3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Historical development of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum’s archaeological archive: the case of the Michael Moon collection(2022) Munzhedzi, Mudzunga F.Museums are defined as institutions where treasures of humankind are stored. These treasures include memories of people of the world, their cultures, dreams and hopes, most commonly as represented by material culture. This dissertation considers one aspect of the archaeological archive at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, the contribution made by amateur archaeologist Michael (Mike) A. Moon. Most of his collection comes from sites exposed by and then lost to development beyond the view of professional archaeologists. The collection covers much of the vast range of human endeavour in south-eastern Africa and constitutes a valuable addition to our knowledge base of the past in KwaZulu-Natal. The archaeological usefulness of the collection relates to its ‘co-production’ through Moon’s dialogue with professional archaeologists over many years. I examine the Mike Moon collection by looking into detail of the individual artefacts so that I would be able to learn more about their archaeological value as I analysed them. My analysis of the Moon collection is supplemented by the interviews I conducted with Mike Moon before he died in January 2021. Additional interviews were conducted with two professional archaeologists who had an opportunity to work with Mike Moon on occasional basis, Aron Mazel and Tim Maggs, an officer from the provincial heritage resources authority, Amafa, Celeste Rossouw, and a close friend, Jennifer Gregory. My study engages the discussion with a focus on the key findings of my analysis of the Mike Moon collection housed at the Museum as well as the interviews with him and four respondents. It also touches on Moon’s private collection housed at his house, which he acquired through various methods over the years. I conclude with the discussion on how others perceive amateur archaeology as well as how amateur archaeologists feel following mixed treatment experiences by professionals.Item Looking closely at teachers who prepare for museum visits(2009-09-11T10:54:12Z) Mosabala, Mpho ShadrackAlthough other research has addressed some features of successful school group visits to museums, such as preparation and follow up and emphasis on first-hand experience, there has been little research on the practices being used by the teachers who take their classes to the museums. I examined how teachers from five schools conducted their visits to one of four museums (Scibono Discovery Centre, HartRAO, Johannesburg Planetarium or Adler Museum) with their learners. The case study involved observing the five teachers before, during and after the visit and interviewing them before and after the visit. The data were analysed using communities of practice theory to determine the practices of the selected teachers. An in-depth analysis of the five teachers’ interviews and observations was done both for the rich data it provided and for triangulation purposes. The analysis shows that three teachers had what was described as task-oriented preparation while the other two had learning-oriented preparation. One teacher preparation was also described as not directly about the visit. The analysis further shows that four teachers were observed to have no interaction with their learners in some instance. Three teachers had learning oriented interaction with their learners at the museums. Three teachers were also observed controlling the behaviour of their learners. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the purposes and objectives of the field trips as given by teachers were for entertainment, edutainment,curriculum, interactive, career and tradition. Lastly, teachers follow up activities were described as either task-oriented or learning-oriented. The study shows that some teachers are old timers while others are newcomers in the community of teachers who take their classes to the museums.