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Consuming pasts : imaging food as Identity and (post)memory in post-apartheid South Africa
No full textThis mini-thesis interprets the convergence of food and memory and explores dialectical processes associating food, identity and (post)memory, particularly in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. Considering works by prominent South African Artists Berni Searle and Churchill Madikida as well as my own artistic practise and usage of food as conceptual medium, this study considers the converging effects of food, identity and memory, together with the materiality of food, from a fine arts perspective, as particularly rich and developing arena for memory wor
Developed teacher leadership in a township high school : an interpretive case study
No full textSouth Africa’s future success depends on a number of national priorities, amongst them the
transformation of its education system. Education is the best route to follow to alleviate poverty
and many other social ills. One way to overcome some of the complex challenges and crises
that we face in South African schools is to pay attention to issues of leading and leadership,
including the leadership of teachers. This study is done with the hope that research into teacher
leadership will be one of the answers to the crisis in education. It should become a beacon of
hope for all educationists who passionately want progress in the youth of South Africa. What
better way than to ‘Awaken the Sleeping Giant’ of teacher leadership, borrowing the term from
Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009).
This study was designed as a case study, the purpose of which was to find out about the
enactment of teacher leadership in an Eastern Cape township high school as well as the
enhancing and hindering factors to this enactment. This study was done as a replication study
of a similar study done by a group of 11Master’s students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
in 2010. Similar to the original study, this case study was located within the interpretive
paradigm and drew on school profiling, survey questionnaires, a focus group interview, selfreflective
journals and individual interviews for its methods of data collection. The study was
framed by distributed leadership while Grant’s (2008; 2012) Model of teacher leadership was
adopted as the analytical tool.
It emerged from the data that the three teacher leaders, my primary participants, exhibited
teacher leadership across all four zones of Grant’s (2008) Model. The first zone was leadership
in the classroom where all three teacher leaders showed leadership to varying degrees. Zones
Two to Four are about leadership beyond the classroom into the school and beyond. In Zone
Two, the zone where teachers work with each other and the learners outside the classroom,
substantial levels of leadership were enacted by the three teacher leaders. Zone Three, where
leadership is exhibited in whole-school development, the three primary participants showed
distinct leadership qualities as well. The fourth zone, which is about interaction with neighbouring schools, also revealed that all three teacher leaders demonstrated active
leadership on a regular basis. Findings further revealed that there were only a few inhibiting
factors to the leadership of teachers at the case study school, including limited resources and
infrastructure as well as insufficient support and acknowledgement from the relevant
stakeholders when leadership initiatives were made, either successfully or otherwise. However,
the enhancing factors superseded the inhibiting factors. A functional committee culture guided
by a shared vision existed in the case study school together with an ethos of trust which enabled
the staff to work collaboratively. Though there was certainly room for improvement in
leadership practices at this case study school, the enactment of teacher leadership in this school
illustrated a strong case of ‘developed’ teacher leadership (Muijs& Harris, 2007) within a
dispersed leadership framing (Gunter, 2005
Investigating quality in Education through the use of an active learning framework : the case of an intervention in the Namibian Environmental Studies curriculum
No full textThe study was conducted to explore the relationship between active learning processes
emerging from the use of O’Donoghue’s (2001) active learning framework and a series of
education quality indicators proposed by Nikel and Lowe (2010). To achieve this aim a
professional educational intervention was conducted encouraging the use of this active learning
framework in the Namibian Environmental Studies Curriculum, in order to strengthen
educational quality within the Environmental Studies Curriculum.
The research was conducted in the Windhoek region at the school where I am currently
teaching. Four teachers took part in this study, including myself in the role of a participantobserver.
The active learning framework was used to guide us in the planning and presentations
of environmental learning lessons.
The study was conducted within the interpretive paradigm and was qualitative in nature as well
as focusing on a quantitative aspect to analyse some of the data (learners’ written work).
Qualitative data were generated through individual interviews, focus-group discussions, lesson
observations and document analysis.
The key findings of the study were that: a) prior to the intervention with the active learning
framework the teachers who took part in the study did not ask learners to explore environmental
issues in the environment or to respond to particular environmental issues; b) active learning
processes have the potential to facilitate the exploration of environmental issues in the
environment, and responses to particular environmental issues. Active learning also have the
potential to strengthen all aspects of education quality indicated in Nikel and Lowe’s (2010)
quality model, namely effectiveness, efficiency, equity, relevance, responsiveness, reflexivity
and sustainability; c) the active learning framework encouraged teachers to use a variety of
situated learning approaches, such as the collaborative method, the cooperative method, the
problem-solving method and the enquiry method, in order to strengthen the educational quality
in Environmental Studies classrooms; and d) teachers find the active learning framework useful
as a tool for planning and presenting environmental learning lessons.
The findings of the study have the potential to inform curriculum developers, materials
developers and educators with an interest in improving education quality through environmental learning processes within the Environmental Studies Curriculum in Namibia.
