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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the validity of arguments highlighting the inadequacy of existing theories to explain Third World and specifically African realities, criticism has perpetuated, rather than disarmed, status quo theories. This is because focus on (and thus within) the existing conceptual framework has impeded vision beyond these barriers, thereby hampering the formation of new, more applicable theories. The intellectual balance of power and methodological hegemony of the West is perpetuated, on the African continent through Western monopoly over course content in tertiary education as well as the preferences of publishers for Africanist rather than African contributions. This study provides a critical assessment of scholarly dominance on the topic of Africa in order contribute to a greater understanding of the dynamics acting to exclude non-Western ideas and experiences from the IR narrative. The study provides a content analysis of 25 peer-rated influential journals publishing IR content for the period January 2000 to August 2010. The aim was to identify dominant themes and scholars on the topic of Africa in IR. General biographical information on the five highest ranking scholars in terms of publication exposure was gathered in order to assess networks of academic and professional affiliation that could have contributed to their publishing success. Dominant themes vary between African, Third World and international-oriented journals. Governance is a prevalent theme throughout, but African journals prefer intervention to the international journals’ preoccupation with conflict in Africa. Third World Journals place development first. The five most prolific authors are Ian Taylor, Kevin C. Dunn, Cameron G. Thies, Nana K. Poku and Chris Alden. They are all currently lecturing at either American or British academic institutions and are all Africanists, save for Poku who is a diasporic African. Networks of affiliation are established through institutions of higher education primarily and through societal memberships. The internet does not seem to be an important tool of networking amongst Africanists. Dominant authors tend to collaborate, serve as article reviewers or on editorial boards of journals for which they also submit articles, and as research grant proposal reviewers, thus also constituting the gatekeepers in academia. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van geldige argumente wat aanvoer dat bestaande teorieë nie in staat is daartoe om Derdewêreld ervarings – spesifiek dié van Afrika – genoegsaam te begryp nie, het kritiek eerder hierdie teorieë versterk as ontsetel. Dit is omdat fokus op (en dus vanuit) bestaande teoretiese raamwerke die oorweging van elemente buite hierdie raamwerke onmoontlik maak, en sodoende die ontstaan van nuwe, meer verteenwoordigende raamwerke, teenwerk. Die intellektuele magsbalans en metodologiese hegemonie van die Weste word voortgesit, selfs op die Afrika kontinent, deur Westerse monopolie oor die kursusinhoude van tersiêre instansies, sowel as deur die voorkeur wat Afrikaniste se bydraes geniet bo dié van Afrikane vir publikasie. Hierdie studie bied ‘n kritiese analise van dominansie in kundigheid oor die onderwerp van Afrika om sodoende by te dra tot ‘n meer omskrywende geheelbeeld van die dinamiek wat nie-Westerse idees en ervarings uitsluit tot die diskoers van Internasionale Betrekkinge. Die navorsing is in die vorm van ‘n inhoudsanalise van 25 invloedryke joernale wat inhoud relevant tot Internasionale Betrekkinge publiseer, vir die periode Januarie 2000 tot Augustus 2010. Die doel is om dominante temas en kundiges oor die onderwerp van Afrika se internasionale betrekkinge te identifiseer. Biografiese inligting oor die vyf mees bedrewe kundiges in terme van publikasies is ingesamel om die netwerke van akademiese en professionele affiliasie wat moontlik tot hulle status kon bydra, te assesseer. Dominante temas verskil tussen Afrika-, Derdewêreld- en internasionaal-georiënteerde joernale. Regeerkunde is deurgaans ‘n prominente tema, maar die Afrika-joernale verkies intervensie teenoor die internasionale joernale se fokus op konflik in Afrika. Derdewêreld-joernale plaas meer klem op ontwikkeling. Die vyf mees bedrewe outeurs is Ian Taylor, Kevin C. Dunn, Cameron G. Thies, Nana K. Poku en Chris Alden. Hulle is almal lektore by Amerikaanse of Britse akademiese instansies en, behalwe vir Poku wat deel van die Afrika diaspora vorm, is hulle almal Afrikaniste. Netwerke van affiliasie word deur instansies van hoër opleiding of lidmaatskap aan professionele assosiasies bewerkstellig. Die internet is klaarblyklik nie ‘n baie belangrik instrument in kontakbouing vir Afrikaniste nie. Dominante outeurs is geneig om saam te skryf, hulle is dikwels die artikelkeurders vir joernale of dien op die redaksie en tree ook dikwels in ‘n hoedanigheid van keurders van navorsingsbefondsing op. As sulks is hulle gelyk die dominante akademici as die waghonde van die ivoortoring.

College enrollment is experiencing an upward trend; however, the quality of institutions selected by minority students remains a question. Promising minority students are failing to select high quality colleges and universities, despite academic components that would leave them otherwise qualified for admission. In fact, nearly 80% of high academic achieving low-income, minority students under match when selecting a college or university (Obama & Obama, 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine the factors leading to selection of institution for Gates Millennium Scholars while examining the relationship between college selection and socioeconomic status, cost, high school grade point average (GPA), family support, need for achievement, self efficacy, persistence, advisement, and technology for Gates Millennium Scholars. Pearson Correlation was utilized to examine survey data collected from 87 Gates Millennium Scholars. The implications of collection selection for low- income, minority students are significant in understanding the needs of this highly diverse student population. This study sought to identify the variables that significantly impact college selection for low-income minority students.

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Adjunct faculty teach over 50% of courses in U.S. higher education but little is known about them as educators. Strong evidence has been found in the K-12 literature demonstrating the link between teachers’ beliefs, instructional practices, and subsequent student outcomes. Teaching self-efficacy, beliefs in one’s capabilities to perform specific tasks in a particular context, is an important contributor to motivation and performance (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998). This research advances teaching and learning literature in higher education and provides insight into an understudied population of educators by exploring adjunct faculty’s teaching self-efficacy and factors that influence those beliefs. In this mixed methods study, an explanatory sequential design was used to explore teaching-self efficacy among adjunct faculty at a Mid-Atlantic community college. Adjunct faculty were surveyed using the College Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (Prieto Navarro, 2006). Data were selected from the surveys for further explanation in subsequent interviews. Quantitative and qualitative data were merged to form an overall interpretation of teaching self-efficacy and factors that influenced those beliefs. Teaching self-efficacy was highest in creating a positive learning environment, followed by overall teaching self-efficacy, and then instructional skills. Assessing student learning was rated lowest. Adjunct faculty with fewer than five years teaching experience had lower self-efficacy scores than those teaching for six or more years. Mastery experiences and feedback from students and full-time faculty mentors emerged as the most influential sources of teaching self-efficacy. Student evaluations and attending Convocation were positively correlated with scores in overall teaching self-efficacy, instructional skills, and creating a positive learning environment. Adjunct faculty identified working to accommodate the needs of a diverse range of learners as the most significant challenge to teaching self-efficacy followed by challenges related to working conditions including inadequate pay and job insecurity. Key recommendations for promoting adjunct faculty’s teaching self-efficacy beliefs include increasing opportunities for interaction with departmental colleagues to share best practices and teaching resources, and offering trainings at flexible times and in creative formats on instructional skills, assessment practices, and learning theories. Improving onboarding processes, recognizing different needs of adjunct faculty based on experience, and reassessing pay and employment structures are also needed.

Twenty-first century schools are complex organizations that serve individual students’ needs while meeting accountability and assessment demands. Effective leadership balances these diverse responsibilities through collective work of the shareholders in order to assure high levels of learning for all. This qualitative study examined Response to Intervention (RTI) implementation in two high performing high schools in Kentucky. Both schools were classified as distinguished on the 2014-15 Kentucky School Report Card. One school has a long-standing tradition of high performance. The other school’s journey to high performance involved moving from a Needs Improvement School to a School of Distinction. The 4-D Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Theory was used to explore the collective leadership practices of the two high schools. Data collection instruments and protocols followed the four AI phases (discover, dream, design, and deliver). Data were collected through observations, site visits, artifact reviews, individual interviews and and focus groups. The effective schools characteristics, RTI core traits, and collective leadership practices provided the context for the study design. In studying the RTI implementation process, evidence of effective schools characteristics, RTI core traits, and collective leadership practices were observed. Both schools focused intentionally on core instruction as an integral part of the RTI implementation process. The data concluded that the schools continue to make progress in meeting more students’ needs. Both schools have strategic plans to discover, dream, design, and deliver new ways to maximize the collective strengths of the school community. Evidence of each phase of AI emerged in the stories, conversations, and artifacts at both schools.

Rather than being located in a field of art that addresses genocide through assumptions connected with identity issues or activism, this thesis of an artist’s exploration of artistic response to genocide in post World War II art practice, is informed by the emerging field of genocide scholarship. Seeing a parallelism between the concerns of genocide scholars and artists who respond to genocide, this thesis is an interdisciplinary study of art positioned alongside the field of genocide scholarship, as theorised by scholars such as Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses. In addressing genocide through broader historical trends, periods and structures, it assumes that artists who respond to genocide share with genocide scholars a concern about genocide at a secondary level and share the potential to create illumination in the field. This thesis explores art practices that address genocide conceptually through structure and material. The central claim of this thesis is that recent and contemporary art practices, here discussed, show a concern to respond to genocide as an ethical response, and that they do so by engaging with the complexity of abstract issues such as complicity and agency. The initial analysis of Adorno’s discourse on ethics, as it relates to response in art, sets up a level of complexity for two further investigations that interrogate the discourses of victim representation and lens-based documents of genocide through ethics and agency. Together these provide an analytical framework for the project. Close readings informed by genocide scholarship, of art practices including those of Jimmie Durham and Francis Alÿs, take forward notions in the existing critical field. These readings yield not only the evidence that demonstrates a commitment to creating ethically based art through conceptually informed practice, in artists responding to genocide, but also the value of a cultural critique that is informed by genocide scholarship.