Category Archives: Opinion

Opinion

How to stop high drop-out rate of first-year students?

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The opening up of South Africa’s universities after the end of apartheid has proved to be a double-edged sword. Enrolment figures have doubled from close to 500,000 in 1993 to 938,201 in 2011, which means that far more people have had the chance to earn a university degree.

But universities have been largely unprepared for this astonishing growth. This has contributed to a high drop-out rate. First-year students have borne the brunt of this, with more than 40% of them dropping out in their first year of study.

The best way to create programmes and policies designed to support these students is to understand them: who they are; where they come from; and what the structural stumbling blocks to their success are.

I conducted a case study of first-year education students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, using both a survey and personal interviews to gather data. The purpose was to investigate what factors outside the academy were affecting their fledgling university careers.

Family responsibilities

The approximately 200 students involved in the study are older than the average first-time university entrant. They have a mean age of 21 and 84% are the first in their families to attend university.

Many of the mature students did not enter university out of choice, but more out of desperation to change their circumstances – as this student explains:

“I decided I want to study; I’m gonna quit work because it’s not the life I want for me and I just said to myself, ‘No! you need to change your life, you need to go back to study.’ I wanted to do something better for me and my son to have a better life.

They feel an urgency to succeed and view a university degree as being key to their financial stability. This attitude is part of the reason many chose a teaching degree. Teaching is perceived as a job that offers security to both the students and their extended families.

One student said:

“I want to prove to myself that I can do this, even with all of the challenges that I have, but it’s just that the need to succeed goes into supporting my family and putting them onto the map as well.”

Money troubles

Almost 94% of the students surveyed rely on bursaries or scholarships to study. Many have taken part-time jobs to have some income and don’t spend a lot of time on campus. There is simply no time to spend at a cafeteria chatting with fellow students or to socialise between lectures. They also miss out on the benefits of being full-time students, like visiting the library.

One said:

“I’m working every weekend now to pay for my food. I work on a wine farm in Stellenbosch. So every Friday I take the taxi home and I work the weekend and then my dad brings me back Sunday night because the hours are long and there is no taxi so late into the city. I take my university work with me and then when it’s quiet and when there are no customers I would take my bag and quickly do some work.”

Unlike their younger, less financially constrained peers, these students tend to make friends only with those they think might advance their own academic success:

“I am here to study, not worry about other people’s marks. You need to put yourself with people who know they are doing something positive; people that can help you achieve your goal. You are not here to make friends, friends are a bonus; focus on your marks, you are here for something, focus on that.”

Their family commitments are another reason these students say they can’t socialise or spend a lot of time on campus. They are trying to balance their academic work, family life and part-time jobs. Something has to give, and in this case it is the amount of time they spend physically at university.

Feeling of belonging

These students’ circumstances mean that they don’t feel as though they “belong” to the university. If universities listened to their first-year students’ stories more closely they could design programmes and policies that consider these students’ needs. Once a student “belongs”, feels valued and receives the support they need, they are more likely to stick it out and complete a degree.

Universities should consider extended first-year orientation programmes that enhance both the social and academic life of a student. These should encourage peer-to-peer interaction and support as well as positive engagement between students and staff. The formal curriculum should be blended in parts with co-curricular activities to encourage more meaningful social and academic integration between students and academics.

Finally, universities should stop viewing first-year students as a drop-out risk. These youngsters are often determined, optimistic, enthusiastic and open to learning – qualities that will ultimately benefit themselves and their academic institutions.

By Dr Subethra Pather, a researcher in the Faculty of Education. The article first appeared in The Conversation

Teachers have a crucial role to play in building social cohesion

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1994 was a deeply important year for South Africa. It ushered in a democratic society committed to the eradication of racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination. It brought political change that promised the building of a “rainbow nation” committed to the ideas of equity and redress. There have been many accomplishments and significant changes in the past 22 years.

But recent events have raised questions about how far the country has really come in building a united non-racial society that embodies unity in diversity. Some have been negative and divisive – racially offensive, derogatory comments by individuals. Others, like the country’s student protest movements, have opened up spaces for debate and got people thinking about issues of curriculum change and decolonisation.

Race talk and identification remains a concern within everyday social life. Different groups of people distrust each other deeply and continue to closely associate according to previous racial categorisations. The country’s apartheid past still casts a long shadow on its future.

To shake off this shadow, South Africans need a deeper understanding of what social cohesion means and how it can be attained. Research my colleagues and I recently completed also shows how important it is that teachers are provided with support to infuse their work with the principles of social cohesion.

Education and social cohesion

The country’s Department of Arts and Culture [defines](http://www.dac.gov.za/sites/default/files/WHAT%20IS%20SOCIAL%20COHESION%20AND%20NATION%20(3).pdf) social cohesion as the degree of social integration and inclusion in communities and society at large. It also refers to how much mutual solidarity finds expression among individuals and communities. In the South African context, social cohesion is about social integration, equality and social justice. It requires the promotion of positive relationships, trust, solidarity, inclusion, collectivism and common purpose.

Concerns about social cohesion have manifested in various ways. The government has hosted summits on the subject. It’s drafted a social cohesion strategy and even appointed “advocates” to champion social cohesion.

There’s also been work in the education sector. The department of basic education has launched a review of textbooks to identify instances of discrimination and bias.

It’s important that such work happens in the education sphere. Equitable, quality education plays a crucial role in building a nation. South Africa’s education system is anything but equitable. Research shows that in 2013, 87% of white learners and 73% of Indian learners were attending the country’s most well resourced public schools. Only 6% of black African learners were enrolled in these schools.

The drive to understand how an equitable education system and social cohesion go hand and hand is what prompted our research. It was conducted by the Centre for International Teacher Education at South Africa’s Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in collaboration with the University of Sussex in the UK. It’s part of a larger multi-countrystudy and explored how teachers are given the space to become agents of peace and social cohesion.

We argue that social cohesion should be understood in relation to achieving durable social justice, eliminating all forms of inequities and disadvantage. We discovered that teachers need far more professional development, policy direction and support to ensure that social cohesion is realised in classroom teaching and learning.

A mass of policies

Many policies since 1994 have been designed to empower teachers and improve their skills. But the area of social cohesion and teachers’ critical role in its promotion hasn’t received enough attention. As with so many other areas of education, impressive policy goals have not been translated into reality. Their realisation has been undermined by, among other things, poor intergovernmental coordination and collaboration, and lack of implementation clarity and support.

Coordination is especially complicated in the education sphere. Contrary to what’s outlined in the Constitution, national and provincial education departments often take up different responsibilities in quite different ways. Various provinces and individual schools often interpret policy goals quite differently. This has been seen, for instance, in how different provinces implemented their curriculum overhaul in 2009.

Such different interpretations have important implications for the changes that the policy in question aims to bring about.

Curriculum changes

Another issue that’s important for building social cohesion is the curriculum itself and the textbooks used. Curriculum reform has been an important area of change since 1994. The right curriculum can help to lay the foundations for a democratic, open and united society.

Our research found significant omissions in the existing national curriculum when it comes to issues of equity and social cohesion. One important example is in Life Orientation. Social cohesion – discussions about living together with people from different cultures, for instance – forms part of this subject. But the curriculum is so overcrowded there’s no real space for such discussions to happen in a meaningful, ongoing fashion.

There’s also a real danger that with so many demands in the national education agenda issues like social cohesion are often devalued or not readily promoted. Schools tend to focus on “priority” subjects like Science and Mathematics. They often ask why they should “waste time” with issues like social cohesion

Actually, issues of social cohesion need to be integrated effectively across the curriculum. This can happen by, for instance, ensuring that African texts and authors are positively represented in textbooks. It could also take the form of removing discriminatory bias – such as an example from a textbook that appeared to blame rape survivors for their ordeal.

The importance of high quality teacher education

High quality initial and continuing teacher professional development matters, too. Different universities with different cultural histories often rub up against students’ diverse racial, class and gendered identities. They also strongly shape how student teachers think about the contexts they are set to enter. There isn’t a consistent approach across South Africa’s universities to how trainee teachers learn about social cohesion.

Those who educate teachers need to both support and challenge student teachers. They need to both provide content knowledge and stimulate them to seek knowledge, while exposing students to diverse ways of teaching and to different social contexts. Those that educate teachers must pay better attention to how student teachers are empowered with a variety of teaching approaches and tools that will allow them to engage productively with learners and promote social cohesion.

Agents of social cohesion

Overall, the research revealed that promoting social cohesion through education requires context specific, proactive strategies that address South Africa’s historic and structural drivers of inequality.

More specifically, it requires the political will to support teachers so they can acquire the knowledge, skills and disposition to become agents of peace and social cohesion. Teachers and schools can only do so much, though. As long as the schooling system’s outcomes continue to be bifurcated and unequal and societal inequality widens, social cohesion may remain elusive. Peace will be tenuous and conflict will continue to loom.

By Prof  : South African Research Chair in Teacher Education; Director of Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE) at CPUT

*Article first appeared in The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/teachers-have-a-crucial-role-to-play-in-building-social-cohesion-60823

How bakers can get itchy eyes and asthma if flour dust is not contained

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Asthma is a common lung disease that makes breathing difficult. When it is caused by breathing in hazardous substances in the workplace, it is called occupational asthma.

Baker’s asthma is an occupational asthma that bakery employees develop after being exposed to cereal grains such as wheat, rye and yeast. The allergy can be life-threatening and eventually affect their ability to work.

Globally, research shows between 12% and 26% of bakers suffer from allergic rhinitis (itchy eyes) or conjunctivitis (runny nose), and between 15% to 21% have bakers asthma.

In South Africa, between 17% and 31% suffer work-related respiratory and ocular-nasal symptoms, and about 13% eventually develop baker’s asthma.

But at least double the number of employees show symptoms of wheat flour sensitivity. With continued exposure this can lead to them developing baker’s asthma.

To tackle the challenge of flour dust, various countries have proposed exposure limits for flour dust. In the US industrial hygienists’ bodies have adopted a threshold of flour dust per cubic metre. In Holland, the Dutch Expert Committee of the Health Council also have a grain dust limit.

Although South Africa has a general dust standard level ten times higher than international norms for flour dust, it has no legislation with specific exposure limits for flour dust allergens such as wheat, rye and yeast.

The high sensitisation potential of grain dust makes the South African standard unacceptable in protecting the health of workers. It is a source of concern.

HOW THE ALLERGY DEVELOPS

If bakery employees who are sensitive to flour dust continue to be exposed to elevated levels of dust, they first develop eye or nose symptoms before they develop asthma.

The frequency of the sensitisation to wheat flour and yeast or other raising agents increases with the intensity of their exposure. The longer the person is exposed or the higher the dust levels, the greater the risk of developing allergy and asthma due to allergens in the flour dust.

International reviews show that between 5% and 28% of bakery workers have a wheat flour sensitivity while between 2% and 16% have a reaction to yeast or other raising agents.

In South Africa, 26% are wheat-flour-sensitive; about 24% are also sensitive to rye flour; and another 4% show a yeast reaction.

Workers with bakers asthma and/or allergic symptoms require medical treatment and workplace remediation. They are treated in the same way as non-occupational asthma sufferers. The most important medication is inhaled bronchodilators and regular use of inhaled corticosteroids. Nasal and eye symptoms are similarly treated with antihistamine medication and local corticosteroid.

Symptoms can be controlled with the appropriate medication and less exposure, but some workers require chronic treatment.

In addition, redeploying workers to minimise further exposure to bakery allergens is strongly advised. Preventative measures should be aimed at reducing workplace exposure and reducing airborne dust generated by baking processes.

CHANGING PRACTISES

International research shows there is a direct relationship between occupational asthma and exposure to airborne allergens. The intensity of the exposure to sensitising agents is the most important risk factor for occupational asthma.

This suggests that reducing allergen exposure levels may reduce the number of sensitised bakery workers.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that workplace exposures to flour dust should be controlled, there are sub-optimal prevention strategies in bakeries.

Primary prevention strategies aimed at reducing workplace exposure to sensitising agents would be the most rational approach for reducing the burden of occupational asthma.

Our study introduced various interventions to reduce the possibility of baker’s asthma. It includes introducing lids on mixer tubs, dust masks for “dusty” tasks, and better housekeeping routines to minimise flour dust exposure.

As part of our study we introduced techniques for bakery employees that would reduce flour dust. These formed part of dust control manual and a training DVD that was developed to educate bakers on how to reduce the dust levels in their workplaces. These included:

using a sieve instead of throwing flour around;

using oil instead of flour to prevent dough sticking to the kneading board during bread baking; and

using a vacuum cleaner or sprinkling the floor with water when sweeping, to prevent the flour dust becoming airborne.

The overall effect of the intervention – evaluated one year later – revealed a 50% decrease in mean flour dust, wheat allergen and rye exposures in bakeries.

It also resulted in a supermarket chain implementing the use of mixer tub lids as a standard feature in bakeries, and using the DVD to train all new bakers as part of their induction programme.

NEW LAWS ARE NEEDED

The challenge with many of the measures introduced internationally are that they are not totally protective and there has been very little implementation beyond general requirements.

Considering South Africa’s high levels of flour dust a guideline on the workplace management of baker’s allergy and asthma should be adopted.

But South Africa’s National Department of Labour should also consider revising the “grossly inadequate” flour dust exposure standard to bring it in line with international best practice.

*First published in the The Conservation at http://theconversation.com/how-bakers-can-get-itchy-eyes-and-asthma-if-flour-dust-is-not-contained-63310

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

African libraries that adapt can take the continent’s knowledge to the world

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South African librarians were shocked in 2013 when one of the top researchers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology claimed that he no longer needed the library to do his research.

Professor Johannes Cronje’s paper echoed an increasingly common way of thinking. Why, after all, do we need libraries when the Internet does such a good job of providing us with information?

But libraries are not just collection points for information. The best ones also help create it – and those which embrace this role will flourish in a completely changed world. This is particularly true for African libraries: there is more of an opportunity than ever before to bring the continent’s knowledge to the world.

A dual role

Libraries collect information and make it available to a particular community or communities. Some, like church libraries, specialise in collecting certain kinds of information.

The Internet can do exactly the same thing. Anyone can create a collection of information online and make it available to users. And who needs librarians when search engines like Google are on hand to help track down information?

Such technological advances mean that the traditional library is losing customers who just want to find information.

Libraries fulfil another crucial role, though. They help to create information. Modern libraries offer many services that help their users to put information online. Most academic libraries, for instance, have repository services that collate a university’s research output and make it publicly available.

They are extending this service to research data, which will save future researchers from collecting the same data and taxpayers from paying for it again.

These services are becoming common in public libraries as well, through an innovation called makerspaces. Here, users can make items of information. They can create music, produce items using 3D printers or engineer complex designs.

