https://hdl.handle.net/10646/1377 2026-04-15T20:08:29Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/4778 Title: Gender representation in Zimbabwe ordinary level 2010-2015 prescribed Chishona literature texts Authors: Taringa, Beatrice Abstract: Textbooks play a crucial role in the moulding of pupils’ gender identities. The purpose of this study is to explore gender representation in the Zimbabwean Ordinary Level 2010-2015 ChiShona prescribed literature texts in order to determine the gender representation that the prescribed texts expose to pupils. The study also sought to determine the potential educational implications of the gender representation in light of the Afrocentric paradigm of Africana womanist theory. The study is primarily qualitative. It involves purposively sampled four Old World and three New World novels and a play. The study subjects the purposively sampled ChiShona literature texts to documentary analysis, inductive content analysis and discourse analysis. The study employed grounded theory coding scheme and thematic weblike data analysis. The results show that there is a plural gender representation in the selected prescribed ChiShona texts. The study has, therefore, generated a three-dimensional grounded theory of gender representation. First, there is a humanistic gender representation dimension that portrays gender in a relational and complementary picture. Second, there is the authoritarian gender representation dimension that portrays gender as differential, binary, oppositional and hierarchical in nature. Third, there is gender expansive representation that portrays gender as an individual choice. The tripartite gender representation has the potential of socialising pupils into gender complementarities (humanitarian), gender symmetrical (authoritarian) and gender asymmetrical (gender expansivity). These three gender representations correspond to three potential forms of gender socialisation among pupils in school. The humanitarian dimension of gender representation has the potential of socialising learners into a belief that gender is something hardwired into the biological make up of males and females. This may not measure up to the expectations of achieving gender equality in a learning environment. The authoritarian gender representation dimension may socialise learners into a belief in rigid, symmetrical gender duality in which the male is privileged over the female. The third dimension of gender expansive representation portrays gender-roles as open to any “body”. This has the potential of socialising pupils into a belief in the subversion of gender duality and buys into the theory of gender as performativity. This implies conceiving gender, as something of the future, that is, it will be what it will be. This implies that people will know gender roles when males/females perform them in specific contexts. 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/4418 Title: Gender representation in Zimbabwe Ordinary Level 2010-2015 prescribed ChiShona literature texts. Authors: Taringa, Beatrice Abstract: Textbooks play a crucial role in the moulding of pupils’ gender identities. The purpose of this study is to explore gender representation in the Zimbabwean Ordinary Level 2010-2015 ChiShona prescribed literature texts in order to determine the gender representation that the prescribed texts expose to pupils. The study also sought to determine the potential educational implications of the gender representation in light of the Afrocentric paradigm of Africana Womanist Theory. The study is primarily qualitative. It involves purposively sampled four Old World and three New World novels and a play. The study subjects the purposively sampled ChiShona literature texts to documentary analysis, inductive content analysis and discourse analysis. The study employed grounded theory coding scheme and thematic web like data analysis. The results show that there is a plural gender representation in the selected prescribed ChiShona texts. The study has, therefore, generated a three-dimensional grounded theory of gender representation. First, there is a humanistic gender representation dimension that portrays gender in a relational and complementary picture. Second, there is the authoritarian gender representation dimension that portrays gender as differential, binary, oppositional and hierarchical in nature. Third, there is gender expansive representation that portrays gender as an individual choice. The tripartite gender representation has the potential of socialising pupils into gender complementarities (humanitarian), gender symmetrical (authoritarian) and gender asymmetrical (gender expansivity). These three gender representations correspond to three potential forms of gender socialisation among pupils in school. The humanitarian dimension of gender representation has the potential of socialising learners into a belief that gender is something hardwired into the biological make up of males and females. This may not measure up to the expectations of achieving gender equality in a learning environment. The authoritarian gender representation dimension may socialise learners into a belief in rigid, symmetrical gender duality in which the male is privileged over the female. The third dimension of gender expansive representation portrays gender-roles as open to any “body”. This has the potential of socialising pupils into a belief in the subversion of gender duality and buys into the theory of gender as performativity. This implies conceiving gender, as something of the future, that is, it will be what it will be. This implies that people will know gender roles when males/females perform them in specific contexts. 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/4144 Title: Undergraduate student teachers conceptualisations of mathematical proof. Authors: Ndemo, Zakaria Abstract: Students face serious challenges in learning mathematical proofs. Although many studies have been done with the aim of improving the learning of mathematical proof beyond mere regurgitation of memorised facts, very few studies have been based on students‟ actual proof attempts. Motivated by the need to develop an understanding of students‟ thinking grounded in their actual proof attempts the main research question put forward was: In what terms do Zimbabwean undergraduate student teachers think of mathematical proof? The goal was to explore students‟ schemes of argumentation and how students‟ thoughts around mathematical proof evolve. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10646/4082 Title: A critical examination of the role of action research. Authors: Mavhundutse, Oliver Abstract: In Zimbabwe, there is no school for teacher educators. People who become teacher educators do so after gaining primary or secondary school teaching experience. Teacher educators may not have the necessary means to determine what they know and what they do not know. For this reason, this study sought to evaluate the experiences of teacher educators who had undergone a two-year intervention training project on action research. This was a qualitative phenomenological study, whose data were generated through interviews, focus group discussions, personal life stories and observations. Six participants considered to be rich informants were purposively selected for this case study. The study, guided by Fullan’s (2007) theory of change, also involved an inductive process leading to the generation of themes, which was followed by an interpretive discourse analysis. Five major themes emerged from the study, namely: evidence of reflection, interactive classrooms/lecture rooms as a source of joy, the need to change traditional ways of educating teachers; poor remuneration for participants who attend gruelling MQEP workshops, and the need for the involvement of all stakeholders from planning to exit of donor-funded projects. Implications drawn from the study include the need to incorporate action research into teacher education programmes or curricula. In that regard, the establishment of teacher educator institutions would help in the development of teacher educators. The study also notes the need for donor-driven projects to involve project beneficiaries so that both formative and summative evaluation strategies are collectively generated, to allow meaningful conclusions to be drawn from these projects. With respect to the Masvingo Quality Education Project, the major finding was that action research has the potential to improve teacher education. 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z