The deseg regation of schools in the post-1994 era in South Africa has led to an
exodus of African children from township schools to multicultural suburban and
inner city schools. This migration places African children in a multicultural school
environment where the dynamics pose challenges for coping and adaptation if
these children are to succeed academically. The challenge is even greater for
adolescents who are also wrestling with critical developmental issues of
adolescence in their quest for identity development and consolidation.
Goleman (1995: 34) asserts that in order to succeed in any aspect of living, an
individual requires emotional intelligence. Likewise, African adolescents who
attend school in multicultural environments need to be emotionally literate to
cope successfully and to adapt to the demands of the new schooling
environment. In the light of this assertion, this study aimed to determine the
extent to which emotional intelligence mediates the identity development of
African adolescents in multicultural schools. The five domains of emotional
intelligence investigated in this respect were: self-awareness, self-regulation,
self-motivation, empathy and effective relationships.
Six schools were selected for the empirical investigation: three from the
townships and three from the suburbs. 226 African adolescents from suburban
and 240 from township schools participated: a total of 466 participants. The
findings revealed that self-awareness, empathy and effective relationships play
stronger mediating roles in the identity development of African adolescents in
township schools while self-regulation plays a stronger mediating role for African
adolescents in suburban multicultural schools. The two groups did not, however,
differ significantly regarding the mediating role of self-regulation in their identity
development. Further mediating roles of emotional intelligence to the identity
development of African adolescents were investigated according to gender,
stage of adolescence and a preferred language for learning and teaching. Finally,
a model was proposed for developing empathy among African adolescents who
attend schools in suburbs. / (D.Ed. (Psychology of Education))
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/3333 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Simelane, Moses Thomas |
| Contributors | Fredericks, C.R. (Dr.) |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xvii, 286 leaves) |
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