Negotiating identity and belonging: perspectives of children living in a disadvantaged community in the Eastern Cape province
- Authors: Ridley, Tamerin Amy
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Group identity , Self-esteem
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24813 , vital:63598
- Description: Developing an identity with self-esteem and a sense of self-worth is a child’s fundamental right (Vandenbroek, 2001). To encourage identity formation children need to ask and answer questions such as: ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do I belong?’ and ‘Is it ok to be who I am?’ A child’s identity is shaped largely by his/her experiences with regards to relationships and belonging within communities and familial structures. However, South Africa faces a host of problems, including poverty, violence, HIV/AIDS, all of which contribute to the breakdown of these familial and community structures. Utilising a participatory action framework, this research aims to provide insight into how children living in a disadvantaged community negotiate identity and belonging. This insight into children’s perceptions of identity and belonging is useful for identifying resources within the community which promote a positive sense of identity and belonging, and also to identify areas where support and intervention are required. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2013
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- Authors: Ridley, Tamerin Amy
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Group identity , Self-esteem
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24813 , vital:63598
- Description: Developing an identity with self-esteem and a sense of self-worth is a child’s fundamental right (Vandenbroek, 2001). To encourage identity formation children need to ask and answer questions such as: ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do I belong?’ and ‘Is it ok to be who I am?’ A child’s identity is shaped largely by his/her experiences with regards to relationships and belonging within communities and familial structures. However, South Africa faces a host of problems, including poverty, violence, HIV/AIDS, all of which contribute to the breakdown of these familial and community structures. Utilising a participatory action framework, this research aims to provide insight into how children living in a disadvantaged community negotiate identity and belonging. This insight into children’s perceptions of identity and belonging is useful for identifying resources within the community which promote a positive sense of identity and belonging, and also to identify areas where support and intervention are required. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2013
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Negotiating identity in an online virtual environment
- Authors: Dube, Nompumelelo
- Date: 2011-11
- Subjects: Online Identities , Internet , Personal Information Managenment
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23883 , vital:61284
- Description: This study investigates ways in which people in an online anonymous virtual environment use language to negotiate and manage their identities. The study is informed by the tenets of social constructionism, a theory that explores the problematic manner in which the self is taken for granted as unchanging (Burr, 1998). One point made by alternative theorists other than social constructionist theorists is the notion of the “essential self”; one tenet of social constructionist theory suggests that the “essential self” of a person remains fluid. The implication is that one ultimately changes as each day passes, for example at the core of one’s personality is an “essential self” that changes with experiences, conflicts and/or age (Tuffin, 2005). From a social constructionist perspective, the self is more fractured and contingent on life’s circumstances. This theory was found to be an appropriate paradigm from which to study anonymous online identities, where individuals were found to create and negotiate certain identities outside of those identities that people often find important to portray to outsiders in the general public. Sixty-seven (67) students from different races participated in this study and online discussions from a course discussion forum, “blackboard”, were monitored. This study found that one’s identity is negotiated in an anonymous virtual environment. Data was collected from these discussions and was analysed using Potter and Wetherell’s (1987) method of discourse analysis. Research findings ultimately found that people use discursive strategies in negotiating and maintaining their identity online, but that distinct racial characteristics were noticeable despite some attempts to mask one’s background. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2011
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- Authors: Dube, Nompumelelo
- Date: 2011-11
- Subjects: Online Identities , Internet , Personal Information Managenment
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/23883 , vital:61284
- Description: This study investigates ways in which people in an online anonymous virtual environment use language to negotiate and manage their identities. The study is informed by the tenets of social constructionism, a theory that explores the problematic manner in which the self is taken for granted as unchanging (Burr, 1998). One point made by alternative theorists other than social constructionist theorists is the notion of the “essential self”; one tenet of social constructionist theory suggests that the “essential self” of a person remains fluid. The implication is that one ultimately changes as each day passes, for example at the core of one’s personality is an “essential self” that changes with experiences, conflicts and/or age (Tuffin, 2005). From a social constructionist perspective, the self is more fractured and contingent on life’s circumstances. This theory was found to be an appropriate paradigm from which to study anonymous online identities, where individuals were found to create and negotiate certain identities outside of those identities that people often find important to portray to outsiders in the general public. Sixty-seven (67) students from different races participated in this study and online discussions from a course discussion forum, “blackboard”, were monitored. This study found that one’s identity is negotiated in an anonymous virtual environment. Data was collected from these discussions and was analysed using Potter and Wetherell’s (1987) method of discourse analysis. Research findings ultimately found that people use discursive strategies in negotiating and maintaining their identity online, but that distinct racial characteristics were noticeable despite some attempts to mask one’s background. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2011
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Factors mediating personal and professional development within higher learning institutions: an activity theory perspective.
