OpenUCT is the open access institutional repository of the University of Cape Town (UCT). It preserves and makes UCT scholarly outputs digitally and freely available, including theses and dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, technical and research reports, as well as open educational resources.
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Assessment frameworks and teacher accountability in a primary school in Cape Town. Issues of professional regulation and social justice
(2026) Murphy, Henrico; Badroodien, Azeem Nur-Mohammed; Omar; Yunus
Assessment frameworks and teacher accountability at one primary school in Cape Town The study explores how the South African primary school assessment framework serves as a form of surveillance technology to hold teachers accountable for their classroom teaching in grades 4 to grade 6 at one Western Cape primary school. The critical focus is on assessment as a mechanism of surveillance, as well as accountability, and how this influences teacher practices and viewpoints. The study employs key concepts from the work of Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault to explore how surveillance is internalised, normalised, and operationalised in classrooms. Bentham's conceptualisation of the panopticon as an architectural surveillance mechanism foregrounds the study. It is used to show how the modern state has come to develop assessment frameworks as both acts of surveillance and that of utilitarianism (actions that apparently lead to ‘the greatest good for the greatest number'). It is argued that when placed alongside Foucault's (1995) work on discipline, monitoring, and punishment- namely ‘surveillance of the many by the few'- these concepts operate in ways that ensure the compliance of teachers in a strictly regulated profession. This study employed two complementary data collection methods: (1) a detailed questionnaire and (2) focus group interviews. The focus group interviews were used to triangulate and deepen the findings generated from the questionnaire data, while also providing rich, qualitative insights into how teachers interpret and make sense of assessment frameworks and assessment practices. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of discourse, surveillance, and disciplinary power, this study examines how assessment and accountability function to normalise teacher compliance within schools and embed regulatory control in teachers' everyday practices. By examining the intersecting discourses of assessment, surveillance, and accountability, this study sought to demonstrate how teacher compliance becomes normalised within school contexts and embedded in teachers' everyday practices. This normalisation operates in ways that constrain teacher agency and limit the substantive pedagogical contributions teachers are able to make towards meaningful teaching and learning. Assessment and accountability are shown to function as disciplinary technologies, operating through multiple ii forms of surveillance that emanate vertically from regulatory authorities and horizontally through collegial and community-based processes. Together, these mechanisms contribute to the production of what have been described as ‘somewhat docile teacher bodies' (Bourke, Lidstone & Ryan, 2015:85). The findings suggest that contemporary assessment frameworks in South African schools, particularly in the Western Cape, operate not merely as instruments of performance measurement but as technologies of datafication and dataveillance aligned with marketdriven logics of efficiency and control. As these regimes intensify, the object of governance increasingly becomes the digital representation of teachers and learners, rather than the lived pedagogical and learning experience. The study's main finding is that under threat of punishment and constant surveillance and as teachers internalise and embody assessment as a disciplinary accountability mechanism, levels of professional docility have risen to levels that hold serious implications for teacher agencies and their professional standing.
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Open Access
Navigating motherhood through the cancer care journey
(2026) Bray, Shameem; Day, Sarah Kathrine
Background Breast and cervical cancers are the most diagnosed cancers among women in South Africa, and a substantial proportion of women diagnosed are mothers of dependent children. While cancer care is often framed through biomedical and health system perspectives, less attention has been paid to how motherhood shapes women's experiences of navigating cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. This study explores how maternal identity, caregiving responsibilities, and relationships with children influence women's cancer care journeys in South Africa. Methods Drawing on intersectionality and the cancer care continuum, this a qualitative study drew on patient journey mapping with focus group discussions with women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer across three South African provinces. Results Twenty-four participants who were mothers were included in this study. Seven interrelated themes were identified: (1) navigating the health system as a mother; (2) motherhood, identity, and maternal responsibility; (3) guilt and perceived failure in mothering roles; (4) caregiving practicalities and childcare arrangements; (5) children as caregivers and role reversal; (6) economic and structural constraints; and (7) child-centred fear and anticipatory end-of-life concerns. Motherhood shaped illness interpretation, care-seeking, and treatment decisions, as women navigated caregiving pressures, guilt, and fear for their children within the context of health system barriers, financial strain, and limited support. In some cases, children assumed caregiving roles, introducing emotional complexity and role reversal. Conclusions Motherhood fundamentally shapes women's experiences of cancer care in South Africa, with illness experienced as a relational and moral disruption to caregiving identity and family stability amid intersecting structural barriers.
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Open Access
Modelling the impact of the adoption of digital technologies on productivity in the South African construction industry
(2026) Lefoka, Mochelo; Windapo, Abimbola
An endemic problem across the South African construction industry is low project productivity. This challenge affects the profitability and sustainability of a construction project, stakeholders and investors across the industry, and the lifecycle of both the project and organisations, with financial implications. Other variables that affect project success include external factors such as environmental, organisational, and technical factors. The fragmentation of the construction industry is considered a fundamental contributing factor to this phenomenon. Studies suggested that the lack of digitalisation in the construction industry is a significant contributing factor to fragmentation and, subsequently, the prevalence of poor project productivity. This study focuses on how the adoption and implementation of digital technologies impact project productivity. This study evaluates the types of digital tools used across the South African construction industry, the level of skill required among professionals, assesses how these tools mitigate the impacts of external factors, and determines barriers to the adoption of digital tools. The main research question this study investigated is: “What relationship exists between the adoption of digitalization and the level of construction productivity in South Africa?” The development of a conceptual framework for this study is based on the theoretical principles derived from Disruptive Innovation Theory, Configuration Theory, Chaos Theory, and Technology Adoption Model. The study adopted a mixed-methods research design, comprising both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Contractors listed on the cidb registry in the category Grade 4 – 9 were approached between May 2024 and December 2024. A total of 92 valid responses were obtained from 411 distributed questionnaires, which represents 22,38% response rate. The collected quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, including frequencies, standard deviation, mean item score, relative importance index, and ranking. The testing of the research hypotheses was conducted using structural equation modelling, Spearman's rho, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The qualitative analysis of the study was conducted with eleven purposively selected construction professionals, including CEOs of digital software companies, quantity surveyors, project managers, civil engineers, and health and safety specialists. NVivo was used in the thematic analysis of the qualitative component of the data. The study's findings reveal a statistically significant relationship between the adoption of digital technologies and project productivity. The study reveals that reduced planning periods, identifying risks from the outset, and reduced rework are core benefits of digitalising. Another finding of the study is that selecting digital tools that adapt to various external variables is important. The structural equation modelling revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship between adopting digitalisation and the impact of external variables. Strategic planning and the adoption of digital technologies depend on the size of the project and an organisation's willingness and knowledge of their use. Significant improvement in skills training among construction professionals is important to the progression of digital adoption. Furthermore, the study found that external variables, environmental, organisational, and technical factors have no significant impact on productivity when moderated by digitalisation, implying that selecting digital tools is not important in addressing the impact of external variables on productivity. Based on these findings, the study concludes that strategic planning and the adoption of digital technologies depend on project size and an organisation's willingness. Additionally, the study concludes that expertise and the size of an organisation affect the types of tools available to optimise productivity. The organisational objective is directly related to procurement strategies and the skills required to optimise digital tools. Lastly, there is minimal impact of external factors on digital adoption. The study recommends that significant improvements in skills training among construction professionals are important to the progression of digital adoption and improved productivity.
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Open Access
Artificial intelligence hub establishment in emerging economies: a comparative study of best practices and contextualization for Nigeria
(2026) Dada, Oluwaseun Alexander; Budree, Adheesh
This thesis examines the viability of establishing sustainable and inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AI) hubs in Nigeria that are grounded in local socio-economic and institutional realities while drawing selectively from international best practices. While established AI hubs in advanced economies benefit from stable governance, deep capital markets, robust digital infrastructure, and highly networked innovation systems, Nigeria operates within a landscape marked by infrastructural deficits, limited financing pathways, volatile governance and persistent brain drain. However, the country also possesses distinctive strengths, including a rapidly growing youth population, an energetic fintech sector, emerging innovation clusters, and an influential diaspora. This study adopts a qualitative, exploratory research design grounded in an interpretivist philosophical stance to examine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) hubs can be established in Nigeria. A hybrid evidence strategy was employed, combining a structured and systematic literature review with in-depth semi-structured interviews. The literature review synthesises global evidence on AI hubs, clusters, and innovation ecosystems across developed and emerging economies using a rigorous search protocol, inclusion - exclusion criteria, and thematic coding. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with multi-stakeholder participants drawn from the government, academia, industry, civil society, and technology ecosystems. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis, with initial coding aligned to the conceptual framework and subsequently consolidated into higher-order thematic groups. Triangulation was used to integrate insights from the literature and interviews, enhancing validity and contextual sensitivity. The analysis culminated in synthesising the findings into a contextualized framework for AI hub development in Nigeria. his framework reconceptualises AI hub development in emerging economies as an adaptive civic innovation infrastructure, where long-term viability depends on the alignment of governance legitimacy, human capital mobilisation, infrastructural readiness and ecosystem coordination. In addition, the findings suggest that in fragile and infrastructure-constrained contexts such as Nigeria, AI hubs are unlikely to emerge as a single Silicon Valley-style cluster in one city; instead, they are more likely to evolve as interconnected ecosystems distributed across multiple urban, institutional, and digital centres. Therefore, the study's core theoretical contribution lies in extending existing AI hub and innovation ecosystem models beyond advanced-economy assumptions by demonstrating how hubs can emerge and stabilise within resource constrained, institutionally volatile contexts such as Nigeria. The findings generate three overarching insights. First, governance and legitimacy emerge as foundational: transparency, accountability, and community trust are as important as digital infrastructure or financial capital in determining hub viability. Second, human capital constitutes Nigeria's decisive resource base, encompassing technical capability, entrepreneurial capacity, ethical leadership, and mobilisation of diaspora knowledge networks. Third, inclusivity and sustainability are functional imperatives: hubs that marginalise women, rural communities, or underrepresented groups risk limited adoption and weak societal embeddedness, while long-term resilience depends on diversified financing, adaptive governance, and sustainable energy sources. Practically, this study provides a contextually grounded roadmap for developing AI hubs in Nigeria. The government should prioritise policy coherence, early stage public investment, and anti-corruption safeguards; academia must strengthen interdisciplinary AI curricula and industry linkages; industry actors should pursue problem-driven innovation in high-impact sectors such as finance, agriculture, and health; and donors and the diaspora can serve as catalytic partners in capacity building and early investment. Overall, this thesis argues that Nigeria cannot-and should not-replicate Silicon Valley or Singaporean models in their entirety. Instead, it must pioneer a distinctive Global South pathway that integrates technological innovation, social legitimacy, ethical governance and contextual adaptation. If implemented effectively, such hubs could position Nigeria as a continental leader in AI while contributing to a broader Global South paradigm in which technological advancement and social transformation evolve together.
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Open Access
Navigating Digital Transformation: A Multi-Level Perspective Analysis of New Zealand's Cadastral Reform and Lessons for South Africa
(2026) Akoue, Mve Melissa; Whittal, Jennifer
The South African cadastre, a hybrid system with paper-based foundations and digitised components, faces significant challenges including tenure exclusivity, poor accessibility, and siloed land information. In response, the SA government is pursuing a transition to a fully digital e-cadastre; a complex socio-technical endeavour that extends beyond mere technological adoption. While numerous international case studies document cadastral digitalisation, this research focuses specifically on New Zealand's Landonline as a globally recognised exemplar of successful reform. The study employs the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) as its primary analytical framework. The MLP is a socio-technical transition theory that analyses systemic change through the interaction of three levels: the exogenous Landscape (macro-trends), the established Regime (dominant rules, practices, and technologies), and the innovative Niche (protected spaces where novelties emerge). This framework moves beyond a simplistic technical narrative to reveal the dynamic interplay of political, economic, environmental, and social factors that enable or constrain change. The MLP analysis reveals that New Zealand's e-cadastral transition was not a simple deterministic outcome of technological progress but the product of a complex interplay between landscape pressures, niche innovations, and regime reconfiguration. A confluence of pressures—sweeping neoliberal political-economic reforms and the unique geophysical demands of a dynamic tectonic environment—created a 'window of opportunity' by destabilising the old paper-based system. This window was exploited by niche-level innovations, such as the NZGD2000 datum, the LandXML standard, and the Landonline platform, which were nurtured within protective spaces through pilot projects, phased governance, and embedded stakeholder representation. These innovations ultimately reconfigured the entire regime, replacing decentralised manual practices with a centralised digital system characterised by automated validation, a client-centric ethos, and a new devolution of responsibility onto accredited professionals. Building on this analysis, the study diagnoses the South African cadastral system through the same MLP lens. The findings reveal that SA faces a Double Transition: the simultaneous need for institutional integration (creating coherence across siloed departments, fragmented legislation, and disparate digital assets) and socio-legal transformation (designing a system capable of recognising diverse social and customary tenures). This challenge is further understood as a wicked policy problem (Balla, Madureira & Zevenbergen, 2025): inherently complex, contested, and without definitive solution. The MLP framework provides an analytical mechanism for operationalising this wickedness, specifying which regime-level misalignments generate intractability and where intervention is most likely to succeed. The study delineates specific opportunities, constraints, and strategic leverage points to inform SA's digital cadastral strategy, contributing to both global and African land administration discourse.