South Africa has adopted the international trend towards inclusive education. The result is an increasing number of learners with barriers to learning accommodated in mainstream schools. Alternative assessment programmes make provision to address the barriers to learning of these learners during formal assessments. Alternative assessment programmes are a good start to afford learners with barriers to learning a fair chance to impart their knowledge. However, the programmes are adult driven and, as the users of these programmes, we need to consider the learners’ views also. Knowledge of their experience will increase understanding of their needs, which in turn will help to refine the programmes and adjust the programmes to these needs. General aim of the study: to explore the lived experience of learners with barriers to learning, who participated in an alternative assessment programme in a mainstream high school in the Western Cape, in a qualitative way, through a phenomenological design. The phenomenological design provided a deeper understanding of the learners’ experience of the alternative assessment programme from the learners’ viewpoint. We held unstructured, individual interviews with the eight participants who consented to participate in the study. As requested, the participants made collages of their experiences of the alternative assessment programme in a group setting, prior to the interviews. Section B presents the findings of this qualitative study and relates the learners’ experience of the alternative assessment programme during test- and formal examination series. The findings highlight the importance of considering the opinions of learners with barriers, participating in an alternative assessment programme. / MSc (Master of Social Work), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Aim: The overall aim was to create knowledge about what it means to live with bipolar disorder from an existential perspective, both for individuals with the diagnosis and for their close relatives.Method: An existential perspective in this context entails that it is explored and described from a lifeworld perspective of individuals who in various ways experience that which is termed as bipolar disorder. The lifeworld phenomenological approach Reflective Lifeworld Research (RLR) was used in the four empirical studies. Meaning-oriented interviews and analysis were conducted following the leading methodological principles of the chosen scientific approach. A synthesis, based on lifeworld hermeneutic existential philosophy, then presents how it is possible to understand the perspective of individuals with bipolar disorder and their close relatives as a coherent whole.Findings and conclusions: A magnitude and complexity of experiencing, which means that life with bipolar disorder is characterized by extra dimensions, specific tension and contradictions, has been elucidated. Knowledge of the meaning of these aspects enables for the persons with the illness and for their close relatives to understand, to put words to, and to communicate how their life is and what they need, which in turn enhances their ability to influence their lives. It also increases the opportunities for professional caregivers to develop care, both in content and organization, so that it can meet the actual needs of those concerned in an adequate way.Living with bipolar disorder means so much more than the usual description with changes between episodes of depression and mania. The diagnosis “bipolar disorder” thus appears to be an inadequate label that only reflects the more obvious and visible dimensions of the illness, while those that characterize life in its entirety remain hidden.The thesis also shows that the importance of the common everyday life of persons with bipolar disorder and their close relatives should be highlighted as the most important factor in a liveable existence. A change in the view of mental health care is thus needed; a change that is characterized by consensus, collaboration and transparent communication between the person with the illness, their close relatives and mental health care. The common goal should be about meeting actual needs, and to strengthen a profound connectedness in order to make everyday life more liveable. / Disputationen sker den 2012-11-16, Sal Myrdal, Hus K, Växjö, kl. 10:30.

The idea for this paper resulted out of a curiosity for minimalist lifestyle concepts, namely capsule closets and the missing research about this topic as well as the importance of this concept for the society, the environment and the future of the fashion and textile industry. The study describes a phenomenological study in which the researcher explored participants’ lived experiences with capsule closets in order to provide a better understanding of the capsule closet experience. Fixed-interval diaries and semi-structured in-depth interviews with five women were conducted. Using descriptive phenomenological analysis, the researcher identified seven essential themes representing the lived experiences found in participants’ experience with capsule closets: 1) Feeling excited, enthusiastic and determined; 2) Feeling relived and satisfied; 3) Experiencing struggles and challenges; 4) Feelings of guilt and regret; 5) Feeling limited, bored and less creative; 6) Feelings of accomplishment and proudness; 7) Learning experience. These findings both support and contribute to existing literature related to this topic and provide new insights and add new aspects to the knowledge of the capsule closet experience.

Bakgrund: Prostatacancer är den vanligaste cancerformen som drabbar män i Sverige. Sjukdomen skapar olika besvär som påverkar männens dagliga liv. Under sjukdomsförloppet upplever männen att de förlorar sin värdighet. Som sjuksköterska är det viktigt att se till hela patienten och ge en personcentrerad omvårdnad utifrån omvårdnadsdiagnoser. Syfte: Att belysa mäns upplevelse av att leva med prostatacancer. Metod: Litteraturstudie med kvalitativ design. Data hämtades från 12 vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Studien utmynnade i fem kategorier som männen upplevde: informationsbehov, förlorad värdighet, oro för egen dödlighet, upplevelse av olika stöd och anpassning av vardagen. Slutsats: Männens vardag påverkas av sjukdomen prostatacancer och de behöver stöd i olika former. Sjuksköterskan bör möta männen på deras nivå och ge männen en individanpassad omvårdnad. / Background: Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer that afflicts men in Sweden. The affliction creates different struggles that affect the men’s daily lives. During the progress of the disease the men experience a loss of their dignity. As a nurse it is important to care for the patient as a whole and provide a personal care, related to the nursing diagnosis of the patient. Aim: To shed light on the experiences of the men who are currently living with prostate cancer. Method: A study of literature focusing on qualitative data. Data was gathered from 12 scientific articles. Result: The study led to five categories that the men experienced: The lack of information, loss of dignity, anxiety surrounding own mortality, experience of different support forms and adjustment of the everyday life. Conclusion: The men’s daily lives are affected extensively by the disease prostate cancer and they need different forms of support. The nurse should level with the men in order to provide an individual care.

Fluorinated compounds are environmentally persistent and have been demonstrated to bioaccumulate and contribute to climate change. The focus of this work was to better understand the atmospheric chemistry of poly- and per-fluorinated compounds in order to appreciate their impacts on the environment. Several fluorinated compounds exist for which data on climate impacts do not exist. Radiative efficiencies (REs) and atmospheric lifetimes of two new long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) were determined using smog chamber techniques: perfluoropolyethers and perfluoroalkyl amines. Through this, it was observed that RE was not directly related to the number of carbon-fluorine bonds. A structure-activity relationship was created to allow the determination of RE solely from the chemical structure of the compound. Also, a novel method was developed to detect polyfluorinated LLGHGs in the atmosphere. Using carbotrap, thermal desorption and cryogenic extraction coupled to GC-MS, atmospheric measurements can be made for a number of previously undetected compounds. A perfluoroalkyl amine was detected in the atmosphere using this technique, which is the compound with the highest RE ever detected in the atmosphere. Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) are water soluble and non-volatile, suggesting they are not susceptible to long-range transport. A hypothesis was derived to explain the ubiquitous distribution of these compounds involving atmospheric formation of PFCAs from volatile precursors. Using smog chamber techniques with offline analysis, perfluorobutenes and fluorotelomer iodides were shown to yield PFCAs from atmospheric oxidation. Dehydrofluorination of perfluorinated alcohols (PFOHs) is poorly understood in the mechanism of PFCA atmospheric formation. Using density functional techniques, overtone-induced photolysis was shown to lead to dehydrofluorination of PFOHs. In the presence of water, this mechanism could be a sink of PFOHs in the atmosphere. Confirmation of the importance of volatile precursors was derived from examination of snow from High Arctic ice caps. This provided the first empirical evidence of atmospheric deposition. Through the analytes observed, fluxes and temporal trends, it was concluded that atmospheric oxidation of volatile precursors is an important source of PFCAs to the Arctic.

