Schools In Johannesburg Research Articles

THE UTILITY OF THE NEO-PI-3 IN A SAMPLE OF SOUTH AFRICAN ADOLESCENTS

Psychological tests, particularly personality tests, are routinely employed for career guidance and counselling, in university selection procedures and therapeutic settings with adolescents. The NEO-PI-3 is the newest revision in the NEO family of personality instruments and has been revised to suit adolescent populations. This research explored the utility of the NEO-PI-3 in a convenience sample of 329 learners from a public school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Utility was established using a mixed methods approach where internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the NEO-PI-3 was explored using Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis. Learners were also asked to comment on the appropriateness of the NEO-PI-3 items. These comments were subjected to thematic analysis. Reliability coefficients for the NEO-PI-3 scales were variable. The factor structure for this sample was incongruent with cross-cultural samples but a five factor solution resembling the normative sample was found once the Compliance facet was removed. 36.2% of the sample reported experiencing difficulty with understanding words and items on the NEO-PI-3. The most dominant theme identified amongst the learners was a lack of understanding of items and words. This was followed by problems with item construction, questionnaire length and the repetitive nature of items. The results suggest that the NEO-PI-3 may not be used in its current form in the South African context. Further research and possible test adaption would be needed before using the instrument.

Enacting Critical Pedagogy in an Emerging South African Democracy

“Education Before Liberation” became the mantra of the struggle against apartheid oppression in South Africa. Apartheid policies predestined the Black majority to servitude and dehumanization. The advent of democracy heralded a plethora of transformative curriculum policies with the express intent to counter the destiny that the Apartheid regime had envisioned for the Black majority. The current curriculum canon which is premised on the tenets of critical pedagogy espouses the ideals of social justice and democracy, and embodies the intent to educate for liberation and social transformation. This article addresses the central question: How do the material tensions of enacting critical pedagogical tenets manifest in post-apartheid South African education through the narratives of educators as transformative intellectuals? In responding to this enquiry, in this article I will (a) sketch an analysis of teachers’ identities as enshrined in retrospective and current curriculum policies; and (b) draw on data from a qualitative study conducted at schools in Johannesburg, South Africa, to explore educators’ personal and professional narratives of pleasure and pain as they persevere in being transformative intellectuals within disadvantaged school communities in an emerging democracy. This article argues that if the ideals of democracy is central to the curriculum for students, then the education system needs to ensure that the personal and professional wellbeing of teachers should form an integral part of the human rights discourse.

The prevalence of poor ocular motilities in a mainstream school compared to two learning-disabled schools in Johannesburg

Background: Ocular motilities play a major role when reading for the continuous acquisition and updating of visually presented information. Accurate oculomotor control is required to be able to learn how to read and to efficiently read to learn. This process requires accurate decoding accomplished by precise oculomotor control.Aim: A comparison of the prevalence of poor ocular motilities between mainstream and learning-disabled schools were explored from three different schools; one mainstream and two disabled schools. One hundred and ninety-two children, age range 8–13 years (mean = 10.30, s.d.: ± 0.999) in grades 3 and 4, with 112 children from the two learning-disabled schools and 80 children from the mainstream school participated in the study.Method: The standardised direct observation test, using the Northeastern State University College of Optometry scoring criteria, was used to evaluate saccadic and pursuit eye movements. Fixation maintenance was evaluated using the Southern California College of Optometry scoring criteria. The Gulden fixation stick with a 6/24 letter E was used as a fixation target.Results: The results showed that children from the learning-disabled schools appeared to have a higher incidence of poor saccadic accuracy compared with children from the mainstream school. No significant associations in both the mainstream and the learning-disabled children were found for head movements, pursuits and fixation ability. However, the results suggest a statistically significant association between poor saccadic accuracy and children from the learning-disabled schools. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence for a link between poor saccadic accuracy and children from the school of the learning disabled. Keywords: Ocular motor dysfunction, saccadics, pursuits, learning disability, schools, fixation ability, visual attention

The 5th South African Child Health Priorities Conference

The 4th South African (SA) Child Health Priorities Conference was convened by the SA Child Health Priorities Association at Wits Medical School in Johannesburg on 31 October - 2 November 2013. Its aim was to review progress in child health in South Africa, reflect on recent achievements, and set priorities for the forthcoming year.

