HIV and AIDs education and meaning-making among learners in one rural secondary school in Lesotho.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Using one rural secondary school in the district of Mafeteng in Lesotho as a case study, the study reported in this thesis sought to examine the meaning that young people in Lesotho attach to the HIV and AIDS education messages that they receive from the school curriculum. It further explored the various factors that informed the meaning and the implications that it may have for the curriculum development that targets HIV prevention. The study addressed the following research questions: What meaning do young people make of the messages that they receive from the school HIV and AIDS programme and what factors inform it.? Located within the interpretive paradigm, the study used a qualitative research design to address the research questions. The methods of data collection included questionnaires, document analysis and participatory workshops (involving letter writing and role play) supplemented by focus group discussions with a purposely selected sample of 12 learners and 12 teachers. Using a Theory of Change adapted from Unterhalter et al. (2014) on what makes schools work for girls education, the symbolic interaction theory advanced by Mead (1959) to analyse teachers’ role preparedness for HIV and AIDS teaching and Durkheim’s theory of meaning-making (1933) to analyse the meaning that learners make of the HIV and AIDS education that they receive in schools as a theoretical framework, the thesis organises the analysis into three components. The first component focuses on curriculum policies that inform the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho secondary schools and teacher training institutions. The second component examines how educators are prepared for the role of educating the youth about HIV and AIDS and how they understand and enact this role; the third component addresses the main objective of the study: Analysing the meaning that learners make of the HIV and AIDS education that they receive in (and around) schools. The findings suggest that not all the teachers leave their teacher training programmes with training in HIV and AIDS education; those who do, do not have adequate skills to effectively teach the content in schools. Further, the in-service teacher education provided for teachers in the country since the introduction of Life Skills education is also not adequate. This leaves teachers without appropriate and relevant content and pedagogical skills needed to effectively teach the topic. The teachers themselves feel inadequately trained and the socio-cultural context, including the silence around young people’s sex and sexuality, further curtail their efforts in the teaching of HIV and AIDS. In relation to the learners’ experiences and the meaning that they make of the messages that they receive from the HIV and AIDS curriculum, the findings suggest that on the one hand, the learners find the programme useful and informative. On the other hand, they find it inadequate, unrealistic and not relevant to their needs as young people. The learners have varying forms of understanding of HIV and AIDS, including myths, misconceptions and misinformation about the epidemic. In addition, linked to the taboos that surround HIV and AIDS and related issues (including sex organs and sexual intercourse), the learners use a number of metaphors and euphemisms to define and talk about HIV and AIDS. These metaphors include HIV and AIDS as danger, as punishment, as witchcraft and as a western conspiracy. Together, these metaphors tend to reinforce stigmatization, discrimination and the fear of HIV infected and affected people. Further, the euphemisms tend to distort the HIV and AIDS messages provided to the learners as some of them reportedly apply their understandings literally to their lives. Finally, meaning-making among the young people is informed by, among others, gendered power relations, gender roles, stigma and discrimination as well as by an inadequate and irrelevant curriculum, and poorly prepared teachers. These factors are likely to have a negative influence on the effectiveness of HIV prevention and the care messages that young people receive in the school. This has implications for curriculum developers, teachers and policy makers regarding programming aimed at addressing HIV and AIDS prevention and care among young people in schools

Tax literacy in the digital economy

Abstract: Due to the digital economy the average taxpayer now has access to other income streams where the majority of transactions can be virtual transactions. Even though these transactions are virtual or takes place in the shared economy, it might still have a taxation effect for the taxpayer and they need the necessary taxation knowledge to be able to account for these transactions on their tax returns. Likewise, tax administrations are increasingly making use of advanced technologies to prevent and detect non-compliance. For some taxpayers this brings new challenges and knowledge requirements in respect of their interaction with revenue authorities. Empirical findings has shown that taxpayer knowledge is a factor influencing tax compliance and accordingly, taxpayer education is generally one of the key approaches adopted by tax authorities to improve taxpayer compliance. The concept of ‘tax literacy’ is however proposed to be a wider concept than tax knowledge alone and needs further investigation in the context of its role in taxpayer compliance. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the usefulness of a conceptual framework of tax literacy as a tool in identifying tax compliance risks for individuals in the digital economy. The risks addressed in this paper are limited to those which could result from deficits in taxpayers’ knowledge and skills, as well as a lack of information resources. Using fundamental concepts from the literature on ‘literacy’ and drawing on established theories in especially the ‘financial literacy’ domain, the concept of ‘tax literacy’ is explained in this paper and presented as a three-dimensional framework. Understanding that tax literacy is a process of ‘making meaning’ from the interaction between tax awareness and contextual knowledge. The framework illustrates three elements of tax literacy, namely 1) tax awareness, 2) contextual knowledge and skills, and 3) meaning making or informed decision making. The first element, tax awareness, refers to individuals’ understanding of their role in the fiscal exchange or social contract with government. This awareness forms the basis of the framework, as it is a necessary condition for being tax literate. The second element proposes procedural as well as a legal component of contextual knowledge and skills. The procedural context allows for a consideration of the knowledge and skills required to interact with tax authorities and having your records for tax purposes in order. The legal context refers to an understanding of how you are taxed. The third element propose that taxpayers’ engagement in fulfilling their tax obligations is the result of a social construction of their awareness and knowledge, based on own perceptions. In other words, a combination of awareness, knowledge, skills and attitude are necessary to make decisions on acting in a tax compliant manner or not. The usefulness of the proposed framework as a tool in identifying tax compliance risks for individuals in the digital economy was illustrated with highlighting examples of specialised knowledge requirements on a procedural and legal level as it pertains to individuals as taxpayers in the digital age

