Browsing by Author "Bhana, Deevia."

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13-18 year old school girls’ account and their experience of gender violence in a township school in Umlazi.
(2016) Ngcobo, Siyanda Charles.; Bhana, Deevia.
This study is a qualitative study that draws on an interpretive approach. The gender relational theory was used as the theoretical lens with which to view how young girls’ gendered identities are socially constructed. The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which young girls aged 13-18 from Hope (pseudonym) Township School in Umlazi in KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa, perceive, comprehend and experience gender violence. The study examines the ways in which unequal gender power relations expose these girls to sexual violence, sexual abuse and HIV and AIDS. The study demonstrates that these girls who live in the informal settlements located near the school are vulnerable to patriarchal norms. The informal settlements from which these girls emerge are situated in lower socio-economic contexts and characterised by problematic social, economic and political issues, including high unemployment, a high crime rate, poverty, drug and substance abuse. The study is premised on the notion that all violence within the school context is gendered. This study seeks to investigate how the young girls construct their sexual identities amidst the prevailing gender violence. The findings show that some young girls are vulnerable to gender violence due to the school`s social and cultural belief systems that reinforce gender violence. The girls offer reasons for engaging in sexual practices that place them at risk, in spite of their knowledge of the dangers of sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS and unplanned pregnancy. The findings also show that these young girls engage in unprotected sex with their partners due to peer pressure, and a fear of being discriminated against. The findings also demonstrate that some young girls make attempts to resist male domination by openly resisting particular stereotypical and sexist expectations of them. Moreover, the fear of contracting HIV and AIDS and teenage pregnancy acted as a deterrent with regard to some girls participating in risky sexual behaviours. The results of this research also show that parents, teachers and the surrounding school community fail to implement interventions which aim to protect young girls from all forms of gender violence. Thus, the gendered nature of girls’ vulnerability to gender violence manifests through the abuse of power by boys in school. This study found that girls are victimised both within and outside the school. It appears that boys are exempt from multiple forms of gender inequalities and sexual violence that girls are subjected to in school. This research recommends that collaboration between schools, parents and the private sector should be encouraged so that girls’ vulnerability to gender violence can be addressed. In addition, this research advocates for long term intervention plans to protect young girls against all forms of oppression in schools.
African boys and gangs : construction of masculinities within gang cultures in a primary school in Inanda, Durban.
(2004) Maphanga, Innocent Dumisani.; Bhana, Deevia.
This thesis explores the ways in which a group of boys who belong to gangs enact their masculinity. The focus is on African boys' construction of their masculinities within gang cultures at a primary school in Inanda, Durban. The school is an exclusively African co-educational school and predominantly African teaching staff. Data collection involved qualitative methods that primarily include observation and unstructured interviews. These research tools were used to investigate the interrelatedness between violence, gangs, and masculinities. This study demonstrates that young boys in gangs enact violent masculinities which are bound up with issues of race/ethnicity, gender, class, and context in the making of young gang cultures. The performance of violent gang masculinity produced the exaggerated quality of masculine protest, in which violence is employed as a compensation for perceived weakness. This study reveals that gang of boys are enacting masculinity that is oppositional to school's authority by contravening school rules and regulations in multiple ways. This research has indicated that modes of masculinities are shaped, constrained or enabled by gang cultures. Gang boys acted out their protest masculinity in multiple ways. They are anti-school authority, anti-social and undisciplined. The study also demonstrates that there are many socio-economic and political factors that impact negatively on the school such as unemployment, poverty, and violent gang crime. The social, economic and political contexts are therefore crucially important in understanding a multiplicity of masculine identities amongst gang boys at the school under study. Schooling is an important arena where masculinities are enacted in various forms including violent (gang) masculinities. The overall conclusion stemming from the research project is that attempts to reduce violent gang masculinities in the school need to include a gender strategy that tackles gender inequality. In South Africa this could form part of the Life Skills curriculum. Much greater attention needs to be given, in the life skills curriculum and through the ethos of the school as a whole, to promote gender equality and in particular models of masculine identity not predicated on force and violence.
Beyond schooling: primary school girls experiences of gender and sexual violence.
(2019) Jewnarain, Dhanasagrie.; Bhana, Deevia.
This ethnography explored primary school girls’ experiences of gender and sexual violence at Westhills Primary School. My key objectives were to understand the underlying factors that shaped my respondents’ experiences of such violence, to develop an understanding of how teachers’ attitudes contributed to these experiences, and to explore how the girls constructed their sexual identities. Throughout the study I highlight the importance of understanding the context in which gender and sexual violence occurs. Gender and sexual violence and harassment is not easily explained but through girls’ own experiences this study seeks to provide a contextual understanding of such violence. Often feminist researchers suggest that such violence is always an exercise of power that boys and men engage in to subordinate girls. Sexualised verbal abuse, taunts and teasing are conduits through which boys assert themselves to display dominance. In this study I ask questions about how humiliating acts—such as the ‘sexualised touching’ of girls’ private parts—can be interpreted both as an indication of heterosexual teasing linked to heterosexual attraction and as a humiliating act that seeks to erode girls’ sexuality by drawing attention to their sexual development. Such confusion suggests that girls are complicit in their own subordination, just as they are subordinated by the performance of dominant heterosexual masculinities. The study shows that heterosexual femininity is shaped by broader structural, cultural and social processes in which girls are subordinated through rampant sexual harassment, abuse and violence. Girls’ experiences of persecution and oppression are located in socio-cultural factors that manifest in gender asymmetries that benefit the construct of hegemonic masculinities and subordinated femininities. Such misogyny is part of the enactment and pursuit of hegemonic ideals since it works to destroy a girl’s concept of herself, eroding her sexuality and dignity and causing her humiliation. To claim that the girls were passive victims nullifies their sexualities, just as to claim that boys performed sexually harassing behaviours towards girls because of their age and stage of development is too simplistic: it nullifies the legitimacy of the girls’ experiences of unwanted touching, fondling and groping. While the school thus became a platform or training ground for boys to display culturally exalted forms of masculinity, such as boldness, sexual entitlement, heterosexuality and the privilege of male power, it was also a training ground for the girls. However, embedded in the girls’ experiences of persecution and oppression was their negotiation of their own gender and sexual identities in heterosexuality. Girls, too, are invested in heterosexuality, and a central aim of this thesis is to show the agency that young girls’ exercise through their experiences of gender and sexual violence. The girls’ increased sexual assertiveness debunks the myth of the sexual innocence and sexual passivity in young school girls, resisting the construction of them as little people who have little or no agency. The girls’ resistance and challenge to the hierarchal positioning that the boys occupy constitutes a challenge to hegemonic displays of masculinity such as male supremacy and male domination.. Girls have a sophisticated sense of what constitutes sexual harassment and violence. They have the ability to name and make visible their complex gendered and sexual entanglement with and among boys. Listening carefully to what girls themselves raised as problematic, unwanted and oppressive, has enabled me to illuminate the nuanced dimensions of sexual harassment and violence – physical, verbal and emotional assault – and its dynamic association with heterosexual masculinity and the broader social and cultural environment through which girls are subordinated. The girls’ experiences of sexual harassment, and the teachers’ lack of interest in addressing it, suggest that whilst the education system has evolved over time, the violence that the girls experience is situated within a larger sociocultural construction of gender that has its roots in patriarchy which, whilst being malleable, remains steadfastly robust and resilient. I conclude by arguing that what is required is a rigorous and concerted effort on the part of all teaching staff to examine our teaching practices, our accountability and our integrity in relation to our jobs as teachers and our ethics of care towards the learners. More importantly, it requires an analysis of our own gendered behaviours and beliefs, and a critical reflection of how these contribute to the regulatory capture of young girls’ sexuality and agency. Once we have a better understanding of young girls’ sexuality and agency, we will be able to reject practices that condone gender inequalities in our school and beyond and offer alternatives whereby the school can become a core site of change, and where teachers are prepared and supported to challenge the widespread practice and tolerance of unequal gender norms.
Boys, girls and the making of violence in a Pinetown secondary school : a case study of gender violence.
(2015) Immaculate, Forlum Ngwa.; Bhana, Deevia.
This study explores the gendered nature of school spaces and shows how violence is produced within these spaces. The conceptualisation of space employed in this study refers to social and physical spaces. Social spaces consider school interactions such as those amongst learners, with teachers, and/or with other school authorities and how various forms of violence are produced during such interactions. On the other hand, physical spaces refer to specific places or spaces where violence is more likely to occur. The main premise of this study is that school spaces are gendered and that girls are the most vulnerable to the various forms of violence within schools spaces, both physical and social. The study was conducted at Nje Secondary School (pseudonym). The school is located in a township in the Mariannhill area in Pinetown district, KwaZulu-Natal province. A qualitative research approach was adopted within a social constructionist paradigmatic lens. Focus groups, individual interviews and observation were used to generate data. The theoretical framing of this study draws on the main ideas used to conceptualise gender violence within school spaces. The results of the study indicate that the school plays an important role in encouraging gender inequality through the gendering of school spaces. The gendered nature of school spaces serve as fertile ground for the manifestation of gender violence. Physical spaces such as the school playground, the hall ways, and behind the toilets and the walls of the school are prominent spaces where learners, especially boys, feel empowered to display their identities and power. Dominant ideologies of gender which uphold male domination of females influenced learners’ interactions in school; physical assault, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, sexual comments and heterosexual intimate partner violence are some examples of the enactments of violence cited by most girls within the social spaces in school. Based on those findings, the study concludes that gender violence within physical and social spaces in schools is a major social problem. Unfortunately, it is given less attention than it deserves. The implication of the study is that addressing the nature of such spaces is the basis for a long term solution to gender violence in schools. This study draws attention to and creates awareness of school spaces as important areas for interventions to reduce violence against girls.