Poverty has been a challenge for many years and continues to exist in many parts of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In many countries, poverty reduction programmes remain the main preoccupation in economic policies. Poverty is not gender neutral, as women tend to be more likely exposed to poverty because of their restricted access to labour and other markets and their general lower level of education than men. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between gender and poverty in a South African township of Kwakwatsi. The study used the Lived Poverty Index (LPI) as a measurement of poverty to analyse the extent and level of access to basic necessities among inhabitants of Kwakwatsi. The major focus of this study was on comparing the poverty status between female-headed and male-headed households. It was also important to investigate the relationship between poverty status and demographic and socio-economic variables. A literature review of poverty indicates a multidimensional concept, with a need to be untangled from different perspectives. Poverty includes lack of factors such as food, income, sanitation facilities, shelter, health care, safe drinking water, education and information. The empirical portion of the study was based on data from a survey questionnaire with a sample of 225 households selected randomly from Kwakwatsi Township in April 2013. Various quantitative methods, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), descriptive analysis (such as means core, cross tabulation and frequency tables) and regression analysis, were used to identify the level of access to basic necessities and how this access is influenced by identified demographic and socioeconomic variables among both female-headed and male-headed households. The LPI was used to assess people’s ability to secure income, food, fuel for cooking, electricity, clean water for home use and access to medicines and medical treatment. PCA indicated that all six items of basic necessities could be loaded into one component of LPI, indicating that the measure was adequate for the study. Households headed by females seemed to be poorer (53.62%) than those headed by males (45.51%), implying that female-headed households appeared more likely to experience the lack of basic necessities than male-headed households. Access to basic necessities such as medicines or medical treatment, water, electricity and fuel. The relationship between gender and poverty in a South African township for cooking have an effect on the quality of life. Access to medicines and medical treatment remains a lingering challenge for the inhabitants of Kwakwatsi, especially in female-headed households. Regarding the employment status of the participants, the unemployment rate of the head was found to be slightly higher for male heads than female heads, but the total number of employed people within a household was found to be less in households headed by females compare to those headed by males. The average total income in female-headed households was found to be lower than that of male-headed households. To add to this, a high number of female heads work in the informal sector, with low wages and poor working conditions. This was found to be associated with a higher level of illiteracy among female household heads, thus making it difficult for them to compete in the formal labour market. Deprivation levels were seen to decrease with the number of employed persons in female-headed households, while this was the opposite in male-headed households. The number of household members was found to increase with the poverty level in female-headed households, while there was no effect among male-headed households. Married male household heads were found to have less access to basic necessities than unmarried ones, while the relationship was the opposite where female married household heads appeared to have less access to basic necessities than those who are not married. Overall, descriptive analysis revealed that female-headed households tend to be deprived from stable and sustainable access to basic necessities. The results of the regression analysis showed that the number of household members who are employed, household head’s income and other income of the household are significant predictors of poverty in Kwakwatsi. The study recommends that the gender gap in income can be alleviated by empowering women labourers through collective action and increase of vocational education and training for better skills. There is a need for using public works programmes efficiently in order to address the problem of low income in the area. Furthermore, the importance of the informal sectors of the economy, especially in low income areas, should be acknowledged because it seems to be an important source of income for the residents of Kwakwatsi. Finally, there is a need to improve primary health care provision for the township of Kwakwatsi. The relationship between gender and poverty in a South African township / MCom (Economics), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Aim: The overall aim is to examine how a patient perspective, grounded in caring science, can be preserved and developed in the context of hospital care.   Methods: The first study examines attitudes towards caring science in a clinical practice. Data were collected through focus group interviews with seven nurses, three head nurses and four senior preceptors. An interpretive approach guided the study. The results called for collaboration between clinical praxis and the academy, according to how caring science can be preserved and developed. Study II–III functioned in accordance with this goal and were conducted in collaboration with a hospital ward for people over seventy-five years of age. In an attempt to develop care the patients were invited to attend a team meeting. The data in these studies were collected using interviews and observations. Fifteen patients (study II) and nine nurses (study III) who had experienced patient participation in a team meeting participated. In these studies, a reflective lifeworld approach guided the research process. Study IV is presented as a general structure and philosophical examination in the light of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophies.   Main Findings: To preserve and develop a patient perspective is strongly connected to existential issues, such as lived time, intersubjectivity and a meaningful existence. For the patients, vulnerability is exposed and increased when the need for hospital care arises. The team meeting is experienced as an emotional situation where existential dimensions need to be recognized. The nurses desire to develop caring is challenged by organizational and economic demands. Time presents both a possibility for an encounter as well as a threat to excellent care.   Conclusions: There is a need to challenge narrow processes in modern health care that value the staffs’ work and the patients’ vulnerability in quantifiable measures of efficiency. The challenge is to take into account something that is invaluable - human existence.

