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Browsing Education Studies by Subject "Academic experiences."
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Item Experiences of academic success of students with disabilities at Universities of Technology in South Africa.(2019) Duma, Princess Thulile.; Shawa, Lester Brian.As a minority group, people with disabilities experience discrimination and stigmatisation in our communities. According to some disability models, the general public often perpetuates the negative treatment of people with disabilities, and this is exemplified particularly in the medical and the social models. In South Africa, the issue of disability has rightly received concerted attention, which is evident in the number of legislations the country has promulgated since the advent of a democratic government. South Africa is one of the signatories of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and it ratified it and the Optional Protocol on 30 November 2007. Transformation and the democratisation of the education sector have resulted in a steep incline in the number of students with disabilities in higher education. These students are not often included in statistics but there is evidence that many have gained confidence in the system and have proved themselves to be competent students in the academic sphere. Moreover, many are succeeding despite the under-preparedness of some higher education institutions to accommodate these students both physically and academically. The following questions guided the study: 1. Which experiences of academically successful students with disabilities contribute to their academic success in universities of technology? 2. How do the experiences of academically successful students with disabilities contribute to their academic success in universities of technology? 3. Why do the experiences of academically successful students with disabilities contribute to their academic success in the way they do? The purpose of the study was to explore and thus understand the experiences of academic success of students with disabilities in two universities of technology in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, namely the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). Disabilities are mostly associated with limitations and dependency, but this study took a positive approach by placing the investigation under the lenses of the resilience and self-efficacy theories. The study was underpinned by the interpretivist paradigm which allowed the researcher to view the academic environment through the perceptions and experiences of the participants. The theoretical framework that I employed comprised a combination of phenomenology, resilience and self-efficacy and I used these theories as a springboard to understand the phenomenon of academic success achieved by students with disabilities. Thirteen participants were involved in this qualitative research. I used both purposive and snowball sampling to obtain saturated data. A qualitative research design was employed in this inquiry. Semi-structured interviews and photo-voice images were used as the primary data collection methods. The data that were obtained through these methods were augmented by observation notes and document analysis. The study found that, irrespective of the different backgrounds of the two institutions, the participants shared common academic experiences. The findings could be divided into three distinct categories, namely: main focus, stressors, and enablers. In the category of main focus it was found that students with disabilities desired independence, leeway to build their own future, and they wanted to be developed and empowered so that they could emancipate themselves from the bondage of discrimination. The second category revealed conflicting forces that I refer to as stressors. These stressors were engendered by a lack of inclusivity and were driven by a number of issues including an ‘unfriendly’ infrastructure, limited curricula, inappropriate teaching and learning methodologies, residential issues, and limited funding. The third category enlightened the enablers, which were support, self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, spirituality, and resilience. Although a combination of the three theories that were employed was a novel approach in this field of study, it should be noted that the findings were not unique and did not digress from those of earlier studies. In order to enhance the academic success of students with disabilities, I strongly recommend that universities prioritise inclusivity and encourage disability awareness among all staff members.Item The scholastic experiences of immigrant learners at a secondary school in Sydenham.(2015) Mohamed, Aneesa.; Jairam, Visvaranie.This research set out to explore the scholastic experiences of immigrant learners at a secondary school in Sydenham. Participants were immigrant children from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. They were aged between thirteen and eighteen years old, and had all resided in South Africa for less than ten years. The study adopted a qualitative methodology using a narrative inquiry approach. To ensure valid data, one-on-one interviews, a focus-group discussion and observations were conducted, as well as document analysis of a diary I asked participants to keep for the duration of the data collection period. This study was based on Ogbu’s (1978) cultural ecological theory of minority academic achievement and Fredrickson’s (1998) broaden-and-build theory. A few findings emerged from the study. Firstly, it was found that language played a critical role regarding academic and social acceptance at secondary school level. Learners who did not grow up being exposed to English (the language of instruction) were disadvantaged academically and often required translation from other peers who spoke their native language. Furthermore, immigrant learners were often excluded from social groups at school due to the fact that they could not speak a South African indigenous language (in this case, isiZulu). These findings supported existing literature regarding the linguistic challenges faced by immigrant students. The second finding that emerged from the study was that a sense of belonging was a crucial factor that determined the scholastic experiences of immigrant learners. Learners who felt isolated at school (either academically or socially) displayed poor academic performance and learners who felt a sense of belonging performed at a higher level. The concept of acculturation was the third theme examined in this study. All participants felt that they could not understand the culture of the South African students. Some of them found behaviours such as smoking, gambling, underage drinking, wearing revealing clothing and teenage sexual activity to be abhorrent, and as a result, did not want to be part of the dominant culture. Others were able to accept these aspects of South African culture without emulating them. The two theories used hold that voluntary immigrants are generally higher achievers; however, this study showed that this is not always the case. An involuntary immigrant was able to achieve high marks, in contradiction to what Ogbu (1978) postulates. The findings were consistent with Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory because learners who possessed a high level of resilience produced far superior academic results compared with learners with low levels of resilience.