This paper investigates ideas and expectations by the mother, grandfather and teacher of monozygotic twins  about  their  development,  considering  the sociocultural constructivist perspective. Through an interpretive-qualitative analysis, categories were constructed inferred from participant’s narratives. Results show that: a) cultural and educational prac- tices carried out within school and family contexts depend on adults’ beliefs about twinship;b) such practices may have fundamental impact over the development of subjectivity of each child; c) there are divergences about beliefs and expectations held by family and school contexts about twins’ behaviors and performances; d) there is a dialogical tension between promoting similarity and/or individuation/differentiation processes. / El artículo analiza las teorías y creencias de la madre, abuela y profesora de gemelos monocigóticos sobre su desarrollo, considerando la perspectiva sociocultural constructivista. Se construyeron categorías a través de una análisis interpretativo-cualitativo de las entrevistas. Los resultados señalan que a) las prácticas culturales y educativas en la escuela y la familia dependen de las creencias que tienen los adultos sobre la condición de gemelaridad; b) dichas prácticas parecen tener un gran impacto sobre el desarrollo de las subjetividades de los gemelos; c) existen divergencias en cuando a las creencias y expectativas de la familia y de la escuela en relación al comportamiento y desempeño de los niños; d) existe una tensión dialógica entre promover una similitud en los procesos de individuación.

Betweenness is a project questioning the relation between us and what we surround us with. To reveal our assumptions around artifacts and by doing so create an conversation between us viewers/ users and the objects themselves. Who owns the dialogue: the object or the viewer? Taking a deeper dive into the symbols and languages of objects, the quiet voices they posses and the functions surfaces, the visualization circle around words such as visual function, ornamentation,  material displacement and attraction.  By trying to convey the objects “inner thoughts” and creating a dialogue it pushes our ideas of what is desirable, what is strange, what is useful or even beautiful. The trick is in the contrast between what we see and what we know, bordering into imaginary, creating voices for ambiguous objects.

The purpose of this study was to explore, describe and explain the transitions of individuals within a twinship from Grade R through to Grade 2, and thus offer an in-depth description of such participants’ transition experiences and perspectives. I focused my investigation on the overall transitions of the individuals within a twinship from Grade R through to Grade 2, and included variables such as stress, stressors, emotions, coping, and life skills. In this qualitative research study, I used a case study research design and conducted the research from both an interpretivist and social constructivist point of view. The primary participants in the research were two monozygotic individuals within a twinship (boys), their mother, and their Grade R, Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers. I commenced the fieldwork when the individuals within a twinship were in Grade R and five years old, and tracked their transitions through until their Grade 2 year when they were eight years old. During their Grade R year, I taught the individuals within a twinship certain life skills by utilizing creative, age-appropriate worksheets and play activities. I continued to utilize such activities as a catalyst for collecting data throughout their Grade 1 and Grade 2 years. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with their mother and teachers. During visits to their school, I also observed the individuals within a twinship in their natural setting. The findings of the study suggest that the transition of the individuals within a twinship effected mainly trouble-free transitions from Grade R through to Grade 2 largely because of their positive attitudes and behaviour, their self-confidence, their pleasure in tackling new experiences, the security and support they enjoyed as co-individuals within a twinship, their satisfying friendships, the positive qualities of their teachers, the learned life skills, their realistic expectations of Grade 1 and Grade 2, and their ability to cope satisfactorily with their academic work. The negative stressors during these transitions were bullies and the disruption caused by disobedient children. A key finding of this study was that the transition of the individuals within a twinship to Grade 2 was, to some extent, more stressful than their transition to Grade 1 because of more demanding academic expectations in Grade 2. In spite of this, they characterized their Grade 2 holistically as enjoyable and rewarding. The learned life skills helped them to cope with various stressors, though the overall support structures of the individuals within a twinship were most influential in their largely trouble-free transitions from Grade R through to Grade 2. The learned life skills enabled the participants to deal successfully with bullies, to develop rewarding friendships, and with emotional control. It was apparent throughout this research that the individuals within a twinship enjoyed all the advantages of supportive social structures including a stable and safe home and school environment, This resulted in good relationships with each other, their parents siblings, teachers and friends. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

This thesis deals with twins in a socio-cultural perspective and the main aim is to explain, how stereotyping of twins influences the perception of twin identity in twins. The theoretical and empirical work includes a theoretical part explaining the key terms and concepts (eg. twins, history of twin studies, social perception and stereotyping of twins) and an empirical part based on a qualitative research survey, supplemented by knowledge from the theoretical part. The empirical study introduces the methodological process of the research survey and the resulting results, which comes from the analysis of interviews by ten respondents. Key words: twins, twinship, stereotyping, social perception, identity, identification