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Theses and dissertations (Arts and Design)

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    The caring practices, coping mechanisms and learning experiences of elderly caregivers of adolescent AIDS orphans in one residential area in Harare : implications for adult education in Zimbabwe
    (2023-08-09) Paradzai, Angeline; Mukeredzi, Tabitha Grace; Preece, Julia
    Recent studies (Kidman and Thurman 2014; Zvinavashe et al. 2015) have established caregiving in an HIV/AIDS context as a burden; however, the caring practices, coping mechanisms and learning experiences of the elderly caregivers of adolescent AIDS orphans have not been well documented. Being an elderly caregiver in this situation brings difficulties as far as the whole caring for an adolescent is concerned (Omotoso 2007; Zaky 2016). This phenomenology research, whose dictates derive from the interpretivist paradigm and the qualitative approach, drew on a sample of twenty elderly caregivers. Snowball sampling, a subdivision of the purposive sampling method, within the non-probability type of sampling, was adopted. The study implemented a qualitative approach, where in-depth one-on-one interviews, observations of the home environments and focus group discussions were used for data generation. Data analysis utilised the six steps of Creswell (2014). Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) (Mezirow 2009), as well as the three models of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (TMSC) (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) were the theoretical lenses embraced for the study. With regard to the nature of caring practice what emerged was that the process involved nurturing character development of the orphans. Approaches for character development were modelling adolescent behaviour, talking to and working with them, task delegation, and encouraging church attendance, among others. Provision of basic needs such as food, shelter, school fees and assistance from extended families were also evident as additional caring practices. Challenges faced in the caring practices were of a social, financial and psychological nature. In terms of coping, the more pronounced approaches were problem-centred and emotion-centred coping, with maladaptive coping having been minimally utilised. Coping strategies involved seeking counselling, cutting meal sizes and frequencies of eating the meals, and assistance from their extended families. The elderly carers indicated deficiencies in knowledge of how to look after adolescent AIDS orphans and, also, the resources to use during their care. The new insights emerging from the study were that caring was age-sensitive and collaborative, bringing caregiver, clinic, school, community and extended family together. Elderly caregivers are now bound by the legal orientation in orphan care. Ways of knowing about these insights by the participants were primarily experiential – that is, learning as the processes unfolded. Nevertheless, print and electronic media, and observation also emerged. Educational implications are drawn on a number of issues, such as the need to conscientise caregivers on legal requirements, modern ways of child rearing, imparting entrepreneurial skills as the caregivers had no regular incomes and caregiving in a traditional thoughtful manner. The elderly caregivers went through eight of the ten stages of the Mezirow theory in their learning, leaving out stages three and four which deal with a sense of alienation and relating discontent to others respectively. Not experiencing these two stages may be attributed to stigma and discrimination often associated with HIV/AIDS issues, so they were less likely to disclose their concerns as a means of further learning. Elderly caregivers seemed to lack information on caring for the young in view of AIDS, as well as material resources. Failures of caregivers to join relevant groups like support groups seem to suggest denial of the HIV/AIDS situation they find themselves in. It is recommended that adult educational programmes be designed to reduce stigma and discrimination among the elderly living in HIV/AIDS circumstances
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    Technical and vocational education and training lecturer learning through work-integrated learning : a study of three colleges in KwaZulu-Natal
    (2022-09) Mesuwini, Joseph; Thaba-Nkadimene, K.L.; Mzindle, D.
