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4IR in South Africa and some of its educational implications
Get PDFThis article focuses on the construction of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) discourse and some of its educational implications from a South African perspective. Using Foucault’s (1970) notion of enunciative modalities, and drawing empirically on the statements made by the Word Economic Forum, the South African government and some universities, this article shows that it is people in governments, the economy and academia who are positioned as authorities of delimitation who define what the 4IR is and who bring it into visibility. The article then shows that inevitability, STEM matter, instrumentalism and benevolence are the discursive coordinates around which the 4IR discourse currently revolves. The article also shows that it is crucial for human agency in the development of the 4IR to ensure that it is us, as human beings, who will determine how the 4IR will unfold, rather than have this future determined for us by machines
PROSPECTS OF TWINNING CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES THROUGH TRANSFORMATIVE ADAPTATION: LESSONS FOR AFRICAN CITIES
Get PDFIn most African cities, existing approaches to tackle climate change and sustainability issues have remained largelyweak, piecemeal and fragmented. For example, current adaptation practices are mainly focusing on ‘adapting to’climatic disturbances instead of ‘adapting with’ the vulnerable urban population. This approach views climate changeas the main source of vulnerability and focuses on protecting systems from weather and climatic events. It grosslyignores the social roots of vulnerability and misses out on opportunities such as those that emerge when climaticrisks are jointly treated with environmental sustainability concerns. To evade this problem, this paper proposes a shifttowards transformative adaptation, an approach that comprehensively attend to the entire urban socio-ecologicalsystem. The aim is to contribute to the discourse of inclusive cities by examining the prospects of simultaneouslyaddressing climate change alongside other urban development challenges. Drawing on growing literature and reportson climate change adaptation in cities, I argue that the adjustment approach does not comprehensively address theunderlying urban vulnerabilities and fail to match the severity of climate change impacts being experienced. On thecontrary, a transformative approach locates urban risk beyond the biophysical environment to the entire urban socialecologicalsystem.Thus,thisapproach is capable of jointlydealing withclimate change and other urban developmentchallengesasit holistically dealswith the underlying vulnerabilityrisksin urban settlementswhile addressingthe
root
causes of urban unsustainability. African cities can draw useful lessons from the benefits that come with atransformative adaptation trajectory
Entrenching performativity or enhancing pedagogy: Addressing the challenge of assessment policy and practice
Get PDFThe focus of the South African Education Research Association’s Assessment and Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) is to contribute to current initiatives and debates pertaining to the development and implementation of assessment systems for improving learning and teaching. In particular, the SIG’s members aim to address dominant performativity discourses impacting schools and universities by (1) providing a common understanding of the purpose and use of assessment, (2) locating the different assessment applications across the broader system within which learning and teaching occurs, and (3) highlighting recent initiatives impacting on assessment policy and practices. We think it essential to highlight critical policy and practice questions, while simultaneously acknowledging ongoing challenges for implementing enabling assessment systems that support the specific pedagogical needs of learners, teachers, students, and lecturers. Notwithstanding the complexities ofeffecting change, increasing discourse on, as well as relevant critique of, policies and practices that fail to improve learning and teaching, enhances possibilities for implementing enabling assessment policy and practice that seek to address the elusive challenge of equity and quality within the education system. 
Satellite City Dilemma In Post-Colonial Morocco: A Study Of Tamesna Town, A Big Empty Residence Or A Failed Urban Settlement?
Get PDFLaunched in 2004, Tamesna is part of ‘New Cities / Cities Without Slums Program’. The first satellite city was established to provide affordable housing to low-income residents, and a site for the resettlement of slum residents from urban Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Currently, Tamesna City is far away from meeting the criteria of a satellite city. As a result, the social housing settlement / satellite city of Tamesna as a ‘hope city – space of exceptions and expectations’ in the beginning has become a dormitory – ghost town, a city with no signs of life. This article’s objective is describing the satellite town of Tamesna case in terms of contemporary satellite city and social housing concepts as governmental ‘reterritorialization’ implementations in post-colonial Morocco. Contextually, this article aims to contribute equally to the understanding of the governmental policy implications including international (incomplete) investments (as post-colonial imperialism) to discuss the reasons behind the ‘New Cities’ social housing & satellite city policies including removing the poor from the city to a designed – designated ‘nowhere’ by creating ‘useful / useless’ Morocco once again after colonial time period in the country. The methodology of the paper is based on literature reviews, research on documents obtained from the governmental archive, observations, and interviews with stakeholders, designers, planners and inhabitants
Medical teleconsultation in the care of children with suspected rare diseases: a pilot study in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFObjective: To evaluate teleinterconsultation in medical genetics for cases of children with suspected rare diseases. Methods: Prospective study of qualitative and quantitative survey that evaluated the use and satisfaction with asynchronous teleinterconsultation for physicians from public hospitals in a city in the northern macro-region of the state of Minas Gerais. Results: A total of 21 teleinterconsultations were performed from September 29, 2020, to January 07, 2021. Eleven (52.4%) of them were able to establish the probable diagnosis in the first evaluation, and the others were within the protocols of rare disease investigation. Of the 12 requesting physicians, 11 (91.6%) were female, seven (58.2%) were paediatric residents, and five (41.7%) were paediatricians. Seven of the requesting physicians had never used telemedicine before. There was 100% satisfaction with the teleinterconsultation with the specialist geneticist. Conclusion: Teleinterconsultation in medical genetics for children with rare diseases met expectations, modified the conduct of non-specialist physicians in a city lacking a geneticist, and guided diagnosis and conduct in all cases
