Mahatma Gandhi’s religious thought and pluralism have received attention from scholars and activists. This thesis provides an original contribution by addressing underexplored areas which reveal shifting boundaries in his pluralism. It explores Gandhi’s relationship with atheists, in particular his Indian friend Gora; the relationship between Quakers and Gandhi, in particular Marjorie Sykes and Horace Alexander; and Gandhi’s approach to inter-religious marriage in an Indian context, exploring both religious and societal dimensions. Throughout the thesis religious pluralism is addressed both in its philosophical or theoretical dimension and in the practical dimension of how one relates to people of other faiths. I provide a critique of the breadth of Gandhi’s pluralism in dealing with atheists in an inclusivist fashion and in his early opposition to inter-religious marriage. I also draw out its strengths in placing religious/ethical life above beliefs. This provides a framework for strong friendships with Quakers and atheists, and a positive approach to inter-religious marriage (in his later years) by allowing individual interpretations of religious life as opposed to community belonging. Gandhi’s theology and friendships offer a critique to theories of dialogue emphasising commitment to a particular tradition. They open a way to include marginalised groups in dialogue and respect the whole person rather than treating religion as a compartment of a person’s life.

This paper explores the rhetoric and actions of Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi regarding feminism and their gender before they became prime minister. The paper finds that none of the leaders identified as feminists, and did not actively focus on women’s issues or elevate the status of women while in office. Yet, all of these leaders called for women to mobilize and pursue careers, either via their actions or speeches. Thatcher, particularly in the crucial period in which she rose to power, explicitly encouraged women to mobilize as voters and pursue work outside the home in her formal speeches, public statements, letters and interviews. Through their organized activities before they obtained office, Meir and Gandhi worked to mobilize women politically, although their rhetoric did not explicitly encourage women over men to participate politically. The paper explores nuanced ways that each leader associated with her gender and preached for other women to pursue careers. Looking ahead at one case study shows that women now are not necessarily averse to explicitly associating with their gender. Tzipi Livni, the candidate for the Kadima Party in the 2009 Israeli election, used her gender as a campaign tactic. Hopefully this paper helps lay the groundwork for future study on women candidate’s rhetoric and actions regarding feminism before they are elected.

Secularism and Indian polity

Thesis (M.L.A.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2004. / Title from electronic submission form. Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

