Girls’ opportunity to attend and stay in school is a worldwide issue especially for secondary education predominantly experienced in Sub-Saharan Africa where poverty is particularly high. This issue is caused by gender inequality as most children who is not able to attend to school are female. This thesis investigates how the NGO Dandelion Africa attempts to tackle cultural obstacles for girls’ access to education in Kenya, where girls face a plethora of problems e.g. cultural norms. Through a qualitative case study comprising of online interviews with the staff, the data gathered presented the main initiatives that DA implement to improve girls’ access to education. The interviews are thematically analysed through combined theories; capability approach, cultural relativism, and feminist theory to examine the initiatives DA implements to provide girls with capabilities to gain access and completion of education defying cultural and societal norms e.g. preferences to boys, early pregnancy, menstrual stigma. The conclusion showed the need for all-inclusive development and education that teaches both children and parents about basic rights, gender equality and health.

The study seeks to explain how sustainable entrepreneurship occurs in a resource constrained setting. This is important as it improves our understanding of how entrepreneurs respond to adversity and develop opportunities that jointly address the social, environmental and economic dimensions of entrepreneurship. Previous research has discussed the antecedents, outcomes and contextual conditions that drive sustainable entrepreneurship. However, what is absent from this growing research body is knowledge of the mechanisms through which individuals engage in this type of entrepreneurship. The study seeks to answer the following research question: “How do individuals faced with resource constraints engage in sustainable entrepreneurship?” Using effectuation as a lens, a multi-method qualitative approach based on multiple case studies was adopted in this research and a mix of inductive and deductive analyses, also referred to as abductive analysis was employed. A sample of 5 sustainable enterprises were purposively selected in Uganda, located in sub-Saharan Africa. The results show that resource constraints compel the entrepreneurs to seek expertise and resources from others with mutual goals while controlling expenses. In the process the entrepreneur learns and adapts to the emergent opportunity. The entrepreneur’s actions are further influenced by passion that sustains the activity in the face of challenges. In this research, sustainable entrepreneurship is further explicated showing that the social, economic and environmental objectives exist in a state of shifting, supportive interaction of one another. The study clarifies our understanding of how entrepreneurs cope with inadequate resources. It explains the mechanisms through which individuals contending with resource constraints employ control as opposed to prediction strategies to exploit entrepreneurship opportunities. In this way the study contributes to the literature by proposing the fusion of cognitive and affective dimensions in realizing sustainable entrepreneurship goals. The study further suggests that the multiple objectives that typify the pursuits of sustainable entrepreneurs serve as supportive mechanisms and this puts into question arguments that these firms face comparatively larger challenges than those that singularly pursue economic objectives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

In 2018 the app TikTok was bought by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. Two years later the app had over 800 million users across the world, with over 100 million of them living in America. In 2020 a conflict emerged between America and China when the U.S. government started accusing the app of collecting American user data and sharing it with the Chinese Communist Party. The purpose of our study is to examine how the U.S. and China are framed in articles about TikTok in the American newspaper The New York Times and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. In our study we examine a total of 20 articles between the 1 August 2020 and the 1 October 2020. We chose 10 news- or debate articles from each newspaper to analyse.    Our study is implemented through a qualitative case study and a thematic analysis. The case in our study is the debate around TikTok, which is a small part of the larger conflict that has been going on between the U.S. and China for several years. Our study is based on two theories. The first theory we used in our study is the framing theory and the second theory is the othering theory which is derived from the post colonial theory.  Through examining the articles in our study we draw the conclusion that the U.S. is described as the “Self” whilst China is often described as the “Other”. This is framed by showing how the U.S. and its userdata needed to be protected from China and the Chinese government. Throughout our analysis of the newspapers, China is framed as an enemy and a threat to the U.S. national security. In turn the U.S. is framed by being on top of the hierarchy between the countries and as though against China.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the perceptions and experiences that instructors in higher education have toward providing collaborative learning activities and opportunities in their online classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, the experiences of four higher education instructors from two universities were collected concerning their provision of collaborative learning opportunities in their online classrooms. A multi-phase coding process was used to analyze the information, including the constant comparative coding method for theme and category development. Three themes emerged from the study: online communication approaches matter, there are challenges and supports for online collaborative learning, and care is at the core of online learner support. The findings are discussed and recommendations are provided for the development and design of meaningful online collaborative learning.

This qualitative case study describes the disparate experiences of how three siblings reacted and were affected by their father's suicide death. Specifically, through individual interviews, this study explores the siblings' individual memories, emotions, and perceptions of support connected with the time directly before and after their father's death. In addition, the researchers considered the long-term effects of their father's death by suicide as lived by the sibling survivors. In seeking to understand the siblings' experiences, this study also explores each sibling's reaction as they were presented with a group of children's picture books that were developed to help children express their emotions and are used by therapists who counsel with children bereaved by suicide. Findings suggested that, although the siblings shared the trauma of the father's suicide, each had different perceptions and experiences surrounding that trauma; they also reacted differently to the books presented to them. Implications for practice for teachers, parents, and school-based mental health practitioners (e.g., school psychologist and school counselors) are provided. These implications include the importance of knowing the specifics of each child's perceptions and providing supportive interventions that match the individual child's needs. Also, when selecting therapeutic books to share with a grieving child, consider presenting options and allowing the child to select a book. Also, be aware that a book that is preferred by one child, may not be preferred by another. Additionally, certain pictures included in children's books may trigger memories of the parent's suicide that could potentially further traumatize the child.

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Self-reported health is typically captured as a response to the question, “In general, would you rate your health as excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?” Among community-dwelling older adults (≥65 years), self-reported health decreases as the number of chronic conditions increases. Despite this well-documented relationship, little is known about how other sociodemographic or health-related factors may shape this relationship, what may predict high self-reported health among this population, or how older adults perceive these factors as influencing their perceptions of health. Informed by the Lifecourse Model of Multimorbidity Resilience, the objective of this multimethod research study was to advance understanding of self-reported health among community-dwelling older adults. To this end, four research studies were completed: 1) scoping review of the factors associated with self-reported health, 2) cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging to understand the relationship between multimorbidity and self-reported health and the factors that predict high self-reported health; 3) qualitative case study to explore the influence of individual, social, and environmental factors on self-reported health, including multimorbidity resilience, in community-dwelling older adults, and; 4) a multimethod study that brought together all findings in a matrix analysis. From this work, two meta-inferences were generated: 1) the factors that shape self-reported health are multidimensional and complex; and 2) adaptation to health adversity, resulting from experiences acquired over the lifecourse, shape how older adults perceive their health. Findings from this work advance three implications. First, there is a need to use and apply information gained by asking about self-reported health in clinical practice to inform care planning. Second, there is a need for whole person care to guide health and social care policy for older adults. Third, future health research must further explore longitudinal understanding of self-reported health as well as additional qualitative understanding of the differences of those older adults with the well-being paradox. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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