A social psychological perspective on schooling for migrant children: A case within a public secondary school in South Africa
Get PDFThe conceptualisation of school readiness is often based on ‘ideal children’ in ‘ideal situations’. However, in determining the readiness level of children who are considered vulnerable, it is important to understand the lived experiences of these children. In this study, migrant children (especially undocumented ones) within the borders of South Africa are the focus: they are considered to be vulnerable due to a legal contradiction that exists between the right to basic education and the South African Immigration Act of 2002. The study employed a qualitative case study design to investigate, using a psychosocial perspective, the school readiness of migrant children in a Public Secondary School in Krugersdorp, South Africa. It attempts to establish what school readiness means for teachers and parents, in the context of both the psychological and social development of migrant children in South Africa. Participants were 7 teachers and 6 parents of migrant children in the School. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using a constant comparative method of qualitative analysis within a grounded theory approach. The findings are that challenges affecting migrant children’s readiness for school include the lack of documentation; language barriers and an inability to continue schooling. Strategies are identified to address the challenges, including the school liaising with the Department of Home Affairs and the introduction of cultural diversity within the school. From the findings, it is evident that the South African government and Department of Basic Education must recognise the specific challenges of vulnerable groups to determine what school readiness means for them and assist them as far as possible
Effects of armed conflicts on teaching and learning: Perspectives of secondary school teachers in Cameroon
Get PDFThe ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon has resulted in more than 8300 attacks on schools yet education cannot wait. This study sought to find out the effects of the ongoing armed conflict on teaching activities in operational schools in the affected areas in Cameroon. Using a mixed method sequential exploratory design, qualitative data, collected from 19 participants through open-ended questions was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings were used to design a questionnaire, administered to 652 participants and data were analysed using multiple response, chi-square and equality of proportion test. Findings presented using joint displays indicated that attendance, content delivery, safety, discipline and assessment have been significantly hampered. However, classroom attendance was most significantly (P=0.000) affected, disrupting teaching and evaluation with differential effects found across locations and school types. It was concluded that teaching activities are ineffective and may result in further detrimental effects requiring more practical actions on school sites
Investigating opportunities for integrating methodology when teaching a life science topic (meiosis) to fourth-year pre-service teachers: A case study
Get PDFA qualified teacher is expected to have the ability to integrate their knowledge of the subject/s that they teach (disciplinary component) and knowledge of how to teach those subjects (professional component) for effective teaching to occur. This integration however can be challenging for pre-service teachers (PSTs) as the two components are taught separately at teacher education institutions. The aim of this study was to determine the possibilities of integrating the teaching of the two components when training future science teachers by investigating opportunities available for teaching pedagogy/methodology during the teaching of a content course. This research, conducted at a South African university, was a qualitative case study that was done through teaching, recording and analysing video-recordings of lectures; conducting video stimulated recall interviews with a teacher educator and focus group interviews with fifteen pre-service teachers. Data analysis was deductive and inductive, and the Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK) construct was used as a conceptual framework. The results showed that, while teaching content, the teacher educator was able to integrate some methodological aspects. Although not fully utilised, she also created many opportunities that could allow for teaching content as well as teaching about teaching. This helped PSTs to gain some PCK in a content course. The study concludes that teacher educators can integrate content and methodology when teaching content courses through modelling multiple teaching strategies which not only teaches the content to the PSTs but also shows them how to teach that content. The integration should however go beyond the visible routines of teaching to include explicit discussion of the pedagogical reasoning behind them
Representing teachers’ voices: An ethnodrama of Mauritian teachers under times of curriculum reform
Get PDFThis article emphasises the motivation for a methodological representation choice that captures teachers’ voices in a small island developing state context during the introduction of a curriculum reform. The diverse voices of teachers, as they inhabit a context that gears towards compliance and managed intimacy demands, are explored through the representational choice of an ethnodrama. A narrative inquiry methodology led to an ethnodrama representation which protected the anonymity and confidentiality of participants and simultaneously revealed multiple forms of agencies in entangled spatial and temporal dimensions. The findings foreground teachers’ choice of agencies and representations serve different interests which are influenced by whom they dialogue with in specific spaces. Ending with a fictionalised future enactment of the ethnodrama, this article closes with teachers negotiating their agency and opening reflections for future research in new normal COVID-19 spaces
CAN INCLUSIVE CITIES PREVENT THE NEXT PANDEMIC?: (RE) EMERGING DISEASES IN THE CONTEXT OF RURAL-URBAN LINKAGES
Get PDFHistory has obviously shown the mutual relationship between cities and disease outbreaks; how one reshapes or redefines the other and vice versa. The pandemic has amplified a multitude of existing and persistent developmental challenges humanity has been contending with at different scales and magnitude in different parts of the world. Putting to context the disease burden across space (as in the recent pandemic), this study suggests that cities do not exist in isolation; they mutually interact with rural areas for sustenance and livelihoods. This reciprocal relationship is not just critical to the growth and survival of cities but also to disease transmission as it will discussed shortly. Therefore, the paper attempts to address the question of how do pandemics create inclusive cities and how do inclusive cities in turn make or break pandemics? In answering this, the argument of how rural–urban linkages will increase the risk of emerging diseases and can make inclusive cities a far dream was forwarded