Holographic Bjorken Flow at Large-D

We use gauge/gravity duality to study the dynamics of strongly coupled gauge theories undergoing boost invariant expansion in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions (D). By keeping the scale of the late-time energy density fixed, we explore the infinite-D limit and study the first few corrections to this expansion. In agreement with other studies, we find that the large-D dynamics are controlled by hydrodynamics and we use our computation to constrain the leading large-D dependence of a certain combination of transport coefficients up to 6-th order in gradients. Going beyond late time physics, we discuss how non-hydrodynamic modes appear in the large-D expansion in the form of a trans-series in D, identical to the non-perturbative contributions to the gradient expansion. We discuss the consequence of this trans-series in the non-convergence of the large-D expansion.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures. v2: Typos corrected, references adde

Theology in the flesh: exploring the corporeal turn from a southern African perspective

Borght, E.A.J.G. Van der [Promotor]Muller, J. [Promotor

Facilitation of educators to manage their lived experiences of aggression at a Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College

Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstract.D.Phil. (Education

Enabling Technologies of Cyber Crime: Why Lawyers Need to Understand It

This Article discusses the enabling technologies of cyber crime and analyzes their role in the resolution of related legal issues. It demonstrates the translation of traditional legal principles to a novel technological environment in a way that preserves their meaning and policy rationale. It concludes that lawyers who fail to understand the translation will likely pursue a suboptimal litigation strategy, face speculative recovery prospects, and may overlook effective and potentially powerful defenses

Forgiveness, reconciliation and justice á la Desmond Tutu

In the eyes of many, chairing the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the crowning contribution of Archbishop Desmond Tutu to his country, and to the world at large. Against the backdrop of his role leading the TRC, chairing the many victims’ hearings and guiding the amnesty proceedings, the article focuses on Tutu’s views on forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice. The TRC operated within the mandates given to it by the South African parliament, but Tutu with his theological background, strong views, and dynamic personality put his own stamp on the truth and reconciliation process inSouth Africa. The role of religion in establishing truth and working towards justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation was controversial, but for the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, it was inconceivable to embark on the journey of reconciliation without faith in Jesus Christ, the ultimate Reconciler

Com-post-humanism: implications for foundation phase environmental education in South Africa

In early childhood education research (which includes Grade R and Grade 1 in the Foundation Phase in South Africa), posthuman frameworks are mostly used without explicitly making the connection to issues of climate change and environmental education/sustainability education. Within the context of the Anthropocene where natural and human forces are visibly entangled, this thesis draws on posthuman frameworks combined with multidisciplinary, place-conscious environmental education theories to inform research and educational practices. These theories are not motivated by a Western ideology or take for granted that Western theorists have the answers that all cultures should live by. These environmental theories and a posthuman praxis are always relational (nature-culture, body-mind, intellect-affect), have a flat ontology where human qualities are not at the centre of relationality and they explore the perceptual, cultural, ecological, and political dimensions of land/place. These theories eschew ideas of romantic (colonial) wilderness experiences and foster wider concerns of ecojustice, ecological thought and life processes that are also relevant to everyday (South African) urban living experiences. The following ‘(in)tension’ (imagining different futures in the midst of the frictions of research) is explored: How do posthuman environmental philosophies disrupt anthropocentric thinking and inform new ways of doing theory and practice for environmental education in South African schools in the Foundation phase? During an eleven month period of practical exploration, ‘walking a world into being’ and encountering Grade R and Grade 3 lessons in a Cape Town urban government school, video recordings and intraviews provoked and disturbed all possibilities of ‘pre-knowing’. Posthuman ‘ethodologies’ were conceptualized to rework the post-human subject at the intersection of post-qualitative research and Anthropocene entanglement. The idea of methods as processes of gathering ‘data’ changed to methods as ‘abecoming-entangled-in-relations’. Methods became receptive of ethicopolitical matters and concerns as they happen. Rather than concluding with ontological certainties and ‘findings’, normative standards (a humanist curriculum and work books) are problematized and the suggestion that all education should be environmental, is offered. The thesis gestures towards a pedagogy of affective learning right across the curriculum with land, multispecies engagements and ‘storied matter’ as an affirmative and creative way to ‘stay with the trouble’

Praxis of design education to the current digital culture student

If “Design is shaped by the community and community shapes design” (DEFSA 2013 brief author), then how do we teach design to a culture that is engrossed within the ever-­‐changing information age, what is the impact of this ethos on the current day designer and design? Today’s student is inclined to have an ethos that is different to students from as short as five years ago; post 2007, the year that social media started to be commonly used by South Africans, thus changing their ethos of design and continues to change as the digital information age develops. This paper looks at a design class, on third year level, as the Design Culture described by the conference outlines; understanding the dualism at play on the design process and the class group as the community. It investigates the culture that does not hold onto information, but has access to information at the press of a button. This investigation aims to understand the nature of this constantly changing culture and the influences the information age has on the ethos of a design culture. It investigates how teaching has to adapt to serve this digital culture and how learning happens within it. The paper considers the changes to the praxis of design; process of design, the nature of creativity and the communication of design within this ethos, the challenges and potential for growth that the information ethos brings with it. It aims to contribute to the discourse surrounding praxis of design teaching to today’s constantly changing, network driven design culture. In conclusion this investigation considers the influence of the digital culture on design cultures and aims to act as a catalyst to design educators to enrich the understanding of the cultures they are involved with and aims to contribute to the praxis of teaching design to a continually changing culture on the fringes or outskirts of the educator’s own culture

