Doctoral Degrees (Educational Psychology)

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 45
  • Item
    Educational and psychosocial experiences of women university students who became teenage mothers whilst at school
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Haufiku, Anneli Ndapandula; Carolissen, Ronelle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Namibian education policy, emphasising inclusion, has enabled teenage mothers to return to school after giving birth and to complete their schooling. Despite the inclusion policy, there seem to be few studies on teenage parents who completed their schooling and continued their education at university. This qualitative case study focuses on women who became pregnant while at school and who are now university students. It specifically explores the factors that assist women to remain in and complete high school, as well as the factors that assisted them to access university. Through this study, a deeper understanding was sought of what motivates women to succeed despite challenges attached to school pregnancy. This study draws on the integration of three theoretical strands at various levels, namely metatheory (Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory), individual and interpersonal theories (possible selves), and political and social levels (feminist theory), with a focus on Iris Marion Young's five faces of oppression. Based on the pre-established selection criteria, a sample of 12 university students who became pregnant while at school was chosen carefully. Individual semi-structured interviews with the aid of an interview guide were used to gather data. This study adopted a strengths-based approach rather than the deficit approach that is frequently used when researching marginalised groups, in this case, African women who have had teenage pregnancies. The study revealed that changing the policy had a positive impact on women's educational pathways. The NAMCOL programme – the university’s mature-age entry scheme, and NSFAF funding enabled the research participants to access university. Women’s self-motivation and the holistic systemic support they received strengthened their ability to remain in school and access university. The findings contest deficit approaches to teenage pregnancy, which frequently contend that African women who become pregnant while still in their adolescence are doomed to failure in terms of educational success. This is one of the few studies conducted outside of South Africa on young women's educational pathways after having teenage pregnancies in African contexts.
  • Item
    An analysis of critical thinking skills and democratic citizenship education in the South African higher education system and its implications for teaching and learning
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Pullen, Elton; Waghid, Yusef; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to determine the extent to which critical thinking (CT) skills are being developed in the accounting programmes accredited by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) at South African universities. The study is situated within the South African Higher Education (SAHE) accounting landscape, which in recent years (2013 to 2020) has suffered declining student success rates despite increased access to higher education. Specifically, the study aimed to evaluate whether a pedagogy aimed at cultivating democratic values of equality within the SAHE accounting landscape can enhance the development of critical thinking skills in students. Secondary research questions focused on the related meanings of CT and democratic citizenship education (DCE), as well as on how the concept of CT has been advanced (or not) in the SAHE policies, the SAICA competency framework and the pedagogical practices within the accounting programmes at SAICA-accredited universities (SAUs). In particular, the focus was on evaluating the extent of CT development within the pedagogical activities conducted by SAICA-accredited programmes. These pedagogical activities were evaluated along a continuum, where activities regarded as more indicative of critical thinking were regarded as more critical thinking (MCT), and those less indicative of critical thinking were regarded as less critical thinking (LCT). The research approach used was a conceptual-deconstructive analysis approach, with an overarching eclectic paradigm incorporating interpretivism’s broad philosophical perspectives, critical theory, and deconstruction. This research approach evaluated the pedagogical activities at accounting programmes accredited by SAICA as LCT overall. This evaluation of LCT was due mainly to the focus on assessment which mimics the SAICA Initial Test of Competence (ITC) exam. This exam essentially assesses ‘what the student does on their own’ instead of ‘what the student co-constructs with their teachers and/or peers’, with the latter being indicative of MCT. Furthermore, the analyses revealed a lack of learner-centred pedagogical practices, deliberative encounters in the classroom, and pedagogical expertise by accounting academics. In response to the above-mentioned findings, the study proposes Foucault’s notion of rupturing in the dominant mimicked SAICA ITC assessment practices reminiscent of assessment of learning and instead argues for assessment within learning as coined by Waghid and Davids (2017). Furthermore, the study argues for the adoption of problem-based learning (PBL) within the pedagogy instead of the current prevalent instructional modes of teaching at SAUs. Furthermore, the study suggests pedagogical training and the practice of critical reflection for chartered accountant (CA) academics who tend to enter the academe as technically skilled accounting experts rather than as pedagogically trained teachers. In general, the study urges CA academics to continuously critically reflect on how notions of DCE and CT can be fostered within the pedagogy without ignoring the technical competencies.
