UNAM Open Access Journal University of Namibia
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The use of contextualised teaching and learning in grade 11 and 12 mathematics classrooms in Gobabis, Namibia
Get PDFThis paper investigates the use of contexts in the teaching and learning of mathematics in two secondary schools in the Gobabis area using the Mayoh & Knutton (1997) taxonomy. It was found that not all contexts as suggested by Mayoh & Knutton were used by the teachers and that the context were almost entirely initiated by the mathematics teachers and were used as a primary strategy for presenting the content. The study recommended the introduction of the use of contexts in the pre-service training of mathematics teachers and that teachers create their own mathematics problems to solve rather than adhering to the problems provided in their textbooks which are often of a foreign origin
Oliver Mtukudzi’s Pindirai (intervene): A call for environmental sustainability in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe theme of environmental degradation has emerged as a major concern to activists, politicians, academics and others. Of late, musicians have also sought to contribute to the struggle for environmental conservation. This is because music plays multiple roles in society. It critiques issues such as abuse of power, gender imbalances and the exploitation of the environment. This article utilises Oliver Mtukudzi’s song, “Pindirai” to examine its contribution towards environmental sustainability in Zimbabwe. Employing Huggan and Tiffin’s postcolonial ecocriticism (2010), the article utilises textual analysis of Mtukudzi’s song to identify themes that promote environmental sustainability. Loosely defined, pindirai means (intervene). The article, therefore, investigates Mtukudzi’s role as an artist in an endeavour to establish his authority in calling upon his compatriots to become sensitive and friendly to the environment. While appreciating Mtukudzi’s artistic creativity and commitment to environmental sustainability, the article interrogates the assumptions behind the portrayal of Zimbabweans as engaging in ecologically harmful behaviour. It suggests the need to tackle deeper questions relating to survival in order to promote environmental sustainability. In turn, this would ensure sustainable development
A socio-cultural and linguistic analysis of postcolonial Christian naming practices in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe study of African personal names has interested a number of researchers from diverse fields. Focus on Christian beliefs in the postcolonial period and on the linguistic forms and the meanings communicated through these forms provides revealing insights to the relationship between language use and its sociocultural context, itself the concern of anthroponomastics. Zimbabwe’s political independence in 1980 represented a more robust Christian tradition and provided a framework for linguistic freedom that resulted in dynamic and creative ways of expressing Christian faith. Naming assumed exciting dimensions. The present study reveals the revitalisation of the traditional culture where naming is a specific, conscious and deliberate linguistic act intimately linked with values, traditions, hopes, fears and events in people’s lives. The data discussed in this article shows how black Zimbabwean parents communicate messages reflecting these dispositions through names that they create for their children in insightful, inventive and systematic ways in the postcolonial period
Analysing EMIS data: The case of Afrikaans
Get PDFSince Independence Afrikaans lost its status as official language. However, it is still used as lingua franca in parts of the country. In some schools Afrikaans is used as medium of instruction and also offered as a subject from grade 1 to 12. The purpose of this presentation is to analyse enrolment data regarding Afrikaans as captured in the Education Management Information System of the Ministry of Education in Namibia. An attempt will be made to ascertain whether any patterns regarding the enrolment of Afrikaans first and second language can be found. In conclusion, some remarks on the future of Afrikaans as school subject, also set against the proposals for a revised language policy for schools, will be made. EMIS is a useful tool that could be used by researchers and educationalists to document and discuss developments in the education sector, e.g. enrolment, teacher qualifications and physical facilities
Establishing ethos and envisioning a new Africa: Kwame Nkrumah’s invention at the 1958 All-African People’s Conference
No full textIn 1958, Kwame Nkrumah, the Prime Minister of Ghana, called for a conference of independent heads of state in Africa. It was a novelty in Africa. The conference was to provide a formal continental platform for the political deliberation of Africa by Africans. The paper carefully focuses on the nuances and purpose of Nkrumah’s invention. First, the work argues that Nkrumah strategically invented a rhetoric which sought to establish his ethos as a Pan Africanist whose leadership was crucial in the quest to free Africa from colonial domination. Secondly, the paper examines, through Nkrumah’s rhetoric, how the deliberative nature of the Accra conference was turned into an epideictic one. This paper has implication(s) for the role of rhetoric in the decolonisation of Africa
Exploring the girl-child’s body-mind crisis in Mahachi-Harper’s Echoes in the shadows
