Challenging heroic masculinity: leadership myths of nineteenth century King Shaka Zulu

The Zulu of southern African have long been held as a particularly strong example of African patriarchy. Over almost two hundred years, king Shaka Zulu (b. 1787, d. 1828), has been credited with founding the great Zulu state, and he has often been described as a brilliant leader, warrior and military strategist conquering all in his path − the ‘black Napoleon’. Popular history books abound with ‘facts’ of Shaka’s life. Two books have been published in recent years that translate so called leadership secrets of king Shaka to modern leadership and management practice. Leadership lessons from Emperor Shaka Zulu the Great by Phinda Madi (2000), and Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic by Manfred Kets de Vries (2004). On the basis of lessons learned from Shaka, or aspects of his psychology, Madi manages to produce 10 leadership lessons including ‘leading the charge’, while Kets de Vries provides 15 lessons. Not only is much of what is written about Shaka based on myth, but also totally ignores the leadership role of chiefly women. It is curious that these myths of Shaka still hold so strongly despite research findings to the contrary. Leadership by women was an intrinsic part of several pre-colonial systems in southern Africa, and Shaka did not rule alone. This is all very far removed from any lessons on modern management and leadership to be learned from king Shaka. Many of the points in this paper in relation to women have raised in previously published work (Weir 2006), but it is worth repeating in an effort to go some way towards limiting the impact and reproduction of Shaka myths in the modern leadership studies, and because the role of women has been left out. There’s enough evidence to show that the long enduring picture of Shaka Zulu presented by Kets de Vries, and many before him, is questionable

Animating complex concepts

Techniques in computer-aided learning offer significant benefits for explaining difficult concepts in a way that is both stimulating and efficient. In the context of the STORM system, we have employed computer-based animation as a means of elucidating complex concepts in the educational domain of Internet and communications technology. Our experience reveals two important lessons for the application of computer animated instruction. Firstly, there is an essential requirement in the design process to ensure that the ontology and manner of presentation accurately conveys the intended message, whilst avoiding ambiguity and false or 'hidden' information. This focuses upon concise and disambiguated animations. Secondly, this requirement is best achieved through an iterative group-based development cycle of specification, testing and implementation

On the quantum stability of Q-balls

We consider the evolution and decay of Q-balls under the influence of quantum fluctuations. We argue that the most important effect resulting from these fluctuations is the modification of the effective potential in which the Q-ball evolves. This is in addition to spontaneous decay into elementary particle excitations and fission into smaller Q-balls previously considered in the literature, which -- like most tunnelling processes -- are likely to be strongly suppressed. We illustrate the effect of quantum fluctuations in a particular model $\phi^6$ potential, for which we implement the inhomogeneous Hartree approximation to quantum dynamics and solve for the evolution of Q-balls in 3+1 dimensions. We find that the stability range as a function of (field space) angular velocity $\omega$ is modified significantly compared to the classical case, so that small-$\omega$ Q-balls are less stable than in the classical limit, and large-$\omega$ Q-balls are more stable. This can be understood qualitatively in a simple way.Comment: JHEP format, 17+1 pages, 9 figures; v2: improvements to several figures, text rewritten to improve legibility, conclusions unchanged, published in JHE

Insights on best teaching practices for promoting students' learning

The Department of Educational Sciences and the Department of Electronic and Telecommunications at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) have been working together with the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde (UK), with the aim of improving the teaching and learning of introductory programming courses. Both institutions belong to the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), with a commitment to "developing and implementing new forms of teaching, training, and research; to assuring an innovative culture within their walls; to experimenting with new forms of management and administration; and to sustaining and nurturing internationally-minded staff" (ECIU). Over the past two years, data has been collected through interviews, questionnaires and class observation, to better understand the organization of the different courses and approaches to teaching and learning. Members of academic staff have been actively involved in trying to enhance the students' learning experience through reflection on teaching methods and trying new ideas to aid student success. During this process we have assimilated insights on teaching philosophies, methods and suggestions for course redesign. As an important piece of the "puzzle", students also provided useful feedback on differing aspects of teaching and course organization. The present paper presents a meta-analysis of our findings on the relevance of teaching practices for promoting students' learning. In addition, we discuss the impact that teaching philosophies and course organization may have on best teaching practices

Turning engineers into reflective university teachers

Increasing attention to quality and innovation in Higher Education (HE) is enhancing the pedagogic knowledge of faculty members and thereby encouraging the academic success of their students. This aim requires, from the institution and teachers, a greater degree of involvement than was previously the case. This is certainly borne out by experience in Portuguese universities. The growing concern of engineers with issues of pedagogy and academic success marks a sea change in the traditional conceptions of teaching and learning in Higher Education. There are, of course, indications that many academics are resistant to change. Our research indicates a tradition among Portuguese and Scottish academics to incline their effort toward research with a resultant decline in interest and effort on teaching. The present paper presents a meta-analysis of research conducted at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom) between 2000 and 2004 involving academics who taught first-year introductory Programming courses. The purpose of our study was to promote reflection and research on teaching based issues as a strategy toward improved student learning. The findings of the study raised a number of salient issues for discussion and consideration. In this paper, we present some of these issues, aiming to explore the impact that the findings may have on teachers' attitudes towards teaching and students' learning in introductory programming courses

Quantum mechanics of topological solitons

Topological solitons - are of broad interest in physics. They are objects with localised energy and stability ensured by their topological properties. It is possible to create them during phase transitions which break some sym- metry in a frustrated system. They are ubiquitous in condensed matter, ranging from monopole excitations in spin ices to vortices in superconduc- tors. In such situations, their behaviour has been extensively studied. Less well understood and yet equally interesting are the symmetry-breaking phase transitions that could produce topological defects is the early universe. Grand unified theories generically admit the creation of cosmic strings and monopoles, amongst other objects. There is no reason to expect that the behaviour of such objects should be classical or, indeed, supersymmetric, so to fully understand the behaviour of these theories it is necessary to study the quantum properties of the associated topological defects. Unfortunately, the standard analytical tools for studying quantum field theory - including perturbation theory - do not work so well when applied to topological defects. Motivated by this realisation, this thesis presents numerical techniques for the study of topological solitons in quantum field theory. Calculations are carried out nonperturbatively within the framework of lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Methods are demonstrated which use correlation functions to study the mass, interaction form factors, dispersion relations and excitations of quantum topological solitons. Results are compared to exact expressions obtained from integrability, and to previous work using less sophisticated numerical techniques. The techniques developed are applied to the prototypical kink soliton and to the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole

Widowhood, Divorce, and Loss of Health Insurance Among Near Elderly Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

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Professional Development On-line

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is making increased use of the Web to develop and support communities of professionals. This paper outlines the factors driving the adoption of CPD and highlights areas where the Web can aid in the development of successful professional communities. Current work to provide on-line support for approximately 500 teachers of computing is then presented, highlighting those aspects of the Web site designed to foster and engage participants in the professional development activity