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Professional development in environmental education in Zanzibar, Tanzania: distances encountered in a semi-distance learning course

  • Authors: Heylings, Phillippa Frances
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Environmental education -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar Distance education -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar Environmental education Distance education
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
  • Identifier: vital:1715 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003598
  • Description: In Zanzibar, in 1995, opportunities for professional development in environmental education were minimal. Yet the demand for professional development was high, especially because of an emphasis on formal qualifications in the country. Credibility was afforded to forms of professional development, aimed at creating more ‘experts’. Ongoing environmental education practice was not achieving its objectives. Into this setting, which was culturally and socio-politically different from the South African context where it was developed, I introduced the Rhodes University Certificate and Gold Fields Participatory Course in Environmental Education (RU/GF); a non-formal, counter-hegemonic course which encouraged critical reflection on the dominant orientations to environmental education practice – including professional development. I used critical ethnographic and action research methods to explore my praxiological interest, the adaptation of the RU/GF curriculum to the Zanzibar context. During the research process, a decision was made to formally accredit the RU/GF course. This decision did not alter the course orientation or the learning process but opened up possibilities for future curriculum development processes. It allowed the students both a formal qualification necessary for status and promotion, and participation in a learning process that challenged the dominant paradigm on professional development and status from within the socio-political context. The research took on a reflexive orientation to research and environmental education. Through a dialectical development of theory, method and results, several important issues emerged. These deal with the ‘distances’ encountered in attempting to address some of the perceived dichotomies in professional development in environmental education through semi-distance learning: the distances between status and learning; the need for career upgrading and the type of learning considered appropriate for professional development in environmental education; the non-quantifiable aims associated with a reflexive orientation to professional development and formal assessment demands for measurable criteria; the democratisation of open-entry courses and the elitism of restricted access; the focus on individual growth and the attainment of a normative grade; theory and practice; and finally distances between learner, text and language. The research supports similar findings emerging from evaluation of the RU/GF course in South Africa and resonates with, and contributes to, issues concerning professional development in environmental education being considered internationally.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Profile of paediatric psychosocial disorders in Frere Hospital and analysis of associated patterns of referrals

  • Authors: Chukwuemeka, Gregory Adjuba
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Child psychopathology , Frere Hospital
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2949 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002458 , Child psychopathology , Frere Hospital
  • Description: The profile of psychosocial disorders in children and the attendant patterns of referrals and health communication, were investigated within the context of a tertiary referral centre in the Eastern Cape Province. Literature on childhood disorders points to a high level of functional and substance related disorders in technologically developed countries of Europe and North America, in contrast to the developing countries of Asia and Africa, where the burden of infectious diseases and disorders of deprivation and lack still predominate in the profile of psychosocial disorders in children. In South Africa however, there is almost non-existent research on clinical psychosocial disorders profile and the research sets out to be an exploratory study in this area. A combination design was employed in which interviews and observations complemented a primarily quantitative descriptive cross sectional analysis of hospitalcase records. A pilot study was performed using an information gathering questionnaire and interviews, with findings subsequently explored in the main study. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) (WHO, 1992) diagnostic categories were used to create a profile of all ailments in the paediatric unit. Psychosocial disorders both in terms of aetiology and illness course, can be viewed from the perspective of socialadjustment and functioning (in which there is a potential role of social factors as provoking, causal or modifying factors) (Williams &Clare, 1979); and the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) (American Psychiatric Association,1994) criteria was used to create the profile of these disorders in the paediatric unit at Frere Hospital which accounted for 45% of the ailments managed in one year. The derived profile is a picture in between the profile found in technologically advanced countries, and developing countries. While the infection burden and malnutrition appear to be readily contained or curtailed, there appears to be a serious problem with access to health care services which manifest especially at the level of perinatal events, with resultant high level of hypoxic brain damage and consequently mental retardation and varying levels of impairment or disability. These medical consequences in turn are fundamentally psychosocial, requiring psychosocial care with heavy reliance on strategic communication and referrals. The referrals in respect of psychosocial disorders are mainly at primary care level revolving around local health care clinics, private clinics, special schools and rehabilitation centres.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Prosper

Ramde

Red Clay

Remix Abissa

Replacement of seven 132/66 kv distance protection schemes by means of a generic relay implemented as a strategic spare

  • Authors: Harris, Raymond Trevor
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Protective relays , Electric power systems -- Protection
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
  • Identifier: vital:10808 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/34 , Protective relays , Electric power systems -- Protection
  • Description: Eskom is experiencing problems in the field of protection maintenance and in-service breakdowns which negatively influence the quality of electrical supply to the consumer, an integral component of the utility business. These facts initiated the research into the further development of a generic relay to be implemented as a strategic spare for the replacement of several schemes operating within Eskom’s southern region. These include the electromechanical, solid state and numerical distance protection relay and scheme failures on the 132 / 66 kV feeder network. Hence, the primary objective of the research is to develop, test and configure the strategic spare in terms of software and peripheral hardware for the input and output terminal connections, generic equations and settings for the purpose of the scheme replacements. The various schemes are assessed for stepped distance and permissive intertripping for three or single pole operation. This is done in conjunction with the internal and external circuit diagrams in order to understand the detailed operation of the scheme and to ensure the effective implementation of the strategic spare. The generic relay is configured for the emergency replacement of the various schemes during in-service breakdowns. This constitutes a temporary installation and therefore the downtime in essence, of all the distance protection schemes that require replacement, is limited to a minimum. This dissertation therefore explores the implementation of the strategic spare.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Replication of maximal work output levels in able-bodied workers and candidates for disability assessments: benchmark data and guidelines

  • Authors: Charteris, J , James, Jonathan P
  • Date: 2000
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: vital:6752 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009332
  • Description: [From the introduction]: Injured-at-work employees, when the impairments are musculo-skeletal, and the injury beyond dispute, may be faced with formal rehabilitation or informal recuperation, sometimes preceded by surgical intervention, or they may be exposed to a process of application for compensation, part of which may involve medico-legal assessments. Questions that need to be addressed somewhere in this process will determine whether the impairment is of short duration, chronic or irreparable, and will involve determination also of the severity of the impairment and the issue of the workers’ capacity to return to the former occupation versus the need to find a new employment niche commensurate with the disabled workers’ capabilities. Inevitably in this process, if it is formal, someone will need to assess the musculoskeletal strength of the injured employee and make pronouncements as to physical capacity and work-readiness. In the absence of clinical ergonomists in South Africa this task falls to a variety of professionals, some well and others poorly trained to make these determinations. Most often the assessments of work-readiness are crude, amounting to little more than unsubstantiable value judgements of supervisors or health professionals not well versed in human performance capabilities. Increasingly however, better qualified professionals are making themselves available to meet the growing demands of a more employee-centred working ethos in this country. This paper is targeted at those medical, paramedical and ergonomics professionals who already have the facilities and the expertise to make use of the technique outlined herein, to further enhance their already sound means of job-related disability assessment.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Research Portfolio

  • Authors: Nts'aba, Likengkeng
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: School management and organization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , School board members -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Decision making , Education -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
  • Identifier: vital:2051 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018259
  • Description: The move towards greater democracy and participation in our education system is legislated quite succinctly in our South African Schools Act. The Act furthermore, and more importantly for this case study, posits that decision-making should be democratic in nature and our schools should eventually become governed in a collaborative and co-operative manner. Other policy texts such as the Labour Relations Act and the South African Constitution canonise the demand for a democratic South African society. This study investigates how democratic decision-making practices are taking place in an East London Secondary School namely Ebenezer Majombozi High. Even though distinct links exist between management and governance arms of schools, this study concentrates predominantly on decision-making within the school governing body and touches briefly on management thinking trends as a theoretical background to the kind of management at the school. What makes the school interesting as a case study is its rich history and its location in a deprived and impoverished township environment. The school was also part of the ex-Department of Education and Training, the black educational department of the past apartheid state. The kind of research undertaken was in the form of unstructured personal :interviews with influential stakeholders at the school. Some of these stakeholders fonn part of the school governing body and the questions asked probed forms of governance at the school and how decision-making impacted on the overall school governance. The research fmdings acknowledges that decision-making does occur democratically at the school but that the practical implementation of positive consensual decisions are rarely realized. The school governing body only meets to deal with crises underpinned by a lack of learning and teaching and has not even debated the policies within the South African Schools Act. The study also argues that only by building capacity within the school and empowering the stakeholders, can constructive participation by all become a reality.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Research portfolio

Research Projects Portfolio.

