M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / In the context of poverty, political turmoil and HIV/AIDS, it has become more difficult for parents to take care of their children accordingly. This problem is especially pronounced in Africa and contributes to the formation of child- and youth-headed households (CYHHs). The emergence of such households places children and youth at risk of vulnerability to exploitation, poverty and lack of access to education and resources. This means that these children and youth need to fend and provide for themselves. Given the dominant position of boys in African cultures, they may be in a better position to take care of and provide for their families. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe and understand the gendered experiences of 12- to 14-year-old African male learners living in CYHHs and, based on this, to suggest possible support interventions to assist them. A qualitative multiple case study design was used, where seven male learners from the Soweto area participated in the data collection process. These learners were identified through a non-profit organisation (NPO) in the Soweto area. The data collection process included the use of individual interviews, collages, and essays. These were analysed using qualitative content analysis methods, as stipulated by Zhang and Wildemuth (2009). The study is explorative in nature and, given the issues of gender being addressed, a social constructionist paradigm was used. The theoretical framework included the works of two prominent theorists in the field of developmental psychology – Erikson (1963, 1968) and Nsamenang (1992, 2005, 2006). Erikson provides valuable insights into the psychosocial experiences of adolescents, whereas Nsamenang explains the relevance of development in an African context. Their ideas were used to understand the findings in relation to the development of the participants.

This study examines the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and drunken driving behaviour among male students. Hegemonic masculinity is the most dominant form of masculinity and can be described as an ideological model of what is considered to be a 'real man' (Kimmel 2000:11). According to Wetherall (1996:323) hegemonic masculinity is essentially 'robocop'; tough, assertive, aggressive, all- conquering, cool and big. This research hypothesised that men who drink and drive are much more likely to display characteristics of hegemonic masculinity. Excessive drinking has always been synonymous with student culture and this research focuses on alcohol being viewed as a rite of passage for young male students into adulthood. Socialisation theories are used to explain how patterns of alcohol consumption among individuals are related to the socio-cultural context in which they live. These theories also explain how the ideals of hegemonic masculinity are acquired through the reproduction of norms, values and beliefs in a society or group of people. Thus this research project focuses on how alcohol consumption is considered part of the 'male domain' and due to this, men feel great pressure to drink in order to maintain their masculine identity. The research involved male students at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Quantitative methods were used in the form of a survey questionnaire. The survey provided statistical information about the incidence of drunken driving relating to masculinity discourse. The sample consisted of male student drivers who drank alcohol. Overall the sample consisted of young adult males with 215 male students participating in the survey with an average age of 22 years. The survey data was statistically analysed using a computer programme known as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The data was divided into two groups, namely, the responses of sober male drivers and the responses of drunk male drivers. The sober drivers served as the control group while the drunk drivers served as the experimental group. The responses from these two groups were used to conduct independent samples t-tests and chi-square tests in order to assess which group displayed more attributes of hegemonic masculinity and whether or not there was a difference. Student responses from the open-ended questions were included as direct quotes to highlight the findings in the related closed questions. The findings reveal that the male students who drink and drive were more likely to display characteristics of hegemonic masculinity than the sober male drivers. These characteristics included: risk-taking, recklessness, strength, control and independence. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The aim of this study was to explore African high school boys' articulations of masculinity, the meanings they give to their sexuality and risky sexual behaviours in the age of HIV/AIDS. The study focused on finding out what explanations boys offer for engaging in risky and unsafe sexual practices. The study used qualitative research in the form of focus group discussions and individual interviews. Seven African high school boys aged 16 turning 17 were the source of data. The findings show that some boys engage in unprotected sex, while others indicated that unprotected sex is risky. This study argues that the risky sexual behaviours that boys engage in are closely related to their constructions of masculinity. It also found that the meanings boys give to their sexuality are also influenced by external factors whereby they imitate what their peers do in order to gain acknowledgement from them and the society. Alcohol is a key factor promoting unsafe sexual practices, while social networks, such as Facebook and Mixit, are used by boys to share sex videos and pictures, thus exposing them to too much sex. With regards to implications, this study shows that the notion of being a real man is something that most boys want to achieve. Being a real man is tantamount to being courageous enough to engage in risky practices. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The current study examined whether there are sex-based differences in adolescents’ accuracy in perceiving and acceptance of parental socialisation values. Together with their parents, a total of 134 adolescents (aged 13 to 18) from private Christian schools in Johannesburg, South Africa participated in the study. After creating the measures of overall accuracy, overall acceptance, specific accuracy and specific acceptance, a series of mixed-design ANOVAs were conducted in order to evaluate the six research hypotheses. The results illustrated that there may be sex-based differences in adolescents’ accuracy in perceiving the importance that their mothers and fathers place on the value of power as a socialisation value. However, the overall results suggested that the focus on the effect of adolescent sex on adolescents’ accuracy in perceiving and acceptance of parental socialisation values was too narrow because various parent sex and adolescent sex interaction effects were found. Furthermore, there is no clear pattern indicating how sex influences adolescents’ accuracy in perceiving and acceptance of parental socialisation values, thus suggesting that the influence of sex is value-specific. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology: Research Consultation)

This study explores the perceptions of women who had migrated to Gqebera, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from Zimbabwe, in terms of their own identity. In-depth interviews were conducted, situated within a phenomenological paradigm with a feminist epistemological orientation, in order to describe the rich detail of a woman’s quotidian existence subsequent to the migratory experience. Findings suggest that women’s identities are constructed in relation to other people, both those who form their in-group and their out-group. The process of migration and difficulties associated with assimilation into the host community impacts on felt ethnicity, strengthening ties to the homeland and to fellow Zimbabweans. Identity is also impacted on by spatiality, or lived space, in terms of both memories of home and present space occupied. Migration incorporating even the post-migration period may well form an extended liminal experience for women.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo / The primary aim of this study is to examine gender stereotypes and their profound impact on the socialisation of females and males. Further, it analyses the extent to which these stereotypes inform the relations and interactions between males and females and their general deportment. Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga and The Joys of Motherhood (1994) by Buchi Emecheta are the selected primary fictional texts to be textually examined and analysed. The study focuses on women oppression, discrimination, misogyny, sexism, marginalisation and subjugation that flow from gender socialisation. Furthermore, gender socialisation cultivates in the male a macho sense of self-importance, privilege, entitlement, invincibility and substantive power. Lastly, the study seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge about the topical debate on women emancipation and gender equity transforming patriarchal societies.

Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Research on how children learn to behave in gendered ways has focused on a „top-down‟ process of socialisation which positions children as passive recipients of gender norms of the societies they inhabit. In contrast, this ethnographic study explores gender as constructed and experienced by children themselves with a specific focus on play as a means through which social identities are produced. This study focuses on children between the ages of six and ten and explores how they construct and experience being „boys‟ and being „girls‟ through play in a township primary school near Durban. This research is influenced by the emerging perspective in academic ways of thinking about childhood; identified by Prout and James (1997) as the „New Sociology of Childhood‟ (NSC). Departing from the traditional socialisation ways of thinking about children‟s social worlds from the perspectives of adults, the NSC views children as active agents in society whose social lives, behaviours and relationships are worthy of study in their own right. In this study, I engage with children‟s agency by adopting a critical child-centred methodological approach to explore symbolic meanings the young boys and girls in the study attach to play. In adopting this research approach, this study generates new understandings about ways in which South African boys and girls in the study construct and experience schooling and play. Findings raise various implications for ways of working with children, both in research and in education, in ways which engages with their own constructions of the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity through play. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie beskikbaar

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) February 2013 / This study examines the gendered histories of two black women who both narrated their personal testimonies in self-authored narrations for public consumption, and who both testified at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It situates the politics of subjectivity, memory and historical consciousness within the social constructivist and hermeneutical theoretical frameworks of Butler and Ricoeur respectively; and through a generative process, working with their TRC testimonies and subsequent oral interviews, it examines self-narrativity, subject formation and the formation of female selfhood in the formation of gendered historical consciousness

This research project is based on the key assumption that in order to slow the rate of HIV infections amongst young men (and women) it iscrucial to direct interventions towards changing the constructions of masculinity which put adolescents at risk of HIV infection. As such, this study investigates the constructions of masculinity and masculine identity positions that are evident within the narratives of a small group of young black, white and coloured male university students. The research participants were engaged in a limited number of individual, semi-structured interviews. This report draws attention to the fmdings that have arisen from an analysis of the initial two interviews, the first of which revolved around photographs taken by the participants in order to illustrate what it means to be a young man in contemporary South Africa. An important finding is that there are numerous commonalities as well as differences in the constructions of masculinity that exist amongst these young men. A sense of uncertainty and ambivalence regarding the nature of masculinity is also common. Situated with an emphasised masculinity, various risk-taking behaviours, such as the consumption of alcohol in large quantities, visible affluence, a compulsory heterosexuality, and strength, in diverse forms, are identified as common constructions of masculinity. All of these young men define their sense of masculinity through the adoption of subject positions in relation to and in opposition to young women and other young men. The male peer group is a particularly significant site for masculine identity construction. A further key finding is that a number of these young men are able to reject one or more hegemonic norms of masculinity, yet are apparently able to maintain a sense of masculine acceptability. This finding has direct implications for the design of future research as well as of interventions around HIV/AIDS. As such, this thesis draws attention to the range of strategies utilised by these young men to maintain an adequate sense of masculinity in the face of non-conformance to particular hegemonic norms. Although these young men identify predominantly with the dominant, hegemonic norms of masculinity, there are multiple, often contradictory, subject positions that they occupy in relation to these norms and standards. As a result, this study raises questions for those involvedin similar research as well as for those designing interventions in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This thesis provides a sociological understanding of how conventional knowledge of sexuality negates the identity formation of black gay men in contemporary South Africa. It investigates the coming out experiences of six black gay men in order to reveal the disjunctures between being black and being gay. The theoretical formation of disjuncture is pursued through examining a number of sociological, historical, psychoanalytical, and feminist approaches to identity, sexuality, and society; featuring specifically the theories of George Herbert Mead, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler. The chosen research paradigm is symbolic interactionism, postulating both „pragmatist‟ and „empiricist‟ trends that lead to both interactionist and structuralist forms of argumentation. The interactionist approach to sexuality is central to the deconstruction of sexual conventions. It involves conceptualising modern sexuality in the landscapes of African colonial history and the global gay and lesbian movement. The prescribed literature on homosexuality is thus reviewed in conjunction with the South African gay and lesbian struggle, so as to spawn themes and perspectives for conducting life story interviews. The use of the life story interview favours the participants‟ own view of the studied phenomenon, yet aims to depict the structural influence on homosexual identification. Following the qualitative research tradition, the data analysis is based on the interpretation of narratives. It illustrates interpersonal relationships and microscopic experiences that lead to the self-acceptance and self-actualisation of homosexuality. Within these processes, various disjunctures that exist between the cultural sanction of lifestyle and individual choice, between parents and children, between religious belief and personal desires, and between gender identity and sexual orientation are disclosed. The findings are associated with the historical transformation of masculinity in South Africa, sex role performance, and the heterosexualisation of desire. The solution to the proposed research problem is discussed through concepts of socialisation and gender conformity.