Browsing by Author "Piliso, Blossom Bulelwa."

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The dynamics of cyberbullying in girls' and boys' schools: multiple case studies of secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2020) Piliso, Blossom Bulelwa.; Ntombela, Sithabile Surprise.
Cyberbullying in schools is an emerging phenomenon not yet well understood. Research shows that cyberbullying may cause psychological, emotional and social damage to victims. As cyberbullying increases in its prevalence, it is crucial to understand how it manifests itself, to identify its dangers, and to examine the behavioural and psychosocial factors associated with it. This study sought to explore the experiences and impact of cyberbullying amongst the Grade 8 learners at secondary school level in a Western School District of KwaZulu-Natal. Quantitative data was collected from 316 learners using a survey questionnaire. Lessons on cyberbullying, focus group interviews comprising eight learners from each school, one-on-one interviews consisting of one learner from each school who also participated in the focus group interviews, and semi-structured interviews for Life Orientation (LO) teachers (three from the girls’ school and four from the boys’ school) were conducted to generate qualitative data. The multiple instrumental case study design that employs mixed methods was utilised to achieve the objectives of this study. This allowed the researcher to collect quantitative and qualitative data and to explore the differences within and between cases. The instrumental approach enabled the researcher to gain insight into cyberbullying phenomenon amongst the learners and to scrutinise the context in which this occurs. Descriptive statistics was used to describe, summarise and organise quantitative data using cross-tabulation, graphs and numerical data. Inferential statistics was employed to determine whether there was a significant association between variables. Thematic approach was utilised to analyse qualitative data and similar responses were coded and relevant themes and sub-themes were developed. The theories underpinning the study were the Socio-ecological Theory (SET) and the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). The SET suggests that human development is influenced by a series of interrelated systems within the environment and that the behaviour of children and that of the adolescents is shaped by a range of related systems such as the family, peers and the school environments. The SCT implies that cognitive, affective, biological and emotional factors such as peer support and stressful events can affect the development of an individual’s behaviour. The quantitative results revealed that 85.8% of learners have cell phones and 66.1% use the internet for entertainment on social media networks. The percentages of victims of direct and indirect bullying show that there is no significant difference between males and females. Cyberbullying experiences are not significantly different between males and females (p-value>0.05). LO teachers ensure that strict security measures are in place regarding the use of cell phones within schools. However, the qualitative results showed that cyberbullying experiences of learners in both schools were extremely serious and may have a psychological impact on the victims. Cyberbullying mostly happens on WhatsApp. The support given to the victims by their schools involves counselling and if identified, perpetrators are detained and parental intervention sought. The results of the study also provide insights into the dynamics of cyberbullying in order to inform strategies for alleviating the impact of the cyberbullying phenomenon in schools. The findings indicate that cyberbullying is a growing problem since the youth use technology inappropriately leading to suffering psychologically after victimisation. Empathy training is crucial for teachers and policy makers in order to reduce cyberbullying incidents among learners. Schools need to promote the skills, provide safety to learners and increase awareness to learners so that they are morally engaged with the victims of cyberbullying. It is, therefore, imperative to explore strategies which can be utilised to address the scourge of cyberbullying in the schools and to empower learners in order to avoid being victimised by cyberbullies. It is also crucial that stakeholders such as the Department of Education, principals, teachers, parents and young people work together to mitigate this global epidemic.
An investigation into how participation in sports can enhance a learner's self esteem.
(2013) Piliso, Blossom Bulelwa.; Kalenga, Rosemary Chimbala.
The study investigates how participation in sport can enhance a learner’s self-esteem. There are other significant factors such as the academic performance, peer acceptance, support from school and parental support, which may contribute to increasing the self-esteem of a learner. However, sport has been chosen as the point of focus in this study. The theories underpinning the study are Self-determination Theory (SDT), Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) and Achievement Goal Theory. SDT distinguishes between intrinsic motivation which refers to engaging in something for the pleasure and satisfaction and extrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for some kind of reward external to the activity itself. CET suggests that people must experience both satisfaction for both competence and autonomy in order to maintain intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic rewards like material rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Achievement Goal Theory proposes two goal orientations, that is, task orientations and ego orientations. Task oriented individuals seek personal improvement and task mastery whereas ego oriented individuals seek to outperform others. Therefore task orientation is self-referenced whereas ego orientation is externally referenced. This was a qualitative single case study research design informed by an interpretive paradigm. It is about people’s subjective experiences and how they understand and interpret the world around them. The idea was that the researcher wanted to discover the unique experiences of participants regarding sport participation and to find out what inspire them. Focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews as well as observations were used as data collection procedures. The school that was selected for this study is a school situated in the urban area in Pinetown. Six learners involved in sports were chosen to participate in a focus group session which aimed to gather information on their experiences about sports. Leaners who participated were selected from Grade 10, 11 and 12. The sports coordinator who is also a physical education teacher was requested to take part in the semi-structured interview. The intention of the session was to collect data on her views about leaners’ experiences and whether the support related to sports given by the school to the learners has benefits that could enhance learners’ self-esteem. Although the school offers a variety of sports and encourages everyone to participate, there are still learners who are not involved in sports for various reasons. This non-participation needs to be addressed as it is important for adolescents to have high self-esteem in order to lead normal lives. Therefore the government and the school need to work together to ensure that all learners take part in sport. Parents also have a role to play in ensuring that their children participate in sport. Data analysis based on the responses of the participants revealed that learners engaged in sport and have a higher self-esteem than those who do not participate. Moreover, learners participating in sports have positive relationships with their teachers, parents and peers. The results of the study indicated that there is, indeed, a positive relationship between sport participation and self-esteem. This study was therefore seen as beneficial in motivating leaners and parents to motivate their children to partake in sports at school level.