Internationally, there is a growing body of research that focuses on teachers’ informal learning. However, there is very little research in South Africa on informal learning and most research focuses on formal professional development initiatives. The purpose of this study is to address the gap in South African literature on the contemporary educational phenomenon of informal teacher learning. The study aims to investigate how teachers learn informally at school. The key research questions, 1. What do the selected teachers understand by the concept teacher learning? 2. In what ways do teachers learn informally at school? 3. What kinds of knowledge do teachers learn informally at school? were used to frame the study. The body of literature surveyed for this study makes reference to the variety of ways teachers learn informally in school and the benefits derived from this alternative form of learning. In South Africa, studies undertaken by Abrahams (1997) and Graven (2004) seem to suggest that there is some kind of support for collaboration and communities of practice as models of teacher learning. This study was conducted with a group of five teachers, both novice and experienced at a suburban government girls’ high school in KwaZulu-Natal. The study used the exploratory, descriptive style of case study methodology where the case is teacher learning in a high school. It was designed to unfold in four different stages and a data collection instrument specific to each stage was used to generate the necessary data: Journals (Stage 1), Photographs (Stage 2), Photovoice (Stage 3). The data were analysed in three steps: (1) Identifying patterns and themes emerging from the interview transcripts and journal entries. (2) Content analysis to give a rich, textured description of all the details of the participants’ experiences and reflections through the narrative written about each participant. (3) A deeper analysis then followed linking data to literature by looking across narratives of the five participants for what was similar or different about what knowledges they learnt and in what ways they learnt these knowledges. Some of the key findings indicate that these participants are self-motivated and that each of them took the initiative in an individual capacity to engage in informal teacher learning to either enhance or develop their content knowledge, pedagogic knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge or contextual knowledge. They learnt these knowledges by engaging in either individual learning (planned or unplanned) or social learning (planned or unplanned) from or with colleagues. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

During the last fifty years, family life has noticeably changed in industrialized countries. Among many changes, it appears that there is a shift from a "family dominated" society to a more "individualistic" society where the concept of family loses its importance, family ties weakens, and elders lose their essential roles within the family because the continuity between generations in respect to family traditions and values is stopped. Ethnic-elders have different expectations from their family members based on their ethnic-identity, family values, and the extent of their acculturation. These value differences might also influence the accessibility and provision of psycho-social services. Therefore, the purpose of the present cross-cultural study was to understand and compare different ethnic-elders' expectations from their family members and from psychosocial service providers based on their concept of perception of family values. An instrument was designed for this study implementing a 4 point-scale and vignettes. Data were collected from seniors from South Asian (Sri-Lanka), Korean, Hungarian and Jewish communities and from a group of Social Worker (N = 94). Significant differences were found between group values: overall the Social Worker group was the most individualistic/non-traditional with the Jewish group next; the South Asians and Koreans were the most family-oriented/traditional; and these attitudes were the most different from those of the Social Workers. These particularities have important implications for the delivery of social services.

In recent years, with the development of DNA tests and genetic knowledge, there has been a growth of genetic counseling services and research in Canada and Japan. Although the uniqueness of genetic services in medicine lies in the preliminary assessment of the entire family rather than a single patient, few attempts have been made by social scientists to examine the technical and social construction of family trees and medical pedigrees. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the family data taken by genetic counselors are transcribed as medical pedigrees and used by associated health care workers in different cultural settings. The comparative analysis was based on an ethnographic approach that included participant-observation in genetic counseling sessions, interviews with clinical workers, and content-analysis of medical textbooks. The findings include three major points: (1) cultural views of the family are taken for granted by genetic counselors; (2) the process of documenting family data consists of four stages: primary transcription, secondary transcriptions, combination and publications; (3) the clinical workers' use of medical pedigrees results in the construction of family history as part of the present family illness.

