The impact of university students’ perception of mathematics on their curriculum choices: a case study of the University of KwaZulu Natal - Howard College Campus.

Master of Science in Public Policy. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.Mathematics is one of the most important subjects in ensuring the stability of the country’s economy. There is a general perception that mathematics is a difficult subject, this perception has led to a decline in the number of students taking mathematics and pursuing careers related to it. The South African science industry is highly affected by poor performance in mathematics by learners and poor mathematics education delivered to students. The aim of this study is to present the key factors shaping the general perception of mathematics being difficult in South Africa, focusing particularly on the introduction of mathematical literacy learning subject. The key objective of this study is to assess how the students' perception has landed them to where they are today, in terms of studies. This is a survey research study; the researcher used interviews and distributed survey questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The main population of this study was the students from the University of KwaZulu Natal. They were randomly selected from the College of Agriculture, Science and Engineering and College of Humanities. This study found that many students intended to or left mathematics for mathematical literacy. This study also found that teachers exert the most influential role on students’ perception, attitude and performance in mathematics. Students’ perception of mathematics has been explored showing that it is affected by various factors including the school capacity to deliver - that covers up for the teachers’ competency and level of qualification- , the availability and unavailability of resources and education policies related to mathematics curriculum. This study recommends that mathematics and science teachers should be screened thoroughly before their appointment. In addition to that, they should be trained continuously to improve the standard of their competency in teaching subjects of this nature

Towards framing the global in Global Development: prospects for development geography

This paper examines data in the public sphere on the global scope of geography’s UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) projects. Building on decolonial critiques of development research, I argue that geography should frame ‘the global’ of global research as a sphere of ethical choices in research design and practice. The distribution of funded projects in the UKRI Gateway data suggests geographers succeed where they extend on the more worthy aspects of the discipline’s Area Studies legacy. The discipline’s engagements with Early Career Researchers, international colleagues, and the development sector, however, have potentially been reshaped by GCRF and thus need closer examination. While the UK government has brought the GCRF programme to a close, further work on these themes should inform the next iteration of global research. The ethical choices which make research global will remain fundamental to equitable design and impact in Global Development projects, thus scholars in development geography should prepare to make their projects more transparent and accountable

Effective practices of international volunteering for health : perspectives from partner organizations

Abstract: The demand for international volunteer experiences to promote global health and nutrition is increasing and numerous studies have documented the experiences of the international volunteers who travel abroad; however, little is known about effective practices from the perspective of partner organizations. This study aims to understand how variables such as the skill-level of volunteers, the duration of service, cultural and language training, and other key variables affect partner organizations’ perceptions of volunteer effectiveness at promoting healthcare and nutrition..

Rapid epidemic expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in southern Africa

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic in southern Africa has been characterised by three distinct waves. The first was associated with a mix of SARS-CoV-2 lineages, whilst the second and third waves were driven by the Beta and Delta variants, respectively1-3. In November 2021, genomic surveillance teams in South Africa and Botswana detected a new SARS-CoV-2 variant associated with a rapid resurgence of infections in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Within three days of the first genome being uploaded, it was designated a variant of concern (Omicron) by the World Health Organization and, within three weeks, had been identified in 87 countries. The Omicron variant is exceptional for carrying over 30 mutations in the spike glycoprotein, predicted to influence antibody neutralization and spike function4. Here, we describe the genomic profile and early transmission dynamics of Omicron, highlighting the rapid spread in regions with high levels of population immunity

Forging volumetric methods

The last two decades have seen a “volumetric turn” within Anglophone social sciences and humanities scholarship. This turn is premised on the idea that space may be better understood in three-dimensional terms – with complex heights and depths – rather than as a series of two-dimensional areas or surfaces. While there is an increasingly diverse and rich set of scholarship accounting for voluminous complexities in the air, oceans, ice, mountains, and undergrounds, all too often this work foregrounds state and military-led approaches to volume. This has resulted in a limited methodological toolkit through which to explore voluminous complexities as they emerge and extend beyond military and state contexts. Often reliant on elite interviews, archives, and cartographies, there has been little critical discussion of both methodological practice and the “flatness” of research outputs articulating three-dimensional worlds. In this paper we address this by foregrounding the role of immersive and multisensory methodologies (sounding volumes, seeing-sensing drone volumes, and object volumes). To conclude, we offer avenues for further inquiry, including attending to shifting everyday voluminous experiences in the Anthropocene, and the need to diversify the communication of “volume” research

‘Capacity for what? Capacity for whom?’ A decolonial deconstruction of research capacity development practices in the Global South and a proposal for a value-centred approach

Whilst North to South knowledge transfer patterns have been extensively problematised by Southern and decolonial perspectives, there is very little reflection on the practice of research capacity development (RCD), still strongly focused on technoscientific solutionism, yet largely uncritical of its underlying normative directions and power asymmetries. Without making transparent these normative and epistemological dimensions, RCD practices will continue to perpetuate approaches that are likely to be narrow, technocratic and unreflexive of colonial legacies, thus failing to achieve the aims of RCD, namely, the equitable and development-oriented production of knowledge in low- and middle-income societies. Informed by the authors’ direct experience of RCD approaches and combining insights from decolonial works and other perspectives from the margins with Science and Technology Studies, the paper undertakes a normative and epistemological deconstruction of RCD mainstream practice. Highlighting asymmetries of power and material resources in knowledge production, the paper’s decolonial lens seeks to aid the planning, implementation and evaluation of RCD interventions. Principles of cognitive justice and epistemic pluralism, accessibility enabled by systems thinking and sustainability grounded on localisation are suggested as the building blocks for more reflexive and equitable policies that promote research capacity for the purpose of creating social value and not solely for the sake of perpetuating technoscience

Unsettling responsibility: Postcolonial interventions

This paper contributes to debates about geographies of responsibility. In contrast to much of the previous literature in this field, which has concentrated on teasing out the intimate interconnections between different people, places and spaces, in this paper we highlight the limits to such connections, focusing on more unsettled versions of responsibility. Our critique draws on postcolonial readings to highlight two limitations of responsibility: its availability as an ethical gesture that can be ascribed even where it is not practised; and its imputed agency that makes it possible for responsible agency to be usurped by the global North. This starts to muddy the water of responsibility, showing how it may involve refusal, denial, withdrawal and contamination. More problematised enigmatic and risky versions of responsibility arise from these critiques. In particular, we argue that in considering responsibility as practice, a recognition of the provisional, contaminated and complex myriad of power relations involved may signal a move towards more ambivalent versions and visions that acknowledge the vulnerabilities and disconnections involved in geographies of responsibility

Conceptualizing international education: From international student to international study

In a rapidly changing transnational eduscape, it is timely to consider how best to conceptualize international education. Here we argue for a conceptual relocation from international student to international study as a means to bridge the diverse literatures on international education. International study also enables recognition of the multiple contributions (and resistances) of international students as agents of knowledge formation; it facilitates consideration of the mobility of students in terms of circulations of knowledge; and it is a means to acknowledge the complex spatialities of international education, in which students and educators are emotionally and politically networked together through knowledge contributions