D.Phil. (Political Science) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A research report submitted to the Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Masters of Arts in the Demography and Population Studies / Although life expectancy has increased in South Africa (RSA), compared with other middle-income countries, health status is poor most especially among the black majority. Coupled with this are the burdens of infectious and non-communicable diseases. RSA has also shown evidence of weak social cohesion through prevalent racial and gender discrimination, income inequalities, and violence. While previous studies on the health status of adults in RSA has only examined its association with other social determinants, the relationship of adult health status and social cohesion, unlike in developed countries, remains under researched in South Africa and other African countries. Using the collective efficacy theory by Sampson and colleagues (1997), this study adds the ‘African perspective’ to the ongoing debate about the health importance of social cohesion. It examined the relationship between social cohesion and the health status of adults in South Africa. The levels and patterns of health across social cohesion and other socio-demographic characteristics were also examined. DATA AND METHODS: Data was drawn from the 2012 South African Social Attitudes Survey, a survey implemented annually by the Human Sciences Research Council. Social cohesion was assessed by drawing from the five measurable items from the work of Sampson and colleagues (1997) which encompass trust, a sense of belonging, shared values and helpless in both cash and kind. These items were subjected to principal component factor analysis with Promax rotation. Cronbach’s alpha (α) for this scale is 0.84. Scores were divided into tertiles of low, medium and high social cohesion. A cumulative stepwise logistic regression model was fitted on a weighted sample of 22,605,550 adults in South Africa aged 18 years or older to examine the nexus between social cohesion and self-rated health status. Sub-group analysis examined if the observed relationship differed by race. The data was analysed using STATA software version 14. All model diagnostics showed that the model fits reasonably for the data. The interpretation of results was made using odds ratios (ORs), and a 95% confidence was used. RESULTS: More than half of adults (54%) in South Africa reported themselves to be in good health while only about 17% reported that they were in poor health. The percentage of adults reporting good health is higher among adults in the highest tertile of social cohesion (59%), compared to 53% among those in the lowest tertile. Controlling for other characteristics, regression analysis showed that adults in lowest tertile [OR:0.70, CI:0.516 - 0.965] and moderate tertile [OR:0.79, CI:0.589 - 1.055] of social cohesion were less likely to report moderate or good health compared to adults in the highest tertile of social cohesion, but the relationship was only statistically significant among adults in the lowest tertile of social cohesion. Sub-group analysis by race showed that among all the racial groups (excluding Indian or Asian adults), black African [OR:0.68, CI:0.472-0.989], coloured [OR:0.63, CI:0.305-1.309], and white [OR:0.67, CI:0.293 1.545] adults residing in the lowest tertile of social cohesion were less likely to be in moderate or good health compared to those in the highest tertile of social cohesion, but the relationship was only statistically significant among black Africans. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: The findings from this study demonstrate that social cohesion among adults in South Africa, particularly among black Africans, is important for improvement in health. It is therefore important that the government of South Africa intensifies efforts aimed at increasing social cohesion among adults, particularly among black Africans. This could be achieved through public awareness on the health importance of social cohesion and the need for neighbours to share similar values, trust one another and be willing to help. This is especially important if significant progress is to be made in achieving the sustainable development goals to improve the health of adults in the country by 2030. / XL2018

