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Education for sustainable agriculture: the old and new curricula for agricultural sciences in South African schools
Get PDFAbstractThis article explores the support given to Education for Sustainable Agriculture (ESA) bythe South African Agricultural Sciences school curricula. It compares two post-apartheidcurricula: the current Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) and the phased-outNational Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Agricultural Sciences in terms of content,knowledge requirements, cognitive processes and philosophies of education for sustainableagriculture, as well as the role of assessment and the stated purpose of the curricula. Whilethe NCS had a vision of sustainable agriculture and of a progressive curriculum, these aimswere not supported in the detail of the curriculum. The CAPS presents a shift back to moretraditional, discipline-based agriculture, with a detailed curriculum, which provides moresupport for ESA in terms of fundamental ecological knowledge as well as sustainableagriculture strategies. However, the CAPS, has fewer requirements for practical agriculture,higher order learning and engagement with broad socio-economic issues. The paperconcludes with recommendations for supporting ESA, through teacher education andamendments to the assessment requirements
Developing a Cohort Web Application: Real-time Monitoring of Breastfeeding Indicators
Get PDFInvesting in the development of methodologies for timely intervention in breastfeeding practices that provide improved indicators and prolong breastfeeding duration positively impacts the health of women and children. Aim: To develop children cohort data capture interface of a national reference institution for high foetal, neonatal and child risk from birth, covering all hospitalisation up to the second year of life for real-time monitoring of breastfeeding indicators and prevalence. Methods: Four primary criteria were considered: data security (specific permissions for different profiles and encryption of sensitive data), researcher time streamlining, data quality and construction of data export auxiliary tools. Results: A web-based tool for data collection using a mobile device or computer was developed. The tool successfully allowed the ongoing collection for a defined population cohort of measures related to breastfeeding: maternal factors, child-related factors, health service issues, nipple use, introduction of fluids and other processed foods, as well as breastfeeding practice. Conclusion: The developed product enables the validated extraction and collation of data from existing electronic records and other sources for the monitoring of breastfeeding practices. Such data can be used to refine guidelines and individual behaviour to maximise the benefits of breastfeeding and avoid early weaning
The Impact of COVID-19 on Urological Cancer: An internet Search Volume Analysis
Get PDFObjectives: Health services have been disrupted due to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). With patients, unable to access face to face healthcare, many turn to sources such as the Internet for health-related information. Other patients ignore all other health related issues and focus on the threat posed by a pandemic. This study sought to analyse the Internet health-seeking behaviour related to urological cancer of patients in the United Kingdom (UK) during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Methods: Internet search volumes over a 3-month period, during the UK pandemic, were analysed using Google TrendsTM to obtain a search volume index (SVI) and compared to an equivalent pre COVID-19 period. The SVI measures relative search volume and was obtained for “Prostate Cancer”, “Kidney Cancer”, “Bladder Cancer” and Testicular Cancer” searches. Results: The average SVI for Prostate Cancer before the COVID-19 pandemic was 49.3, compared to 42.6 during the pandemic (p=0.001). Kidney cancer had an average SVI of 45.5 before the pandemic compared to 35.4 during the pandemic (p <0.001). Similar results were obtained for Bladder and Testicular Cancer. There was a 23% decrease in SVI for urological cancer searches during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic (p <0.001). Conclusions: The decline in searches for urological cancer during the pandemic may have implications. Patients maybe ignoring new cancer related symptoms which could result in late diagnoses, public health campaigns are required. Patients with cancer may not be utilising online resources available to them and healthcare professionals should reach out to patients at a time when face-face interaction is limited
The International Digital Transformation of Healthcare: Telehealth Development in the Global Community