Responding with hospitality: Refugee children in the South African education system

ABSTRACTRefugees have remained a significant feature on the South Africa landscape and a concern in the country even prior to the advent of democracy. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, South Africa (SA) has received waves of newcomers – people fleeing wars, drought and poverty from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Angola, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. South Africa allows for the admittance of refugee children into its system provided they have the requisite documents. This article reports on qualitative research, conducted with refugee children attending a Refugee Bridging Program at Mercy College, an affluent private school in Johannesburg, South Africa. The article addresses the questions: (i) what are the personal and academic experiences of refugee children enrolled in a refugee bridging school programme; and (ii) how does an ethic of hospitality facilitate their integration into education and prepare them for entrance into mainstream schooling? The a...

Food Science Education Publications and Websites

Food Science Education Publications and Websites

Educational leadership and leadership development in Africa

The literature on educational leadership and management is dominated by authors from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. This inevitably means that researchers seeking evidence on aspects of leadership are drawn to this dominant body of literature. However, these contexts are very different from those in many other parts of the world and most readers of this journal are well aware of the dangers of ‘policy borrowing’; applying models from Western contexts to very different settings, for example in Asia or Africa. This special themed issue of EMAL provides a valuable opportunity to build the knowledge base in Africa, where resources are often very limited, teachers and principals may be inadequately trained, and classrooms usually contain large numbers of poor and disadvantaged learners (Bush and Oduro 2006, Bush and Glover 2013). Many African states are also patriarchal, making it difficult for women to access leadership positions. The first four papers in this issue explore aspects of gendered leadership. In the opening article, Pontso Moorosi discusses leadership identity construction through a leadership development programme in South Africa. She notes the gender inequity in school leadership and argues that inter-sectionality is helpful in addressing leadership diversity as it reveals the multiple identities of participants. She reports on a national leadership development programme, piloted from 2007 2010, and notes the intention of the Department of Education to enrol equal numbers of women and men on this programme. She concludes that leadership development experiences were characterised by a complex intersection of gender, race, context and background. Bhaigiavathie Naidoo and Juliet Perumal examine the role of female principals in disadvantaged schools in Johannesburg. They note the impact of redress policies in enabling women to access school leadership positions, where they were once ‘rarely seen’. In 2012, one-third of principals in the Gauteng province were women. They explore the experience of three such principals, drawing on interviews, observation and field notes. They show that these women subscribed to a leadership style which is relational, inclusive and compassionate and conclude that the social expectations of women need to change. Gauteng is a relatively advantaged province but it still has many disadvantaged schools, as the title of the paper discussed above suggests. However, socio-economic problems are far greater in Eastern Cape, South Africa’s poorest region. Nolutho Diko explores gendered leadership in one rural secondary school in this province, led by a male principal but with female representation in the School Management Team (SMT). She comments that gender equality at this school was interpreted as the ‘token inclusion’ of women in leadership structures while they remained outside the informal networks. She concludes that ‘the selective implementation of gender equality is a way of defending male authority and perpetuating past practices’. Educational Management Administration & Leadership 2014, Vol. 42(6) 787–791 a The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1741143214549135 emal.sagepub.com

Female principals leading at disadvantaged schools in Johannesburg, South Africa

South African democracy precipitated many changes and excavated many dormant issues, one of which was equity in the workplace. This extended into the sphere of education - a sector in which women were rarely seen in leadership positions. Following the implementation of several redress policies, women have managed to penetrate the gender equity barrier and assume leadership positions in schools. This article reports on a study that investigated how female principals experience leadership at schools in disadvantaged communities in the Gauteng East District, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Nesting itself within a qualitative research paradigm, the study explored ways in which women principals navigate gender and cultural challenges and highlights how stereotypes shape their leadership styles. Observations, field notes and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit data. These findings provide insight into the following themes: leadership styles; the principal as a curriculum leader; socio-economic profile of the school community and its impact on curriculum; balancing family and school responsibilities; and stakeholder participation and support.

Eating attitudes, body image satisfaction and self-esteem of South African Black and White male adolescents and their perception of female body silhouettes

This cross-sectional study of urban high schools in Johannesburg, South Africa, sought to examine eating attitudes, body image and self-esteem among male adolescents (n = 391). Anthropometric measurements, Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26), Rosenberg self-esteem, body image satisfaction and perception of females were collected at age 13, 15 and 17 years. Descriptive analysis was done to describe the sample, and non-parametric Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney test was used to test for significant differences between data that were not normally distributed (EAT-26). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analyses were conducted to test for associations between self-esteem scores and eating attitudes, body mass indices and body image satisfaction scores. To assess the differences between groups that were normally distributed chi-square tests were carried out. Ethnic differences significantly affected adolescent boys’ body mass index (BMI), eating attitudes and self-esteem; White boys had higher self-esteem, BMI and normal eating attitudes than the Black boys did. BMI was positively associated with self-esteem (p = 0.01, r = 0.134) and negatively with dieting behaviour in White boys (p = 0.004, r = −0.257), and with lower EAT-26 bulimic and oral control scores in Black boys. In conclusion, the findings highlight ethnic differences and a need to better understand cultural differences that influence adolescent attitudes and behaviour.

Ethnic Diversity and School Leadership: Lessons from Johannesburg Schools

Increasingly, South African schools are becoming more diverse due to the implementation of new legislation to foster democratization in schools. Other external factors such as increasing globalization may also be contributing to the apparently growing diversity at schools. Such increasing diversity could pose challenges regarding fostering a culture of teaching and learning at these integrated schools. Therefore, this article looks at how school management and leadership are fostering a culture of teaching and learning in ethnically diverse schools in Johannesburg North District. The theoretical perspectives for this study are based on multicultural education and diversity. The study is embedded in a social constructivist inquiry paradigm. It reports on the application of a mixed method design which aims at capturing the lived experiences, beliefs and feelings of the participants who are the principals, Heads of Departments (HoDs), teachers and learners, as expressed in their languages, both spoken and written in relation to ethnic diversity. The data collected, show that the diverse cultures of schools in Johannesburg North include characteristics of both traditional and liberal multicultural education and illustrate the fact that societies are becoming more complex in terms of social, economic and political composition. Therefore, in addition to teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and math, school leadership and management should encourage teaching and learning that will involve social justice issues, equity and equality through which students will learn to become reflective, moral, caring and active citizens, goals which liberal multicultural education aims to achieve. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1184

Abnormal eating attitudes and weight-loss behaviour of adolescent girls attending a “traditional” Jewish high school in Johannesburg, South Africa

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes and weight-loss behaviour in female Jewish adolescents. Teachers’ awareness of these factors and their attitudes towards a school programme to address these were also investigated.Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted.Subjects and setting: Female learners in grades 8-11 (n = 220), attending a “traditional” Jewish high school in Johannesburg were included. Teachers (n = 38) at the relevant school were also recruited.Outcome measures: A questionnaire consisting of the 26-item version of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and a modified section of the USA Youth Risk Behavior Survey was completed by learners. Teachers completed a questionnaire designed by the researchers.Results: Twenty per cent of the learners (n = 43) achieved EAT-26 scores ≥ 20, suggestive of a possible eating disorder, while 30.2% (n = 65) required clinical evaluation for a potential eating disorder. Thirty-three per cent (n = 72) of the adolescent girls considered themselves to be overweight, while 64% (n = 139) were trying to lose weight at the time of the study. 19.1% (n = 42) had engaged in one or more extreme methods of weight loss in the past 12 months. Most teachers (81.6%, n = 29) underestimated the proportion of adolescent girls requiring clinical evaluation and 71.1% (n = 27) underestimated the extent of current weight-loss attempts. Almost all of the teachers (97.3%, n = 37) recognised the need to address disordered eating attitudes. However, only 34.2% of the teachers (n = 13) viewed the school as the appropriate place in which to do this, and were also prepared to participate in the programme and sacrifice class time.Conclusion: To date, no published South African literature documents the presence of abnormal eating attitudes in Jewish adolescent females in South Africa. The prevalence fell within the upper end of rates reported in studies on adolescent girls in South Africa and abroad. Teachers who participated in this study were not fully aware of the extent to which eating-related issues affected female learners. A qualitative exploration thereof could yield valuable insights.

