“We are white”: oral tradition, documented history and molecular biology of Xhosa clans descended from non-African forebears and their expression of this ancestry through the idiom of ancestor religion
- Authors: Hayward, Janet M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Clans -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patrilineal kinship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Genealogy , Oral history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Genetic genealogy , Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Race identity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62939 , vital:28312
- Description: Xhosa clan membership is symbolised by a clan-name (isiduko) and passed along the male line from father to son. This social indicator has a biological counterpart in Y chromosome DNA that passes through successive generations in the patriline. Both relate specifically to a distant patrilineal forebear or apical ancestor. The present study has involved the collection and documentation of oral-historical information relating to the descent of certain Cape Nguni clans from non-African forebears and (where possible) a review of documented accounts of such origins. The research has also included collection of buccal cells from male research participants and analysis of their Y chromosome DNA. This method indicates whether a man’s patrilineal forebear lived in Africa. Otherwise, it indicates the broad geographical region from which he originated, hence providing an additional, independent source of information relating to ancestry that can confirm or challenge claims made based on oral history. Ethnographic research into the performance of distinctive ancestor rituals by clan members explores the continuing relevance of foreign ancestry in the contemporary context of rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study heeds calls for the decolonisation of scholarship in various ways: methodologically, through transdisciplinary research; ontologically, by questioning the utility of the nature: culture and related dichotomies; and epistemologically, because instead of relying entirely on the western academic tradition, it takes account of other modes of knowledge production. In rejection of the notion that only one side of history is true, it records multiple voices – those of the powerful but also the ordinary. The study deals with race and racial identification, but confirms the superficiality of these constructed differences by offering evidence of their submergence in the unifying power of kinship and descent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Hayward, Janet M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Clans -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Patrilineal kinship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Genealogy , Oral history -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Genetic genealogy , Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Race identity
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62939 , vital:28312
- Description: Xhosa clan membership is symbolised by a clan-name (isiduko) and passed along the male line from father to son. This social indicator has a biological counterpart in Y chromosome DNA that passes through successive generations in the patriline. Both relate specifically to a distant patrilineal forebear or apical ancestor. The present study has involved the collection and documentation of oral-historical information relating to the descent of certain Cape Nguni clans from non-African forebears and (where possible) a review of documented accounts of such origins. The research has also included collection of buccal cells from male research participants and analysis of their Y chromosome DNA. This method indicates whether a man’s patrilineal forebear lived in Africa. Otherwise, it indicates the broad geographical region from which he originated, hence providing an additional, independent source of information relating to ancestry that can confirm or challenge claims made based on oral history. Ethnographic research into the performance of distinctive ancestor rituals by clan members explores the continuing relevance of foreign ancestry in the contemporary context of rural communities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study heeds calls for the decolonisation of scholarship in various ways: methodologically, through transdisciplinary research; ontologically, by questioning the utility of the nature: culture and related dichotomies; and epistemologically, because instead of relying entirely on the western academic tradition, it takes account of other modes of knowledge production. In rejection of the notion that only one side of history is true, it records multiple voices – those of the powerful but also the ordinary. The study deals with race and racial identification, but confirms the superficiality of these constructed differences by offering evidence of their submergence in the unifying power of kinship and descent.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
“Watch-dogs for an Economy” : a determination of the origins of the South African Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board – as the Regulator of the Profession – principally through an analysis of the debates and related reports to the House of Assembly of the Parliament of the Union of South Africa in the period 1913–1940
- Lancaster, Jonathan Charles Swinburne
- Authors: Lancaster, Jonathan Charles Swinburne
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (South Africa) , Accounting -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Accounting -- South Africa -- History , Accounting -- Standards -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1909-1948
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:922 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020876
- Description: This thesis concentrates upon a new field of research in South African accounting scholarship – this being, in general terms, accounting history and more specifically an analysis of the origins of the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board as watch-dog in relation to: ● the South African economy in the period 1913–1940; and ● the changing political framework (also in the period 1913–1940). The integration of economy, politics and personal ambition on the part of early 20th Century accounting societies, led to a variety of responses, counter proposals, stalemates and unfocused activity which caused the process of accountants’ registration to extend over 38 years in South Africa. This confusion was in strong contrast to the process of speedy registration of accountants in New Zealand and Australia. The final unification of South African accounting societies in 1951 created the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board. Its creation, at long last, suggested an overarching control and regulation which was mirrored in the final political unification and economic stability of a South Africa dominated by Afrikaner Nationalists. One further element was interwoven into the fabric of the thesis – this being the application of institutional economic theory and its impact upon the accounting concepts of “material irregularity” and “reportable irregularity”.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Lancaster, Jonathan Charles Swinburne
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (South Africa) , Accounting -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Accounting -- South Africa -- History , Accounting -- Standards -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1909-1948
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:922 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020876
- Description: This thesis concentrates upon a new field of research in South African accounting scholarship – this being, in general terms, accounting history and more specifically an analysis of the origins of the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board as watch-dog in relation to: ● the South African economy in the period 1913–1940; and ● the changing political framework (also in the period 1913–1940). The integration of economy, politics and personal ambition on the part of early 20th Century accounting societies, led to a variety of responses, counter proposals, stalemates and unfocused activity which caused the process of accountants’ registration to extend over 38 years in South Africa. This confusion was in strong contrast to the process of speedy registration of accountants in New Zealand and Australia. The final unification of South African accounting societies in 1951 created the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board. Its creation, at long last, suggested an overarching control and regulation which was mirrored in the final political unification and economic stability of a South Africa dominated by Afrikaner Nationalists. One further element was interwoven into the fabric of the thesis – this being the application of institutional economic theory and its impact upon the accounting concepts of “material irregularity” and “reportable irregularity”.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
“The stranger at home” : representations of home and hospitality in three South African post-transitional novels
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , Wicomb, Zoë -- Criticism and interpretation , Shukri, Ishtiyaq, 1968- -- Criticism and interpretation , Vladislavić, Ivan, 1957- -- Criticism and interpretation , Home in literature , Hospitality in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016355
- Description: This thesis examines the representation of home and hospitality in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret, and Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative. It attempts to trace the un-homeliness of the central characters and to account for their feelings of discomfort. As such, it argues that the home is incapable of being inviolable because the invasion of the public is always a possibility. The implication is that master narratives such as race, history and politics are always entering the space one constructs as private. That said, this study also argues that the home and those things with which it is most closely associated, such as belonging, comfort and safety, may actually hide a form of violence. By this I mean that in the desire for homeliness, one may exclude others from one’s home. Consequently, this argument draws on Jacques Derrida’s writings on the aporia of conditional and unconditional hospitality to investigate what ethical possibilities might, somewhat unexpectedly, be created by the un-homely home. The study is therefore an exploration of the potentials that inhere in a certain kind of un-homeliness, the most important of which is the chance to respond ethically to the alterity of the other. In sum, there is a necessity to extend hospitality beyond condition and beyond limit, and this ethical imperative is at odds with the desire for comfort and safety. The way in which post-transitional novels explore these issues of hospitality and home is the primary focus of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , Wicomb, Zoë -- Criticism and interpretation , Shukri, Ishtiyaq, 1968- -- Criticism and interpretation , Vladislavić, Ivan, 1957- -- Criticism and interpretation , Home in literature , Hospitality in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016355
- Description: This thesis examines the representation of home and hospitality in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret, and Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative. It attempts to trace the un-homeliness of the central characters and to account for their feelings of discomfort. As such, it argues that the home is incapable of being inviolable because the invasion of the public is always a possibility. The implication is that master narratives such as race, history and politics are always entering the space one constructs as private. That said, this study also argues that the home and those things with which it is most closely associated, such as belonging, comfort and safety, may actually hide a form of violence. By this I mean that in the desire for homeliness, one may exclude others from one’s home. Consequently, this argument draws on Jacques Derrida’s writings on the aporia of conditional and unconditional hospitality to investigate what ethical possibilities might, somewhat unexpectedly, be created by the un-homely home. The study is therefore an exploration of the potentials that inhere in a certain kind of un-homeliness, the most important of which is the chance to respond ethically to the alterity of the other. In sum, there is a necessity to extend hospitality beyond condition and beyond limit, and this ethical imperative is at odds with the desire for comfort and safety. The way in which post-transitional novels explore these issues of hospitality and home is the primary focus of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
“Ndingumfana osemncinci, kodwa ndizibonile izinto”
- Authors: Qambela, Gcobani
- Date: 2019
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92236 , vital:30694
- Description: Expected release date-April 2021
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Qambela, Gcobani
- Date: 2019
- Language: English , Xhosa
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92236 , vital:30694
- Description: Expected release date-April 2021
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2019
“Munhu wese ihama yako (everyone is your relative)”: Ubuntu and the social inclusion of students with disabilities at South African universities
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: College students with disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170578 , vital:41938 , 10.21504/10962/170578
