Changing practices, changing values?: a Bernsteinian analysis of knowledge production and knowledge exchange in two UK universities
- Authors: Little, Brenda , Abbas, Andrea , Singh, Mala
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66934 , vital:29002 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7369-0_8
- Description: publisher version , Bernstein’s concept of classification and framing links notions of knowledge, democracy and social justice, providing a perspective from which to address critical questions of what knowledge is produced, who has access to it, and how knowledge is distributed. Bernstein’s conceptual framework is used to inform an analysis of national policies steering knowledge production and knowledge transfer in the UK, and the changing practices and values associated with knowledge production and knowledge transfer in two UK institutional case study universities. The analysis reveals how reputational and financial consequences of the formal assessment of research quality interacts with the institutional and disciplinary contexts of research units to differently shape what knowledge is valued and produced, and with whom it is shared. Five discursive areas, each involving a complex set of classifications (power) and framings (control) are identified, namely: the national research assessment framework; the economic value of research; discourses of social and academic values; academic freedoms; and mixed-discipline research and the interdisciplinary nature of real world problems. Though competing and sometimes contradictory values seem to underlie academics’ knowledge work, it seems that the strong framing for knowledge production and knowledge exchange provided by national policies steers staff efforts towards economised codes of knowledge. The conclusion suggests that such a strong steer does not value social transformation in all its diverse non-economistic dimensions and limits universities’ potential to transform societies to further social justice.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Determinants of student satisfaction with campus residence life at a South African university
- Authors: Botha, Ferdi , Snowball, Jeanette D , De Klerk, Vivian A , Radloff, Sarah E
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69277 , vital:29475 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15904-1_2
- Description: Factors outside the classroom can contribute to academic success as well as the achievement of important outcomes such as the appreciation of human diversity. Striving towards equality of residence life satisfaction is thus important for academic outcomes and for the development of well-functioning citizens. This study is based on the 2011 Quality of Residence Life (QoRL) Survey, conducted at a South African university, comprising roughly 2,000 respondents. The study investigates the association between satisfaction with QoRL and (i) residence milieu and characteristics, (ii) direct and indirect discrimination, (iii) perceptions of drug and alcohol issues in residence, (iv) safety, and (v) individual student characteristics. One main finding is that there are no significant differences in satisfaction with QoRL across racial and gender groups; suggesting significant progress in university transformation and equity goals. The general atmosphere and characteristics of residences are also important predictors of QoRL satisfaction.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
Education, Training and Capacity-Building in the Field of Biological Invasions in South Africa:
- Authors: Byrne, Marcus J , du Plessis, Dorette , Ivey, Philip J , Measey, John , Robertson, Mark P , Robinson, Tamara B , Weaver, Kim N
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/176250 , vital:42678 , ISBN 978-3-030-32394-3 , 10.1007/978-3-030-32394-3
- Description: Our changing relationship with the biosphere is one of many anxieties that human society currently confronts. The paradox that some biodiversity that has been moved across the planet by human trade could actually be harmful is unknown to many people. They are either oblivious, or perceive nature as being under threat, rather than as threatening in itself.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2020
From linguistic determinism to technological determinism
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Mostert, André M
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67062 , vital:29027 , https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch447
- Description: publisher version , From Introduction: This article seeks to analyse the link between linguistic determinism, the notion that language determines our thought and the way we perceive our reality, as espoused by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and contemporary technological determinism. Arguably this link takes place within a global context where equal access to technology is not yet guaranteed. Ellul (1964) and Lawson’s (2004) observations create an interesting metaphor in terms of the technological beast staring down human society. The overwhelming response if we accept Lawson’s observation is complacency at best or downright naivety at worst regarding the impact of technology on our thinking. Lawson made his observation in the pre-Facebook era and subsequent literature is now much more focused on all aspects of technology within our contemporary milieu. Technology is now totally ubiquitous in the developed world and becoming more so in developing countries, albeit with a much stronger mobile bias for early technology adopters. That technology is rushing ahead of many individuals and institutions is almost an aphorism with many lagging in its wake. This lag as recognised by Brynjolfson