Effects of the biocontrol agent, coelocephalapion camarae kissinger, galling on petiole tissues, plant growth and stored reserves in plant parts of two lantana camara L.(verbenaceae) varieties
- Authors: Kistensamy, Yoganambal
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3126 , vital:20372
- Description: The agent evaluated in this study, Coelocephalapion camarae Kissinger (Brentidae), a petiole galling apionid, was released against Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) in South Africa and has the potential to significantly contribute to the control of this noxious weed. An important aspect of evaluating the effectiveness of a biocontrol agent; include the understanding of the mechanism in which the biocontrol agent causes damage to the plant and the plant’s response to this damage. Another aspect that was considered in evaluating the effects of the apionid was the varietal differences that exist within the weedy L. camara complex. Larval feeding of C. camarae damaged the tissue in the petioles causing gall formation and this was quantified on two common South African L. camara varieties (017 and 018). Up to 100% of the vascular tissue (xylem and phloem) of effected petioles was eaten by larvae, 25 days after ovipostion in both the L. camara varieties, effectively severing the vascular connection from the leaves. The effect of feeding and galling by different population densities of C. camarae, on biomass and total soluble sugar and starch concentrations of different plant parts was measured on these two varieties during autumn, and compared to a similar study, done during summer. Relatively low galling percentages were achieved in the experiments of this study. Plant growth was less affected by apionid feeding at similar galling levels, as higher galling densities in these trials were similar to those at low exposures in trials by Baars (2002). The dry weights of all individual and combined plant parts for lantana variety 017 was less for both adult density exposures after 70 days compared to the weights of its controls, although not statistically significant at P>0.05 The opposite effect, though barely noticeable was recorded for lantana variety 018; here, the dry weights of individual plant parts and as whole plants weighed more in the plants exposed to both densities of weevil feeding and galling after 70 days, compared to its controls. Coelocephalapion camarae herbivory may thus be more effective in inflicting damage on some L. camara varieties compared to others. The effects of late season carbohydrate storage revealed that, from early- to mid-autumn starch concentrations increased significantly in stems of both L. camara varieties and L. camara var. 018 had larger starch reserves for winter. In L. camara var. 018 stems, starch increased 52 times and concentrations doubled in stems of L. camara var 017. The increase in the sugar and decrease in starch concentrations in leaves of plants of both varieties exposed to apionids in this study was attributed to a possible reduction of available nitrogen and phosphorus, due to apionid feeding, whilst starch was reallocated within the plants to stems and roots. The increase in starch concentrations in stems of plants that were exposed to apionids may have been expected, as compensation for herbivory has been associated with, increases in photosynthetic rates and the mobilization of stored resources. Herbivory by the apionid early in the growing season may be easily compensated for by L. camara as there are nutrient flushes experienced by plants that allows the maximum uptake of nutrients facilitating recovery, whereas later in the season plants suffer lower nutrient availability and don’t recover so readily. Both early and late in the season the accumulated effects of C. camarae feeding over time will undoubtedly decrease fitness of most lantana varieties.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Kistensamy, Yoganambal
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3126 , vital:20372
- Description: The agent evaluated in this study, Coelocephalapion camarae Kissinger (Brentidae), a petiole galling apionid, was released against Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) in South Africa and has the potential to significantly contribute to the control of this noxious weed. An important aspect of evaluating the effectiveness of a biocontrol agent; include the understanding of the mechanism in which the biocontrol agent causes damage to the plant and the plant’s response to this damage. Another aspect that was considered in evaluating the effects of the apionid was the varietal differences that exist within the weedy L. camara complex. Larval feeding of C. camarae damaged the tissue in the petioles causing gall formation and this was quantified on two common South African L. camara varieties (017 and 018). Up to 100% of the vascular tissue (xylem and phloem) of effected petioles was eaten by larvae, 25 days after ovipostion in both the L. camara varieties, effectively severing the vascular connection from the leaves. The effect of feeding and galling by different population densities of C. camarae, on biomass and total soluble sugar and starch concentrations of different plant parts was measured on these two varieties during autumn, and compared to a similar study, done during summer. Relatively low galling percentages were achieved in the experiments of this study. Plant growth was less affected by apionid feeding at similar galling levels, as higher galling densities in these trials were similar to those at low exposures in trials by Baars (2002). The dry weights of all individual and combined plant parts for lantana variety 017 was less for both adult density exposures after 70 days compared to the weights of its controls, although not statistically significant at P>0.05 The opposite effect, though barely noticeable was recorded for lantana variety 018; here, the dry weights of individual plant parts and as whole plants weighed more in the plants exposed to both densities of weevil feeding and galling after 70 days, compared to its controls. Coelocephalapion camarae herbivory may thus be more effective in inflicting damage on some L. camara varieties compared to others. The effects of late season carbohydrate storage revealed that, from early- to mid-autumn starch concentrations increased significantly in stems of both L. camara varieties and L. camara var. 018 had larger starch reserves for winter. In L. camara var. 018 stems, starch increased 52 times and concentrations doubled in stems of L. camara var 017. The increase in the sugar and decrease in starch concentrations in leaves of plants of both varieties exposed to apionids in this study was attributed to a possible reduction of available nitrogen and phosphorus, due to apionid feeding, whilst starch was reallocated within the plants to stems and roots. The increase in starch concentrations in stems of plants that were exposed to apionids may have been expected, as compensation for herbivory has been associated with, increases in photosynthetic rates and the mobilization of stored resources. Herbivory by the apionid early in the growing season may be easily compensated for by L. camara as there are nutrient flushes experienced by plants that allows the maximum uptake of nutrients facilitating recovery, whereas later in the season plants suffer lower nutrient availability and don’t recover so readily. Both early and late in the season the accumulated effects of C. camarae feeding over time will undoubtedly decrease fitness of most lantana varieties.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Fusing fact and fiction: biography and autobiography in the novels of Virginia Woolf
- Authors: White, Joshua Craig
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4005 , vital:20580
- Description: Virginia Woolf was noted for a preoccupation with the genre of life-writing throughout her career. Her aims when it came to reshaping the nature of biographical and autobiographical literature were numerous. She veered away from the aggrandising and patriarchal methods with which Victorian biographers tended to depict their subjects. She increased the focus on women in life-writing, examining and subverting traditionally prescribed gender roles prevalent in both her society and the literature that reflected it, and advocating a balance between male and female patterns of thinking. She also devised a method of incorporating both basic biographical fact and aspects of fiction into life-writing in order to approach a more truthful depiction of a subject’s personality or character. This method is linked to the aforementioned balance of gendered thought patterns, since Woolf often aligns factuality with male thinking and the contrasting qualities of fiction, such as intuition, ambivalence and perspicacity, with female thinking. This thesis examines three novels which demonstrate Woolf’s constant preoccupation with combining fact and fiction in order to capture the essence of personality. In her debut novel, The Voyage Out, she presents Rachel Vinrace, who must achieve a balance of male-oriented fact with female-oriented insight in order to fashion a sufficient identity for herself and to identify others in a selective and judicious manner, thus being simultaneously autobiographical and biographical. In Orlando, Woolf explicitly subverts the traditional Victorian biography by depicting Vita Sackville-West as a man who transforms into a woman and remains living for over 400 years. In presenting such a character, Woolf posits that personality consists of and is influenced by myriad aspects of a person’s life that cannot be documented in the restrictive manner employed by Victorian biographers. Orlando’s essence being obfuscated by manifold “selves” attests to Woolf problematizing attempts to attain such an essence. The same challenge is particularly important in her autobiographical novel, To the Lighthouse, in which she transposes the traumas of her own life into a fictitious narrative in order to achieve catharsis for her and her readers, and to present the difficulty in capturing the essence of character. The conclusion that Woolf eventually posits is that personality cannot be reduced to an essence, but rather that it consists of idiosyncrasies that are various, intertwining, and capricious.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: White, Joshua Craig
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4005 , vital:20580
- Description: Virginia Woolf was noted for a preoccupation with the genre of life-writing throughout her career. Her aims when it came to reshaping the nature of biographical and autobiographical literature were numerous. She veered away from the aggrandising and patriarchal methods with which Victorian biographers tended to depict their subjects. She increased the focus on women in life-writing, examining and subverting traditionally prescribed gender roles prevalent in both her society and the literature that reflected it, and advocating a balance between male and female patterns of thinking. She also devised a method of incorporating both basic biographical fact and aspects of fiction into life-writing in order to approach a more truthful depiction of a subject’s personality or character. This method is linked to the aforementioned balance of gendered thought patterns, since Woolf often aligns factuality with male thinking and the contrasting qualities of fiction, such as intuition, ambivalence and perspicacity, with female thinking. This thesis examines three novels which demonstrate Woolf’s constant preoccupation with combining fact and fiction in order to capture the essence of personality. In her debut novel, The Voyage Out, she presents Rachel Vinrace, who must achieve a balance of male-oriented fact with female-oriented insight in order to fashion a sufficient identity for herself and to identify others in a selective and judicious manner, thus being simultaneously autobiographical and biographical. In Orlando, Woolf explicitly subverts the traditional Victorian biography by depicting Vita Sackville-West as a man who transforms into a woman and remains living for over 400 years. In presenting such a character, Woolf posits that personality consists of and is influenced by myriad aspects of a person’s life that cannot be documented in the restrictive manner employed by Victorian biographers. Orlando’s essence being obfuscated by manifold “selves” attests to Woolf problematizing attempts to attain such an essence. The same challenge is particularly important in her autobiographical novel, To the Lighthouse, in which she transposes the traumas of her own life into a fictitious narrative in order to achieve catharsis for her and her readers, and to present the difficulty in capturing the essence of character. The conclusion that Woolf eventually posits is that personality cannot be reduced to an essence, but rather that it consists of idiosyncrasies that are various, intertwining, and capricious.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Classical and quantum picture of the interior of two-dimensional black holes
- Authors: Shawa, Mark
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3629 , vital:20531
- Description: A quantum-mechanical description of black holes would represent the final step in our understanding of the nature of space-time. However, any progress towards that end is usually foiled by persistent space-time singularities that exist at the center of black holes. From the four-dimensional point of view, black holes seem to resist quantization. Under highly symmetric conditions, all higher-dimensional black holes are two-dimensional. Unlike their higher-dimensional counterparts, two dimensional black holes may not resist quantization. A non-trivial description of gravity in two dimensions is not possible using Einstein’s theory of gravity alone. However, we may still arrive at a consistent description of gravity by introducing a scalar field known as the dilaton. In this thesis, we study both the classical and quantum aspects of the interior of two-dimensional black holes using a generalized dilaton-gravity theory. Classically, we will find that the interior of most two-dimensional black holes is not much different from that of four-dimensional black holes. But by introducing quantized matter into the theory, the fluctuations in space-time will give a different picture of the structure of interior of black holes. Using a low-energy effective field theory, we will show that it is indeed possible to identify quantum modes in the interior of black holes and perform quantum-mechanical calculations near the singularity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Shawa, Mark
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3629 , vital:20531
- Description: A quantum-mechanical description of black holes would represent the final step in our understanding of the nature of space-time. However, any progress towards that end is usually foiled by persistent space-time singularities that exist at the center of black holes. From the four-dimensional point of view, black holes seem to resist quantization. Under highly symmetric conditions, all higher-dimensional black holes are two-dimensional. Unlike their higher-dimensional counterparts, two dimensional black holes may not resist quantization. A non-trivial description of gravity in two dimensions is not possible using Einstein’s theory of gravity alone. However, we may still arrive at a consistent description of gravity by introducing a scalar field known as the dilaton. In this thesis, we study both the classical and quantum aspects of the interior of two-dimensional black holes using a generalized dilaton-gravity theory. Classically, we will find that the interior of most two-dimensional black holes is not much different from that of four-dimensional black holes. But by introducing quantized matter into the theory, the fluctuations in space-time will give a different picture of the structure of interior of black holes. Using a low-energy effective field theory, we will show that it is indeed possible to identify quantum modes in the interior of black holes and perform quantum-mechanical calculations near the singularity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
An investigation of participative management in a museum in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Madinda, Nozipho
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Museums -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Management , Management -- Employee participation , Albany Museum (Grahamstown, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2068 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020847
- Description: The purpose of my research was to investigate participative management at the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. My interest was to investigate participative management with regards to five HODs of the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. The research was informed by the interpretive paradigm. The interpretive paradigm does not concern itself with the search for broadly applicable laws and rules but rather seeks to produce descriptive analyses that emphasise deep interpretation and understanding of social phenomena through the meaning that the people assign to them. This study is mostly descriptive and presents the reality of participants from their own experience. Semi-structured interviews and observation capture ‘insider’ knowledge that is part of an interpretive methodology. The study found that participative management was both understood and generally accepted as a good way to manage an organisation, and even members who were critical of it could see its benefits. However, the fractured and diversified structure of the organisation calls for a particularly skillful application of this management approach, one which would also demand leadership and a greater sense of working towards what are called collegial models of management. Whether this is in fact desirable for a museum is debatable.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Madinda, Nozipho
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Museums -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Management , Management -- Employee participation , Albany Museum (Grahamstown, South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2068 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020847
- Description: The purpose of my research was to investigate participative management at the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. My interest was to investigate participative management with regards to five HODs of the Albany Museum with a view to generating knowledge and insights that can be used to support senior management’s engagement with participative management at mid-management level. The research was informed by the interpretive paradigm. The interpretive paradigm does not concern itself with the search for broadly applicable laws and rules but rather seeks to produce descriptive analyses that emphasise deep interpretation and understanding of social phenomena through the meaning that the people assign to them. This study is mostly descriptive and presents the reality of participants from their own experience. Semi-structured interviews and observation capture ‘insider’ knowledge that is part of an interpretive methodology. The study found that participative management was both understood and generally accepted as a good way to manage an organisation, and even members who were critical of it could see its benefits. However, the fractured and diversified structure of the organisation calls for a particularly skillful application of this management approach, one which would also demand leadership and a greater sense of working towards what are called collegial models of management. Whether this is in fact desirable for a museum is debatable.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Land-use effects on mammal communities in the Fish-Kowie corridor, Eastern Cape, South Africa, with particular reference to carnivores
- Authors: Kok, Armand du Preez
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/561 , vital:19970
- Description: Human population growth is causing an increase in habitat transformation on a global scale, and this transformation is driven by changes in land-use practices. One consequence of habitat transformation is the negative effect it can have on mammal communities, especially carnivores. Carnivores are important components of ecosystems as they play an essential structuring role, but also often come into conflict with people. I studied the impact of land-use on mammalian diversity, the attitudes of landowners/managers towards carnivores, the distribution of carnivores, and the interactions among carnivore species in the Fish-Kowie corridor (FKC), an area of conservation concern, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Livestock and game farming are the two dominant land-use types in the FKC. Carnivore distribution data were collected between 2012 and 2014 using a robust camera trap survey that consisted of 432 camera stations (216 on livestock and 216 on game farms). In addition, the attitudes of 55 landowners/managers were assessed using semi- structured questionnaire interviews that were conducted in person. My results revealed that mammal diversity was similar on the two land-use types. However, individual species differed in their distribution on the two land-use types. In general, both livestock and game farmers had negative attitudes towards carnivores in the FKC, due to their depredation of valuable livestock and game species. Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas), caracals (Caracal caracal), leopards (Panthera pardus), and brown hyaenas (Parahyaena brunnea) were considered the most problematic carnivores, but sensitivity to land-use varied among these four species. Black- backed jackals had the highest occupancy rates of all four predators and were 3.8 times more likely to occupy sites on game farms compared to livestock farms. By contrast, leopards and brown hyaenas were only detected on game farms, and caracals did not appear to be sensitive to the effects of land-use. In general, the interactions among carnivores were weak and were likely driven by carnivore diversity, resource partitioning, and anthropogenic pressures. While there were many subtle differences in the distribution of mammal species and human attitudes towards wildlife on livestock and game farms in the FKC, there were also many similarities. My study has produced results that can be used by the FKC community to better understand how mammals and humans interact across the landscape, information that will ultimately contribute to future conservation planning in the area.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Kok, Armand du Preez
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/561 , vital:19970
- Description: Human population growth is causing an increase in habitat transformation on a global scale, and this transformation is driven by changes in land-use practices. One consequence of habitat transformation is the negative effect it can have on mammal communities, especially carnivores. Carnivores are important components of ecosystems as they play an essential structuring role, but also often come into conflict with people. I studied the impact of land-use on mammalian diversity, the attitudes of landowners/managers towards carnivores, the distribution of carnivores, and the interactions among carnivore species in the Fish-Kowie corridor (FKC), an area of conservation concern, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Livestock and game farming are the two dominant land-use types in the FKC. Carnivore distribution data were collected between 2012 and 2014 using a robust camera trap survey that consisted of 432 camera stations (216 on livestock and 216 on game farms). In addition, the attitudes of 55 landowners/managers were assessed using semi- structured questionnaire interviews that were conducted in person. My results revealed that mammal diversity was similar on the two land-use types. However, individual species differed in their distribution on the two land-use types. In general, both livestock and game farmers had negative attitudes towards carnivores in the FKC, due to their depredation of valuable livestock and game species. Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas), caracals (Caracal caracal), leopards (Panthera pardus), and brown hyaenas (Parahyaena brunnea) were considered the most problematic carnivores, but sensitivity to land-use varied among these four species. Black- backed jackals had the highest occupancy rates of all four predators and were 3.8 times more likely to occupy sites on game farms compared to livestock farms. By contrast, leopards and brown hyaenas were only detected on game farms, and caracals did not appear to be sensitive to the effects of land-use. In general, the interactions among carnivores were weak and were likely driven by carnivore diversity, resource partitioning, and anthropogenic pressures. While there were many subtle differences in the distribution of mammal species and human attitudes towards wildlife on livestock and game farms in the FKC, there were also many similarities. My study has produced results that can be used by the FKC community to better understand how mammals and humans interact across the landscape, information that will ultimately contribute to future conservation planning in the area.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Financial characteristics of the nonprofit organisation: theory and evidence for the assessment of the financial condition of South African public universities
- Authors: Bunting, Mark Bevan
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:923 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021298 , http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3392-554X
- Description: In this thesis, an analytical framework is developed for the assessment of the financial condition of South African public universities. Foundational constructs of nonprofit economics are applied in the consideration of financial theories of nonprofit organisations in general, and public universities in particular. From this review, a number of hypotheses are developed. Each of these specifies a positive or negative association between a university's financial condition and a particular dimension of its assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses and surplus. From the nonprofit financial analysis literature, ratios and indicators relevant to these hypotheses are selected. Audited data from the annual financial statements of the universities for the seven year period 2007 to 2013 are substantially transformed in mitigation of failures in accounting, auditing and accountability. The adjusted accounting numbers are used to calculate the financial indicators applicable to each university. Exploratory factor analysis is implemented to categorise and organise this large indicator set on the basis of identified associations with a smaller number of factors. It is found that the financial condition of South African public universities is defined by two broad financial characteristics, capital and revenue. Assessment of the capital dimension is informed by a focus on institutional equity, with particular emphasis on expendable equity and its proportionate relationships with surplus, total capital, and total expenses. The revenue dimension is appropriately evaluated in the context of a comparative and interactive consideration of the three main components of South African public university revenue, as well as the proportionate relationship between non-staff operating expenses and total expenses. The framework displays considerable levels of stability and consistency over the seven year review period, and its constructs are, in addition, robust to the application of multiple alternative confirmatory tests involving financial data that are independent of the factor solutions. The financial condition assessment framework developed in this thesis offers a contribution to a broader discourse in nonprofit finance and accounting, with a focus on public university finances.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Bunting, Mark Bevan
