M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / The construct of this study consists of the perceptions and experiences of the teachers and students of initial reading at Sizwile School for the Deaf in urban South Africa. This investigation focuses on a Sub B class, in which Sign Language is the means of communication. The research design is exploratory and descriptive as it aims to explore, describe and clarify the children's apprehension of reading. This could yield new knowledge which is rooted in a specific and complex context. The process is conducted by means of a case study (monographic study) design which includes mostly qualitative methods for data collection. The rationale for this study is that respondents' personal (ernic) views, obtained from a "bottom-up" research mode could bring more light to the body of knowledge of deaf education in South Africa. Insufficient rigorous research, the lack of educational policy, lack of more input in South African curriculum for the deaf and limited cohesive instructional theory in South African deaf education motivated the researcher to initiate this investigation. The rationale of this stidy thus circulated from the theoretical and physical context of deaf education in South Africa, as well as the researcher's personal experiential knowledge as a teacher in the only school for the deaf around Soweto (a Black Township). The research question in this inquiry has been conceptualised in a maze of conflicting opinions and practices regarding the education of the deaf and the teaching of initial reading. The experiences, activities and perceptions of a single class within a school for the deaf was explored and described argumentatively in the light of contemporary theories on language, learning, reading and deaf education. Perspectives on learning to read are discussed in order to contextualise the individual's learning to read. Also included are theories of language and of learning, presented to provide a backdrop against which the practices in deaf education will be discussed. Language is subsequently discussed as medium of communication in the education process, with a closer focus on instruction in the first language (Sign Language) of the deaf child. The other part of the conceptual framework covers reading across the curriculum. The theoretical framework is presented as support structure for the research construct and also to problematise the research question (problem) from complementary angles.

Text in English / There is increasing reliance on youth mentoring in South Africa to help the young person better negotiate life's difficulties. Within the framework of Social Cognitive and Social Learning theories, mentoring is viewed as a learning process in which modelling, scaffolding and cooperative dialogue are key to behavioural change and improved academic performance. However, little research has assessed the efficacy of South African mentoring programmes. This study aimed to examine the effect of the Educhange Research Foundation mentorship programme on the behaviour and academic performance of mentees over a six (6) month period. Mentees in Grades 9 to 12 (n = 18), parents/guardians (n = 18), and mentors (n=19) participated in the study. Parents/guardians reported significantly decreased numbers of behavioural problems (Z = -2.087, p = .037) amongst mentees but academic performance fell significantly (Z-3.661, p=.000). The variability in reports of behavioural change is accounted for by using Social Cognitive and Social Learning constructs including the conditions under which modelling took place as well as expectancy bias and the quality of cooperative dialogue. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

M.A. (Applied Linguistics & Literary Theory) / This study examined the language of religion in the black Pentecostal Charismatic Church, and particularly the predominant use of English as a medium of communication. A mixed methods design was deemed appropriate for this study. The sample comprised of church members and a senior pastor from a church in Pimville, Soweto (to be referred to as Church A). Individual interviews and focus groups were used to collect qualitative data; in addition, participant observation was used to supplement the qualitative data. Surveys were used to collect quantitative data. Information emanating from the data was analysed qualitatively using the process of content analysis, as well as quantitatively using a descriptive statistics package (SPSS). The findings suggest that the congregants are receptive to the use of English in the service and see it as an all-inclusive language. However, a majority of these indicated that an interpreting service from English to an indigenous language should be provided by the church. On the basis of these findings, strategies for accommodating the diverse language concerns of the congregation were espoused.