and McAfree (2011) has wide social and economic implications for all members of society, in the case of business those that do not keep up go under. A further pertinent question revolves around how individuals who start from low technological literacy levels or do not keep pace with technological developments are impacted. Dlutu (2013) assesses for example the impact of social network sites on the isiXhosa language and culture in both a rural and urban area of South Africa. Furthermore one may then ask how this technological milieu impacts on the general aspects of the day to day lives and thinking of all members of a society. This gives rise to the concept of technological determinism which in its simplest form states ‘that technology has important effects on our lives’ (Adler, 2008, p. 537). This is far too simplistic when the contemporaneous technological developments are assessed. Adler (2008, p. 537) goes further and recognizes ‘that technology itself is socially determined…and social structures co-evolve in a non-deterministic, emergent process…the effects of any given technology depend mainly on how it is implemented which in turn is socially determined’ (Adler, 2008, p. 537). Engaging this socially determined application of technology can be advanced when the relationship with language and language determinism is considered. Moreover, it is the interplay between technology and language that gives rise to the emerging concept of a language singularity which is brought about by a form of technological determinism. This article seeks to explore the possible effects of rapid technological development on human interaction, language and culture in a ‘globalized’ world which has unequal access to literacy and technology. Furthermore, the article explores the link between language, culture, thought and technology and the type of linguistic and technological determinism that we can anticipate.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
Global Handbook of Quality of Life: exploration of well-being of nations and continents
- Authors: Glatzer, Wolfgang , Camfield, Laura , Moller, Valerie , Rojas, Mariano
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67245 , vital:29063 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6
- Description: publisher version , This handbook provides a comprehensive historical account of the field of Quality of Life. It brings together theoretical insights and empirical findings, and presents the main items of global quality of life and wellbeing research. Worldwide in its scope of topics, the handbook examines discussions of demographic and health development, the spread of democracy, global economic accounting, multi-item measurement of perceived satisfaction and expert-assessed quality of life, and the well-being of children, women and poor people. It looks at well-being in specific regions, including North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America, and Eastern and Western Europe. In addition to contributions by leading and younger authors, the handbook includes contributions from International Organizations about their own work with respect to social reporting.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
Happiness, national pride and the 2010 World Cup
- Authors: Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67265 , vital:29065 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317664185
- Description: publisher version , The potential for national pride to take on shades of both the authentic and the hubristic is reflected in the International Social Survey Program's (ISSP) use of two different multi-item measures of national pride, a general and a domain-specific one. In contrast, domain-specific national pride is characterized as 'not overtly nationalistic, imperialistic, nor chauvinistic' and is expressed as positive feelings towards national accomplishments in a range of domains including arts, science and sport. Most scholars who take an interest in the impact of sport mega-events acknowledge that national pride is related to concepts such as patriotism and nationalism whose meanings are difficult to disentangle. The South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), which has tracked the attitudes of South African adults around the 2010 World Cup, has confirmed this idea. The longitudinal SASAS study found that subsequent to the event, there was an enormous upswing in the belief that the World Cup had a positive impact on social cohesion.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2014
Heat shock protein inhibitors: success stories
- Authors: McAlpine, Shelli R , Edkins, Adrienne L
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66359 , vital:28940 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32607-8
- Description: publisher version , Introduction: Medicinal chemistry is both science and art. The science of medicinal chemistry offers mankind one of its best hopes for improving the quality of life. The art of medicinal chemistry continues to challenge its practitioners with the need for both intuition and experience to discover new drugs. Hence sharing the experience of drug research is uniquely beneficial to the field of medicinal chemistry. Drug research requires interdisciplinary team-work at the interface between chemistry, biology and medicine. Therefore, the topic-related series Topics in Medicinal Chemistry covers all relevant aspects of drug research, e.g. pathobiochemistry of diseases, identification and validation of (emerging) drug targets, structural biology, drugability of targets, drug design approaches, chemogenomics, synthetic chemistry including combinatorial methods, bioorganic chemistry, natural compounds, high-throughput screening, pharmacological in vitro and in vivo investigations, drug-receptor interactions on the molecular level, structure-activity relationships, drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, toxicology and pharmacogenomics. In general, special volumes are edited by well known guest editors. , This work is based on the research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No 98566), the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), Medical Research Council South Africa (MRC-SA) and Rhodes University. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the DST, NRF, CANSA, MRC-SA or Rhodes University. We apologize if we have inadvertently missed any important contributions to the field.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Human Rights and Conflict Transformation in Africa
- Authors: Juma, Laurence
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127449 , vital:36012 , ISBN 9789956790418 , http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/human-rights-and-conflict-transformation-in-africa
- Description: This study maps the interactions between human rights norms and values, on the one hand, and conflict resolution, post–conflict peace-building and reconstruction, on the other. It advances the view both from a theoretical and practical standpoint, that human rights have a role to play throughout the life of any conflict: from the pre-conflict to the post-conflict and reconstruction stages. Identifying entry points for human rights in the pre-conflict stage leading up to the establishment of the rule of law and societal reconstruction after the conflict, this book uses Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo experiences to illustrate the obstacles, the successes, and the significance of human rights norms to the overall peace agenda in societies afflicted by conflict.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
Invasive alien aquatic plants in South African freshwater ecosystems:
- Authors: Hill, Martin P , Coetzee, Julie A , Martin, Grant D , Smith, Rosali , Strange, Emily F
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/176271 , vital:42680 , ISBN 978-3-030-32394-3 , 10.1007/978-3-030-32394-3
- Description: South Africa has a long history of managing the establishment and spread of invasive fioating macrophytes. The past thirty years of research and the implementation of nation-wide biological and integrated control programmes has led to widespread control of these species in many degraded freshwater ecosystems. Such initiatives are aimed at restoring access to potable freshwater and maintaining native biodiversity.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2020
Kileleshwa: A tale of love, betrayal and corruption in Kenya
- Authors: Juma, Laurence
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/129196 , vital:36243 , ISBN 9789956616350 , http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/kileleshwa-a-tale-of-love-betrayal-and-corruption-in-kenya
- Description: When Sembe discovers that Amu, her husband of fifteen years, is having an affair with another woman, she moves out of the matrimonial home, but is persuaded to return by relatives and friends. However, a few months later, when Amu comes home to reveal that his mistress is pregnant with his child, everything crumbles. Kileleshwa is a tale of love, betrayal and corruption, set on a background of ethnic incongruity, political uncertainty and very difficult economic times.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2010
LCT and systemic functional linguistics: Enacting complimentary theories for explanatory power
- Authors: Maton, Karl , Martin, James R , Matruglio, Erika S
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66491 , vital:28955
- Description: publisher version , Interdisciplinarity is the future. Such is the thrust of pronouncements repeatedly heard across the social sciences and humanities. Interdisciplinarity is often equated with intellectually and socially progressive stances and greater responsiveness to business and workplace needs. Yet such axiological and economic benefits are more often assumed or proclaimed than evidenced or demonstrated (Moore 2011). Moreover,what is declared to be 'interdisciplinary' often comprises the appropriation by literary or philosophical discourses of ideas from other fields rather than genuinely interdisciplinary dialogue. Nonetheless,to highlight the vacuity of much written in its name is not to dismiss the potential of interdisciplinarity itself. There are serious ontological and epistemological arguments for bringing disciplines together in substantive research (Bhaskar and Danermark 2006). Simply put,the social world comprises more than the phenomena addressed by any one discipline. Education,for example,involves at least knowledges, knowers, knowing, and the known, implicating insights from, among others,sociology,linguistics,psychology,and philosophy (Maton 2014b: 212-13). This is not to suggest a single study must encompass the disciplinary map in order to recreate reality in its entirety, Rather,it highlights that drawing on more than one disciplinary approach may offer greater explanatory power when exploring a specific problem-situation.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
LCT in mixed-methods research: evolving an instrument for quantitative data
- Authors: Maton, Karl , Howard, Sarah Katherine
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66479 , vital:28954