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:923 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021298 , http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3392-554X
- Description: In this thesis, an analytical framework is developed for the assessment of the financial condition of South African public universities. Foundational constructs of nonprofit economics are applied in the consideration of financial theories of nonprofit organisations in general, and public universities in particular. From this review, a number of hypotheses are developed. Each of these specifies a positive or negative association between a university's financial condition and a particular dimension of its assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses and surplus. From the nonprofit financial analysis literature, ratios and indicators relevant to these hypotheses are selected. Audited data from the annual financial statements of the universities for the seven year period 2007 to 2013 are substantially transformed in mitigation of failures in accounting, auditing and accountability. The adjusted accounting numbers are used to calculate the financial indicators applicable to each university. Exploratory factor analysis is implemented to categorise and organise this large indicator set on the basis of identified associations with a smaller number of factors. It is found that the financial condition of South African public universities is defined by two broad financial characteristics, capital and revenue. Assessment of the capital dimension is informed by a focus on institutional equity, with particular emphasis on expendable equity and its proportionate relationships with surplus, total capital, and total expenses. The revenue dimension is appropriately evaluated in the context of a comparative and interactive consideration of the three main components of South African public university revenue, as well as the proportionate relationship between non-staff operating expenses and total expenses. The framework displays considerable levels of stability and consistency over the seven year review period, and its constructs are, in addition, robust to the application of multiple alternative confirmatory tests involving financial data that are independent of the factor solutions. The financial condition assessment framework developed in this thesis offers a contribution to a broader discourse in nonprofit finance and accounting, with a focus on public university finances.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
How do social and personal identity, sense of place, connectedness to nature and environmental understanding influence the implementation of collective, large-scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives in South Africa?
- Authors: Potts, Tracey Ann
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3663 , vital:20534
- Description: Biodiversity stewardship is a mechanism that is used to conserve high value biodiversity assets. Biodiversity stewardship programmes focus on areas that are under immediate threat from development or under medium to long term threat from degradation or transformation that will result in habitat loss. Biodiversity stewardship provides a solution to the resource crisis being faced by many state and provincial conservation agencies, NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations) and PBO’s (Public Benefit Organisations) in that it facilitates the declaration, and the subsequent improved conservation management, of private or communally owned land whilst still retaining the existing tenure. The rate of habitat loss can often be slowed, or even reversed, by proactively securing these areas and facilitating management decision-making with a focus on biodiversity outcomes without the capital investment required by the State to purchase the land. In return for conservation management actions, certain land-use restrictions and the associated opportunity costs, the State offers a suite of incentives and benefits that are, where possible, tailored to meet the needs of the landowner. Particular regions of South Africa lend themselves well to the development of biodiversity stewardship initiatives which are designed to secure ecological processes and ecosystems across a landscape or an ecological feature at scales of tens of thousands of hectares. When developing landscape level biodiversity stewardship initiatives, negotiations tend to be focussed on groups of landowners. This requires collaboration and the collective alignment of natural resource management decision-making and conservation actions amongst neighbours. Gaining a better understanding of how the social constructs of ecological understanding, place attachment, connectedness to nature, occupational identity and social and personal identity influence decision-making, behaviour and group structure is a critically important factor when developing a tool to predict the likelihood of landowners to collectively commit to long-term, legally binding biodiversity stewardship programmes. The overarching hypothesis was that the social constructs listed above influence group dynamics within the context of collective pro-conservation behaviour. Social dynamics associated with large-scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives become complex when multiple landowners are involved. Could social cohesion and group culture be influenced by aspects of identity and do these in turn develop into barriers or motivators to coordinated and sustained conservation efforts? Further influences on the successful implementation of landscape scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives could include ecological understanding, connectedness to nature and place attachment. Structured interviews were held with the landowners engaged in two separate large-scale biodiversity stewardship sites, the Compassberg Protected Environment and the Baviaanskloof Hartland, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The interviews were followed up with surveys containing psychometric scales related to the influence of ecological understanding, place attachment, connectedness to nature and aspects of identity on commitment to collective long-term, large-scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives. The results from a set of non-parametric (exact) Wilcoxon rank-sum tests showed that scores on the new ecological paradigm scale and the place attachment scale latent variables were significantly different at the two study sites, at the 10% level of significance. Demographic differences between the two study sites influenced group dynamics, collective decision-making and commitment. The relationship between the latent variables (the five psychometric scales measured) and the ancillary variables (the demographic data describing the respondents) cannot be considered conclusive; however they do provide relatively useful insights into the development of a scale or tool to measure conservation opportunity. The thesis concludes with a proposed conservation opportunity assessment tool that can be utilised alongside the existing, well refined, conservation priority assessment tools to assist in decision-making when planning large, landscape scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Potts, Tracey Ann
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3663 , vital:20534
- Description: Biodiversity stewardship is a mechanism that is used to conserve high value biodiversity assets. Biodiversity stewardship programmes focus on areas that are under immediate threat from development or under medium to long term threat from degradation or transformation that will result in habitat loss. Biodiversity stewardship provides a solution to the resource crisis being faced by many state and provincial conservation agencies, NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations) and PBO’s (Public Benefit Organisations) in that it facilitates the declaration, and the subsequent improved conservation management, of private or communally owned land whilst still retaining the existing tenure. The rate of habitat loss can often be slowed, or even reversed, by proactively securing these areas and facilitating management decision-making with a focus on biodiversity outcomes without the capital investment required by the State to purchase the land. In return for conservation management actions, certain land-use restrictions and the associated opportunity costs, the State offers a suite of incentives and benefits that are, where possible, tailored to meet the needs of the landowner. Particular regions of South Africa lend themselves well to the development of biodiversity stewardship initiatives which are designed to secure ecological processes and ecosystems across a landscape or an ecological feature at scales of tens of thousands of hectares. When developing landscape level biodiversity stewardship initiatives, negotiations tend to be focussed on groups of landowners. This requires collaboration and the collective alignment of natural resource management decision-making and conservation actions amongst neighbours. Gaining a better understanding of how the social constructs of ecological understanding, place attachment, connectedness to nature, occupational identity and social and personal identity influence decision-making, behaviour and group structure is a critically important factor when developing a tool to predict the likelihood of landowners to collectively commit to long-term, legally binding biodiversity stewardship programmes. The overarching hypothesis was that the social constructs listed above influence group dynamics within the context of collective pro-conservation behaviour. Social dynamics associated with large-scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives become complex when multiple landowners are involved. Could social cohesion and group culture be influenced by aspects of identity and do these in turn develop into barriers or motivators to coordinated and sustained conservation efforts? Further influences on the successful implementation of landscape scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives could include ecological understanding, connectedness to nature and place attachment. Structured interviews were held with the landowners engaged in two separate large-scale biodiversity stewardship sites, the Compassberg Protected Environment and the Baviaanskloof Hartland, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The interviews were followed up with surveys containing psychometric scales related to the influence of ecological understanding, place attachment, connectedness to nature and aspects of identity on commitment to collective long-term, large-scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives. The results from a set of non-parametric (exact) Wilcoxon rank-sum tests showed that scores on the new ecological paradigm scale and the place attachment scale latent variables were significantly different at the two study sites, at the 10% level of significance. Demographic differences between the two study sites influenced group dynamics, collective decision-making and commitment. The relationship between the latent variables (the five psychometric scales measured) and the ancillary variables (the demographic data describing the respondents) cannot be considered conclusive; however they do provide relatively useful insights into the development of a scale or tool to measure conservation opportunity. The thesis concludes with a proposed conservation opportunity assessment tool that can be utilised alongside the existing, well refined, conservation priority assessment tools to assist in decision-making when planning large, landscape scale biodiversity stewardship initiatives in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The influence of introduced forest management practices on transformative social learning in a selected social-ecological forest community : a case of PFM and REDD projects at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi Forest Reserves in Tanzania
- Authors: Ferdinand, Victoria Ugulumu
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Forest management -- Tanzania , Forest reserves -- Tanzania , Transformative learning , Social ecology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2064 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020333
- Description: This research investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015. The term transformative social learning reflects an understanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012, prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people’s living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from fieldi based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. And more...
