Browsing by Author "Van der Merwe, Marietjie"

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    Development of a conceptual framework for the capacity enhancement of development workers in Botswana
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-12) Van der Merwe, Marietjie; Kapp, C. A.; Dent, M. C.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although Botswana is considered by some indices as an economically successful country, poverty is experienced by 30% of the population. This is considered a very high poverty rate especially when it is compared to other countries on a similar level of economic development. Several policies have been put in place by the Botswana government to relieve the consequences of poverty. One of these policies, the destitute policy, targeted those individuals who are disabled and/or unable to engage in sustainable economic activities, causing such individuals to have insufficient assets and income sources. It was found by the Botswana government that the implementation of the destitute policy aggravates dependency of the destitute on government support. As a result, development workers were expected to lead registered destitute to independence through the implementation of a destitute rehabilitation programme. However, literature suggested that approaches that are used by development workers to enable individuals to engage in sustainable economic activities are often detrimental to the very empowerment purposes that such workers set out to achieve. The objective of this research was therefore to develop a conceptual framework for capacity enhancement of development workers in Botswana. This objective was addressed through applying action research in order to gain in-depth understanding of the perspectives, practices and experiences of the key role players involved in destitute rehabilitation. This was done in one urban district, one semi-urban district and one rural district council in Botswana. This research took place in four phases, all of which were informed by the action research approach. The first phase comprised four cycles of action research. Each cycle encouraged reflection and observation on destitute rehabilitation practices and planning towards improved practices, followed by implementation. It became evident to the researcher that only singleloop learning was practiced by the development workers. Therefore, instead of gaining deeper insight into aspects that influence destitute rehabilitation, the same problems related to destitute rehabilitation practices were repeated by development workers. Reflection on this process created understanding by the researcher on why the expected results were not achieved. Based on this reflection, a literature review was carried out in iv Phase II to develop the final theoretical and methodological frameworks for this research. Phase III consisted of focus group discussions to understand the perspectives, practices and experiences of the different role players in destitute rehabilitation. The data produced in Phase III enabled understanding of how development workers’ capacity was influenced by the system within which they are operating. The results of this research showed that development workers saw themselves in the same state of powerlessness as the destitute and as not being able to influence the system within which they are operating. Phase IV comprised the application of the coding principles of grounded theory to make sense of data related to Phases I and III, followed by the application of critical systems heuristics to make further sense of the data. Based on the understanding that emerged through the application of CSH, a conceptual framework was developed for the capacity enhancement of development workers in Botswana. It became evident in this research that the challenge for the government of Botswana is to not only reduce the number of registered destitute, but to redesign the system within which destitute rehabilitation takes place, by using the conceptual framework developed in this research. The purpose of the conceptual framework is to enable policy-makers and development workers to scrutinise the whole system within which destitute rehabilitation is implemented by engaging the key role players in dialogue on adjustments that need to be made to the system to enhance development workers’ capacity in destitute rehabilitation.
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    Die effek van verskillende onderrigmetodes in die aanbieding van 'n behuisingsgeletterdheidsprogram
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-12) Van der Merwe, Marietjie; Albertyn, R. M.; Van Wyk, A. S.; Van der Merwe, M. E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The role which education can play in the upliftment of individuals and families has been receiving increasing attention by the South African government because it is regarded as each individual's right to reach his/her full potential. However, the way in which education is presented is the defining factor, which determines the sustainability of the subsequent development. The purpose of the study was to determine how Consumer scientists could contribute to transformative learning as well as the increasing of individual's levels of empowerment and knowledge. A literature study was undertaken to present a synopsis of emancipation education and transformative learning within the context of Consumer Science. Several methods of education, the underlying concepts to transformative learning, methods to bring about transformative learning, several phases in transformation of perspectives, the outcomes of the emancipation education method, the role of the Consumer scientist as emancipation educator as well as practical teaching methods were also included to support the empirical part of the study. A housing literacy programme was adapted and presented according to two different methods of education, namely emancipation and technical methods to represent the empirical part of this study. The housing literacy programme was presented to women in Calvinia and Williston living in government subsidised houses. During the implementation of the emancipation method of education, the transformation framework was used in conjunction with the action research model to adapt the programme and to identify any transformation that took place. In experimental design, the emancipation and technical methods were compared in terms of an increase in empowerment and knowledge. The status of empowerment and knowledge of both groups was determined before the programme, directly after the programme as well as two months thereafter. Quantitative data was obtained from the questionnaires on empowerment and knowledge, while qualitative data was obtained from the action research model as well as the transformation framework. The result of the quantitative data showed a clear difference between the group taught with the emancipatory method, and the group taught with the technical method in tenus of the increase in levels of empowerment and knowledge. The group taught with the emancipatory method showed higher levels of empowerment and knowledge than the group taught with the technical method directly after the programme as well as two months thereafter. The levels of empowerment and knowledge of the group taught with the emancipatory method showed significant statistical differences from before the presentation of the programme until two months thereafter. This suggests the sustainable character of an increase in empowerment and knowledge. Results obtained from the qualitative data also indicated the occurrence of distorted meaning schemes as well as modification thereof. This study showed that using the emancipation method of education when presenting a Consumer Science programme could induce transformation. The quantitative data also proved the emancipation method of education to be more effective than the technical method when aiming to increase an individual's level of empowerment and knowledge. It is therefore important that Consumer scientists be aware of all the characteristics of the emancipation method of education as well as transformative learning in order to induce change in individuals and families and to lead them to selfdependence.
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    Die spanning tussen performatiwiteit en meelewing binne die onderwys : 'n outo-etnografiese reis
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Van der Merwe, Marietjie; Berkhout, S. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research is about my story as a learning-support teacher and includes the identity growth that I experienced between the period from January 2001 until December 2012. My approach of acceptance and compassion, within the atmosphere of performativity, leads to my writing process and becomes my auto-ethnographic journey. The writing process brings about change, to experience the performative as an action of ‘doing’ (in Giroux 2000:135) and a way of being within day-to-day situations (in Denzin 2004:273). By recording my experiences within changing spaces, I hope to make a contribution to academic literature, by drawing the reader into my experiences of the forming of my identity and the explication of the writing process as a journey. Writing my introduction to this research at the end of this process, I realise that this research has not only changed my story, but also myself as a person. I struggled to bring the story to a close. This is because I have realised that my story is still changing every day. I am becoming a performative ethonographer (Denzin 2004:262) and I see concrete situations and engage in a conversation with them. And through this writing experience I have registered an enrichment in my experience. My research does not make use of questionnaires or interviews. It is action-research, experienced in everyday things. My story with remembrances was already there before the research, though never told. Ball (1996) refers to this process as identification. This is the process through which I have gone to be seen, as well as the process through which one goes to see oneself, to a specific identity (quoted by Thompson 2004:45). My story begins with questions and reflections about my being different as a white woman, within my context of the two so-called ‘Coloured Schools’. Am I carrying a white scar? (Cixous 1998). I have experienced the writing process as a way of coming into knowledge. My research leads to questions, though not necessarily to answers. The writing process leads to my looking through a different lens of gaining a better understanding. Peace. And hope. I am learning – have learnt – that hope is an ontological necessity. There is a necessity to dream, to change, and to better the lives of others (Freire 1998:8 in Denzin 2003:263). My research develops rhizomatically (Honan: 2006; Richardson & Pierre 2005, quoted in Richards 2012:3). It is written in fragments of daily action. It is written in the knowledge of the impossibility of relaying experience as it is or was. As a teller of a story, I emphasise that I do not posit my characters as objects. Rather, they are presented in this research in a relationship of trust, existing between myself and them for a period stretching beyond twelve years. Meaning cannot always be relayed in words. Suggestions of meaning can lie in the relationship between texts (Parsons 2002:32 in Le Roux 2012:xi4).