Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)

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Browsing Faculty of Humanities (ETDs) by Faculty "Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A critical review of academic practice and integrated edtech use at a South African University: The ‘real’ level
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Hoosen, Nazira; Agherdien, Najma; Abrahams, Lucienne
    This study aimed to investigate and understand how academics’ digital competence and critical digital pedagogy (CDP) knowledge shaped pedagogical practice. Freire (1970), Bhaskar (1978), Archer (1995) and Shulman (1987) were the main authors drawn upon in the literature. A qualitative research paradigm and a multiple case study methodology were employed by drawing on critical realism (CR) and social realism (SR) as a theoretical analytical framework. This entailed exploring structural, cultural and agential emergent properties to examine how each construct developed over time prior to synthesis. The analysis demonstrated that the form of agential mediation to which academics were exposed explained why some of them in the same social structures and culture enacted CDP practices, while others did not. Consequently, three crucial dimensions of CDP knowledge and enactment were made visible through this study’s data and theoretical analytical framework, namely digitally-enabling structures, digitally-informed cultures and digitally-capable agency. From a pragmatic perspective, to enact CDP practice, academics need to connect the digital reality to knowledge work and epistemic practice. In this process, academic agency and digital agency would intersect, requiring reflexive and reflective practice. However, while reflection assists in recognising the need for CDP knowledge and enactment, it is insufficient on its own: embodied action and mindful critique of the world are required. From a theoretical perspective, the concept of ‘critical’, in the literature, is related mainly to the level of social relations. This study demonstrated that there is a socio-cultural stratum and a psychological-cognitive stratum. Both these strata need to be considered as mechanisms that interact with each other to produce the outcomes of CDP practice within a digital reality. Collectively, these contributions do not translate to accepting the digital reality as a predestination. Instead, it highlighted that academics functioned in a layered HE system that required, not a singular, but a unified and pluralistic (collective) vision. Individuals and institutions are limited in their capacity to respond proactively to external change and internal complexity. Therefore, the HE system requires a rerouting from the traditional path, critically reframing learning and teaching through transformative foresight, where all parts within the system work co-terminously. One significant outcome of this study is a developmental higher education systems thinking framework focusing on the promotion of CDP practices.
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    Family Change and Child Maintenance Effect on Men’s Mental Health Outcomes in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Muchemwa, Marifa; Odimegwu, Clifford
    Background: Mental health problems are increasing among men in South Africa, yet they remain inadequately studied, particularly within the context of observed family change in the country. National studies have identified the changes taking place in the family system such as increasing rates of divorce, cohabiting, non-marital childbearing, living alone, and delays in family formation. This has resulted in most children growing up in single-parent families, giving rise to child maintenance issues. The changing family situations together with complexities surrounding child maintenance may be pertinent to men’s mental health outcomes, hence the need to examine the nexus. This is important considering that men’s mental health has not been examined in the context of family change and child maintenance in the country. A lack of investigation in this area raises the following question: Do family change and child maintenance complexities contribute to men’s mental health outcomes? Methodology: An explanatory sequential mixed method was conducted to examine family change and child maintenance effects on men’s mental health outcomes in South Africa. The two mental health outcomes which were examined are depressive symptoms and Psychiatric or psychological disorders. The quantitative part of the research used longitudinal secondary data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Waves 1-5 (2008-2017) with a sample size of 30 381 men aged 18 and older. The family change examined included a man’s transition from another marital status to being married, living with a partner, divorced, and multiple changes. It also encompassed men who transitioned from living with others to living alone. To analyse the data, the multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression and the General Estimating Equations (GEE) models were used. In the qualitative research, 30 men residing in Johannesburg were recruited using purposive and snowballing sampling methods. The men were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interviews. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Key Findings: Quantitative findings indicate that men who changed to cohabiting had an increased likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms compared to those who did not go through a family change. Men who changed to live alone had an increased likelihood of experiencing both mental health outcomes compared to men who remained living with others. Men who became married had a lower likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms than men who did not go through any family change. The qualitative findings show that it is not only family change, but its consequences linked to child maintenance complexities that is more stressful affecting men’s mental well-being. The consequences include being denied access and custody of the children. Trying to adjust to living away from their children and being excluded from the children’s lives by their ex-partners left men distressed. Quantitative findings show that men who paid child maintenance were less likely to experience psychiatric or psychological disorders than men who were not paying. However, from the qualitative findings, men who were paying child maintenance complained of how their partners gave them limited access to the children and only sought money from them making it appear as if it is the only role they can do for their children. Yet they wanted to be part of their children’s lives. Some of the men cried as they explained how being excluded from the lives of their children affected their health. Conclusions: The findings indicate that changing to live alone is a risk factor for both mental health outcomes. Men who changed to live with a partner (cohabiting) had an increased risk of experiencing depressive symptoms. Those who transitioned to be married across the five waves had a reduced likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. Child maintenance complexities that men encounter also affect their mental health. The complexities include undermining the fatherhood role through the exclusion in decision-making, denial of access to the children, and child custody. Policy recommendations: The findings imply that the changing nature of the family in South Africa characterised by increasing cohabitation and living alone affects men’s mental health. Men living alone and cohabiting require mental health support. Counselling should be done simultaneously with interventions that help men who are denied access to their children. Community programs that address mental health needs of men undergoing family change should be done. Including educational campaigns that raise awareness about mental health implications of family change and the importance of seeking help. Child access denial should be addressed, existing laws should ensure that both parents have equal access to the children. Crying in men should be normalized through public awareness campaigns that challenge traditional notions of masculinity. Interventions to assist men experiencing challenges to have access to their children should be carried out simultaneously with counselling as the findings highlight that men live with the pain of being denied access and custody of their children. Frontiers for Further Research: The findings showed that men were weak and powerless on matters to do with child access and custody for their children from previous relationships. Studies should be conducted which explore how the hegemonic masculinities are affected in the context of child maintenance and investigate how men feel when they experience challenges as fathers documenting their experiences regarding the various health problems, they have developed. There is a need to study gender differences in the context of family change and mental health in South Africa considering an increase in mental health problems and the changing nature of the family. The study findings show that depressive symptoms are concentrated more among young men than the elderly. Further research can be done that focus on male adolescents’ mental health.
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    The use of self-service technologies (interactive screens) in enhancing the shopping experience in selected South African shopping malls: a consumer/shopper perspective
    (2023-07) Uta, Lloyd
    With the South African consumer market continuously evolving, it is imperative for shopping-mall owners to create more innovative shopping ways to satisfy the needs of the 21st century South African consumers. One of the innovative ways is to provide the use of self-service technologies (SSTs), which reportedly provides consumers positive cognitive, affective, and sensory customer experience benefits. Using SSTs in banks, shopping malls, hotels and other business environments have become a trend as customers do not only enjoy fresh and actionable experiences, they also get service quality, efficiency and entertainment that can be better and consistent than the human services. Despite these benefits, emerging markets such as India and South Africa respectively are slow to adopt SSTs, especially in the shopping mall environment. This study integrated relevant elements of technology acceptance model, diffusion of innovation theory, theory of planned behaviour and the flow theory to examine SST site factors (i.e., user interface, aesthetics and authenticity), the technology-related factors (i.e., relative advantage, complexity, perceived ease of use[PEOU], perceived usefulness [PU]) and consumer factors (i.e., subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, enjoyment and concentration) driving attitudes and behavioural intentions to use SSTs at some selected shopping malls in Johannesburg. The mediating roles of PU, PEOU and attitudes were also tested. Based on proximity to the researcher’s resident and malls similarities in size, ranking, and social class (i.e., middle and higher income) and socio-economic profiles of shoppers, the researcher selected three contemporary shopping malls which have been identified as super regional centres. These malls were Mall of Africa, Rosebank and Sandton City malls. Additionally, the malls have installed SSTs like information kiosks or interactive screens. A quantitative research study was conducted with data collected successfully from 260 respondents and analysed using structural equation modelling with Smart PLS. Sobel’s test was used to test mediation. Findings revealed that user-interface and aesthetics and authenticity positively impacted PU and PEOU. The PU and PEOU with relative advantage drove attitudes to adopt SSTs, which with perceived control, subjective norm and enjoyment were positive and significant drivers of behavioural intention to use SSTs. The mediating effects of PU, PEOU and attitudes were significant. Managerially, drivers of shoppers’ attitudes and intentions to adopt SSTS are exposed. Theoretically, the study’s integrated model enriches the explanation of the acceptance of a technology, that is SST, especially in emerging market and multicultural context.
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    Wartime Rape, Gender, and Militarism: The Bukavu People’s Conceptualisation of the Emergence of Wartime Rape in the 2004 Kivu Conflict in Contrast to the 1996 First Congo War
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03-15) Mushagalusa, Alice Karhikalembu; Stevens, Garth; Von Holdt, Karl
    For more than a decade, armed conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been characterised by widespread wartime rape against civilians. The purposeful utilisation of wartime rape as a weapon of war has owed to the country unflattering labels, such as the “rape capital of the world, the worst place to be a woman, or again the dark hole”. The armed unrest in the DRC is rooted in the Belgian colonisation’s land administration policies that shaped some groups as native (autochthones) while constructing others as foreigners. Following an anti-war feminist perspective, this PhD explores the Bukavu people’s conceptualisation of the emergence of wartime rape in the 2004 Kivu Conflict in contrast to the 1996 First Congo War. I used participatory research methods, as dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to collect the data through focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with ordinary community members, former military officers, members of the civil society and community leaders in Bukavu (South Kivu Province, eastern DRC). The collected data made it possible to firstly recognise the absence of wartime rape as a weapon of war in the 1996 First Congo War; and to show that wartime rape has not always been ubiquitous in the DRC but became a lexicon that the perpetrators utilised to place divergent claims related to their customary land, military, political power ambitions, gendered ethnic identity, and citizenship aspirations. Secondly, the data allowed for disaggregating wartime rape into three categories based on the perpetrators’ motivations and claims. The thesis maintains that the Hutu-dominated Interahamwe militia, also recognised as the main authors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, resorted to rape in the eastern DRC for revenge and to (re)masculinise their troops while feminising the Congolese state. Next, this study demonstrates that the Rally for Congolese Democracy rebels, which claimed the Tutsi Congolese ethnicity, strategically resorted to wartime rape to claim customary land rights and citizenship recognition. Following, this thesis puts forward that the Mai-Mai militia, seen as native, erpetrated wartime rape to claim military respect and recognition while furthering the political agendas of their patrons. I maintain that patriarchy – as the shared norm between the perpetrators, the state and the victims (women, girls, men and boys) – makes it possible for wartime rape to be utilised as a lexicon and a destructive weapon against the victims’ sexual subjectivities and the whole community’s symbolic order. Hence, this study articulates a three-fold argument. This thesis firstly argues that the 2004 wartime rape is rooted in the Belgian colonisation and its lingering effects on forms of ethnicity, gender, land distribution and recognition of political rights in the present. Next, this thesis argues that wartime rape is a strategic weapon perpetrators utilise for revenge and to claim military recognition. Lastly, this study argues that the extreme violence of rape as an act of war aims to destroy the victims’ subjectivities and their community’s symbolic order. As such, this thesis weaves together three levels of analysis and examines wartime rape as multi-dimensional violence that interlaces into one act of wartime rape: the historical dimension (centring on land), the broader strategic considerations, and the destruction of victims’ subjectivities and the community’s symbolic order. At the same time, the combination of these dimensions varies considerably between the Hutu-dominated Interahamwe militia, the Rally for Congolese Democracy rebels, and the Mai-Mai militias – that is, the context even in one province within DRC produces variations in motive and form.