University Botswana Journals
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Sandy Grant, Botswana: Photographs of a Country in Transition People and their Places 1965-2016
Get PDFNAVIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING OF FRENCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC: PERCEPTIONS, PERSPECTIVES, CHALLENGES, AND PROSPECTS
Get PDFThe onset of the Covid 19 pandemic and the subsequent global lockdowns have affected all sectors of human activities and forced a change in service production and delivery worldwide. In institutions like the University of Botswana (UB) it has accelerated change towards the use of digital technology in teaching and learning. This adaptation has not been without challenges as all stakeholders have had to adapt to what has been deemed as the new normal. But even though there are a lot of challenges and unknowns to be navigated, the perspectives are also numerous. This paper uses data collected through a questionnaire to explore the experiences of lecturers and learners of French in the French Department of the University of Botswana, paying particular attention to perceptions towards online learning, its challenges, and its perceived perspectives. The results generally show that both learners and lecturers of French at UB have adapted to and appreciate the shift from traditional face-to-face teaching and learning to remote and/or blended teaching and learning
TOWARDS A COHERENT FRAMEWORK FOR INFUSING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Get PDFThe 21st century presented challenges and opportunities that demand certain skill set, termed 21st century skills. Technology and globalization have transformed how people perform tasks, relate to each other and their environment. Societies previously independent and industry-driven, have been significantly formatted to interdependent digitalized knowledge societies. As a result, education systems the world over have to alter their pedagogical practices in order to aptly produce employable and productive graduates. While a lot has been done to define the 21st century skills and expound their relevance, little has been done to guide classroom practitioners on how to infuse these skills in curriculum and instruction. This paper, using a desktop based critical review of six 21st century skills frameworks, sought to provide a coherent integrative 21st century skills framework for infusion of these skills in the school curriculum in an attempt to create a portrait of the learner depictive of their embodiment. The paper recommends a pedagogical practice wherein the learners complete project-based, cross-disciplinary tasks that encourage innovation and cross cultural collaboration.
 
The Impact of Non-tariff Barriers on Southern African Development Community: A firm base analysis of Botswana
Get PDFMutual gains in international trade are based on the assumption of absence of trade restrictions among trading countries. As the World Trade Organization, regional integrations and trade agreements decrease tariffs throughout the world, other barriers to trade have tended to emerge to attain the same protectionist objectives previously achieved through tariffs. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) on Botswana's trade within the Southern African Development Community region. In contrast with previous research, this study introduced infrastructure as a category of NTBs in the conceptualization of NTBs. In this study, 28 NTBs were categorised into four groups, namely, administrative, trade policy, technical and infrastructure. The findings made two major revelations: First, Administrative barriers were the most impactful, followed by Infrastructure, and then by Trade Policy; Technical NTBs were the least. Second, managers of smaller firms and less experienced firms perceived a higher level of NTBs. The findings suggest that studies in developing economies that omit infrastructure barriers may be misleading because of under-specification of an important trade barrier. Since NTBs are external to firms and macro in scope, overcoming them requires collective action by the business sector. It is recommended that export promotion programmes should concentrate on small and less experienced firms because their managers have a tendency to overestimate the impact of NTBs
Online Narratives of Restaurant Service Deviation in Botswana: A Comparative Study of Gaborone and Maun
Get PDFA comparative analysis of 71 sub-optimal TripAdvisor narratives of restaurant service recovery in Gaborone and Maun, Botswana, is undertaken. The aim is to review the service recovery processes used to address service deviation. Using the Labovian structure, the study highlights that for the two sites, reviewers presented their narratives in an emotional manner, clouded with disappointment and regret. The narratives eventually lead to the presentation of codas, some that communicate decisions not to visit the facility again. In minor incidents, a balancing act through the use modal verbs and adverbs of contrast in the coda is achieved; that rouses an optimistic decision for repeat visitation. However, some of the narratives suggest the existence of highly complex service recovery processes, this evidenced by the occurrence of ‘quadruple’ deviation. Further research is required to ascertain whether it is widely existent. 
