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22nd Conference of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth and Moroccan Society for Telemedicine and eHealth 2017 - Casablanca 2017
Get PDFSpeech-language Pathology Services Delivered by Telehealth in a Rural Educational Setting: the School’s Perspective
Get PDFIntroduction: Access to speech-language pathology services for children in rural and remote communities is often limited. Telehealth is increasingly used to provide these services to schools, demonstrating high satisfaction with both service providers and recipients, but the requirements for successful program implementation are as yet unclear. We aimed to explore the implementation requirements for a telehealth speech-language pathology service for children from the perspective of a rural school. Methods: A qualitative approach, supplemented by program activity data, was used to understand the experiences and perceptions of the benefits, limitations, enablers and barriers of a telehealth speech-language pathology program delivered to a school servicing approximately 400 children in a small rural town in the state of Queensland, Australia. Thematic analysis was conducted of transcripts of individual semi-structured interviews with nine school teaching staff and field notes of informal discussions regarding 85 speech-language pathology telehealth sessions (n = 9 children) during program establishment and implementation. Results: The speech-language pathology telehealth service was acceptable to teaching staff at the rural school, who cited improved access, the suitability of the technology for child engagement, and perceived effectiveness. Implementation issues were highlighted as critical to program success and scalability, particularly staff workload, technological issues, communication processes, and sustainability. Conclusion: School-based speech-language pathology services delivered via telehealth were perceived as a suitable way of increasing access for children by rural school staff. Future implementations of telehealth speech-language pathology programs should prospectively consider workload implications and develop strategies to communicate with and involve school staff.
 
Epistemic justice through ontological reclamation in pedagogy: Detailing mutual (In)fallibility using inseparable categories
Get PDFImpulsive uses of collective memory to rally support for decolonised education have been a characteristic of the student movement, establishing clear divisions through binary oppositional thinking. Analysing the binaries that constitute the decolonial turn, I highlight misconceptions of decoloniality which facilitate the erasure of oppositional voices in decolonisation. Misconceptions of decoloniality manifest as the dismissal of all “non-African” knowledge as colonial. I subsequently caution the perverted inversions of power in knowledge production in Higher Education South Africa and interrogate positions which I perceive as recreating fundamentalisms in the quest for decolonised education. Using a decolonial critique that frames education as emancipatory, I argue for the impossibility of separable categories. I conclude by raising two questions, which require further investigation: what is the role of Higher Education in South Africa today, and does decolonial thinking in praxis displace assumptions that continue to perpetuate and maintain coloniality in the South African academe
Decolonising the mind: Mathematics teachers exploring possibilities for indigenising the school curriculum
Get PDFMore than twenty years after the ushering in of a democratic order, South African universities remain complicit in driving colonial ideals through curricula (de Beer & Petersen, 2016; Fataar, 2018). These curricula position Western people as superior individuals who seek to help disadvantaged non-Westerners, the latter who are weak, helpless and dependent, and cannot survive without aid from Western philanthropists. In this paper, the call to re-orientate curricula away from knowledge systems which have been used to devalue indigenous African people by making them the “Other” in the country of their birth, is heeded. This is done by creating an opportunity for practicing teachers (who were part of a postgraduate module and included teachers of different races) to reconceptualise the current school curriculum, by placing African learners and their contexts at the centre of teaching. In this qualitative study, 20 practicing teachers were purposively selected to draw on their own visions and talents and those of their multi-racial learners within their contexts, to develop possibilities for indigenising the teaching and learning of mathematics. This was aimed at decolonising the mind by transforming teachers’ understanding of themselves and encouraging them to tap into their critical thinking and analytical skills when examining the current school curricula. To accomplish this, teachers studied the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in mathematics, and developed units of work aimed at valuing indigenous knowledge. Data was drawn from teachers’ portfolios of evidence, which included photo-narratives and reflections on the unit of work. Thematic analysis was used and the findings revealed that teachers and their learners tapped into resources within and outside the school, and engaged in work that was responsive to their own needs. However, the exercise demonstrated that these teachers found it difficult to emerge from the comfort of the factual mathematics they taught to include indigenous links from contexts around them. They attempted to produce contrived associations with the knowledge from the Curriculum Assessments Policy Statements
Editorial: Management, Informatics and Governance
Get PDFAs we live through the digital revolution and, for that matter, have entered the much acclaimed fourth industrial revolution, we need to also take a glance back, to look at where this has all began. There are many academic scenarios – and some not so academic – but in principle, it appears that, like many other scientific endeavours, it was started by and for the military. With regard to Alternation’s own trajectory, Smit and Chetty (2018a; and 2018b) provide a few brief insights.But be that as it may. Tim Berners-Lee was the first to connect the dots, and provide a vision for the future, in 1989, with the sketch on the cover of this issue of Alternation. And, after the 30 years, since, we want to dedicate this issue to him
