Exploring and expanding teachers’ gender and culturally responsive practices when mediating learning of chemistry in rural schools in Namibia
- Authors: Haimene, Johanna Shetulimba
- Date: 2024-04-05
- Subjects: Chemistry Study and teaching (Secondary) Namibia , Discrimination in education Namibia , Gender and education , Culturally relevant pedagogy Namibia , Cultural-historical activity theory , Expansive learning , Group work in education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436535 , vital:73280 , DOI 10.21504/10962/436536
- Description: Gender and cultural dimensions are critical aspects of the education system. Schools are full of gender and cultural stereotypes when it comes to the teaching and learning of science. This calls for the teachers to be gender and culturally responsive in their science classrooms. This is also to ensure that the educational needs of both boys and girls are addressed. The Namibian National Curriculum for Basic Education advocates the application of gender equity at all levels and in every aspect of the curriculum and teachers are central to the implementation of this curriculum. However, while the policy has been formulated at the macro level of the education system, little if any research has been done in Namibia on exploring how teachers are coping with and implementing the curriculum based on gender and cultural aspects. This includes how teachers are responding to gender issues and how they eradicate bias and discrimination to ensure equality and equity for both boys and girls in their science teaching. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to explore and expand Grade 9 Physical Science teachers’ gender and culturally responsive practices in science classrooms when mediating learning of chemistry topics using acids and bases and combustion reactions as examples. The study focused on working with teachers with the purpose of improving their practices through collaborative partnerships and enriching all the participants (teachers and researcher) as they were seen as co-learners and co-researchers. Hence, this study was underpinned by interpretivist and critical paradigms. It adopted a case study research design. Six Grade 9 Physical Science teachers from the Oshikoto Region were the participants in this study. Qualitative data were generated using questionnaires, interviews (semi-structured and stimulated recall), classroom observations and Change Laboratory Workshops (CLWs) in which we co-developed a tool to address gender and cultural responsiveness. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Engeström’s cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) were used as theoretical frameworks to surface contradictions or tensions that exist in the teaching and learning process. A thematic approach to data analysis was employed to come up with sub-themes and themes. The findings of the study revealed that the teachers seemed to have an understanding of being gender and culturally responsive when they are mediating their lessons. However, some contradictions constrained them from being gender and culturally responsive. The surfaced contradictions included the lack of examples that are not gender and culturally biased, poor participation of the learners during lesson presentation and low confidence among the learners and language barriers. In addition, the findings revealed that teachers need professional development in interpreting policies and the curriculum and techniques for analysing gender and cultural issues pertaining to the teaching and learning process. Through CLWs, we co-developed a mediational tool that could guide teachers on how to be gender and culturally responsive. The findings also revealed that participation of teachers in the CLWs equipped them with resources on how to be gender and culturally responsive in their classrooms. The study recommends that teachers need to be involved in continuing professional development to support them with the correct interpretation and enactment of the curriculum and other policies. The policy developers need to be in contact with the policy implementers to evaluate the implementation of these policies and provide guidance where necessary. Moreover, teachers need to form professional learning communities in order to share their best practices and transform them. This might assist them in addressing gender and cultural issues that are encountered in the teaching and learning process. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post School Education, 2024
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- Date Issued: 2024-04-05
A data-driven decision-making model for the third-party logistics industry in Africa
- Authors: Moyo, Faith
- Date: 2021-12
- Subjects: Port Elizabeth (South Africa) , Eastern Cape (South Africa) , South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/53875 , vital:46022
