Journal of Culture and Values in Education (JCVE)
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Determinants of Youth Unemployment among TVET College Graduates in the Vhembe District
Full text linkThis study investigates the factors that determine youth unemployment among young Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college graduates and offers a solution to the problem in the Vhembe district of Limpopo Province, South Africa. To comprehend the lived experiences of TVET college graduates that were unemployed, this study used a qualitative approach. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to gather data. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to sample individuals. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. This study found that skill gaps and obsolescence due to the TVET college curriculum, as well as skills mismatch, nepotism, and tribalism, are among the other factors that determine unemployment among TVET college graduates. The study also found that the applicability of the skills provided by TVET colleges to job market demands is a key concern. This study recommends that revamping the TVET college curriculum to meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution is critical. This entails teaching soft skills and digital abilities. Furthermore, tackling problems such as nepotism and tribalism through public awareness campaigns, regulatory changes, and inclusive behaviors can help reduce youth unemployment
Language Education and Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration of Challenges Confronting Academics in Global South Universities
Full text linkWhile the global South universities have made significant strides in adopting digital technologies, there remain huge gaps, particularly when it comes to the acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in institutions of higher learning. As such, this study sought to explore global South academics’ reported AI-related challenges in the language education domain from published literature. To achieve this, the researchers employed a literature review methodology which entailed meticulous searches for published literature using key words. The challenges reported in literature revealed four broad challenges namely limited language options, academic dishonesty, biases and lack of accountability, and laziness among students and lecturers. Based on these findings, the study recommended that there be an urgent prioritisation of the development of AI-based language education tools that are specifically tailored to the needs and contexts of learners in the global South. The study also recommended the development of accessible and affordable AI-based language education tools, that will promote the development of digital literacy skills among educators and learners in the global South
Creating a Culture of Social Cohesion: Case Studies of Community Participation Projects at Japanese and Hong Kong Elementary Schools
Full text linkThis article compares two learning units developed by elementary schools in Japan and Hong Kong to engage students in learning about and taking action to promote social cohesion through community participation. We choose two similar learning units for comparison, both focusing on issues related to older people in the community. Based on our analysis of their activity design and practices, we outline five directions for educational practitioners interested in promoting community participation for social cohesion in Hong Kong and Japan: practicing service-learning, promoting social cohesion, learning authentic skills, integrating community participation into the curriculum, and helping students become active members of society. This paper argues for the importance of developing such learning units to foster young citizens’ contribution to their communities in post-industrial, ageing societies
The Effect of Using Educational Mapping as a Game in Teaching English Language on University Students' Motivation
Full text linkThis study interrogated the effect of using educational mapping in teaching English language on university students' motivation. A quasi-experimental design (training program), along with a quantitative approach, was used. The study was implemented at Al-Quds Open University in Palestine .The participants comprised 36 master's degree students who were randomly divided into two equal groups: controlled (n=18) and experimental (n=18). The experimental group was taught by using educational mapping while the controlled group was taught by using common and traditional methods of teaching English language. The study questions were: 1) Are there statistically significant differences in students' means responses of English language motivation due to group? 2) Are there statistically significant differences in students' means responses of English language motivation due to gender? The data were analyzed by using SPSS, ANCOVA and MANCOVA. The results of the study showed that using educational mapping in teaching English language positively influenced university students' motivation. In addition, the results of the study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in students' means responses of motivation according to the variable of gender. Thus, the study recommended using educational mapping as a game to foster students' motivation
Touching a Lion: Collaborative Agenda of Decolonizing Professoriate and Doctoral Status for Transformation in Higher Education
Full text linkTouching a lion is the scariest thing one could ever do, but sometimes one must do so to dismantle thorny issues that one hardly speaks about, such as professoriate and doctoral status. As universities are lacking numerous decolonizing aspects for transformation in higher education, the authors of this paper are of the view that professoriate and doctoral status needs to be decolonized to fulfil the transformation agenda in higher education. The theory of Ubuntu and collaboration, using a transformative paradigm, underpinned the study. The article presents a non-conventional method in the form of storytelling and reflecting on the authors’ experiences in higher education in South Africa. Data were analyzed thematically. The findings of this study are that professors and doctors live in their own space where it is sometimes difficult to reach them. The study recommends the incorporation of Ubuntu and collaboration within the two statuses, which must be vital in decolonizing the status quo for transformation in higher education
Naming for Sustainability: Interrogating the Efficacy and Sustainability of COVID-19 Metaphor and Nomenclature
