title: An experimental evaluation of the introduction of Bodyfurn chairs on on-task and disruptive behaviour in the classroom

authors: Martin, Isaac

subjects: Behaviour analysis

abstract: Research has shown that academic achievement is positively correlated with improved employment opportunities, social skills, well-being, standard of living, and overall quality of life. One variable that has been shown to significantly influence academic achievement are the seats that are used by students in the classroom. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact that Bodyfurn chairs had on academic achievement by evaluating the effect that they had on-task and disruptive behaviour of students compared to the regular classroom chairs. It was hypothesized that Bodyfurn chairs would increase the on-task behaviour and decrease disruptive behaviours of students. The study included three separate groups of five primary school students and implemented a multiple baseline design. All three groups used the regular classroom chairs during the baseline phase and Bodyfurn chairs were introduced in a staggered fashion once stable baselines were established. The results showed that the introduction of Bodyfurn chairs resulted in immediate and noticeable increases in on-task behaviour for two of the groups, with on-task behaviour increasing by 27.4% and 15.7% relative to the regular classroom chairs, while a ceiling effect prevented any noticeable experimental effect from occurring in the third group. The results also showed marked decreases in disruptive behaviour across all three groups when Bodyfurn chairs were used with occurrences of disruptive behaviour decreasing by 49.1%, 47.8%, and 59.5% compared to the regular classroom chairs. The findings of this study suggest that Bodyfurn chairs could improve academic achievement of students.

text: An experimental evaluation of the introduction of Bodyfurn chairs on on-task and disruptive behaviour in the classroom Research has shown that academic achievement is positively correlated with improved employment opportunities, social skills, well-being, standard of living, and overall quality of life. One variable that has been shown to significantly influence academic achievement are the seats that are used by students in the classroom. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact that Bodyfurn chairs had on academic achievement by evaluating the effect that they had on-task and disruptive behaviour of students compared to the regular classroom chairs. It was hypothesized that Bodyfurn chairs would increase the on-task behaviour and decrease disruptive behaviours of students. The study included three separate groups of five primary school students and implemented a multiple baseline design. All three groups used the regular classroom chairs during the baseline phase and Bodyfurn chairs were introduced in a staggered fashion once stable baselines were established. The results showed that the introduction of Bodyfurn chairs resulted in immediate and noticeable increases in on-task behaviour for two of the groups, with on-task behaviour increasing by 27.4% and 15.7% relative to the regular classroom chairs, while a ceiling effect prevented any noticeable experimental effect from occurring in the third group. The results also showed marked decreases in disruptive behaviour across all three groups when Bodyfurn chairs were used with occurrences of disruptive behaviour decreasing by 49.1%, 47.8%, and 59.5% compared to the regular classroom chairs. The findings of this study suggest that Bodyfurn chairs could improve academic achievement of students.

year: 2021

title: "The Land Belongs To Those Who Work It": A Critical Evaluation of Land Redistribution Policy in South Africa, 1994-2012

authors: Mackenzie, Graeme Richard

subjects: South Africa

abstract: Land ownership in post-apartheid South Africa carries a powerful symbolic charge for both black and white citizens. Under apartheid, state legislation denied black South Africans access to landownership rights, and confined them to 13 per cent of the available agricultural land. The election of the ANC government in 1994 marked the formal end of this process. Policies to provide access to land ownership to black South Africans were developed, raising widespread expectations for radical agrarian reform. The land reform policies of successive post-apartheid governments have, however, been unsuccessful in achieving any significant change to the overall proportions of land owned by black and white farmers, and the small amounts of land that have been transferred have failed to improve the lives of beneficiaries. In fact, the land ownership regime created under apartheid continues unchallenged in the post-apartheid era. This thesis seeks to investigate why successive democratically-elected governments with a mandate for reform have done so little to redress the entrenched inequality in land ownership. 

Informed by an anti-foundationalist ontology and an interpretive epistemology, this study focuses on processes of institutionalisation as they relate to both patterns of land ownership and the wider institutions of government inherited from the apartheid era that have continued to frame the policy process in South Africa. More specifically, the study adopts a ‘constructivist institutionalist’ approach to capture the way these institutions have been driven by a dominant discourse informed by apartheid-era values. It undertakes a multi-level institutional analysis, seeking to clarify the ideas underpinning the institutions and the discourses influencing the actors at the constitutional, national policy and provincial levels. 

The research involved examining key constitutional and policy documents and analysing interviews with key policy actors in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.  The analysis identifies the international discourses on development and land reform that constructed what South African policymakers understood as ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ after 1994, and it traces how these discourses went on to inform the development of the property clause in the post-apartheid Constitution. The analysis also reveals how the shifting assumptions, silences and focuses of policymakers implicitly constructed the beneficiaries of such policies – the black landless – as incapable and undeserving. Finally, this study reveals a tacit agreement among the majority of the most powerful stakeholders that land redistribution policy cannot be allowed to fundamentally disturb the agrarian system created by apartheid policies. 

