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Struggles for teacher education in the age of the anthropocene
Get PDFMajor shifts in the world ‘order’ – especially the urgency of climate change and biosphere destruction – pose challenges for education which require significant changes of practice in schools and universities, and thus to teacher education. This paper starts from a brief summary of issues at stake in the ‘Anthropocene Age’, arguing that the converging environmental crises have to be linked to the crises of capitalism. Pragmatist philosophy and the practice turn in the human sciences provide directions for rethinking the tasks which teacher education can contribute to an activist-oriented development of education in these difficult times for humans and the planet
‘Fitting In’: Social Cohesion among Skilled Migrant Indian Women and Host Diasporic Communities in South Africa
Get PDFMigration has traditionally been seen as a primarily male domain, particularly in developing countries. However, global practices have increased the visibility of women migrants such that the feminisation and irregularisation of migration has led to new flows of transnational migrant movements, particularly to South Africa. Attention is drawn to the growth of South-South migration, specifically focusing on Indian migrant women, as accompanying their professional spouses migrating to South Africa. Set within a social cohesion framework, this paper examines how the women attempt to find a ‘fit’ in a socially diverse society where distrust, exclusion and racism still prevail. This investigation is based on exploratory research using qualitative interviews conducted with married Indian women. The focus of this paper examines the reasons for their migration, their choice to migrate specifically to South Africa, perceptions of South Africa, their sense of inclusion and observes if they develop a sense of belonging to the country. Preliminary findings show that the migrants find South Africans very tolerant, but keep to themselves as the fear of crime impedes integration
Channelling Migrant Remittances from South Africa to Zimbabwe: Opportunities and Obstacles
Get PDFAs migration-development interactions continue to expand, migrant remittances have taken a leading role in cementing these interactions. Given the centrality of remittances in the migration-development debates, this paper gives an outlook into the experiences and strategies of migrants and their households in the transfer of remittances to Tsholotsho district in Zimbabwe. This paper seeks to show how South Africa based Zimbabwean migrants from the Tsholotsho district in Zimbabwe channel their remittances to their remaining household members. In addition, the paper examines the opportunities and obstacles encountered by migrants in negotiating different channels of remittance transfer at their disposal. This study was conducted using a mixed methods approach and data was collected in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. 159 household principals in Tsholotsho responded to survey questionnaires while five key informants were interviewed as well as 15 migrants based in Johannesburg. This study found that the experiences and strategies of remittance transfer amongst migrants and their remaining household members in Tsholotsho were congruent with findings of previous studies conducted in other regions and countries. Migrants preferred the use of informal channels over the formal channels. Despite the risks associated with the use of informal channels various factors including the cost of transfer led migrants to use informal channels of sending remittances
Impact of Change Commitment to Information Systems Change in the South African Construction Industry
Get PDFBusiness competition and growth in the Information age is fuelled by rapid innovation of Information Systems. In turn, business leaders’ demand rapid Information System (IS) adaption that would enable all stakeholders even in the small part of the organization to take advantage of innovation. Therefore, organizations upgrade in order to keep abreast with competitors in the global market. In addition, there is often a lack of commitment to IS change programmes from employees who may even go to the extent of resisting Information Systems change initiatives. In this article the author is investigating the associations and impact of IS change communication and understanding worth of IS change on commitment to IS change in the construction industry using a survey research design. Results indicate that both communicating IS change and understanding of worth of IS change are moderately related to commitment to IS change. Moreover, regression analysis results proved that understanding worth of IS change is a better predictor for commitment to IS change when compared to communicating IS change
‘Involvement’ and ‘Fun’ as Potential for Deep Learning: Unusual Suspects in a Higher Education Economics Programme
Get PDFWhile games have much potential as pedagogical tools, there is limited empirical evidence that indicates the extent to which they might be successful in a higher education Economics programme. This prompted an investigation in the form of a qualitative case study at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), utilising a sample of first-year Economics students who had participated in a series of games incorporating key micro-economics topics.Northcutt & McCoy’s Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA), a unique, structured and rigorous methodological approach that advocates strong participant involvement in the research process, provided the foundation for the research. Focus group discussions, individual semi-structured interviews and reflective journals provided the data for the study, which revealed that the use of games was a key catalyst in stimulating learning. Of note is that students firmly placed ‘involvement and fun’ at the core of the learning process, which resulted in deeper learning of economic concepts. This has implications for education in re-evaluating what is meant by the terms ‘involvement’ and ‘fun’ with regard to an enhanced learning experience within the classroom.The findings highlight the potential for learning that judiciously selected economics games might have for student learning in a re-imagined teaching and learning space
Evaluation of the Effects of a Spellchecker on the Intellectualisation of IsiZulu
Get PDFThrough its bilingual language policy and plan that recognises English and isiZulu as official languages of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), UKZN has aggressively promoted the intellectualisation of isiZulu as an effective strategy in advancing indigenous, under-resourced African languages as vehicles for innovation, science, and technology research in Higher Education and Training institutions. UKZN recently launched human language technologies (HLTs) in isiZulu as enablers towards the intellectualisation of the language. One of these is an isiZulu spellchecker, which was trained on an organic isiZulu National Corpus. We evaluate the isiZulu spellchecker’s effects on the intellectualisation of isiZulu. Two surveys were conducted with the target end-users, consisting of relevant questions and the System Usability Scale, and an analysis of words added to the spellchecker. It is evident that the spellchecker has had a positive impact on the work of target end-users, who also perceive it as an enabler in the intellectualisation of isiZulu. The survey responses show modest success for a first version of the tool. The analysis of the words added to the spellchecker indicates that new words are being added to the isiZulu lexicon
Editorial: Can Policy Learn from Practice?
