Experiences of teachers working in a deprived environment, with specific reference to their emotional intelligence
- Authors: Mack, Esmé Judy
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Emotional intelligence , Teachers -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: vital:9572 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1017611
- Description: Against the background of the broad-ranging and significant educational changes introduced in South Africa since 1994, school teachers are challenged to cope with and adapt to difficult working conditions, job stress and large classes. As a result, teaching is now experienced as a more demanding and challenging profession. However, education takes place within the context of a particular community. The role of the environment, as context for education, is therefore also important. As such, a deprived environment can exacerbate the challenges experienced in teaching by teachers. Such an environment is often characterised by high poverty levels, undesirable living conditions, escalating social and health problems, malnutrition, unemployment, parental illiteracy, parental absence or uninvolvement, child abuse, sexual harassment, teenage pregnancies, corruption, crime, conflict, violence, and high TB and HIV infection rates. In schools in a deprived environment, lack of resources and learning materials, overcrowded classes, children dropping out of school, an unattractive, an unsafe physical environment, a lack of electricity, as well as broken windows and leaking roofs, are often the order of the day. These factors increase the burden on the teachers who work in such an unsupportive context. How well teachers cope amidst the broad-ranging transformational changes introduced in post-Apartheid South African education, while teaching in a deprived environment, depends to a large extent on their emotional stability, personal skills and cognitive functioning. Their emotional strengths should enable them to be aware of their own emotions, and the emotions of their learners, as well as to guide those emotions appropriately and form healthy relationships. It should further enable teachers to make provision for the effective learning, development and well-being of the learners in their classrooms. Against this background, the aim of this study was to investigate the following research questions: Primary research question: What are the characteristics of emotional intelligence that teacher is working in a deprived environment display? Secondary research questions: • What is the relationship between the characteristics that the teachers display and the components of emotional intelligence? • What are the implications of the research findings for teacher education? • What guidelines can be provided from the research findings to teachers working in a deprived environment, to further promote their effective teaching? The focus of the study was on the two primary schools and one secondary school located in the Walmer Gqebera Township in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, which are in close proximity to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, being the University’s neighbouring township. Constructivism and interpretivism formed the philosophical foundation of the study, while critical theory and pragmatism also applied.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Innovation adaptation and institutionalization: a case study of an open and distance learning adaptation in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mswazie, Jonathan L P
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Distance education -- Zimbabwe Open learning -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11184 , vital:26893
- Description: This study set out to investigate a unique case of innovation adaptation and institutionalization in a depressed socio-economic environment. The main aim of the study was to understand and explain interventions and innovative strategies that underpin the survival and growth of the Open and Distance Learning Mode (ODLM) in Zimbabwe. Towards this end, the data to address the research questions was derived from the case study methodology which incorporated, among others, documentary analysis and interviews with persons involved in the initiation and management of the ODLM. The results of the study indicate that three broad categories of strategies, namely protectionism, innovative leadership and educational entrepreneurialism or commodification constitute the foundation of ODLM durability in Masvingo Province. Protectionism in the context of ODLM survival and growth are projected and articulated in the policy instruments such as mandates and legal frameworks which shielded the innovation from the usual hazards of the innovation process. Protectionism enabled the ODLM to gain traction in an elitist and conservative higher education landscape. Correspondingly, innovative leadership is manifested in a highly motivated team of management staff committed to the propagation of the ODLM to every part of Masvingo Province. The leadership at the Masvingo Regional Campus (MRC) utilizes the multiple stakeholder approach as strategy for establishing convergences and equilibrium in respect of the interests and concerns of the four main stakeholders, namely the government or the ruling party which initiated the implementation of the ODLM; the employers of ODL graduates who affirm the relevancy of ODL qualifications, the students who sustain ODLM by generating revenue for the ZOU, and finally, the MRC staff who are the implementers of the ODLM programmes. Likewise, educational entrepreneurialism constitute another key strategy in ODLM survival and growth. This strategy is articulated in the principle of continual adaptation and creation of market – driven programmes. The above results have several implications to various role players and actors involved in the educational reform and innovation. Firstly, the results of the study reveal the imperative for power elites or policy formulators to ensure that they initiate and adopt educational innovations that match the capacities of their implementers and the socio-economic realities of their respective countries or societies. In this regard, the ODLM appears to have been a prudent choice in light of the challenges that were being encountered in post-independence Zimbabwe. Secondly, from a management perspective, the selection of the innovation team to spearhead or steer the implementation was prioritized. Only competent and committed personnel positively disposed towards an innovation should spearhead the implementation. In addition adequate training and staff development should be instituted to keep the implementers abreast of new trends and standards in educational provision. Lastly, the results of this study constitute a clarion call to curriculum developers in African university departments to design and develop programmes which resonate with the needs of key stakeholders who constitute the support base for viable educational institutions.
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- Date Issued: 2014