How do South African Educator's experiences of an online learning course prepare them to adopt inclusive education practices?

This research study explored how teachers perceive the potential for online learning opportunities by investigating their experiences of an online course, Education for All: Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion Massive Open Online Course (EFA: DDI MOOC) on teaching children with disabilities. A key underlying concern is that teachers are not sufficiently trained to teach inclusively within their classroom-based environments. The literature reflects that teachers feel that they have not been provided with adequate skills and knowledge to teach students with disabilities and that a massive gap exists in teacher education, which hinders teachers from providing quality education in South Africa. These assessments of the current state of teacher education regarding children with disabilities in this country highlight a considerable need to upskill teachers, particularly those of children with disabilities. One of the proposed responses is to offer flexible online courses such as MOOCs that are open to anyone to enrol. MOOCs are a form of online courses with open enrolment delivered on web-based platforms that can support larger numbers of people. They are free courses that offer unlimited online participation, including technological advancement, peer support as well as collaborative practices. In this study, the EFA: DDI MOOC informs our understanding of how teachers might respond to and value this opportunity. This study thus sought to investigate “How do South African educators' experiences of an online learning course prepare them to adopt inclusive education practices?” Semi-structured interviews were employed as a means of collecting data. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data set. The researcher was able to ascertain how the MOOC was valued by these participants including acquiring information regarding their level of engagement on the MOOC. The collected data was based on South African educators' experiences of doing the MOOC course and their readiness to implement inclusive education practices for all children with disabilities. The researcher was also interested to ascertain how the online course prepared them to adopt inclusive education practices after completion. This further included establishing how educators perceive MOOCs as being accessible, feasible, and acceptable to their context to develop increased engagement in inclusive teaching practices. The thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the in-depth interviews. Finally, participants were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The interviewees spoke of fundamental changes having occurred after participating in the EFA: DDI MOOC which led to newer understandings of their conceptualisation of inclusion. The benefits to these individual teachers were diverse, with important aspects including their intrinsic motivation, skills development, as well as the desire for continuous professional development. For some there was also an increased willingness to take up the challenge of adopting inclusive education practices as well as becoming agents of change in their communities. The flexible and low-cost MOOC mode was valued as supporting and complementing inclusive teacher education where few other opportunities existed. The overall outcome of the study was that online education (MOOCs) appeared as another important option to consider for the successful implementation of inclusive education practices. Teachers were willing to take up the challenge of adopting inclusive education practices as well as becoming agents of change in their communities. Therefore, the findings signified that MOOCs could aid tremendously towards the goal of achieving inclusive teacher education in South Africa

Smallholder livestock farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceptions towards vaccinations : the case of five provinces in South Africa

“This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and with financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC).”The study investigated smallholder farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceptions towards primary animal healthcare, especially the use of animal vaccine for disease prevention. Conducted across five provinces in South Africa, it finds that farmers have limited knowledge of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) irrespective of educational level. In contrast, most farmers know about Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) and this disease was cited as the most problematic, followed by Blackquarter and Heartwater. Despite the spending on animal healthcare, farmers view vaccines as too expensive. However, an overwhelming majority are willing to purchase a 2-in-1 vaccine for prevention of Rift Valley fever and Lumpy Skin disease

The socio-economic impact of the 2008-2010 Rift Valley fever outbreak on livestock farmers in South Africa

Livestock production is an important industry in South Africa. The contribution of the livestock sector to the total agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) is the largest of all the agricultural sectors, contributing more than 40% of the gross value of the total agricultural sector. Although livestock production plays an important role in the economies of most nations, livestock remains vulnerable to diseases. Recently, South Africa experienced varying episodes of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) outbreaks. RVF is viral zoonotic disease spread by infected mosquitoes and characterised by high rates of abortion and neonatal mortality, primarily in sheep, goats and cattle, but also in exotic and wild animals. To justify efficient and effective policies of prevention and control of RVF, it is paramount to understand the true impact of this disease. The amount of additional research that should be budgeted to develop newer and more effective vaccines for the control of RVF can be more adequately judged with a more accurate accounting of the overall costs of an RVF outbreak. Using a combination of evaluation methods, this study therefore sought to estimate the economic losses incurred by livestock farmers in South Africa due to the 2008–2010 RVF outbreaks. A questionnaire was administered to 150 livestock farmers in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Free State provinces, believed to have been the most severely affected provinces in the recent RVF outbreaks. Based on secondary data and expert opinions, two municipalities that were severely affected by the 2008–2010 RVF outbreaks were selected in each of the three provinces: Cacadu and Chris Hani municipal districts in the Eastern Cape; Pixley Ka Seme and Frances Baard municipal districts in the Northern Cape; and Fezile Dabi and Lejweleputswa in the Free State. The study focused on both black and white livestock farmers who keep cattle, goats, or sheep. This study hypothesised that farmers with sound animal production systems and animal health-care programmes that included vaccination against RVF were least affected by the outbreak when it occurred, and that farmers and their representative organisations overestimated the income losses from the RVF outbreaks. The findings of the study revealed the importance of vaccination in that, regardless of the application of biosecurity measures and general vaccination programs, farmers who did not vaccinate all their animals against RVF were the most affected (59%) compared to 37% of farmers who vaccinated all their animals. The findings from the survey reveal that more than 30% of farmers reported losses in the form of mortalities, abortions and reduction in animal products such as milk. Farmers incurred extra expenditure in the form of prevention, control and treatment costs. Although most of the 150 livestock farmers indicated that they vaccinated against RVF, less than half used their own funds to purchase the vaccine. Black communal and emerging farmers were provided vaccines by the state. Due to lack of substantial data, expenditure costs were only up-scaled to district level. Thus an estimated total expenditure of R50.3 million was spent by farmers on prevention, control and treatment. The survey revealed a high rate of animal mortalities and abortions, much higher than indicated by official notifications of the disease. For example, Pienaar and Thompson (2013) indicated that in 2010, “484 outbreaks were reported, with 13 342 animal cases and 8 877 animal deaths.” The 150 livestock farmers in the survey reported 4 783 animal deaths, more than half of all mortalities officially reported for the whole country. In addition, 6 460 abortions were reported in the survey of 150 farmers. Although other diseases can also cause abortions, follow-up discussions with farmers and animal health officers resulted in a fairly high level of confidence that the abortions reported in the survey were due to RVF.Dissertation (MScAgric)--University of Pretoria, 2015.tm2015Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural DevelopmentMScAgricUnrestricte

Disability Inclusion in Education

Worldwide millions of children are not able to fully participate in schooling, and this is especially a problem for children with disabilities. In this course, we explore the support that teachers need in order to meet the needs of children with severe to profound hearing, visual and intellectual disabilities. We consider how this can be done by talking with a range of experts (from teachers to activists) about inclusive education as well as sharing experiences of education. Inclusive education is only possible if teachers are supported and empowered to make the curriculum accessible to all learners. The topics in this course cover developing disability confidence and what exactly children with specific impairments need to be able to learn. This includes sharing specific classroom strategies and teaching activities for learners who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, blind or have low vision or have a severe to profound intellectual disability. By the end of the course, you will be familiar with the impairment specific needs of learners with disabilities, and how to build systems of support for inclusive education

Determinants of livestock keeper's primary animal health care practises: A partial proportional odds model

Paper removed at authors request 19-Nov-2019

Disability, Climate Change and Sustainable Development

The aim of this project is to develop an open education resource that explores the relationship between disability and development within the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Change. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) were heavily criticized by the disability sector as they did not have a focus on one of the most vulnerable groups in development, people with disabilities. This experience led to a heightened awareness of disability in development and an eagerness of the disability sector to participate more actively in the development of the sustainable development goals. This project aimed to bring together experts at UCT in climate change and sustainable development to inform disability practitioners from different sectors of the possible impacts of climate changes on people with disabilities so that there can be informed debate and advocacy with regard to disability inclusion within the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Determinants of livestock keeper's primary animal health care practises: A partial proportional odds model

Paper removed at authors request 19-Nov-2019

A facilitated process towards finding options for improved livestock production in the communal areas of Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa

A participatory multi-stakeholder process of finding options for improving livestock production in the severely degraded communal grazing area of Sterkspruit in South Africa was conducted. Interviews were conducted with individual livestock keepers from two sites to gather data on their demographic characteristics, livestock holdings, and main sources of income. Interviews and focus workshops with various stakeholders and the livestock keepers were conducted on what they perceived to be options for improving livestock production. Livestock keepers comprised less than 20% of the entire population in both villages, consisting of individuals about 60 years of age. About 60% kept less than eight cattle. Regardless of herd size, about 40% relied on old-age and welfare grants rather than livestock for income. Livestock keepers identified options promoting survival of livestock, such as improved veterinary services and winter feeding as a priority. In contrast, other stakeholders, including representatives of government, municipalities, farmers unions and commodity associations, identified options for reducing livestock numbers, such as marketing and removal of large stock owners to private land, as a priority for reducing degradation due to overstocking. Due to this difference in goals and aspirations, no common set of priorities could be agreed upon. Keywords: degradation; livelihoods; livestock keepers; multi-stakeholder; participatoryAfrican Journal of Range & Forage Science 2008, 25(2): 63–6