Browsing by Author "Bradbury, Jill."

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Child adults / adult children : growing up in KZN.
(2010) Haley, Jeanne.; Bradbury, Jill.
Although it is acknowledged in the Southern African literature that children living in conditions of poverty have always assumed more household responsibilities, the AIDS epidemic has exacerbated this and significantly changed the nature of childhood as an increasing number of children face life without parents. The study sought to gain insight into the experiential lives of six “child” heads of households and their siblings and to explore, in particular, how they construct their sense of self and family. For the purposes of the study a child-headed household was deemed a household in which a child of 18 or under or still in school was the household head in the absence of any other dependable, permanent adult figure. The study used a narrative approach and thematic analysis and the results emerging from the children's accounts of themselves were focused around the core themes of adult responsibility in the absence of adult status and relationships with adults in the extended family and wider community. The idea of children or adolescents competently running households, taking responsibility for themselves and their futures and adopting a more democratic and shared means of decision making, further challenges conventional conceptions of the „borders‟ between childhood and adulthood and family structure that have been contested and shifting through history. However, being on the front line of social change comes at a cost. Challenging society's popular understanding of children as passive, dependent and innocent positions these young people outside of the norm and what they report is that they feel alone, unheard and victimised. The findings are discussed within the context of Burman's critique of psychology's traditional theoretical notions of universal and innately driven development and a re-conceptualisation of children‟s experiences in terms of the context in which they live, and Crossley's perspective on narrative which emphasises agency grounded within cultural forms of sense-making. A new way of discussing these unconventionally structured families is also presented through the reconfiguration of relationships between family members, recognising connections that span generations and across different household spaces.
An exploration of questioning in tutorial interactions.
(2000) Hardman, Joanne.; Bradbury, Jill.
Access to the textual world of academia requires that learners are familiar with the critical open-ended questioning stance demanded by textuality. Questioning is one of the most important learning-teaching tools available to both learner and educator. Due to the crucial role questioning plays in knowledge construction in the university, this study focuses on questioning strategies used by tutors and learners during tutorial interactions. This focus on questioning aims to: 1) Identify common learner question and response strategies across tutorials, ascertaining what kinds of questions learners ask in help-sessions and what kind of responses tutors' questions elicit from learners, 2) identify common question and response strategies employed by tutors, ascertaining which strategies facilitate active learning, with a particular focus on the kinds of questions used to provoke (open) or inhibit (close) learning and 3) compare the questioning strategies of tutors and learners, uncovering different epistemic bases informing their engagement with text. This study adopts a developmental-process approach to research. Two basic premises informing this research follow from this particular developmental approach: 1) an awareness of learning as a process of change and 2) an appreciation of the socio-historical and discursively constructed nature of cognitive processes. It was found that learners and tutors appear to ask the same types of questions regarding the content of the course with both groups primarily asking closed questions. Qualitative analysis, however, indicated that tutors and learners use these types of questions in very different ways. While tutors' ask open questions in order to provoke enquiry, indicating their reliance on a critical questioning epistemology, learners' borrow open questions from various sources, indicating only that they can imitate the kinds of questions that characterise academia, without evidencing a questioning stance to knowledge construction. Similarly, while tutors' ask closed questions in order to initiate a narrative line of enquiry, learners' asked closed questions in order to elicit a closed response. Further, learners' made no use of process type questions and responses, such as metacognitive and group cohesion questions and responses. Consequently, one may conclude that tutors' use of these types of questions and responses indicated that they control the tutorial process. Further this finding indicated that learners need this kind of structured guidance. The study concludes that tutors and learners use ostensibly similar questioning strategies in very different ways, indicating different epistemic bases informing their engagement with the textual task of academic study.
My mother, my friend : an exploration of the mother-daughter relationship as friendship.
(2006) Burn, Lara-Lee.; Bradbury, Jill.
This study focuses on the mother-daughter relationship conceptualised as friendship and explores the ways in which this conceptuafisation articulates with broader concerns of feminine subjectivity. Using Denzin's (2001) interpretive interactionism as a framework for in-depth interviews, women's own talk about their mother-daughter relationships was analysed. Friendship implies a relationship of choice and equality rather than the traditional asymmetries of power typical of mother-daughter dynamics and the participants asserted this characteristic as the defining feature of their relationships. Their understanding of this rubric of friendship was analysed in terms of three primary themes: 1) Talk constructs and maintains particular levels of intimacy between mother and daughter, disclosing the self to the other; 2) This form of interaction is gendered, only possible between women. Fathers in particular are positioned predominantly within a discourse of 'absence' or 'emotional defectiveness' and this is seems to provide a gendered counterpoint to the exclusive intimacy shared between mother and daughter; and 3) The ostensibly equal form of the relationship conceals patterns of regulation, in particular certain forms of self-regulation. Women are encouraged by social structures such as tradition, culture, religion and so forth to regulate themselves in ways that keep feminine subjectivity as 'nice' and 'good' . In these ways, the conceptualisation of the mother-daughter relationship as 'friendship' affords both women important measures of relational support, challenging more masculine versions of parenting, generational authority and the centrality of autonomy and separation in the developmental process. However, in parallel with these positive shifts, the relationship thus conceptualised also serves to conceal relations of power and the explicit gendering of these forms of relating may further entrench an already naturalised female/ male duality.