D.Phil. (Sport Science) / Socialisation is an interactive reciprocal process that shapes the way individuals think, act and make decisions. Through the sport socialisation process, over time individuals acquire beliefs and behaviours that affect other areas of their life, including education, family relations and peer interactions. Socialisation affects the lives of the participant’s significant others and socialising agents, who demonstrate changes in the way they view women’s football, interact with the player and assist with domestic duties. These processes occur in the public and private spheres and are closely associated with cultural perspectives of masculine and feminine gender identity construction. Four theories underpin the research, namely figurational theory, critical feminism, interactionism and cognitive development theory. This thesis examines the effects of female football participation in family dynamics, school and community relations, as well as individual identity formation and the challenges and benefits related to participation. For this comprehensive case study approach mixed methods were used (i.e. interviews, focus groups and questionnaires). The study focused on 21 cases of female football players in two South African locations, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Interviews were conducted with 21 players that played in leagues organised by the South African Football Association. In each location there was a senior team that played in the provincial leagues and an under-15 team that played in the regional leagues. Interviews were conducted with 48 significant others (individuals who influence the self-esteem, emotions and behaviour of a person, including mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents), four coaches, seven administrators, and eleven school representatives. Focus groups took place at four schools in each location in which 258 students participated. Questionnaires were conducted in the communities around each of the selected schools, incorporating the perspectives of 169 respondents. The data was analysed with the assistance of Atlas.ti 6.2 and SPSS 20. Football in South Africa occurs within a context of poverty with the legacy of apartheid remaining in terms of limited access to resources, poor provision of sports facilities, unemployment, fragmented families, and lack of educational opportunities. These factors continued to affect the prospects of sport participation. Understanding hegemonic masculinity as the dominant ideology in the townships provides a background to analyse how men control the limited physical resources and public sport spaces, requiring girls to gain access through a male proxy or gatekeeper. Once females acquire access they are able to gain acceptable and legitimacy through demonstrating their competencies and success in competitions. Socialisation through sport occurs as girls are occupied in safe, controlled spaces with adult supervision rather than become involved in deviant behaviours. In these settings female footballers acquired positive behaviours and improved attributes such as time management, discipline, respect and self-efficacy. Their participation resulted in a reduction of social distance between them and their teacher-coaches, which improved the learning climate fostering trusting relationships. As the girls were socialised into football, some adopted masculine behaviours and appearance. In some cases tomboy behaviour merged into homosexuality (lesbianism) with the rejection of feminine role identification of ‘mother’ and ‘wife’. The team in the Cape Town setting openly promoted heterosexuality compared to the team in Johannesburg, where coach and players were accepting and receptive towards players who expressed a variety of sexualities. This resulted in four individuals identifying as lesbian or bisexual within the research participants. The responses by their family members were complex and varied. Siblings encouraged the acceptability for other family members, whereas fathers were absent or oblivious and mothers were highly critical based on their religious and cultural traditions. Mothers experienced failure of not socialising their daughters into the social role that is perceived to encapsulate womanhood (as wife and mother). Perceptions regarding women’s football are changing in the public discourse to become more supportive. This is informed by a democratic South African consciousness and human justice framework that encourages greater acceptance of women’s roles in positions of power. Increased resource allocation through sponsorships and government programmes affords additional opportunities for female participation as well as encouragement for participants. Recommendations emerging from this thesis are useful to maintain the growth and support of women’s football. Structural adjustments are necessary within South African football in terms of increasing the amount of leagues and tournaments available for women and girls, leadership opportunities and long-term athlete development plans. Changes in practices that are vital to women’s football include equality of resource allocation, stakeholder engagement and media exposure. These changes require government and SAFA support to materialise, as well as continued alterations in individual, family and community attitudes, behaviours and practices. As women’s football in South African continues to grow and develop the opportunities for forthcoming research are plentiful. Utilising a mixed method comprehensive case study approach, becoming intimately involved in the research context, and providing opportunities for local voices to be heard can meaningfully inform future policies and practices.

This research project explored how young women involved in political organizations make sense of apartheid history and how they appropriate that history into their identities. Nine black women students who were involved in political organizations were interviewed from the University of Witswatersrand. The women that were chosen participated in a narrative style interview about their lives and the history of apartheid. The data were then analyzed using narrative thematic analysis and organised in the temporal zones of past, present and future. The analysis revealed the complexities of race, class and gender and how these are embodied, enacted and made sense of in the construction and reconstruction of the identities of these young women. In imagining and reflecting on the apartheid past, race was understood through both distant, public narratives and through personal and intimate family narratives. Gendered roles or positions were talked about in reference to three thematic symbols of women as nurturers, iconic wives and heroes. In progression from the apartheid past and its particular, separated and structured understanding of race and gender, the journey into the present and future, reflects increasingly complex, dynamic and multilayered understandings. In particular, the conflation of race and class under apartheid is beginning to fragment and these young women are thinking through their positionality in terms of personal class mobility and simultaneous identification as black and committed to the continuation of race struggles. It is also very clear that the question of gender equality is now very prominent for these young women as they navigate their roles in political leadership in the present and envisage themselves in the future.

