Faculty of Humanities (Research Outputs)

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End date: 2009Has files: Yes

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    Education service delivery: the disastrous case of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks
    (SAGE Publications, 2007) Allais, Stephanie Matseleng
    International trends towards outcomes-based qualifications frameworks as the drivers of educational reform fi t in well with trends in service delivery and public sector reform. Education reform in South Africa provides a particularly interesting case study of this phenomenon, because of the very comprehensive outcomes-based national qualifications framework that was implemented shortly after the transition to democracy. Problems with the framework as a basis for education reform became rapidly apparent, and the system is now deadlocked in a series of unresolved policy reviews. A key to understanding this collapse is the role of knowledge in relation to education. The outcomes based qualification framework approach turns out to have very little to do with education, and in fact to have the potential to increase educational inequalities, particularly in poor countries.
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    Designing research in environmental education curriculum policy construction, conceptualisation and implementation as exemplified by Southern African examples
    (Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA), 2005) Dillon, Justin; Ketlhoilwe, Mphemelang; Ramsarup, Presha; Reddy, Chris
    There is increasing dissatisfaction at many levels with existing environmental education curricula in southern Africa. The resulting change and innovation is opening up possibilities for innovative research into the construction, conceptualisation and implementation of the curriculum. However, researching the curriculum offers a range of challenges to those engaged in critically examining processes and practices quite different from those faced in the past. This paper examines a series of key issues and dilemmas in the field of curriculum research in environmental education using cases contributed by active researchers in the area. In the light of the researchers’ experiences we posit a series of propositions that might reduce barriers and constraining forces faced by academics working in the area.
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    Why the South African NQF failed: lessons for countries wanting to introduce national qualifications frameworks
    (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) Allais, Stephanie Matseleng
    This article examines the South African National Qualifications Framework as a case study of a particular approach to the design of qualifications frameworks, which revolves around the specification of learning outcomes separate from educational institutions or programmes. It shows how an outcomes-led qualifications framework was seen as a desirable policy intervention by educationalists and reformers across the political spectrum, as outcomes were thought to be a mechanism for improving the quality and quantity of education as well as its relevance to the economy and society, for increasing access to education, and for democratising education. All these claims are based on the idea that outcomes statements are transparent. The article demonstrates that outcomes-based qualifications cannot provide the clear, unambiguous, and explicit statements of competence that would be required for everyone to know what it is that the bearer of a qualification can do. This lack of transparency leads to a further specification of outcomes. This in turn leads to a downward spiral of specification, which never reaches transparency, and an upward spiral of regulations, which is also caught in the logical problem of the downward spiral of specification. This model is not just unnecessary, but could in fact undermine the provision of education. The article suggests that while this type of model appears attractive particularly to poor countries, it is in these countries that it is likely to do the most damage.
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    Africanity and Orality in the Films/Videos of Women Filmmakers of the African Diaspora
    (Deep Focus: A Film Quarterly, 1998) Ebrahim, Haseenah
    In this essay, I consider the role of African cultural heritage and of oral tradition in selected films/videos by women filmmakers of the African Diaspora. for practical purposes, I limit the scope of my analysis to the works of a handful of filmmakers in the United States and the Caribbean: Julie Dash (USA), Euzhan Palcy (Martinique/France), Zeinabu irene Davis (USA), and Gloria Rolando (Cuba).
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    RE-VIEWING THE TROPICAL PARADISE: AFRO-CARIBBEAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS
    (Northwestern University, 1998) Ebrahim, Haseenah
    This dissertation presents a new conceptual framework, a "pan-African feminist" critical model, to examine how Euzhan Palcy of Martinique, Gloria Rolando and the late Sara Gómez of Cuba, and the Sistren Collective of Jamaica have negotiated - individually or collectively - the gender/race/class constraints within each of their societies in order to obtain access to the media of film and video. I examine the aesthetic, political, social and economic strategies utilized by these filmmakers to reinsert themselves into recorded versions of history, and/or to intervene in racist, (neo)colonial and/or patriarchal systems of oppression.
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    Data to action: An overview of crime, violence and injury in South Africa
    (Medical Research Council, 2008) Suffla, Shahnaaz; Van Niekerk, Ashley; Bowman, Brett; Matzopoulos, Richard
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    Towards a South African Injury Costing Model
    (DOAJ, 2002) Bowman, B
    The costs of injury are of obvious importance for the purposes of priority setting in prevention planning by policy makers and stakeholders in general. The economic costs of injury and death have been the focus of considerable international attention in recent years. Localisation of these studies and their methods to the South African injury context, however, remains largely underdeveloped. The costing of fatal and non-fatal injuries in South Africa consists of a number of initiatives undertaken by various segments of both the public and private sectors. This article will review the existing literature devoted to the estimation of costs in various sectors of the South African morbidity and mortality contexts, with a view to illustrating the manner in which this information informed both provisional processes and structure for the implementation of a nationwide South African injury costing project. The literature is examined across three primary dimensions: the precise object of the study, the method employed in the costing of that object, and the sample coverage of the method. The findings of the review indicated a number of significant entry-points for the development of a local South African costing model. A preponderance of direct medical costing, significantly discrepant expenditure figures between the public and private health care systems and blurring of distinct costing concepts are problematic themes throughout the review of the literature. This article illustrates the manner in which the identification of the problems and promises of these existing costing studies informed the sites, injury types and methodology selected for development and implementation of a National South African Injury Costing Project.
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    The relationship between lecture attendance and academic performance in an undergraduate psychology class
    (South African Journal of Psychology, 2007) Thactcher, A; Fridjhon, P; Cockcroft, K
    This article reports on a preliminary investigation into the impact of non-attendance at lectures on the performance of students in a second-year psychology class. Results suggest that the frequency of lecture attendance is significantly, but moderately, related to better academic performance and that 'always' attending lectures is the best indicator of academic performance. These results are discussed in relation to understanding lecture non-attendance and improving academic performance
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    From "ghetto" to mainstream: Bollywood in South Africa
    (Scrutiny2, 2008) Ebrahim, Haseenah
    This essay explores two aspects of the Bollywood "phenomenon" as it has played out, in the past decade, in South Africa - a part of the Indian diaspora where the popularity of the Hindi-Indian cinema has an established history. Firstly, the article maps the expansion of Bollywood beyond the Indian diasporic audience to so-called "crossover" audiences, a phenomenon I have labelled the "mainstreaming" of Bollywood in South Africa. Secondly, it examines developments in relation to the expansion of Bollywood - South African film industry co-operation, including Bollywood's use of South Africa for location shooting.