The research extends understanding of the South African land reform programme by identifying the discourses that inform contemporary policy and practice, with specific focus on the Settlement/Land Acquisition Grant (SLAG) policy, the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) policy, and the recently adopted Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS). There has been little scholarly analysis of PLAS, which seeks to provide leasehold access to approved beneficiaries who have the potential to purchase land at some point in the future. This research deepens scholarly understanding of PLAS, and the way the dominant land reform discourses continue to support the position of white large-scale commercial farmers and the emerging black bourgeoisie, at the expense of the interests and aspirations of the rural landless. It demonstrates why land reform has thus far failed to make meaningful changes to the agrarian system created by apartheid policies, and therefore failed to improve the lives of the rural landless.

text: "The Land Belongs To Those Who Work It": A Critical Evaluation of Land Redistribution Policy in South Africa, 1994-2012 Land ownership in post-apartheid South Africa carries a powerful symbolic charge for both black and white citizens. Under apartheid, state legislation denied black South Africans access to landownership rights, and confined them to 13 per cent of the available agricultural land. The election of the ANC government in 1994 marked the formal end of this process. Policies to provide access to land ownership to black South Africans were developed, raising widespread expectations for radical agrarian reform. The land reform policies of successive post-apartheid governments have, however, been unsuccessful in achieving any significant change to the overall proportions of land owned by black and white farmers, and the small amounts of land that have been transferred have failed to improve the lives of beneficiaries. In fact, the land ownership regime created under apartheid continues unchallenged in the post-apartheid era. This thesis seeks to investigate why successive democratically-elected governments with a mandate for reform have done so little to redress the entrenched inequality in land ownership. 

Informed by an anti-foundationalist ontology and an interpretive epistemology, this study focuses on processes of institutionalisation as they relate to both patterns of land ownership and the wider institutions of government inherited from the apartheid era that have continued to frame the policy process in South Africa. More specifically, the study adopts a ‘constructivist institutionalist’ approach to capture the way these institutions have been driven by a dominant discourse informed by apartheid-era values. It undertakes a multi-level institutional analysis, seeking to clarify the ideas underpinning the institutions and the discourses influencing the actors at the constitutional, national policy and provincial levels. 

The research involved examining key constitutional and policy documents and analysing interviews with key policy actors in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.  The analysis identifies the international discourses on development and land reform that constructed what South African policymakers understood as ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ after 1994, and it traces how these discourses went on to inform the development of the property clause in the post-apartheid Constitution. The analysis also reveals how the shifting assumptions, silences and focuses of policymakers implicitly constructed the beneficiaries of such policies – the black landless – as incapable and undeserving. Finally, this study reveals a tacit agreement among the majority of the most powerful stakeholders that land redistribution policy cannot be allowed to fundamentally disturb the agrarian system created by apartheid policies. 

The research extends understanding of the South African land reform programme by identifying the discourses that inform contemporary policy and practice, with specific focus on the Settlement/Land Acquisition Grant (SLAG) policy, the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) policy, and the recently adopted Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS). There has been little scholarly analysis of PLAS, which seeks to provide leasehold access to approved beneficiaries who have the potential to purchase land at some point in the future. This research deepens scholarly understanding of PLAS, and the way the dominant land reform discourses continue to support the position of white large-scale commercial farmers and the emerging black bourgeoisie, at the expense of the interests and aspirations of the rural landless. It demonstrates why land reform has thus far failed to make meaningful changes to the agrarian system created by apartheid policies, and therefore failed to improve the lives of the rural landless.

year: 2015

title: Te ao hurihuri : iwi identification in the census

authors: Kukutai, Tahu

abstract: As the flagship of official statistics, the national population census is an important forum for the recognition of indigenous peoples in their homelands and territories (United Nations, 2008). While most governments worldwide count and classify their populations by ethnicity, New Zealand is rare in enabling multiple expressions of indigenous identity in the census. Since 1991, it has been possible to identify as Māori in three ways: by descent, ethnicity and iwi (tribal) affiliation (see Figure 1). The Māori descent population is the largest— in 2013, just under 669,000 individuals ticked the Māori descent box. The number identifying as Māori by ethnicity - intended as a measure of cultural belonging - was substantially lower at just under 600,000. Most of the remaining 69,000 Māori descendants identified solely as NZ European. In 2013 nearly 83 per cent of Māori descendants (n=535,941) reported belonging to at least one iwi. Of those that did not report an iwi affiliation, 40 per cent did not identify as Māori by ethnicity either.

text: Te ao hurihuri : iwi identification in the census As the flagship of official statistics, the national population census is an important forum for the recognition of indigenous peoples in their homelands and territories (United Nations, 2008). While most governments worldwide count and classify their populations by ethnicity, New Zealand is rare in enabling multiple expressions of indigenous identity in the census. Since 1991, it has been possible to identify as Māori in three ways: by descent, ethnicity and iwi (tribal) affiliation (see Figure 1). The Māori descent population is the largest— in 2013, just under 669,000 individuals ticked the Māori descent box. The number identifying as Māori by ethnicity - intended as a measure of cultural belonging - was substantially lower at just under 600,000. Most of the remaining 69,000 Māori descendants identified solely as NZ European. In 2013 nearly 83 per cent of Māori descendants (n=535,941) reported belonging to at least one iwi. Of those that did not report an iwi affiliation, 40 per cent did not identify as Māori by ethnicity either.

year: 2015