Browsing Research articles (Dept of Languages & Social Sciences Education) by Title
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Now showing items 12-31 of 31
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Tabulawa, R.T. (Routledge http://www.informaworld.com, February NaN, 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: Literature on globalisation claims that changed global patterns of production and industrial organisation have intensified international economic competition, prompting nations globally to restructure their education systems in an attempt to position themselves favourably in an increasingly competitive economic environment. This is an environment that now requires a new kind of worker, what Castells terms the self-programmable worker. This has put education under pressure to produce the learner-equivalent of the self-programmable worker. This self-programmable learner is characterised by such psychosocial traits as independence of thought, innovativeness, creativity and flexibility. Botswana's Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) of 1994 represents the country's response to globalisation. It purports to produce the self-programmable learner for an economy undergoing rapid transformation. In this paper I take a critical view of the policy's intent. By analysing two of its central constructs (pre-vocational preparation strategy and the behaviourist model adopted in the review of the curriculum), upon which the production of the self-programmable learner hinges, I conclude that it is unlikely that the preferred learner would be produced. The two constructs are identified as paradoxes in that their effects are most likely to be the opposite of what is intended. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/733 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_CE_2009.pdf (2.061Mb) -
Tabulawa, R. (Routledge. http://www.informaworld.com, June NaN, 2002)[more][less]
Abstract: Curriculum reviews during the past two decades in Botswana have had mixed fortunes for geography in secondary schools. While the subject has modernised over the years it has at the same time shrunk in terms of its spread over the entire secondary schooling period. This paper describes this contradictory development, teasing out some of the most salient forces that have shaped the geography curriculum in secondary schools in Botswana. It argues that the subject's future is precarious and uncertain. Deliberate and concerted effort to promote and 'sell' the subject is required of those with vested interests in it. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/515 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_IRGEE_2002.pdf (1.042Mb) -
Tabulawa, R.T. (Routledge. http://www.informaworld.com, January NaN, 2004)[more][less]
Abstract: This study reports on the strategies (overt and subtle) employed by students in one senior secondary school in Botswana to keep their teachers in an information-giving position. Contrary to the prevailing view that the 'teacher dominance' of classroom activities so often reported in classroom studies results from teachers' desire for social control, this study sees the dominance as a negotiated product, resulting instead from teachers and students exercising power on one another. Such a view of classroom practice is only possible where power is conceptualized not as a negative force that dominates, but as a productive force that simultaneously constrains and enables human action. Viewed this way, classroom reality becomes a co-construction, a 'joint project' by teacher and students. Attempts to change this reality, therefore, must include both teacher and students. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/516 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_JCS_2004.pdf (1.362Mb) -
Tabulawa, R. (Springer. http://www.springerlink.com, April NaN, 2007)[more][less]
Abstract: The University of Botswana has not escaped the reform fever currently gripping higher education institutions the world-over. In the late 1980s the University initiated an administrative/management restructuring exercise whose resultant structure was implemented between 1998 and 2000. The exercise, in many respects, was a response to globalization. The emergence, in the past two decades, of a global economy, the massification of higher education, and the globalization of neo-liberal economic thinking have compelled universities to recast their social and economic missions. Consequently, universities have had to restructure within the framework of a global ideology characterized by an emphasis on effectiveness, quality and efficiency. This paper explicates the restructuring exercise at the University of Botswana by locating the exercise within its global and local contexts. It argues that while the resultant structure reflected global influences and trends, it was as much a product of local concerns. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/511 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_HE_2007.pdf (2.309Mb) -
Kamwendo, G.H. (Brill Academic Publishers. http://www.brill.nl/m%5Fcatalogue.asp?sub=3, NaN, 2008)[more][less]
Abstract: In a linguistically heterogeneous country, one of the critical challenges is to make information accessible to all people. Various communication media can be used: television, radio, telephone, the Internet and others. Malawi needs to embrace Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to achieve development in all spheres of human life. Malawi’s use of ICTs ranks low. Th e critical challenge, therefore, is to promote an increased use of ICTs with the aim of improving people’s access to information. Given that only a minority of Malawians have access to ICTs, that television has not signifi cantly penetrated into rural areas where 80 % of the population lives, and that there is also a high illiteracy rate, the radio becomes the most accessible form of technology for information dissemination in Malawi. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/530 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_PGDT_2008.pdf (590.8Kb) -
Tabulawa, R. (Routledge. http://www.informaworld.com, February NaN, 2003)[more][less]
Abstract: Recent pronouncements by international aid agencies on their interest in and preference for a learner-centred pedagogy so far appear not to have attracted much scholarly attention. This paper attempts to explain this interest. It argues that although the efficacy of the pedagogy is often couched in cognitive/educational terms, in essence, its efficacy lies in its political and ideological nature. The fact that the aid agencies’ interest in the pedagogy became explicit soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall is in itself significant. The paper argues that aid agencies’ apparent lack of interest in pedagogical issues before 1989 lay partially in the very central hypothesis of the modernisation theory of development which became enshrined in policies of aid agencies soon after the latter were created. The hypothesis, coupled with human capital theory, viewed education in technicist terms. However, the ascendancy of neo-liberalism as a development paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s elevated political democratisation as a prerequisite for economic development. Education, then, assumed a central role in the democratisation project. Given its democratic tendencies, learner-centred pedagogy was a natural choice for the development of democratic social relations in the schools of aid-receiving countries. Aid agencies, therefore, had to be explicit about their preference for the pedagogy. Thus, the pedagogy is an ideological outlook, a worldview intended to develop a preferred kind of society and people. It is in this sense that it should be seen as representing a process of Westernisation disguised as quality and effective teaching. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/518 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_CE_2003.pdf (1.336Mb) -
Adeyemi, M.B. (Taylor & Francis, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, July NaN, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper identifies the aims and contents directly linked to the teaching and learning of the concept of democracy at the junior secondary school level in Botswana. It examines the perceived extent to which the objectives of teaching the concept of democracy has been achieved by 72 social studies teachers, in addition to finding out the perceived challenges they face and their suggested solutions while teaching topics related to democracy. It was found that the majority of the social studies teachers believe that the level of the achievement of the teaching of the aims is either average or above average. The problems of defining the concept of democracy and the handling of mixed ability students were identiified as major challenges to the teaching of the concept of democracy in social studies. The study found a moderate but positive correlation between the self-assessment of 36 purposively selected subjects from the 72 social studies teachers and the observed attributes on some traits on democracy while teaching a topic on democracy. A correlated t-test further indicates a significant difference between the ratings of the teachers and those of the investigator. It was concluded that a gap exists between theory (what teachers perceive as practicing) and practice (what they actually do in the classrooms). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1044 Files in this item: 1
Adeyemi_ES_2002.pdf (1.951Mb) -
Kamwendo, G.H.; Mooko, T. (Walter de Gruyter, http://www.degruyter.de, November NaN, 2006)[more][less]
Abstract: The article discusses language planning in two Southern African countries, Botswana and Malawi. Both countries are multilingual and multicultural. They also share a common British colonial history. At independence, the two countries retained English as the official language. In Botswana, Setswana was made the national language while in Malawi, it was Chichewa. Over the years, these languages have been developed and promoted at the expense of other indigenous languages, a situation that has prompted linguistic minorities to engage in the language-based politics of recognition. The article discusses how Botswana and Malawi are responding to the call for the official recognition of more indigenous languages in domains such as government, education, and mass media. Relevant comparisons and contrasts between Botswana and Malawi are drawn in this regard in the article. One clear common denominator is the dominance of English in official domains in the two countries. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/829 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_IJSL_2006.pdf (1.340Mb) -
Kamwendo, G.H. (Routledge. http://www.informaworld.com, August NaN, 2008)[more][less]
Abstract: According to the Medical Council of Malawi, one of the conditions for a licence to be granted to an individual who wants to practise medicine in Malawi is the practitioner's ability to speak and write English fluently. This means that the expatriate medical practitioner is not required by law to demonstrate fluency in Chichewa (the national language) or any other relevant indigenous language(s). On the basis of a sociolinguistic study that was conducted at a major referral hospital in a predominantly Chitumbuka-speaking town, this paper argues that the Medical Council of Malawi erroneously assumes that English is the main language of doctor-patient communication in Malawian hospitals since the country is linguistically categorised as an English speaking African country. Yet only a minority of the population is competent in English. The national language (Chichewa), and other indigenous languages remain the main medium through which much of the health service provider-patient communication takes place. A more realistic and comprehensive language proficiency testing should cover English (the main international language of medicine) and at least one indigenous language (the lingua franca of the area in which a particular hospital is located). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/540 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_CILP_2008.pdf (633.9Kb) -
Ketlhoilwe, M. J.; Jeremiah, K. (IJSRE, http://www.ijsre.com, June NaN, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: Environment and sustainability issues are contemporary in educational innovations in institutions of higher education particularly in their core business regarding teaching, research and community engagement. The introduction and implementation of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) (2005-2014) has added impetus to the contemporariness of environment and sustainability issues in education. This paper is based on the empirical data generated within a selection of University of Botswana departments and units to determine the extent to which sustainability issues and concerns are implemented. The paper provides the outcome of the audit exercise that indicated that some of the University of Botswana departments and units are not incorporating sustainability issues in their practices (be it in teaching, research, community engagement or management practices). The paper recommends a systematic approach to mainstream environment and sustainability issues across the faculties. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/975 Files in this item: 1
Ketlhoilwe_IJSRE_2010.pdf (1.417Mb) -
Chilisa, B. (Taylor & Francis, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, NaN, 2002)[more][less]
Abstract: The article critiques pregnancy policies in the education systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Policies discussed are divided into expulsion, re-entry and continuation policies. Arguing from the standpoint of theories of oppression, it is postulated that expulsion policies symbolise direct violence against girls who become pregnant and are more common in those countries with poor human rights records. Continuation and re-entry policies are prevalent in countries that have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Children. It is argued that re-entry policies also violate girl mothers’ right to education through a retreat ideology that requires temporary withdrawal of the pregnant girl from school. Moreover, gender inequalities are built into the policies and supported by traditional and institutional ideologies that make re-entry of the girl mother into the school difficult. The Botswana re-entry policy is reviewed to illustrate difficulties in the readmission of girl mothers to school. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1040 Files in this item: 1
Chilisa_GE_2002.pdf (1.431Mb) -
Kamwendo, G. H. (Nordic Association of African Studies. http://www.njas.helsinki.fi, NaN, 2006)[more][less]
Abstract: In 1994, South Africans of all races and political parties took part in the first democratic elections. The election and inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first black president marked the beginning of a new era - an era of democracy. The new era has, among other things, witnessed reforms in language planning. The current paper is a critique of South Africa's language planning efforts during the first decade of democracy i.e. 1994-2004. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1097 Files in this item: 1
kamwendo_NJAS_2006.pdf (108.8Kb) -
Dinama, B. (IJSRE, http://www.ijsre.com, June NaN, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: This study investigated the classroom practices of moral education (ME) teachers in three (3) of the ten (10) Botswana senior secondary schools that are piloting the curriculum. The aim of the study was to gain insight into classroom practices and the challenges that moral education teachers face when implementing a new curriculum. Interviews and classroom observations were used to collect data from five (5) participants who were purposively sampled. The results suggest that teachers have a positive attitude towards the subject despite the challenges faced in implementing the new curriculum. This study finds that it is not always easy for moral education teachers to methodically follow a particular approach in teaching moral education, as per the expectations of the curriculum, since they are generally not sure which ones are the most appropriate. The findings of this study may be of use to curriculum planners, policy makers, teachers and researchers in education in their efforts to better understand the thinking and practices of teachers in classrooms. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1053 Files in this item: 1
Dinama_IJSRE_2012.pdf (1.581Mb) -
Sithole, B. M. (IJSRE, http://www.ijsre.com, June NaN, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: This study was conducted to determine the extent to which the teaching practices of Business Studies teachers in Botswana junior secondary schools conform to pedagogical practices recommended by curriculum planners. The findings of this study suggest that teachers and curriculum planners are not singing from the same hymnbook, thus, the pedagogical practices of Business Studies teachers are at variance with the expectations of the curriculum planners. Teacher-centred pedagogy is the dominant mode of instruction used to teach Business Studies in Botswana junior secondary schools despite the fact that curriculum planners advocate for a paradigm shift from teaching to learning through the employment of learner-centred entrepreneurial-directed teaching methods. The study concludes with the recommendation that, for pedagogical practices of business teachers to be aligned with those prescribed by curriculum planners, educational authorities and school administrators should put in place support structures aimed at monitoring and ensuring that the delivery of business education is done according to the stipulated business curriculum standards as well as enforcing the fulfillment of pedagogical practices set in the syllabi. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/791 Files in this item: 1
Sithole_IJSRE_2010.pdf (1.281Mb) -
Kamwendo, G. (Taylor & Francis, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, December NaN, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: Finex Ndhlovu’s The politics of language and nation building in Zimbabwe is a product of his doctoral research project. The book, which is a welcome contribution to scholarly debates on nation building in multilingual and multicultural contexts, comprises seven chapters: Chapter one (Introduction), Chapter two (The history of language politics in Zimbabwe), Chapter three (The languages of Zimbabwe), Chapter four (Language and ethnicity in Zimbabwean polilitics), Chapter five (The politics of language: Nation building or empire building?), Chapter six (Language policy, hegemony and internal colonization) and Chapter seven (The Zimbabwean case study in global perspective). The book is supported by two informative appendices, i.e. Appendix A (list of interviewees arranged by category of participants) and Appendix B (guiding questions for oral interviews). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1050 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_LM_2010.pdf (281.0Kb) -
Kamwendo, G. H. (Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES). http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_sare.html, October NaN, 2006)[more][less]
Abstract: During the first 30 years of Malawi’s independence (1964-1994), the country was under President Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s one-party authoritarian rule. In line with Banda’s nation-building ideology, Malawi pursued the policy of one nation, one party (the Malawi Congress Party), one leader (Life President Banda) and one national language (Chichewa). Despite the fact that Malawi is multilingual and multiethnic, the Banda regime created a political atmosphere under which non-Chewa ethnic and/or linguistic identities were suppressed. A political system was established that muzzled academic and other freedoms. Academia, for instance, was deprived of its critical and objective voice. The then only university, the University of Malawi, was carefully monitored to ensure that so-called subversive disciplines or topics were not on offer. Sociolinguistic research was one of the academic disciplines that did not enjoy meaningful academic freedom. The demise of the Banda regime in 1994 and the adoption of a new constitution that embraces various freedoms (including academic freedom) have meant that there are no longer political constraints on academic freedom. However, new forms of constraint on academic freedom have arisen. These are economic constraints, many emanating from the research-funding agencies’ agendas. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1106 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_SAREEP_2006.pdf (99.15Kb) -
Adeyemi, M.B. (IJSRE, http://www.ijsre.com, March NaN, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: This paper focused on the positive stereotypes junior secondary school students have of nationalities outside Africa. In addition, the paper examined the sources of the positive stereotypes as perceived by the students while implications were drawn for teacher education. A sample of 105 students matched some positive stereotypes to some nationalities, using the Princeton Trilogy. According to the findings, ten nationalities appeared mostly when the positive attributes such as scientifically-minded, intelligent, industrious, efficient, sportsmanlike, democratic, straightforward, alert, pleasure-loving and patriotic were matched by the students with various nationalities from their perceptions. The sources of information of these positive stereotypes were attributed by the students to the Internet, stories, television programmes, textbooks, friends, newspapers, radio, teachers’ interaction, and other minor sources in that order. Some implications were drawn from the findings for teaching and teacher education which included the effective teaching of decision making processes, diversity through multicultural education, and the globalization of the teacher education programmes across the world. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/973 Files in this item: 1
Adeyemi_IJSRE_2011.pdf (1.666Mb) -
Tabulawa, R. (Routledge http://www.informaworld.com, April NaN, 1998)[more][less]
Abstract: Attempts to improve the quality of education in Botswana have, inter alia, included an emphasis on a learner-centered pedagogy. Attempts at implementing this pedagogy have been made within the ambit of the technical rational model of curriculum development. The attempts, however, have produced inconclusive results, and these results have often been rationalized in technicist terms, e.g. as being due to lack of resources and poorly trained teachers. Overlooked in this technicist model are the teachers' perspectives on the innovation. Using the case-study approach within the rubrics of the qualitative research paradigm, this study sought to establish the perspectives of geography teachers in a senior secondary school in Botswana vis-a-vis the learnercentered pedagogy advocated in Education for Kagisano (Social Harmony), a report produced by the 1977 Commission on Education. The findings indicated that teachers' classroom practices were influenced by many factors other than technical ones: these included the teachers' assumptions about the nature of knowledge and the ways it ought to be transmitted, their perceptions of students, and the goal of schooling. It also emerged that their assumptions were incongruent with the basic tenets of the learner-centered pedagogy. The findings, then, are an indictment of the technical rational model of change implementation applied in Botswana. They indicate that disregarding what teachers know and think about their taken-for-granted classroom practices when effecting change can lead to disappointing results. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/698 Files in this item: 1
Tabulawa_IJQSE_1998.pdf (1.076Mb) -
Mooko, T. (Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Group. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713415834, March NaN, 2005)[more][less]
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to establish the usage of research and theory in the teaching of English language in secondary schools in Botswana. Altogether 100 questionnaires were administered in 19 secondary schools. The results of this study indicate that teachers rarely ever refer to language research in their teaching. Less value was also placed on the theoretical information acquired during training. The respondents indicated that their teaching is essentially based on utilizing their teaching experience and individual creativity. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/165 Files in this item: 2
license.txt (1.998Kb)mooko_educational_studies05.pdf (1.968Mb) -
Jankie, D.; Garegae, K.G.; Tsheko, G.N. (IJSRE, http://www.ijsre.com, June NaN, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: The paper draws attention to the relationship between the research process and the production of knowledge on adolescent sexual behaviours and HIV and HIV and AIDS issues by adolescents in Botswana schools. Within this context the paper addressed the successes and challenges experienced in conducting single and mixed sex semi-structured focus group interviews with adolescents in four junior secondary schools. It also explored adolescents’ feelings about participating in focus interviews that that explore issues regarding sex, sexuality, HIV and AIDS. Data drawn from the interviews as well as researchers’ reflections suggest that the use of focus groups as a qualitative data collection strategy opened possibilities for adolescents to share diverse knowledge, experiences and perspectives on sex, sexuality, HIV and AIDS. Likewise, it suggests that various factors enhanced and limited adolescents’ participation in focus group interviews. Moreover, this data also provides opportunities for researchers to rethink and problematize ways in which they conceptualize and utilize focus group interviews in research-based knowledge with adolescents in particular. Although the intention of this paper is not to make generalizations about the use of focus group interviews within the Botswana context, the findings reported in this paper have implications for developing and promoting culturally sensitive research approaches relevant to this country/society. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1114 Files in this item: 1
Jankie_IJSRE_2011.pdf (2.097Mb)
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Now showing items 12-31 of 31