In makerspaces, librarians aren’t helping users to find information from the world. They are helping users to find information in themselves. Libraries should continue to develop services that help people create information.

Eli Neiburger from the Ann Arbor District Library talks about what libraries can do to survive.

In a way, these “new” developments really aren’t that different from what libraries have always done. Libraries curate and disseminate information. In the past, librarians curated information from foreign creators and disseminated it to a local community. Modern librarians curate local information and disseminate it to a foreign community. The flow of information has flipped.

Opportunities for African libraries

African libraries have been slow to embrace this evolution. There are twice as many repositories in Asia as there are in Africa, and ten times as many in Europe. But the continent is slowly gaining ground.

The University of Cape Town is the first in Africa to offer a Masters of Philosophy in Digital Curation. Early in 2015, the University of Pretoria opened up a makerspace, the first educational one on the continent.

The altered role of libraries is a great opportunity to showcase African knowledge. Getting information into the world is easier and cheaper than ever. African libraries need to take up the responsibility of being partners in information creation.

This means that policies must be altered – and, of course, that budgets must be increased. University leaders, decision makers, governments and library users need to understand and support the changes that are reshaping libraries.

Librarians, too, must embrace these changes. They will require new skills to support the creation of information. Many library schools are already responding to these new needs by offering advanced degrees in digital curation.

It will be also be important to reconsider the very physical space of a library. Paper-and-glue book collections are shrinking and, in some libraries, disappearing. These collections have long been the symbol of quiet thinking. Will libraries still be silent spaces of learning without them? How will libraries retain their users’ trust if they are turned into cool cybercafés?

These are some of the tough questions that librarians must answer if they expect their funding to continue and to rise – and if they want to remain relevant well into the future.

By Lara Skelly,  Librarian at the CPUT Libraries

First published in The Conversation at http://theconversation.com/african-libraries-that-adapt-can-take-the-continents-knowledge-to-the-world-46044

How language drives students’ transition from rural to urban areas

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Molofo and Bulewani are training as teachers at a university in one of South Africa’s largest cities, Cape Town. Both young men come from rural backgrounds and English is not their first language. Their experiences of moving from a rural area to a city, and of becoming English speakers, offer a fascinating insight into how language development and social transition are intertwined.

There are about 25,720 state schools in South Africa, and 11,252 are designated as rural. These rural schools tend to be poorly resourced – some don’t have proper furniture, let alone enough teachers or textbooks. Most pupils are taught in their mother tongues, not English, and even if they do learn in English they have little chance to practice speaking it at home or outside school. Pupils from schools in such areas tend not to perform as well in their final exams as their urban counterparts.

It was language that set Bulewani and Molofo apart from their classmates. I interviewed them, along with two other teaching students, as part of a research project presented at the 2015 South African Education Research Association Conference. An article based on this research has been submitted to the SA Journal of Education and is under review. The research findings echo results from elsewhere in the world: participants reported that “leaving behind” their home languages and their physical homes produced a sense of both loss and gain.

Social distance

It is important that this research used rural areas as a context. Such areas tend to be linguistically, educationally and economically isolated from the rest of a country. The students’ experiences are about more than just geographic distance between their rural homes and the city where they study – they’re about social distance, too.

US educationalist John H Schumann talks about this idea of social distance in his research, explaining it as the distance between two language groups in second-language acquisition. Social closeness involves being embedded in a culture. The more culturally comfortable one is, the less the social distance and the easier it is to learn the relevant new language.

Lives in transition

Molofo and Bulewani come from areas where they weren’t surrounded by English speakers. In some rural schools, even the teachers are not particularly proficient in English. Pupils are meant to be taught according to a policy of additive bilingualism – they learn in their mother tongues until Grade 4, and then switch to English as the language of teaching and learning.

This seldom happens, and neither Molofo nor Bulewani learned English this way. They had good English teachers who forced them to speak the language, and both found that they loved it. By the end of their school careers, the young men spoke English well enough to pass it and qualify for university entrance. They also spoke it well enough and had performed well enough at school to earn bursaries. Without this financial support, they would not have been able to take up their university places.

There were two transitory moments at play for Molofo and Bulewani. One involved a physical movement from a rural to an urban area. The other was a transition from functioning in their home or mother tongue to primarily speaking English. Both transitions were facilitated by their acceptance to university. The move came at a cost, though. One of the questions posed in the research was whether students felt that their culture had changed or was under threat because they had learned English. Both said they were losing tradition – but that this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Molofo comes from the Eastern Cape province and grew up in an area governed by a chief. Such areas operate under traditional law. Constitutional democracy, with its notions of guaranteed rights, is remote. He had discovered a greater sense of equality and justice since moving to the city, explaining:

I am not that much interested in a traditional way because there is a lot that I discover that is not fair. Some of the things are not happening in the way they are supposed to. It depends maybe on who you are.

