A comparison of representations of the imperative of higher education change as „transformation‟ versus „decolonisation‟ in South African public discourse
- Authors: Makgakge, Rebecca Dineo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education in mass media -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Discrimination in education -- South Africa , South Africa -- Colonial influence , Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142498 , vital:38085
- Description: The context of higher education in South Africa which has been shaped by the legacies of the old apartheid system is faced with a paramount task of the continuous process of restructuring and change. In shaping the restructuring and change of the higher education system the concept of transformation has been a constant theme for the post-apartheid government policies. However more recently we have seen the heightened prominence of the concept of change understood as decolonisation of South African higher education – as opposed to “transformation‘. This thesis was concerned with how these concepts of change, “transformation‘ and “decolonisation‘ have been used in debates surrounding higher education in South Africa. The thesis compares and contrasts the ways and context in which they are used. This study of 177 South African newspaper articles taken form independent media stables from the time 2008 to the present provides an analysis of representations of higher education change as “transformation‘ and as “decolonisation‘ evinced in the corpus. This required using both content and framing analysis as a method to analyse the corpus. Three themes emerged from the analysis that are relevant to the comparison between South African higher education institutional change represented as “transformation‘ and South African higher education institutional change represented at “decolonisation‘: the first theme concerns the differences and similarities in how the two terms are defined; the second theme concerns how the two ideas play themselves out when it comes to curriculum change and the final theme concerns the implications of seeing change as “transformation‘ and seeing change as “decolonisation‘ for changing institutional cultures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Makgakge, Rebecca Dineo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education in mass media -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Curricula -- South Africa , Discrimination in education -- South Africa , South Africa -- Colonial influence , Educational change -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142498 , vital:38085
- Description: The context of higher education in South Africa which has been shaped by the legacies of the old apartheid system is faced with a paramount task of the continuous process of restructuring and change. In shaping the restructuring and change of the higher education system the concept of transformation has been a constant theme for the post-apartheid government policies. However more recently we have seen the heightened prominence of the concept of change understood as decolonisation of South African higher education – as opposed to “transformation‘. This thesis was concerned with how these concepts of change, “transformation‘ and “decolonisation‘ have been used in debates surrounding higher education in South Africa. The thesis compares and contrasts the ways and context in which they are used. This study of 177 South African newspaper articles taken form independent media stables from the time 2008 to the present provides an analysis of representations of higher education change as “transformation‘ and as “decolonisation‘ evinced in the corpus. This required using both content and framing analysis as a method to analyse the corpus. Three themes emerged from the analysis that are relevant to the comparison between South African higher education institutional change represented as “transformation‘ and South African higher education institutional change represented at “decolonisation‘: the first theme concerns the differences and similarities in how the two terms are defined; the second theme concerns how the two ideas play themselves out when it comes to curriculum change and the final theme concerns the implications of seeing change as “transformation‘ and seeing change as “decolonisation‘ for changing institutional cultures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Effectiveness of different interventions to reduce occupational sitting among office administrators at Rhodes University
- Authors: Malesa, Thato
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Standing position , Sedentary behavior , Work environment , Employee health promotion , Office furniture -- Design , Industrial hygiene , Employees -- Health risk assessment , Human engineering , Compliance
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/166403 , vital:41360
- Description: Background: Sitting for prolonged periods is common in the working environment. Office workers are exposed to long periods of sitting time at work. Research has reported associations between prolonged sitting and negative health implications. As such studies have proposed different interventions aimed at reducing sitting times in the workplace. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two different interventions, physical intervention (sit-stand worktables) and personal intervention (instruction to stretch) on compliance and reducing occupational sitting behaviour. The study also aimed to investigate the effectiveness of interventions in improving or impairing mood. Methods: The study took the form of a fieldbased study atRhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. Fifteen full–time office workers in different divisions participated in the study. Participants were randomly allocated to either the physical or personal intervention group. In both intervention groups, partic ipants were prompted to stand for five minutes every hour during the workday to either work in a standing position or perform stretches. Over the course of the experiment, desk occupancy, sitting/standing time and mood effect were recorded in both intervention groups Both intervention groups were monitored for a period of three months (58 days). Results: The study found that the physical intervention group was an effective approach to reduce prolonged sitting in the workplace in comparison to the personal intervention group. Over the course of the experiment, there was sustain usage of interventions in both groups, however, in the physical intervention group desk usage decreased overtime. The findings of the study also show that some participants were more compliant with the study procedures than others. It was also found that mood improved upon introducing interventions in the workplace. However, with the outcomes of the results, the study acknowledges that several factors emerged which are likely to impact compliance, which future studies may investigate. Conclusion: Although sit-stand worktables are expensive, it seems like introducing them was successful in reducing sitting time and changing sitting behaviour in comparison to an intervention that instruct s individuals to stand up and stretch.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Malesa, Thato
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Standing position , Sedentary behavior , Work environment , Employee health promotion , Office furniture -- Design , Industrial hygiene , Employees -- Health risk assessment , Human engineering , Compliance
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/166403 , vital:41360
- Description: Background: Sitting for prolonged periods is common in the working environment. Office workers are exposed to long periods of sitting time at work. Research has reported associations between prolonged sitting and negative health implications. As such studies have proposed different interventions aimed at reducing sitting times in the workplace. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two different interventions, physical intervention (sit-stand worktables) and personal intervention (instruction to stretch) on compliance and reducing occupational sitting behaviour. The study also aimed to investigate the effectiveness of interventions in improving or impairing mood. Methods: The study took the form of a fieldbased study atRhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. Fifteen full–time office workers in different divisions participated in the study. Participants were randomly allocated to either the physical or personal intervention group. In both intervention groups, partic ipants were prompted to stand for five minutes every hour during the workday to either work in a standing position or perform stretches. Over the course of the experiment, desk occupancy, sitting/standing time and mood effect were recorded in both intervention groups Both intervention groups were monitored for a period of three months (58 days). Results: The study found that the physical intervention group was an effective approach to reduce prolonged sitting in the workplace in comparison to the personal intervention group. Over the course of the experiment, there was sustain usage of interventions in both groups, however, in the physical intervention group desk usage decreased overtime. The findings of the study also show that some participants were more compliant with the study procedures than others. It was also found that mood improved upon introducing interventions in the workplace. However, with the outcomes of the results, the study acknowledges that several factors emerged which are likely to impact compliance, which future studies may investigate. Conclusion: Although sit-stand worktables are expensive, it seems like introducing them was successful in reducing sitting time and changing sitting behaviour in comparison to an intervention that instruct s individuals to stand up and stretch.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring socialities on Black Twitter: an ethnographic study of everyday concerns of South African users in 2018 and 2019
- Authors: Adebayo, Binwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Twitter (Firm) , Social media South Africa , Social media and society South Africa , Black people and mass media South Africa , Language and the Internet South Africa , Mass media and culture South Africa , Race in mass media , Ethnicity in mass media , Mass media and minorities South Africa , Mass media Social aspects South Africa , Sex differences in mass media , Social media Political aspects South Africa , South Africa Social conditions , Finance In mass media , Intersectionality (Sociology) South Africa , Black Twitter
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140575 , vital:37900
- Description: In this thesis, I examine the phenomenon of Black Twitter, as it exists in South Africa. Drawing on its socio-cultural and linguistic elements, I analyse the kinds of socialities which are constituted on the platform. In the study, I do this by focusing on the key issues which drive the space by evaluating the key everyday concerns as expressed by its users. As such, the overarching lens focuses on three elements: Firstly, the idea of socialities and the way in which they manifest in online spaces; a focus on the everyday as an important site for social inquiry; and lastly the issue of ‘blackness’, in terms of the way it is used and understood in the South African Black Twitter context. Historically, the Black Twitter space has been linked almost exclusively to its broad base of African American users, who are significant both in terms of their numbers, and their impact on online social culture. However, in this study I engage with the ways in which Black Twitter has been adopted, co-opted and used by young South Africans. As a bona fide ‘member’ of South African Black Twitter, my approach to the study was cyberethnographic. Drawing on my access to the space, my knowledge of many of its members and dynamics, I engaged in participant observation as my primary methodology. My discussion focuses on three areas of everyday concerns, namely: gender and sexuality; race and politics; finances and the