1. Academic Wits Research Publications (Faculties submissions)
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Item The shift to outcomes based frameworks: key problems from a critical perspective(The Federal Institute for Adult Education (bifeb), 2011) Michael, Young; Allais, Stephanie MatselengThis paper takes a step back from the discussions and debates about qualifications frameworks per se, to think more broadly about the role of „qualifications“ in educational reform. The aims of the paper are to locate the reform of qualifications in its broader social and institutional context, to propose a way of conceptualizing the change from qualification systems as they have emerged historically to qualifications frameworks andoutcomes-based qualifications and to explore the tensions involved in the different goals that the introduction of a (National) Qualifications Framework – (N)QF will achieve. We argue that what is at stake in current reforms is the role of educational institutions in the education and training of the next generation, the balance between institution-based education and informal (in some cases work-based) learning, and the ways in which trust in qualifications is established and maintained. Our two-model analysis explores the balance between an emphasis on institutions and outcomes. This paper was written to provoke debate, and help all involved in researching qualifications frameworks to think more clearly about the issues.Item The role of education as an agent of change: a two fold effect(1997) Muller, Marius M.; Hindle, R.D.Several aspects of change to the procedures in the construction delivery process have been described in recent times, particularly those affecting building procurement systems. This paper describes the results of an investigation into one of the underlying causes of such change, particularly that which is affecting the traditional roles of the various parties that participate in the construction procurement process. It is proposed that one of the 'agents' of change is the product of tertiary education programmes that have been producing 'professional builders'. It describes how a new generation of builders, equipped with business skills and an inherent dissatisfaction with the traditional structure and procedures of the industry, are allowing leading construction companies to develop innovative construction marketing strategies and systems. These systems are based upon sound business practice, offer improved customer satisfaction and allow them to get closer to customers. In so doing they are taking over the roles of various built environment consultants who were principal agents and leaders in the traditional building procurement system.Item Expert systems : the fifth generation -more than a genealogical pursuit(University of the Free State, 1995-12) Muller, Marius M.This paper describes the nature of Expert Systems and outlines their possible use in the field of building economics. Their usefulness in terms of quantification of uncertainty is also examined. It was found that the benefits of developing Expert Systems are tremendous, but that the success of Expert Systems would be determined by their acceptance by the general public.Item Contractor's plant: whether to buy or to lease?(University of the Free State, 1997) Muller, Marius M.This article comments on the concepts of buying versus leasing in terms of decision-making theory regarding the procurement of contractor's plant. It was found that leasing offered the better option in the worked example presented herein, but that every plant buying or lease decision would have to be made individually on proven calculation and on merit. In hierdie ortikel word die bestoonde opsies behondel woorvoor die boukontrokteur te stoon kom wonneer hy toerusting oonskof. Die vroog is: moet hy huur of koop. Uit die voorbeeld wot hier oongehool word blyk dit dot huur 'n beter opsie bied. Dit is egter ook boie duidelik dot elke gevol meriete het en dus individueel bekyk moet word. Kostes moet teen mekoor opgeweeg word. verol met die kontrokteur se doelwit voor oe.Item Education service delivery: the disastrous case of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks(SAGE Publications, 2007) Allais, Stephanie MatselengInternational 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.Item 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, ChrisThere 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.Item Why the South African NQF failed: lessons for countries wanting to introduce national qualifications frameworks(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) Allais, Stephanie MatselengThis 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.Item The South African Bill of Rights and the Development of Family Law(Juta Law, 2002) Bonthuys, ElsjeFamily law is probably the area of South African private law which has expanded and changed most rapidly in the past nine years. Many of these changes have come about as a result of the enactment of a Bill of Rights in both the interim and the final Constitution. 1 On the one hand, this is not surprising, since family law contains many legal rules which are overtly discriminatory on the bases of sex, gender, culture, religion and sexual orientation. On the other hand, legal rules in this area represent a codification of moral and social norms in the quotidian and 'private' lives of many people, which are often resistant to scrutiny and change.Item Gendered transformation in South African jurisprudence: poor women and the Constitutional Court(Juta and Co, 2011) Albertyn, CatherineCentral to the transformative project of the South African Constitution, although not always recognised as such, is the need to address the distinctive forms of poverty and inequality experienced by women. This article explores the extent to which, and how, poor women have been included within the constitutional project, firstly, by describing the complexity of poor women's lives and then through a brief analysis of cases and jurisprudence on equality and socio-economic rights. Underlying these two facets of the article are two key questions: What does the experience of poor women tell us about the meaning of transformation and a transformative Constitution? How can we seek a more transformative (and gendered) understanding of equality and socio-economic rights jurisprudence? The article argues that the lived realities of poor women remind us that the kind of transformation - and transformative legal strategies - that are necessary to generate meaningful change require attention to structure and agency, to redistribution and recognition, to individual and community, to public and private (especially care-giving roles in families), to inequality and poverty. To achieve this through equality and socio-economic rights jurisprudence entails greater care in the choices made by lawyers in selecting and arguing cases, and in advancing critical arguments that push the boundaries of progressive and strongly egalitarian forms of liberalism. It also requires a more gendered jurisprudence in courts where attention to women's socio-economic context is combined with a conscious attempt give meaningful content to the values informing constitutional rights, the gendered interests at stake and the manner in which the application of legal principles, such as reasonableness and fairness, can be shaped to include women. In the end transformation requires the construction of a society in which women and men are afforded equivalent, substantive conditions for exercising the choices that matter to them about how to live their lives, maintain their relationships, raise their children and pursue their aspirations.Item Substantive equality and transformation in South Africa(Juta and Co, 2007) Albertyn, CatherineThis article considers whether ‘substantive equality’, as a transformative idea and legal mechanism in the South African Constitution, can generate legal solutions and court decisions that may result in transformative change. It does so by establishing a framework for analysing the ‘inclusionary’ or ‘transformatory’ effects of equality cases in relation to gender and sexual orientation. It argues that the idea of substantive equality is capable of addressing diverse forms of social and economic inequality, and that the legal form of substantive equality adopted by the Constitutional Court, emphasising context, impact, difference and values, has some potential for achieving meaningful social and economic change by and through courts. However, the manner is which the Court has engaged with this legal form suggests that the transformative possibilities of equality are constrained by a number of factors. These include institutional concerns, the capacity and willingness of judges to recognise and address the multiple systemic inequalities that still pervade our society as well as their ability to develop a consistently transformative jurisprudence that applies the ideas of substantive equality to the concepts and doctrines that underpin many equality claims.