Ethnography

Religion is central to the everyday experiences of many individuals and communities worldwide. As a force for learning and socialisation and as an important marker of identity, it can provide a sense of membership and belonging within and across generations. The social and cultural practices in religions are shaped by individual as well as institutional, social and ideological forces and processes, instantiated locally, translocally and globally. Specific ways of utilising language and literacy can also be seen as a social practice that individuals draw upon for meaning making and building social relationships (Barton and Hamilton 1998). Language and literacy practices are then historically situated and embedded within power relations and societal discourses of distinction, where some languages and literacies become dominant and others are frequently silenced or considered irrelevant or problematic (Genishi and Dyson 2009). An emergent body of interdisciplinary scholarship has examined the intersection of language, literacy and religion from a social and cultural practice perspective. Methodologically, this body of research uses ethnography as a key conceptual approach to understanding social interaction for systematic knowledge building and the generation of theory

Multilingualism, multimodality and media engagement in classroom talk and action

This volume brings together a range of approaches to the role of media in processes of sociolinguistic change. Its 17 chapters and five section commentaries examine the impact of mediatization on language use and ideologies from five complementary perspectives: media influence on linguistic structure, media engagement in interaction, change in mass and new media language, language-ideological change, and the role of media for minority languages

Polygraph: a palimpsest pigment factory: a colour plant as a recording device for the sedimented scars on Johannesburg's mining landscape

The mining that gave rise to Johannesburg as a city has left in its wake pieces of geologically disturbed, disused, and unusable land. These leftover fragments of landscape carry with them, not only memory of the city’s foundations, but scars of the mining processes that now render them unusable - Not only do these vaguescapes have potential for the memory within them to be unearthed, but they are highly polluted, and seek to be reimagined as productive city spaces. The chosen site, an abandoned piece of mineland with a concealed old mine shaft; on the edge of a highway on the fringe of the CBD, is simultaneously highly visible to the city, but forgotten to it. Its positioning is unique in that it allows for the potential for the extraction of the mine pollutants and site remediation to become a highly visible process. Understanding and uncovering layers and traces of the site as means of understanding what is possible on this highly polluted landscape became an important architectural and design generator. The architecture consolidates and reimagines the fragments of ruin, both physical and ephemeral, contained on the site, and curates the users experience through these forgotten traces. Its programme - a colour plant, which extracts useful metallic colour pigments from the contaminated earth, becomes a visceral reminder of these past traces ;and a recording device for the current consequences of past mining activity. The approach is an almost critical speculation. The age of the picturesque landscape is no more. Our effects on the land have depleted the earth and diseased its rhythms. But these unstable consequences hold possibilities that can be engaged with imaginatively; rather than merely re-mediated. How can architecture engage with this instability? The project accepts the presence of rising acid mine water; and imagines a new reality emerging from it. The project is a comment on our own epoch; one where waste, toxicity and radiation are so rife, that they are now a quiet, sinister backdrop to our world. More than an apocalyptic future, this project deals with a dystopian present. The precarious site conditions pose questions for an architecture which can engage with the instability, and not merely withstand it. The architectural concern is to render visible and intensify a consciousness of these traces, to investigate a palimpsest infrastructure. Colour, like architecture is a link between the conscious and the subconscious. It is a mediator between the realms. It holds possibilities for suggesting and molding atmospheres and perceptions. The architecture negotiates all the realms, concerned with past, present and future. It consolidates and makes apparent the traces but it is also developed with an awareness that it becomes part of these traces. It is an intervention which aims to heighten an awareness of the presence of the past in the life of the city; and also as palimpsest infrastructure; as a recording device for the geological happenings of the earth

Prescribing errors at an academic teaching hospital in Johannesburg

A dissertation submitted to the School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences , University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine (Pharmacology) Johannesburg October 2017Prescribing errors are considered the most preeminent error in medicine and currently there have been no South African published studies which investigated the occurrence and types of prescribing errors in our hospitals. Aims To classify and determine the occurrence of medication prescribing errors in selected ward prescriptions in an academic teaching hospital in Johannesburg. In addition to determine the reasons why these errors occur. Methods This study was a mixed methods study that first investigated prescribing error using a retrospective chart review in four wards (medical, surgical, psychiatric and paediatric wards) over a period of two consecutive months. The second part of the study involved using focus groups to determine the systems factors that led to errors taking place in the hospital. Results The adult prescribing error percentage was calculated at 17.9% and the paediatric error rate was 31.8%. There was a statistically significant difference in the error rate between the medical ward and others with an error rate of 19.97% in the medical ward, 13.28% in the surgical ward, 17.48% in the psychiatric ward and 31.80% in the paediatric ward. Clear systems factors such as lack of supervision, long working hours, lack of clinical pharmacology training and even lack of prescriber feedback were present that lead to errors taking place. Conclusions This was the first study in South Africa to compare four wards and to report on adult and paediatric prescribing errors. There were clear systems factors that could be linked to prescribing errors taking place and recommendations to reduce prescribing errors in the hospital are made.MT 201

Missed opportunities: The rhetoric and reality of social justice in education and the elision of social class and community in South Africa Policy

This article will examine the paradox of post-apartheid education policies which established the formal basis for social justice and equity through legislation while in reality these laudable goals remain unattainable and elusive.The article will be informed by and build on the conceptualisation and analysis of the barriers to social justice and equality in education by global and local critical, postcolonial and political economy of education scholars. It will critically outline the key arguments and studies around these concepts and will show the strengths and limitations of their analyses.Conceptual coherence will be achieved through a theoretical framework which focuses on social class, community and critical education policy. An original contribution will be made by extending and adapting some of these views, beyond their initial application, to support the education initiatives of South African social movements in poor communities. In concert with the latter, local education policy analyses will be critiqued for not paying sufficient attention to issues of social class, context and community voices in education.https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.83.1.233

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders

HIV infection is associated with disturbances in brain function referred to as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). This literature review outlines the recently revised diagnostic criteria for the range of HAND from the earliest to the more advanced stages: (i) asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment; (ii) mild neurocognitive disorder; and (iii) HIV-associated dementia. Relevant literature is also reviewed regarding the differential impact upon component cognitive domains known to be affected in HAND, which in turn should ideally be targeted during clinical and neuropsychological assessments: psychomotor and information processing speed, learning and memory, attention and working memory, speech and language, executive functioning and visuospatial functioning. A discussion outlining the neuropsychological tools used in the diagnostic screening of HAND is also included. The central mechanisms of HAND appear to revolve primarily around psychomotor slowing and cognitive control over mental operations, possibly reflecting the influence of disrupted fronto-striatal circuits on distributed neural networks critical to cognitive functions. The accurate assessment and diagnosis of HAND depends on meeting the need for statistically sound neuropsychological assessment techniques that may be used confidently in assessing South African populations, as well as the development of relevant norms for comparison of test performance data

The "model township" of Sharpeville: the absence of political action and organisation, 1960-1984.

A research report submitted to the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in HistorySharpeville has become a seminal part of South African history and has captured the minds and memories of many, both nationally and globally. While much attention has been placed on the documentation of the events of the 21st of March 1960- the date of the Sharpeville massacre- surprisingly little has been recorded about the history of the township beyond this. This report aims to begin to fill the lacuna in this part of South African history by examining the reasons behind the dearth of political action and organisation in Sharpeville from its formation through to the early 1980s. The report examines Sharpeville as a ‘model township’, dissects what this concept means and begins to suggest how this conceptualisation affected political organising in the area. The report argues that Sharpeville as a ‘model township’ experienced political quiescence throughout the 1960s and 1970s which was only punctured by spontaneous political action. The report then goes on to explain and scrutinise the possible reasons for this quiescenc

The normalcy of linguistic and cultural diversity

As a researcher, educator, and community activist working with families, schools, and ethnic minority communities in the fields of multilingualism and language education across three countries (Greece, England, and Switzerland) for over twenty years, I have witnessed a dramatic shift in societal attitudes and discourses towards multilingualism – from discourses pathologizing linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingual speakers to discourses celebrating cognitive advantages, academic attainment, and access to higher education and future professional opportunities