Education and the public good : foregrounding education in history

Historians can contribute significantly to education historiography to bolster education transformation. Contemporary scholarship in education, in the main, mostly wrestles with the current dispensation’s transformation of education policy endeavours in the post-apartheid era. While there is no substantial or insurmountable disagreement on the education policy objectives in post-apartheid South Africa, much of the contestations seem to arise from how these objectives should be realised to achieve their lofty ideals. This is where learning from history is important. History is not merely concerned with constructing knowledge through relooking the past but also attending to the “selection” and “silences” over time. Among other things, South Africa’s history also provides significant insights into how education contributed to developing a first-world economy in the country. This article argues that, because of education’s ability to enable social and economic mobility to affect families, communities, and society in general positively, education is a public good that requires historians’ involvement and attention. The article also considers the significance of funding education as a public good. Consequently, the paper argues that historians can make a significant contribution to transforming education in their continuous rewriting of history to learn from the past and foreground education as a public good in the past and present for the future.https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/3742pm202

Rondawels : van Mamelodi na die presidensiële biblioteek en argief

‘Rondavels: From Mamelodi to the presidential library and archives’ considers the recently unveiled architectural design of the fi rst presidential library on the African continent, the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library. It focuses on its positive reception in South Africa, Africa, and abroad against the backdrop of the history of the lapa scheme and the Mamelodi rondavels established in the late 1940s. The article questions whether the vehemen t rejection of the Mamelodi rondavels by the local community and the recent positive reception of the presidential library indicates an evolved appreciation of African indigenous knowledge systems and design. It also questions whether such an interpretation of the use of traditional architectural forms is feasible. The amalgamation and adaptation of African indigenous knowledge systems into modernity as part of the African Renaissance project championed by Mbeki and the promotion of Africans’ sense of self and self-defi nition are critical objectives of the library project. The article investigates whether a modernisation of African traditional design for contemporary sensibilities might be an evolution over time refl ecting the development of an awareness of the rich and complex heritage connecting South Africa to the rest of Africa and its peoples; or whether it refl ects a deeper appreciation of the connections between South Africa, the rest of the African continent and the world.‘Rondawels: Van Mamelodi na die presidensiële biblioteek en argief’ besin oor die onlangse onthulling van die argitektoniese ontwerp van die eerste presidensiële biblioteek op die Afrika-kontinent, die Thabo Mbeki presidensiële biblioteek. Dit fokus op die positiewe ontvangs daarvan in Suid-Afrika, Afrika en oorsee teen die agtergrond van die geskiedenis van die lapa-skema en die Mamelodirondawels wat in die laat 1940’s ontstaan het. Die artikel stel die vraag of die plaaslike gemeenskap se heftige verwerping van die Mamelodi-rondawels op daardie tydstip en die onlangse positiewe ontvangs van die presidensiële biblioteek ’n aanduiding van ’n evolusie in die waardering van inheemse kennisstelsels en ontwerpe in Afrika is. Dit ondersoek ook of so ’n interpretasie van die gebruik van tradisionele argitektoniese vorms lewensvatbaar is. Die samesnoering en toepassing van inheemse Afrikakennisstelsels in die moderne tyd as deel van die Afrika-renaissanceprojek wat deur Mbeki voorgestaan is en die verandering in Afrikane se sin van self en selfdefi nisie is onder meer deel van die biblioteekprojek se doelwitte. Is die modernisering van tradisionele ontwerpe vir eietydse gebruik moontlik ’n langdurige evolusie van bewuswording van Suid-Afrika se ryk en ingewikkelde nalatenskap aan die res van Afrika en sy mense; of weerspieël hierdie evolusie ’n dieper waardering vir die verbintenis van Suid-Afrika met die res van die Afrika-kontinent en die wêreld?http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/cultuream2023Historical and Heritage Studie

Electronic spectra of bare and solvated ruthenium polypyridine complexes

We present work on a prototypical water oxidation catalyst, namely the aqua-complex [(bpy)(tpy)Ru-OH$_2$]$^{2+}$ (2,2’-bpy = bipyridine, tpy = 2,2’:6’,2”-terpyridine), and its hydrated clusters [(bpy)(tpy)Ru-OH$_2$]$^{2+}$ ·(H2O)$_n$, with n = 1 – 4. This complex is the starting species in a catalytic cycle for water oxidation. We couple electrospray ionization mass spectrometry with laser spectroscopy to circumvent challenges that arise in reactive solutions from speciation. Here, we report the electronic spectrum of [(bpy)(tpy)Ru-OH$_2$]$^{2+}$ by photodissociation spectroscopy of mass selected, cryogenically prepared ions, and we examine effects of its microhydration environment on its electronic structure. In particular, we investigate the solvatochromic shift of the spectral envelope upon sequential addition of water molecules up to the tetrahydrate

Growing Environmental Activists: Developing Environmental Agency and Engagement Through Children’s Fiction.

