Browsing by Author "Ubisi, Lindokuhle Mdeyi"

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The employment experiences of graduates with disabilities in South Africa : challenges and resilience
(2017) Ubisi, Lindokuhle Mdeyi
The career trajectory for persons with disabilities (PWDs) has largely been associated with decline and stagnation. Resilience and positive attributes have not been investigated related to graduates with disabilities (GWDs) successfully entering, adjusting to and further developing within the work environment. The aim of this study was to report on challenges, resilience and positive attributes amongst GWDs as a positive contributing factor to employment practices as well as policy. A participant sample of 6 employed GWDs (working age 26-45; 4 males and 2 females; 3 Black, 2 White and 1 Coloured) were individually interviewed. The participants’ disabilities consisted mainly of physical, hearing and visual impairments. The data was analysed using thematic and discourse analysis. Results show that despite the negative experiences encountered within the social and work environment, participants demonstrated resilience within their narratives and decision-making processes. A self-developed conceptual model of resilience and positive attributes was thus proposed to track this resilience. However, the resilience observed amongst participants did not fully reflect the existing definitions and theoretical frameworks around resilience. Critically re-examining these existing definitions and the theoretical framework showed new meanings can be derived with implications for policy and intervention. The fact that the majority of participants did not show awareness of or ownership of their resilience shows a missing key element – that they are not only making use of it, but they also do not even appear to realise its importance.
The performances of race, masculinity, and class among black male cleaners at a higher academic institution in Johannesburg
(2022) Ubisi, Lindokuhle Mdeyi
Background: Previous studies have not explored how black working-class men perform race, masculinity, and class when they find themselves as a gender minority in a female-dominated environment, occupying a low status job while working in a high status setting. However, we do know that men enter a low-class, female-dominated occupations like cleaning with male privilege, and it is not constructive to immediately assume feelings of inferiority. Aim: The study explored the performances of race, masculinity, and class amongst black men working in a higher academic institution in Johannesburg. The study asked, how do black male cleaners construct their race, gender identity, and class while cleaning at a higher academic institution in Johannesburg? Methods: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 black male cleaners (ages 32-60) to pursue this inquiry. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, underpinned by Stephen Frosh’s psychosocial framework, Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and precarity, and Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus theory. Findings: The testimony of the male accounts showed that one way the men tried to deal with their woundedness in finding themselves in an undermined job in terms of a racial, gendered, and classist hierarchy was to point out how much they had sacrificed for the benefit of others. For example, the men complained that they had to carry heavy objects which their female co-workers cannot or would not carry, yet they were paid the same wages. One of the men had years of untreated chemical burns on his hands, while another was willing to risk workplace health and safety regulations to benefit his employer. The men felt exploited by a system that values their labour but had no regard to the consequences to their mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. To deal with this denied pain and fear of losing one’s job in an already elevated poverty-stricken and high unemployment landscape, the men attempted to reclaim their sense of dignity, respect, and self-worth by re-negotiating their work identities in such a manner as to not feel emasculated. Implications for future research: The study cautions future studies in black working class masculinity to pay attention to how racial discrimination, sexual vulnerability, and conditions of precarity can create an exploitative work environment wherein these men may exhibit certain help-seeking behaviours as an attempt to gain a sense of recognition given the layers of vulnerability they face based on race, gender, and class.