This dissertation adds to the growing body of research on L2 academic discourse socialization in classroom contexts. Although the importance of students' writing in socializing them into their target discourse communities has been well documented, much less has been made of how students learn through online activities when the division between more and less knowledgeable individuals are blurred. Addressing this gap, this qualitative extended case study explored the experiences and perspectives of novice L2 graduate students in academic literacy practices that involved online writing activities. The focal participants included five first-year female graduate students from different cultural backgrounds enrolled in a graduate class during fall 2008 semester. Data sources included interviews with focal students and with the professor, class observations, field notes, questionnaires, handouts, and students' reflective essays. Anchored in language socialization theories (Duff, 1996, 2003; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) and the notion of community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), this study provides an ecological perspective on these five L2 students' socialization into academic literacy activities. The findings revealed how the students negotiated competence, relations, and identities to participate legitimately as competent members of their classroom communities. This study also contributes to an understanding of the changing role of novice learners in a given academic community by analyzing how they variably exercise their agency and develop their subject positioning in academic literacy activities that are imbricated in social, cultural, and discoursal contexts. Ultimately, this study enriches the notions of academic discourse socialization by demonstrating the dialogic and transformative nature of academic literacy practices mediated by online discourses in order to highlight ever more contextual information. / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The number of unemployed young university graduates in South Africa is annually on the rise. This is due to a combination of factors which include a lack of the right skills, work experience, type of qualification, low number of available jobs and other macro-economic factors. Different stakeholders have proposed entrepreneurship as a possible solution to graduate unemployment. This study explores the feasibility of entrepreneurship as a way out of unemployment for jobless graduates. It does this by investigating the perceptions of young graduates of the University of KwaZulu-Natal who are engaged in entrepreneurship in Pietermaritzburg. The qualitative method of interviews is used for data collection. Two major areas of investigation in this study are that of the challenges that graduates encounter in their various business ventures as well as their perceptions about the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education at university. Generally the findings of this study seem to suggest that entrepreneurship, if developed properly, could be one of the solutions to the challenge of graduate unemployment. However a number of factors determine successful entrepreneurship. These include personality traits, intelligence, access to finance, good business management skills, family background as well as the general economic environment. The findings could also generally suggest that, in its current form, entrepreneurship education is not effective enough in producing graduates who are successful in business. / Thesis (M.Com.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This exploratory case study investigated the Graduate Assistant (GA) Scholarship Programme at Technikon Natal (TN) as a staff development mechanism. Although GA programmes are not a new concept and have been used internationally for decades as a means to develop academic staff, the programme at TN has some differences. This programme was initiated to address the development of young Black, and in the main African, academics in order to assist with meeting future employment equity requirements. The programme in its simplest form offers the GA the opportunity to gain teaching experience while studying for a post graduate qualification. Between 1995 and 2000, fifty GAs were involved in the programme at TN, with the majority of GAs studying at the BTech qualification level. This case study identified the juxtaposition of two perspectives of influence, those of the institutional and the individual issues. The institutional issues identified were categorised into policy and procedural issues and the individual issues focused on staff development and mentorship issues. Although the findings cannot be generalised, significant issues have been identified which could prove of value to a wider audience. In addition to developing Black academics, the programme makes a significant contribution to increasing the achievement of higher qualifications from the technikon sector. This is desirable in order to produce the technological foundation for South Africa's future economy. The study identified great potential in the GAs and in the community at TN who have embraced this opportunity to develop young academics of the future. Although there are a number of issues to be addressed, the key stakeholders of this study; the GAs and their Heads of Departments, are well supported by the management and relevant units at TN. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