Boys, sport and the construction of masculinities : an ethnographic study of sporty year-eight boys in a single-sex private school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
(2016) Bowley, Barbara Anne.; Bhana, Deevia.
Sport in South African schools plays a vital role in the development of some boys’ masculine development and construction. The focus of this qualitative research is on year-eight boys who play sport in a single-sex private independent school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This study investigates the influential role that sport plays in the social construction of their young masculinities. It is an ethnographic study conducted in 2012 and early 2013 in which I gained information and insight into the lives of the boys and the social factors that influenced the construction of their gendered masculine identities. Information and data for this study is generated from a year and a half long participant observation as well as interviews with the boys. With sport being an integral part of how they construct themselves, the purpose of this study is to examine in detail how they use sport to create masculine identities. During the complex construction of these masculine identities, the boys in this research battle with issues of race, class and sexuality; all of which are intertwined in their construction. I argue that there is a hierarchy of masculinities and a pecking order of power relations and those who do not meet the hegemonic (dominant) ideal are relegated to the position of subordinate ‘other’. The key question for this research that I have addressed is how boys come to invest in sport in schools and in what ways these decisions impact on their masculine identities. The boys’ peer group has a powerful influence in the formation of their masculinity so how the boys are seen by their peers and seniors is of enormous importance. They carefully choose and participate in certain sports that will bestow social status, gain acknowledgement and as a result, attain power among their peers. The study found that while sport afforded the boys a certain hierarchy within the broader context of the school community, these boys also competed amongst themselves to create a hierarchy within the dominant group of sporty boys to gain power over one another. I draw on critical masculinity studies and race theories and use social constructionist perspectives to provide an understanding of their investment in sport and how the socially constructed nature of masculinity is affected by their investment in sport. While the official practices of the school are to encourage participation in sport and much of the focus in South Africa is about encouraging sports, this research argues that the meanings that these boys ascribe to sport is gendered, racialised and sexualised. viii The findings show that the body plays an important role in the aspirations of a dominant masculine identity. The boys were consciously aware of the limitations of the body but also understood that the body is an integral part of the construction of masculinity. Homophobic taunts and put downs were used by the boys as symbolic markers to assert their heterosexual positions, gain power and reinforce their positions of dominance. The interviews reveal a number of footholds for understanding the importance that sport plays in the lives of these boys and more importantly, the ways in which sport and masculine power intertwine and become integral to the success of boyhood. Ethnographic research also shows that while sport is an area of unity and cohesiveness, amongst these boys sport is also an area of exclusion and marginalisation. Despite the importance that sport plays in many boys’ lives and the fact that sport may act as structures to create positive masculinities, this study reveals that sport is also an area where many boys become isolated and rejected.
A case study of girl’s violence among high school learners in Durban.
(2016) David, Virgil Eugene.; Bhana, Deevia.
Abstract available in the PDF.
Children’s meanings of same-sex sexualities: a study of 8 and 9 year-old boys and girls in a primary school.
(2020) Sithole, Nosipho Marcia.; Bhana, Deevia.; Moosa, Shaaista.
This study explores the meanings of same-sex sexualities among Grade 3 children aged eight and nine years old. This study took place at Moonlight Primary School (pseudonym) situated in Newlands West, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Thirty learners were involved in this study; they were all interviewed individually in order to share their meanings of same-sex sexualities. Findings reveal that children in primary schools define same-sex sexuality as boys who display feminine traits or girls who display masculine traits. Within this study, findings also reveal that children do not regard same-sex sexuality as a sexual identity, but as an ‘act’ that is done by boys and girls who do not want to conform to normative gendered traits. Boys and girls in primary school have been deemed innocent and asexual. However, this study reveals that children in primary school monitor normative gender traits and bully peers who do not conform to heteronormative traits. The school playground is one of the sites where children’s sexualities are scrutinised by peers. In primary school, games are gendered and children who do not conform to that are marginalised and victimised by peers. In South Africa, the foundation phase curriculum does not include same-sex sexualities. Families and places of worship condemn same-sex sexualities. Parents do not want their children to be associated with homosexuality. Parents also presume that all children are heterosexuals. They also believe sexuality is for adults and not for children because they are deemed to be still young and innocent. Study also reveals that media (television) helps children to identify non-normative gendered traits. Findings reveal that religious institutions do not share their thoughts and views about same-sex sexualities. Some places of worship clearly state that homosexuals are bad people because they do not conform to normative gendered traits and are perceived as a threat to the status quo. The findings also reveal that boys and girls always want to maintain normative gendered traits in school, therefore they always play with peers of the same sex to avoid being bullied by peers. Homophobic insults and homophobic bullying are very common in primary schools, therefore usage of the word gay or isitabane (derogatory word for gay) is very frequently used by children.
'Coloured' boys in 'trouble' : an ethnographic investigation into the constructions of coloured working-class masculinities in high school in Wentworth, Durban.
(2009) Anderson, Bronwynne Mardia.; Bhana, Deevia.
The construction of sexual and gendered identities amongst coloured school girls.
(2011) Firmin, Cleo Rose.; Bhana, Deevia.; Anderson, Bronwynne Mardia.
This study aims to explore how young coloured girls, aged 16-17, give meaning to sexuality. Coloured girls’ are often marginalised in South African research and debate around gender and sexuality. This study focuses on coloured girls in two different social and economic contexts in Durban. The one context is Wentworth which remains a predominantly coloured working class area. The other is a middle class former white area in Glenwood Durban. The study draws on qualitative research using interview methods to focus on eight girls in these two areas. Three of the girls emerged from Glenwood whilst five others live in Wentworth. The aim of the study was to understand the ways in which class impacted on their meanings of sexuality. Gender, race and class are intertwined social constructs which assist in the formulation of sexual identities. This study investigated the similarities and differences between the two groups of coloured girls. They differed in relation to: their mindsets regarding everyday life, for example the girls from Glenwood interacted with boys from all four racial groups and had a better understanding of their different cultures. The girls from Wentworth found boys from racial groups other than coloured more attractive due to lack of knowledge of them. Thus the girls from Glenwood were open to multi-racial relationships whilst the girls from Wentworth were afraid to do so, as they would be subject to ridicule from the community. In Wentworth ones status is defined by clothing, cash and cars and in order for these young girls to be successful in this community they must affiliate themselves with boys/men who can provide such things; even if they come at a high price. In this study the girls were similar in that they all wanted to be independent, wanted to finish school, find good jobs, and buy their own cars, thus we see the feminine agency of coloured girls from two different socio-economic contexts.
Constructions of gender and literacy practices in a primary school.
(2004) Singh, Janitha.; Bhana, Deevia.
This study sets out to examine the process through which gender is constituted in the English classroom in relation to the teaching of one comprehension lesson at Springfield Model Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal. The study looks at one lesson in-depth and delves into the representations of gender in the lesson. Using qualitative methods and drawing from a comprehension passage entitled, "Shining moon and his toy canoe" (Appendix 1) the study examines the ways in which boys and girls in a grade 7 classroom made sense of the comprehension passage and how that sense-making relates to their understanding of what it means to be male and female. The study shows how resource materials (like the prescribed comprehension, for instance) used in the English classroom articulate young children's knowledge about gender and how they position themselves in the discourses of gender. An analysis and examination of how the learners understood the passage is undertaken, to see how gendered messages were generated within the English lesson. An interview with the teacher was conducted to examine how gender is constructed in the teaching of the comprehensions lesson. Two important findings are highlighted in this study. The text is an important tool through which gender is elaborated. The boys and girls in this study positioned themselves in contradictory ways to dominant perceptions about gender. However, largely they draw on dominant ideas about gender and maintain the status quo. The research also demonstrates further the ways in which the teacher reinforces notions of 'masculinity' and 'femininity', despite her best intentions.
Constructions of gender in the context of free primary education : a multi-site case study of three schools in Lesotho.
(2009) Morojele, Pholoho Justice.; Bhana, Deevia.; Moletsane, Relebohile.
his thesis reports on a qualitative study of stakeholders’ constructions of gender in the context of the Free Primary Education policy in three primary schools in Lesotho. Through the lens of the social constructionist paradigm, the thesis examines how parents, teachers and children living in and around these primary schools think, act, and feel in relation to gender in their academic and social worlds. It looks at the ways in which these stakeholders engage with issues of gender in Lesotho communities ravaged by gender inequality. Based on parents’, teachers’ and children’s constructions of gender, the thesis suggests strategies that might help address inequitable gender relations in and around the primary schools. The thesis grounded my personal life experiences, as the researcher, as crucial in the development of methodological strategies and processes of this study. In a flexible and responsive manner, the study utilised informal conversations, semistructured interviews, observations, questionnaires and document analysis, as methods of data collection. It found that, influenced by ‘discursive constructs’ of providence and God’s will, child-adult relations, naturalness of gender differences and attributes as well as the Basotho culture, parents and teachers constructed gender in ways that reinforced existing gender inequality in and around the primary schools. The structural and social organisation of the schools that tended to allocate girls and boys into rigid social categories, and parents’ and teachers’ constructions of gender which reinforced inequitable gender relations, were found to have significant impact on the regulation of children’s experiences and meanings of gender. The study found that children’s experiences of gender informed how they actively engaged with issues of gender and the meanings they attached to being girls and boys. The study traces how Basotho culture and religion have been fundamental to gender inequality and violence in Lesotho. These factors encouraged the schools to use structural/physical identities (such as having biological sex as a boy/girl), as the bases for allocation of girls and boys into rigid and inequitable social categories. The dominant discourses of gender that emanated from these factors, ascribed stereotypic attributes to males (boys and men) and females (girls and women) as means to ground inequitable gendered human aptitudes, which were used to justify gender inequality. The study also identifies ways in which girls defy the insistence on their subordination, and sees fault lines where gender inequality can be confronted without abandoning Basotho culture.
