Re-Thinking the Role of Indigenous Systems in Life Skills Education Among the Youth of Local Communities

Schools experienced various challenges, and such challenges put the South African youth at risk of self-destructive behavior. The behavior that puts young people at risk, such as substance abuse and lack of educational life skills to mention a few, add to their vulnerability. The knowledge which has been historically repressed and marginalized needs to be given a rightful place in the development and promotion of indigenous knowledge in life skills education of South Africa. Data were collected and qualitatively framed within an interpretivist philosophical view using observation and focus group interviews from purposefully selected key informants who are experts in the area of indigenous knowledge and life skills education.

Developing the Leadership Potential of African Youth Through Online Communities

This chapter draws on the results of an explorative, qualitative study that investigated how online communities can facilitate civic engagement amongst Millennials. Based on the study's findings, the chapter explores how the use of online communities can assist and empower youth, particularly African young people, to overcome barriers, empower and foster civic engagement. This chapter begins with a review of key literature, and then a summary of the study methodology, followed by a discussion of the study findings and their potential for African youth. Results of the study indicated that five facilitating factors and two barriers were influential towards youth civic engagement in an online context. Adult perceptions of youth and the low credibility of online communities were found to act as significant barriers to online youth participation. Given these key findings from the study, the authors show how to employ online communities to engage African youth civic participation and decision making.

“I feel like it is asking if he is a stalker… But I also feel like it is asking if he cares”: Exploring South African Youth’s Perceptions of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale

Background: Gender inequity and the subsequent health impacts disproportionately affect communities in the Global South. However, most gender equity measures, such as Pulerwitz’ (2000) Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS), are developed and validated in the Global North and then applied in Global South settings without investigation of context applicability or validity. This study examines the SRPS’ validity evidence, comprehensiveness and contemporary relevance for young South African women and men. Methods: Between 2019-2021, 38 cognitive interviews (CIs) were conducted among previous participants of a South African youth cohort study ‘AYAZAZI’ (2015-2017) to explore youth’s perceptions of the SRPS. The SRPS measures women’s perceptions of their partner’s controlling behaviours, and men’s perceptions of their own controlling behaviours. Using CIs, participants responded to a 13-item South African youth SRPS (Strongly Agree-Strongly Disagree), and then were asked to think-aloud their reasoning for responses, their understanding and perceived relevance of each item, and made overall suggestions for scale adaptations. An item appraisal coding process was applied, whereby Cognitive Coding assessed the types of cognitive problems youth had with understanding the items, and Question Feature Coding assessed which item features caused problems for participant understandings. Finally, youth recommendations for scale adaptations were summarized. Results: Overall, 21 women and 17 men aged 21-30 participated in CIs in Durban and Soweto, South Africa. Cognitive Coding revealed 1. Comprehension issues, and 2. judgements related to items’ applicability to lived experiences and identities (e.g., being unmarried). Question Feature Coding revealed items’ 1. Lack of clarity or vagueness in wording and 2. logical problems in assumptions leading to multiple interpretations (e.g., item ‘does your partner always need to know where you are’ interpreted as both controlling and caring behaviour). Multiple, overlapping issues revealed how many items failed to “fit” within the present-day living realities of South African youth. Youth recommended several item adaptations and additions, including strength-based items, to existing measures of gender equity and power. Conclusion: Given identified issues, several adaptations including revising items to be more inclusive, contemporary, context specific, and strength-based are needed to validly measure gender equity and power dynamics within the relationships of South African youth.

Seen and heard: The youth as game-changing role-players in climate change and environmental consciousness – A South African perspective

The environmental crisis, ecological injustice and climate change are some of the biggest challenges to humanity and sustainable development worldwide. The youth are at the centre of the ecological (in)justice, environmental consciousness and climate change discourse. For the youth to participate and influence development with regard to the climate crisis in a favourable way, they must understand their role and the issues and challenges that they face in this regard.Contribution: The aim of this explorative article is twofold. It highlights the involvement of the South African youth in ecological matters. It also offers insights on why the youth can be regarded as game-changing role-players with regard to the climate crisis and being environmentally conscious.