    This study explored TVET lecturers learning through work-integrated learning (WIL), specifically to establish the nature of their learning and the kinds of knowledge they gain, and further determined how the lecturers understand their learning. WIL describes an approach to career-focused learning, which is often appropriate for attaining discipline-specific practical competence. My study contributes to the literature on how WIL enhances TVET practical knowledge and pedagogy. It also contributes to the perceptions of industry personnel towards lecturers on WIL. The study used a qualitative research approach located in an interpretive paradigm. A face-toface semi-structured interview was conducted with 18 TVET college lecturers from three different colleges and nine industry personnel at different companies. Non-participant observation complemented interviews and enabled capturing social action and interaction as it occurred and provided triangulation. The data were analysed using open coding. The study draws on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), complemented by conceptual frameworks on domains of teacher knowledge. The research identified the following challenges: a lack of technical skills among lecturers in using civil, electrical and mechanical engineering machines and equipment in industry; industry induction processes promoted WIL and self-initiated learning in the TVET sector that was helped a limited number of lecturers; and a lack of lecturer WIL support. There were several findings that reflect on positive impact of the training programme, namely, TVET lecturers who participated in the training gained knowledge about industrial processes; improved knowledge and practice of safe working procedures; the lack of interpersonal skills in the TVET industry was addressed; there was creativity and cost-saving skills among civil engineering TVET lecturers; WIL offered problem-solving skills to TVET lecturers; evidence of the use of work schedules; and training helped in the formation of industry connections. The study recommends adequately capacitating TVET lecturers with technical and soft skills to ensure that they comprehend the use of advanced machinery. The lecturers on WIL need constant support to check the relevance of practical skills received during WIL. To ensure proper training, the study recommends a training model for TVET lecturers during WIL. The study further recommends TVET lecturers to engage in industry placement at regular intervals to maintain current developments in the industry. This study recommends that policymakers, industry and other TVET college stakeholders employ prudent participative and consultative strategies to ensure that TVET lecturers acquire the requisite skills needed as recommended by syllabi. Furthermore, this study recommends a large scale research on all TVET College lecturers in South Africa to understand what and how they learn during WIL; involving other disciplines besides civil, electrical and mechanical trades to check if the outcome will be similar; and explore how industry personnel profiles impact on TVET lecturers learning in the industry during WIL using the same instruments.
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    Experiential learning of family business owners and its influence on business sustainability in Masvingo province of Zimbabwe
    (2021-08) Machida, Simbarashe; Mukeredzi, Tabitha; Mago, Stephen
    The survival of family-owned businesses beyond the first generation continues to be negatively affected by the death or incapacitation of their founding members. Despite the contribution of family-owned businesses, about 50% of the total global GDP (Rahman et al. 2017) statistics show that only 3% of these businesses survive past the third generation (Kilic and Folizoz 2020). The demise of the founders of the family businesses results in the businesses’ collapse, often after ownership and management has been taken over by heirs, notwithstanding their experience gained from working with the founder members. This qualitative study explored the experiential learning of family business owners and its influence on business sustainability. The study also analysed the kinds of knowledge gained and the support provided by other family members. An interpretive paradigm was adopted in which a multiple-site case study involving three settings: rural, growth points and urban areas in Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe was employed. Two-interview series, complimented by nonparticipatory observations and photo elicitations explored the family business owners who were extracted through purposive, convenience and snowball sampling designs. Data from 21 family business owners explored was transcribed and analysed manually through open coding. The study drew on Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory to illuminate the study, and explain the experiential learning of the family business owners. The study found that family business owners across the three research settings experientially learnt through participation in business activities subsequent to observation, and also through reflection. Findings revealed that experiential learning had a direct influence on business sustainability within a given generation. Contextual variations in learning processes emerged as family business owners in the rural setting encountered challenges around a lack of electricity and poor physical infrastructure, inhibiting their experiential learning through use of ICTs and the appropriate transportation of goods. In addition, informed by conceptual frameworks (Grossman 1990; Mukeredzi and Manwa 2019) the study also discovered that family business owners acquired practical knowledge about the use of sophisticated technology, entrepreneurial skills and soft skills. While urban based family business owners were transparent regarding their employees’ salaries, their counterparts in the rural setting did not pay their employees regular salaries. Drawing on Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory, this study also discovered that family business owners enjoyed support from family members in terms of teamwork and social support Collaboration was common in family-owned businesses in the rural setting, where close family ties seemed intact. However, emotional and informational support was received from other family members across all the three research contexts. Notwithstanding the experiential learning and kinds of knowledge attained, including support from other family members, the experiential learning of the family business owners had no significant influence on the long-term business sustainability when ownership and control shifted from one generation to another. Business sustainability was enhanced within a given generation. It also emerged that family business owners operated without succession planning, a critical aspect for business sustainability across generations. From this study, I argue that experiential learning of family business owners should be complemented with succession planning to enhance business sustainability across generations. The study suggests that family business owners should open up, discuss and develop succession plans that will enhance transition from one generation to the next. The study also suggests that family business owners should develop and implement remuneration policies that govern the salaries of the nuclear family members who work in the family businesses. With government support, family business owners in rural settings should consider the installation of solar systems to enhance the use of ICT.