In studying postgraduate students’ lived experiences and their learning moments in their postgraduate studies, my study offers a deeper understanding of who these African, international, postgraduate students are and how they negotiate their learning experiences within the various social, personal and professional spaces at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). I explored postgraduate students’ lived experiences in higher education within the context of internationalisation. My study is located within a qualitative research approach which allows me to understand the postgraduate students’ lived experiences in higher education from the perspective of the participants, as they negotiate and construct particular meanings of self and learning.Using a narrative inquiry approach offered me the opportunity to reflect on the diversity, richness and complexities involved in understanding the personal and professional learning experiences of postgraduate international students studying in higher education. The research methods used included life history interviews, collage and photo voice to understand the complexities, challenges and highlights of studying in a foreign country. The data generated enabled me to produce rich and vivid narrative accounts of their learning.Through narrative analysis, two reconstructed students' stories were produced. The findings of the data show that international students are faced with both positive and negative learning experiences. Particular meanings of self shaped by dominant discourses and practices in their homeland shape who they are as international postgraduate students. The study concludes that these African, international, postgraduate students’ personal, social and professional identities are negotiated on a daily basis within the postgraduate learning. Their professional space offered them a platform to realise their goals at UKZN as international students. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The professional literature contains little or no documentation of university curriculum in adult education that deals with ethical practice. Nor is there evidence indicating what graduate students learn about ethics in their professional studies.Purposes of this study were to identify: (a) the extent to which university graduates, at the doctoral level, in adult education were aware of ethical dilemmas in their practice; (b) how practitioners determined ethical behavior; (c) the influence of graduate studies on determining ethical situations; (d) self perceptions of preparedness to face ethical dilemmas; and (e) the extent to which adult educators rely on codes of ethics.The study sought to answer the following questions: (a) Are adult education practitioners aware of ethical dilemmas in their practice? (b) How often do they encounter ethical dilemmas in their practice? (c) Do they have a way to determine ethical behavior in their practice? (d) How do they describe the impact of their graduate work on their ability to make ethical decisions? (e) How do they perceive their preparedness to face ethical dilemmas? (f) Do they consider codes of ethics when making decisions?Findings include: (a) over 90% of the respondents indicated they are aware of ethical dilemmas/situations in their work; (b) while all respondents indicated that they faced ethical dilemmas in areas such as program planning, marketing of programs, evaluation of programs, and in the teaching of adults approximately two thirds said they encountered them infrequently; (c) virtually all respondents indicated they had determined what ethical behavior was in their practice and cited personal values and religious beliefs as the two primary sources of information; (d) 83.3% of participants described graduate work as a significant factor in their ability to make ethical decisions; (e) s significant majority (89.0%) of participants indicated they were very well or well prepared to face ethical dilemmas; and (f) less than half indicated they used a code of ethics in their decision making process.Conclusions from the study include: (a) ethical dilemmas are perceived to be pervasive in the practice of adult education, (b) a person's own value system and religious beliefs were the most influential on impacting the way participants approached ethical dilemmas, (c) although professional knowledge obtained in graduate school was deemed influential, it was not deemed more important than one's personal values and beliefs.Recommendations include: (a) further study is needed to probe the specific elements raised on evaluation of students as an area of ethical concern, (b) further study could reveal why practitioners differ with regard to the frequency of encountering dilemmas, (c) if a deeper understanding of the value of graduate school is to be achieved more study is necessary, (d) a clearer understanding of the value of codes of ethics is needed. / Department of Educational Leadership

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this master s thesis is to know the adjustment process of graduate students to their courses. It was realized two studies. The first study consisted of a systematic review of literature that aimed to investigate in an exploratory way personal, relational and institutional factors that are described in the literature as influences in the graduate students adjustment to their courses. The 15 international peer-reviewed articles that composed the final sample of this research showed that the integration with graduate life depends on the setting with the demands of the graduate program, on financial security and, above all, on the establishment of a rewarding relationship between advisor and student. Based on this information and on the lack of studies about the subject in the Brazilian graduate scenario, the second study was proposed to investigate the master students vision about their advisors and the perception of students about the relationship between advisors and students, besides to identify the possible influence of this perception in the adjustment of these master students to their courses. It participated in the study 12 graduate students from two graduate programs of a public university located in south of