The State Of Industrial Relations In Botswana: Collective Bargaining In Crisis
Get PDFThis paper explores the state of industrial relations in Botswana in the context of public sector collective bargaining as a structure of mediation and power relations. Previous research on Botswana trade unions has focused more on the workers strikes, without specific attention to the structure and process of collective bargaining. This paper fills this gap by examining efforts of trade unions to use collective bargaining as a platform to raise demands, and in the process to arouse workers consciousness. The authors argue that, while collective bargaining is a useful conciliatory structure, it can also be injurious to workers struggles if it is not backed by real collective power from rank-and-file workers to put pressure on the negotiation. A history of Botswana labour movement is outlined in relation to the economic and political background. The multiple roles played by the state as enactor of labour laws, as an economic agent and employer are outlined. To help appreciate the tussle between the key main players in public sector bargaining relevant Botswana labour laws are examined in light of the International Labour Standards (ILO) fundamental conventions (see www.ilo.org). In conclusion the critical role of trade unions as agents of change to promote workers’ rights and industrial democracy is recognised. However, the researchers posit that their ability to navigate power structures and to win depends on the balance of class forces
The Social History of the Khoisan in Botswana: An Experience in Development of Marginalised Ethnic Communities
Get PDFSocial history is an account of people’s social experiences over time. These experiences can be derivedfrom different social domains or disciplines, such as politics, economy, environment, land, human rights,and sociology. It is, therefore, an integral and objective history, rather than create a parallel history ofpeople. Its focus is to interpret people’s experiences. The Khoisan have a secondary or subaltern position intheir social historical development in Botswana. They are under marginalisation, ethnically, linguistically,and culturally. This marginalisation determines current social and historical condition of the Khoisan ofBotswana as they find themselves in secondary or inconsequential social historical development. TheKhoisan are talked about and planned for without objectivity and specificity as to how imposed socialinterventions could impact their lives. This is so because in Botswana, the Khoisan have not beenconstituted as an ethnic group that has rights to land, language, culture, natural resources that they couldcontrol for improving their lives. Therefore, the aim of this article is to interrogate issues about which theKhoisan are spoken about such as ethnicity, land, economic development, and how lack of their culture andlanguage in the official government education system reflects their social historical condition of perpetualmarginalisation. The paper further calls for socio-political and economic programmes that can preservethe Khoisan’s socio-cultural and economic systems. The reason for this is that without specific socialstrategies for them, the Khoisan cannot feel emancipated to decide on their lives nor confident to work inensuring their continued existence as ethnic groups with their unique social and historical identity. Sociohistorically,these constitute their most excruciating experiences in the development of Botswana
The 1975 Killing of Reni Les in Pandamantenga and Establishment of Botswana Defence Force
Get PDF‘In October [1975] near Pandamatenga a PMU [Police Mobile Unit] patrol was investigating the activitiesof a Belgian National when he opened fire without warning, killing a sergeant and wounding a constable.An automatic sub-machine gun was used. After an extensive air and land search over a wide area of remotecountryside he was traced to Nxai Pan area, and killed during the ensuing engagement’. This is an extractfrom a 1975 Annual Report by the Commissioner of the Botswana Police Service in relation to an operationthat ultimately achieved the capture and killing of a Belgian fugitive known as Reni Les. (However, othersources may have a different spelling of his names). Information is still very scanty and scattered regardingthe true identity of this man. Unfortunately, the report does not reveal much on this incident and most of theinformation published here has largely been collected from eyewitness accounts of civilians and soldiersinvolved in the operation. But it seems Reni Les had been a Lieutenant in the Belgian army
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CRUCIAL REQUIREMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFBotswana's national development goal commits to shift the country from a resource driven economy to a highly diversified knowledge one. This shift is motivated by the rising demand of the global knowledge economy. Thus, economic growth and development are knowledge driven and human capital dependent. This article, which is part of a larger study on teacher professional development and knowledge economy, is influenced by the Capital Theory of School Effectiveness and Improvement. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the Botswana's Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) of 1994 in view of the emerging demands and dictates of the knowledge economy. The discussion addresses how this policy places education and teacher professional development to produce the knowledge-based economy that this country aspires for. The critical question in this discussion centres on teacher professional development as a necessary strategy to drive knowledge- based education. It examines the manner in which the country tries to achieve the knowledge-based economy through teacher professional development. It compares Botswana’s appraoch with other approaches in the international spaces where stories of success are identified as commendable. Two key issues emerged from the study. The RNPE does not present a knowledge-based approach of teacher professional development, nor a clear road map for preparing school leadership as knowledge-based teacher professional developers. The discussion concludes that the education policy and its deliberate focus on school leadership professional development need more attention if its purpose is to serve as a key blueprint to transform Botswana into a knowledge-based economy
THE TROPE OF THE ABSENT FATHER IN BESSIE HEAD’S STORIES LIFE AND THE COLLECTOR OF TREASURES
Get PDFThis paper explores the notions of masculinity, paternity, and parentage in Bessie Head’s short stories, Life and The Collector of Treasures. Our claim is that since all three terms and the way they relate to each other are historically produced, they imbricate in the stories to yield a Tswana father-figure that is at once profoundly appealing and disconcerting. The father-figure in the stories is appealing because he resonates with the reader’s instinctive empathy with Bessie Head’s early childhood as a child of an unknown father. But the figure of the father that comes across in these stories also instils dread. The attributes conventionally accepted as hallmarks of manhood in Botswana society which they embody in the stories, lead men to perform behaviours that make them unlikely choices by anyone desiring a father figure. The displaced, disinherited, and excluded female characters’ unrequited unconscious yearning for a father figure in the stories, of course, can be read as reflecting what has been described as the female writer’s culturally conditioned timidity about self-dramatization and dread of the patriarchal authority of literature. However, the paper uses a combination of Lacan’s psychoanalysis and Fredric Jameson’s critique of late capitalism, to also relate the protagonists’ unrequited desire for a father figure to the broader issues of the articulation of power and the circulation of commodities under late capitalism. It reads the absent father in the stories as a metaphor of the subconscious lack that populist nationalism and mass production stoke and manipulate to perpetuate themselves even in the context of a postcolonial rural backwater depicted in the stories