Loss

Bulewani celebrated the fact that he felt more in charge of his own destiny since his “transitions”. But he also experienced profound loss. His family – who are also from the Eastern Cape – lived off the land, and he missed this way of life. He remarked, for instance, that while at home he could go and pick something from the fields, whereas in the city he had to go out and spend money to buy food.

Mostly, though, his feelings of loss revolved around language:

I am losing a lot of words. I miss a lot of words … I am becoming more educated, but I am losing a lot of things in my culture. I am learning a lot of things from Western culture. Talking English. But I am losing a lot of things. I am losing some Xhosa language and traditions.

New voices

Universities need to start collecting more background information about their students to help them settle into this new environment and achieve their goals. For instance, institutions don’t know how many students are from rural areas and might be grappling with the sorts of changes Molofo and Bulewani articulated.

These young men’s voices open an important window on South Africa’s fast-changing society. They are at the forefront of this change, which is both positive and has obvious gains; but is also bittersweet and accompanied by a sense of loss.

By: Thelma Kathleen Buchholz Mort, PhD student with the Centre for International Teacher Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

First published in The Conversation at http://theconversation.com/how-language-drives-students-transition-from-rural-to-urban-areas-56220

 

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Better maternal care in Africa can save women from suffering in childbirth

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Every year just over 500,000 women die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth across the world. Another 20 million experience severe complications. But many of these complications are entirely avoidable – including obstructed and protracted labour and one of its side-effects, obstetric fistula.

An obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal between the vagina and the rectum or between the vagina and the bladder that is largely caused by obstructed and prolonged labour. This can occur when the mother’s pelvis is too small or the baby is too large.

In sub-Saharan Africa for every 100,000 deliveries there are about 124 women who suffer an obstetric fistula in a rural area. Obstetric fistulas predominantly happen when women do not have access to quality emergency obstetric-care services. Antenatal care could help to identify potential problems early but will not have an impact if there is no skilled surgeon to assist with the labour.

Although skilled attendants are necessary, it is the emergency obstetric surgeon who is needed to successfully remove the foetus and save both the baby and mother’s life.

A developing world problem

Obstetric fistulas are more commonly reported in developing countries, including South Africa. But it is predominantly localised to the “fistula belt” – an area spanning the northern half of sub-Saharan Africa from Mauritania to Eritrea, and the Middle East and Asia’s developing countries.

About two million women suffer obstetric fistulas worldwide. But most are concentrated in the fistula belt, where more than 6,000 new cases are reported each year.

For example, in Ethiopia it is estimated that 9,000 women develop a fistula each year, of which only 1,200 are treated.

A fistula forms when, during prolonged labour contractions, the foetus constantly pushes against the mother’s unyielding pelvic bones. The effect leads to the compression of the blood vessels, which decreases blood flow to this area and deprives the tissue of nutrients.

As a result it weakens the tissue and a hole forms. The baby is unlikely to survive – and if the mother survives and the fistula is not repaired, she is left with both psychological and physiological scarring.

In some cases a woman may experience labour for up to a week. Globally, more than 75% of women with fistulas have endured labour that lasted three days or more.

For most women who live in the developed world, obstetric fistulas are uncommon and are usually promptly repaired. This is primarily due to emergency obstetric care that is readily available.

But women who survive the excruciating ordeal of obstructed labour and develop an obstetric fistula in impoverished countries are often doomed to a life of absolute misery.

From a physiological perspective, they suffer from uncontrollable leaking of urine and faeces and are unlikely to bear more children.

The psychological suffering stems from often being rejected by their husbands, shamed and socially segregated and ultimately divorced, demoralised and excluded from their family and religious activities. They also face a high risk of worsening poverty and malnutrition.

Obstructed labour is preventable

In principle, obstetric fistula can be avoided by:

  • delaying the age of first pregnancies;
  • removing harmful traditional practices such as child marriages and female genital mutilation; and
  • providing access to obstetric medical care with suitably trained surgeons.

In many instances, young girls do not have pelvises fully developed for childbirth. According to the World Health Organisation, more than 25% of the patients with fistula in Ethiopia and Nigeria, for example, became pregnant before the age of 15.

Although access to care is important, accessing suitably equipped facilities for antenatal care and safe childbirth is also integral. In many rural settings this is usually difficult, as health centres that can provide emergency obstetric care may be up to 70km away with no easy or affordable form of transport.

And even if women travel to these facilities, in many instances they must provide their own surgical gloves and dressing for a clean delivery.

Improving maternal health

Improving access to emergency obstetric care is the first and most important step to prevent women from suffering from the effects of an obstetric fistula.

Global health initiatives have taken this call seriously, and maternal health was one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Preventing and managing obstetric fistulas was identified as a critical objective to attain this goal.

Maternal health continues to be a focus area that receives attention in the Sustainable Development Goals.

There are many organisations and unsung heroes dedicated to giving hope back to the women who have been demoralised and severely burdened by fistulas. But the obstacles that these women have to overcome to receive treatment – including whether they have access to medical care and what the cost is – need to be addressed.

A compounding factor that could increase the cost of treatment is the time that has lapsed between the formation of the fistula and the surgery.