The South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) Nursing College offers a four-year integrated nursing programme leading to registration as a professional nurse at the South African Nursing Council (SANC). Student nurses assume a dual role when entering the SAMHS to commence with nurse training – that of a soldier and a nurse. Because student nurses have to assume dual roles, hidden aspects of military culture may influence the professional socialisation of student nurses in one way or another. With a view to determining whether the military environment does indeed impose any influence on student nurses’ professional socialisation, this study set out to explore the multifaceted context in which these students find themselves. Given the organisational and locational complexity of the SAMHS Nursing College, its campuses and the three military hospitals in South Africa, the population was narrowed down to an accessible target population comprising nurse educators and student nurses of the SAMHS Nursing College (Main Campus). Included in the two samples were nurse educators at the SAMHS Nursing College who had at least three years’ experience as nurse educators and who were registered with the SANC as nurse educators, and student nurses registered at the SANC for the fouryear Integrated Nursing Programme and who were in their fourth year of training. A qualitative constructivist grounded theory study was conducted based on the researcher’s philosophical assumptions. The researcher made use of focus groups and critical-incident narratives to collect data. In keeping with the constructivist paradigm adopted for this study, Charmaz’s (2014) data-analysis approach was followed. Concepts derived from the qualitative data were used to develop a substantive model to create an awareness of the existence of a hidden curriculum, to guide role players through the impact of the hidden curriculum on students’ professional socialisation and to help them to understand how their contribution could improve the outcome of the professional socialisation process / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health studies)

M.A. (Social Work) / This dissertation centers on attachment. The focus is on four adolescent girls and how their attachment style is impacted by the experience of parental separation. A qualitative research process is applied by means of a two-part semi-structured interview. The first interview focuses more on the experience of the parental separation, and the second interview on the present social attachments of the adolescent girl. This study is informed by phenomenology as it analyses the adolescent experience of the parental separation by means of the change in the physical and emotional presence of her mother and father. It then explores her subjective experiences with and perception of her attachment to others. The study endeavours to reach a deeper understanding of how a break in the relationship with a parent as a consequence of a parental separation, even at the adolescent phase of development, can impact the adolescent's inner sense of security and in turn, other present social attachments. In light of the above, past literature together with attachment theory research on initial attachments with one's main care-givers is reviewed, looking at the development of a secure versus insecure attachment style. It is hoped that this dissertation serves to enrich the existing body of knowledge on attachment with regards to parental separation, and is of use to clinical professionals in the field.

When It comes to the basic perspectives on personal and social reality, it is commonly assumed that these perspectives are learned within the parent-child relafionship. As a result, the family has been typically accorded a place of primary importance the explanation of socialisation. But another influence has been lurking in the background- the mass media . Media influence upon ~hildren has generally been assumed to be significant, with powerful, long lasting consequences. However, traditional explanatory attempts have predominantly dealt with the effects of media violence on juvenile behaviour. The result has been a relative neglect of empirical analysis of media socialisation as it relates to detinquent behaviour. a matter that the present study attempted to rectify. The present study proposes that the media's commitment to conformity varies in degree of congruence with societal expectations and this variation is directly "transmitted to the child influencing the child's behaviour. / Criminology / M.A.

