Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)
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Item An exploration of the Lived Mental Health Experiences of psychologists working in the public sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Harvey, Zena; Laher, SumayaThe COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted mental health in South Africa, exacerbating the existing mental healthcare treatment gap. Psychologists working at public institutions have been at the forefront of providing mental health care to the public during the crisis. However, psychologists themselves may be considered a vulnerable group at risk of developing adverse mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, burnout and vicarious traumatisation due to the nature of their profession. This vulnerability may have been further amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The well-being of psychologists is integral to ensuring high quality patient care and to the overall management of pandemic and other disease outbreaks. There remains a significant dearth in the available literature examining the lived mental health experiences of psychologists, especially those working in the public sector. This study aims to address this pertinent gap by investigating the lived mental health experiences of ten psychologists employed in South African public institutions, amidst COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews comprising sixteen questions were conducted with each psychologist. The following five overarching themes emerged from an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): ‘The personal effects of COVID-19 on psychologists’, ‘Changes to therapy During COVID-19’, ‘Experiences of COVID-19 exposure in public hospitals’, ‘Coping Mechanisms’ and ‘Survivor Guilt: Privilege during the pandemic’. A discussion of the abovementioned findings highlighted the importance of addressing, prioritising and monitoring the psychological wellbeing of these public sector-psychologists, during pandemic and other disease outbreaks to increase their support structures.Item Parental Perception of the Impact of COVID-19 on Children’s Psychosocial and Cognitive Development(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-05) Chopdat, Habeebah; Schutte, EnidCOVID-19 caused a myriad of global problems. This study aimed to establish whether the COVID-19 pandemic and the preventative measures that occurred as a result thereof had an impact on the cognitive and psychosocial development of 6–13-year-old learners in South Africa as per parental perception (N=31). A mixed methods research design was used, and the data collection occurred through an electronic survey consisting of specifically designed Likert scale items to collect numerical data, along with open-ended questions which were posed to collect qualitative data. The data was analysed by means of t-tests and a one-way ANOVA for the quantitative data analysis, whilst a thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The t-tests and one-way ANOVA showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the cognitive and psychosocial abilities of children across gender (p>0.05), school type (p> 0.05), and the amount of school missed (p> 0.05). Certain themes emerged through the qualitative analysis including both positive and negative themes relating to the learning situation during the lockdown; behavioural changes were also evident in some of the sample; however, others did not report any differences compared to pre-COVID-19. Additionally, children were reported to have worries and concerns over the pandemic as well as the effects thereof. This study contributes to understanding the long-term effects that the measures associated with a global pandemic have on children. As per this study, it appeared that children’s development amidst a pandemic was not impacted by their socioeconomic status however, due to certain limitations of this study, including the sample recruited not being an accurate representation of the socioeconomic divide in South Africa, further studies are required.Item Experiences of Youth in Agrarian Transformation in Rural South Africa: A Case of Greenplanet Primary Cooperative in Orange Farm(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-03) Chibonore, Wilma Claris; Kariuki, SamuelThis thesis advanced a qualitative approach to analyse the practices, structures and rationalities that inform youth engagement in agriculture drawing on evidence from Orange Farm in Gauteng Province of South Africa. The study takes off on the premise that there is low generational renewal in agriculture as the older and ageing generation makes the majority of active farmers yet farming holds great potential for creating youth employment whilst youth engagement in agriculture secures food of the future. The study finds that youth (dis)engagement and (dis)interest in farming is directly related to the availability and easy access to everyday support structures particularly those provided by the state and observes that many young people are in fact interested in farming but are currently operating in a structurally disabling environment amidst poor state support which does not allow for growth or access to key resources. The study finds that youth interest in farming exists although these interests are largely skewed towards technologically advanced farming systems and against backward manual farming systems therefore contradicting existing discourse as well as challenging the general narrative and consensus that youths are not interested in farming or that youth interest in farming is waning. The thesis reveals that young farmers understanding, interpretation and engagement with agricultural technology is based on their levels of exposure, location and access to resources. Poverty, structural limitations and marginalization experienced by the youth contribute significantly to their reception and perception of agriculture as a whole. The thesis argues for an agrarian