Pedagogy of refuge: education in a time of dispossession

Despite its chequered history in relation to human rights issues, South Africa has been playing host to peoples displaced and dispossessed by geographies of anger and war, poverty, economic meltdown and other human rights atrocities. Perceiving South Africa as a sanctuary, there has been a steady wave of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees coming to the country in search of better personal and professional prospects. Qualified teachers have been among the sizeable cohort of professionals seeking a new home in South Africa. This article reports on qualitative research, which comprised a sample of seven refugee teachers. It provides pen portraits of their bio/geographical pre-flight, flight and settlement experiences as they emerged from individual interview data. The article draws on theoretical insights from postcolonial theory, deconstructionist conceptions of hospitality and critical feminist notions of communities of practice to explore the personal and professional experiences of these teachers who hold part-time employment at a private school. Some of the participants also hold temporary posts at public schools in Johannesburg. Proceeding from the contention that teachers frame their identities in relation to how they feel about themselves politically, professionally, and emotionally the article explores the dialectic of refugee teacher as a guest and a host in classrooms in a foreign country. It argues that notwithstanding the non-negotiable imperative that the rights of refugee children remain high on the national redress educational agenda; of equal importance is the necessity to be cognisant of refugee teachers who are teaching in the South African education system.

ICT integration in teaching: An uncomfortable zone for teachers: A case of schools in Johannesburg

AbstractE-learning can be seen as a means to increase the global competitiveness of a nation. Despite this developmental role, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for teaching and learning purposes has not been met with a great deal of success in South African schools. Consequently, this study investigated factors that affect usage of ICT by secondary school teachers around Johannesburg. The findings suggest that teachers are more likely to integrate ICT into their teaching if they believe it has potential to enhance teaching and learning. Similar is the case for those who perceive ICT to be easy to use – those who believe that interacting with computers does not require a lot of mental effort. This implies that ICT usage can be improved if teachers’ training programmes were to incorporate some form of e-learning. This could help some teachers to develop a positive attitude towards e-learning that can be translated into actual usage in classrooms. As such, the Department of Education...

A follow-up cross-sectional study of environmental lead exposure in early childhood in urban South Africa

Lead exposure has significant detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of children. In resource-poor countries, information on the extent of lead exposure is often inadequate owing to the lack of surveillance and screening programmes. To determine the degree of lead exposure in children residing in South African urban areas. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in schools in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Kimberley in 2007 - 2008. Blood lead levels were assessed in a total of 1 349 grade 1 children using the LeadCare Analyser system. Parents completed a structured questionnaire on sociodemographic profiles and risk factors to provide information about socioeconomic status and other risk factors for lead exposure. Blood lead levels ranged from 0.8 - 32.3 μg/dl. The mean blood lead level in the total sample was 7.97 μg/dl; 74% had blood lead levels ≥5 μg/dl. The highest proportion (84%) of children with blood lead levels ≥5 μg/dl was in Johannesburg. In the multivariate analysis, socioeconomic status was significantly associated with blood lead levels ≥5 μg/dl. Lead exposure in South African urban areas remains widespread. The risk of lead poisoning in some areas and certain groups of children may be increasing despite the phasing out of lead-containing petrol. Children living in poverty continue to be the most vulnerable.

English

Hazing, associated with initiation, aims at taking newcomers from novice status to a status of functional and acknowledged members of a new group. However, the process is often dangerous, injurious, and usually secretive. Hazing may occur as an unauthorised component of institutionally sanctioned orientation programmes commonly held for new students at educational institutions at the beginning of the academic year. This study focuses on the occurrence of hazing elements in orientation programmes (OP) for Grade 8 boys primarily run by Grade 12 learners in boys-only secondary schools in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by administering a researcher-designed questionnaire to a non-probabilistic sample of 296 Grade 12 learners enrolled at three boys-only secondary schools in Johannesburg. The computer assisted analysis strategy included frequency distributions, exploratory factor analysis, and analysis of variance. Findings indicated that respondents generally agreed with regard to the structure, aims, and behaviours common to orientation programmes. Respondents strongly disagreed about the occurrence of physical and sexual abuse and activities aimed at discomfort in the OP; however, respondents showed ambivalence about the occurrence of certain activities, which may deteriorate into hazing. Prior experience of an orientation programme when in Grade 8; length of enrolment in the school, and boarder status affected respondents’ perceptions of certain aspects of orientation programmes. Keywords : Boys-only secondary schools; gender theory; Grade 8 learners; Grade 12 learners; hazing; learner safety and wellbeing; masculinity; orientation programmes; psychological theories; survey research

