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Enabling resilience and OVC inclusion through relational agency: a case of OVC inclusion/exclusion into education in Eswatini
By Sibili Nsibande
This article looks into enabling the resilience and inclusion of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) into education through the social relational networks which they have with others in their environments. Situated within a qualitative approach, the research collected data on the experiences of OVC through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and a message-in-a-bottle technique. It presents some of the findings on the significant hardships as well as supportive relationships experienced by OVC at the hands of their families, communities and schools. These experiences are framed within a discussion of various understandings of agency and resilience. Favouring a relational approach to agency and resilience, the analyses suggest that, while OVC endure grievous challenges which place them at risk of experiencing exclusion, through the relational networks they have with others, they are able to be resilient and experience inclusion in education and generally. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Sustaining the Integration of Technology Pedagogies in Higher Education after the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Sithulisiwe Bhebhe
This study sought to determine the support provided to lecturers from selected universities in Southern Africa in sustaining the integration of technology pedagogies to train in-service teachers after the COVID-19 pandemic era. The study used a multiple case study design and a qualitative research approach as part of an interpretive research paradigm. The study was carried out at two Southern African universities that were conveniently chosen by the researchers as their places of work. A purposive sample of lecturers in the faculties of education that train in-service teachers was selected. Data were gathered through the analysis of documents considered relevant to the study from the studied universities. A focus group discussion was held with 12 lecturers, an open-ended questionnaire was completed by 9 lecturers and open-ended interviews with 6 HODs in the faculties of education were conducted. Data obtained from the participants and the documents examined were analysed using thematic analysis. The study's findings reveal that lecturers from both universities initially had limited knowledge as they were still transforming from face-to-face teaching pedagogies and needed to be knowledgeable about integrating technological pedagogies in training in-service teachers. Findings also show that the universities provided some internet connectivity for lecturers to use especially when they were on campus, but internet access was limited when they moved off campus premises. Institution A failed to give lecturers data for off campus usage, while institution B gave lecturers data for off campus usage, but load-shedding (regulated power outages) took a toll in the country where institution B is situated. The study concludes that lecturers received support from the universities where they work to enable appropriate technology pedagogy integration in the preparation of in-service teachers. © Authors.
Global Citizenship and Southern Africa Liberation History Education in Southern Africa: A 21st Century Socio-legal Perspective
By Tapiwa V. Warikandwa
This article presents key findings of a desktop study on the extent of integration of global citizenship education (GCED) and Southern Africa Liberation History (SALH) education in the secondary schools’ curricula in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The aim of the study was to ascertain how education can be utilised as a tool to create future citizens who can think locally, regionally, and internationally as members of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and as part of the envisioned new world order. As such, the study sought to understand how GCED and SALH principles have been incorporated into the curricula of the selected countries. Desk research indicated that while SALH education is neither adequately integrated into curricula nor is it taught adequately (or particularly) in SADC, GCED is integrated into secondary school curricula in SADC. The study then offered a recommendation for policymakers on how to implement consistent methods for including SALH education and GCED in the curricula of secondary schools in the SADC Region. The recommendation has since led to the adoption of the Roadmap for integrating GCED and SALH in teaching and learning in SADC Member states in 2021–2022. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Gender dynamics in the history of nursing education at Ainsworth Dickson Nurse Training School in Swaziland, 1927–2007
By Shokahle R. Dlamini
In Swaziland the misconception that nursing is a female profession delayed male nurse training at Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital’s Ainsworth Dickson Nurse Training School. Started by the Church of the Nazarene in 1927, nursing training in this school remained exclusively women-centred until 1980, when four male students from the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force enrolled. Since then, male nurse training in Swaziland has continued unabated, although at a very low rate. The trifling numbers of men in nursing training from the 1980s to 2007 indicate that this misconception persists. While scholarly attention has been given to female nurse training in Swaziland, nothing has been written on male nurse training. This article investigates how male nurse training was perceived in Swaziland before the 1980s, why male nurse training started in 1980 and how its commencement impacted existing gender stereotypes. It also explores how male nurses were received, especially by patients. © 2023 Canadian Association of African Studies.