- Description: Background: During apartheid, South African students with disabilities (SWDs) were educated in special schools and taught an inferior curriculum. Black learners with disabilities were discriminated against on grounds of both race and disability. Following South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) government put in place arrange of new laws to address the educational and other needs of those disadvantaged under apartheid, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The South African government is a signatory of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which has resulted in the country assuming obligations to promote inclusive education for ASWDs. However, research (see, for instance, Chiwandire & Vincent 2019; Chiwandire 2019; Mutanga 2019; Majoko & Phasha 2018; Mutanga et al. 2018; Mutanga 2017a; Chiwandire 2017; Israel 2017) has shown that SWDs continue to fare differently in comparison to their non-disabled peers in terms of participation in education with the likelihood of success. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have thus been urged to create conducive environments for the academic inclusion of SWDs with particular attention being paid to lecturers employing inclusive instructional strategies as well as flexible curricula, if they are to ensure the equal opportunity for academic success of SWDs in the regular classroom setting. The focus, to date, on academic inclusion, while important, has meant that issues relating to the social inclusion of SWDs have received minimal attention. Purpose: To date, there is a dearth of South African studies which have investigated the social inclusion needs of SWDs on South African campuses. Although a number of studies have given voice to the perspectives of SWDs and lecturers, with respect to their experiences in relation to matters of academic inclusion in South African higher education (HE), few have focused on Disability Unit Staff Members(DUSMs) who are pivotal to ensuring fair and equitable policies and practices for SWDs in HEIs. Disability Studies (DS) as a field has been criticised for being dominated by voices from the Global North, which fail to consider or effectively theorise Global South disability experiences in a contextually relevant way. The thesis argues that the failure to recognise the value of diversity and to treat SWDs as valued and welcomed participants in South African HEIs partly stems from policy, practice and relationships being informed by the Western individualist paradigm that prizes individual achievement and success rather than cooperation and mutuality. The African philosophy of Ubuntu, which stresses values of communalism, hospitality and respect for human dignity is offered here as an alternative starting point for achieving genuinely inclusive campuses. Methods: In-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 participants, most of whom were, at the time of being interviewed, Heads of Disability Units and DUSMs based at 10 different universities in four of South Africa’s nine provinces. Data were coded and analysed using Braun & Clarke’s (2006) method of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Results: The findings of this study indicate that South African campuses are ableist spaces in which the social needs of SWDs are not prioritised. The thesis argues that in order for campuses to become genuinely inclusive, South African campuses ought to seek to inculcate in their members the values of the African worldview Ubuntu, in contrast to the dominant Western individualist orthodoxy. SWDs are being excluded and denied a sense of belonging and equal participation despite universities giving lip service to embracing such inclusive education-oriented values as co-operative learning. Non-disabled students steeped in Western individualism, which affirms the solitary pursuit of individual success rather than the value of interdependence and diversity, end up marginalising SWDs who are seen as less capable. DUSMs addressing the needs of SWDs through an ableist/Western individualist lens are not challenging unfair practices which are impairing the dignity of SWDs, particularly students with physical disabilities who are being forced to “fit into” oppressive inaccessible built environments on campuses. These DUSMs may unwittingly re-inscribe ableist assumptions that normalise discrimination against SWDs. Conclusions and Recommendations: Ubuntu values offer a starting point for building mutual respect and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. The thesis finds however that as was the case in traditional African communities, which embraced the values of Ubuntu, acts of leadership are required if Ubuntu’s values of human dignity, mutual respect and acceptance are to be fostered on campuses. In a range of important ways, the dignity of SWDs is not respected at HEIs in South Africa. This includes, for example, such practical matters as the inaccessibility of toilets to wheelchair users and the lack of appropriate signage for blind students. Disrespectful attitudes and assumptions about SWDs on the part of non-disabled university members also result in SWDs’ human dignity being impaired. Ubuntu’s value of hospitality stresses the importance of promoting relations of group solidarity and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. Both academic inclusion-oriented programmes and the promotion of a wide range of social activities, involving both SWDs and non-disabled students, can play an important role in cultivating the formation of long-term fruitful and respectful friendships between SWDs and non-disabled students. An enabling classroom environment alone is not enough to holistically address the social inclusion needs of SWDs. South African HEIs that embrace the Ubuntu values of communalism, human dignity and hospitality will be in a position to respect the needs of SWDs as “whole persons”. Amongst other things, this requires DUSMs to be fully empowered to make important decisions regarding vital matters such as disability inclusion, and it necessitates university management to relinquish their power, so that they may work collaboratively with DUSMs and SWDs, all on equal footing, to ensure that HE funding allocation, policy and planning also prioritises the social needs of SWDs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: College students with disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170578 , vital:41938 , 10.21504/10962/170578
- Description: Background: During apartheid, South African students with disabilities (SWDs) were educated in special schools and taught an inferior curriculum. Black learners with disabilities were discriminated against on grounds of both race and disability. Following South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) government put in place arrange of new laws to address the educational and other needs of those disadvantaged under apartheid, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The South African government is a signatory of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which has resulted in the country assuming obligations to promote inclusive education for ASWDs. However, research (see, for instance, Chiwandire & Vincent 2019; Chiwandire 2019; Mutanga 2019; Majoko & Phasha 2018; Mutanga et al. 2018; Mutanga 2017a; Chiwandire 2017; Israel 2017) has shown that SWDs continue to fare differently in comparison to their non-disabled peers in terms of participation in education with the likelihood of success. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have thus been urged to create conducive environments for the academic inclusion of SWDs with particular attention being paid to lecturers employing inclusive instructional strategies as well as flexible curricula, if they are to ensure the equal opportunity for academic success of SWDs in the regular classroom setting. The focus, to date, on academic inclusion, while important, has meant that issues relating to the social inclusion of SWDs have received minimal attention. Purpose: To date, there is a dearth of South African studies which have investigated the social inclusion needs of SWDs on South African campuses. Although a number of studies have given voice to the perspectives of SWDs and lecturers, with respect to their experiences in relation to matters of academic inclusion in South African higher education (HE), few have focused on Disability Unit Staff Members(DUSMs) who are pivotal to ensuring fair and equitable policies and practices for SWDs in HEIs. Disability Studies (DS) as a field has been criticised for being dominated by voices from the Global North, which fail to consider or effectively theorise Global South disability experiences in a contextually relevant way. The thesis argues that the failure to recognise the value of diversity and to treat SWDs as valued and welcomed participants in South African HEIs partly stems from policy, practice and relationships being informed by the Western individualist paradigm that prizes individual achievement and success rather than cooperation and mutuality. The African philosophy of Ubuntu, which stresses values of communalism, hospitality and respect for human dignity is offered here as an alternative starting point for achieving genuinely inclusive campuses. Methods: In-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 participants, most of whom were, at the time of being interviewed, Heads of Disability Units and DUSMs based at 10 different universities in four of South Africa’s nine provinces. Data were coded and analysed using Braun & Clarke’s (2006) method of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Results: The findings of this study indicate that South African campuses are ableist spaces in which the social needs of SWDs are not prioritised. The thesis argues that in order for campuses to become genuinely inclusive, South African campuses ought to seek to inculcate in their members the values of the African worldview Ubuntu, in contrast to the dominant Western individualist orthodoxy. SWDs are being excluded and denied a sense of belonging and equal participation despite universities giving lip service to embracing such inclusive education-oriented values as co-operative learning. Non-disabled students steeped in Western individualism, which affirms the solitary pursuit of individual success rather than the value of interdependence and diversity, end up marginalising SWDs who are seen as less capable. DUSMs addressing the needs of SWDs through an ableist/Western individualist lens are not challenging unfair practices which are impairing the dignity of SWDs, particularly students with physical disabilities who are being forced to “fit into” oppressive inaccessible built environments on campuses. These DUSMs may unwittingly re-inscribe ableist assumptions that normalise discrimination against SWDs. Conclusions and Recommendations: Ubuntu values offer a starting point for building mutual respect and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. The thesis finds however that as was the case in traditional African communities, which embraced the values of Ubuntu, acts of leadership are required if Ubuntu’s values of human dignity, mutual respect and acceptance are to be fostered on campuses. In a range of important ways, the dignity of SWDs is not respected at HEIs in South Africa. This includes, for example, such practical matters as the inaccessibility of toilets to wheelchair users and the lack of appropriate signage for blind students. Disrespectful attitudes and assumptions about SWDs on the part of non-disabled university members also result in SWDs’ human dignity being impaired. Ubuntu’s value of hospitality stresses the importance of promoting relations of group solidarity and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. Both academic inclusion-oriented programmes and the promotion of a wide range of social activities, involving both SWDs and non-disabled students, can play an important role in cultivating the formation of long-term fruitful and respectful friendships between SWDs and non-disabled students. An enabling classroom environment alone is not enough to holistically address the social inclusion needs of SWDs. South African HEIs that embrace the Ubuntu values of communalism, human dignity and hospitality will be in a position to respect the needs of SWDs as “whole persons”. Amongst other things, this requires DUSMs to be fully empowered to make important decisions regarding vital matters such as disability inclusion, and it necessitates university management to relinquish their power, so that they may work collaboratively with DUSMs and SWDs, all on equal footing, to ensure that HE funding allocation, policy and planning also prioritises the social needs of SWDs.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
“It’s something you kind of get used to”: female academics at South African universities narrate their experiences of contrapower harassment
- Authors: Munyuki, Chipo Lidia
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Power (Social sciences) , Sex discrimination in higher education -- South Africa , Women college teachers -- South Africa , Sexual harassment in universities and colleges -- South Africa , Sexual harassment of women -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92875 , vital:30758
- Description: Sexual harassment continues to be a pernicious problem in institutions of higher education globally and findings indicate that women are the main victims. Extant research has focused largely on experiences of sexual harassment on the part of students. Under-researched are the experiences of academics concerning what Benson (1984) terms “contrapower” harassment -- that is, harassment experienced by academics from subordinates such as students. South Africa’s Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions reported that there exists a culture of silencing around the prevalence of sexual harassment in higher education institutions in South Africa (Soudien Report 2008:37). The concept of power has been pointed out as central to understanding sexual harassment (Cleveland and Kerst 1993:49). Utilising three main constructs in Michel Foucault’s conception of power, namely the idea that power is ubiquitous and omnipresent in social relations; that power disciplines – creating docile bodies and the internalisation of self-regulation, and finally the idea that power is productive – power produces knowledge, truth and forms of resistance, I interpret the experiences of contrapower harassment in its sexual and non-sexual forms on the part of female academics at various universities in South Africa. Given that there is a paucity of qualitative research documenting experiences of contrapower harassment on the part of female academics, this thesis draws on 13 in-depth qualitative interviews with female academics at various South African universities who have experienced contrapower harassment from their students and subordinates at any point in their teaching careers. Their narrated experiences provide insight into the phenomenon of contrapower harassment. These insights provide a window into how female academics continue to experience themselves as being out of place in post-apartheid institutions that are expected to be accommodating of all.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Munyuki, Chipo Lidia
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Power (Social sciences) , Sex discrimination in higher education -- South Africa , Women college teachers -- South Africa , Sexual harassment in universities and colleges -- South Africa , Sexual harassment of women -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92875 , vital:30758
