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An investigation into adult learner dropout at a community learning centre in KwaZulu- Natal.
(2024) Maphumulo, Precious Primrose Bongiwe.; Harley, Anne.
Adult education is essential to national development. Education is the bedrock of any nation’s quest to stem poverty. Adult education affords individuals previously denied access to education another chance at learning and self-development. It helps bridge the gap between the learned and the unlearned and further accelerate the achievement of set national goals and objectives. Thus, this research examines adult education in general, but from the propensity for dropout amongst adult learners. Specifically, the research investigated the adult learner dropout at Khulubuse Community Learning Centre. The study involved thirteen (13) participants who were purposively selected. These participants include five learners who had dropped out, five learners who had completed their studies, and three educators from this adult learning centre. Three research questions guided the study: What are the causes of learner dropout from the AET program at Khulubuse Community Learning Centre CLC? How does teaching and learning at Khulubuse Community Learning Centre CLC contribute to learner dropout? How can learner dropout be prevented at Khulubuse Community Learning Centre CLC? Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were thematically analysed. The theoretical framework (Tinto’s theory) was used as a lens for analysing data. This study shows personal learner issues at home such as work obligations, personal circumstances, class related issues and logistical issues impacted on learners’ decisions to drop out. Teaching and learning at the centre, however, had far less impact. The study concluded with recommendations on strategies that could reduce learner drop out at the centre.
Exploring the nature of support that is provided to early career teachers by education officials in schools.
(2025) Mohanoe, Masechaba.; Bhengu, Thamsanqa Thulani.
The study sought to solicit the nature of support that is provided to Early Career Teachers (ECTs) by the Education Officials in schools. Current scholars unearth that during ECTs first years at work, they are very energetic and ambitious but are daunted by the challenges that they face in schools. Scholars further reveal that these challenges are lack of training and development, lack of resources allocated to ECTs along with poor working conditions. They are known to hinder ECT from being able to work to their best capacity. Moreover, scholars divulged academic decisions are imposed on ECTs. The study scrutinised various forms of support that are provided to ECTs by Education officials. Utilising the qualitative research design within the interpretive paradigm, the study sought to explore the factors that facilitate and hinder support that is provided to ECTs in schools. The study adopted Case Study methodology. Two underpinning theoretical frameworks which are the Adult Learning Theory and the Instructional Leadership Theory were used to steer the study. 17 participants were selected using snowball sampling which allowed more participants to be sampled as I commenced with data generation. Participants range from School Management Team to ECTs and Subject Advisors (3 Principals, 3 Deputy Principals, 3 Departmental Heads, 3 Senior Teachers, 3 ECTs and 2 Subject Advisors). The 3 selected schools that are part of the study form a cohort of the Thabo Mofutsanyana district. Semi-structured interviews and documents review were used to generate data. Using Thematic Analysis, the findings of the study have provided the insights of the participant’s experiences such as negligence they endured due to not receiving support and factors that discouraged the Education officials from providing support to ECTs. Four major themes and sub-themes emerged from the generated data. The major themes are as follows: The perspectives of ECTs and Education Officials regarding Educator support, The experiences of ECTs in being provided with support by Education Officials, The forms of support that are provided to ECTs by Education officials, The rationale why the ECTs need support from the Education Officials. Lesson learnt deepen our understanding of the importance of supporting ECTs in schools such as finding strategies to enhance the development and training of the ECTs.
A narrative inquiry examining the influences on first year university students’ writing challenges.
(2023) Mkhize, Zanele.; Campbell, Bridget.
The purpose of this research study was to examine the influences on first-year university students’ writing challenges to ascertain if there is a link between students’ secondary school literacy practices and their current academic challenges in university. The theoretical framework that was employed was the social constructivism theory. The participants were able to narrate their stories using varied data generation methods such as literate life history, visual representation, and focus groups. This study adopted the interpretivist paradigm. This research philosophy allowed the researcher to hear and understand participants’ lived experiences of their literacy practices. One of the main findings is that first-year B.Ed. students find it challenging to move from secondary school literacy to academic literacy, and thus they need assistance in understanding academic discourse. The findings indicate that students need assistance with academic writing, academic reading, referencing and citing from sources, and academic literacy as a whole. A further finding is that some students face academic writing challenges due to not adequately being taught writing skills in secondary school. As a result, the study’s findings highlighted that students were not aware of basic academic conventions due to the literacy gap that exists between secondary schooling and universities. The study concludes with recommendations.
Grade 11 learners’ engagement with issues of power in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
(2023) Pillay, Jesse Junai.; Pillay, Ansurie.