Get PDFAt the best of times, higher education is known to be in a state of unbridled turbulence. That it should be any less so, remains (thankfully) a point of unresolved contention. What we do know from the South African experience, is that during times of discomfort, institutions take refuge in policy formulation, policy reform, and less frequently, policy dialogue. This was evident in the decades preceding what has been typecast as the ‘pre-democratic era’, when education policy units were the heartbeats of universities, some boldly located in the portals of campuses – supported by their university communities, others hovelled in more perilous enclaves, often at the mercy of the state security apparatus. Singularly and collectively, these units exposed the brutality of a divided and divisive education system, characterized by governmentality, geared for social engineering. Policy units envisioned a new future of possibility in which universities nurtured human talent for the greater good.In the years following ‘liberation’, policy units redirected their energies from activism and advocacy to an evidence-based approach to systemic reform, providing the signposts for reform and identifying benchmarks to measure the success of transformation agendas. During this period, many of the policy units quietly faded into the landscape, being either absorbed into mainstream academia or into government departments. The ensuing period was one of vigorous policy development by government, accompanied by an emerging evaluation culture, often associated with performativity
But the Man Does Not Throw Bones
Get PDFFrom time immemorial some African peoples associated bodily and spiritual healing with their relationship with the living-dead and communication with them. The use of selected animal bones by a special healer was one of the means of communication with the living-dead in the process of determining the cause of illness and receiving advice on its cure. This practice endures in some parts of Africa today. Our cane spirit- addicted white boss incurred the wrath of his white colleagues in the South Africa of the seventies by submitting himself to medical examination by a Western-trained Bantu medical practitioner operating in a Bantustan. In defence of his decision our white boss declared: ‘But the man does not throw bones!’ By this he contrasted the bones to the stethoscope; the latter being the symbol and reality of the assumed superiority of Western medicine over African ways of healing based on African culture. At the same time he challenged the racism of his time by accepting that he could be examined by a Bantu medical doctor. The purpose of this essay is to examine the ensuing epistemological and cultural tension between the bones and the stethoscope, and argue that the tension is based on different and contending paradigms of healing, none of which has prior and unquestionable superiority over the other. This argument is reflected in part by the somewhat unconventional style of our presentation, that is, storytelling, as a way of challenging the contentious dogma that there is only one ‘science’
Effects of mHealth Nursing Intervention on Uptake of Antenatal Care and Pregnancy Drugs Among Pregnant Women Attendees of PHC in Oyo State.
No full textMaternal mortality is high in Nigeria especially in the rural areas due to knowledge deficit about expected care and labour process, socio-cultural belief, healthcare workers’ attitude, and physical and financial barriers to quality healthcare access. Mobile health (mhealth) technology which is the use of mobile communication devices in healthcare delivery, is intended to reduce costs, improve care access, remove time and distance barriers, and facilitate patient- provider communications needed to make appropriate health decisions. Globally, the effect of mhealth on health outcomes has been explored but there exists a literature dearth about its use on maternal health issues in Nigeria. Methods: This comparison study carried out in four randomly selected Local Government Areas across Oyo South Senatorial district involved pregnant women in comparison groups. One group of pregnant women (191 women) had a mobile health nursing intervention in which mobile telephones were given to nurses and pregnant women to facilitate communication (intervention group) while the control group of 192 women continued with the regular traditional care. Over an 8-month period, women in the intervention group received free voice calls and health promotion text messages from nurses. Uptake of antenatal care attendance, Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in Pregnancy (IPTp) and Tetanus Toxoids (TT) was monitored throughout the follow-up period in both groups. An outcome evaluation checklist was used to document utilisation and completion of the three indices among pregnant women. Results: The study revealed a statistically significant difference in antenatal clinic (ANC) attendance (66.8% versus 53.1%, p=0.006) and uptake of IPTp (47.6% versus 18.4%, p<0.001); although there was an improved uptake of Tetanus Toxoids (TT) between intervention (64.5%) and control groups (54.1%) this was not significant. Significantly more women in the intervention group who completed ANC had IPTp (OR: 14.9, CI: 6.3-35.7) and TT (OR: 8.2, CI: 1.7-39.9) than those who did not complete the ANC. Conclusion: Improved uptake of Antenatal Care Attendance, Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in pregnancy, and tetanus toxoids occurs as a result of mHealth, and is beneficial for health promotion, and prevention and early identification of diseases resulting in maternal and child mortality reduction in Nigeria
Telehealth in the Amazon Region in Latin America: an Overview
Get PDFPurpose: This paper describes the current status of telehealth in the Latin American Amazon and displays the result of a distance course on malaria, focused on physicians and healthcare professionals from nine countries of the Amazon region. Methods: Data were collected on telehealth implementation and course participation for the following countries in the Amazon region: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia. Results: There are 808 Municipalities in the Amazon region. Over half (51.9%) of the Municipalities have implemented or are implementing telehealth projects in the region. Among these 6 countries, Brazil has the highest percentage of municipalities with telehealth projects implemented (498 of 808, 61,6%;), Venezuela (38 of 91, 41.7%) and following by Bolívia (5 of 39; 12,8%). Participation in the distance course on malaria has included 868 students: Brazil, 291 participants (33.5%); Bolivia, 28 (3.2%); Colombia, 104 (12.0%); Ecuador, 52 (6.0%); Guyana, 2 (0.2%); Paraguay 1 (0.1%), 270 Peru (31,1%); 102 Venezuela (11.8%) and others (2.1%). Nearly all (99.1%) of learners would recommend the course to colleagues. Conclusion: Shared action between countries is an important framework that can lead to incorporation of telehealth resources and training for a common, remote setting, as exemplified by international activities in the Amazon region