University Of Cape Town Research Articles

Editorial

Welcome to volume five, issue two of the Journal of African Real Estate Research (JARER). As noted in the editorial of the first issue this year, JARER continues to be a significant medium through which research on African real estate markets is disseminated. We are witnessing an increasing trend in the rate of submissions and the review turnover timing is becoming more encouraging. Our appreciation goes to our reviewers and editorial board who have, despite the unforeseen challenges this year has brough, have dedicated their time and efforts to make this issue possible. We thank the board members of the African Real Estate Society, the Library services at the University of Cape Town, and Managing Editor, Luke Boyle from the Urban Real Estate Research, who has been working diligently in managing the publication process. In addition, we appreciate the support provided by IRES, ERES and Prof. Karl-Werner Schulte and his team from the IREBS at Regensburg University. The special issue focussing on showcasing real estate related research spearheaded by African women is progressing nicely. The special issue has attracted a number of submissions, mostly from new authors, and we are encouraged by the broadening support of the journal that this has demonstrated. Guest editors, Karen Gibler and Geci Karuri-Sebina, have worked tirelessly in coordinating the special issue and providing mentorship to the authors. Most of the articles are in their advanced stages and the issue is on track for publication before June 2021.

South Africa: Restitution, equality and justice

The article is a review of the book Another Country. Everyday Social Restitution by Charlene Schwartz (Cape Town; 2016). The author believes that the history of South Africa is complex and contradictory, and the problem of equality, justice and regulation of race relations is actual under overcoming the apartheid - when passions ran high, and black South Africans want to put an end to the shameful past, when their human dignity was violated, their children did not have a decent future, because they could not get education and profession, and the cherished dream of the black child was to become white. Schwartz shows that the life of the black majority has improved in both financial and educational terms, and all changes were enshrined in law; however, in the psychological perspective, there is still a feeling of inferiority, which determines not only pain and shame, but also anger and aggression, especially among young people, and leads to calls for violence against the white minority. On the other hand, the white minority is stressed due to the transition from the privileged position to the outcasts, is often removed from prestigious jobs and elite residential areas, and the very survival of the white population often demands self-isolation. Several generations of Afrikaners consider South Africa their homeland and do not want to leave it despite all threats. Thus, the question is how to reconcile two opposing groups and ensure racial peace. This difficult situation is studied by Schwartz with trainings at the University of Cape Town - together with her students she searches for a decision urgently needed for survival and a civilized society.

Africa: «The Rainbow Period» and Unfulfilled Hopes. Interview with Apollon Davidson, Academician of RAS

Academician Apollon B. Davidson is an outstanding Soviet and Russian expert in African history, British Studies, also known as a specialist in Russian Silver Age literature. He is an author of more than 500 scientific papers, including 11 monographs, most of which are devoted to the new and recent history of the countries of Tropical and South Africa. Graduate of Leningrad State University (1953), Professor (1973), Doctor of Historical Sciences (1971), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2011). Under his leadership, at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences a scientific school of African history based on archival documents was created. He prepared more than 30 candidates and doctors of sciences, among famous students - A. Balezin, S. Mazov, I. Filatova, G. Derlugyan. In 2001-2002 two volumes of documents “Russia and Africa” [Davidson 1999] were published under his editorship; the book “USSR and Africa” [Davidson, Mazov, Tsypkin 2002], in 2003 - the volume of documents “Comintern and Africa” [Davidson 2003]. In 2003, a two-volume edition of the documents “South Africa and the Communist International” [Davidson, Filatova, Gorodnov, Johns 2003] was published in London in English, and in 2005-2006 - the fundamental three-volume “History of Africa in Documents” [Davidson 2005-2006]. In 1988, he participated in the South African program at Yale University. In 1991, he lectured for several months at universities in South Africa and worked in the archives of this country. In 1992-1993 he worked at the Rhodes University, in 1994-1998 organized and chaired the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Cape Town. In 1981-1991 he visited Ethiopia, Angola, Lesotho, Botswana and several times - Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. From 1977 to 1991 he participated in the Soviet-American Dartmouth conferences as an expert on Africa. In his interview he talks about the outcome of decolonization for southern Africa, the actual problems of the modern development of the continent, the role of China in Africa, and the Afro-Asianization of the world. Special attention is paid to the problems and prospects of the development of Soviet and Russian African studies and Russian-African relations.

