4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions
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Item Are our Head Teachers okay? Decision-making processes during COVID-19 across South African independent schools(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Pahl, Julia; Evans, MaryThe COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the education sphere globally and in South Africa. The impact on pupils and teachers has been investigated. However, the impact on Head Teachers in schools, particularly independent schools in South Africa, has received less attention. Head Teachers within independent South African Schools are the decision makers, leaders, and influencers who were placed in a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic. These Head Teachers were asked to lead, make decisions, and positively influence and manage those under their care while the educational landscape shifted. This shifting educational landscape placed Head Teachers within independent schools under increased pressure and stress. This study aimed to understand the technological and financial access and contexts of Head Teachers at independent schools within South Africa and explore their decision-making processes and the impact of their decisions on their well-being. An online survey was sent to independent Head Teachers, and four in-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Head Teachers showed that their financial and technological contexts did not constrain their pandemic responses as the nature of their independent school allowed them to have access to adequate technological resources and alternative financial support sources. Key findings of this research were that Head Teachers were commonly influenced both positively and negatively by the complex communication networks and channels created and used during the pandemic and the complex decision-making drivers they had to navigate while leading during the pandemic. The decision drivers of well-being and shared moral purpose were more dominantly considered than the decision driver of National Government Directives, as Head Teachers had to consider their complex and multi-dimensional environments when deciding which decision driver was to be prioritized. Head Teachers had to navigate two main tensions: would they prioritize outcomes such as assessment and reports during the pandemic or would they prioritize awareness and well-being of staff and learners, and would they make their decisions from a compliance standpoint where full compliance was key or from a standpoint where complying as much as possible or enough for deniability was chosen. These results also associated increased communication networks during the pandemic with increased stress and burn-out levels and therefore a decreased well-being of Head Teachers, and increased numbers of Head Teachers leaving the profession. However, a positive outcome of the pandemic was that schools, staff, learners, and parents were forced to increase their device and/or internet access and technological skills to maintain education during the lockdown and the changing educational environment. When these results were studied across the geographical landscape of independent South African schools it was clear that the findings on access, well-being and decision-making were linked to the context of the Head Teacher and their school and not to their geographic location. Yet using complex, multi-faceted communication networks and the resultant stress was a country-wide experience and that National Government Directives was the country-wide main decision-driver for independent South African Head Teachers. Overall, this study identified six key lessons for education within any future South African pandemics: the need for clear and concise instructions within legislation, standard operating procedures need to consider access and context, blended education should become a norm in schools, consistency within education should be maintained throughout, personal boundaries should be maintained throughout and networking between leaders should be increased.Item The lived experiences of caregivers: psychological and social implications of caring for patients with Bipolar Disorder(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-05) Nicolau, Mikaela Diane; Kasese-Hara, MambweDue to the nature of the illness, bipolar disorder (BD) has detrimental effects on the diagnosed patients as well as their caregivers (Hajda et al., 2016). Vast amounts of research have been published on the impact and implications experienced by caregivers of mentally ill patients however, a majority of research assessing the psychological and socio-economic status of the caregivers has been quantitative in nature (Sharif et al., 2020). This study sought to understand the psychological and social implications of caring for a patient with BD, with a specific focus on caregivers in the Gauteng region. The middle-class was chosen as Ayalew et al. (2019) found that the higher the caregiver’s income, the fewer implications they experienced as a caregiver. A phenomenological framework was used to conduct this study. The qualitative method of data collection was face-to-face, in-depth interviews with six participants (two males, four females), who were selected using purposive sampling. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the data analysed by means of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. For the caregivers in the current study, managing the patient’s unpredictable behaviour and dealing with the varying symptoms of the disorder presented a challenge. They described the caregiving role as an emotional rollercoaster, signifying the chaotic, up-and-down nature of the disorder. Being a mother-caregiver led to shared experiences among the caregivers, with similar implications being expressed. Being a wife, however, presented significantly greater caregiver implications. The male caregivers have adapted to their roles better than the females. The theme of financial implications was interesting in this study, as these implications varied among the respondents. The researcher found it interesting that five of the participants spoke about neglecting their needs without any probing, yet they also acknowledged the importance of self-care and being aware of their mental state. The participants in this study expressed the need for support groups, which are lacking in the country. Whilst the findings of this study were in line with much published research, the researcher notes that there is a scarcity of literature covering some of the themes and subthemes presented, and therefore further research should be conducted.Item Understanding Anxiety, and its Implications for Teaching and Learning: A Perspective on Freud and Others(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Ally, Adila; Aloka, PeterThis dissertation is conceptual in nature rather than empirically-oriented and explores an understanding of learning and motivational theory in an attempt to study various formulations of the concept of anxiety, dating back to those presented by the foundational figure of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It is noted that Freud did not develop a single theory of anxiety- but at least three and arguably as many as eight over the lifetime of his career. Such hesitancy and uncertainty is not interpreted by this dissertation as indecision, rather it is read as uncertainty being a core element in the meta-modelling of anxiety itself. Refracted through Lacan -- who performs a reinterpretation of Freud in a way that produces a unique formulation of the concept that seems to invert Freud's own definition -- and through J. B. Watson, this dissertation develops a novel concept of anxiety as being mimetic in nature, relying Girard's concept of mimetic desire for this purpose. Moscovici's social representation theory, Latour's inter-objectivity, Bandura's triadic structure of observational learning, Foot's studies on Double-Effect problems, the Rashōmon Effect in the narrativisation of data and Seligman's learned helplessness are also used in developing the novel concept of mimetic anxiety. Thus after recognising four variants of anxiety -- a unified Freudian "object-loss" anxiety, Lacanian "overabundance" anxiety, Watsonian "commodity" anxiety and the novel concept of "mimetic anxiety" -- this dissertation proceeds to gauge interaction between these and the learning theories of Pavlov, Skinner, Piaget, Vygotsky and Gagné, and the motivational theories of expectancy value, achievement goal, and self-determination theory. In observing a case study of the flipped classroom model of teaching, Gagné and expectancy value seem to predict the emergence of Watsonian anxiety, the only variant of the four which allows for extinction of anxiety. However, the flipped classroom model, expectancy value motivation and Gagné's methodology together continue to address deeper challenges developed by mimetic anxiety and the synetic (not synthetic) demand placed on Girardian interdividual subjects by technology. Further use of the flipped classroom study is made to explore Freud's throwaway comment that economics might explain the concept of anxiety-as-signal, whereupon Hayek is found to introduce the concept of price-as-signal. This synchronicity forms the basis for considering Freud as necessarily heterogeneous and yielding of increased depth if paired with outside disciplines. In conclusion, the Flynn Effect is suggested as a significant driver of Freudian recession into insularity and from digitally mediated interaction, insinuating advocacy for the flipped classroom model.