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Item Open Access Society and the multiple communities of higher education(University of the Free State, 2007) Daweti, MillyEnglish: Professional interests, affiliations, roles, and conditions of service that identify and separate groups have long been established within university traditions. As new social and institutional imperatives emerge, however, professional comfort zones are disturbed. Traditional communities of practice are gradually becoming more open and more participatory. This paper investigates the possibilities and complexities of community building from national and institutional perspectives. The communities created by means of curriculum design decisions, conversations between authors and readers of teaching and learning texts, and knowledge domains which are either legitimised or rejected will also be explored. The University of South Africa (UNISA) will be used as an example to illustrate some of the challenges presented by the changing conditions of institutions and society.Item Open Access Teaching Pre-medical Science to large groups: matching teaching and learning styles in higher education(University of the Free State, 2007) Allers, NicoEnglish: This study compares the various preferred learning styles of students in a large Premedical Science class with the various preferred teaching styles of the lecturers. It includes an analysis and evaluation of the teaching methods and aids actually used by lecturers. Critical analysis of the data revealed that students have a stronger preference for being taught by means of co-operative and active teaching/learning experiences than their lecturers have for using such means. The emphasis of the study thus falls on the importance of actively involving students in the teaching/learning process by way of co-operative teaching/learning methods. This would be likely to enhance the students’ ability to utilise cognitive skills such as creative thinking, interpretation, critical thinking and problem-solving.Item Open Access Mid-career problems of academics in higher education(University of the Free State, 2007) Pienaar, Cobus; Bester, CoenEnglish: The purpose of this study was to explore and identify typical mid-career problems experienced by academic staff working at a changing institution of higher education in South Africa. Data were obtained by means of the Delphi technique in order to enable respondents to reveal their experiences fully. Respondents had to identify the most prominent career problems that they were experiencing in the work environment. The problems thus identified related, inter alia, to performance management and promotion; role overload; financial remuneration; management issues; lack of job security, and discrimination. The implication of these results is that top managements should familiarise themselves with these problems and take the necessary steps to address them in collaboration with academics in the mid-career stage.Item Open Access Wildlife tourism: creating memorable and differentiated experiences(University of the Free State, 2007) Bresler, NerineEnglish: The purpose of the study reported here was to investigate whether wildlife viewing at privately-owned game reserves in South Africa creates memorable and differentiated experiences capable of extending the lifecycle of the wildlife industry. Various qualitative methods were used; 68 visitors who spent a total of 267 bed nights at various lodges adjacent to the Kruger National Park were interviewed, along with 50 influencers and role-players. Upon departure visitors were ecstatic, as the experience had been unique. They had lived in a fantasy world of the past and shared the animals’ environment for a while. The visit had satisfied their spirit of adventure, as well as their long-term fascination with seeing animals in a genuine wilderness.Item Open Access The transforming influence of the Greeks on Roman medical practice(University of the Free State, 2007) Cilliers, Louise; Retief, FrancoisEnglish: When Rome conquered Greece in the second century BC, she had no equivalent to Greek rational medicine as established by Hippocrates and the Alexandrians. Roman medicine was of a quasi-religious nature, with a strong element of folk traditions and herbal medicine; the paterfamilias would treat any sickness in the family (including slaves and even animals) with his array of folk remedies. Greek rational medicine was initially received with great skepticism by the Roman elite, in particular, but it gradually transformed the scene, replacing superstition and magic with a reliance on rational science as it was understood at the time. However, the belief in herbal remedies and the Asclepian cult of temple medicine remained strong. Rome also made its own unique contributions in the fields of hygiene (effective water supplies, sewage and drainage) and military medicine (including the introduction of the first hospitals). Roman doctors gradually replaced their Greek colleagues, and by the fifth century Latin had established itself as a significant medical language. In practice Roman folk medicine was not necessarily much inferior to Greek rational medicine, because the latter was based on ill-understood and largely erroneous concepts of medical science.Item Open Access Religion, legal scholarship and higher education: perspectives for the South African context(University of the Free State, 2007) De Freita, ShaunEnglish: This article investigates the relationship between religion (in both the traditional and the broader sense) and legal scholarship in South Africa, with special emphasis on the nature of Faculties of Law and universities. The contemporary approach of legal scholarship is overwhelmingly limited to the pragmatic and the empirical, and vehemently in opposition to anything religious. This has dire implications for the accommodation of religious views on reality, and particularly disadvantages adherents of religion in the traditional sense. In this context, critical views on the LLB curriculum pertaining to subject content are included. University education, being driven by commitments and perspectives about mankind and about ultimates, including the accommodation of religion (with specific reference to religion in the traditional sense), requires freedom if it is to discover truth. This is especially true for the dissemination of the law, and by implication for the humanities in general.Item Open Access ‘Now, what has become of our prayers and supplications?’ Faith in an Anglo-Boer Warconcentration camp of 1901(University of the Free State, 2007) Britz, DolfEnglish: Christian faith played a significant and decisive role in the concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). This article focuses on the diary of A D Luckhoff (1874-1963) who, after completing his theological training, volunteered for the ministry in the concentration camp at Bethulie. The anguish, distress and trials of this inexperienced young clergyman are disclosed by allowing the diary to speak for itself, thus ensuring that its profound spiritual and emotional character is retained in the exposition. Alongside this exposition, observations and historical notes are appended, as well as questions concerning the diarist’s underlying theological convictions, which are compared and contrasted with those evinced in the contemporary diary of a young female resident of the camp, Rensche van der Walt (1878-1948). The ensuing analysis aims to demonstrate that Christian faith was a more complicated and complex issue during this war than has yet been realised.Item Open Access Mothers and sex education: an explorative study in a low-income Western Cape community(University of the Free State, 2007) Lesch, Elmien; Anthony, LiezlEnglish: Using a social constructionist grounded theory method, the investigation reported on in this study explored the role of mothers in their daughters’ sex education in a lowincome Western Cape community. Mothers were interviewed in order to explore how they viewed their daughters’ sexuality and how they interacted with their daughters about it. The mothers were found to be uncomfortable with discussing sexual issues with their daughters; to equate their daughters’ sexuality with danger; to attempt to protect their daughters from danger by discouraging sexual exploration, and to have only a limited capability for open sexual discussion. It is argued here that mothers’ limiting constructions of female sexuality and sex education should be targeted in sex education programmes in this community.Item Open Access The tale of three mayors: mayoral politics in the Unicity of Cape Town(University of the Free State, 2007) Zaaiman, JohanEnglish: From December 2000 to June 2003, the term covered in this article, the Council of the Unicity of Cape Town had three mayors, each directing it in a unique way as they dealt with the various powers which had an impact on them and the Council. The mayors had to manage changing institutional, political and social processes. This study describes the actions of the three mayors, Aldermen Pieter Marais, Gerald Morkel and Nomaindia Mfeketo, and provides a comparative analysis which attempts to contribute to an understanding of early mayoral politics in the Unicity of Cape Town.Item Open Access ‘The secret self’: time, memory and childhood in two short stories by Katherine Mansfield(University of the Free State, 2007) Kent, CandiceEnglish: This article examines Katherine Mansfield’s notion of self by considering two of her short stories, ‘Prelude’ (1918) and ‘At the bay’ (1922), as well as her biographical writing. It links her desire to acknowledge “the secret self” with her inclination to examine and contest existing notions of the self and its expression in fiction. Mansfield was concerned with exploring the self at its least inhibited, and for this reason the article focuses on works that draw on childhood reminiscences. It also discusses Mansfield’s innovative use of time to suggest the properties of memory. It explores how Mansfield’s art differed from the conventions and traditions of Edwardian fiction, as well as how she was influenced by, and stood in relation to contemporaries with whom she corresponded, such as Virginia Woolf and D H Lawrence, thus also placing her in a modernist context. It also examines how Freud’s concept of the unconscious functions in Mansfield’s fiction, drawing on Kristeva’s writing for this analysis. It argues that Mansfield’s achievement of her distinctive voice as a writer is interwoven with her exploration of ideas of self.Item Open Access Onderwysers in die Wes-Kaap se persepsies en belewing van huidige onderwysveranderinge: vir of teen?(University of the Free State, 2007) Carl, ArendEnglish: Within the context of the South African education system, teachers have been confronted with extensive curriculum changes over the past 10 years. The role of the teacher is vital in the successful implementation of new curricula. How do teachers experience and perceive the curriculum changes which have confronted them? An investigation was undertaken into these aspects of change, specifically with regard to Grade 10-12 teachers, who have been exposed to the introduction of the new National Senior Certificate curriculum since 2006. Important findings were made regarding both teachers’ perceptions of the recent curriculum changes. The main argument of this article is that teachers’ perceptions do not necessarily indicate that they are negative about these changes or that they resist them, but that they are influenced by other factors.Item Open Access Pleknaamsverandering in Suid-Afrika: bevestiging van ANC mag, gesag, wettigheid en ‘selfrespek(University of the Free State, 2007) Moll, JohanEnglish: Power and authority appear to underlie changes in nomenclature resulting from a need to assure and convince the supporters of a new rregime that names which previously symbolised their oppression and domination have become unacceptable and must be replaced by names suiting the ethos of the new, liberating dispensation. New symbols are generated to ensure the acceptability of the new regime and to reflect the new collective values and history which will be prioritised and considered to be of importance. The symbolism underlying changes in nomenclature and the ANC’s realisation of the significance of renaming form the main focus of this article, which is based mainly on newspaper sources. Throughout South Africa the tangible symbolism of the success story of liberation may be identified: in street names commemorating the “terrorists” of the previous era, in the decolonisation of the names of provinces, and in other indisputable testimony that — by means of changes in nomenclature, inter alia — this country has also finally become inherently part of Africa.