This autoethnographic journey started out as a qualitative research study to discover a new framework for student communication at Unisa. However, I found Unisa and myself reflecting each other, defenceless. Although autoethnography is defined as a research methodology that brings the story of the self into an ethnographic cultural description, it is much more than that. It is a way of being a researcher, where self and culture merge into one ecological unity to present the world with a story that is honest and reflective. The purpose of this study was to present Unisa with a new framework for student communication by exploring new epistemological perspectives. This journey took me from the beginnings of humanity where love and collaboration were our foundations, through our evolution into civilisation, competition, science and education. These contributed a great deal to our intellectual development through mechanistic thinking and a scientific approach but alienated us from each other, which could potentially lead to our destruction. I also explored cybernetics, complex and ecological thinking as new epistemological horizons to view distance learning from. Such a perspective requires a radical epistemological shift from hierarchical, mechanistic and reductionist thinking towards creating an ecology of learning, one that is more dynamic, living, vibrant, caring and empowering. Through my intimate reflective struggle with others, trying to understand how to create this vibrant student communication context I discovered in the quietness of reflection the patterns that connect us all, students, Unisa and myself. Our dialogical relationship emerged, one where there is an epistemological split between our reductionist and mechanistic thinking that requires us to be efficient on the one hand and ecologic and complex thinking that requires a caring, connected and collaborative ecology on the other hand. The question then is how we create this ecology where we reclaim our original humanness and co-evolve into an ecology of learning that is truly empowering. This can be done by co-evolving a new culture of learning grounded in passion, curiosity, openness and preparing us to be responsible and participating citizens of this most beautiful planet. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Thesis (Dtech( Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / The study focused on teacher education in South African universities. The major purpose was to examine how teacher educators in South African universities prepared teacher education students for teaching and learning within a context of quality. It is important to start with quality teachers before being able to speak about quality education because "you cannot give what you do not have" (Parliamentary Monitoring Group of South Africa, 2009:3).Consistent with the postmodern qualitative paradigm I used phenomenology as the strategy of research. The main epistemological assumption was that the way of knowing reality was through exploring the experiences of others regarding a specific phenomenon, in this case teaching and learning of teacher education students. To this end the stories, experiences and voices of the respondents were the medium through which I explored and understood reality embedded in the teaching and learning of teacher education students.The research sites included four Faculties of Education nationally. Purposive sampling was conducted to adequately capture the heterogeneity of institutions especially of those faculties that offer Initial Professional Education for Teachers (IPET) programmes.Purposive sampling was also used to select both students and lecturers because respondents were selected on the basis of some defining characteristic that made them holders of the data needed for the study.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Education (Management) at Technikon Natal / This study focused on the exercise of male power in middle management in technikons in KwaZulu-Natal, with particular reference to verbal communication. The glass ceiling, blocking promotions to senior positions, is a reality for women in technikons and the researcher explored the ways in which exploitation and marginalisation occur when sexism and power is wielded by males through verbal communication. / M

In both my English and IsiXhosa poetry, my themes are love, politics, and the social issues of rural communities, and include my own life experiences, both good and bad. My poems are mainly short narrative accounts of township life. Although they do have a broad educational purpose, they do not preach to the reader. In IsiXhosa, my poetic forms are influenced by the works of J J R Jolobe, W N Mbovane, P T Mtuze, and my English poems by Pablo Neruda, Mafika Pascal Gwala, Garcia Lorca and others. / Intliziyo yona izimele gxebe ifihlakele Iyimfihlo, kumagumbi omphefumlo. Iyafunxa, ifukame kulo magumbi amxinwa. Iingcango, mba! Zivaliwe! Maxa wambi zide zixel’ isisila senkukhu, sona sibonwa mhla ligquthayo. Vul’ amehlo ubaz’ iindlebe uchul’ ukunyathela. Yiza ndikubambe ngesandla, sivul’ iingcango! Masivul’ iingcango zentliziyo yam, sikrobe ngaphakathi! Masithi ntla‐ntla kumagumb’ amathathu kuphela! Masithi ntla‐ntla, kwelepolitiki yakwaXhosa, Kaloku nam ndingumXhosa! Masithi ntla‐ntla kwelifukame, i.z.i.x.i.n.g.a.x.i n.o.b.u.n.c.w.a.n.e. b.o.t.h.a.n.d.o, kaloku nam ndinemithamb’ ebalek’ igaz’ eliqhumayo! Ucango lokugqibela lukungenisa kwigumbi elinezidl’ umzi, Kaloku nam ndizalwa kulo mzi wakwaXhoooooosa! / This thesis is presented in two parts: English and isiXhosa.

