Ph.D--Education, University of Limpopo,2008 / This thesis describes the research carried out in the three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of this study, namely: African Pathways, Ikhwelo and LoveLife. The research was conducted in the context of the on-going research activities of the programme of Adult Education of the University of Limpopo. The aim of the study was to gain insight into current practices and strategies which might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. I also intended to investigate the factors that determine the success and failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context. In order to achieve the aims outlined above, I formulated the following main research questions: • What are the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province? • What are the factors that determine the success and/or failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context? This study seeks answers to the above-mentioned research questions. Hence it addresses issues that not only need considerable development and further inquiry for advancing the academic debate, but are also relevant for practitioners who are working in the field and facing these challenges. In trying to answer the questions outlined above, I decided to undertake a multiple case study to investigate three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of the study. This study had elements of development, implementation and evaluation designs. It was also the intention of the study to describe the three educational projects and the real-life context in which they occurred. It was the objective of this study to develop success indicators of education and training innovative projects. These success indicators could possibly lead to a model which could be useful for the establishment and sustenance of innovative projects in a developing context. Chapter two outlines the theoretical framework of the study. Based on the readings of the relevant literature, and preliminary discussions with experts in the fields of innovation and action research, it appeared that for any innovation to succeed factors that determine and influence sustainability need to be taken into consideration. Hence there has been a discussion about factors that contribute to, and influence the sustainability of education and training innovative projects. Critical factors such as: Local context, ownership, bottom-up strategy, cross-sectoral collaborations and effective communication channels were discussed in detail in this chapter. I have also outlined the theoretical model which is essential when investigating the success factors and indicators for education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes with a discussion about a young adult in the South African context, views about social exclusion and lifelong learning. In Chapter three, I describe the design of the study. The main focus of this chapter was to discuss the two tracks of data collection. The first track had to do with fieldwork while the second track was about the mini-conference or the focus group interview of the study. An explanation and discussion of the instruments that were utilised to collect data from different role players in various phases of data collection is also given. I further explain how the data that has been collected from various phases was analysed using qualitative data analysis methods. The chapter concludes by discussing what I call ‘reflections’, a section that was about my main learning areas and the difficulties that I encountered during the process of this research. Chapter four presents the empirical results of the study. It gives an account of the strategies that might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. In this chapter I present an overview of the three projects, that is, African Pathways, Ikhwelo and loveLife, which are the cases of this study. A description of programmes which are offered in each project of this study is given. I also indicate the aims and objectives of each project. The chapter further discusses issues around staffing and learners in each project. I have also outlined in detail the views of the interviewees in relation to the critical factors of this study. The chapter concludes by discussing the findings of observations based on each project of the study. Chapter five is a cross-case analysis of the projects. The intention was to compare and contrast cases based on the critical factors of the study, while trying to determine the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. During this process, I have been careful in preserving each individual case’s uniqueness with the need to understand generic processes at work across cases. In chapter six, I discuss further the empirical results of the study. It is based on the mini-conference or the focus group meeting that I held with the Project Managers and Educators in the Adult Education Resource Centre of the University of Limpopo. This chapter gives an account of factors that determine the success and/or failure of the education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The final chapter (seven) presents the final conclusion and recommendations of this study. This chapter integrates the information from previous chapters in discussing effective strategies which are useful when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. It also provides suggestions which might contribute towards the development and implementation of more effective strategies of education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes by mentioning issues that need to be further researched, as the ABET field seems to be under-researched, particularly the area of education and training innovative projects. / Not listed

South Africa has the biggest HIV epidemic in the world and the HIV rates among youth are especially alarming. In 2016 there were 110 000 new cases of HIV among 15 to 24-year-olds. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse perceptions of HIV and HIV prevention among Xhosa youth in the township of Langa, Cape Town. In order to study this, I focus on the organisation loveLife and their employed peer educators called groundBREAKERs (gBs). To gain knowledge on what fuels the HIV epidemic in this setting I will examine their thoughts and notions of HIV/AIDS, sexuality and sexual behaviour in relation to the information that is available to them. Examining the socio-cultural context of HIV/AIDS is important to understand the spread and why HIV is not declining sufficiently in response to HIV preventative efforts. This thesis is based on ten weeks of fieldwork at loveLife’s Y-Centre in Langa. The material was gathered through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. To analyse the drivers for the spread of HIV among Xhosa youth an analytical tool of gender roles, with a main focus on masculinity, has been utilized.

