In my eleven years of teaching graphic design at Tshwane University of Technology, I have come to realise that education is more than just teaching a student the fundamentals, techniques and new technologies, it is also about their personal development. I conducted this study to ensure that my educational practices challenge my graphic design students to acquire the essential characteristics – or more profoundly, the essential human qualities -­‐ required for a contemporary graphic design career through which the quality of life for all will be enhanced. The study is a participatory action research study involving the second and third year graphic design students at Tshwane University of Technology. It involved five action intervention cycles. In the first cycle I explored the current graphic design education practices in order to determine whether these practices ensure the acquisition of such essential human qualities that a graphic designer should posses. The acquisition of such human qualities has become paramount because of the ethical imperative that graphic designers can change the world (Berman, 2009). I found that my current graphic design education practices as they relate to the commonly most dominant practices are not sufficient to accomplish this purpose. During the research I was exposed to a paradigmatically innovative education practice that focuses on maximizing human potential and it was adopted to improve my existing education practice. Through four additional action intervention cycles I provided evidence that indicated that my improved education practice contributed to my students’ acquisition of an identified four sets of essential human qualities: the artistic quality of creativity; the professional quality of continuous, independent, increasing expertise in creativity within an interdependent, co-­‐operative value based community of graphic design practitioners; the personal quality of maximizing human potential; and the leadership quality of an enlightened change agent. The primary focus on the acquisition of these essential human qualities through the proposed method of graphic design education, also allows for the gaining of the necessary graphic design knowledge and skills (Barnett, 2007:101). / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Humanities Education / Unrestricted

Les groupes de travail font partie des principaux animateurs informels de la vie scolaire au Sénégal. Alors qu’ils sont au cœur des activités de sociabilité scolaire observées dans l’enseignement secondaire, ils n’ont fait l’objet d’aucune analyse sociologique. Force est pourtant de reconnaître qu' ils sont devenus des espaces concurrents et alternatifs à la transmission officielle des contenus d’enseignement face à l’incapacité croissante de l’école à assurer cette mission essentielle d’encadrement des élèves. Les enquêtes qualitative et quantitative effectuées auprès de 110 groupes de travail montrent que ces derniers sont un espace d’activation des pratiques sexuées. Deux modèles de socialisation introverti et extraverti régulent les activités sociales et les projets scolaires et professionnels des élèves. Le modèle introverti pousse les filles à faire un usage limité des activités de sociabilité scolaire et à privilégier leur projet matrimonial et les formations de courte durée ; tout le contraire du modèle extraverti qui incline les garçons à construire un projet scolaire et professionnel solide. Cette thèse interroge les transformations en cours, dans les modes de sociabilité sénégalaise, s’expliquant en partie par l’accès des femmes aux secteurs modernes de l’emploi. Cette présence féminine sur le marché de l’emploi n’a pas forcément entraîné une renégociation des rapports parentaux. L’étude du rôle des groupes de travail dans la réussite scolaire des élèves montre que les groupes sociaux défavorisés tirent un grand bénéfice des activités de sociabilité scolaire, par l’accès à un espace social favorable à la création de vocations scolaire et professionnelle. / Work groups are part of the main informal school life-stirring factors in Senegal. Though they are at the core of socializing activities in high school education, they have never been studied on a sociological basis. Nevertheless, one has to admit that in the past years, they have become simultaneous and alternative to official and regular transmission of education contents due to the ever growing incapacity of school to take on this essential mission of students’ supervision. Qualitative and quantitative surveys carried towards 110 work groups show that these groups are where gender-related practices start off. Two socializing models, introverted and extroverted, regulate social activities and school and professional projects. The model we shall call “introverted” lead girls, one the one hand, to a limited use of school sociability activities in order to favor their matrimonial project and short-term trainings. On the other hand, boys in this model are encouraged to build on a strong school and professional project. This thesis study questions the on-going transformations in the Senegalese socializing trends, that can be partly explained by the access of women to modern employment sectors. This feminine presence on the employment market doesn’t trigger necessarily a negotiation in parental terms. The study of the work groups’ role in school success show that disadvantaged social groups benefit a lot from socializing activities through access to a social space prone to school and professional vocations.