1,720,960 research outputs found
Culturally-inflicted child rights violation: a case of Khomba practice of Shangaan people in Zimbabwe
Full text linkWittingly or unwittingly, cultural rights should take central place in the consideration of rights issues and the striving towards a more just world order. Allegedly, harmful cultural practices have collided with children's rights in Zimbabwe and beyond. The study came after the realisation that child rights are being violated through the practice of khomba which is a rite of initiation for adolescents under the age of 18. Therefore, the study focused on interrogating the nature, reasons and community perceptions on culturally-inflicted child rights violations that are associated with the Khomba practice among the Shangaan people in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe. This paper adopted a qualitative research design to capture the perceptions of 26 purposively sampled respondents regarding this rite of passage. During data collection, in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and field observations were utilised. The analysis of data was done through thematic content analysis in line with the research objectives. The study exposed a number of Khomba induced child rights violations including; interruption of schooling among adolescents and their exposure to sexually explicit content. It also noted that the rite continues to thrive mainly because of its association with tribal identity as well as authorities‟ hesitation to address the situation. Recommendations of the paper suggested ways in which holistic interventions can begin to address harmful cultural practices within social, legal and political contexts.Keywords: Shangaan People, Child Rights, Khomba ritual, Zimbabw
Community Reaction to Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes in Zimbabwe
Full text linkMultinational companies in Zimbabwe initiate and finance community projects through private partnership but the active involvement of beneficiaries in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes projects so that the felt needs of local communities are met has been queried. The study sought to analyse school capacity programme (SCP) being implemented by Delta Corporation in Macheke, Zimbabwe as a corporate social responsibility programmes and interrogated community participation in such projects. The qualitative methodology was utilised with focus group discussions and key informants interview being used as data collection tools. The availability and purposive sampling was employed to identify the study participants. It was revealed that Delta Corporation crafts its CSR policies at national level aiming at addressing poverty at community level. The study, however, revealed that community participation in CSR projects was obscure and the community leadership only played a passive role at project execution stage. The study recommended that government should be active in spearheading CSR initiatives through legislation to ensure that corporate social responsibility becomes an obligation for corporation instead of charity.Key Words: Corporate Social Responsibility, Delta Corporation, school capacity programme, Zimbabw
Reclaiming Ancestral Wisdom: A Systematic Review on Integrating African Indigenous Knowledges in Social Work Education and Practice in Zimbabwe
Full text linkDespite global recognition of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in social work ethics and definitions, their integration into education and practice remains limited, particularly in postcolonial contexts like Zimbabwe. Social work in Zimbabwe continues to be dominated by Eurocentric paradigms, resulting in a disconnect between professional training and cultural realities of local communities. This study systematically reviews literature on the integration of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems, particularly Ubuntu and ancestral wisdom into Zimbabwean social work education and practice. Guided by PRISMA 2020 and employing the SPIDER framework, 612 records were screened across seven databases, yielding 13 eligible studies published between 2015 and 2025. Thematic synthesis revealed four primary contributions of IKS: promoting culturally responsive practice through Ubuntu, decolonizing social work education, revitalizing community-based care systems, and inspiring hybrid models that integrate local and global paradigms. However, key barriers persist, including the hegemony of Western epistemologies, institutional resistance, epistemological tensions with rights-based frameworks, and the lack of formal documentation of IKS. The review concludes that meaningful integration of IKS is not only a curricular concern, but a social justice imperative. For Zimbabwean social work to achieve contextual relevance and cultural responsiveness, IKS must be structurally embedded in pedagogy, policy, and practice. This calls for collaborative curriculum reform, Indigenous knowledge documentation, and the development of practice models rooted in African worldviews
Teacher Perspectives on Subject Specialised Teaching in Zimbabwe’s Primary Schools: Potential Impact on Pupil Achievement
No full textIn developing countries like Zimbabwe, the issue of education cannot be overstated in discussing main developmental issues. However, formative education such as primary level has not been linked with teacher skills application with emphasizes on being just a general education. Against such backdrop, the study investigated the perceptions of primary school teachers on whether subject specialization can improve learners’ academic achievement. Sequential explanatory mixed methodology was used to collect data from 147 teachers selected using stratified random sample methods to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. One way ANOVA hypothesis tests (p=0.05) showed there was significant statistical differences in means across different demographic variables. Teachers were convinced that subject specialization in primary schools would bring more benefit from individual, community and national level through improved learning outcomes for both teachers and learners. The paper also noted some challenges such as rigid existing curricula, attitude problems, teacher preparedness, inflexible government policies and clashes on subject preferences among teachers. It was concluded that teachers are more inclined towards the idea of introducing subject specialization in primary schools. The paper recommends an adaptation of the teacher training programme to specialized teaching and further scientific studies to determine the feasibility of introducing subject specialization in primary schools in Zimbabwe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
