Com o objetivo de utilizar o Capim-de-rhodes como ferramenta de remediação de um Argissolo, textura média, irrigado com efluente industrial, um ensaio foi realizado em condições de campo no município de Matão (Estado de São Paulo), a fim de se verificar a capacidade de exportação de Na pelo Capim, sob diferentes doses de fertilizantes, nitrogenado e potássico. O experimento foi instalado no final da estação seca, em parcelas de 6 X 7 m, com desenho experimental de blocos totalmente casualizados. Os tratamentos foram: testemunha total (solo nu) e cultivo de capim com 0, 50, 100 e 200 kg de N e K2O . ha-1, aplicados a cada corte do capim (40 dias de intervalo). Foram realizadas coletas de solo em três profundidades, antes da aplicação dos tratamentos e depois, juntamente com as duas colheitas de capim; estas últimas visando a avaliação do rendimento agrícola e diagnose foliar. Os resultados indicaram uma nítida resposta em termos de produção de massa seca e teor de sódio na parte aérea quando o capim foi submetido às doses de 50, 100 e 200 kg de N e K2O.ha-1, comparado com o tratamento sem fertilizante. Esta resposta levou o capim a uma capacidade total de exportação de sódio de 120 kg.ha-1, quantidade esta, maior do que a aplicada pela irrigação no período do ensaio (75 kg.ha-1), levando à redução do teor no solo. O Capim-de-Rhodes demonstrou sua utilidade potencial como remediador de solos solódicos. Os resultados indicaram que é possível a prática da irrigação com o efluente, manejando-se adequadamente o capim, principalmente com fertilizantes nitrogenados, indicando também melhoria das características químicas do solo. / With the objective of using Chloris gayana (a grass specie) as a tool on the remediation of a tipic Hapludult, medium texture, irrigated with industrial waste water, a field trial was installed in Matão (state of São Paulo, Brazil) in order to assess the total exportation capacity of sodium by the grass, under different rates of nitrogen and potassium. The experiment was carried out at the end of the dry season, on 6 x 7 meters plot on a randomized complete block design. The treatments were: untreated (nude soil), and grass fertilized with 0, 50, 100 & 200 kg of N and K2O.ha-1, applied at each grass harvesting event (40 days interval). Soil was collected at three depths, before treatment application, and after, together with both grass harvesting; those, with the objective of evaluating yield and foliar analysis. The results indicated a clear response of yield and leaf sodium content when the grass was submitted to 50, 100 & 200 kg.ha-1 of N and K2O, compared to the zero fertilizer treatment. The grass achieved 120 kg.ha-1 exportation capacities in 80 days, which is more than the amount of sodium applied by the irrigation (75 kg.ha-1). Chloris gayana, showed its utility as a potential bio remediator of sodic soils. Also, the results confirmed that is possible to use the soil as a tool to treat waste water containing sodium, by managing adequately the mentioned grass specie, mainly with nitrogen fertilizer, maintaining quality for production.

In 2004 Rhodes University celebrated its centenary. At a Critical Tradition Colloquium opportunity was given to explore the university’s past. In particular, its liberal image was questioned and its role during apartheid brought under scrutiny. This thesis investigates the questions raised at the Colloquium. It aims to cover the whole apartheid era in one coherent narrative by addressing the history of Rhodes during that era and how it handled issues of race and politics. It begins in 1933, when the first black student applied to Rhodes, and ends in 1990, when apartheid was drawing to a close.

