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Background: Several isiXhosa home language (HL) learners are excluded from meaningful mathematics learning because they are taught in English. Not only do teachers lack epistemological and pedagogical confidence in using multiple languages when teaching mathematics, but there are no mathematical registers for African languages that allow for adequate mathematical teaching and learning. There is a scarcity of research on what constitutes effective mathematics instruction for isiXhosa HL learners in South African language of learning and teaching (LoLT) Grade 1 classrooms. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Grade 1 teachers using visual representations to enhance isiXhosa HL learners' understanding of mathematics in the English- LoLT in Grade 1 classrooms. Setting: This study was conducted at four primary schools in the Western Cape's Metro East Education District. Methods: This study employs a qualitative research approach in conjunction with an adapted interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) systems method to collect in-depth data about current mathematics practices in English LoLT in Grade 1 classrooms. The data were analysed using John Stuart Mill's analytical comparison technique. Results: This study found that semiotics such as visual (and concrete) representations assist isiXhosa HL learners to grasp and understand mathematical concepts easily. Conclusion: This study emphasises the significance of using sufficient visual representation strategies to enhance isiXhosa HL learners' mathematical understanding in the English LoLT in Grade 1 classrooms. Contribution: The outcomes of this study can make a positive contribution to current mathematics practice in terms of supporting isiXhosa HL learners in English LoLT in Grade 1 classrooms.

Background: Fluency in mathematical language is essential for learning mathematics. Teachers must understand and use their diverse mathematical knowledge, including language and communication difficulties inherent to mathematics instruction. According to recent South African research, Grade 1 teachers are not equipped to utilise learners' linguistic skills for efficient learning of mathematics. Objectives: This research investigates South African Grade 1 teachers' mathematical language perceptions, experiences, and feelings. These Grade 1 teachers' transcripts were analysed to discover their understanding of the language of mathematics. Method: Exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research designs were used in conjunction with an adapted interactive qualitative analysis technique. Focus group interviews, individual interviews, and lesson observations, together with a purposive sampling technique, were used to gather the data from both public and private primary schools. Results: The results showed that Grade 1 teachers view mathematics as a separate language with its own vocabulary and register. The findings highlighted the need to simplify the language of mathematics to enhance understanding. Conclusion: This research concluded that language is essential to mathematics learning and that mathematics has its own register, which is acquired like any other additional language. To help isiXhosa learners understand mathematics in English, scaffolding strategies must be aligned with their linguistic demands. Contribution: This article provides important recommendations for teachers who need to recognise the reality that English is the lingua franca and ensure isiXhosa home language-speaking learners receive the necessary support to acquire actual proficiency in the academic register of English for mathematical language learning.

South Africa's policy on screening, identification, assessment and support (SIAS) stipulates that teachers support learners with barriers to learning and development in their mainstream classrooms. This includes learners living with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet, little research has been conducted regarding Grade 1 teachers' utilisation of support strategies for learners living with ADHD in mainstream classrooms. This study focused on Grade 1 teachers' support for learners living with ADHD. An exploratory, interpretive, interactive, qualitative case study was employed. Twelve purposefully selected Grade 1 teachers, representing five public schools (varying from Quintile 1-5) and one private school from the West Coast Education District, South Africa, participated in an unstructured open-ended focus group interview resulting in an interview framework being developed. This interview framework directed the field observations of classroom visits and semi-structured individual interview questions of six purposefully selected Grade 1 teachers. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the transcriptions of the individual interviews, as well as the field notes. The study found that teachers were innovative in developing effective support strategies to support Grade 1 learners living with ADHD in their classrooms.

There are a number of challenges related to teaching in a multi-linguistic classroom. Despite the literature clearly indicating how learners acquire learning, there is still a dearth of material on descriptions of current support provided to learners within the theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. In an attempt to resolve these challenges, this article explores and describes challenges regarding teaching strategies to support isiXhosa-speaking learners in Grade One, whose home language is different from the LOLT in their schools. A qualitative research design was used supported by the exploratory, descriptive and contextual research methods. A sample was selected of Grade One teachers from schools in different socio-economic areas in the Western Cape. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings provided a clear description of challenges and needs experienced by both the learner and the teacher. Conclusions were made in terms of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Based on the findings, practical recommendations were made regarding teaching strategies for language support to Grade One isiXhosa learners.

Concerns have been expressed about the quality of teaching and learning in Grade R (reception) classrooms in South Africa. In mathematics, learning outcomes are said to be particularly limited, especially in poorer provinces of the country (Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation [DPME] 2012). The study reported in this article explored the perceptions and beliefs on teaching mathematics in Grade R, compared with actual classroom practices, of selected teachers in a range of schools and Early Childhood Development Centres in the Eastern Cape. Sixteen teachers took part in focus group meetings, and outcomes were analysed according to Northcutt and McCoy's 'Interactive Qualitative Analysis' method (2004). Themes emerging from analysis were used to construct interview questions and guide observations of Grade R mathematics teaching for nine selected teachers. Findings show that teachers from different contexts have similar perceptions and beliefs about teaching mathematics in grade R but that often their observed practices do not match how they perceive and value Grade R teaching. In the analysis of lesson videos, we identify a number of 'silent themes' revealing teachers' true actions, enabling us to comment on development and training needed to reach the goals of the intended mathematics curriculum for Grade R.

What scholars call "writing" actually involves writing, reading, talking, thinking, and engaging. Yet how academic writing develops through this recursive, social process, is imperfectly understood. Although participating in academic gatherings like colloquia and international conferences can help researchers find a scholarly voice, not all new scholars have the opportunity to participate in such gatherings and the learnings they offer. Especially for those scholars, their academic writing must be consciously developed. We examine the process by which a new South African management scholar, supported by his writing coach, developed an academic voice. Analyzing their 15-month long communication (emails and summaries of conversations), we find three interweaving processes. Coaching guides the new scholar first to learn to fit in by becoming aware of genre conventions through practical writing-to-learn and show-and-tell coaching tactics. Then the challenge is to stand out by forcing tough trade-offs and intensifying the focus on novelty. Ultimately the scholar must do both, negotiating the tension between them. Our article provides evidence of how the emergence of self-reliant scholarly writing can be supported. This process is especially salient in developing country contexts with few enculturating opportunities, but we suggest that it applies more broadly, opening avenues for future theorizing.

There are limited studies into the exact pervasiveness of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in sub-Saharan Africa, and fewer still into early intervention for learners with autism. This paper focuses on how three foundation phase teachers provided explicitly structured classroom experiences to develop social skills training, particularly independence, behavioural etiquette and self-esteem of their learners. Some learners with ASD do become well- adjusted independent adults, but others experience challenges in interpreting emotions or forming and sustaining healthy interpersonal relations. This study was underpinned by Vygotsky's (1978) socio-cultural theory which highlights the importance of social learning in the education of children with disabilities. A qualitative research design and an interpretivist paradigm were used for generating the data needed to track the development. Three purposively selected foundation phase (FP) teachers in three different types of schools were selected as the sample. Three vignettes provide the background to the discussions. Knowing that ASD is characterised by order and disorder, some pedagogical approaches may generate new divisions, while those presented here have noticeably benefited the learners with ASD; the teachers created learning opportunities to elevate the social skills of their high functioning learners with ASD.

Aim Climate change and other anthropogenic global change drivers act in complex, mutually exacerbating ways to alter the abundance and distribution of species. In South Africa, pied crows Corvus albus have increased in numbers and range in recent decades. Popular opinion links these changes to urbanisation and infrastructure development, but there has been no empirical test of this idea. We aimed to clarify the drivers of pied crow population changes in South Africa. Location South Africa. Methods We used publicly available long-term datasets, the Southern African Bird Atlas Project and University of Delaware Gridded Climate Database, and spatial data from government bodies, to assess relationships between pied crow population and range changes, land use, infrastructure, urbanisation and climate change. Results Pied crow numbers have increased significantly in the past three decades, but rate of increase varied geographically, with crows declining in the northeast and increasing in the south-west of South Africa. Pied crow population changes were strongly correlated with climate change. Crows have benefited most from climate warming in the shrubland biomes of south-western South Africa. Pied crows are tree nesters, and within these shrublands, there is a strong positive relationship between the rate of population increase and the density of powerline infrastructure, which may facilitate pied crows' increase by providing nesting sites. Main conclusions Pied crow numbers have increased in response to climate warming, with their spread facilitated by electrical infrastructure in south-western South Africa, providing a clear example of compound influence of multiple global change drivers promoting a significant change in species range and reporting rate. Pied crows are generalist predators and there is popular concern about their ecological impact in areas where increases have occurred. We highlight the importance of understanding the ecosystem-level implications of increased numbers of pied crows in South Africa's shrubland biomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article represents an encounter between Antje Du Bois-Pedain's recent Transitional Amnesty in South Africa and Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever. I argue that Du Bois-Pedain's work is magisterial in the sense that relates it to the meaning of the archive identified in Derrida's text. Taking the Derridean argument a step further I aim to illustrate that this text-as-archive reveals a glimpse of its own death drive -- it is conscious of its unconscious. I argue that the death drive of the archive is here ultimately resisted/countered precisely by Du Bois-Pedain's willingness to confront the outside of the archive that is this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent thinking sees the earliest Khoekhoe as a kind of San with livestock. Eighteenth- century travellers sometimes seem to have seen San as a kind of Khoekhoe without livestock. Classic ethnographic sources saw Khoekhoe and San as related peoples, one with livestock and one without. Some in recent years have suggested that Khoekhoe and San are unstable ethnicities, shifting back and forth with the acquisition and loss of livestock. Is there a correct view? This paper attempts to answer that question. One theme of the paper is the idea that the acquisition of livestock by twentieth-century Khoe-speaking hunter-gatherers might serve as an analogy for deciphering similar processes among early Khoekhoe. The shifting lifestyles from hunter to herder and back again in the Cape are now well documented in the historical and archaeological records. Similar processes have been observed by ethnographers in the Kalahari since the 1970s. Another theme is the more theoretical concern of Khoekhoe and San social structure and social ideology. Hunter-gatherers and pastoralists do see things like accumulation and sharing differently, but comparative ethnography shows us that specific exchange practices like hxaro are not as unambiguously 'hunter-gatherer' as we might think, nor customs such as bridewealth payment as unambiguously 'pastoralist'. Comparative examination of Khoisan ethnography, coupled with the use of recent theoretical insights, can help us to build a picture of early Khoekhoe society and ideological shifts that must have accompanied the adoption of herding by the inhabitants of the Cape in past centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the health and safety risks posed by geotechnical investigations in South African towns. It details the geotechnical investigation by engineering consulting firm Aurecon South Africa (Pty) Ltd. on a towship in Gauteng that involved a desk study and a geotechnical investigation. Also explored are the solutions used to mitigate the risks which includes electrical shock and damage to property.

The first Southern African Bird Atlas Project was launched in 1986 and gathered bird distribution data from six countries of southern Africa. The project culminated with the publication of The Atlas of Southern African Birds in 1997. The database generated by the project, seven million bird distribution records, has been widely used by four groups: environmental consultants (for example, to locate electricity transmission lines), conservationists (planning conservation strategies), research scientists (especially macro-ecologists and biogeographers) and birders (ecotourism materials). By 2007, the database had spawned 50 research publications and eight Ph.D.s and master's degrees. These products are a tribute to the more than 5000 'citizen scientists', who gathered the bulk of the data. The atlas concept has been extended to frogs, reptiles, spiders and butterflies; a second bird atlas started in 2007 and will, for example, facilitate knowledge of the impact of environmental change on birds. The South African National Biodiversity Institute is playing a lead role in initiating these new projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many migratory bird species, including the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), have advanced their arrival date at Northern Hemisphere breeding grounds, showing a clear biotic response to recent climate change. Earlier arrival helps maintain their synchrony with earlier springs, but little is known about the associated changes in phenology at their non-breeding grounds. Here, we examine the phenology of barn swallows in South Africa, where a large proportion of the northern European breeding population spends its non-breeding season. Using novel analytical methods based on bird atlas data, we show that swallows first arrive in the northern parts of the country and gradually appear further south. On their north-bound journey, they leave South Africa rapidly, resulting in mean stopover durations of 140 days in the south and 180 days in the north. We found that swallows are now leaving northern parts of South Africa 8 days earlier than they did 20 years ago, and so shortened their stay in areas where they previously stayed the longest. By contrast, they did not shorten their stopover in other parts of South Africa, leading to a more synchronized departure across the country. Departure was related to environmental variability, measured through the Southern Oscillation Index. Our results suggest that these birds gain their extended breeding season in Europe partly by leaving South Africa earlier, and thus add to scarce evidence for phenology shifts in the Southern Hemisphere.