Full text linkLanguage matters for sustainability, and diseases’ names and attendant terminology should serve language users’ extant and future needs. The currency and pandemic proportion of COVID-19, and the viral or pervasive use of its attendant vocabulary and metaphors, makes it an apt case for interrogating the sustainability of its nomenclature. This paper interrogates the efficacy and sustainability of COVID-19 related English vocabulary and metaphors among the Shona speaking people, as a microcosm of their efficacy and sustainability among Bantu African language speakers. The paper is framed by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which posits that language filters people’s reality and colors their attitudes and actions. By implication, unstainable and inefficacious language compromises an appreciation of one’s reality. Acknowledging that any linguistic inventiveness should serve a utilitarian rather than ornamental function, the paper interrogates the sustainability and efficacy of the ‘war’ metaphor and lexical innovations replete within the COVID-19 discourse. The paper analyzes efficacy regarding the terms and metaphor engendering the desired or intended effects and sustainability of the terms’ intelligibility, pronounceability, memorability, and translatability. The paper concludes that the selected English COVID-19 related terms engendered unintended thoughts and reactions within the language users, and that, owing to them being products of English lexical innovation, they defy translatability into, and intelligibility within, African languages; rendering the COVID-19 discourse exclusive and unsustainable
A Model for Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Teaching History: Lessons from Zimbabwe
Full text linkDeveloping critical thinking skills in students has proved to be elusive for Zimbabwean history teachers. Using critical theory and its strands of critical pedagogy and constructivism, this qualitative case study engrained in the interpretive paradigm investigates whether the current practices by history teachers enhance the development of critical thinking skills and then discusses how classroom practitioners can develop critical thinking in teaching. A multiple case study design was adopted to generate data using document analysis, interviews and lessons observations. The sample, chosen for detailed study through purposive sampling, included three history teachers from three secondary schools in the Gweru Urban District in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. Evidence from the study reveals that history teachers continue to use teacher-centred methods of teaching, textbooks as the only resource, poor questioning techniques, and traditional assessment procedures that do not promote the development of critical thinking skills. It is recommended that history teaching must focus on the development of critical thinking skills rather than on the mastery of content for sustainable development to happen as dictated by the demands of the 21st century. To support that, the study proposes a transformative-interactive model to enhance the development of critical thinking skills. The research concludes that critical thinking skills do not happen arbitrarily but are developed. This study extends scholarship on history teaching by challenging and encouraging teachers to reflect on their role in the teaching of history to transform them into the designers of, and researchers of, curriculum methodology
Twinned Teachers’ Mathematical Discourse Using Problem-Solving
Full text linkDiscussing and debating mathematical ideas through integrating natural and mathematical language is vital for conceptual understanding and ultimately for learner performance. In schools with low performance, it is likely that teaching mathematics follows an approach largely involving rote learning. In rural Limpopo where schools are isolated, professional development takes the form of twinning, where a well-functioning school twins with a school in need. In this study two teachers twinned to teach algebraic word problems to Grade 11 to improve learner performance through a problem-solving approach. A central aspect of the study was attention to discourse informed by the commognitive framework, where both natural language (learners home language and the language of instruction) and language of mathematics spoken by the teachers and encouraged in the learners, was the focus. This quasi-experimental design was implemented to examine the effect of the twinned teachers discourse in a class where English, the language of instruction, was a second language. In the study a pre-test and post-test were administered to the experimental group of 34 learners, and to a comparison group of 40 learners. The study aimed at testing the hypothesis that the twinned mathematics teachers’ discourse using a problem-solving approach informed by the commognitive framework has a significant effect on learner performance in algebraic word problems. In summary, using the commognitive framework in implementing problem-solving approach with the twinned teachers’ mathematical discourse had significant effect in improving learner performance of algebraic word problems in the target group
Social Adjustment, a Necessity among Students with Negative Body-Image: The Roles of Parenting Processes and Self Esteem
Full text linkThe social adjustment strategy in interacting with others determines an individual's success. This study examined the influence of parenting processes and self-esteem as correlates of social adjustment of students with negative body-image. The descriptive research design of the correlational type was used in this study. A total of 96 adolescents with negative body image participated in the study (42.7% male, 57.3% female). The data for this study were gathered using three reliable and standardized instruments: The Parenting Behavior and Dimension Questionnaire (α = .87), the Self-Esteem Inventory (α = .85), and the Social adjustment scale (α = .83). The results demonstrated a strong correlation between parenting processes (r = .201; p<.05), self-esteem (r = .211; p<.05) and social adjustment of students with negative body-image. The strongest predictor of social adjustment was self-esteem (β = .153; t = 1.377; p<0.05), followed by parenting process (β = .136; t = 1.228; p<0.05). It was recommended that educators, counselors, and all other helping professionals be alert and sensitive to the social dispositions of adolescents
Transitioning from High School to University: Lived Experiences of Black First-Year Students
No full textSuccessful transitioning from high school to university remains a challenge for most students entering higher education. While the general first-year student population experiences challenges with transition, this can be acute for most Black students from poor home backgrounds. This qualitative study aims to determine how Black first-year students from poor home backgrounds navigate the transition to university and how their home and schooling experiences influence their trajectory to and through higher education. The paper uses a narrative approach to foreground the lived realities of six students from a university in the Free State Province of South Africa. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory was used to broaden the theoretical base for understanding the transition into higher education. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth semi-structured individual interviews, and individual stories were constructed and analysed using the narrative approach. The findings unveiled factors in the layers of the ecosystem that may serve as enablers to transition and academic success. The paper argues for university academic and social support to acknowledge and embrace enablers to student transition and success as these would contribute to students experiencing a sense of belonging in the new education environment