Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, significant progress has been made with regards to access to higher education. However, widening participation to under-represented groups in science and technology fields, with special reference to Biological Sciences, still remains a challenge. Despite the growing number of black students in this programme, there is still a substantial gap in terms of the enrolment numbers of student from this racial group in the Biological Sciences. This research is a case study carried out in the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria, which is a historically white institution with a strong Afrikaans culture. The study used Osborne and Gallacher’s (2004) framework of getting in and getting through to explore access policy at this institution in relation to widening participation in Biological Sciences. The findings showed that, while there has been progress with regards to physical and epistemological access, getting in to Biological Sciences still proves difficult to attain, especially for black male students from under-represented groups, including those from township and rural areas. The challenges related to getting in are compounded by various factors. These include inadequate preparation of learners for university studies such as limited preparation for natural science studies, limited exposure to science laboratories, inadequate career guidance resulting in wrong subject mix, late submission of application forms and the ‘walk–in’ phenomenon. Funding is crucial for facilitating access to Biological Sciences but it is hard to come by and insufficient for students from low socioeconomic groups. The government initiated funding have potential to help needy students with talent but it is not sufficient to cover both tuition and residence fees. In addition to the financial assistance that the university offers, it also provides a strong academic and psychosocial support to students, particularly in first year in Biological Sciences. Both academic and psychosocial support are factors enabling access and widening participation in Biological Sciences. They also underpin getting through. However, students in residences tend to benefit more from these support initiatives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that only 5% of U.S. workers are employed in fields related to science and engineering, yet they are responsible for more than 50% of our sustained economic expansion (U.S Department of Labor, 2007). Furthermore, minorities makeup 0.0025 % (1/400) of that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. Methods are currently underway to understand and address the attrition of minority students in the STEM workforce. The problem of underrepresentation of minorities (URMs) in STEM careers continues to result in a “leaky pipeline” where URMs have cited institutional factors such “chilly campus” climates as barriers to persistence and success (Tinto, 1993 Astin, 1993, Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). Despite the “separate but equal” challenge surrounding the early establishment of US educational institutions, the US remains a model for accessible and affordable education. Social equity concerning URM student outcomes in STEM has become a prominent topic of discussion. Researchers and practitioners seek to understand why the growing disparity exists for minority students as this underserved population represents those that higher education has been least successful in educating (Bensimon, 2007). This daunting assertion of disparate educational attainment by race and ethnicity is alarming. In this study the researcher used archived data and web content analysis to conduct a quantitative study to understand the effect of institutional constructs on the graduation rate of African American students pursing engineering degrees. The research model included hypotheses resulting from independent institutional variables of African American engineering students, institutional size and type, institutional endowment and social equity initiatives. The dependent variable of African American engineering student graduation rates was considered in relation to each independent variable. To answer research questions 1 and 2, descriptive statistics were used to analyze data that provided a comprehensive description of the institutions’ resources and social equity initiatives. Spearman’s Rho with ordinal variables and a small number of cases were computed to analyze the data. This analysis revealed a positive correlation between the numbers of social equity initiatives and engineering graduation rates of African American students at PWI southeast land-grant colleges and universities located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. The outcomes of this study help to expand the literature on underrepresented minority (URM) STEM retention in higher education. Understanding the effects of institutional constructs on the success of African American engineering students allows for the implementation of effective intervention strategies that will help to increase the pipeline of well-prepared African American engineers for the global STEM workforce.

No / Online games require small data of 3D models for low storage costs, quick transmission over the Internet, and efficient geometric processing to achieve real-time performance, and new techniques of facial blendshapes to create natural facial animation. Current geometric modelling and animation techniques involve big data of geometric models and widely applied facial animation using linear interpolation cannot generate natural facial animation and create special facial animation effects. In this paper, we propose a new approach to integrate the strengths of ODE (ordinary differential equation) sweeping surfaces and Newton's second law-based facial blendshapes to create 3D models and their animation with small data, high efficiency, and ability to create special facial effects.

No description available.

The Swedish Library Act stipulates the libraries responsibility to pay specific attention to people with impairments. However, no explicit definition of impairments or disability is offered. Findings in previous disability research show that using the term disability without connection to a theoretical framework leads to an understanding of disability as a phenomenon simply caused by the impairments of individuals rather than aspects of the environment. In the everyday usage disability is thereby commonly determined by visually overt signifiers as wheelchairs or hearing aids. “Invisible” impairments and social or relational aspects of disability is seldom accounted for. In this study, ten randomly selected present public library plans were analyzed through a discourse analysis, focusing on how disability is perceived in the plans. Findings show that disability is predominantly understood as a phenomenon caused by impairments connected to individuals and that these individuals usually come in second place when library services are planned and designed. Furthermore, the design of library services is also depicted as something that could cause disability, especially aspects of the physical environment and alternative formats to facilitate reading are in focus. The acknowledgement of attitudinal or relational aspects of disabilities were not visible in the plans that were analyzed. The overall emerging picture is thus a traditional view of what libraries and library use are, as well as a traditional view of what causes disability. Nevertheless, the responsibility to pay specific attention to people with disabilities is evident and a strong connection to human rights is thereby visible.

Since 2007, about 300 unaccompanied children have annually disappeared in Sweden. This study investigates whether authorities are aware of the problem and how they look at risks, responsibilities and causes of disappearance of unaccompanied children. This is done through a combination of text analyzes of relevant reports as well as qualitative interviews of selected social service professionals and the National Method support against prostitution and human trafficking. The empirical findings have been analyzed with the help of Michael Lipsky’s (2010) Street-Level Bureaucracy theory and Carol Bacchi’s (2009) what’s the problem represented to be – approach. There seem to be a mixed awareness amongst those who are dealing with the problem that unaccompanied refugees disappear. There seems to be, however, a national goal as well as a local interest, to improve the preventive work against the problem that unaccompanied refugee children disappear. Yet the results show that other aspects and participants are to be considered for an extensive understanding of the problem.

Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka skolpolitiken som låg till grund för Lgy 70 och Lpf 94. Specifikt fokus låg på att i utredningsmaterialet undersöka politikens styrande effekter genom att utifrån argumenten blottlägga dess människo- och kunskapssyn. Metoden som har använts var Carol Lee Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be?-approach. I uppsatsen har en analys av diskursen genomförts på det material som ligger till grund för de nämnda läroplanerna. Undersökningen har funnit att den övergripande problemtiken gällande gymnasieskolorna var att gymnasiet framställdes som omodernt och icke-anpassningsbart till samhället. Dock var det en specifik grupp elever som utgjorde problemet och som skolan var tvungen att anpassas till. Gruppen varierade mellan de olika tidsperioderna, men innefattade dem som inte klarade av skolan i dess dåvarande form. Lösningarna på den av utredningarna antagna problematiken riktades oftast mot den här gruppen och medförde att elevernas valfrihet ökades. Denna valfrihet var dock en strategi som staten använde för att styra in eleverna mot en av staten sedd ”rätt” utbildning. Den underliggande människo- och kunskapssynen i samtliga utredningar var behavioristisk. Utredningarna antog att ungdomarna till stor del påverkades av sin bakgrund och sociala klass i valet av utbildning. Slutsatser som dras är att gymnasieskolan anpassas för arbetsmarknadens behov. Utbildning anses göra ungdomarna mer kvalificerade för yrkesverksamhet. För dem som inte klarar av detta måste skolan anpassas. Således reformerades gymnasieskolan efter de lågpresterande eleverna. / The purpose of this paper was to examine the Swedish school policies that formed the basis for the curriculums Lgy 70 and Lpf 94. Specific focus was on finding the governing effects in the exanimated material by extracting its view on humans and knowledge. The method used was Carol Lee Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be?-approach. With this method authors conducted an analysis of the discourse in the material. The investigation of the material found that the overall problem concerning the Upper secondary school was their portrayal as outdated and non-adaptive to the society of that time. However, a group of students were represented to be the problem to which the school needed to adapt. The content of the group differed between the two time-periods (the 1960s and the 1990s), but the group included those who were not capable of managing the school of that time. The solutions to the, by the investigations assumed problem, were directed towards this group of student and resulted in an increased freedom of choice for them. This freedom of choice was however a control strategy used by the government to direct student towards a, by the government considered, “proper” education. The underlying view of humans and knowledge was a behavioural one. The exanimated investigations assumed that young people were largely influenced by their background and social class in their choice of education. In conclusion the Swedish upper secondary school were adapted to the demands of the labour market. Education was considered to make the students more qualified for their future life as workers. The school needed to adapt to those who were not capable of this.

Student Number : 0413402D - MA research report - Faculty of Humanities / This research report focuses on how Kekelwa Nyaywa, a Zambian novelist has represented Zambian women within a span ranging from the colonial up to the independence period. Within the first chapter, a brief history of the Zambian nation is highlighted and a theoretical framework established. Chapter two engages with Nyaywa’s use of romance to make a commentary on the idea of nationalism. By so doing she redefines the concept of romance which has invariably been associated with ‘frivolity’. The third chapter revolves around Chipembi boarding school which the author uses to feminize key issues in the Zambian society. The pivot of the chapter is that this space is a metaphor for women’s liberation in Zambia. HIV/AIDS fueled by a ‘macho syndrome’ emerges in the fourth chapter as the single biggest threat to Zambian women’s lives. Finally, the conclusion investigates the trends of feminism that the author foregrounds in the book.

The use of civil dialogue has increased in Sweden during the past decades. Civil dialogue is advocated by important operators as the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and promoted in the Official Reports of the Swedish Government as a way forward for the Swedish democracy. The aim of this study is to examine what the civil dialogue is trying to solve and how it´s supposed to work as a solution. This study carries out a discourse analysis using poststructural theory as Laclau & Mouffes discourse theory and Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be to analyse three Swedish local policy’s on civil dialogue. The study can identify what´s the problem represented to be in the civil dialogue policy´s and identifies the civil dialogue discourse to be constructed by three nodal points to make sense. The study also identifies the specific subject positions represented within the local policy´s and come to the conclusion that civil dialogue not only involves people into politics but also act as a technique of govern and may have counterproductive effect.

This research is based on analyzing policys of the sparsely populated area (glesbygd) in Sweden formulated during cabinet of Reinfeldt and cabinet of Löfven. The purpose is to contribute knowledge about the sparsely populated areas construction thought the cabinets policys. The investigation has focused on what problems that has been constructed through policys, the causes behind the problems investigating through assumptions and presumptions, keywords and the dichotomy city/ sparsely populated area and the effects produced by the constructed problems. The method that has been used is a critical policy study (WPR) that is a kind of discursive analysis that is based on social constructive theory. The interest is furthermore to compare the two different governemnts to see similarities and differences. The result shows that the sparsely populated area has a negative development, the presumption and assumption is rooted in the sparsely populated area deviate from the city and that both the residents and the government are accountable to the represented problems. The results has been interpreted trough the theory center and periphery relation and urban preference that describe the results by thinking that there is a urban norm that permeate the thinking and agenda setting of the sparsely populated area.