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A Foucauldian analysis of discourses shaping perspectives, responses, and experiences on the accessibility, availability and distribution of condoms in some school communities in Kavango Region
No full textCondom use is promoted as an effective method for prevention and contraception for people who practice or are at risk of practicing high-risk sexual behaviors. According to the UNAIDS (2009) report, condoms are the only resource available to prevent the sexual spread of the HI-Virus; and with regard to family planning, the same report proposes that condoms expand the choices, have no medical side effects, and thus provide dual protection against pregnancy and disease. However, in Africa as elsewhere in the world, condom use has been fiercely debated. The debates on the accessibility, availability and distribution of condoms in schools are not new nor are they uncontested. In Namibia, the HIV and AIDS policy in education does not explain how, when and by whom condoms should be made available to learners. This leaves it to schools to decide on how (and whether) to make condoms available to learners. As a result, individual school‘s choices not only vary, but are mediated by different factors that are not always in the best interest of learners who, as the foregoing discussion suggests, continue to participate in behaviour that, amongst other things, puts them at risk of HIV infection and falling pregnant. Relying on Foucault‘s theory of discourses, this study investigated the dominant discourses that shape learner, teacher, parent religious and traditional leader and traditional healer perspectives, responses, and experiences with regard to the accessibility, availability, and distribution of condoms in school.
The study was conducted in nine schools in Kavango Region in Namibia using a mixed methods approach. The study used triangulation in the data collection process through the use of questionnaires where 792 learners participated in this component, and focus group discussions and individual interviews targeting four groups namely, learners, teachers, parents and religious leaders, traditional leaders and traditional healers. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS), and findings from the focus group discussions and individual interviews were analyzed identifying themes and patterns and then organizing them into coherent categories with sub-categories.
The study revealed that the majority of adult participants opposed the idea of making condoms available in schools; advocating abstinence instead. This was despite evidence on the prevalence of sexual activity amongst youth in the community. Reasons had to do with various competing and hierarchized discourses operating to shape participant beliefs, perspectives, and responses in a highly regulated and surveilled social and cultural context. Put differently, the dominant discourses invoked a particular sexual subject; authorized and legitimated who invoked such a subject; who was and was not allowed to speak on sexual matters; as well as how sexual matters were brought into the public space of schools. Such authorization and legitimation regulated the discursive space in which discussions on sexual health, safe sex, and resources such as condoms were permitted; with negative consequences for the sexual well-being of youth in Kavango Region.
The study also highlighted the tension between freedom, choice, and rights, showing how complex in fact is decision to make condoms available in school. On the one hand, teenagers positioned themselves as capable subjects who had the right to exercise choice over their sexual lives. Requesting parent consent was thus viewed as a violation of this right to choose. Such a position displayed authority and agency by learners that was pitted against views amongst adults in this study that positioned youth as having no agency. In their view, youth (a) were still children and thus innocent and pure, (b) ought to abstain, and (c) were difficult to control given the modern context. Adults believed that early sexual involvement by learners did not result from lack of vigilance and control on their part, but rather from exposure to modern social mores.
The study concluded that (a) schools remain difficult spaces not only for mediating discussions of sex and sexuality, but also for providing resources to mitigate sexual risk amongst leaners,
(b) in highly regulated societies, dominant religious discourses are produced and reproduced in and through existing institutions such as family, church, and schools; highlighting how these serve to normalize beliefs and perspectives, (c) the dominant discourses shaping communities in which schools find themselves remain inconsistent with school discourses that are shaped by modernist conceptions of childhood and youth, and (b) adult choices to sanction and obstruct schools from making condoms available (and in the case of teachers, not accessible and distributable) put the very children at risk that they propose to be protecting
An exploration of learners’ autonomous learning of mathematics by using selected Visual Technology for the Autonomous Learning of Mathematics (VITALmaths) video clips: A case study
No full textOne of the major problems in the achievements of learners in mathematics is the difficulty they experience in performing tasks involving higher level thinking skills which are developed through autonomous learning behaviours (Karp, 1991). Thus, to engage meaningfully in high level mathematical tasks, one should be able to work independently (Karp, 1991). Teachers therefore should support learners in developing the skills that will afford them the opportunity to manage their own learning outside the sheltered surroundings of the classroom, when the teacher is no longer there for support (St. Louis, 2003).
