Published Article / This article questions current philosophies and practices in translator training in South Africa against the background of the international debate on translator training. It puts up for discussion the notion of a competent translator as the basis for departure in a discussion on translator training. The context within which translator training takes place is discussed, with specific reference to the South African context. The choice for a particular theory of teaching and learning, as well as assessment in translator training receives attention. The article puts forward various research questions that should be addressed in order to enhance translator training.

This dissertation intends describing and understanding my development as a therapist over a two year period. The question which prompted the research is to what extent the therapist directs change within the therapeutic process. It therefore considers the issue of intervention in therapy. The social constructionist theory is utilised to understand more fully the issues around intervention in therapy. A qualitative research methodology is followed, which has as its foundation an emergent design. The raw data takes the form of a journal, which is a case determined diary. The conclusions drawn at the end of the study are idiographic and reflective. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This dissertation explores one family's experience of a son's disclosure of homosexuality, through the use of a second-order cybernetic epistemology, and social constructionist theory. Second-order cybernetics enables a description of patterns and themes that recursively connect the family's ideas and behaviour. Social constructionism enables the family's reaction to disclosure to be recursively linked to their fit with wider society. By using semantic and political frames of reference to describe the family's narratives around disclosure, this study indicates that disclosure is a relational metaphor, dependent on the family's locally co-constructed and transgenerational meanings. It also shows that although the family change with disclosure, stability is regained in a way consistent with the family's rules and norms. This study therefore demystifies viewing disclosure in one way only and creates alternative ways of conceptualising it. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The purpose of this study, The after-school care teacher’s professional role - A study of  primary school teachers understanding and attitudes towards the after-school care teachers professional role and how that can affect collaboration between the school and after-school care, is to illustrate the understanding and attitudes towards after-school care teachers found with primary school teachers. Another purpose is to examine in what way the understanding and the attitudes can affect the collaboration between school and after-school care as well as the after-school care teachers ability to operate professionally. I have chosen to conduct a qualitative study through questionnaires and one interview. This study is built on a social costructivistic perspective. The results show that the understanding and attitudes found with primary school teachers do effect the possibilities of cooperation between the school and after-school care. Mostly the understanding of the professional role of the after-school care teacher can be found to be quite good whilst the attitudes show that primary school teachers see the after-school care teacher as having more of a supporting role to the primary school teacher. / Syftet med denna studie, Fritidslärarens yrkesroll - En studie av grundskolelärares förståelse för och attityd till fritidslärarens yrkesroll och hur den kan påverka samverkan mellan skola och fritids, är att belysa förståelse och attityder gentemot fritidsläraren hos grundskolelärare. Ett vidare syfte är att undersöka på vilket sätt förståelsen och attityden kan påverka möjligheten för samverkan mellan skola och fritids samt fritidslärares möjligheter att verka professionellt. Jag har valt att använda en kvalitativ metod genom enkäter och en intervju. Studien bygger på ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Studiens resultat visar på att grundskolelärares förståelse och attityd kan ses påverka möjligheten till samverkan mellan skola och fritids. Till stor del kan en se att grundskolelärares förståelse för fritidslärarens yrkesroll är god medan attityder visar på hur grundskolelärare ser fritidsläraren som en medhjälpare och assistent till grundskoleläraren.

The overall aim of the study is to investigate how 12 Years a Slave can help raise awareness among upper secondary students about racism and to inspire sympathy with the characters presented in passages regarding the cruelty and injustice of slavery. The study is based on literary didactics methods, applied to the textual analysis of the passages, to create a hypothetical scheme for teachers that can be used to work with slave narratives in the classroom. The analysis of the passages, in conjunction with the literary didactics methods used, provides methods through which students may increase their awareness of racism and sympathize with the characters in the book by creating their own plays, reenacting the cruelty committed against slaves. Also, when dealing with the injustice of slavery, students can imagine themselves being present even though they will not be able to experience it physically. This may help students sympathize with the main character and help them understand racism from the victim’s point of view.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the children’s thoughts and opinions about what is living and non - living. Whether they believe that animals and plants are living, and about the beliefs that children have about things that are non-living and living. There were four six year old children who were included in the study and the methodology used in this study was a semi -structured interview. I used twelve pictures of different living things and non - living things. I showed the pictures to the children and posed various questions that resulted in different responses and reactions from the children. The results from this method was the children's general views on what was living and non - living. With the grounds that if something can move, it's alive.

Constructivism remains one of the most influential views of understanding how children learn science today. Research investigating learning from within this viewpoint has led to the development of a range of theoretical models, most of which aim to explain the underlying processes associated with conceptual change. Such models range in depth and scope with some attributing change to purely cognitive processes while others suggest a role for social factors. Contemporary research has also begun to explore links between the role of practical activity, skills development and language. This study utilises a cross-sectional design in order to investigate the development of children’s ideas and concepts related to two areas of the English National Curriculum for Science: ‘electricity’ and ‘floating and sinking’. A new and innovative multimodal methodology combining practical science activities and traditional / conventional perspectives alongside interview and observational protocols is presented. Multimodal research proposes that knowledge and meaning are transmitted through a range of responses types including language, drawings and gesture. The participants in this study were children aged 7, 11 and 14 years attending four schools in the East Midlands region. Results demonstrate that the children’s ideas could be developed using conceptual challenge tasks. The gestures that the children produced were categorised according to five different forms: referential, representative, expressive, thinking and social, often containing information about their science ideas that was not included in other response types. The results also begin to uncover how meaning is socially constructed and supported. These results form the basis of a critique of methodology intended to re-evaluate and inform debate arising from different models of conceptual change. The potential importance of studying children’s gestures in classroom settings for providing important cues and clues to underlying thoughts that may not be present in verbal or other more conventional responses alone is highlighted.

One of the core questions in contemporary metaethics concerns the nature and status of moral claims. However, this question presupposes that morality is unified, and that a single metaethical account will suffice. This thesis aims to challenge that presupposition. In particular, I argue that there is a substantial theoretical payoff to be had from combining two distinct metaethical theories – realism, on the one hand, and constructivism, on the other – whilst limiting the scope of each. In the realist case, the discourse aims to describe a particular feature of reality; in the constructivist case, the discourse aims to solve some of the coordination problems faced by people as social beings. We have, therefore, two distinct sources of moral reasons. The resulting ‘hybrid’ theory is appealing at the metaethical level, but also yields an attractive picture at the applied level. Specifically, it retains the core intuition underlying utilitarianism, whilst incorporating a broadly contractarian account of morality. On this account, our reasons for not harming other persons are at least the same as our reasons for not harming animals – but we have additional reasons to refrain from harming persons. Chapter One establishes a moderate presumption in favour of moral realism, understood as the claim that moral discourse aims to represent the world, deals in objective truths, and yields statements capable of truth or falsity. Chapter Two addresses arguments for moral antirealism: these arguments can be met by restricting the scope of moral realism. Chapter Three explores the content of the resultant moral realism: specifically, realism about the intrinsic value of hedonic states. Chapter Four deals with that part of morality which is unaccounted for by restricted moral realism, and offers an outline form of contractarian constructivism. Chapter Five investigates the consequences of the hybrid metaethical theory for applied ethics.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy