Studien beskriver fyra gymnasielärares uppdrag som mentorer. Lärarnas uppdrag är inte knutet till ett specifikt skolämne utan avser en administrativ och stödjande funktion kring en avgränsad grupp elever eller en klass. Uppdraget som mentor har studerats utifrån det kommunikativa relationsinriktade perspektivet, som är influerat av det sociokulturella perspektivet. Syftet med studien är att kartlägga, beskriva och analysera lärarens uppdrag som mentor såväl när det gäller innehåll som funktion. Studien har bedrivits utifrån en etnografisk ansats med deltagande observationer. Inom ramen för den deltagande observationen har genomförts olika former av samtal och intervjuer. Urvalet av mentorer är ett medvetet urval. Det betyder att studien beskriver mentorer med tydligt engagemang i sitt uppdrag. Under ett läsår har fyra mentorer, deras klasser samt nio fallelever följts. Studien visar att i de fall då mentorskapet fungerar väl tycks mentorn få en unik position för överblick av sina ansvarselevers skolsituation. I två av de studerade klasserna är lärandesituationen inledningsvis problematisk både för enskilda elever och klassen som helhet och studien visar hur mentorn kan vända på situationen. Mentorns utvecklings- och mentorssamtal med sina ansvarselever tycks skapa dialogiska läranderum, som ger mentorn en helhetsbild av den enskilde elevens skolsituation. Överblicken ger mentorn möjligheter att bygga upp ett eget kunskapssystem kring eleven. Detta kunskapssystem tycks sedan ge mentorn underlag för att påverka skolans strukturer och öka elevens utrymme för lärande och delaktighet både på individ- och gruppnivå. Studien avtäcker dock flera kritiska aspekter för mentorns genomförande av sitt uppdrag. Mentorernas samarbete med övriga lärare och arbetslag kring elever i behov av särskilt stöd är inte utvecklat på skolnivå. Styrningen och utformningen av uppdraget är upp till den enskilde mentorn. Det råder brist på tid för uppdragets genomförande samt läraren har ingen utbildning för uppdraget. Sammantaget synliggörs på skolnivå en risk för brist på likvärdigt bemötande av alla elever. / The study describes four upper secondary school teachers’ assignments as mentors. The teachers’ task is not tied to a specific school subject, but refers to an administrative and supportive role regarding a distinct group of students or a class. The mentoring assignment has been studied from a communicative relational perspective, which is influenced by the socio-cultural perspective. The aim of this study is to identify, describe and analyze the teacher’s assignment as mentor in terms of both content and function. The study has been conducted using an ethnographic approach with participant observations. Within the framework of participant observation, different types of conversations and interviews were carried out. The choice of mentors by purposeful sampling entails that the study describes mentors with a clear commitment to their assignments. Four mentors, their classes, and nine case-students have been followed over the course of a school year. The results of the study show that in those cases in which mentorship works well, it seems that the mentor has a unique position for overview of the school situation of pupils he or she mentors. In two of the classes studied, the learning situation is initially problematic for both individual students and the class as a whole, and the study shows how the mentor can turn the situation around. The dialogue between mentor and student seems to create a space for mutual learning and to provide a good overall picture of the pupil’s school situation. The overview gives the mentor an opportunity to build up his or her own knowledge system about the pupil. This knowledge system seems to then provide the mentor a basis for influencing the school’s structure and increasing the students’ opportunities for learning and participation at both individual and group level. The study reveals, however, several critical aspects for the mentor’s performance of his or her mandate: The mentors’ collaboration with other teachers and teams of professionals regarding pupils in need of special support is not developed at the school level; the management and design of the assignment are left up to the individual mentors; there is a lack of time for carrying out the assignment; and teachers lack training for the assignment. Generally evident at the school level is a risk of lack of equal treatment of all students.

PhD (Geography) / Department of Geography and Geo- Information Sciences / One of the major challenges facing all categories of farmers globally is climate change. African smallholder farmers are the most vulnerable to changes in climate. In most parts of South Africa, empirical evidence indicates the level to which climate change has impacted negatively on agricultural production. Rising temperatures, prolonged drought and decreasing rainfall have affected local farmers’ livelihood and crop production. In the Vhembe District of South Africa’s Limpopo Province, smallholder farming predominates and its vulnerability to climate change has increased for the past decades. This study, therefore, assesses the impact of climate change and adaptation strategies on smallholder farming systems in the Vhembe District To achieve this aim, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 224 smallholder farmers to elicit data on perceptions; climate change impacts, adaptation and IKS based strategies to deal with climatic shocks. Focus group discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews with the extension officers elicited thematic data that complemented the interview survey. Climate data were obtained from the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS) for the period 1980 to 2015. Smallholder farmers’ perceptions about climate change were validated by an analysis of climatic trends from 1980-2015. A thematic analysis of qualitative data and the Multi Nominal Logit (MNL) regression model was used based on socio-economic and biophysical attributes such as access to climate knowledge, gender, farm size, education level, and farmers’ experience, decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature as farmers’ determinants of their adaptation options to climate change. Furthermore, farmers’ perceptions tallied well with climatic trends that showed flood and drought cycles. Most of the smallholder farmers were aware of climate change and its impacts over the past decades. The study further indicated that, due to the marked climate change over this period, farmers have adopted different coping strategies at on-farm and off-farm levels. In terms of adaptation, the major adaptive strategies used by smallholder farmers included the use of drought-tolerant seeds; planting of short-seasoned crops; crop diversification; changing planting dates; irrigation and migrating to urban areas. The study recommends a framework that would include water conservation (rainfall harvesting); investment in irrigation schemes and other smart technologies that integrate indigenous knowledge systems and modern scientific knowledge to enhance crop production. / NRF

