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Molecular Detection of Antibiotic-Resistant Genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Nonclinical Environment: Public Health Implications in Mthatha, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Mojisola Clara Hosu, Sandeep Vasaikar, Grace Emily Okuthe, Teke Apalata
- Authors: Mojisola Clara Hosu , Sandeep Vasaikar , Grace Emily Okuthe , Teke Apalata
- Date: 5 January 2021
- Subjects: Microbiology
- Language: English
- Type: Journal Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2417 , vital:41877
- Description: Evaluation of resistant profiles and detection of antimicrobial-resistant genes of bacterial pathogens in the nonclinical milieu is imperative to assess the probable risk of dissemination of resistant genes in the environment. .is paper sought to identify antibiotic-resistant genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa from nonclinical sources in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, and evaluate its public health implications. Samples collected from abattoir wastewater and aquatic environment were processed by membrane filtration and cultured on CHROMagarTM Pseudomonas medium. Species identification was performed by autoSCAN-4 (Dade Behring Inc., IL). Molecular characterization of the isolates was confirmed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (rPCR) and selected isolates were further screened for the possibility of harboring antimicrobial resistance genes. Fifty-one Pseudomonas species were recovered from abattoir wastewater and surface water samples, out of which thirty-six strains were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (70.6%). .e P. aeruginosa isolates demonstrated resistance to aztreonam (86.1%), ceftazidime (63.9%), piperacillin (58.3%), cefepime (55.6%), imipenem (50%), piperacillin/tazobactam (47.2%), meropenem (41.7%), and levofloxacin (30.6%). Twenty out of thirty-six P. aeruginosa displayed multidrug resistance profiles and were classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR) (55.6%). Most of the bacterial isolates exhibited a high Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) Index ranging from 0.08 to 0.69 with a mean MAR index of 0.38. In the rPCR analysis of fifteen P. aeruginosa isolates, 14 isolates (93.3%) were detected harboring blaSHV, six isolates (40%) harbored blaTEM, and three isolates (20%) harbored blaCTX-M, being the least occurring ESBL. Results of the current study revealed that P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from nonclinical milieu are resistant to frontline clinically relevant antipseudomonal drugs. .is is concerning as it poses a risk to the environment and constitutes a public health threat. Given the public health relevance, the paper recommends monitoring of multidrug-resistant pathogens in effluent environments.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mojisola Clara Hosu , Sandeep Vasaikar , Grace Emily Okuthe , Teke Apalata
- Date: 5 January 2021
- Subjects: Microbiology
- Language: English
- Type: Journal Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2417 , vital:41877
- Description: Evaluation of resistant profiles and detection of antimicrobial-resistant genes of bacterial pathogens in the nonclinical milieu is imperative to assess the probable risk of dissemination of resistant genes in the environment. .is paper sought to identify antibiotic-resistant genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa from nonclinical sources in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, and evaluate its public health implications. Samples collected from abattoir wastewater and aquatic environment were processed by membrane filtration and cultured on CHROMagarTM Pseudomonas medium. Species identification was performed by autoSCAN-4 (Dade Behring Inc., IL). Molecular characterization of the isolates was confirmed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (rPCR) and selected isolates were further screened for the possibility of harboring antimicrobial resistance genes. Fifty-one Pseudomonas species were recovered from abattoir wastewater and surface water samples, out of which thirty-six strains were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (70.6%). .e P. aeruginosa isolates demonstrated resistance to aztreonam (86.1%), ceftazidime (63.9%), piperacillin (58.3%), cefepime (55.6%), imipenem (50%), piperacillin/tazobactam (47.2%), meropenem (41.7%), and levofloxacin (30.6%). Twenty out of thirty-six P. aeruginosa displayed multidrug resistance profiles and were classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR) (55.6%). Most of the bacterial isolates exhibited a high Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) Index ranging from 0.08 to 0.69 with a mean MAR index of 0.38. In the rPCR analysis of fifteen P. aeruginosa isolates, 14 isolates (93.3%) were detected harboring blaSHV, six isolates (40%) harbored blaTEM, and three isolates (20%) harbored blaCTX-M, being the least occurring ESBL. Results of the current study revealed that P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from nonclinical milieu are resistant to frontline clinically relevant antipseudomonal drugs. .is is concerning as it poses a risk to the environment and constitutes a public health threat. Given the public health relevance, the paper recommends monitoring of multidrug-resistant pathogens in effluent environments.
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VIVA Comrade Moss
- NUMSA
- Authors: NUMSA
- Date: 25 April
- Subjects: NUMSA
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109640 , vital:33163 , SALHA 14b : NUMSA
- Description: The last 'Trial Update" reported on Comrade Moss’s case until mid-March. This report covers the period from that time up until 25th April.STADLER - "ANC EXPERT" Brigadier Stadler testified that the ANC had made certain calls to organisations within the country which, according to his "research", had been followed by organisations in the country. As examples he gave the ANC’s call for ungovernability, the formation of organs of people’s power and the destruction of town councils. During cross-examination Stadler conceded that he was not able to give examples of any direct link between the ANC and organisations inside the coutry but he said an inference could be drawn by looking at the ANC’s call and the behaviour of organisations inside the country.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 25 April
- Authors: NUMSA
- Date: 25 April
- Subjects: NUMSA
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109640 , vital:33163 , SALHA 14b : NUMSA
- Description: The last 'Trial Update" reported on Comrade Moss’s case until mid-March. This report covers the period from that time up until 25th April.STADLER - "ANC EXPERT" Brigadier Stadler testified that the ANC had made certain calls to organisations within the country which, according to his "research", had been followed by organisations in the country. As examples he gave the ANC’s call for ungovernability, the formation of organs of people’s power and the destruction of town councils. During cross-examination Stadler conceded that he was not able to give examples of any direct link between the ANC and organisations inside the coutry but he said an inference could be drawn by looking at the ANC’s call and the behaviour of organisations inside the country.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 25 April
Morphology, histology and histochemistry of the digestive tract of the Banded tilapia, Tilapia sparrmanii (Perciformes: Cichlidae)
- Grace E. Okuthe, Bongile Bhomela
- Authors: Grace E. Okuthe , Bongile Bhomela
- Date: December 23, 2020
- Subjects: Fish, gastrointestinal tract, histo-architecture
- Language: English
- Type: Journal Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2425 , vital:41881
- Description: ABSTRACT. This study described anatomical, histological and histochemical features of the mucosal layer of the digestive tract of Tilapia sparrmanii Smith, 1840, an omnivorous freshwater fish endemic to Southern Africa. This species exhibited a short thick oesophagus with long deep longitudinal folds (466.68 ± 16.91 µm), and a thick (173.50 ± 10.92 µm) muscular layer that allow the passage of large food items. The mucosa was lined with stratified secretory epithelium rich in goblet cells that secreted neutral and acid mucins. The stomach was a sac-like structure with simple tubular glands surrounded by connective tissue. The mucosa was lined with simple columnar epithelium and the lamina propria exhibited a well-developed layer of gastric glands that occupied the entire length of the cardio-fundic region. The stomach mucosa consisted of epithelial cells with intense neutral mucin secretion which protects against gastric juice. Neck cells of gastric glands synthesized neutral and acid mucins. The intestine was highly coiled and presented a complex pattern of transversal folds internally (villi). Villi length decreased progressively from the anterior to the posterior intestine (p < 0.0001). Tunica muscularis of the mid-intestine had the thinnest thickness among all parts of the intestine (p < 0.0001). Goblet cells whose numbers increased towards the rectum secreted both acid and neutral mucins. The results indicate structural similarities of T. sparrmanii GIT with other tilapia species and will be useful for understanding the physiology of the digestive systems as well as functional components of the GIT.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Grace E. Okuthe , Bongile Bhomela
- Date: December 23, 2020
- Subjects: Fish, gastrointestinal tract, histo-architecture
- Language: English
- Type: Journal Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2425 , vital:41881
- Description: ABSTRACT. This study described anatomical, histological and histochemical features of the mucosal layer of the digestive tract of Tilapia sparrmanii Smith, 1840, an omnivorous freshwater fish endemic to Southern Africa. This species exhibited a short thick oesophagus with long deep longitudinal folds (466.68 ± 16.91 µm), and a thick (173.50 ± 10.92 µm) muscular layer that allow the passage of large food items. The mucosa was lined with stratified secretory epithelium rich in goblet cells that secreted neutral and acid mucins. The stomach was a sac-like structure with simple tubular glands surrounded by connective tissue. The mucosa was lined with simple columnar epithelium and the lamina propria exhibited a well-developed layer of gastric glands that occupied the entire length of the cardio-fundic region. The stomach mucosa consisted of epithelial cells with intense neutral mucin secretion which protects against gastric juice. Neck cells of gastric glands synthesized neutral and acid mucins. The intestine was highly coiled and presented a complex pattern of transversal folds internally (villi). Villi length decreased progressively from the anterior to the posterior intestine (p < 0.0001). Tunica muscularis of the mid-intestine had the thinnest thickness among all parts of the intestine (p < 0.0001). Goblet cells whose numbers increased towards the rectum secreted both acid and neutral mucins. The results indicate structural similarities of T. sparrmanii GIT with other tilapia species and will be useful for understanding the physiology of the digestive systems as well as functional components of the GIT.
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The prevalence of insufficient iodine intake in pregnancy in Africa: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Charles Bitamazire Businge, Benjamin Longo-Mbenza, Andre Pascal Kengne
- Authors: Charles Bitamazire Businge , Benjamin Longo-Mbenza , Andre Pascal Kengne
- Date: 22-8-2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3387 , vital:43338 , https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-019-1092-7#citeas
- Description: Background: Insufficient iodine intake in pregnancy is associated with many adverse pregnancy outcomes. About 90% of African countries are at risk of iodine deficiency due to poor soils and dietary goitrogens. Pregnancy predisposes to insufficient iodine nutrition secondary to increased physiological demand and increased renal loss. Iodine deficiency is re-emerging in countries thought to be replete with pregnant women being the most affected. This review seeks to identify the degree of iodine nutrition in pregnancy on the entire African continent before and after the implementation of national iodization programmes. Methods: A systematic search of published literature will be conducted for observational studies that directly determined the prevalence of insufficient iodine intake among pregnant women in Africa. Electronic databases and grey literature will be searched for baseline data before the implementation of population-based iodine supplementation and for follow-up data up to December 2018. Screening of identified articles and data extraction will be conducted independently by two investigators. Risk of bias and methodological quality of the included studies will be assessed using a risk of bias tool. Appropriate meta-analytic techniques will be used to pool prevalence estimates from studies with similar features, overall and by major characteristics including the region of the study, time period (before and after implementation of iodization programmes), sample size and age. Heterogeneity of the estimates across studies will be quantified and publication bias investigated. This protocol is reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines. Discussion This review will help ascertain the impact of national iodization programmes on the iodine nutrition status in pregnancy in Africa and advise policy on the necessity for monitoring and mitigating iodine deficiency in pregnancy in Africa. This review is part of a thesis that will be submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, for the award of a PhD in Medicine whose protocol has been granted ethics approval (UCT HREC 135/2018). In addition, the results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 22-8-2019
- Authors: Charles Bitamazire Businge , Benjamin Longo-Mbenza , Andre Pascal Kengne
- Date: 22-8-2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3387 , vital:43338 , https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-019-1092-7#citeas
- Description: Background: Insufficient iodine intake in pregnancy is associated with many adverse pregnancy outcomes. About 90% of African countries are at risk of iodine deficiency due to poor soils and dietary goitrogens. Pregnancy predisposes to insufficient iodine nutrition secondary to increased physiological demand and increased renal loss. Iodine deficiency is re-emerging in countries thought to be replete with pregnant women being the most affected. This review seeks to identify the degree of iodine nutrition in pregnancy on the entire African continent before and after the implementation of national iodization programmes. Methods: A systematic search of published literature will be conducted for observational studies that directly determined the prevalence of insufficient iodine intake among pregnant women in Africa. Electronic databases and grey literature will be searched for baseline data before the implementation of population-based iodine supplementation and for follow-up data up to December 2018. Screening of identified articles and data extraction will be conducted independently by two investigators. Risk of bias and methodological quality of the included studies will be assessed using a risk of bias tool. Appropriate meta-analytic techniques will be used to pool prevalence estimates from studies with similar features, overall and by major characteristics including the region of the study, time period (before and after implementation of iodization programmes), sample size and age. Heterogeneity of the estimates across studies will be quantified and publication bias investigated. This protocol is reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines. Discussion This review will help ascertain the impact of national iodization programmes on the iodine nutrition status in pregnancy in Africa and advise policy on the necessity for monitoring and mitigating iodine deficiency in pregnancy in Africa. This review is part of a thesis that will be submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, for the award of a PhD in Medicine whose protocol has been granted ethics approval (UCT HREC 135/2018). In addition, the results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 22-8-2019
Exploring the role of the Department of Social Development on the integrated school health programme in the Buffalo City Municipality .