While existing literature shows a considerable increase in the numbers of women in academia research on the experiences of women in universities has noted their continued occupation of lower status academic positions in relation to their male counterparts. As the ladder gets higher, the number of women seems to drop. These studies indicate the marginalization of women in academic settings, highlighting the various forms of subtle and overt discrimination and exclusion women face in academic work environments. In this study I ask how academic women in South Africa narrate their experience of being ‘outside in’ the teaching machine. It has been argued that intertwined sexist, patriarchal and phallocentric knowledges and practices in academic institutions produce various forms of discrimination, inequality, oppression and marginalization. Academic women report feeling invisible and retreating to the margins so as to avoid victimization and discrimination. Others have pointed to the tension between the ‘tenure clock’ and the ‘biological clock’ as a source of anxiety among academic women. Where a masculinised presentation of the self is adopted as a solution to this dilemma, the devaluation of the feminine in the academic space is confirmed. However, experiences of academic women are not identical. In the context of studies showing the importance of existing personal and social resources, prior experience and having mentors and role models in the negotiation of inequality and discrimination, I document the narratives of women academics who are the first in their families to graduate with a university degree. These first-generation academic women are therefore least likely to have access to social and cultural resources and prior experiences that can render the academic space more hospitable for the marginalised. Employing Spivak’s deconstruction of the concept of marginalisation as my primary interpretive lens, I explore the way in which, in their narratives, first-generation academic women negotiate marginality. These narratives depict a marginality that might be described, following Spivak, as ‘outside/in’, that is, as complex and involving moments of accommodation and resistance, losses and gains, pain and pride.

PhD (English) / Department of English / It has been established, through research, that some first-entering science students display levels of under-preparedness for tertiary studies. One area in which this is seen is in students’ lack of academic reading ability. Although, some of these students read fluently they do not display competencies in other reading areas, such as to understand, interpret, infer or critique ideas expressed in science academic texts. This low academic reading proficiency has a negative effect on their studies. The aim of this study was to identify, through the National Benchmarking Tests (NBT), the reading competencies of all (100) students registered in the Science Foundation Programme (SFP) in the University of Venda. SFP caters for students who did not attain the required scores in Mathematics and Physical Science. These students’ overall scoring, including English competency, is less than the required (26) points, even though they obtained university entrance scores in their Matric Examination. A NBT was used to identify students’ reading competencies and based on these results, a reading profile of the students was drawn up and was used to design an intervention strategy to enhance existing competencies and to remedy any shortcomings. To achieve the study’s aim, a mixedmethod approach was used. The method was predominantly quantitative, because of the statistical aspects of the data from NBT, however, it had some elements of qualitative approach through the use of a case study and the designing of an intervention strategy in response to the profile. The results of the study indicated that the majority of students performed at the basic and lower-intermediate levels. This kind of reading profile means that students on SFP do not possess the academic reading skills needed for them to succeed with their required academic reading activities, without some kind of structured intervention. The design of such a tool (appendix 5) forms the second part of this study

