3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item "Not my boxes anyway": textual intersections of gendered, sexual and racial identities in post-aprtheid South Africa(2018) Pinheiro, Gabriela SofiaThe perpetual construction of black lesbian women’s identities with discourses of risk and pathology is problematic, reinforcing stereotypes that blackwash homophobia. Blackwashing discourse invisibilises the complexity, fluidity and plurality implicated in the construction and performance of identities. Further, risk paradigms conceal the agency and power that many black lesbian women demonstrate in their negotiation of post-apartheid spaces. The current study aimed to explore possible ways in which black lesbian women construct and perform their identities in post-apartheid South Africa. Activism performed by, and for, black lesbian women was focalised in the research, diverging from discourses of blackwashing homophobia. Underpinned by feminist, intersectionality theory, a pluralist methodological approach was implemented, combining performativity theories with Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. The data analysed was naturally-occurring, comprising online materials produced by black lesbian female activists. The findings of the study highlighted that black lesbian women in post-apartheid South Africa construct and perform multi-faceted identities. Moreover, discourses of violence featured minimally in participants’ constructions, compared to that which has been foregrounded previously. Instead, discourses of power, agency, activism and resilience emerged – attesting the intricate possibilities that exist at the intersections of gendered, sexual and racial identities in contemporary South Africa.Item Striving towards ‘perfection’?: investigating the consumption of self-help media texts by black South Africans in post-apartheid(2016) Rens, Simphiwe EmmanuelThis research project studies the consumption of ‘self-help’ media texts with respect to black South African audiences. The core objective of this project is to contribute to expanding debates on race, class, identity, and media consumption. Based on in-depth interviews with 10 avid self-help consumers, the paper develops an argument for the role of self-management in race and other social identities. The deployment of the qualitative methodology of a thematic discourse analysis of over seven hours of interview transcripts assists this paper in providing an account of where, when and how self-help media manifests in the lives of the chosen participants. The paper finds that participants are motivated to consume self-help media texts by a need to ‘know’ and ‘understand’ themselves and others in order for these participants to acquire what they express to be an atmosphere of inter-relational harmony. A growth of media texts forming part of a genre related to the practice of therapy in South Africa is owed to what I argue as a deep-rooted culture of ‘reconciliation’ and a preoccupation with emotions which stems from a particularly murky socio-political past still in a constant state of reparation (prevalent in discourses about reconciliation and forgiveness) in the democratic dispensation. As a key inspiration, the once-off yet pertinent process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa has noticeably inspired a genre which supplies its audience with an array of self-help, therapy-inspired media texts thriving on the practice of public confession and testimony (key principles of the TRC). This has paved the way for a culture of ‘treatment’ and ‘remedy’ becoming what this paper refers to as a ‘public affair’. Active participants on these self-help, often therapeutic, media texts on mass media platforms regularly do so at the expense of exposing deeply personal issues to ‘experts’ entrusted to assist with ‘healing’ what are deemed to be problem areas in people’s lives. Referred to by some of the interviewees as ‘brave hearts’, these participants (‘public confessors’) hold a complex position in the minds of the interviewed individuals who, ironically, express admiration and respect to the individuals who publicly testify and confess as they are a valued reference of ‘learning’ but at the same time, an expression of disappointment and shame is bestowed upon these ‘public confessors’ for allowing their argued exploitation by the media. Amidst all this, it is apparent that consumption of self-help media texts have particularly intricate influences on the patterns of self-identity as constructed by the participants of this research project.Item Either/or in black (an ethic from sorrow)(2016) Letswalo, Morokoe Gabriel"A reflective contemplation on the ordinary humanity of black South Africans under apartheid". [Quotation taken from p.4. No abstract provided]Item Identity juggling and judgments: ESL university students' linguistic identity experiences in their first year of study(2016) Ferraz Neves, TanyaThis research project explores the linguistic experiences and the effects of these on the identities of two first-year ESL university students. Using a sociolinguistic framework, it explores the links between language and identity. The data for this study comes from examination essays written based on a first-year Sociolinguistics module in the English I course in the Wits School of Education and interviews conducted with two students. The analysis of this data reveals how these students’ linguistic identities, structured by their different backgrounds, facilitate and constrain the ways in which they adapt to university life. Both students focused on in this research shift in their identities as they attempt to adapt to the increasing number of different fields they encounter at university. Linguistic identity shifts are also evident as they re-enter the old fields in the communities in which they grew up. The two students must work to negotiate these differing identities both within and outside of the university. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field, guide this discussion and help to illustrate how students struggle to negotiate their identity. This study shows that owing to a conflict of capital and the fact that habitus is deeply entrenched layers of linguistic dispositions, linguistic identity is difficult to shift. Despite the fact that the University of the Witwatersrand is a super-diverse environment, with students bringing different kinds of linguistic capital to the various fields within this environment, this research projectargues that students struggle to find a place for themselves within this variety. It shows that the participants seek out affinity groups within which they feel they have sufficient linguistic capital. However, within these groups there is jostling for a linguistic identity as, in the face of policing and linguistic prejudice, they struggle to assert their sense of self in relation to their developing linguistic identities. KEYWORDS: linguistic identity, Discourse, field, habitus, capital, policing, prejudice, investment, voice.Item Negotiating identities: experiences of rural migrant learners in an urban school in Johannesburg(2016) Wongo, NomathamsanqaDue to the contextual difference between rural schools and urban school, many rural learners have migrated to urban schools. The rural population movement in the urban contexts has resulted in an increased number of rural learners in urban schools and also contributed in the diversity of cultures, ethnicities and races in urban schools making it difficult for teachers to respond to every learner’s needs. This study hypothesises that rural learners are likely to face challenges in terms of inclusion and negotiating their identities in the new urban schools. This study describes the challenges faced by rural migrant learners in new urban school, and how these migrant learners construct their identities in the new urban context. The study focusses on one primary school in Johannesburg that has a large influx of rural learners over the years. Using the key concepts of social identity, social inclusion and social exclusion, this describes the lived experiences of migrated learners and how they negotiate their identities in a new urban context. Findings show that migrated learners face inclusive challenges both academically and socially and challenges in adapting to the new urban school environment. The factors that caused academic challenges were: language barrier, difficult subjects, and teachers’ intervention. Social challenges were, adapting to a new environment, interacting with other learners and learning a new culture of the school.Item Investigating identity experiences of Wits student teachers in Acornhoek rural schools, Mpumalanga province(2016-07-25) Kirumira, HassanThis is a qualitative research project that draws on Gee’s (2005) and Wenger’s (1999) conceptions on identity, to understand how teaching practice in rural Acornhoek schools of Bushbuckridge municipality (Mpumalanga province) impacted on the identity of student teachers. The study involved ten student teachers in their second and third year of Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) studies at Wits School of Education ((WSoE). The research adopted a case study approach. Data in this study was collected using semi structured interviews with student teachers before and during the teaching practice period and the researchers’ field notes. The most outstanding findings were that, student teachers negotiating their identity in the categories of IDL1, IDL2 and IDL3. IDL1 is when the identity of student teachers shifted as they carried out their teaching practice. IDL2 is when teaching in rural schools could not shift the identity of student teachers and IDL3 is when teaching practice resulted into student teachers compromising their identities. On the basis of these findings, recommendations were made. Student teachers should have a deeper and informed understanding of what to expect in rural schools in order to prepare them for the identity negotiations in rural schools contexts. In the findings it was established that if teacher training institutions prepare student teachers with view of teaching in rural schools, it would minimize identity challenges by student teachers in the rural schools teaching practice because they will have prior knowledge about teaching in rural schools.Item The metaphysics of individuation(2015-02-06) Human, LeonItem A case study of a young deaf man's identity construction in a hearing family.(2014-07-22) Setai, ShoeshoeThis research report investigates the experience of identity construction of a young Deaf man born into a hearing family in the township of Bluegumbosch, QwaQwa in the Free State Province of South Africa. Through the science of ethnography and an intensive study of a single family unit, focus is given to personal narratives in understanding the impact a Deaf young man has on his hearing family members operating within wider socio-political frameworks. This research report aims to bridge the gap in the paucity of family-oriented research in a Black township community, and with providing South African mainstream society with an understanding of Deaf children and the manner in which they contemporarily construct their identity, alongside the use and acknowledgement that SASL is a natural and complete language.Item Exploring the meanings attached to the sexual identity of Black women-loving-women (WLW) in Soweto.(2014-01-09) Pakade, NomancotshoWomen’s bodies and sexualities across history and race have been subjected to policing by the state, society and men. However, within the context of Black sexuality, black women’s bodies have been subject to silencing during the colonial encounter.This exploratory study set to document the subjective meanings associated with the Black WLW sexual identity of 50 women in Soweto. This study seeks to contribute to the recently emerging body of literature which has documented Black women’s same-sex sexualities as means to render their identities and experiences visible. Furthermore, to capture the terms used to describes samesex practicing women. The Q methodology was used to capture the various expressions along with their subjective representation. Two main distinct accounts emerged from the analysis. The Q analysis results indicated that there are two dominant forms of gender expressions and perceptions of what constitutes a Black WLW sexual identity in Soweto. Factor A distinguished itself through conceptualising this sexual identity in a ‘closed construction’ of attraction, with distinct gender roles. As such women in this factor identified with a sense of being domineering in the relationship, with potential partners expected to cook and clean. On the other hand, women who defined Factor B had a more inclusive construction of the Black WLW. These women placed emphasis on being comfortable with the bodies, particularly their breasts. Additionally, they valued the notion of equality in their relationships from sharing household chores to believing that sex should be about both partners pleasuring each other. The study also unpacked the meaning of self-identifying terms used by WLW in Soweto. In the absence of historically positive terms for same-sex sexualities, specifically indigenous terms, labelling becomes a site that does not prioritise meaning but reflects the negotiation of an oppressed sexual identity. What is in a name becomes a continuous struggle of reclaiming existence and visibility with oneself, the lesbian and gay community and the broader society.