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    Acquisition of agricultural knowledge and negotiation of gender power relations by women commercial farmers in Zimbabwe : implications for adult education training and development
    (2018) Kaziboni, Tabeth; Preece, Julia; Mukeredzi, Tabitha
    This study examined how women commercial farmers who got land during the Zimbabwe Fast Track Land Reform Programme (ZFTLRP) accessed new farming knowledge, applied and integrated it with their traditional knowledge. The study also analysed how these women farmers managed traditional gender power dynamics in the process of accessing knowledge and utilising their farm land. Kolb’s experiential learning theory was used to illuminate this study in terms of how the women acquired new farming knowledge and how indigenous knowledge and modern farming knowledge could illustrate farmer learning as experiential and/or self-directed. Foucault’s post-structuralist theory was used as a lens to explore how the women managed issues of gender and power relations during the process of owning and managing land. The study was qualitative and employed a life history research design. It relied on focus group discussions, individual interviews and observation for data collection from ten women farmers who were purposively sampled. Data were collected during an eight-month agricultural season from January 2016 to August 2016. The study revealed that the women went through Kolb’s experiential learning cycle in the process of acquiring knowledge. The women’s learning cycle, however, included a fifth stage of social interaction at some point, which Kolb did not emphasize. Social interaction is often referred to as a core feature of learning in African contexts (Ntseane, 2011) and it reflects the way in which Indigenous Knowledge (IK) had traditionally been learned. Women experienced non-formal and informal learning, with most of the latter being self-directed in nature. The range of learning sources included friends, neighbours, experts and media. Women complemented indigenous knowledge with modern farming methods and adopted more modern methods and fewer indigenous methods as soon as they had knowledge and resources. Occasionally they used indigenous knowledge when it was affordable, readily available and sustainable. Women farmers were happy to own land, but their husbands and males in the community did not support them and resisted the new discourse of women empowerment. The clash between the traditional discourse that women are not expected to be autonomous and the new discourse created gender power tensions. Women employed a variety of power techniques to enable them to farm. Initially they used the strategy of ‘reverse discourse,’ negotiating and manipulating people into accepting their new status. The women also used accepted power differentials to accommodate their own subjugated status through using a third party to resolve conflicts. Women also exhibited different forms of agency and self-determination to get accepted. This included employing ‘resistant discourse’ whereby the women demanded what was theirs and asserted their authority, especially with their workers. The use of economic rationales was another discursive strategy used by women, whereby they used their farm income to support other community members, and demonstrated financial outcomes that acted as a persuasive force for acceptance of their new status and role. A third form of agency was exhibited by working hard to achieve good yields and profits from their farms. Women demonstrated success stories which in turn helped them to improve the life styles of their families and re-invest into their farming business. They thus managed to create an autonomous identity for themselves. Women showed that they had progressed from the initial ‘disciplinary power’ behaviours in which they were passive and submissive, moving to a process of ‘reverse discourse’ where they achieved what they wanted through manipulation. But the women then showed agency and determination. Some did this through resistant discourse and others through demonstrating they could work hard. The success stories have seen them creating a new ‘regime of truth’ that women are capable people, although this achievement took several years. These findings demonstrated that making land available to these women was a positive act, but in order to help them succeed more effectively and quickly they needed gender-sensitive training. The study’s training recommendations include the need for both access to agricultural and business knowledge, and also the management of gender power relations.