Theological Education by Extension (TEE) for parishioners is the general area of study. However, focus is placed on the developing of a curriculum, particularly on the problems and challenges around developing of a relevant TEE curriculum. Four different TEE programmes in Botswana were studied. The findings showed that problems were experienced by respondents and others who are involved in TEEs in Botswana. The respondents could identify and describe some of such problems and challenges. Therefore the researcher could arrive at the following conclusion:- Students, staff and all other parties of a TEE must collectively and fully participate in the developing of the curriculum. Moreover, the socio-cultural context influences TEE curriculum; therefore, students need to be trained to respond to such influences in their life situations. Once again, it is important that the curriculum policy and the process of planning take into account of some basic concerns like the theological presuppositions, aims and objectives and basic commitments or foci behind the curriculum. If these concerns are well attended, a more relevant TEE curriculum can be developed. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / Th. M. (Practical Theology)

African curricular reforms indicate major inherent structural defects because only the contents of the curriculum were changed. As a result, the Western cultural influences embedded in the curriculum foundations are transmitted to the students, causing the curricular material to be irrelevant and unrelated to their culture and philosophy. The focus of this study was on making the basic education curricula relevant to the socio-cultural and structural context of the Gamo ethnic group of Ethiopia. The main aim of the study was to critically analyse how the indigenization approach is conceptualized and reflected in the policies and curricula, and in the implementation of the curricula at basic education level since the adoption of the 1994 Education and Training Policy, and to produce a model suited to indigenizing the basic education curricula for the Gamo ethnic group. To this end, the study employed a critical perspective to investigate the problem. The approach and design consists of a qualitative multiple case study. The country‟s constitutions, policies and strategies were treated as one case, while two cases, one from the Gamo Gofa Zone and another from the Addis Ababa City Administration, were treated similarly, so as to study the basic education curriculum planning and implementation process. The findings of the field study disclosed that the indigenization from the ethnic group‟s perspective has some strength, but major deficiencies. In order to keep the strengths up and avoid the weaknesses, a stand-alone indigenization approach, which calls for rooting the curriculum on indigenous foundations, theories, principles and ideas derived from the culture, and a blending approach, which allows for intercultural dialogue, were suggested as feasible. The researcher believes that this approach is an alternative that could contribute towards ensuring the relevance of the basic education curriculum for the Gamo ethnic group. A model which will assist in materialising the curriculum indigenization from the Gamo ethnic group‟s perspective was suggested. The salient features of the constitutional, policy and strategy provisions were outdone by their favour for a standardization approach. They will have to be revisited, either in favour of indigenization, or the standardization thesis, since these paradigms are opposite poles. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

The aim of the present study is to explore the so-called historically informed performance movement, which also is my own musical performance tradition, from a general perspective grounded in musical philosophy. The discussions concerning this performance tradition have been dominated by different subjects, such as musical works, authenticity, intention and interpretation. The study focuses on Western art music where the performance of the music, the sounding realisation, of a notated work is central. Therefore, the performance in connection with the abovementioned subjects is of prime interest. This more overarching theme gave rise to the following questions: What factors can be considered decisive for whether a performance is a historically informed performance or not? How can these factors be identified? Does this mean that there are instructions in the music that I, as a musician, must obey? What does my artistic freedom look like? Where can I find it? The path to tentative answers to these questions is taken via theoretical discussions and the application of the theory in method and analyses as well as in interpretation.The theoretical perspective of the study is based on contextual musical ontology. The scientific theoretical framework, emanating from this ontology, is formulated in the field of social constructionism.The performance can, through this perspective, be identified as an indispensable part of the musical work, which also implies that the notated work itself is not sufficient to identify the work. Further, the emphasis on the context's importance for the performance in order to allow the performance to be of the work in question implies the necessity of awareness of the context of the work. This concept is deepened in the study through the emphasis on the importance for the performance, in a broad perspective, of the historical as well as the contemporary socio-cultural context. For the work itself this means that the identity of the work is unstable, it is constantly changing, since the different performances of the work that are parts of the work can never be identical. The perspective is based on social constructivist theories about knowledge. With contextual musical ontology as a point of departure, a strategy is formulated concerning analysis and investigation of a musical work. This strategy focuses on the notation, the instrumentation, and historical performance conventions. These three parts interact with one another and in the study they are formulated as being inseparable from the performance of the work.The theoretical part of the study is followed by a case study in which a sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach is studied from the articulated theoretical perspective. The case study contains an investigative part and an interpretative part. The work's notation is always in focus in the investigative and descriptive part, with emphasis on the socio-cultural context connected to the notation. Through the sounding interpretations, the different performances, the final chapter results in a summary of the study as a whole. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att studera så kallad historiskt informerad uppförandepraxis, och därmed även min egen musikaliska inriktning, ur ett generellt musikfilosofiskt perspektiv. De olika begrepp och frågeställningar som kan sägas dominera diskussionerna kring denna framförandetradition är verk, autenticitet, intention och interpretation. I fokus för studien befinner sig musik inom den västerländska konstmusiktraditionen inom vilken framförandet av musik, den klingande realiseringen av ett noterat verk, är central. Därför står framförandet, i relation till ovan nämnda begrepp, i fokus. Detta mer övergripande tema leder fram till följande frågeställningar: Vilka faktorer kan betraktas som avgörande för att ett framförande kan betraktas som ett historiskt informerat framförande? Hur kan dessa faktorer identifieras? Innebär det att det finns instruktioner i musiken som jag som musiker måste följa? Hur ser min konstnärliga frihet ut? Var finner jag den? Vägen till tentativa svar på dessa frågor har gått via teoretiska resonemang, och applicering av teorin i såväl metod och analys som interpretation. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv och överbyggnad baseras på kontextuell musikontologi. Det vetenskapsteoretiska ramverket, utifrån denna ontologiska grund, formuleras inom ramen för den socialkonstruktionistiska tanketraditionen. Genom detta perspektiv kan framförandet av verket identifieras som en omistlig del av verket, vilket också innebär att enbart notationen inte är tillräcklig för att definiera verket. Vidare innebär teorins betoning av kontextens betydelse att ett framförande för att vara ett framförande av verket, medvetet måste förhålla sig till verkets kontext. Detta perspektiv fördjupas i studien genom att betona den socio-kulturella kontextens betydelse i ett större perspektiv, såväl den historiska som den nutida, för framförandet. För verket innebär det att dess identitet är föränderlig, då de olika framföranden som är en del av verket inte kan vara identiska. Denna syn baseras på socialkonstruktivistiska teorier om kunskapsbyggande. Med utgångspunkt i kontextuell musikontologi formuleras också en strategi för att analysera och undersöka ett verk utifrån notationen, instrumentationen och uppförandepraktiska konventioner, tre delar av verket som griper in i varandra och som konstateras vara omistliga att förhålla sig till vid ett framförande. Studiens teoretiska del åtföljs av en fallstudie där en sonat av Johann Sebastian Bach studeras utifrån det teoretiska perspektivet. Fallstudien består av en undersökande del och en tillämpande interpretativ del. För den undersökande, och i viss mån deskriptiva delen står verkets notation hela tiden i fokus, med tyngdpunkt på notationens socio-kulturella kontext. Det avslutande kapitlet resulterar, genom de klingande gestaltningarna av sonaten, i en sammanfattning av studien som helhet. Avhandlingens slutkapitel utgörs även av en CD. Den kan beställas genom registrator på Institutionen för musik och medier vid Luleå tekniska universitet. E-post: muh-registrator(at)ltu.se / Godkänd; 2008; 20081113 (ysko)

African curricular reforms indicate major inherent structural defects because only the contents of the curriculum were changed. As a result, the Western cultural influences embedded in the curriculum foundations are transmitted to the students, causing the curricular material to be irrelevant and unrelated to their culture and philosophy. The focus of this study was on making the basic education curricula relevant to the socio-cultural and structural context of the Gamo ethnic group of Ethiopia. The main aim of the study was to critically analyse how the indigenization approach is conceptualized and reflected in the policies and curricula, and in the implementation of the curricula at basic education level since the adoption of the 1994 Education and Training Policy, and to produce a model suited to indigenizing the basic education curricula for the Gamo ethnic group. To this end, the study employed a critical perspective to investigate the problem. The approach and design consists of a qualitative multiple case study. The country‟s constitutions, policies and strategies were treated as one case, while two cases, one from the Gamo Gofa Zone and another from the Addis Ababa City Administration, were treated similarly, so as to study the basic education curriculum planning and implementation process. The findings of the field study disclosed that the indigenization from the ethnic group‟s perspective has some strength, but major deficiencies. In order to keep the strengths up and avoid the weaknesses, a stand-alone indigenization approach, which calls for rooting the curriculum on indigenous foundations, theories, principles and ideas derived from the culture, and a blending approach, which allows for intercultural dialogue, were suggested as feasible. The researcher believes that this approach is an alternative that could contribute towards ensuring the relevance of the basic education curriculum for the Gamo ethnic group. A model which will assist in materialising the curriculum indigenization from the Gamo ethnic group‟s perspective was suggested. The salient features of the constitutional, policy and strategy provisions were outdone by their favour for a standardization approach. They will have to be revisited, either in favour of indigenization, or the standardization thesis, since these paradigms are opposite poles. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Socio-cultural factors oppress and construct women as men’s objects of desire and pleasure, thus increasing women’s vulnerability to HIV infection and, subsequently, maintaining the HIV and AIDS epidemic and prevalence in South Africa’s rural areas. South Africa’s rural women and their sexuality has not received adequate attention to date. This qualitative study sought to explore rural women’s perceptions on their sexuality and HIV prevention within the socio-cultural context of Schoemansdal (South Africa). A sample of ten participants, who are women from the Swazi ethnic group between the ages of twenty and fifty, were purposefully drawn to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of tape–recorded, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. Results of the study reveal that women’s social and cultural contexts have an influence on their perceptions of sexuality and HIV prevention, and that this poses a hindrance to women’s HIV-prevention behaviours such as condom use. The study’s findings reveal that in examining HIV infection and prevention, women’s diverse contexts and experiences cannot continue to be overlooked. This is because they may provide relevant understanding of the epidemic that is plaguing South Africa’s rural women. / An explorative study of rural women's perceptions of sexuality and HIV prevention in their local socio-cultural context : a case study of rural Schoemansdal, Mpumalanga / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Socio-cultural factors oppress and construct women as men’s objects of desire and pleasure, thus increasing women’s vulnerability to HIV infection and, subsequently, maintaining the HIV and AIDS epidemic and prevalence in South Africa’s rural areas. South Africa’s rural women and their sexuality has not received adequate attention to date. This qualitative study sought to explore rural women’s perceptions on their sexuality and HIV prevention within the socio-cultural context of Schoemansdal (South Africa). A sample of ten participants, who are women from the Swazi ethnic group between the ages of twenty and fifty, were purposefully drawn to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of tape–recorded, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. Results of the study reveal that women’s social and cultural contexts have an influence on their perceptions of sexuality and HIV prevention, and that this poses a hindrance to women’s HIV-prevention behaviours such as condom use. The study’s findings reveal that in examining HIV infection and prevention, women’s diverse contexts and experiences cannot continue to be overlooked. This is because they may provide relevant understanding of the epidemic that is plaguing South Africa’s rural women. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)