No full textIn its exploration of childhood, this article navigates the contours of the notion “girl-child” as the “sulbatern” or the “other” in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative, Echoes in the shadows. Also, in its articulation of the complexities of “childhood” in African Literature, the article endeavours to address broader issues such as the use and abuse of cultural practices in “knowledge legitimation” (Nnaemeka, 1997, p. 1) in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative. Premised on the feminist theory, the article shows how issues in feminism such as visibility, marginality, victimhood, silence, agency and subjectivity are problematised in the narrative. More importantly, the article argues that the “experience of childhood as a time of innocence, security, self-worth, and contribution to family and community” (Kurth-Schai, 1997, p. 193) is a distant fantasy for most children as shown by Vaida in Mahachi-Harper’s Echoes in the shadows. Even so, the writer is aware of the dangers of universalising the child’s experiences as monolithic and thus will contextualise the child’s experiences, specifically, the girl-child, within the Shona culture in Echoes in the shadows. The mental and physical plight of the girl-child is explored within the context in which the book is set and reveals how she is trapped in a familial institution that is supposed to protect and nurture her. Through the young girl Vaida, Mahachi-Harper shows how deeply violence is embedded in the domestic domain (Bal, 1988, p. 231). The paper concludes that it is difficult to attain social justice in a culture or society that pits male against female and adult against child; hence the paper advances for a child-centred social ethic which provides a more appropriate premise for addressing the needs and interests of the girl-child than the feminist approach
Recycling errors in the language classroom
Get PDFThis paper relates to the findings of a study on the constraints encountered by teachers in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in rural combined schools in the Oshana region. Errors and mistakes are as some the major constraints that teachers encounter in language teaching. While mistakes are usually at the surface of the speaker’s language awareness, errors are usually more internal. Many factors such as L1 interference can account for the occurrence of errors in a learner’s language use. It is argued that a consistent reinforcement of errors results in error fossilization. Even though Proponents of the Communicative Language Teaching approach have emphasised the significance of errors and mistakes in the language teaching and learning process, the role of teachers in the cycle of errors in the language classroom has been over-looked
Namibian teachers’ understanding of education for all issues
No full textThe purpose of this study was to find out Namibian teachers’ understanding of their work circumstances, goals of education for all (EFA) and quality of education. To obtain data on these issues, a structured questionnaire was administered to a proportional representative sample of 1611 primary and secondary school teachers from six regions. Some of the study’s main findings were that several sampled teachers taught under difficult circumstances in which their schools lacked classroom furniture, electricity, water, teaching and learning materials; had problems communicating with parents of their learners; had difficulties managing overcrowded classrooms; were given heavy administrative loads that prevented them from effectively undertaking their teaching duties and that they knew little about the existence of EFA goals. These and other findings are discussed in the paper and developed into insights for enhancing educational practice in Namibia and for identifying issues on which to base further research
The rights of the dead: A case of the Ovahimba people of Namibia
Get PDFThis paper stems from a research study conducted to explore the conceptions of Namibia’s Ovahimba tribe about the rights of the dead. Among other disciplines, the study locates itself under customary law, sociology and anthropology. The study employed a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. The population of this study was all the Ovahimba speaking people living in the Kunene Region. A combination of the convenience, the purposive and the homogeneous sampling techniques were used to select the sample. The study established that Ovahimba people believe that the spirits of the dead (ancestors) live and communicate with them all the time through the sacred fire. Therefore, they believe that the dead have equal rights as the living. It is therefore recommended that the Namibian nation be wary of importation of Western values that impose themselves on indigenous African cultures in the name of law and justice. The paper also recommends that the school curriculum for the Ovahimba people be vetted to ascertain cultural fairness and neutrality to avoid elements of ideological hegemonic impositions and/or brainwash
Land and racial domination in Zimbabwe: An African-centred critical analysis of selected post-2000 Zimbabwean-authored novels
Get PDFThe article makes an African-centred analysis selected post-2000 Zimbabwean authored novels that narrativise the land experiences in the country. The African-led land occupations of white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe from the late 1990s have necessitated the study and revisiting of the land question in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). The process that has been defended by the Government as part of the necessary land redistribution exercise to rectify colonial land injustices shows that the land question is as potent now as it was at the inception of colonial settlements. Zimbabwe’s land history has remained consistently contentious because land is the life-blood of the people’s livelihoods, black and white. For this reason, the process and aftermath of the occupations have rocked racial relations in the country and internationally. The controversies arising from the land occupations have culminated in the socio-economic and political instability of the country, and threaten to spill into and destabilise the SADC countries as well. It is against this backdrop that the article makes an African-centred analysis of selected post-2000 Zimbabwean-authored novels that variously respond to Zimbabwean land issues characterising the tumultuous post-2000 period. The view presented here is that literature defines the epicentre of the struggle of ideas, that partially but significantly, define what Zimbabwe is, including how and where she wants to go. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not (2006); Eric Harrison’s Jambanja (2006); John Eppel’s Absent: The English Teacher (2009) and Mashingaidze Gomo’s A Fine Madness (2010) are analysed in this light. The African-centred approach utilised in this chapter is significant in locating both texts and authors within the background that informs their fictional representations. The extent to which texts successfully balance their explorations of land and racial identity and help to influence society to rise above parochial partisan approaches, and encourage people to confront some of Zimbabwe’s land challenges would be worth noting