Many students when they arrive at university do not possess the “cultural capital” (Bourdieu 1977) which is favoured by the institution. The purpose of the English Language for Academic Purposes (ELAP) course and the drafting-responding process is to help students to begin to acquire the “cultural capital” required to succeed at university. The research reported on in this thesis examined the drafting-responding process as it is used to develop students’ writing in the ELAP course at Rhodes University. The process involved students submitting drafts of their essays on which they received constructive and formative feedback from their ELAP tutor. This feedback was then used to revise their essays before a final version was submitted for assessment. The research took the form of a case study with an essentially interpretive orientation. I examined the drafts (with the tutor’s comments) and final versions of seven students’ ELAP essays. Additional data was obtained by interviewing the students and the tutor. Underpinning my beliefs regarding the role of writing in learning as well as my orientation to research is an understanding of knowledge and learning as being socially constructed. All writing is embedded in and dependent on, not only the immediate social circumstances, but also the broader social and cultural context. In analysing and discussing the data in this research I used Halliday’s (1985) definition of context, in which he draws a broad distinction between the immediate context of situation and the broader context of culture The research findings showed that the drafting-responding process can help students with the process of developing the academic literacy they need in order to write essays within specific situational contexts, in this case, the context of the ELAP course. In addition, at a broader level, it can help students to begin the process of being initiated into the culture of the university as a whole.

This research was undertaken in the context of socio-economic transformation in South Africa, and more specifically, in the context of change in education policy. To support socio-economic transformation in South Africa after the first democratic elections in 1994, a competence-based National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was introduced in 1995. In responding to the particular socio-historical context of South Africa, the South African NQF is underpinned by the notion of applied competence, integrating practical, foundational and reflexive competence, which is the key and distinguishing feature of this competence-based framework. In this context of transformation, the research was aimed at an in-depth exploration of the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence, and course processes that enable its development, with a view to providing curriculum development insights for learning programme development in the competence-based NQF, more broadly, and environmental education professional development programmes, more specifically. To enable these aims, the research was undertaken in the context of the Rhodes University / Gold Fields Participatory Course in Environmental Education (RU/GF course), as a case example of a professional development course that aims to develop critically reflexive practitioners. Within an interpretivist orientation, a multiple-embedded case study approach was used to gain insight into the relationship between course processes, reflexivity and the development of reflexive competence to clarify and provide a critical perspective on how competence develops in the context of the course. Data was collected over a period of one year using observation, interviewing and document analysis as the primary data collection techniques. Data was analysed through various phases and layers to inform data generation and the synthesising of data for further interpretation. Through the literature review undertaken within the study, various significant insights emerged around the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence. Firstly, there appears to be a need to distinguish between reflexivity as social processes of change (social actions and interactions within social systems, structures and processes) and reflexive competence (a range of integrative elements of competence) that provides the evidence of an engagement within social processes of change. The second key insight emerging is the significance of social structure in shaping participation in reflexive processes, thus emphasising the duality of structure as both the medium for, and outcome of reflexive social actions and interactions and so challenges the deterministic conception of social structure. Further, the significance of an epistemologically framed notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence emerged, in the context of responding to the complex and uncertain quality of socio-ecological risks and in supporting change in context. Reflexivity, distinguished from processes of critical reflection, foregrounds a critical exploration of both knowledge and unawareness. As such a reinterpretation of reflexive competence is offered as a process of potential challenge to dominant and reigning forms of reasoning (knowledge frameworks) and consequent principles of ordering. Through this reframing of reflexive competence, the potential exists to destabilise dominant forms of reasoning and principles of ordering to create a broader scope of possibilities for action and change in context. This reframing of reflexive competence in the context of transformation in South Africa has critical implications for engaging within processes of learning programme design in the NQF to support an engagement within reflexive processes of change and the development of a range of integrative elements of reflexive competence. In this light, the study attempts to make the following contribution to curriculum deliberations within the context of environmental education and the NQF in relation to reflexivity, reflexive competence and change: ♦ Reflexivity is conceptualised as social processes of change with reflexive competence providing evidence of engagement within these social processes of change; ♦ An epistemologically framed conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence recognises how rules of reason and the ordering of the ‘reasonable’ person come to shape social life; and so ♦ Change is conceptualised as ruptures and breaks in dominant knowledge frames and the power relations embedded in these; ♦ Unawareness emerges as a key dimension within reflexive environmental education processes in responding to the unpredictable and uncertain nature of risks; ♦ An epistemological framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence highlights the need to develop open processes of learning to support the critical exploration of knowledge and unawareness; and ♦ Within this framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, the difficulty emerges in specifically predefining reflexive competence to inform standard setting processes within a context of intended change. In framing data within this emerging conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence, a review of course processes highlighted potential areas for reorienting the RU/GF course to support change in context, for which I make specific recommendations. Drawing on the review of course processes in the RU/GF course, and in light of the reframing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, I further offer summative discussions as ‘possible implications’ for learning programme design in the South African competence-based NQF, broadly and environmental education professional development programmes in this framework, more specifically.