Critical Reflection by Mature Students as Co-Developers of an Open Educational Resource in Foregrounding Their Learning
By Cosmas Maphosa
This study explored learning which occurred when mature distance education students co-developed an open educational resource (OER) with their lecturers using Smith’s critical reflection as a method to guide reflection on their learning. This study is significant since student learning on the co-development of an open educational resource could not be found in the literature. Within an interpretative paradigm, we used questionnaires with mainly open-ended questions to determine a particular group of students’ learning. Findings indicate learning about themselves, their interactions, and their contexts. The study puts forward specific implications to improve future practices based on the findings. The specific contribution is that students who engage in critical self-reflection change their perspectives, allowing them to self-examine and reflect on future actions. This learning experience assists students, lecturers and institutions of higher education in their approach toward critical reflection and the co-development of OER. © 2023, Commonwealth of Learning. All rights reserved.
First language instruction? Eswatini teachers’ insight of the Eswatini language-in-education policy
By Phindile A. Dlamini
This article identifies and discusses why siSwati–most citizens of Eswatini’s first language–is seen by various educational stakeholders as the second choice when it comes to the medium of instruction in the officially bilingual siSwati-English Kingdom of Eswatini. Findings reveal that while excerpts from policy documents suggest good intentions for promoting first language instruction for positive outcomes in the learners’ acquisition and use of the second language, classroom practices point to a zero to medium implementation of the 2011 and 2018 education sector language-ineducation policies. Teachers believe that siSwati has no symbolic value, stifles learners’ social growth and does not assist them in their educational advancement. This study concludes that framing siSwati as a scholarly endeavour in academic discourse in Eswatini perpetuates a conflict of ideologies between teachers and learners. © 2023 NISC (Pty) Ltd.
Urban-Rural Differences in Depression Literacy Among High School Teachers in the Kingdom of Eswatini
By Ngwenya, Thabo Zwelethu
BACKGROUND Concerns have been raised over teachers' mental health literacy in low-income countries and lower- and middle-income countries wherein pediatric mental health resources are limited. This study aims to investigate adolescent depression literacy among teachers in Eswatini and to explore the role of urbanicity. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 59 public high schools in Eswatini in 2019-2020. Data were collected by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire; depression literacy was assessed by the 17-item Adolescent Depression Knowledge Questionnaire. RESULTS Teachers' adolescent depression literacy item-level correct rates fell between 27 and 80%. Although the multivariate response models indicated that teaching in urban areas was slightly associated with having higher depression literacy in general (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.46; 95% confidence interval = 1.00-2.12), such urban-rural differences did not manifest homogeneously across all items: urban teaching was significantly linked with reduced correct responses toward certain items concerning depression etiology and treatment, including depression runs in some families, major stress as a necessary cause, and a curable illness (aOR = 0.57 similar to 0.68). CONCLUSION Urban-rural differences in teachers' depression literacy were manifested at both scale- and item-levels. A critical need exists for urban/rural areas-tailored intervention on teachers' literacy toward mental disorders in the resource-limited regions to better improve health and developmental outcomes of students.
The Impact of the Covid?19 Global Health Pandemic in Early Childhood Education Within Four Countries
By Shabalala, Fortunate
The recent Covid?19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi?country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article benefits from having co?authors from various countries, bringing their own located knowledge to considerations of children’s rights and early childhood education in the wake of the pandemic. The authors discuss different perspectives on children’s human rights within historical, social, and cultural contexts and, by doing so, will discuss how the global pandemic has placed a spotlight on the previous inequalities within early years education and how the disparity of those with capital (economic and social) have led to an even greater disproportion of children needing health and educational support. © 2022 by the author(s).