- Description: publisher version , A mantra of social science declares a fundamental divide between the quantitative and the qualitative that involves more than methods. According to this depiction, the two methodologies are intrinsically associated with a range of ontological, epistemological, political and moral stances. Each of these constellations of stances is strongly integrated, such that choice of method is held to involve a series of associated choices. Each constellation is also strongly opposed to the other, along axes labelled positivism/constructivism, scientism/humanism, conservative/critical, old/new, among others. These ‘binary constellations’ (Maton 2014b: 148-70) offer a forced choice between two tightly-knit sets of practices that are portrayed as jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive. So widespread is this methodological binarism that many scholars ‘are left with the impression that they have to pledge allegiance to one research school of thought or the other’ (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie 2004: 14). A competing mantra disclaims this divide. Distinctions underpinning the picture of binary constellations have been regularly dissolved. Arguments that one deals with numbers, the other with words, one studies behaviour, the other reveals meanings, one is hypothetico-deductive, the other inductive, one enables generalization, the other explores singular depth, among others, have been repeatedly undermined (e.g. Hammersley 1992). Indeed, the death of the divide is frequently declared. Calls for ‘transcending’ (Salomon 1991) or ‘getting over’ (Howe 1992) the quantitative-qualitative debate and arguments for mixed-methods research (Brannen 2005; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie 2004) are recurrent. These calls highlight how the methodologies offer complementary insights for research and demonstrate that eschewing either methodology on principle is unnecessarily renouncing potential explanatory power. However, the call to mixed-methods research remains more breached than honoured. Methodological monotheism remains dominant – studies of education and society typically adopt either quantitative or qualitative methods. As we shall discuss, the former is typically associated with the influence of psychology and the latter is often claimed as emblematic of sociology. Studies utilizing the sociological frameworks on which Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) builds have echoed this pattern by overwhelmingly adopting qualitative methods. Accordingly, Part I of this volume begins by exploring how LCT concepts can be enacted in qualitative research (Chapter 2). However, LCT is not limited to one methodology and a growing body of mixed-methods research is engaging with both qualitative and quantitative data. In this chapter we illustrate how this research works and the gains it offers. For resolutely qualitative researchers, the prospect of reading anything quantitative, even in mixed-methods research, may be unenticing. However, it would be a mistake to pass over this chapter, for several reasons. First, we offer insights into research practice that might surprise such scholars. As Bourdieu argued, ‘methodological indictments are too often no more than a disguised way of making a virtue out of necessity, of feigning to dismiss, to ignore in an active way, what one is ignorant of in fact’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992: 226). Our aim is to contribute towards removing this reason for one-sidedness. We show, for example, how quantitative methods confound their common portrayal as neat, straightforward and procedural; they are complex and involved and require craft work and judgement. Our focus is, therefore, more practical than metaphysical. We shall not enter seemingly endless debates over whether the ‘quantitative-qualitative divide’ refers to paradigms, epistemologies or methods and whether these are complementary or incommensurable. Rather, we discuss the development of an instrument for enacting LCT concepts in quantitative methods and ground this account in real examples of mixed-methods research. Specifically, we trace the evolution of an instrument for embedding specialization codes within questionnaires through its creation for research into school music and then its development within studies of educational technology. Given that mathematics can be off-putting to the noviciate, we minimize discussion of statistics and explain measures in lay terms. Second, this is much more than a story of quantitative methods. The evolution of the instrument both shaped qualitative methods and was shaped by the data they generated, offering insights into how qualitative research can more fully engage with LCT. Its development also involved intimate dialogue with theory that shed fresh light on LCT itself, making explicit the ‘gaze’ embodied by the framework (Chapter 1, this volume). We shall highlight wider lessons learned about the craft of enacting LCT in research, lessons of direct relevance for studies using any methods. Third, we shall illustrate the explanatory power offered by using quantitative and qualitative methods together, such as providing a robust basis for detailed findings, identifying wider-scale trends typically inaccessible to qualitative methods that provide a context for their data, and facilitating knowledge-building through greater replicability across contexts and over time. For example, the technology studies built directly on the music studies to cumulatively develop the instrument and generated probably the largest data set in code sociology: 97,386 responses (83,937 student and 13,449 staff surveys) on the organizing principles of academic subjects, alongside 20 in-depth qualitative case studies of secondary schools. This offers a foundation of substantial breadth and depth for making claims about knowledge practices across the disciplinary map and a firm basis on which future research into disciplinary differences can build. Moreover, the quantitative instrument itself can be adopted or adapted in new studies, further enabling cumulative knowledge-building. Given these substantive, methodological and theoretical gains, it is perhaps surprising there exists any temptation to skip past discussion of mixed-methods research. This reflects the methodological character of the fields in which LCT emerged. We thus begin by briefly illustrating how the sociological frameworks on which the theory builds have become distanced from quantitative methods.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