It is reported that the longer a woman waits for surgery, the greater her scarring and the more complex the surgery. It is not uncommon for women in low-income countries to seek treatment after months, or even decades, further begging the call for trained and experienced surgeons.

As the world moves into the 21st century, boasting advances in science and technology, it stands accused of failing to provide fundamental maternal health care to those most in need of it. To be given the conditions for safe childbirth is the basic human right of every woman.

By Kareemah Gamieldien

First published in The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/better-maternal-care-in-africa-can-save-women-from-suffering-in-childbirth-59688

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The best way to get the health plan is to follow your body, not the pack

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For centuries, humans have been governed by the different theories in the sciences of nutrition, physical activity, exercise and health.

In modern sciences, it is challenging for one to maintain a well-rounded lifestyle as health has become ubiquitous. Diets and exercise regimes have become highly commercialised and are aggressively marketed in the nutritional industry. It is challenging to know what to believe and what to discard as quackery or mickey-mouse science.

It is a fact that if you are obese, diabetic or have insulin resistance, you should restrict carbohydrates and sugars. But many other people find it challenging to establish which eating plan they should follow and what exercise routine they should stick to.

The crisp questions are: what do you want to achieve? Do you want to be healthy, lose weight, reduce your body fat percentage or improve your sport or exercise performance?

Too often we impose a generic approach, using what has worked for others. But with health and human movement sciences, there is no quick fix. The concept of individualism is key. The challenge is that it is often ignored due to critical constraints of time, effort and funding.

To find the regimes of exercises that help to burn fat, the first step is to understand that humans are all different in the way they respond to exercising, eating, meditation and physiological processes. Just like all other body processes, each of our metabolisms are different too.

It all boils down to your metabolism

The metabolism is simply the rate at which your body burns fat. It is a rule of thumb that your metabolism is faster when you are younger and that it slows as you age. However, your metabolism will be different from the next person’s – even if you are the same age.

Although your metabolism has much to do with how fast you burn fat, there are several other factors at play. These include genetics, the environment, age, demographics, your individual health status and your medical histories. As a result, you respond differently to what happens to your bodies when you eat healthily or exercise.

In addition, it is also possible to increase your metabolism. There are two ways to increase your metabolism: by exercising or by eating specific foods.

Exercise is beneficial and it assists in speeding up the metabolism but it does not make your body lose weight.

Where exercise will also help is by:

  • helping your body de-stress;
  • revitalising your body and making you feel more energised; and
  • improving your performance for sport or maintaining an active lifestyle.

Eating well can help speed up your metabolism. Eating is also key in determining the speed of your metabolism. Foods that are the most effective are those with high sources of fibre, coffees and teas as well as vegetables.

Improving metabolism through pills or drugs should never be considered.

Consistency is key

Homeostasis is the physiological process in which the body manages the internal interactions to maintain equilibrium or balance and function normally.

If you constantly change your diet, your body has to do adapt to bring it back to equilibrium. If you eat pasta in week one and two and only meat and poultry in week three and four, your body will undergo different processes to breakdown the macronutrients it gets from those foods.

The same goes for exercise. To gain momentum, you have to maintain an exercise regime that the body can get used to and improve on.

The way your body responds to your diet and exercise will initially take a lot of work. At the beginning, your body may feel tired, lethargic and you may experience a decline in performance. But at the end of the day, by maintaining your diet and exercise regime, the results will prove worth it

By Habib Noorbhai – Lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Business Management Sciences

First published on The Conversation at:

http://theconversation.com/the-best-way-to-get-the-health-plan-is-to-follow-your-body-not-the-pack-52385

Image courtesy of everydayplus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Simple, vernacular translations make the most sense for university students

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South African universities are modelled on their British and European counterparts. That manifests in everything from their degree structures to their graduation garb – and their language of instruction, English.

But something remarkable is happening at South Africa’s universities. Students, staff and a few administrators are working hard to open new spaces – African spaces – within higher education. They are trying to decolonise the system. How can other academic and student change-agents mirror their efforts? And what role can language play in carving out truly African spaces?

The second question arose in part because of my own experience. I had an important set of notes translated, at great expense, into isiXhosa for my students. It is one of three regional languages in the Western Capeprovince, where I teach.

But the isiXhosa students refused to use these notes and said they preferred to study in English. With a colleague, Ken Barris, I undertook research into the reasons behind this refusal and its implications. We presented our findings at the 2015 conference of the African Language Association of Southern Africa.

Our findings suggest that there is little value in translating academic texts into “high” or “deep” versions of African languages. Most students read and speak their mother tongues in a far more colloquial fashion. This doesn’t imply that we should turn our backs on multilingualism. It just requires a different approach.

Concept development

We found that students consider it a good thing that English is the language of teaching and learning. After all, it is used globally and locally in business and industry. Internationalisation is on the rise in higher education, which means that an average classroom houses a diversity of home languages and cultures. English tends to be a common language even in these situations.

