Stimulating continuous professional development and teacher leadership in a rural Namibian school: a participatory action research
- Authors: Mario, Kangende Mebin
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Continuing professional development , Teacher leadership , Action research , Participatory action research , Teachers In-service training Namibia , Distributed leadership
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/424075 , vital:72121
- Description: Namibia values democratic and quality education. One way to improve quality education is by allowing teachers autonomy and offering continuous professional development (CPD) to teachers. Historically, the CPD programmes on offer in Namibia were centralised and generic, using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach offered as mini workshops to train teachers. In 2012, a decentralised method of school-based CPD program was initiated in schools, to give opportunities to schools to identify, plan, implement and evaluate their own professional needs. However, a recent study indicated that these initiatives have failed due to poor leadership, a lack of training and support as well as limited knowledge of principals in running CPD initiatives. Against this backdrop, my study aimed at engaging in a participatory action research process with teachers and SMT members in a rural combined school in the Kavango West region to stimulate the failed school-based CPD program and develop teacher leadership. My study therefore aligned with the international recommendations that school-based CPD be built around the notions of distributed leadership and teacher leadership (Smulyan, 2016; Hunzicker, 2018). The three-step model of change and action research developed by Kurt Lewin served as the underpinning theory for this study. The study was situated within a critical paradigm and driven by the question: “Does the involvement in participatory action research process stimulate a school-based CPD programme and develop teacher leadership?” The study involved two phases. The contextual profiling stage generated data through the analysis of documents, focus group interviews, and observation. Phase 2 engaged the participant in participatory action research to stimulate school-based CPD and develop teacher leadership. Thematic analysis supported by both inductive and deductive methods was used to analyse the data. The findings from phase one indicated that CPD was interpreted differently by the participants and confirmed that there was no CPD program in the school. Using Grant's (2017) model of teacher leadership, the findings further revealed that although teacher leadership was practised in all four zones, it was strongest in the classroom and initiated through delegated practices. Using Angelle and Dehart (2010), constraining forces included negative teachers’ attitudes, limited knowledge, skills, and confidence as well as a school culture of distrust. Phase 2 revealed that participatory action research can be a useful stimulus for school-based CPD. A tangible output from the PAR sessions was a template for the internal policy for school-based continuous teacher development. In addition, the findings from the sessions indicated the significance of supportive leadership to ensure the efficacy of school-based CPD and teacher leadership. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Primary and Early Childhood Education, 2023
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- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
Systematics and phylogeography of mormyrid fishes in South Africa
- Authors: Maake, Pholoshi Abram
- Date: 2015-04-09
- Subjects: Marcusenius , Fishes Morphology , Petrocephalus , Fishes Phylogeny , Phylogeography , Fishes Identification
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480323 , vital:78431
- Description: Two genera of mormyrids have been reognised from South Africa. Marcuseniusis the largest genus of the Mormyridae, comprising 38 species distributed throughout tropical and sub-tropical Africa. In southern and eastern Africa eight species have been recognized, including M. pongolensis from South Africa. Petrocephalus has about 30 species distributed mainly in tropical Africa, and 15 of these were recently identified in southern and eastern Africa. This thesis integrated several techniques, through the collection of complementary, but separate data sets to investigate the phylogeography of M. pongolensis in South Africa, and the systematics, evolutionary history, biogeography of Marcusenius and Petrocephalus fishes in southern and eastern Africa. Mitochondrial and nuclear genetic markers consistently demonstrated strong population structuring and identified three divergent lineages within South Africa. The widespread Pongola Lineage occurs partly in the Limpopo River system, and is very common in the Incomati, Pongola (type locality) and Kosi river systems. The Limpopo Lineage endemic only in the Limpopo River system is monophyletic with the Mhlatuze-Nseleni Lineage which is only known from the Mhlatuze and Nseleni rivers in the south. There was strong indication of historical isolation, in the form of allopatric fragmentation between genetically divergent Limpopo and Mhlatuze-Nseleni lineages. High genetic diversity was observed in the Limpopo River system within the Limpopo Lineage and the Pongola Lineage. The occurrence of the Mhlatuze-Nseleni Lineage in the far south cannot be explained by the hypothesis of confluence of rivers, river capture or episodic drainage connections, as the Mhlatuze and Nseleni Rivers would not have had a common confluence or shared low relief terrain with the Limpopo, Incomati, Pongola or Kosi river systems. Morphological studies of these lineages revealed even more differentiations and were described as: Marcusenius krameri sp. nov. for the Limpopo Lineage, and M. caudisquamatus sp. nov. from the Mhlatuze and Nseleni river systems. The specimens from the Ruvuma River were also well differentiated from all southern and eastern African species of Marcusenius, and were therefore recognised as M. lucombesisp. nov. New diagnosis characters of M. pongolensis were re-described and a key to the southern and eastern African species of Marcusenius was also provided. The results of all phylogenetic approaches that included all known southern and eastern African Marcusenius species are highly congruent and provided very strong support for recognizing Marcusenius species from these regions as a monophyletic assemblage that evolved from a single common ancestor. The southern and eastern African Petrocephalus is divided into two deeply mitochondrial and nuclear divergent Western and Eastern groups that are separated by the Victoria Falls. The phylogenetic relationships within each group were not supported and future studies incorporating more molecular characters and species will likely help to resolve the relationships. Speciation within Marcusenius and Petrocephalus ranges in the focus of at least 0.8-5 Million years ago in agreement with geological data, which suggested that vicariant events associated with the formation of the major river systems played a major role in the evolution and distribution of both genera in southern and eastern Africa. The high degree of genetic differentiation and at least four previously undescribed lineages recovered in this study suggested that mormyrid diversity within southern and eastern Africa may be underestimated. Possible threats to the studied mormyrid species and lineages and other freshwater-dependent species were identified during the course of this study. When described, the unidentified lineages would further increase the species diversity of both Marcusenius and Petrocephalus, and, therefore, the southern and eastern African ichthyofauna. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 2025
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- Date Issued: 2015-04-09