This study focuses on reviewing Environmental Education (EE) research that has been conducted by M. Ed and PhD postgraduates from selected South African universities during the period 1995 to 2004. This period 1995-2004 has been characterized by transformation, restructuring, and change in different educational areas of South Africa. This research is premised on the notion that such transformation, restructuring and change may have had an impact on research. The research questions were on the focus, methodologies and, gaps and silences in postgraduate Environmental Education research during the period 1995 to 2004. The study was informed by Homer-Dixon‘s (1994) theory of Resource Capture and Ecological Marginalisation which claims that environmental problems that exist in South Africa today emanated from apartheid and other marginalisation policies. Firstly, the study has argued that knowledge produced through postgraduate research can be useful in addressing these problems if it includes issues in all the environmental dimensions, biophysical, social, economic and political, as understood by O‘Donoghue (1995). Secondly, it further argued that the methodologies that are used to research on these issues can be useful in addressing these problems if they involve the participation of affected people so that they are empowered with appropriate attitudes, skills and knowledge to deal with these. Thirdly, the study argued that unless new knowledge is produced that will address issues of marginalisation as were created by the past, environmental problems experienced in South Africa will persist. Because of its reliance on documents as the source of data, I describe the design of this study as unobtrusive documentary small scale study. Masters and PhD theses and dissertations that were produced at the University of Johannesburg and Rhodes University during the period 1995-2004 were reviewed, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study identified some gaps in the reviewed postgraduate Environmental Education research. For example, more focus on schooling issues resulted in the overlooking of problems that emanated from marginalisation in the contexts where the sampled institutions are located. Little was done to empower people with skills and knowledge that would be useful in addressing environmental problems. Keywords: Environmental Education research, Education for Sustainable Development, marginalisation, Transformation, / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-146).

D.Litt. et Phil. / Technikon SA has a high attrition rate, which seems to indicate that students are not ready for distance education and that firsttime students at Technikon SA are of a lower educational quality than such students at other technikons. The purpose of this study was therefore to predict which students are not ready for formal enrolment in distance higher education, thereby avoiding a potentially negative situation by identifying those prospective students who could benefit from support programmes. Methods followed This study, which makes use of the Kember Model of student attrition in distance higher education, investigates the extent to which different students, who can potentially be differentiated according to 15 biographical characteristics, are close to or far from academic success. The assumption is made that the identified eight different academic performance groups are more or less ready for technikon distance education. Approximately 13 590 TSA students' registration records and academic performance were investigated over a period of four years and was used to assign the students to one of the eight academic performance groups. The collected data was analysed by using CHAID-analysis as well as correspondence analysis. Results The research question/hypothesis for this study is as follows: Certain cognitive variables (previous academic performance) iii and non-cognitive variables (biographical and other typifying student characteristics) are satisfactorily better than others at distinguishing between the different distance educationready groups of Technikon SA students. The results appear to indicate that at least 9 of the 15 variables are able to distinguish between academic performance groups and to predict academic performance. The variables supporting this research statement are placed in order of increasing importance: Study group formation, work status, value of senior certificate, age group, marital status, previous activities, value of last school examination symbols and cultural group formation. It would appear that these variables assist in defining the term "distance education readiness" by helping to identify the students that are in this way predisposed to it. Generally, it would appear that older white married female students are academically more successful than the other groups, while black unemployed female students are academically least successful. This may be partially explained by the large differences in the educational opportunities and socioeconomic backgrounds of people in South Africa. However, this study was unsuccessful in providing a clear picture of how to identify those students

M.Ed. / Despite the substantial body of Educational Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research there is very little evidence that the theoretical frameworks that underpin research studies have been considered, or applied optimally. The central argument of this dissertation is that theoretical frameworks serve as epistemological guides that account for the knowledge that is produced in a study. The purpose of this inquiry is to explore how theoretical frameworks are evident in selected masters dissertations and doctoral theses at selected South African universities. A blended theoretical framework, situated in interpretivist theory, with an element of critical theory and positivist theory frames this study. A review of components of research dissertations required both quantified and qualitative data. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct a methodological inventory - cum survey review of 103 texts. A research template was devised in order to record and analyse the data that would be isolated in a reading of the texts, with specific reference to the sections of texts that showed the use of terms related to theoretical frameworks. The findings reveal that studies that were theoretically developed yielded data that could be interpreted in more depth, while a substantial majority of authors that employed their theoretical frameworks in a very limited way, presented findings that were no more than descriptive in nature. I conclude that the reason for the theoretically impoverished studies is possibly, more broadly speaking, located in the wider South African socio-economic, political and localised context. South African Higher Education Institutions face pressures of having to produce masters and doctoral studies in order to secure funding, while supervisors face pressures of having to publish to secure promotion and employability. In the process, students are not given enough opportunity for theoretical emancipation.

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This thesis inquires narratively into the practice of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and teachers’ personal practical knowing process in a self-initiated community of university teachers in China. Following a conception by Boyer (1990) that research should be incorporated into teaching as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), Huber & Hutchings (2005) theorize SoTL in a four-core-practice framework of a linear process of individual expression for research and publication. However, not much attention has been given to the important dynamics of collaborative learning. Adopting a social theory of learning and Wenger’s “communities of practice” (1998, 2002), this thesis extends the framework by Huber & Hutchings to investigate the integrated form of individual and collaborative SoTL practice. “Personal practical knowledge” by Connelly, Clandinin & He (1997) is considered in the light of Palmer’s “community of truth” (1998), which is aimed at developing an integrated perspective for understanding teachers’ evolving personal practical knowledge in the SoTL community. This study involves four university academics who are ready to cultivate a SoTL community. They become learning associates for one another, as they went beyond merely sharing concerns and practices about teaching to reach collaborative inquiry into their perceived problems. In response to new circumstances, the SoTL community evolves from an initial grouping of four to increased membership in the formal structure of the system. Narrative inquiry is adopted as the basis for research methodology. Data are collected via ethnographic observation of community meetings, writing correspondence and documentation. The study is naturalistic, collaborative and developmental by nature, enacted within Clandinin & Connelly’s narrative inquiry space along three dimensions (2000). The richness of the narrative experiences and the salient details of the community learning are organized into four narrative profiles, and each carries consistently three progressive steps, followed by the summary of narrative analysis, and concluded with an overview. From teachers’ lived experience in the SoTL community, the adapted framework by Huber & Hutchings is validated, showing that (1) inquiry evidence is multiplied through sharing dynamics; (2) teaching problems are re-defined from diverse resources through collaborative inquiry; (3) changes in teaching as a SoTL initiative are experimented; and (4) learning relationship is woven for further development in the community of inquiry. The study extends understanding of “personal practical knowledge” (Connelly, Clandinin, & He 1997) from moral and intellectual dimensions to shed light on the development of teachers’ personal practical knowledge in the SoTL community. Morally engaged, teachers not only fasten their commitment to teaching improvement, but also become aware of ethical dilemmas with readiness to tackle them. On a moral ground, teachers are empowered to make intellectual progress. They are capable of cultivating an authentic, critical, moral self to withstand the external pressure. They acquire growing competence to address the complexities of teaching and learning, from which to harvest context-specific knowledge. In conclusion, the study presents an alternative paradigm of SoTL for teachers to strengthen their capacity and learn together for professional development. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy