Browsing by Author "Aqiel, Mohamed"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Interrogating school effectiveness and socio economic status : the implications for South Africa
    (2011) Erhiawarien, Mercy Oghenerukevwe; Aqiel, Mohamed
    This dissertation undertakes a critical review of the literature on school effectiveness and quality and examines arguments regarding socio-economic status (SES) (which is linked to the notion of family effects) and its role in achievement. The analysis finds that both school and family effects have an impact on achievement that is equally important and relevant. The dissertation concludes by highlighting areas for action in reference to the findings on socio-economic status and achievement.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Reproductive health effects due to pesticide exposure amongst boys in the rural Western Cape, South Africa
    (2011) English, René Glynnis; Aqiel, Mohamed
    Contemporary agricultural pesticides have been shown to possess hormonally-active properties, and have been associated with declining male reproductive health. These chemicals act by disrupting the normal functioning of the male endocrine system, through their actions on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Reported male reproductive abnormalities are reproductive organ defects, cancers and declining fertility. Cryptorchidism, hypospadias, testicular cancer and poor sperm quality (testicular dysgenesis syndrome) have also been reported to be associated with these endocrine-disrupting chemicals. This study therefore aims to investigate the adverse reproductive health effects of environmental pesticide exposure in male children and adolescents, based on their lifetime residential history (namely, having lived on a farm or not).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Towards theatre remix : a net generational perspective on theatre making
    (2011) Fourie, Ilse; Aqiel, Mohamed
    My research explicates the process of remix, normally associated with digital media, and contemplates how it could be applied to live performance in order to create a 'theatre remix'. I locate my own subject position as a theatre maker within what is termed the Net Generation and regard remix as part of the Net Generation's creative expression. This paper outlines the characteristics, significance and mindset of the Net Generation to provide context for and to enable a better comprehension of remix as a creative expression for the Net Generation. Remix is regarded as a conscious process used to innovate and create through means of copy, transformation and combination. The possible cultural implications of remix are considered as a challenge to notions of originality, a larger cultural need to celebrate re-appropriation and laying claim to cultural inheritance by making use of popular culture as a source for new creative works. It is acknowledged that we live in a convergence culture (as posited by Henry Jenkins 2006), where content moves between different forms of media. For example an image, song or narrative is transferable across a range of media such as television, cinema, the Internet or theatre. A possibility to converge digital sources with live performance in order to create a 'theatre remix' lies in seeking the similarities between these seemingly different media. I contend that what could possibly be most enticing about remixing digital media with performance is that, due to performance's liveness, it offers something other remixes cannot-presence. Remixes are predominantly digital such as music, remixing clips from movies to create faux trailers for hypothetical movies and setting remixed movie clips to remixed music. Therefore they are mediated and cannot be experienced in the same way one would experience a live event.