Privatisation in education is a contentious issue, inseparable from the shift in focus from community-based education initiatives to individualistic and economically driven ones (Ball and Youdell, 2007). This raises ethical issues with initiatives like the Western Cape Government's Game Changer initiatives, given the range of access issues that learners experience in the pervasive social inequity of South Africa. There is a lack of existing research on privatisation practices in public education in the Western Cape, specifically what linguistic strategies are utilized in the official texts promoting it. The Game Changer initiatives and their associated ‘Roadmaps' promote non-state collaboration in extra- curricular eLearning classes and broader technology rollout in under resourced public schools. Analysis of the Roadmap policy reveals discourses of fast capitalism, skills talk, datafication and digital nativism. These discourses were mirrored in the practices, text and talk generated in an after-school mathematics intervention run by an EdTech company, which I have called ZipEd, in a Cape Flats school between 2017-2018. The company prioritized their funder's mandate and to prove their software's efficacy, spun data to reflect largely positive results. In the rush to provide this data, ZipEd entered several schools without fulfilling ethical clearance requirements. Obtaining access to Game Changer pilot sites ensured ZipEd's product rollout, continued growth, and financial success, revealing the neoliberal approaches which dominate ZipEd's practices. The Game Changer policy texts and the intervention observed, treated languages as silo-ed entities, ignoring family or community approaches to literacy initiatives, curricular reform, trans-languaging strategies and inclusive language learning. While EdTech is a useful teaching tool, this promotion of “exogenous” (Ball and Youdell, 2007) privatisation in the Western Cape, blurs the lines between state and non-state involvement, ultimately resulting in the commodification of public schooling.

The number of unanswered questions on Community based Question Answering (CQA) websites has increased significantly due to the rising number of duplicate questions. This is a serious problem, one that could lead to the decline of such beneficial websites. This thesis presents novel avenues that use gaze tracking technology and behavioral testing to tackle this problem. Based on prior studies on web search behaviors, we assumed that adding contextual information (snippets) to proposed related questions displayed on the `Ask a Question' page of the CQA website iFixit would improve the asker experience and reduce their tendency to post a new duplicate question. The first lab experiment where this web page was redesigned and compared to the original one was conducted on 8 participants. Results confirmed that participants were more likely to find an answer to their question on the redesigned page. A second experiment, conducted remotely and on a larger sample of 74 participants, aimed to discover strategic attributes that increase the perceived similarity of question pairs. These attributes were used in the third lab experiment (20 participants) to redesign and assess the snippets from Experiment 1. Results indicated that snippets containing `symptom(s)' and `cause(s)' attributes constitute an incremental improvement over basic snippets: they are perceived as slightly more relevant and require significantly less gaze fixations on the asker's part.

A major component of the primary health care (PHC) system is the delivery of health services on a community level, at the core of which is the Home and Community Based Care (HCBC) programme. This study focuses on one element of the HCBC system, namely how those involved in the administration of the community-based health component of primary health care, understand their relationship from the perspective of both the government (WCG - DoH) and the NPO service providers in the Eden District of the Western Cape. Additionally, it analyses the nature and the extent of the collaboration between the two entities. A patient referral tool was facilitated in a collaborative process to assess the ability of the two entities to strengthen their relationship. The study methodology was undertaken utilising Insider Ethnography with the researcher as a participant observer. Ten semi-structured interviews of the key stakeholders and one focus group were conducted with the staff of four non-profit (NPO) service providers operating in the Eden District and with WCG - DoH staff managing the HCBC programme. The findings reflect a substantial disconnect and imbalance in the relationship between the two entities, highlighting a top-down, transactional process at higher levels of management, in contrast to the operational relationships at the local sub-district level which are more collaborative. This disjuncture often disempowers the NPO service providers involved in the implementation of the programme. A number of recommendations regarding communication, advocacy, and innovation are proposed. Regular meetings of government, from district to provincial levels, with the NPO service providers, to strengthen collaboration by all stakeholders, are crucial.

A community-based interdisciplinary health professions education project, involving the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public and Allied Health, was implemented at the undergraduate level at East Tennessee State University from 1990 to the present. The outcomes of this project and the extension of the project into graduate health profession programs are described. Committed leadership, effective communication, and genuine community involvement are identified as essential to the success of community-based, interdisciplinary health professions training programs.

The health-care climate is changing rapidly and in ways that challenge the abilities of professionals who provide health care. Nursing educators are preparing professional nurses who can think critically, use sound clinical judgment, and participate as full partners in shaping health-care delivery and policy. Therefore, many schools of nursing, including five schools of nursing whose experiences are synthesized in this article, are revising their curricula to a community-based nursing perspective. Strategies to assist faculty in the transition to a community-based nursing curriculum include using change theory, creating a supportive environment, reducing tension and isolation, and evaluating. Potential challenges during transition include addressing grief and loss, overcoming the tedium of curricular development, moving the revision along while allowing opportunities for faculty input and consensus building, exploring alternative pedagogies, managing faculty workload and qualification issues, and preparing for transition. Outcomes include a more complete understanding of the community client as a partner in the delivery of health care, increased visibility and role modeling to potential future candidates for health careers, cultural transformations within a university, and promotion of the overall health of a community.

As the health care delivery system evolves, nurse educators must prepare graduates who can meet the comprehensive health needs of communities in a variety of settings. This article describes one college’s process of curricular change from a traditional to community-based format. The concepts that guided curriculum development and implementation are presented, along with the outcomes that have resulted from this change. Lessons learned as the curriculum was restructured are described.

