D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Hope builds resiliency and, therefore, as a protective phenomenon has particular relevance to orphans and vulnerable young people who face adversity on a daily basis. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is adding more strain to the already overburdened safety nets of families and communities in South Africa, where the emergence of child-headed households and the rising numbers of vulnerable young people calls for a more comprehensive response to address their needs and to protect their rights. Many are traumatised - suffering abuse or trying to cope with poverty and the pressures of daily living. Hope is unlikely to emerge and be sustained in young people left to fend for themselves. The purpose of this inquiry is to explore the processes of constructing hope in the lived experiences of young people from child-headed households to invite others to join the spaces of conversation in building support for orphans and vulnerable young people - domains that support a discourse of hope. A social constructionist inquiry with a grounded theory research design involving four young people representing the child-headed household was conducted at a secondary school in Soweto in partnership with a non-governmental organisation. Guided by narrative and participatory practices, the data collection process extended over nine months with the participants using the metaphor of a journey. The journey provided an opportunity to work in healing ways as a researcher to thicken stories of hope in their lives, at the same time providing rich data for analysis. The narrative approach seeks to ‘re-author’ problemsaturated stories - stories which are filled with the challenges of orphanhood, abuse, abandonment, poverty and neglect. Methods used included individual and group conversations, expressive art exercises and photo voice to capture their hopeful stories. The co-constructed hopeful stories were then used as data for analysis using a constructionist approach to grounded theory. This in turn helped to develop a conceptual framework to understand the processes of nurturing hope in the lives of orphans and vulnerable young people - based on their own voices. By identifying what helps young people to nurture hope in their lives, support structures that provide opportunities for growth rather than merely helping them to cope, invite us to challenge more conventional understandings of support for vulnerable young people. The v story of our journey provides a broader understanding of the processes of nurturing hope in the context of vulnerable young people. Findings offer an alternative view of hope from generally accepted Western understandings that are essentially individualistic. A 4-D understanding of hope is presented which recognises the importance of hope as a practice and the role of possibilities in empowering young people to transcend adversity in seeking a better future. Recommendations advocate raising standards in the support of vulnerable young people from a preoccupation with ‘coping’ strategies to an awareness of ‘hoping’ schemata – a repositioning that seeks to protect young people; to strengthen them to cope with adversity; to support them to meet their needs and protect their rights; and to find opportunities to transcend their adversities and realise their future aspirations.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Adolescent-headed households are a rapidly growing form of family both nationally and internationally, due to increased death rates caused by HIV/AIDS, migration of labourers from rural to urban areas, and the weakened state of traditional family safety nets in taking up care. This raises responsibilities of orphaned children, with extended families no longer able to cope due to strained socio-economic circumstances. As a result, older siblings become caregivers to the younger siblings, and have to assume the role of parenting their siblings, ensuring that they are well taken care of financially, emotionally and otherwise. Resilience is needed to rise above adversity and to stand firm despite all the obstacles. This study was conducted to explore how creative expressive arts can explore the resilience of adolescents in adolescent-headed households. Creative expressive arts are a source of healing for people who may experience amongst other things emotional barriers as well as an inability to express feelings. Arts in therapy are also of exceptional value when used with people with learning difficulties. This study was based on a socio-cultural framework by Lev Vygotsky as a framework for the research with critical discussion of relevant literature on resilience, adolescent-headed households and their development, mild to moderate intellectual impairment as well as creative expressive arts. A qualitative research approach was chosen to understand the research topic from the perspective of the participants. For the purpose of the study, the interpretivist paradigm was chosen, which focused on how people create meaning out of their lives and experiences. A phenomenological design was employed and research participants included five adolescents from a school that catered for learners with mild intellectual impairments. The participants were purposefully selected. Data collection methods included semi-structured focus group interviews, artefacts and participant observation. As a method of data analysis, the Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify themes that emerged, namely: “externalising their contextual stories”, “voicing” and “connecting with belief systems”. The study concludes with possible contributions, limitations and recommendations for future research.

To detect possible adjustment problems and in attempting to identify the areas of maladjustment from which a child may be suffering, the writer administered the California Test of Personality; a test of personality measurement and observation taken from a subjective frame of reference.

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished