This study was undertaken in order to determine how black teenage primigravidae in the Umlazi area of KwaZulu perceived their pregnancies. This was an exploratory study. An interview schedule was used to elicit information from the primigravida teenagers concerned. One hundred and sixteen primigravida teenagers were interviewed. The sampling frame stretched over 6 antenatal clinics at Umlazi. This study revealed that most primigravida teenagers stand in need of consideration from health professionals of the comprehensive health services. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / This thesis sets out to demonstrate the influences on the personality of a Black African Male Educator – specifically mine - as I enquire: ―Why do I do things the way I do?‖ and ―What has enabled me to meet, face and resolve the challenges that I have come across in life?‖ I have addressed these questions from a self-study perspective, using narrative enquiry, living theories methods and auto-ethnography. I have written this thesis aware that I lived the first thirty seven years of my life under the potentially personality deforming oppression of apartheid, and that I have conducted my study and written my thesis in the context of the HIV&AIDS pandemic. In creating my own ―living theory‖ philosophy, I look at my epistemology - How do I know what/that I know? - my ontology – Who am I? Who am I becoming? What do I believe? and my axiology – What do I value? In creating my own ―living theory‖ (Whitehead, 2008), I examine the influences which have informed my personality development and that of my research participants. The originality of the contribution of this thesis to the academy is to demonstrate the influence of one person‘s personal origin and naming, carers and family, childhood experiences and learning, sport and sport instructors on his personality development. In addition, the thesis highlights the usefulness of forms of knowledge - herding and induku - that have not been explicitly declared as useful and included formally in education. To this end, I demonstrate the connections that exist between, induku, herding, work, community involvement and education as influential in personality development. I use my personal beliefs and values – principally ubuntu and ukuhlonipha – and the Critical Cross Field Outcomes to demonstrate the relationship between these values and outcomes, my personal account and the development of my human personality. I look at the implications for education. I review the Republic of South Africa‘s National Curriculum Statement in Life Orientation Grades 10–12. I suggest ways in which the Beliefs and Values demonstrated and examined in this thesis, and Critical Cross Field Outcomes can be incorporated in Community Service Integrated Projects that can help learners to make their beliefs and values explicit in their learning, all to the end of influencing values-informed personal development. / National Research Foundation.

The market value of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) has fallen to only 2% of the overall market capitalisation of the JSE. Many BEE companies have disappeared from the exchange and there have been many failures.<br /> <br /> In the context of the report of the BEE Commission (BEE Com), it is essential to understand why these failures have occurred and it is essential to research methods of structure, capitalisation and listings to ensure that ownership of the economy is fairly distributed in future as per the recommendations of the BEE Comm. The motivation for this research project is based on the fact that as a member of the Historically Disadvantaged Group in this country, and after having qualified in the Faculty of Law with a commercial background, I would like to attempt to make a meaningful contribution to the transformation that should take place to facilitate equality of ownership of the economy.<br /> <br /> The proposed research is critically important as the recommendations of the Commission have to be implemented as a matter of urgency, given the current slow growth rate of the economy and given the fact that as many more new enterprises could be listed on the JSE, it would provide further access to jobs, thereby positively impacting on the unemployment situation thereby contributing to poverty relief.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ot Master of Arts in Industrial Social Work by course work, 1998 / This study explored the effects of perceived trade union social support on the work stress of blue collar workers. It was hypothesised that blue collar workers who obtain social support from their trade union would experience the least stress. This study is a comparative qualitative study. The sample involved 60 blue collar workers in a Telkom workshop. The role orientation questionnaire was used to test their stress levels and thereafter the trade union social support scale was used to test their levels of perceived trade union social support study revealed that blue collar workers are indeed exposed to stress, however, those that perceived the trade union as giving them social support, experienced the least stress. On the basis of the findings it is recommended that occupational social workers intervene on micro, meso and macro levels in order to help in alleviating the stress levels of blue collar workers. / AC2017

Master's degree in Research Psychology Research report, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016. / This study explored the stories of South African black female postgraduates, in particular, focusing on family dynamics in their childhoods and the role these relationships played in their academic development. South African higher education is a site of contestations as access opens up for students previously excluded from universities. However access and success continue to be racialized and gendered hence black women are unevenly represented in higher education particularly at postgraduate level. This study brings forth stories of women who have succeeded in this context, exploring questions of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1994).Thematic analysis highlights predominant themes across the narratives of these women. There is a very strong thread across the narratives that these women feel that their academic achievement is primarily due to hard work and a ‘natural’ or intrinsic intellectual talent that was recognised by their families and teachers from a young age. Despite the emphasis on individual aptitude, the findings also highlight participants’ recognition of the value of support from family in their schooling and even continuing into their lives as young adult postgraduate students. The nature of family dynamics in these women’s childhood and adult lives was revealed, including, the friendship that characterises daughter-mother relationships, the absence of fathers, and the role of grandmothers and other members of the extended family and community networks . It is worth noting that all participants talk of the sudden movement from public township schools to private or Model C schools that disrupts their narratives of schooling. The lack of reading in the childhood homes of some of these women contradicts the common assumption that a reading home environment is vital for the development of the appropriate cultural capital necessary for academic success. Instead, it is evident that these multigenerational families provide a range of support that allows learning to take place, including emotional and financial support, providing critical social capital. / GR2017

