The research took place while the author worked as a volunteer theatre practitioner with the Arts and Culture Group in Wesbank township near Kuils River, Cape Town, South Africa. This organisation was founded in 2002 and was the result of one woman's efforts to keep the children of Wesbank off the streets, by keeping them busy through dance, song and drama. This study investigated the impact of basic theatre training, working towards performance and the performative act itself on the psyche of the drama group participants. More specifically, the study investigated in what ways being involved in a performance can help children and young people in an underprivileged community of Wesbank to develop confidence, a sense of competence, self-reliance, creative thinking, responsibility and the ability to work as an ensemble. The research was to a great extent focused on cross-cultural communication. How could the &quot / Cape Coloured&quot / and Xhosa members of the group overcome cultural barriers and express their cultural uniqueness equally through taking part in multicultural theatre performance.

The research took place while the author worked as a volunteer theatre practitioner with the Arts and Culture Group in Wesbank township near Kuils River, Cape Town, South Africa. This organisation was founded in 2002 and was the result of one woman's efforts to keep the children of Wesbank off the streets, by keeping them busy through dance, song and drama. This study investigated the impact of basic theatre training, working towards performance and the performative act itself on the psyche of the drama group participants. More specifically, the study investigated in what ways being involved in a performance can help children and young people in an underprivileged community of Wesbank to develop confidence, a sense of competence, self-reliance, creative thinking, responsibility and the ability to work as an ensemble. The research was to a great extent focused on cross-cultural communication. How could the &quot / Cape Coloured&quot / and Xhosa members of the group overcome cultural barriers and express their cultural uniqueness equally through taking part in multicultural theatre performance.

Magister Artium - MA / The research took place while the author worked as a volunteer theatre practitioner with the Arts and Culture Group in Wesbank township near Kuils River, Cape Town, South Africa. This organisation was founded in 2002 and was the result of one woman's efforts to keep the children of Wesbank off the streets, by keeping them busy through dance, song and drama. This study investigated the impact of basic theatre training, working towards performance and the performative act itself on the psyche of the drama group participants. More specifically, the study investigated in what ways being involved in a performance can help children and young people in an underprivileged community of Wesbank to develop confidence, a sense of competence, self-reliance, creative thinking, responsibility and the ability to work as an ensemble. The research was to a great extent focused on cross-cultural communication. How could the "Cape Coloured" and Xhosa members of the group overcome cultural barriers and express their cultural uniqueness equally through taking part in multicultural theatre performance. / South Africa

Even a brief Internet search reveals the huge variety of ways in which the terms transformation, diversity, employment equity and affirmative action are used, as well as the vast range of interventions offered. For example, the term diversity can be used in its most narrow sense focusing on one identifier such as race, or broadening along a continuum towards including all identifiers such as skills, ideology or even personality. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Magister Artium - MA / The purpose of this study was two-fold: firstly, to do a multimodal analysis of the multilingual signage, advertisements and graffiti present on different surfaces in the main business hub of a multicultural community called Wesbank, situated in the Eastern Metropole of the city of Cape Town. Signage of this nature, taken together, constitute the „linguistic landscape‟ (Gorter, 2006) of a particular space. My analysis of the signage included interviews with a number of the producers of these signs which reveal why their signs are constructed in particular ways with particular languages. Secondly, I interviewed 20 mature women from the community in order to determine their level of understanding of these signs as well as whether the linguistic landscape of the township had an impact on their levels of literacy. The existing literacy levels of the women being surveyed as well as those of the producers of the signs were also taken into account. My main analytical tools were Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress, 2003), applied to the signage, and a Critical Discourse style of Analysis (Willig, 1999; Pienaar and Becker, 2007), applied to the focus group and individual analysis. Basic quantitative analysis was also applied to the quantifiable questionnaire data. The overriding motivation for the study was to determine the strategies used by the women to make sense of their linguistic landscape and to examine whether there was any transportation of literacy from the signage to these women so that they could function more effectively and agentively in their own environment. This study formed part of a larger NRF-funded research project entitled Township women’s discourses and literacy resources, led by my supervisor, Prof. C. Dyers. The study revealed the interesting finding that the majority of the vendors in Wesbank, especially in terms of house shops, hairdressers and fruit and vegetable stalls, are foreigners from other parts of Africa, who rely on English as a lingua franca to advertise their wares. The signage makers had clearly put some thought into the language skills of their multilingual target market in this township, and did their best to communicate with their potential customers through the complete visual image of their signs. The overall quality of the codes displayed on the signage also revealed much about the literacy levels in the township as well as language as a local practice (Pennycook 2010). While English predominated on the signs, at times one also found the addition of Afrikaans (especially in the case of religious signage) and isiXhosa (as in one very prominent advertisement by a dentist). The study further established that the female respondents in my study, as a result of their different literacy levels, made use of both images and codes on an item of signage to interpret the message conveyed successfully. Signage without accompanying images were often ignored, or interpreted with the help of others or by using one comprehensible word to work out the rest of the sign. As has been shown by another study in the larger research project, these women displayed creativity in making sense of their linguistic landscape. The study further revealed that, as a result of frequent exposure to some words and expressions in the linguistic landscape, some of the women had become familiar with these terms and had thereby expanded their degree of text literacy. In this way, the study has contributed to our understanding of the notion of portable literacy as explored by Dyers and Slemming (2011, forthcoming).