  • Authors: Schudel, Ingrid Joan
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
  • Identifier: vital:2015 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016368
  • Description: This collection of research projects tells a story of the time I have spent with members of the Albany Working for Water team; including preparations made, lessons learned and insights gained. My first project was to analyse the methodology of a research paper. I chose the paper by Arjen Wals because I intended, like him, to examine people's perceptions of environmental issues. From this paper I gained ideas for a qualitative research process and learnt the importance of theoretical and methodological consistency. My next project was to present a report on my research into the perceptions of workrelated environmental issues among the Albany Working for Water workers. From this research I gained insight into the knowledge of the workers and also some of the misconceptions that they have about social and ecological issues. I made educational recommendations based on these insights. This experience inspired me to initiate a play with a group of the workers about alien plant eradication. The process of developing this play formed the basis for a research paper that I have submitted as another research project. Concurrent with the development of the play, I conducted a fourth research project that was a situational analysis of the Albany Workingfor Water Project. I hoped that this analysis would provide useful insight into the context of the above two projects. Overall, I hope the story reflects how I have grown through the learning experiences I shared with the Albany Working for Water team. I would like to extend to my thanks to all those who assisted and shared my journey with me.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Reviens

Review of policies and legislation influencing the sustainable use of South Africa's indigenous Woodlands

  • Authors: Willis, Carla B , Geach, Bev S , Versfeld, Dirk , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182810 , vital:43881 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA10231765_60"
  • Description: The recent completion of the South African National Land-Cover Database and the Vegetation Map of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, allows for the first time a comparison to be made on a national scale between the current and potential distribution of 'natural' vegetation resources. This article compares the distribution and location of woodland-type vegetation categories defined within the National Land-Cover data and the equivalent 'Savanna-thicket Biomes' class defined within the Vegetation Mapdata. Significant differences were found, both in terms of the total areal extent, as well as the actual spatial distribution of these two data sets. These differences are a measure of the inherent mapping accuracies of each source, but rather an illustration of boundary delineation distinctions that are a result of different data sources, mapping objectives and information classes, that must be noted when comparing two essentially similar information sets.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Revolution

Rhodes University Graduation Ceremony 2000

  • Authors: Rhodes University
  • Date: 2000
  • Language: English
  • Type: text
  • Identifier: vital:8147 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007297
  • Description: Rhodes University Graduation Ceremony [at] 1820 Settlers National Monument Friday, 7 April 2000 at 10:30; 18:00 [and] Saturday, 8 April 2000 at 10:30 , Graduation Ceremony Guild Theatre, Oxford Street, East London Friday, 19 May 2000 at 18:00 [and] Saturday, 20 May 2000 at 14:30
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Road culture : an investigation of the road as a means of mental and physical exploration

  • Authors: Meistre, Brent Arthur
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Roads in art , Travel in art , Travel -- Psychological aspects , Travelers -- Psychology
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
  • Identifier: vital:2414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002210 , Roads in art , Travel in art , Travel -- Psychological aspects , Travelers -- Psychology
  • Description: Chapter one considers various manifestations of the concept of ‘journey’ and how they have changed over history. The Odyssean journey that the hero undertakes to reach a point of self-realisation is investigated. This leads to a other discussion of types of journeys such as pilgrimages, as well as ‘wandering’. These are contrasted with the twentieth century perceptions of journey. Questions of travel are then dealt with: how the nature of the traveller's path has changed over the centuries, various points of travel and gender, and how in the last century solitary travel has been transformed into mass tourism. The second chapter deals specifically with the motorcar, the mobility it enables and how it has led to the rise of a roadside culture. Different factors that influenced the rise of the motorcar are looked at. The motorcar as a cell and eroticism and the car are also investigated. The twentieth century city, it's restructuring, as well as the highway systems is discussed. In Chapter Three, the sense of freedom that the motorcar created is considered in particular reference to escape, aimlessness, and road weariness, as well as the landscape as a symbol of freedom. This leads to a discussion on the notion of speed, the sense of power and the romanticisation of death in car crashes. Chapter Four investigates masculinity and the road. The frontier as a place in the psyche of the male is also dealt with. The road as a means of testing and regaining masculinity in the mid-twentieth century is considered. Issues of the male domination of the land and the feminine are discussed, with the chapter ending with a brief examination of the woman as traveller. Lastly the masters’ submission exhibition, entitled RODE is discussed with direct reference to the theories investigated in the previous chapters. Individual works as well as the methodology are looked at closely.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Run run

Rural self-reliance strategies in South Africa : community initiatives and external support in the former black homelands

