and had generally more enhanced trophic diversity in their feeding patterns than sharks. Among the species considered, C. squamosus occupied a unique isotopic space. Our results supported the hypothesis there are trophic overlaps among these species, but some interesting differentiation was revealed.
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Trypanosoma brucei J protein 2 is a stress inducible and essential Hsp40
- Authors: Ludewig, Michael H , Boshoff, Aileen , Horn, David , Blatch, Gregory L
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431798 , vital:72804 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2014.12.016"
- Description: Hsp40 proteins (also known as DnaJ or J proteins) serve as co-chaperones for Hsp70, but also display evidence of independent chaperone function. Furthermore, certain Hsp40s have been shown to be stress-inducible and essential. Trypanosomatids display a remarkable diversification of Hsp40 proteins, with numerous distinct Hsp40-like proteins encoded in the Trypanosoma brucei genome. This study investigated the role of one of the six T. brucei Type I Hsp40s, T. brucei J protein 2 (Tbj2). We found that Tbj2 was heat stress-inducible, and that knockdown using RNA interference resulted in a severe growth defect under normal growth temperatures. Furthermore, a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-Tbj2 fusion protein was found to be localized to the cytosol of T. brucei. Taken together, these data suggest that Tbj2 is not functionally equivalent to the other five Type I Hsp40s, and that it is an essential, cytosolic, and stress-inducible chaperone, potentially playing an important role in protein biogenesis in T. brucei.
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Uncle Noodle
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/229676 , vital:49699 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC176906"
- Description: “Ah,” he seemed surprised to see me, “Now you find out who really cares...” His kidneys hadn‟t been on the job in months, and with the machines failing, his hands were fattening into stubby yellow fingers, as the waste shored up inside of him. I touched his arm, and we joked about the broad blunt strokes of the casiotone the old dame played for the lunch-eaters next door. Uncle Noodle had always been my favourite. In a world where adults were always certain, ready to disdain and judge and pass verdict – I loved it that he was indecisive, insecure, unsure. Often wretched, often defeated. His heart had chasmed in the wake of his wife‟s leaving, finally dividing him from all his hopes, collapsing his dignity destroying his happiness machinery.
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Variation in urease and β-glucosidase activities with soil depth and root density in a ‘Cripp's Pink’/M7 apple orchard under conventional and organic management.
- Authors: Meyer, André H , Wooldridge, John , Dames, Joanna F
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444051 , vital:74181 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02571862.2015.1053155
- Description: The effects of conventional (CON; utilising synthetic fertiliser and herbicide) and organic (ORG; nutrients supplied in compost, weeds controlled with straw mulch) orchard floor management practices on depth-wise variation in urease and β-glucosidase activities in tree-row soils were compared in a Western Cape ‘Cripp's Pink’/M7 apple orchard. Urease and β-glucosidase activities were determined spectrophotometrically in soils from five depth intervals from the walls of trenches excavated across the tree rows after seven years of treatment application. Soil pH, organic carbon, nitrate (NO3 ) and ammonium (NH4 ) nitrogen were also determined, as was root density. Enzyme activities were higher in the ORG than the CON topsoils but did not differ significantly (p = 0.05) at depths >30 cm. The positive effects of the ORG treatments were attributed to the liming effect and carbon and nitrogen contributions of the compost. Urease and β-glucosidase activities correlated strongly. Activities of both enzymes correlated significantly and positively with carbon, NO3− and pH, with urease correlated more strongly than β-glucosidase. Only urease correlated with root density. Organic orchard floor management practices may be more effective than CON practices in promoting microbial enzyme activities in the 0–30 cm soil depth intervals of Western Cape apple orchard soils.
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Venerating death
- Authors: Jones, Ward E
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/275749 , vital:55076 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2015.1014540"
- Description: In this paper, I am concerned with elucidating and expanding our attitudes toward our own death. As it is, our common attitudes toward our death are the following: we fear our premature death, and we dread our inevitable death. These attitudes are rational, but I want to argue that our attitudes toward death should be more complicated than this. A condition upon our value, our preciousness, as creatures is that we are vulnerable, and our vulnerability is, at bottom, a vulnerability to death. A corollary of this is that we could not be loved, either by ourselves or by others, for one cannot love—be concerned for—a being invulnerable to death. As a consequence, death plays a deep and abiding role in our value systems. Our susceptibility to premature and inevitable death is a condition upon our being valuable creatures and, in turn, it is a condition upon our being loved. Given the high value that we place on being valuable creatures who deserve love, we should equally place a high value on the constitutive conditions for being precious and loved. If, as I suggest, one of these conditions is that we will die, we should see our deaths not simply as something to fear or dread, but as something of great importance in our lives. Our deaths should be treated with awe, respect, and even praise.