PhD (Geography) / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Sciences / Malaria is a climate-change concatenated biological hazard that may, like any other natural hazard, can lead to a disaster if there is a failure in handling emergencies or risks. A holistic solution for malaria mitigation can be provided when indigenous knowledge is complemented with scientific knowledge. Malaria remains a challenge in South Africa and Limpopo province is the highest burdened malaria-endemic region. Specifically, Vhembe District is the highest burdened followed by Mopani District (Raman et al., 2016). This research sought to mitigate malaria transmissions in Mopani District through the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge. The study was carried out in Mopani District of South Africa and 4 municipalities were involved. These are Ba-Phalaborwa, Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba, and Maruleng. A pragmatism philosophy was adopted hence the study took a mixed approach (sequential multiphase design). Data was collected from 381 selected participants through in-depth interviews, a survey and a focus group discussion. Participants for the in-depth interviews were obtained through snowballing and selected randomly for the survey, while for the focus group discussion purposive sampling was used. The study applied constructivist grounded theory to analyze qualitative data and to generate theory. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23.0 was used for quantitative data. Based on empirical findings, it was concluded that temperature and rainfall among other various factors exacerbate malaria transmission in the study area. Results of the study also show that people in Mopani District predict the malaria season onset by forecasting rainfall using various indigenous knowledge based indicators. The rainfall indicators mentioned by participants in the study were used in the developed early warning system. An Early warning system is an essential tool that builds the capacities of communities so that they can reduce their vulnerability to hazards or disasters. In the design of the system, Apache Cordova, JDK 1.8, Node JS, and XAMPP software were used. The study recommends malaria management and control key stakeholders to adopt the developed early warning system as a further mitigation strategy to the problem of malaria transmission in Mopani District. / NRF

Text in English, Appendice 9 (pages 253-264) the isiZulu version of the corresponding English version. / The discourse on youth in South Africa’s post-apartheid era attempts to explore black African youth as agents for social change in their locale. Various perspectives define methods that are utilised by the youth to overcome the social challenges in this era. A case study approach was adopted in conducting this research. The role(s) played by the youth to influence social change were also investigated. The term youth in this research, refers to black African youth between 18 and 29 years of age, living in the township of KwaMashu in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. This investigation attempted to unravel the contributions made by youth towards community development, as well as the strategies that they adopted to secure their day-to-day livelihoods. In addition, various stereotypes and attitudes connected to youth were examined and were also documented. This study also investigated the role played by social agencies such as government institutions, education sector and also non-governmental and faith-based organisations in relation to the empowerment of young people in defining their futures. This investigation enabled the exploration of the impact of contemporary cultural value system(s) in shaping youth’s identities and their perceptions. The findings revealed that there is a need for relevant stakeholders and policy makers to consider interventions that will ensure support of youth initiatives, to curb the scourge of unemployment and poverty. It also recommends that the academic sphere needs to consider the decolonisation of the curriculum towards an Afrocentric Indigenous Knowledge orientation to enhance the aspirations of the Constitution of South Africa. The study also discovered evidence that suggests that the youth have a critical role to play in the development of their locales. Finally, the findings of this research acts as the baseline that could assist future studies in identifying possible themes that can provide [a fuller] understanding of the role played by black African youth in different social settings, i.e. township life, academic and political spheres in the post-apartheid era. / Sociology / D.Litt.et Phil. (Sociology)

My doctoral thesis deals with use of the sophisticated methods for the selection of technical and economic solution of electrical wiring. This solution is based not only on a price but also on many other criteria such as a comfort, service, durability etc. The focus of the work is a treatise on wiring systems from a global perspective, where it is impossible to use a conventional approach for objective evaluation and selection of the appropriate electrical wiring system (because of the complexity of such systems and their interdependencies). In the four chapter are given information of an energy consumption (the total consumption and household consumption). In this chapter is given also a consumption prediction – especially for households. Following is an overview of possible measures for reducing electricity consumption in households. In the next part of this thesis are solved the knowledge, respectively expert systems for use in an electrical engineering – especially for a suitable tool for the selection and evaluation of households wiring electrical system. The result of this work provides a possible solution for a selection of wiring electrical system for households (focusing on the intelligent wiring) – from a technical and economic point of view and with using an innovative approach. The main contribution of this work is a proposal of the main part of the knowledge base. This base could be as a basis for knowledge, respectively for an evaluating technical and economical solution of an electrical wiring system – the expert system includes also a feedback function of an effectiveness solution, use value, price etc., which would also serve as a knowledge base.