Browsing by Author "Jordaan, Adriaan"

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    Financial literacy education training of frontline social workers in South Africa: need, content, and scope
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12 ) Jordaan, Adriaan; Engelbrecht, L. K.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poverty remains a key challenge in South Africa. Though social work is to be conducted from within a social developmental paradigm in South Africa, data elucidates that social workers continue to feel unprepared, unequipped, or irresponsible for assisting service users with challenges of a financial nature. As such, the study sought to explore the views of social workers and financial professionals on the need for-, content of-, and scope of financial literacy education training (FLET) of social workers as a means of striving towards more sustainable social developmental practice, and ultimately, poverty alleviation. A qualitative research approach was utilised in this study. Descriptive-, explorative-, and instrumental case study designs were applied, and purposive- and snowball sampling was utilised to recruit 25 participants from two cohorts. All participants were interviewed via semi-structured interviews conducted over Microsoft Teams. Thereafter, reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the collected data, which resulted in the generation of eight themes, associated with the study’s first three objectives, which pertains to the investigating views of social workers and financial professionals on the need for-, content of-, and scope of FLET of social workers in South Africa. Key conclusions drawn regarding the first objective are that service users continue to display a dire need for financial literacy, social workers remain largely financially illiterate, and debt continues to be a pervasive challenge. Conclusions pertaining to the second objective were found to point to the notion that the content of FLET of social workers would need to teach basics of personal financial management (PFM), most notably pertaining to budgeting, savings, debt and interest, alongside other non-financial themes that impact upon financial wellbeing such as social- and psychological factors. Finally, pertaining to objective three, conclusions were found to indicate that operational barriers may hinder the operationalisation of FLET of social workers, but that there may be ways of circumnavigating them. Various recommendations were presented as well. Most notably, they pertained to the earlier incorporation and exposure of social workers to FLET, a fierier approach when advocating for the importance of FLET of social workers, and the incorporation of financial literacy in conversations at a policy level.
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    The perceptions of social workers on the role of financial literacy education in facilitating social development
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) Jordaan, Adriaan; Engelbrecht, Lambert Karel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Social Work.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poverty is a rife socio-economic problem plaguing South Africa. As a point of departure, the study aimed to contextualise South African poverty against the global arena to elucidate the need for an increase in poverty alleviation initiatives.The study investigated the perceptions of social lworkers on the role of financial literacy education as a potential vehicle for poverty alleviation initiatives within South Africa’s social welfare paradigm, as studies conducted in countries with similar socio-economic circumstances have shown that financial literacy education can be effective as a vehicle aimed at poverty alleviation and social development.There has been a lack of local studies that have investigated financial literacy education and as such, the study was undertaken to grow the knowledge basis associated with themes of financial literacy education.The study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews with a main focus on open-and closed questions. Eighteen participants were utilised in the research process and the results indicated tha tfinancial literacy education was viewed as a powerful tool that could assist in poverty alleviation and social developmental initiatives. There was indicated that, in order for financial literacy education initiatives to be successful, multiple role-players would need to be involved in the process, and other challenges associated with poor socio-economic circumstances would need to be addressed in tandem with the stimulation of financial knowledge and skills.Finally, various recommendations are presented to social workers, social work organisations, and social work policy formulators based on the conclusions that were drawn.