The Grenadian revolution, 1979-1983 : the political economy of an attempt at revolutionary transformation in a Caribbean mini-state

This study is primarily concerned with making an assessment of the social and economic policies pursued by the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) of Grenada between 1979 to 1983. It is the first sociological study of the Grenadian revolution, and is longer and more detailed than any other study that has been written on the subject. The thesis mainly examines developments inside Grenada. It therefore breaks entirely new ground since most of the existing literature views the revolution from the perspective of international relations. The principal methods of investigation used were library research in London and the Caribbean; and six months of field work in Grenada, Barbados and Jamaica, where I attended important political events and conducted interviews with politicians, businessmen, government officials and representatives' of international agencies. The thesis is divided into ten chapters. Chapter one sets the scene for the study by providing information on the culture, geography, history, sociology and economy of Grenada, and traces the events that led to the revolutionary seizure of power in 1979. Chapter two discusses the main theoretical issues raised by the revolution, and chapter three analyses the institutions of popular power established by the PRG. Chapters four to eight examine the principal features of the economic strategy of the revolutionary government, and chapter nine seeks to explain the factors that led to the downfall of the revolution. The concluding chapter contains a very brief summary of the main findings of the study. The central argument put forward in the thesis is that the. revolutionary ideology which guided the PRG was highly authoritarian in character, and led to the implementation of policies that were not suited to Grenadian society. The ultimate downfall of the revolution was caused by the authoritarian practices of the PRG which resulted in a vicious power struggle in which the Prime Minister and over 100 of his supporters lost their lives. This implosion of the post-revolutionary regime gave the United States' government an adequate pretext to invade Grenada and dismantle the institutions of the revolution

E-Learning change management and communication strategies within a HEI in a developing country: institutional organisational cultural change at the University of the Western Cape

The paper attempts to report on the strides that UWC has achieved in the adoption of eLearning among the campus teaching community, namely the academics from across different faculties, in order to supplement their traditional face-to-face instruction. The qualitative approach was predominantly used. The case study methodology was uniquely applied in this paper because it was used in collaboration with documentary analysis to highlight the achievements and challenges encountered in the adoption and implementation of the existing homegrown Open Source eLearning system. A multi-dimensional non-coercive eLearning implementation approach was used highlighting the various communication and change management strategies that the institution has employed in its endeavours to achieve broad eLearning buy-in within a resistant environment. A generic Instructional Design Model was developed to portray a continuum in the support for a changing organisational culture. The results indicated that the institution has realised a 26% success rate of academics who have managed to have experienced a paradigm shift towards the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in supplementing their teaching practices

The search for identity in The Black Album

Identity is something that is formed through the experiences and influences that happen to us as individuals throughout life. How a person’s identity is formed is something that is both interesting and fascinating. Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album takes place in today’s Britain. His main character Shahid is, in his search for his true self and identity, torn between his fanatical friends, a multicultural interracial love affair and the historical baggage of postcolonial Britain. The author does not serve the reader with an easy solution to how identity is found, but more a true reflection of life itself, and that is what the book is all about. It is simply and convincingly a realistic account of a person’s search for identity in today’s multicultural Britain and all the complexity that comes with it.Validerat; 20101217 (root

The Grenadian Revolution, 1973-1983 The political economy of an attempt at revolutionary transformation in a Caribbean mini-state

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D66165/86 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

English and other languages : an attitude study among upper secondary school students

The purpose of this work is to find out what upper secondary school students views are on the English language and other foreign languages. The importance of the English language, the lingua franca of our time, is evident and more and more people around the world speak English. Knowledge of languages is essential today, the European Commission has put on the member states to improve their citizens’ language skills to the year 2010 and this includes English as well as other languages spoken in the EU. Students in this survey think that it is important to know English to be able to communicate with others. Other foreign language skills are considered good but for the majority of the students not so necessary. The survey also shows that female students study more languages and at higher levels than the male students and there is also a difference in language studies between the programmes in upper secondary school.Validerat; 20101217 (root

The search for identity in Anita and Me and The Buddha of Suburbia

Some identities come with birth, others are given to us, and some we require ourselves through life. One of the most important factors affecting our identity, is connected to the encounters that are made throughout life. Identity is threfore not something static but rather something that undergoes a continuous evolution. This essay consists of the following chpters: chapter one serves as a background to how a person's identity is formed and circumstances that may effect this evolution, such as immigrant background: chapter two deals with how community, the parents' identity and the family influences identity, and the final chapter deals with the effects of prejudice and the possibilities for the future.Validerat; 20101217 (root

Striving for a better world: Lessons from Freire in Grenada, Jamaica and Australia

The author of this paper considers the influence of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical philosophy on educational practice in three different geographical/political settings. She begins with reflections on her experience as a facilitator at Freire’s seminar, held in Grenada in 1980 for teachers and community educators, on the integration of work and study. This case demonstrates how Freire’s method of dialogic education achieved outcomes for the group of thoughtful collaboration leading to conscientisation in terms of deep reflection on their lives as teachers in Grenada and strategies for decolonising education and society. The second case under consideration is the arts-based pedagogy shaping the work of the Area Youth Foundation (AYF) in Kingston, Jamaica. Young participants, many of them from tough socio-economic backgrounds, are empowered by learning how to articulate their own experiences and relate these to social change. They express this conscientisation by creating stage performances, murals, photo-novella booklets and other artistic products. The third case study describes and evaluates the Honey Ant Reader project in Alice Springs, Australia. Aboriginal children, as well as the adults in their community, learn to read in their local language as well as Australian Standard English, using booklets created from indigenous stories told by community Elders, featuring local customs and traditions. The author analyses how the “Freirean” pedagogy in all three cases exemplifies the process of encouraging the creation of knowledge for progressive social change, rather than teaching preconceived knowledge. This supports her discussion of the extent to which this is authentic to the spirit of the scholar/teacher Paulo Freire, who maintained that in our search for a better society, the world has to be made and remade. Her second, related aim is to raise questions about how education aligned with Freirean pedagogy can contribute to moving social change from the culture circle to the public sphere