Determinants of father involvement : children, women and men's experiences of support children receive from men in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2013) Makusha, Tawanda.; Bhana, Deevia.
This thesis examined the various determinants of father-child involvement, in particular, the effects of father residence, survival status and the presence of other men in households of which the focal child is a member. The study explored children, women and men‟s reports of support children receive from men in the context of poverty in KwaZulu-Natal. Data for this study came from the Human Sciences Research Council‟s project on child and family well-being in the context of HIV/AIDS and poverty entitled “Sibhekelela izingane zethu” (SIZE). SIZE is a community-representative, repeated measures study of 1961 households in 24 randomly selected school communities in the Msunduzi Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Quantitative data analysis was limited to baseline data. This thesis only utilized data from households where all three participants (caregiver, focal child and household head/representative of the household head) took part in the survey (N = 1793). In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with twenty focal children, twenty female caregivers and sixteen fathers/father-figures nominated by the children in twenty randomly selected households. The quantitative part of this thesis focused on the various determinants of father involvement, in particular, the effects of father residence or survival status and the presence of other men in households of which the focal child is a member. Household socio-economic status, household size and access to water and electricity are used to describe the households in the sample and compare the wealth of households with men and those without male members. The study also provides socio-demographic information of the individual men in the households. It presents results of individual men‟s relationships to focal children, their ages, and marital, educational, and employment status. This data is used to examine the associations between fathers and other men, and their socio-economic capacity. This study acknowledges that while father-child co-residence is an important determinant of father involvement, for many years in South Africa this has not been a realizable situation. In this regard, this thesis concludes that residential fatherhood is a hard-won status achieved by men with substantially higher parental capacity and general lifetime success, particularly economic and social achievements which make them able to marry and co-reside with their children. However, despite low rates of father-child co-residency, most children have contact with their non co-resident fathers although only a third receives financial support from them. The first qualitative study of this thesis explored children, women and men‟s experiences of support children receive from men in families. The rationale behind this study was that most research on fathers‟ involvement is usually based on men‟s self-reports, women‟s appraisals or children‟s accounts of men‟s involvement. Results from this thesis indicate that men are important in children‟s lives. The nomination of a father-figure by all children, even if the man was not their biological father ascertained that all children receive some support from men. The results also highlight the influence of biological ties, co-residence, family social network, and marriage or father-mother relationship on fathers‟ involvement with their children – financial and the quality of their interaction. This qualitative study improves methodologies and addresses the validity, reliability and interrelations of children, men and women‟s reports of men‟s involvement in providing support to children in a South African context. This study was able to determine the informal, local systems of family support and the variety of contributions made by men in supporting children. In this way, the study provides a basis for research on local father involvement and for future comparison. The second qualitative study considered how childhood experiences with fathers are associated with women‟s expectations and men‟s experiences of fathering. Data was analysed in pairs of the focal child‟s caregiver and father-figure. Data from four women who were not paired was analysed individually. Results generally support both the modelling and compensatory hypotheses. Men and women exercise agency in negotiating the demands of fatherhood regardless of their childhood history with fathers. Childhood experiences with fathers, quality of father-mother relationship and father‟s individual characteristics are important determinants of father-child involvement. This study is one of the few studies that have counted, described and explored the role of men in supporting children in households. Clearly more research, both quantitative and qualitative, is needed to examine the several determinants of father‟s residency – including socio-cultural expectations, reasons for absence and involvement in children‟s lives. Understanding these fundamentals of fatherhood is crucial for the improvement of family policies already in place to better support and enable men to be more involved in the well-being of children.
Educators' and learners' perceptions of gender and sport in a secondary school in the Umlazi South District, Durban.
(2007) Naidoo, Saraspathy.; Bhana, Deevia.
Within the new South African curriculum Physical Education (PE) or school sport has
An ethnographic study of teenage pregnancy : femininities and motherhood among pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers at school in Inanda.
