11613 research outputs found
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John Chrysostom’s interpretation of the rhetoric of the letter to the Colossians
No full textThis study aims to investigate how John Chrysostom interpreted the rhetoric of Colossians in his homilies on this letter and to compare his interpretation with the current understanding of the rhetoric of Colossians. This study is conducted in three phases. During the first phase of this study, all twelve of Chrysostom’s homilies on Colossians are studied both in translation (Schaff) and in the Greek text (Field 1855). The aim of this exploration is to identify: i) any comments that Chrysostom made on why Paul used specific phrases and words to persuade his audience; and, ii) any rhetorical aspects that Chrysostom identified in Colossians and referred to in his homilies. A second set of data are gathered during Phase 2 of the study. In this phase, three existing rhetorical analyses of Colossians are examined to determine how scholars are currently interpreting the rhetoric of Colossians. The analyses of Witherington (2007:155–207), Copenhaver (2018:90–143) and Collins (1995:60–102) are examined. It is clear from the data that all three scholars follow a traditional approach during their analysis of Colossians. The data gathered during Phases 1 and 2 are carefully analysed and thoroughly examined to present a comparison between Chrysostom’s interpretations of the rhetoric of Colossians and the three existing rhetorical analyses of the letter. The aim of the last phase is to determine how John Chrysostom’s insight into the rhetoric of the letter corresponds to or differs from the existing analyses. The study of Chrysostom’s understanding of the rhetoric of Colossians enabled the researcher to construct a new (alternative) rhetorical structure of Colossians
Pro-poor local economic development (LED): the case of Umzinyathi District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal
No full textDissertation (MDS (Development Studies))--University of the Free State, [2021]From South Africa’s National Framework for implementing local economic development (LED), LED is defined as “Local Economic Development (LED) is the process by which public, business, and non-governmental sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation to build up an economic capacity of a local area to improve its economic future and the quality of life for all” (DeCoG, 2013:5). The historical perspective for South African LED is unique and painful because of the apartheid and segregation policies, which meant that LED is implemented through central government and benefits few. Post-apartheid, the government introduced pro-poor LED policies to alleviate poverty, grow the local economy, and create job opportunities for marginalised communities. This study aims to assess how pro-poor LED strategies improve the lives of poor people in uMzinyathi District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. The study is designed and executed following a qualitative methodology, and semi-structured interviews were used as a qualitative data collection method for this study. The study has revealed that LED in uMzinyathi has not lived up to its expectations to reduce poverty and create job opportunities for the poor and marginalised groups. The study found several constraints within the municipality that contribute to the poor implementation of LED, such as lack of infrastructure, gaps in human capacity, LED funding, and lack of shared understanding of LED and its role
A holistic framework for beginner instrumentalists: synergising product and process by way of meaningful learning experiences
No full textDissertation (M.Mus.(Music))--University of the Free State, 2021This study investigated an alternative to a disembodied, individualist philosophy used in traditional beginner instrumental instruction, in order to make suggestions for a wider holistic and inclusive approach to meaningful teaching and learning. Despite advancements made in situating the whole student, embodied and inter(en)active, in the process of instrumental learning, there still seems to be a lack of strategies for practical application. By making use of philosophical, theoretical and educational developments with regards to balancing body, mind, environmental and social transactions in instrumental music education, I suggest an extended embodied framework in beginner instrumental teaching and learning which is aligned to the way in which a young child learns. Making use of an integrative literature review, both established and recent material was reviewed, critiqued and synthesised to create an extended embodied framework. Considering suggested strategies made in this study opportunities can be created for the young student to engage in extended meaning-making experiences
Gender equality in top managerial positions in a South African Mining Company
No full textDissertation (MBA (Business Administration))--University of the Free State, 2021Mining has been inextricably intertwined with South Africa's political economy since the advent of large-scale and profitable mining in the 1860s. A keen study of the production and trade dynamics of the mining sector and their relations with the law, social norms and government policies and regulations, and how these have contributed to and impacted the distribution of national income and wealth, and their attendant dynamics, has been a reliable bellwether of the socio-economic vibrancy of the South African Republic through successive historical epochs. A key issue through these successive epochs has been labour issues generally and the participation of women in the mining sector labour force specifically. Against this backdrop, the research reported in this dissertation had the primary objective of examining gender equality in top managerial positions in the South African mining company, Anglo American. The secondary objectives included an exploration of gender-related causes of women's non-progression to senior leadership positions; the determination of gender-related personal values among occupants of top and senior management positions in the company; and the development of a framework to reduce gender disparities within top and senior management at Anglo American. To seek answers to these objectives, the research deployed a cross-sectional survey design within a transformative research paradigm. The research established that, although Anglo American has made considerable progress in ensuring gender parity within top and senior management positions and is generally performing well above the industry average, still more needs to be done to comply with the applicable legislative and policy instruments. In distilling the insights from the research, the study formulated a framework through which the company can achieve the required gender parity at top and senior management positions
Beginner teachers’ experiences of professional identity development during an induction programme in the Free State
No full textIn this study, I explored the professional identity of beginner teachers (BTs) during an induction programme. Research indicates that many new teachers are thrown into the deep end when they start their careers and are expected to take on the same roles and responsibilities as their senior colleagues. Worldwide, it has been shown that teachers who feel unsupported, stressed and unprepared are more likely to abandon the teaching profession in their first few years. In South Africa, there is currently no formal induction programme in place for BTs. Stakeholders agree, however, that such a programme is required, prompting the Department of Education to launch an induction field test in one Free State district (Thabo Mofutsanyana). In collaboration with Gent University, the University of the Free State conducted a research component of this field test. My study fell within the ambit of the larger research component and focused specifically on the development of BT professional identity during an induction programme. I worked with Social Network Theory to better understand the role of social network structures, collaborative relationships and different actors that play a part in BT identity development. The study used a qualitative approach, drawing on survey and interview data from BTs in the Thabo Mofutsanyana district. The findings show that BTs experience a range of challenges in the first few years of teaching related to administrative duties, difficult relationships with senior teachers, little support, feelings of isolation, and large class sizes which further aggravated learner discipline issues. In addition, many experienced the added challenges related to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in their first years of teaching. Based on the highlighted, I recommend that induction programmes be strengthened to help BTs deal with the existing challenges as they develop their professional identity. This may help in minimising teacher turnover in South Africa
Ceremonial cinema: world-creation and social transformation through film as ritual
No full textThe journey to the cinema and our experiences there form part of what is effectively a screening ritual
geared toward affecting audiences. The power of cinema largely derives from being removed from general society – presenting an ideal traditional ritual space of liminality. Within this space and in familiar patterns, viewers’ attention and emotions are guided and synchronised by the film, which are pre-determined by canonical codes like narrative logic and generic features. Ceremonial thresholds separate but also connect, and in cinema, they serve to initiate and encode spectators’ experience as part of a fundamentally social activity. When we visit the cinema to watch a film, the encounter is not only shaped by exciting moving pictures or engulfing sound, but also by the people watching with us, as we become part of a social ritual. This study aims to identify and explore the various connections and unavoidable entanglements between the spheres of film and ritual, particularly in terms of the ritualistic aspects that extend beyond the cinema before and after the screening. This includes basic phenomena that Ritual Studies take as its domain of inquiry – thresholds, liminality, collective effervescence and communitas, symbols, etc., and the broader effects or functions of these phenomena such as social identity, social structure, social cohesion, and social transformation. The diverse experiential qualities, effects, and broader influences of film may seem disconnected, but they share a deeper commonality that this study argues is the source of film’s profound social influence: each presents an instance or aspect of what is here called ‘film as ritual.’ It aims to explore the robust presence of film production and film spectatorship beyond the physical location of the cinema and considers viewer engagement in terms of pilgrimages and participation within an extended media landscape and its related narratives of symbolic significance. Ultimately, the study addresses film’s transformational power and influence by mapping it onto social ritual theories and exploring its worldbuilding capacities. The global fascination with films, which clearly includes social viewing experiences and encounters with film beyond the confines of the cinema, establishes film as ritual as a highly extended and culturally diffuse phenomenon. Film as ritual relates to collective identity creation and social relations through extensions of the cinematic experience beyond a mere physical place that provides the opportunity to watch a movie. The notion of film as ritual helps us come to terms with how films affect and influence people, their actions and their way of looking at the world – essentially transforming them, in some or other way
Data to understand the nature of non-covalent interactions in the thiophene clusters