developmental state approach towards the strengthening of agricultural opportunities and the relevant institutional structures and resources such as land, stipends, extension services, training, technology and market allocation to support youth farming in rural South Africa where the economies are generally stagnant and youth unemployment very high. This study observes that young people as active citizens and through utilising individual agency have the capacity to drive their own innovations within the agricultural sector when awarded the platform, opportunity and support to do so. The study reveals that the young farmers are ‘millennials’ who use their youth agency to engage in social networking facilitated by use of social media as a powerful tool for unity and resistance against unfavourable farming environments. Lastly, two contradictory perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 emerge in this study, one of COVID-19 having presented opportunities for growth and success for the young farmers and another of the pandemic having further marginalized and disrupted the already struggling young farmers with both narratives being shaped directly and indirectly by the pre-existing structural challenges. Methodologically, empirical data was mostly gathered through face to face semi-structured interviews, focus groups and conversations with the young farmers with the remainder of interviews having been conducted virtually via Skype, WhatsApp chats and WhatsApp calls upon the emergence of COVID-19 which converged with this study. Participant observation occurred through attending farmers meetings, agriculture tours, engaging in some farming activities on some sites as well as being part of the young farmers WhatsApp group. The thesis also relied on published journals, statistical reports, media reports, policy documents as well as videos from the public hearings regarding the amendment of the South African Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation in order to bolster the empirical findings.Item Experiences, Challenges and Coping Strategies of Educators in a Special School in a Township in Gauteng Province, During Covid-19(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Sibyeng, Puseletso Lydia; Watermeyer, Jennifer; Pretorius, EdmarieThe COVID-19 pandemic created fear and frustration, it introduced uncertainty into major aspects of society including schools. Within a short period, the pandemic brought major changes within the school's context. Face-to-face teaching was discontinued, and online teaching was introduced. This restriction was put in place to manage the spread of the virus. Educators found themselves working on a rotational schedule or providing services online as the pandemic instilled fear and anxiety among them. The study aims to explore educators' experiences in a special school in a township in Gauteng Province during COVID-19. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a phenomenological research design. A sample of 15 educators from the Special School in Soshanguve Block R township in Gauteng Province, South Africa was purposively sampled. An interview guide with open-ended questions was developed by the researcher and guided the collection of data during semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The study intended to gain an in-depth understanding of how educators managed to cope with the pandemic regardless of the impact and frustrations experienced, and how their well-being was affected by the pandemic. Findings revealed that COVID-19 affected educators personally and professionally. They were compelled to adjust and adopt new ways of teaching during COVID-19 so that they complied with the national lockdown restriction rules and regulations during the pandemic. Most of the educators shared similar experiences of teaching during those times. They had to resort to new ways of teaching which worked for them and their school so that learners continued learning, and they adopted healthy distractions, as a way of distracting themselves from all the news about the pandemic that spread on the television and on social media which mostly lead them to be depressed and instilled fear amongst them. Recommendations made were that an establishment of a post-pandemic support committee can be put in place, as educators needed to be supported and advised on how to move forward and recover from the pandemic, and necessary engagements with other stakeholders in offering intense therapy to educators who taught during the time of COVID-19 as the impact of the pandemic will be felt for years to come.Item Rethinking the “Idea of the University” Through Pandemic-Era Student Experiences(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-05) Caine, Amber Rose; Hornberger, JuliaThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the upheaval of “the university”, as we knew it, and a repositioning of higher education online. By mid-2022, third-year anthropology students at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) had experienced two years of online education, followed by a return to select in-person classes under the banner of “blended learning”. My research centred on in-depth interviews with fourteen students in order to grapple with, and learn from, this cohorts’ unique “university experience”. As the “Idea of the University”, conceptualised in academic texts, often contains lofty notions for an imagined future, I chose to retrospectively highlight “the university” as it was experienced, from early 2020 until mid-2022. Grounded in student narratives, I describe the pre-pandemic Liminal University; the Remote University as distance learning commenced and progressed; the Static University as education continued for a second year online; and the Interpersonal University as students returned to on-campus classes. I found that through destabilisation, the key elements that made an all-encompassing university education possible, came into focus – namely, campus infrastructure and student