- Description: Sexual harassment continues to be a pernicious problem in institutions of higher education globally and findings indicate that women are the main victims. Extant research has focused largely on experiences of sexual harassment on the part of students. Under-researched are the experiences of academics concerning what Benson (1984) terms “contrapower” harassment -- that is, harassment experienced by academics from subordinates such as students. South Africa’s Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions reported that there exists a culture of silencing around the prevalence of sexual harassment in higher education institutions in South Africa (Soudien Report 2008:37). The concept of power has been pointed out as central to understanding sexual harassment (Cleveland and Kerst 1993:49). Utilising three main constructs in Michel Foucault’s conception of power, namely the idea that power is ubiquitous and omnipresent in social relations; that power disciplines – creating docile bodies and the internalisation of self-regulation, and finally the idea that power is productive – power produces knowledge, truth and forms of resistance, I interpret the experiences of contrapower harassment in its sexual and non-sexual forms on the part of female academics at various universities in South Africa. Given that there is a paucity of qualitative research documenting experiences of contrapower harassment on the part of female academics, this thesis draws on 13 in-depth qualitative interviews with female academics at various South African universities who have experienced contrapower harassment from their students and subordinates at any point in their teaching careers. Their narrated experiences provide insight into the phenomenon of contrapower harassment. These insights provide a window into how female academics continue to experience themselves as being out of place in post-apartheid institutions that are expected to be accommodating of all.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“Examining mentors’ practices in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice: A case study of one teachers’ college in Zimbabwe”
- Authors: Madzore, Rosemary
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mentoring in education Mentoring
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Education)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16621 , vital:40737
- Description: This study examined mentors’ practices in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice in one teachers’ college in Zimbabwe. The study employed the interpretive paradigm and used the qualitative approach and case study research design. Purposive sampling was used to select 27 participants who were perceived to be rich informants. These participants included 6 mentors, 15 trainee teachers, 5 college lecturers, 2 lecturers from the teaching practice office, 3 senior lecturers in charge and 1 university lecturer who is a link person between the college and the Department of Teacher Education. Data were obtained through face to face interviews, focus groups and document analysis. The study revealed that mentors performed both career development and psychosocial support roles during teaching practice, although the psychosocial roles were not very prominent. The interviewed mentors and trainee teachers also indicated that, although mentors knew how they should perform their duties, they encountered various challenges which hindered the effectiveness of the mentorship programme. The participants from the three schools revealed that mentors employed both good and bad strategies to provide career development and psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice. There was also evidence that colleges and schools use different mentoring mechanisms in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice.The data also revealed that there were challenges encountered in the use of these mentoring mechanisms. The participants also acknowledged that, despite these challenges, there were good practices and benefits of mentorship. However, there were gaps noted in the mentors’ practices in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support. It emerged that there was lack of qualified school mentors resulting in inadequate provision of career development and psychosocial support. It was also established that financial constraints affected the effectiveness of mentorship. The study found that there were loopholes in mentor selection. Financial constraints also hindered capacity building programmes for mentors. The study established strategies that can be used to improve mentorship. Teachers’ colleges and schools should be adequately resourced to ensure effective mentorship during teaching practice. This could be done through adequate material resources, workshops, updates of schools and college activities supervision, review of mentorship iii programmes, incentives, orientation and induction for mentors. The study also recommended that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development (MoHTESTD), the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), colleges and schools consider a mentorship policy that fuses global and national trends. Resources should also be mobilised by all the stakeholders involved who include the MoHTEST, MoPSE, teacher training colleges and secondary schools, for effective mentorship.The study recommended considering alternative mentorship models with regard to the provision of career development and psychosocial support to trainee teachers from secondary teacher-training colleges in Zimbabwe.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Madzore, Rosemary
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mentoring in education Mentoring
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Education)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16621 , vital:40737
- Description: This study examined mentors’ practices in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice in one teachers’ college in Zimbabwe. The study employed the interpretive paradigm and used the qualitative approach and case study research design. Purposive sampling was used to select 27 participants who were perceived to be rich informants. These participants included 6 mentors, 15 trainee teachers, 5 college lecturers, 2 lecturers from the teaching practice office, 3 senior lecturers in charge and 1 university lecturer who is a link person between the college and the Department of Teacher Education. Data were obtained through face to face interviews, focus groups and document analysis. The study revealed that mentors performed both career development and psychosocial support roles during teaching practice, although the psychosocial roles were not very prominent. The interviewed mentors and trainee teachers also indicated that, although mentors knew how they should perform their duties, they encountered various challenges which hindered the effectiveness of the mentorship programme. The participants from the three schools revealed that mentors employed both good and bad strategies to provide career development and psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice. There was also evidence that colleges and schools use different mentoring mechanisms in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support to trainee teachers during teaching practice.The data also revealed that there were challenges encountered in the use of these mentoring mechanisms. The participants also acknowledged that, despite these challenges, there were good practices and benefits of mentorship. However, there were gaps noted in the mentors’ practices in facilitating career development and providing psychosocial support. It emerged that there was lack of qualified school mentors resulting in inadequate provision of career development and psychosocial support. It was also established that financial constraints affected the effectiveness of mentorship. The study found that there were loopholes in mentor selection. Financial constraints also hindered capacity building programmes for mentors. The study established strategies that can be used to improve mentorship. Teachers’ colleges and schools should be adequately resourced to ensure effective mentorship during teaching practice. This could be done through adequate material resources, workshops, updates of schools and college activities supervision, review of mentorship iii programmes, incentives, orientation and induction for mentors. The study also recommended that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development (MoHTESTD), the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), colleges and schools consider a mentorship policy that fuses global and national trends. Resources should also be mobilised by all the stakeholders involved who include the MoHTEST, MoPSE, teacher training colleges and secondary schools, for effective mentorship.The study recommended considering alternative mentorship models with regard to the provision of career development and psychosocial support to trainee teachers from secondary teacher-training colleges in Zimbabwe.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“Don’t be alarmed. It’s to do with sex.” Sherlock Holmes fanfiction and freedom of the imaginary domain
- Authors: van der Nest, Megan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Fan fiction , Fans (Persons) -- Fiction , Holmes, Sherlock , Literature and the internet , Sex in literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124208 , vital:35576
- Description: In this thesis I argue that, for the individual fan, reading and writing fanfiction texts, and engaging with the online fandom communities within which these texts are produced, is a potentially valuable experience. This is because the kind of social and creative spaces found in these communities allow for, and celebrate, the free imaginative play with romantic and sexual desires, identities, and relationships. To articulate the importance of these spaces, I draw on Drucilla Cornell’s concept of the imaginary domain, defined as the psychic space each individual uses to explore different sexual desires and personae, which exploration is necessary for the development of full personhood. I also argue that the growing visibility and influence of fandom in modern society means that it could serve as a mechanism for social change, particularly in the acceptance and support of multiple sexual identities and forms of love. Selected texts, drawn from the Sherlock fandom, are discussed as representative of the approach taken within fanfiction communities towards various aspects of sexuality and sexual ethics. This approach combines the enthusiastic exploration of sexual desires without shame or fear of judgment with an ongoing, critical interrogation of sexual ethics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: van der Nest, Megan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Fan fiction , Fans (Persons) -- Fiction , Holmes, Sherlock , Literature and the internet , Sex in literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124208 , vital:35576
- Description: In this thesis I argue that, for the individual fan, reading and writing fanfiction texts, and engaging with the online fandom communities within which these texts are produced, is a potentially valuable experience. This is because the kind of social and creative spaces found in these communities allow for, and celebrate, the free imaginative play with romantic and sexual desires, identities, and relationships. To articulate the importance of these spaces, I draw on Drucilla Cornell’s concept of the imaginary domain, defined as the psychic space each individual uses to explore different sexual desires and personae, which exploration is necessary for the development of full personhood. I also argue that the growing visibility and influence of fandom in modern society means that it could serve as a mechanism for social change, particularly in the acceptance and support of multiple sexual identities and forms of love. Selected texts, drawn from the Sherlock fandom, are discussed as representative of the approach taken within fanfiction communities towards various aspects of sexuality and sexual ethics. This approach combines the enthusiastic exploration of sexual desires without shame or fear of judgment with an ongoing, critical interrogation of sexual ethics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“Culture” as an Agent of Societal Regeneration: A Study of Selected Dramatic Literature by Soyinka, Osofisan and Rotimi
- Authors: Megbowon, Funmilola Kemi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Literature English drama
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/15826 , vital:40530