Brazil. The answers given by them to the issues of a semi-structured interview were subjected to content analysis. It was noticed that the vision (positive or negative) that the students had about the personal attributes and behavioral styles of their advisors influenced the nature of the relationship (satisfactory or unsatisfactory) between them. It is believed that the results of this work will stimulate government, development agencies and higher education institutions in Brazil to concern about the adjustment of graduate students to their courses in order to minimize cases of failure in masters and doctoral programs in the country. / Esta dissertação objetivou conhecer o processo de adaptação acadêmica dos estudantes de pós-graduação stricto sensu aos seus cursos. Para tanto, foram realizados dois estudos. O primeiro estudo constitui-se de uma revisão sistemática de literatura que visava investigar exploratoriamente os fatores pessoais, relacionais e institucionais que são descritos na literatura como influências no processo de adaptação de estudantes de pós-graduação stricto sensu aos seus cursos. Os 15 artigos internacionais revisados por pares que compuseram a amostra final dessa pesquisa permitiram concluir que a integração com a vida de pós-graduando depende da ambientação com as normas e demandas do programa de pós-graduação, de segurança financeira e, sobretudo, do estabelecimento de uma relação gratificante entre orientador e orientando. Com base nessa informação e na escassez de estudos sobre a temática no cenário da pós-graduação brasileira, o segundo estudo foi proposto para investigar exploratoriamente a visão de mestrandos a respeito de seus orientadores e a percepção dos discentes sobre a relação estabelecida entre orientadores e orientandos, bem como identificar a possível influência dessa percepção na adaptação desses mestrandos aos seus cursos. Participaram dessa pesquisa 12 mestrandos provenientes de dois programas de pós-graduação de uma universidade pública localizada no sul do Brasil. As respostas concedidas por eles às questões de uma entrevista semiestruturada foram submetidas à análise de conteúdo. Percebeu-se que a visão (positiva ou negativa) que os orientandos apresentavam a respeito dos atributos pessoais e dos estilos comportamentais de seus orientadores influenciavam na natureza da relação estabelecida (satisfatória ou insatisfatória) entre eles. Acredita-se que os resultados desta dissertação irão estimular a preocupação do governo, das agências de fomento e das Instituições de Ensino Superior do Brasil com a adaptação de pós-graduandos aos seus cursos a fim de minimizar os casos de insucesso nos cursos de mestrado e de doutorado do país.

The study was undertaken as the first cycle of an action research project. It presents a case study that explores the potential of the combined use of self-, peer-, and tutor-driven assessment in enhancing students’ learning in a professionally orientated postgraduate media management course. The study also explores how such a process can contribute to students developing the skills and dispositions required by autonomous learners and professionals. In approaching these questions the study draws directly on students’ own accounts of their experiences and contrasts these accounts with the growing body of literature on participative assessment in higher education that has emerged over the past decade. The study begins by exploring how action research can aid in the development of valuable insights into educational practice. It draws on educational theorists’ use of Habermas’s (1971, 1972 and 1974 in Grundy, 1987: 8) theory of knowledge constitutive interests in developing a conceptual framework against which assessment practice can be understood and argues against instrumental approaches to assessment. Set against a background of outcomes-based education, the study presents an argument for privileging the role of assessment in promoting learning above its other function. It contends that this function is undermined if students are excluded from direct involvement in assessment practice. Informed by research into participative assessment, the study presents a thick description of a particular approach used during the action research cycle and explores how students experienced this process. The findings of the study support theories favouring the involvement of students in their own assessment and suggest that such processes can contribute to meeting students’ present and future learning needs.

Young people are often expected to find employment after completing their tertiary qualifications but they often face various challenges in finding employment. These challenges may be due to a variety of factors such as the type of qualification that they hold, structural changes in the economy, lack of skills and experience and the lack of relevant social networks. Furthermore, the current economic climate is characterised by low absorption rates of labour in the economy, poverty and inequalities. As such young graduates may experience various negative effects as a result of their unemployment, such as isolation, depression, decreased self-esteem, dependency, discontentment, loneliness, loss of social status and poverty. Social support has been found to have a buffering effect on people experiencing adverse life events such as unemployment. The focus of this current study was therefore to explore the social support experiences of graduates in the township of Mamelodi. This research study was a qualitative, interpretative phenomenological study. Snowballing sampling and purposive sampling were used to obtain research participants who attained tertiary qualifications. Smaller samples of between 6 and10 participants are commonly used in interpretative phenomenological studies. As such, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was then used to extract themes from the participant interviews. The participant interviews indicated that the participants experienced a lack of finance as the most significant challenge during their unemployment, as they could not support themselves and their families. The participants experienced social support in the form of encouragement and information about possible employment opportunities from their family, friends, intimate partners and their community. Moreover, the analysis of the participants’ interviews demonstrated that social support, especially from the family, was essential for the unemployed graduates to cope with the negative effects of unemployment, even though they did not want to burden their families with the responsibility of providing them with social support. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