A study was undertaken with 11 Grade-10 learners to ascertain how their engagement with the VITALmaths video clips support and improve the learners’ understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem and the addition and subtraction of fractions autonomously. The VITALmaths database of video clips, which consists of short video clips (1 - 3 minutes long) was developed collaboratively by students and researchers at the School of Teacher Education at the University of Applied Sciences North-Western Switzerland and Rhodes University in South Africa (Linneweber-Lammerskitten, Schäfer & Samson, 2010). The video clips, which are freely available, can be downloaded on mobile phones.
The study was structured into four different phases during which data was collected and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. I specifically looked at the learners’ use of manipulatives during their learning of the Pythagorean Theorem and the addition and subtraction of fractions, whether there was a growth of a discourse-for-oneself and whether or not their engagement with the video clips enhanced the learners’ understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem and the addition and subtraction of fractions.
While the theoretical framework provided a sound basis for researching autonomous learning, it required a considerable effort to determine whether the participants showed growth in terms of moving from a discourse-for-others to a discourse-for-oneself.
The study revealed that the learners’ engagement with the VITALmaths video clip encouraged the use of manipulatives in their learning of the Pythagorean Theorem and the addition and subtraction of fractions. The majority of the learners involved in the study showed a growth of a discourse-for-oneself. A number of the learners showed an enhancement in their understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem and the knowledge involved in the addition and subtraction of fractions.
The overall findings showed that mobile technology can easily be incorporated in the learners’ learning of mathematics. The VITALmaths video clips can play a significant role in the learners’ autonomous learning and understanding of certain mathematical concepts
Notebook of unremembered poems
No full textMy poems contain narrative elements and explore themes of identity, motherhood, sexuality, and fear of relinquishing control. Sharon Olds, in her book Stag’s Leap, sums up my intention: “and I saw again how blessed my life has been, / first, to have been able to love, / then, to have the parting now behind me.” My collection chronicles a path towards acceptance of self from childhood onwards, and, more than that, a pleasure and pride in self, and I have tried to find the forms which will reflect this path in the reader’s own experience. Most of the poems are written in a conversational voice and a free-form style which gives me creative licence to explore transition and transformation
Heartbeat of The Rain
No full textMy play script is a docu-drama inspired by the 1950s Drum journalists: Can Themba,
Bloke Modisane, Nat Nakasa, Henry Nxumalo, Lewis Nkosi, Peter Magubane, Casey
Motsitsi and Todd Matshikiza. The setting is a Sophiatown shebeen through which
the characters move in and out. The central dramatic exploration hinges on female
characters’ experiences rather than the perspectives of the male journalists connected
to them. I dramatise documented events such as Modisane’s wife leaving him and
taking their daughter with her, or a woman who buried her lover’s body after he was
beaten and stabbed to death. There are other twists and turns based on the Drum
journalists writings. I play with the seriousness of politics, love affairs, and the
comedy of their daily lives. My influences come from plays such as Nongogo (1959)
and Sophiatown (1986).
The Beat is dedicated to all the women who have been silenced and as a result
became products of their consequences. Their voices remind me as a theatre maker
that my poems and plays might arrive in me as pure SONGS (Dipina) or a CRY
(Kodiyamalla). Sometimes their inspiration will spring from my traditional family
rituals, as a PRAISE song/s (Dithoko/ Thoko), or from a simple memory of a
childhood church song, a HYMN (Difela/ Sefela). At times these words will present
themselves as a source of where one comes from, CLAN NAMES (Seboko/ Poko).
These stories will find me in the dusty streets of my village and township
HERSTORY… they will touch, move, provoke, push and force me to vomit on page
words that are subjects of that which we are even when silence seems inevitable.My poetry collection fuses Sesotho and English, often within the same poem, as a
way of showing how I live within and between two cultures. I write to celebrate these
two tongues without compromising either language and allow each poem, to express
its own musical component, tone, rhythm, and pace as it moves between stage and
page. My poems converse about difficult subjects from a feminine voice. They look at
family structures and dynamics, using everyday household things as metaphors. They take on deep family narratives of generational curses, births, deaths and love. There are also some more political poems about community outrage, the exploitation caused by outmoded culture and tradition, and about the nightmare that constantly wants to come out of the township
Class actions as a means of enhancing access to justice in South Africa
No full text21 years into democracy South Africa is marked by starkly contrasting experiences in the lives of its
citizens. For some few, theirs remains a society defined by opulence and social, economic and
political entitlements that accompany it. For a few beneficiaries, democracy has brought with it
remarkable changes which have translated through their lives in economic, political and social
empowerment and wellbeing. Accompanying these changes has been the establishment and
importantly, the enhancement of access to modern political and legal democratic and participatory
institutions of governance for these citizens. And yet, for the remaining majority of South Africans,
their experience is marked by social and economic deprivation, poverty and vulnerability. These
latter experiences are attributable to the historical legacy of colonialism and apartheid which
continues to present itself in the form of persistent poverty and inequality in a ‘new South Africa.’ It
is within this new South Africa, that this deprivation is further exacerbated by an increasingly
unaccountable and unresponsive government ‘at war with its citizens.’ Service delivery protests,
then have become a (if not the) way in which the poor and vulnerable get together as a collective,
to try and take on the government in way they know how within their means, on deprivations of
housing, electricity, water, sanitation, social assistance, healthcare and education. Finding an
alternative legal means, whereby poor and vulnerable people themselves, may address these
challenges is in the purpose of this thesis. However, the emphasis is not on addressing the plight of
vulnerable groups through dependency from outside help, but on finding a means in which the
agency (albeit constrained) of people to address their own concerns is recognised. The work
investigates how law can enhance the collective agency of poor people to change their socioeconomic
circumstances. In particular I investigate how the class action, a legal device which can
enable people to come together collectively as a class in litigation for the enforcement of their rights
of access to housing, electricity, water, sanitation, social assistance, healthcare and education, can
achieve this. I provide recommendations on legal reform on how best access to courts can be made
easier through the removal of barriers for impoverished communities to collectively enforce their
socio-economic rights. I position the Regulation of Gatherings Act, a legislation which is aimed at
affording legal protection to protest action, as a as accessible gateway into towards class litigation
A review of generalized linear models for count data with emphasis on current geospatial procedures
No full textAnalytical problems caused by over-fitting, confounding and non-independence in the data
is a major challenge for variable selection. As more variables are tested against a certain
data set, there is a greater risk that some will explain the data merely by chance, but will fail
to explain new data. The main aim of this study is to employ a systematic and practicable
variable selection process for the spatial analysis and mapping of historical malaria risk in
Botswana using data collected from the MARA (Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa) project
and environmental and climatic datasets from various sources. Details of how a spatial
database is compiled for a statistical analysis to proceed is provided. The automation of the
entire process is also explored.
The final bayesian spatial model derived from the non-spatial variable selection procedure
using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation was fitted to the data. Winter temperature
had the greatest effect of malaria prevalence in Botswana. Summer rainfall, maximum
temperature of the warmest month, annual range of temperature, altitude and distance to
closest water source were also significantly associated with malaria prevalence in the final
spatial model after accounting for spatial correlation. Using this spatial model malaria
prevalence at unobserved locations was predicted, producing a smooth risk map covering
Botswana.