Recent years have seen an unprecedented paradigm shift wherein pathologizing approaches to caring for trans children have been contested by efforts to accept and affirm trans children as their self-determined gender. This has resulted in a mainstreaming of gender affirming and de-pathologizing approaches to caring for trans children. While gender affirming care undoubtedly benefits many trans children, this research analyzes the ways in which practices and delivery of gender affirming care can be exclusionary of children who do not fit within a normative, binary, medicalized, white, and middle-class conceptualization of trans childhood. Applying critical social citizenship as a theoretical framework, this research argues that care for trans children is shaped through a complex interweaving of normative liberal citizenship regimes, professional and social care practices, and relational care practices that seek to recognize and create space for children to belong as their self-determined gender. Using a community-based research methodology to engage with trans youth and supportive parent caregivers around their experiences of care, this study sought to a) better understand how the contested landscape of care impacts the lives of trans children and b) offer possibilities for transforming care for trans children. Centring the voices and experiences of trans youth and parents, this research argues that trans children face exclusions and barriers when accessing care. This research then discusses what relational care practices, as shared in participant narratives, offer for envisioning care possibilities that centre trans children’s agency and gender self-determination. The outcome of this research is a vision of care for trans children that is rearticulated through a critical theorization of trans children’s citizenship. / Graduate

Submitted in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Masters Degree in Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2010. / KwaZulu-Natal is at the heart of Aids pandemic, with HIV prevalence figures consistently higher than other provinces.The basic purpose of this research is to assess the impact of Thandukuphila HIV/AIDS Community Based - Care Centre on the lives of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people (beneficiaries), which is situated in a rural township established on the precincts of a vast tribal area in the northern part of Kwazulu-Natal province. This HIV/AIDS Community Based - Centre was initiated as a response by some community members, initially it was church based, the church was challenged by the difficult health problems and social situations experienced by some of their community people, who were being devastated by the disease, HIV/AIDS, both inside the township and the neighboring rural area. In–depth interviews were utilized to seek more information from these knowledgeable individuals regarding their own and other peoples’ experiences, who are beneficiaries of Thandukuphila and, also those involved in many other ways. A purposive sample of nine participants’ from Thandukuphila CBO, which is situated at Enseleni was purposefully selected for the study. All participants were beneficiaries of Thandukuphila Community based care centre. These individuals were identified for their potential to elicit valuable information since they are beneficiaries of the programme. The individuals were also identified according to the criteria for inclusion. There were four groups of participants: i) PLWA, ii) OVC, iii) Caregivers/Volunteers, iv) Committee members. The review of literature gives some detailed analytical views on the prevalence of the pandemic HIV/AIDs in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The aspect of community –home based care is discussed, for the role it is playing as well as the contribution it is making, albeit, in a limited manner because of resources, expertise and support from formal authority structures. The narrative discussion intertwines quotations with the author’s interpretations. Also in data analysis the researchers “seek to identify and describe patterns and themes from the perspective of the participants” Creswell (1994:167). Throughout the study report the research hints at limitations the organization has to contend with and these are briefly indicated in a nutshell towards the end. The set objectives for the study were achieved. The findings indicated that Thandukuphila Community Based -Care Centre has a positive and significant impact on the lives of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people, who are beneficiaries of the program. However, it is the researcher’s informed opinion that responsible Government Departments need to put more effort on assisting since they have professional personnel, in monitoring and evaluating the standard of services rendered by these Community Based Care Centres.

Previous research on the community supervision model entitled Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) focuses on the increased attention trained probation officers (POs), as opposed to non-trained POs, pay to using core correctional practices (Smith et al. 2012). While studies like this present a picture of what POs do during face-to-face interactions, there is little focus on PO perceptions of these day-to-day practices. Furthermore, still less studies center the clients on supervision in order to better understand topics such as ideal PO, ideal relationship, and perceptions of common community supervision strategies. To address these gaps, this study uses 30 semi-structured interviews with 15 POs and 15 clients either employed by or under supervision in West County in a northwest state in the U.S. Findings highlight the importance of identity verification for both PO and client. Moreover, this study highlights specific strategies used by POs seeking to balance the care and control aspects of their job. In addition, findings highlight the negative impact that grouping or labeling has on clients, while also showing the potentially positive effect addressing these fears has on the PO-client relationship.

Climate change in the East African country of Uganda is causing severe variations in the once predictable seasonal weather patterns that farmers had come to depend on. This, in combination with social and economic challenges, has significantly increased the vulnerability of farmers who make up the majority of Uganda’s population. Previous knowledge and observations suggest that Ugandan farmers may be reluctant or slow to change their practices in response to the changing climate. Strategies are therefore needed to identify challenges and sustainable solutions. This research used qualitative data collection methods known as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research (PAR) over a seven-month period with two communities in western Uganda. One community was located in an urban area while the other was rural. Research methods were used to first identify real challenges specific to the community before developing strategies to solve them. Both of these steps were conducted in a bottom-up community-based way, utilizing the expertise of community participants. Overall, the main problems identified included degraded water resources, poor farm performance, gender issues, and health challenges. Most of these problems were not directly a result of climate change, but rather a combination of social and economic challenges like poverty and a lack of support from the government and other organizations. In both communities, sustainable solutions to major problems were created by increasing the overall knowledge, expertise, and cooperation among community participants in addition to improving access to local services. The actions taken resulted in a pilot project that improved water resources for the rural community. The approach was effective because it allowed the communities to advocate for themselves to create lasting change. This research builds upon a rapidly growing body of literature on the effectiveness of community-based efforts to solve real-life problems in struggling communities. Furthermore, these findings also challenge more traditional donor-driven approaches to development.