Imagining career resilience research and training from an indigenous knowledge production perspective

More often than not, higher education curricula expound Western-oriented epistemologies of psychology. Trained psychologists may thus not be appropriately equipped to provide career counselling that is suitable to a resource-scarce environment, nor enriched with a heritage of knowledge related to customary career resilience practices. Rather than enabling clients, one could argue that existing career counselling training, and subsequent practice, may in fact hinder clients’ ability to adapt and flourish in their (career-)lives. The thesis of this article is that an indigenous knowledge production imperative affords a way in which embedded values, practices, patterns and concepts synonymous with career resilience in South Africa can be documented systematically. Indigenous knowledge production urges researchers to appreciate what lies at the heart of everyday occurrences (such as career decision making), and be familiar with what is embedded in long-standing habits, rituals and patterns (related to for example career choice). In this regard I discuss both indigenisation and establishing an indigenous psychology as research schemas to develop ecologically-just curricula for higher education training. I explain the epistemological premises of indigenous knowledge production and present research strategies framed within indigenous knowledge production.http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=20128hb2013gv201

Adding 'flock' to 'fight and flight' : a honeycomb of resilience where supply of relationships meets demand for support

In this article I explain how solidarity can support positive adjustment, collective in nature, where people face chronic, cumulative stress and largely lack resources. I propose that when individuals use relationships as a way to access and mobilise resources, an enabling ecology is configured to foster positive adjustment. Applying a collectivist, transactional-ecological view of resilience I propose Relationship-Resourced Resilience (RRR) as a generative theory to explain how resilience occurs as collective, rather than individual and subjective processes. To do this, I draw on eight years of longitudinal case study data that were generated using a Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) approach with partnership schools (N = 12, primary = 9, secondary = 3; urban = 9, rural = 3) and teachers (N = 74, female = 63, male = 11). The RRR model posits that, when under threat of chronic stress in a poverty setting, a collective response is to flock (rather than fight or flight). Flock entails a process of alone-standing individuals, experiencing shared and persistent burdens, connecting to access, share, mobilise and sustain use of resources for positive adaptation. RRR extends current resilience views of subjective, individual adjustment to individually reported stress in the direction of resilience as collective experiences of continual stress with subsequent collective positive adaptation.http://www.elliottfitzpatrick.com/jpa.htmlam2013gv201

Voicing perceptions of risk and protective factors in coping in a HIV&AIDS landscape : reflecting on capacity for adaptiveness

The purpose of this article is to locate children’s own voices within the discourse of ‘disadvantaged children’. I commence by proposing that foregrounding vulnerable children’s knowledge of protective factors may enable resiliency in similar scenarios. After that, from a positive psychology framework, I explicate the conceptual framework integrating constructs from resilience theory, featuring protective in a systemic model. Next I describe the action research design of a partnership study1 in 78 schools in an impoverished rural province – focusing on the computer-based random sampling of 10 percent of the participants (n=2391), the development, piloting and translation of a mixed method questionnaire and the framework analysis of collected data. Then I introduce the emerged themes in terms of protective factors, locating most protection in the (disadvantaged) community, with the child as the central system negotiating adaptation. Subsequently I interpret the themes from my conceptual framework. I submit that the presence of cumulative protection will most probably enhance personal capacity. I also surmise that health-promoting schools may function as replacement safe spaces when safe family systems are lacking, whereas at-risk schools may aggravate the experience and consequences of unsafe family systems. I suggest that perceived capacity in the community system be built on to further support vulnerable children to be resilient. I conclude by suggesting some strategies for future research and intervention endeavours

Resiliência coletiva ao desafio global: transformar uma agenda coletiva de bem-estar rumo a uma educação equitativa sustentada

