scholarly journals Education for sustainable agriculture: the old and new curricula for agricultural sciences in South African schools

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moraig Peden
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
South African ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Curriculum Assessment ◽  
Agricultural Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Requirements ◽  
Policy Statements ◽  
Assessment Requirements ◽  
New Curricula

This article explores the support given to Education for Sustainable Agriculture (ESA) bythe South African Agricultural Sciences school curricula. It compares two post-apartheidcurricula: the current Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) and the phased-outNational Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Agricultural Sciences in terms of content,knowledge requirements, cognitive processes and philosophies of education for sustainableagriculture, as well as the role of assessment and the stated purpose of the curricula. Whilethe NCS had a vision of sustainable agriculture and of a progressive curriculum, these aimswere not supported in the detail of the curriculum. The CAPS presents a shift back to moretraditional, discipline-based agriculture, with a detailed curriculum, which provides moresupport for ESA in terms of fundamental ecological knowledge as well as sustainableagriculture strategies. However, the CAPS, has fewer requirements for practical agriculture,higher order learning and engagement with broad socio-economic issues. The paperconcludes with recommendations for supporting ESA, through teacher education andamendments to the assessment requirements.

Recognising a climate for sustainability: extension beyond transfer of technology

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. van de Fliert
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Transfer Of Technology ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Fixed Condition ◽  
Participatory Technology Development

Sustainable agriculture emphasises the fundamental role of the human component in a production system, as opposed to conventional agriculture, which centres on technologies. Therefore, it is characterised by the abilities and behaviours that farmers display, including the knowledge and skills they possess, decision-making processes they apply, and individual and collective actions they take. This has strong implications for extension development and organisation, in that the methodologies applied should be oriented towards enhancing farmer capacities favourable to sustainable agriculture, rather than towards achieving adoption of standardised technologies. These capacities include sound ecological knowledge, observational, analytical and experimental skills, and inclination towards collectivity to allow farmers to make better, informed decisions for location-specific agro-ecosystem management. Extension approaches favouring this type of learning are participatory, experience-based and adaptable. Needs and opportunity assessment, participatory technology development, defining the implications for farmers of the implementation of an innovation, and development of a learning curriculum (first for farmers and then for facilitators) are among the sequential phases for solid extension development for sustainable agriculture. Applying underlying principles of participatory capacity development, rather than fixed, condition-specific models, provides a generic framework for extension development under diverse ecological and socio-cultural settings.

Learning Zulu

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
South African ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
African History ◽  
African Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Correct Form ◽  
Linguistic Purism

When this book's author began studying Zulu, he was often questioned why he was learning it. This book places the author's endeavors within a wider context to uncover how, in the past 150 years of South African history, Zulu became a battleground for issues of property, possession, and deprivation. The book combines elements of analysis and memoir to explore a complex cultural history. Perceiving that colonial learners of Zulu saw themselves as repairing harm done to Africans by Europeans, the book reveals deeper motives at work in the development of Zulu-language learning—from the emergence of the pidgin Fanagalo among missionaries and traders in the nineteenth century to widespread efforts, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, to teach a correct form of Zulu. The book looks at the white appropriation of Zulu language, music, and dance in South African culture, and at the association of Zulu with a martial masculinity. In exploring how Zulu has come to represent what is most properly and powerfully African, the book examines differences in English- and Zulu-language press coverage of an important trial, as well as the role of linguistic purism in xenophobic violence in South Africa. Through one person's efforts to learn the Zulu language, the book explores how a language's history and politics influence all individuals in a multilingual society.

ROLE OF LIBRARIANS IN TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY IN ZIMBABWEAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Information Skills ◽  
The University

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.