- Authors: Nokama, Busisa Antoinette
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Children--Health and hygiene. , School nursing. , Employee health promotion.
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22198 , vital:51997
- Description: If one’s health is a state of wellbeing then the role of social development is key in the implementation of the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) as it includes treatment and prevention of psychosocial dysfunction. The purpose of the study was to explore the role of the Department of Social Development (DSD) within the ISHP in Buffalo City Municipality. DSD services are complex hence the need active collaboration to ensure delivery of multi-sectoral services. Covid-19 evidently shows the link between physical, emotional and academic success (OECD, 2020). The trauma and challenges faced by learners’ manifests through behavioral problems that social workers and counsellors can address more effectively. Social work practice aims to treat and prevent psychosocial dysfunction, thus social workers remain integral in addressing social determinants of health. The challenges in the implementation of ISHP began at policy development, moreover they were exacerbated by poor coordination and management of the ISHP. The legislative framework however affords learners the right to protective care and support. The role of social development is not limited to transportation but has been captured through psychosocial support. The study suitably employed a qualitative research design to examine how the participants make sense of the Integrated School Health Programme and to provide a comprehensive description of the complex role of the DSD in the provision of psychosocial support. 15 participants from DOH, DoE and DSD were interviewed to capture the perspective of all three (3) departments. The findings indicated how the development of the policy impacts implementation. The DSD is participating in the implementation of ISHP, however the failure of the policy to capture the role of the DSD, hinders the DSD from full participation. The study also found a lack of resourcesto support implementation and often struggle to get learners but implementation varies. Conclusively, the study recommends the need for the departments to develop a Memorandum of Understanding, Terms of reference as well as Integrated Implementation plans in an effort to support and close the gaps identified in the policy. Collaboration was found to be an effective strategy to enhance resource mobilization. Coordination and Management still need to be strengthened, including accountability. , Thesis (MPA) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-05
- Authors: Nokama, Busisa Antoinette
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Children--Health and hygiene. , School nursing. , Employee health promotion.
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22198 , vital:51997
- Description: If one’s health is a state of wellbeing then the role of social development is key in the implementation of the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) as it includes treatment and prevention of psychosocial dysfunction. The purpose of the study was to explore the role of the Department of Social Development (DSD) within the ISHP in Buffalo City Municipality. DSD services are complex hence the need active collaboration to ensure delivery of multi-sectoral services. Covid-19 evidently shows the link between physical, emotional and academic success (OECD, 2020). The trauma and challenges faced by learners’ manifests through behavioral problems that social workers and counsellors can address more effectively. Social work practice aims to treat and prevent psychosocial dysfunction, thus social workers remain integral in addressing social determinants of health. The challenges in the implementation of ISHP began at policy development, moreover they were exacerbated by poor coordination and management of the ISHP. The legislative framework however affords learners the right to protective care and support. The role of social development is not limited to transportation but has been captured through psychosocial support. The study suitably employed a qualitative research design to examine how the participants make sense of the Integrated School Health Programme and to provide a comprehensive description of the complex role of the DSD in the provision of psychosocial support. 15 participants from DOH, DoE and DSD were interviewed to capture the perspective of all three (3) departments. The findings indicated how the development of the policy impacts implementation. The DSD is participating in the implementation of ISHP, however the failure of the policy to capture the role of the DSD, hinders the DSD from full participation. The study also found a lack of resourcesto support implementation and often struggle to get learners but implementation varies. Conclusively, the study recommends the need for the departments to develop a Memorandum of Understanding, Terms of reference as well as Integrated Implementation plans in an effort to support and close the gaps identified in the policy. Collaboration was found to be an effective strategy to enhance resource mobilization. Coordination and Management still need to be strengthened, including accountability. , Thesis (MPA) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-05
The contribution of cultural and creative industries towards sustainable livelihoods in the Eastern Cape (2009-2019)
- Authors: Ngwane, Ayanda
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Poor--Services for. , Poverty--South Africa.
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22185 , vital:51995
- Description: This research is focused on the premise that Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) can be a precondition for the attainment of sustainable livelihoods. It follows, logically, that the efficient and effective implementation of CCIs has potential in transforming the well-being of those involved in the industries as evidence points to the notion that the CCIs can help deal with the persistent challenges of unemployment and poverty. Without effective and efficient implementation, and the political will to support such industries in the South African context, the potential of CCIs in improving the livelihoods of citizens will not be realised. Given the limitations levelled against the policy implementation and the processes involved in support for creative industries in South Africa, the qualitative method was used as an investigative strategy to gain a deeper understanding of CCIs and its general contribution on sustainable livelihoods in the Eastern Cape Province. The findings indicate that there is a basis for a creative economy in the Eastern Cape Province that can be improved by properly concerted action by all actors. There is a foundation for the development of innovative goods and services that could promote the integration of the Province into the global economy. So far, the outcome of this research points to the direction of offering knowledge of the way to realize the potential of Eastern Cape Province`s creative industries. More so, the study also highlights the importance of the creative economy in fostering growth guided by trade and attaining sustainable livelihoods in the process. , Thesis (MPA) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-05
- Authors: Ngwane, Ayanda
- Date: 2022-05
- Subjects: Poor--Services for. , Poverty--South Africa.
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22185 , vital:51995
- Description: This research is focused on the premise that Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) can be a precondition for the attainment of sustainable livelihoods. It follows, logically, that the efficient and effective implementation of CCIs has potential in transforming the well-being of those involved in the industries as evidence points to the notion that the CCIs can help deal with the persistent challenges of unemployment and poverty. Without effective and efficient implementation, and the political will to support such industries in the South African context, the potential of CCIs in improving the livelihoods of citizens will not be realised. Given the limitations levelled against the policy implementation and the processes involved in support for creative industries in South Africa, the qualitative method was used as an investigative strategy to gain a deeper understanding of CCIs and its general contribution on sustainable livelihoods in the Eastern Cape Province. The findings indicate that there is a basis for a creative economy in the Eastern Cape Province that can be improved by properly concerted action by all actors. There is a foundation for the development of innovative goods and services that could promote the integration of the Province into the global economy. So far, the outcome of this research points to the direction of offering knowledge of the way to realize the potential of Eastern Cape Province`s creative industries. More so, the study also highlights the importance of the creative economy in fostering growth guided by trade and attaining sustainable livelihoods in the process. , Thesis (MPA) -- University of Fort Hare, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-05
An epistemic justice account of students’ experiences of feedback
- Authors: Vilakazi, Bella Phetheni
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Feedback (Psychology) , Experience , Narrative inquiry (Research method) , Critical thinking , Caring Moral and ethical aspects , Epistemic access
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232599 , vital:50006 , DOI 10.21504/10962/232599
- Description: I am a storyteller. I believe in the power of stories to share experiences and to elucidate thoughts and ideas and to help us to make sense of complex social practices. This thesis includes the stories of five young women who were learning to become teachers. As they shared their stories with me, I share them with you. This study includes their stories of receiving feedback. These stories are structured within the Narrative Inquiry dimensions of temporality, place and context. These dimensions suggest that stories are historical and move through time, stories are shaped by place and the context in which they unfold (Clandinin, 2013). Furthermore, these stories demonstrate how feedback can serve to give access to powerful knowledge and can serve to recognise who our students are and what they bring to the academy (Hordern, 2018). But feedback can also serve to misrecognise. Much has been written and reported about the barriers preventing students from acting on the feedback on their assignment tasks in higher education. In this study, I argue that feedback is a pedagogic practice that can support students to gain epistemic access. Feedback can only achieve this if it makes the expectations explicit for students to make sense of and make meaning for themselves and if it is offered in a dialogical format which recognises the students, their attempts, their identities, and their knowledge. The research question of this study, ‘How do experiences of forms of feedback affect female undergraduate student teachers’ chances of epistemic access?’, is not unusual. There have been many research projects that have been carried out that examine students’ experiences of feedback (for example, Evans, 2013; Basey, Maines, & Francis, 2014; Nicol et al.; 2014; Carless, 2019; Winstone et al., 2021). But I identified a gap where feedback has not, to my knowledge, been studied directly through the lenses of Epistemic Justice towards Parity of Participation. This study interpreted five undergraduate student teachers’ feedback experiences through these lenses. Narrative inquiry enabled me to design this study in ways that foregrounded experience. Data was collected through multiple conversations during which I organised the participants’ life stories of feedback within the dimensions of temporality, place and context, and sociality. Miranda Fricker’s (2007) theory of Epistemic Justice and Fraser’s norm of Parity of Participation (2000) framed this study. I engaged with Fricker and Fraser’s literature meaningfully as a reader and researcher. I established an understanding of how the lenses offered by Fraser and Fricker allowed me to make sense of the literature more generally, in social life and on the pedagogic practice of feedback. Fricker’s theory of Epistemic Justice considers the epistemically unjust, gendered, raced and classed, experiences of epistemic agents. Fricker (2007) draws on two central concepts to account for epistemic injustices: Testimonial Injustice and Hermeneutical Injustice. Fricker (2007; 2003) explains that testimonial injustice occurs within a testimonial exchange setting, when an epistemic agent as a speaker gives testimony of the epistemic agent’s experiences and knowledge but is not awarded the credibility the speaker deserves (Fricker, 2003). Epistemic agents who participate in a testimonial exchange need to overcome bias and prejudice in order to evaluate testimonies with the degree of fairness the testimony deserves (Fricker, 2013; 2016). Hermeneutical injustice occurs when an epistemic agent is unable to make sense and make meaning of their social experiences. Hermeneutical injustice strengthens when the epistemic agent is prevented from gaining access to resources that might help with sense making and meaning making of these social experiences (Dielman, 2012; Fricker, 2016). To ensure that meaning can be made between people and groups of people, there needs to be some shared understandings of the purpose and process of sense making and meaning-making – or a willingness to co-create such shared understandings. Fraser’s norm of Participatory Parity enabled a consideration of the larger world of political and economic systems that give rise to social injustice. In this study, the theories of Fricker and Fraser are used to illuminate experiences of feedback of the five undergraduate student teachers who are the participants in this study and how these translate to epistemic and social injustice. The norm of Participatory Parity is considered where feedback allowed or restricted participants from participating on an equal footing in the feedback process. Narrative inquiry, a research methodology that is used to study experiences, was used to inform research strategies of this study. Participants’ experiences, data collection and organising the narratives demonstrated the dimensions of temporality and space. The thesis includes biographical vignettes for each of the participants in the study, interspersed with data from across all five participants. The key findings of this study show that feedback generally operates at the surface levels of grammar correction. In light of the theoretical lenses of this study, I argue that the feedback experiences they shared generally did not recognise their attempts and the identities and knowledges they brought to the tasks. Because the focus was on superficial correction of the specific task, the feedback failed to create conditions for the (re)distribution of knowledge. At times the feedback exerted power on participants. Because the feedback was generally in the form of one directional correction (with little space for interaction with the feedback or dialogue with the assessor), this caused status subordination of participants in the epistemic spaces of teaching practice. Lastly, the lack of clarity of feedback was harmful to the potential for dialogical feedback. Such feedback caused participants to experience forms of epistemic injustice in the form of hermeneutical injustice where it failed to create conditions for the distribution of knowledge. Feedback also caused participants to experience testimonial injustice where it failed to create conditions for recognising participants’ processes of sense-making and meaning-making in the various assignment tasks. Participatory Parity could not occur because the processes of recognition and redistribution were constrained. Feedback then created fertile conditions of epistemic injustice to occur, and participants were likely to have failed to gain the much needed epistemic access. This study is not the story of bad, uncaring academics; the study acknowledges the context of large classes and heavy workloads in which feedback is or is not given. Rather, this is the story of five women trying to make their way through the university and out into the world as teachers. The study calls for better theorising of feedback and more support for both academics and students to develop feedback literacy so that feedback might serve as a dialogical pedagogic practice that enables epistemic justice. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Vilakazi, Bella Phetheni