Introduction to Thematic Issue: Collaborative Innovation in African Settings

The two overarching questions currently driving Open AIR's research are: How can open, collaborative innovation help businesses scale up and seize the new opportunities of a global knowledge economy? And which knowledge governance policies will best ensure that the social and economic benefits of innovation are shared inclusively? These questions are approached through research work organised into five (often overlapping) thematic orientations: technology hubs, informal innovation, Indigenous entrepreneurs, innovation metrics, and laws and policies. Open AIR's core research methods are situational analysis via case studies; action-based research; and grounded theory-building. The researchers come from a wide range of disciplines, including law, economics, management, political science, and public policy. The six articles in this thematic issue reflect the diversity of the Open AIR network, of its approaches to understanding collaborative innovation in African settings, and of its conceptions of the social, economic, technological and policy dimensions that impact, and are impacted by, innovation. Also reflected in the articles is the geographical range of the network. Two of the articles include detailed reflections on international and African continental realities, and the four articles grounded primarily in African national and sub-national realities draw on data from the continent's North, East, and Southern regions. The articles' authors include researchers from five of Open AIR's institutional hubs: The American University in Cairo, Strathmore University in Nairobi, the University of Johannesburg, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Ottawa. The opening article, by Gwagwa, Kraemer-Mbula, Rizk, Rutenberg and De Beer, explores one of the most pressing matters, in both practical and policy terms, facing African knowledge-based innovators: deployments of artificial intelligence (AI) on the continent. Framing their analysis in terms of socio-economic inclusion, the authors argue that if AI is to be of true benefit to the continent, African policymakers will need to craft enlightened responses to matters of gender empowerment, cultural and linguistic diversity, and shifts in labour markets. 1 https://openair.africa

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the journal experienced again a successful year. It seems that the “working-from-home” model that a lot of authors was forced into, helped with catching up on a few articles that had been waiting for attention! As initiated the end of 2017, it is now customary to evaluate how the journal is performing. Scopus ( www.scopus.com ) measures impact with a “CiteScore” and the graph in Fig 1 (extracted from Scopus on 10 December 2020 - see PDF) shows the progress made over the last few years. The CiteScore for a year is calculated as Citation Count for the year / number of documents the previous 3 years. The Citescore for 2019 is now the highest ever at 1.4 (Measured May 2020), and the Citescore so far for 2020 is 1.2 (remember that this increases over time). Our ranking wrt the Percentile in the category, is currently stable at the high end of a Q3 journal. Another important source for journal standing, is Scimago Journal and Country Rank ( www.scimagojr.com ), where the journal is also listed as a Q3 journal in the “Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering” subject area. It is very encouraging to observe how the number of citations had been growing (Fig 2 in the PDF). This edition has a total of 16 articles, with 13 from authors with South African connections and the balance from international authors. On a sad note, a well-known pioneer in Technology Management (Prof Rias van Wyk) passed away in early October. He was director or Technoscan, focusing on Technology Guidance for the new millennium, serving engineers, technology managers and Science and Technology policy makers. He was also an extraordinary professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Stellenbosch University. He studied at the University of Pretoria, Harvard and Stellenbosch, and his career included University of Free State, University of Stellenbosch, University of Cape Town and University of Minnesota. He retired in Minnesota and travelled regularly to South Africa. At the time of his passing, he had an article in review at this journal, and I thought it therefore appropriate to make this article the feature article of this final edition of 2021. If you have suggestions on how we can take this journal forward, please let me know. Corne Schutte Editor

Emergency remote teaching for design thinking in health innovation

In March of 2020, South Africa responded to the global COVID-19 pandemic by instituting a full lockdown. This meant that only essential services were allowed to operate, causing schools, universities and workplaces to close. The University of Cape Town was about to complete its first term when this occurred. With campuses closed, students were asked to vacate residences and return home. The university went into emergency remote teaching, with all teaching and learning moving online. Students were provided with the necessary resources to access content via the university learning platform, but strict guidelines were set to ensure that the delivery of content was not data or bandwidth intensive. For our master’s-level course on Health Innovation and Design, this posed many challenges. Health Innovation and Design is part of the curriculum for the MPhil in Health Innovation and the MSc in Biomedical Engineering. It utilises design thinking methodologies as an approach to innovate for improvements in health and wellbeing. The course comprises group-based action learning with a project partner and endeavours to promote engaged scholarship (UCT, 2020) by interacting with constituencies outside the university for public good. For 2020, we had secured the provincial Department of Health as our project partner. Our students were going to work with a team on designing and developing an operating theatre information system for scheduling. We would have had our first hospital visit the week after the university closed its on-campus activities.

The crisis of criminal justice in South Africa

This article builds on two lectures (delivered in 2017 and 2019 at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town respectively) that addressed a a controversial and often overlooked crisis in the criminal justice system – the minimum sentencing regime. The paper argues that minimum sentences are no response at all to curbing crime in South Africa and to making our people safe. The minimum sentencing regime is a misdirected, hugely costly and above all ineffective way of punishing criminals and dealing with crime. It has been an extravagant mistake of science, understanding, and policy and social response. The article summarises some of the arguments and considers why we are still stuck with minimum sentences when they are demonstrably useless and counterproductive. The author argues that the reasons lie in our broken history, in incoherent decision-making in our present political leadership, institutional incompetence, and the fact that minimum sentences themselves, through their false promise, divert us from finding more efficient solutions.
 

The crisis of criminal justice in South Africa

This article builds on two lectures (delivered in 2017 and 2019 at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town respectively) that addressed a a controversial and often overlooked crisis in the criminal justice system – the minimum sentencing regime. The paper argues that minimum sentences are no response at all to curbing crime in South Africa and to making our people safe. The minimum sentencing regime is a misdirected, hugely costly and above all ineffective way of punishing criminals and dealing with crime. It has been an extravagant mistake of science, understanding, and policy and social response. The article summarises some of the arguments and considers why we are still stuck with minimum sentences when they are demonstrably useless and counterproductive. The author argues that the reasons lie in our broken history, in incoherent decision-making in our present political leadership, institutional incompetence, and the fact that minimum sentences themselves, through their false promise, divert us from finding more efficient solutions.
 

Aebi, Adrian, Göldi, Susan, Weder, Mirjam (Hrsg.). «Schrift – Bild – Ton. Beiträge zum multimodalen Schreiben in Bildung und professioneller Kommunikation»

Changes are taking in place academic writing due to the influence of the English-speaking academic community. While these changes are plain to see, they seldom undergo critical examination when it comes to learning how to wield them. Arlene Archer, a South African writing researcher and Director of the University of Cape Town’s Writing Center, studies this very aspect of academic language. As a keynote speaker at the Forum for Academic Writing conference organized in collaboration with the Lucerne School of Business Institute for Communication and Marketing, she was the sole presenter to draw attention to the political dimension of participation in academia. Using the concept of “voice”, which is to be understood approximately as “discursive self”, she highlights the need for a metalanguage in teaching and learning that will bring visibility to certain limitations on discourse. Archer uses social semiotics to always link the production of meaning in writing with social implications. She focuses on two central aspects of “voice”: the recognizability of authorship, which is expressed in various decisions on how content is selected and presented; and citation, which has the ability to open or close the door to academic conversation like a key. The author then presents a matrix of terms that can be used to ascertain “voice” in multimodal texts. Archer's critical examination of conventions in academic writing is recognizably motivated by Identity Politics and serves in part to empower the disadvantaged. Thus, Archer likewise ties didactics into a political mission that is strongly aimed at reflection and not just the use of resources in a semiotic sense.

Studio Call

In February 2020, the author spent a day with Penny Siopis in her studio at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, to discuss the artist’s new ink and wood-glue paintings, which she adopted in 2008 as her primary painting medium. This new direction is quite significant for an artist who, in the 1980s at the height of the antiapartheid movement, made ardently realistic figurative oil and mixed-media paintings that signified the psychic detritus of apartheid’s pathologies. The weighty sparseness of Siopis’s Cake paintings (1981–81) and the airless excess of the History paintings (late 1980s) might have been the artist’s way of both dealing with and reflecting on the psychology of apartheid as the institution lurched to its inevitable end in 1990. In the early 2000s, before settling on ink and wood glue, Siopis spent a few years producing oil and ink paintings that contributed to the making of postapartheid trauma art—investigations into the psychic, moral, and ethical abjections of apartheid in the wake of testimonies from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her ink and glue works represent the conjunction of material, process, and subject matter: Siopis relies on and is challenged by the unpredictable mixing and flow of ink, glue, and water—material acts, as she calls them—that evolve as the sum and interplay of autonomous agencies of medium and artist. Siopis’s most recent work in this medium and her film She Breathes Water (2019) allegorize global warming and the devastating impact of human exploitation of nature—elegies to present and coming catastrophes.

The Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series

Abstract The Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series (palms) is a compilation of microdata from 69 household surveys conducted in South Africa. The dataset and the code used to create the data are publicly available from DataFirst, a data repository at the University of Cape Town (www.doi.org/10.25828/gtr1-8r20). To harmonise the data required understanding the differences across the surveys, which has generated new knowledge about the South African labour market.

An African, Multi-Centre Evaluation of Patient Care and Clinical Outcomes for Patients with COVID-19 Infection Admitted to High-Care or Intensive Care Units

Background: There is little data on critically ill COVID-19 patients in under-resourced environments, and none from Africa. The objectives of this study were to determine resources, patient comorbidities and critical care interventions associated with mortality in critically ill COVID-19 African patients. Methods: African multicentre, prospective observational cohort study of adult patients referred to intensive care or high-care units with suspected or known COVID-19 infection. Patient follow up was until hospital discharge, censored at 30 days. The study recruited from March to September 2020. Findings: 1243 patients from 38 hospitals in six countries participated. The hospitals had a median of 2 (interquartile range (IQR) 1-4) intensivists, with a nurse to patient ratio of 1:2 (IQR 1:3 to 1:1). Pulse oximetry was available to all patients in 29/35 (82·9%) sites, and 21/35 (60%) of sites could provide dialysis or proning. The 30-day mortality following critical care admission was 54·7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 51·9-57·6). Factors independently associated with mortality were an increasing age (odds ratio (OR) 1·04, 95% CI 1·02-1·05, pInterpretation: Mortality in critically ill COVID-19 African patients is higher than any other region, with an excess mortality of 18 and 29 deaths per 100 patients compared to other regions. Mortality is associated with limited critical care resources and severity of organ dysfunction at admission.Trial Registration: This study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04367207).Funding Statement: African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study (ACCCOS) was partially supported by a grant from the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa.Declaration of Interests: We have no competing interests to declare.Ethics Approval Statement: The primary ethics approval was from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Cape Town (HREC 213/2020)

PATCHWORKED MEDIA: MOBILE DEVICES AND CREATIVE PRACTICE IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

There has been a recurring narrative in research that revolves around mobile technologies and society, particularly in relation to Africa: that these technologies have the potential to reconfigure and revolutionise the development trajectories of entire countries (Donner & Locke, 2019). But if these narratives are to be the case, then, indeed, the role that mobile devices can play in production (in this case of art, media, and design) is going to have to be something that allows people in the global South to earn a living. This paper presents an exploration of the creative practices, with a focus on mobile creative practices, of a cohort of Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) Visual Design students from a university in Cape Town, South Africa (2014). All of these students came from low-income, resource constrained contexts in the townships that surround Cape Town. In questioning whether mobile technologies can help young South African creatives forge careers or attain resources that could help them do so, the role of mobile technologies is complicated. While these devices offer new emerging creative affordances, and in some cases, can offer means to generate income, the material reality is a different story. I conclude by arguing that instead of these devices offering access to a global network, they, at best, provide the means for young creatives, such as those featured in this study, to a forge a media patchwork.

The mechanics of setting up a COVID-19 response: Experiences of the COVID-19 epidemic from Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has challenged the provision of healthcare in ways that are unprecedented in our lifetime. Planning for thesheer numbers expected during the surge has required public hospitals to de-escalate all non-essential clinical services to focus on COVID-19. Western Cape Province was the initial epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa (SA), and the Cape Town metro was itshardest-hit geographical region. We describe how we constructed our COVID-19 hospital-wide clinical service at Groote Schuur Hospital,the University of Cape Town's tertiary-level teaching hospital. By describing the barriers and enablers, we hope to provide guidance ratherthan a blueprint for hospitals elsewhere in SA and in low-resource countries that face similar challenges now or during subsequent waves.