In this thesis I set out to explore the area of specific learning difficulties, an area of conflicting theories, understandings, policies and provision. The purpose of this comparative research in such a heavily debated area was to illuminate the commonalities and differences which can be observed across countries. Comparative research in a policy related area has a long tradition. However, Greece and Scotland provided two different cultural and educational backgrounds which made the comparisons particularly interesting. The nature of, as well as the provision for, specific learning difficulties is investigated in this research through the eyes of those involved. The perceptions of policy agents, head teachers, learning support teachers, mainstream teachers, parents and pupils, as well as the underlying constructs evident in policy documentation and literature in both countries, provided the data on which this thesis was based. This thesis seeks to compare current policies and provision in Scotland and Greece, to investigate the discrepancies between policy and provision, to highlight the differences in perceptions about the nature of specific learning difficulties among the different groups within and between the countries, and to identify factors which might have influenced these perceptions and the current provision. In addition, as both countries are members of the European Union, the impact that the EU had in forming the current policies or provision is also examined. The case-study schools were selected by policy agents in Scotland and from a list provided by the Ministry of Education in Greece. Case-study pupils were selected by the learning support teachers of the schools selected, or the head teachers using the learning support teachers files. The aim was that no preconceptions held by the researcher about the nature of specific learning difficulties influenced the selection of the case-study schools and/or pupils, consistent with the ethnographic principles of investigation. The data was gathered through semi-structured interview schedules which, although they maintaineda structure, allowed the respondents to play the leading role. The interviews were supported by observation of the case-study pupils, from which examples were drawn to use as exemplification during the interviews. Relevant policy documents and literature, not only those explicitly about specific learning difficulties but also those rather more generally about special educational needs were also studied and compared with the constructs held by professionals and consumers. The findings of this study indicated that culture, societal and educational context had influenced the perceptions of, and the provision for, specific learning difficulties. This was highlighted by the fact that the differences among the various groups within the same country were substantially less distinctive than those between Scotland and Greece. These differences highlighted the `inclusive' Scottish society, supporting the notion of `rights' of individuals, whilst in Greece the attitudes were focused on `exclusion' and the `protective' role of the family. The educational systems also played a significant role; the Greek system is heavily hierarchical, with a prescriptive curriculum based on knowledge and delivered by common-to-all books which focus on the `average' child. In contrast, the Scottish system has been characterised as task-oriented and able to differentiate according to children's needs. In addition, the Scottish curriculum is designed for all pupils, and includes guidelines for 'support for learning' targeted at those with special educational needs. The distinctiveness of the Greek and the Scottish societies and educational systems was reflected in the different understandings of special educational needs. In Scotland, they were seen as a continuum of needs including specific learning difficulties. In relation to specific learning difficulties the location of problems was perceived to be to a large extent within the learning environment and, in conjunction with the dominance of the `rights' discourse, responsibilities were placed explicitly on mainstream and head teachers as well as learning support. The latter's role was perceived as co-operative teaching and consultancy. In Greece, concerns were raised about the system itself and its limitations. Characteristics of this system were the lack of clear responsibility on the part of head teachers, and the lack of co-operation between learning support teachers (regarded as responsible for specific learning difficulties) and mainstream teachers. The construct of special educational needs as set of categories of impairment, the distinctive special and general education systems, the provision for specific learning difficulties in 'special classrooms' and the locus of the problem perceived to be within the child, all reflected the dominant position of the 'medical and charity' discourses in the society. In conclusion, although the aim of the education systems has been stated as being `inclusive' education in both Greece and Scotland, I argue that the two countries are at different points, closer or further apart, from their goal. However, the complexity of the various factors involved in the educational development of the two countries presented in this thesis makes a linear comparison a simplistic one, and hence unsuitable. Nevertheless, as both Greece and Scotland reiterate their objective towards "one school for all", a goal set also by the EU, the latter's impact in Greece is stronger. EU acts through its role as `expert' and co-ordinator of exchanges and by funding projects to support inclusive education. This comparative research has indicated how studies of this kind can raise the awareness of the impact of characteristics of national societies on an area of education which has common rhetoric ('inclusion') across countries but where practice and provision can look very different `on the ground'.

This study presents cross-cultural research into women's sexuality, and orgasm in particular. Qualitative interviews of women who have undergone excision of the clitoris and women who have not form the core of my data. My analysis indicates that female orgasm in diverse societies is problematized and controlled, causing me to postulate numerous similarities between women despite cultural and physical differences. One of the most significant findings is that similar attitudes toward the clitoris might be invoked to explain both its removal, in excising societies, and clitoral-vaginal theoretical bifurcations in non-excising ones. / The originality of my theoretical approach is to examine various types of social constructionism. I demonstrate its pertinence to an understanding of the literal construction of the body through social practices or social imperatives which determine physical reality. My use of the term constructionism as anti-essentialism also enables me to identify common components of drive theory in diverse cultures, and to demonstrate their lack of correlation with sexual behavior. Finally, constructionism is a crucial element to my analysis of subjective beliefs concerning female orgasm. Interpretation of physiological response supports a belief in clitoral-vaginal opposition in defiance of the interdependence of these two organs, thereby reflecting the constructionist insistence upon reality as socially defined. / The originality of this research lies in its comparative perspective and resulting emphasis on similarities in culturally diverse groups. Female sexuality and orgasm are filtered through social existence. A physiological response can thus be denied or substantiated by social means.

Lapita is the name given by archaeologists to a material culture complex distributed from Papua New Guinea to Samoa about 3000 years ago, which marks major economic changes in Near Oceania and the first settlement by humans of Remote Oceania. Those parts of Solomon Islands that lie in Near Oceania, together with Bougainville, comprise a large gap in the recorded distribution of Lapita, which the current research seeks to explain. At Roviana Lagoon, centrally located in this gap, scatters of pottery, stone artefacts, and other stone items are found in shallow water in this sheltered, landlocked lagoon, initially thought to be late derivatives of Lapita. This research seeks method and theory to aid in the interpretation of this type of archaeological record. Intensive littoral survey discovered a wider chronological range of pottery styles than had previously been recorded, including materials attributable directly to the Lapita material culture complex. A study of vessel brokenness and completeness enabled sample evaluation, estimation of a parent population from which the sample derived, assessment of the state of preservation of the sample, and systematic choice of unit of quantification. Studies of wave exposure of collection sites and taphonomic evidence from sherds concluded that the cultural formation process of these sites was stilt house settlement (as found elsewhere in Near Oceania for Lapita) over deeper water than today. Falling relative sea levels and consequent increasing effects of swash-zone processes have resulted in high archaeological visibility and poor state of preservation at Roviana Lagoon. Analysis of ceramic and lithic variability and spatial analysis allowed the construction of a provisional chronology in need of further testing. Indications are that there is good potential to construct a robust, high-resolution ceramic chronology by focussing on carefully controlled surface collection from this sort of location, ceramic seriation and testing/calibration using direct dating by AMS radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence. Data on preservation and archaeological visibility of stilt house settlements along a sheltered emerging coastline allows preservation and visibility for this type of settlement to be modeled elsewhere. When such a model is applied to other areas of the Lapita gap, which are predominantly either less favourable for preservation or less favourable for archaeological visibility, the gap in the distribution of Lapita can be seen to be an area of low probability of detection by archaeologists, meaning there is currently no evidence for absence of settlement in the past, and good reason to think that Lapita was continuously distributed across Near Oceania as a network of stilt village settlement. This finding highlights the need for explicit models of probability of detection to discover or read the Lapita archaeological record. Keywords: pottery; Lapita; formation processes; surface archaeology; tidal archaeology; Oceania

This thesis examines the archaeology and history of Te Puna, a Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission station in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Te Puna was first settled in 1832 following the closure of the nearby Oihi mission, which had been the first mission station and the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand. Te Puna, located alongside the imposing Rangihoua Pa, was the home of missionaries John and Hannah King and their children for some forty years. As well as being a mission station, Te Puna was also the site of the family’s subsistence farm. The research is concerned with the archaeological landscape of Te Puna, the relationship between Maori and European, the early organisation and economy of the CMS, the material culture of New Zealand’s first European settlers, and the beginnings of colonisation and the part that the missions played in this. Artefacts recovered from archaeological investigations at the site of the Te Puna mission house are connected with other items of missionary material culture held in collections in the Bay of Islands, including objects donated by the King family. The archaeological record is also integrated with documentary evidence, in particular the accounts of the CMS store, to produce a detailed picture of the daily life and economy of the Te Puna mission household. This integration of a range of sources is also extended to produce a broader view of the material culture and economy of missionary life in the Bay of Islands in the first half of the nineteenth century. The humble, austere artefacts that constitute the material culture of the Te Puna household reveal the actual processes of colonisation in daily life and everyday events, as well as the processes of the mission, such as schooling, the purchase of food and domestic labour, the purchase of land and building of houses, the stitching of fabric and ironing of garments. These practices predate, but also anticipate the grand historical dramas such as the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, glorified but also critiqued as the defining moment of the relationship between Maori and Pakeha and of colonisation. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