History of Art Masters of Art by Course Work and Research Report / No abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate contemporary conceptions of beauty and bodily modificatory behaviour of young, Black, South African women. In a society where a lot of emphasis has been placed on a woman’s physical appearance, it was important to determine how these young women feel about their bodily appearance and if whether this is influenced by their social milieu. Constructions of beauty are largely constructed around White womanhood, thus Black women might feel marginalised by the White majority’s Western beauty standards. Data for this research report was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with six female, Black South African, first year psychology students at the University of the Witwatersrand. The participants received a 1% incentive for their participation which contributed to their end of semester mark. The findings of the study show that conformity to Western standards of beauty has a negative bearing on the participants perceptions of how they feel about their bodies. The media has also become influential in changing perceptions of beauty within Black South African contemporary culture. Salient features of beauty, such as hair and skin colour seem to be embedded in the historical processes of oppression.

A Research Report to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Arts (Fine Art), 2016 / The core of the study for this MA examines expressions and understandings of human dignity/seriti, in the work of Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993), Nhlanhla Xaba (1960-2003), Zwelethu Mthethwa (b.1960) and in my own paintings. As such, the study probes, analyses and questions the intentions, writings on and readings of these artists’ work, as well as appropriate and build on their visual and representational languages. Underlying the research is the idea of black consciousness, and quest for an ideology of a more human and equal South Africa. The subject of my paintings evolves around seriti in Sofaya, an informal settlement in the northeast of Johannesburg, which is not located on official maps of the city. I set out this study with the argument, that all human beings retain seriti as a quality that bestows respectability and equality to them. The practical component is comprised of paintings in oil. The work tries to capture a personal and spiritual quality that I call seriti through explorations of colour, paint mark, and texture. I am curious about the concept of seriti as seen through everyday experiences. I am moved by the imaginative ability of both Sekoto and Xaba’s images that weave communal and socio-political narratives to portray, positively, people’s capacity to outlive harsh and conflicting living conditions. As a result of these influences, I employ dynamic brushwork, poetic colours, and expressive forms in an attempt to portray the realities, agency, and the place of Sofaya. / MT2017

Much of the research on career development of black secondary school learners (Hickson & White, 1989, Ntshangase, 1995) has been focused on black learners in relatively affluent black areas, particularly townships. The aim of this study was to investigate career development and exploration in a sample of black learners from an under-resourced school in Pietermaritzburg. They were generally of a low socio economic status. In order to assess the learners' career maturity, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used. The central aim of this research project was to undertake focus group discussions. In order to facilitate career development, the discussions were learner-driven. These discussions were run over five sessions and allowed for an investigation of contextual influences on career development. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected was conducted, in order to ascertain the effect of the focus group discussions on the learners' career maturity levels. The analysis showed a marked improvement in total career maturity scores of the experimental group as was measured by the Career Development Questionnaire. No significant changes were observed in the total maturity scores of the comparison group. Qualitative analysis of the discussions showed that. the learners gained a great deal from one another and together they discovered and shared career information and life skills. The results of this study showed the extent to which black learners from under-resourced areas are marginalized. They do not get the same exposure as their urban, suburban and township counterparts. The results further highlighted the plight of these learners whose contextual realities affect their career development. These findings have implications for policy makes at the level of the school, the government and community in order to reduce uncertainty and to promote career maturity in these learners. It is suggested that curriculum packages include grass-roots, community based programmes, that are sensitive to contextual realities which impact on the career development of rural black learners. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The study explored moral and ethical dilemmas experienced by Black nurses in a local community clinic. In particular, it examined the influences of the concept of self or personhood in nurses' ethical and moral decision-making. Influences of culture and family on morality were also investigated. Using the interview methodology developed by Gilligan (1982), nurses were asked to tell stories involving moral dilemmas in their work. Interviews were analysed using the voicecentred relational method. This method involves reading the interview narratives a number of times, each reading focusing on a particular aspect of a respondent's narrative. Results show that nurses often find themselves caught between two opposing moral and ethical viewpoints in their practices. On the one hand are hospital procedures, which are informed by universalist approaches to the person and the moral. From these are derived ethical principles emphasizing individual autonomy and choice. On the other hand, the majority of patients subscribe to a communal view . ofpersonhood. From this perspective, to be moral entails knowing one's position and responsibilities within family and community. Dilemmas arose from nurses' identification with patients' moral perspectives while realizing that this could lead to "unethical" conduct, (given , their training and current codes of ethics). It is recommended that moral and ethical deiiberations should dialogue with alternative, marginalised, viewpoints, in order to be culturally responsive. It is further recommended that ethics be conceptualised as a practical-moral engagement, rather than a detached application of knowledge. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.