Thenjiwe Meyiwa

'Walking our talk' : exploring supervision of postgraduate self-study research through metaphor drawing

The authors of this article portray their learning as a group of eight academics who met to examine the roles and relationships of supervisors of postgraduate self-study research. In the article, they represent how through a metaphor-drawing activity they were able collectively to rethink their experiences and understandings of becoming and being supervisors of postgraduate self-study students. They used a metaphor-drawing activity to gain further understanding of self-study supervision, while also learning more about how visual methods can assist in self-study research. Significantly, in their drawings the supervisor was portrayed as a partner working with the student during the supervision process, rather than as a provider of expert knowledge. Through collaborative interactions and sharing of their personal images of supervision of postgraduate self-study research with critical friends, they were able to reconsider their practices in a reflexive manner that provided insight into possibilities for enhancing their supervisory roles and relationships.

Learning about Co-Flexivity in a Transdisciplinary Self-Study Research Supervision Community

In South Africa, every postgraduate (master’s or doctoral) student is usually assigned one academic advisor, known as a supervisor. “The traditional model is the apprenticeship model of individual mentoring. This model is usually supplemented by informal and ad hoc support programmes” (Academy of Science of South Africa [ASSAf], 2010, p. 64).

Breathing Under Water

The preceding chapters in this book exemplify polyvocal professional learning through self-study research as phenomenon (what) and method (how). Overall, these transdisciplinary exemplars comprise a complex conversation about supporting and enacting professional learning, with self-study methodology at the centre.

Women in selected rural municipalities: Resilience and agency against vulnerabilities to climate change

abstract The role of rural women in eradicating poverty and ending hunger has been recognised by both scholars and practitioners. There is an acknowledgement that women serve a critical role in the agricultural labour force, subsistence farming, and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa, yet their central role in food security has been largely ignored, particularly in policy (Govender, 2012). Although much of the labour of rural women is not nationally defined as economically active employment these women still spend long hours in undervalued productive and reproductive work to ensure the well-being of their households. Linked to this role is the challenge of dealing with rapidly changing climatic conditions. Women assume primary responsibility in fetching water and wood for meal preparation, and in tilling the ground. They are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change as a result of their precarious environmental livelihoods. Using data from a workshop with rural women to discuss climate change and qualitative interviews with rural women in selected rural communities in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal we explore the meaning of climate change. We report on the way climate change is understood, its effects on rural livelihoods and some responses to climate change problems experienced by the women in the communities. The women in the rural communities highlight that there are also social problems that have arisen from water scarcity. As a result of the household division of labour, rural girls confront particular challenges as they need to search further from home for water and are exposed to the risk of gender violence.

Gendered Naming and Values Attached to amaXhosa Amakrwala (Graduate-initiates)

Abstract This paper is based on a study that explored the gendered naming and values attached to the amaXhosa amakrwala, and the kind of behaviour expected from them after being ‘declared men’. Drawing from an empirical study that sought to understand the conceptual underpinnings of the practice, the paper presents the perceptual voices of both the graduate initiates and name-givers. The study was qualitative in nature and the participants were selected purposefully. Interviews of 40-50 minutes were conducted in the isiXhosa language which was the mother tongue of the respondents. The data was collected from10 graduate-initiates, 4 male name-givers and 2 female name-givers. The results revealed that the names given to amaXhosa graduate-initiates reflected social identity, values and social expectations.

Investigating relationship between Accounting students’ learning style preferences and their academic performance at a University of Technology in South Africa

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the association between accounting students’ learning style preferences and their academic performance at an institution of higher learning in South Africa. Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI) was used to identify the learning style preferences of the first, second and third year accounting students. The students’ academic performance for accounting was based on the scores obtained in the final examination assessment component. A purposeful sample of first, second and third year students registered for a Bachelor of Education degree were used in this study. The findings indicated that the majority of the first-year students were the convergers whereas the results for the second and third year students revealed that the majority were divergers. The results further revealed that the relationship between first year students’ learning styles and academic performance was significant whereas there was no significant relationship between second and third year students’ learning styles and their academic performance.

Domestic workers’ rights in global development indicators

abstract The United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the largest-ever gathering of world leaders, representing 189 member states arrived at an internationally-agreed upon agenda. The agenda was a set of development indicators, which albeit with good intention, did not take into account the working conditions of vulnerable workers within either the formal or informal employment sectors. No specific goal on labour rights was included-a pressing concern, in particular for those who are treated unjustly in the workplace. At an international level, the vulnerability and exploitation of women in informal employment, has received increased attention in the last ten years and more recently within the sector of domestic work. One of the concerns has been that a number of domestic workers work under some of the most unprotected work conditions and suffer some of the worst forms of gender exploitation. Noting the omission of marginalised and vulnerable groups from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) there is a need for civil society to respond to their understanding of the MDGs so that poverty as it relates to the experience of marginalised working women is not overlooked in national plans to implement the MDGs. This Focus makes an argument for the rights of domestic workers to be integrated into the implementation programmes of MDGs. Domestic workers, comprising mostly women, face a range of workplace abuses as both family unpaid labour in some countries and as cheap labour, particularly in countries like South Africa where domestic employment practices have their roots in colonialism, and migrant labour under apartheid.