The current trend of global violence and their impact on families and communities as well as the field of university education is scary for a society that is struggling with this false sense of apathy and complacency. How did the ordinary people get seduced to the idea that there is no way out of this global assault? How then do we extricate ourselves from this “tortured consciousness” (Asante, 2007) and this false sense of “nihilism” (West, 1994) and recoup this “incommensurable loss” (Simmons, 2010) to global violence? Even more crucial, where is the place of education in retrieving this incommensurable loss while providing hope and possibility for a better future? Provoked by the desire to have answers to these questions, the dissertation relies on the knowledge and experiences of twenty qualitatively selected university activists and existing literature to critically examine the non-violent praxes of Gandhi and King, Jr. and their pedagogical implications for transformative university education. The dissertation further draws on the knowledge of Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X to bring complex and nuanced readings to violence and non-violence. The dissertation notes that violence and non-violence are not mutually exclusive as already known. The dissertation also notes that while resistive violence may be justified, it does not necessarily guarantee true transformation, reconciliation, and healing. Instead, love, humility, truth, dialogue, non-violent direct action, discipline, and spirituality are salient in achieving true transformation in university activism. The dissertation further observes that educational activism is more than walking on the street with placards to protest against institutional violence. Sometimes, the secret activism that is done strategically within the corridors of power can achieve more far-reaching results than the open protest against power on the street. The dissertation concludes with six key non-violent strategies that can help in social and political mobilization of university students for transformative university education.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Technology: Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / The abolition of apartheid in South Africa in the late 1980s and the advent of democracy in 1994 resulted in dramatic changes in the education system. Of great significance to this study is the freedom African parents were allowed in choosing the medium of instruction to be used at schools. Surprisingly African parents encouraged their children to study through the medium of English mainly due to the education and employment opportunities English will provide them in the future (Mda, 1997). Now, seventeen years into democracy, English as a national language and the preferred medium of instruction has been blamed for poor results among ESL learners (Moreosole, 1998). Taylor, Muller and Vinjevold (2003: 54) point out that the difficulties associated with studying in a language other than one’s home language are more pronounced in mathematics, a subject which is strongly dependent on technical language proficiency. A section in the Grade 8 mathematics syllabus that is generally problematic for ESL learners is that of word problems (Wetzel, 2008). This is because ESL learners lack the language and reading skills needed to comprehend word problems, and the listening skills required to understand the educator’s explanation of the solution (Crandall, Dale, Rhodes and Spanos, 1985). To address the aims and objectives of this study, relevant literature was reviewed and various teaching strategies were examined to determine which strategies may be most effective in helping ESL learners solve word problems. Grounded within the Constructivist Learning Theory, this study was based on Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and Bruner’s concept of scaffolding. Using a mixed methods approach, this study investigated problems that mathematics educators and ESL learners experience in the teaching and learning of word problems through the medium of English, and also identified strategies that mathematics educators use to teach word problems to ESL learners. iv Analysis of the educator questionnaire and the focus group interviews with learners revealed that ESL learners are experiencing difficulty solving word problems in English and educators are, to a large extent, adapting their teaching strategies when teaching them. The data also indicated that groupwork was considered by the majority of educators to be the most suitable method in the teaching of word problems to ESL learners, but sadly this method was used less frequently compared to whole class discussion and individual work due to discipline problems, the educators’ inability to handle group dynamics and the tendency for learners not to contribute to the group discussion. The findings also suggest that it is necessary for the educator to use a variety of teaching strategies to ensure that ESL learners enjoy success in mathematics. Based on the findings, this study makes recommendations regarding the teaching and learning of word problems and the use of adapted teaching strategies to foster active participation in lessons and group discussions, thereby increasing learner confidence and aiding in the understanding of English terminology used in mathematics word problems.

The study sought to explore eight women school principals’ management experiences and challenges that these women encounter in their day-to-day management duties. It used semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis as its methods of data collection. The findings revealed that women principals encountered the challenge of being caught in the middle of having to balance domestic chores (being mothers and wives) and work responsibility (as school principals). The simultaneous demands of domestic and work responsibilities ensured that the women principals were inequitably pressured in their roles as school managers compared to their male counterparts. Other challenges related to gender stereotypes (perceptions held by some teachers and parents that women are care-givers, nurturers, and therefore not suited for management positions) and lack of women role models in school management positions. Even though women principals were challenged in their management duties they engaged in empowering management approaches by means of involving all the staff members in the decision making processes. The study highlighted the challenges that women principals encountered in maintaining their identity as women (feminine) in a male orientated field of school management. In managing the schools they used different approaches of management depending on the situation, and these included the adoption of masculine and authoritarian management strategies. By and large, these women principals insisted on using management strategies that are associated with femininities, such as empathy, cooperation, pastoral care and so forth. These strategies seemed more appropriate in promoting democratic participation in schools, as stipulated in South African education policies. The study recommended that holding induction programmes, building women networks, workshops and seminars could be a useful strategy in supporting women school principals. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2010.