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Visible light transformation of Rhodamine 6G using tetracarbazole zinc phthalocyanine when embedded in electrospun fibers and in the presence of ZnO and Ag particles
- Authors: Khoza, Phindile , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/189456 , vital:44848 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00958972.2015.1013944"
- Description: Herein, we report the photocatalytic transformation of Rhodamine 6G (Rh 6G) using tetracarbazole zinc phthalocyanine (TCbZnPc) when alone or when conjugated with ZnO macroparticles (ZnOMPs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), represented as TCbZnPc–ZnOMPs and TCbZnPc–AgNPs, respectively. The photocatalysts were supported onto electrospun polystyrene fibers. The efficiency of TCbZnPc was improved by the presence of both ZnOMPs and AgNPs. HPLC equipped with UV–vis was used to study phototransformation products. The mechanism of transformation was via the N-de-ethylation of Rh 6G.
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Whose voice is it anyway?
- Authors: Krueger, Anton
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/225695 , vital:49249 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1013929X.2015.1086195"
- Description: This essay surveys a number of different interpretations of the metaphor of “voice”. It begins by exploring the use of free writing exercises as a means of nurturing the emergence of physical (audible) voice in creative writing classes before assessing some of the ramifications and implications of the trope, both diachronically and synchronically. A key issue of this discussion is whether voice is regarded as individual or social.
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Wisdom as an aim of higher education
- Authors: Jones, Ward E
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/275765 , vital:55077 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-014-9443-z"
- Description: A central concern of theoretical speculation about education is the kind of epistemic states that education can and should aim to achieve. One such epistemic state, long neglected in both education theory and philosophy, is wisdom. Might wisdom be something that educators should aim for? And might it be something that their students can achieve? My answer will be a qualified yes.
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Women combatants and the liberation movements in South Africa
- Authors: Magadla, Siphokazi
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/298584 , vital:57718 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2015.1088645"
- Description: This article examines women's role as combatants in national liberation forces in South Africa. Three categories – guerrilla girls, combative mothers and the in-betweeners – are introduced to underscore the varied ways in which women have participated in combat within the national liberation movements. Factors such as age and one's ability to leave the country affected whether women could participate in combat as ‘guerrilla girls’ or if it limited them to fighting apartheid violence from home, or if there were women who can be defined as having fallen somewhere in between these categories. These categories are used to theorise women's combat roles in the anti-apartheid struggle, thus broadening and challenging the dominant notions of combat that often hide women's contributions in war. In this regard, different periods of struggle, physical location, as well as age, determined the methods of activism available to men and women.
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“Ha! Relationships? I only shout at them!”: Strategic management of discordant rapport in an African small business context
- Authors: Lauriks, Sanne , Siebörger, Ian , de Vos, Mark
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/385338 , vital:68009 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2015-0002"
- Description: This study demonstrates how and why interactants at a tyre fitment centre in Grahamstown, South Africa, manage discordant interpersonal relationships in strategic ways. Individuals in a post-apartheid small business respond to their social and economic context and exercise agency to their advantage in doing so. This study draws on linguistic ethnography (Rampton 2007) and the Rapport Management Framework (RMF, Spencer-Oatey 2000b, 2011), itself a development of politeness theory (Brown and Levinson 1987). An initial RMF analysis ran into difficulties around interactions that at first glance appeared to be oriented toward Rapport Challenge and Neglect. Upon closer examination, it appeared that discordant rapport was being actively maintained in this business. This led us to address underdeveloped areas of RMF that were not responsive enough to describe naturally occurring small business interactions, and propose an Enhanced Rapport Management Framework to overcome its inadequacies. We conclude that people may deliberately maintain discordant relationships when it is in their best interests to do so. Thus, contrary to a common-sense belief that harmonious social relations are an intrinsic good, we found that promoting discordant social relations can be understood as a rational response to individuals’ social and economic contexts, particularly in conditions such as those in many postcolonial African societies.
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