- Description: Contemporary Yoruba society is laden with the burden of diverse societal misconducts and perversions which are seen to be entrenched in the fabric of the individuals’ daily lives and the society. These misconducts have alarming patterns and worrisome future implications. In this study, it is argued that while all-round forward progress is essential in a society, a simultaneous disconnect with some conventional and traditional element stimulates these aforementioned delinquencies. This therefore calls for societal regeneration of the contemporary Yoruba society in view of achieving a sustainable future. The study further argued that societal regeneration could only be achieved by looking backward into some indigenous cultural elements that made the traditional society a relatively non-perverted society. This argument is presented by examining contemporary dramatic works by Nigerian playwrights whose writings are done in the light of the past. Their works are imperatives because literature is viewed as one of the means of preserving and educating the society of their history, culture and beliefs, and also mirroring the present and projecting into the future. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: 1) To evaluate the levels of cultural and moral values in contemporary Yoruba Society; 2) To examine the key moral and cultural paradigms of the traditional Yoruba tribe of Nigeria; 3) To examine the position of the writers as vanguard of moral and cultural values in contemporary and future Nigerian Society; 4) To examine challenges that arise against their efforts to resuscitate traditional morals and culture among the Yoruba people of Nigeria. These objectives were achieved using textual and interpretative analytical procedures in the texts written by Soyinka, Osofisan and Rotimi. These texts which includeThe Swamp Dwellers, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Trials of Brother vi Jero, The Women of Owu, Kurunmi and The Gods are not to Blame, are all examined within the context of postcolonial theory. The historical endowment of examined playwrights motivated their desire to assert their cultural identity and to preserve their traditional values. The playwrights reflect common concern of the need to appreciate and where necessary to retain traditional cultural values as well as the need to rid society of those traditions that hinder human and society's growth. Each author approaches these concerns from a cultural perspective, they emphasise the rationality and need of establishing their national identity, thereby stressing the importance of traditional values in the process. In a society like the Yoruba where each segment has been affected by extended agents of colonisation, the hope of restoration also lies in the hand of the playwrights who have constantly emphasised through their writings the role of the essentials of Yoruba culture in societal development. The examination of the key moral and cultural paradigms of the traditional Yoruba people of Nigeria, which is objective two of this thesis, is presented within the context of each of the six selected texts. They are discussed in Chapters three to five of the study with respect to each of the authors of the play and the identified relevant sociocultural issues. From the examined literary texts, it is seen that the traditional Yoruba moral and cultural paradigms are distinctive and diverse. Some of these key paradigms represented in the texts include religious practices, language, clothing, respect for elders, chastity before marriage, marriage, justice, marital fidelity, hard work, and leadership accountability. All these key paradigms centre on interpersonal relationships and communal interaction together with the irreplaceable position of the vii gods which are observed to have been imperative in the workings of the traditional Yoruba society, making it a less perverse one. In Chapter six, inferences on the inferred pivotal position of playwright as vanguard of indigenous culture and the conflicts that arise against playwrights’ efforts to resuscitate a moral culture in the Yoruba society of Nigeria which are the objectives three and four of the study are explored. It is identified in the chapter that the battle for lost identity and cultural values is being fought on numerous fronts. Some of the key issues identified as confronting and silencing playwrights’ influences in the society include evolving diversities in ideologies, education, technology, the entertainment industry, and urbanisation. This study recommends the necessity of looking into the economic, social, and cultural development of the Yoruba people in the process of cultural recovery via dramatic literary writings and presentations. The playwrights should use their knowledge to spur the people into action, and foster through his writings the hope of a better future. The playwrights are not only responsible to their national culture, but to the nation as a whole, whose culture is, after all, but one aspect. This is also believed to be relevant in the fight against several social anomalies in the African community, thereby aiding the continent’s development
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Megbowon, Funmilola Kemi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Literature English drama
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/15826 , vital:40530
- Description: Contemporary Yoruba society is laden with the burden of diverse societal misconducts and perversions which are seen to be entrenched in the fabric of the individuals’ daily lives and the society. These misconducts have alarming patterns and worrisome future implications. In this study, it is argued that while all-round forward progress is essential in a society, a simultaneous disconnect with some conventional and traditional element stimulates these aforementioned delinquencies. This therefore calls for societal regeneration of the contemporary Yoruba society in view of achieving a sustainable future. The study further argued that societal regeneration could only be achieved by looking backward into some indigenous cultural elements that made the traditional society a relatively non-perverted society. This argument is presented by examining contemporary dramatic works by Nigerian playwrights whose writings are done in the light of the past. Their works are imperatives because literature is viewed as one of the means of preserving and educating the society of their history, culture and beliefs, and also mirroring the present and projecting into the future. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: 1) To evaluate the levels of cultural and moral values in contemporary Yoruba Society; 2) To examine the key moral and cultural paradigms of the traditional Yoruba tribe of Nigeria; 3) To examine the position of the writers as vanguard of moral and cultural values in contemporary and future Nigerian Society; 4) To examine challenges that arise against their efforts to resuscitate traditional morals and culture among the Yoruba people of Nigeria. These objectives were achieved using textual and interpretative analytical procedures in the texts written by Soyinka, Osofisan and Rotimi. These texts which includeThe Swamp Dwellers, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Trials of Brother vi Jero, The Women of Owu, Kurunmi and The Gods are not to Blame, are all examined within the context of postcolonial theory. The historical endowment of examined playwrights motivated their desire to assert their cultural identity and to preserve their traditional values. The playwrights reflect common concern of the need to appreciate and where necessary to retain traditional cultural values as well as the need to rid society of those traditions that hinder human and society's growth. Each author approaches these concerns from a cultural perspective, they emphasise the rationality and need of establishing their national identity, thereby stressing the importance of traditional values in the process. In a society like the Yoruba where each segment has been affected by extended agents of colonisation, the hope of restoration also lies in the hand of the playwrights who have constantly emphasised through their writings the role of the essentials of Yoruba culture in societal development. The examination of the key moral and cultural paradigms of the traditional Yoruba people of Nigeria, which is objective two of this thesis, is presented within the context of each of the six selected texts. They are discussed in Chapters three to five of the study with respect to each of the authors of the play and the identified relevant sociocultural issues. From the examined literary texts, it is seen that the traditional Yoruba moral and cultural paradigms are distinctive and diverse. Some of these key paradigms represented in the texts include religious practices, language, clothing, respect for elders, chastity before marriage, marriage, justice, marital fidelity, hard work, and leadership accountability. All these key paradigms centre on interpersonal relationships and communal interaction together with the irreplaceable position of the vii gods which are observed to have been imperative in the workings of the traditional Yoruba society, making it a less perverse one. In Chapter six, inferences on the inferred pivotal position of playwright as vanguard of indigenous culture and the conflicts that arise against playwrights’ efforts to resuscitate a moral culture in the Yoruba society of Nigeria which are the objectives three and four of the study are explored. It is identified in the chapter that the battle for lost identity and cultural values is being fought on numerous fronts. Some of the key issues identified as confronting and silencing playwrights’ influences in the society include evolving diversities in ideologies, education, technology, the entertainment industry, and urbanisation. This study recommends the necessity of looking into the economic, social, and cultural development of the Yoruba people in the process of cultural recovery via dramatic literary writings and presentations. The playwrights should use their knowledge to spur the people into action, and foster through his writings the hope of a better future. The playwrights are not only responsible to their national culture, but to the nation as a whole, whose culture is, after all, but one aspect. This is also believed to be relevant in the fight against several social anomalies in the African community, thereby aiding the continent’s development
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“Administration of socio-economic aspects of mine closure” a case study of Exxaro Tshikondeni coal mine in Limpopo Province: South Africa
- Authors: kone, Lufuno Reginald
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Organizational effectiveness Public administration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD ( Public Administration)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/13512 , vital:39675
- Description: Limpopo province is host to twenty-six different kinds of minerals and its coalfields have more than 76% of the remaining coal resources in South Africa. This study provided an investigation of the administration and management of the socioeconomic aspects of mine closure at Tshikondeni in Limpopo Province South Africa. A mixed method research or triangulation design was used in this study. Data was collected from former Exxaro Tshikondeni Mine employees, stakeholders, administrators and mine managers. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used as data collection tools in this study. Data was analysed statistically by offering a descriptive analysis of the statistics gathered in this study. In this study, a Mine Closure Model (MCM) based on project management principles, including risk management and concurrent engineering was proposed to manage the closure process thereby assisting the responsible authorities with the evaluation of mine closures and rehabilitation objectives that can be achieved in closure. In this study, it was found out that the future of the mining industry is dependent on the legacy which it leaves (in as far as Exxaro Tshikondeni Mine is concerned), and industry reputation is grossly affected when mines are closed or abandoned without proper rehabilitation having been done. Usually this will lead to long term detrimental environmental impacts. In addressing the abnormalities and negative impacts of mine closure, the mining industry today in South Africa recognises that to gain access to future resources it needs to demonstrate that it can effectively control and manage the closure of mines with the support of the communities within which it operates. The data obtained in this study is deemed to be of utmost significance to the Department of Minerals, Mutale Local Municipality (MLM) in resolving the complexities in how to improve the livelihoods of people in former mining communities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: kone, Lufuno Reginald
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Organizational effectiveness Public administration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD ( Public Administration)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/13512 , vital:39675
- Description: Limpopo province is host to twenty-six different kinds of minerals and its coalfields have more than 76% of the remaining coal resources in South Africa. This study provided an investigation of the administration and management of the socioeconomic aspects of mine closure at Tshikondeni in Limpopo Province South Africa. A mixed method research or triangulation design was used in this study. Data was collected from former Exxaro Tshikondeni Mine employees, stakeholders, administrators and mine managers. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used as data collection tools in this study. Data was analysed statistically by offering a descriptive analysis of the statistics gathered in this study. In this study, a Mine Closure Model (MCM) based on project management principles, including risk management and concurrent engineering was proposed to manage the closure process thereby assisting the responsible authorities with the evaluation of mine closures and rehabilitation objectives that can be achieved in closure. In this study, it was found out that the future of the mining industry is dependent on the legacy which it leaves (in as far as Exxaro Tshikondeni Mine is concerned), and industry reputation is grossly affected when mines are closed or abandoned without proper rehabilitation having been done. Usually this will lead to long term detrimental environmental impacts. In addressing the abnormalities and negative impacts of mine closure, the mining industry today in South Africa recognises that to gain access to future resources it needs to demonstrate that it can effectively control and manage the closure of mines with the support of the communities within which it operates. The data obtained in this study is deemed to be of utmost significance to the Department of Minerals, Mutale Local Municipality (MLM) in resolving the complexities in how to improve the livelihoods of people in former mining communities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
“A position of great trust and responsibility”: a social history of the Grahamstown Asylum, 1875 – c. 1905
- Authors: Van Zyl, Kylie
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Mental health services -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Psychiatric hospitals -- South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Race relations -- Social aspects , Mentally ill -- Commitment and detention -- South Africa , Mentally ill -- Abuse of -- South Africa , Mental health policy -- South Africa , Asylums -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Discrimination in mental health services -- South Africa , Health and race -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151031 , vital:39025
- Description: Much has been written about the inequalities inherent in the psychiatric care provided to mentally ill individuals in the Cape Colony, but to date few works have been produced that describe in detail the processes and care regimes at particular institutions. This thesis examines the history of care and custody provided by the Grahamstown Asylum in the Cape between the years of 1875 and 1905. The intention is to determine the means and methods by which the Asylum’s authorities developed, almost unchallenged, a system of unequal treatment and favouritism within that facility, and what this meant for the men and women committed to the Asylum’s custody. To this end, contemporaneous official reports from Asylum staff and Colonial authorities were consulted, in conjunction with the Asylum’s internal records such as registers and individual patient files. This thesis concludes that the evolution of the Colony’s psychiatric community’s beliefs around mental illness, philosophies of protective custody and moral treatment within the psychiatric community at the time, the region’s laws governing psychiatric institutionalisation, and the larger context of the Cape’s socio-political environment at the time converged to create an institution that practiced discrimination on both a macro- and micro-level. This discriminatory framework affected who was admitted, the diagnosis that each person received, the asylum facilities to which they had access, and further, to the odds against their recovery. The implications of this study are relevant in the present day, as the modern South African system of psychiatric institutionalisation, though embedded within a socio-political context of equality and non-discrimination nevertheless appears to suffer from a similarly undemocratic framework of operation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Van Zyl, Kylie
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Mental health services -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Psychiatric hospitals -- South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Race relations -- Social aspects , Mentally ill -- Commitment and detention -- South Africa , Mentally ill -- Abuse of -- South Africa , Mental health policy -- South Africa , Asylums -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Discrimination in mental health services -- South Africa , Health and race -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151031 , vital:39025
- Description: Much has been written about the inequalities inherent in the psychiatric care provided to mentally ill individuals in the Cape Colony, but to date few works have been produced that describe in detail the processes and care regimes at particular institutions. This thesis examines the history of care and custody provided by the Grahamstown Asylum in the Cape between the years of 1875 and 1905. The intention is to determine the means and methods by which the Asylum’s authorities developed, almost unchallenged, a system of unequal treatment and favouritism within that facility, and what this meant for the men and women committed to the Asylum’s custody. To this end, contemporaneous official reports from Asylum staff and Colonial authorities were consulted, in conjunction with the Asylum’s internal records such as registers and individual patient files. This thesis concludes that the evolution of the Colony’s psychiatric community’s beliefs around mental illness, philosophies of protective custody and moral treatment within the psychiatric community at the time, the region’s laws governing psychiatric institutionalisation, and the larger context of the Cape’s socio-political environment at the time converged to create an institution that practiced discrimination on both a macro- and micro-level. This discriminatory framework affected who was admitted, the diagnosis that each person received, the asylum facilities to which they had access, and further, to the odds against their recovery. The implications of this study are relevant in the present day, as the modern South African system of psychiatric institutionalisation, though embedded within a socio-political context of equality and non-discrimination nevertheless appears to suffer from a similarly undemocratic framework of operation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
‘Implementation Strategies Used by Teachers’ Colleges to Prepare Pre-Service Teachers for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education in Harare Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Chimwe, Ananias
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Teachers -- In-service training -- Zimbabwe Teachers -- Education (Primary) -- Zimbabwe Science|xStudy and teaching (Primary) -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Education)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/17931 , vital:41981
- Description: The study was carried to establish the strategies used by teacher education colleges to prepare pre-service teachers for STEM Education in Zimbabwe. Invariably, the nature of research questions led the study to be located within the pragmatic paradigm. A mixed method approach and concurrent triangulation design was adopted to examine issues under study. The study adopted stratified random sampling and purposive sampling methods to identify its respondents and participants. Data were collected from respondents who were envisaged knowledgeable about critical issues under study. Several research instruments were used to solicit quantitative and qualitative data. These included: questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group discussions and documents. The sample of the study consisted of 20 lecturers, 50 pre-service teachers, 3 Department of Teacher Education lecturers and 2 Directors in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science Innovation, Technology and Development. The study established that 95%of the teacher educators had the requisite STEM content knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of organisation and education purpose, engineering content and pedagogical content was found lacking. Furthermore, the teacher educators employed 21st century STEM specific inquiry based and constructivist teaching strategies. More so, it was established that government, the Department of Teacher Education and other development partners rendered support to teacher education colleges to prepare for pre-service teachers for STEM education. In addition, the study revealed that preparation of pre-service teachers for STEM was impeded by several structural factors that obtained in teacher education colleges. Overall, the study concluded that teacher educators had requisite STEM knowledge and employed inquiry-based strategies to prepare pre-service teachers for STEM Education. Furthermore, the study recommended that teacher educators’ knowledge in engineering needs further strengthening through workshops and synergies with industry. An alternative model for effective STEM preparation was recommended for consideration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Chimwe, Ananias
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Teachers -- In-service training -- Zimbabwe Teachers -- Education (Primary) -- Zimbabwe Science|xStudy and teaching (Primary) -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Education)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/17931 , vital:41981
- Description: The study was carried to establish the strategies used by teacher education colleges to prepare pre-service teachers for STEM Education in Zimbabwe. Invariably, the nature of research questions led the study to be located within the pragmatic paradigm. A mixed method approach and concurrent triangulation design was adopted to examine issues under study. The study adopted stratified random sampling and purposive sampling methods to identify its respondents and participants. Data were collected from respondents who were envisaged knowledgeable about critical issues under study. Several research instruments were used to solicit quantitative and qualitative data. These included: questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group discussions and documents. The sample of the study consisted of 20 lecturers, 50 pre-service teachers, 3 Department of Teacher Education lecturers and 2 Directors in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science Innovation, Technology and Development. The study established that 95%of the teacher educators had the requisite STEM content knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of organisation and education purpose, engineering content and pedagogical content was found lacking. Furthermore, the teacher educators employed 21st century STEM specific inquiry based and constructivist teaching strategies. More so, it was established that government, the Department of Teacher Education and other development partners rendered support to teacher education colleges to prepare for pre-service teachers for STEM education. In addition, the study revealed that preparation of pre-service teachers for STEM was impeded by several structural factors that obtained in teacher education colleges. Overall, the study concluded that teacher educators had requisite STEM knowledge and employed inquiry-based strategies to prepare pre-service teachers for STEM Education. Furthermore, the study recommended that teacher educators’ knowledge in engineering needs further strengthening through workshops and synergies with industry. An alternative model for effective STEM preparation was recommended for consideration.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
‘Gender’ and constructions of spousal mourning among the AmaXhosa in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Ngqangweni, Hlonelwa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Widowhood -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Widows -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Funeral customs and rites , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Bereavement -- Psychological aspects , Mourning customs -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Death -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3249 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015647
- Description: Among the AmaXhosa the death of a person is marked by a tradition called ukuzila - the equivalent of the mourning process. As a sign of spousal mourning, and to show respect, the remaining spouse has to put on a marker (be visible). However, it is mostly the woman who is under obligation to show her mourner status by wearing ‘clothes of mourning’. The discriminatory nature of the practice, especially pertaining to visibility and some of the detrimental effects on the widows’ health and safety have been documented by some researchers, but the reasons for the continuity of visibility remain largely unexplored. Taking into account the dynamic nature of ‘culture’, this research explored the discourses deployed in men and women’s constructions of ukuzila specifically focusing on spousal mourning and the continuity of widows’ visibility in spite of their resistance to it. The research used postcolonial feminism drawing on postructuralism as its theoretical lens. This theoretical lens provided useful concepts such as hybridity, visibility, surveillance and power with which to examine spousal mourning and conceptualised people’s subject positions as multiple, fluid and contingent. Furthermore, the research employed thematic and discourse analysis at its methodology. Discourse analysis was employed to identify and analyse the discourses utilised in the constructions of spousal mourning. The research was conducted through focus group discussions held with younger and older urban and rural men and women, as well as interviews held with widows and widowers and key cultural informants. Concerning the question of constructions of spousal mourning for men and women, visibility of the mourner emerged as a central and contentious issue. Some participants were of the view that one could show mourning by engaging in culturally appropriate mourning behaviour, whilst others were of the view that showing one’s mourning had to be visible by publicly displaying mourning through a marker. Another group proposed mourning “by heart”, whereby the mourners’ status could either be inferred from their behaviour, whereas others maintained that behaviour was not mandatory. Various justifications for the continued visibility of widows were advanced. These justifications included showing love and respect to the deceased husband; showing respect to the ancestors; and helping to monitor their own behaviour in order to ensure that it is in line with appropriate mourning behaviour. The continued visibility of widows was also used to regulate the widows’ sexuality. Widows were coerced to put on ‘clothes of mourning’ in order to ‘protect’ them from being approached by men for a relationship during the mourning period. The regulation of the movement of widows was also managed through visibility. Widows’ movements were restricted in order to protect the community from pollution or bad luck. For example, they were not allowed to visit places of entertainment or visit other households. Key discourses identified were the familial-‘ukwenda’, respect-‘hlonipha’, and male sexual drive (MSD) discourse. The familial - ‘ukwenda’ discourse is centred on the idea that one is ‘married to the household’, which includes the nuclear family and wider extended family including ancestors. According to the respect-‘hlonipha’ discourse, respect is due to others on the basis of their age, status, and more especially their gender. Showing respect (hlonipha) necessitates the avoidance of all forms of behaviour and utterances that could be deemed disrespectful. The MSD holds a widespread view of sexuality as a biological drive that resides within each male and it was drawn on to make sense of discontinued visibility among widowers, whilst visibility of widows continued. It is argued that it is these discourses, embedded in the ‘culture’ of the AmaXhosa and upheld by the family that sustain the discriminatory nature of the practice, especially concerning the continued visibility of widows in spite of the resistance that has been voiced.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Ngqangweni, Hlonelwa
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Widowhood -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Widows -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Xhosa (African people) -- Funeral customs and rites , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Bereavement -- Psychological aspects , Mourning customs -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Death -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3249 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015647