THE DISCOVERY OF HIEROTOPY

This paper outlines the genesis of hierotopy, a notion serving to conceptualize the creation of sacred spaces as a particular form of human art. The concept encompasses the entirety of the multifarious components employed in Byzantine sacred spaces and analyzes the ways in which their cooperative interaction results in the formation of a ‘spatial icon’, or a kind of sacred ambiance. The very notion of a ‘spatial icon’ draws upon the central place of icons and iconicity in the Eastern Christian worldview. In Byzantium, icons were seen as windows opening out onto an otherworldly reality, or, rather, as doors opening up a two-way communication; in this way, the icon was understood as a means or a place, of immediate contact with the divine, or a sort of platonic chora, in which ideal divine forms assimilated material contours. Within the context of a sacred space, the icon appeared not only as a principal meaning-making agent, but also as a conceptual key for understanding the way in which other components, as well as the sacred space as a whole, effectively worked; each component was thus understood and experienced as being ‘iconic’, or icon-like, in the sense of providing other points (or, rather, spaces) of contact between the earthly and the divine. As this paper recounts, Alexei Lidov made his first steps towards forging the concept of hierotopy while studying the design, as well as the perception, of Byzantine iconographic programs; as his studies revealed, icons acted not simply as images, but also with the full deployment of their wonder-working potential evincing a powerful expression of religious meaning, particularly when purposefully employed together with wonder-working relics. Lidov’s next step was to realize the fully performative nature of spatial icons by taking into account the crucial role played by the surrounding liturgical context, in which each beholder, or liturgical participant, played an active role in giving life to the spatial icon. Hierotopy was thus discovered (and formally defined) as a special form of art involving the performative creation of spatial icons. The paper also discusses the concept of ‘image-paradigms’ as multimodal units of meaning within sacred spaces, or as compound mental constructs combining together dogmatic ideas, imagery and holistic emotive components (so-called atmospheres).This paper outlines the genesis of hierotopy, a notion serving to conceptualize the creation of sacred spaces as a particular form of human art. The concept encompasses the entirety of the multifarious components employed in Byzantine sacred spaces and analyzes the ways in which their cooperative interaction results in the formation of a ‘spatial icon’, or a kind of sacred ambiance. The very notion of a ‘spatial icon’ draws upon the central place of icons and iconicity in the Eastern Christian worldview. In Byzantium, icons were seen as windows opening out onto an otherworldly reality, or, rather, as doors opening up a two-way communication; in this way, the icon was understood as a means or a place, of immediate contact with the divine, or a sort of platonic chora, in which ideal divine forms assimilated material contours. Within the context of a sacred space, the icon appeared not only as a principal meaning-making agent, but also as a conceptual key for understanding the way in which other components, as well as the sacred space as a whole, effectively worked; each component was thus understood and experienced as being ‘iconic’, or icon-like, in the sense of providing other points (or, rather, spaces) of contact between the earthly and the divine. As this paper recounts, Alexei Lidov made his first steps towards forging the concept of hierotopy while studying the design, as well as the perception, of Byzantine iconographic programs; as his studies revealed, icons acted not simply as images, but also with the full deployment of their wonder-working potential evincing a powerful expression of religious meaning, particularly when purposefully employed together with wonder-working relics. Lidov’s next step was to realize the fully performative nature of spatial icons by taking into account the crucial role played by the surrounding liturgical context, in which each beholder, or liturgical participant, played an active role in giving life to the spatial icon. Hierotopy was thus discovered (and formally defined) as a special form of art involving the performative creation of spatial icons. The paper also discusses the concept of ‘image-paradigms’ as multimodal units of meaning within sacred spaces, or as compound mental constructs combining together dogmatic ideas, imagery and holistic emotive components (so-called atmospheres)

On the inability of existing security models to cope with data mobility in dynamic organizations

Modeling tools play an important role in identifying threats in traditional\ud IT systems, where the physical infrastructure and roles are assumed\ud to be static. In dynamic organizations, the mobility of data outside the\ud organizational perimeter causes an increased level of threats such as the\ud loss of confidential data and the loss of reputation. We show that current\ud modeling tools are not powerful enough to help the designer identify the\ud emerging threats due to mobility of data and change of roles, because they\ud do not include the mobility of IT systems nor the organizational dynamics\ud in the security model. Researchers have proposed security models that\ud particularly focus on data mobility and the dynamics of modern organizations,\ud such as frequent role changes of a person. We show that none\ud of the current security models simultaneously considers the data mobility\ud and organizational dynamics to a satisfactory extent. As a result, none\ud of the current security models effectively identifies the potential security\ud threats caused by data mobility in a dynamic organization

Human interaction in the Swedish biogas sector

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of human interaction in defining, shaping, and continuously re-shaping interpretations towards the biogas phenomenon in Sweden. This investigation was conducted via two forms of inquiry. First, a theoretical inquiry was conducted which was grounded in the principles of symbolic interactionism. The purpose of this inquiry was to create a theoretical framework that can be applied to better understand the phenomenon of human interaction. Second, an empirical inquiry was conducted based on participatory research that involved direct interaction with actors working within the Swedish biogas context. The empirical inquiry provided the opportunity to present concrete, tangible results regarding the role of human interaction in the biogas sector, and was based on my own direct participation in the Swedish biogas-context. This theoretical-empirical framework (created through the two forms of inquiry) was established through a somewhat interdependent process; that is, the underlying theoretical framework was used as a reference point from which to conduct the empirical inquiry, while the theory itself was derived with empirical results and observations in mind. As such, each form of inquiry served to support and complement the other. A main component of both inquiries was to investigate the role symbols play during interaction. Key symbols that were observed during biogas-related interaction were outlined and discussed. A discussion was also provided regarding the role these symbols played in facilitating shared meaning and cooperation amongst the actors, as well as their role in learning, perspective change and knowledge creation. To complement these empirical observations, a personal account of how direct interaction in the Swedish biogas sector has shifted my own perspective towards the biogas phenomenon was also provided

Modeling the perceptual component of conceptual learning—A coordination perspective

Although a picture may be worth a thousand words, modeling diagrams as propositions and modeling visual processing as search through a database of verbal descriptions obscures what is problematic for the learner. Cognitive modeling of language learning and geometry has obscured the learner's problem of knowing where to look—what spaces, markings, and orientations constitute the objects of interest? Today we are launching into widespread use of multimedia instructional technology, without an adequate theory to relate perceptual processes to conceptual learning. Does this matter? In this article, I review the symbolic approach to modeling perceptual processing and show its limitations for explaining difficulties children encounter in interpreting a graphic display. I present an alternative analysis by which perceptual categorization is coupled to behavior sequences, where gesturing and emotional changes are essential for resolving impasses and breaking out of loops. I conclude by asking what kind of cognitive theory we need to exploit communication technology. Have we been correct to assume that pedagogy must be grounded in an accurate psychological model of knowledge, memory, and learning

Solving the Mind-Body Problem through Two Distinct Concepts: Internal-Mental Existence and Internal Mental Reality

In a previous published paper, we initiated in this journal discussion about new perspectives regarding the organization and functioning of the mind, as a premise for addressing the mind-body problem. In this article, we continue focussing discussion on two distinct but interrelated concepts, internal-mental existence/ entity and internal-mental reality. These two psycho-physiological subunits of the mind interact each other in the form of an internal-mental interaction, having no sense if one is isolated/ studied separately from the other. In other words, the mind (as a dynamic psycho-physiological construction) has no sense in the absence of this internal mental interaction that which takes places between internal-mental existence and internal-mental reality. In the case of the `mind-body problem`, the tendency until now was to assign extremely complex functions of the mind (abstract ideas, consciousness, colors) to simplistic physiological/ neuronal structures. We hope that this paper opens a new perspective, in respect to complex/ interrelated neuronal structures that construct the mind through their interaction, a process that is both physiologically (transmission of neural impulses) and psychologically (transmission of information), and that requires time (an immaterial component) to occurs

Meaning-making dynamics within and across workgroups : an inquiry into the creation and movement of usable knowledge in a long-term care facility in Ontario

This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative investigation of the meaning-making patterns that occur in a group of caregivers in a long-term care home. The research design included an ethnographic component to reveal the overall meaning-making dynamic in the site, and a case study focusing on a specific improvement initiative. Data was gathered over a three month period through observation, interviews, and documents. Data analysis included the creation of analytic memos, categorizing and theming, and the development of a meaning-making map to depict systematic interactions. The findings suggest that research participants have developed systemic patterns of meaning making that allow them to create experiences of coherence, purpose, identity, and competence. Eight meaning-making themes emerge from the analysis to reveal a workplace where emphasis is placed on immediate concerns and priorities, and where long-term planning and change are problematic. Caregivers begin each day by creating a coherent picture of their workplace, and they engage in brief, pragmatic interactions throughout the day to maintain their shared understanding of the unfolding context around them. Reflection upon the themes allows for the construction of a meaning-making map, which shows how knowledge of the floor (the residents who live on the floor, the staff who work there, the procedures for carrying out the work, and the physical layout and location of key resources) allows staff to accomplish tasks, and how it simultaneously limits their ability to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work and the quality of life of residents. This study confirms previous research and policy reports that describe Canada's long-term care workplaces as highly stressed. The study also supports the contention that strategies to implement a one-way transfer of external knowledge into frontline practices will confront stubborn barriers, and that knowledge moves through processes of exchange--through relationships and interactions--rather than transfer. This inquiry extends the work of organizational researchers and theorists who have attempted to reveal the dynamics of collective learning and sensemaking in workgroups. The practical implications of this study include the importance of using existing interaction patterns as a vehicle for introducing new ideas and practices into long-term care homes, and the advisability of considering whether current long-term care staffing levels are adequate

Formando las contribuciones del aprendiente en el aula de idioma extranjero: Una perspectiva desde el análisis de conversación

Indexación: Scopus.The present study sought to demonstrate the importance that the shaping of learner contributions has in the provision of opportunities for participation and learning in the EFL classroom. A particular set of interactional features that can shape learners' utterances were examined: scaffolding, requests for clarification and confirmation checks. These features have been found to promote language participation and learning from a classroom discourse perspective (Walsh, 2002; Walsh and Li, 2013; Can Daskin, 2014). The study was also informed by the sociocultural concept of learning as a social affair that is achieved through participation (Lantolf, 2000; Donate, 2000; Mondada & Pekarek, 2004). A Conversation Analysis (CA) methodology was used to analyse two extracts collected in EFL classrooms at a language institute in Santiago, Chile. Findings suggested that when teachers shape their learners' contributions by means of scaffolding, clarification requests and confirmation checks in a pedagogical environment that promotes conversation, participation and learning will likely be enhanced. © University of Chile. All rights reserved.El presente estudio intentó demostrar la importancia que la forma de las contribuciones lingüísticas tiene en la provisión de oportunidades de participación y en el aprendizaje en el aula. Se examinó un conjunto particular de características interaccionales que pueden dar forma a los enunciados de los alumnos: andamiaje lingüístico, solicitudes de aclaración y comprobaciones de confirmación. Se ha demostrado que estos rasgos interaccionales promueven la participación y el aprendizaje desde una perspectiva de discurso en el aula (Walsh, 2002; Walsh y Li, 2013; Can Daşkın, 2014). El estudio utilizó el concepto sociocultural del aprendizaje como un logro social conseguido a través de la participación (Lantolf, 2000; Donato, 2000; Mondada & Pekarek, 2004). Se utilizó una metodología de Análisis de Conversación (CA) para examinar dos extractos recogidos en aulas de inglés como lengua extranjera en un instituto de idiomas en Santiago de Chile. El análisis sugirió que si los profesores forman las contribuciones de sus alumnos adecuadamente y en un ambiente pedagógico que busque desarrollar fluidez, la participación y el aprendizaje serán facilitados.https://lenguasmodernas.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/4922

Can the Lorentz symmetry supply something that is supplied by the gauge symmetry?

At the foundation of modern physics lie two symmetries: the Lorentz symmetry and the gauge symmetry, which play quite different roles in the establishment of the standard model. In this paper, it is shown that, different from what is usually expected, the two symmetries, although mathematically independent of each other, have important overlap in their physical effects. Specifically, we find that the interaction Lagrangian of QED can be "derived", based on the Lorentz symmetry with some auxiliary assumption about vacuum fluctuations, without resorting to the gauge symmetry. In particular, the derivation is based on geometric relations among representation spaces of the SL(2,C) group. In this formulation of the interaction Lagrangian, the origin of the topological equivalence of the eight basic Feynman diagrams in QED can be seen quite clearly.Comment: 18 pages, no figur