sociality. Despite the university’s dispersal of data and loan devices, students’ home environments could not mirror the layered infrastructure nor social connection that had shaped pre-pandemic university education. Yet, upon students’ return to the physical campus in 2022, small, in-person classes where discussion was facilitated led students to re-engage with their course material, educators, and each other. As such, I argue that the full university education, that students both desired and benefited from, requiresrobust on-campus infrastructure for living and learning, and facilitated in-person engagement.Item Predictors of COVID-related Risk and Resilience in South African Young Adults(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Benvenuti, Sabrina Lucia; Cockcroft, KateThe Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a lengthy and stressful event for people worldwide, placing increased strain on vulnerable populations. This prompts interest in the field of risk and resilience research. There are several apparent gaps in resilience research such as in the context of a pandemic, and in adult and non-western populations. This research report aimed to identify socio-demographic variables that predict risk and resilience outcomes in young, emerging South African adults, following the COVID-19 pandemic. This study fell into a post-positivist paradigm and used a quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, ex-post facto design. Descriptive, correlational and regression analyses were conducted to identify possible socio-demographic predictors of risk and resilience outcomes in this given population. Overall, the sample population exhibited low-moderate levels of depression, and on average displayed high levels of resilience, overall and across individual, relational and contextual resilience Several significant correlations and predictors, although weak, were identified for the outcome variables of depression (risk) and resilience (at individual, relational and contextual levels) including age, gender and education, pandemic-related and perceived stress, loneliness, parental involvement and warmth, childhood and community experiences. Depression was significantly predicted by gender, perceived stress, loneliness, satisfaction with life and parental involvement, where being female, having stronger feelings of loneliness, and dissatisfaction with life predicted higher levels of depression. Furthermore, parental involvement significantly predicted all five outcomes, where high parental involvement predicted low depression and high resilience across all levels. Perceived stress significantly predicted all but one outcome, namely relational resilience. High levels of perceived stress predicted high levels of depression and poor overall, individual, and contextual resilience. All three levels of resilience were significantly predicted by both parents’ level of education and parental involvement, where levels of maternal education predicted better resilience across all domains, while paternal education had the opposite effect. Identifying such predictors can help to better the knowledge base around risk and resilience in the South African, context and in low- and middle-income contexts. Furthermore, this allows for the targeted implementation of tools and interventions to address these outcomes, such as promoting parental involvement, the implementation of targeted stress-management tools, and more female-focused depression interventions.Item A pandemic shakes our pedagogy: Attempts to honour the integrity of a South African tertiary institution’s Applied Drama and Theatre curriculum in online learning platforms as a result of COVID-19(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Mokoena, Moratoa Trinity; Janse van Vuuren, PetroA pandemic shook our pedagogy. The arrival of COVID-19 changed the face of higher education in South Africa and in many parts of the world. As an Applied Drama and Theatre department whose work is predominantly embodied and experiential, we were faced with the question: How do we migrate our kind of work online and honour its fundamental objectives? A characteristic Applied Drama and Theatre practice is embedded in principles of participation and collaboration, reflection through praxis and immersion in social contexts. All of these are largely experienced with physically present bodies in a common space for the purposes of social transformation and education. Due to the pandemic, the effects of the digital divide were rapidly exposed and its limitations on access, connectivity and synchronicity delayed the progress of teaching and learning. Can we honour the integrity of the complete Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy online and remotely, especially when the digital divide impacts connection with students and the marginalised communities that the pedagogy is suited for? While we acknowledged that digitising our educational practices had become a progressive necessity, would online learning alone be sufficient for the teaching and learning of embodied curricula? Through ethnographic case study and as teaching assistant, I observed University of the Witwatersrand’s Drama for Life department and their Applied Drama and Theatre educators during their encounter of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown periods of 2020 and 2021. By use of interviews, field notes and documentation, this study inquired how we reacted to the pandemic and its anticipated implications on the pedagogy and the academic programme. Furthermore, I established the evident threats that online learning poses to the pedagogy and investigated the disconcerting effects of the digital divide on student access and content delivery. Central to the study is the exploration of these educators’ practical strategies and collective approaches in maintaining the integrity of the Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy. Through a journey of trial and error, the department and its educators were tasked to