African christian parents' framing of gender and sexual identity in Duduza, Nigel
- Authors: Mkhatshwa, Puleng Charity
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Gender identity -- South Africa -- Gauteng Sexual minorities -- South Africa -- Gauteng Religion and civil society -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Gauteng
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12187 , vital:27042
- Description: This research tested the perception of Christian parents framing of gender and sexual identities in Duduza, Nigel. The researcher conducted the quantitative research based on the theoretical framework and measured it by means of variables and questions through the development of a questionnaire. The triangulation questions from the literature review were included in the questionnaire. The quantitative data collected was in the form of numbers. The literature review was completed to find out what had previously been written about the dependant variable, and to clarify and define concepts contained in the dependant variable, as well as to examine the independent variables and their elements influencing the dependant variable. The study provides the recommendation for the Christians denominations towards influencing change in the Christian parents’ framing of gender and sexual identities in Duduza, Nigel.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Agreement and coordination in XiTsonga, SeSotho and IsiXhosa: an optimality theoretic perspective
- Authors: Mitchley, Hazel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3423 , vital:20491
- Description: This thesis provides a unified Optimality Theoretic analysis of subject-verb agreement with coordinated preverbal subjects in three Southern Bantu languages: Xitsonga (S53), Sesotho (S33), and isiXhosa (S41). This analysis is then used to formulate a typology of agreement resolution strategies and the contexts which trigger them. Although some accounts in the Bantu literature suggest that agreement with coordinate structures is avoided by speakers (e.g. Schadeberg 1992, Voeltz 1971) especially when conjuncts are from different noun classes, I show that there is ample evidence to the contrary, and that the subject marker used is dependent on several factors, including (i) the [-HUMAN] specification on the conjuncts, (ii) whether the conjuncts are singular or plural, (iii) whether or not the conjuncts both carry the same noun class feature, and (iv) the order of the conjuncts. This thesis shows that there are various agreement resolution strategies which can beused: 1) agreement with the [+HUMAN] feature on the conjuncts, 2) agreement with the[-HUMAN] feature on the conjuncts, 3) agreement with the noun class feature on both conjuncts, 4) agreement with the noun class feature on the conjunct closest to the verb, and 5) agreement with the noun class feature on the conjunct furthest from the verb. Not all of these strategies are used by all languages, nor are these strategies interchangeable in the languages which do use them – instead, multiple factors conspire to trigger the use of a specific agreement strategy within a specific agreement featural context. I show that these effects can be captured using Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 2004). The analysis makes use of seven constraints: RES#, MAX[+H], MAX[-H], DEP[-H], MAXNC, DEPNC, and AGREECLOSEST. The hierarchical ranking of these constraints not only accounts for the confinement of particular strategies to specific agreement featural contexts within a language, but also accounts for the cross-linguistic differences in the use of these strategies. I end off by examining the typological implications which follow from the OT analysis provided in this thesis.
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- Date Issued: 2016
An anthropological investigation on the marginalization of women in sport: the case of women soccer in Gelvandale
- Authors: Sait, Shaabiera
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sports for women -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Sex discrimination in sports -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/10773 , vital:26822
- Description: During the Apartheid era in South Africa, women were marginalized from sport. The ability to participate in sport in South Africa is inherently linked to the political history of the country. Sport played a dynamic role in the struggle against the diabolical system of apartheid in South Africa and has a powerful role to play in the transformation and nation building of South Africa. Women have made great strides in sport in recent years in South Africa. However, at times we find that there is unfair media coverage. The unfair coverage of women’s sport displays gender based attitudes which systematically disadvantage women’s position in society. Women’s participation in sport has grown dramatically but despite this growth coverage of women in sport remains inferior. This research study investigated the marginalization of women in soccer in the Gelvandale area, Port Elizabeth. The objective of this study is to investigate if women are being marginalised in Gelvandale where soccer is concern as well as determining the meaning of gender inequality from an anthropological perspective within the context of soccer in the Gelvandale area. Further, to contribute within the anthropology of soccer in South Africa particularly in the Eastern Cape Province and to come up with recommendations that will contribute towards improvement of soccer in Gelvandale and beyond.
