KovsieJournals - University of the Free State (UFS)
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Impact of school violence on learner participation in South African Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Study
Get PDFSchool violence plays a significant role in shaping a school’s culture and climate, which can have an impact on the participation and performance of learners in secondary education. In many instances, school violence can hinder the educational aspirations of learners. This paper investigates the impact of school violence on learners through the lenses of social justice theory and an interpretive paradigm. The sample of this qualitative research included three secondary schools in the Vhembe District in the Limpopo Province, South Africa, and are from advantaged and disadvantaged communities, representing a varied sample. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with 27 purposively selected teachers, including three principals, three heads of department, and 21 teachers. Data were analysed and interpreted using the constant comparative method of data analysis. The findings revealed corporal punishment, bullying, and sexual harassment as the major forms of violence perpetrated at the three schools. These are the direct result of the low socioeconomic status of parents, crime in the communities, and cultural and traditional beliefs of the community members. The study found that teachers spend most of their time solving challenges associated with various forms of school violence instead of focusing on teaching and learning. School violence also affects learners’ concentration, thus increasing poor academic performance, classroom chaos, bunking of classes and depression. The study suggests that the victims of any form of school violence are encouraged to report the perpetrators to the school teachers and principals immediately. In addition, the school must conduct awareness seminars and workshops on various forms of school violence. If not monitored, these causes and effects may contribute to the widening gap of unequal educational outcomes of learners in the country
Crossing boundaries: Beginner teachers transitioning from university graduates to full legitimate participants in the teaching profession
Get PDFThis paper stems from a broader study that foregrounded an existing mentoring programme against the backdrop of low teacher retention in the South African schooling system. It works from the premise that beginner teachers are exiting the teaching profession within the first three to five years of teaching. This research suggests that one way of addressing low teacher retention is through a formal mentoring programme that will assist in the transition from university graduates into school practitioners. Data was produced through semi-structured individual and group interviews with a principal, two mentors, and two mentees. Theoretically, we drew on the work of Lave & Wenger (1991) whose constructs of Community of Practice (CoP) and Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) were used as analytical tools to frame this study conceptually. The data revealed that beginner teachers come into the profession with marked inadequacies stemming from their initial training at universities which meant that they were insufficiently prepared for the realities of schooling. Furthermore, the data reveals multiple and overlapping CoPs in operation, pointing to viewing mentoring as multidimensional and not only in dyadic terms as a relationship between a mentor and mentee as it has traditionally been viewed
A collaborative approach among teachers to support the teaching of learners with visual impairment in the Foundation Phase
Get PDFIn this article, we explore how collaboration between Foundation Phase teachers could address and support the teaching of Foundation Phase learners with visual impairments (VI). By actively involving teachers in the research process, teachers contributed to changes that promoted the inclusion and success of FP learners with VI. This qualitative study implemented participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) as the research design of choice. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling, and the action learning set (ALS) comprised seven Foundation Phase teachers. Data generation entailed three cycles. Cycle One was relationship building, i.e. forming a shared vision for our study, negotiating an ethical agreement, and then determining the specific challenges Foundation Phase teachers have to face. During Cycle Two, we determined how we could address and support the educational needs of Foundation Phase learners with VI. During Cycle Three, we determined the strategies and guidelines that Foundation Phase teachers may use to enhance the teaching of learners with VI. Data generation encompassed ALS discussions, photovoice and reflective journal entries conducted throughout the three cycles. However, this article exclusively focuses on the ALS discussions. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis to design action plans collaboratively by means of which to assist Foundation Phase teachers working with learners with VI. The North-West University (NWU) and the Department of Education of the Western Cape (RSA) granted ethical clearance. The two themes derived from the findings highlighted the crucial importance of collaboration among parents, caregivers, teachers, and stakeholders in addressing the educational needs of FP learners affected by VI effectively, while also highlighting the importance of working together in designing strategies and guidelines for teaching FP learners with VI
Identity, diversity, and rhizomatic complexity
Get PDFThis paper addresses the vexing question of identity in relation to diversity and ‘rhizomatic complexity’ – a phrase that signals its Deleuzo-Guattarian orientation. It is argued that, far from being something that can be comprehended in unitary substantialist fashion (that is, as something unified and forever resistant to change), ‘identity’ can instead be articulated as a function of the constantly shifting relations and interrelations between and among the ‘processes’ comprising the ‘subject’. According to this rhizomatic conception, the subject – if indeed it can be called that – comprises an assemblage-in-becoming, whose contours change as it enters into open-ended processual relations of desiring-production. This simply means that Deleuze and Guattari, complexifying Lacan’s already complex subject (stretched between the ‘real’, the imaginary and the symbolic) even further, have theorised a non-substantialist version of it, which accommodates change as well as intermittent, albeit fleeting, stability. This allows for a subject that may be described as identity-in-flux, which means that identity is not cast in stone, but instead that the rhizomatic, open-ended structure of the assemblage subject accommodates reconfigurations of identity, with the caveat that such reconfigurations cannot instantiate a leap over the abyss of nothingness to a point that is rhizomatically untethered to the hitherto temporally evolved assemblage-subject. This conceptualisation of the subject has far-reaching implications for, among other things, cultural and social reorientation on the part of rhizomatic interrelationality of individual subjects. Moreover, it exposes social and cultural ‘diversity’ as being prey to a certain mode of postmodernism, which exacerbates flux and difference to the point where – unlike the poststructuralist models of Lacan and Deleuze/Guattari – it cannot account for difference while retaining a sense of (admittedly changeable) social ‘identity’ – something that undermines the political function of agency, as demonstrated in the conclusion of the paper
Sexual violence and harassment in South African schools: Findings from a media study
No full textThis qualitative media study, undertaken within an interpretative research paradigm, aims to expand our knowledge of sexual violence perpetrated against learners in South African public and private schools. Due to ethical, normative and methodological barriers surrounding research on sexual violence in schools, South African English language newspapers were used as data source. The SA Media database was utilised to identify 153 relevant newspaper articles published in the period of 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022. Themes were identified by means of qualitative content analysis. The findings shed light on the extent of sexual violence in schools, the acceptance and normalisation of teacheron- learner sexual violence, the exploitation of learners’ academic and athletic aspirations by teachers and coaches, and the imbalance of power and consequent abuse of power in a country where hegemonic masculinity prevails. Moreover, the study found teachers, coaches, caregivers, taxi drivers and fellow learners to be perpetrators of sexual violence. The study also highlights the negative effects of sexual violence on the victims’ academic, mental, physical and social wellbeing. Drawing on Galtung’s typology of violence, three dimensions of violence, namely personal or direct violence, indirect or structural and cultural violence were identified. This multidimensional interpretation emphasises the need to address this scourge on direct, structural and cultural levels
Functionaries’ ‘duty to act’: Ensuring teachers’ right to safety from violence in public schools
Get PDFThe safety of teachers has been researched in South Africa, but less is known about education law that regulates functionaries’ duty to act to ensure teachers’ right to safety from violence in public schools. Section 12(1)(c) of the Constitution of 1996 provides that “(1) [e]veryone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right ... (c) to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources” (RSA, 1996a). This study focused on teachers’ right to safety from violence when they are on duty in public schools. The study aimed to identify and discuss various South African laws that regulate the duty to act to protect teachers’ right to safety from violence in public schools and to investigate how these laws are applied in practice by asking three research questions. The study employed a qualitative research approach grounded in an interpretive paradigm, underpinned by a theory of social safety that recognises the importance of teachers feeling secure in their interactions with others. Qualitative data were collected employing document analysis of education law and previous empirical studies (secondary data from 2013 to 2023). The findings revealed that there is sufficient provision of education law in South Africa that regulates functionaries’ duty to act to protect teachers’ right to safety from violence in public schools. However, the challenge lies in the insufficient understanding and implementation of the provisions outlined in education laws. It is recommended that functionaries be trained on the duty to act to protect teachers’ right to safety from violence. The attainment of teachers’ safety from violence hinges on the understanding and application of the existing provisions within education law that governs the duty to act
Eviction orders from private land: A case for convenient deference
Get PDFBefore the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, imposed a new and equally important right not to be arbitrarily deprived, the relationship between those who have and those who do not have title to land was founded on a tradition that gave a private owner the unrestricted right to exclude all others through the rei vindicatio. The Constitutional era favours an approach that promotes balance between ownership and non-ownership interests at points where these interests intersect. Evidence of this shift in approach is most prominent in eviction cases. In addition tothe pre-constitutional requirement that evictions be authorised by a court of law, the implementation of the “just and equitable” measure increased the court’s involvement in evictions in South Africa. Key to this article are the three different forms of eviction orders that can be linked to the exercise of the “just and equitable” measure. First, instances in which the courts grant an eviction application and then suspend the order, enabling unlawful occupiers to continue living on the land/property, while the State seeks alternative land to resettle the occupiers. Secondly, instances in which a court grantsan eviction order but, for whatever reason, enforcement becomes impracticable, resulting in unlawful occupants remaining on private property that belongs to someone else. Thirdly, instances where a court denies an eviction application, enabling unlawful occupiers to indefinitely remain on land that belongs to someone else. This article explores the court’s approach to the modalities of remaining on land as a consequence of the third type of order. In particular, it investigates the court’s failure to address the legitimacy of this identified fact of remaining on land belonging to another against the plausible counterargument of the need for adherence to the separation-of-powers doctrine.
Congregational vitality – a perspective from Galatians
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to shed light on the development of “an ecclesiology from below” for our time from the Letter to the Galatians. For this purpose, Schoeman\u27s view of “an ecclesiology from below” is taken as point of departure, i.e., that it is “a theology lived and experienced in the faith community” (Schoeman 2020:102). To achieve this, the ecclesiology of the letter is scrutinised for aspects that might be relevant for faith communities in our time. The following aspects that might be relevant are identified and discussed: 1. God’s calling as the point of departure; 2. The centrality of the gospel; 3. The importance of “the hearing of faith”; 4. The role of ritual; and 5. The guidance of the Spirit
In medias res: the diminishing of historical continuity in modern thought
Get PDFInnovation and future predictions are discussed as the main goals of modern technology. Living in this empirical, modern world set on the future has the possibility of diminishing the value of historical continuity as observation and outcome-based theory take precedence over contemplation and tradition. It is proposed that the forgetfulness of modernity creates a stilted perception of time and thought which results in a dissonance between the perceiving subject and their surroundings. This is exacerbated by digital media as it mostly frames information as an attractive or trending source of amusement rather than as a possibility for edification. The result of this dissonance between the subject and their surroundings and the influence of digital media can be seen in the thoughtless or repetitive action and the abdication of action altogether in favour of escape from reality. This is problematised in as far constructive action for the well-being of the individual cannot be sustained in terms of the current engagement with digital technology.
Drawing on thinkers such as Connerton (1989, 2009), Davidson (2004), Habermas (1987, 1989), a discussion follows regarding how the diminishing historical continuity in thought can lead to the manipulation and a lack of rationality discussed in Horkheimer’s and Adorno’s culture industry thesis. To adopt the approach of continuity as embodied in the phrase in medias res(in the midst of things) in interpretation, rather than an observation assuming novel activity, may bring an alternative consideration for how modern technology (specifically the digital) can be used to assist the individual in taking contextual action rather than trying to escape action altogether while reframing the potential of digital technology towards a constructive, achievable standing rather than resigning it to a problematic system of distraction and degradation of thought.