Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Teachers in the South African educational context are being asked to meet an increasing number of professional demands. Teachers are expected not only to produce academic results and develop professionally, but also to play an affective role in the school. The paradigm used in this study is neo-liberalism. This allows the researcher to view the teacher as possessing technical or ‘hard’ skills as well as the less well-defined ‘soft’ or emotive skills. Here soft skills are defined as the interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills needed to apply technical skills and knowledge in the workplace. A qualitative transcendental phenomenological research approach was selected in order to explore whether ‘excellent’ teachers from three schools in diverse economic settings in the Western Cape employed soft skills when teaching. The results of this study indicate that teachers perceived as ‘excellent’ exhibit intrapersonal behavioural, interpersonal conceptual and interpersonal affective soft skills. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Binne die huidige Suid-Afrikaanse konteks, word daar toenemend professionele eise aan onderwysers gestel. Daar word nie net van onderwysers verwag om akademiese resultate op te lewer en hulself te verbeter nie, maar ook om ‘n emotiewe rol in die skool te speel. Neo-liberalisme skep die paradigma vir die studie. Dit laat die navorser toe om die onderwyser te beskou as iemand wat oor tegniese of ‘harde’ vaardighede in die werkplek beskik, maar ook oor die minder omskryfde ‘sagte’ of mensvaardighede. Sagte vaardighede word gedefinieer as die interpersoonlike, menslike of gedragsvaardighede wat nodig is om tegniese vaardighede en kennis toe te pas in die werkplek. ‘n Kwalitatiewe transendentale fenomenologiese aanslag is ontwerp om te bepaal of onderwysers, wat gesien word as ‘uitstekende’ onderwysers, van drie skole in diverse ekonomiese omgewings in die Wes-Kaap, dieselfde sagte vaardighede gebruik wanneer hulle skoolhou. Die resultate van die studie dui aan dat onderwysers wat gesien word as ‘uitstekende’ onderwysers, intrapersoonlike gedragsvaardighede en interpersoonlike affektiewe sagte vaardighede ten toon stel.

In South Africa, the expansion of early childhood development was projected in White Paper 5 and Grade R was determined as the reception year. One condition for the achievement of objectives in Grade R is quality education, in which the teacher plays an irreplaceable role. How effective the Grade R teacher is in the performance of her work, however, depends amongst others on how she experiences her work-life and the extent of her security as a professional in the workplace. The paucity in research on the labour law position of the Grade R educator is due to the relative low status of employees in the early childhood development sector. Professional security was approached from a labour law perspective to start filling the knowledge gap in Education Law on the labour law position of the Grade R teacher with this modest contribution. The execution of policy forms an integral part of the Grade R teacher's employment conditions and determines to a great extent her daily task. This research answers the central research question: which roles do law and policy play regarding the professional security of the grade R educator? The research approach was qualitative-interpretivistic in nature and included observation of Grade R teachers' workplaces, as well as semi-structured interviews. A group of Grade R educators in the Matlosana and Tlokwe areas in the North West Province as well as principals and heads of department in the Foundation Phase were also interviewed. Other stakeholders such as parents as members of school governing bodies, members of teachers' unions and university lecturers were also participants in the research. Data generation on a smaller scale took place in Ontario, Canada, where the respective roles of law and policy regarding the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten programmes in professional security was investigated. All the data was used to understand and describe professional security of Grade R educators better, and generalisation was not the goal. The conclusion was reached that the theoretical underpinnings of the five legal disciplines that were used in creating a legal framework for professional security, were particularly relevant for the work-life of the Grade R participants in the study. Two psychologically oriented theories have also contributed to a deeper understanding of professional security. Although legislation, in principle, supports professional security, the extent to which participants had knowledge of relevant legislation or could apply legal principles to the workplace affected their professional security. Ignorance amongst policy-makers and employers about the nature and purpose of Grade R education leads to the underestimation of the Grade R domain, which negatively affects appointments, remuneration, conditions of service and policy implementation. Ignorance of the law also led to educator misconduct, and issues related to delictual liability emerged. Moreover, participants, due to ignorance, took the law into their own hands to create their own security in the workplace. Professional security emerged as a key issue in both ECD policy implementation and quality teaching. Finally a number of propositions were derived from the conclusions. / PhD (Education Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In South Africa, the expansion of early childhood development was projected in White Paper 5 and Grade R was determined as the reception year. One condition for the achievement of objectives in Grade R is quality education, in which the teacher plays an irreplaceable role. How effective the Grade R teacher is in the performance of her work, however, depends amongst others on how she experiences her work-life and the extent of her security as a professional in the workplace. The paucity in research on the labour law position of the Grade R educator is due to the relative low status of employees in the early childhood development sector. Professional security was approached from a labour law perspective to start filling the knowledge gap in Education Law on the labour law position of the Grade R teacher with this modest contribution. The execution of policy forms an integral part of the Grade R teacher's employment conditions and determines to a great extent her daily task. This research answers the central research question: which roles do law and policy play regarding the professional security of the grade R educator? The research approach was qualitative-interpretivistic in nature and included observation of Grade R teachers' workplaces, as well as semi-structured interviews. A group of Grade R educators in the Matlosana and Tlokwe areas in the North West Province as well as principals and heads of department in the Foundation Phase were also interviewed. Other stakeholders such as parents as members of school governing bodies, members of teachers' unions and university lecturers were also participants in the research. Data generation on a smaller scale took place in Ontario, Canada, where the respective roles of law and policy regarding the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten programmes in professional security was investigated. All the data was used to understand and describe professional security of Grade R educators better, and generalisation was not the goal. The conclusion was reached that the theoretical underpinnings of the five legal disciplines that were used in creating a legal framework for professional security, were particularly relevant for the work-life of the Grade R participants in the study. Two psychologically oriented theories have also contributed to a deeper understanding of professional security. Although legislation, in principle, supports professional security, the extent to which participants had knowledge of relevant legislation or could apply legal principles to the workplace affected their professional security. Ignorance amongst policy-makers and employers about the nature and purpose of Grade R education leads to the underestimation of the Grade R domain, which negatively affects appointments, remuneration, conditions of service and policy implementation. Ignorance of the law also led to educator misconduct, and issues related to delictual liability emerged. Moreover, participants, due to ignorance, took the law into their own hands to create their own security in the workplace. Professional security emerged as a key issue in both ECD policy implementation and quality teaching. Finally a number of propositions were derived from the conclusions. / PhD (Education Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The purpose of this study was to construct a holistic education school evaluation tool using Montessori Erdkinder principles, and begin the validation process of examining the proposed tool. This study addresses a vital need in the holistic education community for a school evaluation tool. The tool construction process included using Erdkinder literature to justify the development of each item through the use of an item matrix, ultimately leading to the development of the 23 item formative Montessori Erdkinder School Evaluation Survey. The validation process included a series of three Rasch Rating Scale Model analyses with data from a sample school. The validation process used item anchoring estimates from the earlier analyses in the later analyses and included determining the tool’s dimensionality, reliability, item fit, possible differential item functioning, and comparing the order of item difficulty levels to the holistic model of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Results of the study showed that six items had issues with fit and would need to be revised, and that the items in the cognitive and moral facet will need to be revised to better match Maslow’s model. This study provides the foundation for the development of a holistic education evaluation or accreditation system, and constructed a resource that could be directly implemented in schools.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is a multi-site ethnography that focuses on young people from one low-income, Cape Town neighbourhood, an area that I got to know well between 2008 and 2012, when I worked and conducted research there. I explore how young people from this area, that I call Rosemary Gardens, learn in three different places. These places are, firstly, classrooms at Rosemary Gardens High School, secondly, a community-based hip-hop/ rap group called the Doodvenootskap, and, thirdly, a youth radio show called Youth Amplified, which involved many young people from Rosemary Gardens. In each of the three places a ‘spatio-dialogical’ analysis was used to examine learning that emerges through collaborative interactions between people. Dialogic learning may take place when young people are exposed to multiple, different perspectives, which manifest through language. This form of learning is ‘spatialised’ because it occurs through sets of social relations that coalesce at particular moments to form ‘places’. Places are junctions or points of intersection within networks of social relations. I use the work of Bakhtin (1981; 1986) and Bourdieu (1977; 1991) to illustrate how, in each of the three places, language operates as a socio-ideological system that is divided, in flux and differentially empowered. This work on language as a social system was put into conversation with Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial theory, producing tools that were used as lenses through which to interpret the ethnographic fieldwork. What emerged was the centrality of the workings of language as a social system at Rosemary Gardens High School, Youth Amplified and amongst the Doodvenootskap. The control desired by educators, combined with the bureaucratic forces that restrict spontaneity in their teaching practices, resulted in the use of highly prescribed language forces dominating dialogic interactions at Rosemary Gardens High School. The different cultural influences and historical traditions, which produce the Doodvenootskap, led to the group reclaiming and reinventing varieties of language. At times this produced more sufficiently interactive forms of dialogic learning, amongst this group, and on other occasions they merely reiterated the words of others, without reflection or rigorous thought. Critical pedagogy, at Youth Amplified, laid the foundations for multiple contrasting perspectives and different linguistic forms to manifest. In the media and in the imaginary of the South African middle and upper classes, schools in neighbourhoods that were formerly reserved for ‘Black’ and working-class ‘Coloured’ children are generally perceived to be dysfunctional places. Young people who live in the neighbourhoods in which these schools are located, are assumed to learn very little. Research with youth from Rosemary Gardens discovered that this kind of negative portrayal is only one view of a multi-faceted set of stories. On a daily basis, young people from Rosemary Gardens use language in interactions with peers and adults, exchanges that shape their consciousness and influence how they make sense of the multiple social worlds which they partially produce.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation argues that, for several reasons, school boards serving the various Seventh-day Adventist schools in the Western Cape have not carried out their functions and responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Although the school boards meet on a regular basis, there appear to be several problems that contribute to a lack of effective performance by the board. Through an analysis of data constructed from interviews and questionnaires, the study reveals that many board members feel that they are not fully equipped to carry out the responsibilities of a governor, and furthermore that they do not belong because they do not feel a part of the decision-making process in the school. They therefore are willing to spend time and effort to equip themselves for the task through capacity building programmes and ongoing training. I contend that, in addition to capacity building programmes, the voices of individual members need to be heard as they participate, deliberately, in decision-making processes. This dissertation contends that if the boards are to function optimally, all stakeholders, particularly the school board members, should engage in capacity building programmes and also experience deliberative, democratic citizenship. They must be given an equal voice to participate in deliberations concerning policy formulation and other decision-making processes. This will help them to realise their democratic right to participate and also to experience inclusivity as a free member of the society in which they live. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif argumenteer dat skoolbestuursrade wat verskillende Sewende-dag Adventisteskole in die Wes-Kaap beheer om verskeie redes nie hulle pligte effektief en doeltreffend nakom nie. Hoewel die beheerrade gereeld vergader is daar blykbaar verskeie probleme wat bydra tot ’n gebrek aan die vervulling van hulle pligte. Deur die ontleding van data saamgestel uit onderhoude en vraelyste is daar gevind dat veral die raadslede, en tot ’n kleiner mate ander belangstellendes, voel hulle is nie ten volle toegerus om die verantwoordelikheid van ’n raadslid te dra nie. Hulle voel ook dat hulle nie deel is van belangrike beslissings wat in die skool geneem word nie. Daarom is hulle bereid om tyd te maak om hulle vir die werk van ’n raadslid toe te rus. Ek hou voor dat behalwe vir die gebruik van kapasiteitsbouprogramme moet die individue se stemme gehoor word en moet hulle ’n kans gegun word om saam te praat en ook aan belangrike beslissings deel te neem wat verband hou met die skool en die opvoeding van die leerder. Hulle moet hulle demokratiese burgerregte uitvoer, deelneem aan die ontwikkelinge wat in die skool plaasvind en daardeur sal hulle stemme ook gehoor word.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The aim of this paper is to obtain an indication of the impact of an outcomes-based assessment policy on the workload of six teachers of a secondary school. Since the implementation of Outcomes Based Education (OBE) there are great expectations to implement new approaches in relation to planning, instruction and assessment guidelines that teachers should follow. Despite these guidelines assessment remains a problem area because teachers are still grappling with the assessment principles of OBE. The new outcomes-based approach to assessment encourages teachers to integrate their instruction with classroom-based assessment. Teachers however do not appear to be integrating their instruction with their assessment. Teachers are blaming the lack of integration to a lack of time. This research is an attempt to assess the time teachers spend on instruction, assessment and extra mural activities. Although this is a qualitative research, it offers a quantifiable reality that is relative to the context of six selected teachers and the context in which the teachers and school is situated. Policy is not static and thus it should be continuously tested to determine whether the aim of the particular policy is practicable. Thus I am of the opinion that research of this nature can be an important mechanism for policy enactment because indicators inform policy makers about the policy. The findings of this research proposes to "put in numbers" what teachers have to say, in other words, to reflect the quantified realities of the workload of teachers.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / On the surface the National Assessment Policy is transformative in nature because it promotes notions of shaping educational practice that will enhance the interests of learners in a meaningful way. It promotes ideas of transparency and a partnership between learners and educators that presupposes that learners are fully involved at every stage of their learning in decisions that affect their progress. This creates the impression that teaching and learning take place in a democratic environment where constant consultation and consensus are the order of the day. The policy ultimately envisages a kind of learner who would have the ability to participate as a critical citizen in society. Looked at from a critical perspective, this criteria-referenced outcomes framework seems to be a contradiction to transformative policy and practice. The predetermined criteria outlined in the policy seem to negate its intention of creating a schooling system through which critical citizens can emerge. The focus of this thesis, therefore, is firstly to make a critical analysis of assessment in OBE and its stated transformation objectives and, secondly, to reconceptualise assessment practices in South African schools by making an argument for critical action. This analysis will explore the issue of power relations in the classroom and their impact on participatory, deliberative and democratic classroom interaction as a condition imperative for a transformative OBE curriculum. This issue is pertinent and central not only to the improvement and promotion of teaching and learning, but also because of the profound implications it has for how we view educational transformation in South Africa.

Thesis (MEd)-- University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Migration has been described as “the quintessential experience” of the contemporary period (Berger, 1984). Across the world this global phenomenon has been chiefly driven by conflict, persecution and poverty resulting from destabilisation in the various home countries of millions of individuals. Within the process of worldwide migration, South Africa receives perhaps the largest number of asylum seekers in the world and according to the UNHCR (2010) the majority of migrants entering South Africa are children or youth. Crucially, this increased migration into South Africa is occurring at a time when the majority of South Africa's general populace is still struggling with the aftermath of apartheid and increased levels of poverty and unemployment. In this qualitative, interpretative study I focus on how a group of 20 African migrant youth that live in Cape Town and attend one local school engage with the migratory experience and navigate their way through local receiving spaces. I assert that these spaces, which include both home and school, mark the youth in very particular ways and bring into focus key aspects of identity, culture, social worlds, imagination and aspiration. The main conceptual contribution of the thesis is the idea that we are all migrants in the current world, whether we physically move or whether our lives are moved by the impact of increasing global flows. Consequently, we need to develop, it is argued, a frame of thinking that makes the migrant central, not ancillary, to historical process. For that purpose I utilise the theoretical lenses of Pierre Bourdieu, Arjun Appadurai, and Tara Yosso to argue that the African migrant youth in the study are not passive recipients bombarded by the forces of globalization and migration, but are active agents in the shaping of their local realities. By linking individual biographies to the questions they raise about larger global, social and historical forces I attempt to offer a temporalized account of late-modern life that incorporates the contemporary conditions that the African migrant youth face as they navigate urban social arrangements, and the daily educational challenges of their local school. A further contribution of the thesis is the documenting of the particular internal and external resources that the 20 African migrant youth drew on to motivate and assist them to navigate their schooling and social lives, as they faced up to the growing uncertainties of their new "foreign‟ spaces. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Migrasie is al beskryf as “die wesenservaring” van die moderne tyd (Berger, 1984). Oral ter wêreld word hierdie globale verskynsel hoofsaaklik aangedryf deur konflik, vervolging en armoede wat die gevolg is van destabilisasie in die onderskeie lande van herkoms van miljoene mense. Binne die wêreldwye migrasieproses is Suid-Afrika die land wat waarskynlik die grootste getal asielsoekers ter wêreld ontvang, en volgens die Verenigde Nasies se hoëkommissaris vir vlugtelinge (UNHCR, 2010) vorm kinders of jeugdiges die grootste groep migrante wat Suid-Afrika binnekom. Wat van kardinale belang is, is dat hierdie toenemende migrasie na Suid-Afrika plaasvind op ʼn tydstip waarop die meerderheid van Suid-Afrika se breë bevolking steeds worstel met die nalatenskap van apartheid en verhoogde vlakke van armoede en werkloosheid. Hierdie kwalitatiewe, kwasi-interpretatiewe studie fokus op die wyse waarop ʼn groep van 20 jeugdige Afrika-migrante, wat in Kaapstad woon en dieselfde plaaslike skool bywoon, migrasie-ervarings hanteer en hulle weg deur die plaaslike ontvangsruimtes baan. Ek voer aan dat hierdie ruimtes, wat sowel die huis as die skool insluit, 'n baie duidelike stempel op jeugdiges laat en die aandag op sleutelaspekte van identiteit, kultuur, maatskaplike wêrelde, voorstellings en strewes vestig. Die hoof- konseptuele bydrae van die tesis is die gedagte dat ons almal in vandag se wêreld migrante (van welke aard ook al) is, of ons nou fisiek verskuif en of die impak van toenemende wêreldwye strominge verskuiwings in ons lewe veroorsaak. Daarom, word daar geredeneer, moet ons ʼn denkraamwerk ontwikkel wat die idee van die “migrant” sentraal tot die historiese proses stel, eerder as ondergeskik daaraan. Vir dié doel gebruik ek die teoretiese lense van Pierre Bourdieu, Arjun Appadurai en Tara Yosso om aan te voer dat die jeugdige Afrika-migrante in die studie nie passiewe ontvangers is wat deur die kragte van globalisering en migrasie rondgeslinger word nie, maar dat hulle aktiewe agente is wat hulle plaaslike werklikhede self kan vorm. Deur individuele lewensverhale te koppel aan die vrae wat dit oor groter globale, maatskaplike en historiese kragte laat ontstaan, bied ek ʼn getemporaliseerde weergawe van die laat-moderne lewe, met inbegrip van die eietydse omstandighede wat jeugdige Afrika-migrante in die gesig staar namate hulle hul weg deur die stedelik-maatskaplike organisasie moet vind, asook van die daaglikse opvoedkundige uitdagings van hulle plaaslike skool. Verder lewer hierdie tesis ʼn bydrae deur die interne en eksterne hulpbronne te dokumenteer wat hierdie 20 jeugdige Afrika-migrante gebruik het om hulle te motiveer en te help om hulle skool- en maatskaplike lewe te rig namate hulle die toenemende onsekerhede van hulle nuwe, “uitlandse” ruimtes moes aandurf.

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses some of the major education policies in Namibia since the introduction of a democratic government in 1990. The analysis reveals that democratic participation through stakeholder representatives is an ideal framework to promote democracy in education discourses, that is, in policy formation, school governance and teaching and learning. However, there is a dilemma of a lack of inclusion, which is incommensurable with modern democratic theorists’ conceptions of democratic citizenship (both Western deliberation and African ubuntu). The thesis asserts that Namibia’s historical and cultural background has to be taken into consideration if a defensible democratic citizenship education is to be engendered and advanced. An examination