Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / In South Africa, the Land Reform Programme is a priority programme aimed to address land ownership through land redistribution and restitution programmes. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the mentorship programme in land reform programme. The study adopted a qualitative approach in which one mentor, three executive committee members, 20 protégé's (new farmers) and a manager from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform were interviewed. The findings show that there are essential qualities and characteristics that a mentor and Protégé should possess to ensure a successful mentorship programme. The qualities linked to a mentor include a good commended, traceable track record; he/she must be people’s person (that is, he/she must be able to get along with people); a motivator to other people; he/she must be able to make people productive and take firm decisions; and must be a knowledgeable, respectful and trustworthy person. The ‘ideal’ protégé should be honest, committed, respectful and hard working. The characteristics of a mentee include honesty, passionate with farming and reliability. All these qualities must be undergirded by a good mentorship relationship between a mentor and mentee, a condition which is crucial for success. The study also found out that a lack of respect from either the mentor or mentee, a lack of willingness to cooperate, a lack of commitment have the potential to lead to negative impact on the mentorship programme and affects farm production. Due to the fact that the mentorship programme applies a participatory approach, beneficiaries are at liberty to select their own mentor. They also have the opportunity to make input when a land use plan and a business plan are developed. Key words: Mentorship; beneficiary, land reform; agriculture; business plan; sustainability and recapitalisation.

Thesis (M. A. ( Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014. / Land reform is one of the heavily contested issues the world over as reflected in the literature discussion. It is an indisputable fact that land is crucial for human survival across cultures, races, gender, and beliefs. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of land reform on poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe, Mwenezi district in Chikomati and Dungwe villages. The problem which was under investigation was, ‘why is poverty seemed not to be alleviated/reduced despite the era of land reform?’ The impact of land reform on poverty alleviation was pointed out. The respondents were selected through snowballing (one potential respondent leads to the other respondent) and the data was collected through focus group discussions. The analysis was done through thematic analysis. The research found out that land reform alone cannot alleviate the expected fraction of poverty in any country in general and Zimbabwe in particular. There is need for all sectors of the economy to join hands in order to alleviate poverty, for example, education, health, agriculture, finance, and many more. Swathes of land alone had proved that it is not enough to reduce poverty unless underpinned with other sectors. Rapid reforms are needed in social, economic, and political spheres in order for land reform programme to deliver positive results to the beneficiaries and the whole economy at large. Facts on the ground in Zimbabwe are that mere distribution of land cannot on its own alleviate poverty, but the fact remains that land reform is an irreplaceable arrow in poverty reduction.

How do teachers respond to being told by the state what to teach? Whilst some suggest prescription can be instrumental in rapid system improvements, others believe that it has a deleterious effect on the profession. In this study, I firstly look at whether South Africa can be classified as a system increasing its levels of prescription and secondly consider how such an approach may affect teachers. Detailed investigation of policy documents finds that South African primary mathematics is an example of ‘unprescribed prescription’, typified by documents with hugely detailed teaching and learning practices but which are never made sufficiently mandatory. Studies of teachers’ responses to prescriptive educational reform are hindered by stereotypes, often based around teachers’ unwillingness to change. In-depth interviews allow the study to explore the positive and negative effects which teachers’ professional identities have upon decisions regarding policy reform. Equally, far from being passive in their reception of change, teachers displayed highly-ordered and well-reasoned viewpoints on how educational change should be successful. This allowed me to place teachers into four discrete categories according to their response to prescription and the implications of these categories for policy makers are put forward.

Magister Legum - LLM / In the past, analyses of Uganda’s Transitional Justice legal and policy measures on truth-seeking have been focussed on evaluating the efficacy of a truth commission. However, being cognizant of the limitations entailed in taking that approach, this research adopts a more comprehensive examination of the problem, assessing the viability of all the known truth-seeking avenues and the opportunities they present in enabling Uganda to effectively address the challenge of enforcing accountability for past violations. The research uses a doctrinal study to demonstrate that even if Uganda were to adopt a truth commission as a truth-seeking initiative, there are no guarantees for its success. In fact, the research illustrates that, given the political context of there being no actual transition, a truth commission is more likely to fail and may only be used to achieve political rather than truth and justice objectives. Yet, the research finds that the current Transitional Justice discourse and the recent enactment of the National Transitional Justice Policy 2019 present good opportunity for the incorporation of traditional justice mechanisms into Uganda’s formal justice processes to enhance their truth-seeking capability.