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Ferdinand, Victoria Ugulumu
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Forest management -- Tanzania , Forest reserves -- Tanzania , Transformative learning , Social ecology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2064 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020333
- Description: This research investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015. The term transformative social learning reflects an understanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012, prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people’s living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from fieldi based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. And more...
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The dynamics of police regulation of sexual abuse of children in South Africa: the case of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Van Blerk, Natasha
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3828 , vital:20546
- Description: This thesis investigates the current legislation and police protocols set in South Africa, specifically regarding their adequacy in protecting the country’s children from sexual abuse. It focuses on relevant legislative provisions and protocols, on sexual abuse of children and on an empirical study conducted amongst a variety of officials who represent the South African legislation at different levels. Trends, developments and problems are analysed and brought forward to raise an awareness on the severity of the issue of child sexual abuse. In addition, this thesis explores how the diversity within the community of Grahamstown, South Africa, should be considered to a higher degree in the legislation. There is a clear indication of a prevalent patriarchal hierarchy within the community which, in reality, makes women and children more vulnerable to sexual abuse. The methods used in this thesis involves purposive sampling, which led to one on one interviews between the researcher and participant. Thisthesis concludes with confirmation of the hypothesis whereby the South African legislation is not adequately protecting the rights of children in regards to sexual abuse. However, to fully adapt the legislation and make it as versatile and as effective the State hopes it to be, it is necessary to understand the society’s perception on women and children and to rectify it. As difficult as this may sound, it all begins with a strong and influential government.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Van Blerk, Natasha
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3828 , vital:20546
- Description: This thesis investigates the current legislation and police protocols set in South Africa, specifically regarding their adequacy in protecting the country’s children from sexual abuse. It focuses on relevant legislative provisions and protocols, on sexual abuse of children and on an empirical study conducted amongst a variety of officials who represent the South African legislation at different levels. Trends, developments and problems are analysed and brought forward to raise an awareness on the severity of the issue of child sexual abuse. In addition, this thesis explores how the diversity within the community of Grahamstown, South Africa, should be considered to a higher degree in the legislation. There is a clear indication of a prevalent patriarchal hierarchy within the community which, in reality, makes women and children more vulnerable to sexual abuse. The methods used in this thesis involves purposive sampling, which led to one on one interviews between the researcher and participant. Thisthesis concludes with confirmation of the hypothesis whereby the South African legislation is not adequately protecting the rights of children in regards to sexual abuse. However, to fully adapt the legislation and make it as versatile and as effective the State hopes it to be, it is necessary to understand the society’s perception on women and children and to rectify it. As difficult as this may sound, it all begins with a strong and influential government.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The tax benefits available to investors in immovable property in South Africa
- Authors: Baines, Daniel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4026 , vital:20589
- Description: The object of this thesis is to provide guidelines relating to the tax benefits that are available to investors in immovable property in South Africa. This was done by analysing the various sections of the Income Tax Act, as well as case law and South African Revenue Service guidelines that interpret these sections, which provide for expenditure which may be deducted by taxpayers from their income when conducting the trade of letting immovable property in order to reduce their overall tax liability. The thesis also includes a chapter dealing with the four different types of vehicles that taxpayers may use when investing in property. It was found that there are significant tax benefits available to investors in immovable property through the general deductions provided in terms of section 11(a) of the Act, as well as the specific deductions that the legislature has promulgated for investors in immovable property. It was also found that each of the four vehicles has its own advantages and that a taxpayer’s personal circumstances will dictate which of the vehicles will best suit his or her needs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Baines, Daniel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4026 , vital:20589
- Description: The object of this thesis is to provide guidelines relating to the tax benefits that are available to investors in immovable property in South Africa. This was done by analysing the various sections of the Income Tax Act, as well as case law and South African Revenue Service guidelines that interpret these sections, which provide for expenditure which may be deducted by taxpayers from their income when conducting the trade of letting immovable property in order to reduce their overall tax liability. The thesis also includes a chapter dealing with the four different types of vehicles that taxpayers may use when investing in property. It was found that there are significant tax benefits available to investors in immovable property through the general deductions provided in terms of section 11(a) of the Act, as well as the specific deductions that the legislature has promulgated for investors in immovable property. It was also found that each of the four vehicles has its own advantages and that a taxpayer’s personal circumstances will dictate which of the vehicles will best suit his or her needs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Understanding sexual concurrency and HIV/AIDS: implicit and explicit attitudes in a South African student population
- Authors: Malataliana, Maleeto Lucy
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3335 , vital:20484
- Description: There are more people infected with HIV in South Africa, than in any other country in the world. Studies indicate a plausible relationship between concurrently organised sexual partnership and the spread of STIs, with concurrency being accountable for as much as 74% of HIV infections in South Africa. Understanding sexual concurrency is therefore of vital importance, especially in the South African perspective. It has, however, become increasingly unreliable to rely solely on explicit self-measures to study sexual concurrency, and research has suggested that implicit cognition is a reliable alternative to understanding sexual behaviour and attitudes towards sexuality, which cannot be directly measured by explicit means. The purpose of this study was to understand sexual concurrency among a population of university students by researching their implicit and explicit attitudes towards sexual concurrency; and thereby to aid in understanding sexual concurrency in relation to the spread of HIV. A quantitative research methodology was used to analyse results from explicit measures of sexual concurrency in the form of a questionnaire, and implicit measures of sexual concurrency in the form of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Although no correlation existed between implicit and explicit measures attitudes towards sexual concurrency, it was, however, observed that sexual concurrency has and is being broadly practiced, and that age is a key determinant for sexual concurrency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Malataliana, Maleeto Lucy
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3335 , vital:20484
- Description: There are more people infected with HIV in South Africa, than in any other country in the world. Studies indicate a plausible relationship between concurrently organised sexual partnership and the spread of STIs, with concurrency being accountable for as much as 74% of HIV infections in South Africa. Understanding sexual concurrency is therefore of vital importance, especially in the South African perspective. It has, however, become increasingly unreliable to rely solely on explicit self-measures to study sexual concurrency, and research has suggested that implicit cognition is a reliable alternative to understanding sexual behaviour and attitudes towards sexuality, which cannot be directly measured by explicit means. The purpose of this study was to understand sexual concurrency among a population of university students by researching their implicit and explicit attitudes towards sexual concurrency; and thereby to aid in understanding sexual concurrency in relation to the spread of HIV. A quantitative research methodology was used to analyse results from explicit measures of sexual concurrency in the form of a questionnaire, and implicit measures of sexual concurrency in the form of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Although no correlation existed between implicit and explicit measures attitudes towards sexual concurrency, it was, however, observed that sexual concurrency has and is being broadly practiced, and that age is a key determinant for sexual concurrency.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The mediating processes within social learning: women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape
- Authors: Rivers, Nina
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/888 , vital:20000
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes within the social learning of women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was undertaken in response to a growing problem of learning resources being decontextualised and therefore being of little relevance or use to the everyday practices of the people they were developed for. The central thesis of this study is that if the mediating processes that shape practice and learning are understood then these practices and learning can be better supported. One of the main foci of this study therefore is the concept of mediation and the importance of understanding the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape learning and practice within the context of rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices of rural women. The study interprets these as social learning processes after the work of Lev Vygotsky and post-Vygotskian learning and activity development research, which recognises that all learning is socially mediated. This study also attempts to show that ontological factors also shape social learning processes via structural mediations (which are often also socially structured over time in history). Working within the broad framework of change oriented social learning, education for sustainability and the southern African water and food nexus the study is focused around two central research questions: 1) What are the mediating processes evident in and surrounding the learning of rainwater harvesting in the context of women’s water and food security in rural communities? And 2) How can a question-based learning resource extend the learning practices in this context? Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), underpinned by critical realism, to reveal how the learning of rainwater and food gardening practitioners is constrained and enabled by mediating processes. The theory of mediation provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. A case study approach was used in two sites in the rural Eastern Cape. The first was Cata village in the Amathole district and the second was a peri-urban settlement called Glenconnor in the Cacadu district. Each case study is constituted within a networked activity system. The study also used a narrative inquiry approach in order to bring to life the case studies, activity systems and some of the dynamics of social learning within the study. The methodological tools of document analysis, observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape research participants’ rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices and their learning. Inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference were used to analyse data in and across case studies. One of the first findings of this study is that learning is embedded in and emergent from context in that it is mediated by implicit and explicit processes within each context. This makes such learning social, in the sense of social used by Vygotsky. The second finding showed that implicit and explicit mediation processes are constantly interacting in a dialectical process whether people are conscious of this interplay or not. This is an important dynamic to understand when trying to bring about societal transformation through education. Understanding the interaction between the implicit and explicit alerts researchers to the sociocultural dynamics inherent within social learning processes and therefore informs how learning resources and educational and development programmes should be designed and implemented. This study contributes to new knowledge in the environmental education field and the water knowledge sector. It makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the body of knowledge concerned with socially mediated learning and situated learning approaches. The study illustrates how learning is embedded in context and also how learning emerges in relation to context via interactions between implicit and explicit mediation processes, and considers what this means for learning and development in the rural nexus of water and food security practices. This study also contributes to the growing body of post-Vygotskian social learning research in southern Africa that is being developed in the context of cultural historical activity theory as it shows the dialectical relationship that exists between implicit and explicit forms of mediation as these are embedded in, emergent from, and are externally mediated into activity systems in rural community contexts. This study contributes to a second area of knowledge: the water sector. With a background in anthropology which sensitised the researcher to contextual factors and approaching the study through an educational lens, the data has been worked with to surface and present the nuanced mediating processes that shape the learning and knowledge around water issues. This way of working and this focus on the socio-cultural is relatively new in the water sector in South Africa and gains significance in the light of an emergent interest in more complex social studies in the water sector which has traditionally been dominated by natural sciences and engineering. The significance of this study for rural South African women’s lives is that by understanding and taking account of their history, context, struggles and experiences, their learning and practices can be better supported through more relevant learning resources and programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Rivers, Nina
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/888 , vital:20000
- Description: The focus of this study was to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes within the social learning of women’s food and water security practices in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study was undertaken in response to a growing problem of learning resources being decontextualised and therefore being of little relevance or use to the everyday practices of the people they were developed for. The central thesis of this study is that if the mediating processes that shape practice and learning are understood then these practices and learning can be better supported. One of the main foci of this study therefore is the concept of mediation and the importance of understanding the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape learning and practice within the context of rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices of rural women. The study interprets these as social learning processes after the work of Lev Vygotsky and post-Vygotskian learning and activity development research, which recognises that all learning is socially mediated. This study also attempts to show that ontological factors also shape social learning processes via structural mediations (which are often also socially structured over time in history). Working within the broad framework of change oriented social learning, education for sustainability and the southern African water and food nexus the study is focused around two central research questions: 1) What are the mediating processes evident in and surrounding the learning of rainwater harvesting in the context of women’s water and food security in rural communities? And 2) How can a question-based learning resource extend the learning practices in this context? Drawing on three sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), underpinned by critical realism, to reveal how the learning of rainwater and food gardening practitioners is constrained and enabled by mediating processes. The theory of mediation provided a useful theoretical lens with which to examine data generated. A case study approach was used in two sites in the rural Eastern Cape. The first was Cata village in the Amathole district and the second was a peri-urban settlement called Glenconnor in the Cacadu district. Each case study is constituted within a networked activity system. The study also used a narrative inquiry approach in order to bring to life the case studies, activity systems and some of the dynamics of social learning within the study. The methodological tools of document analysis, observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to explore the implicit and explicit mediating processes that shape research participants’ rainwater harvesting and food gardening practices and their learning. Inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference were used to analyse data in and across case studies. One of the first findings of this study is that learning is embedded in and emergent from context in that it is mediated by implicit and explicit processes within each context. This makes such learning social, in the sense of social used by Vygotsky. The second finding showed that implicit and explicit mediation processes are constantly interacting in a dialectical process whether people are conscious of this interplay or not. This is an important dynamic to understand when trying to bring about societal transformation through education. Understanding the interaction between the implicit and explicit alerts researchers to the sociocultural dynamics inherent within social learning processes and therefore informs how learning resources and educational and development programmes should be designed and implemented. This study contributes to new knowledge in the environmental education field and the water knowledge sector. It makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the body of knowledge concerned with socially mediated learning and situated learning approaches. The study illustrates how learning is embedded in context and also how learning emerges in relation to context via interactions between implicit and explicit mediation processes, and considers what this means for learning and development in the rural nexus of water and food security practices. This study also contributes to the growing body of post-Vygotskian social learning research in southern Africa that is being developed in the context of cultural historical activity theory as it shows the dialectical relationship that exists between implicit and explicit forms of mediation as these are embedded in, emergent from, and are externally mediated into activity systems in rural community contexts. This study contributes to a second area of knowledge: the water sector. With a background in anthropology which sensitised the researcher to contextual factors and approaching the study through an educational lens, the data has been worked with to surface and present the nuanced mediating processes that shape the learning and knowledge around water issues. This way of working and this focus on the socio-cultural is relatively new in the water sector in South Africa and gains significance in the light of an emergent interest in more complex social studies in the water sector which has traditionally been dominated by natural sciences and engineering. The significance of this study for rural South African women’s lives is that by understanding and taking account of their history, context, struggles and experiences, their learning and practices can be better supported through more relevant learning resources and programmes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
A corpus-based approach to writing in German as a foreign language in the South African tertiary context
- Authors: Ortner, Gwyndolen Jeanie
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3660 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021256
- Description: German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement in order to engage meaningfully with the literatures and cultures of German-speaking countries. This thesis investigates the process of teaching and learning to write in a more academic way in German as a foreign language at Rhodes University, using corpus linguistic tools for both analysis and instruction. The past 20 years have shown a shift from traditional teaching methods resting on notions of an underlying prescriptive grammar, to teaching based on insights from real-life language data (Gabrielatos, 2005; Krummes & Ensslin, 2012; Sinclair, 1997) and applications of corpora to teaching and learning have shown to be highly successful in many European contexts (Aijmer, 2010; Johns, 1991; Granger, et al., 2002; Varley, 2009). In the South African context however, this is a relatively new concept with few publications on the application of corpus linguistics to language teaching (Van Rooy, 2008), and one which does not seem to have reached its full potential. A writing course was instituted whose aim was two-fold: 1. to teach learners “every-day academic” German words (TAG words) and phrases (collocations) based on German mother-tongue corpus evidence; 2. to have learners write short assignments in German at regular intervals (Homstad & Thorson, 1996; Estes, et al., 1998); both aims with the overarching objective to improve the students’ academic register in German. After the writing course, 80% of the participants perceived that their writing had improved and specifically attributed this to the corpus-based instruction received during the writing course, and regular writing in German. Quantitative data (from the learner corpus created) shows a marked improvement in the use of the collocations taught. Moreover, participants (weaker students in particular) also found that their writing in English had improved as a result of the various exercises they had to complete as part of our German writing course.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Ortner, Gwyndolen Jeanie
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3660 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021256
- Description: German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement in order to engage meaningfully with the literatures and cultures of German-speaking countries. This thesis investigates the process of teaching and learning to write in a more academic way in German as a foreign language at Rhodes University, using corpus linguistic tools for both analysis and instruction. The past 20 years have shown a shift from traditional teaching methods resting on notions of an underlying prescriptive grammar, to teaching based on insights from real-life language data (Gabrielatos, 2005; Krummes & Ensslin, 2012; Sinclair, 1997) and applications of corpora to teaching and learning have shown to be highly successful in many European contexts (Aijmer, 2010; Johns, 1991; Granger, et al., 2002; Varley, 2009). In the South African context however, this is a relatively new concept with few publications on the application of corpus linguistics to language teaching (Van Rooy, 2008), and one which does not seem to have reached its full potential. A writing course was instituted whose aim was two-fold: 1. to teach learners “every-day academic” German words (TAG words) and phrases (collocations) based on German mother-tongue corpus evidence; 2. to have learners write short assignments in German at regular intervals (Homstad & Thorson, 1996; Estes, et al., 1998); both aims with the overarching objective to improve the students’ academic register in German. After the writing course, 80% of the participants perceived that their writing had improved and specifically attributed this to the corpus-based instruction received during the writing course, and regular writing in German. Quantitative data (from the learner corpus created) shows a marked improvement in the use of the collocations taught. Moreover, participants (weaker students in particular) also found that their writing in English had improved as a result of the various exercises they had to complete as part of our German writing course.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Recombinant expression, purification and in vitro interaction analysis of HOP and RhoC
