1,901 research outputs found
Negotiating gender and sexual diversity in English language teaching : 'critical'-oriented educational materials designed by pre-service English teachers at a South African university
No full textChapter 7, by Navan N. Govender, considers how the author used a critical literacy course in a South African university to engage Bachelor of Education students in issues related to sex, gender, sexuality, and the conflations inherent. It further argues that confronting controversial topics in the classroom requires that both teachers and learners enter risky spaces in order to deconstruct, disrupt, and reconstruct relations of power in context. The pre-service English teachers were required to produce educational materials that used critical literacy to teach about gender and sexual diversity. The author begins by discussing what it means to do critical literacy before analysing the materials. His analysis unpacks the kinds of risks students were prepared to take and the slippery landscapes that come with confronting real and uncomfortable conversations, identities, and ideologies
MAP Screen: The Anthropology Effect Group Exhibition
No full textThis new season of film and video selected by Karen Cunningham opens with Ravi Govender, ‘Localized’, 2013 and Adam Chodzko, ‘The Pickers’, 200
Managing service quality: Human resource management strategies
No full textThis article reports the results of an empirical evaluation of a conceptual service encounter management model (Govender, 1999). The various hypotheses proposed to show a relationship between formal and informal socialisation strategies, and the bank employees' perception of the organisational climate and their role are empirically evaluated. Furthermore, the mediated effects of these socialization tactics on the bank customers perception of the service quality was also ascertained by matching a random sample of 210 bank employees with 1050 customers.
Opsomming
Hierdie artikel rapporteer die resultate van n empiriese evaluering van n konseptuele dienservaringsbestuursmodel (Govender, 1999). Verskeie hipoteses word voorgehou om n verband tussen formele en informele sosialise- ringstrategiee aan te toon, en die bankwerkers se persepsie van die organisatoriese klimaat en hulle rolle word empirics geevalueer.Verder word die modererende effek van hierdie sosialiseringstrategie op die bankkliente se persepsie van dienskwaliteit bepaal deur 'n ewekansige steekproefvan 210 bankwerkers met 1050 kliente af te paar
Intonation modelling for the Nguni languages
No full textDissertation (MSc (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006.Although the complexity of prosody is widely recognised, there is a lack of widely-accepted descriptive standards for prosodic phenomena. This situation has become particularly noticeable with the development of increasingly capable text-to-speech (TTS) systems. Such systems require detailed prosodic models to sound natural. For the languages of Southern Africa, the deficiencies in our modelling capabilities are acute. Little work of a quantitative nature has been published for the languages of the Nguni family (such as isiZulu and isiXhosa), and there are significant contradictions and imprecisions in the literature on this topic. We have therefore embarked on a programme aimed at understanding the relationship between linguistic and physical variables of a prosodic nature in this family of languages. We then use the information/knowledge gathered to build intonation models for isiZulu and isiXhosa as representatives of the Nguni languages. Firstly, we need to extract physical measurements from the voice recordings of the Nguni family of languages. A number of pitch tracking algorithms have been developed; however, to our knowledge, these algorithms have not been evaluated formally on a Nguni language. In order to decide on an appropriate algorithm for further analysis, evaluations have been performed on two stateof- the-art algorithms namely the Praat pitch tracker and Yin (developed by Alain de Cheveingn´e). Praat’s pitch tracker algorithm performs somewhat better than Yin in terms of gross and fine errors and we use this algorithm for the rest of our analysis. For South African languages the task of building an intonation model is complicated by the lack of intonation resources available. We describe the methodology used for developing a generalpurpose intonation corpus and the various methods implemented to extract relevant features such as fundamental frequency, intensity and duration from the spoken utterances of these languages. In order to understand how the ‘expected’ intonation relates to the actual measured characteristics extracted, we developed two different statistical approaches to build intonation models for isiZulu and isiXhosa. The first is based on straightforward statistical techniques and the second uses a classifier. Both intonation models built produce fairly good accuracy for our isiZulu and isiXhosa sets of data. The neural network classifier used produces slightly better results for both sets of data than the statistical method. The classification model is also more robust and can easily learn from the training data. We show that it is possible to build fairly good intonation models for these languages using different approaches, and that intensity and fundamental frequency are comparable in predictive value for the ascribed tone.Computer ScienceMScunrestricte