re-envision the pedagogy and negotiate appropriate multimodal online modes of delivery, in efforts to save the academic programme and achieve its pedagogical intentions. Even though the data and literature demonstrate the possibilities of migrating similar pedagogies online, remote learning has certainly compromised the practical and physical demands of a conventional Applied Drama and Theatre experience. Additionally, even though the theoretical components could be negotiated online, the findings highlighted that the pedagogical objectives as a whole were fragmented. Thus, in the case of the professionalisation of students and the provision of the full Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy – the educators’ efforts fell short. The pedagogy, though shaken, still stands. The study concludes that the pedagogy is highly dependent on uninterrupted physical presence and even if the digital divide is managed its integrity remains tainted without connection. The findings emphasise that we cannot do away with contact teaching post-pandemic and any idea of a pedagogical utopia requires a carefully negotiated balance of appropriately designed online and offline approaches. The discussions and findings in this study do not only impact the Applied Drama and Theatre fraternity, departments and practitioners alike, but also shed light on the available possibilities for other multidimensional pedagogies. Institutions are encouraged to take the full repertoire of the pedagogy into account when designing their Learning Management Systems, to provide adequate support for staff and student training and their digital affordances. Moreover, it is noteworthy to address the feasibility and equity of online learning within a particular South African context as a whole.Item Factors associated with Social Grant uptake In South Africa: A Closer Look at the Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant among the Youth Aged 18 – 35 Years(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Mabala, Moyahabo Thomas; De Wet-Billings, Nicole; Godongwana, MotlatsoBackground: Globally nearly 900 million people benefited from social assistance in 2017, most of them in the form of cash transfers, which accounts for 44% of the social assistance budget. During the same period, Sub-Saharan Africa was found to be far behind in terms of social assistance coverage, of those living in extreme poverty it is estimated that only 15% of them are receiving social assistance. In South Africa, with a population of 60 million people, it is estimated that 11.4 million of them received some sort of grant at the end of March 2021. When the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (SCSRDG) was introduced, it received over 9.5 million applications of which only 6.5 million were approved with the youth aged 18 – 34 accounting for 70% of the applicants. As a result of the high number of applicants for the SCSRDG, this study wanted to gain an understanding of the profiles of the applicants. Objective: To explore the demographic, socio-economic, and household factors associated with the uptake of the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (SCSRDG) among the youth aged 18 – 35 years in South Africa. Methodology: This study is a quantitative analysis of secondary data obtained from the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey 2020 wave 5. The survey interviewed 7074 youth aged between 18 – 35 years. The outcome variable of this study is the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (SCSRDG) receipt status. To assess the uptake of the grant, descriptive statistics including tables and graphs were used. The predictor variables consist of demographic, socioeconomic and household characteristics, with age as the main predictor variable. To check for the association between the outcome and predictor variables, binary logistic regression was utilised. Where the odd ratio < 1.00, meant that the outcome was less likely in the index group when compared to the reference. Results: Using the weighted data, a total of 3 438 046 applicants who applied for the grants received it while 3 003 320 of them did not receive the grant. Among those who received the grant, the majority 1 223 192 of them are aged between 21- 25 years. Most of the applicants were male representing 63.58%. African/Black is the highest population group that applied for the grant accounting for 90.66% of the applicants while whites account for the least proportion of the applicants at 0.88%. For both that received and did not receive the grant, the African/black population group is the highest when compared to other population groups at 92.93% and 88.07% respectively, while whites are the lowest at 1.31% and 0.40% respectively. Most of the applicants 91.47% were unemployed. A total of 4 994 322 (77.54%) of the applicants reported their dwelling type as formal and 4 891 137 (75.93) reported that they had access to both water and electricity in their household. Most applicants 39.98% come from a household with between 4 – 6 family members. Out of the 14 independent variables included in this study only two variables, marital status, and multiple grants recipients, were statistically significant. Females have a lower likelihood of receiving the grant when compared to males with an odd ratio of 0.6431 and 0.55637 using the unadjusted and adjusted binary regression model, respectively. Conclusion: This study has found that marital status and multiple grants recipients are the two characteristics that are associated with the uptake of the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant among youth aged 18 – 35 years in South Africa. It found that males as compared to females are more likely to receive the SRD grant, this is because of the initial qualifying criteria that excluded a high number of females that were already receiving the Child Support Grant. This criterion was later changed to say that an applicant of the SCSRDG must not be entitled to a social grant for himself or herself.