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is a conceptual analysis of “institutional culture” in higher education, especially because the concept has become a buzzword in higher education discourse in South Africa. The aim is to develop an understanding of the concept, and more specifically, to explore how institutional culture is organised, constructed and articulated in the institutional documents of Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). These analyses are preceded by an analysis of higher education policy documents. I employ critical hermeneutics as research methodology to construct constitutive meanings of “institutional culture”. Since it is difficult to work with a large set of constitutive meanings, I narrowed the list down to the four most frequently recurring meanings, namely: shared values and beliefs; language; symbols; and knowledge production. These constitutive meanings form the theoretical framework which is used to analyse institutional documents. My findings suggest that all the constitutive meanings of my theoretical framework are addressed in the institutional documents of both SU and UWC, which means that the institutional documents conform to my theoretical framework. SU has, in my opinion, an excellent and comprehensive base of well-prepared and compiled institutional documents. However, most of these documents seem to relate to quality and compliance to national policy requirements, with no significant actions or strategies to address the challenges related to transforming the University’s institutional culture. Even though SU has shown commendable strategic initiatives to transform its institutional culture, there has not been sufficient engagement with the challenges of transformation. Similarly, for UWC, it is my contention that even though UWC is committed to transformation and nurturing a culture of change in order to make meaning of and address the complex challenges of the world, there needs to be more rigorous engagement in shaping and managing strategic direction and planning to ensure an institutional culture to accommodate change. Even though the institutional documents analysed mostly conform to the constitutive meanings of the theoretical framework, what of concern is the lack of an adequate articulation of the concept “institutional culture”. If there is no articulation, it follows that there is an inadequate understanding of the concept. A deeper understanding is crucial if the important link between transformation and “institutional culture” is to be realised. I contend that there exists a disjunction between “institutional culture” and transformation policies. One of the reasons for this disjunction is an impoverished understanding among higher education policy practitioners of the concept “institutional culture”, which creates an impression of compliance with national policy requirements. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling behels ’n konseptuele ontleding van “institusionele kultuur” in hoër onderwys, vernaamlik omdat die konsep ’n modewoord in die diskoers in hoër onderwys in Suid-Afrika geword het. Die doel was om begrip van die konsep te ontwikkel, en meer spesifiek om te ondersoek hoe institusionele kultuur in die institusionele dokumente van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch (US) en die Universiteit van die Wes-Kaap (UWK) georganiseer, saamgestel en geartikuleer word. Hierdie ondersoeke word voorafgegaan deur ‘n analise van hoër onderwys beleidsdokumente. Kritiese hermeneutiek is as navorsingsmetodologie gebruik om die konstitutiewe betekenisse van ‘institusionele kultuur’ te bepaal. Aangesien dit moeilik is om met ’n groot stel konstitutiewe betekenisse te werk, is die lys tot die vier mees herhalende betekenisse beperk, naamlik gedeelde waardes en oortuigings; taal; simbole; en die voortbring van kennis. Hierdie konstitutiewe betekenisse het die teoretiese raamwerk gevorm vir die ontleding van die institusionele dokumente. My bevindinge doen aan die hand dat al die konstitutiewe betekenisse van die teoretiese raamwerk in die institusionele dokumente van sowel die US as UWK aan bod kom, wat beteken dat die institusionele dokumente met die teoretiese raamwerk ooreenstem. Na my mening het die US ’n uitstekende en omvattende basis goed voorbereide en saamgestelde institusionele dokumente. Die meeste van hierdie dokumente blyk egter met gehalte en nakoming van nasionale beleidsvereistes verband te hou, met geen beduidende handelinge of strategieë om die uitdagings aan te pak wat met die transformasie van die US se institusionele kultuur verband hou nie. Alhoewel die US lofwaardige strategiese inisiatiewe aanwend om sy institusionele kultuur te transformeer, blyk daar nie ’n genoegsame verbintenis te wees om die uitdagings van transformasie die hoof gebied nie. Eweneens, wat UWK betref, is my argument dat alhoewel UWK verbind is tot transformasie en die kweek van ’n kultuur van verandering ten einde sin te maak van die komplekse veranderinge van die wêreld en sodanige veranderinge aan te pak, ’n meer nougesette verbintenis nodig is rakende die ontwikkeling en bestuur van strategiese leiding en beplanning ten einde ’n kultuur wat verandering tegemoet kom, te verseker. Alhoewel die institusionele dokumente wat ontleed is hoofsaaklik met die konstitutiewe betekenisse van die teoretiese raamwerk ooreenstem, is die gebrek aan voldoende artikulasie van die konsep “institusionele kultuur” rede tot kommer. Die gebrek aan artikulasie lei tot onvoldoende begrip van die konsep. ’n Grondiger begrip is noodsaaklik ten einde die belangrike skakel tussen transformasie en “institusionele kultuur” te verwesenlik. My gevolgtrekking is dat daar skeiding tussen” institusionele kultuur” en transformasiebeleide is. Een van die redes vir sogenaamde skeiding is gebrekkige begrip van die konsep “institusionele kultuur” onder hoër onderwys beleidsrolspelers, wat die idee skep van nakoming van nasionale beleidsvereistes. / Andrew Mellon Foundation

Reading is considered to be a vital skill for academic success, yet it is seldom taught to or practised with students. Students begin to `read to learn' during primary and secondary schooling. However, at tertiary level the academic demands are much greater than before and involve more extensive reading of conceptually more complex texts. This study investigates the implementation of an intensive reading programme for post-matric English Second Language Science students, based on the assumption that reading improves reading. In addition, this study investigates the effect that reading ability has on academic performance in Science, which relies inter alia, on the ability to read, comprehend and interpret word problems. An intervention group and a control group were used to ascertain the effects of an intensive reading programme and the findings suggest that any reading (intensive or extensive) improves reading and language skills. This in turn impacts on academic performance in Science, if students have an ability in Science to begin with. / Linguistics / MA - SP APPLIED LINGUISTICS

The aim of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) was to represent the interests of all South African students nationally and internationally. The challenge then to the liberal NUSAS leadership was how to meet the demands of black students for a politically relevant policy while simultaneously retaining the loyalty of its white middle class and often conservative membership. In 1957, the black University College of Fort Hare returned to NUSAS to participate in the national union’s campaign against the imposition of apartheid on the universities. Consequently, NUSAS adopted the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the foundation of its policy. Sharpeville and the increasing number of black students associated with NUSAS contributed to the further politicisation and leftward movement of the national union. The emergence of two new exclusively African student organisations together with the decision of a student seminar in Dar es Salaam that NUSAS be barred from all international student forums as its demographics precluded it from representing the aspirations of the black majority was the pretext for a far-reaching interrogation of NUSAS’s structure and functioning. Henceforward NUSAS would play a ‘radical role’ in society. This played into the hands of the government and its proxies, the new conservative students associations which sought to slice away NUSAS’s moderate to conservative white membership. The arrest of current and former NUSAS officers implicated in sabotage provided more grist to the right wing mill. In an attempt to manage this most serious crisis, as well as to continue functioning in the increasingly authoritarian and almost wholly segregated milieu of the mid-1960s, NUSAS abandoned its ‘radical role’ and increasingly focussed on university and educational matters. Nonetheless, the state intensified its campaign to weaken NUSAS. By means of legislation, the utilisation of conservative student structures and the intimidation of university authorities, the government attempted to ensure that segregation was applied at all NUSAS-affiliated universities. It was the application of segregation by cowed university authorities that precipitated the New Left-inspired student protests at NUSAS-affiliated campuses in the late 1960s as well as the establishment of the separate black South African Students Organisation, the latter leading to the exodus of all black students from NUSAS. / History / D. Litt. et Phil. (History)

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree in Master of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / This study investigated key factors impacting on blended learning delivery with particular focus on socio-cultural and human-computer-interface issues, in the hope that the outcome of this enquiry might contribute positively towards the empowerment of learners and facilitators alike. The study involved a group of first year students enrolled in a Communications Skills Course offered by the (then) Department of English and Communication at the Durban University of Technology. The PRINTS Project, a webquest around which the course activities were based, provided an example of a blended delivery course in practice. While the teaching paradigm used in the course was constructivist, the research orientation employed in this project was critical realist. Critical realism focuses on transformation through praxis and also lends itself to modelling, which provides a way to understand the factors at play within a social system. In the preliminary stages of the research, an exploratory empirical (i.e. applied) model of blended learning delivery was formulated from a theoretical model of course delivery in order to assess which factors in blended learning were systemic and which were variables. The investigation then sought to uncover key factors impacting on the blended delivery system, utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The findings were analysed in terms of the empirical model to gain an understanding of any factors that might be seen to either enhance or inhibit learning in blended delivery mode. The result was that certain core issues in blended learning and teaching could be clarified, including the use, advantages and disadvantages of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a learning environment. The notion of the digital divide could also be reconceptualised, and the relationship between literacy (be it academic, professional or social), power and culture could be further elucidated, drawing specific attention to the South African educational environment. The notion of iv culture and its relevance in a blended delivery environment was also further clarified, since the findings of this research project suggested how and why certain key socio-cultural factors might impact, as both enhancers and inhibitors, on the blended learning delivery system.