The automation of both compiling the spatial database and the variable selection procedure
proved challenging and could only be achieved in parts of the process. The non-spatial
selection procedure proved practical and was able to identify stable explanatory variables
and provide an objective means for selecting one variable over another, however ultimately
it was not entirely successful due to the fact that a unique set of spatial variables could not
be selected
An evaluation of sampling and statistical methods for long-term monitoring of subtidal reef fishes : a case study of Tsitsikamma National Park marine protected area
No full textTsitsikamma National Park (TNP) possesses the oldest (established 1954), and one of the largest
(350 km2) ‘no-take’ marine protected areas (MPA) in South Africa. A long-term monitoring (LTM)
programme to observe the subtidal reef fishes in the TNP MPA was established in 2007. To date, 243
angling replicates have been completed, and a total of 2,751 fish belonging to 41 different species have
been caught and released. In an era of unprecedented global biodiversity loss, data that can be used to
monitor ecosystems and gauge changes in biodiversity through time are essential. This thesis aims to
improve the methodological and statistical processes currently available for LTM of subtidal reef fish
by providing an evaluation of the TNP MPA LTM programme.
Angling data revealed definitive spatial structuring, in the form of spatial autocorrelation, and a shift in
viewing spatial dependency as a statistical obstacle to a source of ecological information created a new
avenue of data inference. Species-specific distribution maps identified localized habitat as the main
predictor variable for species abundance, emphasizing the need for accurate a priori bathymetric
information for subtidal monitoring. ‘Random forest’ analyses confirmed spatial variables are more
important than temporal variables in predicting species abundance. The effectiveness of Generalized
Linear Mixed Models (GAMMs) to account for spatial autocorrelation was highlighted, and evidence
that disregarding spatial dependencies in temporal analyses can produce erroneous results was
illustrated in the case of dageraad (Chrysoblephus cristiceps). Correlograms indicated that the current
sampling strategy produced spatially redundant data and the sampling unit size (150 m2) could be
doubled to optimize sampling.
Temporal analyses demonstrated that after 50 years of ‘no take’ protection the TNP MPA ichthyofauna
exhibits a high level of stability. Species-specific size structure was also found to be highly stable.
Dageraad was the only species to exhibit a definitive temporal trend in their size structure, which was
attributed to recruitment variation and the possibility that large individuals may migrate out of the study
area. The inadequacy of angling as a method for monitoring a broad spectrum of the fish species was
highlighted, particularly due to its selectivity towards large predators. As a result, a new sampling
technique known as Stereo Baited Remote Underwater Videos (stereo-BRUVs) was introduced to the
LTM programme in 2013. Stereo-BRUVs enabled sampling of 2640 fish belonging to 52 different
species, from 57 samples collected in less than two years. A comparison of the sampling methods
concluded that, compared to angling, stereo-BRUVs provide a superior technique that can survey a
significantly larger proportion of the ichthyofauna with minimal length-selectivity biases. In addition,
stereo-BRUVs possess a higher statistical power to detect changes in population abundance. However, a
potential bias in the form of ‘hyperstability’ in sites with unusually high fish densities was identified as
a possible flaw when using stereo-BRUVs.
In an attempt to provide a more rigorous method evaluation, simulation testing was employed to assess
the ability of angling and stereo-BRUVs to accurately describe a decreasing population. The advantage
of this approach is that the simulated population abundances are known, so that each sampling method
can be tested in terms of how well it tracks known abundance trends. The study established that stereo-
BRUVs provided more accurate data when describing a distinct population decline of roman
(Chrysoblephus laticeps) over 10- and 20-year periods. In addition, spawner-biomass was found to be a
more accurate population estimate than relative abundance estimates (CPUE and MaxN) due to the
inclusion of population size structure information, highlighting the importance of length-frequency data.
The study illustrated that an evaluation framework that utilizes simulation testing has the potential to
optimize LTM sampling procedures by addressing a number of methodological questions. This includes
developing a procedure that aligns data collected from different sampling methods by applying
correction factors, thus ensuring LTM programmes are able to adapt sampling strategies without losing
data continuity
The chemistry of Algoa Bay ascidians
No full textThis thesis investigates the chemistry of 25 ascidian species collected from Algoa Bay, South
Africa with a concerted focus on metal accumulation by these ascidians and the possible
interaction of these metals with ascidian metabolites. Chapter 2 details the screening
techniques employed to establish the presence of nitrogenous metabolites (1H- 15N HMBC),
hyper-accumulated metal ions (ICP-MS) and potential metal ion/ ascidian metabolite
complexes (LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS). Unfortunately, exhaustive attempts to detect intact metal
ion/ascidian metabolite complexes through the use of liquid chromatography with parallel
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry/electrospray mass spectrometry (LC-ICPMS/
ESI-MS) were unsuccessful. However, the LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS data obtained for the
crude organic extracts of six of the Algoa Bay ascidian species, Distaplia skoogi, Aplidium
monile, Aplidium sp., Didemnum sp., Leptoclindines sp. and Polycitor sp. enabled
identification of a number of ten halogenated metabolites, namely the indoles 2.28-2.30, and
the tyramine and tyrosine derivatives (2.31-2.33, 2.41, 2.43, 2.44 and 2.46), within the
ascidian extracts. This study confirmed that LC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS is a powerful tool for the
dereplication of halogenated metabolites in complex mixtures especially where these
compounds are present in very small amounts. This study is also the first report of these
compounds (eight of which are known) in African ascidians. Compounds 2.32 and 2.46 have
not been reported before from a marine source. Compounds 2.28-2.30 and 2.33 were
present in sufficient amounts in the respective ascidian extracts to allow their isolation and
structure elucidation using standard spectroscopic techniques
Chapter 3 explores the ability of ascidians to accumulate a wide range of metal ions at
concentrations which are often orders of magnitude higher than those of the surrounding sea
water. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the
total ion concentrations of 24 metals in 25 Algoa Bay ascidian species. To the best of our
knowledge this is the largest and most extensive investigation of metal concentrations in a
group of different ascidians occurring in the same area. Hypotheisizing that the metal ion
concentrations for each ascidian specimen screened may represent a unique fingerprint for
each specimen principal component analysis (PCA) was used in an attempt to establish
whether there were spatial, temporal or phylogenetic relationships associated with the metal
concentration fingerprints of the ascidians that formed part of this study. The PCA results
showed that there were no statistically significant relationships between ascidian metal ion
concentrations and either the collection year or the collection site of the ascidians. However,
species from the family Didemnidae provided the clearest statistical evidence supporting a
phylogenetic relationship between these ascidians and their hyperaccumulated metal ion
profiles. Furthermore, these results suggested that ascidian species are indeed actively
concentrating metal ions from the surrounding sea water and are not simply sinks for
passively accumulated metal ions. Interestingly, the concentration of vanadium in the set of
ascidians studied did not appear to correlate with any of the other metals accumulated by
these ascidians suggesting that there is possibly a unique method employed for the
accumulation of vanadium by ascidians. Chapter 4 investigated this possibility further after
the nucleosides 4.10, 4.11, 4.13, 4.15, 4.17 and 4.40 were isolated from the vanadium
accumulating ascidian Aplidium monile.
Studies into the interactions between nucleosides and vanadyl are unfortunately rare and
usually qualitative in nature with limited information provided about the stability or structures
of the complexes formed. The vanadyl accumulating aplousobranch ascidians e.g. Aplidium
monile dominated our study of Algoa Bay ascidians therefore providing us with the rationale
to investigate the relatively little studied binding ability and stability of vandyl-nucleoside
complexes. Potentiometric studies were conducted to determine the stability constants of
complexes formed between the oxovanadium ion vanadyl (VO2+) and the commercially
available nucleosides 4.10-4.14. The data afforded by this analysis clearly confirmed the
complexity of the vanadyl/nucleoside complexation and suggested that guanosine (4.12)
formed the most stable complex with oxovanadium ions. We were also able to establish a
third protonation constant for the hydroxyl moiety in 4.12 with a logK 8.87 which has not been
previously reported.
