Faculty of Education
Department of Educational Psychology
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
This longitudinal participatory study has been investigating psychosocial coping with vulnerability since 2003. It started as a PhD study that evolved into a broad research project – the STAR intervention (Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience). Teachers from four schools in three South African provinces (n=40) have been partnering as research participants, subsequently initiating school-based projects in supporting learners, their families and communities. Examples of established initiatives include vegetable gardens, soup kitchens, support centres, information centres, and referral networks with NGOs, health service providers and faith-based organisations. The research project is currently in a dissemination phase, where teachers from three schools have been trained as facilitators to extend the STAR intervention to neighbouring schools. The intervention is now being replicated in four neighbouring schools and three additional schools have been invited to join in 2010. In addition to the ongoing focus on psychosocial support and the sustainability of existing projects, the focus of the project has expanded to include the dissemination of the initial study, facilitators’ experiences, recipients’ experiences and the resilience of teachers. Preliminary findings indicate that the dissemination of the research has resulted in positive change in communities, with teachers initiating change by introducing school-based projects, but also by actively involving community members and mobilising available resources in communities.
Contact person: Dr R Ferreira.
This longitudinal participatory study has been investigating psychosocial coping with vulnerability since 2003. It started as a PhD study that evolved into a broad research project – the STAR intervention (Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience). Teachers from four schools in three South African provinces (n=40) have been partnering as research participants, subsequently initiating school-based projects in supporting learners, their families and communities. Examples of established initiatives include vegetable gardens, soup kitchens, support centres, information centres, and referral networks with NGOs, health service providers and faith-based organisations. The research project is currently in a dissemination phase, where teachers from three schools have been trained as facilitators to extend the STAR intervention to neighbouring schools. The intervention is now being replicated in four neighbouring schools and three additional schools have been invited to join in 2010. In addition to the ongoing focus on psychosocial support and the sustainability of existing projects, the focus of the project has expanded to include the dissemination of the initial study, facilitators’ experiences, recipients’ experiences and the resilience of teachers. Preliminary findings indicate that the dissemination of the research has resulted in positive change in communities, with teachers initiating change by introducing school-based projects, but also by actively involving community members and mobilising available resources in communities.
Contact person: Prof L Ebersöhn.
The purpose of the investigation was to determine how teachers conceptualise relationships when addressing adversity (including HIV/AIDS-related challenges) in schools from an asset-based perspective. Eight teachers from three schools were purposefully selected. Data was collected by means of phenomenographic interviews (audio-recorded and transcribed) and observations (documented as visual data, field notes and personal reflections). Five prominent categories of description emerged subsequent to the phenomenographic data analysis and were visually presented in a phenomenographic outcome space. Teamwork emerged as the main category. The two categories of care and support, and communication were included in the teamwork category. The participants experienced barriers in the asset-based intervention process, but overcame barriers in order to achieve positive changes due to relationships. The researchers theorise that teachers conceptualise teamwork at the heart of relationships when addressing HIV/AIDS-related challenges in schools. In this regard, team-based relationships are signified as caring, supportive and communicative spaces from whence teachers embark on coping with barriers linked with HIV/AIDS in schools. Although teachers experience multiple hindrances because of HIV/AIDS, among other things, they utilise relationships as a means to effect resilience in schools. This study forms part of the STAR initiative (Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience), a longitudinal school-based study on resilience and education.
Contact person: Dr HA Olivier.
The purpose of the investigation was to determine how teachers conceptualise relationships when addressing adversity (including HIV/AIDS-related challenges) in schools from an asset-based perspective. Eight teachers from three schools were purposefully selected. Data was collected by means of phenomenographic interviews (audio-recorded and transcribed) and observations (documented as visual data, field notes and personal reflections). Five prominent categories of description emerged subsequent to the phenomenographic data analysis and were visually presented in a phenomenographic outcome space. Teamwork emerged as the main category. The two categories of care and support, and communication were included in the teamwork category. The participants experienced barriers in the asset-based intervention process, but overcame barriers in order to achieve positive changes due to relationships. The researchers theorise that teachers conceptualise teamwork at the heart of relationships when addressing HIV/AIDS-related challenges in schools. In this regard, team-based relationships are signified as caring, supportive and communicative spaces from whence teachers embark on coping with barriers linked with HIV/AIDS in schools. Although teachers experience multiple hindrances because of HIV/AIDS, among other things, they utilise relationships as a means to effect resilience in schools. This study forms part of the STAR initiative (Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience), a longitudinal school-based study on resilience and education.
Contact person: Prof L Ebersöhn.
The purpose of the investigation was to determine how teachers conceptualise relationships when addressing adversity (including HIV/AIDS-related challenges) in schools from an asset-based perspective. Eight teachers from three schools were purposefully selected. Data was collected by means of phenomenographic interviews (audio-recorded and transcribed) and observations (documented as visual data, field notes and personal reflections). Five prominent categories of description emerged subsequent to the phenomenographic data analysis and were visually presented in a phenomenographic outcome space. Teamwork emerged as the main category. The two categories of care and support, and communication were included in the teamwork category. The participants experienced barriers in the asset-based intervention process, but overcame barriers in order to achieve positive changes due to relationships. The researchers theorise that teachers conceptualise teamwork at the heart of relationships when addressing HIV/AIDS-related challenges in schools. In this regard, team-based relationships are signified as caring, supportive and communicative spaces from whence teachers embark on coping with barriers linked with HIV/AIDS in schools. Although teachers experience multiple hindrances because of HIV/AIDS, among other things, they utilise relationships as a means to effect resilience in schools. This study forms part of the STAR initiative (Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience), a longitudinal school-based study on resilience and education.