Exploring foundation phase school teachers’ perceptions of learning difficulties in two Johannesburg schools

Objectives: According to the 2001 census (StatsSA 2001), approximately 12% of the population in South Africa are intellectually disabled and 7% of the population have a communication disability. Early diagnosis and intervention is vital for optimum functioning in later life yet most children are not identified until well into their schooling. Since foundation phase teachers are amongst the first to encounter these difficulties, this research explored foundation phase teachers’ perceptions of learners with learning difficulties (LD) in two inner city public schools in Johannesburg. Methods: Eight teachers were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. The challenges associated with dealing with children who have a LD together with issues of stigma and parents responses were explored. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the results. Results: Seven themes were identified, namely understanding of LD, symptoms of LD, aetiology of LD, impact LD has on a learner, stigmatisation of learners with LD, parental denial and inclusive education. Conclusion: From the results, it was evident that LD needs a more contextually appropriate definition in South Africa for teachers to correctly identify these learners. Furthermore, teachers require more training for them to effectively cope with learners with LD.

How is Child Trafficking Addressed in South African Schools’ Policies?

The current study focuses on child traf ficking and school policies in South African schools. The main aim of the study was to see if a topic of child traf ficking was covered by the school policy. The secondary aim was mainly to see how informed were the schools regarding the safety and the well-being of learners. The study was conducted in Johannesburg schools during a period of practice teaching by the fourth year students who were doing Bachelor of Education degree and Postgraduate Certificate in Life Orientation. This was a qualitative study, the participants comprised of school principals, deputy principals, heads of departments for the subject Life Orientation of ten high schools and school governing body members. Documents such as school policies were also analyzed. Findings revealed that school policies did not cover the topic of child trafficking per se although there were issues around safety . In this paper it is ar gued that schools were taking policies raw as they were from the Department of Education without adding or elaborating on what was suitable for their contexts.

Teenage mothers talk about their experience of teenage motherhood

abstract This article explores how teenage mothers talk about their subjective experience of teenage motherhood and their motivation to complete schooling after their pregnancy. Individual interviews were conducted with teenage mothers aged 15 to 19 years who attended an inner-city public school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Discursive analysis was used to identify and analyse key themes that emerged from the study. The findings indicate that despite the challenges of being a teenage mother, the participants were able to persevere towards achieving their academic goals and future aspirations. This was due to a heightened sense of responsibility and maturity, as well as great motivation to continue schooling so as to be able to provide a better future for their children. These findings are contrary to the existing mainstream literature, in which teenage mothers are often associated with high drop-out rates at school, poor academic performance and inadequate parenting skills. Recommendations are made for policy making and school interventions to acknowledge and celebrate teenage mothers’ sense of agency and heightened sense of growth post-pregnancy, rather than seeing them as a source of social ills.

Dentalisation as regional indicator in General South African English: An acoustic analysis of /z/, /d/ and /t/

Drawing on Bekker's (2007) study on the dentalisation of /s/ among young middle-class females from Johannesburg, this research aims to test whether the other traditionally alveolar oral obstruents, namely /z/, /d/ and /t/, are similarly fronted. The speech of two groups, one consisting of five females from prestigious private schools in Johannesburg and the other consisting of five females from similar schools in Cape Town, was recorded and the data analysed acoustically. For /z/, a spectral moments analysis was employed (Jongman, Wayland & Wong, 2000), which examined four parameters: centre of gravity, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. For /d/ and /t/, a metric established by Jongman, Blumstein and Lahiri (1984) was used, one which involves calculating the ratio of the root mean square (rms) amplitude at the onset of voicing against the rms amplitude of the stop burst. Results support the hypothesis that /z/ is dentalised by Johannesburg speakers, but do not support a similar hypothesis for /d/ and /t/.

The Influence of Mode of Test Administration on Test Performance

This study examined the influence of mode of test administration (paper based or computer-based) on anxiety levels and test performance. Participants were 44 learners (males = 22, females = 22) from three schools in Johannesburg, South Africa who completed both a computer and paper version of the Differential Aptitude Test—Form K Non-Verbal Reasoning test, the Computer Attitude Scale, the Computer Anxiety Rating Scale and Sarason's Test Anxiety Scale. Test anxiety was significantly related to both computer and paper based testing.