Is Entrepreneurial Education at South African Universities Successful?

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.R. Mentoor ◽  
C. Friedrich

After more than ten years of democracy in South Africa, many of the previously disadvantaged segments of the community, especially Blacks, would have hoped that a new economic order would have been created. Instead, South Africa still has very high unemployment and even young Black South Africans with a degree are not guaranteed a job. The purpose of this research was to ascertain whether a traditional first-year university business management course with an entrepreneurial component can contribute to the entrepreneurial orientation of students. The major features of entrepreneurs and innovators are knowledge, skills and attitudes. While the imparting of knowledge and the development of skills development receive, respectively, thorough and sketchy attention in formal education, attitude is hardly addressed. The need for achievement, innovation, locus of control and self-esteem are the variables of attitude that have been most commonly used in research on business motivation and the entrepreneur. To determine the success of an enterprise education course, therefore, the change in attitude of the students can be used as a measure. The instrument that was used to gauge the entrepreneurial attitude orientation of the students was an adaptation of an Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale. The authors tested 463 students using a pre-test and post-test approach, incorporating an experimental group and a control group. The results of this study do not augur well for the improvement of the entrepreneurial orientation of students.

Author(s):  
Aaron Mnguni

Translation as a field of study is fairly new in South Africa because before 1994, the official languages were English and Afrikaans and everybody was expected to know and use those languages. Consequently, there is not much about translation practice that is written by South African authors. Following this, translation books from outside South Africa are generally used and prescribed, thus stifling inherent experiences, since little is written by the South Africans themselves.  A total number of 46 language practice students participated in this quantitative study. This study explored challenges encountered by first year language practice students, when using their prescribed book, at the Central University of Technology, Welkom Campus. Results indicated that students were not benefitting maximally from using the prescribed book, which is by any standard an excellent book. The socio-cultural experiences of the students were missing, thus prevent students’ from mastering the subject content better. From the data collected, it is recommended, amongst other recommendations, that a bias towards books reflecting South African experiences be prioritized as well as also allowing students to participate in making book choices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haluk Özmen ◽  
Akbar Naseriazar

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of computer simulations enhanced with conceptual change texts (CS-CCT) on first year university students? understanding of chemical equilibrium. A quasi-experimental design and one control group (CG, N = 60) as well as one experimental group (EG, N = 65) were used in the study. While students in CG were taught with traditional methods based on textbooks and blackboard, the EG studied the same unit with CS-CCT. The chemical equilibrium concept test (CECT) was administered as pre-test, post-test and delayed test to collect data. The results indicated that the students? scores in the EG were significantly higher than those in the CG in both post-test and delayed test. It was concluded that CS-CCT may become a more effective way for students to picture in their minds chemical equilibrium and improve their alternative interpretations. Also, such a combination is useful for students to enhance their conceptual understanding.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.


Author(s):  
Hasanul Arifin Zul And Masitowarni Siregar

This thesis is focused on the investigation of the effect of applying animal cartoon pictures on students’ achievement in writing narrative text. This study aims to find whether applying animal cartoon pictures significantly affect the students’ writing achievement or not. The data in this study were obtained by administering a written test. The population was the 2015/2016 first year (grade XI) of SMA Swasta Nusantara Lubuk Pakam and 66 students were taken as the sample by using random sampling. The sample was divided into two groups, experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught by applying animal cartoon pictures while the control group without animal cartoon pictures (x = lecturing). The data were taken the scores from the pre-test and post-test to both experimental and control groups. These data were analyzed by using t-test. The result of computing the t-test obviously showed that t-observed is higher than t-table (5.21 >1,67) with the degree of freedom 64 (df =N-2) at the level significance 0,05 one tail test. It showed that the application of animal cartoon pictures significantly affected the students of SMA Swasta Nusantara Lubuk Pakam achievement in writing narrative text.