Furthermore, Nikel and Lowe’s education quality indicators provided an informative and
comprehensive understanding of education quality and provided a useful tool in evaluating and
reflecting on education quality as well as my own work as a teacher
iNi(II) and Pb(II)dithiocarbamate complexes as precursorsfor the synthesis of HDA-capped NiS and PbS nanoparticles
No full textNi(II) and Pb(II) dithiocarbamate complexes were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, UV-Vis, FTIR and TGA and some of the Ni(II) complexes and one Pb(II) were further analyzed by 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. Generally all the dithiocarbamate ligands are soluble in water while the complexes were soluble mostly in solvents such as chloroform, toluene, DMSO and DCM. Based on the elemental analysis, the dithiocarbamate complexes are formulated as four coordinate (tetrahedral or square planar) compounds. However, the FTIR showed that each of the dithiocarbamate ligands acted as bidentate ligand through two sulfur atoms. The TGA of the most complexes showed one major decomposition step to give respective metal sulfide above 200 oC.
In this research project, dithiocarbamate complexes were used as single source precursor for the synthesis of metal sulfide nanoparticles. We studied the optical and structural properties of metal sulfide nanoparticles using UV-Vis, photoluminescence (PL), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The absorption spectra of the metal sulfide nanoparticles are blue shifted in respect to bulk material and they also showed broad emission. The XRD of the NiS nanoparticles were indexed to the cubic and rhombohedral phase, with crystallite sizes of 15 - 18 nm. The XRD of PbS nanoparticles were indexed to the face centered cubic and cubic rock salts, with the crystallite sizes 12 - 18 nm. The TEM images of the metal sulfide nanoparticles showed particles with spherical and rectangular shapes with crystallite sizes 4 - 35 nm
The development of amine-based extractants for separation of base metals in a sulfate medium
No full textTridentate benzimidazole-based ligands, bis((1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)sulfide (BNSN)
and bis((1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)amine (BNNN), along with dinonylnaphthalene
sulfonic acid (DNNSA) as a synergist, were investigated as potential selective extractants for
Ni2+ from base metals in a solvent extraction system using 2-octanol/Shellsol 2325 (8:2) as
diluent and modifier. However, extraction studies show a lack of pH-metric separation of the
later 3d metal ions with bis((1-octylbenzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)sulfide (BONSN) and bis((1-
decylbenzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)amine (BDNNN) as extractants, but extractions occurred in
the low pH range with an opportunity for back extraction. This investigation suggested that
tridentate ligands (at least those of the nature investigated here) are not feasible extractants
for separation of base metal ions due to their lack of stereochemical “tailor-making.
Maintenance management systems of on-campus student hostels at Nigerian universities
No full textMost universities have long recognised the importance and contribution of on-campus hostels to the learning process. In so doing, most of these institutions have provided and maintained building facilities for academic purposes (teaching and research). Hostels are integral components of most campuses of Nigerian universities, and they are part of the built assets of the institutions in terms of both administration and maintenance management. Currently, there is little understanding of the maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings in both the public and the private universities. Moreover, there is a dearth of research evidence demonstrating that there is an appreciable difference in the maintenance management systems of the Federal, State and private universities in Nigeria. This research aimed at establishing an understanding of maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings at Nigerian universities owned by the Federal and State governments and the Private Sector, relative to stipulated criteria for best practice.The qualitative method of research inquiry that is rooted in the phenomenological paradigm was employed in the investigations. The research activities included a comprehensive review of the related literature and study of selected cases. The North-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria was the selected geographical scope of this research. Ten universities were purposefully selected for the study, and they include three Federal, four state and three private universities. The nature and differences in the research questions necessitated generating different forms of data. The questions that were related to the maintenance management systems for the hostels in place at the universities were addressed with the outcomes of interviews with the hostel managers. The questions that were about the structures and current conditions of the hostel buildings at the three categories of universities were addressed with data that were generated from condition assessments of the facilities and physical observations with the aid of cameras. The study reveals apparent deteriorated and unhealthy conditions of most of the on-campus hostels at the public universities, while those of the private universities are satisfactory. The research also found that the maintenance management systems in use at all the universities are reactive and lack proper planning and coordination of maintenance activities. There is no significant difference in the maintenance management systems of hostels at the public and the private universities and the systems have major negative impact on the conditions of the buildings and their performances. The research has developed a conceptual model for the study of maintenance management informed by the theoretical framework. The model considered the impact of the external environmental factors on the management and maintenance of the hostels. Secondly, the interrelationships of strategic and performance management with maintenance management in developing an effective maintenance management system were established. The study has achieved its aim of establishing an understanding of maintenance management systems of on-campus hostel buildings at Nigerian universities owned by the Federal and, State governments and the Private Sector. The maintenance management model developed in the study is recommended to maintenance management departments as a guide for effective maintenance of the built facilities in their institutions
"Blade where's the money?"
No full textOn Wednesday, 21 October 2015, Rhodes University closed in solidarity with the higher education sector as students and staff embarked on nationwide protest action against the shortage of funding in the South African higher education sector. #FeesMustFall is a national student led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in response to proposed increases in fees at South African universities. These images depict the peaceful march and illustrate the extent of solidarity among staff, students and community members who joined in support of the protest