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Feedback (Psychology) , Experience , Narrative inquiry (Research method) , Critical thinking , Caring Moral and ethical aspects , Epistemic access
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232599 , vital:50006 , DOI 10.21504/10962/232599
- Description: I am a storyteller. I believe in the power of stories to share experiences and to elucidate thoughts and ideas and to help us to make sense of complex social practices. This thesis includes the stories of five young women who were learning to become teachers. As they shared their stories with me, I share them with you. This study includes their stories of receiving feedback. These stories are structured within the Narrative Inquiry dimensions of temporality, place and context. These dimensions suggest that stories are historical and move through time, stories are shaped by place and the context in which they unfold (Clandinin, 2013). Furthermore, these stories demonstrate how feedback can serve to give access to powerful knowledge and can serve to recognise who our students are and what they bring to the academy (Hordern, 2018). But feedback can also serve to misrecognise. Much has been written and reported about the barriers preventing students from acting on the feedback on their assignment tasks in higher education. In this study, I argue that feedback is a pedagogic practice that can support students to gain epistemic access. Feedback can only achieve this if it makes the expectations explicit for students to make sense of and make meaning for themselves and if it is offered in a dialogical format which recognises the students, their attempts, their identities, and their knowledge. The research question of this study, ‘How do experiences of forms of feedback affect female undergraduate student teachers’ chances of epistemic access?’, is not unusual. There have been many research projects that have been carried out that examine students’ experiences of feedback (for example, Evans, 2013; Basey, Maines, & Francis, 2014; Nicol et al.; 2014; Carless, 2019; Winstone et al., 2021). But I identified a gap where feedback has not, to my knowledge, been studied directly through the lenses of Epistemic Justice towards Parity of Participation. This study interpreted five undergraduate student teachers’ feedback experiences through these lenses. Narrative inquiry enabled me to design this study in ways that foregrounded experience. Data was collected through multiple conversations during which I organised the participants’ life stories of feedback within the dimensions of temporality, place and context, and sociality. Miranda Fricker’s (2007) theory of Epistemic Justice and Fraser’s norm of Parity of Participation (2000) framed this study. I engaged with Fricker and Fraser’s literature meaningfully as a reader and researcher. I established an understanding of how the lenses offered by Fraser and Fricker allowed me to make sense of the literature more generally, in social life and on the pedagogic practice of feedback. Fricker’s theory of Epistemic Justice considers the epistemically unjust, gendered, raced and classed, experiences of epistemic agents. Fricker (2007) draws on two central concepts to account for epistemic injustices: Testimonial Injustice and Hermeneutical Injustice. Fricker (2007; 2003) explains that testimonial injustice occurs within a testimonial exchange setting, when an epistemic agent as a speaker gives testimony of the epistemic agent’s experiences and knowledge but is not awarded the credibility the speaker deserves (Fricker, 2003). Epistemic agents who participate in a testimonial exchange need to overcome bias and prejudice in order to evaluate testimonies with the degree of fairness the testimony deserves (Fricker, 2013; 2016). Hermeneutical injustice occurs when an epistemic agent is unable to make sense and make meaning of their social experiences. Hermeneutical injustice strengthens when the epistemic agent is prevented from gaining access to resources that might help with sense making and meaning making of these social experiences (Dielman, 2012; Fricker, 2016). To ensure that meaning can be made between people and groups of people, there needs to be some shared understandings of the purpose and process of sense making and meaning-making – or a willingness to co-create such shared understandings. Fraser’s norm of Participatory Parity enabled a consideration of the larger world of political and economic systems that give rise to social injustice. In this study, the theories of Fricker and Fraser are used to illuminate experiences of feedback of the five undergraduate student teachers who are the participants in this study and how these translate to epistemic and social injustice. The norm of Participatory Parity is considered where feedback allowed or restricted participants from participating on an equal footing in the feedback process. Narrative inquiry, a research methodology that is used to study experiences, was used to inform research strategies of this study. Participants’ experiences, data collection and organising the narratives demonstrated the dimensions of temporality and space. The thesis includes biographical vignettes for each of the participants in the study, interspersed with data from across all five participants. The key findings of this study show that feedback generally operates at the surface levels of grammar correction. In light of the theoretical lenses of this study, I argue that the feedback experiences they shared generally did not recognise their attempts and the identities and knowledges they brought to the tasks. Because the focus was on superficial correction of the specific task, the feedback failed to create conditions for the (re)distribution of knowledge. At times the feedback exerted power on participants. Because the feedback was generally in the form of one directional correction (with little space for interaction with the feedback or dialogue with the assessor), this caused status subordination of participants in the epistemic spaces of teaching practice. Lastly, the lack of clarity of feedback was harmful to the potential for dialogical feedback. Such feedback caused participants to experience forms of epistemic injustice in the form of hermeneutical injustice where it failed to create conditions for the distribution of knowledge. Feedback also caused participants to experience testimonial injustice where it failed to create conditions for recognising participants’ processes of sense-making and meaning-making in the various assignment tasks. Participatory Parity could not occur because the processes of recognition and redistribution were constrained. Feedback then created fertile conditions of epistemic injustice to occur, and participants were likely to have failed to gain the much needed epistemic access. This study is not the story of bad, uncaring academics; the study acknowledges the context of large classes and heavy workloads in which feedback is or is not given. Rather, this is the story of five women trying to make their way through the university and out into the world as teachers. The study calls for better theorising of feedback and more support for both academics and students to develop feedback literacy so that feedback might serve as a dialogical pedagogic practice that enables epistemic justice. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
An investigation of how a visual teaching approach can possibly address issues of mathematics anxiety at a selected school in the Oshikoto region of Namibia
- Ngonga, Daniel Nghifikepunye
- Authors: Ngonga, Daniel Nghifikepunye
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290637 , vital:56770
- Description: This Namibian case study aimed to explore a visual teaching approach (VTA) used by three selected teachers to address issues of mathematics anxiety (MA). The three teachers took part in an intervention program that was looking at how a VTA could be grown in the context of an after-school club (ASC) at my school. The selected teachers were the senior primary teachers at my school. The focus of the research was on how they taught mathematics using visuals after participating in an intervention programme. Their VTA made use of manipulatives, visuals, and concrete materials. The learners of the participating teachers completed a big MA pre-test, small MA tests, and a big MA post-test to determine their levels of MA as the teaching programme unfolded. The study hoped to create awareness amongst teachers and education researchers about the significant use of a VTA in the teaching and learning of mathematics to address issues of MA among the learners. It aimed to answer three research questions. One was on teachers’ use of a VTA in the context of an ASC; the second one was on comparisons of learners’ MA big pre and post-tests to detect any change of MA, and the last was on the enabling and constraining factors encountered when using a VTA. The main argument was that a VTA can encourage learners to be more confident and less anxious about doing mathematics. This study was framed by a constructivist perspective and its design and methodology were underpinned by an interpretive paradigm. This mixed-method research study employed video-recorded observations and stimulated recall interviews, learners’ MA test results, and the teachers’ focus group interviews as the means of collecting data. To generate rich data and support validity, four lessons per selected teacher were observed and video recorded; 54 learners completed the MA tests of 16 questions, and three teachers answered seven questions each in the focus group interview (FGI) after the stimulus recall interviews (SRI) which were done immediately after the lesson presentations. The study found that the participating teachers incorporated a variety of visuals into their lessons to make the mathematics fun, inspiring, visible, hands-on, and activity-oriented. They engaged the learners and also found that the use of visuals motivated learners and reduced their MA. , Thesis (MED) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Ngonga, Daniel Nghifikepunye
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290637 , vital:56770
- Description: This Namibian case study aimed to explore a visual teaching approach (VTA) used by three selected teachers to address issues of mathematics anxiety (MA). The three teachers took part in an intervention program that was looking at how a VTA could be grown in the context of an after-school club (ASC) at my school. The selected teachers were the senior primary teachers at my school. The focus of the research was on how they taught mathematics using visuals after participating in an intervention programme. Their VTA made use of manipulatives, visuals, and concrete materials. The learners of the participating teachers completed a big MA pre-test, small MA tests, and a big MA post-test to determine their levels of MA as the teaching programme unfolded. The study hoped to create awareness amongst teachers and education researchers about the significant use of a VTA in the teaching and learning of mathematics to address issues of MA among the learners. It aimed to answer three research questions. One was on teachers’ use of a VTA in the context of an ASC; the second one was on comparisons of learners’ MA big pre and post-tests to detect any change of MA, and the last was on the enabling and constraining factors encountered when using a VTA. The main argument was that a VTA can encourage learners to be more confident and less anxious about doing mathematics. This study was framed by a constructivist perspective and its design and methodology were underpinned by an interpretive paradigm. This mixed-method research study employed video-recorded observations and stimulated recall interviews, learners’ MA test results, and the teachers’ focus group interviews as the means of collecting data. To generate rich data and support validity, four lessons per selected teacher were observed and video recorded; 54 learners completed the MA tests of 16 questions, and three teachers answered seven questions each in the focus group interview (FGI) after the stimulus recall interviews (SRI) which were done immediately after the lesson presentations. The study found that the participating teachers incorporated a variety of visuals into their lessons to make the mathematics fun, inspiring, visible, hands-on, and activity-oriented. They engaged the learners and also found that the use of visuals motivated learners and reduced their MA. , Thesis (MED) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Chinese character learning with the aid of an ICT website among Mandarin Second Additional Language learners in South Africa: a case study
- Authors: Fu, Shuying
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Mandarin dialects Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa , Mandarin dialects Computer-assisted instruction for English speakers , Second language acquisition , Chinese characters , Information technology South Africa , Educational technology South Africa , Arch Chinese
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263590 , vital:53641
- Description: The teaching of Mandarin as a Second Additional Language (SAL) in South African schools was only introduced in 2016. The year 2018 saw the first Mandarin as SAL National Senior Certificate examination. Little research has been done on the teaching and learning of Mandarin as a SAL subject at the high school level in South Africa. Character learning and teaching are some of the most challenging aspects of this language teaching and learning. This research sought to investigate how beginner Mandarin SAL learners can be supported by a particular Information Communication Technology (ICT) website, www.archchinese.com (Arch Chinese), in their character learning. Learners’ ability to memorise Chinese characters is of utmost importance for their success in this language learning, especially for matriculants. To support the main research goal, this study set out to investigate the requirements for Chinese character learning, the role the website Arch Chinese plays in learners’ character learning and Mandarin SAL learners’ experience of using Arch Chinese as a learning tool. This research was conducted in the form of a case study within the interpretative paradigm. It adopted a questionnaire and document analysis for data collection to gain insight into the research topic. To get answers to the research questions posed above, the study analysed the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Mandarin SAL documents from Grade 4–12, the Independent Examination Board (IEB) Mandarin Subject Assessment Guidelines (SAGs), and a textbook for beginners, Learn Chinese with me: Student’s book 1 in relation to character learning. The features and functions of the website, Arch Chinese, were also evaluated and Mandarin SAL learners’ answers to a questionnaire on their use of the website Arch Chinese were analysed. The study found that character teaching and learning has not been given enough attention in the curriculum. It was only covered in the Intermediate Phase but was seldom mentioned in the Senior and Further Education and Training Phases in the curriculum. The CAPS Mandarin SAL documents do not consider the special characteristics of the Mandarin language, as this curriculum was based on the CAPS English Generic SAL document. As a result, the assessment requirements on writing (character count requirement in particular) were not realistic. The teaching approaches promoted in the curriculum and the teaching time do not correspond well with the teaching and learning of this language. Moreover, this study found that there was no vocabulary list prescribed in the curriculum and therefore a gap exists between the curriculum on paper and the curriculum in practice. The analysis of the IEB SAGs found that the assessments were suitable for the level of Mandarin SAL learners. This is because the IEB considered the characteristics of the Mandarin language, which is non-cognate, to the alphabet-based languages that respondents in this research spoke or were familiar with. At the same time, the analysis of the website and the learners’ questionnaire found that learners held a positive attitude towards their use of the website and that it proved to help facilitate Mandarin SAL learners in their character learning. This study ends with recommendations for teachers, policy makers, the IEB, and character-learning websites. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Fu, Shuying
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Mandarin dialects Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa , Mandarin dialects Computer-assisted instruction for English speakers , Second language acquisition , Chinese characters , Information technology South Africa , Educational technology South Africa , Arch Chinese
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263590 , vital:53641
- Description: The teaching of Mandarin as a Second Additional Language (SAL) in South African schools was only introduced in 2016. The year 2018 saw the first Mandarin as SAL National Senior Certificate examination. Little research has been done on the teaching and learning of Mandarin as a SAL subject at the high school level in South Africa. Character learning and teaching are some of the most challenging aspects of this language teaching and learning. This research sought to investigate how beginner Mandarin SAL learners can be supported by a particular Information Communication Technology (ICT) website, www.archchinese.com (Arch Chinese), in their character learning. Learners’ ability to memorise Chinese characters is of utmost importance for their success in this language learning, especially for matriculants. To support the main research goal, this study set out to investigate the requirements for Chinese character learning, the role the website Arch Chinese plays in learners’ character learning and Mandarin SAL learners’ experience of using Arch Chinese as a learning tool. This research was conducted in the form of a case study within the interpretative paradigm. It adopted a questionnaire and document analysis for data collection to gain insight into the research topic. To get answers to the research questions posed above, the study analysed the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Mandarin SAL documents from Grade 4–12, the Independent Examination Board (IEB) Mandarin Subject Assessment Guidelines (SAGs), and a textbook for beginners, Learn Chinese with me: Student’s book 1 in relation to character learning. The features and functions of the website, Arch Chinese, were also evaluated and Mandarin SAL learners’ answers to a questionnaire on their use of the website Arch Chinese were analysed. The study found that character teaching and learning has not been given enough attention in the curriculum. It was only covered in the Intermediate Phase but was seldom mentioned in the Senior and Further Education and Training Phases in the curriculum. The CAPS Mandarin SAL documents do not consider the special characteristics of the Mandarin language, as this curriculum was based on the CAPS English Generic SAL document. As a result, the assessment requirements on writing (character count requirement in particular) were not realistic. The teaching approaches promoted in the curriculum and the teaching time do not correspond well with the teaching and learning of this language. Moreover, this study found that there was no vocabulary list prescribed in the curriculum and therefore a gap exists between the curriculum on paper and the curriculum in practice. The analysis of the IEB SAGs found that the assessments were suitable for the level of Mandarin SAL learners. This is because the IEB considered the characteristics of the Mandarin language, which is non-cognate, to the alphabet-based languages that respondents in this research spoke or were familiar with. At the same time, the analysis of the website and the learners’ questionnaire found that learners held a positive attitude towards their use of the website and that it proved to help facilitate Mandarin SAL learners in their character learning. This study ends with recommendations for teachers, policy makers, the IEB, and character-learning websites. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Computational analysis of known drug resistant mutants of Plasmodium falciparum Dihydrofolate Reductase (PfDHFR) and screening for novel antifolates against the enzyme
- Authors: Tata, Rolland Bantar
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/234184 , vital:50170
- Description: Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Tata, Rolland Bantar
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/234184 , vital:50170
- Description: Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Diversified computational approaches for the identification of orthosteric drugs, allosteric modulators and unveiling drug resistance mechanisms: application to infectious diseases
- Authors: Boateng, Rita Afriyie
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/234173 , vital:50169
- Description: Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Boateng, Rita Afriyie
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/234173 , vital:50169
- Description: Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
English additional language student teachers’ development of oral strategic competence and confidence
- Authors: Meyers, Rozanne Elanore
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Student teaching South Africa , Communicative competence South Africa , Oral communication , Native language and education , Language arts , Verbal ability , Multilingual education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263613 , vital:53643
- Description: This case study sought to understand how oral strategic and discourse competence and confidence developed in student teachers using English, their additional language, firstly as a tool of learning and secondly, as a medium of instruction in education environments. Within the broad qualitative approach an interpretive framework was adopted using multiple data collection tools. This was in order to privilege detailed accounts of participants’ experiences. Namely, unstructured interviews, drawings, observational checklists, and selfassessment questionnaires. Participants’ oral strategic and discourse competence were assessed using an observation checklist as they presented micro-teaching lessons. Additionally, participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire, reflecting on their oral competence after conducting their micro-teaching lessons. These perceptions were confirmed through a discussion of drawings that illustrated how they perceived themselves during lectures when they had to use English during oral interaction with lecturers and fellow students. Finally, unstructured interviews were conducted after participants completed their micro-teaching lessons and after participants had completed their drawings. The raw data from the four tools were analysed using a thematic approach. Main themes and categories were analysed and discussed to provide answers to the research questions. Data correlated the attitude of participants towards English and their level of oral confidence and competence. The main findings were that students were motivated to develop their oral English competence because they believed it was an important skill for teachers to possess. This motivation also proved to be a leading factor in participants’ competence despite the negative emotions they identified during spoken exchanges. Furthermore, the analysis found that collaborating with fellow students in making meaning of oral communication during lectures, increased students’ oral competence and their confidence because they were communicating in smaller groups. However, in certain situations, collaborating with students also decreased their confidence. Findings indicated that reciprocal facial expressions and the body language of those who engaged orally with the student teachers, increased their oral confidence as it served as an indication to them that they were understood. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding interactions during lectures for teacher training programmes in Higher Education in South Africa, for lecturers and lecturing practices, and curriculum designers in the South African Department of Education. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Meyers, Rozanne Elanore
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Student teaching South Africa , Communicative competence South Africa , Oral communication , Native language and education , Language arts , Verbal ability , Multilingual education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263613 , vital:53643
- Description: This case study sought to understand how oral strategic and discourse competence and confidence developed in student teachers using English, their additional language, firstly as a tool of learning and secondly, as a medium of instruction in education environments. Within the broad qualitative approach an interpretive framework was adopted using multiple data collection tools. This was in order to privilege detailed accounts of participants’ experiences. Namely, unstructured interviews, drawings, observational checklists, and selfassessment questionnaires. Participants’ oral strategic and discourse competence were assessed using an observation checklist as they presented micro-teaching lessons. Additionally, participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire, reflecting on their oral competence after conducting their micro-teaching lessons. These perceptions were confirmed through a discussion of drawings that illustrated how they perceived themselves during lectures when they had to use English during oral interaction with lecturers and fellow students. Finally, unstructured interviews were conducted after participants completed their micro-teaching lessons and after participants had completed their drawings. The raw data from the four tools were analysed using a thematic approach. Main themes and categories were analysed and discussed to provide answers to the research questions. Data correlated the attitude of participants towards English and their level of oral confidence and competence. The main findings were that students were motivated to develop their oral English competence because they believed it was an important skill for teachers to possess. This motivation also proved to be a leading factor in participants’ competence despite the negative emotions they identified during spoken exchanges. Furthermore, the analysis found that collaborating with fellow students in making meaning of oral communication during lectures, increased students’ oral competence and their confidence because they were communicating in smaller groups. However, in certain situations, collaborating with students also decreased their confidence. Findings indicated that reciprocal facial expressions and the body language of those who engaged orally with the student teachers, increased their oral confidence as it served as an indication to them that they were understood. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding interactions during lectures for teacher training programmes in Higher Education in South Africa, for lecturers and lecturing practices, and curriculum designers in the South African Department of Education. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Ethnobotany and conservation biology of Warburgia salutaris (G.Bertol.) Chiov., a threatened medicinal plant in southern Mozambique
- Authors: Senkoro, Annae Maria
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Ethnobotany Mozambique , Conservation biology Mozambique , Canellaceae Habitat Mozambique , Canellaceae Genetics , Warburgia salutaris Habitat Mozambique , Warburgia salutaris Genetics , Endangered plants Mozambique , Biogeography Climatic factors Mozambique , Traditional medicine Mozambique , Traditional ecological knowledge Mozambique
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232967 , vital:50042 , DOI 10.21504/10962/232967
- Description: Warburgia salutaris, locally known as “chibaha” (Ronga, Tsonga), “isiBhaha” (Zulu) and “siBhaha” (Siswati), is one of the most highly-valued medicinal plant species in southern Africa. Its bark has long been employed to treat bacterial and fungal infections, and it is often a front line herbal treatment for malaria. The species is popular in rural and urban areas due to its lower price compared to commercial pharmaceuticals and because of its long-standing spiritual and symbolic significance. Consequently, W. salutaris is threatened in Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland and is believed to be extincted in the wild in Zimbabwe. In Mozambique, where the tree is confined to the southern part of the country, it is considered vulnerable due to high local demand and cross-border export. Although there is limited research, further work is urgently needed to provide the basis for options and strategies to achieve desired outcomes. This study aimed to explore different approaches for the conservation of W. salutaris in the Lebombo Mountains (LM), the Tembe River (TR) and the Futi Corridor (FC) areas, in southern Mozambique. For this, potential distribution, socio cultural factors that influenced sustainable management of the species, demography, harvest impact, genetic diversity and population differentiation were considered. The kuenm package in R, 2 846 occurrence and 11 environmental data were used to model the potential current and future distribution in 2050 and 2070 using four general circulation models (CESM1(BGC), ACCESS1.3, FIO-ESM and IPSL-CM5A-MR) under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5. The extent of occurrence (EOO) and habitat suitability (HS) were also determined. Stratified random semi-structured interviews with 182 heads of households were carried out to explore cultural and socio incentives of use, compared knowledge distribution, determine local management practices and explore local ecological knowledge related to the species in the three study areas. In addition, 17 focus group discussion were conducted to clarify issues raised during household interviews. One hundred and twenty four quadrants were used to determine the abundance and population structure. The Simpson index of dominance, permutation index and quotient between consecutive classes were used to assess population stability, and an eight point scale was used to evaluate the extent of bark damages. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (gDNA) (n=48) was used to assessed genetic diversity and population structure through the newly developed single sequence repeats (SSR) molecular markers. Model selected was statistical significant for prediction of potential distribution of W. salutaris in southern Mozambique (partial ROC =0.00, omission rate = 0.04 and delta AICc = 0.00). The current environmental conditions mostly explained by climatic predictor, indicated in general, the potential distribution on areas of occurrence observed during the field work in southern Mozambique. Future project suggested an increase of climatic suitable areas in all the general circulation models in both conservative and pessimistic climatic scenarios (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5, respectively) in 2050 and 2070, and consequently the increase of HS and the EOO. Results of this work suggests W. salutaris would not extinct at least in the coming 50 years due to climate change but other threats such as overexploitation of the species need to be addressed. With increase of climatic suitable areas, conservation and management of this species could focus on reintroduction and cultivation for recovery of the species, with the help of time. W. salutaris was used for medicinal purposes to treat 12 health problems, with the bark being the most commonly used part (92% of informants). Knowledge of the species uses differed significantly between the three study areas but not with respondent gender or age. Informants also mentioned a considerable number of alternative species of W. salutaris (37 species in LM, 33 species in TR and 17 species in FC). Local ecological knowledge on the ecological niche of the species also varied substantial in the three areas with both types of knowledge generally higher in the Tembe River area. Local management practises were revealed mostly on harvesting through vertical bark stripping cited by 100% of informants in TR, 61.6% FC and 51.7 LM (71% of all informants). Yet most (64.3% of all informants, corresponding to 98.4% in TR, 51.7% in Fc and 41.7% LM) used non-traditional harvesting tools (machete) bark removal. For sustainable use of the species, consideration should be given to combined conservation strategies such as the use of alternative species with the same application, substitution of bark by leaves, and increases in alternative sources of plant material through cultivation. The densities of alive stems were not statistically different in the three areas but was higher in LM (mean of 4500.3±9209.8 stems/ha). Equally the mean densities of recruits (diameter ≤2 cm) were not considerable different but was higher in the FC (3296.8±9116.7 stems/ha). The regression analyses for the three study area revealed negative slopes, indicating more recruits and fewer individuals in larger classes. The Simpson indexes of dominance, permutation indexes and quotients between the consecutive size classes suggested some levels of population instability in the three areas. Harvesting took place in the eight point scale, all size classes were harvested but preference was higher on intermediate (15.1-20 cm) or larger (>20 cm) size classes in all the study areas but gatherers avoided harvesting bark from recruits. Although the mean densities of harvested stem was not significant this work indicated higher levels of stem destruction in FC. Harvested dead stems ware significant in the three areas and FC had the higher of (39.5±85.9 stems/ha) compared to 7.6±19.1 and 2.1±4.3 in TR and LM, respectively. Equally, the density of physiologically stressed stems differed substantially in the three areas with higher in FC 20.5± 75.5 stems/ha compared to 18.7±82.9 stems/ha in TR and 3.8±11.8 stems/ha in LM. This results suggests implementation of protection measures such as the inclusion of the species in the national CITES list to regulated cross-border trade and strengthening of the law enforcement. Genetic diversity, structure and gene flow in the exiting populations of southern Mozambique revealed that despite fragmentation and overexploitation, this species maintains a relatively high level of genetic diversity supporting the existence of random mating. Two genetic groups were found corresponding to the northern (LM and TR) and southern (FC) areas. The study suggests that, if local extinctions occurred in Mozambique, the pepper-bark tree persisted in sufficient numbers to retain a large proportion of genetic diversity. Management plans should concentrate on maintaining this high level of genetic variability through both in and ex-situ conservation actions. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Environmental Science, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Senkoro, Annae Maria
