University Botswana Journals
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STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY IN BOTSWANA: HOW CAN ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK SUPPORT BETTER EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES?
Get PDFInclusive schools have become the hopeful contexts to support the empowerment of studentswith intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) through measures more likely to guaranteemeaningful school outcomes. Following in the footsteps of the UK SEN Policy ResearchForum’s recent publication about the accountability framework for education (AFE), this paperexamines education policy, provisions, and outcomes for students with IDD in Botswana andproposes a different approach for improvement. The paper charts the history of specialeducation provision, details policy and implementation issues that culminate in limitededucational outcomes, including transition to further education/employment. The question ofwhether meaningful outcomes can be achieved for this cohort with current school arrangementsand practices is deliberated. The accountability framework is used as a lens to argue for thearticulation of policies and measures that would lead to improved school practices andoutcomes. In adopting the accountability framework, an argument is made for caution aboutavoiding the market-driven dimension of accountability due to the risk of accentuating unequaloutcomes and social injustice. The paper recommends the deployment of the framework inresearch as a first step to identify strengths and weaknesses with IDD education and enable theset-up of policy and implementation mechanisms for better outcomes
ETHICAL LEADERSHIP FOR SCHOOL GOVERNANCE: A CASE STUDY OF FOUR SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN GABORONE
Get PDFThe importance of ethics in school leadership cannot be overemphasized. Even with well laid downeducation policies on ethics, cases of unethical practices in schools abound. This study examinedthe place of ethical leadership (EL) in promoting school good governance (GG) in Botswana. Thestudy selected participants from four senior secondary schools in Gaborone and was based on postempiricist paradigm and a concurrent mixed method research design. Data was collected throughquestionnaires and interviews. The participants’ understanding of attributes of EL and GG showedthat school leaders are ethical in governance. However, in triangulating the qualitative and thequantitative data, it was found that school leaders’ argument that they involved stakeholders indecision-making was questioned by 45% of the teachers. Furthermore, most of the teachers (76%)and school leaders argued that they are not faced with ethical dilemmas as instructional leadersand leaders respectively. Although there is no unified code of ethics used by the schools, there aresome ‘unwritten’ codes of ethics embedded in their schools’ organizational culture which aregenerally implemented. Overall, the study showed that EL leads to school GG. The studyrecommends the formulation and enactment of a code of conduct to regulate the professionalbehaviour of educators in Botswana. It also recommends training and re-training programmes onthe enacted code of conduct
Feminist Ecology, Despoliation and Resilience in Environmental Education
Get PDFThe simple word “environment” has become synonymous with “human habitat” which is in turn an understatement because this habitat does not belong to humans alone, it is shared with animal and plant life whose diversity is comparable to that of human life. The characteristic diversity of the species of the human habitat or planet Earth came under threat from the activities that were undertaken by humans on behalf of development. Historical phases of human development are referred to as industrial revolutions which have so far counted up to four, according to scholars. These phases of development in human history coincide with periods of the greatest damage to the environment resulting in a systematic disappearance of the species from the human habitat the source of the natural resources that have driven the industrial revolutions and is at the same time the dustbin into which waste products from the associated industrial and household activities are thrown. This essay examines feminist ecology, despoliation and resilience in environmental education
IN PURSUIT OF RELEVANCE: A TRACER STUDY OF MASTER’S IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (MADVS) GRADUATES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA
Get PDFUniversities are concerned about the relevance of their programmes and graduate tracer studies have been conducted to assess relevance. The University of Botswana (UB) is also concerned about the relevance of its programmes. Not many graduate tracer studies have been carried out to assess the relevance of UB programmes. This paper is based on a tracer study of the Master of Arts in Development Studies (MADVS) graduate programme in the Department of Sociology at UB. Data was collected through a survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and thematic analysis respectively. The study found that the programme was relevant to employers: graduates had occupational mobility, salary increases and could change to better (paying) jobs. Although graduates had a good university experience, they also pointed out areas of improvement in the curriculum, namely, that the Department should market itself and its programmes more, students should be encouraged to do dissertations, the Department should review its courses to align them with current and topical issues and that the programme should have different specialisations
A NOTE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AS AN INDIGENOUS TEACHING CLASSROOM FOR THE SAN: PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
Get PDFThe need to have a culturally relevant education system is not unique to Botswana. Over the last two decades, many governments in developing countries have changed their ideological orientation towards indigenous people’s education and espoused a more pluralistic, inclusive approach to the cultural diversity within their borders. The inclusion and participation of Sanin the education of their children as well as the use of teaching methods like observation and practice has the potential to change the current educational results among the San community
Discursive Slippage, Church Mafia, and the Editorial Dilemma of “An Untold African Narrative”
Get PDFLiterature is life converted into symbols which shape up into the various genres. The complexities of the symbols which add up to making human language effective for communicational and creative
and other purposes are a match for the extraordinary intricacies of human life experiences. Experimentation by writers with content and form in literature guarantees a violation of the pristine sanctity of the separation of the genres of literature. There seems to be no longer a clear-cut demarcation
between fact and fiction, between the temporal and the spiritual, between the tangible and the intangible; both language and literature seem caught in a surreal time warp that strains credibility in the experiences of living and reading. A recent book by MS Ramabulana titled Church Mafia: Captured by secret powers – an untold African narrative presents an opportunity to examine a few presumptions in the genre of writing referred to as life story which is about a type of experience that is commonly associated with spirituality and the intangible presenting itself as tangible and credible. The book is in the class of extended testimony in prose. It raises some interesting posers which have literary and spiritual implication, and are the subject of speculation in this essay
Food Culture in Botswana: A Need for Documentation
Get PDFThe subject of food is not the preserve of nutritionists. It is an important subject of attention in cultural anthropology because food can be a cultural code of communication apart from the purpose it serves in ensuring human and animal survival on planet Earth. The way food is prepared is capable of speaking volumes in each culture just as the manner in which it is served and eaten can pass on a lot of information. French cuisine is famous among Europeans, but not much is ever heard about food in many parts of Africa. This paper examines a few lacunae and possible palliative measures in the subject of food culture in Botswana
