Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study has been prompted by the negative remarks that lecturers make concerning the academic performance of students and the number of years they spend at the Eastern Cape Technikon before completing their diplomas. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that English Second Language (ESL) students use to cope with English language writing tasks. Academic writing requires a conscious effort and much practice in composing, developing, and analyzing ideas. Black students at tertiary institutions in South Africa face additional difficulty, especially when they have to deal with writing in English which is an unfamiliar language to them. This presents them with social and cognitive challenges related to second language acquisition. Since the black students do not often consider the social contexts in which L2 academic writing takes place, models of L1 writing instruction and research on composing processes are often found wanting in their L2 writing pedagogy. In this study, I argue that language proficiency and competence is the cornerstone of the ability to write in the L2 in a fundamental way. L2 writing instructors should take into account both strategy development and language skill development when working with black students. This is critical in South Africa considering the apartheid legacy and the deprived social conditions under which black students often live and acquire their education. Therefore, using critical discourse analysis and aspects of systemic functional linguistics, this study explores errors in written cohesion and coherence in relation to L2 writing strategies used by black students at the Eastern Cape Technikon. The study focuses on errors in the form of cohesive devices of referring expressions using topic development used by students. The aim was to explore the strategies used by black students to write coherent academic texts. Further, the study intends to scrutinize the grammatical devices of reference, through analyzing the forms of cohesive devices and theme development. A focus on the writing process as a pedagogical tool enables me to explore the relationship between the quality of students‟ academic writing and coping strategies used, and come up with a model of L2 writing (coping) strategies for academic writing at the Eastern Cape Technikon. I investigate the L2 writing process adopted by competent and non-competent black students in the process of producing coherent academic texts by comparing strategies that the two groups of students adopt. / South Africa

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The aim of the thesis is to research the difficulties that first year mainstream mathematics students at UWC experience when solving Related Rates problems in calculus. In chapter 2, an in-depth study was made of the nature of Related Rates problems by studying a number of examples. The findings of this study are summarized in section 2.12. The study adopted the same model of the solution of all types of Related Rates that was used by Martin (2000) for the solution of geometric Related Rates problems. In chapter 3 of this thesis, many examples were used to illustrate how the seven step solution procedure of the Standard Solution model is applied. In the literature review in chapter 4, the underlying concepts which underpin Related Rates problems are identified and specific examples of research on each of these concepts are given. For example, the review of the literature on word problems is done comprehensively and covers extensively the range of issues involved in this topic. Drawing on the work in chapter 2 on the nature of Related Rates problems, it is explained in chapter 5 why this study is underpinned by Constructivism as a theoretical basis. Chapter 6 of the thesis is devoted to answering the 3 research questions posed in chapter 1. The thesis contains many worked examples of Related Rates problems which can be used by the lecturers assigned to the MAT105 course.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to determine the extent to which an Afrikaans language textbook series acted as a change agent in terms of racial representation on the eve of democracy in South Africa. Data sources for the content analysis are press reports, parliamentary records and interviews with the publisher, the authors and leading academics. The contextualisation includes an explanation of how the authors of the Ruimland series were the first to intentionally break away from the apartheid perspective. The literature study comprises an explication of the master symbol model which serves as theoretical framework for this study. Influential issues in the literature on textbooks, representation, language and identity are also described. The main focus is on the three master symbols relevant to the study, which are presented as indicators of racial stereotyping, viz. the exclusivity and isolation of the in-group, appropriation and generalising and simplifying. These indicators are utilised as measurable norms in the analysis of racial representation. Counter-indicators obtained from the data are used to increase the reliability of the analysis. Traces of stereotyping regarding all the indicators and counter-indicators were found in the data. The findings show that master symbols are evident in the data, but that the series also incorporates counter-symbols directed toward a post-apartheid society. The concluding chapters suggests that the series could have been an early signal of a paradigm shift in Afrikaner ranks toward democracy in South Africa. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

During the past few decades a substantial body of research has emerged in western as well as the developing nations studying the racial bias in children's texts. However, it is only recently in South Africa, with the ascendance of the ANC government, that interest has been focused on eliminating apartheid values and on promoting multicultural tenets in the school curriculum. It is undeniable that the concept of multiculturalism has been severely stigmatised in the South African educational context. Anxieties have been expressed about embracing the discourse of multicultural education within the educational system based on fears that, like the previous educational system, it too will perpetuate group differences. Nevertheless, in recent years, a clear consensus view has emerged that the implementation of multicultural education is imperative if the goal of a rainbow South Africa is to be realised. Against this background, the present study attempts to study the incorporation of a multicultural approach into contemporary textbooks. To realise this aim I selected a sample of four textbooks, one from each of the major disciplines (science, English, geography and history), and SUbjected the texts and pictures from each to content analysis. The findings of this study suggest that a multicultural approach shall at least for the foreseeable future remain a central feature of learning materials produced for the new South African curricula. The findings indicate that multicultural aspects predominate in the texts as compared to other ideologies. This applies to both text content and illustrations. Contrary to the researcher's initial expectation, however, the texts also reveal a strong tendency towards Eurocentric and patriarchal approaches. This research does not conform to traditional, 'scientific' criteria of validity and reliability; it seeks only to investigate textbook material in more depth and thereby contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the extent to which the texts subscribe to a multicultural approach. Such understanding may help both educationalists and authors in their evaluation of existing textbook material, and in the production of new texts which reflect the reality of South Africa as a multicultural society.

