Browsing by Author "Van Zyl, Mikki"
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- ItemOpen AccessHuman rights, disability, and higher education : conference held at UCT Middle Campus, Cape Town from 25 to 26 January 2003(University of Cape Town. Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA), 2014-09-19) University of Cape Town. Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA); Van Zyl, MikkiThis report will be of value to Disability Studies scholars, educational theorists and researchers, as well as those interested in the construction of disability within the context of transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Over the past three decades, the discipline of Disability Studies has emerged as an independent field within the social science research and theoretical arena. Questions surrounding the nature and origin of (oppressive) societal responses to impairment - ranging from service installations to bureaucratic policies, linguistic conventions to exclusionary practices - are the primary concern of the field. Disability Studies attempts to examine and debunk the 'disabled' identity as one ascribed to individuals arbitrarily, yet selectively designated as disabled. Broadly, key theoretical positions within the field assert that the negatively valued and ascribed group identity of being 'disabled' is one which serves, through the operation of complex ideological machinery, to justify and obscure the systematic exclusion of persons so designated from equitable participation in the production of culture. This study looks at dynamics of human rights and disability within higher education institutions from this perspective.
- ItemOpen Access"Like that statue at Jammie stairs" : some student perceptions and experiences of institutional culture at the University of Cape Town in 1999(2011-12) Steyn, Melissa; Van Zyl, MikkiThis report is of value to those studying institutional culture in post-apartheid South Africa, and dynamics of transformation at South African institutions of higher learning. In this project, students spoke out about their experiences at UCT. In particular they describe how they perceived the university and the other students, and how their experiences impacted upon their academic performance and general well-being while attending UCT. In the study, the authors consulted a variety of policy documents and publicity materials from UCT. The authors then held 19 workshops with focus groups of students. Five were mixed while fourteen were purposive in that certain designated students, such as black student,s foreign students, women, etc. were targeted. The initiator of the study conducted ten of the focus groups, but for the others peer facilitators were used. From the findings it is clear that in students' experiences 'whiteness' still largely characterises the institutional culture. Many black students and some white students described incidents of overt racism against black academic staff and students. This report documents suggestions made by students, and also puts forward some recommendations. It is hoped that these will be received in the spirit in which the research was undertaken, namely to be helpful to UCT as it continues along the road of transformation. This report provides a forum in which diverse students voices are collated and reflected, on behalf of the students and committed educators, and for the continuance of outstanding education at UCT.
- ItemOpen AccessNetworks of accountability: HIV/AIDS action research in action on Western Cape farms(2011-12) Van Zyl, MikkiThis case study will be of value to researchers using action research as a methodology. The case study will also be of interest to those studying and researching HIV/AIDS in rural South African contexts. During 2005 Mikki van Zyl was contracted as a consultant to do action research on farm dwellers perceptions and experiences of HIV/AIDS in two districts of the Western Cape, South Africa. The research project was the first step in a provisional three - year process to develop and implement integrated strategic interventions for addressing HIV/AIDS on farms through multi-stake holder forums in the two districts. Employing a team of community researchers working in local run NGOs on HIV/AIDS we used individual interviews, focus groups, case studies, researcher field notes, evaluations and workshops for our dataset. The research process is presented as a case study - focusing on the context, dynamics and challenges in conducting the research and preparing the groundwork for setting up the stakeholder forums.