The aim of this research was to investigate the HIV knowledge and risk behaviours of students as well as to deteremine whether the youth are aware of and utilising loveLife services. This was demonstrated with the HIV knowledge and risky behaviours of respondents using loveLife as their source of HIV information. Data was gathered by administering open-ended and close-ended questionnaires to 152 South African students aged 18—25 years old studying at Johannesburg, Braamfontein tertiary institutions. These questionnaires were structured to include the following information: the demography , condom attitude scale, the current and previous sexual behaviours, socio-sexual orientation index (SOI), self-efficacy for protective sexual behaviours scale, HIV and AIDS knowledge and understanding questionnaire,as well as the loveLife exposure, participation and response questionnaire. The data analysis techniques included statistical techniques of frequency counts, cross tabulations, Chi Square tests of associations, Point Biserial correlations, two independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test, which were applied to all quantitative data; whereas thematic content analysis was applied to the open-ended questionnaire (qualitative data). Results revealed that young people are aware of loveLife services but are not utilising them. Respondents generally had good but biased HIV knowledge and increased HIV sexual risk behaviours. However, insignificant associations were found between awareness and utilisation of loveLife services and HIV knowledge and understanding, and sexual risk behaviours. The implications of the current study and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Ideology is a fundamental aspect of society, and ideological analysis has been applied to the development of explanatory frameworks for understanding structural dominance within social formations. Structural and post-structural conceptions of ideology have focused on macro-ideological phenomena and processes, offering explanation of relations between economic base and super-structure as they interrelate with ideological dominance. Ideologies serve the interests of particular social formations or classes over others, and at the macro-level this has to do with organised thought as it relates to power. This thesis explores the concept of ideology and related concepts of dominance, power and hegemony, through relocating macrolevel understandings and analysis of ideology within analysis of superstructural entities - notably organisations, groups and elites. HIV/AIDS is an ecological phenomenon that is accompanied by processes of sense-making that incorporate ideological dimensions in the public sphere, particularly in relation to social policy and strategy. Ideological discourses about HIV/AIDS have drawn on specific epistemological foundations and world-views, incorporating intersections with parallel ideologies, and in many instances being directed towards achieving expansion and dominance of particular ideas. This ideological strategy incorporates the construction of common sense. Ideological claims are reiterative, but are also related to processes of legitimation that combine structural relations with communicative power. A South African HIV/AIDS programme, LoveLife, is utilised as a case study to demonstrate ideological trajectories over time. The inter-relation between claims about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, claims about impact of the LoveLife programme, and the utility of alliances and structural partnerships in legitimating such claims is explored. These claims-making processes are found to also occur at global level through the active resourcing and facilitation by LoveLife programme's founding funder, the Kaiser Family Foundation. These activities intersect in the development of an ideological bloc that is directed towards expansion and dominance through appropriation of indigenous and global discourse spheres. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

loveLife, the South African national HIV/AIDS prevention programme for youth, is known for its brand-oriented billboards and mass media campaign that ranges over various print-, broadcast- and alternative media. However, the organisation also implements a national grass-roots peer motivation programme where various activities are co-ordinated by youths (GroundBREAKERS and Mpintshis) from the community. The organisation has been criticised for its communication approach, with many researchers primarily focusing on the organisation's mass media and billboards. This study investigates the communicative approach(es) in loveLife's programme implementation in the light of the normative theory of participatory communication. The focus of this study is to identify how loveLife describes its communication approach, what communication approach the organisation employs and how the organisation's communication approach is perceived by a sample of its target audience. The research was conducted by means of a literature review, qualitative content analysis of loveLife's policy documentation and a selection of the organisation's media. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted at head office, which are contrasted with focus groups with the participants at an implementation site. Broadly, it was found that loveLife's programme is more participatory than most critics would expect and that the organisation attempts to put its primary focus on face-to-face communication. But, there is also tension in what loveLife communicates on a national level and how it relates to grass-roots activities as the national / media-driven communication is more modernistic in its approach, whereas the grass-roots communication is more participatory. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