Problematic Political Consumerism

2018 ◽  
pp. 698-720
Author(s):  
Michele Micheletti ◽  
Didem Oral
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Type Model ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Moral Claims

Typically, political consumerism is portrayed in straightforward, unproblematic ways. This chapter discusses how and why political consumerism—and particularly boycotts—can be confusing and problematic. Theoretically it focuses on moral dilemmas within political consumerism and the key role of overriding moral claims in the motivations for and actions of political consumer causes. An ideal type model, constructed for analyzing unproblematic and problematic political consumerism, is applied to cases of more unproblematic political consumerism (e.g., the Nestlé, Nike, and South African boycotts) and more problematic political consumerism (e.g., the Disney boycott and the movement against Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine territories). The chapter also addresses why other forms of political consumerism (buycotts and discursive actions) seem less vulnerable to moral dilemmas as well as the research challenges in studying more problematic cases of political consumerism.

scholarly journals Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: Hindu experiences and concerns

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.G.J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Hindu Community ◽  
The Way

The author who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), focuses on the Hindu experience in South Africa during the apartheid years. At a special TRC Hearing for Faith Communities (East London, 17-19 November 1997) two submissions by local Hindu leaders were tabled. Taking his cues from those submissions, the author discusses four issues: the way the Hindu community suffered during these years, the way in which some members of the Hindu community supported the system of apartheid, the role of Hindus in the struggle against apartheid, and finally the contribution of the Hindu community towards reconciliation in South Africa. In conclusion some notes on how Hindus and Christians may work together in th

Ecological Synthesis and Its Role in Advancing Knowledge

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S Halpern ◽  
Eric Berlow ◽  
Rich Williams ◽  
Elizabeth T Borer ◽  
Frank W Davis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Web Of Science ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Analysis ◽  
Widespread Application ◽  
Ecological Literature ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Core Questions

Abstract Synthesis has become ubiquitous in ecology. Despite its widespread application to a broad range of research topics, it remains unclear how synthesis has affected the discipline. Using a case study of publications (n = 2304) from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis compared with papers with similar keywords from the Web of Science (n = 320,000), we address several questions about the comparative impact of synthesis, the role of synthesis in driving key research themes, and whether synthesis is focused on different topics than is the broader ecological literature. We found much higher citation rates for synthesis papers overall (fivefold more) and within eleven key topic themes (e.g., species richness, biodiversity, climate change, global change). Synthesis papers often played key roles in driving, redirecting, or resolving core questions and exhibited much greater cross-theme connectivity. Together, these results indicate that synthesis in science has played a crucial role in accelerating and advancing ecological knowledge.

scholarly journals A cause to unravel the role of criminologists in compiling pre-sentence report: A South African perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1704601
Author(s):  
Bongolethu Diko ◽  
Sogo Angel Olofinbiyi ◽  
Jean Steyn
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African Perspective

Ethnicity and Voting Patterns in South Africa

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Lever
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Categorical Data ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Published Research

There is some controversy concerning the role of ethnicity in South African electoral behaviour. Since the society is segmented on ethnic lines it is to be expected that ethnicity would play a crucial role in affecting political choices. Some writers have gone so far as to suggest that ethnicity is the only significant factor affecting voting preferences. The controversy arose at a time when Goodman's method of log-linear analysis for hierarchical models had not yet been developed. This method provides the most powerful tool available for the multivariate analysis of categorical data. A re-analysis of previously published research using Goodman's method shows that ethnicity is not the only significant factor having a bearing on voting preferences. The first four-way table of voting preferences in South Africa is presented. The order of importance of the variables affecting party choice is: (1) ethnicity (2) socio-economic status (3) age of the voter. The recursive model suggested by the analysis explains approximately 98 per cent of the data.

‘Our passion for legality’: international law and imperialism in late nineteenth-century Britain

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
CASPER SYLVEST
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
South African ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Congo Free State

AbstractThis article deploys a historical analysis of the relationship between law and imperialism to highlight questions about the character and role of international law in global politics. The involvement of two British international lawyers in practices of imperialism in Africa during the late nineteenth century is critically examined: the role of Travers Twiss (1809–1897) in the creation of the Congo Free State and John Westlake’s (1828–1913) support for the South African War. The analysis demonstrates the inescapably political character of international law and the dangers that follow from fusing a particular form of liberal moralism with notions of legal hierarchy. The historical cases raise ethico-political questions, the importance of which is only heightened by the character of contemporary world politics and the attention accorded to international law in recent years.

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