Impact evaluation of Funda Wande in-service teacher coaching intervention: Findings from the first year

Acknowledging the limited opportunities for South African teachers to acquire specialized knowledge in teaching reading, particularly in African Languages, the Non-Governmental Organisation Funda Wande is providing an integrated package of support to train Foundation Phase literacy teachers in how to teach reading for meaning in African languages. The pilot intervention evaluated here takes place in three urban schooling districts in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. The intervention is implemented in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE). The Funda Wande in-service training model builds on international best practice and lessons learnt from domestic iterations of integrated teacher training and support models, prominently amongst which are the Department of Basic Education (DBE)-led Early Grade Reading (EGRS) studies Funda Wande provides a bouquet of home language print resources to learners and classrooms. Teachers also receive an integrated package of curriculum aligned lesson plans, assessment booklets and online pedagogic resources. In-classroom teacher coaching provides support, monitoring and feedback for teachers on how to implement new teaching techniques and make use of materials. The Funda Wande course trains teachers and their Heads of Department (HODs) on how to teach reading for meaning in African languages. The course content provides teachers with knowledge on the morphology of African languages and how learners learn to read in them, whilst supporting materials and in-person coaching equips teachers to implement the instructional techniques in practice. The primary aim of the evaluation is to assess whether the Funda Wande intervention is effective in changing teacher's instructional behaviour and improving early reading outcomes. More specifically, the programme's is evaluated with reference to its self-stated goal: that all learners should be able to read for meaning in their home language by the end of Grade 3. The specific reading outcomes assessed are grade relevant foundational reading and reading comprehension skills. A randomized control trial (RCT) is used to estimate the causal impact of the programme on early literacy outcomes with schools randomized into one of two arms – Funda Wande and control – in three urban and peri-urban education districts. All schools in the evaluation are no fee public schools with an isiXhosa language of learning and teaching. After one year of programme exposure, the intervention impact on the treated group of Grade 1 and 2 learners' reading proficiency is 0.17 standard deviations. Translated into the amount of learning that took place in comparison schools, or ‘business as usual' learning environments, this effect equals between 20 to 27 percent of a year's worth of learning for Grade 2 learners and 33 to 58 percent of a year's learning for Grade 1 learners. Dependent on the outcome measure used, the programme impacts therefore range roughly between one and two terms of learning in comparison status quo classrooms. The programme effects are positive across all the sub-domains of reading proficiency that could be measured reliably. For Grade 1 learners, intervention impacts were the largest on foundational decoding skills - correctly identifying letter sounds and being able to manipulate phonemes. At this early stage of Grade 1 leaners' development trajectories, these are the skills that are required to decode words, read more fluently and eventually progress to reading for meaning. The impacts on downstream higher order reading comprehension skills are only detectable for Grade 2 learners. Consistent with other results from the recent literature, these findings support the idea that learners require a range of foundational literacy abilities before they can read with some level of fluency. In turn, learners need to read with a certain minimum level of speed and accuracy in order to comprehend what they are reading. A particularly encouraging finding from a policy perspective is that the intervention has fairly consistent positive impacts for learners across the distribution of baseline reading proficiency. Programme impacts also do not vary with of learners' relative rank for reading proficiency within their classrooms. Previous research suggests that improving reading outcomes for learners with the lowest levels of foundational reading skills in an absolute sense is particularly challenging. A related finding is suggestive evidence that the programme helps boys in treatment schools catch up with their generally more proficient girl counterparts, but only in Grade 2 and with the extent of catch-up contingent on the boys' baseline levels of reading proficiency. At this stage only suggestive results are presented for the potential mechanisms at play. Evidence across more than one indicator suggests that teachers in intervention schools are more likely to a) be more attuned to the actual reading proficiency levels of the learners in their class (both in terms of whether learners are at the top or the bottom of the distribution and how the class performs overall); b) to make use of graded readers - which were provided equivalently to both treatment and control schools - more frequently; and (c) to use instructional techniques that have previously shown to facilitate more individualised forms of learner reading practice and -teacher feedback. Future rounds of assessments and in-depth qualitative classroom observations will delve deeper into both the potential mechanisms at play, as well as the potential characteristics of the Funda Wande intervention that result in it being effective in shifting learning outcomes for leaners across the distribution of reading proficiency levels (and for learners with the lowest levels of reading proficiency in particular). Other unanswered question at this stage relate to the details that would allow one to compare the absolute- and cost-effectiveness of the programme to similar interventions in the literature. The results here add to the growing body of evidence that makes a strong case for the crucial complementary role of high-quality teacher coaching and continuous follow-up support in programmes that focus on shifting teachers' instructional practice. Consistent with the results from similar interventions in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, the Funda Wande intervention improves learning outcomes through combining material provision, a structured sequence of lessons, alignment around some central curriculum, and supporting teachers in “learning by doing” through teacher professional development support