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Ethnobotany Mozambique , Conservation biology Mozambique , Canellaceae Habitat Mozambique , Canellaceae Genetics , Warburgia salutaris Habitat Mozambique , Warburgia salutaris Genetics , Endangered plants Mozambique , Biogeography Climatic factors Mozambique , Traditional medicine Mozambique , Traditional ecological knowledge Mozambique
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232967 , vital:50042 , DOI 10.21504/10962/232967
- Description: Warburgia salutaris, locally known as “chibaha” (Ronga, Tsonga), “isiBhaha” (Zulu) and “siBhaha” (Siswati), is one of the most highly-valued medicinal plant species in southern Africa. Its bark has long been employed to treat bacterial and fungal infections, and it is often a front line herbal treatment for malaria. The species is popular in rural and urban areas due to its lower price compared to commercial pharmaceuticals and because of its long-standing spiritual and symbolic significance. Consequently, W. salutaris is threatened in Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland and is believed to be extincted in the wild in Zimbabwe. In Mozambique, where the tree is confined to the southern part of the country, it is considered vulnerable due to high local demand and cross-border export. Although there is limited research, further work is urgently needed to provide the basis for options and strategies to achieve desired outcomes. This study aimed to explore different approaches for the conservation of W. salutaris in the Lebombo Mountains (LM), the Tembe River (TR) and the Futi Corridor (FC) areas, in southern Mozambique. For this, potential distribution, socio cultural factors that influenced sustainable management of the species, demography, harvest impact, genetic diversity and population differentiation were considered. The kuenm package in R, 2 846 occurrence and 11 environmental data were used to model the potential current and future distribution in 2050 and 2070 using four general circulation models (CESM1(BGC), ACCESS1.3, FIO-ESM and IPSL-CM5A-MR) under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5. The extent of occurrence (EOO) and habitat suitability (HS) were also determined. Stratified random semi-structured interviews with 182 heads of households were carried out to explore cultural and socio incentives of use, compared knowledge distribution, determine local management practices and explore local ecological knowledge related to the species in the three study areas. In addition, 17 focus group discussion were conducted to clarify issues raised during household interviews. One hundred and twenty four quadrants were used to determine the abundance and population structure. The Simpson index of dominance, permutation index and quotient between consecutive classes were used to assess population stability, and an eight point scale was used to evaluate the extent of bark damages. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (gDNA) (n=48) was used to assessed genetic diversity and population structure through the newly developed single sequence repeats (SSR) molecular markers. Model selected was statistical significant for prediction of potential distribution of W. salutaris in southern Mozambique (partial ROC =0.00, omission rate = 0.04 and delta AICc = 0.00). The current environmental conditions mostly explained by climatic predictor, indicated in general, the potential distribution on areas of occurrence observed during the field work in southern Mozambique. Future project suggested an increase of climatic suitable areas in all the general circulation models in both conservative and pessimistic climatic scenarios (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5, respectively) in 2050 and 2070, and consequently the increase of HS and the EOO. Results of this work suggests W. salutaris would not extinct at least in the coming 50 years due to climate change but other threats such as overexploitation of the species need to be addressed. With increase of climatic suitable areas, conservation and management of this species could focus on reintroduction and cultivation for recovery of the species, with the help of time. W. salutaris was used for medicinal purposes to treat 12 health problems, with the bark being the most commonly used part (92% of informants). Knowledge of the species uses differed significantly between the three study areas but not with respondent gender or age. Informants also mentioned a considerable number of alternative species of W. salutaris (37 species in LM, 33 species in TR and 17 species in FC). Local ecological knowledge on the ecological niche of the species also varied substantial in the three areas with both types of knowledge generally higher in the Tembe River area. Local management practises were revealed mostly on harvesting through vertical bark stripping cited by 100% of informants in TR, 61.6% FC and 51.7 LM (71% of all informants). Yet most (64.3% of all informants, corresponding to 98.4% in TR, 51.7% in Fc and 41.7% LM) used non-traditional harvesting tools (machete) bark removal. For sustainable use of the species, consideration should be given to combined conservation strategies such as the use of alternative species with the same application, substitution of bark by leaves, and increases in alternative sources of plant material through cultivation. The densities of alive stems were not statistically different in the three areas but was higher in LM (mean of 4500.3±9209.8 stems/ha). Equally the mean densities of recruits (diameter ≤2 cm) were not considerable different but was higher in the FC (3296.8±9116.7 stems/ha). The regression analyses for the three study area revealed negative slopes, indicating more recruits and fewer individuals in larger classes. The Simpson indexes of dominance, permutation indexes and quotients between the consecutive size classes suggested some levels of population instability in the three areas. Harvesting took place in the eight point scale, all size classes were harvested but preference was higher on intermediate (15.1-20 cm) or larger (>20 cm) size classes in all the study areas but gatherers avoided harvesting bark from recruits. Although the mean densities of harvested stem was not significant this work indicated higher levels of stem destruction in FC. Harvested dead stems ware significant in the three areas and FC had the higher of (39.5±85.9 stems/ha) compared to 7.6±19.1 and 2.1±4.3 in TR and LM, respectively. Equally, the density of physiologically stressed stems differed substantially in the three areas with higher in FC 20.5± 75.5 stems/ha compared to 18.7±82.9 stems/ha in TR and 3.8±11.8 stems/ha in LM. This results suggests implementation of protection measures such as the inclusion of the species in the national CITES list to regulated cross-border trade and strengthening of the law enforcement. Genetic diversity, structure and gene flow in the exiting populations of southern Mozambique revealed that despite fragmentation and overexploitation, this species maintains a relatively high level of genetic diversity supporting the existence of random mating. Two genetic groups were found corresponding to the northern (LM and TR) and southern (FC) areas. The study suggests that, if local extinctions occurred in Mozambique, the pepper-bark tree persisted in sufficient numbers to retain a large proportion of genetic diversity. Management plans should concentrate on maintaining this high level of genetic variability through both in and ex-situ conservation actions. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Environmental Science, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Exploring learners’ engagement with literacy in a book club
- Authors: Jamieson, Vuyokazi
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Book clubs (Discussion groups) South Africa Makhanda , Literacy South Africa Makhanda , High school students Books and reading South Africa Makhanda , Books and reading South Africa Makhanda , Reading, Psychology of , Service learning South Africa Makhanda , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263601 , vital:53642
- Description: This study observes the literacy engagement of a group of learners enrolled in Grades 8–10 in Nombulelo High School, a poorly-resourced school in the city of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The learners participated in a book club hosted and run by St Andrew’s College, a privileged independent school, as a community engagement initiative. The idea of extending literacy engagement and engagement with written texts beyond textbooks used in schools is critical for learners with ambitions to enter higher education. Studying at a university requires a lot of reading, and if reading has not been taken up as a practice that involves more than ‘text consulting’ (Geisler, 1994) students will be unlikely to read the number of texts required of them. Studies (see Geisler, 1994 for an overview) have shown how the literacy of the university is very different to school based literacies. The assumption behind the study on which this thesis reports is that engagement with fictional texts might promote reading and bring about understandings of this activity as enjoyable and not a task only associated with schooling. The study is underpinned by a critical realist philosophy which allowed for the identification of structures and mechanisms that led to the emergence of literacy events in learners’ lives and to their experiences and observations of those events. The study was guided by the following questions: How do learners from a poorly-resourced high school engage around fictional texts in the context of a book club? What enables or constrains this engagement? The study was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in that lockdown requirements meant that learners from St Andrew’s College could not participate in the book club as much as anticipated initially as they had been forced to return home to pursue online learning. Learners from Nombuelo High School were, however, granted access to College premises, where they met in the school library following strict Covid protocols. The study draws on in-depth interviews, observations and document analysis of five learners from Nombulelo High School who participated in the book club, as well as on book reviews they wrote for the book club website. The critical realist analysis allows for the identification of mechanisms in learners’ homes and communities that enable literacies, including those that are screen-based such as using a computer, mobile phones and other technologies. This study found evidence of challenges regarding school based texts, reading fictional texts and viewing it as an enrichment of the school project. Because of children were African the emergence of communal practices and story telling is woven throughout the results section. However, is an example of the complexity of social and economic challenges facing South African marginalised schools. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Jamieson, Vuyokazi
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Book clubs (Discussion groups) South Africa Makhanda , Literacy South Africa Makhanda , High school students Books and reading South Africa Makhanda , Books and reading South Africa Makhanda , Reading, Psychology of , Service learning South Africa Makhanda , Critical realism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263601 , vital:53642
- Description: This study observes the literacy engagement of a group of learners enrolled in Grades 8–10 in Nombulelo High School, a poorly-resourced school in the city of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The learners participated in a book club hosted and run by St Andrew’s College, a privileged independent school, as a community engagement initiative. The idea of extending literacy engagement and engagement with written texts beyond textbooks used in schools is critical for learners with ambitions to enter higher education. Studying at a university requires a lot of reading, and if reading has not been taken up as a practice that involves more than ‘text consulting’ (Geisler, 1994) students will be unlikely to read the number of texts required of them. Studies (see Geisler, 1994 for an overview) have shown how the literacy of the university is very different to school based literacies. The assumption behind the study on which this thesis reports is that engagement with fictional texts might promote reading and bring about understandings of this activity as enjoyable and not a task only associated with schooling. The study is underpinned by a critical realist philosophy which allowed for the identification of structures and mechanisms that led to the emergence of literacy events in learners’ lives and to their experiences and observations of those events. The study was guided by the following questions: How do learners from a poorly-resourced high school engage around fictional texts in the context of a book club? What enables or constrains this engagement? The study was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in that lockdown requirements meant that learners from St Andrew’s College could not participate in the book club as much as anticipated initially as they had been forced to return home to pursue online learning. Learners from Nombuelo High School were, however, granted access to College premises, where they met in the school library following strict Covid protocols. The study draws on in-depth interviews, observations and document analysis of five learners from Nombulelo High School who participated in the book club, as well as on book reviews they wrote for the book club website. The critical realist analysis allows for the identification of mechanisms in learners’ homes and communities that enable literacies, including those that are screen-based such as using a computer, mobile phones and other technologies. This study found evidence of challenges regarding school based texts, reading fictional texts and viewing it as an enrichment of the school project. Because of children were African the emergence of communal practices and story telling is woven throughout the results section. However, is an example of the complexity of social and economic challenges facing South African marginalised schools. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Centre for Higher Education Research, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Synthesis and evaluation of the medicinal potential of novel 4-hydroxycoumarin derivatives
- Authors: Manyeruke, Meloddy Hlatini
