The purpose of this research is to document the experiences of black South African scientists en-route to gaining a doctorate and provide an explanation of how and why they achieved academic success in the unequal South African society. The South African apartheid society was designed to promote black intellectual underdevelopment. Some managed to proceed to university and a few gained a doctorate. Little is known about these experiences beyond the anecdotal accounts. This study attempts a more systematic study about academic success in an unequal society. The study used a life history approach to understand and explain academic success. The study is not located in any particular discipline or apriori theoretical constructs. The approach involved individuals relating their experience and their subjective interpretation of their experiences. I have written individual stories and by grounded theorising in a cross-case analysis I have suggested constructs to provide an explanation of why they achieved academic success. This study gives us the social history of the education for blacks in South Africa for the period 1948 to 1994. The life stories are contextualised within that social historical period. In this study the analytical, research stories of individuals are presented. These stories illuminate the unfolding of the academic lives and the dynamics that shaped the unfolding of those lives. Using the ten stories a composite thick description of how the variables (social, institutional and individual) shaped the academic pathways for the group is presented. From this data explanatory constructs are suggested to provide an explanation of their academic success. In order to pursue and achieve academic success it was necessary that participants demonstrate academic capability and have access to resources (material and information). In this research I propose three new explanatory constructs plus a fourth one which is not unanticipated but expresses itself in unusual ways in the South African context. The three constructs I am proposing and which are not found in the life history literature about academic success are: academic role replication and expectation; strategic compliance and deferred gratification. The explanatory construct, coherence of roles and support mechanisms, had a particular characteristic in South Africa during this period. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2000.

The present debates over strategies to construct a non-racial democratic education system for South Africa concur that non-formal education is an indispensable complement of formal education. Formal education alone is not enough to develop the human resources of marginalized Third World people, whose capacity to participate and perform has been wasted over the centuries. Massive deficits in literacy, numeracy, vocational and technical skills among adults, school-leavers and school drop-outs, are clear problems to be tackled by non-formal education. In South Africa, non-formal education, as a component of education and training, is of recent origin. Research in the field is very limited. It is necessary to undertake scientific studies regarding key issues like adults' educational needs, programmes, available facilities and funds, and staffing needs required to maximize non-formal education's contributions to human resources development. This research aims to identify crucial issues in the provision of creative and viable non-formal education; to locate existing non-formal education resources and forms of network; to identify immediate and long-term non-formal education needs; and to develop a provision model for non-formal education. The study is set against the background of the development of non-formal education in selected European countries, some developing countries, and selected African countries. Non-formal education models are identified and described in Chapters Two and Three. This research focuses on the provision of non-formal education in the Pietermaritzburg region, in particular non-formal education providers, programmes or courses, trainers/teachers, trainees/learners, students' needs and the training of adult educators. Each of the above-mentioned areas is reviewed with the aim of making comparisons with the industrialized European countries in order to detect common and divergent trends which could have implications for the alleviation of the present situation in South Africa. It is also intended to develop a provision model for non-formal education in South Africa. The study samples comprised 400 learners/trainees, 200 teachers/trainers, and 100 managers, officials and principals of non-formal education institutions in the greater Pietermaritzburg region. The instruments used for data collection were two questionnaires and an interview schedule. Participant observation was also used. The study established the following major needs in non-formal education in the greater Pietermaritzburg region: strong links with a national system of adult education; efficient training system of adult educators; strong state commitment to the provision of non-formal education; proper networking amongst non-formal education providers; adequate INSET courses for non-formal education providers and teachers/trainers; a satisfactory system of funding non-formal education and more non-formal education centres in rural areas. The findings and conclusions led to the development of a provision model for non-formal education. The model has five major sequential components: (1) Establishing non-formal education needs through research, networking, and adult education organizers, etc.; (2) Constructing appropriate curricula/ syllabuses/courses and evaluating them during and after implementation; (3) Selection of non-formal education students based on relevant criteria; (4) Provision of appropriate training through suitably qualified trainers/educators and aided by a variety of support services; and (5) Placement of trained personnel in employment and monitoring their progress in the work situation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1978.

The release of the Language-in-Education Policy (LiEP) in July 1997 marked a fundamental and almost radical break from the state-driven language policy of the apartheid government, to one that recognizes cultural diversity as a national asset, the development and promotion of eleven official languages and gave individuals the right to choose the language of learning and teaching (DoE, 1997: 2-3). The LiEP aimed at providing a framework to enable schools to formulate appropriate school language policies that align with the intentions of the new policy, namely, to maintain home language(s) while providing access to the effective acquisition of additional language(s) and to promote multilingualism. This research explores language use and implementation of the LiEP in a rural commercial farm community. The study is guided by three research questions, namely: 1. What is the language use and preference of a selected rural commercial farm community? 2. How do teachers on rural commercial farm schools respond to the LiEP and its implementation? 3. What are the implications of the language preference and use of a selected rural commercial farm community and teachers’ responses to the LiEP and its implementation for language practice at rural commercial farm schools? After reviewing literature on rurality and language policy implementation in South Africa, the study articulated a broader contextual framework which is titled Rurality as a sense of place. This perspective captures the uniqueness of the context and facilitates a deep understanding of how rurality as a sense of place influences language preference and use. A further theoretical framework, namely the combined models of Stern (1983) and Sookrajh (1999), facilitate an understanding of rural community language preference and the implications for practice in the school environment. xiv To achieve the aims of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data. A language preference and use survey questionnaire was conducted with respondents comprising parents, teachers and learners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected teachers and principals and school governing body chairpersons. The findings were inter-related at the policy, community and school levels. The study identified patterns and problems of language use at different levels. At a community level, it focused on language profiles of parents teachers and learners; language use in private and public situations; attitudes towards public language policy and language choices in the language of teaching and learning as well as the use of mother-tongue and additional languages as subjects. At the school level, it focused on teacher and principals’ beliefs and understandings of the LiEP and implementation challenges being faced. The study found that while most respondents come from multilingual backgrounds, the use of African languages is confined to “home and hearth.” English and to a diminished extent, Afrikaans is still widely used in public interactions. At school level, there has been no significant change to school language policy developments. The subtractive model of language teaching where mother-tongue is used in the early grades and an abrupt transfer to English as the language of learning and teaching from grade four onwards continues to exist in three of the four schools. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that English is not widely used in the rural community and learners have no exposure to quality English language interactions. This study recommends a market-oriented approach to promoting African languages which effectively involves all stakeholders participating in concert to implement the multilingual policy. Since English remains the dominant language in South Africa and is viewed as the language of opportunity, the language of international communication, the language of economic power, and the language of science and technology, schools should promote education that uses learners’ home languages for learning, while at the same time providing access to quality English language teaching and learning. / http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1062 / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

There is evidence that primary schools are important places where gender inequalities are prevalent. The aim of this study was to explore how gender relations amongst grade two boys and girls in an African junior primary are constructed. It investigated how gender relations amongst 7/8 year old grade two boys and girls in an African Catholic junior primary school situated in Mariannhill, Durban, are constructed. It explored the process through which young township boys and girls attach meaning to gender and forge their gender identities. In this study young boys and girls were active agents in the construction of their gender identities. This study adopted a qualitative approach. Observations and unstructured interviews were used as methods of collecting data from grade two boys and girls. Purposive sampling was used in selecting seven boys and seven girls to participate in group interviews. The study focussed on micro dynamics of boys and girls pertaining to friendships, sexualities, play, violence, religion, classroom chores and school subjects in a detailed analysis. It showed that gender equalities are pervasive in the little cultural world of grade two boys and girls. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Education is one of the fundamental rights of children. Parents have the perennial responsibility to see to it that education, as a basic right for children, is met. However, experience and studies show that most children‘s schooling is under threat. Various factors such as family background, the dangerous neighbourhood and communities from which learners come are central in the disturbance of children‘s schooling. These contextual factors correlate with one another and sometimes result in children forfeiting schooling opportunities. Bronfenbrenner‘s (1989) ecosystem theory, among other perspectives, facilitates our understanding of the fact that a learner does not exist in isolation, but in interdependence with a number of other systems in their environment. This is because the functioning of any learner is dependent on the interaction between the various systems within the contexts they find themselves. If the child‘s immediate environmental system, the family, for instance, is faced with hardships, the child‘s development is most likely to be hampered. Young‘s (1990) theory of oppression maintains that the children‘s immediate environmental systems are said to be oppressed by the situations that are beyond their control. This study examines the vulnerable state of children and explores ways in which these vulnerabilities affect their schooling. The strategies employed to gather data involve the adoption of the research methods that are arts-based and are combined with different types of interviewing techniques. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2008.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1999.

