Abstract Caring is the core business of nursing and midwifery, involving a relationship in which the carer is committed to the needs of the one being cared for (Mason-Whitehead, Mcintosh, Bryan & Mason). Caring is the emotion which drives a midwife to care, the motive aimed at assisting someone to grow and self-actualise (Watson). The concern in midwifery is that irrespective of caring being central to the midwifery profession, caring taught in theoretical learning does not always translate into caring behaviour in practice. A qualitative exploratory study examined how midwifery educators impart the skill of caring during theoretical learning and clinical accompaniment, in order to respond to the general complaint made both locally and internationally that midwives are uncaring. The aim was to explore caring during theoretical learning and clinical accompaniment from the perspective of midwifery educators. Participants in the study were midwifery educators teaching midwifery in institutions of learning in Tshwane, South Africa. The naive sketch was used to gather data, wherein one central question was asked and the educators were invited to narrate and respond. Three themes emerged: the meaning of caring; how caring was conveyed during theoretical learning; and how it was conveyed during clinical accompaniment. Although the midwifery educators expressed how they conveyed caring to the learner midwives, it was not evident how caring competencies were assessed in order to ensure caring midwives at the end of training.

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Previous psychological literature has shown mathematics anxiety in older populations to have an association with many factors, including an adverse effect on task performance. However, the origins of mathematics anxiety have, until recently, received limited attention. It is now accepted that this anxiety is rooted within the early educational years, but research has not explored the associated factors in the first formal years of schooling. Based on previous focus groups with children aged 4-7 years, ‘numeracy apprehension’ is suggested in this body of work, as the foundation phase of negative emotions and experiences, in which mathematics anxiety can develop. Building on this research, the first piece of research utilized 2 interviews and 5 focus groups to obtain insight from parents (n=7), teachers (n=9) and mathematics experts (n=2), to explore how children experience numeracy and their observations of children’s attitudes and responses. Thematic and content analysis uncovered a range of factors that characterised children’s numeracy experiences. These included: stigma and peer comparisons; the difficulty of numeracy and persistent failure; a low sense of ability; feelings of inadequacy; peer evaluation; transference of teacher anxieties; the right or wrong nature of numeracy; parental influences; dependence on peers; avoidance and children being aware of a hierarchy based on numeracy performance. Key themes reflected the focus group findings of children aged 4-7 years. This contributed to an item pool for study 2, to produce a first iteration of the Numeracy Apprehension Scale (NAS) that described day-to-day numeracy lesson situations. This 44-item measure was implemented with 307 children aged 4-7 years, across 4 schools in the U.K. Exploratory factor analysis led to a 26-item iteration of the NAS, with a 2-factor structure of Prospective Numeracy Task Apprehension and On-line Number Apprehension, which related to, for example, observation and evaluation anxiety, worry and teacher anxiety. The results suggested that mathematics anxiety may stem from the initial development of numeracy apprehension and is based on consistent negative experiences throughout an educational career. The 26-item iteration of the NAS was further validated in study 3 with 163 children aged 4-7 years, across 2 schools in the U.K. The construct validity of the scale was tested by comparing scale scores against numeracy performance on a numeracy task to determine whether a relationship between scale and numeracy task scores was evident. Exploratory factor analysis was again conducted and resulted in the current 19-item iteration of the NAS that related to a single factor of On-line Number Apprehension. This related to the experience of an entire numeracy lesson, from first walking in to completing a task and was associated with, for example, explaining an answer to the teacher, making mistakes and getting work wrong. A significant negative correlation was observed between the NAS and numeracy performance scores, suggesting that apprehensive children demonstrate a performance deficit early in education and that the NAS has the potential to be a reliable assessment of children’s numeracy apprehension. This empirical reinforces that the early years of education are the origins of mathematics anxiety, in the form of numeracy apprehension.

