School of Human and Community Development (ETDs)
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Item Narratives of identity and belonging: place and the everyday practices of immigrant Muslim women living in Fordsburg, Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Bobat, Safiya; Bradbury, Jill; Vearey, JoThis study set out to explore the ways in which identity and a sense of belonging are negotiated across place, space and time, taking into consideration the transnational and socio- political realities of the global world in which we live. It was located in Fordsburg, affectionately known as ‘Foodsburg’, an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa that has a long, rich history of playing host to many different groups of people, particularly immigrant groups. This study asked the question: what are the experiences and understandings of Muslim, immigrant women living in Fordsburg on how their multiple identities and sense of belonging are negotiated across time and place in making sense of their lives through the everyday practices they engage in? Adopting a narrative methodological approach, multiple in-depth interviews, along with field notes and participant observations, were conducted with 10 participants who are all first-generation immigrant Muslim women from India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, currently living in Fordsburg. These narratives were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis and a narrative constructionist analysis. Food and food practices were used as a lens to access narratives which opened up exploration into the complexity of negotiating identity and belonging within micro-spaces of home, broader spaces of community, and within transnational spaces. This study found that food is deeply symbolic, it is personal and social, it is local and global, and allows for deep insights into identity negotiations at multiple levels across time and place. Through the sensuous materiality that eating, preparing and purchasing food evoked, participants’ narratives revealed how identity is re-negotiated through the articulation of what is felt to be ‘known’ due to its familiarity and what is experienced as ‘new’ or ‘different’ and is integrated and accommodated. Through this articulation, the familiar and the new are 4 evaluated and assessed, losses and gains are negotiated, and new ways of being emerge. Themes of sensuous materiality, mobility, safety and transnational families emerged and highlighted the ways in which the concepts of memory, nostalgia, temporality, space and place are all intertwined in negotiating identity and belonging. This study provides valuable insights into the ways immigrant Muslim women negotiate their multiple identities and sense of belonging, through narratives of sensory engagement with the spaces they inhabit, local and transnational relationships, and broader socio-political discourses. It brought into conversation key concepts related to identity and belonging and related to place and space, deepening our understanding of these concepts by applying them to the immigrant experience, with a particular focus on gendered aspects of migration as related to women. Identity and place/space are both conceptualised as constructs that are continually evolving, and are reconstructed and reconceptualised across spatial and temporal lines. The ways in which identity and place/space articulate in these reconstructions and renegotiations is a key conceptual contribution of this study What is evident is that while immigrant women may actively work to carve out spaces of belonging and cultivate a sense of home in places in South Africa, like Fordsburg, the dominant prevailing xenophobic discourse within South African society impacts them on every level of their engagement.Item The parents' lived experience of the pathway to identification and support provision of a child’s Learning Difficulty: Case studies(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Zikalala, Lucia; Mayisela, SimangeleThe democratically elected government of South Africa undertook reforms in the education sector to provide everyone with access to high-quality education and to align the system with global norms. The Department of Education (2001) has legislated policies, such as Education White Paper 6 (EWP6), which unequivocally states that all learners must have access to support and that learning barriers must be removed to reach their full potential. EWP6 states that bolstering the educational support system for students, instructors, schools, and the education system is one of the most important ways to lower learning difficulties. To implement EWP6, the Department of Basic Education has adopted the National Strategy for Screening, Identification, Assessment, and Support (SIAS) (Department of Education, 2001). Additionally, the SIAS policy offers tactics to educators so they can work cooperatively with parents and students to build inclusive systems. Although teachers are the driving force for inclusive education, they involve the parents as soon as they notice any learning difficulty. Furthermore, support structures like the School Based Support Team (SBST) and the District Based Support Teams (DBST) were formed to accomplish inclusive education. The study focused on the parents’ lived experiences of the pathway to identification and support provision of a child’s learning difficulty through case studies. The study adopted a qualitative research design with data collected through semi-structured telephonic interviews with eight high school parents from Soweto. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The ethical principles adhered to were informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, and non-maleficence. Cultural- historical Activity Theory was employed as a theoretical framework to understand the parents’ lived experiences of the pathway to identifying and supporting a child’s learning difficulty through case studies. The study findings suggest that even though it has been several years since the SIAS policy was developed, the South African education system still faces challenges with the implementation of the policy. The findings further indicated the need for educating the parents about inclusive education and the identification process. The parents had no clear understanding of the identification process and the support that should be provided to their children after they have been identified as having a learning difficulty. The parents experienced the identification process in primary and secondary schools differently.Item The experiences of COVID-19 related lockdown and social media usage among the youth in Vosloorus, Mfundo Park, Gauteng(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Lindokuhle Sibahle; Ndimande-Khoza, Nomhle; Langa, MaloseThis research sought to understand how the COVID-19 lockdown affected young people from the Vosloorus Township as well as their social media usage throughout the lockdown. The study targeted seven individuals, both male and female, through semi-structured interviews to gain rich data for this research. The research used a qualitative approach that allowed the researcher to adequately document these individuals’ life experiences in a naturalistic and interpretive way. Additionally, the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) which allowed the researcher to get an in-depth understanding of how the research participants understand or interpret their world, more especially how they describe their personal experiences. The findings have shown that young people from townships have suffered significantly from the impact of the pandemic. They experienced notable psychological distress at the hands of the military and police who were sent to maintain order in the townships during the lockdown. They were forced to adapt to a new way of life which included letting go of traditional burial rituals. The social distancing measures meant that the majority of the population could not express their final goodbyes to relatives who have passed on in order to control the rate of infection. Furthermore, the social recession had a more devastating impact on these young people as they naturally thrive under social interaction for their growth and developmental trajectory. The lack of social and/or physical interaction with peers affected not only their growth, but it also affected their academic performance. Social media became the only digital tool they relied on for any form of learning and communication with peers, relatives as well as educators. Although social media provided these young people with some form of connection to the outside world, it became an eminent threat to their overall welfare. The spread of fake news about the virus caused a lot of confusion, chaos, emotional and psychological stress among these young people.Item Making Home in Setswetla: A Narrative Exploration of ‘Belonging’ and ‘Home’ in a Contested Informal Settlement in Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Sebidi, Kgaugelo; Bradbury, JillThis study sought to explore biographical narratives of black women who reside in Setswetla, a contested informal settlement in Alexandra (Johannesburg), as an attempt to understand how their personal stories informed conceptualisations of ‘belonging’ and ‘home’. While literary interest in informal settlements is notable, there remained a vacuum in studies that narratively explored the lives lived within informal settlements, thus going beyond typical studies of livelihood within these settings. Through the qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry, the study attempted to better understand person-place relations through in-depth narrative interviews and photovoice. Through thematic narrative analysis, the study brings theoretical concepts to life through visual experiential narratives of participants' lives. From the findings, it was clear that the concepts of belonging, and home were complex, especially when explored within informal settlements. The study found that participants continued to experience structural violence through the deplorable and inhumane material conditions that they live in. Through participants’ narrations of social injustice, the study was able to capture visceral accounts of the antithetical nature of structural violence to belonging and feeling at home, both in a community sense and a citizenry sense. These narratives provided a powerful political critique as participants’ adverse living conditions were preventable and avoidable. More crucially, the study unearthed compelling counternarratives of agency and collective action through participants' endeavours to enforce their belonging and feeling at home amid harsh material conditions. Through their stories, the study captures human agency in action and counterattacks to structural violence. Although bonded by their struggles, even more powerful was how they were bonded by relationality, community, and resilience. The study also highlights how participants express their identities and form attachments to their homes through place-making, thus forming new meanings and relationships with place while enriching their biographical narratives. The study therefore provides a new perspective on informal settlements, and it enriches theory while simultaneously enriching our understanding of the lives lived within informal settlements.Item The Expressive Semantic Skills of Sesotho-Speaking Toddlers (28 and 30 months): A Comparison using the Sesotho Picture-Naming Vocabulary Task and the Preliminary Version of the Sesotho Communicative Development Inventory(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Naidoo, Kerchia; Moonsamy, Sharon; Southwood, Frenette; Mupawose,AnniahBackground: At present, there exists little to no standardised methods of assessing language- related skills which have been normed within the South African population. This makes it difficult for a Speech-Language Pathologist to accurately diagnose language or communication difficulties within this context, and has resulted in inappropriate interventions and the stigma of disability associated with a child with a language impairment. It is therefore imperative that Speech-Language Pathologists use assessment tools that are fit for purpose, i.e. culturally appropriate and linguistically relevant for the diverse child populations in South Africa. The intention for this research study is to assist the South African Communicative Development Inventory team in addressing the concerns of culturally and contextually inappropriate assessment methods. Aims: The key aim of this research study was to compare the results of a Basotho child’s expressive, semantic language skills using the caregiver-report Communicative Development Inventory and the picture-naming vocabulary task. The objectives were to: (i) describe the contextual background of Sesotho-speaking child participants which may have influenced their communication development; (ii) describe the child participants’ semantic communication abilities using the Sesotho Communicative Development Inventory; and (iii) describe the child participants’ expressive semantic abilities using the picture-naming vocabulary task. Method: This research study employed a mixed methods approach using multiple case studies. The case studies comprised of caregiver-child dyads. Both quantitative and qualitative paradigms were utilised to achieve the mixed methods approach. The non-probability, purposive sampling method assisted in selecting participants for this study. The data collection was conducted in a predominantly monolingual Sesotho-speaking population in Tweeling, Free State. A total sample size of 20 – 10 adult and 10 child participants – was chosen for this study. The adult participants were the adult caregivers of the child participants. The child participants were chosen between 28 and 30 months of age who are monolingual Sesotho speakers. Three data collection instruments were administered on the chosen participants: a family background questionnaire; a Sesotho picture-naming vocabulary task; and the Sesotho Communicative Development Inventory. The analysis of the assessment instruments used descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and semantic analysis. Results: A significant correlation was found between the Sesotho Communicative Development Inventory and the Sesotho picture-naming vocabulary task. The Communicative Development Inventory highlighted maternal-headed households and socioeconomic status as the major sociocultural factors impacting the child participants’ language development outside of the individual factors. Furthermore, the Communicative Development Inventory revealed that 70% of adult participants were more likely to report that their child would have language skills below the 50th percentile. However, the majority (60%) of child participants’ scores on the picture-naming vocabulary task were above the 50th percentile. Adult participants also noted that their child would perform higher in semantic categories related to verbs, food, adjectives, household items, and games and routines. However, the child participants scored higher in only two of the same categories reported by their adult caregivers: household items and games and routines. Conclusion/Implications: The research study found that the Communicative Development Inventory did in fact measure what it was intended for – the expressive language skills of the Sesotho child participant. The implications for this lay in the South African Communicative Development Inventory team’s mandate to validate inventories in all South African indigenous languages. These indigenous inventories can then be used to more accurately assess indigenous speakers’ language skills which can eventually lead to the collection and development of language normsItem The Experiences of Community Service Rehabilitation Professionals Who Managed Their Own Department in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Allsop, Julia; Masuku, K.Background: A compulsory community service year for all healthcare professionals, including rehabilitation healthcare professionals was introduced to address the challenges of access to healthcare especially in rural South African communities as a result of inequalities brought about by apartheid. Even though the focus of the community service year was for healthcare professionals to render clinical services under the supervision of a more experienced healthcare professional, this has changed over the years. Due to the lack of resources and funding and subsequently the shortage of healthcare professionals, community service rehabilitation professionals often find themselves placed in healthcare facilities without the supervision of a senior member of staff. Community service rehabilitation professionals therefore end up taking up the role of head of department without prior preparation or training. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of rehabilitation community service healthcare professionals who have managed their own department during their community service year. Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 rehabilitation healthcare professionals. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants. Interviews were conducted online via Zoom. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a framework analysis approach employing Faloy’s five elements of management. Findings: The following 16 themes demerged from data analysed from the semi structured interviews with participants: (i). Undergraduate training does not prepare students for managing a rehabilitation department; (ii). Insufficient handover from the previous community service therapist and not enough orientation at the beginning of the year; (iii). Create new documents that outline plans for their community service year; (iv). Duties expected of a community service rehabilitation professional, (iv- a) Clinical duties expected of a community service rehabilitation healthcare professional heading a department; (iv -b). Administrative duties expected of a community service rehabilitation professional heading a department; (v). Not having enough time for clinical and administrative duties; (vi). Co-ordinating with staff 3 members within the healthcare facility; (vii). Discovering outside resources to collaborate with to assist with managerial and clinical duties; (viii). Staff negative attitudes towards community service rehabilitation professional; (ix). Staff’s lack of knowledge of rehabilitation healthcare professions; (x). Meetings with other managers; (xi). Little to no feedback or verification structures in place, (xii). Creating a handover for the next community service therapist, (xiii) Ethical considerations, (xiii -a) Language barriers, (xiii-b) performing duties outside of scope of practice, (xiii -c) Lack of carryover of treatment due to lack of personnel (xiv) Safety, and (xv) Emotional toll on community service rehabilitation professionals Conclusion: Findings from the study suggest the need for different kinds of informal and formal support structures that are needed for rehabilitation community service practitioners who have no access to a supervisor during their community service year. This includes creating a better support network of professionals in the same district who can assist each other as well as better support from the healthcare professionals at the healthcare facility. Furthermore, the findings highlighted the need for continued professional development (CPD) courses that could be capacitate community service rehabilitation professionals who are heading a department by focus on providing both practical support and assistance with managerial duties. These implications will allow community service rehabilitation professionals to feel more supported and have greater confidence in their abilities as a clinician and a manager leading to better service given to patientsItem The experience of attempting to become a present father: Perspectives of absent Black South African fathers(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Matee, HopolangThis research investigates the experiences of Black South African fathers who have been absent from their children’s lives, who have attempted to or have reconnected with their children. It was focused on understanding what this process of reconnection entails, as well as the motivations, challenges, failures and successes these fathers experienced. The research was interested in what fathers regarded as a successful or unsuccessful reconnection according to their personal experiences. A qualitative, psychosocial approach for this study was chosen to allow for an exploration of both the social and personal psychological influences on this process of reconnection from the perspective of the seven fathers who participated in the study. These participants were recruited via social media and through purposive, snowball sampling. They were all between the ages of 30-45 years old, and all of them had previously been absent from their child/ren’s lives and had attempted to reconnect or had successfully reconnected with their child/ren. Two of the men had managed to successfully reconnect with their children, whilst the other five had tried and been unsuccessful. Hollway and Jefferson’s (2013) psychosocial approach using the Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) was used to guide the collection and analysis of data. Two semi- structured interviews that largely offered space for their narratives were conducted with each participant. The research showcased several factors that are important for research that were novel and were found to shape and influence their subjective experiences of this reconnection, such as socio-political factors, cultural influences, socio-economic factors and the intergenerational transmission of past relational patterns to their relationships with their children. This research documents the ways in which these factors intersect in this sample reconnection experiences. Experiences of both successful and unsuccessful reconnection with their children are discussed. Particular attention is given to the participants’ understandings of their fatherhood roles and how such understanding has been reconstructed within this reconnection process. Motivations for attempting to reconnect with their children are presented, alongside the meanings they made of unsuccessful attempts at reconnection. The findings suggest that a combination of both personal and contextual factors influence which fathers manage to form positive fatherhood identities and forge successful reconnections, and which do not.Item The experiences of COVID-19 related lockdown and social media usage among the youth in Vosloorus, Mfundo Park, Gauteng(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Lindokuhle Sibahle; Langa, MaloseThis research sought to understand how the COVID-19 lockdown affected young people from the Vosloorus Township as well as their social media usage throughout the lockdown. The study targeted seven individuals, both male and female, through semi-structured interviews to gain rich data for this research. The research used a qualitative approach that allowed the researcher to adequately document these individuals’ life experiences in a naturalistic and interpretive way. Additionally, the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) which allowed the researcher to get an in-depth understanding of how the research participants understand or interpret their world, more especially how they describe their personal experiences. The findings have shown that young people from townships have suffered significantly from the impact of the pandemic. They experienced notable psychological distress at the hands of the military and police who were sent to maintain order in the townships during the lockdown. They were forced to adapt to a new way of life which included letting go of traditional burial rituals. The social distancing measures meant that the majority of the population could not express their final goodbyes to relatives who have passed on in order to control the rate of infection. Furthermore, the social recession had a more devastating impact on these young people as they naturally thrive under social interaction for their growth and developmental trajectory. The lack of social and/or physical interaction with peers affected not only their growth, but it also affected their academic performance. Social media became the only digital tool they relied on for any form of learning and communication with peers, relatives as well as educators. Although social media provided these young people with some form of connection to the outside world, it became an eminent threat to their overall welfare. The spread of fake news about the virus caused a lot of confusion, chaos, emotional and psychological stress among these young people.Item Would You Drink It? An Exploratory Study Gauging the Public’s Perceptions and Attitudes on the Use of Reclaimed Wastewater in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Prins, Franciscus X.; Thatcher, Andrew; Etale, AnitaIncreasing population figures globally, and in South Africa, and other factors, such as climate change could result in countries and regions suffering severe water scarcity. Alternative water sources, such as wastewater reclamation, are available which could bridge the supply and demand gap. Historically consumers have been against the use of water from water reclamation plants. This study aimed to determine consumers’ attitudes and key trade-offs toward alternative water sources, and to inform policy-and decision-makers for improved future public engagement. This could potentially improve the support for, and success, of future water reclamation plants. With the use of traditional surveys consumers’ willingness to consider alternative water sources are often determined after having assumed that they have existing knowledge of often complex topics. In this study, a decision pathway design allowed for information provision within an adaptive online survey with a set of linked questions. This encouraged the deliberate construction of opinions and views. In this way, respondents’ choices were more likely to be based on correct information before being asked to provide their opinions. By selecting one pathway information was revealed about respondents’ trade-offs and reasoning processes. Quantitative data were collected, and various demographical variables and responses were explored. Respondents’ most preferred water alternatives were provided at two points (at the start and at the end of the survey). The data revealed that there were changes between respondents most preferred alternative at the start and end of the survey. Furthermore, under situations of severe water scarcity most South African consumers would be in support of direct reclamation, however, respondents’ level of trust in the government, and the associated level of affect, could play a determining factor in the future successful implementation and operationalisation of water reclamation plants.Item Sculpting physical form: Muscular gay men’s subjective engagement with their bodies and training(2020) Cameron, Clinton; Eagle, GillianThe gay male body is defined by society as well as the gay community and culture within that society. Yet it is also defined by the individual gay men that inhabit their bodies. This research study explores the perceptions muscular gay men have of their bodies and the bodies of other men, the training they engage in to achieve their bodies and how the socio-cultural contexts in which they operate influence them. Seven self-identified muscular gay men were interviewed with a semi-structured interview schedule. The transcribed interviews were then analysed by making use of computer-aided critical thematic analysis. The findings suggest that all of the participants agree on the ideal body being muscular, lean and athletic. Even though participants desired the ideal body for themselves, they did not apply the same standards when it came to the bodies of other men, particularly partners with obesity being the exception. Participants were also narcissistically invested in the hard work they had put into their own bodies which remained unquenched by a constant desire for self-improvement. They also feared losing the bodies they had worked for and found particular enjoyment and affirmation in the admiration others had for their bodies. Participants also found training to be either a pleasure or a chore. Interestingly, those that found it a pleasure were also more likely to find a sense of community at gym. Participants also located their bodies as a way to belong or defend themselves within hegemonic masculinity.