The aim of this investigation was threefold : to determine origins and perceptions of the street child problem nationally and internationally ; to explore the way in which children experience life in the streets ; and to devise strategies to enable these children to develop optimally. Literature indicates that the street child phenomenon is a global issue that presents many challenges. It is a socio-educational problem precipitated by multi-factorial events in the home, community and by children's personality attributes. Street children experience rejection, suffering, shame and anxiety. Deprivation of an environment conducive to positive development leads to maladjustment, anti-social behaviour and marginalisation. The empirical research was undertaken by means of semi-structured interviews conducted among fourteen children of the Khayalethu shelter and by administering questionnaires in the community of Port Shepstone. The findings culminate in recommendations for suitable assistance programmes and strategies to handle the problem in South Africa. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.(Socio-Education)

Cloud computing allows on-demand provision, configuration and assignment of computing resources with minimum cost and effort for users and administrators. Managing the physical infrastructure that underlies cloud computing services relies on the need to provision and manage bare-metal computer hardware. Hence there is a need for quick loading of operating systems in bare-metal and virtual machines to service the demands of users. The focus of the study is on developing a technique to load these machines remotely, which is complicated by the fact that the machines can be present in different Ethernet broadcast domains, physically distant from the provisioning server. The use of available bare-metal provisioning frameworks require significant skills and time. Moreover, there is no easily implementable standard method of booting across separate and different Ethernet broadcast domains. This study proposes a new framework to provision bare-metal hardware remotely using layer 2 services in a secure manner. This framework is a composition of existing tools that can be assembled to build the framework.

Street children are present in every metropolitan city around the world. Their presence has provoked varied responses from academics, the media and others. However, despite the proliferation of responses, current solutions are not always commensurate with the resources expended in this area. Are current responses a part of the problem or a part of the solution? Following the precedence established by other researchers and calls for greater reflexivity, this study attempts to provide a critical analysis of selected South African writings on and about street children. Particular focus is accorded to how selected academic and popular writings construct street children. The specific aim is to facilitate an examination of the underlying discourses that inform South African writings on street children. The role that academic and popular writings fulfil in selectively maintaining the status quo over which their authors sometimes voice disapproval is also examined. Wherever possible the origins of such discourses and the powers that maintain them are referred to. The extent to which the discourses evident in writings on South African street children converge with the dominant discourses present in developmental psychology as a whole are reviewed. The complimentary techniques of transformative inquiry and discourse analysis are at the heart of the methodology in this study. As an analytical tool discourse analysis is used to deepen current understanding of perceptions of street children. Discourse analysis helps to chart the underlying discourses drawn on in texts and shows how writings have influenced, intentionally or otherwise, the perceptions of subjects of research. Transformative enquiry as a significant · complimentary, albeit implicit, feature of discourse analysis enables a reflection on the research process itself. Four main discourses are discussed, each of which is centred around several sub-discourses. The first discourse, "He who pays the piper calls the tune" involves an objectification of street children, conveying negative' images of street children. The second discourse, "St. Jude the Patron Saint of Lost Causes" is rooted in the ideas of hopelessness, helplessness, victimology and ubiquitousness. The third discourse, "natured versus nurtured" is located in ideas of biological determinism within which street children are described as bestial, abnormally sexual, inherently racially inferior and unresponsive to initiatives designed to provide shelter for them. The fourth discourse, "Us and them cum us against them" arises from ideas that view street children as inherently different to mainstream children and adults, thereby pitting street children against society at large and representing them as enemies. These four interrelated discourses ultimately converge to produce both enabling and constraining effects that are sometimes contradictory in nature. Discourses intended to render street children visible sometimes ironically make them and their plight invisible. The study is concluded with discussions of methodological limitations, suggestions for future investigation and the pyscho-emotive shifts I experienced during the research process. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Street children are present in every metropolitan city around the world. Their presence has provoked varied responses from academics, the media and others. However, despite the proliferation of responses, current solutions are not always commensurate with the resources expended in this area. Are current responses a part of the problem or a part of the solution? Following the precedence established by other researchers and calls for greater reflexivity, this study attempts to provide a critical analysis of selected South African writings on and about street children. Particular focus is accorded to how selected academic and popular writings construct street children. The specific aim is to facilitate an examination of the underlying discourses that inform South African writings on street children. The role that academic and popular writings fulfil in selectively maintaining the status quo over which their authors sometimes voice disapproval is also examined. Wherever possible the origins of such discourses and the powers that maintain them are referred to. The extent to which the discourses evident in writings on South African street children converge with the dominant discourses present in developmental psychology as a whole are reviewed. The complimentary techniques of transformative inquiry and discourse analysis are at the heart of the methodology in this study. As an analytical tool discourse analysis is used to deepen current understanding of perceptions of street children. Discourse analysis helps to chart the underlying discourses drawn on in texts and shows how writings have influenced, intentionally or otherwise, the perceptions of subjects of research. Transformative enquiry as a significant · complimentary, albeit implicit, feature of discourse analysis enables a reflection on the research process itself. Four main discourses are discussed, each of which is centred around several sub-discourses. The first discourse, "He who pays the piper calls the tune" involves an objectification of street children, conveying negative' images of street children. The second discourse, "St. Jude the Patron Saint of Lost Causes" is rooted in the ideas of hopelessness, helplessness, victimology and ubiquitousness. The third discourse, "natured versus nurtured" is located in ideas of biological determinism within which street children are described as bestial, abnormally sexual, inherently racially inferior and unresponsive to initiatives designed to provide shelter for them. The fourth discourse, "Us and them cum us against them" arises from ideas that view street children as inherently different to mainstream children and adults, thereby pitting street children against society at large and representing them as enemies. These four interrelated discourses ultimately converge to produce both enabling and constraining effects that are sometimes contradictory in nature. Discourses intended to render street children visible sometimes ironically make them and their plight invisible. The study is concluded with discussions of methodological limitations, suggestions for future investigation and the pyscho-emotive shifts I experienced during the research process. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Afrikaans text / Besorgdheid het in die gemeenskap bestaan oar die toenemende getalle kinders wat binne die stedelike konteks van Pretoria op straat leef en werk. Hierdie navorsing is onderneem om die behoeftes van die kinders aan te spreek en om alternatiewe wyses te vind om met hulle te werk. 'n Konteks is geskep sodat na hulle stemme geluister kon word. nag 'n alternatief tot "tradisionele" vorme van gesinsterapie bruikbaar is, op sekere voorwaardes, soos aangedui in hoofstuk vier. Sleutelwoorde: reflekterende span; "straatkinders"; ekosistemiese benadering; ekologie; epistemologie; konstruktivisme; objektivisme; kubernetika; sisteemteorie; mikro-, meso- en makrosisteme; sirkulere en liniere punktuasie Ekosistemiese beginsels is aanvanklik benut, maar was nie vir die span wat saamgewerk het, betekenisvol nie. 'n Gevallestudie-ontwerp was nuttig om die ontwikkeling en "opleiding" van die span wat sou saamwerk, te beskryf, asook die benutting van ekosistemiese beginsels tydens dienste aan die "straatkinders" en hulle gesinne by ltumeleng. Die navorsing het aangedui dat 'n ekosistemiese benadering tot gesinsterapie as / The community showed concern about the increasing number of children living and working on the streets within the urban context of Pretoria. This researchwas undertaken to address the needs of these children and to find alternative ways of working with them. A context was created so that their voices could be heard. Ecosystemic principles were initially used, but were not meaningful to the team who worked together. A case study design proved useful in developing and "training" of the team who would be working together, as well as applying ecosystemic principles while making services available to the "street children" and their families in ltumeleng. The research indicated that an ecosystemic approach to family therapy could be used as an alternative to "traditional" forms of family therapy, subject to certain conditions, as stipulated in Chapter Four. / Social Work / M.A. (Sosiale Wetenskappe (Geestesgesondheid))

