Identity and coping strategies in academic writing : a study of first year Mauritian students at a South African university

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-133).This study situates itself at the intersection between internationalization issues and students' experiences in academic writing at the University of Cape Town. What the study attempts to do is to place the two issues in a constructive dialogue and tease out how the one informs the other. Throughout, the student is viewed as the focal point of research and the study assesses how the student responds to this dialogue. His/her writing becomes an index of an internalized dialogue between institution, writing, self and community. It informs the researcher of the implications of the internationalization policy and developments in the pedagogy of academic writing on the ground

Studies in isothiazole chemistry: I. isothiazolo [5,4-b] pyridines. II. approaches to isothiazolynes

The first part of this thesis describes investigations on the synthesis and chemistry of isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridines. The syntheses of a number of alkyl isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridines from 5-amino-3-methylisothiazole under conditions of the Skraup reaction are described and their nuclear magnetic resonance spectra are discussed. The reactions of 3-methyl- and 3,6-dimethylisothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridine have been studied. In particular they did not undergo nitration under the conditions employed and whereas the 3-methyl compound did not condense with benzaldehyde, 3,6-dimethylisothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridine gave mono-styryl products with benzaldehyde, and p-nitrobenzaldehyde. Potassium permanganate oxidation gave isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyrid-3(2H)-one 1,1-dioxides rather than the expected isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridine carboxylic acids and chromic acid oxidation resulted in cleavage of the isothiazole ring to give 2,3-disubstituted pyridines. Ethyl 4-hydroxy-3-methylisothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridine-5-earboxylabe was readily obtained by thermal cyclisation of the malonate from 5-amino-3-methylisothiazole and ethoxymethylenemalonic ester. The hydroxyl ester was converted to a number of substituted isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridines. In addition it has been established that methylation at nitrogen rather than oxygen occurs with both the 4-hydroxy ester and the 4-hydroxy compound which has been shown to exist preferentially in the carbonyl form, namely 3-methylisothiazolo[5,4-b] _7pyrid-4-one. The reaction of 5-amino-3-methylisothiazole with ethylacetoacetate and with acetylacetone under the conditions of the Conrad Limpach reaction and the Combes reaction respectively, did not give isothiazolo[5,4-b] pyridines. The latter gave a product which has been tentatively formulated as 5-acetyl-3,4-dimethylisothiazole. The second part of this work describes the synthesis of 5-amino-3-chloroisothiazole-4-carboxylic acid, 4-amino-3-methylisothiazole- 5-carboxylic acid and 4-aminoisothiazole-3-carboxylic acid and experiments aimed at investigating the possible intermediacy of isothiazolynes. Attempts to generate and trap isothiazolynes by their aprotic diazotisation with isoainyl nitrite in the presence of 2,3,4,5-tetraphenylcyclopentadienone gave only small quantities of isothiazoles in addition to a variety of oxidation products derived from the arynophile. 4-Amino3-methylisothiazole-5-carboxylic acid gave isothiazolyl-substituted products when furan and anthracene were used as trapping agents, and it was found that the reaction of isothiazole-4-diazonium carboxylate hydrochloride and propylene oxide in the presence of furan gave 4,-cyano-1,2,3-thiadiazole. In none of the reactions investigated was there any evidence for the formation of inothiazolyne intermediates

Making gazes explicit: facilitating epistemic access in the humanities

The final publication of this article is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9651-7.This paper addresses the problem of curriculum design in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and more specifically the challenge of designing foundation courses for first-generation or 'disadvantaged' learners. Located in the social realist school of the sociology of education studies that builds on the legacy of Basil Bernstein, we emphasise the importance of knowledge and understanding the principles that generate 'what counts' in particular courses and disciplines. In order to operationalise this, we used Maton's Legitimation Code Theory to uncover the knowledge/knower structures in eight first year courses in four of the most popular majors in a Faculty of Humanities. Our data sources were curriculum documents and exam papers in particular. The findings are presented and the 'codes', 'gazes, and 'lenses' for each set of courses delineated. The findings are being used to inform the design of a set of curriculum and pedagogic interventions that aim to offer powerful ways of knowing to novices in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The social uses of the online chatroom as a boundary object for the acquisition of academic literacy in pandemic times

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for ongoing pedagogic changes in the higher education landscape, especially with the use of online modes of delivery. The digital shift triggered questions around student engagement and the need to ensure that, despite physical distancing, students did not feel alienated from online learning spaces. This was part and parcel of our ethics of care prerogative. In the context of teaching academic literacy online, our teaching experiences have prompted us to interrogate how we understand student participation and sense-making in online spaces during the pandemic. This is particularly important for us, as we view academic literacy as a set of socially embedded practices rather than decontextualised skills (Street, 1983). We argue that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the online chatroom as a boundary object (Bowker & Star, 2000) was recruited as a proxy for the traditional classroom. We focus on how this boundary object was recruited by us as academic literacy lecturers in our first-year academic literacy course to realise certain features of our pedagogy of discomfort. Through a critical discourse analysis of written interactions in the chatroom, we explore how we as lecturers constrained the multiple social uses of the chatroom in order to imbue it with a particular function, a sense-making space for the acquisition of academic literacy in the context of ‘Emergency Remote Teaching’

The Messiness of Meaning Making: Examining the Affordances of the Digital Space as a Mentoring and Tutoring Space for the Acquisition of Academic Literacy

Having incorporated a digital aspect to our academic literacy course, and having monitored this over the last three years, we have come to believe that online mentoring can serve as an essential form of tutoring and mentoring. Our study is located in the field of New Literacy Studies and examines the affordances of a digital space in a first year academic literacy course in the Humanities. We focus on students’ acquisition of academic literacy, as well as critical thinking and reflexivity around a core social science concept; identity. Here, we refer to the ability to think critically and reflexively, as the ‘analytical mode’, a key driver in shaping the pedagogy of the course. In this paper, we explore the online participation of two students and how they engage with the theme of identity, not only as an academic concept but also as one intrinsically linked with how they see themselves in a diverse post-apartheid South African context. We argue that the digital space promotes a particular form of the ‘analytical mode’ as students grapple with texts and concepts on the academic literacy course. Using a qualitative case study methodology, our analysis of students’ online interaction revealed that the digital space allowed students to express themselves with a level of depth and sophistication, and to share dissident views that could not be expressed in the traditional classroom space. Furthermore, we argue that the digital space can suspend students’ urgency to agree or disagree with the arguments of authors they read. By holding students between the two positions of agreement and disagreement, we propose that the digital space becomes a space of reflexive1 discomfort which captures various moments in students’ drafting processes as they operate within the analytical mode. Therefore, we argue that the digital space, if harnessed with a particular type of mentoring philosophy and pedagogy that activates the analytical mode, can free up. the traditional forms of academic mentoring and tutoring within the academy. This allows students the freedom to live with the messiness of their texts and to grapple with their conceptual understanding, and in doing so, develop their ‘authorial self’ (Clark & Ivanič, 1997)

Body composition-derived BMI cut-offs for overweight and obesity in Indians and Creoles of Mauritius: comparison with Caucasians

Global estimates of overweight and obesity prevalence are based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-off values of 25 and 30 kg m⁻², respectively. To validate these BMI cut-offs for adiposity in the island population of Mauritius, we assessed the relationship between BMI and measured body fat mass in this population according to gender and ethnicity.Methods: In 175 young adult Mauritians (age 20-42 years) belonging to the two main ethnic groups—Indians (South Asian descent) and Creoles (African/Malagasy descent), body weight, height and waist circumference (WC) were measured, total body fat assessed by deuterium oxide (D2O) dilution and trunk (abdominal) fat by segmental bioimpedance analysis.Results: Compared to body fat% predicted from BMI using Caucasian-based equations, body fat% assessed by D2O dilution in Mauritians was higher by 3–5 units in Indian men and women as well as in Creole women, but not in Creole men. This gender-specific ethnic difference in body composition between Indians and Creoles is reflected in their BMI–Fat% relationships, as well as in their WC–Trunk Fat% relationships. Overall, WHO BMI cut-offs of 25 and 30 kg m⁻² for overweight and obesity, respectively, seem valid only for Creole men (~24 and 29.5, respectively), but not for Creole women whose BMI cut-offs are 2–4 units lower (21–22 for overweight; 27–28 for obese) nor for Indian men and women whose BMI cut-offs are 3–4 units lower (21–22 for overweight; 26–27 for obese).Conclusions: The use of BMI cut-off points for classifying overweight and obesity need to take into account both ethnicity and gender to avoid gross adiposity status misclassification in this population known to be at high risk for type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This is particularly of importance in obesity prevention strategies both in clinical medicine and public health

2018 Humanities Reference Guide

The Humanities Reference Guide shares the principles of referencing, and provides an overview of four different styles used across the eighteen Humanities departments, with practical examples. The styles are Harvard, Chicago, APA and MLA. The guide also shares tips on how to manage sources and voices in one's writing, and contains a FAQ section addressing possible queries students may have. The 2018 version has updated the Chicago Reference Style guidelines as per the 17 edition of the Chicago manual. It also contains guidelines on how to reference MOOCs under the FAQ section. Older version is available at: http://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/24031

Week 1 - starting to write: giving feedback on definitions

Week 1 - starting to write: giving feedback on definition