- Description: Among the AmaXhosa the death of a person is marked by a tradition called ukuzila - the equivalent of the mourning process. As a sign of spousal mourning, and to show respect, the remaining spouse has to put on a marker (be visible). However, it is mostly the woman who is under obligation to show her mourner status by wearing ‘clothes of mourning’. The discriminatory nature of the practice, especially pertaining to visibility and some of the detrimental effects on the widows’ health and safety have been documented by some researchers, but the reasons for the continuity of visibility remain largely unexplored. Taking into account the dynamic nature of ‘culture’, this research explored the discourses deployed in men and women’s constructions of ukuzila specifically focusing on spousal mourning and the continuity of widows’ visibility in spite of their resistance to it. The research used postcolonial feminism drawing on postructuralism as its theoretical lens. This theoretical lens provided useful concepts such as hybridity, visibility, surveillance and power with which to examine spousal mourning and conceptualised people’s subject positions as multiple, fluid and contingent. Furthermore, the research employed thematic and discourse analysis at its methodology. Discourse analysis was employed to identify and analyse the discourses utilised in the constructions of spousal mourning. The research was conducted through focus group discussions held with younger and older urban and rural men and women, as well as interviews held with widows and widowers and key cultural informants. Concerning the question of constructions of spousal mourning for men and women, visibility of the mourner emerged as a central and contentious issue. Some participants were of the view that one could show mourning by engaging in culturally appropriate mourning behaviour, whilst others were of the view that showing one’s mourning had to be visible by publicly displaying mourning through a marker. Another group proposed mourning “by heart”, whereby the mourners’ status could either be inferred from their behaviour, whereas others maintained that behaviour was not mandatory. Various justifications for the continued visibility of widows were advanced. These justifications included showing love and respect to the deceased husband; showing respect to the ancestors; and helping to monitor their own behaviour in order to ensure that it is in line with appropriate mourning behaviour. The continued visibility of widows was also used to regulate the widows’ sexuality. Widows were coerced to put on ‘clothes of mourning’ in order to ‘protect’ them from being approached by men for a relationship during the mourning period. The regulation of the movement of widows was also managed through visibility. Widows’ movements were restricted in order to protect the community from pollution or bad luck. For example, they were not allowed to visit places of entertainment or visit other households. Key discourses identified were the familial-‘ukwenda’, respect-‘hlonipha’, and male sexual drive (MSD) discourse. The familial - ‘ukwenda’ discourse is centred on the idea that one is ‘married to the household’, which includes the nuclear family and wider extended family including ancestors. According to the respect-‘hlonipha’ discourse, respect is due to others on the basis of their age, status, and more especially their gender. Showing respect (hlonipha) necessitates the avoidance of all forms of behaviour and utterances that could be deemed disrespectful. The MSD holds a widespread view of sexuality as a biological drive that resides within each male and it was drawn on to make sense of discontinued visibility among widowers, whilst visibility of widows continued. It is argued that it is these discourses, embedded in the ‘culture’ of the AmaXhosa and upheld by the family that sustain the discriminatory nature of the practice, especially concerning the continued visibility of widows in spite of the resistance that has been voiced.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
‘Being regional’: an analysis of the conceptualisation, operations and embeddedness of regional non-governmental organisations responding to HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa
- Authors: Mushonga, Allan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: AIDS (Disease) -- South Africa -- Finance , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/118733 , vital:34663
- Description: This thesis offers an original sociological analysis of regional Non-Governmental Organisations (RNGOs) responding to the HIV epidemic in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in respect of their emergence, constitution, role, function, embeddedness, accountability and practice of being regional in the HIV response. In doing so, it offers propositions on the conceptualisation of RNGOs and the concept being regional in clarifying regional HIV programming in the context of regionalisation. It also highlights the nexus between regional HIV work, and country and global HIV governance and programming as components of the global architecture of development regime under the tutelage of the United Nations as influenced by the dominant powers. The analysis is based on a hybrid of social systems, actor systems dynamics, institutional and network theoretical analytical frameworks. A triangulation of these frameworks provides a comprehensive grounding on which it is possible to identify and analyse RNGOs as social systems, institutions, actors and nodes that constitute part of the global architecture of the HIV response. This also facilitates the conceptualisation of being regional as both a programmatic typology and state of existence of RNGOs, thus locating these regional actors in the framework of the global HIV governance and programming. It locates them in the resultant web of social relations connecting various development agents in hierarchical and institutionalised structures constructed around HIV governance and responses. Social embeddedness and hence accountability of RNGOs is thus presented as determined by this complex context. Based on an extensive use of organisational documents as well as key informant interviews, the thesis reveals the dominance of funding organisations in determining regional and national HIV programme design and content as well as structuring the organisational practices of RNGOs and other development agents in the HIV response. Because of the demands by donors for accountability on the part of RNGOs for funds received, upward accountability becomes a major preoccupation of RNGOs and becomes privileged compared to downward accountability to their programme beneficiaries. However, RNGOs still enact agency in seeking to manoeuvre their way through the worldwide development system in order to advance the HIV response while also ensuring their own organisational sustainability.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mushonga, Allan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: AIDS (Disease) -- South Africa -- Finance , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/118733 , vital:34663
- Description: This thesis offers an original sociological analysis of regional Non-Governmental Organisations (RNGOs) responding to the HIV epidemic in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in respect of their emergence, constitution, role, function, embeddedness, accountability and practice of being regional in the HIV response. In doing so, it offers propositions on the conceptualisation of RNGOs and the concept being regional in clarifying regional HIV programming in the context of regionalisation. It also highlights the nexus between regional HIV work, and country and global HIV governance and programming as components of the global architecture of development regime under the tutelage of the United Nations as influenced by the dominant powers. The analysis is based on a hybrid of social systems, actor systems dynamics, institutional and network theoretical analytical frameworks. A triangulation of these frameworks provides a comprehensive grounding on which it is possible to identify and analyse RNGOs as social systems, institutions, actors and nodes that constitute part of the global architecture of the HIV response. This also facilitates the conceptualisation of being regional as both a programmatic typology and state of existence of RNGOs, thus locating these regional actors in the framework of the global HIV governance and programming. It locates them in the resultant web of social relations connecting various development agents in hierarchical and institutionalised structures constructed around HIV governance and responses. Social embeddedness and hence accountability of RNGOs is thus presented as determined by this complex context. Based on an extensive use of organisational documents as well as key informant interviews, the thesis reveals the dominance of funding organisations in determining regional and national HIV programme design and content as well as structuring the organisational practices of RNGOs and other development agents in the HIV response. Because of the demands by donors for accountability on the part of RNGOs for funds received, upward accountability becomes a major preoccupation of RNGOs and becomes privileged compared to downward accountability to their programme beneficiaries. However, RNGOs still enact agency in seeking to manoeuvre their way through the worldwide development system in order to advance the HIV response while also ensuring their own organisational sustainability.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine is a developmental neurotoxin
- Authors: Scott, Laura Louise
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Neurotoxic agents , Nervous system -- Diseases
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/43633 , vital:36949
- Description: β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) has been implicated in the development of the neurodegenerative diseases Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but to date no animal model has adequately substantiated this link at environmentally relevant or even exaggerated BMAA exposure levels. The resulting controversy over a possible role for BMAA in neurodegenerative diseases was further hampered by a lack of evidence for mechanistic explanation for the disease pathology associated with these diseases However, the different responses to BMAA that have been observed in neonatal compared to adult rats, together with the findings of epidemiological studies that exposure to environmental factors in utero or in the early stages of life may be important for the development of ALS several years later, suggested that age of exposure might be the determining factor of BMAA neurotoxicity. This study therefore specifically addresses the developmental nature of BMAA as a neurotoxin, and investigates the pathology and progressive nature of that pathology after exposure to the toxin at the most susceptible age. This study demonstrated the importance of BMAA exposure age over total BMAA dose by showing that the administration of a single neonatal dose of BMAA to rodents on postnatal day (PND) 3, 4 and 5, and not prenatally or on PND 6, 7 and 10, caused behavioural, locomotor, emotional and long-term cognitive deficits, clinical symptoms of neurodegeneration as well as pathological hallmarks of AD, PD and ALS in the central nervous system. Furthermore, the observed behavioural deficits and distribution of neuronal loss and proteinopathies in the rodent central nervous system following exposure to BMAA on PND 3, 4 and 5 (corresponding to the developing age of an infant during the third trimester of pregnancy) is consistent with that typically associated with the disruption of normal dopamine and/or serotonin signaling in the brain and the consequent alteration in normal hippocampal and striatal neurogenesis that is modulated, in part, by dopamine. The pattern of spread and rate of propagation of pathology in this neonatal rat BMAA model provided further evidence that BMAA potentially exerts its effect by acting on neurotransmitter signaling. The observed late onset of typical ALS symptoms and pathology suggest that in this BMAA model AD and/or PD related symptoms develop first, followed by the start of ALS symptoms only after the AD and/or PD neuropathological deficits have severely progressed. This study also demonstrated that BMAA exposure at different doses and at different developmental ages resulted in the development of different combinations of either AD and/or PD and/or ALS pathology and/or symptoms in rats, and it is therefore feasible that in humans the age and/or frequency of exposure as well as the BMAA dose might similarly be a major determinant of the variant of AD, PD and/or ALS that might develop in adulthood. Based on the low BMAA dose that was able to cause AD and/or PD-like neuropathological abnormalities in rats in this study, it is feasible that a pregnant human could over the course of her pregnancy, and specifically during the third trimester of pregnancy, consume sufficient BMAA to result in her unborn child developing AD and/or PD and/or ALS up to 30-50 years later. This neonatal BMAA model is the only non-transgenic rodent model that reproduces the behavioural deficits, neuropathology and clinical symptoms that are typically associated with AD, PD and ALS in humans and that, more importantly, mimics the delayed onset of disease symptoms and typical slow progression of these neurodegenerative diseases with age. It now seems very likely that BMAA is a developmental neurotoxin that, as a result of perinatal, but probably prenatal exposure, causes or contributes significantly to the development of neurodegenerative diseases in humans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Scott, Laura Louise
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Neurotoxic agents , Nervous system -- Diseases
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/43633 , vital:36949
- Description: β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) has been implicated in the development of the neurodegenerative diseases Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but to date no animal model has adequately substantiated this link at environmentally relevant or even exaggerated BMAA exposure levels. The resulting controversy over a possible role for BMAA in neurodegenerative diseases was further hampered by a lack of evidence for mechanistic explanation for the disease pathology associated with these diseases However, the different responses to BMAA that have been observed in neonatal compared to adult rats, together with the findings of epidemiological studies that exposure to environmental factors in utero or in the early stages of life may be important for the development of ALS several years later, suggested that age of exposure might be the determining factor of BMAA neurotoxicity. This study therefore specifically addresses the developmental nature of BMAA as a neurotoxin, and investigates the pathology and progressive nature of that pathology after exposure to the toxin at the most susceptible age. This study demonstrated the importance of BMAA exposure age over total BMAA dose by showing that the administration of a single neonatal dose of BMAA to rodents on postnatal day (PND) 3, 4 and 5, and not prenatally or on PND 6, 7 and 10, caused behavioural, locomotor, emotional and long-term cognitive deficits, clinical symptoms of neurodegeneration as well as pathological hallmarks of AD, PD and ALS in the central nervous system. Furthermore, the observed behavioural deficits and distribution of neuronal loss and proteinopathies in the rodent central nervous system following exposure to BMAA on PND 3, 4 and 5 (corresponding to the developing age of an infant during the third trimester of pregnancy) is consistent with that typically associated with the disruption of normal dopamine and/or serotonin signaling in the brain and the consequent alteration in normal hippocampal and striatal neurogenesis that is modulated, in part, by dopamine. The pattern of spread and rate of propagation of pathology in this neonatal rat BMAA model provided further evidence that BMAA potentially exerts its effect by acting on neurotransmitter signaling. The observed late onset of typical ALS symptoms and pathology suggest that in this BMAA model AD and/or PD related symptoms develop first, followed by the start of ALS symptoms only after the AD and/or PD neuropathological deficits have severely progressed. This study also demonstrated that BMAA exposure at different doses and at different developmental ages resulted in the development of different combinations of either AD and/or PD and/or ALS pathology and/or symptoms in rats, and it is therefore feasible that in humans the age and/or frequency of exposure as well as the BMAA dose might similarly be a major determinant of the variant of AD, PD and/or ALS that might develop in adulthood. Based on the low BMAA dose that was able to cause AD and/or PD-like neuropathological abnormalities in rats in this study, it is feasible that a pregnant human could over the course of her pregnancy, and specifically during the third trimester of pregnancy, consume sufficient BMAA to result in her unborn child developing AD and/or PD and/or ALS up to 30-50 years later. This neonatal BMAA model is the only non-transgenic rodent model that reproduces the behavioural deficits, neuropathology and clinical symptoms that are typically associated with AD, PD and ALS in humans and that, more importantly, mimics the delayed onset of disease symptoms and typical slow progression of these neurodegenerative diseases with age. It now seems very likely that BMAA is a developmental neurotoxin that, as a result of perinatal, but probably prenatal exposure, causes or contributes significantly to the development of neurodegenerative diseases in humans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Zinc inhibition of cell division : its relevance to cancer cells and possible mechanism of action
- Authors: Skeef, Noel Samuel
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Cell division , Cancer cells -- Growth -- Regulation , Zinc in the body , Zinc -- Physiological effect , Cancer -- Research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4144 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016266
- Description: A description of two techniques used extensively in this study namely cell counting with a "cell counting plate" and argentation TLC for the separation of ω -6 -fatty acids is given. Zn supplementation into GM of two malignant (BL-6 and Hep- 350) and a non-malignant (LLC-MK) cell line/s resulted in an increased uptake of Zn by the cells and progressively suppressed proliferation of particularly the malignant cells. Zn chelation by EDTA suppressed in vitro proliferation of all 3 cell line, this effect being more pronounced in the malignant cells. A dietary Zn deficiency resulted in alopecia in mice and both a dietary Zn deficiency and Zn excess reduced growth of BL-6 tumours implanted subcutaneously in mice. Zn supplementation into GM progressively increased the uptake of [1-¹⁴C]-LA by BL-6 and LLC-MK cells but had a very slight though irregular effect on this parameter in the Hep- 350 cells. Zn supplementation also stimulated desaturase activity in the BL-6 cells. These results suggested that there are select cell lines whose Δ⁶-desaturase activity responds positively to Zn supplementation (e.g. the BL-6 cells). Delta-6-desaturase activity was also assayed in microsome preparations from different tissues. No enzyme activity was detected in the microsomes prepared from the BL-6 tumours. There was no significant effect with the addition of Zn or EDTA, on Δ⁶-desaturase activity of the regenerating liver microsomes. In the resting liver microsomes this enzyme activity was reduced only when EDTA and Zn were added together and when EDTA was added to the reaction medium as well as to the microsome preparations 2 hr before the enzyme activity assay was initiated. The results of these experiments suggested that the Δ⁶-desaturase enzyme in the microsome preparations may have had an adequate amount of Zn with further additions having no stimulatory effect on the enzyme. Two independent mechanisms of control of cell proliferation by low and high Zn are suggested to operate.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: Skeef, Noel Samuel
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Cell division , Cancer cells -- Growth -- Regulation , Zinc in the body , Zinc -- Physiological effect , Cancer -- Research
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4144 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016266
- Description: A description of two techniques used extensively in this study namely cell counting with a "cell counting plate" and argentation TLC for the separation of ω -6 -fatty acids is given. Zn supplementation into GM of two malignant (BL-6 and Hep- 350) and a non-malignant (LLC-MK) cell line/s resulted in an increased uptake of Zn by the cells and progressively suppressed proliferation of particularly the malignant cells. Zn chelation by EDTA suppressed in vitro proliferation of all 3 cell line, this effect being more pronounced in the malignant cells. A dietary Zn deficiency resulted in alopecia in mice and both a dietary Zn deficiency and Zn excess reduced growth of BL-6 tumours implanted subcutaneously in mice. Zn supplementation into GM progressively increased the uptake of [1-¹⁴C]-LA by BL-6 and LLC-MK cells but had a very slight though irregular effect on this parameter in the Hep- 350 cells. Zn supplementation also stimulated desaturase activity in the BL-6 cells. These results suggested that there are select cell lines whose Δ⁶-desaturase activity responds positively to Zn supplementation (e.g. the BL-6 cells). Delta-6-desaturase activity was also assayed in microsome preparations from different tissues. No enzyme activity was detected in the microsomes prepared from the BL-6 tumours. There was no significant effect with the addition of Zn or EDTA, on Δ⁶-desaturase activity of the regenerating liver microsomes. In the resting liver microsomes this enzyme activity was reduced only when EDTA and Zn were added together and when EDTA was added to the reaction medium as well as to the microsome preparations 2 hr before the enzyme activity assay was initiated. The results of these experiments suggested that the Δ⁶-desaturase enzyme in the microsome preparations may have had an adequate amount of Zn with further additions having no stimulatory effect on the enzyme. Two independent mechanisms of control of cell proliferation by low and high Zn are suggested to operate.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
Zimbabwean women online: an investigation of how gendered identities are negotiated in Zimbabwean women’s online spaces
- Authors: Ndlovu, Nonhlanhla
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Woman -- Zimbabwe -- Social life and customs Social media -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Facebook (Firm) Women -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140452 , vital:37890
- Description: This study is concerned with the construction of Zimbabwean women’s identities in this contemporary internet age. Two Facebook groups are of particular interest here due to the vibrant conversations that take place on a daily basis, that is, Makhox Women’s League and Baking & Cooking: ZW Women’s Diaries. Conceiving these internet sites as discursive spaces, I unpack the contesting discourses and tensions in the different narratives offered by Zimbabwean women and identify and critique the competing sets of feminine subjectivities. I achieve this by drawing on poststructuralist and postcolonialist feminist theories in order to situate these groups as cultural sites that are particularly identity defining. I particularly draw on Foucauldian theories of discourse, power and the subject to conceptualise the formation of particular discursive gendered subjectivities. With an understanding that discourse is constitutive of power relations and contestations, and that discourse should be historically contextualised in order to take into account particular conditions of existence; I draw on Mamdani’s (1996) conceptualisation of how power is organised in Africa within a historical and institutional context, and identify the bifurcated nature of the postcolonial Zimbabwean state as a colonial residue as necessitating a particular kind of subjectivity. To this end, one can understand the different femininities on Makhox Women’s League and Baking & Cooking: ZW Women’s Diaries as constituted within, and complexly negotiating, a traditional/customary discourse and a rights-based modern one. This qualitative inquiry is informed by an eclectic approach that combines methods of textual analysis that complements both critical linguistics and media studies and attends to lexical structure as well as narrative and rhetorical analysis respectively. Combined with an online ethnographic approach I employ these tools to analyse these particular Facebook groups with the understanding that as women converse daily on these platforms, they ‘govern’ each other’s conduct and thought processes in interesting ways. I argue that these conversations discursively constitute the performances of different femininities on both sites that also take into account the diasporic condition of Zimbabwean women. I show how they negotiate and mediate feminine performance and in so doing propose and contest certain ‘truths’ that are frequently validated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Ndlovu, Nonhlanhla
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Woman -- Zimbabwe -- Social life and customs Social media -- Social aspects -- Zimbabwe Facebook (Firm) Women -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140452 , vital:37890
- Description: This study is concerned with the construction of Zimbabwean women’s identities in this contemporary internet age. Two Facebook groups are of particular interest here due to the vibrant conversations that take place on a daily basis, that is, Makhox Women’s League and Baking & Cooking: ZW Women’s Diaries. Conceiving these internet sites as discursive spaces, I unpack the contesting discourses and tensions in the different narratives offered by Zimbabwean women and identify and critique the competing sets of feminine subjectivities. I achieve this by drawing on poststructuralist and postcolonialist feminist theories in order to situate these groups as cultural sites that are particularly identity defining. I particularly draw on Foucauldian theories of discourse, power and the subject to conceptualise the formation of particular discursive gendered subjectivities. With an understanding that discourse is constitutive of power relations and contestations, and that discourse should be historically contextualised in order to take into account particular conditions of existence; I draw on Mamdani’s (1996) conceptualisation of how power is organised in Africa within a historical and institutional context, and identify the bifurcated nature of the postcolonial Zimbabwean state as a colonial residue as necessitating a particular kind of subjectivity. To this end, one can understand the different femininities on Makhox Women’s League and Baking & Cooking: ZW Women’s Diaries as constituted within, and complexly negotiating, a traditional/customary discourse and a rights-based modern one. This qualitative inquiry is informed by an eclectic approach that combines methods of textual analysis that complements both critical linguistics and media studies and attends to lexical structure as well as narrative and rhetorical analysis respectively. Combined with an online ethnographic approach I employ these tools to analyse these particular Facebook groups with the understanding that as women converse daily on these platforms, they ‘govern’ each other’s conduct and thought processes in interesting ways. I argue that these conversations discursively constitute the performances of different femininities on both sites that also take into account the diasporic condition of Zimbabwean women. I show how they negotiate and mediate feminine performance and in so doing propose and contest certain ‘truths’ that are frequently validated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Youth and Gang Violence in South Africa: An Intended or Unintended Outcome of Institutional Systems
- Ndhlovu, Gretchen Nokukhanya
- Authors: Ndhlovu, Gretchen Nokukhanya
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Gangs Juvenile delinquency Youth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Work)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/18041 , vital:42009