Com o objetivo de utilizar o Capim-de-rhodes como ferramenta de remediação de um Argissolo, textura média, irrigado com efluente industrial, um ensaio foi realizado em condições de campo no município de Matão (Estado de São Paulo), a fim de se verificar a capacidade de exportação de Na pelo Capim, sob diferentes doses de fertilizantes, nitrogenado e potássico. O experimento foi instalado no final da estação seca, em parcelas de 6 X 7 m, com desenho experimental de blocos totalmente casualizados. Os tratamentos foram: testemunha total (solo nu) e cultivo de capim com 0, 50, 100 e 200 kg de N e K2O . ha-1, aplicados a cada corte do capim (40 dias de intervalo). Foram realizadas coletas de solo em três profundidades, antes da aplicação dos tratamentos e depois, juntamente com as duas colheitas de capim; estas últimas visando a avaliação do rendimento agrícola e diagnose foliar. Os resultados indicaram uma nítida resposta em termos de produção de massa seca e teor de sódio na parte aérea quando o capim foi submetido às doses de 50, 100 e 200 kg de N e K2O.ha-1, comparado com o tratamento sem fertilizante. Esta resposta levou o capim a uma capacidade total de exportação de sódio de 120 kg.ha-1, quantidade esta, maior do que a aplicada pela irrigação no período do ensaio (75 kg.ha-1), levando à redução do teor no solo. O Capim-de-Rhodes demonstrou sua utilidade potencial como remediador de solos solódicos. Os resultados indicaram que é possível a prática da irrigação com o efluente, manejando-se adequadamente o capim, principalmente com fertilizantes nitrogenados, indicando também melhoria das características químicas do solo. / With the objective of using Chloris gayana (a grass specie) as a tool on the remediation of a tipic Hapludult, medium texture, irrigated with industrial waste water, a field trial was installed in Matão (state of São Paulo, Brazil) in order to assess the total exportation capacity of sodium by the grass, under different rates of nitrogen and potassium. The experiment was carried out at the end of the dry season, on 6 x 7 meters plot on a randomized complete block design. The treatments were: untreated (nude soil), and grass fertilized with 0, 50, 100 & 200 kg of N and K2O.ha-1, applied at each grass harvesting event (40 days interval). Soil was collected at three depths, before treatment application, and after, together with both grass harvesting; those, with the objective of evaluating yield and foliar analysis. The results indicated a clear response of yield and leaf sodium content when the grass was submitted to 50, 100 & 200 kg.ha-1 of N and K2O, compared to the zero fertilizer treatment. The grass achieved 120 kg.ha-1 exportation capacities in 80 days, which is more than the amount of sodium applied by the irrigation (75 kg.ha-1). Chloris gayana, showed its utility as a potential bio remediator of sodic soils. Also, the results confirmed that is possible to use the soil as a tool to treat waste water containing sodium, by managing adequately the mentioned grass specie, mainly with nitrogen fertilizer, maintaining quality for production.