In South African schools, there is a need for discussions on how to integrate literacy meaningfully into learners' lives. This integration could foster critical thinking and address issues of social justice. Despite a democratic dispensation in South Africa, the problems of oppression persist in various forms. In this dissertation, I argue that the English Home Language classroom has the potential to be a cornerstone for social transformation. Drawing on data from 55 Grade 11 English Home Language learners in a public high school in Verulam (Durban), this interpretive, qualitative study sought to understand their recognition and understanding of issues of power in the play, Macbeth. Additionally, it sought to explore how learners connected issues of power in the play to those in their own lives. The study delved into how events and characters in the play contributed to the construction of learners’ beliefs about power. A phenomenological research design, underpinned by a theoretical framework of two theories – critical pedagogy and critical literature pedagogy – provided the foundation for this study and facilitated the exploration and understanding of the lived experiences of learners studying this play. Utilising thematic analysis to analyse the data, generated from an open-ended questionnaire, a visual task, and semi-structured interviews, the findings indicate that the teaching of the play, Macbeth, within a critical framework, may be used as a catalyst to raise learners' awareness of issues of power in their lives. The findings also showed that by working beyond the traditional methods of teaching the play and using aspects of critical reading, learners seized knowledge with enthusiasm and critically reflected on issues of power in their lives, despite facing language barriers when reading Shakespeare’s text. Notably, the learners were able to draw on their experiences through critically engaging with the play to construct their beliefs about power in various ways. Overall, the data indicated learners’ increased awareness of issues of power and the emergence of a nascent sense of agency. This newfound agency suggests the potential initiation of a process aimed at addressing issues of power in their lives, communities, and the broader world.
Effects of the economic community of West African States' collective moral responsibility and ethical challenges on the dynamics of the Liberian Civil War and outcome of the military intervention from 1990 to 1997.
(2025) Alipole, Waluza.; Matolino, Bernard.; Okyere-Manu, Beatrice Dedaa.
Although there is a wide range of literature on the ethics of war, which equally applies to military intervention in internal conflicts, an area that has received little attention is the contribution of third parties’ failure to embrace the ethics of military intervention in internal conflicts to prolonged, intractable, and recurrent civil wars in post-Cold War Africa. The main third-party ethical challenges in military intervention, which are a lack of impartiality, a lack of altruism as interests take the centre stage, and a lack of consistency, usually manifest in more harm than good. Furthermore, failure by third parties to take accountability or moral responsibility for undesirable outcomes of military intervention causes resentment among the affected people. This thesis interrogated ethics and moral responsibility in the ECOWAS’ military intervention in Liberia from 1990 to 1997, mainly to establish whether there was any link between ethical flaws in the military intervention and ther factors, contributed to the prolongation and intractability of the civil war. The protracted and unabated civil war resulted in approximately 200,000 deaths, about 2.5 million displacements, and spread to Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast (which changed to a French name, Côte d’Ivoire, in 1986), and Guinea-Bissau, among other manifestations. The thesis recommended shared responsibility for participant states’ contribution to the longevity and intractability of the civil war in Liberia rather than collective moral responsibility on the ECOWAS as a collective. The research further recommended the need to inculcate the ethics of military intervention through regular multi-national training exercises, the maintenance of the Lead-Nation Concept, and that although military intervention must be a last resort, there is a need to balance between the need to save lives as determined by the fluidity of the situation, to intervene even before exhausting all non-violent means. protracted and intractable civil war. The thesis assessed the extent to which the ECOWAS embraced ethics and collective moral responsibility during its military intervention in the Liberian internal conflict from 1990 to 1997. It also examined whether the ECOWAS was morally responsible for the dynamics of the Liberian civil war and the outcome of the intervention and proffered recommendations on how best sub-regional organisations can embrace ethics and collective moral responsibility during military intervention in internal conflicts. A theoretical framework comprising Collective Moral Responsibility, the Just War Theory, and Aquinas’ Theory of Double-Effect guided the thesis. Moral responsibility was conceptualised according to Martha Klein’s two components as; “having a moral obligation to act and the accomplishment of the criteria for deserving blame or praise (punishment or reward) for a morally significant act or omission” (Klein 2005:3). The study was mostly based on Klein’s second component of moral responsibility, which ascribes moral responsibility as blame for a morally undesirable consequence of an action (for this study, military intervention) by an agent (the ECOWAS through its intervention force, the ECOMOG). A qualitative, desk-search, case studyresearch design was adopted to collect, analyse, and interpret data on ethics and moral responsibility in the ECOWAS’ military intervention in Liberia from 1990 to 1997. The study found that the ECOWAS was morally justified to intervene militarily in the civil war inLiberia, and it upheld ethics to a large extent in its decision to intervene. However, although the ECOWAS is credited for restoring peace in Liberia, as a moral good, albeit after about eight years, its ethical flaws, mainly lack of impartiality through its participant states’ alignment and supporting opposing functions and participating in theexploitation of Liberia's lucrative resources, among other factors, contributed to the prolongation and intractability of the civil war. The protracted andunabated civil war resulted in approximately 200,000 deaths, about 2.5 million displacements, and spread to Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast (which changed to a French name, Côte d’Ivoire, in 1986), and Guinea-Bissau, among other manifestations. The thesis recommended shared responsibility for participant states’ contribution to the longevity and intractability of the civil war in Liberia rather than collective moral responsibility on the ECOWAS as a collective. The research further recommended the need to inculcate the ethics of military intervention through regular multi-national training exercises, the maintenance of the Lead-Nation Concept, and that although military intervention must be a last resort, there is a need to balance between the need to save lives as determined by the fluidity of the situation, to intervene even before exhausting all non-violent means.