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Creative inquiry: Exploring teacher researcher self-reflexivity through arts-based self-study
Get PDFThis self-study examines the identity loss and shifts in English Learners (ELs). It helps inform teachers about EL identity and improves my practice as an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher. The data includes teaching journals, reflective journaling, personal notes from students, and EL teacher freewrites. The methodology includes self-reflexivity and dual voice poetry, which included student notes in relation to my reflective teacher journal entries, as well as artwork by Frida Kahlo and a mirror cinquain. These methods revealed the following themes: assimilation and ambivalence. Additionally, the teaching journals and colleague freewrites demonstrated positivity and inspiration. The use of poetic devices as well as a visual artifact allowed new knowledge to form about my own teaching experience and challenged my preconceived perceptions about EL identity. These findings are beneficial for my own teaching practice as well as for pre-service teachers
Embroidery as method: Stitching together narrative becomings and data
Get PDFThere has been a shift in gender for the veterinary medical profession with little attention paid to the affects of women becoming veterinary students. To interrogate women becoming-veterinarian, I tell stories of becoming-veterinarian with the story of becoming-scholar using narrative inquiry. I used data produced with current veterinary students in conversation with a photograph of a white board and me. I embarked on an inventive analysis of sorting data excerpts and producing a new “white coat” with them—embroidering participant quotes onto the white coat I received when I entered veterinary school. This intra-action produced insights about becoming and I (re)present the crystallization of these analyses into narratives of becoming stitched together. In this story, I interrogate my role and pose questions about learning and becoming
Equity, access and quality in basic education: a review
Get PDFPresidential address presented at the 2014 SAERA conferenc
Curriculum reform as a driver for change in higher education: the case of South Africa
Get PDFAbstractA recent proposal by the Council for Higher Education (CHE) outlines a solution to thepersistently low and racially skewed completion rates in South African higher education.This involves lengthening the curricula of all qualifications through the insertion of 120credits of ‘foundational provision’. This article provides a critique of this strategy byexploring its origins and placing South African efforts at improving student access andsuccess in the international context. It draws on the narratives of two academics, one a topresearch professor and the other a foundation programme lecturer, employing the theoreticallens of Pierre Bourdieu to examine higher education as a social space or field. This analysissuggests that the power structure of higher education itself is likely to constrain theeffectiveness of the CHE’s proposal and ultimately fail to shift the low and racially skewedcompletion rates that plague South African higher educatio
On “predatory” publishing: A reply to Maistry
Get PDFI reply to an article by Murthee Maistry entitled “You f*uck one goat!” Counting the cost of predatory publishing. In his article Maistry confesses his ‘wrong-doing’ of having published articles in ‘predatory’ journals. He argues that he is alone to blame for his ‘trangressions’ because academia is necessarily a critical space that demands astuteness and constant vigilance, which he failed to uphold. Through showing remorse he hopes to restore his academic reputation, which he believes has been lost. In my reply I point out that Maistry’s loss of academic reputation is imagined rather than real. Moreover, I point out that his confession and works of those who he cites such as Beall and well as Mouton and Valentine are based on flawed assumptions which cause then to commit a category mistake by focusing on the ‘containers’ that information is in, instead of the quality of the information itself. I point out that Maistry as well as Beall are trapped in the domain of morality which makes them blind to the importance of being an ethical researcher in the academy. Instead of focusing on issues of moral decline (Beall) and moral failings (Maistry) I suggest that in a digital age we should use the opportunities that open access (QA) publishing provide for democratising academic publishing and to make it as affordable to as possible to as many people as possible. This requires, as Willinsky and Alperin (2011) argue, treating the ethical domain as a realm of positive action where one goes out of one’s ways to help others instead of focusing on issues such as exam cheating and research fudging, in this instance ‘predatory’ publishing.  
e-Oral Health and Teledentistry in Finland - an Overview
Get PDFDespite universal health coverage and a strong public health system, the oral health profile of Finland falls behind in an international age-matched prevalence of oral diseases. The oral healthcare system is organised and funded mainly by municipalities. Other stakeholders include the Finnish Student Health Service foundation (FSHS), government and private practices, where the Social Insurance Institution of Finland plays a major role in funding. Rise in the treatment need in recent years due to the increasing dentulous ageing population has challenged the healthcare system. Governmental response to the demand is an ongoing social and healthcare reform and increase of oral health professional education since 2004. However, the current and future treatment need is not met only by conventional prevention strategies and physical service provision. Finland has over the years supported a determined policy of building a digital healthcare architecture. This applies also to all fields of oral healthcare: virtual education, digital diagnostics, digital clinical workflow, national electronic patient records, patient-generated data registers, electronic prescriptions, remote consultation, digital service management, as well as research and big data mining. These tools could play an important role in improving national oral health and increasing equity. This is an overview of the above-mentioned fields of e-Oral health and teledentistry in Finland based on current scientific literature, national reports, strategies and legislation.
 
HealthSpot’s Pursuit to Provide Global Healthcare Access Through Telemedicine
Get PDFHealthSpot Station was a well-received business concept and revolutionary blend of healthcare and technology that minimised cost, hassle, and waiting time to see a doctor. Patients could visit their local pharmacy, enter a private, futuristic-looking, 40 square-foot, blue and white pod, be diagnosed by a doctor via video-conference and receive a prescription all within an average appointment time of 15 minutes. The HealthSpot Station had the potential to provide medicine to the masses, with the kiosks being deployed in developing countries and remote areas of the world. With ‘rave’ reviews from physicians and patients, $54 million in funding from corporations and other influential backers, and a contract with the number three pharmacy chain in the U.S, the HealthSpot Station was destined for success. So why did the company declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy after just five years? Understanding the process and causes provides cautionary insights for innovators within the telemedicine industry, and the lessons learnt may enhance the success of future endeavours. This case study will explore the factors that led to the demise of HealthSpot Inc
Secured, not connected: South Africa’s Adult Education system
Get PDFSouth Africa has a history of attempts to provide school equivalent education to black adults through night schools. Suppressed in the 1950s and 1960s, they resurfaced after the 1976 Soweto revolt, and in 1996 the Constitution secured adult basic education as a right. Night schools were renamed ‘Public Adult Learning Centres (PALCs)’, and seemed poised to become a powerful delivery mechanism, but continued as inadequate night schools. In 2015 the PALC system was ostensibly transformed into a community college one, but this transformation was based on the weak foundation of inadequate PALCs.
A new 2019 plan for the Community Education and Training College System includes long needed major overhauls that must be effected if adults’ right to effective and relevant education is to be finally realised.
This paper offers a history of night schools and of policy shifts, and looks at the major shifts promised in the new plan
Exploring the association of the National Benchmark Test results with the academic performance of medical students who completed the degree in minimum time
Get PDFThe National Benchmark Tests (NBT) have been used for selection and placement of students in South Africa since 2005. The NBT assess students’ cognitive knowledge in three domains: academic literacy; quantitative literacy; and mathematics. In this study we aimed to explore the NBT entry-level abilities in relation to school quintiles of the 2011 class of medical students at the University of the Witwatersrand who graduated in minimum time and to explore the link between the NBT domains and academic performance in the first, third, and sixth year of study. The results of students who attended Quintile 5 schools (n = 93) show that 31% obtained proficiency in NBT mathematics, 65% in NBT academic literacy, and 79% in NBT quantitative literacy. The academic literacy domain was a consistently significant predictor in all three years of study. The results show that proficiency and intermediate upper levels of all NBT domains are associated with minimum time completion