Finally, Chapter 5 revisited the cytoxicity two Algoa Bay ascidians, Clavelina sp. and Atriolum
marinense the extracts from which produced promising bioactivity results in previous studies
against oesophageal cancer cells. The HP-20 fractionated extracts of Clavelina sp. and
Atriolum marinense proved to be similalrly cytotoxic to breast cancer cells. With the exception
for the 100% acetone(aq)fractions the NMR data for both species suggested that most active
non polar fractions were dominated by what appeared to be structurally unremarkable fatty
acid glycerides and as such were not pursued further. Purification of the 100%
acetone(aq)fraction of A. marinense resulted in the isolation of a styrene trimer, 5.1, common
to both ascidian extracts. The NMR simulation software WIN-DAISY was employed to
confirm the structure of 5.1. Attempts to establish if 5.1 was an isolation artefact or a product
of marine pollution were inconclusiv
Contesting Masculinities: A Study of Selected Texts of Resistance to Conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s
No full textThe theoretical framework for this thesis and analysis of primary texts revolves around the problem of conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980s. The ideology of masculinity that underpinned and sustained the practice of conscription is referred to throughout as the hegemonic version. This term is interchangeable with others, namely masculinism and ‗the real man.‘ The aim is to interpret the selected texts for strains of resistance to the practice of conscription and its assumptions as to what to what constitutes the natural or real man.
In the Introduction to this thesis I begin by explaining the personal dimension of my role as researcher, after which I motivate my research project and explain its theoretical and methodological orientation, focusing on the concepts that play a significant role in analysis of the primary texts. The Introduction concludes with an outline of the content of Chapters 1–5.
Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion, on the general level, of the practice of conscription and resistance to it, and proceeds to a concern with conscription in 1980s South Africa. Attention is paid to prevailing attitudes towards gender and sexuality within both the SADF and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). Discussion of gender and sexuality as constructs of identity proceeds to a focus on the conceptual tools for textual analysis provided by theories of masculinity. The final section of this chapter pays attention to specific post-structuralist notions of identity that serve analysis of the primary texts, that is, the notions of the subject, agency and the author.
Having engaged mainly with secondary texts in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents the first sustained critical engagement with primary texts in which resistance was expressed against the institution of conscription and the hegemonic version of masculinity that underpinned it. These expressions of resistance occurred within a rock music counter-culture of the period, known as the Voëlvry movement. Attention is given to overlaps or links between this counter-culture and that of America in the 1960s, as well echoes between the Vietnam and Border Wars. Analysis of these links is applied to a memoir selected for its appropriateness. Threaded through the chapter is a concern with expressions of masculine identity within the Voëlvry counter-culture, the SADF and the ECC.
Chapter 3 focuses on three novels and one collection of short stories, each narrated in the first person and written by gay authors who performed their National Service. Attention is paid to the protagonists‘ perceptions of themselves, their troubled relationships with their fathers, and the struggle to come out within a context that prohibited them from doing so.
Chapter 4 concerns three wartime memoirs and two written by men who refused to perform their National Service. Underlying concerns in this chapter are the question of fact versus fiction in the genre of the memoir, authors‘ perceptions of and relationships with women, and expressions of vulnerability.
Chapter 5 concentrates on the interviews that comprise the Appendix. The chapter establishes its theoretical ground by focusing on principles of narrative structure and the relation of personal to narrative identity. The chapter pays attention to the displays of power and the vulnerabilities of both veteran soldiers and resisters. Theory deployed in analysis of the primary texts serves the principal concerns articulated in the title to the thesis
Effect of lipid inclusion levels in aquafeed on carcass composition, quality change during storage and nutrient excretion in dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus)
No full textDusky kob, Argyrosomus japonicus, is an aquaculture species in South Africa that is in pilot commercial production. While the major nutrient requirements of the species are known, the advantages of incorporating formulated feeds into the diet of the species has yet to be fully explored. Research on formulated feed composition is required to: minimise input costs; improve the organoleptic properties and meat quality; and minimise nutrient loss, which contributes to environmental pollution. This study sought to test the impact of different lipid levels in aquafeeds fed to dusky kob juveniles by determining:
(i) growth performance, feeding efficiency, proximate and fatty acid composition;
(ii) chemical changes and shelf-life of refrigerated fish fillets; and
(iii) metabolic rates and nitrogen excretion of juvenile dusky kob. And more..