No full textWe have reported herein the data to understand the nature and number of non-covalent interactions that stabilize the structures of the thiophene clusters. In addition, we have also provided the optimized Cartesian coordinates of all the structures of the investigated thiophene clusters. Initially, the geometries have been generated using the ABCluster code which performs a global optimization to locate local and global minima structures of molecular clusters. The located geometries have been optimized at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory using Gaussian 16 suite of programs. To understand the nature of non-covalent interactions, we have performed a quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) analysis on all the structures of the thiophene dimer. Furthermore, the QTAIM analysis has been performed also on the most stable structure of the thiophene trimer and tetramer. We have used the AIMAll program to perform the QTAIM analysis. The data reported in this paper contains the critical points, the bonds paths and their related properties, for each investigated structures. Besides, the data contains the optimized Cartesian coordinates of all the investigated structures of the thiophene clusters. This can be use for any further investigations involving thiophene clusters. For further information and analysis, the reader is referred to the original related research article (Malloum and Conradie, 2022).Publisher's versio
Melancholy of the misconstrued mining machine
No full textThe existence of architecture that evokes defining moments of possibilities where its users are able to transcend the unseen tying threads of the system. Moments that create a new awareness to the narrative presented; the overarching segmented mining history of South Africa. Divulging the tragic and sanguine realities surrounding this controversial field, by exposing the tension that exists between mines, miners and the fragility of its support systems. Focusing on singular prominent examples throughout history, to convey a narrative by means of structure and spatial experiences. Leaving the conclusion of the narrative to the user. In hopes to help develop a better society by revealing truths and providing a home for initiatives that support objectives surrounding mine communities, polluted landscapes and sustainable new methods in these areas
‘Angels and Demons’? the Dutch Reformed Church and Anticommunism in Twentieth Century South Africa
No full textAfrikaner memories of apartheid are filled with images of an omnipotent communist threat, or the so-called Rooi Gevaar (Red Peril). This thesis explains why and how the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa (DRC), the organisation with the widest reach and deepest influence in the everyday lives of Afrikaners, played a significant role in perpetuating an anticommunist imagination amongst twentieth century Afrikaners. It fills a lacuna in the historiography of South African anticommunism, which has up until now been confined to a state-centric approach. Drawing on international theoretical frameworks, this thesis expands the dynamics of South African anticommunism beyond a Cold War-paradigm and embraces the flexibility of the phenomenon. The DRC acts as a lens into the intricacies of South African and, more specifically, Afrikaner anticommunism. It offers an original account of South African anticommunism by integrating a wide range of archival sources from the DRC’s extensive records, those of the Afrikaner-Broederbond (AB), and personal collections of key roleplayers, including Nico Diederichs, Koot Vorster, and Piet Meyer, into a single chronological narrative. This thesis argues that the DRC formed the backbone of Afrikaner anticommunism throughout the twentieth century. It illustrates that the church was not always the main driver, nor was its influence consistent. However, as a vessel of moral anticommunist propaganda, the DRC fulfilled a critical role in legitimising overt opposition to and suppression of ‘communism’ in all its perceived manifestations, including black dissent, whilst also creating an Afrikaner imagination – even at times a moral panic – in which the volk remained convinced of the ever-present communist threat, and of its own role as a bulwark against communism. Anticommunism, argues this thesis, functioned as a vehicle for nationalist unity (and uniformity), a paradigm for Afrikaner identity, and a legitimiser of the volk’s perceptions of its imagined moral high ground
Building performance evaluation of public housing in Harare, Zimbabwe
No full textThis study sought to evaluate the performance of residential building spaces in public housing in Harare, Zimbabwe. It specifically measured building performance indicators determined by the building’s characteristics and the physical, locational and service attributes of buildings. A quantitative research design was adopted, in which questionnaires and observations were used in data collection. A two-stage sampling technique was used, because the population could be subdivided into clusters. From residents in three clusters, which include Highfield-Venice Flats, Avenues Flats and Mbare Flats, 263 respondents were conveniently chosen. Results from the independent t-test that was conducted showed that, at 95% confidence level, there exist significant differences in residential satisfaction among residents of Highfield-Venice Flats and those of Avenues Flats (t = 2.159, p-value= 0.035>0.05). Overall, residents are dissatisfied with the attributes of the buildings in which they live and the general residential situation. There is a general dissatisfaction with the buildings, suggesting that the building performance is not meeting their needs and expectations. Housing attribute preferences, privacy, dwelling proximity, and neighbourhood attachment showed a significant and positive impact on general residential satisfaction. Hence, there is a need to improve housing attribute preferences such as improving the quality of air and lighting as well as noise levels, since respondents expressed dissatisfaction with these attributes. Housing ceilings can be installed to reduce noise levels. More so, the quality of air and lighting can be improved by inserting more air ventilations and wider windowpanes. Privacy should be improved by ensuring that the residential structures have boundary walls that may be needed by the residents. More so, dwelling proximity ought to be improved. The Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities and other public housing institutions can consider developing structures such as shopping centres, public schools as well as roads and social amenities such as parks, pools and workout facilities before they build residential houses.Publisher's versio