Drawing on critical realist philosophy as a meta-theoretical framework, this study explores the conditions that enable and constrain the infusion of service-learning in university curricula. In this study, four discipline-based cases are analysed within the context of an overarching case of one South African university. The study reports on case study research into four disciplines, broadly representing the disciplinary array offered at Rhodes University, a small traditional research-intensive university in South Africa – four cases are thus embedded within a larger over-arching case. Margret Archer’s analytical dualism is used as an analytical lens for the inquiry. It offers tools for examining the conditions for the emergence of service learning and the form it takes in each case. Archer’s framework requires the artificial separation of structural, cultural and agential mechanisms for analytical purposes in order to establish the dominant factors impacting on the infusion of service-learning in curricula. An analysis of the interplay between structure, culture and agency uncovers insights into the conditions that enable or constrain the adoption of service learning as a pedagogic tool in specific disciplines. Curriculum decision-making is a central consideration in this study. Basil Bernstein’s theory of cultural transmission provides an external language of description to theorise the pedagogic choices made in specific contexts. This body of theory provides analytical tools for generating nuanced explanations of the significance of knowledge and curriculum structures as enabling and constraining mechanisms when pedagogic decisions are made. The study shows that the nature of the discipline has a significant influence on the emergence of service-learning and the form it takes in each context. Key agents draw on available structural and cultural mechanisms to either maintain the status quo or they exercise their personal properties and powers to mitigate existing conditions. The first case examines the emergence of service-learning in a ‘hard pure’ discipline where structural and cultural conditions constrain the emergence of innovative pedagogic tools. In this case a key agent draws on a confluence of personal, structural and cultural emergent properties to initiate a service-learning course at the honours level. Factors that make service-learning possible in this case include the key agent’s seniority within the institution, his status as a prolific researcher, the possibilities for application of disciplinary knowledge, and a strong institutional discourse of service to society (RU in Society) and an institutional and departmental discourse privileging academic freedom. In the second case the conditions in the ‘hard applied’ discipline are largely enabling, however the emergence of service-learning is facilitated by the interplay of the following agential, structural and cultural emergent properties: corporate agency taking advantage of the outward focus of the discipline (a region in Bernsteinian terms) and drawing on what is termed the RU in Society discourse. The third case represents a ‘soft pure’ discipline, where service-learning does not emerge within the formal curriculum, but in a largely marginalised departmental outreach programme. This discipline is inward facing and although its knowledge base draws on challenges and phenomena in society, it remains at an esoteric level accessible mainly to the discipline community. Agents in this department draw on the insular structure of the discipline, in conjunction with the strong Academic Freedom discourse to develop a form of service-learning that furthers disciplinary aims, albeit within the context of limited engagement beyond the boundaries of the discipline and the institution. In the case of the ‘soft applied’ discipline the structural and cultural conditions are largely enabling. However the emergence of service-learning in this discipline relies on the advocacy of a powerful social agent in the department with an interest in socially equitable practice; she draws on the RU in Society discourse to promote direct engagement with communities beyond the university boundaries. The study is set in a research-intensive university and it is perhaps not surprising that the service-learning courses in three of the four cases are framed by research projects. This suggests that in the context of this kind of institution it may be imperative to draw on research activities as the basis of infusing service-learning in the curriculum. The findings of this study challenge the implicit assumption in policy documents that it is possible to institute service-learning in all disciplines.

Traditional healing is one of the most trusted methods of healing in South Africa, especially in rural areas, where health-care infrastructure is inadequate. People have depended on this method of healing since time immemorial. That belief has been strengthened by the fact that this method keeps people in touch with their ancestors. Traditional healers are trusted and believed to be the link between people and their ancestors. The Dwesa community is amongst the areas that still have strong belief in traditional healing. Traditional healers have a variety of methods of healing that they use, these methods have been trusted for people of all age groups. These methods are ukugabha, ukufutha and ukucima. Traditional healers prescribe them for both major and minor illnesses. They are believed to play a role in cleansing people from inside and outside. These methods together with other methods that are used in traditional healing are being explored in this study. This exploration is based on the fact that this information will be integrated into the teaching of isiXhosa to Pharmacy students at Rhodes University. This is an initiative to create awareness amongst health-care practitioners about traditional healing methods, so that they can caution and advise their patients about medicine taking behaviours, also to make them approach the subject in a sensitive manner. An isiXhosa course has been taught to Pharmacy students, as a pilot in 2007 and as an elective in 2008 onwards. This course deals with cultural issues in a broad manner, the issue of traditional healing specifically, and these methods of healing are outlined in the course, such that students have an understanding first of what a traditional healer is and their role in providing health-care services.

