An Evaluation Of The Co-Operative Business Model Within The Context Of The Global Reporting Initiative

Sustainability reporting, renowned as an instrument for businesses to communicate how they function more efficiently and responsibly within the social and physical environment, while simultaneously remaining profitable, has evolved in an up-and-coming trend by businesses. In addition, this leads to integrated reporting, which implies that a business strategy, performance, risk and sustainability are inseparable from one another. The International Year of Co-operatives (2012), with the theme Co-operative Enterprises Build a Better World, recognises that co-operatives, in their range of forms, support the fullest participation in the social and economic development of people. Co-operatives also have the remarkable opportunity to grow everywhere for the reason that modern society needs their role and initiatives.This article considers to what extent the GRI guidelines, as a reporting framework, are feasible or applicable to co-operatives as a business model. The selected agricultural co-operative (Agri-Com) is used in the form of a case study, where the GRIs Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are applied to its activities. This study found that the co-operative business model performed admirably well under these guidelines and suggests that the co-operative business model is very relevant in the modern business environment

A case study: exploring students' experiences of a participative assessment approach on a professionally-orientated postgraduate programme

The study was undertaken as the first cycle of an action research project. It presents a case study that explores the potential of the combined use of self-, peer-, and tutor-driven assessment in enhancing students’ learning in a professionally orientated postgraduate media management course. The study also explores how such a process can contribute to students developing the skills and dispositions required by autonomous learners and professionals. In approaching these questions the study draws directly on students’ own accounts of their experiences and contrasts these accounts with the growing body of literature on participative assessment in higher education that has emerged over the past decade. The study begins by exploring how action research can aid in the development of valuable insights into educational practice. It draws on educational theorists’ use of Habermas’s (1971, 1972 and 1974 in Grundy, 1987: 8) theory of knowledge constitutive interests in developing a conceptual framework against which assessment practice can be understood and argues against instrumental approaches to assessment. Set against a background of outcomes-based education, the study presents an argument for privileging the role of assessment in promoting learning above its other function. It contends that this function is undermined if students are excluded from direct involvement in assessment practice. Informed by research into participative assessment, the study presents a thick description of a particular approach used during the action research cycle and explores how students experienced this process. The findings of the study support theories favouring the involvement of students in their own assessment and suggest that such processes can contribute to meeting students’ present and future learning needs

Reflecting on more than 20 years of involvement in a postgraduate higher education qualification for academics: May I dare use an auto-ethnographic lens?

As a proponent of action research for more than 20 years, I reflect on my scholarship of higher education using an auto-ethnographic lens. The research reported focuses mainly on my facilitating of learning as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, one of the largest residential universities in South Africa. Through informal educational professional development I am involved in offering workshops to academic staff and become involved in complementing research projects. I am the coordinator of the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), a mainstream educational professional development programme offered at the Faculty of Education. The objectives of the study are to make public my reflecting on my reflection, which forms part of my action research. I do this with a view to encouraging practitioners of action research to do the same. An action research spiral is executed, complemented by cycles of reflection. Quantitative and qualitative data are collected. In this article the focus is on qualitative data. It comes in the form of narratives and visuals. The visuals include brain profiling. Narratives are derived from student feedback. The underpinning epistemology is constructivism. By means of the action research teaching practice is enriched. A higher order of reflection is promoted – identified as scholarly meta-reflection. All scholars of higher education and action research should take a meta-level approach to reflecting on practice: within an action research paradigm – reflecting on reflection at a high level of scholarship

Relevant Factors Influencing Seed Set in Commercial Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) In South Africa

Low seed set and hollow seededness are amongst the main problems of the sunflower oilseed production industry in South Africa. This study of eighteen sunflower cultivars on seventeen different localities was conducted to address these and other problems. It was undertaken in collaboration with the national sunflower trials. The study has revealed that a lack of pollinators had the least significant influence on seed set. Neither could the percentage hollow seeds at each locality be attributed to a low number of insect pollinators. Commercial sunflowers in cages with honeybees gave a seed yield of I,859 kg ha-I (72% seed set) compared to I,22I kg ha-I (45% seed set) in cages with no insect pollinators. The percentage unfilled seeds differed significantly between localities and cultivars. However, the incidence of both hollow seeds and unfilled seeds differed highly significantly with the increase in plant density from I 5,000 plants per ha to 90,000 plants per ha. Yields also decreased as plant density increased. Although the boron levels differed between soil, leaf and floret samples for the variables of locality, cultivar and plant density, no relationship was found between the boron levels and differences observed in the percentage hollow seeds and unfilled seeds between the eighteen sunflower cultivars. Slow pollen movement was identified as the main cause responsible for hollow seededness. A lack of nutrients resulted in the high levels of unfilled seeds found. Recommendations are given regarding these problems. Viability and vitality of the sunflower pollen was good. It was, however, not possible to germinate the trinucleate sunflower pollen in vitro using conventional palynological methods and techniques. It is hypothesized that an unidentified "pollen growth factor", occurring on the stigmas, regulates germination of sunflower pollen.Thesis (DPhil (Botany)--University of Pretoria, 1999.Plant ScienceDPhil (Botany)Unrestricte

Publisiteitsbevele as Vonnisopsie vir Regspersone - Publicity Orders as Sentencing Option for Juristic Persons

This constribution addresses the issue of adverse publicity orders as a possible supplementary sentencing option for corporate offenders. In South Africa the fine is the primary sentencing option available to courts when imposing sentences on juristic persons. Fines, however, do not adequately serve the purposes of corporate sentencing. Publicity orders require the publication of an offender's conviction, sentence and the details of the offence to individulas or a group of persons (such as shareholders). An adverse publication order damages the corporate offender's reputation - a valuable asset to a corporate entity. It therefore serves the purposes of corporate deterrence. In this contribution criticim is levelled against the fine as primary sentencing option for juristic persons, the notion of corporate reputation is considered from a social and a legal perspective; a functional comparative study of adverse publication orders is presented and recommendations are made regarding the content of effective publicity orders.     &nbsp

An ethnographic account of a snapshot in Professor Graham Duncan’s journey of educational professionalism0

This article takes the form of a meta-reflection on the educational contribution to the wider community of the University of Pretoria made by Professor Graham Duncan. It is but a snapshot of the academic life of a scholar of note. The epicentre of the article revolves around his educational professionalism that emanated from an intrapersonal point of departure. Through an ethnographic lens that informed my action research over many years, I document my numerous scholarly encounters with my colleague and former student. My meta-reflection is typical of my ontological-epistemological stance, mirroring some of the questions and ways of thinking Professor Duncan as lecturer continuously asked himself. Two main questions are focused on. Ontological: Who is Graham Duncan as scholar of teaching in higher education? Epistemological: What epistemological grounding informs his view of his teaching practice? As the nature of the article is ethnographic, I drew on texts created by Professor Duncan. These included a drafted article and emails that had been sent to me. I engaged with these texts in such a way that the article has become a living theory and affirmation of his and my educational values regarding facilitating and assessing learning in an innovative fashion. My analysis of his scholarly journey and texts offers rich qualitative data that are reported. The conclusion drawn is that Graham Duncan is an exemplar of a constructivist professional.The National Research Foundation (NRF) for projects 90387 and 00754.http://www.hts.org.za/am2016Humanities Educatio

Using action research as process for sustaining knowledge production : a case study of a higher education qualification for academics

This article reports on an action research project being conducted at the University of Pretoria. The study focuses on the idea that I, as an academic specialising in higher education, monitor and gather data about my practice, alongside colleagues enrolled for a formal professional qualification in higher education, with a view to sustaining scholarly and professional development. I am doing this in order to improve my practice in an innovative and accountable way, which includes constructing new meaning and contributing to the production of knowledge in the fields of facilitating learning in higher education and academic staff development. The illustrative case study is the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE). Cultivating scholarly higher education practitioners is viewed as an important aim of the programme. The focus is on constructing one’s own understanding of one’s higher education practice in a scholarly way. Learning theories, including self-regulated professional learning and constructivist learning, as are found in the principles of action research, form an integral theoretical underpinning for scholarly development. Action research is used as a means of sustained professional learning for all participants. This study investigates how professional learning can be encouraged and sustained through the development and assessment of professional portfolios. The portfolios came to represent the living theories (McNiff 2002) of practice of all participants, substantiating educational values and claims of improved practice in a scholarly way. The process of compiling the portfolios, called professional portfolios, is based on the principles of action research. This process is in stark contrast with the notion that a portfolio is ‘a file of evidence’; rather, these professional portfolios represent evidence of new knowledge produced/ constructed. A mix of research methods is used to obtain quantitative and qualitative data – gathered, inter alia, by means of a learning style questionnaire, text analysis and photo evidence. Other methods such as observation, student feedback questionnaires and interviews are not reported on in this article.http://www.sajhe.org.za/hj201

Framing higher education as a means to address the expectations of society using different frames (of mind)

The focus of this article is on higher education seen as being framed differently and its response to the expectations of society at large. The article does not argue for a specific frame to be used. It rather serves as an editorial outer-frame for the individual innerframes published in this special issue – each article being a different frame designed or made; simple or ornate; and so on, by an individual (author) or group (co-authors) of craftsmen and/or craftswomen. As higher education is multidimensional in all aspects, it is complex and each article can only offer a small ‘abstracted visual’ representation of the ‘bigger picture’ (what is currently known) of the higher education world and the world of society in which it exists. Some articles are framed as still lives, some as landscapes, others as portraits – readers may decide. The aim of the article, as the outer-frame, is the initiating of scholarly discourse on the views that readers are offered to see through the different frames with a view to inviting them to engage in the discourse – appreciating what is offered as a painting, other fine art, digital image, quilt, and so on. The author draws on the work of several authors whom he considers scholars of mainly learning and teaching in its widest sense, and scholars of leadership in and of higher education within a societal perspective to underpin the current discourse. The line of thought is guided by the keywords provided for each article.http://www.sajhe.org.za/2015-10-30am201

Die intrapersoonlike leerder se ervaring van koöperatiewe leer en groepwerk

The intrapersonal learner's experience of co-operative learning and group work. We report on research done on how learners with a p reference for the intrapersonal learning style experience group work. We expand on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Observation of group work in Afrikaans Methodology classes a t the University of Pretoria revealed that these learners tended to experience co-operative learning and group work negatively. The observations were followed up by interviews with the participants. The researchers found that the participants withdrew from collaborative learning environments and they indicated both verb ally and non-verbally that group work irritated them. They prefer red to complete their assignments alone and disliked the interdependence a collaborative learning situation forced on them. We conclude with the recommendation that group work should be used with care and an understanding of differences in learning styles by teachers and lecturers. South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(3) 2006: 469–48

The Regulation of the Possession of Weapons at Gatherings

The Dangerous Weapons Act 15 of 2013 provides for certain prohibitions and restrictions in respect of the possession of a dangerous weapon and it repeals the Dangerous Weapons Act 71 of 1968 as well as the different Dangerous Weapons Acts in operation in the erstwhile TBVC States. The Act also amends the Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 to prohibit the possession of any dangerous weapon at a gathering or demonstration. The Dangerous Weapons Act provides for a uniform system of law governing the use of dangerous weapons for the whole of South Africa and it furthermore no longer places the onus on the individual charged with the offence of the possession of a dangerous weapon to show that he or she did not have any intention of using the firearm for an unlawful purpose. The Act also defines the meaning of a dangerous weapon. According to our court’s interpretation of the Dangerous Weapons Act 71 of 1968 a dangerous weapon was regarded as an object used or intended to be used as a weapon even if it had not been designed for use as a weapon. The Act, however, requires the object to be capable of causing death or inflicting serious bodily harm if it were used for an unlawful purpose. The possession of a dangerous weapon, in circumstances which may raise a reasonable suspicion that the person intends to use it for an unlawful purpose, attracts criminal liability. The Act also provides a useful set of guidelines to assist courts to determine if a person charged with the offence of the possession of a dangerous weapon had indeed intended to use the weapon for an unlawful purpose. It seems, however, that the Act prohibits the possession of a dangerous weapon at gatherings, even if the person carrying the weapon does not intend to use it for an unlawful purpose. The state will, however, have to prove that the accused had the necessary control over the object and the intention to exercise such control, as well as that the object is capable of causing death and inflicting serious bodily harm if it were used for an unlawful purpose.   The Act does not apply to the following activities: (a) possession of dangerous weapons in pursuit of any lawful employment duty or activity; (b) possession of dangerous weapons during the participation in any religious or cultural activities or lawful sport, recreation or entertainment or (c) legitimate collection, display or exhibition of weapons. It is suggested that these exclusions are acceptable if the religious and cultural events referred to are not of a "protesting" or "confrontational" nature. If such events are indeed "protesting" or "confrontational" in nature, they are covered by section 17 of the Constitution (which authorises only peaceful and unarmed assembly, demonstration, picketing and the presentation of petitions). Religious and cultural events of a "protesting" or "confrontational" character, where dangerous weapons are displayed, run the serious risk of turning violent, and may result in a violation of section 12(1)(c) of the Constitution, which embodies the right of everyone to be free from all forms of violence.   &nbsp