Afrikaans text / Besorgdheid het in die gemeenskap bestaan oar die toenemende getalle kinders wat binne die stedelike konteks van Pretoria op straat leef en werk. Hierdie navorsing is onderneem om die behoeftes van die kinders aan te spreek en om alternatiewe wyses te vind om met hulle te werk. 'n Konteks is geskep sodat na hulle stemme geluister kon word. nag 'n alternatief tot "tradisionele" vorme van gesinsterapie bruikbaar is, op sekere voorwaardes, soos aangedui in hoofstuk vier. Sleutelwoorde: reflekterende span; "straatkinders"; ekosistemiese benadering; ekologie; epistemologie; konstruktivisme; objektivisme; kubernetika; sisteemteorie; mikro-, meso- en makrosisteme; sirkulere en liniere punktuasie Ekosistemiese beginsels is aanvanklik benut, maar was nie vir die span wat saamgewerk het, betekenisvol nie. 'n Gevallestudie-ontwerp was nuttig om die ontwikkeling en "opleiding" van die span wat sou saamwerk, te beskryf, asook die benutting van ekosistemiese beginsels tydens dienste aan die "straatkinders" en hulle gesinne by ltumeleng. Die navorsing het aangedui dat 'n ekosistemiese benadering tot gesinsterapie as / The community showed concern about the increasing number of children living and working on the streets within the urban context of Pretoria. This researchwas undertaken to address the needs of these children and to find alternative ways of working with them. A context was created so that their voices could be heard. Ecosystemic principles were initially used, but were not meaningful to the team who worked together. A case study design proved useful in developing and "training" of the team who would be working together, as well as applying ecosystemic principles while making services available to the "street children" and their families in ltumeleng. The research indicated that an ecosystemic approach to family therapy could be used as an alternative to "traditional" forms of family therapy, subject to certain conditions, as stipulated in Chapter Four. / Social Work / M.A. (Sosiale Wetenskappe (Geestesgesondheid))