COVID-19 is a large scale and unpredictable global challenge. It predicts extreme negative outcomes for development –including education. Those with privilege will benefit and those living on the margins will be additionally side-lined. Responses to equalise the unevenness of opportunities to learn is often perceived as goodwill attempts to help ‘a few in distress’ to thrive –with the norm that a majority has well-established resourced pathways towards wellbeing. COVID-19 constitutes a time and space of collective distress. COVID-19 calls for strategies to enable collective wellbeing –not as a luxury but as a necessity. Adversity responses that absorb or adapt to shock continue to maintain, rather than transform, the unequal essence of existing structures. What is needed for equity, also in education, is a transformativeresponse. Social support responses to the global challenge of COVID-19 may offer insight into transformative pathways. Instances of social innovations because of a social contract to privilege collective wellbeing abound in the COVID-19 realm. In Africa, where large-scale adversity is normative, this is not unprecedented. Everyday interdependent resilience mechanisms of this calibre exist, termed flocking responses. Flocking denotes targeted joint resource distribution to counter extreme adversity. In this social response self-protection becomes secondary to collective wellbeing. In this position paper I argue that transformation to that which constitutes ‘new education’ post-COVID-19 may be the result (unintended and possibly sustained) of prolific non-structural flocking responses to equalise pathways that support education across systems. Examples of spontaneous systemic social interventions that resulted from ‘freedom to make choices (for all) with what is available’ could provide transformative insights to intentionally strive for collective wellbeing education agendas and deliberately create pathways for participatory engagement -rather than persisting with structurally engineered strategies maintaining inequality.http://www.revistas2.uepg.br/index.php/praxiseducativahj2021Educational Psycholog

Formative evaluation of the STAR intervention : improving teachers’ ability to provide psychosocial support for vulnerable individuals in the school community

The article describes the pilot phase of a participatory reflection and action (PRA) study. The longitudinal investigation explores teachers’ ability to provide psychosocial support within the context of HIV/AIDS following an asset-based intervention. The study ensued from our desire to understand and contribute to knowledge about the changed roles of teachers due to adversity in the community, specifically in relation to HIV/AIDS and education. The supportive teachers, assets and resilience (STAR) intervention was facilitated from November 2003 to October 2005 and consisted of the research team undertaking nine field visits and facilitating 20 intervention sessions (2–3 hours each), and 12 post-intervention research visits have been conducted to date. Ten female teachers were selected for participation through random purposeful sampling at a primary school in an informal settlement outside Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Data-generation included PRA activities, observation, informal interactive interviews, and focus group discussions. The data were analysed by means of inductive thematic analysis. We found that the teachers did not view vulnerability as being related to children or HIV/AIDS in isolation, but rather that their psychosocial support to children and the school community was inclusive across a spectrum of vulnerabilities and services. We argue that teachers who are inclined to provide such support will fulfil this role irrespective of understanding policy or receiving training. We contend that teachers are well-positioned to manage school-based psychosocial support in order to create relevant and caring spaces for vulnerable individuals in the school community.We thank the following institutions for financially supporting the project: Education, Training and Development Practises, Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA) (2003–2004); ABSA Foundation (2004); M&SS Trust (2005); NRF dissertation award (2007); University of Pretoria Research Development Programme (2007–2009); The Foschini Group (2008–2009); Albert Wessels Funding; Toyota (2008); University of Pretoria, Department of Community Engagement (2008–2010); and National Research Foundation (NRF) Rated Researchers Incentive Funding (2009–current).http://www.nisc.co.za/journals?id=1gv201

Demonstrating resilience in an HIV and AIDS context : an emotional intelligence perspective

In this article we contemplate resilience in vulnerable children as a form of emotional giftedness. By foregrounding relevant segments of six ongoing studies and focusing on ways in which vulnerable children in communities in South Africa cope with the impact of HV&AIDS. The concepts of protective factors, processes and cumulative protection shape our understanding of vulnerable children’s coping in terms of resilience as a signature form of (emotional) giftedness. In our studies we use a qualitative case study research design with groups of children in the six participating communities. We rely on dimensions of resilience to extract evidence of vulnerable children’s resilient coping. The results of the study indicate that traces of resilient coping amongst the participating group of children do exist, and that these traces are closely related to the manifestation of emotional intelligence. Themes indicative of children’s resilient coping include a sense of self-worth (based on added responsibility and related to education), the presence of hope and optimism, a sense of security, comfort and belonging (based on knowledge of future caregivers and remaining in a familiar community), as well as selfregulation capacity. We conclude by debating these resilient coping strategies as a form of emotional giftedness

An attractive choice : education researchers’ use of participatory methodology

Participatory methodologies are often favoured in education research. This study aimed to determine collaborative partnership trends between education researchers and teachers in order to understand the use of participatory theory and practice in education studies. Seven symposium presentations by education scholars from various higher education institutions were analysed using trend analysis from a community of practice theoretical framework. It emerged that participatory methodology denotes various characteristics which indicate favourable use by education researchers. Partnerships between education researchers and teachers share common goals, are contextual in nature, have a process-oriented emphasis and foreground knowledge exchange and the development of knowledge networks. In addition, collaborative partnerships between education researchers and teachers appear to be directed by an overarching philosophy of ‘care’.http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=20128am2013gv201

“I am doing okay” : intrapersonal coping strategies of children living in an institution

In this case study, we utilized a Resilience framework and Sense of Coherence theory to understand how a group of children coped while living in an institution as a consequence of HIV/AIDS. We followed a qualitative and interpretivist approach. The experiences of nine children (5 girls and 4 boys) aged between 11 and 15 years is highlighted. The primary data generation strategy was informal interviews. However, we based these interviews upon participatory task-based and multimodal activities incorporating visual (drawings, pictures), auditory (stories, conversation), tactile (clay modeling) and kinaesthetic (role play) activities to stimulate conversation and discussion. All interviews were voice recorded and the contents thereof, thematically analysed. Children living in this institution use the following intrapersonal coping strategies: a sense of spiritual connectedness, disengagement (fantasy, denial and detachment), and positive intrapersonal characteristics. Intrapersonal sources of resilience help children to establish meaningfulness and comprehensibility in their lives on a continuum of engagement or disengagement. They use spiritual connectedness and socially responsible behaviour to engage and fantasy, denial and detachment to disengage.http://www.elliottfitzpatrick.com/jpa.htmlgv201

The relationship between scientific knowledge and behaviour : an HIV/AIDS case

Debates on the role of scientific knowledge to affect behaviour are continuing. The theory of planned behaviour suggests that behaviour is influenced by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and not by knowledge. However, a large body of knowledge argues that increased HIV/AIDSrelated knowledge leads to the adoption of safe behavioural practices. The purpose of this nonexperimental survey study, therefore, was to investigate the correlation between academic HIV/AIDS knowledge, functional HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-reported behavioural preferences of 300 biology and 243 non-biology students from nine South African schools. Results suggest a correlation between students’ understanding of academic and functional HIV/AIDS knowledge. The behavioural preferences of both biology and non-biology students were generally the same and safe. Among biology students, correlation was observed between academic HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-reported safe behavioural preferences, which was not the case for non-biology students, where functional HIV/AIDS knowledge correlated with self-reported safe behavioural preferences. Within schools, however, no correlation was found between both forms of HIV/AIDS knowledge and self-reported safe behavioural preferences. There were indications that context-specific local factors have a greater influence on behavioural preferences. These findings suggest that the type of knowledge that could influence behaviour is informed by context-specific dynamics.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjbe202016-09-30hb201

What makes or breaks higher education community engagement in the South African rural school context : a multiple-partner perspective

The purpose of this study is to inform global citizenship practice as a higher education agenda by comparing the retrospective experiences of a range of community engagement partners and including often silent voices of non-researcher partners. Higher education–community engagement aims to contribute to social justice as it constructs and transfers new knowledge from the perspectives of a wide range of community engagement partners. This qualitative secondary analysis study was framed theoretically by the transformative–emancipatory paradigm. Existing case data, generated on retrospective experiences of community engagement partners in a long-term community engagement partnership, were conveniently sampled to analyse and compare a range of community engagement experiences (parents of student clients (n = 12: females 10, males 2), teachers from the partner rural school (n = 18: females 12, males 6), student-educational psychology clients (n = 31: females 14, males 17), Academic Service-Learning (ASL) students (n = 20: females 17, males 3) and researchers (n = 12: females 11, males 1). Following thematic in-case and cross-case analysis, it emerged that all higher education–community engagement partners experienced that socio-economic challenges (defined as rural school adversities, include financial, geographic and social challenges) are addressed when an higher education–community engagement partnership exists, but that particular operational challenges (communication barriers, time constraints, workload and unclear scope, inconsistent feedback, as well as conflicting expectations) hamper higher education–community engagement partnership. A significant insight from this study is that a range of community engagement partners experience similar challenges when a university and rural school partner. All community engagement partners experienced that higher education–community engagement is challenged by the structural disparity between the rural context and operational miscommunication.http://journals.sagepub.com/home/esjhj2018Educational Psycholog