Report on the 2016 KwaZulu-Natal Pearson eLearning Pilot Project
Get PDFGovernments and institutions in Africa are increasingly turning to ICT-based solutions in order to improve the education performance of their students. Specifically, the promise of eLearning to improve and to better facilitate learning has spurred innovation towards provision of eLearning resources on mobile devices such as tablets. Tablets hold enormous potential in delivery of eLearning due to their portability and provision for multiple uses. This study aimed at understanding the efficacy of tablet-based digital content on teachers and learners and consequently, to offer recommendations for sustainable, scalable eLearning models. This report presents key findings from an eLearning research pilot conducted in 12 schools at KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The results indicate that an eLearning intervention could have an impact on the learners’ subject-specific skills, that teachers and learners gained digital literacy in their use of the eLearning intervention, that learners gained confidence in using the eLearning intervention and integrated various digital resources in their learning over time, that learners were sharing content more over time, that the majority of the teachers felt comfortable integrating the digital content in their teaching over time. The findings in this report would help educational leaders, content developers, technological providers and the Department of Education to make sound decisions in relation to developing and implementing eLearning interventions, especially in South African schools. Based on the findings of the eLearning research pilot, this report also presents recommendations based on pedagogy, eLearning, training, support and facilitation, implementation, hardware, partnerships and provides possible considerations for tablets in educational rollouts
In a Privileged World: The Psychosocial Experiences of Underprivileged Adolescent Girls in a High Fee Independent Gauteng Private School
Get PDFTo overcome the effects of socioeconomic barriers on education, many independent schools offer financial aid in the way of scholarships and bursaries. This financial aid is intended to offer access to quality education for underprivileged youth; however, positive school experiences rely on more than just physical access. This study explored the psychosocial experiences of underprivileged adolescent girls attending an independent affluent school. By using Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecosystemic Model, gender differences in development, as well as the Students Multiple Worlds Model, an understanding is created of how moving between worlds of affluence and poverty may influence the identity formation of the female adolescent learner. This phenomenological study was conducted using the qualitative, interpretative method of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Using a series of unstructured interviews with each participant, information was gathered that provided insight into the psychosocial experiences of each of these girls. Findings were focused on areas of cultural identity, value formation, feelings of belonging, social comparison and perceptions of support. These findings contribute to the improved functioning of bursary programmes in independent schools and will enhance the well-being of adolescent girls in navigating between the worlds of affluence and poverty
The Interface of Politics and Religion in Zimbabwe: Rethinking Religious Leaders as Agents of Consecration and Repudiation
Get PDFThis article seeks to problematise religious figures and politicians who use religious discourses, narratives and functions to justify oppressive hegemonic systems and structures. In doing so, we show how various religious figures have amalgamated or joined together with oppressive political figures to maintain the status quo, paving the way for what we term the ‘consecration’ and ‘enthronement’ of political figures. Furthermore, we show how religious figures who failed the ZANU PF’s political part of their ideology, were dislodged from enthronement due to their different understanding of democracy. To problematise oppressive religious discourses used in the politics of an oppressive status quo, we position our article within critical emancipatory research (CER) discourse, by paying attention to its tenets, such as social justice, elimination of false consciousness, and emancipation. The article references our observations and findings, deriving from document analysis, on how religious leaders have related to the ZANU PF over the years. The argument is that religion, in the context of politics, should be aimed at improving human conditions, promoting social justice and achieving emancipation, and challenging oppressive political structures. It should unmask violence and represent all religious followers fairly and equally, regardless of political affiliation
Resisting the Statist Reduction of the Self: On the Effects of Shaykh Yusuf’s ‘anti-politics’
Get PDFShaykh Yusuf al Maqassari (1626-1699) is noted for both resisting Dutch expansion in the East Indies as well as his role in building the Cape Muslim community. But rather than politics, his writings focus on mysticism, in particular, the principles of the Sufi path and Sufi metaphysics. When there is a reference to politics, it is ‘anti-politics’ in that he advises the spiritual aspirant to withdraw participation in matters of the state. This paper explores the effects of Shaykh Yusuf’s ‘anti-politics’. It argues that in the context of the post-Westphalian state, Shaykh Yusuf’s ‘anti-politics’ was a way of resisting being inscribed by the economic logic of that state and its reduced notion of the self; that his mysticism offered alternative ways of being and acting in the world; and that these alternative ways helped the Cape Muslim community maintain its durability in the face of a number of historical pressures