“Real men”, “Proper ladies” and mixing in-between : a qualitative study of social cohesion and discrimination in terms of race and gender within residences at Stellenbosch University
Date
2015-04
Authors
Robertson, Megan Aimee
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: My research is motivated by concerns with promoting „transformation‟ in Stellenbosch
University, a formerly white Afrikaans University which is still predominantly white in terms
of numbers and proportions of students attending the institution. While I argue about the
importance of taking measures to promote more „diverse‟ student populations, I am critical of
discourses which equate transformation with „improving‟ demographic profiles defined in
terms of numbers of black, white, coloured and Indian students. I argue that understandings
of transformation and diversity need to engage with the students‟ views and experiences of
the university in order to make meaningful change with regard to social cohesion and
integration, which goes beyond statistical change. My research does this by exploring how
students from particular residences, in Stellenbosch University, construct and experience
university and residence life and their own identifications. The students were interviewed in
friendship groups, selected by the students themselves, and a key concern of mine was to
facilitate conversations with them on broad themes relating to their reasons for coming to
Stellenbosch and their interests, aspirations, motivations, identifications and disidentifications
as particular students in particular residences in Stellenbosch. I was
particularly concerned to pick up on issues which the students raised in these „focus group
discussions‟ so that the students, themselves, played a key role in setting the agenda in the
discussion and they and their reflections on their experiences and constructions of themselves
and others became the topic of discussion. Rather than taking the group interview as an
„instrument‟ (as interviews, like questionnaires, are often described in methods texts in the
social sciences), I write about it as ethnographic encounter involving them and myself as
participants, and I explore insights about the nature of their friendships and relationships
derived from first-hand experience, of how they engage with their selected friends and with
me in the research group. Furthermore, by engaging with them as authorities about their lives
and identifications as particular kinds of students at Stellenbosch, and posing questions which
encouraged them to reflect on these. I argue that this kind of research can itself become a
model of good pedagogic and „transformative‟ practice.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie beskikbaar
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie beskikbaar
Description
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
Keywords
Transformation -- South Africa -- Stellenbosch, UCTD, Students -- South Africa -- Stellenbosch -- Attitudes, Stellenbosch University -- Students -- Attitudes, Race relations -- South Africa --- Stellenbosch, Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa -- Stellenbosch, Cultural pluralism -- South Africa -- Stellenbosch, Multicultural education -- South Africa -- Stellenbosch