Patterns of interaction among school children in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa.
(2010) Padayachy, Latanya.; Bradbury, Jill.
South Africa’s Apartheid legislation divided ‘races’ and ultimately dictated interactions between people. Post-Apartheid children have been born into a society that focuses on the importance of tolerance, diversity and interaction across ‘race’ lines. The schooling system is one such platform that may encourage interaction among children. This study explores the patterns that emerge in the interaction between children of different ‘races’. Ethnographic observation using schedules of interaction was used to investigate patterns of interaction. To focus the observation, a sample of seven ‘Indian’ children, aged between 9-10 years were observed, paying particular attention to their interactions with children around them in various contexts such as structured/formal lessons, unstructured lessons and free time. The research data was then qualitatively analysed using ethnographic descriptions and content analysis. The study found that patterns of (de) racialised interaction between children are affected by: 1) the degree of structure in the context; 2) Gender; 3) Language. Authority figures can facilitate interaction by organising the space in particular ways, increasing cooperation between children on particular tasks. However, most interaction across ‘races’ occurs in unstructured lessons. The form of boys play tends to be physical and facilitates collective play without respect to ‘race’. Girls play in more dependent on talk and given that the children in the study speak different mother tongues, this leads to separate groups forming during playtime. The results of this study also highlight the importance of a renewed focus on contexts, activities and a revisit to the multilingual schools policy to ensure that opportunities for interaction between ‘race’ lines are increased and all barriers to interaction are reduced.
Questioning constructions of black identities in post-apartheid South Africa: cross-generational narratives.
(2012) Ndlovu, Siyanda.; Bradbury, Jill.; Squire, Corinne.
No abstract available.
The questioning process in the development of knowledge.
(2000) Bradbury, Jill.; Miller, Ronald.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of questioning in the learning-teaching process, with particular reference to English second-language students studying the disciplines of the Human Sciences. The broad context for the study is the imperative for higher education institutions in South Africa to meet the learning needs of those students previously disadvantaged by the Apartheid schooling system. The focus of the research is on how particular kinds of questioning may serve to mediate between the historically constituted disciplines of textual knowledge characteristic of the Human Sciences and the worlds of knowledge and understanding of new, underprepared learners. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the subjects were students (n=117) admitted to the University of Natal through an alternative selection process, the Teach-Test-Teach Programme. The selection procedure was designed to reveal the academic potential of students who did not meet the standard academic criteria for admission. In order to develop and consolidate their identified potential, selected students were required to participate in a foundation course. The data for this first phase were drawn from aspects of students' performance on the foundation course, in particular, their responses to tasks designed to elicit different kinds of questioning engagement. The second phase of the investigation was situated in a context of curriculum development in the Department of Psychology, necessitated by the changing learning needs of substantial numbers of underprepared students. The primary subjects in this phase of the study were the second-language students of the first-year psychology class (n=274). The study explores the nature of their engagement with the task demands of different kinds of examination questions. In addition, the task engagement of these students was compared with that of a group of failing first-language students (n=88) in order to establish whether the academic difficulties of the two groups could be explained in the same way. The framework of analysis incorporated a combination of quantitative and qualitative elements. However, given the textual nature of the tasks in the Human Sciences , the usual relation of the quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis was reversed , with established general quantitative trends providing the context for more detailed qualitative analysis . Categories for analysis were derived from the data drawing on theoretical analyses of the mediated nature of both tasks and cognitive functioning. Tasks conducted in the first phase of the study were of three kinds: questioning text; modeling appropriate questioning of text; and analysis of academic questions. Contrary to the received view that students are passive or inactive, analysis of their responses to these tasks reveals a highly active process of cognitive engagement. The data show that because underprepared students do not understand the implicit questioning epistemology of text, the question posed by a textual task is transformed and reconstructed . This reformulated question then provides an inappropriate framework for the construction of a possible answer. In the second phase of the study, the investigation focuses on students' engagement with conventional academic assessment questions. The transformation of given questions was again evident; inadequate answers could be interpreted as very effective responses to entirely different questions than those posed. The analysis of engagement with different kinds of academic questions (factual, relational or conceptual) reveals that the particular formulation of the question provokes varying kinds of inappropriate engagement. This finding provides a strong indication of the mutually constitutive nature of tasks and cognitive processes. Finally, a comparative analysis of students from different educational backgrounds reveals that the phenomenon of underpreparedness can be distinguished from other sources of failure. The study concludes that the nature of academic tasks, the process of instruction, and the cognitive engagement of students are all implicated in the problem of underpreparedness and must, therefore, be addressed in the design and implementation of effective intervention strategies.
