Magister Legum - LLM / In South Africa corrective rape is committed by African men as a form of social control to cure women of their homosexuality. The problem with corrective rape is that the victims of this crime are mainly black African lesbians, particularly those in townships who are seen to challenge patriarchal gender norms. Therefore discrimination on the basis of gender, race, sex and sexual orientation is called into play. Section 9 of the Constitution provides that the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more specified ground which include gender, race, sex and as well as sexual orientation. Further, no person may unfairly discriminate against anyone on one or more of the same specified grounds. Thus, the black African lesbians affected by corrective rape are protected by the equality provisions of the Constitution upon which discrimination is prohibited. In addition, the impact of discrimination on lesbians is thus rendered more serious and their vulnerability increased by the fact that the victims are black women. In the context of black African lesbians, it is believed that these women are a threat to the manhood as well as cultural beliefs of the perpetrators. Perpetrators, therefore, can justify their actions on the constitutional right to culture. This position obviously reopens the debate on the conflicts between African culture and tradition with human rights within the context of corrective rape which ultimately continues to militate against the adequate protection of women’s rights. Against this background, this research will focus on how South Africa is balancing its constitutional mandate in relation to the black African lesbians affected by corrective rape. It will be argued that for victims of corrective rape to be adequately protected it is necessary to define corrective as a hate crime and not merely the crime of rape. In addition, it will also be argued that because there is an inherent conflict between the right to culture of the perpetrators and the constitutionally protected rights of the victims of corrective rape, courts, in enforcing the rights of these victims should also address this conflict. The importance in recognising this conflict lies in the fact that one needs to take into account that both the perpetrators and the victims are protected by the Bill of Rights and that one cannot disregard the importance of either of their rights.

Magister Theologiae - MTh / Of all the Christian denominations in the United States, the United Methodist Church (UMC) is one of three probably experiencing the greatest amount of conflict over the rights of its members who practice homosexuality. History shows that United Methodists have always maintained a great diversity of opinion on many matters within the Church. Having dealt with its racist and sexist policies in the past, the UMC is now tackling its homophobic beliefs. Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason have been used as tools to deal with this debate, which has become one of the most divisive in the church and society. At present, there are two main positions concerning the debate on homosexuality in the UMC: the rejecting and accepting positions. Although the UMC - as set forth in its book of discipline - finds the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching, its debate on homosexuality seems far from over. First, there is a majority conviction supporting the current position of the church. Second, there is a steadily growing minority conviction that maintains that the responsible practice of homosexuality should be accepted and homosexuals should enter into full membership with the church. Third, the UMC upholds basic human and civil rights. Nonetheless, gays and lesbians are not ordained into the ministry. Fourth, the UMC acknowledges that our human understanding of human sexuality is limited and a combined effort with other sciences will help us understand human sexuality more completely. One can see the church’s struggle in search for a Christian sexual ethic. It seems difficult to foresee any form of consensus that could bridge the big differences of opinion and conviction behind the two camps in the struggle: "rejection" of homosexuality (non-punitive) and "full acceptance". They simply do not seem to be compatible, rationally and ethically. It is the task of this mini-thesis to explore the United Methodist Church's struggle in the search for ethical discernment on homosexuality.

This dissertation explores lesbian experience, or the psychological meaning of being lesbian from the point of view of women who call themselves lesbian. The researcher suspended the binary paradigm of sex and gender, and argued that lesbians' identity development must be understood against the background of how patriarchy understands the category 'woman' through history. Towards this purpose the pOSition of women in the West, as well as contemporary images and literature about lesbians, was reviewed. On the basis of this review questions about lesbian gender construction, lesbian identity development and lesbian individuation were identified. In order to access the psychological meaning of being lesbian, or lesbian experience from the inside out, the dream-series of three lesbians constituted an empirical basis for further exploration. These dream-series were amplified with intensive face-to-face interviews, transcribed, and subjected to a hermeneutic-phenomenological inductive method. Common inter-case concerns were identified and synthesized. In dialogue with the literature reviewed, twenty-two statements of meaning about being lesbian were distilled. These revealed two possible constructions of gender for primary lesbians. In addition, primary lesbians involved in the research demonstrated remarkable flexibility with respect to their gender orientations and gender identifications, were in the process of integrating with and differentiating from different aspects of their masculine and feminine potentials, and developed and negotiated their gender identities in relationship to both their lovers and friends. The explication also revealed that participants identified with archetypal aspects of the father that their fathers' did not express, and desired archetypal aspects of the mother that their mother's did not express. Finally, in so much as the method distinguished ~ sex, sexual identity and sexual orientation from gender, gender identity, gender identification and gender orientation, it may prove useful for exploring gender in heterosexual relating.