Challenges experienced by Public Sector Oral Hygienists in South Africa
No full textThere is limited published information on the profile of oral hygienists in and the challenges they face. This study aims to report the profile of oral hygienists in Kwa-Zulu Natal and in 2005 and the challenges they experience in the provision of services in the public sector. Objectives: 1.The demographic profile of oral hygienists employed in the public health services in and. 2. The factors that may hinder the activities of the oral hygienist in the public sector. Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study and data was collected by means of a questionnaire. Results: There was a combined response rate of 78% (N=32). Almost all of the respondents, 30 (94%) were females. Of the 30 females, 14 (47%) were employed in GP and 16 (53%) in KZN. The majority 23 (72%) of the OHs were Black, of these 14 (61%) were employed in KZN and 9 (39%) in GP. Six (19%) Whites, 2 (6%) Indians and only 1 (3%) Coloured was employed. Almost half (47%) were employed as chief OHs and none at assistant director level. The majority (77%) of the OHs reported that they experienced barriers and constraints that impacted on the provision of dental services to the community. Conclusion: The racial profile of the OHs employed in these provinces was similar to the demography of the population of as reported by STATS. The main challenges experienced by OHs in the public sector was the lack of human and other resources, poor salaries and no opportunities for promotion.Griffith Health FacultyNo Full Tex
From the Individual to the Collective: Acts of Resistance for Social Transformation in Pregs Govender\u27s Love and Courage.
No full textAbstract: Realizing that true courage and convictions are needed to create an egalitarian environment for the former colonized within a neo-colonial nation-state, Pregs Govender, the author of Love and Courage: A Story of Insubordination (2008) learns not only to speak truth to power, but also to stand up against hetero-patriarchal social and political power structures for transformation. Davis Francis Fanning argues that the phenomenon of autobiographical self-displacement in the literature of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) subverts political hegemony: “Republican autobiographies subvert autobiographical conventions by shifting the focus of the text from the author to the community with the text becoming a critique of national and conventional historiographical ideologues” (2003). In this paper, I will argue that a similar phenomenon exists in Govender’s “communography” (when the individuality of the author is subsumed within the community, Fanning) where her role as educator, activist, researcher and writer working for social justice and fundamental human rights for all South Africans moves from the bourgeois individual to the collective. Writers, such as Govender “refuse to accept the alleged split between the individual and society, and subvert the genre of autobiography in ways which create a community which exists in cooperation with the individual at the same time as they comment upon it” (Fanning 2003)
Cyclacanthia cloverlyae Samaai, Govender & Kelly, 2004, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Cyclacanthia cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. <p>(Figs. 2 E, 3B, 4B, E, 5A, B)</p> <p> <b>Holotype material.</b> SAM H­ 5080: Christmas reef, Umhlali, Tugela Banks region, Durban, East coast of South Africa, 29° 47 395'S, 31° 27 373 'E, 17 m, collected by C. Lawrence, EKZN, 24 July 2003.</p> <p> <b>Description</b>. Thinly encrusting sponge forming a circular patch 9 cm long, 6 cm wide and 3 mm thick (Fig. 3 B). Surface smooth, velvety to the touch, with volcano­shaped oscules, 5 mm high x 3 mm wide at base, 1 mm at apex being closely packed (5mm apart), and a few nodular truncate areolate porefields, 3 mm high x 3 mm wide, with no poral membrane covering the opening. Texture compressible, soft and fleshy. Colour in life olive green; in preservative dark green.