The current trend of global violence and their impact on families and communities as well as the field of university education is scary for a society that is struggling with this false sense of apathy and complacency. How did the ordinary people get seduced to the idea that there is no way out of this global assault? How then do we extricate ourselves from this “tortured consciousness” (Asante, 2007) and this false sense of “nihilism” (West, 1994) and recoup this “incommensurable loss” (Simmons, 2010) to global violence? Even more crucial, where is the place of education in retrieving this incommensurable loss while providing hope and possibility for a better future? Provoked by the desire to have answers to these questions, the dissertation relies on the knowledge and experiences of twenty qualitatively selected university activists and existing literature to critically examine the non-violent praxes of Gandhi and King, Jr. and their pedagogical implications for transformative university education. The dissertation further draws on the knowledge of Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X to bring complex and nuanced readings to violence and non-violence. The dissertation notes that violence and non-violence are not mutually exclusive as already known. The dissertation also notes that while resistive violence may be justified, it does not necessarily guarantee true transformation, reconciliation, and healing. Instead, love, humility, truth, dialogue, non-violent direct action, discipline, and spirituality are salient in achieving true transformation in university activism. The dissertation further observes that educational activism is more than walking on the street with placards to protest against institutional violence. Sometimes, the secret activism that is done strategically within the corridors of power can achieve more far-reaching results than the open protest against power on the street. The dissertation concludes with six key non-violent strategies that can help in social and political mobilization of university students for transformative university education.

t Positioned at the juncture of literature and linguistics, this thesis undertakes a stylistic analysis of the English translation of Gandhi's autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1940), the most widely read version of the text both within and without India. Despite the continuing scholarly interest in all aspects of Gandhi's life and work, his autobiography has garnered little critical attention. Those few critics who have engaged with the text have largely approached it as a biographical representation, failing to capitalise on the self-reflexivity characteristic of the genre. This thesis employs cognitive and corpus stylistic models to interrogate Gandhi's self-representation. In so doing, it challenges prevalent assumptions of the text's linguistic "artlessness" and endeavours to debunk concomitant myths of the author's psychological "simplicity". It draws upon Catherine Emmott's (2002) cognitive stylistic typology of "split selves" to problematise the textual representation of Gandhi's selfhood. Given the centrality of empathy to Gandhian ideology, theoretical and methodological frameworks of narrative empathy are integrated into a corpus linguistic analysis which probes the presence of potentially empathetic. linguistic markers in the text. It concludes by analysing the text's linguistic and conceptual metaphor use through application of a modified version of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, thereby simultaneously challenging received critical opinion as to the text's literary and linguistic 'simplicity' and exposing its writer- subject's underlying belief-systems. Through the application of corpus and cognitive linguistic models of analysis, this thesis reveals both the linguistic intricacies of Gandhi's autobiography and the psychological complexities of its writer-subject. In so doing, it challenges prevalent, unsubstantiated critical assumptions regarding both text and writer and builds upon nascent scholarship that questions the myth of Gandhi's selfhood.

Research indicates that many factors may impede teachers' ability to develop caring relationships with students such as the school environment (Schaps, 2009), lack of cultural understanding (Thompson, 1998), the teacher's beliefs and attitudes about care (Goldstein, 2002), and personal experience of being cared for (Noddings, 1984). Yet, little research exists on how schools can address these and other potential limiting factors in order to help teachers cultivate caring relationships with students. The purpose of this study was to examine how one school in India, which claims to emphasize the importance of the teacher-student relationship, develops and supports teachers' capacities to create caring relationships with students. The hope was that the outcomes might provide insight for policy-makers, school administrators, and teachers about what is needed to best support teachers in their relationships with students. The research site for this study was a pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade private school in India. The choice of India as a cultural context stemmed from the historical precedence of the importance of the teacher-student relationship. A mixed-methods descriptive case study served as the design for this study. Qualitative methods included interviews of teachers, administrators, and students, classroom and event observations, and document analysis. Quantitative methods included surveys of teachers and students. The qualitative data were analyzed using Noddings' (1984) four methods for teaching care (modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation) with other themes added as needed. Descriptive statistics and factor analyses of both surveys were used to triangulate and expand upon the qualitative data. Findings indicated that schools can support teachers' capacity to care for students through a strong commitment to the teacher-student relationship, deliberate fostering of relationships between students, teachers, and parents, and through the modeling by and direct receipt of care from administrators. Other factors that may help teachers to care for students include cultural respect for the teaching profession and acknowledgement of care from both students and parents. However, teachers' efforts to care may be impeded by intense testing environments. Recommendations were made for the implementation of resources and support needed by teachers to create caring relationships with students.