  • Authors: Nel, Etienne L , Binns, Tony
  • Date: 2000
  • Language: English
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: vital:6716 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006789
  • Description: This paper examines the relevance of the concept of self-reliance in the context of rural community economic development in South Africa. Whilst changing global and local circumstances oblige impoverished communities to become more pro-active in the enhancement of the quality of their lives, they nevertheless cannot ignore basic market forces and the need for an appropriate level of external assistance. Four community-based agricultural ventures in South Africa's former Homelands are examined. A comparison between the four schemes permits an assessment to be made of what such community ventures require if they are to succeed and have a meaningful impact on job creation and poverty alleviation. The role of external support agencies and access to markets in each case features prominently in the assessment.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Rural students' local knowledge of learning in formal and informal contexts

  • Authors: Visser, Alvin-Jon
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Non-formal education -- South Africa , Education and state -- South Africa , Rural children -- Education -- South Africa , Black people -- Education -- South Africa , Community and school -- South Africa , Education, Rural -- Social Aspects -- South Africa , Rural schools -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:3079 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002588 , Non-formal education -- South Africa , Education and state -- South Africa , Rural children -- Education -- South Africa , Black people -- Education -- South Africa , Community and school -- South Africa , Education, Rural -- Social Aspects -- South Africa , Rural schools -- South Africa
  • Description: The general aim of this thesis is to illuminate the process of learning as it occurs in formal and informal contexts. The study focuses on South African scholars attending school in rural areas where the contrast between learning in formal and informal learning contexts is more pronounced than that in urban areas. The research draws on rural scholars' local knowledge of formal and informal learning contexts in order to gain a rich insight into how cognition is situated in different learning contexts. This is accomplished through investigating the structure of the respective learning tasks, the mediators involved, the task objectives and the means for achieving these objectives in the different learning contexts. The thesis draws on a socio-cultural approach to the study of cognitive development to probe the activity of learning in a formal and informal learning context. Through the use of a context sensitive methodological methods especially Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques, it was possible to illuminate tacit local knowledge structures and to get participants to actively explicate their understandings related to learning in different contexts The research results illustrate the assertion that the activity of learning is fundamentally situated in the learning context from which it arises. Learning is framed by the community of practice which structures affordances for situated learning, through mediation, within zones of proximal development. Learning in a formal context such as the school is often abstract, rule-based, standardised and theory related. Learners also find it difficult to reflect on the learning tasks and the mediational means used in a formal learning context. In contrast, the learning which takes place in an informal setting is often practical, individualised, flexible and environment based. This learning is structured around everyday activities and is dynamically defined and supported. In a situation where a learner is exposed to dislocated learning contexts, the essential goal of educational initiatives is to bridge the gap between the two. This can be achieved through mediators creating effective zones of proximal development which facilitate the individuals adaptation between learning contexts. Exposing rural scholars' local knowledge of learning in formal and informal contexts allows for a fuller understanding of the cognitive development structured within formal and informal communities of practice. It is this understanding that is necessary to address the situation where learning contexts, drawing on different knowledge bases find ways of thinking, prove challenging and/or conflicting to the scholar.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

Rural underdevelopment in the former Ciskei with specific reference to Glenmore Village

  • Authors: Malila, Brett
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Glenmore (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:3288 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003076 , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Glenmore (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
  • Description: This thesis examines development changes that took place in Glenmore after 1994. To examine such change one needs to have a concise historical understanding of the situation in Glenmore before democracy. The aim of the work is to critique development at a local, rural level, pinpointing the major changes, if any, that came with the incorporation of the former homeland of Ciskei (and thus Glenmore village) with South Africa. These people were forcibly resettled in 1979 for political and economic reasons. Their situation then was one of dire poverty; it is argued here that even with democracy, their history of underdevelopment has continued. The reason for this continued underdevelopment is the structure of the former reserves. The overall political context has changed in South Africa but the most important aspect with regard to the development of the homelands: land, has not. At the central level, the government has churned out a wide variety of development policies, which due to the prevailing political and economic context of the times are fraught with inconsistencies. The example used here to show some of these inconsistencies is the 1997 White Paper on Land Reform. This confusion at the central level with regard to the perceived future of South Africa has managed to adversely affect the rural areas and their development. There very well might be policies in abundance to improve the life-world of the rural poor, but there are inconsistencies between this policy and actual practice. With regard to Glenmore the confusion in the present government’s central development policy is arguably the main reason for the underdevelopment of the village. The inconsistencies in policy such as the 1997 White Paper on Land Reform, have meant that the structure of the reserves has not changed. Vital issues such as land tenure and ownership have not been dealt with. The study thus shows that unless the structure of the homeland system which is predominantly based on issues of land, is changed, genuine social and economic development will not take place in areas like Glenmore.
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  • Date Issued: 2000
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