In South Africa, where a large portion of the population lives in townships, more often than not, the therapist and client do not share a similar cultural context. Cultural knowledge is therefore pertinent to generating a complex and thorough interpretation of any psychological assessments. This study aims to explore possible cultural narratives evoked in the responses to the Thematic Apperception Test so that cross-cultural use of the test would be more effective in the Mamelodi township. The research is done from a narrative point of view, where lived experience is understood by organising it into structured narratives or stories that repeat throughout a person’s life. The pictures of the TAT were viewed as a context that could elicit such life narratives from respondents. TAT stories from five adolescent residents in Mamelodi were thematically analysed as a method of identifying common stories that could reflect the cultural narratives that young persons in Mamelodi draw from to make sense of their world. The results indicated common narratives concerning the following: the experience of violence and danger, the experience of close relationships, dealing with challenges, and the role that clothes play. These findings, and possible findings from similar future research, might aid psychologists towards a better understanding of the TAT in the township context. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted

This study examined how isiXhosa-speaking women street traders in Cape Town's Langa Township exercised agency in responding to similar structural constraints and opportunities that affected their livelihoods. Drawing on Giddens's Structuration Theory and Sen's Capabilities Approach, I unpacked and conceptualised agency as five dimensions (reflexivity, motivation, rationality, purposive action and transformative capacity). This analytical framework was then used to assess the ways in which women from a poor township community exercised their agency as street traders. A case study methodology (n=25) was adopted using participant observation and in-depth interviews. Miles and Huberman's thematic coding approach guided the qualitative analysis. The study found that structurally imposed constraints were rooted in class, multiple sources of power dynamics, and material constraints related to health; while opportunities emanated from market mechanisms of supply and demand, community social support systems in the form of social capital and social networks, family support and statutory social welfare programmes. Other key findings included resistance to patriarchy, cultural norms and practices, such as submission to abusive partners and unreasonable demands from extended family members. The findings report structure and agency as mutually constitutive in so far as familial circumstances, previous work experience, social capital, educational achievements and temporality either reinforced or diminished the participants' agency. Three profiles of agency among the women traders emerged from the data. The profiles demonstrated varying degrees of enablement (most enabled, moderately enabled and least enabled) and that individual agency was a distinguishing factor. Reflexivity, as a dimension of agency, presented as more fluid and malleable than the other four dimensions. The findings show that agency is reasonably elastic and it can expand capabilities and opportunities for enablement. Finally, the study proposed a diagnostic tool for assessing and enhancing agency with potential applications in entrepreneurial training for development. My study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the concept of agency, the role it plays in development at a micro-level and criteria for assessment. Furthermore, lessons learnt from the profiles can be applied to development practice and entrepreneurial training among African women traders.

The study investigated the linguistic challenges faced by Setswana-speaking Grade 7 learners when writing Science examinations in English. Learners from rural and township schools are only introduced to English as a language of learning and teaching in Grade 4, which creates problems for the learners because English is foreign to them. Teachers help by translating words or code-switching but it become a problem in the examinations because teachers cannot help the learners during the examination session. Since starting as a Grade 7 Mathematics and Science teacher almost three years ago, I have noticed that Grade 7 Setswana-speaking learners are struggling to understand the language used in formal assessments, which is English. I decided to investigate the linguistic challenges these learners face when writing Science examinations in rural and township schools. The purpose of conducting this research is to help policymakers to meet the linguistic needs of non-native English speakers. The study will also make curriculum development specialists and those who set provincial question papers aware of the linguistic challenges faced by non-native speakers of English in primary schools. Lastly, the study will help readers gain a better understanding of why some teachers prefer to use indigenous languages when they teach over English and why some prefer to use English over indigenous languages. Many literature sources state that non-native English-speaking learners underachieve academically because of learning in a language that is not their first language (O’Connor & Geiger, 2009; Dawber & Jordan, 1999; Ortiz, 1997; Statham, 1997). The participants comprised of four purposively selected Grade7 Natural Science teachers, two SGBs and Grade 7 learners from two primary schools in Hammanskraal, Gauteng. This study followed a qualitative research approach and falls under the interpretive research paradigm. It is a phenomenological study and focuses on the lived experiences of teachers and learners. Methods of data collection used were classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis. Data gathered indicated that Setswana-speaking learners made basic errors such as spelling, sentence construction, grammar, incomplete sentences, mixed languages, using words that do not exist, tenses and understanding instructions. Recommendation to the SGBs is that they should consider these linguistic challenges when they draft language policies for rural and township schools. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / South African has constitutional protection for the human rights of all its citizens. However, black lesbians in South Africa suffer physical, emotional and psychological abuse. This qualitative study aimed to elicit the social and emotional experiences of black lesbians living, as same-sex partners, in a township setting. The design of the study was exploratory in nature and used a purposive sample of ten couples (twenty women). The investigation was underpinned by Social domain theory (SDT) which allowed for an understanding of the judgements people make in different social settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each couple in order to collect data. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis (TCA) which gleaned ten themes namely, age and sexual orientation, suicide, education, lack of support, hate crimes, substance abuse, stigma, mental health, parenting and discrimination. In the discussion it was found that these themes echoed those in other local and international studies. However, corrective rape is peculiar to South Africa and was experienced by some participants in the study. In one case a brother, with the mother’s support raped his sister repeatedly. This took place in a country which has a progressive constitution and laws. Social norms in the township allows black lesbian couples to suffer this type of abuse and have daily experiences of discrimination and stigmatisation. Recommendations included a quantitative more far reaching study (as well as longitudinal studies) and more workshops and campaigns spreading knowledge about sexuality.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Role-play is a teaching strategy which is very useful in enhancing the acquisition of knowledge and conceptualisation of some topics in Life Science. According to the theory of constructivism, learning science is a process in which learners construct understanding of the materials. Role-play and constructivism are intertwined, yet role-play as a teaching strategy lacks classroom application in the teaching of Life Sciences. Role-play is not often used in the teaching of Life Sciences, and to be specific, in the teaching of the circulatory system. The study is motivated by learners’ misconceptions of the circulatory system. The study is undertaken to determine the effect of role play on the learners’ conception about the human circulatory system. Random sampling resulted in the selection of one out of 6 grade 10 classes with 49 learners in each from one school in the Metro East District in Cape Town.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The opportunities and challenges faced by young people who are not in any kind of employment, education or training (NEETs) are under-reported by scholars in the field of development. In this regard, what NEETs in South Africa know about nutrition and how they pursue nourishment are neglected areas of research. Yet they are important considerations for policymakers. The majority of young people in the age group 18–24 are, strictly speaking, no longer their parents’ responsibility, with the child support grant that their caregiver may have received having terminated when they turned 18. However, many young people have not found jobs and are therefore not financially independent. As a result, they are constrained in being able to access food (or at least the food that they particularly enjoy). This study aimed to investigate the lived experiences of young adult NEETs in terms of food and nutrition, what they do to ensure that they are nourished, and the kinds of nutritional achievements that they have to choose from.

A petrographic study has been made of the contact relations between metagabbro and nepheline gneiss underlain by marble, in Monmouth township, Haliburton County, Ontario. A bad of hornblende nepheline-garnet gneiss about 80 feetwide trending north-south is underlain at a shear contact by marble. Round inclusion up to 18 inches across of red pyroxene with some spinel and rimmed by olivine occur in the marble a few feet below the contact. For a few inches above the contact the nepheline gneiss sometimes is biotite-bearing. To the east the nepheline gneiss grades into a band of hybrid nepheline metagabbro (containing pink augite) about 50 feet wide. This in turn is followed by a zone of garnetiferous clinozoisite metagabbro about 220 feet wide. Clinozoisite persists in the metagabbro for 100 feet beyond this zone and is followed by hornblende-(pyroxene)-plagioclase metagabbro. Pyroxene-garnet-(nepheline) skarn is interlayered with nepheline gneiss at one outcrop ear the fault contact with marble. It appears that gabbroic magma has intruded limestone and developed a skarn at the contact. Assimilation of lime by the magma has developed pink augite (titanaugite ?) , clinozoisite and grossularite in the gabbro. Subsequent injection of a highly fluid nepheline magma, or of solutions containing soda, alumina and iron and not saturated with silica, formed nepheline-bearing rock between marble and gabbro. Soda metasomatism produced a hybrid nepheline gabbro adjacent to the nepheline-bearirg rock. Regional metamorphism later imparted a foliation to the marble and nepheline rock, and produced a metamorphic texture the gabbro. Faulting of a unknown age brought nepheline gneiss and marble into sharp contact and probably trapped the skarn as horses only one of which is now exposed. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis was presented to the Department of Geography in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts. / An abstract is not provided. / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Features topographic maps and aerial photographs of Dumfires Township / <p> Bio-physical and cultural geography are two major divisions of this science. A geographical study may be based on one or both of these aspects, discussed systemtically or regionally. The historical factors of a geographical study may be discussed in relation to the present and as an entity in itself. </p> <p> The following discussion of North Dumfries Township is, for the most part, a regional study of the present physical and cultural relationships, e.specially land use, although a short discussion of the historical geography of the township is included. </p> <p> Information for the study was gained from various sources. The field work was done in the fall of 1957 and involved a series of traverses through the township and numerous interviews with farmers and townsfolk. References were made to a number of books and pamphlets, listed in the bibliography, and to aerial photographs and topographic maps of the township. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

No description available.