Unisa Press Journals (University of South Africa)
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Exploring the Impact of ChatGPT on Scientific Research: Assessing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
No full textOne of the most influential technologies, ChatGPT, has extensive implications for several domains of our life, including scientific research. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis was conducted to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of leveraging ChatGPT in scientific research. The results demonstrate potential advantages in terms of evaluation and assessment, individualised and continuous learning, linguistic competence, comprehensive knowledge, increasing accessibility, and information retrieval. At the same time, there are important shortcomings, such as the absence of contextual knowledge, outcome and information bias, and a limited advanced cognitive ability. The results point to several threats: plagiarism, academic dishonesty, ethical challenges, as well as cybersecurity and privacy concerns. Furthermore, the data point to various prospects, such as creating interactive settings, improving teaching and learning, contributing to literature, collaborative brainstorming, language translation, and knowledge sharing. These complicated considerations necessitate caution when employing artificial intelligence applications since the potential of ChatGPT to improve scientific research is dependent on how researchers utilise its strengths and opportunities while limiting its weaknesses and threats. Thus, great innovation is born out of smart technologies and smarter practices
Sindiwe Magona: An African Woman Teacher’s Agency for a Decolonised and Afrocentric Education
No full textIn 2015, the University of Cape Town’s students who called themselves the Rhodes Must Fall movement, following their call for the removal of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes’s statue, also demanded a decolonised and Afrocentric education, against a colonial and Eurocentric education still prevalent in institutions of higher learning 21 years after South Africa became a democracy. Cognisant that colonial and Eurocentric education in South Africa affected Africans both in racist and sexist ways, this article examines how Sindiwe Magona’s writings, published since 1990, have practically contributed to realising the yet-elusive decolonised and Afrocentric education. The focus is on Magona as an African woman teacher and writer because she resisted and confronted colonial and Eurocentric education’s racist and sexist manifestations, and advanced decolonised and Afrocentric education in those capacities
Exploring Emotional Preparedness of Novice English Teachers Using Grounded Theory in China
No full textEvolving educational paradigms and cultural expectations present distinct challenges for novice English teachers. This study explores the crucial role of emotional preparedness in novice English teachers, particularly in China, where gaps in understanding and support are evident. Employing a qualitative grounded theory approach, the study identifies key emotional management skills and institutional support factors via in-depth interviews, incorporating a psycho-social framework to explore how emotional regulation and self-awareness are crucial for teacher resilience and effectiveness. The findings underline the importance of personal emotional management skills, such as self-awareness and emotional regulation, alongside institutional support mechanisms, including professional development and peer networks. The research underscores the need for targeted training programmes that enhance personal and organisational support to boost teachers’ emotional resilience. These insights are pivotal for developing interventions that improve novice teachers’ emotional capabilities, promoting a more supportive educational milieu in China
A Critique of Mohamed Adhikari’s The Anatomy of a South African Genocide
No full textThis paper critiques Adhikari’s representations of the crimes of genocide committed on the Hottentots peoples of South Africa by the Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British rule of South Africa in his, The Anatomy of a South African Genocide (2010). The San people went through traumatic experiences as they lost their land and culture since the colonial encounter in 1652. Scholars have asked why Mandela’s black government which came into power in 1994 ignored the San people. Secondly, what can be the implications of this type of non-recognition on the San people? This study focuses on Mohamed Adhikari’s historical narrative entitled The Anatomy of a South African Genocide (2010). Historical narrative is best suited in representing the crime of genocide because this narrative uses verifiable facts and imaginative renderings that amplify the tragedy. The Dutch, the British colonialists, and the African National Congress (ANC) government let the San people down. The San have been pleading with the democratic government to recognise their language, their existence, and their culture. It is a shame to learn that so many years after the attainment of democracy, the San language is not one of the official languages. This study is desktop. The preferred method is qualitative in nature and draws a researcher’s attention to putative texts that can be interpreted to reveal the genocidal experiences of the San and the consequences of being rendered perpetual sufferers in the land that can be described as originally theirs.
Representation of Culture and Human Rights Violations in Timothy Wangusa’s Upon This Mountain and Austin Bukenya’s The Bride
No full textThis article examines the portrayal of culture and human rights violations in Timothy Wangusa’s novel, Upon This Mountain and Austin Bukenya’s play, The Bride. It focuses on the Bagisu cultural ritual of circumcision in Upon This Mountain as well as the culture-based traditions of prejudice and discrimination in The Bride that are responsible for the violation of the rights of Kangala, Wabwire, and Mwambu in the former, and Namvua and her entire Merio family in the latter. In this article, I apply qualitative methods of data collection and analysis since it is a case study of Wangusa’s Upon This Mountain and Bukenya’s The Bride as primary texts. Data for analysis is generated by carrying out a close reading of the primary texts as well as secondary texts—critical works, journal articles, and literature on human rights purposely to strengthen the discussion of culture and human rights violations depicted in the primary texts. The reading of primary texts focuses on characters and themes since the objectives are twofold: first, to examine the point of view of individual characters subjected to ritual pain, trauma, and intra-cultural discrimination in Upon This Mountain and second, to analyse the writer’s use of dialogue and action to dramatise resistance to cultural prejudices and discrimination in The Bride. Using principles of human rights, the paper discusses the pain, torture, and degrading treatment Kangala and Wabwire in Upon This Mountain go through as they submit to the ritual of the knife. Similarly, the article explores discrimination against Namvua and her entire Merio family based on age-old cultural prejudices in The Bride. Lekindo, the leader of the young generation is opposed to her discrimination and fights for her rights and acceptance in the plains by smashing the skull, an iconic symbol of cultural beliefs. He marries Namvua to underscore the theme of the inevitability of change because of human rights abuses
Environmental Racism in Nigeria’s Niger Delta: An Ethical Appraisal
No full textNigeria’s Niger Delta is plagued by serious environmental problems. These environmental problems include oil spillage, pollution, deforestation, biodiversity destruction, and so forth. Many of the environmental problems in the Niger Delta arise from the anthropogenic activities of multinational oil companies. While these environmental problems, which have caused widespread environmental degradation, are well discussed in light of environmental justice, the reality—that these problems are also precipitated by environmental racist attitudes and practices—is not receiving just attention. This article argues that the environmental problems in the Niger Delta should be seen from the perspective of environmental racism. Through critical hermeneutics and analytic methods, the article shows that what is taking place in the Niger Delta can be called environmental racism. The Niger Delta peoples and cultures have disproportionately suffered from the burden and effects of oil exploration and exploitation activities. Many practices taking place in the Niger Delta, such as gas flaring, use of obsolete oil equipment, and so forth, will not be tolerated in Western countries where the headquarters of multinational oil companies are located. The article finds that unacceptable levels of environmental racism are taking place in the Niger Delta. The article concludes that there is a need to promote environmental justice and mitigate the environmental problems in the Niger Delta
A Critique of Conqueror South Africa, Post-1994 Liberal Democracy and Liberal Democratic Law
No full textViolence and oppression in the form of conquest and colonialism, racism, patriarchy, heteronormativity and in terms of class are all inevitable effects of Western culture. This is due to the reason that Western culture is fundamentally highly materialistic, competitive, narcissistic, individualistic and takes aggressive and domineering stances towards innerworldly entities. Therefore, a Western concept of law based on such a culture is fundamentally ineffective to eradicate such violence and oppression, but rather perpetuates it. These characteristics of Western culture and the Western concept of law have their roots in the Western conception of “Being,” particularly in the conception of “Being-with.” This article argues that liberal democratic law and liberal democracy rooted in an individual, competitive, hierarchical and amensalist Western ontological framework fundamentally perpetuate group-based oppression. Therefore, the 1996 constitution and post-1994 South African constitutionalism secure and perpetuate the oppression of the indigenous conquered people under the guise of transformation and reconciliation
The Evolution of Constitutionalism in Conqueror South Africa. Was Jan Smuts Right? An Ubu-ntu Response
No full textDiphetogo tseo di tlisitsego boipuso mafatsheng a Afrika gase tsa fetola nyenyefatso ya bothopja le bokgoba bjo bo gapeleditsweng ke mafatshe a Bodikela bja mose wa mawatle. Sebakwa ke sona se taodisong ye. Re ema ka la gore magoro kamoka a bophelo a tshwanetse go mothofatswa, botho ebe bjona motheo wa phedisano magereng ga batho kamoka “Afrika-borwa” le lefatsheng ka bophara. Moono wo o tshwanetse go ba karolo ya mananego kamoka a thuto go tloga thutong ya motheo go fihlela thutong tje phagamego.
The ethically unjustified violence of Western colonisation continues in the economic and epistemic spheres in Africa, despite the reluctant concession by the Western coloniser to political independence. The constitutional histories of politically independent Africa are mainly the reaffirmation of the imposed domestication of the legal paradigm of the Western colonial conqueror. This is constitutionalism. With particular reference to conqueror South Africa, I take the “Union of South Africa” as the commencement of constitutionalism. General Smuts, later Prime Minister, was among three Afrikaner Generals engaged in the founding and the development of the “Union of South Africa.” He is selected here for his claim that the White colonial conquerors from Western Europe are endowed with superior intelligence. This can be used to continue the subjugation of indigenous conquered peoples into an indefinitely long future. This article challenges this claim because it is ethically untenable and fundamentally at odds with constitution-ness underlying the ubu-ntu legal paradigm. Given the evolution of constitutionalism in conqueror South Africa until the constitution of 1996, was Smuts right in his claim? In addition to the ethical indefensibility of this claim, it is argued further that the “epistemic decolonial turn” overlooks “decolonisation” as argued by Africans, and disregards humanisation—mothofatso—as the fundamental counter to the dehumanisation project of colonialism
On the origin of the deity Uzza
No full textEarly Islamic sources present the degrading of the goddess Uzza to a mere idol: al-Uzzah. A recently found Late Bronze Age inscription from Timna in the Wadi Arabah, written in the Proto-Sinaitic script, revealed a small piece of evidence for the prehistory of the deity Uzza. The inscription was written in two ovals and reads: R. ‘ZRMM; L. ŠKLḪ. I interpret this as ‘z-rmm škl(l)ḫ, “Az-Ramam, the scribe.” The theophoric element ‘z indicates that the deity Uzza was already venerated in the Late Bronze Age.
Where and When? The Chronicler’s Adaptive Usage of "Space" and "Time"
No full textThe writers of Chronicles are famous for their creative use of the different Vorlagen (available sources) at their disposal. In their use of some Pentateuch (mainly genealogies) and Deuteronomistic (mainly Samuel–Kings) materials, changes in space and time are often used as rhetorical devices. Examples of these will be explored to come to a better understanding of the writers’ creative use of space and time in the late Persian and early Hellenistic contexts to envision a new future