Research universities broadly have integrated scientific research as a core component of their teaching mission and are frequently the source of technological innovation. The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) likewise, seeks to give effect to its vision of being the premier university of African scholarship in its research endeavors and is currently ranked as one of the “Big Five” research institutions in South Africa. However, despite UKZN’s high research publication output, there is negligible patenting at UKZN. This study therefore investigated why there is that anomaly and carried out a Comparative Analysis of Innovation Support Models at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. Based on the research findings, this study provides some useful insights on how Innovation Support Models in South Africa in general and UKZN in particular, can best be structured to achieve success. The study highlights the extent to which patenting affects publication (for example whether patenting hinders publication) with particular emphasis on the “Big Five” research universities in South Africa. Some of the factors that affect innovation at the HEIs, which this study reviewed, include the institutional arrangements for the management of Intellectual Property and technology transfer capacity. The study reviews literature on the roles that universities play in the national innovation systems, the complex institutional landscapes that influence the creation, development and dissemination of innovations at global and national levels. The literature shows that countries worldwide, including South Africa, are striving to stimulate innovation as a fundamental source of competitiveness and are building on locally generated Intellectual Property (IP) from Research Institutions. To arrive at the findings, this study adopted a case study approach by examining innovation at UKZN in some detail. Purposive sampling was used to select the “Big Five” research institutions and an additional three HEIs were selected through judgment sampling. Out of a sample size of eight HEIs, a response rate of 75% was achieved. The case study and the interview analysis showed that HEIs use more than one indicator to measure their performance. These indicators include: the number of disclosures, number of patents, number of breakthroughs to the industry, number of projects managed within the innovation portfolio, the level of efficiency of innovation systems and tools, successful commercialisation of projects and the income generated. While there are several good innovation performance indicators, this study recommends the patent system, which is accepted internationally as a good yardstick and is used in South Africa by the Department of Science and Technology to monitor technological performance. Patents are valuable because they provide a researcher with a coherent set of data across countries and specific technological fields for long time series. Proper use of the patent system could result in additional publications to the researchers and could facilitate the transfer of new technology to the industry. Despite delays in obtaining patents, the patent system has the benefit of securing the researchers with a priority date for their work. This study further shows that there is a low rate of patenting by South African HEIs at both local and international level. The existence of IP management policies at HEIs and patenting appears to be correlated given the fact that HEIs with IP policies and established structures performed well in the area of patenting. Improvement of infrastructure and availability of highly skilled and creative researchers coupled with proper management of IP is necessary for successful commercialisation. A useful tool for enhancing commercialisation would be a mechanism for increasing the number of disclosures of inventions made by researchers to technology transfer offices. This study therefore recognizes that achieving research and innovation excellence in South African HEIs, especially in UKZN, requires breaking down existing barriers within and outside the institutions while building a collaborative and entrepreneurial culture. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