A crescente internacionalização do ensino superior (MOROSINI, 2006) tem feito com que tanto instituições financiadoras quanto universidades pressionem pesquisadores a publicarem internacionalmente (MUELLER, 2000). Visando a aumentar a visibilidade da pesquisa local dentro do cenário acadêmico internacional (FLOWERDEW, 1999), a publicação em periódicos com alto fator de impacto geralmente ocorre em inglês, a língua franca das ciências (HÜLMBAUER et al., 2008). Entretanto, publicar em inglês, que desafia pesquisadores não nativos de inglês em geral (OLIVEIRA, ZUCOLOTTO E ALUÍSIO, 2006), é ainda mais desafiador para neófitos com pouco domínio daquela língua. Apesar de bastante estudadas no exterior, tanto do ponto de vista discente (LEKI E CARSON, 1994; CABRAL E TAVARES, 2005; LAVELLE E BUSHROW, 2007; ENE, 2014) quanto do docente (ENGLISH, 1999; PEDRA E NOCITO, 2012; CARRIÓ-PASTOR E MESTRE-MESTRE, 2014; DAVOUDI, NAFCHI E MALLAHI, 2015) ou de ambos (CASANAVE e HUBBARD, 1992; BITCHE-NER E BASTURKMEN, 2006; DONOHUE E ERLING, 2012), no Brasil, nunca foi feito um estudo que reunisse as principais dificuldades de pós-graduandos com a escrita acadêmica em inglês. Com o intuito de contribuir para o melhor conhecimento da complexidade do esforço de inserção de pesquisadores iniciantes na comunidade acadêmica global via publicação internacional, esta pesquisa de mestrado objetivou conhecer as dificuldades de pós-graduandos de uma universidade pública brasileira com a escrita acadêmica em inglês tanto na percepção discente quanto na docente e averiguar se haveria convergências ou divergências naquelas percepções. Dois questionários foram confeccionados e aplicados eletronicamente, angariando 385 participações (303 pós-graduandos e 82 professores). As análises quantitativa e qualitativa dos dados mostraram convergência nas percepções das duas maiores dificuldades de pós-graduandos (escrever um texto que soe natural em inglês e usar preposições adequadamente). Os dados não só revelaram uma crença predominantemente alinhada com uma visão tradicionalista do ensino da escrita em inglês (FERREIRA, 2007), mas também indicaram que as percepções de pós-graduandos sobre suas próprias deficiências com a escrita em inglês não eram claras. O conhecimento das dificuldades específicas de pós-graduandos com o inglês acadêmico escrito possibilitará o alinhamento das percepções de discentes e docentes, contribuindo assim para melhor orientar futuras iniciativas pedagógicas e institucionais que beneficiem tanto pós-graduandos quanto professores. / The growing internationalization of higher education (MOROSINI, 2006) has caused funding agencies and universities to put pressure on researchers to publish internationally (MUELLER, 2000). In order to increase the visibility of local research within the international academic context (FLOWERDEW, 1999), publication in high-impact factor journals usually occurs in English, the lingua franca of science (HÜLMBAUER et al., 2008). However, publishing in English challenges most non-native English speaking researchers (OLIVEIRA et al., 2006), especially junior researchers with little mastery of English. Although graduate students main difficulties have been regularly studied abroad, either from their own perspective (LEKI & CARSON, 1994; CABRAL & TAVARES, 2005; LAVELLE & BUSHROW, 2007; ENE, 2014), from their professors (ENGLISH, 1999; PEDRA & NOCITO, 2012; CARRIÓ-PASTOR & MESTRE-MESTRE, 2014; DAVOUDI, NAFCHI & MALLAHI, 2015) or from both (CASANAVE & HUBBARD, 1992; BITCHENER & BASTURKMEN, 2006; DONOHUE & ERLING, 2012), in Brazil those students perceptions of their difficulties with academic English writing had never been gathered in one single investigation before. Hoping to cast light on the complex effort involved in junior researchers indictment into global academia through international publication, this research aimed at uncovering the difficulties graduate students in a Brazilian public university face with academic writing in English. Students and professors perceptions of the formers difficulties were investigated and then compared in order to reveal points of convergence or divergence. Two questionnaires were designed and applied, yielding 385 participants (303 graduate students and 82 professors). One of the main findings of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis is that students and teachers perceptions converge regarding the students main difficulties with writing in English: writing texts that would sound natural in English and using prepositions adequately. The data not only revealed a predominant belief in the traditional teaching of English and of writing (FERREIRA, 2007), but they also indicated that students perceptions of their own writing difficulties in English were unclear. The knowledge of specific challenges to graduate writing in English will facilitate the alignment of students and professors perceptions, thus contributing to inform future pedagogical and institutional initiatives benefitting both staff and students.