Against all odds: The role of ‘community cultural wealth’ in overcoming challenges as a black African woman

Academic challenges for students from ‘previously disadvantaged backgrounds’ do not necessarily begin at university, but start during their school years, as was the case for the author. This article is in three parts. Firstly, the author presents a brief narration of the challenges faced before she went to university, which influenced her undergraduate progress. Secondly, the author describes the key challenges she experienced as an undergraduate in particular courses and in a postgraduate education course. Thirdly, she focuses on the challenges she encountered during her first work experience as a black African PhD student and tutor on an education campus. In particular, the author focuses on key challenging incidents and how she approached and engaged with them to enable a successful journey through university as a student and young academic staff member. In the form of a first-person narration, the qualitative research method of ‘testimony’ is used to reflect critically on her academic and professional journeys as a black African woman in the post-apartheid era. Testimony was chosen because it provides an epistemic lens to support an analytical inquiry into experiences and intellectual understanding of self and community

Exploring working conditions in selected rural schools: teachers’ experiences

Even though quality education is important for the empowerment of individuals and development of society, some rural schools in South Africa continue to function amid tough conditions. Because little research on the topic exists, with this article I explore and identify teachers’ experiences of the working conditions in rural schools in South Africa. A qualitative, descriptive and interpretive case study was used, and 5 schools were purposively selected as cases for the study, 2 primary and 3 secondary schools. Interviews and observations with 11 teachers provided insight into the difficult working conditions that teachers in some rural school need to contend with. Teachers in rural schools continue to experience difficult working conditions and due to their loyalty to their schools, they do not relocate to other schools. Dilapidated infrastructure, a lack of chalk boards, insufficient textbooks, among others, hamper teacher’s working conditions and constrain their teaching. The participants in the study indicated that principals played a fundamental role in supporting and inspiring teachers who work under challenging conditions

Student teachers’ perceptions of a Wits rural teaching experience project: What to learn and improve

In South Africa all universities send education student teachers to schools for teaching practice as part of their preparation for teaching. Of concern is the lack of research investigating pre-service teachers’ experiences of teaching practice, especially in rural and farm schools. Several rural teaching practice projects have been established by various teacher education training institutions in South Africa, in order to introduce student teachers to rurality and rural and farm schools. The introduction of the projects suggests an acknowledgement of varied school contexts and pedagogies, and the importance of making education student teachers aware of them. The project use a qualitative approach and semi-structured reflective discussions and reflective journals to collect data. The findings show that education student teachers want to be part of the rural community and schools, rather than being ‘tourists’ and ‘scientists’. Collaboration between pre-service and in-service teachers is identified as crucial to share teaching skills.     

Investment risks in public private partnerships in sub Saharan Africa infrastructure projects

Master of Management in Finance and Investment (2015)Infrastructure development is one of the constraints to the economic development of sub-Saharan Africa. The region needs to invest in excess of US$68bn by 2020 to bridge the gap in the current core infrastructure areas of energy, transport, water and information and communications technology. Governments are therefore pursuing strategies that include Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for core infrastructure services. This structure involves contracting the private sector to develop and deliver services that would traditionally be the responsibility of the state. In return the private sector retains rights to all revenue related to the service provision under defined terms with the government. Equitable risk allocation, funding structure and contract enforcement are some of the key characteristics of effective PPP programmes and growing private sector investment into the sector. The investment risk profile of PPP projects is fairly similar in structure to that of typical project finance transactions with the added complexity of the dynamics introduced by public sector policy and politics. Understanding the risk profile of sub-Saharan Africa projects is essential to growth in the sector. Through the literature, the critical risk elements are identifiable and further study into their relevance to sub-Saharan Africa investors and market observers is what this research pursued. These include the state project preparation processes, governance, legislation, political stability, operational and market risk. The research focused primarily on identifying and analysing those elements in the risk profile that are having significant negative impact on the growth of private sector investment participation and in turn the wider adoption of the PPP strategy in infrastructure provision. Further to this was the identification of viable recommendations the industry could implement to improve investor participation. The research was conducted through structured interviews with market participants, reflecting on the trends data, reports, a selected few project cases and academic studies found in the literature relevant for the risk elements identified. It was found that the lack of sound project selection and preparation processes and poor legislative and regulatory environment were the two highest inherent risks in sub-Saharan Africa impeding the development of infrastructure PPPs. Respondents highlighted the need to establish well governed and resourced PPP agencies responsible for the legislation and regulation of PPP projects. Technical and operational risk management did not concern investors as much as issues with dealing with the political and social dynamics the projects are exposed to. Successful projects in the region are characterised by sound preparation with experienced transaction advisors leading to an equitable risk allocation structure, good governance and availability of support and guarantees against political risk and breach of contract from multilateral agencies like The World Bank. On-going state fragility will remain a challenge for the region in terms of poverty and political instability in some countries and this would affect the viability of regional integration infrastructure initiatives. The role of multilateral funding agencies like the African Development Bank and World Bank is essential for risk coverage and capacity building. Overall the improvement of planning and governing processes within the public sector procuring entities is what will result in real improvement in the risk profile of projects in the region and in turn the growth of PPP investment

Like a doll made of old cloth : a critical analysis of the influence of the radio programme Khalamdumbadumbane on Swazi discourses of femininity