LCT in qualitative research: creating a translation device for studying constructivist pedagogy
- Authors: Maton, Karl , Chen, Rainbow Tsai-Hung
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66465 , vital:28952
- Description: publisher version , This chapter addresses how Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) can be used to overcome this divide in qualitative research. Specifically, we discuss how to develop an ‘external language of description’ or translation device between theory and data. We ground our discussion in the example of a major study that enacted the LCT concepts of specialization codes (Chapter 1, this volume) to explore how constructivist pedagogy shapes the educational experiences of students (Chen 2010). First, we elaborate on Bernstein’s notion of an ‘external language’ – its rationale, its role in research, and ways it has been interpreted – to clarify the nature of a ‘translation device’. Second, we introduce the study we use to exemplify how such a device can be evolved. Third, we analyse the evolving process of that study. There are few published examples of ‘external languages’; there is even less public discussion of how they can be developed. Publications typically reveal the products of research; here we reveal the process as well as the product, to make explicit part of the craft of LCT (Chapter 1, this volume). We analyse the study as an unfolding narrative, focusing on how relations between theory and data were negotiated in the development of an external language of description. Last, we introduce the resulting translation device, discuss how it enables dialogue between theory and data, and consider the nature of the process more generally. We should emphasize that this chapter is intended to be neither a definitive guide nor a template for enacting LCT. More widely, it aims neither to normatively define how theory and data should be related nor to restrict diversity in how this can be achieved. As we discuss, there are several interpretations of ‘external languages’, and, as other chapters in this volume illustrate, there are many ways of using LCT and developing translation devices. Rather, by focusing in detail on one study we hope to shed some illustrative light on how the framework can be used in qualitative research to generate explanatory power through fostering dialogue between theory and data.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
Learning style of Chinese event management students
- Authors: Louw, Mattheus J , Louw, Lynette , Li, Yanxia
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69167 , vital:29438 , https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110366778-028
- Description: There is a demand for social development in China by establishing, inter alia, a framework focusing on the employability of university graduates and developing self-directed learners. The key to achieving this would be to gain a better understanding of how learning styles, as one of the cognitive factors, contribute towards academic performance in order to provide meaningful learning experiences.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Legitimation code: building knowledge about knowledge-building
- Authors: Maton, Karl
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66444 , vital:28950
- Description: publisher version , Education and knowledge have never been more important to society, yet research is segmented by approach, methodology or topic. Legitimation Code Theory or 'LCT' extends and integrates insights from Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein to offer a framework for research and practice that overcomes segmentalism. This book shows how LCT can be used to build knowledge about education and society. Comprising original papers by an international and multidisciplinary group of scholars, Knowledge-building offers the first primer in this fast-growing approach. Through case studies of major research projects, Part I provides practical insights into how LCT can be used to build knowledge by:-enabling dialogue between theory and data in qualitative research-bringing together quantitative and qualitative methodologies in mixed-methods research-relating theory and practice in praxis-conducting interdisciplinary studies with systemic functional linguistics Part II offers a series of studies of pressing issues facing knowledge-building in education and beyond, encompassing:-diverse subject areas, including physics, English, cultural studies, music, and design-educational sites: schooling, vocational education, and higher education-practices of research, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment-both education and informal learning contexts, such as museums and masonic lodges Carefully sequenced and interrelated, these chapters form a coherent collection that gives a unique insight into one of the most thought-provoking and innovative ways of building knowledge about knowledge-building in education and society to have emerged this century. This book is essential reading for all serious students and scholars of education, sociology and linguistics.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015
More than a century of biological control against invasive alien plants in South Africa: a synoptic view of what has been accomplished
- Authors: Hill, Martin P , Moran, V Clifford , Hoffmann, John H , Neser, Stefan , Zimmermann, Helmuth G , Simelane, David O , Klein, Hildegard , Zachariades, Costas , Wood, Alan R , Byrne, Marcus J , Paterson, Iain D , Martin, Grant D , Coetzee, Julie A
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/176260 , vital:42679 , ISBN 978-3-030-32394-3 , 10.1007/978-3-030-32394-3
- Description: Invasive alien plant species negatively affect agricultural production, degrade conservation areas, reduce water supplies, and increase the intensity of wild fires. Since 1913, biological control agents ie plant-feeding insects, mites, and fungal pathogens, have been deployed in South Africa to supplement other management practices (herbicides and mechanical controls) used against these invasive plant species. We do not describe the biological control agent species.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2020
Multilingualism and intercultural communication: a South African perspective
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Maseko, Pamela , Wolff, H Ekkehard
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67015 , vital:29019 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
- Description: publisher version , To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Playing broken telephone with student feedback: the possibilities and issues of transformation within a South African case of a collegial rationality model of evaluation
- Authors: Belluigi, Dina Z
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66943 , vital:29003 , https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-84334-655-5.50001-5
- Description: publisher version , Drawing on the case of a small South African university which espouses a social justice approach to transformation, this chapter considers the possibilities and challenges created for student feedback within an institutional context that gives the individual lecturer a large degree of autonomy in evaluation. The chapter looks at some of the dominant perceptions of student feedback in addition to how it is collected and utilised, by referring to the institution’s policies and guideline documents; institutional research conducted with course coordinators; responses elicited from 40 lecturers on the issues outlined in this chapter; the author’s own reflections as a staff developer in the institution; and specific examples of good practice from lecturers situated within social science disciplines. The emerging concerns which structured this discussion are: the impact of student feedback on improving quality; enabling student voice; increasing student ownership; and the educational value of evaluation processes.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2013
Re-framing academic staff development
- Authors: Vorster, Jo-Anne E , Quinn, Lynn
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66535 , vital:28960 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-983-6_8
- Description: publisher version , Globally higher education is situated in a supercomplex world (Barnett, 2000) that is constantly in a state of flux and subject to multiple pressures. This situation has been exacerbated in South African higher education that has been characterised by student protests in the last two years (2015–2016). One of the major causes for the recents protests, particularly in our institutional context, has been students’ anger that despite the official demise of apartheid and the end of colonial rule, some universities in South Africa are still attempting to be copies of Oxford and Harvard.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Reinventing the oral word and returning it to the community via technauriture
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Dlutu, Bongiwe
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67052 , vital:29024 , https://books.google.co.za/books?id=6IpwCgAAQBAJ
- Description: publisher version , From Introduction: The aim of this article is to situate the importance of orality in rural communities within the paradigm of Technauriture, which is defined below. The chapter will also explore/describe the process of orality supported through community meetings, oral histories, and story-telling, and how it interacts with the recording process facilitated through modern technology, as well as the return of the oral material via technology. These objectives will be pursued as part of empirical data collected at Tshani, an area falling within the in Mankosi tribal authority in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Mankosi’s twelve villages are inhabited by amaXhosa people and is situated in the Ngqeleni district in the former Transkei region. Mankosi is about 76 kilometres away from Mthatha, the major city in that area. These villages are under the Nyandeni Local Municipality and are regarded as very disadvantaged. There is poor sanitation, gravel roads, and few local people have access to electricity. Most of the villagers depend on government support grants. These include Child Support Grants, Old Age Grants, Disability Grants, and Foster-Care Grants. Furthermore, most of the community is involved in small-scale agriculture for survival. People often move, temporarily, from their village to towns in order to gain employment, including domestic work and working on the mines in the mineral rich Gauteng Province. They send cash remittances home to their families. The primary technological devices that people in the village are familiar with would be radio and the cell phone. Even television sets are relatively uncommon.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2015