649 research outputs found
Language and Power : The Implications of Language for Peace and Development
No full textLanguage is a tool used to express thoughts, to hide thoughts or to hide lack of thoughts. It is often a means of domination. The question is who has the power to define the world around us. This book demonstrates how language is being manipulated to form the minds of listeners or readers. Innocent words may be used to conceal a reality which people would have reacted to had the phenomena been described in a straightforward manner. The nice and innocent concept 'cost sharing', which leads our thoughts to communal sharing and solidarity, may actually imply privatization. The false belief that the best way to learn a foreign language is to have it as a language of instruction actually becomes a strategy for stupidification of African pupils. In this book 33 independent experts from 16 countries in the North and the South show how language may be used to legitimize war-making, promote Northern interests in the field of development and retain colonial speech as languages of instruction, languages of the courts and in politics. The book has been edited by two Norwegians: Birgit Brock-Utne is a professor at the University of Oslo and a consultant in education and development. From 1987 until 1992 she was a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam. Gunnar Garbo, author and journalist and former member of the Norwegian Parliament, was the Norwegian Ambassador to Tanzania from 1987 to 1992
Women Protesting Against War, Writing and Acting for Peace
No full textThe University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.The media can be accessed here: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/mershon07/111307.mp4Birgit Brock-Utne is a Professor of Education and Development and Director of the M.Phil. in Comparative and International Education at the University of Oslo.
Her research interests include peace education from a gender perspective, education in Africa, language in education, higher education in Africa and donor influence on education in the developing world.Ohio State University. Association for Women in DevelopmentOhio State University. Mershon Center for International Security Studie
From digital divide to digital opportunities? A critical perspective on the digital divide in South African classrooms
No full textDissertation submitted for the degree of Ph.D. Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of OsloThe global disparity of ICT, the inequality in ICT skills and disparate access to the knowledge society are well documented (James, 2003; Jensen, 2003; Norris, 2001; van Binsbergen, 2004; van Dijk, 2005; Warschauer, 2003b; Wilson, 2004). This disparity relates to the digital divide and to how access and use of ICT are unequally distributed. What is less apparent is how policy reforms, including emphasis on ICT implementation, influence
disadvantaged learners and their opportunities to use ICT in a school context. Can comprehensive implementation of computers in schools give disadvantaged learners greater digital opportunities and increase their deprived opportunities outside of school? This study applies a critical perspective on the digital divide in South African classrooms and investigates how increased access to computers may, simultaneously, increase the
opportunities of previously disadvantaged learners and exacerbate existing social divides.
The study began with a pilot project in 2006 in two schools in Cape Town (see paper I Gudmundsdottir & Brock-Utne, 2010). Two classes participated in the pilot study. One of them was a typical township class where all the learners were black. The other one was a class with mainly white children in an affluent neighbourhood in Cape Town. The pilot project confirmed earlier research and revealed huge inequalities in the use of ICT, as well as different understandings of and attitudes towards ICT. Furthermore, paper II (Gudmundsdottir & Jakobsdottir, 2009) compares ICT use in schools in South Africa and Iceland and paper III and IV (Gudmundsdottir, 2010a, 2010b) are comparative accounts of four schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The focus is on the concept digital divide and on how the participating learners are using ICT within and between learner groups in and across these four schools.
This introduction (Part I) to the papers (Part II) is presented as follows: it places the study within the tradition of Comparative and International Education (CIE); it introduces
the research questions and aims; and it presents a brief overview of the research context. After the contextual discussion, a chapter on the concept digital divide will follow. Chapter 3 will introduce key concepts as well as the theoretical approach and the underlying paradigm of the study while Chapter 4 explains the design and other ethodological issues such as the sample, validity, and data analysis. Furthermore, it will point out issues in need for further research and the limitations of this study. Finally, Chapter 5 provides a short summary and discussion of the main content and findings of the papers. It connects the papers to the concept of change and explores the contribution of this study to the research field
Peace as a gendered process : perspectives of women doing peacebuilding in South Africa
No full textPublished when Prof de la Rey was Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Cape Town.This study builds on the
pioneering work by feminists such as Birgit Brock-Utne (1985, 1990) and Betty
Reardon (1985, 1990) in attempting to disrupt the male bias in peace research by
examining the meaning of peace through the perspective of women directly engaged in
peacebuilding activities
What is south African Sign Language? What is the South African Deaf Community?
No full textWhat is South African Sign Language? What is the South African Deaf Community? These two questions may look simple but answering them is quite complicated. It is a well-known fact that across the world, the majority of deaf children have hearing parents who are not likely to know a sign language. These children start acquiring their sign language only when beginning (pre)school. The atypical acquisition process is but one of the factors likely to influence any sign language. Another such factor is the spoken language used by the surrounding hearing community.
Both (deaf) education and (spoken) language use are complicated issues in South Africa. It is therefore not hard to understand that determining the nature of SASL is also far from simple. And because it is the sign language which is the most important defining characteristic of any Deaf community, the same goes for the second question. This article gives an overview of past positions on both these questions and aims at providing some preliminary answers
Language, democracy and education in Africa [Elektronisk resurs]
No full textThis publication comprises two papers, both written during January and February 2002 when the author was a guest researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). In the first paper, "The Language Question in Africa seen in the Context of Globalisation, Social Justice and Democracy", the language question is looked at through the eyes of a social and political scientist. The choice of an official language in Africa is viewed as a question of social class, of power. What social classes profit from the continued use of European languages in Africa? Who benefits? Who loses? The focus here is not only on language use in education but also on language use in the courts and in the political domain, especially in South Africa. Examples are mostly drawn from South Africa and Tanzania, where the author is conducting two research projects in the area of language and education. The second paper, "The Battle over the Language of Instruction in Tanzania", describes two further research projects in which the author is currently involved. In this paper, the author focuses on the question of the language of instruction through the eyes of an educationist. The paper builds on recent research conducted in Tanzania by the author and her Tanzanian Master's degree students.</p
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