  • Item
    Deliberative democratic theory in relation to private general and further education and training
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Forster, Megan; Waghid, Yusef
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Quality equal education is not available to everyone in South Africa. Our country has a traumatic history that continues to have significant implications for the development and implementation of educational legislation. In addition, the perceived inadequacies of a contextualised approach to deliberative democratic engagement have resulted in poor policy development for private general and further education and training (GFET). This contributes to regulatory barriers that render it virtually impossible for private providers to contribute much needed resources where the state continues to fail. This dissertation, which is located within the discipline of education policy studies, provides a historical evaluation of education legislation enacted within the Southern African education sector. An evaluation of deliberative democratic engagement concerning private GFET required a critical educational theory approach. In addition, a qualitative evaluation of relevant literature, policies, regulations, Acts, and reports, was employed. The dissertation reviewed the theory that emerges from this literature in relation to a contextualisation of deliberative democracy for South Africa. This included a measure of critical realism required by deliberative democracy to acknowledge the historical injustices within the education sector. Unless we undertake this task, we may repeat aspects of past injustices. To begin with, the dissertation provides a historical overview of the successive sets of policy implementation that have negatively impacted upon the development of an equitable, quality, basic education system in South Africa. This overview provides an account of an education system that has a history of inequality, discrimination, neglect, and inferiority, that will take years to overcome. Two distinct historical periods that shaped our education sector are discussed. Firstly, the discussion includes a review of the colonial and apartheid eras. During this period education and religion were used to socially engineer a segregated, unequal society, based on race, gender and language. The dissertation argues that education was used as a tool for disenfranchisement. Secondly, the discussion provides a review of post-apartheid educational policies and legislation that continue to propagate the cycle of discrimination and inequality within the education sector. The dissertation then facilitates a critical engagement with the theory of deliberative democracy in relation to the pervasive problems with policy development and implementation in the private GFET sector in contemporary South Africa. Having conducted this critical conversation it is argued that to address the inadequacies in policy formation and implementation in contemporary GFET in South Africa, a contextually appropriate form of deliberative democracy is required that considers the complexity of our history and embraces the rich cultural diversity that makes South Africa unique. The dissertation presents the recommendations for a form of deliberative democracy that embraces the principles of ubuntu and encourages communities of care that are built on mutual trust. The recommendations include the need for a politics of reconciliation and unhindered communicative freedom for the achievement of liberty rights within the South African focus on communal identity. The study offers two unique and novel contributions to the field of educational policy studies. Firstly, it offers proposals for an amended approach to deliberative democracy for the South African context that focuses on the impact of policy studies in private GFET. Secondly, this study offers a thorough critical reflection on the ways in which policy development and implementation in the South African GFET sector were shaped and misshaped by political ideology and social actors (such as religious movements during the colonial era, politicians, political movements, and unions in the democratic era). This research adds a further necessary contribution towards research that seeks to understand the complexity of policy development and implementation within the private GFET. While it is not possible for a single dissertation to solve such a complex problem, it does offer some novel and unique insights that help us to understand the challenges we face, while offering some constructive proposals for how we can move forward.
  • Item
    Towards knower awareness in chemistry and chemistry education
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Blackie, Margaret A. L.; Wolff, Karin; Adendorff, Hanelie; Fataar, Aslam; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this work I develop the concept of knower awareness and argue for its significance in both the practice of chemistry and in chemistry education. Knower awareness requires making the person who holds the knowledge visible. This has been achieved using a theoretical foundation of critical realism. In critical realism the scientist is not a passive observer but an active agent in the practice of chemistry. A conception of the practice of chemistry as the interplay of the physical world at the molecular level, the conceptual world and the community of chemists has been derived from critical realism. The key insight here, is that the community of chemists are profoundly important in shaping the field of chemistry and how it is practiced. It is on this basis that the notion of ‘knower awareness’ is developed. This foundation is explored in three ways. Firstly, the appropriate situating of the objectivity of scientific knowledge in the realm of the real, means that the individual creativity of the researcher comes into view as a distinct asset. The necessary logical extension to this is the substantial advantage to the practice of chemistry that is afforded by diversity. Diversity in this sense is both diversity of training and diversity of identities. This has direct implications for teaching. A conception of teaching that remains as knowledge transfer as opposed to a dialogic process cannot be intellectually sustained. It also has implications for hiring practices in higher education. Secondly, this conception of the practice of chemistry allows a clarity of distinction between chemistry as science and chemistry as technology. When chemistry is practiced as a science, the conceptual world is the field of investigation and the physical world is taken as constant. When chemistry is practiced as a technology, the conceptual world is taken as constant and is used to effect change in the physical world. This insight may be the bait for the hook required for chemists to engage with this work. Thirdly, one example of the way in which knower blindness may be actively eroded is elaborated. The epistemic assessment framework is a tool which can be used by students to foster self-reflection and to make knowledge building in chemistry visible. Thus the student is encouraged to become an active agent in the process of their own learning. This is congruent with the agency of the scientist in the practice of chemistry.
  • Item
    Digitale tegnologie in die bevordering van vaardigheidsontwikkeling vir leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Botha, Zelda; Dreyer, Lorna M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Digital technology has become an integral part of everyday life and is increasingly being used to enhance access to and quality of education. In South Africa, the Education White Paper 7 provided an impetus for the Smart-classroom project in which the WCED has equipped special schools with various learning technologies. While there is ample literature on the use of technology in mainstream schools, very limited literature is available on the value of technology in special schools. The central theme of this thesis is therefore the use of digital technology for skills development of learners with severe intellectual disabilities. This study was conducted within the framework of the explanatory-sequential-mixed-method research design with socio-constructivism as the philosophical framework. Data were collected and analysed according to the explanatory-sequential-mixed method. Quantitative data (digital online questionnaire) and qualitative data (group interviews and semi-structured interviews) were collected separately. This data was set against the background of an extensive literature study. The school was purposively selected as one of the pilot schools in the Smart-classroom project of the WCED. The participants were purposively selected to represent teachers and therapists at special schools for learners with severe intellectual disabilities. Aligned with the research design, data analysis was done statistically as well as thematically. Findings were then integrated and thematically discussed. Triangulation was used to verify the reliability and validity of the research findings. Three themes emerged from the findings. The findings indicated that initially, some participants were hesitant to use technology for skills development for learners with severe intellectual disability. However, with regular use, training and support they became more confident. Findings indicate the positive value of digital technology in skills development for learners with severe intellectual disabilities. By mapping the findings from the data against the literature review, the researcher made several recommendations to promote and improve the use of digital technology in special schools with specific reference to learners with severe intellectual disability. In conclusion, as an outflow of this research, the researcher has identified a need and subsequently created an application (app) for developing the packaging skills required within protective (sheltered) labour market environments for learners with severe intellectual disability after completing their school career. This application will be available on the Google Play Store as well as other virtual platforms in the near future.