- Vaaltyn, Michaelone Chantelle
- Authors: Vaaltyn, Michaelone Chantelle
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64523 , vital:28555
- Description: Expected release date-May 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Vaaltyn, Michaelone Chantelle
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64523 , vital:28555
- Description: Expected release date-May 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The leadership characteristics and development of Doctor Trudy Thomas : a case study in servant-leadership
- Authors: Fietze, Jennifer Anne
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Servant leadership , Thomas, Trudi , Leadership -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020184
- Description: Doctor Trudy Thomas is a leader that served; as a medical doctor and as a public servant over five decades during and after the apartheid era in South Africa. The aim of this qualitative study was to identify the leadership characteristics that are evident in Doctor Thomas, the former MEC for Health for the Province of the Eastern Cape; as a leader and to explore how they developed over five decades, given her role within healthcare in South Africa. The first requirement of a servant-leader according to Robert Greenleaf (the contemporary pioneer of servant-leadership) (Greenleaf, 1977), is that the leader is a servant first and starts with a desire to serve. Doctor Thomas started her professional life as a medical missionary doctor, a profession that by its nature is serving and ultimately healing, in the poor rural communities of the Eastern Cape. Her leadership grew out of her initial concern for her patients and their communities and by the opportunities that she was presented with to apply her skills to serve. She was able to identify the deeper needs within these communities and was able to envision practical solutions to these problems, enlisting the assistance of others. Throughout her leadership journey she exhibited humility, and many other trademarks of a servant-leader. She did not see herself as a leader, believing rather that it was a privilege to serve and help people. This study was therefore able to conclude that the leadership that Doctor Thomas has exhibited is that of a servant-leader and that her leadership journey was unintentional and grew out of her desire and ability to serve. This thesis consists of three separate yet interrelated sections. Section One, The Academic Case Study is a holistic, biographical academic case study on an individual. The outcomes of this research are presented as an academic paper, which includes a condensed literature review, results and discussion, as well as recommendations for future research. It also presents recommendations regarding the application of servant-leadership in service industries like Healthcare in South Africa. The presentation of the results is predominantly qualitative with some quantitative aspects. Section Two, The Literature Review presents an extensive review of literature that relates to the phenomena of leadership; servant-leadership; leader and leadership development; servant-leadership development through service and finally servant-leadership in South Africa. Other aspects like Ubuntu and Unintentional leadership are examined. The literature review conducted serves as a broad foundation for understanding servant-leadership but does not purely focus on the issues of this individual study. Section Three, The Research Methodology is an outline of the research aim and objectives, and the research paradigm that has been adopted. The discussion also details the research methodology; the case study method; an inductive approach; an intersubjective position; the individual researched; data collection techniques and analysis; objectivity; issues of quality; ethics; and the limitations of this research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Fietze, Jennifer Anne
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Servant leadership , Thomas, Trudi , Leadership -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020184
- Description: Doctor Trudy Thomas is a leader that served; as a medical doctor and as a public servant over five decades during and after the apartheid era in South Africa. The aim of this qualitative study was to identify the leadership characteristics that are evident in Doctor Thomas, the former MEC for Health for the Province of the Eastern Cape; as a leader and to explore how they developed over five decades, given her role within healthcare in South Africa. The first requirement of a servant-leader according to Robert Greenleaf (the contemporary pioneer of servant-leadership) (Greenleaf, 1977), is that the leader is a servant first and starts with a desire to serve. Doctor Thomas started her professional life as a medical missionary doctor, a profession that by its nature is serving and ultimately healing, in the poor rural communities of the Eastern Cape. Her leadership grew out of her initial concern for her patients and their communities and by the opportunities that she was presented with to apply her skills to serve. She was able to identify the deeper needs within these communities and was able to envision practical solutions to these problems, enlisting the assistance of others. Throughout her leadership journey she exhibited humility, and many other trademarks of a servant-leader. She did not see herself as a leader, believing rather that it was a privilege to serve and help people. This study was therefore able to conclude that the leadership that Doctor Thomas has exhibited is that of a servant-leader and that her leadership journey was unintentional and grew out of her desire and ability to serve. This thesis consists of three separate yet interrelated sections. Section One, The Academic Case Study is a holistic, biographical academic case study on an individual. The outcomes of this research are presented as an academic paper, which includes a condensed literature review, results and discussion, as well as recommendations for future research. It also presents recommendations regarding the application of servant-leadership in service industries like Healthcare in South Africa. The presentation of the results is predominantly qualitative with some quantitative aspects. Section Two, The Literature Review presents an extensive review of literature that relates to the phenomena of leadership; servant-leadership; leader and leadership development; servant-leadership development through service and finally servant-leadership in South Africa. Other aspects like Ubuntu and Unintentional leadership are examined. The literature review conducted serves as a broad foundation for understanding servant-leadership but does not purely focus on the issues of this individual study. Section Three, The Research Methodology is an outline of the research aim and objectives, and the research paradigm that has been adopted. The discussion also details the research methodology; the case study method; an inductive approach; an intersubjective position; the individual researched; data collection techniques and analysis; objectivity; issues of quality; ethics; and the limitations of this research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
An exploration of what Grade 7 Natural Science teachers know, believe and say about biodiversity and the teaching of biodiversity
- Authors: Isaacs, Dorelle
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1309 , vital:20045
- Description: In the context of the newly implemented Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) for Natural Science, this study explores what Grade 7 Natural Science teachers know, believe and say about biodiversity and the teaching of biodiversity. Despite its significance to environmental sustainability, biodiversity loss is accelerating in South Africa and internationally, driven by unsustainable economic development models, population growth and associated problems of habitat loss and widespread pollution. Against the backdrop of these challenges, this study shares insights into how teachers’ biodiversity knowledge relates to the CAPS and to international agreements and policies on biodiversity. The study seeks to inform teacher education and support programmes and future curriculum implementation decisions, especially those associated with the Fundisa for Change programme. The study is designed as a qualitative case study inquiry that has used classroom observation, semistructured interviews and document (textbook) analysis to generate data. Theories of teacher cognition (after Shulman, 1987) were used to gain an understanding of teachers’ biodiversity knowledge. Different environmental and biodiversity metaphors and narratives were reviewed to gain an understanding of how teachers represented biodiversity and Kronlid & Öhman’s work on environmental ethics (2012) provided a framework for considering teachers’ values and ethical responses to biodiversity. The study found that the biodiversity knowledge of the teachers in these three case studies was mostly limited to what they access in the curriculum and textbooks. Secondly, there appears to be the assumption that if teachers teach from certain textbooks, they will meet the Specific Aims for Natural Science, as well as implement the process skills which are the ‘new’ knowledge according to the Senior Education Specialist. It was found that teachers’ close adherence to activities prescribed in the textbook seems to limit the depth, scope and criticality of their biodiversity teaching. The study also revealed that all three teachers expressed a pragmatic view of the value of biodiversity. The study recommends that the Natural Science CAPS as well as textbook authors should reflect a more systemic approach to biodiversity knowledge, recognising the interrelations and interdependence of the ecological systems that make up biodiversity – including relationships with humans – and convey a sense of the changeability of biodiversity. Natural Science teachers should be supported in broadening their understanding of biodiversity and biodiversity loss. They should be encouraged and supported to develop or adapt textbook material where necessary and develop learner activities that will encourage their learners to question, deliberate, look for cause and effect, and seek solutions. This may help to realise the final recommendation, that learners and teachers become citizen scientists who will access and contribute to the various biodiversity databases and so join scientists in generating biodiversity knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Isaacs, Dorelle
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1309 , vital:20045
