Developing a citizen technician based approach to suspended sediment monitoring in the Tsitsa River catchment, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Bannatyne, Laura Joan
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Sediments (Geology) -- Management , Sediments (Geology) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Watersheds -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Suspended sediments -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Suspended sediments -- Monitoring -- Citizen participation , Tsitsa River
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62593 , vital:28211
- Description: Suspended sediment (SS) in channels is spatiotemporally heterogeneous and, over the long term, is known to be moved predominantly by flood flows with return periods of ~1 - 1.5 years. Flood flows in the Tsitsa catchment (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa) are unpredictable, and display a wide range of discharges. Direct, flood-focused SS sampling at sub-catchment scale was required to provide a SS baseline against which to monitor the impact on SS of catchment rehabilitation interventions, to determine the relative contributions of sub-catchments to SS loads and yields at the site of the proposed Ntabelanga Dam wall, and to verify modelled SS baselines, loads and yields. Approaches to SS sampling relying on researcher presence and/or installed equipment to adequately monitor SS through flood flows were precluded by cost, and the physical and socioeconomic conditions in the project area. A citizen technician (CT)-based flood-focused approach to direct SS sampling was developed and implemented. It was assessed in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness, the proficiency of the laboratory analysis methods, and the accuracy of the resulting SS data. A basic laboratory protocol for SSC analysis was developed, but is not the focus of this thesis. Using basic sampling equipment and smartphone-based reporting protocols, local residents at eleven points on the Tsitsa River and its major tributaries were employed as CTs. They were paid to take water samples during daylight hours at sub-daily timestep, with the emphasis on sampling through flood flows. The method was innovative in that it opted for manual sampling against a global trend towards instrumentation. Whilst the management of CTs formed a significant project component, the CTs benefitted directly through remuneration and work experience opportunities. The sampling method was evaluated at four sites from December 2015 - May 2016. The CTs were found to have efficiently and effectively sampled SS through a range of water levels, particularly in the main Tsitsa channel. An acceptable level of proficiency and accuracy was achieved, and many flood events were successfully defined by multiple data points. The method was chiefly limited by the inability of CTs to sample overnight rises and peaks occurring as a result of afternoon thunderstorms, particularly in small tributaries. The laboratory process was responsible for some losses in proficiency and accuracy. Improved laboratory quality control was therefore recommended. The CT-based approach can be adapted to other spatial and temporal scales in other areas, and to other environmental monitoring applications.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Bannatyne, Laura Joan
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Sediments (Geology) -- Management , Sediments (Geology) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Watersheds -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Suspended sediments -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Suspended sediments -- Monitoring -- Citizen participation , Tsitsa River
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62593 , vital:28211
- Description: Suspended sediment (SS) in channels is spatiotemporally heterogeneous and, over the long term, is known to be moved predominantly by flood flows with return periods of ~1 - 1.5 years. Flood flows in the Tsitsa catchment (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa) are unpredictable, and display a wide range of discharges. Direct, flood-focused SS sampling at sub-catchment scale was required to provide a SS baseline against which to monitor the impact on SS of catchment rehabilitation interventions, to determine the relative contributions of sub-catchments to SS loads and yields at the site of the proposed Ntabelanga Dam wall, and to verify modelled SS baselines, loads and yields. Approaches to SS sampling relying on researcher presence and/or installed equipment to adequately monitor SS through flood flows were precluded by cost, and the physical and socioeconomic conditions in the project area. A citizen technician (CT)-based flood-focused approach to direct SS sampling was developed and implemented. It was assessed in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness, the proficiency of the laboratory analysis methods, and the accuracy of the resulting SS data. A basic laboratory protocol for SSC analysis was developed, but is not the focus of this thesis. Using basic sampling equipment and smartphone-based reporting protocols, local residents at eleven points on the Tsitsa River and its major tributaries were employed as CTs. They were paid to take water samples during daylight hours at sub-daily timestep, with the emphasis on sampling through flood flows. The method was innovative in that it opted for manual sampling against a global trend towards instrumentation. Whilst the management of CTs formed a significant project component, the CTs benefitted directly through remuneration and work experience opportunities. The sampling method was evaluated at four sites from December 2015 - May 2016. The CTs were found to have efficiently and effectively sampled SS through a range of water levels, particularly in the main Tsitsa channel. An acceptable level of proficiency and accuracy was achieved, and many flood events were successfully defined by multiple data points. The method was chiefly limited by the inability of CTs to sample overnight rises and peaks occurring as a result of afternoon thunderstorms, particularly in small tributaries. The laboratory process was responsible for some losses in proficiency and accuracy. Improved laboratory quality control was therefore recommended. The CT-based approach can be adapted to other spatial and temporal scales in other areas, and to other environmental monitoring applications.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The changing face of Rhodes University: exploring aspects of visuality, sexuality and protest between the apartheid and postapartheid periods
- Authors: Stein, Jonathan Harry
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Rhodes University , Apartheid South Africa , Post-apartheid era South Africa , College students Attitudes , Student movements South Africa , Decolonization South Africa , Aesthetics Political aspects South Africa , Sex Political aspects South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60530 , vital:27790
- Description: This thesis seeks to provide an historical overview of changing trends within specific spheres of the institutional and student culture of Rhodes University between the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. In particular, this thesis seeks to examine changes and developments within the visual and aesthetic culture of the university, and within the sphere of sexual norms and relations within the Rhodes student community. The historical dimensions of these two spheres of the university’s culture will be explored in light of the #RhodesMustFall protest of 2015 and the #RUReferenceList protest of 2016, which drew attention to a perceived lack of institutional transformation related to these two areas.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Stein, Jonathan Harry
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Rhodes University , Apartheid South Africa , Post-apartheid era South Africa , College students Attitudes , Student movements South Africa , Decolonization South Africa , Aesthetics Political aspects South Africa , Sex Political aspects South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60530 , vital:27790
- Description: This thesis seeks to provide an historical overview of changing trends within specific spheres of the institutional and student culture of Rhodes University between the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. In particular, this thesis seeks to examine changes and developments within the visual and aesthetic culture of the university, and within the sphere of sexual norms and relations within the Rhodes student community. The historical dimensions of these two spheres of the university’s culture will be explored in light of the #RhodesMustFall protest of 2015 and the #RUReferenceList protest of 2016, which drew attention to a perceived lack of institutional transformation related to these two areas.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The teaching practice component of initial teacher education: a social justice approach
- Authors: Long, Kelly Ann
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Educational change -- South Africa , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- History , Education – South Africa -- Evaluation , Education -- Standards -- South Africa , Teacher effectiveness -- South Africa , Social justice and education , Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60200 , vital:27746
- Description: Research asserts that learner performance in South African schools is in a state of crisis. While many more learners’ post-1994 in South Africa have physical access to education, very few have epistemological access. The quality of the education learners receive is polarised along socio economic lines. This crisis has its roots in the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, and as such, there is a need to transform the education system to ensure equal opportunity for all learners, and ultimately economic growth and security for the country. One of the explanations offered for the crisis in learner performance is the poor teacher education system. However, there is a paucity of research in teacher education generally in South Africa, and specifically in relation to pre-service teachers. Furthermore, little attention has been given to how initial teacher education could contribute to the promotion of a social justice agenda with the intention of transforming the South African schooling system. This research seeks to understand how the expectations, scaffolding and assessment of preservice teachers’ teaching practices can be utilised to promote social justice during the Teaching Practice (TP) component of initial teacher education. In answering the research question, I analyse data and literature to identify a set of key valued functionings of quality praxis that preservice teachers ought to be provided the capability to realise, at the level of achieved functioning. This is a qualitative case study located in the interpretive paradigm. The case under study is: quality teaching practices of pre-service teachers. This case is bound by context (initial teacher education in South Africa) and setting (the pre-service teacher in the classroom). Two South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were selected through purposive sampling and their respective Teaching Practice (TP) documentation was analysed. Focus group interviews were conducted with five lecturers involved in TP at one of the HEIs. The theoretical framework of the study used to guide the analysis of the data was underpinned by a social justice perspective on quality education. Given that a social justice perspective does not have analytic tools, I view quality pre-service teachers’ teaching practices as praxis and utilise the capability approach as a mechanism for identification and description of valued functionings and capabilities that contribute to quality praxis. There are four significant findings in my research. Firstly, there is consistency with regards to the valued functionings and capabilities across the TP documentation of the two participating HEIs. In other words, the conceptions of a capable pre-service teacher are similar. Secondly, if social justice goals are to be realised, greater clarity of the valued functionings needs to be evident in the TP documentation. Thirdly, the valued functionings can be categorised into those that are foundational and those that promote a social justice agenda. Finally, in promoting a social justice agenda, there are functionings that ought to be valued by the HEIs that are seemingly not currently valued.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Long, Kelly Ann
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Educational change -- South Africa , Teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- History , Education – South Africa -- Evaluation , Education -- Standards -- South Africa , Teacher effectiveness -- South Africa , Social justice and education , Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60200 , vital:27746
- Description: Research asserts that learner performance in South African schools is in a state of crisis. While many more learners’ post-1994 in South Africa have physical access to education, very few have epistemological access. The quality of the education learners receive is polarised along socio economic lines. This crisis has its roots in the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, and as such, there is a need to transform the education system to ensure equal opportunity for all learners, and ultimately economic growth and security for the country. One of the explanations offered for the crisis in learner performance is the poor teacher education system. However, there is a paucity of research in teacher education generally in South Africa, and specifically in relation to pre-service teachers. Furthermore, little attention has been given to how initial teacher education could contribute to the promotion of a social justice agenda with the intention of transforming the South African schooling system. This research seeks to understand how the expectations, scaffolding and assessment of preservice teachers’ teaching practices can be utilised to promote social justice during the Teaching Practice (TP) component of initial teacher education. In answering the research question, I analyse data and literature to identify a set of key valued functionings of quality praxis that preservice teachers ought to be provided the capability to realise, at the level of achieved functioning. This is a qualitative case study located in the interpretive paradigm. The case under study is: quality teaching practices of pre-service teachers. This case is bound by context (initial teacher education in South Africa) and setting (the pre-service teacher in the classroom). Two South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were selected through purposive sampling and their respective Teaching Practice (TP) documentation was analysed. Focus group interviews were conducted with five lecturers involved in TP at one of the HEIs. The theoretical framework of the study used to guide the analysis of the data was underpinned by a social justice perspective on quality education. Given that a social justice perspective does not have analytic tools, I view quality pre-service teachers’ teaching practices as praxis and utilise the capability approach as a mechanism for identification and description of valued functionings and capabilities that contribute to quality praxis. There are four significant findings in my research. Firstly, there is consistency with regards to the valued functionings and capabilities across the TP documentation of the two participating HEIs. In other words, the conceptions of a capable pre-service teacher are similar. Secondly, if social justice goals are to be realised, greater clarity of the valued functionings needs to be evident in the TP documentation. Thirdly, the valued functionings can be categorised into those that are foundational and those that promote a social justice agenda. Finally, in promoting a social justice agenda, there are functionings that ought to be valued by the HEIs that are seemingly not currently valued.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
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