But there are pitfalls. Teaching in English implies English cultural conditioning and communication strategies. Adopting a monolingual approach and a hegemonic language may unconsciously ignore or be unaware of other cultures in a multilingual, multicultural classroom.

Knowledge and learning considerations are most crucial in this instance. Unless students can access a concept’s meaning, their understanding is compromised. The best way to understand a concept is in one’s mother tongue. The question, as our research shows, is which version of a mother tongue best aids understanding.

In 2002 South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training created a language policy and related framework that encouraged the development of multilingualism at universities. Some institutions responded by creating multilingual glossaries of difficult terms and translating core notes into African languages.

‘Deep isiXhosa’ vs the vernacular

The qualitative research project involved 49 first-year isiXhosa students in Information Literacy classes from 2013 to 2015. The students engaged in free-writing about their rejection of the translated notes. This was followed by a questionnaire and focus group discussions.

The majority of students said they could not read or even understand the notes because they were in “deep isiXhosa”.

One commented that it was the equivalent of being asked to read and study in Old English. This “deep isiXhosa”, the student explained, is spoken only in the Eastern Cape province and rural areas, and particularly by older people.

Urban isiXhosa speaking youth use the language very differently. They communicate in a vernacular that may also involve some code-switching– using two languages in the same conversational interaction.

Research has shown that code-switching is common in South African schools, where lessons are taught in English but teachers switch to the mother tongue when explaining a particularly difficult concept. Teachers say this is an academic exercise: they want to help children grasp difficult content and concepts better and understand that mother-tongue explanation is a good way to do this.

The code-switching language used in schools is not deep isiXhosa, but everyday spoken isiXhosa; the vernacular. If teachers are using the vernacular to explain difficult concepts, shouldn’t translations also be in the vernacular? A number of academics support this notion of translation into a communicative, or vernacular, register.

Simple is best

Our experience and research suggests it is a waste of money to make unreadable and unusable translations that students will simply reject. The students said they would be prepared to use the notes if they were colloquial translations.

Instead of imposing translations on students, why not allow student input into the process by recognising students’ own understanding of language as a learning asset? Why not allow students to create an African space in the classroom by using understandable colloquial translations that allow them to actually grasp the academic concepts they’ll need to excel?

By Dr Bernie Millar – Clothing and Textile Technology Department

First appeared in the Conversation Africa

To view the article: http://bit.ly/1PcfQ5H

Intense after-school tutoring holds many lessons – for learners and teachers

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Pre-service teachers must spend a few months working in schools to practice their craft and learn from qualified educators. This is an important part of their training, but it doesn’t allow pre-service teachers to work for an extended period with the same group of learners.

The absence of such a sustained, intense interaction deprives pre-service teachers of an important opportunity to understand their learners’ challenges – and their own shortcomings – before entering a classroom full time.

A project in a peri-urban area about 75 kilometres from Cape Town is exploring what happens when trainee teachers are able to spend a full year tutoring the same one or two children. The early results are extremely encouraging for both the pre-service teachers and their 52 learners. It is also reaching a much wider pool as learners share their experiences with their peers.

Immersing pre-service teachers to learn lessons

The project, initiated by the Wellington campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, is part of the curriculum for pre-service teachers training at the campus. Wellington is a picturesque small town. As with many places in South Africa, it is home to both great wealth and terrible poverty.

This project focuses on after-school tutoring in Maths and English for 52 primary school learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. The learners are all in grades 5 to 7, aged between 10 to 12, and are chosen based on their academic performance. They are the best students in their grades. The tutoring happens for an hour each week after school.

The project started in January 2015. The pre-service teachers were prepared for it during their English and Maths lectures. Two visiting scholars from the US who are working on community engagement projects like this one as part of their Fulbright scholarships came and shared their experiences.

Research shows that this kind of after-school engagement has many benefits. It offers pre-service teachers who haven’t yet started working permanently in a classroom setting a real insight into the challenges that learners face when studying Maths and English.

It can also greatly develop the creativity and critical thinking skills of both the pre-service teachers and their young learners.

Loving English and making Maths count

The English leg of the project aims to improve teachers’ and learners’ proficiency in the language. Afrikaans is the most commonly spoken language in the Wellington area. All but one of the 30 pre-service teachers in the English component and all 52 learners from the four schools participating in the project speak English as a second language.

The lessons allow pre-service teachers to practice and develop their own communication and teaching skills. They enhance the learners’ love for English, develop their reading skills and give them a space in which to grapple with grammar problems.

This course provides a great opportunity for academic growth within a service-learning context.

A non-profit organisation, Help2Read, sponsored containers full of new books, games, stickers, stationery and activities for each of the participating schools. These resources helped pre-service teachers to make their sessions with the learners more fun.

For the maths component, learners are asked to bring school work they’ve been struggling with in class. At the start of each tutoring session, the pre-service teachers try to get a sense of whether learners are participating in their school maths classes.

For instance, learners will be asked what maths they were taught, how it was taught and whether they struggled with how concepts were explained. They are also asked to identify highlights from their classes. Engaging learners in this way gives them a voice and, hopefully, teaches them that their experiences are valued.