Attempts to address global pressure to achieve Education For All (EFA) have been hampered by two fundamental challenges in developing countries, namely an acute shortage of teachers and the large rural populations in these countries. In addition there is a trend for qualified competent teachers to shun working in rural settings. While recruitment of professionally unqualified graduate teachers into the teaching profession has become internationally accepted, to address particularly rural school postings and EFA commitments, there remain outstanding questions regarding how such teachers grow and develop in those rural contexts. An understanding of how these teachers develop professionally is crucial. The study explored professional development experiences of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural secondary schools. Through a double site study involving two international sites, Zimbabwe and KwaZulu–Natal, South Africa, an interpretive/qualitative design was adopted. Three-interview series supported by document reviews and photo elicitations were employed to explore these teachers’ experiences. Data was transcribed and manually analysed inductively utilizing open coding. The findings suggest that professional development for these teachers occurs in a number of sites, namely: through the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) / Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme; in the school through practice and school meetings; in the wider professional sites; and in informal communities. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory to describe, analyse and understand data, I argue that the professionally unqualified practicing teachers experience professional development through interaction in multiple domains of formality and experience: formal, non formal, informal and experiential. Professional development occurs across these domains however, findings show that these teachers feel incapacitated by lack of support. This implies a need for more supervisory and resource support. The teachers conceive their professional development experiences in rural secondary school contexts as underpinned by having to ‘make-do’, relational dimensions, interdependence and agency as well as resourcefulness, creativity and improvisation to address gross resource limitations. The thesis suggests a need for further research into enhancing professional development practices of the professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural school settings. Professional development can be supported. Given that teachers are teaching in under resourced and geographically rural contexts where they have ‘to make-do’, this has a bearing on the achievement of EFA goals within the wider context. In relation to the Cultural Historical Activity Theory, my argument is that the framework provides a useful generic, analytical tool for thinking through how professional development occurs in multi-domains. However, on its own it does not provide a complete lens to make sense of the variations in professional development within the domains and levels of formality and experience. The thesis therefore argues for an additive model to CHAT, which includes domain based distinctions of formality and experience that may expand the framework and deepen its applicability specifically, in trying to understand professional development issues. The thesis therefore suggests the need for more studies, drawing on the framework and developing it to determine its applicability beyond this particular inquiry. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

When It comes to the basic perspectives on personal and social reality, it is commonly assumed that these perspectives are learned within the parent-child relafionship. As a result, the family has been typically accorded a place of primary importance the explanation of socialisation. But another influence has been lurking in the background- the mass media . Media influence upon ~hildren has generally been assumed to be significant, with powerful, long lasting consequences. However, traditional explanatory attempts have predominantly dealt with the effects of media violence on juvenile behaviour. The result has been a relative neglect of empirical analysis of media socialisation as it relates to detinquent behaviour. a matter that the present study attempted to rectify. The present study proposes that the media's commitment to conformity varies in degree of congruence with societal expectations and this variation is directly "transmitted to the child influencing the child's behaviour. / Criminology and Security Science / M.A.

This thesis is an ethnography of Rastafari childhood in the former Cape Province, South Africa, through the eyes of both parents and children. If children are a ‘muted group’, then what are the identity formation implications for “double-muted” groups, the children of ethnic minorities whose voices are not heard? Rasta parents’ experience of the struggle, ie. the opposition to apartheid, has shaped the Rastafari chant of ‘equal rights’ and ‘justice’ into a distinctly South African form of protest and resistance. Their childhood experiences have resulted in a desire to provide a better life for their children, using Rastafari as a vehicle. This is expressed in a continuation of the struggle that was started during apartheid, in the Rasta ideology children grow up learning. The Rasta child has become a contested body in this struggle. The South African Government, through policy, has a mandate to protect the child, and legislature exists to do so in accordance with international law. However, as child-raising differs phenomenally from culture to culture, these goals on the part of the State start infringing upon the rights and freedoms of minorities to raise their children according to their own cultural goals. This study examines the tension between Rastafari and government with regards to child raising, specifically looking at the following main points of contestation: public health, public schools and policy/legislation; in order to examine how Rasta children negotiate their identity in the face of these conflicting messages and struggles. Their identity can be influenced by three main groups, the Rasta family they grow up in; school; and multi-media. What these children choose to accept or reject in their worldview is moderated by their own agency. This study shows that this tension results in a new generation of Rastafari children, who are strongly grounded in an identity as Rastafari and take pride in this identity. It also illustrates how Rastafari are impacting on and changing government policy through resistance. Their successes in challenging the state on the grounds of multiculturalism and religious freedom, has helped in the attainment of a sense of dignity.