Magister Artium - MA / The purpose of this study was two-fold: firstly, to do a multimodal analysis of the multilingual signage, advertisements and graffiti present on different surfaces in the main business hub of a multicultural community called Wesbank, situated in the Eastern Metropole of the city of Cape Town. Signage of this nature, taken together, constitute the „linguistic landscape‟ (Gorter, 2006) of a particular space. My analysis of the signage included interviews with a number of the producers of these signs which reveal why their signs are constructed in particular ways with particular languages. Secondly, I interviewed 20 mature women from the community in order to determine their level of understanding of these signs as well as whether the linguistic landscape of the township had an impact on their levels of literacy. The existing literacy levels of the women being surveyed as well as those of the producers of the signs were also taken into account.My main analytical tools were Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress, 2003),applied to the signage, and a Critical Discourse style of Analysis (Willig, 1999;Pienaar and Becker, 2007), applied to the focus group and individual analysis.Basic quantitative analysis was also applied to the quantifiable questionnaire data.The overriding motivation for the study was to determine the strategies used by the women to make sense of their linguistic landscape and to examine whether there was any transportation of literacy from the signage to these women so that they could function more effectively and agentively in their own environment. This study formed part of a larger NRF-funded research project entitled Township women’s discourses and literacy resources, led by my supervisor, Prof. C. Dyers.The study revealed the interesting finding that the majority of the vendors in Wesbank, especially in terms of house shops, hairdressers and fruit and vegetable stalls, are foreigners from other parts of Africa, who rely on English as a lingua franca to advertise their wares. The signage makers had clearly put some thought into the language skills of their multilingual target market in this township, and did their best to communicate with their potential customers through the complete visual image of their signs. The overall quality of the codes displayed on the signage also revealed much about the literacy levels in the township as well as language as a local practice (Pennycook 2010). While English predominated on the signs, at times one also found the addition of Afrikaans (especially in the case of religious signage) and isiXhosa (as in one very prominent advertisement by a dentist).The study further established that the female respondents in my study, as a result of their different literacy levels, made use of both images and codes on an item of signage to interpret the message conveyed successfully. Signage without accompanying images were often ignored, or interpreted with the help of others or by using one comprehensible word to work out the rest of the sign. As has been shown by another study in the larger research project, these women displayed creativity in making sense of their linguistic landscape. The study further revealed that, as a result of frequent exposure to some words and expressions in the linguistic landscape, some of the women had become familiar with these terms and had thereby expanded their degree of text literacy. In this way, the study has contributed to our understanding of the notion of portable literacy as explored by Dyers and Slemming (2011, forthcoming).

Thesis (MMed) -- Stellenbosch University, 2010. / Bibliography / Introduction: Diabetes in Africa has been described as a pandemic, with the prevalence in South Africa estimated at 4.5% of the population. Despite clear national guidelines from the Society of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa, an unpublished quality improvement cycle in 2007 has shown poor patient knowledge with associated uncontrolled glycaemic and hypertensive control in diabetic patients in a district health system. The purpose of the study was to identify possible reasons for this and to find solutions for improving diabetic care within the Wesbank/ Ilingu Lethu suburb of Malmesbury, Western Cape. Methods: A cooperative inquiry group was established, consisting of primary health care providers at a district hospital and a primary health care clinic. The inquiry completed several cycles of action-reflection over a period of eight months, and included training in diabetic related topics and critical reflection techniques. At the end of the inquiry consensus was reached on key findings by group and learning within the group. Findings: Consensus was expressed in two key findings. The group identified and prioritized continuity of care and diabetic education key areas where diabetic care could be improved in the research population. The first was addressed by initiating diabetic registries, establishment of a regular diabetic clinic, implementation of a diabetic schedule within the medical records and the forming of a diabetic team that could support continuity of relationships, clinical management and organisation of care between both facilities. The diabetic team involved non-governmental organizations, private health providers and the community to increase awareness and develop capacity to improve diabetic care. The other finding confirmed diabetic education as a critical area in diabetic self management. The diabetic team initiated a diabetic community forum for educational and informative group activities. There was also continued professional development with education sessions within the cooperative inquiry group themselves. Conclusions: Improving diabetic care through continuity of care and education is well supported in known evidence based literature. The challenge is to translate/ transfer the available knowledge and render it operational and clinical in any health setting. The co-operative inquiry process was a valuable tool to identify, prioritized and addresses unique challenges for improving diabetic care in our specific context.