They are also offered agency: in one session, two pre-service teachers reversed the power dynamic by giving learners the chance to structure questions and to question them rather than the other way around.

Pre-service teachers get to learn, too

Pre-service teachers at each of the four schools form a professional learning community. They meet each week after tutoring to share their experiences and talk about what they have learned. They are encouraged to critically examine what their learners are battling with and to ask tough questions about their own teaching methods.

Many pre-service teachers have reported that they struggled to address their learners’ challenges and questions during tutorial sessions. They needed to go away and think about their own understanding of the mathematical ideas being discussed and how best to develop this.

Teachers at the participating schools have seen a difference in their learners. During a progress meeting in July, one reported:

My learners in the project … their self-confidence has increased … the way they analyse each other’s work … identifying errors and supporting other learners in class … (it) was not like this before

A ripple effect

The project is having a positive impact beyond just the 52 learners who are taking part. Some learners have started tutoring their peers, using the skills they’ve developed during sessions with the pre-service teachers.

Learners who aren’t yet involved with the project have told their peers they want to work harder so they have a chance of taking part.

There has also been great interaction between pre-service teachers, who support and encourage each other through the project. Though these are still early days, it is shaping up as a wonderful professional collaboration opportunity for all involved and is set to become a permanent fixture in the curriculum.

Authors:

Rolene Liebenberg: Mathematics Education Lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Hanlie Dippenaar : Senior lecturer at the Department of English, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Published first on The Conversation at http://bit.ly/1LmmFAg

Look back to see the way forward: A geoscientists view of the world

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Recently at a major German Research facility a talk relating to the micro-, meso- and macro- scales of research in Earth Science was delivered. It was interesting to note how we as geoscientists are integrating multiple tools in order to better understand the world around us and thus in turn improve society as a whole. Possible future projects were also outlined and these delved into the unknown. The real personal question which arose is “Where did all of this thinking originate?”

In order to properly understand geoscience one has to delve into the past and see where the thinking originates from, how it has developed and consequently what has moulded our thinking. It is critical to note that great geoscientists of the past were not necessarily geoscientists by classification and looked at problems from a holistic viewpoint. These great minds were keen observers, thinkers and in many cases philosophers and mathematicians with an interest in the world around them.

The Pyramids at Giza, in Egypt, are a prime example of the applied geosciences. The stones were sourced from another location, due to the fact that the designers knew of the ability of the material to withstand the elements. Furthermore the exact design, orientation and location of these ancient wonders allows one to believe that applied geological science was in existence some 3000 years before Christ, but nobody had the nomenclature in order to classify it.

When standing in the presence of these structures, armed with this knowledge, one can only stare in awe and only imagine how, when and where the idea for these magnificent structures came about. Everything about these three large pyramids is amazing. This leads you to question whether the deeper understanding of the magnificent history of science could guide our future applications.

When one looks into the annals of history we find that as early as 300 BC in Ancient Greece Theophrastus, who was a student of Aristotle and Plato, was examining concepts relating to geological science.

He was a philosopher and deep in thought about processes on earth. His ideas were guided by those of Aristotle who made critical observations of the slow rate of geological change. Furthermore his teacher also hypothesised what happens to water below the subsurface. It is interesting to note that the basis for earth science as we know it was deep thought observation and critical analysis.

Approximately 1300 years later Ibn Sina commented on the work of Aristotle and further delved into these surface processes, mountain formation, sources of water, formation of minerals and the origin of earthquakes. Thereafter Shen Kou, who was also a naturalist, proposed the modern theories of Geomorphology.

This Chinese scientist, who dabbled in many fields, observed surface processes and the erosion of mountains as well as the consequent deposition of materials in the ocean. From a better understanding of these processes we have learnt to understand the formation of offshore mineral resources and thus extract them.

The initial applied use of geological science related to the extraction of resources, as previously mentioned. This can be seen from the oldest gold mine in the world in Georgia, which supposedly dates back to the third millennium B.C. This application in turn affected where we situate our dwellings, the materials used to construct these dwellings, as well as the relationship/impact we had with/on the immediate (surrounding) environment. It is a known fact that settlements were located along rivers in order to minimise the amount of time spent on collecting water. This life source also caused destruction when flooding occurred, yet we persisted in living on the floodplain.

More recently and closer to home, due to the groundwater resources supplying the majority of the country’s freshwater, Henry Darcy became the father of hydrogeology in 1856. He examined flow in saturated porous media in the water supply of Dijon, France and then announced a law named after him.

Thus heralded an era of French Mathematics, particularly applied to the earth sciences, which we have never seen before. Charles Matheron, Benoit Mandelbrot and Pierre Gy all looked at problems related to understanding the earth.

Thus it is clearly evident that a rich history of geoscience has lead to the point whereby we are at the cutting edge of great discoveries and integration of knowledge. The future is so bright I have to wear shades!

Dr. Gaathier Mahed (Pr.Sci.Nat)
Senior Lecturer
Department of Environmental and Occupational Studies