Browsing by Author "Duthie, Shawn"

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    Beyond the rhetoric: a theoretical analysis of the effects of neopatrimonialism and intergovernmentalism on the integration process in Africa
    (2014) Duthie, Shawn; Akokpari, John
    The Organization of African Unity marked its 50th anniversary in 2013 and, despite the shift to the African Union and continued rhetoric from African leaders about the need for further integration, the progress towards the goal of economic and political integration has been ineffective. This thesis shows that integration has been ineffective in Africa namely because of the lack of political will to push integration further. The reason for this is the prevalence of neopatrimonialism on the continent, which creates a situation where leaders need access to a nation?s resources to remain in power. Economic and political integration will, inevitably, result in a loss of financial or political capital, which will then result in a lack of resources available for the client, who has used these resources to maintain their patronage base. Thus, integration in Africa has progressed slowly, as leaders do what they can to undermine the process while maintaining the appearance of progress. The major option chosen to weaken integration has been to control the institutions of integration run intergovernmentally, rather than transfer some power towards a supranational organisation. Without a transfer of power to a supranational institution, the Regional Economic Communities and African states cannot proceed towards economic, let alone political, integration. The reason for this is that decisions taken in a purely intergovernmental body, such as the African Union, will be of the lowest common denominator, resulting in a slow and ineffective integration. For integration to progress effectively, some powers will first have to be transferred to a supranational institution, which will create more actors that are actively involved in the integration process and make it more difficult for leaders to slow down or stop the move towards African unity.
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    From Marginal to Mainstream: An Argument for Locating Education Development in the Academic Department
    (UNISA Press, 2015) Duthie, Shawn; Freeman, Laura
    This article contends that core responsibility, formation and execution of education development (ED) initiatives should occur in the academic department. For too long, ED has been handed off to peripheral bodies within South African universities. These programmes are limited in their reach, relevance and usefulness to students. through reporting on a case study of ED in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape town, South Africa, the authors argue that ED within the academic discipline has three major benefits, namely: (i) initiatives can develop based on effective identification of student need; (ii) ED can be normalised and its stigma can be reduced; and (iii) ED becomes discipline-specific and properly contextualised to student learning.
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    PLUS tutorials with complementary Skills Development Lectures
    (2014-07-15) Duthie, Shawn; Tonkin, Caitlin; Moody, Daniel; Vika, Lutho;
    These materials are used in a second year Political Studies class to continue a students' skills development. A continuation from the first year PLUS tuts, these tutorials are linked with Skills Development Lectures (SDLs). The SDLs teach the skills to student in a mandatory lecture for all students and these skills are then practically applied with those in the PLUS tutorials. These materials are an ideal starting point for those looking to teach academic skills to their students, via the Skills Development Lectures, and then to review and practically apply the skill in a smaller tutorial setting. Lecturers are encouraged to modify the materials with their own course content to make it more applicable and relevant to students. The materials are separated into one PLUS handbook for tutors and a folder with the SDLs which contain lectures notes and Powerpoint slides.
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    Politics 1st Year skills development lectures (1st Semester)
    (2013) Duthie, Shawn
    Lecture Slides and Lesson Plans for additional classes given to first year students in the extended program and sometimes in the mainstream program of study too. These aim to teach students the skills they need to cope with the change in the style of learning once at university, focusing on issues such as note taking, content and structure, how to prepare for exams and planning essays. This content focuses on skills developed in the first semester. This resource could be valuable for students looking to develop their academic literacy, or for teachers who need ideas or supplementary materials for their own skills development courses.
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    Politics 1st Year skills development lectures (2nd semester)
    (2013) Duthie, Shawn
    Lecture Slides and Lesson Plans for additional classes given to first year students in the extended program and sometimes in the mainstream program of study too. These aim to teach students the skills they need to cope with the change in the style of learning once at university, focusing on issues such as note taking, content and structure, how to prepare for exams and planning essays.
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    Politics 2nd year skills development materials
    (2013-07) Duthie, Shawn
    These skills development materials are aimed at 2nd year students in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town. They cover all topics of quality academic writing, including: critical reading; formulating a book review; developing an argument; writing an introduction; methodology; finding rlevant source; writing book reviews; tips on presentation; acting on feedback; and writing exams.
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    Politics plus student and tutor guidebooks
    (2012-08) Duthie, Shawn
    These resources can be used by other departments which use the Plus program, or by departments who would like to start extra tutorials to teach students academic skills. There are two guides: a student guide with all the relevant information and exercises for each tutorial; and a tutor guide, which includes a lesson plan with information for each tutorial. These guides are the lesson plans and exercises for POL1008S (PolPlus) tutors and students. PolPlus offers supplementary tutorials to Extended Degree Program (EDP), Social Work and students who have done poorly on POL1004S (Introduction to Politics) as well as students who nominate themselves for the program. The tutorials focus on teaching students necessary academic skills that will benefit them for their entire university career.
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    South African political thought
    (2014-04-24) Duthie, Shawn
    This collection of materials is taken from a semester long course within the UCT Political Studies programme, concerning political thought in South Africa. Students on the course would attend around 4 hour-long lectures and 1 tutorial per week. The materials presented here are selected lecture notes and tutorial plans. Not all lectures in the series have notes; some consisted of discussion sessions. This outline details the readings students would be expected to study prior to attending these lectures. Whilst the actual lectures (and debates) have not been provided, this collection should provide an introduction to the themes of the course and provide the kinds of questions that aid the understanding of political thought in South Africa. Go to South African Political Thought This course provides a survey of the main developments in South African political thought since the beginning of the twentieth century. A twelve-week course cannot cover every significant development in South African political thought in this period; but this course is intended to give students an understanding of the main political traditions in modern South Africa, and how they have interacted and developed. At the same time, the material is organized around themes that are not specific to any one political or ideological tradition, but play a role in defining the politics of specific periods. The three main organizing themes are described briefly in the following section of this outline. Finally, the course is intended to provide a sense of the overall trajectory of political ideas in modern South Africa, its distinctive character and its significance for understanding and assessing contemporary developments. The essays for the course require students to discuss specific questions in such a way as to clarify that larger historical trajectory.