- Description: Third-party logistics (3PL) providers have continued to be key players in the supply chain network and have witnessed a growth in the usage of information technology. This growth has enhanced the volume of structured and unstructured data that is collected at a high velocity, and is of rich variety, sometimes described as “Big Data”. Leaders in the 3PL industry are constantly seeking to effectively and efficiently mature their abilities to exploit this data to gain business value through data-driven decision-making (DDDM). DDDM helps the leaders to reduce the reliance they place on observations and intuition to make crucial business decisions in a volatile business environment. The aim of this research was to develop a prescriptive model for DDDM in 3PLs. The model consists of iterative elements that prescribe guidelines to decision-makers in the 3PL industry on how to adopt DDDM. A literature review of existing theoretical frameworks and models for DDDM was conducted to determine the extent to which they contribute towards DDDM for 3PLs. The Design-Science Research Methodology (DSRM) was followed to address the aim of the research and applied to pragmatically and iteratively develop and evaluate the artefact (the model for DDDM) in the real-world context of a 3PL. The literature findings revealed that the challenges with DDDM in organisations include three main categories of challenges related to data quality, data management, vision and capabilities. Once the challenges with DDDM were established, a prescriptive model was designed and developed for DDDM in 3PLs. Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews to gain an understanding of the problems and possible solutions in the real-world context of 3PLs. An As-Is Analysis in the real-world case 3PL company confirmed the challenges identified in literature, and that data is still used in the 3PL company for descriptive and diagnostic analytics to aid with the decision-making processes. This highlights that there is still room for maturity into using data for predictive and prescriptive analytics that will, in turn, improve the decision-making process. An improved second version of the model was demonstrated to the participants (the targeted users), who had the opportunity to evaluate the model. The findings revealed that the model provided clear guidelines on how to make data-driven decisions and that the feedback loop and the data culture aspects highlighted in the design were some of the important features of the model. Some improvements were suggested by participants. A field study of three data analytics tools was conducted to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each as well as to highlight the status of DDDM at the real-world case 3PL. The limitations of the second version of the model, together with the recommendations from the participants were used to inform the improved and revised third version of the model. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, School of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-12
Characterising the sleep-wake behaviour of adolescents in a sample of South African high school students in Makhanda, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Mandondo, Nathasha Luleka
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Sleep-wake cycle South Africa Makhanda , Sleep deprivation South Africa Makhanda , Academic achievement South Africa Makhanda , Mood (Psychology) South Africa Makhanda , High school students Conduct of life , Teenagers Health and hygiene South Africa Makhanda , Teenagers Sleep South Africa Makhanda , Depression in adolescence South Africa Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: Master's thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/245714 , vital:51398
- Description: Sleep plays a significant role during adolescence. Overall, sleep is essential for growth and development, cognitive function, memory consolidation, concentration, alertness, mental and physical health, as well as the overall quality of life. During adolescence though, sleep-wake behaviour has been shown to undergo drastic changes, progressing from the early ages of 11-13 years through to late adolescence while attending school. During this period, adolescents experience later bedtimes, earlier waketimes, and less than recommended sleep durations, especially on weekdays during the school term. On weekends, however, adolescents tend to further delay their bed and wake times, resulting in discrepancies between week-and-weekend sleep-wake behavior. These changes are driven by a variety of systemic factors, that include biological, psychosocial, school, and behavioural changes that adolescents experience. The interaction of systematic factors has been described as the “Perfect Storm of insufficient and inappropriately-timed sleep” (Carskadon, 2011a; Crowley et al., 2018). While previous research on adolescent sleep has been focused mainly in countries of the Global North, there has been comparatively less research in the Global South, particularly in countries like South Africa, and in out of large city centres like Johannesburg and Cape Town. It is also not known what the impact of certain demographic factors, such as learner sex, boarding/day schooling, and public/private schooling is on sleep-wake habits. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the sleep-wake behaviour of a sample of late adolescents from public and private schools in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and to make comparisons between different groups within. Method: This study is comprised of two phases. Phase one adopted a cross-sectional design to characterise Grade 12 learners' (final year students) sleep-wake behaviour across various public and private schools. This was achieved through the administration of an amended version of the School Sleep Habits Survey (SSHS). The SSHS included questions that capture demographic information, academic performance, sleep duration at different times of the week and also incorporated scales to assess daytime sleepiness, sleep-wake behavior problems, depressive mood, and chronotype. Phase two adopted an observational descriptive design. The sleep-wake behaviour of a sample of Grade 11 learners was tracked for 9 days using the Core Consensus Sleep Diary and Actigraphy. Data were not normally distributed and were thus analysed using non-parametric statistics and all data were displayed as the median and interquartile