and interpretation of the three phases of Namibia’s historical background, its pre-colonial, colonial/apartheid and post-apartheid education systems, were carried out in order to understand the current state of education and the type of citizens the country is developing through its education system. Central to this investigation were different conceptions of democratic citizenship, which indicate that deliberation, inclusion, equality, reasonableness, publicity, belligerence, hospitality, compassion and African humanness (ubuntu) are the features of a defensible democratic citizenship education. The exploration of the distinction between deliberation and ubuntu shows that Namibia’s context requires a minimal democratic citizenship framework with ubuntu if a lack of inclusion is to be eliminated. The discussion on democratic conceptions also draws on a minimalist and maximalist continuum of democratic citizenship education. The thesis argues that a minimalist form of democratic citizenship education, in conjunction with African ubuntu – which constitutes less deliberation and non-belligerence with more compassion, careful listening, respect and dignity – engenders conditions for an inclusive policy framework, school governance, and the cultivation of democratic citizenry through teaching and learning in Namibian public schools, and may eventually promote a defensible democratic citizenship education. This framework may create a favourable environment and potential for all participants to co-exist, and for the marginalised groups to also contribute to conversations. This framework is also considered plausible because it takes into account the local people’s historical background and cultural practices. Complementing the argument of this thesis is the exploration of the link between Namibia’s education system, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Moreover, an appeal is made for the Namibian citizenship education system to consolidate the idea of cosmopolitanism, that is; hospitality and forgiveness, if the NEPAD initiative is to be successful and if certain Millennium Development Goals were to be achieved by 2015. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ontleed sommige van die hoof onderwysbeleide in Namibia sedert die instelling van ‘n demokratiese regering in 1990. Die ontleding onthul dat demokratiese deelname deur rolspelerverteenwoordigers is ‘n ideale raamwerk om demokrasie in onderwysdiskoerse te bevorder, dit is, in beleidmaking, skoolbeheer asook onderrig en leer. Nietemin, daar is ʼn dilemma van ‘n gebrek aan inklusiwiteit, wat nie vergelykbaar is met moderne demokratiese teoretici se konsepsies van demokratiese burgerskap (beide Westerse beraadslaging en Afrika ubuntu) nie. Die tesis voer aan dat Namibië se historiese en kulturele agtergrond verreken moes wees, indien ʼn verdedigbare demokratiese burgerskap voortgebring en ondersteun sou word. ʼn Ondersoek en interpretasie van die drie fases van Namibië se historiese agtergrond, haar pre-koloniale, koloniale/apartheid en post-apartheid onderwysstelsels, was uitgevoer om te verstaan wat die huidige stand van onderwys en die soort burgers is wat die land daardeur voorberei. Sentraal tot hierdie ondersoek was verskillende konsepsies van demokratiese burgerskap, wat aandui dat beraadslaging, inklusiwiteit, gelykheid, redelikheid, openbaarheid, strydlustige interaksie, gasvryheid, meelewing en Afrika-menslikheid (ubuntu) die eienskappe van ‘n verdedigbare demokratiese burgerskaponderwys is. Die ondersoek van die onderskeid tussen beraadslaging en ubuntu toon dat die Namibiese konteks, indien ‘n gebrek aan inklusiwiteit geëlimineer moet word, ‘n minimale demokratiese burgerskapsraamwerk met ubuntu benodig. Die bespreking van demokratiese konsepsies is ook gebed in ʼn minimalistiese en maksimalistiese kontinuum van demokratiese burgerskaponderwys. Die tesis argumenteer dat ‘n minimalistiese vorm van demokratiese burgerskaponderwys in samehang met Afrika ubuntu – wat minder beraadslaging en nie-strydlustige interaksie met meer meelewing, versigtige luister, respek en waardigheid veronderstel – toestande vir ‘n inklusiewe beleidsraamwerk, skoolbeheer en die kweek van demokratiese burgerskap deur onderrig en leer in Namibiese publieke skole bevorder en mag so uiteindelik ‘n verdedigbare demokratiese burgerskaponderwys bevorder. Hierdie raamwerk mag ‘n gunstige omgewing en die potensiaal vir alle deelnemers om met mekaar saam te leef asook vir gemarginaliseerse groepe om tot gesprekke by te dra, skep. Hierdie raamwerk kan ook as aanneemlik beskou word, omdat dit die plaaslike mense se historiese agtergrond en kulturele praktyke verreken. Die argument van hierdie tesis word ondersteun deur die ondersoek van die verband tussen die Namibiese onderwysstelsel, die ‘New Partnership for Africa’s Development’ (NEPAD) en die Millennium Ontwikkelingsdoelwitte. Meer nog, ‘n beroep word gemaak vir die Namibiese burgerskap onderwysstelsel om die idee van wêreldburgerskap, dit is, gasvryheid en vergifnis te konsolideer, indien die NEPAD-inisiatief suksesvol en sekere Millenium Ontwikkelingsdoelstellings teen 2015 bereik wil word.