- Authors: Kriel, Denise
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: School improvement programs http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85118340 , Educational leadership http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh92001254 , College administrators http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85028268
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19431 , vital:43086
- Description: In the context of a higher learning institution, this paper identifies the factors that mediate students‟ personal and professional development from an Activity Theory perspective. Data took the form of written reflections submitted by second-year psychology students‟ as part of their course requirements. The reflection exercises were designed to help students to use the knowledge acquired in the second-year programme to reflect on their own understanding of „self‟ and the practice of psychology in society. Data was analysed from an Activity Theory perspective and employed interpretative methodologies. The findings of the study shed light upon the role of contemporary contextual factors mediating students‟ personal and professional development at a higher learning institution. , Thesis (M Soc Sc) (Counselling Psychology) -- University of Fort Hare, 2011
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- Authors: Kriel, Denise
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: School improvement programs http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85118340 , Educational leadership http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh92001254 , College administrators http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85028268
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19431 , vital:43086
- Description: In the context of a higher learning institution, this paper identifies the factors that mediate students‟ personal and professional development from an Activity Theory perspective. Data took the form of written reflections submitted by second-year psychology students‟ as part of their course requirements. The reflection exercises were designed to help students to use the knowledge acquired in the second-year programme to reflect on their own understanding of „self‟ and the practice of psychology in society. Data was analysed from an Activity Theory perspective and employed interpretative methodologies. The findings of the study shed light upon the role of contemporary contextual factors mediating students‟ personal and professional development at a higher learning institution. , Thesis (M Soc Sc) (Counselling Psychology) -- University of Fort Hare, 2011
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The role of constructions of race in student's talk of (NON) participation in the activities of students political organisations
- Authors: Botha, Ryan
- Date: 2010-12
- Subjects: South African Students' Organisation. , Students -- Political activity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27451 , vital:67329
- Description: South Africa has undergone widespread social, economic and political reconstruction since the inception of democracy in 1994. Underpinning these changes are available discourses on race that individuals use in constructing their identities. This article is an analysis of discourses on race emerging in the talk of white students accounting for (non)participation in the activities of the student political organisations (SPO’s) at the University of Fort Hare in East London. The argument here is that white students consistently assign racialized identities to SPO’s on campus by invoking deeply entrenched racially binarized discourses. These racialized discursive formations are available within South Africa’s contemporary linguistic landscape as well as its colonial past. In their talk, the participants in this study conflated SPO led structures and functions with ‘otherized’ conceptions of ‘blackness’. This confluence that white students create between SPO’s as well as terms that are shorthand for ‘blackness’ results in a distancing from and denigration of SPO’s and, more malignly, ’blackness’. It appears that whites use these problematic and racialized constructions of self and the ‘other’ to justify their non-participation in student politics on campus. This article explores the political implications of white students fixing identity in this manner. Hook’s (2010) notion of ‘white woundedness’ is brought into the discussion as a useful point of departure for rethinking ‘white’ identities in South Africa. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2010
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- Authors: Botha, Ryan
- Date: 2010-12
- Subjects: South African Students' Organisation. , Students -- Political activity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27451 , vital:67329
- Description: South Africa has undergone widespread social, economic and political reconstruction since the inception of democracy in 1994. Underpinning these changes are available discourses on race that individuals use in constructing their identities. This article is an analysis of discourses on race emerging in the talk of white students accounting for (non)participation in the activities of the student political organisations (SPO’s) at the University of Fort Hare in East London. The argument here is that white students consistently assign racialized identities to SPO’s on campus by invoking deeply entrenched racially binarized discourses. These racialized discursive formations are available within South Africa’s contemporary linguistic landscape as well as its colonial past. In their talk, the participants in this study conflated SPO led structures and functions with ‘otherized’ conceptions of ‘blackness’. This confluence that white students create between SPO’s as well as terms that are shorthand for ‘blackness’ results in a distancing from and denigration of SPO’s and, more malignly, ’blackness’. It appears that whites use these problematic and racialized constructions of self and the ‘other’ to justify their non-participation in student politics on campus. This article explores the political implications of white students fixing identity in this manner. Hook’s (2010) notion of ‘white woundedness’ is brought into the discussion as a useful point of departure for rethinking ‘white’ identities in South Africa. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2010
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