In the last thirty years appropriation has been studied as the practice of reworking earlier works of art or literature by presenting them in new contexts, or to challenge notions of individual creativity or authenticity in art. However, the term "appropriation" is hotly debated in the fields of Indigenous and Post-colonial studies for technologies such as the English language, writing and visual art have for a long time assumed the connotation of 'colonial property'. The object of this enquiry is to explore the extent to which Indigenous Australian appropriations of the English language, writing and visual art, provide -- though they differ widely in terms of themes, strategies and styles -- a terrain for discussing unexplored issues of intercultural representation, epistemology and interpretation. The dissertation offers a close reading of literary and visual "practices of proximity", such as interlanguages, editorial relations and cross-cultural exhibitions, in order to demonstrate that Indigenous Australian appropriations variously disrupt neo/colonial claims of property. This dissertation is organized thematically, and consists of three parts entitled "Interlanguages", "Intertextual Performances" and "Contested Sights". Each part consists of three chapters, which move from an initial questioning of technology as colonial property, to the close analysis of some Indigenous appropriations and non-Indigenous counterappropriations. Situated at the crossroads between Indigenous and Postcolonial studies, the dissertation offers insights into the timely debates on sovereignty, difference and subject positioning. The combination of theories of "appropriation" and "intersubjectivity" illuminates a new path in theorizing Australian intercultural relations. The Australian contact zone is unveiled as a place of Indigenous sovereignty where the colonial subject is ontologically and epistemologically constituted in correlation with Indigenous peoples. Thereby, the Indigenous/non-Indigenous intersubjective relation is recognised as the ground from which notions of the colonial self and other derive and which colonial reifying selfreflection has misconceived as separate.

This thesis investigates the iwi (Māori tribal) organisations established in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s to manage resources being transferred as a result of Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the devolution of government services. The research has two objectives. Firstly, it aims to document iwi organisations’ establishment and operation from the viewpoint of those working inside the organisations. Secondly, it compares insider perspectives with economic theories concerning the causes, consequences and development of economic institutions. To address the first objective, the research gathers qualitative data for three iwi organisations and uses these to construct case reports. An inductive comparison across cases finds that while the underlying motivation for creating the iwi organisations is a desire to live as Māori, the immediate stimuli are opportunities negotiated with government. Iwi are chosen, in preference to other Māori groups, because of their size and traditional status and organisational success is dependent on meeting the requirements of both members and external parties. To address the second objective, the research examines a number of theories from new institutional economics which assist understanding of the empirical findings. To adequately explain iwi organisations as a whole, however, and to assess the relative explanatory power of the theories, they must be connected into a single explanatory framework. The research constructs a framework using the concept of social capital, understood as the combination of all the socio-economic institutions operating to make collective action possible. The framework proposes that socio-economic institutions can have an influence and value independent of other forms of capital. Viewing new iwi organisations through the constructed theoretical framework casts them as intermediaries, managing relational contracts between tribal members and external parties. The relational contracts with members constitute bonding social capital and are characterised by informal institutions of high intrinsic value, considerable relationship-specific social capital, transferability across tasks but not persons, and a preference for voice over exit. Relational contracts with external parties are primarily instrumental in value and formal institutions play a significant role; they show variability in the importance of informal institutions, relationship-specific social capital, transferability and preference for exit over voice. The thesis presents an insider’s view of new iwi organisations and then translates this view into the concepts of new institutional economics. In doing so, it contributes to two discussions: first, on the appropriate way to understand new iwi organisations; second, on the appropriate way for new institutional economics to understand society’s economic institutions.

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / The texts of Maori oral tradition preserve special information for communication within Maori society. The forms in which that information is communicated are varied and in named types. Whakataukii are one of those types and they are one means of making public and preserving knowledge about Maori society. The knowledge which is contained in whakataukii, or referred to by them, ranges from simple observations of daily life, to philosophical concepts and records of history. This thesis proposes that whakataukii are a genre of Maori oral tradition. By examination and interpretation of a selection of sayings arranged in two categories, one which relates to Maori society as a whole and the other which relates to individual tribes, it considers the role of these texts in transmitting cultural information. Oral texts are often represented as unsophisticated forms of language, dependant for sophistication on a development to writing. Sayings are generally studied as colloquial texts and are seldom the subject of the serious interpretative study given to written literature. In this thesis the sayings of Maori oral tradition, with their culturally distinct but highly developed use of language, are regarded as comparable in their own sphere to compositions of written literature.