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/164458 , vital:41120 , doi:10.21504/10962/164458
- Description: This research has focused on the synthesis and biological evaluation of a broad range of compounds characterised by the presence of the pharmacologically significant 4-hydroxycoumalin scaffold. The compounds were designed to contain additional pharmachophoric centres to enhance bioactivity and generate lead compounds with dualaction potential. The use of 4-hydroxycoumarin as the primary synthon enabled access to various series of 4-hydroxycoumarin conjugates, the reactive 3-position on the 4-hydroxycoumarin moiety being exploited for regioselective construction of the targeted compounds in several steps. Some of the reactants required in the construction of these compounds were specially synthesised and included propargyloxy benzaldehydes, benzyloxy benzaldehydes and 2,3-dihydroxysuccino-dihydride. Overall, eight different families of novel compounds were accessed, comprising conjugates of 4-hydroxycoumarin with bisethylidenesuccinohyrazide, trifluoroacetamide, amino, benzyloxyphenyl-iminoethyl, benzylidenehyrazinyl-thiazoyl, benzylidenehydrazonoethyl, propargyloxybenzylidenehydrazonoethyl and phenylacryloyl moieties using protocols that required minimal work-up and purification. The eighty novel compounds synthesised in the study were fully characterised using HMRS and advanced NMR techniques. Cytotoxicity, HIV-1 IN and PR inhibitory, and antitrypanosomal, antimalarial and anti-Mtb assays were conducted on the synthesised coumarin derivatives. Several compounds exhibited activity against HIV-1 IN, the most potent being a bis-ethylidenesuccinohyrazide with an IC50 value of 3.5 μM. Various compounds exhibited anti-malarial activity (% pLDH viability in the range 62-77%), anti-trypanosomal activity (the most potent with an IC50 = 0.9 μM against T.b. brucei) and a measure of anti-Mtb activity. Apart from two chalconyl derivatives, none of the synthesised compounds exhibited significant cytotoxicity. Conflicting results were obtained from the in silico docking studies; in some cases supporting the observed in vitro assay data while, in others, exhibiting no correlation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Manyeruke, Meloddy Hlatini
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/164458 , vital:41120 , doi:10.21504/10962/164458
- Description: This research has focused on the synthesis and biological evaluation of a broad range of compounds characterised by the presence of the pharmacologically significant 4-hydroxycoumalin scaffold. The compounds were designed to contain additional pharmachophoric centres to enhance bioactivity and generate lead compounds with dualaction potential. The use of 4-hydroxycoumarin as the primary synthon enabled access to various series of 4-hydroxycoumarin conjugates, the reactive 3-position on the 4-hydroxycoumarin moiety being exploited for regioselective construction of the targeted compounds in several steps. Some of the reactants required in the construction of these compounds were specially synthesised and included propargyloxy benzaldehydes, benzyloxy benzaldehydes and 2,3-dihydroxysuccino-dihydride. Overall, eight different families of novel compounds were accessed, comprising conjugates of 4-hydroxycoumarin with bisethylidenesuccinohyrazide, trifluoroacetamide, amino, benzyloxyphenyl-iminoethyl, benzylidenehyrazinyl-thiazoyl, benzylidenehydrazonoethyl, propargyloxybenzylidenehydrazonoethyl and phenylacryloyl moieties using protocols that required minimal work-up and purification. The eighty novel compounds synthesised in the study were fully characterised using HMRS and advanced NMR techniques. Cytotoxicity, HIV-1 IN and PR inhibitory, and antitrypanosomal, antimalarial and anti-Mtb assays were conducted on the synthesised coumarin derivatives. Several compounds exhibited activity against HIV-1 IN, the most potent being a bis-ethylidenesuccinohyrazide with an IC50 value of 3.5 μM. Various compounds exhibited anti-malarial activity (% pLDH viability in the range 62-77%), anti-trypanosomal activity (the most potent with an IC50 = 0.9 μM against T.b. brucei) and a measure of anti-Mtb activity. Apart from two chalconyl derivatives, none of the synthesised compounds exhibited significant cytotoxicity. Conflicting results were obtained from the in silico docking studies; in some cases supporting the observed in vitro assay data while, in others, exhibiting no correlation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Chemistry, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
The characterization of GTP Cyclohydrolase I and 6-Pyruvoyl Tetrahydropterin Synthase enzymes as potential anti-malarial drug targets
- Khairallah, Afrah Yousif Huseein
- Authors: Khairallah, Afrah Yousif Huseein
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Antimalarials , Plasmodium falciparum , Malaria Chemotherapy , Malaria Africa , Drug resistance , Drug development , Molecular dynamics
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/233784 , vital:50127 , DOI 10.21504/10962/233784
- Description: Malaria remains a public health problem and a high burden of disease, especially in developing countries. The unicellular protozoan malaria parasite of the genus Plasmodium infects about a quarter of a billion people annually, with an estimated 409 000 death cases. The majority of malaria cases occurred in Africa; hence, the region is regarded as endemic for malaria. Global efforts to eradicate the disease led to a decrease in morbidity and mortality rates. However, an enormous burden of malaria infection remains, and it cannot go unnoticed. Countries with limited resources are more affected by the disease, mainly on its public health and socio-economic development, due to many factors besides malaria itself, such as lack of access to adequate, affordable treatments and preventative regimes. Furthermore, the current antimalarial drugs are losing their efficacy because of parasite drug resistance. The emerged drug resistance has reduced the drug efficacy in clearing the parasite from the host system, causing prolonged illness and a higher risk of death. Therefore, the emerged antimalarial drug resistance has hindered the global efforts for malaria control and elimination and established an urgent need for new treatment strategies. When the resistance against classical antimalarial drugs emerged, the class of antifolate antimalarial medicines became the most common alternative. The antifolate antimalarial drugs target the malaria parasite de novo folate biosynthesis pathway by limiting folate derivates, which are essential for the parasite cell growth and survival. Yet again, the malaria parasite developed resistance against the available antifolate drugs, rendering the drugs ineffective in many cases. Given the previous success in targeting the malaria parasite de novo folate biosynthesis pathway, alternative enzymes within this pathway stand as good targets and can be explored to develop new antifolate drugs with novel mechanisms of action. The primary focus of this thesis is to contribute to the existing and growing knowledge of antimalarial drug discovery. The study aims to characterise the malaria parasite de novo folate synthesis pathway enzymes guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase I (GCH1) and 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS) as alternative drug targets for malaria treatment by using computational approaches. Further, discover new allosteric drug targeting sites within the two enzymes' 3D structures for future drug design and discovery. Sequence and structural analysis were carried out to characterise and pinpoint the two enzymes' unique sequence and structure-based features. From the analyses, key sequence and structure differences were identified between the malaria parasite enzymes relative to their human homolog; the identified sites can aid significantly in designing and developing new antimalarial antifolate drugs with good selectivity toward the parasites’ enzymes. GCH1 and PTPS contain a catalytically essential metal ion in their active site; therefore, force field parameters were needed to study their active sites accurately during all-atom molecular dynamic simulations (MD). The force field parameters were derived through quantum mechanics potential energy surface scans of the metals bonded terms and evaluated via all-atom MD simulations. Proteins structural dynamics is imperative for many biological processes; thus, it is essential to consider the structural dynamics of proteins whilst understanding their function. In this regard, the normal mode analysis (NMA) approach based on the elastic network model (ENM) was employed to study the intrinsic dynamics and conformations changes of GCH1 and PTPS enzymes. The NMA disclosed essential structural information about the protein’s intrinsic dynamics and mechanism of allosteric modulation of their binding properties, further highlighting regions that govern their conformational changes. The analysis also disclosed hotspot residues that are crucial for the proteins' fold stability and function. The NMA was further combined with sequence motif results and showed that conserved residues of GCH1 and PTPS were located within the identified key structural sites modulating the proteins' conformational rearrangement. The characterized structural features and hotspot residues were regarded as potential allosteric sites of important value for the design and development of allosteric drugs. Both GCH1 and PTPS enzymes have never been targeted before and can provide an excellent opportunity to overcome the antimalarial antifolate drug resistance problem. The data presented in this thesis contribute to the understanding of the sequence, structure, and global dynamics of both GCH1 and PTPS, further disclose potential allosteric drug targeting sites and unique structural features of both enzymes that can establish a solid starting point for drug design and development of new antimalarial drugs of a novel mechanism of actions. Lastly, the reported force field parameters will be of value for MD simulations for future in-silico drug discovery studies involving the two enzymes and other enzymes with the same Zn2+ binding motifs and coordination environments. The impact of this research can facilitate the discovery of new effective antimalarial medicines with novel mechanisms of action. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Khairallah, Afrah Yousif Huseein
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Antimalarials , Plasmodium falciparum , Malaria Chemotherapy , Malaria Africa , Drug resistance , Drug development , Molecular dynamics
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/233784 , vital:50127 , DOI 10.21504/10962/233784
- Description: Malaria remains a public health problem and a high burden of disease, especially in developing countries. The unicellular protozoan malaria parasite of the genus Plasmodium infects about a quarter of a billion people annually, with an estimated 409 000 death cases. The majority of malaria cases occurred in Africa; hence, the region is regarded as endemic for malaria. Global efforts to eradicate the disease led to a decrease in morbidity and mortality rates. However, an enormous burden of malaria infection remains, and it cannot go unnoticed. Countries with limited resources are more affected by the disease, mainly on its public health and socio-economic development, due to many factors besides malaria itself, such as lack of access to adequate, affordable treatments and preventative regimes. Furthermore, the current antimalarial drugs are losing their efficacy because of parasite drug resistance. The emerged drug resistance has reduced the drug efficacy in clearing the parasite from the host system, causing prolonged illness and a higher risk of death. Therefore, the emerged antimalarial drug resistance has hindered the global efforts for malaria control and elimination and established an urgent need for new treatment strategies. When the resistance against classical antimalarial drugs emerged, the class of antifolate antimalarial medicines became the most common alternative. The antifolate antimalarial drugs target the malaria parasite de novo folate biosynthesis pathway by limiting folate derivates, which are essential for the parasite cell growth and survival. Yet again, the malaria parasite developed resistance against the available antifolate drugs, rendering the drugs ineffective in many cases. Given the previous success in targeting the malaria parasite de novo folate biosynthesis pathway, alternative enzymes within this pathway stand as good targets and can be explored to develop new antifolate drugs with novel mechanisms of action. The primary focus of this thesis is to contribute to the existing and growing knowledge of antimalarial drug discovery. The study aims to characterise the malaria parasite de novo folate synthesis pathway enzymes guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase I (GCH1) and 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS) as alternative drug targets for malaria treatment by using computational approaches. Further, discover new allosteric drug targeting sites within the two enzymes' 3D structures for future drug design and discovery. Sequence and structural analysis were carried out to characterise and pinpoint the two enzymes' unique sequence and structure-based features. From the analyses, key sequence and structure differences were identified between the malaria parasite enzymes relative to their human homolog; the identified sites can aid significantly in designing and developing new antimalarial antifolate drugs with good selectivity toward the parasites’ enzymes. GCH1 and PTPS contain a catalytically essential metal ion in their active site; therefore, force field parameters were needed to study their active sites accurately during all-atom molecular dynamic simulations (MD). The force field parameters were derived through quantum mechanics potential energy surface scans of the metals bonded terms and evaluated via all-atom MD simulations. Proteins structural dynamics is imperative for many biological processes; thus, it is essential to consider the structural dynamics of proteins whilst understanding their function. In this regard, the normal mode analysis (NMA) approach based on the elastic network model (ENM) was employed to study the intrinsic dynamics and conformations changes of GCH1 and PTPS enzymes. The NMA disclosed essential structural information about the protein’s intrinsic dynamics and mechanism of allosteric modulation of their binding properties, further highlighting regions that govern their conformational changes. The analysis also disclosed hotspot residues that are crucial for the proteins' fold stability and function. The NMA was further combined with sequence motif results and showed that conserved residues of GCH1 and PTPS were located within the identified key structural sites modulating the proteins' conformational rearrangement. The characterized structural features and hotspot residues were regarded as potential allosteric sites of important value for the design and development of allosteric drugs. Both GCH1 and PTPS enzymes have never been targeted before and can provide an excellent opportunity to overcome the antimalarial antifolate drug resistance problem. The data presented in this thesis contribute to the understanding of the sequence, structure, and global dynamics of both GCH1 and PTPS, further disclose potential allosteric drug targeting sites and unique structural features of both enzymes that can establish a solid starting point for drug design and development of new antimalarial drugs of a novel mechanism of actions. Lastly, the reported force field parameters will be of value for MD simulations for future in-silico drug discovery studies involving the two enzymes and other enzymes with the same Zn2+ binding motifs and coordination environments. The impact of this research can facilitate the discovery of new effective antimalarial medicines with novel mechanisms of action. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
The transformative potential of intersecting with arts-based inquiry and environmental learning in urban South Africa: a focus on socio-ecological water pedagogies
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: James, Anna Katharine
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Environmental education South Africa , Water conservation Study and teaching South Africa , Art in environmental education South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Educational sociology South Africa , Water-supply Social aspects South Africa , Critical realism , Socio-ecological education
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290660 , vital:56772 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290660
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformative potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
The use of smartphones and visualisation processes for conceptual understanding of mensuration: a case study of the Mathcitymap Project in Namibia
- Authors: Shimakeleni, Liina
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290649 , vital:56771
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the potential use of smartphones as visualisation tools by learners to enhance conceptual understanding through mathematics trails developed using the MathCityMap (MCM) project. This research study is part of the VIPROmaths project which seeks to research the effective use of visualisation processes in mathematics classrooms in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Switzerland and Germany. This study adopted a case of twelve purposively selected Grade 9 learners from a school in the Eheke circuit of the Oshana region, Namibia. This study was framed within a social constructivist perspective and sought to investigate visualisation processes as well as conceptual understanding of learners as they conceptualised the MCM tasks in new, outdoor and collaborative learning situations. The MCM app was installed on selected learners’ smartphones to access and to walk the MCM trails located in various places in the schoolyard. Three MCM trails based on three key themes of mensuration (perimeter, area and volume) were created. Each consisted of four tasks that were sourced and developed in line with the Grade 9 Namibian mathematics syllabus. This study is oriented in an interpretive paradigm and employed video-recorded observations and focus group interviews as qualitative data collection methods. Data collected were analysed first using the themes developed from Ho’s (2010) work on visualisation processes and Kilpatrick, Swafford, and Findell’s (2001) conceptual understanding. During analysis, some themes emerged from the data and were considered. Findings from this study revealed that smartphones afforded learners ample opportunities to enhance the visualisation processes that they went through as they learned the concepts of measurement. In addition to this, some learners were initially pessimistic regarding the use of smartphones for learning purposes. This study recommends that resources such as MCM be effectively be used in formal school settings. The learning of measurement can be advanced in outdoor settings where learners have physical and spatial access to the learning content. Smartphone technology can be used as an additional tool to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in learning mathematics within the Namibian context. , Thesis (MED) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Shimakeleni, Liina
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290649 , vital:56771
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the potential use of smartphones as visualisation tools by learners to enhance conceptual understanding through mathematics trails developed using the MathCityMap (MCM) project. This research study is part of the VIPROmaths project which seeks to research the effective use of visualisation processes in mathematics classrooms in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Switzerland and Germany. This study adopted a case of twelve purposively selected Grade 9 learners from a school in the Eheke circuit of the Oshana region, Namibia. This study was framed within a social constructivist perspective and sought to investigate visualisation processes as well as conceptual understanding of learners as they conceptualised the MCM tasks in new, outdoor and collaborative learning situations. The MCM app was installed on selected learners’ smartphones to access and to walk the MCM trails located in various places in the schoolyard. Three MCM trails based on three key themes of mensuration (perimeter, area and volume) were created. Each consisted of four tasks that were sourced and developed in line with the Grade 9 Namibian mathematics syllabus. This study is oriented in an interpretive paradigm and employed video-recorded observations and focus group interviews as qualitative data collection methods. Data collected were analysed first using the themes developed from Ho’s (2010) work on visualisation processes and Kilpatrick, Swafford, and Findell’s (2001) conceptual understanding. During analysis, some themes emerged from the data and were considered. Findings from this study revealed that smartphones afforded learners ample opportunities to enhance the visualisation processes that they went through as they learned the concepts of measurement. In addition to this, some learners were initially pessimistic regarding the use of smartphones for learning purposes. This study recommends that resources such as MCM be effectively be used in formal school settings. The learning of measurement can be advanced in outdoor settings where learners have physical and spatial access to the learning content. Smartphone technology can be used as an additional tool to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in learning mathematics within the Namibian context. , Thesis (MED) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Towards the Common Good: An expansive post-abyssal (Re)stor(y)ing of the epistemic cultures of the citizen sciences
- Authors: Vallabh, Priya
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290671 , vital:56773 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290671
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformatiThe citizen sciences convene complex and reflexive ecologies of knowledges in response to a range of social-ecological risks. Their epistemic cultures seem to be assembled in ways which increase potential mobilisation of the common knowledges being produced, thereby producing knowledges in forms that are more strongly aligned with a range of implementation strategies. However, much of such processes of knowledge production have been ‘cleaned out’ of official accounts through scientifically hegemonic systems of legitimation, deepening hegemonically-entrenched systems of epistemic, contributory and distributive injustices, and undermining the potential for stronger enactments of participatory and radical democracies. The engagement of sociologies of absences and emergences in this study evidence these epistemic insights, thereby evidencing an expansive post-abyssal (re)stor(y)ing of the citizen sciences. Through this research, I consider knowledge production as ‘commoning', towards the constitution of the common good. To date, most accounts of knowledge production within citizen science projects primarily focus on scientific processes of knowledge production and legitimation. Such accounts neglect the ecologies of diverse knowledges through which knowledge is being collaboratively produced, the forms of learning that occur, or the ways in which such ecologies are mobilised in response to specific socialecological risks. To better understand the ways in which citizen science projects build risk-responsive common knowledge, I bring a focus to the diversity of epistemic cultures convened, speaking to this gap. My primary research question is: How do the epistemic cultures within citizen science projects enable commoning in response to social-ecological risk? To begin, I establish a particular vantage point from which the remainder of the thesis is launched, one which centres as the primary interest of knowledge production, an interest in social-ecological justice and the constitution of the common good. From this vantage point, knowledge co-production and learning can be viewed as acts of commoning, which themselves constitute common goods. I draw on the work of Karin Knorr Cetina to conceptualise and frame notions of epistemic cultures and their epistemic features. Expanding notions of epistemic cultures from a post-abyssal perspective, I draw on the work of Bruno Latour and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Latour’s distinctions between the production of ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ provide a way to challenge hegemonic systems of scientific knowledge production, while preserving the potential emergence of multiplicity in the context of evolving risk, thereby enabling a greater degree of situated reflexivity. Santos argues for the reclamation of all ways of knowing, including but not limited to scientific ways of knowing the world. He argues that other forms of knowledge are produced as nonexistent, and that they might be reclaimed through engaging sociologies of absences and emergences. Both authors enable a stronger analysis of knowledge production in terms of its ability to intervene into context in response to manifest risks. These three theoretical approaches are convened into an analytical framework for the study. To enact sociologies of absences and emergences, I engage two forms of immanent critique, complemented by an epistemic mapping of 50 South African citizen science projects, and an analysis of three illustrative case studies. The first critique is one of produced nonexistence, through which I consider three aspects of the general knowledge cultures within which the epistemic cultures of citizen science projects are situated. This critique makes evident the ways in which the ontological and related conceptual structures of hegemonic scientific knowledge production actively produce as nonexistent, other onto-epistemic contributions to knowledge production in response to social-ecological risks. The second critique reviews the field of peer-reviewed literature through a reading of presence and absence, with a focus on the articulation of epistemic cultures. Predictably, a key finding is that this form of scientific reporting primarily foregrounds legitimated scientifically processed knowledge, while once again producing as nonexistent, other forms of knowledges. However, there is evidence of increasing accounts of citizen science which recognise both a diversity of knowledge contributions, and epistemic, contributory and distributive justice issues as regards hegemonic forms of reporting. The epistemic mapping evidences a highly diversified field of citizen sciences, whose epistemic cultures are convened to produce distinct forms of scientifically-informed knowledges in response to diverse contexts, scales and notions of risk. The three illustrative case studies engage sociologies of absences and emergences, with particular focus on articulating the ecologies of knowledges evidenced in project documentation, including both official and unofficial accounts of epistemic activity. This analysis highlights the significant contributions of diverse forms of knowledges, including scientific, situated, embodied, governance, indigenous, spiritual and relational knowledges, and the ways in which these knowledge are convened to respond to specific configurations of risk. It once again highlights issues of epistemic, contributory and distributive justice, and makes evident the need for stronger integrity in processes of producing and reporting common knowledges. The case studies also illustrate the increased effectiveness of leveraging an ecology of knowledges (in contrast to a monoculture of scientific knowledge) in response to situated risks, including how such ecologies have a tendency to be generative and enable multiple forms of intervention into structures and applied contexts of intervention. In response to the collective research findings, a think-piece on rigour-as-integrity is offered as a contribution to commoning, in response to social-ecological risk. The piece draws together a postabyssal system of rigour intended to strengthen knowledge production in ways which actively centre forms of justice and commoning. ve potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Vallabh, Priya
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290671 , vital:56773 , DOI 10.21504/10962/290671
- Description: In this study I explore and explain transformatiThe citizen sciences convene complex and reflexive ecologies of knowledges in response to a range of social-ecological risks. Their epistemic cultures seem to be assembled in ways which increase potential mobilisation of the common knowledges being produced, thereby producing knowledges in forms that are more strongly aligned with a range of implementation strategies. However, much of such processes of knowledge production have been ‘cleaned out’ of official accounts through scientifically hegemonic systems of legitimation, deepening hegemonically-entrenched systems of epistemic, contributory and distributive injustices, and undermining the potential for stronger enactments of participatory and radical democracies. The engagement of sociologies of absences and emergences in this study evidence these epistemic insights, thereby evidencing an expansive post-abyssal (re)stor(y)ing of the citizen sciences. Through this research, I consider knowledge production as ‘commoning', towards the constitution of the common good. To date, most accounts of knowledge production within citizen science projects primarily focus on scientific processes of knowledge production and legitimation. Such accounts neglect the ecologies of diverse knowledges through which knowledge is being collaboratively produced, the forms of learning that occur, or the ways in which such ecologies are mobilised in response to specific socialecological risks. To better understand the ways in which citizen science projects build risk-responsive common knowledge, I bring a focus to the diversity of epistemic cultures convened, speaking to this gap. My primary research question is: How do the epistemic cultures within citizen science projects enable commoning in response to social-ecological risk? To begin, I establish a particular vantage point from which the remainder of the thesis is launched, one which centres as the primary interest of knowledge production, an interest in social-ecological justice and the constitution of the common good. From this vantage point, knowledge co-production and learning can be viewed as acts of commoning, which themselves constitute common goods. I draw on the work of Karin Knorr Cetina to conceptualise and frame notions of epistemic cultures and their epistemic features. Expanding notions of epistemic cultures from a post-abyssal perspective, I draw on the work of Bruno Latour and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Latour’s distinctions between the production of ‘matters of fact’ and ‘matters of concern’ provide a way to challenge hegemonic systems of scientific knowledge production, while preserving the potential emergence of multiplicity in the context of evolving risk, thereby enabling a greater degree of situated reflexivity. Santos argues for the reclamation of all ways of knowing, including but not limited to scientific ways of knowing the world. He argues that other forms of knowledge are produced as nonexistent, and that they might be reclaimed through engaging sociologies of absences and emergences. Both authors enable a stronger analysis of knowledge production in terms of its ability to intervene into context in response to manifest risks. These three theoretical approaches are convened into an analytical framework for the study. To enact sociologies of absences and emergences, I engage two forms of immanent critique, complemented by an epistemic mapping of 50 South African citizen science projects, and an analysis of three illustrative case studies. The first critique is one of produced nonexistence, through which I consider three aspects of the general knowledge cultures within which the epistemic cultures of citizen science projects are situated. This critique makes evident the ways in which the ontological and related conceptual structures of hegemonic scientific knowledge production actively produce as nonexistent, other onto-epistemic contributions to knowledge production in response to social-ecological risks. The second critique reviews the field of peer-reviewed literature through a reading of presence and absence, with a focus on the articulation of epistemic cultures. Predictably, a key finding is that this form of scientific reporting primarily foregrounds legitimated scientifically processed knowledge, while once again producing as nonexistent, other forms of knowledges. However, there is evidence of increasing accounts of citizen science which recognise both a diversity of knowledge contributions, and epistemic, contributory and distributive