Browsing by Author "Langa, Mauricio Paulo."

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Black African parents and school history: a narrative inquiry.
(2019) Langa, Mauricio Paulo.; Wassermann, Johannes Michiel.; Maposa, Marshall Tamuka.
This study set to explore narratives on how Black African parents experienced school history in the apartheid era and how these experiences informed the parents’ views of school history in post-apartheid South Africa. Literature on schooling during apartheid shows that most Black Africans’ experiences were characterised by difficulty. It also shows how school history was abused as a tool to promote the apartheid ideology. However, Black Africans’ experiences of school history are under-researched. This motivated the need to explore narratives of Black Africans, especially if one considers the fact that these Africans are now parents whose views may inform their children’s decisions on studying school history. This study was guided by two research questions: What are the narratives of Black African parents as they relate to school history in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa; and How do their narratives explain why their children do or do not do school history? The Narrative Inquiry methodology was employed to make sense of the lived experiences of the participants (Black African parents). The study was situated within the critical paradigm, which tallies with Critical Race Theory, which is the theoretical framework. The sample comprised ten participants, who were purposively chosen middle class Black African parents. The data was generated through semi-structured interviews enhanced by photo elicitation and was analysed through open-coding. The first level of analysis generated narratives which both diverged and converged. The findings from the second level of analysis showed that the participants had negative experiences of education in general and school history in particular during the apartheid era. As a result of these negative experiences, Black African parents admit to not wanting their children to study history, despite the acknowledgement that the post-apartheid school history curriculum has improved. This shows that the parents project their negative experiences of school history onto their children. This is not helped by the finding that while the apartheid government’s conception of school history deterred the participants from promoting history, the post-apartheid government has inadvertently continued to solidify the parents’ anti-history resolve because of the promotion of sciences over humanities. This phenomenon is theorised as Perpetual Stagnation a model that explains how Black African parents’ narratives in relation to school history have remained largely negative regardless of change in time and circumstances. Therefore, the study concludes that Black African parents viewed apartheid as monstrous and evil as well as oppressive system. Also, school history education under apartheid was viewed by participants as meaningless and memory discipline thus leading the participants to dislike the subject. Furthermore, the study showed that in post-apartheid South Africa Black African parents have much expectations for their children while at the same time admitting that school history curriculum has changed for the better since apartheid. In nutshell, the study concludes that while apartheid policies made the school history unlikable to participants, the post-apartheid policies of prioritising mathematics and science has equally made school history unlikable. This stagnation shows how some things have changed in post-apartheid era, while some have remained the same.
Investigating and exploring the role of community newspapers against the background of profit-driven media environment : a Pietermaritzburg based study.
(2010) Langa, Mauricio Paulo.; Viney, Desiray.
The aim of the study is to investigate and explore the role of community newspapers against the background of profit-driven media environment. The study adopted a qualitative research method. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with editors of the four community newspapers under study namely Public Eye, The Mirror, Echo and Edendale Eyethu, as well as readers of these publications. The study used focus group discussions as an additional qualitative instrument for data gathering. The SPSS software programme was used to present the data from the readers. Findings of the study The study found that media conglomerates and other businesses on the media possess both the human and financial resources to place them in a powerful position to determine the media content. However, while we know that this happens, some interventions could be considered to make sure that a more viable and sustainable balance between commerce and community is found and maintained. The study also showed that due to “market-driven journalism” embraced by the community newspapers, the right of the readers or consumers is increasingly compromised, and also that the profit-driven aspects of these publications confirm that media or journalism ethics of the community press is also at stake in that appear to benefit private and public sectors. This means the ample space allocated to advertisers as evidenced in almost every page of these newspapers, contribute to denying the readers access to relevant news or information. The study found that local content and political news are of great relevance to the readers, Community newspapers are vital in creating awareness amongst community members of different events taking place in the community hence enabling them to take an active part in different aspects of developments taking place. Community members would like to see more in-depth coverage in local news content, more coverage in events taking place locally such as community initiative projects, and more coverage on schools sports tournaments.