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Exploring South African university academics’ level of preparedness for emergency multimodal remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFThe advent of coronavirus disease, COVID-19, in late December 2019 has wreaked havoc on the economic and educational sectors. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were forced to switch from face-to-face to virtual classroom contact. The result was that many academics, particularly university lecturers, turned to remote teaching as a means to continue with academic responsibilities under lockdown regulations. The researchers opted to investigate the level of preparedness of academics for remote teaching in the faculties of education because there was a paucity of literature on the subject. This study used a phenomenological case study research design with a sample of 28 academics from the faculties of education. The universities in South Africa were located in the provinces of Gauteng, the Free State, and the Eastern Cape. The researchers used a validated interview schedule to collect qualitative data. The trustworthiness of the interview guide was ensured by giving it to experts to provide constructive criticism. The data were examined using thematic analysis. The findings demonstrated that the majority of the academics in the education faculties lacked the necessary preparation for distant teaching and learning, because neither academics nor students received any support as they transitioned from routine to unusual working conditions. It was also discovered that the necessary infrastructure was initially not prepared to facilitate remote teaching and learning. Since they expected the lockdown to only last a few months, some academics indicated they were unprepared and found the situation to be extremely stressful. This suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of university academics were ineffective at implementing emergency multimodal remote instruction. For the efficient implementation of remote teaching, university academics must receive suitable and thorough in-service training
"A Fractious Lot”: Farmer and Arda Relations in the Rusitu Dairy Farming Contract Scheme in Zimbabwe, From c.1985 to 1997
Get PDFGlobally, smallholder contract farming has been regarded as one of the key pathways to sustainable rural livelihoods. Several less developed countries have adopted and implemented with varying outcomes smallholder contract farming as a double-barreled initiative – to enhance both rural livelihoods and agricultural transformation. Using the example of ARDA Rusitu Small Scale Dairy Settlement Scheme in Zimbabwe’s Chipinge District, this paper seeks to examine the nature and development of smallholder contract farming projects in post-colonial Zimbabwe between 1985 and 1997. This study was prompted by the need to rethink the role and management of smallholder contract farming projects in poverty reduction. In collecting research data, the study makes use of interviews, personal observations and project reports. For Zimbabwe, smallholder contract farmers over the post-colonial period retained unresolved tensions. While at its inception the ARDA Rusitu Small Scale Dairy Settlement Scheme beamed with great potential to alleviate poverty and cater for household food insecurity, the euphoria was short-lived and did not provide the anticipated solid ground for sustainable rural livelihoods. The scheme was haunted by a multiplicity of problems including malfeasance and poor management right from its inception in 1985. The agrarian contracts formulation process was fraught with a number of problems which threatened the sustainability of the project
Provincialising Mannheim: what do youth in Benin and Austria have in common?
Get PDFGenerational conflicts are increasingly addressed in media and in academic debate. Against this backdrop Karl Mannheim’s investigation of generational change can be brought back into focus. He argues that every generation is a potential for change, but this often goes hand in hand with a conflict between generations. From a postcolonial lens we challenge this universal conceptualisation of generational conflict: drawn from case studies in Benin and Austria we show that Mannheim’s argument has to be provincialised. Despite the different settings and methodological approaches, our results are similar: while young people perceive themselves as distinct from the older generation, and despite the rhetoric of rupture, no conflict can be observed in the concrete behaviour of the actors. Despite these similarities, it is important to witness the particular contexts, with specific, generational locations and specific spatial and temporal conditions. Only taking this into account, can it be said why, in what form, and in which contexts young people contribute to social change through the way they interact with other generations. Therefore, we want to question Mannheim’s assumption of a generational conflict and highlight the need to provincialise it as an engine of change
Beckoning a new post- Covid higher education engagement agenda: Lessons from Nelson Mandela University Covid-19 responses
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic set higher education institutions on an unprecedented path requiring of them to identify alternative strategies and implement various initiatives to sustain their academic projects. With the widespread devastation of the pandemic, the purpose of universities within their communities were again in the spotlight. A sensibility of the intertwinement between the local university and the community was also re-emphasised in the pandemic’s wake, with the recognition of COVID-19 as a crosscutting problem. This paper examines Nelson Mandela University’s engagement initiatives during the pandemic to underline its fundamental strategic undertakings within its positioning as a “transformative, responsive university in service of society”. Through an interpretive paradigm, the paper presents lessons from a qualitative, explorative case study inquiry of Nelson Mandela University reports during the pandemic. The findings indicate that the initiatives deployed by the university during the pandemic strengthened its overall community engagement strategy
Student perspectives on the challenges of an online orientation at a large South African university during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 gave rise to a number of challenges for first-year experience activities at universities globally. One of the key challenges was the process of onboarding first-year students through an orientation programme that could not take place face-to-face as per the norm. In 2021, the first-year orientation at a large South African university in this study moved to an online platform, becoming a week-long programme conducted on Microsoft Teams and comprising a variety of live and pre-recorded videos. The programme included seven core learning sessions designed to introduce the students to key services available at the university and to lay the foundation for student success. Using data from the university’s 2021 Orientation Week (O-Week) Survey, this paper seeks to explore – from the perspective of the students – the core challenges associated with an online orientation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs descriptive statistics to decipher the profile of the survey respondents as well as participants’ experience of various learning sessions. A thematic approach was used to analyse the open-ended questions to provide the contextual perspectives on the challenges that students experienced with online orientation. The study identified five categories of challenges, which had a negative impact on their process of transitioning into the university environment. The study’s findings will help universities to understand the drawbacks of online orientation as well as provide empirical guidance for them as to how they could leverage online orientation for student success in shaping the remote, blended, and hybrid learning discourse. The particular university under discussion subsequently used these findings as guidelines to conceptualise a new three-week blended orientation programme, Gateway to Success, which was introduced at the beginning of 2022
Conformity to zoned urban green spaces in physical development plans: A spatiotemporal analysis of Kisii Town, Kenya
Get PDFAlthough evidence assessing the provision of urban green spaces (UGS) corroborates their decline, they have, however, not evaluated conformity to zoned UGS in physical development plans (PDPs). To fill the gap, this article examines conformity to zoned UGS in PDPs. It also investigates the drivers of the observed non-conformities. Anchored in the theory of regulatory compliance, the study was undertaken in Kisii Town, Kenya, as a case study of the zoned UGS in the Kisii Town Physical Development Plan (KTPDP). The population comprised a list of 367 developers occupying the zoned UGS, out of which a sample of 186 was randomly selected. Spatial and descriptive data were respectively collected using satellite images and questionnaires. The analysis relied on GIS, descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that 75 hectares (ha) of zoned UGS declined by 52% between 2005 and 2022, resulting in a low per capita UGS of 1.95 m2 against the recommended 9 m2. These changes were caused by developing without permits, the County Government of Kisii (CGOK) granting permits to non-applicants, as well as approving developments without the mandatory change or extension of use, insufficient monitoring of developments, laxity in enforcing zoning regulations, and uncertainty in the engagement of registered architects during the development control process. Recommendations are made for a revised physical development plan covering the entire town to provide adequate UGS, ensuring that building plans are submitted by authorised professionals and regular surveillance audits to deter unauthorised developments. The article concludes that, in the absence of effective development control, UGS in Kisii Town will further decline, resulting in the residents not enjoying their acknowledged benefits
Litema artivism: Community engaged scholarship with international online learning
Get PDFThe misconception that online learning and teaching for the building sciences is ineffective has been proven wrong. A blended learning technique, combining service-learning activities and research (community engaged scholarship) with Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), has shown great learning and teaching possibilities on an international digital platform. This article considers how community engaged scholarship, and COIL can support an international learning experience celebrating rural art and architecture in central parts of South Africa. The research used a qualitative Participatory Action Research approach and Social Learning Theory framework. Combining practical outcomes in service-learning activities with collaborative international desk research provided a new perspective of litema wall decorating art in rural parts of the eastern Free State Province. These activities developed into a collaboration opportunity as a COIL exchange. A novel conceptual service-learning approach requires good communication and networking, clear agendas, and dedicated staff and students. The study merged service-learning activities by South African architecture students at the University of the Free State with literature from American art history students from Colorado State University through a COIL that resulted in a collaborative exhibition of research findings. The study follows the United Nations’ 1) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of quality education and gender equality and 2) the “Art-Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue” that intervenes ethically for human rights as “activist” acts of care for rural domestic art
Translation Studies Concepts: Their Contexts of Conception and Use
Get PDFIn an attempt to address the title, this article will follow two lines of inquiry. It firstly will trace the development of several key concepts in Translation Studies and ethnography and show how these concepts have shifted in terms of interpretation and scope over time depending on the broader contexts in which they were used. In each case, the concepts were derived from observation of and reflection on translation. The paper will also point to theorization in anthropology (perhaps in contrast to philology) and how it stems directly from ethnographic observation and study in which translation plays an important role. In doing so, the paper will argue that these local insights have considerable staying power and theoretical reach, precisely because they are grounded in the lived experience that sustains them, which perhaps will make them adaptable in other places and situations far beyond their ‘origin’ or the place where the seed of insight germinated. This is considered important in relation to the theme of the special issue, namely community interpreting and translation in the Africancontext, as many concepts emerge from studies of communities and their cultural contexts. Secondly, the paper draws on and discusses ethnographic data of translational practices in a social housing scheme to shed new light on intralingual translation as conceptualized by Jakobson (1959) and set out in a model byKorning Zethsen (2009). The data also illustrates how the various elements of intralingual translation belong in a broader economy of exchanges in the housing scheme
Issuance of independent guarantees by insurance companies
Get PDFIndependent, or demand, guarantees are strong securityinstruments. They are designed to secure the properperformance of contractual obligations in commercialtransactions. In South Africa, independent guaranteesare a common feature of construction projects where theinterests of any of the main parties (that is, the contractoror the employer) may conceivably be secured. Essentially,independent guarantees constitute an undertaking by theissuer of the guarantee to pay a stipulated sum of moneyto the beneficiary of the guarantee upon the presentationof conforming documents. The question of payment is,therefore, to be determined with reference only to thedocuments, and not to facts outside of the documents.Consequently, payment under an independent guaranteeis expected to be made expeditiously, provided conformingdocuments are tendered. It is clear, therefore, that theproper functioning of the independent guarantee requiresthe use of a strong and reliable financier. Internationally,banks can probably be regarded as the dominant issuersof independent guarantees. This much is apparent ininternational jurisprudence, specifically in case lawand academic writing. In South Africa, however, banksdo not enjoy that status, since the guarantee marketis competitively shared between banks and insurancecompanies, the latter having recently emerged as equallycoveted issuers of independent guarantees. This can beevidenced by the significant number of case law involvingan insurance company as issuer, rather than a bank. Thisarticle focuses on this development in South African law. Itseeks to analyse and ultimately provide a rationale for theincreasing use of insurance companies in independent-guarantee transactions. The analysis reveals the followingfactors as the main contributors to this growing practice:the favourable security requirements of insurancecompanies, the significance of the premium attachedto guarantee policies, and the increasing flexibility ofinsurance companies in the formulation of guarantees
Editorial
Get PDFWe are glad to announce a new associate editor that will join us starting with the current issue. His name is Mostafa Abdelaal, Assistant Professor (Lecturer) at the Department of History, Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University. Mostafa obtained his PhD from the Faculty of History at Cambridge University. He is currently working on turning his PhD dissertation into a book that investigates the roles of State, Resources and Modern Manufacturing in Zambia from 1924 to 1992. He recently published a book in Arabic titled Colonial Exploitation and Economics of Rubber in the Congo Free State, 1885-1908. Mostafa’s research interest is on the economic history of Africa, economic aspects of Afro-Arab history, and the questions of industrialisation and economic development