2011-NMMU-Research-Report - Research Management - Nelson ...

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NMMU Research and Innovation Report 2011 - Faculty of Education
Prof Paul Webb drives the research theme of Science, Mathematics
and Technology Education (SMTE). Its work deals in particular with
Language and SMT Education, SMT Literacy, Indigenous Knowledge
Systems and SMT Education, Environmental Education and Education
for Sustainable Development, Technology and Integrated Computer
Technologies in Education as well as Curriculum and Teacher
Development in SMT.
This is a well-established theme in the Faculty and much of
its work takes place in the Unit for Science, Mathematics and
Technology Education and the Research Hub for SMTE. This theme
was responsible for significant research activities, among them
the South Africa - Sweden exchange, which include researchers
at Uppsala University, Gothenburg University and NMMU. These
collaborations have crystallised into three comparative research
projects viz. argumentation and understandings of the nature of
matter, writing genres in science and disciplinary literacy (physics).
Two articles were published in ISI (accredited) journals, two in
DoE accredited journals and seven papers were included in the
proceedings of international conferences with topics that resonate
with this theme. Additional to these, three PhD students and one
MEd student who worked on research in this theme, graduated.
During 2011, 12 MEd and three PhD students were registered with
topics in this theme.
Conferences hosted and
organised by the Faculty
Members of the Faculty hosted or co-hosted three conferences
during 2011:
• Prof Naydene de Lange, with support from HEAIDS, hosted the HIV
& AIDS Education Community of Practice Symposium, Research
Method and Pedagogy: Using Participatory Visual Methodologies,
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 4 - 5 April 2011.
• Prof de Lange also co-hosted with Prof Moletsane (UKZN) and
Prof Mitchell (McGill University), the Invitational Conference,
What difference does this make? The arts, youth and HIV & AIDS,
Durban, South Africa, 4 - 6 December 2011.
• Prof de Lange and Prof Lesley Wood co-hosted with Dr Kitila Mkumbo
(University of Dar-es-Salaam), the HIV and AIDS Education Conference,
Envisioning Africa without HIV and AIDS: The role of Education.
Zanzibar, 27 - 28 September 2011.
Journal hosted by the
Faculty
The Educational Research for Social Change, an online journal,
is a Faculty initiative to promote educational research, drawing
on approaches that have a strong focus on social change in the
communities served by education. The journal invites research
articles and conceptual papers, which draw on participatory
and emancipatory paradigms and methodologies in engaging
communities in research towards social change. The journal is
peer-reviewed and provides a forum for the critical discussion of
education from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and for the
dissemination of current research to a broad, cross-disciplinary
audience of scholars, researchers and practitioners in the field
of education. In 2011, the hard work of the three editors, Profs
Naydene de Lange and Lesley Wood and Dr Andre du Plessis,
paid off and lead to the first themed issue Action Research: Its
transformative potential, being published in 2012.
Units from Journal Articles
Units from Journal Articles
Name of Departments Units
Initial Teacher Education 5.16
Continuing Professional Development 1.00
Educational Research and Engagement 10.16
TOTAL 16.32