Search

In line with international trends in early childhood care and education (ECCE) recognising the importance of early learning, the Department of Basic Education in South Africa has pledged to professionalise the sector, increase access and improve quality. From a systemic point of view, professionalisation of the sector will require collaboration on multiple levels between various stakeholders working in different systems to bring about simultaneous improvement in conditions of employment, resource provision, and infrastructure development. To aid the government in supporting skills development in this sector, particularly for those servicing the most indigent populations, we employed a multi-method design to determine critical skills gaps and how they could best be addressed. Data were gathered through online questionnaires, a desktop review and focus group and individual interviews. Thematic analysis revealed the need for managerial training, practical learning opportunities for practitioners, the necessity for more home-based ECCE services and systemic improvement. Based on the findings, we make suggestions of how key stakeholders could partner to best address these needs.

In this article we combine Boyer's 4 domains of scholarship with Hutchings' 4 types of questions and Ghaye, Melander-Wikman, Kisare, Chambers, Bergmark, Kostenius and Lillyman's (2008) reflective learning framework using a Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) method to explore the perceived gap in in-service teachers' experience in classroom contexts. Qualitative data were collected in an action learning set (ALS) consisting of distance learning in-service teachers enrolled in a learning support programme through purposeful discussions, reflective diaries, observations, and open-ended reflective learning questionnaires. In the research reported on here we found that collaborative partnerships initiated scholarly thoughts and actions when sharing and evaluating insights during the research process, which resulted in building on learning that has been gained together. The findings point to the need for collaboration between lecturers and students to develop an awareness to not only take knowledge "from" one another to create theories "about" how they should deal with problems but rather to "jointly" become reflective collaborative scholars to address the theory-practice gap.

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) has gained recognition as an important means of promoting the holistic development of the inseparable social, emotional, cognitive and physical facets of education in the early childhood years. Since early childhood development poses challenges to many young children, the prolonged mandatory closure of ECCE centres during the national lockdown exposed many young children to the additional risk of being deprived of the continuity of learning, security, health and safety. This article draws from a research project in three Bafenyi ECCE centres in the rural area of Ikageng (Potchefstroom) in the North-West province of South Africa and focuses on how COVID-19 influences the holistic development of young children at risk. A qualitative approach was taken, following a participatory action-learning and action-research (PALAR) design where all participants collaborate as equal partners and construct their own meaning from experiences within the action-learning set (ALS) to advocate for change. Within a critical and transformative paradigm teacher-participants were encouraged to think critically about the holistic development of young children and to consider how collaboration could lead to social change. The data collection method was limited to the recorded group discussions of the ALS during Cycle 1 of the PALAR process. Given that positive environmental and contextual factors are able to lay the groundwork for holistic development in the early years, the African Ubuntu philosophy of compassion, respect and humanity was viewed as being suitable to serve as theoretical framework for the study. The findings highlight that, even during a lockdown, it vital that collaborative ways are found to harness the precious early years with a view not only to meeting these children's needs but also to laying the foundation for a sustainable future. It is argued that if teachers were to apply the Ubuntu philosophy, they would learn how to make lifelong use of the acquired skills to improve the holistic well-being of young children on an ongoing basis.

BackgroundOceanography and life-history characteristics are known to influence the genetic structure of marine species, however the relative role that these factors play in shaping phylogeographic patterns remains unresolved. The population genetic structure of the endemic, rocky shore dwelling Caffrogobius caffer was investigated across a known major oceanographic barrier, Cape Agulhas, which has previously been shown to strongly influence genetic structuring of South African rocky shore and intertidal marine organisms. Given the variable and dynamic oceanographical features of the region, we further sought to test how the pattern of gene flow between C. caffer populations is affected by the dominant Agulhas and Benguela current systems of the southern oceans.ResultsThe variable 5' region of the mtDNA control region was amplified for 242 individuals from ten localities spanning the distributional range of C. caffer. Fifty-five haplotypes were recovered and in stark contrast to previous phylogeographic studies of South African marine species, C. caffer showed no significant population genetic structuring along 1300 km of coastline. The parsimony haplotype network, AMOVA and SAMOVA analyses revealed panmixia. Coalescent analyses reveal that gene flow in C. caffer is strongly asymmetrical and predominantly affected by the Agulhas Current. Notably, there was no gene flow between the east coast and all other populations, although all other analyses detect no significant population structure, suggesting a recent divergence. The mismatch distribution suggests that C. caffer underwent a population expansion at least 14,500 years ago.ConclusionWe propose several possible life-history adaptations that could have enabled C. caffer to maintain gene flow across its distributional range, including a long pelagic larval stage. We have shown that life-history characteristics can be an important contributing factor to the phylogeography of marine species and that the effects of oceanography do not necessarily suppress its influence on effective dispersal.

Liver transplantation (LT) is the second most performed solid organ transplant. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a critical consideration for LT candidacy, particularly in patients with known CAD or risk factors, including metabolic dysfunction associated with steatotic liver disease. The presence of severe CAD may exclude patients from LT; therefore, precise preoperative evaluation and interventions are necessary to achieve transplant candidacy. Cardiovascular complications represent the earliest nongraft–related cause of death post-transplantation. Timely intervention to reduce cardiovascular events depends on adequate CAD screening. Coronary disease screening in end-stage liver disease is challenging because standard noninvasive CAD screening tests have low sensitivity due to hyperdynamic state and vasodilatation. As a result, there is overuse of invasive coronary angiography to exclude severe CAD. Coronary artery calcium scoring using a computed tomography scan is a tool for the prediction of cardiovascular events, and can be used to achieve risk stratification in LT candidates. Recent literature shows that qualitative assessment on both noncontrast- and contrast-enhanced chest computed tomography can be used instead of calcium score to assess the presence of coronary calcium. With increasing prevalence, protocols to address CAD in LT candidates must be reconsidered. Percutaneous coronary intervention could allow a shorter duration of dual-antiplatelet therapy in simple lesions, with safer perioperative outcomes. Hybrid coronary revascularization is an option for high-risk LT candidates with multivessel disease nonamenable to percutaneous coronary intervention. The objective of this review is to evaluate existing methods for preoperative cardiovascular risk stratification, and to describe interventions before surgery to optimize patient outcomes and reduce cardiovascular event risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learners living in challenging socio-economic circumstances face limited opportunities for further education and employment. In this context, formal career guidance which merely provides information about specific jobs and how to access them may be of little use. This article explores the usefulness of participatory visual strategies as a pedagogical tool for teachers to help learners think more critically, realistically and hopefully about their future life opportunities. Analysed through a resilience lens, findings indicated that the strategies inspired hope in learners; helped them identify assets and barriers in their social ecologies; develop a sense of agency and responsibility for deciding on their futures; and care more for other people, all of which will help them make more constructive choices for life after school. The findings might help teachers make their career education more relevant for children who live in contexts of adversity.

Since 1994 the South African government’s commitment to peace and security in Africa inexorably drew the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) into extensive involvement in multinational peacekeeping operations. These external operations clearly aligned the South African government with its articulated objectives concerning the pursuit of peace on the African continent and its (moral) intention and responsibility to act in a leading role on the continent. However, a dwindling defence budget and the burden of a high-tech force design increasingly impacted negatively on the SANDF to maintain and develop a sustainable capability geared for regional external operations. Yet, in the domestic context the government also increasingly expected the SANDF to render support to the SAPS as murder and death rates are comparable and, in some instances, even higher than death rates in high-intensity war zones in the international community. This simply means that the SANDF has the almost impossible task of balancing its demanding regional deployments with ongoing appeals by politicians and elements of the public for the SANDF to be of assistance in hotspots of high levels of criminality where the SAPS is unable to protect South Africans in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. In the final analysis, the article concludes that there is a mismatch between what has been expected of the SANDF in the past three decades from its political masters on the one side, and its budget and related capabilities on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a material that undergoes a first-order metal–insulator transition and belonging to the centrosymmetric class of materials for which the generation of the second order nonlinearities is forbidden. Optical second harmonic generation (SHG) has been demonstrated for the first time from VO2 thin films using 800 nm femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser. The VO2 films used for the experiments were grown by pulsed laser deposition technique on two different substrates, glass and alumina, with different parameters leading to the growth of VO2 films of different quality. The film grown on a glass substrate showed an enhanced SH signal but deviated from standard structural and thermo-electrical properties. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and Atomic force microscopy analysis indicated, respectively, purity and finite crystallite size, red shifted VO2 vibrational modes and nanocrystalline nature of the film. The thermo-electrical measurements showed a low resistivity, activation energy of electrical conduction and transition temperature, reduced transition contrast, and broadened hysteresis width. Contrary, the one grew on an alumina substrate resulted in improved microstructural and thermo-electrical properties of the transition, and displayed a noticeably weaker SH signal. In addition to the well-known surface and interface effects on the generation of SH, these outcomes indicate the contribution of defects to SH conversion efficiency in VO2 thin films. The generation of SH in VO2 thin films presents new opportunities for material analysis and device fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The birth of a non-racial and democratic South Africa in 1994 created great anticipation that society and education operating under the Apartheid government would be transformed. Education policies and education guidelines based on the South African Constitution now acknowledge the rights of all students from diverse backgrounds and abilities to access quality regular education. Against the background of Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this chapter analyses initial and more recent policies and implementation guidelines to develop an equitable inclusive education system to identify barriers to inclusive education and possible levers for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prevalence of entrepreneurship studies across various levels of the education sector, the gap between theory and practice in entrepreneurship education is an ongoing pedagogical challenge. This is no exception in teacher education specifically, with regard to how and what we teach to cultivate entrepreneurial awareness. This article illustrates how an international collaborative online entrepreneurship initiative addresses this theory-practice gap underpinned by Engeström's (2015) account of the transition from individual actions to collective activity. The research design is an interpretative, qualitative analysis based on the theoretical framework of activity theory, suggesting that motivation is necessary to spur on human behaviour and that motivation is prompted by objects (Engeström 1987; 1999). The collaborative interactions of the participants, who are South African student teachers, Dutch business management students, and a project facilitator, signify a flow of interactions that emerged from the activities within a system. Five key themes emerged: 1) technological intervention, 2) the impact on students 3) entrepreneurship framework, 4) system and stakeholders, 5) roles and tasks, and 6) instructional tools and pedagogy. This study suggests that even with dedicated teachers, a collaborative mentorship initiative can add value to increase entrepreneurial awareness. Furthermore, student teachers can play a valuable role in cultivating entrepreneurial thinking, but the development and synchronization of such initiatives requires proficient facilitation. This article further illustrates that efficient facilitation of local and international collaboration holds potential for the further expansion of entrepreneurship education within teacher education, which could then be cascaded to the school system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transnet moves around 80% of South Africa's rail-friendly freight tonnekilometres, which drops to less than 40% if the rail-only coal and iron ore export lines are excluded. Objectives: Calculating the costs, negative externalities, and job losses caused by Transnet's recent and historical operational issues and using the results to inform future reform possibilities. Method: Aspects contributing to Transnet's failures are indicated through an assessment of rail freight's decreasing market share and infrastructure investment, port ownership and inefficiency concerns, Transnet's deteriorating financial performance, loss of critical skills, and instances of state capture. Resultant costs and their impact on employment are calculated across various freight flow segments, whereafter reform models are suggested through international benchmarking and extracting lessons from relevant global reforms. Results: The cost of Transnet's failures are estimated as 7.43% of gross domestic product. A healthy relationship between the government and the private sector is a frequent occurrence in successful reforms seen globally. Locally, recent government reforms acknowledge a meaningful role for the private sector, which is in turn offering pragmatic and achievable solutions. Conclusion: Improved private sector participation can contribute to Transnet's recovery. South Africa depends on this collaboration and the development of port and rail master plans to guide the infrastructure development required to meet its overall transportation needs. Contribution: Actionable implications for policy implementation, the economic regulation and horizontal separation of the freight railway, shifting freight from road to rail, the corporatisation of the port authority, and increasing port efficiency and capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research shows that significant volumes of fresh fish produced globally are wasted because of failures in the cold chain. As fresh hake is extremely temperature sensitive, fluctuations in temperature will influence the quality and the shelf life, resulting in losses in revenue. Objective: The main objective of the research was to detect deviations in temperature along the fresh hake export cold chain from Namibia to Spain. Method: This article presents a case study on a company that exports fresh hake from Walvis Bay, Namibia to a large supermarket chain in Spain, Europe. Results: This article confirms that temperature breaches and breaks occur and are sometimes unavoidable. However, if the avoidable temperature deviations could be resolved, it would improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of the export cold chain. The results indicate that temperature breaches and breaks mainly occur along the export cold chain when the product is at the airport during transfer flights either at Hosea Kutako Airport near Windhoek or Frankfurt Airport in Germany or in the refrigerated truck during the inland transport leg either from Walvis Bay, Namibia or Frankfurt, Germany to Zaragoza, Spain. Conclusion: This article makes recommendations to assist in solving identified problems and streamlining the fresh hake export cold chain. The research benefits the Namibian fishing industry as the export of fresh fish is both a precarious and taxing venture. As relevant research is lacking in Namibia, this article will contribute to the management of an efficient and effective export cold chain. Contribution: This research adds to the current knowledge of maintaining the export cold chain of fresh fish from developing countries. Preventing temperature deviations in the fresh hake export cold chain would extend the shelf life and help to maintain the quality of the fresh product and in so doing improve the competitiveness of developing countries in the global trade of fresh fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]