(2012) Nkani, Frances Nomvuyo.; Bhana, Deevia.; Morrell, Robert Graham.
This study has focused on pregnancy and parenting of 10 African young women between the ages of 16 and 19, from one of Inanda schools. Drawing from ethnography, the study explores these young women's choices of boyfriends, the circumstances that led to their pregnancy, the socio-cultural influence during pregnancy and at childbirth, kind of support they receive at home, school and boyfriends and experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. An examination of how they balance their varied roles as mothers and learners as well as the effects of pregnancy and parenting to their schooling. Although the South African Schools Act (Department of Education 1996) regulates the support of pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers in schools, the data reveal that pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers still experience challenges in schools. These challenges range from being stigmatised, discriminated and humiliated by teachers and peers, lack of support from teachers, decline in academic performance as well as the inability to participate in school's extra-mural activities. However the study reveals that there is some degree of institutional support which accounted for the teenage mothers' overall performance and achievement; there are some teachers and learners who provide some kind of support to the pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers. The thesis further argues that motherhood is very demanding, challenging and very disruptive of the young mothers' schoolwork; but the young mothers indicate self-determination and resilience to find ways of successfully juggling motherhood and schooling. On the other hand, the young fathers understand their social role as that of being a provider for the child and the care giving is only for womenfolk. Some of the young men acknowledged the importance of the young mothers' completing their schooling and realized that they needed support other than financial provision. The young men, however, do not provide the childcare themselves; they shift the caring responsibility to their own mothers. The focus on the pregnant and teenage mothers draws attention to possible ways of providing more support in order they fare better in their education for better chances of employment and gender equity.
An exploration of the ways in which secondary school girls construct their relationship with mathematics and mathematical literacy.
(2007) Vermeulen, Charmaine.; Bhana, Deevia.
This study explores the ways in which Grade 11 girls from an independent, predominantly
Exploring young women's experiences of teenage motherhood in schools : a gendered perspective.
(2010) Mcambi, Sithembile Judith.; Bhana, Deevia.
A qualitative study was conducted at Oakleigh Girls High School which aimed at exploring the ways in which seven teenage girls from a single-sex, predominantly middle-class state school negotiate the demands of schooling and parenting. Drawing upon the findings of the focus group interviews conducted, the study aimed to illuminate how these teenage mothers juggle their varied roles as mothers and learners and its effects for the educational outcome of young mothers at school. In this study I argue that even though the South African Schools Act (Department of Education 1996) regulates the support of pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers in schools, however teenage mothers still experience difficulties in schools. These difficulties range from fear of the parents’ response, child fathers’ response, as well as teachers’ response, rejection from peers and teachers, ridicule from teachers and peers, lack of support from teachers, decline in academic performance as well as the inability to participate in school activities. However in the same study there were positive elements that also surfaced, in that some teachers, learners as well as a support group provided some kind of support to the teenage mothers even though it was very minimal. Working with teachers to support young mothers at school remains important.
Failing boys : poor achievement and the construction of masculinity of six Indian boys in a secondary school in Chatsworth, Durban.
(2004) Maduray, Manimagalay.; Bhana, Deevia.
This research project investigates the ways in which six Indian boys who have been officially proclaimed failures in grade 11 construct their masculinity in Meadowlands Secondary School, a predominantly Indian technical secondary school in a working class area of Chatsworth. The way in which failing Indian boys construct their masculinity is under-researched in South Africa. When boys are officially declared academic failures by the school, they often take other ways to validate their masculine identities. This study focused on the complex relationship between their academic failure and the formation of their masculinities. Drawing from semi-structured in-depth interviews with six boys who failed grade 11 in 2003 and are currently repeating grade 11 in 2004, the study shows the complex relationship between school failure, and the formation of boys' masculinities in three areas. These areas are the formal academic dimension of schooling, the informal social dimension of schooling and outside school activities. The major fmdings from the interviews indicate that boys construct their masculinity by resisting the demands placed on them in schools and engage in disruptive activities. They find alternate power and prestige in wearing brand name clothes, wearing jewellery, carrying cellular phones, having girlfriends, clubbing, taking drugs and joining gangs. They find school boring and equate academic achievement with being feminine and thus being gay and resist doing school-work. They are thus able to construct their masculinities in ways that are anti-school and anti-authority. The study concludes by suggesting that failing boys at MSS are in trouble and that schools and teachers must be more alert to why failing boys behave in the ways that they do. At MSS it is suggested that the school encourages the development of sport as a way of exposing boys to different ways of being a boy.
Failing to attract males in the early years of teaching : a study of male undergraduate Bachelor of Education students at the Univerisity of KwaZulu-Natal (Edgewood Campus)
(2013) Moosa, Shaaista.; Bhana, Deevia.
