This research concerns disciplinary practices within a school system in Lesotho. The school that has been researched is a girl’s high school in Maseru (the capital of Lesotho). The school belongs to the Anglican Church. I (the researcher) am a Mosotho man and an English and Religious Studies teacher in this school. For a while I have been concerned about the way punishment happens in the school, often leaving girls feeling shamed and powerless in the face of authority. I have also noticed that these disciplinary practices are losing their effectiveness, in that girls are showing resistance to the system. In other words corporal punishment, which has been the traditional form of discipline, is proving ineffective in today’s world. The researcher also considers this form of discipline abusive of power. It is in the light of this that I worked within this system, both with pupils, as well as teachers, to explore alternative practices that might work with pupils, that are respectful of all parties concerned. The research is a participative action research, using collaborative narrative practices in working with both students and staff at the school. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This research concerns disciplinary practices within a school system in Lesotho. The school that has been researched is a girl’s high school in Maseru (the capital of Lesotho). The school belongs to the Anglican Church. I (the researcher) am a Mosotho man and an English and Religious Studies teacher in this school. For a while I have been concerned about the way punishment happens in the school, often leaving girls feeling shamed and powerless in the face of authority. I have also noticed that these disciplinary practices are losing their effectiveness, in that girls are showing resistance to the system. In other words corporal punishment, which has been the traditional form of discipline, is proving ineffective in today’s world. The researcher also considers this form of discipline abusive of power. It is in the light of this that I worked within this system, both with pupils, as well as teachers, to explore alternative practices that might work with pupils, that are respectful of all parties concerned. The research is a participative action research, using collaborative narrative practices in working with both students and staff at the school. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This study explores the operations of Sesotho masculinity: its dominant ideas and practices and their effects on Basotho women and men and this latter‟s resistance to a gender-ethical consciousness gaining momentum in Lesotho. It challenges a deep running belief among the Basotho that being born male necessarily means being born into a superior social position and status that is naturally and divinely sanctioned. It investigates how the dominant postcolonial discourse called sekoele (a return to the traditions of the ancestors) and the Christian churches‟ discourses of the “true”/“authentic” Christian life, framed by the classical biblical and confessional dogmatic traditions, actually support and sustain this belief and so reinforce the imbalance of power in favour of men in the order of gender relations in Lesotho. On the contrary, through the principles of the contextual theologies of liberating praxis, social construction theory, a narrative approach to therapy, gender-ethical consciousness and participatory approach, the study argues that masculinity and ways of being and thinking about men are socially constructed through historical and cultural processes and practices. It is in these processes and practices that Basotho men have been and continue to be advantaged and privileged over women. This study has challenged this situation by tracing the existence of alternative, more ethical ways of being and thinking about men in those historical and cultural processes and practices; ways which are more open to women and children and their wellbeing in the everyday life interactions. In this way, the study argues for a gender-ethical consciousness, which, in particular, invites Basotho men to engage in a reflection on their participation in a culture and practices which oppress the other, especially women and children. It invites Basotho men to accountability and responsibility. In this sense a gender-ethical consciousness is understood as watershed of masculinity in Lesotho. The participation of a group of Basotho men who offered to reflect on their relationship with the dominant masculinities, demonstrates how Basotho men are struggling to transform yet they fill us with the hope that change is possible. / Humanities Social Sciences and Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

This study explores the operations of Sesotho masculinity: its dominant ideas and practices and their effects on Basotho women and men and this latter‟s resistance to a gender-ethical consciousness gaining momentum in Lesotho. It challenges a deep running belief among the Basotho that being born male necessarily means being born into a superior social position and status that is naturally and divinely sanctioned. It investigates how the dominant postcolonial discourse called sekoele (a return to the traditions of the ancestors) and the Christian churches‟ discourses of the “true”/“authentic” Christian life, framed by the classical biblical and confessional dogmatic traditions, actually support and sustain this belief and so reinforce the imbalance of power in favour of men in the order of gender relations in Lesotho. On the contrary, through the principles of the contextual theologies of liberating praxis, social construction theory, a narrative approach to therapy, gender-ethical consciousness and participatory approach, the study argues that masculinity and ways of being and thinking about men are socially constructed through historical and cultural processes and practices. It is in these processes and practices that Basotho men have been and continue to be advantaged and privileged over women. This study has challenged this situation by tracing the existence of alternative, more ethical ways of being and thinking about men in those historical and cultural processes and practices; ways which are more open to women and children and their wellbeing in the everyday life interactions. In this way, the study argues for a gender-ethical consciousness, which, in particular, invites Basotho men to engage in a reflection on their participation in a culture and practices which oppress the other, especially women and children. It invites Basotho men to accountability and responsibility. In this sense a gender-ethical consciousness is understood as watershed of masculinity in Lesotho. The participation of a group of Basotho men who offered to reflect on their relationship with the dominant masculinities, demonstrates how Basotho men are struggling to transform yet they fill us with the hope that change is possible. / Humanities Social Sciences and Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)