This research is concerned with the development of entrepreneurship at higher education institutions (HEI). Entrepreneurship is very important in every country as there is a direct correlation between entrepreneurship development and economic growth (Hegarty, 2006). Entrepreneurship education is essential as it assists students who want to start up their own businesses by giving them the relevant skills and knowledge to have a successful business. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Postgraduate Diploma in Enterprise Management (PDEM) within the Management Department at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. A qualitative approach was implemented which used an adapted version of the Context, Input, Process and Product Model (Stuffelbean, Mckee and Mckee, 2003). Data was collected in the form of interviews and focus group interviews. There were six lecturer interviews, one course coordinator interview and five past student interviews. There were two focus group interviews that took place; this was done so to gather data from seven current PDEM students. The data collected was then analysed through the use of qualitative data analysis techniques. These were sensing themes, constant comparison, recursiveness, inductive and deductive thinking and interpretation to generate meaning (Ruona 2005, cited in Swanson and Holton, 2005). The Management Department aims to equip students to think realistically in terms of starting their own business and to enhance the students’ knowledge and skills so that they are better able to find employment in the corporate and government sectors. The PDEM aims to be an action-learning course and to create an entrepreneurial environment which will encourage students to start up their own businesses. The role of the lecturers and the course coordinator is important as they need to ensure that there is a continuous transfer of knowledge to the students. Students are not expected to be specialists within each subject; however they need to have a basic grounding in order to run a business. Students felt that the Alpha Project was important and useful as it improved their confidence about starting a new business. An issue that was raised about the Alpha Project was that the separation of students into the Alpha Project groups was not executed well. The course was perceived to be disorganised however the students tended to enjoy it and felt that the Management Department was supportive of their businesses.

This thesis explores the Where Leaders Learn slogan of Rhodes University. It does this by means of an analysis of discourses constructing leadership and leadership development within the institutional context. The discourse analysis was made possible as a result of interviews with a range of people involved in leadership and leadership development at the University. The analysis revealed that leadership development is constructed as taking place within a highly structured system that enables instructional and managerial leadership but constrains transformational leadership. The discourses that give meaning and understanding to the construct of leadership draw heavily on position within a hierarchy. The discourse of functional efficiency is enabled through practices related to reward, recognition, succession planning and mentorship which all serve to replicate the existing leadership structures creating more of the same and in essence stifling the potential for emancipatory leadership. The analysis also shows that a discourse of collegiality serves to create a false sense of a common understanding of leadership in the light of evidence of uncertainty and contestation around the meaning of the slogan Where Leaders Learn and, by association, the very construct of leadership. The discursive process of understanding leadership and developing an institutional theory for the purposes of infusing this into a curriculum poses many challenges. Barriers to new ways of thinking reside within the researchers' ontological and epistemological commitments. This amplifies the need for a more reflective ontology towards leadership and its consequences, especially so in a multidisciplinary environment such as Rhodes University.

The career choice process, which emphasises the term ‘choice’, is one which is characterised by an ever changing multi-layered progression (Ozbilgin, Kusku & Erdogmus, 2004). This is due to the choice being a result of the on-going interaction between an individual and their social and organisational contexts. It is then safe to assume that this career decision making process involves an awareness of an individual’s surrounding environment and an ability to acknowledge and understand what they regard as being important to them. In support of this understanding, this research project seeks to draw attention to the career influences of a specific group of professionals rather than researching career choices across a range of professionals within different contexts in efforts to broadly predict career choice behaviour. This study rather focuses on the factors that actively influenced the career choices of ten Rhodes University Academics across a range of disciplines and faculties and their individual career decision making processes. In drawing on “mainstream and heterodox” (Ozbilgin et al., 2004, p. 2) literature, this research aims to apply existing notions presented by past researchers to South African academics, now residing and working at Rhodes University, which is located in the small town of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The methods of qualitative inductive research are discussed and the results are explored within the settings and contexts unique to each individual who has been drawn to the specific University context. The purpose of the study is to therefore adopt an inductive thematic analysis approach in seeking to examine the internal and external factors that served to influence the sample of academics into their chosen discipline, their decision to become and academic and their employer of choice, in light of the increasing pressure on higher education institutions to contribute to social and economic transformation within the South Africa (Tettey, 2006).