Author(s):  
Michael Reddy

September 2014 marked the release of the 2013/14 crime statistics in South Africa by the National Commissioner of the SAPS and the Minister of Police. Does a sense of safety and security fill the atmosphere? Do most South Africans, investors, and tourists alike believe that the crime rate in South Africa is reflective of a war zone and that South Africa is in a quagmire that engenders irretrievable damage to the lives of the citizenry and the economy? It is accepted that crime is a conflation of a number of economic, social and cultural factors; hence as a reviewable point, can the SAPS ensure the development of unassailable and perpetual policy solutions, underpinned with the highest quality that provides a guarantee of the citizen’s basic constitutional right to freedom and life. This article reviews literature on TQM and extrapolates lessons learnt to the practical functioning of the SAPS with a view to provide a myriad of TQM principles that may be considered by SAPS Management; this could serve as a catalyst for an improved policing service in South Africa.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Steyn

Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) article is useful in helping to establish and develop whiteness studies in South African academia, and thus to shift the academic gaze from the margins to the centre. The article is published in the wake of three waves of international whiteness studies, which successively described whiteness as a space of taken-for-granted privilege; a series of historically different but related spaces; and, finally, as part of the global, postcolonial world order. Green, Sonn, and Matsebula's (2007) contribution could be extended by more fully capturing the dissimilarity in the texture of the experience of whiteness in Australia and South Africa. In South Africa whiteness has never had the quality of invisibility that is implied in the ‘standard’ whiteness literature, and in post-apartheid South Africa white South Africans cannot assume the same privileges, with such ease, when state power is overtly committed to breaking down racial privilege.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Jung Park

AbstractBased on the author's PhD research, this article focuses on the fluid and contested nature of the identities — racial, ethnic, and national — of people of Chinese descent in South Africa in the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The research focuses on the approximately 12,000-strong community of second-, third-, and fourth-generation South African-born Chinese South Africans. It reveals that Chinese South Africans played an active role in identity construction using Chinese history, myths and culture, albeit within the constraints established by apartheid. During the latter part of apartheid, movement up the socio-economic ladder and gradual social acceptance by white South Africa propelled them into nebulous, interstitial spaces; officially they remained “non-white” but increasingly they were viewed as “honorary whites.” During the late 1970s and 1980s, the South African state attempted to redefine Chinese as “white” but these attempts failed because Chinese South Africans were unwilling to sacrifice their unique ethnic identity, which helped them to survive the more dehumanizing aspects of life under apartheid.


Author(s):  
Burt Davis ◽  
Carel J. M. Jansen

Poor health literacy in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is one of the main factors hampering methamphetamine (MA) use prevention efforts in the area, where the abuse of this drug is a major health and social problem affecting especially previously disadvantaged communities. In the first part of a two-part study, we compared a health-related fotonovela about MA to an existing brochure group and a control group. Main findings show that the vast majority of readers preferred the fotonovela over the existing brochure. This included participants from all three age groups and for both levels of health literacy (low/high) distinguished (N = 372). Furthermore, specifically for older people with low levels of health literacy, the fotonovela outperformed the existing brochure condition for knowledge level. In the second part of the study, we found that healthcare providers (N = 75) strongly prefer a fotonovela over an existing brochure, while this cohort viewed the potential use of fotonovelas in a health care setting as very positive. Our findings add to the promising results of an earlier fotonovela study about MA use in South Africa, providing further support for considering using narratives in health communication as a serious option to effectively communicate convincing health information about this drug to target audiences in the Western Cape Province.


2021 ◽  
pp. 152574012110547
Author(s):  
Elmien Kraamwinkel ◽  
Alta Kritzinger

Late language emergence (LLE) may result from genetic and environmental factors. Little is known about environmental factors in LLE in South Africa. The study describes the nature of differences in language functioning between toddlers with LLE and without LLE, and which factors were associated with LLE in a middle-income area in South Africa. Toddlers, aged 24 to 36 months with LLE ( n = 20) were matched with a control group (CG, n = 21) for household income, age, gender, maternal education, and parental employment. The research group (RG) showed moderate delays in expressive and receptive language, and play skills, while the controls exhibited no delay. Significant differences in early feeding history and multilingual exposure were found between the groups. As far as known, it is the first study utilizing a South African middle-income sample indicating that multilingual exposure may play a role in LLE. The study focuses the attention on environmental factors which are potentially modifiable in LLE.


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