Get PDFUsing advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), telemedicine and eHealth are providing a means to transform systems of care for people throughout the world by providing greater access to clinical service, consultation, sharing knowledge, education and training, public and community health, health systems development, epidemiology and research. Leap-frogging over prior barriers, rapid advances in information communication technologies (ICT), computing, and wireless networks are offering greater continuity in access to these services in both developed and developing countries. The use of telehealth must be put in the context of the critical health needs in each country, cultural perspectives, current and future communication infrastructure, other supportive resources, and likelihood for sustainability. Furthermore, these telehealth efforts should be aimed at improving the local capacity in providing ongoing health services in each country and blend into that country’s current and future health care strategies. As the world continues to “shrink”, developing this international telehealth “network of networks” offers an opportunity for cooperation, collaboration, knowledge sharing and improving the health of every individual in the world, applying information technologies for peace and the betterment of mankind. The time is now for open and constructive dialogue designed to facilitate that coordination between key stakeholders and other international organisations. These types of international exchange experiences enhanced with telehealth offer significant opportunities for understanding the common denominators, as well as unique differences, related to global health among countries and cultures around the world. These programs can promote international understanding and mutual respect in a manner that can improve the health of the entire global community
Their capital has value, too: Exploring parental educational support in low-socioeconomic single-mother families
Get PDFParental educational support is a key contributing factor to the educational success of children (Epstein, 2018; Seginer, 2006). However educational research has shown that schools tend to engage with single-mother families from a deficit approach, labelling such parents as uninvolved and uncaring (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, DeJong, Jones, 2001). What is often not considered, is the embedded forms of capital present in single parent families and the ways in which single parents invest in their children’s education. In this article, we report on the findings of a qualitative multiple case study of single mother families from a South African community. Through narrative inquiry, six single-parent family units were researched for the contributions they make to their children’s educational success. Our theoretical framework was informed by Yosso’s (2005) model of community cultural wealth. Our findings show that, despite severe societal adversity, these participating mothers invest in their children’s educational and emotional wellbeing by accumulating alternative forms of embedded community cultural wealth. Our findings have implications for how schools engage with and collaborate with such parent communities to advance positive school-family relationships.
Keywords: parental educational support, parental engagement, single-mother families, community culturalwealt
Unlearning my communication pedagogy through poetic inquiry
Get PDFFeeling disenchanted with my communication pedagogy to undergraduate students at a university of technology, I searched for a means to improve my practices. Arts-based forms of research offered potential for alternative ways to interrogate the teaching and learning that happened in the classroom. Poetic inquiry, together with Foucault’s framework of ethics, assisted in unveiling how personal and professional lived experiences have moulded the lecturer self and influenced my communication practices. The reflexive writing of poems created an imaginative space in which embedded values and assumptions could be excavated, and the richness and complexity of entrenched beliefs made visible. The creative space helped crystallised my thinking, evoked new interpretations and generated fresh insights of my white privilege. Poetry, as one form of analysis, served to disrupt ingrained instrumentalist patterns of thinking and acting, whilst enabling more imaginative envisioning of my communication pedagogy.
Keywords: white identity, undergraduate students, poetic inquir
Pedagogy in poverty: Lessons from twenty years of curriculum reform in South Africa (2018) by Ursula Hoadley
Get PDFLearning for sustainable futures: a human development approach to citizenship education
Get PDFAbstractSituated in debates on citizenship formation through higher education, thispaper contributes to literature on policy processes and practices in theoperationalisation of National and Strategic Studies, a citizenship educationcourse in Zimbabwean teachers’ colleges. This is in order to evaluate theextent to which these practices and processes support the principles of humandevelopment which are linked to sustainability. This paper argues that ahuman development approach focusing on four values: empowerment,participation, sustainability and equity is significant in reimagining policyprocesses and practices that contribute towards learning for sustainablefutures. Drawing on interview data of two mid-level policy stakeholders, froma qualitative research study, the results indicate that policy processesundertaken in the introduction and operationalisation of National andStrategic Studies do not reflect and uphold democratic principles contributingtowards human development, social justice and hence sustainability. Thecontested democratic space in the broader context of the course has a bearingon the policy processes and practises adopted by policy stakeholders