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- Date Issued: 2016
An anthropological perspective of destitute families in the Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth
- Authors: Thornton, Jessica Leigh
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Poverty -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Families, Black -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Economic assistance, Domestic -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/45690 , vital:38927
- Description: It is noticeable that poverty and deprivation exists in all forms in most, if not all, societies. Poverty and destitution have led to the formation and development of rural settlements within an urban context, which is known as informal housing. An example of this is Port Elizabeth’s Walmer Township. Walmer Township is seen to be one of the poorest informal settlements within the Eastern Cape, and has common problems of unemployment, violence, substance abuse, HIV/Aids and illiteracy. These problems adversely affect the community’s living conditions and plummets the society further into a state of destitution. In a last attempt to alleviate poverty among communities, such as the Walmer Township, organizations and external agencies have stepped in to reduce the harmful effects caused by poverty. These include shelters, feeding schemes and job empowerment. However, questions as to whether these organizations actually assist those living in poverty, and how can the organizations or current policy be improved, still exist and are raised regularly today. Thus, the research attempts to investigate the social effects of poverty and how it compromises family units, in order to understand what external organizations are in place to assist these families in destitution, and to come up with recommendations with the view of improving the existing policy
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- Date Issued: 2016
An investigation into the discursive contructions of childhood masculinity and femininity in BEN 10
- Authors: Gharbaharan, Leah
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3384 , vital:20477
- Description: This thesis investigates the representation of gendered childhood in popular children’s television series Ben 10. The series focuses on ten year old Ben who is granted alien powers, deciding to use them to protect innocent people from danger. Alongside Ben is his ten year old female cousin, Gwen, presented as his foil and guide throughout the series. As the characters develop the series presents particular gendered ways of performing childhood and adolescence and responses to the challenges of growing up. Before charting the trajectories of masculinity and femininity of the series I provide a theoretical framework drawing on the work of Foucault for his conceptualisation of discourse, discursive regimes and discursive subjects. The discursive approach is further explored by outlining particular concepts posited by Connell and Butler who argue for the discursive construction and performativity of gender. Similarly, I employ a social constructionist approach to childhood, arguing for children as active meaning makers – albeit constrained by broader discourses. They are constantly learning behaviours which shape their social practice, indicating the significance of studies on children’s media. Consistent with a constructivist approach, this study employs a qualitative methodology to undertake a Critical Discourse Analysis of select episodes, also informed by narrative theories. These ideas underpin the textual analysis of each purposively sampled episode of the three series to present the progression of masculinity and femininity from childhood through early and later adolescence through the characters Ben and Gwen. The analysis serves to demonstrate that Rousseau’s gendered notions of childhood still have considerable purchase in the twenty-first century, particularly in relation to the female character. This study’s findings propose a shift in children’s televisual representations to espousing more liberal views of masculinity, wherein boys are permitted space to feel fear and anxiety. Unsurprisingly, the series continues to uphold traditional ideals of heteronormativity and a hegemonic masculinity which uses physicality to demonstrate dominance. Furthermore, despite the modern conception of self-actualising females the series expects its female characters to work doubly hard without fundamentally challenging patriarchal ideals. That conventional, patriarchal gender roles are rehearsed and privileged in this popular series has implications in terms of persistent gender inequalities.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Assessing authentic leadership and workplace trust amongst managerial government employees in Lesotho
- Authors: Damane, Likeleko
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Leadership -- Moral and ethical aspects , Industrial management
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/9033 , vital:26458
- Description: In today‘s world, characterised by highly competitive global economies, organisations have realised the need for a positive approach in order to remain competitive, sustainable and to attract and retain talent. A positive approach to leadership and an organisational environment characterised by trust has been one of the fundamental tools towards achieving this goal. The main objective of the present study was to assess the existence of positive organizational approaches (authentic leadership and workplace trust) within the government of Lesotho, especially at a time when the country was facing difficulties. The study was descriptive in nature, and followed a non-experimental quantitative approach. The survey made use of a sample of 153 civil servants occupying positions from supervisory to senior management. Data was acquired through the use of an electronic questionnaire made up of two scales: one was a self-assessment instrument on authentic leadership adopted from Walumbwa and associates, and the other scale was on workplace trust developed by Natalie Ferres. The analysis of data involved descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, post hoc tests and Cohen‘s d. The results of the study provided evidence that there were high levels of the authentic leadership and trust in the workplace. Demographic variables were not found to influence the outcome of authentic leadership scores, however, education and managerial level were found to have an influence on organisational trust. The findings of the study provoked the researcher to call for an implementation of policy on positive training for management and for further research in this area.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Being civil
- Authors: Matshoba, Zongezile Theophilus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:6017 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021237
- Description: My collection of short stories delves into government and governance, democracy, citizenship, civil servants, poverty, corruption and nepotism. My stories draw on the traditions of gritty urban crime fiction uncovering crimes of violence, service delivery, vandalism and corruption. They explore themes of mental cruelty and greed, self- preservation and community in rural areas, farms, townships and cities characterized by wrenching contradictions and inequalities. , This epic dramatic poetic verse delves into government and school governance, labour unions, liberation struggle, parenting and a wide range of school perceptions. It interrogates the roles of parents, teachers, students, department of education officials and that of other stakeholders that make use of schools. Influenced by William Wellington Gqoba’s ‘A great debate on education: a Parable’ wayback, it continues the education debate in the current post-democratic South Africa characterized by wrenching contradictions and inequalities. , This thesis is presented in two parts: English and isiXhosa.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Being for the Other: Surveillance and Depictions of Race, Gender, and Animals in Contemporary South African Fiction
- Authors: Laue, Kharys Ateh
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3848 , vital:20549
- Description: This thesis examines the depiction, in contemporary South African fiction, of irresponsibility and responsibility in relation to the raced, gendered, and animal Other. Through a close analysis of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison and Michel Foucault’s study of this design, I establish the notion of disciplinary surveillance or panopticism. This I take to be a mode of power that seeks, by means of an invisible gaze, to render its subjects docile. In my readings of J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Justin Cartwright’s White Lightning, and selected short stories from Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town and The One That Got Away, I demonstrate that oppressive authoritarian regimes are rooted in Benthamic principles of hyper-visibility and concealment. Disciplinary power, I contend, is effective precisely because it places an individual in a constant state of Being-for-Others, a term coined by Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the experience of objectification through another’s look. Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity and W. E. B. Du Bois’s notion of black double consciousness frame my examination of, respectively, gender and racial oppression, while my discussion of animals appeals to Jacques Derrida’s work on the non-human. I show how surveillance, in each of the selected texts, functions through a racist and/or sexist and/or speciesist gaze that facilitates violent, irresponsible relationships with the human and non-human Other. The texts under discussion, however, also depict ways in which the Other actively resists and subverts regimes of oppression, often by means of a counter gaze that compels the protagonist, or the reader, to take up responsibility for Others. Ultimately, my study concludes that the fictional works of Coetzee, Wicomb, and Cartwright offer an ethics of empathetic responsibility, which I term Being for the Other, in opposition to mechanisms of disciplinary surveillance that seek to oppress, conceal, and dominate.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Between sentences
- Authors: Thesen, Jo-Ann
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:6007 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/1021215
- Description: My stories explore different forms, including flash fiction. Some use the fairy tale form to combine fiction and non-fiction in order to reach the essence of the story. In this I am influenced by Kate Bernheimer, who speaks of the “flatness, abstraction, intuitive logic and normalized magic” of traditional fairy tales. A number of stories are set in the places I worked as a newspaper reporter. Here I use my old press reports as starting points for the real or imagined story behind the news – often involving miscommunication, dominance, exploitation, the tension between isolation and belonging, and the nuances of family relationships.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Beyond commercial design: a critique of design and graphic design writings in Emigre and Dot Dot Dot magazines
- Authors: Muir, Margot
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Graphic design (Typography) Graphic arts Magazine design
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12436 , vital:27066
- Description: Graphic design faces the contradictions of commercial intent and social relevance. This study explores the contribution of criticism, in two independent, seminal graphic design magazines, towards shifting the dominant preferences of graphic design from a purely commercial pursuit to a human-centred practice. Emigre magazine (c.1984 - 2005) and Dot Dot Dot magazine (c.2000 - 2010) are recognised for their critical intent and within them are emerging critical issues that suggest a potential niche for graphic design beyond consumerism and commerce. In the discipline of graphic design, designers define what it is to be human (and thus equally the realities of dehumanisation) in very particular ways (Rose, 2001:135; Freire, 1993:43). Graphic design has a history of commercial practice. This commercial history continues to define its identity and reinforce a particular body of knowledge. Graphic design criticism, however, is an inventive voice that has the potential to contribute to change. Both Emigre and Dot Dot Dot were representative of a “constructive marginality” (Bennett, 1993:64), drawing from their own set of references and awareness of graphic design’s potential to inform their identities, instead of looking to established definitions of practice to do so. This analysis explores how they anticipated a modern conception of graphic design that has become part of a recently adopted (2015) and more widely embedded discourse. This discourse involves critical design that interrogates multiculturalism, interdisciplinarity, environmental sustainability, social and political agency, and speculative futures. Graphic design engages social institutions and practices that denote social constructions of difference and inequality, and is never neutral. Any work, any representation of ideology, is at once individual and discursive at the level of social, cultural and political formations. The critical issues evident in Emigre and Dot Dot Dot, with the exception of an absence of speculative futures, anticipate a more humanising perspective in graphic design. They invite critique and the potential for change that is relevant to the surrounding world, as a counter to commercial self-interest.
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- Date Issued: 2016
bones & flesh
- Authors: Hammerton, Kerry
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:6009 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021221
- Description: My collection encompasses personal relationships, intimacy, and the erotic, as well as more narrative poems grounded in landscapes, including urban and internal landscapes. Some were written in conversation with other poems or pieces of prose such as the stories of Noy Holland. I use free verse forms influenced by various prose poems as well as by the musical/tonal forms of poets such as Lorca. Other styles and influences include the darkness and directness of Spanish poetry particularly Rafael Alberti (esp. his book Concerning the Angels); and the confident and reflective style of Romanian poet Nina Cassian.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Building communities through re-blocking in the city of Cape Town
- Authors: Connacher, Jayde
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Squatter settlements -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Housing -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3499 , vital:20436
- Description: This study uses the re-blocking policy adopted by the City of Cape Town to explore an alternative approach to the housing backlog crisis in South Africa. The two re-blocking projects examined in Mshini Wam and Kuku Town illustrate the benefits of re-blocking and the challenges that were overcome in both of these informal settlements. This study is descriptive in nature and explores the challenges that informal settlements present not only for their inhabitants, but also the impact these challenges have on the city itself. The re-blocking policy is explored as a potential approach to addressing these issues and how the in situ upgrading approach to informal settlements is an improved and sustainable approach for South Africa. Key findings suggest that the Re-blocking Policy can potentially address the challenges that informal settlements present and it could serve as a sustainable housing model for improving service delivery to informal settlements.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Challenges facing water supply in the Polokwane Municipality, Mankweng Cluster
- Authors: Mashego, Irene Lerato
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Municipal water supply -- South Africa -- Polokwane , Rural public utilities -- South Africa -- Polokwane
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/8109 , vital:25007
- Description: Polokwane Local Municipality is one of many municipalities in South Africa experiencing challenges of providing potable water services to their local residents. Residents’ dissatisfaction about poor potable water services have manifested in community protests. The study, which looks at the communities’ experience within the Makweng Cluster, aims to assess the main constraints facing Polokwane Local Municipality in providing potable water to the Mankweng Cluster.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Changing planets and climates in select fantastic literature
- Authors: Ward, Brendan
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3994 , vital:20578
- Description: This thesis is concerned with literature’s engagement with the environment, specifically ecosystems and climate change. Literature of the fantastic, works that break from the tradition of mimetic literature and the limits of realism, are the focus of this thesis, which argues, alongside ecocriticism, that literature must be part of the interdisciplinary drive towards greater ecological awareness. Speculative literature adds fantastic elements or draws on scientific extrapolations into the future, and offers a platform to engage with the science of environmental issues alongside philosophical engagements with the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world around them. This thesis draws on ecocriticism to examine the role of reading and criticism in constructing more ecologically sustainable societies. From this position, it asks how fantasy can be used to convey these themes. As a result, this thesis is interested in definitions of fantasy, drawing on science fiction and fantasy to examine Kathryn Hume’s framework of the fantastic impulse. Placing fantastic texts on two axes, Hume examines the ways texts support or subvert the reader’s expectations, and encourage or discourage reflection on their extratextual worlds. This thesis contends that, texts that encourage engagement are most transformative, but that the spectrum of engagement and disengagement challenges authors to navigate between didacticism and emotive imagery. To show this, this thesis examines four series of novels drawing on the fantastic impulse. Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy and Science in the Capital, and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The first two are on opposite ends of both of Hume’s axes, and imagine the challenges of constructing Earth-like ecosystems on other planets, asking questions about the sustainability of such a project as well as the possibilities of transforming society. The latter two engage with rapid climate change, Robinson’s looking at contemporary climate change and Martin’s engaging with historical climate change. They interrogate the impact of the climate on human and more- than-human life, and reveal the tension between comforting didactic revisions of human- environment interactions and framework-disturbing alternate ways of relating to the environment. This tension is where the fantastic is powerful, allowing alternate visions to pierce sceptical readers’ defences.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Co-operatives support programme of the Cacadu District Municipality
- Authors: Kate, Pumelelo Maxwell
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Cooperative societies -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Social status -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5667 , vital:20961