This thesis reports on an investigation of the schemata of trainee teachers from a range of different ethnic and language groups in KwaZulu-Natal who had been educated in racially segregated school systems. Informed by the insight that schemata are the products of life experience and that they constrain linguistic choices (see Tannen 1979), it was hypothesised at the outset that different ethnic groups have some different assumptions of what constitutes appropriate classroom behaviour and that this schematic knowledge is reflected in the surface linguistic forms used by teachers and pupils in classroom discourse. These differences in schemata could have unfortunate consequences for pupils of a different ethnic group from their teacher, and, in particular, those pupils from historically disempowered groups. Data was collected using an eclectic mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, students responded to a questionnaire which elicited responses concerning pupil and teacher roles. This was followed by interviews with selected student teachers during which they were asked to comment on those statements in the questionnaire which exhibited the greatest differences between respondents who attended schools administered by racially different educational authorities. Finally, a story recall experiment was conducted. Respondents/subjects were all trainee teachers at a multi-racial college of education. The analyses of the findings of the quantitative questionnaire revealed significant differences between subjects from different education systems. The interview data, however, revealed that the differences were less marked than the findings of the questionnaire suggested. The analyses of the recall experiment suggested that while some differences between the subjects who had attended schools administered by racially segregated authorities do exist, these are not as great as initially hypothesised. Teachers need to be made aware of the problems inherent in cross-cultural encounters, and this awareness should be extended to pupils. This awareness, together with goodwill, should ensure that pupils having different schemata from their teacher and/or other pupils in the classroom will not be disadvantaged. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1997.

During the early twenties of this century the necessity for the standardization of management activities and related affairs such as the desirability, reliability and validity of merit-assessments in businesses and industries in the U.S.A. reached a peak. The educational system participated in this movement end began extensive research on the evaluation of teachers. Especially the interest of the teachers' training institutes was aroused. These institutions pursued the viewpoint that more clarity should be obtained regarding the identification and evaluation of desirable education performance, and that this should furthermore be utilised as guidelines for the creation of educational objectives. The result wes a substantial shift in emphasis in the professional training of teachers from quantity to quality. The determination to raise the quality of education probably contributed largely to the sharp focus on a clearly specified goal determination and on a specific target formulation. From this a competency-based educational training originated. The approach of competency-baaed educational training requires that the training task should be based on pre-identified abilities which have to be acquired with a view to effective education. The purpose of this research is to make a penetrating analysis of competency-based education in the field of the Industrial Arts and the Technical teachers. The phenomenal development and advance in the technological sphere once again subjected the training of the Industrial Arts and Technical teachers to closer scrutiny. It has become imperative for the training of teachers in the technical domains to keep pace with progress in the technological world. By means of a proper task analysis of the competency- based training of Industrial Arts teachers, certain deficiencies and problem areas can be identified and solved. Subservient to the cause of competency-based teacher education responsible research has led the way through an intensive study of available literature, covering every aspect. After the literature study an empirical investigation was undertaken, involving 162 respondents (Industrial Arts teachers). During analysis of the collected data, many important deficiencies and problems regarding education as well as the practice of Industrial Arts teachers were identified. One of the most important conclusions was that only a few Industrial Arts teachers took their degree, The most important reason for this results from the lack of a degree course. It is also noteworthy to take cognisance of the fact that most of the respondents regarded the opportunity for promotion in this field as totally inadequate. Other important conclusions are the lack of funds, insufficient facilities, limited opportunities for advanced studies in the specific fields, the ineffective teaching of educational principles, so necessary for the successful presentation of the subject. Based on these conclusions a competency-based training model for Industrial Arts end Technical teachers was designed in the hope that its implementation may lead to the solving of problems and the elimination of deficiencies. Lastly a few recommendations were made with regard to the teaching of the Industrial Arts end Technical subjects, at secondary school level as well as the training of teachers and further research which could be undertaken in future. / Proefskrif (DEd)--PU vir CHO, 1983