African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies
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COVID-19: The Dynamics of Quality of Life (QOL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Get PDFThe objective of the study is to conduct an exploratory review of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the theme of COVID-19 pandemic morbidity and mortality considering the dynamics of Artificial Intelligence and Quality of life (QOL). The methods used in this research paper include a review of literature, anecdotal evidence, and reports on the morbidity of COVID-19, including the scope of its devastating effects in different countries such as the US, Africa, UK, China, and Brazil, among others. The findings of this study suggested that the devastating effects of the Coronavirus are felt across different vulnerable populations. These include the elderly, front-line workers, marginalised communities, visible minorities, and more. The challenge in Africa is especially daunting because of inadequate infrastructure, financial, and human resources, among others. Besides, AI technology is being successfully used by scientists to enhance the development process of vaccines and drugs. However, its usage in other stages of the pandemic has not been adequately explored. Ultimately, it has been concluded that the effects of the COVID-19 are producing unprecedented and catastrophic outcomes in many countries. With a few exceptions, the common and current intervention approach is driven by many factors, including the compilation of relevant reliable and compelling data sets. On a positive note, the compelling trailblazing and catalytic contributions of AI towards the rapid discovery of COVID-19 vaccines are a good indication of future technological innovations and their effectiveness
Building Trust and Support for Partnership Agendas through the Requisites of Early Community Involvement
Get PDFOne of the aims of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is infrastructural development. In pursuance of this goal, partnerships and collaborations remain key responses. Thus, Goal 17, which is the climax of the SDGs, revolves around partnering with private investors to generate the required capital for the attainment of said developmental goals. Using some public-private partnership (PPP) projects as case study, this paper aims to analyse how early involvement or non-involvement influences the project communities to trust the project handlers and give support towards sustainable infrastructural development. The researcher applied qualitative method data gathering techniques and analysis. Findings show that communities that seemed to have been well engaged at the initial stages only experienced ‘therapeutic’ and ‘manipulative’ involvement because firstly there was a flagrant disregard for initial agreed-upon principles and tenets of inclusive governance and secondly the promoters of the collaborations did not do enough to have an all-inclusive advocacy with community groups. The study recommends that the law governing the implementation of PPP in Lagos State be modified to allow community representatives feature prominently on the committee for infrastructural projects right from the initial stage through the entire process
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Consumption Habits, Food Purchasing Behaviours, and Food Security Status among South Africans
Get PDFThis study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food consumption habits, food purchasing behaviours, and food security status among South African adults. The researchers conducted an online consumer survey for the month of October 2020. Approximately two-thirds of participants were youth and women, predominantly from KwaZulu-Natal. A significant number of participants reported to either having remained the same weight or gained weight. Changes in food consumption habits included a significant increase in snack consumption, increased water consumption, and improved food skills. Notably, no food was eaten significantly more than before COVID-19 and no food was eaten significantly less than before COVID-19. Regarding food purchasing behaviours, a significantly high number of participants indicated that food prices increased during the lockdown. Whilst a significant number of participants indicated that they had no difficulties eating enough food, a significant number of participants reported that they could not afford to buy more food and as a coping strategy resorted to planting vegetables. The findings of this survey provide an advancement of knowledge on food consumption, food purchasing behaviours, and food security status during emergency situations as well as long-term food-related strategies.
Exploring the Perspectives and Parental Roles in the Academic Performance of University Students with Disabilities
Get PDFThe present study focusses on exploring the impact of parental support on the academic performance of students with disabilities. A qualitative study approach was used to explore students with disabilities' perspectives of parental support and the impact it has on their academic performance. This qualitative study purposively selected eight participants. They were subjected to semi-structured, open-ended, one-on-one interviews, and these interviews were recorded using an audio recorder with their permission. The collected data was analysed using thematic content analysis. Parental support may take numerous forms, including emotional, physical, and financial assistance. As a result, parental support influences academic success and the adjustment of students living with disabilities to their new environment. However, parental knowledge, attitudes, and tolerance of a student's disability have been shown to be obstacles to meaningful parental support. This study concludes that for students with disabilities to perform to their maximum potential, parents must be trained and empowered to provide necessary support including motivating their children
Threats to Decolonial Immanent Ethics
Get PDFThe last three decades have witnessed a distinct shift in the identity and purpose of higher education across the world. From being a site for predominantly public institutions offering a Humboltian social good, higher education has morphed towards narrowly responding to powerful national economic growth imperatives. Both public and private institutions now compete aggressively along neoliberal market principles to provide an economic good. African higher education is not immune to such persuasions. There is now aggressive competition for students, personnel, and physical and economic resources. An insidious performativity discourse has become normalised, emphasising outcomes, throughputs, and performance measurements. This culture is likely to impact the work of the academe, especially as it relates to research and scholarship, is without question. There is little contention that the understanding and application of fundamental ethical principles in the conduct of research is likely to be threatened. Contemplating (South) African research ethics in institutions whose governance is inspired by the traditional colonial (Anglo) model that pledges allegiance to a heterosexual white male value system, which requires a critical deconstruction in the face of transformation and social cohesion discourses that urge the rejection of race and race markers and a discounting of identity politics. This conceptual article considers how we might mitigate the deleterious effects of a neoliberal higher education milieu and the marginalising of (Black) race as a compelling socio-cultural resource. This paper argues for a transition from a narrow, technical, ethical compliance towards understanding and applying Deleuzian immanent ethics
Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThere are many challenges faced by scholars when designing research that is ethically compliant. These include issues of consent, confidentiality, and how to give feedback to participants, for example. However less is known about how non-South African researchers, specifically Zimbabwean doctoral students, navigate ethical dilemmas when conducting their fieldwork whilst being registered in South African universities. This gap is especially concerning given the high number of Zimbabwean doctoral students in South Africa. This paper poses the following questions: (1) What are the challenges encountered by a Zimbabwean doctoral student doing fieldwork in Zimbabwe whilst being supervised in a South African university? (2) How can these challenges be mitigated? In answering these questions, the paper uses a collaborative autoethnographic approach to empirically ground its arguments. The paper argues that South Africa’s higher education institutions have a duty to ensure research integrity of its students even if those students are conducting fieldwork outside South African borders. We observe that there is often a disconnect between formal ethical administrative processes and what actually happens on the ground. Potential solutions are to increase the autonomy and improvisation of students and supervisors in overseeing and doing research in these contexts
Challenges and Opportunities in Ensuring Ethical Research in Africa
Get PDFThe main ethical issues specific to the African continent research agenda relate to the vulnerability of African researchers, particularly as a result of inadequate resources, inadequate or lack of applicable legislation, and genetic variability of African populations that make samples from such populations most sought-after by researchers from other continents. This paper explores some of the ethical research challenges in Africa through an ethico-legal assessment of the literature and offers opportunities for addressing these challenges. The literature review findings revealed ethical dilemmas that include consent issues, cross-border transfer of samples and material transfer agreements, commodification of human material as well as benefit sharing. Based on these findings, opportunities for ethical research arise and these include benefit sharing such as researcher recognition and participating community study-related health benefits and well-defined agreements that consider appropriate specimen access and use. Significant changes in African research status quo are required to counter the effects of ethical research challenges, thereby ensuring sound ethical conduct and integrity in research. In addition to the noted opportunities, this paper also recommends monitoring of the fate of exported samples and proposes an ethical matrix that can be used by governments and institutions in addressing the highlighted research challenges in ethical decision making and policy intervention
Editorial: Research Integrity and Ethical Challenges in African Higher Education
No full textThe proposal for this special issue was ambitious, broad, and purposeful. Researchers must follow ethical and integrity principles throughout the research process, from design to reporting. There is a greater focus on research ethics and integrity in higher education institutions (HEIs) to avoid researcher misconduct, which can have a negative impact on the institution's reputation. Many HEIs have established strategies to oversee and manage ethical issues related to research within their institutions because of this notion. The primary function of such guidelines is to monitor research studies, particularly, those involving human subjects, to ensure that they adhere to national and international ethical guidelines and standards. This special issue titled Research Integrity and Ethical Challenges in African Higher Education aims to emphasize the significance of ethics and integrity in the development of African educational practices, as well as the subsequent ethical challenges
Recruiting Competent Teachers in South Africa for a Sustainable Future: The Role of School Governing Bodies
Get PDFGiven the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 agenda, several countries have introduced various initiatives and reforms towards attracting and recruiting competent teachers to empower the next generation so that they can face global challenges and transform and sustain the development of society through education that is inclusive, equitable, of quality, and life-long. This study is, therefore, concerned with the role of school governing bodies to recruit competent teachers for a sustainable future. The study is grounded within the interpretative paradigm using a case study approach for data collection from a small sample consisting of ten school governing Bodies (SGBs) in uMkhanyakude District. The findings from this study establish that SGB members perform supervisory duties, prepare interviews, and conduct marking and selection as well as recommending staff. However, members of the SGB were not aware of the qualities required of competent teachers for a sustainable future. Furthermore, the study indicated that external influences and a shortage of qualified teachers are the major challenges encountered by members of SGBs in the process of recruiting competent teachers. The study concludes that the role of SGBs is significant and should not be downplayed if sustainable education that can transform our world is to become a reality
Negotiating Territoriality in North-Western Zimbabwe: Locating The Multiple-Identities of BaTonga, Shangwe, and Karanga in History
Get PDFMultiple identities are not an event, neither are they overnight occurrences. They undergo constructions and reconstructions over time. The BaTonga, Shangwe, and Karanga speaking people in the Musampakaruma Chiefdom of north-western Zimbabwe are not an exception. Forced colonial displacements and post-independence involuntary (and/or voluntary) migrations resulted in their settling in the Musampakaruma Chiefdom from which they have now come to negotiate for space, and ultimately their identities too, in the Zimbabwean mainstream nation-state making process. For years, these three ethnic groups have had a primodalist alliance to identity wherein their identification with ancestral places of origin appeared to have been common. This, however, has changed as the new terrain has offered them new options prompting rethinking of identity and ethnicity concepts. Using qualitative and historical ethnographic data obtained in Musampakaruma from April to September 2017, this paper reports the historical and contemporary socio-political experiences of the people in the area advancing the multiple identity phenomena. Taking Musampakaruma as a case, the broad nation-state identity is re-engaged in the paper from the perspective of so-called marginalised groups showing that while landscape and socio-ethno-identities are determinants of ‘multi-personalities’, deep theorisation of identity and ethnicity is required in nation-state development because ethnicities are based on interactions resulting in negotiated identities