justice issues as regards hegemonic forms of reporting. The epistemic mapping evidences a highly diversified field of citizen sciences, whose epistemic cultures are convened to produce distinct forms of scientifically-informed knowledges in response to diverse contexts, scales and notions of risk. The three illustrative case studies engage sociologies of absences and emergences, with particular focus on articulating the ecologies of knowledges evidenced in project documentation, including both official and unofficial accounts of epistemic activity. This analysis highlights the significant contributions of diverse forms of knowledges, including scientific, situated, embodied, governance, indigenous, spiritual and relational knowledges, and the ways in which these knowledge are convened to respond to specific configurations of risk. It once again highlights issues of epistemic, contributory and distributive justice, and makes evident the need for stronger integrity in processes of producing and reporting common knowledges. The case studies also illustrate the increased effectiveness of leveraging an ecology of knowledges (in contrast to a monoculture of scientific knowledge) in response to situated risks, including how such ecologies have a tendency to be generative and enable multiple forms of intervention into structures and applied contexts of intervention. In response to the collective research findings, a think-piece on rigour-as-integrity is offered as a contribution to commoning, in response to social-ecological risk. The piece draws together a postabyssal system of rigour intended to strengthen knowledge production in ways which actively centre forms of justice and commoning. ve potential in arts-based environmental learning with a focus on water pedagogy. The study took place over a period of four years, where approximately 40 school pupils between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old were engaged in participatory arts-based inquiries into water located across unequal neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Educators, school learners, citizens and decision-makers hold different historical, cultural, political and spiritual perspectives on water. These play a role in shaping what is termed in this research the ‘hydro-social cycle’. Yet, due to dominant ideas of what counts as knowing and truth, educators in educational settings struggle to account for the complexity of water, limiting educational encounters to a partial knowing leading mostly to limited unimaginative framings of problems and solutions. My focus on transformative potential in learning is derived from a concern for how environmental education encounters and the sense-making they enable, are infused by socio-economic, political, and historical elements, specifically colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacist racism. The connections between the multiple layers of capitalist crisis and the ever-urgent environmental crisis are not adequately made in mainstream forms of water education. The research explores how arts-based pedagogy could enable a productive meeting of critical environmental education with ecological literacies. Within this positioning, transformative potential considers how educational engagements position questions about water within the social life of participants/learners and inform learning that leads to fuller and more nuanced greater knowledge. Theoretically, I work with an interrogation of critical education theory, underlaboured by critical realism which enabled me to rigorously consider how claims to knowing are shaped by their accompanying assumptions of what is real. Drawing on recent debates in critical education theory, I resist the notion of critique as ideology and engage instead in the craftsmanship of contextual and responsive inquiry practice. This has enabled me to articulate processes and relationships in water education encounters with meaningful understandings of the effects of simultaneous crises rooted in racial capitalism and environmental crisis. My methodological approach is arts-based educational research with a directive to reflect upon educational encounters in an integrated way. It includes two parts informing the facilitation and analysis of open-ended learning processes. One component was arts-based inquiry practice developed for exploring complexity, drawing on the thinking of Norris (2009, 2011) and Finley (2016, 2017). The second part holds reflective space for these encounters guided by the practice of pedagogical narration inspired by the Reggio Amelia approach, demonstrated by Pacini-Ketchabaw, Nxumalo, Kocher, Elliot and Sanchez (2014). Clarifying the intellectual work of a responsive educator-researcher, pedagogical narration brings multiple theoretical lenses into conversation with emergent dimensions of educational process. In practice, in order to transgress the dominance of colonial white supremacist knowledge frames of water, I needed to be curious, to be confounded, to expect the unexpected in the educational encounters with participants and this mirroring of practice was emulated by the participants as they followed their own questions about water in Mzansi (South Africa). In our work together we came up against assumptions we had previously not questioned as individuals. Together we explored the implications of this by, for example, questioning who is responsible for saving water. These explorations required bringing together science knowledge and everyday knowledge at multiple scales: the household, catchment, government and global. It required us to be critical of how language and images are mobilized in public communication and school curriculums; for example, representations of water are infused with history and power in a way that impacts how we know and teach about water. The transformative potential of this pedagogical space is generated through acts of creative expression which are seen as acts of absenting absence, for example exhibiting through play how water use in the household interconnects with gender and age relationships. As such, creative expression through multiple mediums or more-than-text enables a deeper understanding of water as well as openings for interdisciplinary engagement with learning about water. My research found that in bringing together the contributions of critical education and environmental education in practice, two shifts are needed: environmental educators need to view ecological literacy as inseparable from the social and political. The knowledge that is shared about water in the classroom has social and political implications. On the other hand, critical educators need to better locate justice concerns in the material and ecological world at scale. Arts-based inquiry, as a kind of scaffolding for pedagogical process, has the potential to enable these shifts by opening up fixed analytical frames. Making these shifts requires a reflective practice on the part of the educator to navigate the inherited blind spots in environmental learning and critical education, such as dualities. One way to do this is for the educator to identify absences, as articulated in the Critical Realist tradition, and consider how these absences might be absented. This differs from a simplistic process of critique in the possibilities it opens up for collaboration between different schools of thought rather than further polarisation and alienation between educators and knowledge keepers on social ecologies. These insights have relevance for many sites of environmental education practice, such as natural science lecturers, school teachers or community activists. It is knowledge-learning work emergent from and responsive to complex ecological crisis, which requires everyone to rethink and open up to new ways of being, seeing and doing around these issues. The transformative potential of this work is that the thinking and transforming at all scales can be catalysed and grounded through the arts based educational encounters with the participants. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
Visualisation processes in teaching patterns and their generalisation: perceptions and experiences from senior phase mathematics teachers
- Authors: Chatima, Simon
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Visual learning South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics teachers South Africa Eastern Cape Attitudes , Sequences (Mathematics) Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa Eastern Cape , Constructivism (Education) South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics teachers In-service training South Africa Eastern Cape , VIPRO MATHS Project
- Language: English
- Type: Master's thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232936 , vital:50039
- Description: This study investigated how senior phase mathematics teachers used visualisation approaches to teach patterns and their generalisation as a result of an intervention programme. This project is an integral component of the VIPRO MATHS Project and one of a number of post-graduate research projects which has a particular focus on visualisation processes in mathematics education in the Southern African region. This case study of Senior Phase mathematics teachers in the Chris Hani West District (CHW) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa used a social constructivist theory. The study is grounded within an interpretive paradigm explanatory qualitative method design. It surveyed thirty-seven Senior Phase mathematics teachers from schools in the CHW district to get an idea of how teachers teach patterns and their generalisation, prior to an intervention process. After the survey, nine teachers were purposively selected to take part in an intervention programme. They were then observed (teaching) and interviewed to get their perceptions about what factors enable and/or constrain the teaching of patterns and their generalisation when visualisation approaches were used. The data from the survey questionnaire responses, the lesson observations and the interviews were analysed qualitatively. The findings from the survey questionnaire responses revealed that teachers in CHW district value the use of visualisation approaches, although they used visuals to teach patterns in a way that lacked depth, skill and rigor prior to the intervention. Challenges such as difficulty in keeping abreast with the prescribed syllabus, the lack of resources, time constraints, and the limited knowledge of algebra learners have for successfully transferring pictorial representations to symbolic presentations, emerged from the survey data. This necessitated the need for an intervention which focused on the use of a variety of visual strategies and tools to teach patterns and their generalisation effectively. Data from lesson observations showed that all observed participant teachers used visuals to generate image- related questions and created platforms for lively classroom discussions. The teachers used the generated questions to build on learners’ prior knowledge and to promote learner understanding of pattern dynamics that stem from pictorial representations. The data from the interviews revealed that teachers’ perceptions had drastically changed after the intervention. This was because they were now equipped and empowered to effectively make use of visual strategies that enabled them to: build on learners’ prior knowledge, to manipulate visuals for the purpose of prompting learning, develop cognitive perception in learners, cultivate learner innovation and originality and enhance problem solving techniques. This study concludes that the use of visuals enhanced conceptual teaching of patterns and their generalisation in the observed participants. This has the potential to provide mathematics education researchers and curriculum developers with a strong basis to include visualisation processes and strategies into the design of policy documents and to initiate further research efforts. The implications for the teachers are that learners need to be taught ways to create and interpret visual representations in order to understand the dynamics of transferring a pictorial pattern to its resultant symbolic representation expressing pattern regularity. It is also hoped that the results of this study will be utilised by mathematics subject advisers and teacher training institutions to improve the teaching of patterns and their generalisation. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-04-08
- Authors: Chatima, Simon
- Date: 2022-04-08
- Subjects: Visual learning South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics teachers South Africa Eastern Cape Attitudes , Sequences (Mathematics) Study and teaching (Secondary) South Africa Eastern Cape , Constructivism (Education) South Africa Eastern Cape , Mathematics teachers In-service training South Africa Eastern Cape , VIPRO MATHS Project
- Language: English
- Type: Master's thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232936 , vital:50039
- Description: This study investigated how senior phase mathematics teachers used visualisation approaches to teach patterns and their generalisation as a result of an intervention programme. This project is an integral component of the VIPRO MATHS Project and one of a number of post-graduate research projects which has a particular focus on visualisation processes in mathematics education in the Southern African region. This case study of Senior Phase mathematics teachers in the Chris Hani West District (CHW) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa used a social constructivist theory. The study is grounded within an interpretive paradigm explanatory qualitative method design. It surveyed thirty-seven Senior Phase mathematics teachers from schools in the CHW district to get an idea of how teachers teach patterns and their generalisation, prior to an intervention process. After the survey, nine teachers were purposively selected to take part in an intervention programme. They were then observed (teaching) and interviewed to get their perceptions about what factors enable and/or constrain the teaching of patterns and their generalisation when visualisation approaches were used. The data from the survey questionnaire responses, the lesson observations and the interviews were analysed qualitatively. The findings from the survey questionnaire responses revealed that teachers in CHW district value the use of visualisation approaches, although they used visuals to teach patterns in a way that lacked depth, skill and rigor prior to the intervention. Challenges such as difficulty in keeping abreast with the prescribed syllabus, the lack of resources, time constraints, and the limited knowledge of algebra learners have for successfully transferring pictorial representations to symbolic presentations, emerged from the survey data. This necessitated the need for an intervention which focused on the use of a variety of visual strategies and tools to teach patterns and their generalisation effectively. Data from lesson observations showed that all observed participant teachers used visuals to generate image- related questions and created platforms for lively classroom discussions. The teachers used the generated questions to build on learners’ prior knowledge and to promote learner understanding of pattern dynamics that stem from pictorial representations. The data from the interviews revealed that teachers’ perceptions had drastically changed after the intervention. This was because they were now equipped and empowered to effectively make use of visual strategies that enabled them to: build on learners’ prior knowledge, to manipulate visuals for the purpose of prompting learning, develop cognitive perception in learners, cultivate learner innovation and originality and enhance problem solving techniques. This study concludes that the use of visuals enhanced conceptual teaching of patterns and their generalisation in the observed participants. This has the potential to provide mathematics education researchers and curriculum developers with a strong basis to include visualisation processes and strategies into the design of policy documents and to initiate further research efforts. The implications for the teachers are that learners need to be taught ways to create and interpret visual representations in order to understand the dynamics of transferring a pictorial pattern to its resultant symbolic representation expressing pattern regularity. It is also hoped that the results of this study will be utilised by mathematics subject advisers and teacher training institutions to improve the teaching of patterns and their generalisation. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-04-08