range (no 1-3). Results: Analysed surveys totalled 231. All participants were Grade 12s (final year of high school), aged between 17-19, from three private schools (n=152) and two public schools (n=79). The sample consisted of students identifying as females (n=94) and males (n=137). Participants self-identified as either Black/African (n=73), White (n=125), Colored (n=32) and as Indian (n=1). Over half of the sample lived in boarding houses/hostels (n=130) and slightly less than half (n=95) were day scholars. For Phase One, the median obtained for self-reported sleep duration on weekdays was 07hrs (06hrs-07hrs:18min) and 08hrs (07hrs-09hrs) on the weekend (p<0.01; z=10). The median for self-reported bedtime on weeknights was 11:00 (10:30-11:30) p.m., while on the weekends, it was an hour later i.e., 12:00 a.m. (11:00 p.m. -12:37 a.m.; p<0.01; z=9.4). Self-reported waketime on weekdays was 06:20 (06:00-06:30) a.m. and it was one-hour forty minutes later on weekends i.e., 08:00 (07:00-09:00) a.m. (p<0.01; z=13). With regards to sex differences on school mornings, females reported waking up 14 minutes later than their male counterparts (p<0.01; z=-3.1). On school mornings, day scholars reported significantly earlier waketimes than boarders (p<0.01; z=8.1). The opposite was found on weekends with day scholars reporting significantly later waketimes than boarders (p<0.01; z=-4.1) while day scholars reported going to bed significantly later than boarders during weekends (p<0.01; z=-2.7). There were noteworthy differences between types of schools with public school learners reporting earlier bed (p<0.01; z=3.9) and wake times (p<0.01; z=10) than private school learners on weekdays. On the weekend, however, public school learners reporting later bed (p=0.01; z=-2.7) and wake times (p<0.01; z=-4.4) than private school learners. Overall, the Grade 12 learners scored 12 (11-15) on the depressed mood scale indicating a trend towards high self-reported depressive symptoms, and 26 (23-30) on the ME scale, which demonstrated that this sample population reflects a preference for neither evenings nor mornings. The majority (75 %; n=174) of the Grade12 learners perceived themselves as getting too little sleep, 59% (n=134) reported waking up at least once during the night and 92% (n=213) reported experiencing varying degrees of daytime sleepiness. There was a relationship between caffeine consumption and usage of electronic devices (EDs) before bedtime and some sleep parameters. Specifically, the frequency of consumption of coffee/tea and soda had a medium and positive correlation with sleep onset latency as well as to the scale of sleep-wake problems. Academic performance was also positively and significantly correlated with self-reported mean weekday waketime and negatively correlated with mean weekend sleep duration as well as Weekend Waketime Delay (WWD). For Phase Two, the median self-reported sleep duration for 14 female boarders recorded in sleep diaries i.e.,07:32 (07:22-07:55) and the total sleep time (TST) recorded by the actigraphy i.e., 07:06 (06:54-07:35) and was less than the recommended sleep duration of 8-10 hours for adolescents and not significantly different (p=0.18; z=1.3). However, median sleep duration on the weekend was significantly longer on both actigraphs (08:16; 07:22-08:40) and sleep diaries (08:24; 07:59-08:51) and not significantly different (p=0.3; z=1.1). Overall, bedtimes, waketimes, and sleep onset latency, for both weekdays and weekends, did not differ significantly between the sleep diary responses and actigraph recordings. Discussion: Adolescents in this cohort, like many around the world report weekday sleep durations that are shorter than the recommended 8-10 hours. This may probably partly be explained by later bedtimes influenced by academic obligations, bedtime autonomy, and screen time as well as early waketimes influenced by school start times as indicated in the reasons given for bedtimes. Insufficient sleep during school nights, in this cohort, likely resulted in an accumulated sleep debt which may explain the extended sleep duration and later waketimes on weekends. Weekday waketimes were probably determined by commuting and school-related demands, specifically, school start times as indicated in the reasons given for waketimes. Thus, the results of this study do, in part, align with the factors outlined in the Perfect Storm model of poorly timed and insufficient sleep in adolescents proposed by Carskadon (2011a). Personal characteristics or contextual factors, such as being a boarder or a day scholar, attending a public or private school as well sex differences, accompanied by lifestyle factors such as the consumption of caffeine and usage of electrical devices may have interacted and influenced bed and wake times, resulting in what has been termed “a Perfect Storm of insufficient and inappropriately-timed sleep” in this cohort. Conclusion: The current study provided new insight into the sleep-wake behaviour of late adolescents in Makhanda, Eastern Cape of South Africa. More research is encouraged in the South African context. This knowledge can be used to implement contextually appropriate sleep hygiene education programs in the school curriculum and on an individual level. Furthermore, the results point to the fact that early school start times, in concert with other lifestyle and personal factors may be contributing to insufficient sleep in this group. These results, therefore, highlight the need for schools in this context to consider interventions such as delaying school start times to possibly improve sleep in this context. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29