We explore how story has the potential to encourage environmental engagement and a sense of agency provided that critical discussion takes place. We illuminate this with reference to the philosophies of John Macmurray on personal agency and social relations; of John Dewey on the primacy of experience for philosophy; and of Paul Ricoeur on hermeneutics, dialogue, dialectics and narrative. We view the use of fiction for environmental understanding as hermeneutic, a form of conceptualising place which interprets experience and perception. The four writers for young people discussed are Ernest Thompson Seton, Kenneth Grahame, Michelle Paver and Philip Pullman. We develop the concept of critical dialogue, and link this to Crick's demand for active democratic citizenship. We illustrate the educational potential for environmental discussions based on literature leading to deeper understanding of place and environment, encouraging the belief in young people that they can be and become agents for change. We develop from Zimbardo the key concept of heroic resister to encourage young people to overcome peer pressure. We conclude with a call to develop a greater awareness of the potential of fiction for learning, and for writers to produce more focused stories engaging with environmental responsibility and activism

Women, anger, and aggression an interpretative phenomenological analysis

This study reports a qualitative phenomenological investigation of anger and anger-related aggression in the context of the lives of individual women. Semistructured interviews with five women are analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. This inductive approach aims to capture the richness and complexity of the lived experience of emotional life. In particular, it draws attention to the context-dependent and relational dimension of angry feelings and aggressive behavior. Three analytic themes are presented here: the subjective experience of anger, which includes the perceptual confusion and bodily change felt by the women when angry, crying, and the presence of multiple emotions; the forms and contexts of aggression, paying particular attention to the range of aggressive strategies used; and anger as moral judgment, in particular perceptions of injustice and unfairness. The authors conclude by examining the analytic observations in light of phenomenological thinking

The application of in utero magnetic resonance imaging in the study of the metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of the developmental origins of health and disease

Observing fetal development in utero is vital to further the understanding of later-life diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers a tool for obtaining a wealth of information about fetal growth, development, and programming not previously available using other methods. This review provides an overview of MRI techniques used to investigate the metabolic and cardiovascular consequences of the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis. These methods add to the understanding of the developing fetus by examining fetal growth and organ development, adipose tissue and body composition, fetal oximetry, placental microstructure, diffusion, perfusion, flow, and metabolism. MRI assessment of fetal growth, organ development, metabolism, and the amount of fetal adipose tissue could give early indicators of abnormal fetal development. Noninvasive fetal oximetry can accurately measure placental and fetal oxygenation, which improves current knowledge on placental function. Additionally, measuring deficiencies in the placenta\u27s transport of nutrients and oxygen is critical for optimizing treatment. Overall, the detailed structural and functional information provided by MRI is valuable in guiding future investigations of DOHaD

The large-scale energetic ion layer in the high latitude Jovian magnetosphere as revealed by Ulysses/HI-SCALE cross-field intensity-gradient measurements

Ulysses investigated the high latitude Jovian magnetosphere for a second time after Pioneer 11 mission and gave us the opportunity to search the structure and the dynamics of this giant magnetosphere above the magnetodisc. Kivelson(1976) and Kennel & Coroniti(1979) reported that Pioneer 11 observed energetic particle intensities at high latitudes at the same level with those measured in the plasma sheet and inferred that they were not consistent with the magnetodisc model. Ulysses observations supported the idea about a large-scale layer of energetic ions and electrons in the outer high latitude Jovian magnetosphere (Cowley et al.1996; Anagnostopoulos et al. 2001). This study perform a number of further tests for the existence of the large scale layer of energetic ions in the outer high latitude Jovian magnetosphere by studying appropriate cross-B field anisotropies in order to monitor the ion northward/southward intensity gradients. In particular, we examined Ulysses/HI-SCALE observations of energetic ions with large gyro-radius (0.5-1.6MeV protons and >2.5MeV heavy(Z>5) ions) in order to compare instant intensity changes with remote sensing intensity gradients. Our analysis confirms the existence of an energetic particle layer in the north hemisphere, during the inbound trajectory of Ulysses traveling at moderate latitudes, and in the south high-latitude duskside magnetosphere, during the outbound segment of the spacecraft trajectory. Our Ulysses/HI-SCALE data analysis also provides evidence for the detection of an energetic proton magnetopause boundary layer during the outbound trajectory of the spacecraft. During Ulysses flyby of Jupiter the almost permanent appearance of alternative northward and southward intensity gradients suggests that the high latitude layer appeared to be a third major area of energetic particles, which coexisted with the radiation belts and the magnetodisc.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl