Agriculture, industry and medicine are being altered by new biological technologies. Today's students are the citizens who will make decisions about associated ethical issues. They need to have the knowledge that will enable them to make informed choices. Hence biotechnology has an important place in science education. The aims of the research were to: 1/describe the state of biotechnology teaching in NSW; 2/determine whether teachers in NSW do not teach biotechnology because they do not have the necessary knowledge and experience; 3/identify other reasons why NSW teachers choose not to teach biotechnology; 4/describe problems encountered in teaching biotechnology in NSW; 5/suggest ways in which the problems encountered in the teaching of biotechnology can be overcome. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in a complementary way to investigate these aims. In a sample of teachers surveyed, many reported that they chose not to teach biotechnology because they did not have adequate knowledge and experience. Other obstacles were identified. These were: 1/ the difficulty of the subject matter; 2/ the lack of practical work; 3/ lack of a program for biotechnology in junior science. The results of this trial suggested that a biotechnology unit should be developed in collaboration with the teacher and that time needs to be made available for school based program development. / Master of Education (Hons)

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg March 2015 / This research was motivated by the necessity for Biotechnology education in the General Education and Training (GET) phase as biotechnology influences our daily lives in almost every way. Our human population is continually increasing and there is a need for increased food security to sustain the larger population. Hence technological advancement in the medical, agricultural and commercial sectors are taking place every day. Therefore, biotechnology education is necessary at an early age in order for learners to make an informed decision about the different products that are available in the market. This qualitative study aimed to identify the knowledge of and attitude towards biotechnology among grade 9 learners. This study was conducted in two South African schools in the Gauteng province. A total of 360 learners participated in the study and 25 learners from each school were selected as the sample for the study. Data was gathered using a questionnaire which consisted of closed ended and open ended questions based on knowledge and attitudes. The data analysis was essentially qualitative as it involved interpretation of the learners’ response in order to gain further understanding and insight. However, part of the questionnaire i.e. question 2 was quantitative. The data analysis revealed that grade 9 learners do indeed have knowledge about biotechnology. However, some of the knowledge they have, has many misconceptions i.e. in terms of genetic modification, inserting or removing genes and this largely due to a lack of formal teaching, as it is not a requirement in the grade 9 Natural Science curriculum. This information is useful for teachers teaching Natural Science and for teachers teaching Life Sciences to grade 10, 11 and 12, as well as curriculum developers.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2013 / Biotechnology as a science has become increasingly more important because of what it has to offer in various fields. These include the development of medicines for human and animal health; improved crop agriculture for enhancing food security; and environmental sustainability, all of which are of the utmost importance, not only globally, but also in southern Africa. Through a participatory and collaborative process of biotechnology capacity development at the Universities of Namibia (UNAM) and the Witwatersrand (WITS) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, it was identified that science curricula need to take cognizance of ‘worldview’ and the impact this may have in the context of teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential barriers, or factors contributing, to learning in the two southern African universities in the context of the biotechnology curriculum. The study focused on how African epistemologies should be taken into consideration to facilitate capacity development in biotechnology at the tertiary education level, and in so doing, facilitate the development of a culturally sensitive, generic biotechnology curriculum which reaches across both literal and cultural borders and is relevant to these countries. The methodology of phenomenography was used in this case study and it resulted in two categories of description that formed the outcome space of the experience of biotechnology. These categories of description included a theoretical and practical perspective and a worldview perspective. This study has confirmed that worldview differences can lead to barriers to learning in biotechnology. Furthermore, theoretical and practical concepts included in the curriculum need to be carefully considered to make the curriculum responsive to African needs in order to provide for epistemological access, and so that the inherent cross-cultural experience between the learners’ life-world and biotechnology is recognized. The value of this study is affirmation that formulation, development, teaching and learning of a biotechnology curriculum should be regarded as an ‘African product’, where worldview and the theoretical and practical perspectives are carefully considered to provide a qualification to make a difference for capacity development in southern Africa. (339 words)

This research endeavor focused on the establishment of the first two hierarchical levels in a taxonometric structure for biotechnology. The taxonomy was developed in response to the lack of an agreed upon curriculum structure for incorporating biotechnology at the secondary school level. The purpose of the study was to provide educators with a viable taxonometric structure for the development of biotechnology curriculum, applicable within both a technology education program or biological sciences program. As the field of modern biotechnology is still in its infancy, an unstructured, characteristic-retaining variation of the Delphi technique was used as the methodology for this investigation. The 18 member Delphi panel consisted of biotechnology experts from four sources: (1) educational organizations, (2) biotechnology companies, (3) universities, and (4) government agencies. The Delphi I instrument was directed at ascertaining opinions on (a) what main knowledge areas describe biotechnology, and (b) what subdivisions comprise each of those areas. Delphi II and Delphi III asked panelists to rate, using an eleven point Likert-Type scale, the subdivisions identified in Delphi I. Median scores and Q-values were used in analyzing the data. Q-values determined the level of agreement among panelists and provided a dispersion estimate of their opinions. Using this method, the level of consensus among experts on opinions toward inclusion of an item in a given knowledge area was reached. A frequency distribution using all median scores was constructed to determine the 25th percentile score. This score was used as the cut-off point for determining acceptance of a subdivision as important for thorough instruction in biotechnology. The study identified and showed consensus among the experts on eight main biotechnology knowledge areas, with a total of eighty-four subdivisions distributed among them. These knowledge areas and their accompanying subdivisions comprised the first two hierarchical levels in a taxonometric structure for biotechnology at the secondary school level. / Ph. D.

This study traces how the National Curriculum Statement-Further Education and Training (NCS-FET) Life Sciences Policy is constructed and translated as it circulates across the Department of Education (DoE), schools and industry nodes. Actor Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005) guides the theoretical framework and methodology of this study. ANT is a useful tool for showing the negotiations that characterise patterns of curriculum change in terms of how policy gets constructed, how practice gets performed, the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values (SKAV) constituted in practice, and whether there is an interface in terms of policy construction and SKAV constitution. From an ANT perspective curriculum policy change is a matter of practice co-performed by sociality and materiality, these being interwoven and entangled in practice. The trajectory of the NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy is traced during the practice of mediation of policy, implementation of policy and mediation of workplace learning. The topography of this study is underpinned by the transformatory agenda attached to curricula policy reform in South Africa. Agency has been granted by the democratically elected government to structures such as the DoE, schools and industry to promote human resource development and overcome the skills shortage via the NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy (DoE, 2003) and the National Biotechnology Strategy Policy (DST, 2001). There are divergences between these two documents as to the type of biotechnology that can be used as leverage for human resources development. The controversy lies in the notion of wanting to broaden access to biotechnology by having it included in the NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy, while wanting to promote third-generation biotechnology. Furthermore, contradictions are illuminated in the constitution of the NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy: it espouses constructivist principles and has a social transformative agenda, but its construction is guided by behaviourist and cognitivist principles. iv Employing the analytical tools offered by ANT (Latour, 1993, 2005; Callon, Law & Rip, 1986), the network tracing activity reveals that policy construction and SKAV development involve more than the action of a single human actor. This means that humans are not entirely in control of practice (Sorenson, 2007). Practice is performed by a series of shifting relations between elements of “sociality” and “materiality” (Mulchay, 2007). The network tracing activity elucidates that curriculum policy is an emergent effect of the interface, a dynamic point that arises from translations in the network. While there is an interface in respect of policy construction and SKAV constitution across the nodes of the study, the emergent effect of curriculum reform has pointed to the slippage between what was intended (via the policy as stated in the Government Gazette) and what was actually experienced in practice. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2010.