M.Ed. / In current times, the increasing demands of principalship and the complex challenges facing schools have led to the emergence of distributive forms of leadership in schools. The dissatisfaction with traditional models of leadership has resulted in a paradigm shift where leadership focus on the position of individuals in the hierarchy has been rejected in favour of collective leadership practices. In an era of democracy, distributive leadership continues to attract attention as a relevant model for the twenty-first century school. This study investigated teacher experiences and perceptions of the practice of distributive leadership in South African public primary schools in the Soweto region. The study was framed within a pragmatic paradigm using a mixed methods research design. An exploratory sequential strategy was used where the qualitative phase of data collection and analysis preceded the quantitative phase. The sample comprised teachers who were not formally appointed as leaders and did not belong to the school management teams. In the qualitative phase focus group interviews were conducted in three schools. Document analysis was conducted to support the interview findings. The quantitative phase tested the findings from the qualitative phase using a standardised questionnaire. Various themes and sub-themes emerged from the qualitative study. The first theme, leadership styles, revealed that principals practiced autocratic rather than participative styles of leadership. The autocratic style restricted principals from redistributing power to teachers and excluded teachers from decision-making processes. The second theme, school climate, indicated that the present leadership style led to a negative school climate which in turn had an adverse impact on staff relationships, teacher morale and motivation, job satisfaction as well as teaching and learning. The third theme that emerged was communication with teachers expressing the need for openness and transparency in decision-making. The fourth theme identified was barriers to teacher leadership. This was supported by sub-themes which pointed to the lack of opportunities for teacher leadership, teacher isolation in lesson planning, a heavy teacher workload, the need for power sharing and the need for the professional development of teacher leaders. Finally, the benefits of distributive leadership were identified as the fifth theme and teachers perceived that distributive leadership would have a positive impact on job satisfaction, encourage delegation and give them a voice in decision-making.

This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree Master of Architecture (Professional) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa , in the year 2015. / Shack fires in townships have been a prevalent issue within Johannesburg, especially as the Emergency Management Services are under strain due to a lack of fi re service amenities. A significant cause of these fires includes utilizing paraffin stoves for cooking in a high dense population. This is specifically relevant to the Soweto Township in Johannesburg and results in a large number of vulnerable residents. Research aims and objectives include uncovering a new typology for Johannesburg fire stations. This typology will aim to successfully integrate the community in order to simultaneously support the community in the event of shack fires as well as educate the community in terms of safe cooking, fire prevention and fire management. This typology might become a step in the right direc on in order for fire stations to evolve into non-bureaucratic architecture which blurs with functions that will create a 24-hour opera onal mixed-use building. Furthermore this will provide a sense of security to the surrounding community. Numerous fire stations in Johannesburg were visited in order to investigate how the current and conventional fire station typology integrates into the Johannesburg context, if at all. These visits included interviewing firefighters and volunteers who are employed at the stations by means of semi-structured informal interviews. It was discovered that the architectural typology of a fire station is in essence fluid and not fixed, it evolves with society. This is evident as the various fire stations studied in Johannesburg as well as international precedents have been blurred with educational, commercial, hospitality, cultural and even private upmarket residential programmes. In Soweto it was discovered that the three existing fire stations are all small and isolated from the community. Furthermore there is no centralized or main fire station in Soweto. This is needed for training facilities but more importantly to have a centralized control room which in turn will optimize response mes to all emergencies in the en re Soweto. Fire sta ons which created a sense of awareness and belonging to the community generally had lower fi re incident rates as ci zens were aware of the dangers of fi re (CSIR & DPSA, 2012). Fire policy initiatives within Soweto and the City of Johannesburg should thus engage all stakeholders. This especially includes educating and training community members in order to potentially have a network within the community which will fight fires in conjunction with the Johannesburg fire brigade. The proposed fi re sta on in Orlando West in Soweto thus includes a public market in a public park which sells equipment and fuel for safe cooking at discounted rates should you a end the educa onal seminars in the outdoor amphitheater which doubles up as a mul -functional space. Other areas of the park will be a food market. This will result in the inversion of the current bureaucratic architecture that we often encounter with fire stations. / EM2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Built Environment (Housing) / In South Africa, there is a group of families that live in small four-room houses that were transferred to them by the apartheid regime in 1978. As elsewhere in the developing world, many of these families are extended families which live together because they do not have any other options. This study explores the housing needs and living conditions of the Ndala family and three other extended families living in or near Pimville, Soweto. Structured interviews, observations and evaluation research are utilised to determine the extent to which poor extended families in South Africa are excluded from housing finance. Literature discussing self-help housing, livelihoods, poverty and enablement is presented in order to construct a theoretical framework, after which an overview of housing finance arrangements in the developed world, developing countries and South Africa in particular provides the backdrop against which the findings are discussed. The findings and analysis demonstrate that extended families such as those included in the study fall into a gap in the provisioning of housing finance in South Africa. They do not qualify for government housing assistance, and they also cannot obtain loan finance from banks because they do not meet the strict lending criteria. As a result, the extended families turn to non-conventional sources of income and finance such as rental income, loans from relatives and stokvel funds in order to survive and in some cases extend their houses. It is recommended at the end of the study that South Africa review its current housing policies. Specifically, the study recommends that a new strategy called “rent a room” be put into place in order to assist poor extended families like the Ndalas.

ABSTRACT Bjelkenbrant, Pernilla, 2006: ANC-galan i Göteborg 1985: en analys av sången Soweto som politisk mobilisering (The ANC gala in Gothenburg in 1985: an analysis of the song Soweto as a means of political mobilisation) The political scientists Abdul Karim Bangura, Ove Nordenmark and Tor Sellström, all believe that there, during the 1980s, existed a strong and unified “Swedish” attitude against the South African apartheid system, and Sellström points out that this position had a strong anchorage in the ANC gala in Gothenburg in 1985. Over the past few years, singing has been identified as playing a crucial role in the struggle against apartheid. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly it presents a comprehensive discussion on how song is generally considered a tool of political mobilisation, secondly it discusses how that process can be applied to the ANC-gala. Consequently, the theoretical discussion constitutes the initial part of the study. The purpose of this study is to explore how Mikael Wiehe’s lyrics Soweto, as a representative of the songs that were performed during the gala, mobilised support for the ANC within as well as outside the Swedish solidarity movement, and how Soweto contributed to creating and consolidating a unified attitude towards apartheid – an attitude that went beyond those different opinions on apartheid that existed in the Swedish debate. Starting out from the work of the historians Kim Salomon and Håkan Thörn, as well as the political scientist Immanuel Wallerstein, the study shows how the ANC-gala relates to the Swedish solidarity movement and the African National Congress (ANC). Explaining the gala as an area of definition processes and social interaction within which there are constantly created or defined more or less embracing identities, and thereby regarding the gala a collective sympathiser with the potential to strengthen the opinion for the Swedish solidarity work against apartheid, it is possible, when adding the political scientist Mark Mattern’s study, Acting in Concert: Music, Community, and Political Action, to create the theoretical framework needed to accomplish the second part of the study. In the initial study it is stated that song mobilises politically by telling stories about the past. Song works as a communicator and creator of identity as the author of a song integrates in it common experiences. To explore Soweto from that point of view there are developed a few questions that together provides us with the answers to what history Soweto presents, and how that history is being presented. In the latter part of the study it is stated that it is possible for a number of groups to identify with the past that is being presented in Soweto, and even though it appears how the song has the capacity to split common identities – that it debates divergent interests – it also becomes evident how it brings those same groups together in their various strives for an existence in peace. The reason for this seems to be the fact that Soweto presents universal concepts that everybody, no matter what affiliation or extent of knowledge in the apartheid issue, can relate to. This way, Soweto appeals to advocates as well as opponents of apartheid, in South Africa as well as in Sweden.

In the year of 2006 I moved to South Africa for a year, a land that has fascinated me because of its history. During the time of my stay I became very surprised how strongly apartheid permeates the community where the white South Africans today are building walls around themselves. Through media we get surrounded with pictures that media creates and to find information regarding what’s happening in the world this is, most often, the primary source. Therefore I believe it’s interesting to explore how two different local newspapers from the county of Kalmar, with two different ideologies, present pictures of the same event, namely the revolt of Soweto in 1976 and how these two newspapers relates to racial policies. The revolt of Soweto was a peaceful demonstration against the use of the language Afrikaans, where the police opened fire and killed many children’s and this was the beginning of a wave of dissatisfaction throughout the country. In my review I’m using a comparative method where I’m comparing the articles from these newspapers with each other. I’m also using a postcolonial theory as guidance to understand the racial conflicts in South Africa.

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Bjelkenbrant, Pernilla, 2006: ANC-galan i Göteborg 1985: en analys av sången Soweto som politisk mobilisering (The ANC gala in Gothenburg in 1985: an analysis of the song Soweto as a means of political mobilisation)</p><p>The political scientists Abdul Karim Bangura, Ove Nordenmark and Tor Sellström, all believe that there, during the 1980s, existed a strong and unified “Swedish” attitude against the South African apartheid system, and Sellström points out that this position had a strong anchorage in the ANC gala in Gothenburg in 1985. Over the past few years, singing has been identified as playing a crucial role in the struggle against apartheid. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly it presents a comprehensive discussion on how song is generally considered a tool of political mobilisation, secondly it discusses how that process can be applied to the ANC-gala. Consequently, the theoretical discussion constitutes the initial part of the study. The purpose of this study is to explore how Mikael Wiehe’s lyrics Soweto, as a representative of the songs that were performed during the gala, mobilised support for the ANC within as well as outside the Swedish solidarity movement, and how Soweto contributed to creating and consolidating a unified attitude towards apartheid – an attitude that went beyond those different opinions on apartheid that existed in the Swedish debate.</p><p>Starting out from the work of the historians Kim Salomon and Håkan Thörn, as well as the political scientist Immanuel Wallerstein, the study shows how the ANC-gala relates to the Swedish solidarity movement and the African National Congress (ANC). Explaining the gala as an area of definition processes and social interaction within which there are constantly created or defined more or less embracing identities, and thereby regarding the gala a collective sympathiser with the potential to strengthen the opinion for the Swedish solidarity work against apartheid, it is possible, when adding the political scientist Mark Mattern’s study, Acting in Concert: Music, Community, and Political Action, to create the theoretical framework needed to accomplish the second part of the study.</p><p>In the initial study it is stated that song mobilises politically by telling stories about the past. Song works as a communicator and creator of identity as the author of a song integrates in it common experiences. To explore Soweto from that point of view there are developed a few questions that together provides us with the answers to what history Soweto presents, and how that history is being presented.</p><p>In the latter part of the study it is stated that it is possible for a number of groups to identify with the past that is being presented in Soweto, and even though it appears how the song has the capacity to split common identities – that it debates divergent interests – it also becomes evident how it brings those same groups together in their various strives for an existence in peace. The reason for this seems to be the fact that Soweto presents universal concepts that everybody, no matter what affiliation or extent of knowledge in the apartheid issue, can relate to. This way, Soweto appeals to advocates as well as opponents of apartheid, in South Africa as well as in Sweden.</p>

The main aim of this study was to explore the extent of freedom or lack thereof in the relationships of HIV positive pregnant women and their partners. These women were attending antenatal care in two Soweto clinics, run by the Perinatal HIV Research Unit. A semi-structured interview schedule was developed and used as the data collection tool. A theoretical framework based on Amartya Sen's theory of Development as Freedom and Isabel Apawo Phiri's theological reflections on women's freedom, was used to analyze data collected from the participants of the study. The ideas of the two theorists complemented each other with regard to the sources of "unfreedom" for women from an economic point of view and from the cultural and religious points of view. Sen highlighted lack of basic freedoms and human rights as the core causes of lack of freedom, which is both a primary means and principal ends of development. Phiri advocated for the liberation of women from the oppressive cultural and religious practices brought about by patriarchy. Removal of all those key sources of unfreedom would provide an ideal situation in which women would be less vulnerable to HIV infection. The analysis of the participants' responses in this study suggested a lack of freedom in their relationships with the fathers of their unborn babies. This had an adverse effect in their ability to disclose their HIV positive status, negotiate safer sex and contraception. Economic dependency on the partners was found to be the major cornerstone that kept women in bondage in their relationships. The churches in Soweto did not seem to have any plausible impact in the lives of the participants and as a result all of them had very loose links with the church. This was another major gap in the initiatives to reduce HIV infection which challenges the churches in Soweto to strengthen their prophetic ministry in terms of women's freedom and their dignity both in the church and in society. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007