- Description: In the context of the newly implemented Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) for Natural Science, this study explores what Grade 7 Natural Science teachers know, believe and say about biodiversity and the teaching of biodiversity. Despite its significance to environmental sustainability, biodiversity loss is accelerating in South Africa and internationally, driven by unsustainable economic development models, population growth and associated problems of habitat loss and widespread pollution. Against the backdrop of these challenges, this study shares insights into how teachers’ biodiversity knowledge relates to the CAPS and to international agreements and policies on biodiversity. The study seeks to inform teacher education and support programmes and future curriculum implementation decisions, especially those associated with the Fundisa for Change programme. The study is designed as a qualitative case study inquiry that has used classroom observation, semistructured interviews and document (textbook) analysis to generate data. Theories of teacher cognition (after Shulman, 1987) were used to gain an understanding of teachers’ biodiversity knowledge. Different environmental and biodiversity metaphors and narratives were reviewed to gain an understanding of how teachers represented biodiversity and Kronlid & Öhman’s work on environmental ethics (2012) provided a framework for considering teachers’ values and ethical responses to biodiversity. The study found that the biodiversity knowledge of the teachers in these three case studies was mostly limited to what they access in the curriculum and textbooks. Secondly, there appears to be the assumption that if teachers teach from certain textbooks, they will meet the Specific Aims for Natural Science, as well as implement the process skills which are the ‘new’ knowledge according to the Senior Education Specialist. It was found that teachers’ close adherence to activities prescribed in the textbook seems to limit the depth, scope and criticality of their biodiversity teaching. The study also revealed that all three teachers expressed a pragmatic view of the value of biodiversity. The study recommends that the Natural Science CAPS as well as textbook authors should reflect a more systemic approach to biodiversity knowledge, recognising the interrelations and interdependence of the ecological systems that make up biodiversity – including relationships with humans – and convey a sense of the changeability of biodiversity. Natural Science teachers should be supported in broadening their understanding of biodiversity and biodiversity loss. They should be encouraged and supported to develop or adapt textbook material where necessary and develop learner activities that will encourage their learners to question, deliberate, look for cause and effect, and seek solutions. This may help to realise the final recommendation, that learners and teachers become citizen scientists who will access and contribute to the various biodiversity databases and so join scientists in generating biodiversity knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
An investigation of the practices employed by an environmental community-based organization to successfully sustain its school based and community based projects (A case study)
- Authors: Hlophe, Nomalanga Nokuthula
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2073 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021252
- Description: Community-based organizations (CBOs) play a crucial role in sustainable development and hence it is important that they are promoted, guided and supported by state agencies and the private sector. The South African government encourages communities to establish co-operatives as a tool or strategy to address local social issues and risks and act accordingly. The purpose of this case study was to determine what aspects of the establishment and operation of a successful community-based environmental organization are producing sustained school and community projects. The study set out to investigate and audit the activities of a successful environmental CBO so as to determine how it has successfully sustained its school and community environmental projects. The reason for this investigation was to inform other CBOs and the state environmental agencies that support them on how to sustain their environmental activities in community and school contexts. The investigation was designed as an interpretive case study, which used document analysis, semi-structured interviews and observations to gather data. The gathered data was analyzed through inductive analysis to interpret and audit reported activities. Analytical memos were used to represent key themes in relation to the successful operations of the organization. Through auditing and reporting the activities in the analytical memos, analytical statements were developed. Those statements guided the discussion and informed the study‟s findings and recommendations. After investigating this CBO, it was concluded that, their success is a result of the establishment of a networking forum with different stakeholders and parties, community involvement in different projects, partnerships with local schools to develop and expand their curriculum practice, CBO networking locally and internationally and finally, their participation in annual and continuous environmental competitions/projects/programs. The insights gained and lessons learned will be used to advice and support community based co-operatives in environmental learning activities in school and community contexts as part of my ongoing work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Hlophe, Nomalanga Nokuthula
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2073 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021252
- Description: Community-based organizations (CBOs) play a crucial role in sustainable development and hence it is important that they are promoted, guided and supported by state agencies and the private sector. The South African government encourages communities to establish co-operatives as a tool or strategy to address local social issues and risks and act accordingly. The purpose of this case study was to determine what aspects of the establishment and operation of a successful community-based environmental organization are producing sustained school and community projects. The study set out to investigate and audit the activities of a successful environmental CBO so as to determine how it has successfully sustained its school and community environmental projects. The reason for this investigation was to inform other CBOs and the state environmental agencies that support them on how to sustain their environmental activities in community and school contexts. The investigation was designed as an interpretive case study, which used document analysis, semi-structured interviews and observations to gather data. The gathered data was analyzed through inductive analysis to interpret and audit reported activities. Analytical memos were used to represent key themes in relation to the successful operations of the organization. Through auditing and reporting the activities in the analytical memos, analytical statements were developed. Those statements guided the discussion and informed the study‟s findings and recommendations. After investigating this CBO, it was concluded that, their success is a result of the establishment of a networking forum with different stakeholders and parties, community involvement in different projects, partnerships with local schools to develop and expand their curriculum practice, CBO networking locally and internationally and finally, their participation in annual and continuous environmental competitions/projects/programs. The insights gained and lessons learned will be used to advice and support community based co-operatives in environmental learning activities in school and community contexts as part of my ongoing work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Space Station: negotiating identities in the contemporary performance artscape
- Authors: Nott, Chiro Carolyn
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4233 , vital:20635
- Description: Being a part of various contemporary South African societies, we often find ourselves having to negotiate multiple dimensions of ourselves in our everyday lives amongst other culturally diverse people. These complex networks of identity, which define who we are, extend beyond the insular self into our daily interactions with others. This active methodology of existence requires social individuals to be able to embody a constant mobile identity, which when employed is not guaranteed to be socially successful. How then, do we cope with potential social failure and reflect on ourselves or our communal identities? For the submission of my Masters of Fine Art, I present the interactive exhibition, Space Station: a mini-golf art experience and the accompanying thesis,Space Station: Negotiating Identities in the Contemporary Performance Artscape. The exhibition manifests as a nine hole miniature golf course temporarily installed along a distance of unused train track in Grahamstown. The audience members’ or “players’” experiences of the exhibition draw attention to the subtle performances of everyday life as well as the ways in which identity is re-constructed through transitory mapped networking practices.The thesis interacts with the performed artwork, as not only a supporting text, but is activated, ‘performing’ in collaboration with the artwork’s temporary lived and present experiential journey. The thesis creates three fictional metaphoric characters: the pilgrim, the everyday migrant and the astral-bodied tourist who all negotiate contemporary urban space in order to explore ways in which mobile identity is socially practiced, developed and maintained.I argue that the Space Station audience member blurs between these characters, in the processes of ‘performing’ the game, by becoming the ‘player’. The research works alongside contemporary social environments to guide the audience and reader through positive self and socially reflective experiential processes to inspire rethinking around the interaction of habitual daily living.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Nott, Chiro Carolyn
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4233 , vital:20635
- Description: Being a part of various contemporary South African societies, we often find ourselves having to negotiate multiple dimensions of ourselves in our everyday lives amongst other culturally diverse people. These complex networks of identity, which define who we are, extend beyond the insular self into our daily interactions with others. This active methodology of existence requires social individuals to be able to embody a constant mobile identity, which when employed is not guaranteed to be socially successful. How then, do we cope with potential social failure and reflect on ourselves or our communal identities? For the submission of my Masters of Fine Art, I present the interactive exhibition, Space Station: a mini-golf art experience and the accompanying thesis,Space Station: Negotiating Identities in the Contemporary Performance Artscape. The exhibition manifests as a nine hole miniature golf course temporarily installed along a distance of unused train track in Grahamstown. The audience members’ or “players’” experiences of the exhibition draw attention to the subtle performances of everyday life as well as the ways in which identity is re-constructed through transitory mapped networking practices.The thesis interacts with the performed artwork, as not only a supporting text, but is activated, ‘performing’ in collaboration with the artwork’s temporary lived and present experiential journey. The thesis creates three fictional metaphoric characters: the pilgrim, the everyday migrant and the astral-bodied tourist who all negotiate contemporary urban space in order to explore ways in which mobile identity is socially practiced, developed and maintained.I argue that the Space Station audience member blurs between these characters, in the processes of ‘performing’ the game, by becoming the ‘player’. The research works alongside contemporary social environments to guide the audience and reader through positive self and socially reflective experiential processes to inspire rethinking around the interaction of habitual daily living.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
The relationship between the alcohol use patterns and cognitive and symptomatic functioning of Rhodes University students
- Authors: Mayson, Tamara Ann
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Drinking of alcholic beverages -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Students -- Alcohol use , Alcohol -- Physiological effect
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3270 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020327
