Unisa Press Journals (University of South Africa)
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Experiences of Child and Youth Care Workers in Managing Challenging Behaviours of Young People in Residential Care in South Africa
No full textManaging the behaviour of young people is one of the critical roles of child and youth care workers working in child and youth care centres. However, these child and youth care workers have been found to be facing numerous challenges in their line of work which make it difficult to effectively provide behavioural interventions to young people in their care. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of child and youth care workers when dealing with challenging behaviours of young people in residential care in eThekwini, South Africa. This study followed an exploratory research design that employed a qualitative research methodology. Three child and youth care centres were selected through purposive sampling from a population of such centres located in the eThekwini region in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results of thematic analysis indicate that child and youth care workers do experience difficulties in managing children’s challenging behaviour, viz. (1) experiences of working with young people; (2) insufficient supervision and support; (3) conflicts of behavioural intervention strategies; and (4) limited resources to support behavioural change in young people. Understanding these experiences is crucial for developing empowerment programmes (including strategies for countering the challenges) for child and youth care workers, which will ensure that young people receive comprehensive, optimal care. Support could include empowering child and youth care workers with skills and knowledge as well as the essential resources to effectively provide behavioural intervention for the young people in their care
Challenges Experienced by Youths Leaving Kinship Foster Care in Johannesburg, South Africa
No full textYoung people who leave kinship foster care in South Africa typically encounter greater difficulties transitioning to adulthood when compared to their peers who grow up with their biological parents. The aim of this study was to explore the challenges experienced by youths leaving kinship foster care in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. The study used a qualitative approach and exploratory, descriptive and contextual research designs. Twenty-three participants were selected by using purposive sampling. The researchers utilised semi-structured interviews as an in-depth data collection tool. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings demonstrated that although youths leaving kinship foster care had access to education, some were unable to finish their secondary education. In addition, the findings showed that poverty and job insecurity were some of the challenges experienced by youths leaving kinship foster care. Furthermore, the findings indicated that youths leaving kinship foster care required social support services such as educational and financial support. Thus, the study recommends developing initiatives to improve school completion rates for youths in kinship foster care; establishing financial support programmes; creating job placement services; offering comprehensive social support; and advocating for policy reforms to help these youths transition to adulthood and independent living
Exploring the Abilities-Cultivation Model for Students in Undergraduate Academies in China
No full textBased on the external impetus of social development and the internal demand for universities to return to the cultivation of abilities, modern universities are actively exploring the reform of the academy system, constructing high-quality ability-cultivation models, doing “addition” in the process of learning and living, and doing “subtraction” in the evaluation of the results of cultivation, achieving certain educational results. However, at the same time, the construction of academies is also facing difficulties in changing concepts, allocating quality resources, and the realistic dilemma of collaborative education between “academy” and “college”. The bottleneck of academy development should be addressed by actively exploring the school’s distinctive model, optimising top-level design, and enriching its spiritual culture. Facing the wave of reform in the academy system, universities should promote the localisation of the academy system in an orderly manner through deliberate thinking
Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Information Strategies for Adolescent Girls in African Cultural Communities in South Africa
No full textThe study used a mixed-methods research design to investigate appropriate information strategies for adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) in South Africa, with special reference to Barolong Boo Ratshidi people around Mahikeng, North-West Province. The socio-cultural factors examined included socio-cultural perceptions on adolescence, the adolescent girls’ appropriate knowledge and information spaces for SRH, and parental socio-cultural influence on adolescent utilisation of mainstream healthcare services. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods the study revealed rampant premarital sexual intercourse among adolescents, with exposure to several SRH risks; the link between socio-cultural factors and SRH was evidenced in society’s values, norms, and belief systems. Friends were the main confidantes for information on SRH. The findings imply that development and support for sexual and reproductive healthcare information strategies for adolescent girls in African cultural communities should take into account the influence of socio-cultural factors for effective access to appropriate SRH services. The recommendations included: developing appropriate programmes to enlighten parents, adolescents, and other community stakeholders; providing adolescents with accurate information on the dimensions of SRH, especially their interaction with socio-cultural factors; the need to harmonise SRH dimensions with socio-cultural factors in education, so that adolescents are not confused; empowering adolescent homes as primary socialisation agencies for positive SRH development among adolescents; developing comprehensive SRH strategies, involving medical, social, cultural, gendered and age-specific aspects
Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre - A Short Psychological Review of the Book
No full textNausea by Jean-Paul Sartre is a philosophical novel that explores daily life through the lens of existentialism. The story follows a broken man named Antoine Roquentin, a historian afraid of his existence living in a French seaport town, as he grapples with feelings of alienation and the meaninglessness of human existence
“One Does Not Do That to a Human Being”: Reading A Man of Good Hope (2015) as a Testimonio of Human Rights
No full textHuman rights are central to South Africa’s nationalist struggle and imaginings of a democratic dispensation. Amongst other institutions, the Human Rights Commission, the South African Constitution, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Freedom Charter have historically been tasked with enshrining human rights in processes, relationships and moralities defining South African democracy. However, over the years, conceptions of who is entitled to human rights and protection have continued to shift, especially in the wake of increasing numbers of migrants seeking different forms of refuge in South Africa. This article turns to literature as a site to encounter contemporary discourse on migrant human rights in the country. Using Jonny Steinberg’s biography A Man of Good Hope (2015), the article explores how the biography’s styling as a testimonio allows it to critically engage the question of human rights and (in)justice in relation to migrants. Focusing on the protagonist’s witnessing of migrants’ violated lives and themes of victimhood, suffering and dehumanisation, the article examines the ethics of human rights and justice in A Man of Good Hope
Analysing the Intersection between Law and Creative Writing: An Analysis of Petina Gappah’s Literary Writing Prose
No full textThis study is an analytical transposition of law and creative writing. The article starts by exposing how the intersection is experienced and positioned. The two fields are based on rhetoric. Rhetoric serves as the foundation for both forensic argument and creative writing, and the dynamic relationships between the two fields also leave many other traces, as we can see in the dramatic performances that connect judges and attorneys to actors, the performative effects of literary language, jurists’ and literary critics’ shared concerns with interpretation, demonstration, and proof, and the function of narrative schemas as templates. There are more similarities between legal scripts and creative writing than there are conflicts. Petina Gappah is someone who has managed well in the two fields, making her writings a marvel to both lay readers and those with a law background. The short stories and novels discussed in the article are embedded in the African culture and legal frameworks of reality. The short story “In the Matter between Goto and Goto” is a thought-provoking depiction of divorce in the Zimbabwean context. The story illustrates the conflicts between the customary and the legal face of marriage. The article picks and analyses three major themes emerging from this story, which are, culture and the law, the issue of gender and justice, and lastly, the limits of law in a legal system
The Epistemic Codification of Satiric Indictment and the Decrying Gender Grotesque in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s 491 Days and the Zimbabwean Maverick Movie Neria
No full textLanguage, law, and literatures have at times discernibly and theatrically attempted the development of satire in academic discourses. They have raised a poignant question on the articulation of gender in society. Critical discourses have valorised the epistemic exegesis on how language is transfigured and re-interpreted to spur the dramaturgy and trajectory of gender through autobiography, biography, fiction, and movies. This article crystallises the societal perception of how satire has been used to ridicule and make distinctions by invoking scorn and pity on both men and women in society. The article probes the sensitivity of contemporary male obsessions with phallic power under an apartheid government. It dovetails through the existing epistemic configurations exhibited to recuperate women in revoking the phallocentric codifications in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s epoch-making autobiography, 491 Days (1969). With the symbolic, ironic, iconic, and satiric prison number of “1322/69,” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s anti-apartheid autobiography re-invokes the male imperative devices built up for years against vulnerable Black females and weak Black males in the apartheid South African regime. Similarly, the same epistemic vein and codification are obsessively projected by possessed and aggressive phallic patriarchs in the Zimbabwean film Neria (1992). The article relies on the theory of Nawal El Saadawi, which proposes confrontation on the questions of female polarisation, women’s objectification, and the quest for resistance against legally recognised social exegesis. This includes the application of coercive force and the rejection of satiric linguistic indictments against women and the weak as exemplified in the autobiographic and filmic works from South Africa and Zimbabwe
You Are (Not) Your Brain: Incompatible Images of Human Beings in The Neurosciences
No full textOn an unprecedented scale, contemporary neuroscience confronts us with claims about our essential nature as human beings. These vary from you are your brain to you have no free will. Despite the prevalence of these claims in the neurosciences on the big questions about ourselves, contemporary neuroscience of consciousness does not speak with a unified voice. Although mainstream neuroscience of consciousness claims that you are your brain, a minority tradition argues you are not your brain but that you have a brain. The substance of these two traditions is presented in this article. An evaluation of the impact of the neurosciences on the big questions of being humans should as a first step appreciate the significance that the neurosciences do not automatically provide a solution to these age-old questions about human beings but display a spectrum of views
A Symbolic and Ritualistic Exposition of Purification Rites in the Old Testament
No full textThis article explores the intricate tapestry of symbolic and ritualistic elements interwoven in the purification rites of the Old Testament. Elucidating the ancient religious practises of the Israelites, this scholarly exposition unravels the profound significance and ethnological underpinnings of purification rituals as documented in sacred or biblical narratives. The Old Testament, a cornerstone of Judeo-Christian tradition, provides a rich repository of symbolic expressions and rituals designed to purify individuals and communities from impurities and sins. Through a meticulous scrutinisation of biblical references and historical context, this article unmasks the multifaceted interplay between symbolism and ritual in the Old Testament. To do this, symbolic and ritualistic theoretical frameworks are applied to the discourse. The findings and discussion show that the performative dimensions of purification rites highlight the importance of collective participation in spiritual purification, bolstering the communal responsibility for maintaining ritual purity. By navigating through the layers of symbolism and ritual, this scholarly discourse endeavours to offer a comprehensive understanding of how purification rituals serve as a profound expression of the Israelite religious philosophy, configuring their cultural identity and spiritual belief systems