M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Ed. / Some parents from the rural areas of the Limpopo Province leave their families due to work absorption to the urban areas. This causes changes in the family in which children have to grow alone and this is likely to spawn many other social problems. The family forms part of the network of systems, which impact upon the development of the child as an individual. The relationship in which an individual finds himself/herself within a changed parent-absent family is part of the changed environment. Parent-absent children from the schools in the Limpopo Province and educators were identified as the target group from which the sample was drawn. The research was qualitative and the design descriptive, exploratory and contextual. The study comprised of two phases. Phase I involved the collection of data on the experiences and problems of the parent-absent early adolescent children. Data was collected through the use of individual interviews, focus group interviews, life histories, field notes and observation. This phase also focused upon the analysis and contextualisation of the findings. The findings were organised in accordance with two areas, namely home and school problems and experiences. Early adolescents’ home experiences and problems were reported under poverty, adult responsibilities and feelings. On the other hand, school experiences and problems were discussed under the following themes: academic achievements, educators’ attitudes, lack of school necessities, discipline and dropouts. Phase II was concerned about the development and description of an approach for the intervention to assist parent absent children to be able to deal with experiences and problems they experience at home and at schools. An interdisciplinary approach to children’s multidimensional problems was adopted. The Interdisciplinary Initiative Empowerment Programme Approach (IIEPA) an intervention provided by stakeholders as a collective was adopted. Interdisciplinary empowerment programme have been suggested in order to provide empowerment intervention to the parent-absents. / Prof. J. Pillay

D.Phil. (Career and Life Orientation) / The study focuses on how extended families are involved on the wellness of orphans at a primary school in Masvingo City in Zimbabwe. Through an ethnographic research design, the study aimed to establish the involvement of extended families and challenges they face in rendering support and care to orphans. This study draws an intensive ethnographic research interrogative approach through observations, interviews, researcher made test and document analysis in order to establish the challenges by orphans and extended families and how these challenges may impact on orphans wellness. By using an integrative lens the researcher was mainly trying to get a better perspective of looking at the four wellness dimensions of orphans in a much broader way. An integrative framework lens namely Ubuntu, Bronfenbrenner’s bio- ecological systems theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs were mainly used to try and get a broader/better perspective of how extended families are involved in caring for orphans. Five orphans, five extended family heads, one school guidance and counselling teacher, one Social Welfare officer and one Non-governmental officer where purposively selected. The main data gathering instruments were; two researcher-made Mathematics tests, a teacher made test, a questionnaire with open-ended questions, observations and interviews. Interviews with the school guidance and counselling teacher were also conducted to establish learners’ performance, class attendance as well as homework assistance rendered to learners by their parents or guardians. An analysis of attendance trends of learners using class teachers’ registers was done. Mathematics Test were also analysed to establish the intellectual wellness of orphans. Data was analysed manually through hand coding and categorizing of ideas, which eventually formed themes to this study. The findings revealed that extended families are encountering a lot of difficulties during their involvement in caring for orphans. Difficulties included provision of physical needs, accommodation, and assistance with academic work. Moreover, the caregivers were in their seventies and too old to provide quality care. Voices of extended family heads, wished that projects like Isheanopa (The Lord provides) initiated by one school to support orphans, be extended to other schools within the city in order to alleviate the burden experienced by extended family heads.

This study addressed the questions of whether parents can give effective phonological and phonics skills instruction to their own young children, who are at risk for reading difficulties, and whether any positive changes in child attitude and parent confidence occur as a result of the instruction. Early phonological and phonics skills instruction is known to be effective for children at-risk for reading difficulties, but is not always provided in schools. Two groups of families (experimental and "waiting list" control) used a home program (providing phonological and phonics skills instruction, and Paired Reading guidance) for two separate, daily, ten-minute activity and reading sessions, for ten weeks. The program also included a process to address reading motivation, whereby parents used the language of strategies of mediation based on Vygotsky's social learning theories. Significant Time by Group interaction effects were calculated for Word Attack and Phoneme Deletion (Initial Sound). Parent and child pre-test and post-test questionnaires explored changes in motivation and attitude to reading. There were significant positive changes in child attitude to reading, and parent perceptions of progress. Small but significant correlations were also found between parent perceptions and treatment integrity, and between treatment integrity and achievement outcomes. It was concluded that the study provides limited support for the idea that parents of grade 1 children at-risk for reading difficulties can give instruction effectively when given detailed information about all three aspects of early reading. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M. Ed. / The aim of the study was to identify factors that hinder collaboration between the school and the families and developing strategies to overcome those barriers. Perspectives on schoolfamily collaboration and theoretical framework were also discussed. A qualitative investigation was explored. It was approached using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. This model helps us to understand the complexity of the family as a system and how the individual child functions within the family and society. Data was obtained by means of individual and focus groups interviews with educators, parents and school management team at a school located at an informal settlement in South Africa. The study revealed that families, school management team and educators regard collaboration as vital for the learners’ academic success. The study also revealed barriers occurring at different levels, namely: the family, schools and community. Recommendations based on the findings were made: Develop involvement strategies that are appropriate to the school’s community setting for example informal settlements. Teacher training should equip educators with skills for initiating collaboration. Department of Education together with the school governing body should collaborate in empowering educators and parents.

To evaluate activities that effect better parent-teacher cooperation in relation to child development and welfare is the purpose of this study. The five types of activities about which information was desired included personal conferences, communication, parent-teacher association, visitation, and parental education.

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