The need for revision of selected aspects of online Master’s and doctoral student supervision
By Ferreira-Meyers, Karen
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions have been concerned about their Master and doctoral students, in particular how and when they would be able to continue and complete their research activities and dissertations. Scholars have noted the potential deterioration in the quality of research projects for a variety of reasons (transformation and/ or abandoning of approved research methods, anxiety-related lowered performance rates, altered modes of supervision and delays in completion times). In this article, I discuss the findings of a small-scale study, undertaken in July 2020, on whether there has been a significant change in the supervision of Master’s and doctoral students in Africa due to the outbreak and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I used a Google Form online survey to obtain participants’ opinion on the frequency of interactions between supervisors and supervisees, the medium of interaction as well as the Master’s and doctoral candidates’ general progress. The study participants were all instructors in higher education who supervise Master and PhD students. There has been a change in frequency and means of supervision, that there is more reliance on videoconferencing tools and interaction “at a distance”. However, the data cannot conclusively confirm that there has been a significant transformation in the way students are supervised because many study participants indicated their wish to return to the way things were done pre-pandemic. Nevertheless, there will probably be more reliance on social media, email and other online tools such as Zoom and Skype post-pandemic. In the words of the study participants, “online supervision is developing” and “the pandemic has also given us more tools of engagement, which is good”. © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved.
Responsiveness vs. accessibility: pandemic-driven shift to remote teaching and online learning
By Ndzinisa, N.
During the first four weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, African countries recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic would be one of the biggest disasters the continent has faced in recent times. The effects of the virus were being felt at unprecedented levels and like all nations in the world, countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) were grappling with travel bans and social distancing measures. Through a critical discourse analysis lens, this article examines the tensions and contradictions evident in the excerpts of online news articles and newspaper reports published from March 2020 to September 2020 in the SACU region, focusing on the instructive decision-makers charged with the pandemic-driven technology’s adoption and the impact of these decisions on tertiary students in the region. Central to our argument is that responsiveness should not come at the cost of accessibility as this will have a negative impact on remote teaching and online learning, and further entrench the vicious cycle of epistemic injustice and inequity. The discourse in the media reveals that most universities are heavily reliant on learning management systems in an attempt to save the academic year, while there is evidence of unevenness in the distribution of digital infrastructure which has an impact on economically marginalized students. Beyond digital equity issues, there was a need for differentiated professional development activities for lecturers on technology-enabled pedagogies and e-assessments. Furthermore, there is a need for an in-depth exploratory large-scale research to document user-stories on the emergence of remote teaching in the SACU region in order to develop a service-oriented architecture for digital education in higher education institutions (HEIs). © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Partnering to Build Human Resources for Health Capacity in Africa: A Descriptive Review of the Global Health Service Partnership’s Innovative Model for Health Professional Education and Training From 2013-2018
By Bonaventure Ahaisibwe
Several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (3, 16, 17) point to the need to systematically address massive shortages of human resources for health (HRH), build capacity and leverage partnerships to reduce the burden of global illness. Addressing these complex needs remain challenging, as simple increases in absolute numbers of healthcare providers trained is insufficient; substantial investment into long-term high-quality training programs is needed, as are incentives to retain qualified professionals within local systems of care delivery. We describe a novel HRH initiative, the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), involving collaboration between the US government (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief [PEPFAR], Peace Corps), 5 African countries, and a US-based non-profit, Seed Global Health. GHSP was formed to enlist US health professionals to assist in strengthening teaching and training capacity and focused on pre-and in-service medical and nursing education in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Eswatini and Liberia. From 2013-2018, GHSP sent 186 US health professionals to 27 institutions in 5 countries, helping to train 16 280 unique trainees of all levels. Qualitative impacts included cultivating a supportive classroom learning environment, providing a pedagogical bridge to clinical service, and fostering a supportive clinical learning and practice environment through role modeling, mentorship and personalized learning at the bedside. GHSP represented a novel, multilateral, public-private collaboration to help address HRH needs in Africa. It offers a plausible, structured template for engagement and partnership in the field. © 2022 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.
Efficiency of MOOCs in Leveraging Access and Quality Library and Information Science Education in the Era of COVID-19 in Eswatini
By Tsabedze, Vusi
Library and information science (LIS) education in Eswatini is not yet grounded. Although several interventions exist to improve the quality of LIS education in Eswatini, there have not been many attempts to systematically adapt and integrate massive open online courses (MOOCs) in LIS education. This article presents strategies that can be used in Eswatini to adapt and integrate MOOCs to enhance the quality of LIS education. These strategies are the first steps toward assisting higher education institutions in Eswatini to utilize the potential of MOOCs to improve the quality of LIS education. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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