Predominantly white institutions (PWIs) are experiencing a racial history crisis. This crisis is occurring partially in response to current events including the multiple deaths of Black men and women at the hands of White police officers: Michael Brown in 2014, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and George Floyd also in 2020. Additionally, there has been a resurgence of investigation and national debate around building names and statues on college campuses memorializing people who supported slavery or were members of hate groups. These events coupled with the lack of truth-telling around the roles of Black and African American people and other minoritized communities within the development and prosperity of colleges and universities has centered history as focal point in the diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. Nearly all colleges and universities include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a center piece of their mission statements, but few address their racialized history. Often, the university's history is told from an ahistorical perspective which places whiteness at the center of the history narrative. With a conceptual framework incorporating both critical race theory and white institutional presence, the study interrogated how universities are telling the stories of their histories regarding African American people. The sample selected for the study included 16 universities designated as leaders in the field of diversity, equity and inclusion. The selected universities received the designation of Diversity Champion from Insight Into Diversity magazine. The history narratives, typically found on the About page of the universities' website, were examined for instances of white institutional presence and counternarratives. Findings were filtered through a critical whiteness framework resulting in four types of categories. Exemplar institutions were countering white institutional presence and whiteness through multiple instances of counternarratives, centering Black and African American history, and confronting racist ideologies within their institutional history narratives. The remaining three categories of institutions were discussed for these instances as well. Overall, the findings concluded that some universities have made progress in the area of historical truth telling, most universities have not fully engaged in this work. The study offered implications for further research in the areas of critical whiteness, white institutional presence, and diverse learning environments. Incorporating the findings of the exemplar university cases, the study also discussed implications for policy and practice for institutions interested in or working on investigating their histories as related to minoritized communities, but specifically histories involving African American people. / Doctor of Philosophy / Predominantly white institutions (PWIs) are experiencing a racial history crisis. This crisis is occurring partially in response to current events including the multiple deaths of Black men and women at the hands of White police officers: Michael Brown in 2014, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and George Floyd also in 2020. Additionally, there has been a resurgence of investigation and national debate around building names and statues on college campuses memorializing people who supported slavery or were members of hate groups. These events coupled with the lack of truth-telling around the roles of Black and African American people and other minoritized communities within the development and prosperity of colleges and universities has centered history as focal point in the diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. Nearly all colleges and universities include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a center piece of their mission statements, but few address their racialized history. Often, the university's history is told from an ahistorical perspective which places whiteness at the center of the history narrative. With a conceptual framework incorporating both critical race theory and white institutional presence, the study interrogated how universities are telling the stories of their histories regarding African American people. The sample selected for the study included 16 universities designated as leaders in the field of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Ulwaluko is a Xhosa word that refers to male circumcision, an initiation ritual performed to transform boys into men. The ritual is supposed to instill good moral and social values. Research has demonstrated that, the practice of Ulwaluko has undergone many changes primarily because of urbanization, acculturation and the emergence of back-door circumcision schools amongst other things. This has culminated in instances of moral decline such as criminal activity, drug abuse, risky sexual behaviour and inhumane behaviour among some of the initiates. There has been a recent upsurge in research on Ulwaluko in South Africa. However, lacking in this body of scholarship is a focus on how Ulwaluko constructs masculinities. This served as the motivation for my study. Given the above, my study explored the role of Ulwaluko in the construction of masculinity in men at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1994; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005) was used as a theoretical framework conceptualizing this study. The study utilised a qualitative framework and data was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Seven participants aged from 19 to 32, consented to be part of the study. These were recruited using purposive sampling. The ethical considerations of the study adhered to the guidelines stipulated by UWC. Data was transcribed, and analysed using thematic decomposition analysis. The findings of this study indicate that Ulwaluko constructs masculinity in hegemonic ways. Through hegemony it establishes, maintains and retains control over young men, boys and women. It constructs an idealised masculine identity that is morally upright, faced with ritual challenges and burdened by a prescriptive set of masculine role expectations. This study also shows the self-reflexive, critical and imaginative engagement by men as they negotiated Ulwaluko‟s ideal masculinity. Such contestations resulted in the creation of rival masculinities. It also demonstrates how subject position(s) impact understandings and constructions of masculinities. This study provided a richer and more nuanced contextual understanding of the psychosocial realities of men who underwent Ulwaluko

Jordan has strived to manage a large-scale anti-corruption initiative for the public sector since 2006. Despite the implementation of laws and bodies mandated to address corruption, public trust of government remains low and the country’s position on international corruption rankings has not improved. This study seeks to investigate how the implementation of a large-scale anti-corruption initiative impacts the organizational culture of the country’s public sector. It proposes that wasta, a unique Arab phenomenon that promotes the values of loyalty, represents the most significant barrier to penetrating what is essentially a normalized culture of corruption in the Government of Jordan. The organizational culture theory model was adopted as the theoretical framework because of its ability to account for differences in culture where promoted values do not necessarily correspond with employee actions. Because literature in this area is rare, a qualitative exploratory methodology was chosen. Based on data saturation, a total of 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted on-site in Jordan with mid-level managers identified using snowball sampling. The results prove the theoretical proposal to be accurate and show that wasta has evolved to the deepest level of organizational culture. The results are sub-divided into two major themes: culture and leadership. The results show that wasta is a deeply held and engrained part of organizational culture and that it is difficult for anti-corruption efforts to change this culture in the Jordanian public sector. The thesis also demonstrate how leadership can be both something negative or something positive in the fight against wasta depending on how it is used.. The findings carry implications for public administration, foreign policy, and society as a whole especially with regard to the development of more effective anti-corruption strategies in Jordan and abroad. The specific contribution to knowledge of this thesis is the examination of how organizational cultural reforms impact public-sector organizations in the Middle Eastern context given the influence of wasta, which is not discussed in the literature but remains important for the field. Future research should consider the views of a wider variety of stakeholders, as well as the impact of wasta on organizational characteristics including performance and delivery of public services.

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Cyber attacks by domestic and foreign threat actors are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Cyber adversaries exploit a cybersecurity skill/knowledge gap and an open society, undermining the information security/privacy of citizens and businesses and eroding trust in governments, thus threatening social and political stability. The use of open digital hacking technologies in ethical hacking in higher education and within broader society raises ethical, technical, social, and political challenges for liberal democracies. Programs teaching ethical hacking in higher education are steadily growing but there is a concern that teaching students hacking skills increases crime risk to society by drawing students toward criminal acts. A cybersecurity skill gap undermines the security/viability of business and government institutions. The thesis presents an examination of opportunities and risks involved in using AI powered intelligence gathering/surveillance technologies in ethical hacking teaching practices in Canada. Taking a qualitative exploratory case study approach, technoethical inquiry theory (Bunge-Luppicini) and Weick’s sensemaking model were applied as a sociotechnical theory (STEI-KW) to explore ethical hacking teaching practices in two Canadian universities. In-depth interviews with ethical hacking university experts, industry practitioners, and policy experts, and a document review were conducted. Findings pointed to a skill/knowledge gap in ethical hacking literature regarding the meanings, ethics, values, skills/knowledge, roles and responsibilities, and practices of ethical hacking and ethical hackers which underlies an identity and legitimacy crisis for professional ethical hacking practitioners; and a Teaching vs Practice cybersecurity skill gap in ethical hacking curricula. Two main S&T innovation risk mitigation initiatives were explored: An OSINT Analyst cybersecurity role and associated body of knowledge foundation framework as an interdisciplinary research area, and a networked centre of excellence of ethical hacking communities of practice as a knowledge management and governance/policy innovation approach focusing on the systematization and standardization of an ethical hacking body of knowledge.