loveLife, the South African national HIV/AIDS prevention programme for youth, is known for its brand-oriented billboards and mass media campaign that ranges over various print-, broadcast- and alternative media. However, the organisation also implements a national grass-roots peer motivation programme where various activities are co-ordinated by youths (GroundBREAKERS and Mpintshis) from the community. The organisation has been criticised for its communication approach, with many researchers primarily focusing on the organisation's mass media and billboards. This study investigates the communicative approach(es) in loveLife's programme implementation in the light of the normative theory of participatory communication. The focus of this study is to identify how loveLife describes its communication approach, what communication approach the organisation employs and how the organisation's communication approach is perceived by a sample of its target audience. The research was conducted by means of a literature review, qualitative content analysis of loveLife's policy documentation and a selection of the organisation's media. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted at head office, which are contrasted with focus groups with the participants at an implementation site. Broadly, it was found that loveLife's programme is more participatory than most critics would expect and that the organisation attempts to put its primary focus on face-to-face communication. But, there is also tension in what loveLife communicates on a national level and how it relates to grass-roots activities as the national / media-driven communication is more modernistic in its approach, whereas the grass-roots communication is more participatory. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe how the developmental asset framework could be used to conceptualise HIV/AIDS message framing. LoveLife media messages (as gain-framed HIV/AIDS prevention messages) were purposefully sampled. Qualitative content analysis allowed loveLife media messages to be analysed through coding, categorisation and memoing. The analysis process revealed core values and developmental assets portrayed in gain-framed HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Core values identified included, love, respect (portrayed least), dignity (portrayed most) and responsibility. Internal assets identified included, achievement motivation, school engagement, responsibility, integrity, restraint, honesty, planning and decision making, resistant skills, personal power, sense of purpose, self-esteem and positive view of personal future., External assets identified included, family support and positive family communication. Responsibility and personal power, were portrayed most and honesty together with family support, and positive family communication, least. Broadcast messages portrayed the most developmental assets and outdoor messages the least. Correlations were found between core values love, dignity, and responsibility, and the identified developmental assets. Insight was gained into three potential roles developmental assets could play in framing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Firstly, developmental assets could serve as a source of enablement to make youth aware of strengths they could utilise to foster well-being. Secondly, developmental assets could direct incorporation of positive psychology principles in designing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Lastly, the study revealed that the developmental asset framework could be used in conjunction with the theory of message framing in designing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2009 / The aim of health communication campaigns and visual communication material (VCM) is to positively influence audience health behaviour and attitude. VCM has been used in this respect effectively as a vehicle to convey information about HIV/AIDS over the past three decades. It has been used to promote health knowledge and awareness in order to reduce the transmission of the virus. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of graphic imagery in HIV/AIDS VCM. To realise this aim, the researcher set the following objectives: * To review relevant literature in order to isolate key features and process those that communicators must consider/follow when developing HIV/AIDS VCM; * To determine the comprehension of selected outdoor HIV/AIDS messages, the graphics used in these messages, illustration preferences, and an evaluation of the self-efficacy of selected loveLife outdoor visual messages; and * To propose a model that communicators can use as a guideline when developing VCM. The outcome of the review suggests a compilation of features, design guidelines and variables that may contribute to the effectiveness of VCM. The results of the empirical study indicate that suitable graphic imagery fosters message comprehension, while inappropriate imagery inhibits comprehension, and realistic and appropriate imagery is preferred to abstract and representational imagery. Familiar images can contribute towards improved comprehension of HIV/AIDS messages. These findings also gave birth to the proposed ‘O’ communication model, which is a reflection of the results of the empirical study.