Mobilising stories about cultural beliefs and practices on traditional foods to contextualise the topic on nutrition in a Grade 6 township class

The South African Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement (CAPS) document stipulates that science teachers should integrate indigenous knowledge (IK) into their science teaching. The rationale for this is to contextualise the content and make science accessible and relevant to learners. Despite these ideals, however, CAPS seems to be silent on how science teachers should go about doing this. Instead, it assumes that all teachers know how to integrate IK in their science teaching. As a result, many teachers are still not sure of how to integrate IK into their science classrooms. Such rhetoric and tension between curriculum formulation and implementation triggered my interest to do a study on how to mobilise stories about cultural beliefs and practices of traditional foods to mediate learning of nutrition in a Grade 6 Natural Sciences township class. The study was underpinned by an interprevist paradigm complemented with an Ubuntu paradigm to enhance explanations. Within these paradigms, a qualitative case study research design was adopted. It was conducted at Mdoko Primary school (pseudonym) in a semi-urban community in the Amathole West district of the Eastern Cape. The participants were 34 Grade 6 learners (15 boys and 19 girls), a Grade 6 Natural Sciences teacher who was my critical friend, and two expert community members. To generate data, I used a focus group discussion, group activities, classroom observations, and learners’ reflective journals. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Ogunniyi’s Contiguity Argumentation Theory (CAT) were used as theoretical and analytical frameworks, respectively. A thematic approach to data analysis was employed. That is, data were analysed inductively to identify sub-themes and subsequently similar sub-themes were grouped together to form themes. The two expert community members’ presentations equipped my learners with stories on cultural beliefs and practices that were used in the olden days (past) and how such stories are used in our days (present). For instance, the findings of this study revealed that women during menstruation must not drink amasi as it is believed that it would prolong the menstruation time. The findings also revealed that eating of amaqanda and inside meat by youths should be minimised as it is believed that it can stimulate their sex hormones. It also revealed that there is no relevance to science that men eating imifino would be weak among other men who do not eat them. The implications for this study is that science teachers should make some efforts to integrate IK in their teaching to make science accessible and relevant to their learners. To achieve this, the study thus recommends that science teachers should find ways of tapping into the cultural heritage and wisdom that is possessed by the expert community members to enable learners to cross the bridge from home to school.Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 202

Social servicescape and Asian students: An analysis of spring break island bed and breakfast experiences in Taiwan

This research explored factors influencing lodging experiences and examined the relationship among B&B (bed and breakfast) experiences, satisfaction, and revisit intentions for properties on the small island of Liuqiu in Taiwan, based on the social servicescape concept and was mainly from the perspective of a younger generation of Asian Millennials. On-site surveys were conducted with visitors who had stayed at Liuqiu's B&Bs. The findings showed that B&B experiences consisted of two dimensions: physical environment and personal interactions. Satisfaction was largely affected by personal interactions; and revisit intentions were mainly influenced by satisfaction. The physical environment had little effect on satisfaction and revisit intentions. Implications and managerial suggestions for Liuqiu's B&B businesses are provided

Event marketing

The aim of this chapter is to study issues relating to event marketing. Event marketing needs to be creative, centralised, focused and leveraged to create the maximum return on event

HIV knowledge, risk perception and risk behaviours among Technikon staff in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The aim of this study was to explore HIV knowledge, risk perception and risk behaviours, using a quantitative descriptive design. Participants included 233 randomly selected Technikon academic and non academic staff aged 19 to 65 (Mean age=40.0; SD=10.7), of which 56% were males and 44% were females, with more than two-thirds being black (70.4%). The results indicated that participants were generally knowledgeable about HIV, had low HIV risk perception and high intentions to engage in risk reducing behaviours and a sizeable minority indulged in risky behaviour. It could be concluded that there is a need for an HIV risk reduction programme aimed at strengthening HIV knowledge, preventing new infections, and increasing HIV risk perception. Key words: Border Technikon, HIV knowledge, risk perception, behavioural intentions, risk behaviour, HIV risk reduction. AJPHERD Vol.11(2) 2005: 132-14

Small tourism business research change and evolution

The paper critically reflects on key knowledge contributions that coalesce to inform contemporary understanding of the phenomenon of small tourism business. The purpose is to scrutinise change and evolution in perspectives and how these impact on what knowledge is disclosed and what is not. Conventionally accepted wisdom is challenged, indoctrinated presuppositions are questioned, and research methodological advancements are offered. This is achieved through a comprehensive review and critical-reflective analysis of key academic contributions spanning a period of approximately 35 years. The value is to stimulate criticality relative to what constitutes ‘truth’ within the given context and to inspire fresh research perspectives. Conclusions are drawn regarding future research directions. Furthermore, informed by thorough analysis of the content of the paper, five guiding research principles provide an appropriate conclusion