Contact person: Dr R Ferreira.
This study explored the utility of an instrument – the kinaesthetic family drawing (KFD) – with a child to increase an understanding of child-adaptive functioning. Many studies have indicated the need to better understand the experience of children whose parents have HIV. A challenge in studies has been the accountable use of validated measures. The study forms part of KgoloMmogo, a five-year randomised controlled trial investigating resilience in HIV-infected mothers and their young children. In KgoloMmogo, resilience is viewed from the perspective of adaptive behaviour. The researchers made use of purposefully sampled baseline assessment data of six-year-olds (n=11, three female and eight male). Data sources included KFD pictures, transcriptions of baseline interviews, as well as scores from the Vineland adaptive behaviour scale. The results of the study demonstrate that the qualitative data from children (KFD) added to information obtained from mothers (Vineland). Additional information from the KFD had interpretation value for Vineland scores and provided a child’s perspective regarding adaptive functioning behaviours. Contrasting information from the KFD queried mothers’ perspectives (Vineland). The absence of significant information in KFD results regarding Vineland subdomains arguably indicates differences in the cultural and contextual conceptualisation of adaptive functioning behavior.
Contact person: Prof L Ebersöhn.
This study explored the utility of an instrument – the kinaesthetic family drawing (KFD) – with a child to increase an understanding of child-adaptive functioning. Many studies have indicated the need to better understand the experience of children whose parents have HIV. A challenge in studies has been the accountable use of validated measures. The study forms part of KgoloMmogo, a five-year randomised controlled trial investigating resilience in HIV-infected mothers and their young children. In KgoloMmogo, resilience is viewed from the perspective of adaptive behaviour. The researchers made use of purposefully sampled baseline assessment data of six-year-olds (n=11, three female and eight male). Data sources included KFD pictures, transcriptions of baseline interviews, as well as scores from the Vineland adaptive behaviour scale. The results of the study demonstrate that the qualitative data from children (KFD) added to information obtained from mothers (Vineland). Additional information from the KFD had interpretation value for Vineland scores and provided a child’s perspective regarding adaptive functioning behaviours. Contrasting information from the KFD queried mothers’ perspectives (Vineland). The absence of significant information in KFD results regarding Vineland subdomains arguably indicates differences in the cultural and contextual conceptualisation of adaptive functioning behavior.
Contact person: Prof I Eloff.
This study explored the utility of an instrument – the kinaesthetic family drawing (KFD) – with a child to increase an understanding of child-adaptive functioning. Many studies have indicated the need to better understand the experience of children whose parents have HIV. A challenge in studies has been the accountable use of validated measures. The study forms part of KgoloMmogo, a five-year randomised controlled trial investigating resilience in HIV-infected mothers and their young children. In KgoloMmogo, resilience is viewed from the perspective of adaptive behaviour. The researchers made use of purposefully sampled baseline assessment data of six-year-olds (n=11, three female and eight male). Data sources included KFD pictures, transcriptions of baseline interviews, as well as scores from the Vineland adaptive behaviour scale. The results of the study demonstrate that the qualitative data from children (KFD) added to information obtained from mothers (Vineland). Additional information from the KFD had interpretation value for Vineland scores and provided a child’s perspective regarding adaptive functioning behaviours. Contrasting information from the KFD queried mothers’ perspectives (Vineland). The absence of significant information in KFD results regarding Vineland subdomains arguably indicates differences in the cultural and contextual conceptualisation of adaptive functioning behavior.
Contact person: Me M Finestone.
The study sought to illuminate the experiences of teachers living with AIDS and how their experiences affect the ways in which they understand and act on government policy. The researchers used the data collected from the teachers’ stories to write narratives that gave a first-person account of the experiences of each teacher. The main findings from the study suggest that in a context with AIDS, there are limits to what education policy can achieve if it remains out of touch with a real world in which school is attended by children and teachers whose bodies are either infected or affected by HIV. This is substantiated by the fact that while the HIV/AIDS policy is about bodies and about emotions, it is blind to the bodies and the emotions of those implementing it. The researchers contend that it is this oversight that creates the wide gap between policy intentions and outcomes. Secondly, the study highlights the uniqueness of education policy and its implementation that, unlike other education policies, powerfully brings to the fore the bodies and the emotions of the implementers. The study concludes by suggesting the reconstruction of the policy-making process to inscribe the real bodies and real emotions of the teachers into the policy, acknowledging that a significant majority of school pupils and teachers are infected or affected.
Contact person: Prof L Ebersöhn.
In the Botswana context, use of psychometric assessments to support the school guidance and counselling programme is on the presumption that such test use will result in fair and valid decisions. The research team was invited by the Botswana Ministry of Education to develop a framework for the implementation of such psychometric tests in Botswana. Because use of data from psychometric tests to support student development in school settings is a widely recognised indicator of quality of education around the world, the team worked from the generic assumption that a priority goal in the provision of assessment services in Botswana was to support decision-making relative to the needs of the participant or client and produce data that might contribute important information regarding treatment, intervention, placement, selection or other high-stake concerns. The researchers believe that the quality of decisions derived from assessment data depend, in part, on the fairness and equitability of assessment procedures rendered to the customer or consumer of the assessment. A total of 2 099 key participants from across the country participated in this study. Participants included teachers, officers, parents and learners. The consultancy used multi-method approaches to capture both the breadth and depth of stakeholder perspectives. The researchers engaged a wide range of stakeholders to develop a framework to guide the implementation of a psychometric testing service in Botswana schools. The consultancy recommended that psychometric testing services be introduced to support the guidance and counseling programme in Botswana with public education about the services, along with resources for the successful implementation of the services.
Contact person: Prof JG Maree.
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