economy. These three areas emerge both as prominent sites of discussion, but also give the best insight into the ways in which young South Africans are grappling with these issues. My analysis focuses on how everyday concerns are handled on the platform, and I focus on the deployment of solidarity, formal language, platform-based language and the invocation of blackness. I argue in my conclusion that while the structure of the broad Black Twitter space reflects a leaning towards a digital public sphere, that the process and construction of Black Twitter’s ideas and content are approached via an incomplete, fluid convivial approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Adebayo, Binwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Twitter (Firm) , Social media South Africa , Social media and society South Africa , Black people and mass media South Africa , Language and the Internet South Africa , Mass media and culture South Africa , Race in mass media , Ethnicity in mass media , Mass media and minorities South Africa , Mass media Social aspects South Africa , Sex differences in mass media , Social media Political aspects South Africa , South Africa Social conditions , Finance In mass media , Intersectionality (Sociology) South Africa , Black Twitter
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140575 , vital:37900
- Description: In this thesis, I examine the phenomenon of Black Twitter, as it exists in South Africa. Drawing on its socio-cultural and linguistic elements, I analyse the kinds of socialities which are constituted on the platform. In the study, I do this by focusing on the key issues which drive the space by evaluating the key everyday concerns as expressed by its users. As such, the overarching lens focuses on three elements: Firstly, the idea of socialities and the way in which they manifest in online spaces; a focus on the everyday as an important site for social inquiry; and lastly the issue of ‘blackness’, in terms of the way it is used and understood in the South African Black Twitter context. Historically, the Black Twitter space has been linked almost exclusively to its broad base of African American users, who are significant both in terms of their numbers, and their impact on online social culture. However, in this study I engage with the ways in which Black Twitter has been adopted, co-opted and used by young South Africans. As a bona fide ‘member’ of South African Black Twitter, my approach to the study was cyberethnographic. Drawing on my access to the space, my knowledge of many of its members and dynamics, I engaged in participant observation as my primary methodology. My discussion focuses on three areas of everyday concerns, namely: gender and sexuality; race and politics; finances and the economy. These three areas emerge both as prominent sites of discussion, but also give the best insight into the ways in which young South Africans are grappling with these issues. My analysis focuses on how everyday concerns are handled on the platform, and I focus on the deployment of solidarity, formal language, platform-based language and the invocation of blackness. I argue in my conclusion that while the structure of the broad Black Twitter space reflects a leaning towards a digital public sphere, that the process and construction of Black Twitter’s ideas and content are approached via an incomplete, fluid convivial approach.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Market timing and portfolio returns: an empirical analysis of the potential profitability of buy-sell strategies, based on South African equities 2009-2018
- Authors: Mulweli, Ramulongo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Johannesburg Stock Exchange , Stocks -- Charts, diagrams, etc. , Investment analysis -- South Africa , Stocks -- South Africa , Stocks -- South Africa -- Cast studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144487 , vital:38350
- Description: South Africa’s financial markets have become larger and more complex over recent decades. The number of market participants who are using technical analysis techniques to predict the market’s movement has been growing rapidly. This research aims to investigate if historical share prices can be used when forecasting the market’s direction and to examine the profitability of the Japanese candlestick patterns. The study is based on ten companies selected from the JSE top 40 2019 composition. These are Aspen Pharmacy Holding, Capitec Bank Holding LTD, Discovery LTD, Kumba Iron Ore LTD, Mondi PLC, Mr. Price Group LTD, MTN Group LTD, Naspers LTD, SASOL LTD, and Shoprite Holdings LTD. These were selected from the JSE top 40 based on market capitalization and sector. This research analyzes eight candlestick reversal patterns; four are bullish patterns namely: doji star, hammer, bullish engulfing and the piercing lines and the other four are bearish patterns namely: shooting star, hanging man, bearish engulfing and the dark cloud cover. The ARCH and GARCH models are used to test for correlation between past share prices and future share prices and the binomial test and the mean return calculations were used to test the profitability of candlestick patterns. The sample is from Thomson DataStream 2019 and IRESS SA 2019 and covers ten years with 2496 observations starting from 02 January 2009 to 31 December 2018. The findings from the ARCH and GARCH tests revealed that there is a serial correlation between the returns from the previous day and the returns for the current day. The results from the mean returns and the binomial tests show strong evidence that the shooting star, hanging man, bearish engulfing and the bulling engulfing are statistically significant in predicting the share price movements. On the other hand, there was no evidence that the dark cloud cover, piercing lines, and the bullish doji can predict share price movements. Additionally, further studies on this topic could be improved by adding different candlestick patterns and the total number of companies analyzed. The results could also be improved by analyzing the candlestick reversal patterns when they are used with other trading rules such as support resistance levels and oscillators.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mulweli, Ramulongo
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Johannesburg Stock Exchange , Stocks -- Charts, diagrams, etc. , Investment analysis -- South Africa , Stocks -- South Africa , Stocks -- South Africa -- Cast studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/144487 , vital:38350
- Description: South Africa’s financial markets have become larger and more complex over recent decades. The number of market participants who are using technical analysis techniques to predict the market’s movement has been growing rapidly. This research aims to investigate if historical share prices can be used when forecasting the market’s direction and to examine the profitability of the Japanese candlestick patterns. The study is based on ten companies selected from the JSE top 40 2019 composition. These are Aspen Pharmacy Holding, Capitec Bank Holding LTD, Discovery LTD, Kumba Iron Ore LTD, Mondi PLC, Mr. Price Group LTD, MTN Group LTD, Naspers LTD, SASOL LTD, and Shoprite Holdings LTD. These were selected from the JSE top 40 based on market capitalization and sector. This research analyzes eight candlestick reversal patterns; four are bullish patterns namely: doji star, hammer, bullish engulfing and the piercing lines and the other four are bearish patterns namely: shooting star, hanging man, bearish engulfing and the dark cloud cover. The ARCH and GARCH models are used to test for correlation between past share prices and future share prices and the binomial test and the mean return calculations were used to test the profitability of candlestick patterns. The sample is from Thomson DataStream 2019 and IRESS SA 2019 and covers ten years with 2496 observations starting from 02 January 2009 to 31 December 2018. The findings from the ARCH and GARCH tests revealed that there is a serial correlation between the returns from the previous day and the returns for the current day. The results from the mean returns and the binomial tests show strong evidence that the shooting star, hanging man, bearish engulfing and the bulling engulfing are statistically significant in predicting the share price movements. On the other hand, there was no evidence that the dark cloud cover, piercing lines, and the bullish doji can predict share price movements. Additionally, further studies on this topic could be improved by adding different candlestick patterns and the total number of companies analyzed. The results could also be improved by analyzing the candlestick reversal patterns when they are used with other trading rules such as support resistance levels and oscillators.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Poor whites and the post-apartheid labour market: a study of perceptions and experiences of work among residents in a homeless shelter in Johannesburg
- Authors: Wollnik, Nadjeschda
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Poor whites -- South Africa , Poor whites -- South Africa -- Atitudes , Shelters for the homeless -- South Africa , Unemployed -- South Africa -- Attitudes , Unemployed -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991-
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148540 , vital:38748
- Description: Despite historical precedents, poverty among white people in South Africa remains an anomaly and a paradox. Likewise, the perceptions of work and employment among poor (under- and unemployed) whites in contemporary South Africa have received scant attention in the scholarly literature. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical whiteness studies and segmented labour market theory – as a way of combining subjective and objective considerations – this research seeks to describe and explain the perceptions and experiences of the labour market among poor whites living in a homeless shelter in Johannesburg. Eight respondents were chosen for extended, in-depth interviews in an effort to develop a fine-grained understanding of the pre-existing circumstances that affected their access to information and thus shaped their choices in the labour market, as well as to ascertain what they believed to be the barriers that they face in the labour market. The findings varied, with most of the interviewees seeing ‘being white’ as the reason for their poverty and unemployment, while others exhibited some awareness of the role of their lack of skills and qualifications in their capacity to compete in higher segments of the labour market. The findings were also varied in the sense that not all interviewees experienced poverty in the same manner, with some having been part of the middle class prior to becoming poor, while others having been poor their entire lives. It was also found that class or socio-economic status seemed to have a greater impact than race on the labour market prospects of the interviewees. It is argued that the perceptions of these poor whites, which are informed by their lack of information about the workings of the labour market, rather than their lack of qualifications or their race, most affected their prospects in the labour market. The mechanisms they rely on when seeking employment reveal a poor knowledge of the local labour market and the ways in which they think their skillsets match up to the types of jobs they desire. The lack of understanding of the South African labour market and the policies that are in place to redress the legacies of apartheid are among the factors influencing the lack of success these poor whites are experiencing in their search for work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Wollnik, Nadjeschda
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Poor whites -- South Africa , Poor whites -- South Africa -- Atitudes , Shelters for the homeless -- South Africa , Unemployed -- South Africa -- Attitudes , Unemployed -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991-
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148540 , vital:38748