In her newsletter “Curriculum News, Improving the Quality of Learning and Teaching: Planning for 2010 and Beyond”, Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, Minister of Basic Education, positions the textbook very definitely as central to the curriculum and states that it is one of the most effective tools through which to deliver the curriculum and support assessment. Acknowledging the importance of the accessibility of textbooks for the South African classroom audience, this study has sought to investigate the readability of the chemistry section of grade 10 science textbooks. Readability research is concerned with the relationship between the textbook, the reader and the context in which the book is read; research supports the use of both classical quantitative measures and a qualitative cognitive-structural form of analysis to investigate this relationship. The research design is a mixed method one where quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously: the methodical application of selected readability formulae gave rise to quantitative data while the line-by-line textual analysis, tracing cognitive-structural aspects, and focus-group discussions with teachers gave rise to the qualitative data. The results of the merged data analysis were then interpreted together to provide a better understanding of the readability of the texts for a South African audience. The results of the investigation reveal that readability is greatly impaired for a number of reasons, the primary one being a lack of articulation between the textbook writers/editors and the audience for which they are writing and preparing the texts. This is particularly reflected in the inadequate preparation of the material for the English Second Language reader, as certain textbooks are completely out of their reach. Furthermore, this lack of articulation can be traced to the lack of time available for piloting the textbooks: an invaluable intervention in the process of textbook production.

Since the end of World War II, intellectuals not only in the West but also in Japan itself have been looking for the answer to the question which conditions and ideological mechanisms convinced regular Japanese to support the militaristic government and to be willing to give their lives in service of their country. This apex of ultranationalism in the 1930s and 1940s is interesting also because less than a hundred years before the conclusion of the tragedy of the Pacific war, it is impossible to speak of a feeling of national affilliation among the people of Japan, much less so of nationalism. Therefore this diploma thesis will be commenced by a description of the historical origin and development of national consciousness from the late Tokugawa period and the gradual formation of various types of nationalism in the Meiji period, which originated from this consciousness. As part of this topic I will introduce the main elements of the so-called family state ideology, which was the central idea within Japanese nationalism and which tried to connect the hearts of all citizens with the interests of the state by means of the traditional confucian model of family relations. The main purpose of this thesis is the analysis of the process by which this ideology was spread and intensified in the field of...

The purpose of this study is to find out whether and to what extent there has been a change in how boys/men and girls/women are represented in textbooks which are used for teaching English in the third grade of primary school. The study compares six textbooks published between the years 2002 and 2017 to investigate the purpose of this study. The theoretical framework of the study is Hirdman’s (1988) two gender principles (separation and hierarchy) and terms such as equality, male and female. The study uses a quantitative research method to analyze texts and images in the textbooks. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the following questions are investigated: - Are girls/women and boys/men represented to the same extent in the texts and images in the textbooks used for teaching English in the third grade? Has this changed over time? - What characteristics are associated with girls/women and boys/men in the texts and images in the textbooks used for teaching English in the third grade? Has this changed over time? The results of the study show that men are represented more often in text and images overall, especially in the books that are published in 2017. However, in one of the books, which was published in 2003, men and women are represented equally frequently (50% men and 50% women) in the images. For the categories active and passive, men are more often portrayed as active and women are more often as passive both in the text and in the images. However, in the books from 2002 and 2003, men and women are portrayed as active almost equally often in the text and the images. Furthermore, while the frequencies are relatively low, the results show that men are often portrayed as being strong. Nevertheless, in three of the six analyzed books, the same number of men and women are portrayed as being strong. For the category beautiful, only men are portrayed as beautiful and no woman is portrayed as beautiful in the six analyzed books. The last category that is analyzed is sport. The results show that the number of men shown to be doing some sport activity is higher than for women. One general conclusion that can be drawn regarding whether the representation of men and women has changed over time is that the most recent books show gender inequality when subjected to closer scrutiny.

This study examined the representation of national and religious dimensions of Iranian history and identity in Iranian middle school history textbooks. Furthermore, through a qualitative case study in a school in the capital city of Tehran, teachers’ use of textbooks in classrooms, students’ response, their perceptions of the country’s past, and their definitions of national identity is studied. The study follows a critical discourse analysis framework by focusing on the subjectivity of the text and examining how specific concepts, in this case collective identities, are constructed through historical narratives and how social actors, in this case students, interact with , and make sense of, the process. My definition of national identity is based on the ethnosymbolism paradigm (Smith, 2003) that accommodates both pre-modern cultural roots of a nation and the development and trajectory of modern political institutions. Two qualitative approaches of discourse analysis and case study were employed. The textbooks selected were those published by the Ministry of Education; universally used in all middle schools across the country in 2009. The case study was conducted in a girls’ school in Tehran. The students who participated in the study were ninth grade students who were in their first year of high school and had just finished a complete course of Iranian history in middle school. Observations were done in history classes in all three grades of the middle school. The study findings show that textbooks present a generally negative discourse of Iran’s long history as being dominated by foreign invasions and incompetent kings. At the same time, the role of Islam and Muslim clergy gradually elevates in salvaging the country from its despair throughout history, becomes prominent in modern times, and finally culminates in the Islamic Revolution as the ultimate point of victory for the Iranian people. Throughout this representation, Islam becomes increasingly dominant in the textbooks’ narrative of Iranian identity and by the time of the Islamic Revolution morphs into its single most prominent element. On the other hand, the students have created their own image of Iran’s history and Iranian identity that diverges from that of the textbooks especially in their recollection of modern times. They have internalized the generally negative narrative of textbooks, but have not accepted the positive role of Islam and Muslim clergy. Their notion of Iranian identity is dominated by feelings of defeat and failure, anecdotal elements of pride in the very ancient history, and a sense of passivity and helplessness.

The full abstract for this thesis is available in the body of the thesis, and will be available when the embargo expires. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

No description available.