Teaching

Economic and Development Problems in Africa (2013 Semester 1)

• 2013 Course outline (subject to change)
• Lecture 1 [8 Feb] – Introduction
• Lecture 2  [15 Feb] – Understanding Foreign Aid
  • Required reading: Chapter 1 (Easterly)
• Lecture 3 [22 Feb] – South Africa: Poverty and Inequality
  • Required reading: SVDB article
• Lecture 4 [1 Mar] – Overview of education in South Africa
• Lecture 5 [8 Mar] – Looking closer at education in SA
  • Read a chapter of your choosing from: Fiske, E., & Ladd, H. (2004). Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-apartheid South Africa. Washington: Brookings Institution Press / HSRC Press.
• Lecture 6 [15 Mar] – An introduction to policy briefs and data analysis
  • Complete this short questionnaire on using pivot tables
  • Examples of policy briefs – JPAL Teacher absenteeism, JPAL education for girls, RESEP policy brief
  • Background to SACMEQ – 3 articles (SACMEQ Mission, Approach and Projects ; The SACMEQ II Project in Kenya: A Study of the Conditions of Schooling and the Quality of Education ; SACMEQ III Project Results: Levels and Trends in School Resources among SACMEQ School Systems.)
  • Andrew Mwenda’s lecture “Paved with good intentions: Africa and the curse of foreign aid“
• Test [MONDAY 25 Mar] – note that there is no lecture this Friday – Friday’s lectures for the whole university will be held on Monday. So I/Nico will see you on Monday from 10-1pm (25 March). The test will include 6 questions on country names in Africa, some questions on using pivot-tables in excel (make sure to bring a laptop with the dataset on it), multiple-choice questions on the content that we covered in class (i.e. look at the slides).
• I have marked your tests and given the marks to Nico – he will put them up in class so you can see what you got.
• POLICY BRIEF DUE ON 10 May – hand in during class.

Guest lectures

• Development Economics (Hons) guest lecture –  Social Policy: Education (17 April 2012)
• Economics of education (Hons) guest lecture - Education and inequality (9 May 2012) + Hendrik’s Feinstein article presentation

Economic and Development Problems in Africa (2012 Semester 1)

FINAL MARKS SEMESTER 1 - if there are any errors email me before Friday 18 May. (I have blacked out your lowest two marks)

(Essays can be collected outside my office)

• Course outline
• Lecture 1 – Introduction
• Lecture 2 & 3 – Research Methods
  • How to write about Africa – Wainaina
  • ‘Economical Writing‘ by Deidre McCloskey
• Lecture 4 – Why is Africa poor?
  • Ch19 Guns Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond
  • McNeill’s criticism of Guns, Germs and Steel
• Lecture 5 & 6 – Botswana Case Study
• Lecture 7 & 8 – Map Quiz (+details)  & Gapminder presentation
• Lecture 9-11  - Foreign Aid
• Lecture 12-13 – Foreign Aid case study (+review questions)
• Lecture 14-17 – Poverty and Inequality in South Africa
• Guideline for essay outline
• Lecture 18-23 – Education in South Africa
• Test information
• Lecture 24-25 – HIV/AIDS in Africa
• Presentation marks

Resources

General Academic:

• Excellent (!!) article on writing a literature review
• Overview of the academic essay - Harvard
• Writing with internet sources – Harvard
• Logic & Argument – Dartmouth
• Writing the academic paper – Dartmouth
• Cite it Right - University of Limerick

Christian

• Tim Kellar resources
• AW Tozer preaches