Thesis (MPAM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Globally, land reform has been a burning issue and where it was implemented, it has resulted in both successes and failures. The problems that engulf land reform illustrate that government’s programmes often fail to address the socio-economic conditions of the land claimants. As such, this study undertook to examine government interventions in addressing beneficiaries affected by land restitution in Limpopo province with specific reference to Tshifhefhe community located in Makhado Local Municipality. The study is an examination of governmental interventions in addressing beneficiaries affected by land restitution. The institutional mechanisms used to support land restitutions are considered for discussion. The study focused mainly at the Tshifhefhe community in Limpopo province where the need to restore the land forcibly taken from the community was considered. The restoration is necessary for improvement of their wellbeing, intensification of democracy and emancipation as well as restoration of previously marginalised people. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a case study design. The utilised approach described and explored Tshifhefhe beneficiaries’ perceptions, attitudes, views and feelings about the government’s interventions in their restored land. The findings point to the fact that government has been found to have provided inadequate support in terms of training on land management, marketing and administration of these beneficiaries including the Tshifhefhe restituted land. It is recommended that the government should intervene in the restored land projects by providing capacity building programmes, assessment of failures and successes in other restored land, mentoring, development and implementation of progressive and sustainable land policies and programmes.

The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate how the London Corresponding Society, during the last decade of the 18th Century, sought Parliamentary reform that would end the system of government controlled and corrupted by the rich English landholding gentry.

No description available.

PhD - Political Studies / In this thesis, the following methods were used to assess the South African Land Reform Programme; historically important documents, policy papers, library research, qualitative interviews and a comparative analysis, which included a wide range of African, Asian and Latin American countries. The aim of the thesis was twofold. First, to assess whether an essentially market-based land reform programme might bring about equity and growth. Second, to draw lessons and make recommendations based on an analysis of land reform programmes in other countries, as well as on South African case studies. Emerging issues related to farm size, food security, poverty alleviation, appropriate credit policies, the limitations of market-based reform, the problems relating to bureaucratic reform programmes, the importance of beneficiary participation, the necessity to develop a gender sensitive programme and, finally, the undeniable relationship between violence and land reform. This thesis highlights the link between the omission of gender in policy development and subsequent policy failures. It highlights the relationship between land reform and violence and, it points to the varied nature of rural livelihoods. There is also a focus on how South African land reform policies developed and an analysis of the influence that the various actors, who participated in this process, had on subsequent

Task-based instruction has been a promising method of instruction advocated by mathematics education researchers over the past twenty years. However traditional curricula constitute a majority of the curricula utilized in the United States. The purpose of this study is to identify the problems reform oriented novice teachers face when utilizing a traditional curriculum to plan task-based lessons. In order to identify these problems three novice teachers' interactions with curricula were observed and characterized using the frameworks of past researchers. Through analysis of teachers' textbook interaction practices it was found that teachers struggled to plan task-based lessons due to issues encountered finding/constructing mathematical tasks, and due to problems associated with being naturally oriented toward procedures while utilizing a traditional curriculum.

In August of 2007, Los Angeles Unified School District embarked on a new journey under the leadership of Superintendent David Brewer toward improving the achievement of some of Los Angeles’ lowest performing schools. By establishing a partnership with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, the goal of the improvements was to form a team of talented and experienced educators who would identify schools whose majority of teachers would be willing to be led and supported by these experienced educators under an umbrella organization called the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in agreement with United Teachers of Los Angeles. The Deputy Mayor, Ramon Cortines, recruited me, the researcher of this study, to serve as Superintendent of Instruction of the Partnership in February of 2008. For two and a half years, I, along with 28 team members worked tenaciously to develop and implement a model that would accelerate achievement. While there were numerous initiatives and programs attempting to improve student performance in the lowest performing schools, no initiative in the district alleviated teachers from the day-to- day constraints of district policies and procedures. The reform model developed by the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools was the focus of this research. An analysis of the implementation of the Partnership Model at one particular site, Excellence Elementary School, yielded results that examined if the Partnership Model was able to successfully transform outcomes in an underperforming school.