Au Québec, plusieurs adolescentes ne parviennent pas à achever leur année scolaire à l’école secondaire et elles décrochent. De nombreuses difficultés vécues tout au long de leur parcours scolaire ainsi que dans leur vie personnelle, familiale et sociale fragilisent ces jeunes femmes et sont à l’origine de la dégradation de leur parcours scolaire. Depuis quelques années, une nouvelle forme de décrochage scolaire est observable : celle des jeunes qui abandonnent leurs études à l’école secondaire et qui optent pour l’éducation des adultes. Cette nouvelle clientèle, qui délaisse l’école secondaire régulière pour se tourner presque aussitôt vers un centre d’éducation des adultes (CEA), ne passe pas inaperçue et suscite son lot de réactions chez les intervenants gravitant dans leur vie. Le présent mémoire est novateur, puisque peu d’études se sont intéressées à la question du raccrochage scolaire chez les jeunes âgés de 18 ans ou moins et encore moins sur leur vécu dans un CEA. Afin de documenter cette réalité, ce mémoire a pour objectif de dresser, selon une perspective écosystémique, le portrait des principales caractéristiques personnelles (ontosystème), scolaires (mésosystème), familiales (microsystème) et sociales (microsystème) ayant eu une influence sur le parcours scolaire lors du primaire et du secondaire de jeunes filles âgées de 18 ans ou moins fréquentant un CEA. Pour y parvenir, 11 filles âgées de 18 ans ou moins fréquentant un CEA du Saguenay-Lac-St-jean ont été recrutées. Des données portant sur leur situation personnelle, scolaire, familiale et sociale au primaire, au secondaire et au CEA, ainsi que sur leur image de soi, tout au long de leur parcours scolaire, ont été recueillies dans le cadre d’entrevues semi-dirigées. Les résultats de cette recherche démontrent que la combinaison et l’interaction entre certains facteurs, tels qu’une faible estime de soi, des troubles de comportement, de la délinquance, de la consommation de drogues et d’alcool, un manque de motivation face à l’école, des difficultés scolaires vécues à l’école primaire, une expérience de redoublement, ainsi que des difficultés relationnelles au sein du système familial et du réseau social, ont mené les jeunes filles à décrocher. Malgré un désintérêt face à leur scolarisation à l’école secondaire régulière, les résultats confirment toutefois la volonté des participantes à reprendre le contrôle sur leur scolarité et à raccrocher au sein d’un CEA, un milieu qu’elles perçoivent comme un outil motivationnel à l’obtention de leur diplôme d’études secondaire (DES). À ce sujet, les résultats révèlent que l’autonomie, l’enseignement modulaire individualisé, la maturité des autres élèves et les relations avec les enseignants sont des conditions présentes en CEA et qui favorisent la persévérance scolaire des jeunes décrocheuses qui raccrochent au sein de ce type d’établissement.

The aim of the dissertation is to create a meeting place between the rural immigrant and the city. It is a system that recognizes the various layers in which the horizontal human meets the vertical city. The meeting place must act as a transition facility where one enters the complex mechanics of city life. It is a celebration of what city life is and can be. The function of the meeting place is to educate and orientate the user in the language and mechanics of city life. It is an archetype of the new life ahead. The catalyst of the meeting place takes the form of a market situated in between Bloed Street Taxi Station and Belle Ombre Train and Taxi Station in the north of Pretoria Central Business District. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Developing a point of orientation whereby users can navigate the Pretoria inner city. Integrating public resources to promote efficient and integrated public service delivery. Gateway to mark entry to the city at Boom street, along Paul Kruger street to act as a catalytic intervention for the regeneration of the northern district. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

The primary problem of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two teaching techniques in relation to their respective influence on changing behavior by a group process.

This work investigates the effects of long range hydrodynamic fibre-fibre interactions on the orientation state of a semi-dilute, rigid fibre suspension flowing through a linear contracting channel under laminar flow conditions. The effects of fibre-fibre interactions are modeled mathematically, the governing equations solved numerically and the predicted results compared with experimental observations. The theoretical model is based on the assumption that the orientation state of the suspension can be completely described by a probability distribution function and that fibre-fibre interactions are random in nature, thus giving rise to a diffusion-type process. The orientation distribution evolves spatially according to a Fokker-Plank type equation using closure equations for the rotary diffusion coefficient advanced by either (i) Folgar and Tucker (J. Reinforced Plast. Comp. 3 98–119 1984) or (ii) Koch (Phys. Fluids 7(8) 2086–2088 1995). Each of these two closure models for the rotary diffusion coefficient contains an unknown empirical constant that must be determined from experiments. These were fit to experimental data along the central streamline of the contraction as a function of fibre concentration. The diffusion coefficient was found to first increase with increasing suspension concentration up to a maximum, and then decrease with concentration above this point. This non-monotonic behavior was attributed to fibre flocculation, a mechanism not considered in the relationships for the rotary diffusion coefficient. The theoretical model is then extended to predict fibre orientation over the entire plane of the contraction and the two-way momentum coupling between the fluid and fibre phases were investigated numerically. The results show that the structure of the flow field within the contraction is significantly altered when the fibre phase is considered, demonstrating the non-negligible effect of the momentum exchange between the two phases. Comparison is made between the predicted orientation state of the suspension with experimental observations over the contraction plane. Good agreement was found between the model predictions and the experimental observations except in a small region near the solid boundaries. These near wall discrepancies were attributed to an inability to correctly handle the wall boundary conditions in the fibre orientation model. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mechanical Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Many tertiary institutions are confronted with the challenge of unprepared students. This epidemic is largely due to factors in and out of individuals‟ control. These factors include academic proficiency, course-student match, support and integration, financial stability, preparation, personal circumstances and engagement. The main objective of this study is therefore threefold: Firstly, to describe what student readiness entails; secondly to understand why there is a lack of readiness among first-year Human Resource Management students, and thirdly, to identify and improve upon interventions that prepare students for tertiary education. For this study student readiness refers to the ability of students to meet the basic requirements to successfully enrol for a course without remedial assistance and to successfully complete their studies in the recommended timeframe. The target population of this study focussed on students who registered on a full-time basis for the National Diploma in Human Resource Management for the academic year 2014 (n=117). A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the students and an open-ended questionnaire additionally to the lecturers who teach first-year Human Resource Management students. The study was subjected to various statistical techniques such as Cronbach‟s alpha, t-tests, Pearson moment product correlation and Cohen‟s d. In doing so an improved insight into student readiness and success was developed. The main findings of the study indicated that there is a relationship between the type of schooling and readiness factors as statistical significance was noted. In addition, students who scored high on readiness factors were more likely to succeed in tertiary education. Moreover the number of interventions students is exposed to positively influence student readiness and success. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge which relates to the broader educational environment in South Africa and provides recommendations to address student readiness and success.

In training programs designed to help immigrant women adapt to Canada, drop-out rates are frequently high and attendance is often low. Investigating some reasons behind this observation was the motivation for this thesis. A literature review revealed that curricula used in existing programs are often developed from experts' understanding of immigrants' needs; research on immigrant women's curricular needs as perceived by themselves is virtually nonexistent. An objective of this thesis was to address this knowledge gap. This study inquired into what curricular needs immigrant women have, how these needs differ, and what relationship exists between the women's backgrounds and their curricular needs. A questionnaire was developed and validated by an expert panel, and then administered to graduates from an orientational training program. Post-survey interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution, cluster analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), factor analysis, and linear discriminant analysis. It was found that the program, although well received, did not reflect the curricular needs perceived by the immigrant women themselves. Life skills instruction was unwanted by many students while English and computer lessons were in demand. A desire to regain higherquality jobs partially explained the women's curricular needs. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate