Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37922
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Item Exploring Stigmas and Emotions of Transgender People Using Rasa Theory and Rasaboxes in Drama Therapy(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Keseni, Siphokuhle Cleopathra; Henriques, LeilaThe goal of this study is to explore the emotional experiences of people who identify as transgender. Through Performance Ethnography, I hope to create awareness about how transgender individuals feel and how their experiences are influenced by the stigmas surrounding them. Performance Ethnography is a qualitative data collection method that explores the various facets of performance. It involves combining multiple ethnographic techniques and theoretical frameworks from performance studies (Finesurrey, 2019). I will use semi-structured qualitative interviews, audio recordings, journal writing, observation and performance to collect data. In this performance, I will use the collected data to create the performance. I will be using rasa boxes to move from one emotion to another. The data will be created by Rasa in real-time, and the audience will be able to hear and inspect it as it is presented. My research participants will be transgender individuals aged 20-35 years old.Item Investigating the Emotional Dimension of Subject Advisers’ Work with Teachers(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Nwachukwu, Chioma; Steinberg, CarolaThis doctoral thesis investigates the emotional dimension of subject advisers’ work with teachers. The emotional aspect of subject advisers’ work is relatively under-researched. So, this study aims to find out how subject advisers in two differently performing Gauteng districts think and feel about their work with teachers. A conceptual framework was developed using Nussbaum’s (2003) understanding that emotions are always directed at an “object”, Turner’s (2014) understandings that emotions are a valued resource and are unequally distributed, and Frijda’s (1986) understanding that emotions are relevance signalling mechanisms. The conceptual framework also draws on Hochschild (1979; 1983), Zembylas (2002; 2006) and Steinberg (2008; 2014) to operationalize the concepts of emotional rules and emotional labour. The conceptual framework comprises of three concepts: emotions, emotional rules and emotional labour, utilized as a conceptual and analytical lens for analysing subject advisers’ work. The conceptual framework opens opportunities for further research into subject advisers’ emotions. Using a basic interpretive qualitative approach, the study focuses on nine subject advisers’ experiences of their work with teachers. Individual interviews and document reviews provided most of the data for this study. Key findings that arise from this study are that the subject advisers are frustrated at the inability to mediate their monitoring and support roles, which generates tensions that complicate the interaction between subject advisers and teachers. Additionally, the disempowering emotions of subject advisers is caused by lack of influence. Even so, the subject adviser-teacher relationship is complicated by competing power dynamics. However, subject advisers are committed to their jobs despite the challenges they encounter. Their emotional labour shows that subject advisers struggle to escape the negative impressions teachers have about them, while aiming to better support teachers. Their emotional rules show how they strive to fulfil their personal moral mandate of improving the education system. The key insight gained is that subject advisers’ relationship with teachers can be improved, if both teachers and subject advisers commit themselves to an open trusting relationship through proper teacher support. Real cooperation between teachers and subject advisers is possible if the work subject advisers do with teachers is premised on knowledge sharing, rather than on monitoring for compliance.