- Description: Despite historical precedents, poverty among white people in South Africa remains an anomaly and a paradox. Likewise, the perceptions of work and employment among poor (under- and unemployed) whites in contemporary South Africa have received scant attention in the scholarly literature. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical whiteness studies and segmented labour market theory – as a way of combining subjective and objective considerations – this research seeks to describe and explain the perceptions and experiences of the labour market among poor whites living in a homeless shelter in Johannesburg. Eight respondents were chosen for extended, in-depth interviews in an effort to develop a fine-grained understanding of the pre-existing circumstances that affected their access to information and thus shaped their choices in the labour market, as well as to ascertain what they believed to be the barriers that they face in the labour market. The findings varied, with most of the interviewees seeing ‘being white’ as the reason for their poverty and unemployment, while others exhibited some awareness of the role of their lack of skills and qualifications in their capacity to compete in higher segments of the labour market. The findings were also varied in the sense that not all interviewees experienced poverty in the same manner, with some having been part of the middle class prior to becoming poor, while others having been poor their entire lives. It was also found that class or socio-economic status seemed to have a greater impact than race on the labour market prospects of the interviewees. It is argued that the perceptions of these poor whites, which are informed by their lack of information about the workings of the labour market, rather than their lack of qualifications or their race, most affected their prospects in the labour market. The mechanisms they rely on when seeking employment reveal a poor knowledge of the local labour market and the ways in which they think their skillsets match up to the types of jobs they desire. The lack of understanding of the South African labour market and the policies that are in place to redress the legacies of apartheid are among the factors influencing the lack of success these poor whites are experiencing in their search for work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
“How can you build a nation without telling its stories?”: Transgressive, Testimonial Fiction in Post-TRC South Africa
- Authors: Collett, Keenan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) , Violence in literature , South Africa -- In literature , AIDS (Disease) in literature , Duiker, K Sello -- Thirteen cents , Moele, Kgebetli -- The book of the dead , Staggie, Jason -- Risk
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147092 , vital:38592
- Description: Transgressive fiction refers to works of literature that are fundamentally concerned with the provocation of their reader. This effect is typically accomplished by authors crafting novels that feature upsetting content: extreme violence, taboo sex acts, and drug abuse – often narrated by protagonists who are either the recipients or enactors of violence and trauma. Given their rootedness in familiar social settings, these works of fiction manage to relay critiques of their particular societies. Over the past three decades, transgressive fiction has amassed a small critical reception with focus predominantly directed toward texts from the United States and the United Kingdom. In an attempt to build on existing scholarship, this thesis explores recent and disturbing works of South African literature in order to gauge whether the markers of transgressive fiction are as easily applicable in a new national setting. K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead and Jason Staggie’s Risk form the basis of the discussion. Each novel exposes a concern with social developments within a ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa, and codes its respective critique in narratives concerned with the violation of consent, as depicted in profoundly unsettling ways. The spread of publication dates across the three novels also allows for an examination of morphing social critique from 2000-2013.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Collett, Keenan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) , Violence in literature , South Africa -- In literature , AIDS (Disease) in literature , Duiker, K Sello -- Thirteen cents , Moele, Kgebetli -- The book of the dead , Staggie, Jason -- Risk
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147092 , vital:38592
- Description: Transgressive fiction refers to works of literature that are fundamentally concerned with the provocation of their reader. This effect is typically accomplished by authors crafting novels that feature upsetting content: extreme violence, taboo sex acts, and drug abuse – often narrated by protagonists who are either the recipients or enactors of violence and trauma. Given their rootedness in familiar social settings, these works of fiction manage to relay critiques of their particular societies. Over the past three decades, transgressive fiction has amassed a small critical reception with focus predominantly directed toward texts from the United States and the United Kingdom. In an attempt to build on existing scholarship, this thesis explores recent and disturbing works of South African literature in order to gauge whether the markers of transgressive fiction are as easily applicable in a new national setting. K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead and Jason Staggie’s Risk form the basis of the discussion. Each novel exposes a concern with social developments within a ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa, and codes its respective critique in narratives concerned with the violation of consent, as depicted in profoundly unsettling ways. The spread of publication dates across the three novels also allows for an examination of morphing social critique from 2000-2013.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
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