</p> <p> <b>Spicules</b>. <b>Megascleres—</b> Styles: Smooth, straight, occasionally wavy, some centrally thickened, fusiform; 321 (273–370) x 5 (4–7) µm (Fig. 4 B, E). <b>Microscleres—</b> isospinodiscorhabds: The apical whorl has 3 groups of 4 spines radiating obliquely from the shaft away from the median whorl, each with one spine facing towards the spicule shaft. The apex is armoured with a double spike with a single additional spine on each primary spine. The manubrium is identical to the apical whorl, with 4 groups of 3 spines that emanate obliquely from the shaft, and one or more double spikes at the apex. The median whorl is equidistant from both apical whorl and manubrium; 3 groups of 4 spines are directed horizontally from the shaft: 32 (25–44) µm (Fig. 2 E).</p> <p> <b>Skeleton</b>. Thick tracts 166–274 µm emanate from the deep choanosome and diverge towards the surface forming plumose tracts c. 225 µm wide. The upper choanosome has an irregular polygonal­meshed reticulation formed by wispy tracts of smooth styles (Fig. 5 A). Interstitial megascleres and microscleres are abundant. The ectosome is a thin paratangential layer of megascleres, c. 147 µm thick, and is aligned with an irregular palisade of isospinodiscorhabds (Fig. 5 B).</p> <p> <b>Ecology</b>. The sponges were found on a rocky reef at 17 m depth in the Tugela Banks area of Umhlali, which is very turbid with visibility often less than 2 m distance. This species is rare; only a single specimen was found.</p> <p> <b>Etymology</b>. Named for Miss Cloverley Lawrence, the co­ordinator of the EKZN reef project, who collected the specimen described here.</p> <p> <b>Remarks.</b> <i>Cyclacanthia cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. is distinguished from the type species <i>C. bellae</i> (Samaai & Kelly) by features of external morphology and colouration; <i>C. cloverlyae</i> has thick nodular truncate areolate porefields, with no poral membrane, and is olive green in colour, whilst the surface of <i>C. bellae</i> (Samaai & Kelly) is covered with numerous tiny thin­lipped truncate areolate porefields, and is emerald green with touches of brown. <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. and <i>C. bellae</i> (Samaai & Kelly) are further separated on the dimensions of their megascleres, those of <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. being slightly smaller (Table 1), and on the smaller size and morphology of the microscleres (Table 1). The microscleres of <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. are more regular and considerably less ornamented (acanthose) than those in <i>C. bellae</i> (Samaai & Kelly).</p>Published as part of <i>Samaai, Toufiek, Govender, Vasha & Kelly, Michelle, 2004, Cyclacanthia n. g. (Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida: Latrunculiidae incertea sedis), a new genus of marine sponges from South African waters, and description of two new species, pp. 1-18 in Zootaxa 725</i> on pages 10-12, DOI: <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/169508">10.5281/zenodo.169508</a>
The Author Figured in Film
No full textFor all the critical attention paid to the author in literary theory and criticism, there has been no study of the film medium’s fascination with authors and authorship. Every year, Hollywood produces numerous films about poets, playwrights, novelists, and screenwriters. This thesis explores the narrative and cinematic potential of the author. In broad terms, it is an exercise in genre criticism, establishing the defining characteristics of films characterising authors. It is also a very specific type of genre criticism, taking a cognitivist approach that defines the author as a set of historically and socially established expectations and characteristics against which the characters in these films are measured. After establishing the phenomenological parameters and critical value of the cognitivist approach in Chapter 1,1 then take up Andrew Bennett’s outline of the author as a cultural concept, discussing its utility in dealing with films figuring authors and authorship. Chapters 3 to 8 explore a selection of the sub-genres of films containing authors, starting with characterisations of the author as a detective, then moving to films using and depicting writer’s.block, horrific characterisations of the author, characterisations of female authors, the biopic, and films characterising screenwriters in Hollywood. The work concludes with an analysis of Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002), whose broad exploration of authorship traverses more of these sub-genres than any other film, offering an opportunity to bring together the findings of Chapters 1 to 8. I focus on English language, feature length, narrative films released between 1927 and 2007. Rather than taking a chronological approach and tracing the history of the medium’s treatment of the author, I select films from various periods, identifying in them the defining characteristics of the genre. But more than this, the genre and its characteristics represent the persistent interpretive function of the author in face of the critical trend away from biographically based interpretation towards textual and semiotic analysis
Cyclacanthia mzimayiensis Samaai, Govender & Kelly, 2004, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Cyclacanthia mzimayiensis</i> sp. nov. <p>(Figs. 2 G, H, 3C, D, 4C, F, 4D, G, 5C, D, E, F)</p> <p> <b>Holotype material.</b> SAM H­ 5082: Mzimayi reef, Sizela, south of Durban, east coast of South Africa, 30° 37 137 'S, 31° 16 112 'E, 29 m, collected by T. Samaai and C. Lawrence, EKZN, 16 October 2003.</p> <p> <b>Paratype material.</b> SAM H­ 5081: Umkomaas, Aliwal Shoal, east coast of South Africa, 30° 26 202 'S, 32° 0 2 558 'E, 18 m, collected by T. Samaai, 4 September 2003. <b>Description</b>. Thinly encrusting sponge, 2–3 mm thick, forming a patch c. 28 mm x 35 mm diameter, incorporating sand, pebbles, barnacles, and other foreign material (Fig. 3 C, D). Surface smooth, with low volcano shape oscules, 3 mm high x 2 mm wide at base, 1 mm at apex, and a few nodular truncate areolate porefields, 2 mm high x 2 mm wide. Texture is incompressible and crumbly due to incorporation of substrate. Ectosome readily separable from the underlying choanosome. Colour in life lime green, in preservative dark green.</p> <p> <b>Spicules. Megascleres—</b> Styles: Smooth, straight, occasionally wavy, occasionally centrally thickened, narrow proximal region, fusiform: 268 (182–363) x 5 µm (Fig. 4 D, G). Paratype (SAM H­ 5081) style length; 276 (315–200) x 5 µm (Fig 4 C, F). <b>Micro­scleres—</b> isospinodiscorhabds: The apical whorl has 3 groups of 3 spines radiating obliquely from the shaft away from the median whorl, each with several additional spines. The apex is armoured with a single irregular spike that may be irregularly spined. The manubrium is identical to the apical whorl, the apex is also armoured with a single irregular spike that may be irregularly spined. The median whorl is equidistant from both apical whorl and manubrium; 4 groups of 2 spines are directed horizontally from the shaft: 39 (30–48) µm (Holotype) (Fig. 2 G), 35 (30–44) µm (Paratype) (Fig. 2 H).</p> <p> <b>Skeleton</b>. Thick tracts 196–245 µm emanate from the deep choanosome and diverge towards the surface forming plumose tracts 274–392 µm wide The upper choanosome has an irregular polygonal­meshed reticulation formed by wispy tracts of smooth styles (Fig. 5 E, C). Interstitial megascleres and microscleres are abundant, as are sand particles and other foreign materials. The ectosome is a thin paratangential layer of megascleres, c. 98 µm thick, and is aligned with an irregular palisade of isospinodiscorhabds (Fig. 5 F, D).</p> <p> <b>Ecology</b>. The holotype was collected at Mzimayi reef, on a flat rocky ledge at the edge of the vertical section of the reef, at 29 m depth. This species is cryptic, accounting for its apparent rarity, and appears to grow where there is strong current flow. The paratype was found at Aliwal Shoal, on the southern edge of the reef complex, in a small crevice on a boulder, at 17 m depth. The sponge was barely visible, being covered with sand, and only the areolate porefields were visible.</p> <p> <b>Etymology</b>. Named after the type locality, Mzimayi Reef, south of Durban</p> <p> <b>Remarks.</b> <i>C. mzimayiensis</i> sp. nov. is clearly differentiated from <i>C. bellae</i> (Samaai & Kelly) and <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. in habit; the sponge is very thinly encrusting over sandy pebbles, and it incorporates much foreign material. <i>C. mzimayiensis</i> sp. nov. is also lime green, as unusual colour for any latrunculiid sponge, and it is hard, and incompressible, while <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov. is relatively fleshy. The morphology of the microscleres further differentiates these species; the microscleres of <i>C. mzimayiensis</i> sp. nov. are more irregularly ornamented, compared to those of <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov., in particular, and they are medium in overall dimensions compared to those of both species (Table 1). <i>C. cloverlyae</i> sp. nov and <i>C. mzimayiensis</i> sp. nov. are separated by habitat, the former is found in a turbid, sandy reef environment and the latter in deeper waters on a rocky platforms associated with hard coral and algae.</p>Published as part of <i>Samaai, Toufiek, Govender, Vasha & Kelly, Michelle, 2004, Cyclacanthia n. g. (Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida: Latrunculiidae incertea sedis), a new genus of marine sponges from South African waters, and description of two new species, pp. 1-18 in Zootaxa 725</i> on pages 12-13, DOI: <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/169508">10.5281/zenodo.169508</a>
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