On Apartheid Ruins

Recent protests against colonial racism and power at the University of Cape Town have engaged specific forms of ‘formal’ artwork found on the campus. The burning of paintings during the Shackville protests in February 2016 raised a number of fundamental questions. The shack built by protesting students and referred to as Shackville was later demolished by university authorities and security but bears potency as a creative intervention. In this article, I discuss Shackville as well as ‘Echoing Voices from Within’, the RMF exhibition at the Centre for African Studies (CAS) gallery in 2016 as transformative creative intervention. Drawing from the notion of ruination developed by Anne Stoler, I argue that both forms of art intervention illustrate the current incommensurability of racialised spaces in South Africa. Navigating a post-apartheid complex terrain, creative protest engages with different notions of ruination and what it means to live within interminable colonial conditions.

SDGs + Synergies: Design, Access + Aftercare in Global Public Health

Abstract As Citizens of the World, in 2020 we have been challenged to frankly + swiftly evaluate public health crises, social injustice + their intrinsic link to our global economies. This starkly pivotal year marks a decade to the deadline to fulfill the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs are oft-considered the world's best plan towards building a better world for people and our planet. Adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, the SDGs are an international call-to-action to promote prosperity while protecting the environment. In light of the UN's 17th goal of Partnership, we wanted to amplify the interconnections between the specialties of architecture + health. This particular goal seeks to strengthen the means of implementation + revitalize the global collaboration for sustainable development. As an Architect specializing in Healthcare at SOM's New York office, Founder of WALLEN + daub + the Head of Global Surgery at University of Cape Town, we are approaching sustained well-being from our respective professions. We each serve different geographic markets towards the best outcomes. We pondered the codependency of space + care in creating a healing experience for patients. Global surgery + international healthcare architecture are rooted in serving others. Therefore, we are continuously considering the role of the professional in creating spatial infrastructure as a component of service delivery for care by clinicians. Progress is evident, but slow. The last Annual SDSN Report found that the best performing city is only making 68% progress toward full achievement of all seventeen SDGs. Of all largely-populated US cities, two-thirds are less than halfway there. As we work globally towards more equitable, healthy + resilient communities (#11), we must further investigate the impact and implementation of the other goals, namely: health + well-being (#3), access to sanitation (#6), + industry, innovation + infrastructure (#9). Key messages UN SDGs + public health care (sustainable care + design). Patient Well-being: Collaboration through sustainable development goals, design + care.

Decolonizing African Studies

In this introduction to the special issue on decolonizing African Studies, we discuss some of the epicolonial dynamics that characterize much of higher education and knowledge production in, of, with, and for Africa. Decolonizing, we argue, is best understood as a verb that entails a political and normative ethic and practice of resistance and intentional undoing – unlearning and dismantling unjust practices, assumptions, and institutions – as well as persistent positive action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing. We present four dimesions of decolonizing work: structural, epistemic, personal, and relational, which are entangled and equally necessary. We offer the Black Academic Caucus at the University of Cape Town as an example of how these dimensions can come to life, and introduce the contributions in this special issue (the first of a two-part series) that illuminate other sites and dimensions of decolonizing.

Ebony and ivory in imperfect harmony - Re-experiencing music education at the University of Cape Town

ABSTRACT In this paper, I re-experienced my time as a music education student from 1973 to 1976 at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I used an autoethnography, based on autobiographical memory work, interviews, archival visits, and literature reviews, to re-experience my life as a Coloured music student at a former White higher education institution during apartheid. A critical, reflexive, and interpretive-analytic paradigm informed this autoethnographic study, which was grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT). My study was analytical and interpretive of the self but simultaneously culture, society, and the institution, with its racist and hegemonic practices, were critiqued. My contestation of my Coloured identity at UCT in the mid-1970s was underpinned by the philosophical and sociological conceptualisation of the intersections of race, racism, class, and music. As such, in this paper, I regard normalised and taken-for-granted White supremacy as a powerful force and argue that it played, and continues to play, an active role in perpetuating structural inequality at higher education institutions.

In the Spotlight-Established Researcher.

Tamara Franz-Odendaal holds the NSERC Chair Women in Science and Engineering (Atlantic Canada) and is a Fellow of the American Association of Anatomists Tamara is a Guest Co-Editor of this special issue on Cavefish Website: www.bonedevelopmentlab.ca With whom and where did you study? I completed my undergraduate, MSc and PhD degrees at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. For my MSc degree, I studied gene expression during eye development in chicken embryos under the supervision of Dr. Susan Kidson. My PhD thesis explored paleopathologies and paleodiets of 5 million-year-old fossil herbivores from a South African locality called Langebaanweg. My PhD supervisors were paleontologist Dr. Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan and archaeologist Dr. Julia Lee-Thorpe. Notably, these three supervisors are top female scientists, two of whom had families when I was in their research groups. I completed a short-term DAAD scholarship to pursue a post-doc with Dr. Thomas Kaiser at the University of Greifswald (Germany) and then conducted a 3.5-year post-doc with Dr. Brian Hall (Dalhousie University, Canada), where I got my first true taste of the EvoDevo field. What got you interested in Biology? When did you know EvoDevo was for you? I have been interested in animals and the natural world from a young age. My MSc degree was in developmental biology and I branched out into paleontology for my PhD. Therefore, merging my fascination with embryos and fossils was a natural fit for my post-doc. To have the opportunity to do this with such a remarkable scientist as Dr. Hall was a wonderful experience. If you are amazed at animal diversity then EvoDevo may be for you too since how can you not wonder how that diversity arose both over evolutionary and over developmental time scales. What has been your biggest challenge in getting to your position? My biggest challenge to getting to my position was job searching while having a toddler, being a permanent resident of Canada, and having a degree from a university that was not well known in Canada. I received my first faculty position as an NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada) University Faculty Award recipient. This program provided me the mechanism for establishing my research program at Mount Saint Vincent University by giving me a reduced teaching load in my first three-years. As an active and productive researcher in Canada, I often have to justify why I chose a primarily undergraduate institution as my home. There are many benefits to teaching at a smaller university such as closer interactions with students and a sense of community. The first time I was exposed to research was during my undergraduate degree and it was an immensely rewarding experience. I view training undergraduates in research methods and analysis as incredibly important since these are the students that become our graduate students and future scientists. Or alternatively, they become our doctors, dentists, and veterinarians; professions that require an understanding of the scientific process. What advice do you have for junior EvoDevo researchers? My advice for graduate students and post-docs interested in EvoDevo is to thoroughly learn as many different techniques as possible, work on different organisms (this will become important if you need to teach EvoDevo or Developmental Biology), and pick your advisors based on how they treat their trainees and their productivity. It is okay (and the norm) to randomly email PI's to ask if they are taking on new students rather than waiting for a graduate position announcement. Do your homework though, and make sure you have read about their research and that you really want to work with them. We established PI's receive numerous applications from students for positions and are very adept at picking out the students who have done some homework about our research. Your first email to us should be to introduce yourself and tell us why your interests or past experiences align with our research group's interests. Always attach your CV or resumé.

Children\u2019s interactions with technology in teachers\u2019 self-reported activities in Sweden\u2019s preschools

This study investigates preschool children’s interactions with technology in a Swedish context. The purpose is to broaden our knowledge about children, technology and preschool activities—not only the meanings of technology that is present in everyday preschool activities, but also how children interact with it. Collier-Reed’s (Pupils’ experiences of technology: exploring dimensions of technological literacy, PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 2006) category system has been used to analyse data generated in two research circles. The participating preschool teachers were asked to present teacher- and children-initiated activities from their daily practices. 54 cases were identified, of which 40 included children’s interactions with technology according to the definitions provided by Collier-Reed. Mapping the results in a matrix representation based on Collier-Reed’s two sets of categorisation systems shows two clusters. The first mainly includes teacher-initiated activities, in which children were instructed how to use different artefacts. The second also includes children-initiated activities requiring more engagement as part of Collier-Reed’s notion of the core. Also, labelling was added to the category system in order to adapt it to the Swedish preschool setting.