This qualitative study addresses the problem of the reluctance of males in a South African higher education institution to pursue teaching in the early years. The main question to arise from this problem is this; why are males in a local South African higher education context reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years? The central claim in addressing this question is that the constructions of masculinity play a huge role in influencing the concentration of men opting to teach young children to be low. My aims and purpose of this study is to therefore understand why males in a local South African higher education context are reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years and the implication for gender equality. The research context of this study lies in the domain of literature on studies of men, masculinities and teaching in the early years, particularly from the West, as there has been a dearth of research on this matter in the South African context. I begin from the premise that the constructions of masculinity play a role in influencing the low concentration of men opting to teach young children. The method I used to achieve these aims was that of conducting individual qualitative interviews with 15 male undergraduate BEd students at Edgewood Campus who were not specialising in the Foundation Phase (early years of teaching). My results show that that the constructions of masculinity indeed play a role in influencing these men not to opt to teach young children and from these I am able to conclude that male pre-service teachers’ account of teaching and teachers of young children is an account of gender and doing masculinity. It was found that several issues served to deter the male students in this study from entering into the early years of teaching and these issues dealt largely with the dominant constructions of masculinity and femininity. These issues included instances where the male students constructed the early years of teaching as a profession ideally suited towards females because females according to the students were caring, nurturing and had more patience to work with young children in the early years of schooling. The higher years of teaching on the other hand was considered to be a more suitable profession for males as a result of it being characterized by a greater intellectual capacity and thus a higher status profession. The significance of this study lies in designing suitable interventions which will encourage more men to enter teaching in the early years. In short, this dissertation addresses the problem of understanding why males are so reluctant to enter teaching in the early years of schooling. It has done so by highlighting the reasons why males in a local South African higher education context are reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years. This becomes necessary in order to develop suitable intervention strategies in order to achieve a more balanced ratio of male and female teachers in the early years of teaching. Furthermore achieving a balanced ratio of male and female teachers in this area of teaching can be seen as a significant step towards the realization of gender equality in the workplace.
From 12 to 15: girls, boys, gender and sexuality at a high school in the North West Province = Kusukela eminyakeni eyi-12 kuya kweyi-15: amantombazane, abafana, ubulili nemizwa ngokocansi esikoleni samabanga aphezulu esifundazweni iNorth West.
(2023) Rizvi, Rabia Khatoon.; Bhana, Deevia.
This study examines the construction of gender and sexuality amongst girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 15 at a private school in the North West province of South Africa. It seeks to understand how learners negotiate gender and sexuality at school, and how the school environment and beyond contributes to their construction of gender and sexuality. It also investigates the social processes that promote unequal power relations between boys and girls at school. An ethnographic research method was used to conduct this study and the research instruments were observations, individual interviews and focus group discussions. Participants were selected using a mix of convenience and purposive sampling methods. Many of the participants were boarding learners, which provides a distinct insight into the ways in which the boarding space is a highly generative site for the production of gender and sexuality. A total of 101 learners participated in this study and 69 semi-structured interviews and 16 focus group discussions were conducted with learners across grades 7, 8 and 9. The data were analysed with the theory of social constructionism. The findings show that boys and girls pursue pleasure and desire in a myriad of ways within the school context. They challenge sexual innocence by expressing the types of relationships they would like to enter into and show authority in navigating romantic relationships. They use social media for flirtation and engage in the consumption of pornography. Furthermore, the expansion of sexuality is demonstrated as learners choose to enter into queer relationships. However, this is mitigated by the performance of hegemonic masculinity which places girls in a subordinate position. Girls are slut-shamed for resisting traditional norms of femininity and also experience sexual harassment