Browsing by Author "Wolmarans, Nicky"

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    Assessing Stakeholder Perceptions in Participatory Infrastructure Upgrades - a Case Study of Project Silvertown in Cape Town
    (2018) Kumbirai, Shamiso; Wolmarans, Nicky; Rivett, Ulrike
    This study articulates the perceptions and expectations stakeholders involved in sanitation infrastructure projects in informal settlements have to determine the implications their contrasting views have towards strengthening participatory processes. It involves the critical identification of stakeholder groups and their perceptions of the roles and responsibilities that the identified groups play. The investigation was conducted using the single case study of Project Silvertown, the project that led to the controversial 2010 “toilet war saga” in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha Township. Documentary resources on the case study were used to gather secondary data on stakeholder groups and analysed using Critical Systems Heuristics, a systems thinking-based framework. The key findings in this study were that • there were disjunctions within the spheres of government relating to policy interpretations; • there were known disjunctions on project vision and outcomes between stakeholder groups that were not resolved; • there were disjunctions relating to stakeholder expectations of community participation and decision making • there was poor capacitation of community members in the participatory process • there was illegitimate representation of the residents by community leaders Findings of the conflicts between stakeholders in a given system can contribute towards identifying what stakeholder assumptions ought to be considered and built into planning public infrastructure projects to reduce participatory project failures
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    Does subject matter? A comparative study of framing and classification in the online and contact versions of two postgraduate management courses and the implications for student learning
    (2019) Karassellos, Lara Tracey; Wolmarans, Nicky; Luckett, Kathy
    This study is positioned in the context of the South African higher education landscape, which is currently grappling with issues of access and inequality. Online education is one of the potential approaches to expand access to South African students, but has often been met with skepticism as to its pedagogical quality, and has been perceived as an inferior alternative to traditional contact education. A comparative research design is followed in which two courses within a postgraduate marketing management qualification at a South African public university are compared. This qualification is offered in both contact and online format. The same courses within different modes of education are compared, as well as different courses within the same mode of education. A coding system was created based on Basil Bernstein’s concepts of framing and classification, and the courses were compared based on various dimensions of framing and classification. The study aimed to explore the affordances and limitations of both contact and online education. It was found that the ‘sequence’ and ‘pace’ aspects of framing are impacted by mode of education, with the online learning environment allowing students more agency in determining the pace and sequence of their learning. The ‘hierarchical rules’ aspect of framing is also impacted by mode, with the online courses offering an inherently non-hierarchical learning environment. It was found that weaker framing over these elements can present either an affordance or limitation, depending on the subject matter, with some types of subject matter being well suited to weaker framing over sequence, pace, and hierarchical rules, and others being constrained by it.
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    Problem Solving Discourse Models: Informing an Introductory Engineering Course
    (Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2010) Collier-Reed, Brandon I; Wolmarans, Nicky
    This article draws on Gee’s notions of Discourse and specifically Discourse Models to explore Engineering Problem Solving and the different ways in which it can be understood in an engineering context. After Gee we attempt to identify aspects of doing, being and valuing that underpin people’s Problem Solving Discourse Models. Interviews with three engineering lecturers reveal that they draw extensively on two different Discourse Models of Engineering Problem Solving. The more highly valued Model (Integrated Design Model) reflects engineering practice, is located in engineering design and dependant on judgement. The other is located in the classroom and involves the algorithmic resolution of mathematical models, (Knowledge Construction Model). These Discourse Models form a backdrop to interviews with three students entering an engineering degree programme for the first time. The three students each draw different Discourse Models of Problem Solving, and display characteristics (such as the level of confidence) that align more or less with Engineering Problem Solving, sometimes obscuring their understanding. The implications of these findings in terms of an introductory engineering course are discussed. These include recognising the potential diversity of Problem Solving Discourse Models our students bring to tertiary education, as well as the difficulty of introducing a legitimate design project requiring the level of judgement needed to interpret open-ended, ill-defined problems and then integrate multiple quantitative models with multidisciplinary qualitative judgements in a rigorous manner.