- Description: Introduction: Studies reveal differential cognitive effects of alcohol use, with moderate to heavy alcohol having some beneficial effects in older adults, whereas in young adulthood, heavier alcohol use produces deficits. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and the cognitive and symptomatic functioning of university students over one year, and to discern which demographic, clinical and alcohol factors might moderate cognitive outcomes. Method: The sample included undergraduate Psychology students from a South African University, aged 18 to 23 years (n = 86). The sample was divided into two alcohol use groups based on four categories from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) (Babor et al., 2001), including a lighter drinking group (Safe/Hazardous, n = 74) and a heavier drinking group (Harmful/Dependent, n = 12). The two drinking groups were statistically equivalent for distribution of age, gender, English first language, race groups, history of neurological or psychiatric vulnerability, a measure of initial intelligence/cognitive reserve (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test: PPVT-4) (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and for a measure of test-taking validity (Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Test: ImPACT Impulse Control) (p = < 0.05 in all instances). Participants were tested on the computerized ImPACT battery (ImPACT, 2007) at three intervals over an academic year (May, August, October 2012). Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to investigate cognitive and symptomatic differences between the two alcohol use groups, in association with moderating factors. Results: The heavier drinking group revealed: (i) poorer performance on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed, Reaction Time and Cognitive Efficiency Index scores, including less ability to benefit from practice over time; (ii) symptom reports of severe Numbness/Tingling, Balance problems and Dizziness. Deleterious cognitive outcome was exacerbated by longer lifetime duration of alcohol use, passing out monthly, beer or wine drinking, smoking or substance use. Conclusion: Deleterious cognitive and symptomatic effects of heavy alcohol use are in evidence for undergraduate university students implicating current and/or cumulative alcohol induced brain impairment. The results of the study are of concern for optimal academic performance of students at an early stage of university level study, who engage in heavier (Harmful/Dependent) drinking patterns, with negative implications for future career attainment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Mayson, Tamara Ann
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Drinking of alcholic beverages -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Students -- Alcohol use , Alcohol -- Physiological effect
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3270 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020327
- Description: Introduction: Studies reveal differential cognitive effects of alcohol use, with moderate to heavy alcohol having some beneficial effects in older adults, whereas in young adulthood, heavier alcohol use produces deficits. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and the cognitive and symptomatic functioning of university students over one year, and to discern which demographic, clinical and alcohol factors might moderate cognitive outcomes. Method: The sample included undergraduate Psychology students from a South African University, aged 18 to 23 years (n = 86). The sample was divided into two alcohol use groups based on four categories from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) (Babor et al., 2001), including a lighter drinking group (Safe/Hazardous, n = 74) and a heavier drinking group (Harmful/Dependent, n = 12). The two drinking groups were statistically equivalent for distribution of age, gender, English first language, race groups, history of neurological or psychiatric vulnerability, a measure of initial intelligence/cognitive reserve (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test: PPVT-4) (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and for a measure of test-taking validity (Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Test: ImPACT Impulse Control) (p = < 0.05 in all instances). Participants were tested on the computerized ImPACT battery (ImPACT, 2007) at three intervals over an academic year (May, August, October 2012). Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to investigate cognitive and symptomatic differences between the two alcohol use groups, in association with moderating factors. Results: The heavier drinking group revealed: (i) poorer performance on ImPACT Visual Motor Speed, Reaction Time and Cognitive Efficiency Index scores, including less ability to benefit from practice over time; (ii) symptom reports of severe Numbness/Tingling, Balance problems and Dizziness. Deleterious cognitive outcome was exacerbated by longer lifetime duration of alcohol use, passing out monthly, beer or wine drinking, smoking or substance use. Conclusion: Deleterious cognitive and symptomatic effects of heavy alcohol use are in evidence for undergraduate university students implicating current and/or cumulative alcohol induced brain impairment. The results of the study are of concern for optimal academic performance of students at an early stage of university level study, who engage in heavier (Harmful/Dependent) drinking patterns, with negative implications for future career attainment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
The development of trilingual literacy in primary schools in Kenya
- Authors: Mose, Peter N
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/815 , vital:19993
- Description: The Kenyan language in education policy contemplates development of trilingual literacy skills in pupils by the end of standard three. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent standard three pupils were literate in their mother tongue (Ekegusii), Kiswahili, and English. The study was undertaken in the context of; a language in education policy that provides for the use of mother tongues and Kiswahili (as languages of instruction) in rural and urban schools respectively up to the end of standard three, followed by a transition to an English medium from standard four; a general negative public attitude towards mother tongue instruction; and substantial empirical evidence in support of mother tongue instruction in basic education. Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence and Linguistic Threshold Hypotheses guided the study. Adopting a mixed methods approach, the study used direct classroom observations, face-to-face interviews, document analyses, and reading tests to obtain data. Thematic, content, and statistical approaches were used in data analysis. It was found that various stakeholders understand key aspects of the language in education policy differently. Secondly, efforts in mother tongue instruction in schools are not motivated by theoretical and empirical foundations; development efforts are hence ineffective and inadequate leaving majority of learners with below average literacy skills in their mother tongue by the end of standard three. Thirdly, teachers do not implement the language in education policy as spelt out in the relevant documents; the three languages have therefore been allocated various classroom functions. Fourthly, the factors that motivate the disregard of the language policy include the language of examinations and textbooks, and transition to standard four in which English is the language of instruction. Lastly, reading scores indicate that majority of pupils transiting to standard four do not possess adequate reading skills to enable them read to learn in a mother tongue, Kiswahili, and English. This is observed across rural, peri-urban, and urban schools. The study recommends that: The ministry of education conducts workshops to re-educate the relevant stakeholders on the meaning and significance of the language in education policy and the significance of mother tongue instruction in second language, literacy, and skill development. This should be followed by a re-classification of primary schools on the basis of linguistic homogeneity, or otherwise, to ensure the intention of the policy is achieved. This could include empowering individual schools to determine language of instruction in lower primary based on language predominance. Secondly, the ministry should provide relevant resources for mother tongues and Kiswahili to develop them as effective languages of instruction as recommended by various past education commission reports. Additionally, a bilingual course in teacher training colleges to equip primary school teachers for bilingualism and biliteracy development should be introduced; one implication of this is teachers giving notes and tests in the languages spelt out in the policy. Thirdly, the ministry should intensify inspection of schools to assess implementation of the policy. Fourthly, future studies should assess mother tongue literacies as well, since they determine the extent and success of second language acquisition and learning; and measures should be put to ensure English is adequately resourced and taught well. Finally, mother tongue instruction should be extended up to, at least, standard five.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Mose, Peter N
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/815 , vital:19993
- Description: The Kenyan language in education policy contemplates development of trilingual literacy skills in pupils by the end of standard three. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent standard three pupils were literate in their mother tongue (Ekegusii), Kiswahili, and English. The study was undertaken in the context of; a language in education policy that provides for the use of mother tongues and Kiswahili (as languages of instruction) in rural and urban schools respectively up to the end of standard three, followed by a transition to an English medium from standard four; a general negative public attitude towards mother tongue instruction; and substantial empirical evidence in support of mother tongue instruction in basic education. Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence and Linguistic Threshold Hypotheses guided the study. Adopting a mixed methods approach, the study used direct classroom observations, face-to-face interviews, document analyses, and reading tests to obtain data. Thematic, content, and statistical approaches were used in data analysis. It was found that various stakeholders understand key aspects of the language in education policy differently. Secondly, efforts in mother tongue instruction in schools are not motivated by theoretical and empirical foundations; development efforts are hence ineffective and inadequate leaving majority of learners with below average literacy skills in their mother tongue by the end of standard three. Thirdly, teachers do not implement the language in education policy as spelt out in the relevant documents; the three languages have therefore been allocated various classroom functions. Fourthly, the factors that motivate the disregard of the language policy include the language of examinations and textbooks, and transition to standard four in which English is the language of instruction. Lastly, reading scores indicate that majority of pupils transiting to standard four do not possess adequate reading skills to enable them read to learn in a mother tongue, Kiswahili, and English. This is observed across rural, peri-urban, and urban schools. The study recommends that: The ministry of education conducts workshops to re-educate the relevant stakeholders on the meaning and significance of the language in education policy and the significance of mother tongue instruction in second language, literacy, and skill development. This should be followed by a re-classification of primary schools on the basis of linguistic homogeneity, or otherwise, to ensure the intention of the policy is achieved. This could include empowering individual schools to determine language of instruction in lower primary based on language predominance. Secondly, the ministry should provide relevant resources for mother tongues and Kiswahili to develop them as effective languages of instruction as recommended by various past education commission reports. Additionally, a bilingual course in teacher training colleges to equip primary school teachers for bilingualism and biliteracy development should be introduced; one implication of this is teachers giving notes and tests in the languages spelt out in the policy. Thirdly, the ministry should intensify inspection of schools to assess implementation of the policy. Fourthly, future studies should assess mother tongue literacies as well, since they determine the extent and success of second language acquisition and learning; and measures should be put to ensure English is adequately resourced and taught well. Finally, mother tongue instruction should be extended up to, at least, standard five.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016