Activity theory: A framework for analysing intercultural academic activity

This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse the complex sociocultural issues that arise when academics wish to engage in collaborative activity across institutional and cultural boundaries. Attention will initially focus on how Activity Theory, first formulated in the 1930s by Leont’ev (1978), and subsequently developed into a second generation by Engeström (1987), can help to analyse and illuminate the inherent complexity within any one community of practice. A more elaborate model of AT (Engeström, 2001) is currently being developed and applied to analyse and illuminate collaborative activity across institutional boundaries, so as to transform discourse communities into speech communities of practice through expansive learning. It is suggested that this ‘third generation’ model can be further refined to analyse specific contact zones, within and between activity systems, as a precursor to undertaking collaborative activity. It is suggested that, when discourse communities deriving from different culturally diverse traditions seek to work together, such an a priori analysis would enable potential areas for miscommunication and misconstrual to be identified and possibly resolved before collaborative activity actually commences

Charitable bequests a specific case of gift giving

Over the last 5 years, charities have acknowledged that bequests are a source of income with the potential for enormous growth. As the population ages the number of possible bequest donors will increase. Charities are implementing bequest campaigns to target the older donors, and the need for research is evident..

Isolated learners from diverse language backgrounds in the mainstream primary classroom: A sociocultural perspective

This paper focuses on the linguistic and cultural (‘languaculture’, Agar, 1994) challenges faced by learners from diverse language backgrounds (DLB) in New Zealand schools. It describes the typical learning context in primary classrooms terms of interactional, instructional, and cognitive dimensions. It then presents vignettes of four DLB learners and explains their relative competence in terms of Cummin’s (1981) distinction between BICS and CALP (Basic Interactional Communication Skills and Cognitive-Academic Language Proficiency). It goes on to discuss the extent to which such proficiency is the result of linguistic and cultural distance, and how that distance might be bridged by applying key constructs from sociocultural theory, and the implementation of Individual Languaculture Plans for DLB learners. The paper concludes with discussing the issue of where responsibility lies for coping with the challenges face by DLB learners

Sinking or swimming in the New Zealand mainstream: Four young Asian learners in a new languaculture

New Zealand schools are increasingly diverse in terms of language and culture, and many immigrant school children are faced with the ‘languacultural’ (Agar, 1994) challenge of learning not only a new language but a new culture of learning – to learn new classroom interaction skills (Barnard, 2005) as a route from Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Cummins 1981, 2000). This paper explores the challenges by referring to four young Asian learners in an upper primary school classroom (Barnard 2002, 2003, 2007). Brief profiles of each of these children are given and then transcript data of their classroom interactions are presented and interpreted. In conclusion, questions are raised about the respective responsibilities of teachers and school and parents and students, to ensure that new immigrant learners swim rather than sink in the mainstrea

Prevalence of gram-negative infections in cervico-facial sepsis

Magister Chirurgiae Dentium (MChD)In cervico-facial sepsis a substantial proportion of organisms are normally gram-negative staining of which the majority are anaerobes (Boyanova 2006 and Sanchez 2010). At Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Tygerberg Oral Health Centre it has been found that patients treated for cervico-facial sepsis seldom have gram-negative organisms on culture, although the staining results reported the presence of gram-negative organisms. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of gram-negative staining in a population of patients with cervico-facial sepsis and to determine the number of gram-negative stains that yield gram-negative organisms on culture. Results indicated that 71 out of a possible 90 pus swabs reported a gram stain. Of those, 48 specimens stained gram-negative and only two of these cultured gram-negative organisms. Although gram-negative organisms are present on gram stain, microbiological diagnosis of gram-negative organisms on culture was very seldom found at the Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery unit at the Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Tygerberg Oral Health Centre

The self in social work

Social work has a long and significant history in the use of the 'self'. The first part of this paper is a contextualising discussion around recent reforms to social work. The second part is a historical examination of the conceptualisation of the self in the contemporary era. This discussion is intimately wedded to notions of identity, 'social' and conceptions of the self. This discussion will review the major philosophical understandings of self, before examining the 'self' in social work. Recently social workers have developed the term 'use of self' to indicate important aspects of the professional relationship and how this term is defined rests on how one conceptualizes 'self'. The final part of the paper will examine how social workers describe and involve the self that they bring to their therapeutic and non-therapeutic work. Participants in case-study, narrative accounts describe the self that they bring to their work as individualistic although at the same time stress the relational, positioned, relationship-based self. This examination carries the concept of the self from the notion of self as separate and constant to the self as a process in interaction

Book review: The politics of language education: Individuals and institutions.

This article reviews the book: “The politics of language education: Individuals and institutions”, edited by J.C. Alderson

Review: Encyclopedia of linguistics

The two volumes of this new encyclopedia contain over five hundred self-contained essays, each between 1000 and 3000 words, covering a very wide range of topics. They have been written by some three hundred specialists from 34 countries (including several from New Zealand) who were invited to write for readers with no specialist knowledge of the subject by the reader, and without going into considerable theoretical detail. The essays are all very clearly written, and each provides a succinct introduction to the subject. In all cases, suggestions for further reading are provided, as are cross-references to related topics elsewhere in the encyclopedia

Prevalence of gram-negative infections in cervico-facial sepsis

Magister Chirurgiae Dentium (MChD)In cervico-facial sepsis a substantial proportion of organisms are normally gram-negative staining of which the majority are anaerobes (Boyanova 2006 and Sanchez 2010). At Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Tygerberg Oral Health Centre it has been found that patients treated for cervico-facial sepsis seldom have gram-negative organisms on culture, although the staining results reported the presence of gram-negative organisms. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of gram-negative staining in a population of patients with cervico-facial sepsis and to determine the number of gram-negative stains that yield gram-negative organisms on culture. Results indicated that 71 out of a possible 90 pus swabs reported a gram stain. Of those, 48 specimens stained gram-negative and only two of these cultured gram-negative organisms. Although gram-negative organisms are present on gram stain, microbiological diagnosis of gram-negative organisms on culture was very seldom found at the Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery unit at the Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Tygerberg Oral Health Centre

Sequencing of rabies binding region on nicotinic acteylcholine receptor alpha subunits in four host species

• Rabies virus is known to bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchR) • The virus is known to bind to alpha 1 subunits nAchR • The virus binding region has been characterized in alpha 1 subunits of these receptors • Little research has been done on the other alpha subunits • Understanding binding region sequences can help understand virus adaptation to host species • Using primers based on dog sequences, the proposed binding region of alpha subunits were amplified and sequenced • Current Results: • Red fox and dog have nearly identical alpha 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 sequences for the proposed binding region • Arctic fox has nearly identical sequences to dog and red fox in alpha 1, 2, and 6 • Raccoon’s alpha 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 subunits are similar enough to allow for annealing of the dog-based primers in PCR • No clear PCR products were found for skunk DNA • Future goals: • Sequencing five individuals per species • Adding mongoose, bat, and opossu