This project concerns the way the radio programme "Khalamdumbadumbane" functions as non-formal education and influences discourses of femininity in Swaziland. I have engaged in critical research in an attempt to show how the media (more specifically radio in this context) influence women's perceptions of themselves in a way which sustains the inequality between sexes. I also show how the programme "Khalamdumbadumbane" as a popular and topical programme has become a social institution, exerting its hidden power to ensure· the dominance of males within the Swazi society. Women's experiences have been recorded in transcribed interviews and these have been discussed and analysed for common themes. The following themes are discussed: Power relations, Cultural identity and the Discourse of rights. The first two themes have been further divided into subthemes: Imbalance I inequality between the sexes, patriarchal family system, disregard for women, abusive relationships, Swazi values versus Western values and the religious discourse. From interviews with the host of the radio programme in question and with Swazi women, I show how this programme has influenced women's self perceptions through their acceptance of the problem solving as 'help' and not as ideological propaganda for patriarchy. Bibliography: pages 99-108

Immune activation is associated with decreased thymic function in asymptomatic, untreated HIV-infected individuals

Background: Reduced thymic function causes poor immunological reconstitution in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients on combined antiretroviral therapy (cART).The association between immune activation and thymic function in asymptomatic HIV positive treatment-naive individuals has thus far not been investigated. Aims and objectives: To optimise a five-colour flow cytometric assay for measurement of thymic function by measuring recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) in treatment-naive HIV-infected patients and healthy controls and correlate results with levels of immune activation, CD4 counts and viral load. Methods: Blood obtained from 53 consenting HIV-positive individuals and 32 controls recruited from HIV prevention and testing clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. RTEs were measured (CD3+/CD4+/CD45RA+/CD31+/CD62L+) and levels were correlated with CD4 counts of HIV-infected individuals, log viral load and levels of immune activation (CD8+/CD38+ T-cells). Results: HIV-infected individuals had reduced frequencies of RTEs when compared to controls (p = 0.0035). Levels of immune activation were inversely correlated with thymic function(p = 0.0403), and the thymic function in HIV-infected individuals showed no significant correlation with CD4 counts (p = 0.31559) and viral load (p = 0.20628). Conclusions: There was impaired thymic function in HIV-infected individuals, which was associated with increased levels of immune activation. The thymic dysfunction was not associated with CD4 counts and viral load. Immune activation may result in inflammatory damage to the thymus and subsequent thymic dysfunction, and CD4 counts and viral load may not necessarily reflect thymic dysfunction in HIV

Pre-service teachers’ professional learning experiences during rural teaching practice in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga Province

The concept of student teaching practice is globally rooted in training pre-service teachers to work within diverse schools and learner populations, in dissimilar contexts. It is also a drive towards the development of knowledge, professionalism, sense of efficacy, and flexibility in their performance and interactions. There is seemingly little research that has been done in South Africa to gain insight into the pre-service teachers’ development of knowledge and professionalism during rural teaching practice. In developing countries like South Africa, teaching practice challenges are usually severe, particularly in rural schools, where there is generally a paucity of information on the nature of school-based support pre-service teachers receive. In the article we explore pre-service teachers’ professional learning experiences during teaching practice in Acornhoek, rural Bushbuckridge. The project used qualitative semi-structured reflective discussions and students’ reflective journals to collect data. The findings show that pre-service teachers experienced a shift of mind as they engaged in professional thinking, learning and meaning making.Keywords: complexity; leadership; Mpumalanga province; pre-service teachers; professional learning; rural school, situative theory; teaching experienc

Immigrant learners learning linear programming in multilingual classrooms in South Africa

This study used discourse analysis (Gee, 2011; 2005; 1999) in order to explore a socio-situated view of how teachers created learning opportunities for the participation of immigrant learners when learning linear programming in a Grade 11 mathematics classroom in South Africa. The aim was to explore that which mathematics teachers do in classrooms with immigrant learners that they will not do if there were no immigrants. A discourse analysis approach was used in order to view the opportunities created through language use not as a tool for communication only but also as a tool for building reality. The study reported in this thesis was conducted in three different settings which are in; urban, township and rural environments. The urban environment focuses on immigrant learners who were born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and started schooling there, in the township and rural environment it focuses on immigrant learners born in South Africa with parents born in the Republic of Mozambique or Angola. Three different mathematics classrooms were observed in their natural environment during lessons focusing on linear programming. Data was collected through a learner questionnaire issued before lesson observations. The aim of the learner questionnaire was to understand the language background of the learners in the mathematics classrooms selected for the study. The second method included lesson observation for at most five consecutive days at each setting. It involved observing teachers and immigrant learners during teaching sessions of linear programming activities. The activities included reading, writing, speaking and participating in mathematical activities. These activities were then analysed to understand how teachers created learning opportunities for the immigrant learners. The study contextualised the results from lesson observations by conducting clinical interviews with three immigrant learners, one from each site, to provide insights into the explanations on immigrant learners approaches when solving a linear programming task. The main conclusion in this study is that immigrant learners were successful in linear programming when teachers’ created learning opportunities by using code switching to support them. The main contribution of this study is that it focuses on multilingual mathematics classrooms of immigrant learners in South Africa – a context that has not yet been researched in South African vi mathematics education. Exploring language practices in multilingual mathematics classrooms of immigrant learners provides a different gaze into teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms in South Africa. Equally important is the extent to which immigrant learners are distinct to multilingual learners in the teaching and learning of linear programming.Mathematics EducationD. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education