Browsing by Author "Mkhize, Jeffrey Siphiwe."

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An exploration of the challenges of unemployed rural youth graduates in a district in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2021) Dlamini, Bongiwe Patricia.; Mkhize, Jeffrey Siphiwe.
This study aims to explore the challenges of youth graduates who are unemployed, especially those from the rural areas. Youth unemployment in South Africa and globally has significantly increased in the last few years. Particularly, the unemployment rate among youth graduates has increased across all racial groups and geographical areas, and this has affected the lives of rural communities. Nkonjeni village in KwaZulu-Natal (RSA), which has a predominantly rural African population, was selected as the geographical research area for this study. This rural village was chosen because, like many rural areas in South Africa, it is facing enormous challenges concerning youth graduates being unemployed. To achieve the objectives of the study, a qualitative research approach was applied to investigate the challenges and experiences of a sample population of six unemployed tertiary level youth graduates (three males and three females) from Nkonjeni rural village who qualified in the field of humanities and engineering studies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Furthermore questionnaire document were used to collect data, Tesch’s (1990) eight-step approach for data analysis was employed. This qualitative study is guided by an interpretive paradigm which facilitated indepth conversations with each unemployed graduate throughout the study. The Social Exclusion Theory, Capability Approach and Ecological Systems Theory underpinned the framework of this study. The findings revealed that the inappropriate subject content of modules and the lack of guidance for prospective youth graduates largely contributed to them being unemployed. The study also revealed that although the participants were actively jobseeking, there was a mismatch between their qualification and skills and the specific demands of the labour market, which further decreased their chances of employment. This situation was exacerbated by the lack of career guidance, work experience, social connections in the labour market, job recruitment practices which promoted nepotism and corruption. It is recommended that government policies and programmes promote self-employment through entrepreneurship with the provision of start-up capital.
The role of the learning family in developing a reading culture among adults and children.
(2012) Mkhize, Jeffrey Siphiwe.; Buthelezi, Zanele Gladness.
The study was conducted in the rural area of Mthwalo, just outside Pietermaritzburg. This area consists of a learning community which is made up of a Public Primary School where the same premises are used as a Public Adult Learning Centre for the community after school hours. This study focused on two children who were registered learners in the Public Primary School and their parents who were also registered learners in the Public Adult Learning Centre. These participants form the central context of this study which is the learning family. This study was conducted in order to examine the role of the learning family in promoting the culture of reading as well as to explore how a learning family can enhance this reading culture to the benefit of the child, parent, school, home and the community. This study focused on family reading practices, assessing the reciprocity and the interrelationship between the parents and children as learners and as readers. The study investigated how children and parents as learners influence each other in developing the culture of reading. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the first set of data from both the parents and the children who were the participants in this study. Interviews then sought to elicit the views of the participants on the reciprocal value of the learning family and how the family literacy practices enhance and develop the reading practices. The second set of data was gathered through observation. Homes of the participants were visited to observe family literacy practices in the home environment focusing on how both the environment and the practices contribute to the development of the reading culture. The findings of this study indicated that the learning family has huge educational benefits to all members of the family. Children are encouraged in their own learning by the parents’ direct involvement in education as learners. The study proved that the learning family has educational reciprocal value to the benefit of both parents and children. The study concluded that mothers have a significant role to play in promoting the culture of reading and developing habitual readers.
Student engagement in the first year of study in undergraduate programmes in higher education.
(2017) Mkhize, Jeffrey Siphiwe.; Ramrathan, Prevanand.
Student retention and throughput is a major concern across higher education within South African universities, with statistics suggesting that almost a third of students drop out of universities in their first year of study. Research in the field of student retention and throughput suggests that student engagement is regarded as the single best predictor of students’ retention, learning and personal development within higher education. Drawing from this research finding, this thesis focuses its attention to first year student engagement within a South African university. Using the University of Zululand as a case study, this thesis presents the results of a student engagement survey that was conducted across first year students enrolled in the Faculty of Education. The study followed a mixed method approach where both quantitative and qualitative methods of data generation were used. The South African Survey of Student Engagement (SASSE), adapted by the University of the Free State (UFS) for the South African contexts from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) developed in the United States of America (USA), was used to obtain information from 62% of first year students registered in the Faculty of Education in 2015. In addition, interviews were conducted with a sample of academic staff members who taught some of the first year modules in the same faculty. Interviews with students of varying academic achievements were also held to obtain explanations of why students were engaged in the ways they were. Further, documents analysis was done to find out the students’ academic performance. The final set of data was generated through focus group discussions. In investigating the nature of and levels of student engagement, I delimited the focus of the survey on the role played by the first year students, the academic staff and the institution in promoting student engagement. Specific focus was on exploring how students engage in academic work in their first year of study of their qualification. The purpose for the exploration and the investigation was to establish the nature of the relationship between student engagement and academic performance. Firstly, this study found that students tend to use their own creativity and initiatives to navigate around challenging academic and social activities, circumstances and practices. Secondly, the phenomenon of student-self-engagement emerged as a novel feature that seeks to extend the understanding on how students engaged academic activities. Thirdly, the study revealed that there is relationship between how students engage, the extent in which they engage and their levels of academic performance. Finally, the academic staff members’ attempts in engaging students are constrained by several factors, including large class sizes and lecture styles. In this thesis, I argue that student engagement is an individual student’s responsibility and that the nature and the level of student engagement within the first year of study have a direct relation to student academic performance. I further argue that students bring to university, aptitudes necessary for access and not necessarily sufficient for success and survival or to meet the academic demands in order to survive at university. Notably, the students’ cultural orientations showed cultural signals that proved to be limiting the nature, level and the manner in which students engage. This thesis contributes to the knowledge domain of student engagement, retention, throughput, and success as well as dropout rates in the higher education using a linear approach to student engagement.