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Stellenbosch University

Decolonizing and Decentering: Developing 21st Century Competencies in the South African Middle School Music Classroom

Educators world-wide find themselves in the challenging position of educating young adolescents for a future in which exponential knowledge doubling will become a reality. Together with the medical prognosis of a much longer life span for this age group and a radical restructuring of the global economy, the implication is that today’s youth will need the skills to negotiate a much longer career of self-employment through a succession of jobs, often collaborative in nature and mostly Internet-driven.

Exploring the views and perceptions of cybersecurity among South African military officers

Cyberspace is expanding at a rapid pace and extends its reach into the functioning of society. The pervasive nature of cyberthreats poses a significant security challenge to governments, businesses, organisations, and individual users. The contribution this study makes to the field of cybersecurity lies in its methodological approach to focusing on South African military officers, which is a hitherto under-researched subject in the South African domain.

The influence of topographical variability on wildfire occurrence and propagation

Wildfires have increasingly become a point of concern, especially with notable incidents like the 2017 Knysna fire. These naturally occurring phenomena, despite their disruptive nature, are crucial for the sustainability of certain ecosystems. At the heart of understanding wild-fires lies the relationship between climate, vegetation, topography, and human land use, with topography standing out as a significant determinant. This thesis delves into the fundamen-tal role of topography, emphasizing its effect on the ignition, propagation, and behaviour of wildfires.

Identifying and Exploring Key Principles of the Clown in Theatre – a practice-led approach

In this study, an artistic research methodology is employed to identify principles of clowning as they are practiced in contemporary clown training workshops, to then offer applications of these within a South African theatre context. Autoethnographic accounts and fictional narratives offer an exploration of the practice of clowning from a personal perspective in multiple roles as clown performer, student, educator and observer, supplemented by an interpretive analysis of existing literature.

The development of a contextually-appropriate measure of individual recovery for mental health service users in a South African context

Mental health is a crucial part of the overall wellbeing of persons. Recovery is increasingly recognised worldwide as an essential approach to mental health. In this study recovery is regarded as personal recovery, a multidimensional construct differing from remission. In high-income countries, the study of recovery has developed and expanded to raise individuals' awareness of, and involvement in, their own recovery and to change mental health services to have a recovery orientation.

Psychological Strengths Mediating the Stress-Coping Experience: Implications for Mental Health in School-Going Adolescents from Low-Income Communities of the Cape Metropole

South African research has paid scant attention to the role of psychological strengths in coping with stress and the impact these have on the overall mental health of adolescents living low-income communities. However, an understanding of the role of psychological strengths in mediating the impact of stress on the mental health of adolescents is necessary as it could indicate those factors that may be pivotal to interventions targeting mental-health promotion and mental-illness prevention for vulnerable adolescents.

"Orphan artefacts": Investigating the relevance of classical artefacts in the Iziko collection, Cape Town

Since 1998 a collection of 238 classical antiquities, many of which were previously on display for over a century, has been in storage in the Iziko Social History Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. These artefacts are of a low priority for display in the museum and the skills necessary to conserve them are at present unavailable to the museum staff.

The Feasibility of Disseminating and Implementing Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Survivors of Trauma in South Africa: A mixed method pilot and feasibility study

The study investigated the feasibility of disseminating and implementing brief prolonged exposure therapy (PE) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in South Africa. I used a mixed method design to investigate and explore the broad aim, which was to implement PE in a South African context, and to explore whether PE is feasible and acceptable in a South African context. The study had three aims