- Description: The issue of youth and gang violence in South Africa is not just an issue of crime, neither is it an issue of a violent and lost generation. It is about the struggle to have a normal life, a struggle for inclusion in mainstream society. Gang violence is, therefore, a result of the way in which essential institutional systems operate in the country, it is a social ill caused by weak and skewed institutional systems, which manifest in unequal access to resources and rights and the African youth of South Africa have been hardest hit. The focus of this study was to explore the intricate link between gang violence and institutional systems. The study specifically sought to examine how four specific institutional systems (the availability and management of resources, organisation of work and production, distribution of rights and responsibilities and processes of governance) have intentionally or unintentionally contributed to the escalation of gang violence in the country. The theoretical frameworks adopted are the social exclusion theory and the unanticipated consequences of purposive social action theory. The study was conducted in the African townships of Bophelong in Gauteng and Nyanga in the Western Cape. It adopted an exploratory qualitative approach for its ability to offer the researcher a platform to explore the experiences of both the youth and informants in detail. Data was collected through focus group discussions and faceto-face interviews. Tesch’s (1990) method of data analysis was used because of its explorative nature suitable for capturing qualitative data. Findings show that the issue of youth and gang violence in marginalised African communities is a social problem perpetuated by institutional systems. It was learned that institutional role players have neither developed nor sustained systems for the creation or management of resources used by marginalised township (ekasi) people vii for development, growth, empowerment and recreation. From the findings, it was learned that while other people in the country are going through various development challenges, young African township (ekasi) people are going through a crisis. Consequently, gangs have stepped in to serve as role players, filling the role that government and civil society is supposed to fill. Findings also show that youth are excluded from the socio-economic activities of the country and are pushed into the illicit economy. Overall, it was found that the socio-economic context, which the African youth in Bophelong and Nyanga found themselves in, is dire, further pushing them into a life of crime in order to meet their needs as well as those of their families. It was found that the structurally violent institutional systems have consequently given birth to a violent society. Therefore, youth gangs are an outcome of these violent institutional systems. The study concludes that the issue of youth and gang violence is both an intended and unintended outcome of institutional systems. It established that the quality of life of young people is affected by processes concerning the management of resources, organisation of work and production, distribution of rights and responsibilities as well as processes of governance. The study recommends that due to the multifaceted and complex nature of youth and gangs in African townships like Bophelong and Nyanga, priority should be placed on basic human needs and realities. This entails poverty eradication, creating employment/production opportunities, equal distribution of rights, good governance as well as effective and efficient management of resources that youth need and use for development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Ndhlovu, Gretchen Nokukhanya
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Gangs Juvenile delinquency Youth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Social Work)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/18041 , vital:42009
- Description: The issue of youth and gang violence in South Africa is not just an issue of crime, neither is it an issue of a violent and lost generation. It is about the struggle to have a normal life, a struggle for inclusion in mainstream society. Gang violence is, therefore, a result of the way in which essential institutional systems operate in the country, it is a social ill caused by weak and skewed institutional systems, which manifest in unequal access to resources and rights and the African youth of South Africa have been hardest hit. The focus of this study was to explore the intricate link between gang violence and institutional systems. The study specifically sought to examine how four specific institutional systems (the availability and management of resources, organisation of work and production, distribution of rights and responsibilities and processes of governance) have intentionally or unintentionally contributed to the escalation of gang violence in the country. The theoretical frameworks adopted are the social exclusion theory and the unanticipated consequences of purposive social action theory. The study was conducted in the African townships of Bophelong in Gauteng and Nyanga in the Western Cape. It adopted an exploratory qualitative approach for its ability to offer the researcher a platform to explore the experiences of both the youth and informants in detail. Data was collected through focus group discussions and faceto-face interviews. Tesch’s (1990) method of data analysis was used because of its explorative nature suitable for capturing qualitative data. Findings show that the issue of youth and gang violence in marginalised African communities is a social problem perpetuated by institutional systems. It was learned that institutional role players have neither developed nor sustained systems for the creation or management of resources used by marginalised township (ekasi) people vii for development, growth, empowerment and recreation. From the findings, it was learned that while other people in the country are going through various development challenges, young African township (ekasi) people are going through a crisis. Consequently, gangs have stepped in to serve as role players, filling the role that government and civil society is supposed to fill. Findings also show that youth are excluded from the socio-economic activities of the country and are pushed into the illicit economy. Overall, it was found that the socio-economic context, which the African youth in Bophelong and Nyanga found themselves in, is dire, further pushing them into a life of crime in order to meet their needs as well as those of their families. It was found that the structurally violent institutional systems have consequently given birth to a violent society. Therefore, youth gangs are an outcome of these violent institutional systems. The study concludes that the issue of youth and gang violence is both an intended and unintended outcome of institutional systems. It established that the quality of life of young people is affected by processes concerning the management of resources, organisation of work and production, distribution of rights and responsibilities as well as processes of governance. The study recommends that due to the multifaceted and complex nature of youth and gangs in African townships like Bophelong and Nyanga, priority should be placed on basic human needs and realities. This entails poverty eradication, creating employment/production opportunities, equal distribution of rights, good governance as well as effective and efficient management of resources that youth need and use for development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Young veterans, not always social misfits: a sociological discourse of Liberian transmogrification experiences
- Authors: Agbedahin, Komlan
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Child soldiers -- Liberia Children and war -- Liberia Liberia. Armed Forces -- Demobilization -- Social aspects Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1999-2003
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3316 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003104
- Description: This thesis examines the phenomenon of child-soldiering from a different perspective. It seeks to challenge, using a novel approach, earlier studies on the roles of former child-soldiers in post-war societies. It focuses on the subjectivity of young veterans, that is war veterans formerly associated with armed forces and groups as children during the 14-year gruesome civil war which bedevilled Liberia between 1989 and 2003. This civil war claimed roughly 250,000 lives, and saw the active participation of approximately 21,000 child-soldiers. This thesis departs from previous works which mostly painted an apocalyptic picture of young veterans, and explores the nexus between their self-agency, Foucauldian technologies of the self and their transformation in the post-war society. The majority of previous scholarly works which have dominated the field of child-soldiering dwelt on the impact of armed conflict on the child-soldiers, the negative consequences, the causes of child-soldiering, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of the young veterans after their disarmament and demobilization. What this thesis seeks to do however, is to establish that, rather than considering the young veterans simply as social misfits, distraught and dispirited human beings, it should be noted that young veterans through their agency, are capable of ensuring their reintegration into their war-ravaged societies. Sadly, these young former fighters’ self-agency and technologies of the self in defining their civilian trajectories have often been overshadowed by vaunted humanitarian aid and multilayered war-profiteering. This study is underpinned by interpretive constructivism, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, sociometer theory and expectancy theory, and sheds light on how young veterans’ self-agency, instrumental coalitions, and decision-making processes, synergistically shifted the negative identities foisted on them as a result of their participation in the war.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Agbedahin, Komlan
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Child soldiers -- Liberia Children and war -- Liberia Liberia. Armed Forces -- Demobilization -- Social aspects Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1989-1996 Liberia -- History -- Civil War, 1999-2003
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3316 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003104
- Description: This thesis examines the phenomenon of child-soldiering from a different perspective. It seeks to challenge, using a novel approach, earlier studies on the roles of former child-soldiers in post-war societies. It focuses on the subjectivity of young veterans, that is war veterans formerly associated with armed forces and groups as children during the 14-year gruesome civil war which bedevilled Liberia between 1989 and 2003. This civil war claimed roughly 250,000 lives, and saw the active participation of approximately 21,000 child-soldiers. This thesis departs from previous works which mostly painted an apocalyptic picture of young veterans, and explores the nexus between their self-agency, Foucauldian technologies of the self and their transformation in the post-war society. The majority of previous scholarly works which have dominated the field of child-soldiering dwelt on the impact of armed conflict on the child-soldiers, the negative consequences, the causes of child-soldiering, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of the young veterans after their disarmament and demobilization. What this thesis seeks to do however, is to establish that, rather than considering the young veterans simply as social misfits, distraught and dispirited human beings, it should be noted that young veterans through their agency, are capable of ensuring their reintegration into their war-ravaged societies. Sadly, these young former fighters’ self-agency and technologies of the self in defining their civilian trajectories have often been overshadowed by vaunted humanitarian aid and multilayered war-profiteering. This study is underpinned by interpretive constructivism, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, sociometer theory and expectancy theory, and sheds light on how young veterans’ self-agency, instrumental coalitions, and decision-making processes, synergistically shifted the negative identities foisted on them as a result of their participation in the war.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Young adults' experiences of romantic love relationships in virtual space
- Authors: Lambert, Tania
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Online dating , Intimacy (Psychology) , Young adults
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7577 , vital:21930
- Description: The arena for finding an intimate partner has changed significantly in the 21st century with online love relationships becoming more prevalent. Research indicates that individuals do experience meaningful online romantic love relationships and that these relationships often lead to face to face (FTF) relationships. However, limited research has been done on exploring the experiences of those who are/were involved in online romantic love relationships. Furthermore, research conducted on online love romantic relationships generally fails to investigate how people experience passion online, hereby ignoring this integral component of romantic love. The primary aim of the research study was to explore young adults’ experiences of romantic love relationships in virtual space. More specifically, the study explored how young adults experienced intimacy and passion as elements of romantic love online. The study was viewed from an interpretative paradigm and made use of a qualitative approach. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven participants which were transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes were identified, namely, Online Intimacy, Online Romance and Passion, Online Love, and Social Exchange Online. The participants experienced romantic love online and reported that these relationships were very significant, real and impacted on their psychological well-being. The study created a heuristic base that will provide impetus for this emerging field in research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lambert, Tania
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Online dating , Intimacy (Psychology) , Young adults
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7577 , vital:21930
- Description: The arena for finding an intimate partner has changed significantly in the 21st century with online love relationships becoming more prevalent. Research indicates that individuals do experience meaningful online romantic love relationships and that these relationships often lead to face to face (FTF) relationships. However, limited research has been done on exploring the experiences of those who are/were involved in online romantic love relationships. Furthermore, research conducted on online love romantic relationships generally fails to investigate how people experience passion online, hereby ignoring this integral component of romantic love. The primary aim of the research study was to explore young adults’ experiences of romantic love relationships in virtual space. More specifically, the study explored how young adults experienced intimacy and passion as elements of romantic love online. The study was viewed from an interpretative paradigm and made use of a qualitative approach. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven participants which were transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes were identified, namely, Online Intimacy, Online Romance and Passion, Online Love, and Social Exchange Online. The participants experienced romantic love online and reported that these relationships were very significant, real and impacted on their psychological well-being. The study created a heuristic base that will provide impetus for this emerging field in research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017