- Description: Despite the efforts by government to support and direct resources and institutions to address high levels of poverty through co-operative programmes, the Eastern Cape Province remains one of the poorest provinces in the country. Even in the relatively more prosperous Cacadu District in the western portion of the Province, the socio- economic landscape is punctuated by pockets of acute poverty. In order to support government policies to promote co-operatives as a means to address past exclusions from the agricultural sector, as well as to promote socio-economic development in one of its poorest local municipalities, the Cacadu District Municipality has been implementing a support and mentoring programme to agricultural co-operatives in the Ikwezi Local Municipality. Furthermore, Ikwezi was selected because it has the highest concentration of co-operatives in the region supported by the District Municipality and by other Sector Departments from the National and Provincial Governments. The relationships between the support that is provided by Cacadu District Municipality to co-operatives and the extent to which supported co-operatives harness these advantages to grow and sustain their enterprises, forms the cornerstone of this research. As such, the hypothesis that will be tested reads as follows: The government support provided by Cacadu District Municipality to co-operatives in its area of jurisdiction has resulted in the growth and sustainability of the co-operative enterprises. The literature review considers the significant role that co-operatives play in local economic development. It provides a historical overview of co-operatives, as well as the policy framework on co-operatives in South Africa. The role of Cacadu District Municipality with regards to co-operatives and local economic development is reviewed, as well as its co- operative support and mentorship programme. An overview of the socio-economic profile of the Ikwezi Local Municipality and the agricultural co-operatives in the area concludes the literature review. The research approach is based on a mixed method between the qualitative and quantitative research families, with a bias towards the qualitative approach. The study placed more emphasis on the data gathered from individual co-operative businesses and the personal experiences of individuals involved in the co-operative sector. This approach requires qualitative techniques such as interviews and observations. The internet was used as a source for the gathering of relevant data related to the stated research objectives. Other relevant information is gathered through documents reviewed and case studies. The study used questionnaires to interview a sample of agricultural co-operatives in Ikwezi. The collected data was analysed and presented according to a set of themes that formed the basis for the analysis. The analysis provided insights into the background and history of the selected co-operatives, the challenges that they face to survive and the support that they require from government and other potential support structures. The analysis furthermore focussed on the perception of the members of the co-operatives of the impact – whether positive or negative – of the Cacadu co-operatives support and, in particular, it’s mentorship programme. The findings revealed that there was overwhelming support from the co-operative members for the intervention and mentorship provided by the Cacadu District Municipality. It became clear that accessing agricultural land and providing funding and inputs to emerging farmers and co-operatives is not enough. There needs to be a building and nurturing of an entrepreneurial spirit and business mentality accompanied by appropriate training and capacity building interventions for the co- operatives to become successful enterprises. This study reveals that this is possible given all the resources at the disposal of the state. In conclusion, the hypothesis that the support provided by Cacadu District Municipality to co-operatives in its area of jurisdiction has resulted in the growth and sustainability of the co-operative enterprises, was found to be valid.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Codeswitching online: a case study of a bilingual online maths programme for grade 7 learners in Diepsloot, Johannesburg
- Authors: von Witt, Nathalia
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3983 , vital:20577
- Description: There is an education crisis in South Africa. Mathematics and literacy are at the forefront of the problem, as particularly evidenced by Annual National Assessment results (Department of Basic Education, 2014; Spaull, 2014). This research is motivated by the unequal access to quality learning which stems from learners learning through a poorly-understood second language with little to no cognitive academic language proficiency. The vast majority of South African learners learn through their second language, English, from Grade 4 onwards. English is the language of South Africa’s political economy and is a global lingua franca; however, the understanding of concepts and content learnt at school is vital if one is to have any hope of putting one’s English to good use. This research aimed to find a way to equip learners both with English proficiency and mathematical understanding simultaneously. This was done by implementing and evaluating an experimental bilingual course in an existing mathematics programme in the township of Diepsloot in Johannesburg, South Africa. This research used design-based research methodology, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. This methodology was chosen as it allows theory and practice to intersect in a real-life setting, and for the successes and shortcomings of this intersection to be evaluated. This study encompasses both the evaluation and creation of the bilingual online mathematics course. The course is made bilingual through the creation of bilingual videos with the use of translanguaging and the creation of a bilingual glossary of terms. The videos were created using a translanguaging ‘model’ informed by theories of basic interpersonal communication skills and cognitive academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1981), common underlying proficiency (Cummins, 1991), codeswitching (Setati, 1998; Ncoko et al., 2000) and translanguaging (Makalela 2015; Creese and Blackledge, 2010a). The aim of this research was to create a successful translanguaging model which facilitates learners’ ability to conceptualise in their first language and then discuss and understand the concept in their second language.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Comparing the perfomance of 3 to 6 year old children on the performance and practical reasoning subscales of the Griffiths mental development scales: extended revised with the foundations of learning subscale of the Griffiths III
- Authors: Kolver, Christél
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Child psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/13293 , vital:27172
- Description: The developmental assessment of children is very important so that adequate resources and intervention programmes can be initiated. Updating psychometric assessments is mandatory for different reasons, which include to update norms and to add new psychometric information. It is important for psychometric assessments that measure child development to ensure that they continue to accurately reflect stages of development in a modern context. The Association for Research in Infant and Child Development (ARICD) is currently in the process of revising the Griffiths Scales. One of the many unique changes includes the newly formed Foundations of Learning Subscale. This Subscale was constructed from definition, sub-constructs and items, which encompassed the critical sub-constructs from the previous Performance and Practical Reasoning Subscales, while providing greater depth to the overarching construct. This study therefore, forms part of a larger study of developing the Griffiths III and aims to compare the performance of three to six-year-old children on these three Subscales. The study employed a mixed method approach, which included 259 children matched on the Griffiths Mental Development Scales – Extended Revised and the Griffith III. The quantitative aspect of the research included descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests as well as pearson correlations. Differences and similarities were found from the results. The relationships varied from high correlation, strong relationships to low correlation, definite but small relationships. This was further explored through a qualitative analysis between the constructs assessed on each of the Subscales, as well as a qualitative analysis on the items of Subscale A, brought from Subscale E and F and the new items.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Complexities of accessing finance from government institutions and its agencies
- Authors: Mbundwini, Gracious Nomfuneko
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Business enterprises -- South Africa -- Finance Small business -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11772 , vital:26967
- Description: Purpose: with the recent establishment of Small Business Development department, the ministry is tasked and will be responsible for ensuring that the business environment is enabling for new Small to Medium businesses. The real issue and the point of interest in researching this particular dissertation is the available literature around the issue of the SME sector which indicates that new SMEs in South Africa do not move from the first stage (existence) to other stages such as survival, success, take off and resource maturity. The study seeks to inaugurate two specific challenges (difficulties in accessing finance and to examine if there is sufficient non-financial SME incubators and mentorship programs post funding allocation). The area of study focused on SMEs that are concentrated in highly populated areas of Gauteng. Methodology: The study was conducted using qualitative research and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The researcher was able to get valuable information on stakeholders in the SMME sector. This was done through the use of questionnaires to businesses, government funders and incubators. Results: when posed with a question of the start-up capital, a mere 17% responded to having obtained financial assistance from government institutions, 20% from friends and family while a massive 60% indicated they have used own capital to start businesses. When the researcher posed the question of the reasons that often leads to failure, approximately 23% of businesses mentioned lack of working equipment as the core reasons for the business failure while 17% indicated that lack of business opportunities or rather contracts of supply from government departments as the main impeding factor which resulted to failure. In terms of the availability of incubators, approximately 67% of respondents indicated that there were no business incubators available in their areas of business. Approximately 57% of businesses mentioned the inability to obtain loans from government funding institutions was the major business constraint that often leads to failure. The researcher posed a question to business incubators personnel that participated in the study to gain perspective as to why do they think SMEs fail within the first year of operation. Approximately 40% of respondents alluded that, barriers to entry by big corporates in South Africa force Small and Medium Enterprises out of businesses. Other participants added that the South African government procurement system does not provide opportunities to small businesses due to lack of experience. All government funding institutions participants mentioned that in most cases SMEs finance applications are rejected due to the fact that businesses fail to present viable business proposals that show the ability for business to remain operating for a long time Implications: The above analysed study findings indicate that there is a huge gap between small businesses and government funding institutions in terms of the awareness of the available financial support to SMEs. From the government perspective, it was indicated that businesses submit business plans that are not viable. There needs to be the middle ground where business plans compilation support currently provided by SEDA awareness should be spread across SMEs operating in the highly populated areas of Gauteng. Recommendations: Access to finance is a major constraint hindering the growth and success of small enterprises. The South African government has established a number of financial support programmes aimed to assist SMEs. With these financial support programmes, most of the SMEs are unsuccessful due to the fact that they cannot easily access those funds and as a result they remain stagnant for a very long time or end up shutting down. Conclusion: The effect of credit rationing is the potential loss of opportunity and or reduction in the scale of a business, neither of which is a desirable outcome. At the most fundamental level, there are lost opportunities for the borrower and the lender. There are implications for the wider economy also. SMEs are a key source of innovation, competition and choice.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Composing affect: reflection on configurations of body, sound and technology in contemporary South African performance
- Authors: Cilliers, Ilana
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3377 , vital:20478
- Description: This thesis engages with experiential performance modes through the lenses of phenomenology and affect theory. Because experiential performance relies per definition on personal, subjective ‘experience’, specific responses cannot be anticipated. However, by attempting to compose ‘affect’, a performance has the potential to ‘move’ an attendant towards response. Deleuze and Guattari define ‘affect’ as “an ability to affect and be affected….a prepersonal intensity corresponding to the passage from one experiential state of the body to another and implying an augmentation or diminution in that body’s capacity to act” (1987: xvi). One current strategy for manifesting affect in performance seems to be the ways in which different configurations of body, sound and technology are employed. The body is the means through which sound is received or ‘experienced’ in the phenomenological sense, but it can also act as a source for sonic material. The body is furthermore the means by which sonic technology is manipulated. It is the complex, reverberating relationships between body, sound and technology, and their potential for eliciting affective transformation, which is the focus of my enquiry. In the first chapter I unpack the roles of the natural phenomena, body and sound, and their complex relationships to affect. The chapter serves as philosophical basis for the rest of the investigation, and draws largely on works by philosophers Susan Kozel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Brian Massumi, Gille Deleuze and Félix Guatarri and sound theorists Don Ihde, Marshall McLuhan, Brandon LaBelle and Frances Dyson.In the remaining three chapters I discuss current South African theatre works that employ the strategy of placing emphasis on sound, sonic technology, and its relationship to the human body. These works are my own piece herTz (2014), Jaco Bouwer’s pieces Samsa-masjien (2014) and Na-aap (2013), and First Physical Theatre Company’s Everyday Falling (2010). While they range from being plays to physical theatre performances to performative experiments, they all place specific emphasis on sonic devices, drawing attention to sound by revealing microphones, speakers, midi boards, etc. to the attendants, and including the generation and manipulation of sound in the action of the performance.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Constructing a local approach to journalism education: a study of Zambian educators’ conceptualisation of the ideal journalism curriculum
- Authors: Milupi, Mulako
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021228
- Description: This research is an investigation of Zambian journalism educators’ conception of the knowledge, competencies and values that should inform their teaching practice. The study establishes how such educators conceptualise of the purpose of journalism education within the Zambian context. As part of this examination, it identifies characteristics of this context that educators regard to be of relevance to their conceptualisation of such purpose. It then identifies what they understand as the implications for the design of the ideal journalism education curriculum. The study assesses the relevance of these perspectives to the teaching of journalism in Zambia, as an example of an African country with a ‘developing’ economy. The study draws for its theoretical framework on journalism studies generally and scholarship about journalism education more specifically. It is argued that a review of the global history of journalism education points to the existence of three main traditions of teaching that have developed internationally. The first of these traditions is described as being dedicated to the project of ‘professionalisation’; the second to the production of ‘critical practitioners’, and the third to the project of ‘social development’. These traditions are based on different understandings with regard to the principles on which journalism education programmes should be based and the kind of knowledge that they should draw on. It is noted that this body of literature does not include extensive research of the way in which particular groups of African journalism educators respond to these traditions. In order to contribute to such research, the empirical component of this study sets out to explore Zambian journalism educators’ conceptualisation of journalism education within their own social context. It does so by means of an exploration of journalism educators based, respectively, at the Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts (EHC) and the University of Zambia (UNZA)’s Mass Communication Department. The foremost conclusion of the research is that both the professionalising and developmental tradition can be observed to influence the participants’ discussion.
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- Date Issued: 2016