within the school space. Boys and girls both participate in risky behaviour and there is a culture of silence and complicity that is created around it. Bullying and substance abuse are wielded as opportunities to portray aggressive masculinities and femininities. Girls’ bodies are policed by authority figures and by the boys which restricts their expression of gender and sexuality. This study argues that gender and sexuality are perceived by learners through a binary lens, and that girls largely remain in a subordinate position whilst boys conform to the standards of hegemonic masculinity. It is recommended that platforms need to be created to question these prevailing attitudes and to provide opportunities for boys and girls to explore and alter their traditional beliefs around gender and sexuality. Iqoqa. Lolu cwaningo lwaluhlola ngokwakheka kobulili nemizwa ngokocansi phakathi kwamantombazane nabafana abaphakathi kweminyaka eyi-12 kuya kweyi-15 esikoleni esizimele esifundazweni iNorth West. Lwalufuna ukuqonda ngokuthi ngabe abafundi baxoxisana kanjani ngobulili nangemizwa ngokocansi esikoleni nokuthi ngabe indawo yasesikoleni nangaphandle ineqhaza elingakanani ekuzakheleni kwabo ubulili nemizwa ngokocansi. Ucwaningo lwabuye lwaphenya ngezinqubo zenhlalobantu okuyizona ezikhuthaza ukungalingani kwamandla obudlewane phakathi kwabafana namantombazane esikoleni. Kwasetshenziswa indlela yocwaningo ngokuzibandakanya komphakathi ukuze kuqhutshwe lolu cwaningo, kanti izinsizakusebenza zocwaningo kwakungeyokuqaphela, izinhlwayalwazi zikayedwana kanye nezingxoxo zamaqoqo azocwaningwa. Kwaqokwa ababambiqhaza bocwaningo ngokuhlanganisa izindlelakwenza ezimbili eyokuqoka ngokukuvumelayo neyokuqoka ngenhloso. Iningi lababambiqhaza kwakungabafundi abafunda behlala ezikoleni, abanikezela ngesokujula kwenhlukanisozindlela lapho indawo yezikole zabafundi abafunda behlala khona ibe indawo enobudlelwano obuphezulu bokukhiqiza ubulili nemizwa ngokocansi. Isamba sabafundi abayi-101 babamba iqhaza kulolu cwaningo, izihlwayalwazi ezisakuhleleka ezingama-69 kanye nezingxoxo zamaqoqo acwaningwayo ayi-16 kwenziwa kubafundi bebanga lesi-7, elesi-8 kanye nelesi-9. Imininingo yahlaziywa ngenjulalwazi yeso lomphakathi. Okwatholwa wucwaningo kwabonisa ukuthi abafana namantombazane balandela injabulo nesifiso ngezindlela eziningi ezahlukene ngokwesimo sesikole. Banikeza inselelo kulabo abangasho lutho ngemizwa ngokocansi ngokuthi basho izinhlobo zobudlelwano abangathanda ukungena kuzo babuye bakhombise igunya lokufuna ubudlelwano bezothando. Basebenzisa izinkundla zokuxhumana ukuze badlale ngezothando baze babuke izithombe zocansi. Ngaphezu kwalokho, kuyanda ukukhombisa umuzwa ngokocansi ngenkathi abafundi bekhetha ukungena ebudlelwaneni obuphambene nobejwayelekile. Nakuba, kunciphiswa ukusebenza kuqonelwa ubulisa okubeka amantombazane endaweni ephansi. Amantombazane ayahlukunyezwa uma emelana nezimiso zendabuko zabesifazane futhi babuye bahlukunyezwe ngokocansi khona esikoleni. Abafana namantombazane bobabili bayalibamba iqhaza ekuziphatheni okunobungcuphe kanti kunomkhuba wokuthula nokwenza izinto ezingahambisani nesimosimilo esakhekayo kulokho. Ukuhlukumeza nokusetshenziswa kabi kwezidakamizwa kuthathwa njengamathuba aveza ubufazane nobulisa obunendluzula. Imizimba yamantombazane igadwe ngabathile abanegunya kanye nabafana abanqinda ukuveza ubulili nemizwa yabo ngokocansi. Lolu cwaningo luphikisana ngokuthi ubulili nemizwa ngokocansi kubonwa ngabafundi ngeso lokubona kabili nokuthi amantombazane ahlala kakhulu endaweni ephansi kanti abafana bayahambisana neqophelo lokunqonelwa ubulisa. Kwanconywa isidingo sezithangami okumele zakhiwe ukuze zibuze ngale ndlelakubuka eqhubekayo bese zinikezela ngamathuba kubafana namantombazane ukuze bazihlole bese beguqula izinkolelo zezendabuko yabo mayelana nobulili kanye nemizwa ngokocansi.
Gender and sexual risk amongst young Africans in the KwaMakhutha township, in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2011) Mirindi, Mushagalusa Marcel.; Bhana, Deevia.; Anderson, Bronwynne Mardia.
This study sets out to examine understandings of gender and sexual risks amongst young Africans in the KwaMakhutha township, in KwaZulu-Natal. Young Africans between the ages of 16 to 17 years old were interviewed to ascertain what they perceive to be risky sexual behaviour and why young people engage in such activities. The study also aimed to understand whether young people understood the negative consequences of risky behaviour. Such insight from young peoples' perspectives is very helpful in understanding what schools can do to prevent risk taking activities especially in the context of AIDS. KwaZulu-Natal is the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa and young people between the ages of 15-24 are very vulnerable with young women facing disproportionate vulnerability. A qualitative research method was used in this study and ten in-depth interviews were conducted in one of the high schools in the KwaMakutha Township, outside Durban. The study finds that gender inequalities is central in understanding sexual risk and constructions of masculinity and femininity reproduce sexual and gender relations of power where young women remain vulnerable. Schools should take the voices of young people seriously and address gender inequalities as a key area of intervention.