- Title
- Rethinking our understanding of career decision making: the views of students at a selected South African TVET colleges on what influences their career decisions
- Creator
- Maluleke, Lucky
- Subject
- Career -- Decision making
- Subject
- Postsecondary education -- South Africa
- Subject
- Career development
- Date Issued
- 2022-04
- Date
- 2022-04
- Type
- Doctoral thesis
- Type
- Thesis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/56044
- Identifier
- vital:54946
- Description
- In South Africa, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has been identified as a potential solution to the triple challenge of inequality, poverty and unemployment. The 2013 White Paper for Post-School Education and Training: Building on Expanded, Effective and Integrated Post-School Education (DHET, 2013) identifies TVET colleges as an area of great expansion. Although such an expansion is important and necessary, it is unfortunate that in South Africa, research has paid little to no attention to what influences TVET college students' career decision making. Concerning this, the study reported in this dissertation aimed to investigate what influences the career decision making of TVET college students in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Eastern Cape, South Africa. This qualitative study, located within the subjectivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology, contributes to understanding what influences the career decision making of TVET college students in a developing context of South Africa. Drawing on qualitative (individual and group) interviews with students, it examined the career decisions of a small sample of students enrolled at one South African public TVET college in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. In so doing, the study brings four elements to the study of career decision making. Firstly, empirically, it brings a fresh and subjective perspective of what 'TVET' and 'career' means to TVET students. Secondly, it brings to the literature on TVET, an analysis of the Careership Theory that draws from the TVET college students' experiences. Thirdly, it brings to our understanding of career decision making, the role of structure and agency from a Bourdieusian2 perspective. Fourthly, it transcends the heavily critiqued Bourdieusian model to encompass the notion of capacity to aspire, borrowed from Arjun Appadurai, to better explain the role of culture in social action. Data were collected using individual and group interview methods, which were later transcribed and analysed thematically. The findings show that career decision making is dependent on the perceptions of the primary decision makers and other social agents that learners interacted with in the field. Career decision making is situated in the vast social inequalities and unequal power relations shaped by unequal access to cultural, economic and social capital. However, as much as social structures influence career decision making, the role of agency must not be underestimated. The findings further reveal that career decisions are located in the objective and social structures, and these are influenced by capital (cultural, economic and social). Furthermore, career decisions are influenced by the capacity of the individuals to choose, to know what to choose, as well as structural enablers like finance. In short, the findings reveal that inequalities matter, for example, socio-economic and gender disparities.
- Description
- Thesis (DEd) -- Faculty of Education, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- Format
- 1 online resource (249 pages)
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Maluleke, Lucky
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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NMU School for Education Research and Engagement
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Maluleke, L.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |