Can a Phenomenological Approach Enhance Learning in Science in South Africa?

2016 ◽  
pp. 165-180
Author(s):  
Oscar Koopman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Phenomenological Approach

scholarly journals Writing ‘naturecultures’ in Zulu Zionist healing

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Rune Flikke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Healing Rituals ◽  
African Independent Churches ◽  
Independent Churches ◽  
Colonial Contact ◽  
Health And Well Being

<div>In this article my primary aim is to argue for an ontological and phenomenological approach to studying healing rituals within the African Independent Churches in South Africa. Through ethnographic evidence I will argue that the healing rituals are misrepresented in more traditional epistemologically tuned studies, and suggest that a better understanding is to be achieved through a focus on Latour’s ‘natures-cultures’ or Haraway’s ‘naturecultures’, thus showing how health and well-being are achieved through a creative process which continuously strive to break down any distinction of nature and culture as separate entities. I conclude by arguing that the contemporary healing rituals, which surfaced in South Africa in the mid eighteen-seventies, were a sensible and experience based reactions to the colonial contact zones of a racist Colonial regime dependent on African labor.</div>

scholarly journals When Pregnancy Coincides with Positive Diagnosis of HIV: Accounts of the Process of Acceptance of Self and Motherhood among Women in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 13006
Author(s):  
Sphiwe Madiba
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Psychosocial Care ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Hiv Diagnosis ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Emotional Recovery ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
Hiv Negative

Literature has highlighted the unique period of vulnerability following an HIV diagnosis during pregnancy. Despite the high burden of HIV among pregnant women in South Africa, the experiences of women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy have rarely been explored in isolation from those diagnosed at different times. This paper explored the experiences of women who were diagnosed with HIV when pregnant and assessed their emotional recovery beyond diagnosis. The study used a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach to conduct interviews with women recruited from ART clinics in a health district in South Africa. Participants included 19 women sampled purposively. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed following the thematic approach. Testing positive during pregnancy and being free of symptoms increased the shock, disbelief, and strong emotions exhibited. For the women, the diagnosis of HIV coincided with pregnancy and transformed pregnancy from excitement to anxiety. Although the transition from being HIV negative to becoming HIV positive and pregnant was overwhelming, with the passage of time, the women transitioned to feelings of acceptance. However, the process of acceptance was slow and varied, with some experiencing non-acceptance for extended periods. Non-acceptance of HIV diagnosis has serious adverse public health consequences for the individual. Integrating continuous HIV counselling and culturally appropriate psychosocial care into practice could foster acceptance for pregnant women with HIV diagnosis.

Mmino wa bana (Children’s Songs) as a Determinant of Reading Recorded Knowledge among Rural Teenagers in Ga Molepo, South Africa

Mousaion ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahlaga Johannes Molepo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Children's Songs ◽  
Multiple Case

This article takes a phenomenological approach that combines interpretivist and critical forms of research paradigms to explain mmino wa bana (children’s songs) as a determinant of reading recorded knowledge among teenagers in Ga Molepo, South Africa. Data was collected from focus groups in a purposive sample of rural teenagers engaged in learning through song and repetition. The multiple case study method was employed to draw data from multiple sources including the rural teenagers’ childhood experiences and literature in library and information science, the behavioral sciences (i.e., anthropology, sociology, and psychology), musicology, and folklore. Photovoice was used to visualise rural teenagers in their natural habitat. This research argues that recorded knowledge in the form of books and other printed material is what drives reading within the school system and the purview of mass reading. The findings reveal that best practice in reading programmes should consider ways of knowing from traditional and modern communities. The driving of reading programmes in South Africa and the continent at large requires a critical interpretivist approach that acknowledges the nature of being of traditional communities and their local epistemologies. The article concludes that mmino wa bana should be catalogued and made accessible in new formats that integrate technology. Policymakers in arts, culture, and heritage (i.e. library and information services) should consider the importance music plays in the early development of rural teenagers.

Barriers and Facilitators of Alcohol Abstinence During Pregnancy - a Qualitative Study in Rural South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Allie Rawoot ◽  
Chantelle Jennifer Scott ◽  
Michael Francis Urban
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Barriers And Facilitators ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Alcohol Abstinence ◽  
Reduced Drinking

Abstract Background:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is a common, important and under-recognised health burden in South Africa. There is a limited understanding of why pregnant women drink in the South African context. Existing qualitative research leaves significant knowledge gaps regarding pregnant women in rural settings, where prevalence of FASD is highest.Objective:To provide a qualitative assessment of factors that influence drinking in pregnant women in a rural community in the Northern Cape province of South AfricaMethods:A descriptive phenomenological approach was undertaken to explore the perceptions and experiences of pregnant women who drink, in a purposive sample of 8 women from a rural ante-natal clinic. A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant and thematic analysis was conducted. Results:Participants appeared more aware of FASD than described in other study populations. Most reduced drinking after pregnancy recognition, although both recognition and cessation were often delayed. Participants described barriers and facilitators of alcohol abstinence. Barriers included social pressure, life stressors, and cravings and habits. Facilitators included desire to avoid FASD, relationships that were supportive without being stigmatising, availability of other “occupations” especially friendships and relationships not centred on drinking, specific body cues such as nausea, and a sense of personal agency. Conclusion:Various personal and contextual factors can act as barriers or facilitators of alcohol abstinence during pregnancy. Addressing barriers at structural, community and individual levels may aid women in reducing harmful drinking during pregnancy. Facilitators of abstinence should be leveraged to effect change in drinking behaviours, and thereby limit the burden of FASD.

scholarly journals Hailstorm and Human Excreta: Navigating the Hazardous Landscapes in Low-Income Communities in Mangaung, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thulisile N. Mphambukeli
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Human Excreta ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Government ◽  
Depth Interviews

This policy brief argues that due to the failure of local municipalities, political instability, and corruption, hazards act synergistically with unequal and complex power relationships to reproduce and disproportionately distribute hazardous landscapes, particularly in the low-income communities of South Africa. It argues that when municipal bureaucrats hide behind a façade of claiming to do something about hazards and the associated challenges they present for low-income communities, but in reality take no action, they reveal their “dangerous mindscapes” which have devastating effects on low-income communities. The author defines “dangerous mindscapes” as the deliberate and consistent insistence that municipal bureaucrats are distributing and will distribute basic services to everyone in South Africa. This consistent insistence is rooted in an ideological mantra that the government is committed to distribute basic services, but in order to justify their failings; they construct basic service provision as dependent on class and citizenship. This study adopted a qualitative research design, grounded on the descriptive phenomenological approach. The study covers the period between 2015 and 2019. Twenty-four (24) in-depth interviews were conducted in the greater Mangaung low-income communities. The brief explores and highlights the climate change-urbanization nexus as politically propelled with devastating spatiality outcomes, where low-income community residents of Mangaung are forced to navigate a hazardous landscape that forces them to “walk at their own risk” because when hailstorms come, the residents are exposed to human excreta from improvised toilets that runs inside their houses and on the streets.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

Indirect Rule in South Africa

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Myers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Indirect Rule

Combining Professional Interests and Travel: People to People Citizen Ambassador Program

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Alex Johnson ◽  
Amanda Hitchins
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Exchange Program

Abstract This article summarizes a series of trips sponsored by People to People, a professional exchange program. The trips described in this report were led by the first author of this article and include trips to South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Israel. Each of these trips included delegations of 25 to 50 speech-language pathologists and audiologists who participated in professional visits to learn of the health, education, and social conditions in each country. Additionally, opportunities to meet with communication disorders professionals, students, and persons with speech, language, or hearing disabilities were included. People to People, partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), provides a meaningful and interesting way to learn and travel with colleagues.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document