The landscape of cancer care is evolving and as a result nursing care continues to develop and respond to the changing needs of oncology patients and their families. There is a paucity of qualitative research examining the experience of being an oncology nurse on an inpatient unit. Therefore, a qualitative study using an interpretive phenomenological approach has been undertaken to discover the lived experience of being an oncology nurse. In-depth tape recorded interviews has been conducted with six oncology nurses who worked on two adult inpatient oncology units. Van Manen’s (1990) interpretive phenomenological approach has been used to analyze the data by subjecting the transcripts to an analysis both line by line and as a whole. The overarching theme of the interviews is: Investing to Make a Difference. The themes that reflect this overarching theme are: Caring for the Whole Person, Being an Advocate, Walking a Fine Line, and Feeling Like You are Part of Something Good. Oncology nurses provide care for their patients through a holistic lens that further enhances how they come to know their patients. Over time, relationships with patients and families develop and these nurses share that balancing the emotional aspects of their work is key in being able to continue to invest in their work and in these relationships. Their investment is further evident as oncology nurses continuously update their knowledge, for example, of treatment regimes, medication protocols, and as they champion their patients wishes and needs. As nurses develop their own identities as oncology nurses, they in turn enhance the team with their emerging skill and knowledge. These research findings serve to acknowledge the meaning of oncology nurses’ work and inform the profession’s understanding of what it means to be an oncology nurse.

Canada has distinct contemporary faith communities that differ from western and European counterparts. Unfortunately statistics tracking denominational allegiances give little insight into the daily intricacies of collective religious practice. The purpose of this study is to contribute towards filling a gap within scholarly research on the lived culture and experiences of contemporary religious communities within Canada. This study examines the pattern of culture-sharing within a non-denominational faith community as lived and practiced in Ottawa. Through autoethnography, this study asks why members attend and how members view the use of popular culture video clips within church. Individual and collective religious identities are constructed through observations, interviews and material artifacts gleaned through participant observation from January 2011 to December 2011. The results show that within the church, a community of practice is built around shared parenthood and spiritual journey. Members place importance on children, on providing support of all kinds for one another, and on keeping religion relevant. Reasons for attending are echoes of the patterns of culture-sharing: members enjoy the feeling of community, the support, the friendships, the play dates. Participants view popular culture video clips played within church as one aspect of an overall importance placed upon relevance. Mutuality of engagement results in members experiencing their lives as meaningful, it validates their worth through belonging, and it creates personal histories of becoming within the context of a community of practice. Future research recommendations include further study of other contemporary faith communities within Canada, with investigation into the possibility that communities of practice may be what the churched and unchurched are seeking.

The objectives of this research were to investigate the lived experiences of parents who are suffering from the HIV/AIDS disease, investigate the lived experiences of children whose parents are suffering from the HIV/AIDS disease and propose an ecosystemic intervention programme for supporting children whose parents are suffering from the HIV/AIDS disease. The literature research investigation revealed that part of the burden that learners whose parents suffer from HIV/AIDS carry comes in the form of mental stress and experiences caused by, merely staying with a sick loved one whose condition deteriorates where hope of improvement was expected, prolonged sickness of a loved one, and witnessing the slow painful death of a loved one especially at home. These children often take on additional domestic tasks or care for sick relatives or younger siblings. The children's attendance can be compromised during this time. Their incentive to protect themselves against infection can be low when HIV is only one of many threats to health and life. Poverty may also breed low levels of respect for self and others, and thus a lack of incentive to value and protect lives. The mediating mechanisms act in ways which reduce the impact of risks, reduce negative chain reactions, maintain self-esteem and self-efficacy through relationships and task achievement and open opportunities for positive development. Findings from the empirical research reveal that parents who are HIV-positive are unemployable because of their ill-health, a situation which makes their families to leave in dire poverty. The parents often blame each other for their HIV-positive status sometimes as a way of relieving stress, but when these parents blame each other their children are caught in the cross-fire. Children of parents who suffer from HIV/AIDS are discriminated against and stigmatised by other children, friends and people from their communities. This situation affects these children both psychologically and emotionally. These children assume adult responsibilities at a very tender age, usually lack basic needs such as food, clothing, school uniform, school necessities etc. Their scholastic performance gets negatively affected because of lack concentration, not having enough time to do homework and being frequently absent from school. The children become vulnerable to verbal, emotional and physical abuse, do not get the necessary support they need from their family members, community, government institutions such as the Department of Health and in schools where they attend. These children do not seem to be coping with the circumstances they find themselves in especially if they are also HIV-positive. There is no communication between children of parents who suffer from HIV/AIDS and their parents concerning their experiences about the disease, how they feel and the future expectations. There is also no clear plan on what should these children do, in the case of their parents' death. At schools where these children attend there are no clear strategies to assist them to catch-up with their school work after a long absence and the children do not receive any work from school while they are at home sick or recuperating from illness as per the National Policy on HIV/AIDS. An ecosystemic programme is proposed in this research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.