Reading texts, reading one's self : exploring young South Africans' sense of identity.
(2007) Mphats'oe, Pulane.; Bradbury, Jill.
The title of this research project is Reading Texts, Reading One'self: Exploring Young South African's Sense of Identity. The project entailed working with a group of young people in a reading group, using a text by Zakes Mda, Melville 67 in order to provoke discussion. In the process of reading the text, participants were encouraged to read or interpret their own lives in new ways. This study provides an in-depth understanding of a small group of Black African township youth. The study focuses on these young people's sense of self and identity in a post-democratic South Africa particularly with respect to language. It focuses specifically on English; a language globally recognised as powerful and central to academic and economic success and isiZulu; an African indigenous language which carries enormous cultural significance. In this study, the youth reveal their positions with respect to these languages, highlighting the complex language dynamics that are central to colonial and African languages. The analysis reveals a degree of ambivalence with respect to English and isiZulu where there is a sense of shifting boundaries and identities which assert the values of both languages. On the one hand, these young people celebrate their African pride and 'Zuluness' through the appreciation of isiZulu and resist the dominant position of English over isiZulu. On the other hand, they acknowledge English as a tool for economic and academic success and its potential for enriching cultural life through communication across racial and ethnic boundaries.
The role of underpreparedness in the difficulties experienced by second-language students with academic essay writing.
(2000) Sear, Vashti Louise.; Bradbury, Jill.; Miller, Ronald.
Using first-year, Psychology I examination essays, the role of underpreparedness in the difficulties experienced by English second-language students in academic essay writing was investigated. Essays were selected from each of four performance categories; over 70%, between 650/0 and 50%. between 45% and 35%, and below 30%. A representative sample of English first-language essays were also selected to provide important comparative analyses, in order to clearly delineate the nature of linguistic and cognitive contributions to the phenomenon of underpreparedness. The essays were subjected to three kinds of linguistic analysis. The micro-level analysis consisted of a basic error analysis, which combined a surface strategy taxonomy with a linguistic classification of errors. Second, the essays were analysed using a five-way classification model for difficulties with cohesion. The results for these micro-level analyses indicated that surface-level errors made little difference to the substance of the text (essay) and that markers were tolerant of such errors in their assessment of the essays. Consequently, these taxonomies only pointed to more fundamental linguistic or cognitive problems to explain the mark discrepancies between the different performance groups. A macro-level analysis was conducted to examine the global inter-relationships within the essays. Using a modified form of discourse analysis and a coherence scale analysis, the degree to which students initiated, developed and resolved the central themes/topics of the essay was assessed. The results of the present study suggest that second-language students present with four key features of difficulty in academic essay writing. In particular, the fonn and structure of essay writing, the development of conceptual principles, metacognitive control, and the norms of distanced writing. This study further points to three main areas where mediation and assistance could take place to facilitate underprepared, second-language students, namely developing linguistic competence, explicating the implicit set of conventions particular to academic writing, as well as developing the appropriate epistemic assumptions for university-level textual engagement.
Snap! what South African children photograph : a study of the photographic behaviour of children at three age levels.
(2007) Antonakas, Sia.; Bradbury, Jill.
This study focused on the kinds of photographs taken by twelve South African children at three different age levels (namely seven, eleven and fifteen). The children were given cameras which they used over a weekend to photograph any content of their choice. The children were then interviewed, both individually as well as in groups to discuss their photographs and experiences. The photographs were used as a trigger to explore children's development, sense of self and social worlds. Traditional developmental theory was useful in accounting for some of the differences in photographic ability of the different age groups but further thick description was possible using sociocultural theories of cognition, theories of the self, identity and representation. The researcher concluded that the children's understanding ofthemselves, the people and world around them as well as photography, is constructed by important social, cultural and historical forces which surround the children.
Tracking the future : young women's worlds.
(2010) Selohilwe, One.; Bradbury, Jill.
This research focuses on young black women’s identity construction in the context of democratic South Africa. It focuses on how they negotiate adolescence and young adulthood as black females in a country with a history of racism. The assumption in the newly democratized South Africa is that opportunities are given on merit as opposed to the inequalities that existed according to racial differences during apartheid. The study aims to find out how young people construct and negotiate their identities and their view of their futures as well as possible threats to these future identities within this context. The young women’s narratives give insight into the state of the socio cultural context of post apartheid South Africa. These young women narrate their lives as the hinge generation: they are the first generation to grow up in the new and free South Africa the first generation to have access to a broad range of opportunities that were denied black people during apartheid governance. The young women’s narratives reveal a very fluid sense of identity. Their lives do not follow the patterns of the lives of the previous generations including those of their parents. They do however, negotiate these opportunities in the context of inequalities inherited from previous apartheid governance. Impoverished livelihoods, death of family members, gender inequities, poorly developed school systems and poor social amenities that they face in everyday life pose possible constraints to their envisioned futures. The study is based on the theorisation of self as a narrative, a story to be told. The self is understood as fragmented and changing as opposed to a single fixed entity. The narrative approach allows for the participants to tell their own stories bringing together past memories, anticipated futures as well as ongoing experiences they consider important. A total of 10 women took part in the study; 5 from Amangwane a rural community located in the Drakensburg area and 5 from the urban location of Chesterville. Their life stories were collected through in depth interviews in a wider context of narrative approach. Further, there was a follow up interview for each participant giving focus to central themes. A two phase analysis was used to examine the way the narratives were put together as well as paying attention to the content of the narratives in order to understand meaning attributed to events and experiences. The young women’s narratives were structured by an interaction of regressive and progressive plots. This is reflective of the challenges and difficulties that they face in their everyday lives in the South African context. The major regressive moments were financial difficulties, death of loved ones and motherhood. In the midst of these challenges, most stories were generally progressive towards the future. Some, however, were in the midst of uncertainties and some of the life stories were entrapped in difficult life circumstances that made it difficult to see success in the future. The key themes that came from the stories were poverty, place, family structure, gender, language and education. Poverty was experienced as very significant and real. It hampered everyday lives and the construction of future identities. The rural areas are the most hit by poverty especially female headed families. Fathers were constructed as possible solutions to economic problems because of their ability to access resources. Migration between urban and rural spaces is prominent in the rural women’s narratives. Urban areas presented improved life opportunities. Even so, urban space is fragmented and racially stratified. The urban young women’s narratives show a desire to succeed and move out of townships into suburbia. English is considered to be the economic language and its use provides young women with access to resources and a better life. Education is constructed as important by the young women as it gives them access to their desired future identities. However, schooling experience is characterised by lack of teachers, inadequately trained teachers and poor education standards. Gender inequities pose challenges which constrain the young women from reaching their full potential. The young women negotiate their lives in a context resonating with apartheid effects. They are faced with challenges and very difficult life circumstances. They however remain hopeful and are able to construct alternative future identities for themselves.
Women's narratives of intergenerational trauma and post-apartheid identity : the 'said' and 'unsaid'.
(2009) Frankish, Tarryn.; Bradbury, Jill.
This research has focused on the concept of intergenerational trauma, elaborating on the post-Apartheid condition. Drawing on trauma theory, such as that provided by clinical and psychoanalytic approaches on the one hand, and on narrative and identity theory on the other, the project examines the long-term implications of Apartheid, particularly for the identities of post-Apartheid generations. The families who participated in this study all experienced a particular traumatic event, personally experiencing the political violence of Apartheid. However, the study focused on how this event has been integrated into and represented in family histories, how what is ‘said’ and what remains ‘unsaid’ within families functions and constitutes their identities in their ongoing lived experiences. Women’s narratives, often considered secondary to the grand narratives of struggle and conflict, are drawn out to show the ways, as primary caregivers, they form the pivot for the (intergenerational) transmission of secondary traumatisation or for negotiating new versions of family history that make it possible for both them and their children to create meaningful lives in the shadow of their tragedies. Utilising a narrative method which explores the interactional dynamics, structure and content of participants’ stories, the narratives of these women and their children are analysed first for the ways in which what was said (and even what remained ‘unsaid’) was complicated by the ‘interactional dynamics’ of research and, in particular, research across a language divide. The second layer of analysis attends to the narrative structure or form in which the stories are told. The final phase of analysis focuses on the thematic content of the narratives. In telling classic ‘trauma’ stories, of the political deaths of family members and partners under Apartheid, these women spoke of events which marked ‘turning points’ in their lives and which continue to leave their mark in their embodied experience. They also told of navigating a context of continued and pervasive violence, speaking of the violences of today, particularly domestic and sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, and they link these to their own embodied experiences after the political trauma event. Through intergenerational talk on relationships and sexuality, mothers attempt to navigate and negotiate new versions of family history for their children, as they try to create lives for their children that are dissimilar to their own, particularly with regard to violence.