Investigating student memories of cross racial mixing in a postgraduate sociology class in a South African university

The paper reports on a pedagogic and research initiative which I introduced in apostgraduate sociology course on Youth, Childhood and Gendered Identities which I taughtat the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This involved students participating in CollectiveMemory Work: choosing, writing and telling a story in class relating to their youth orchildhoods (from their early to very recent years) about themes which were selected by theclass, and then collectively and critically reflecting on these. The aim of this initiative wasto explore and compare constructions and experiences of youth and childhood of differentmembers of the group. The paper focuses on stories students told on one of the selectedthemes: cross racial mixing. Four stories are selected for closer thematic and narrativeanalysis. The paper reports on the collective discussions which were held after all thestories had been read, and the kinds of questions raised in these about the shape, form andcontent of the different stories and the nature and status of memories

Schooling And The Drought In Zimbabwe: The Views And Reactions Of Primary School Senior Teachers

A ZBTE opinion surveyThis report presents the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out among a group of primary school senior teachers with at least 10 years teaching experience who attended an in-service course at Masvingo Teachers’ college in 1992. The survey sought their views about the effects of the drought on the demeanor, behavior and performance of pupils in their schools, and the measures, if any, which they had taken and would want Central Government to take to alleviate the problems their schools were experiencing as a result of the drought. According to the accounts of our respondents the impact of the drought on schooling was most serious in the rural areas. Respondents teaching in rural areas were more likely, than their urban counterparts, to report drought-related attitudinal and behavioral changes in pupils, curricular changes, higher absentee rates, higher proportions of children coming to school on empty stomachs and traveling long distances, and measures which the school had taken to alleviate the effects of the drought. Our respondents were unanimous in advocating forms of Government intervention, usually related to the setting up of supplementary-feeding schemes. This suggested that all our respondents, urban and rural, viewed the drought as having a negative impact on their schools, and potential solutions to the problem as being beyond the scope of local school or community based initiatives which This report presents the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out among a group of primary school senior teachers with at least 10 years teaching experience who attended an in-service course at Masvingo Teachers’ college in 1992. The survey sought their views about the effects of the drought on the demeanor, behavior and performance of pupils in their schools, and the measures, if any, which they had taken and would want Central Government to take to alleviate the problems their schools were experiencing as a result of the drought. According to the accounts of our respondents the impact of the drought on schooling was most serious in the rural areas. Respondents teaching in rural areas were more likely, than their urban counterparts, to report drought-related attitudinal and behavioral changes in pupils, curricular changes, higher absentee rates, higher proportions of children coming to school on empty stomachs and traveling long distances, and measures which the school had taken to alleviate the effects of the drought. Our respondents were unanimous in advocating forms of Government intervention, usually related to the setting up of supplementary-feeding schemes. This suggested that all our respondents, urban and rural, viewed the drought as having a negative impact on their schools, and potential solutions to the problem as being beyond the scope of local school or community based initiatives which 'lacked Government funding. Some indicated feelings of frustration with what they perceived as Government inactivity. Some reported feeling estranged from the community as a result of the drought, while others suggested that the drought had enhanced staff- community relations.'lacked Government funding. Some indicated feelings of frustration with what they perceived as Government inactivity. Some reported feeling estranged from the community as a result of the drought, while others suggested that the drought had enhanced staff- community relations

Pathways to gender equitable men: Reflections on findings from the International Men and Gender Equality survey in the light of twenty years of gender change in South Africa

This article reflects on the findings of the International Men and Gender Equality survey through the lens of contemporary South African contexts of change. While huge strides have been made toward gender justice in South Africa since 1994, there are many indications, including high rates of gender-based violence, that inequalities on the basis of gender intersected with other forms of inequality persist. Further, some research illustrates a growing resistance among men and women to gender justice policies and measures. The article argues that far more work is required in South Africa to shift both men and women's perceptions of the value of gender justice for boys and men, and in facilitating a more authentic investment for boys and men in their own and social change. It also points to how much of the current scholarship on men and boys focuses on "problems" that reproduces a negative construction of certain groups of boys and men that is also raced and classed. In taking stock of a lack of progress in twenty years of democracy and gender equality goals in South Africa, the article argues the importance of shifting emphasis to what may be seen as the "positive" moments of men's relationship to gender equality and justice. It argues that the findings of the survey point to the value of strategic engagement with and acknowledgment of existing participation of boys and men in alternative, equitable, and constructive practices, such as more active participation in caring practices.IS

Schooling And The Drought In Zimbabwe: The Views And Reactions Of Primary School Senior Teachers

This report presents the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out among a group of primary school senior teachers with at least 10 years teaching experience who attended an in-service course at Masvingo Teachers’ college in 1992. The survey sought their views about the effects of the drought on the demeanor, behavior and performance of pupils in their schools, and the measures, if any, which they had taken and would want Central Government to take to alleviate the problems their schools were experiencing as a result of the drought. According to the accounts of our respondents the impact of the drought on schooling was most serious in the rural areas. Respondents teaching in rural areas were more likely, than their urban counterparts, to report drought-related attitudinal and behavioral changes in pupils, curricular changes, higher absentee rates, higher proportions of children coming to school on empty stomachs and traveling long distances, and measures which the school had taken to alleviate the effects of the drought. Our respondents were unanimous in advocating forms of Government intervention, usually related to the setting up of supplementary-feeding schemes. This suggested that all our respondents, urban and rural, viewed the drought as having a negative impact on their schools, and potential solutions to the problem as being beyond the scope of local school or community based initiatives which This report presents the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out among a group of primary school senior teachers with at least 10 years teaching experience who attended an in-service course at Masvingo Teachers’ college in 1992. The survey sought their views about the effects of the drought on the demeanor, behavior and performance of pupils in their schools, and the measures, if any, which they had taken and would want Central Government to take to alleviate the problems their schools were experiencing as a result of the drought. According to the accounts of our respondents the impact of the drought on schooling was most serious in the rural areas. Respondents teaching in rural areas were more likely, than their urban counterparts, to report drought-related attitudinal and behavioral changes in pupils, curricular changes, higher absentee rates, higher proportions of children coming to school on empty stomachs and traveling long distances, and measures which the school had taken to alleviate the effects of the drought. Our respondents were unanimous in advocating forms of Government intervention, usually related to the setting up of supplementary-feeding schemes. This suggested that all our respondents, urban and rural, viewed the drought as having a negative impact on their schools, and potential solutions to the problem as being beyond the scope of local school or community based initiatives which 'lacked Government funding. Some indicated feelings of frustration with what they perceived as Government inactivity. Some reported feeling estranged from the community as a result of the drought, while others suggested that the drought had enhanced staff- community relations.'lacked Government funding. Some indicated feelings of frustration with what they perceived as Government inactivity. Some reported feeling estranged from the community as a result of the drought, while others suggested that the drought had enhanced staff- community relations

Memories of Youth and Interviewing Young People: Reflections on Young People’s Understandings of Drug Use

This paper draws on a qualitative study of young people in Milton Keynes and their understanding of drugs and drug use. It focuses, partly, on the relationship Rob Pattman established with Susie, a young woman he was interviewing about her views on life in general and drugs in particular. We are interested in the kinds of identities that young people were establishing in relation to each other. Our view is that interviewers do not elicit descriptive accounts from interviewees. Rather, the interviewees construct their identities through what they say about themselves and others, and this depends, crucially, on how they position and are positioned by the interviewer (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000; Frosh et al., 2002; Walkerdine et al., 2001). As the above authors have argued, the sorts of feelings interviewees evoke in interviewers must be acknowledged and addressed since these provide important insights into the dynamics of the interviewer- interviewee relationship

Middle‐class struggle? Identity‐work and leisure among sixth formers in the United Kingdom

This paper explores the ways in which sixth-form students in Milton Keynes negotiate their identities and the symbolic significance they attach to leisure activities in the process of doing this. The paper draws upon qualitative, young-person-centred interviews with sixth formers in state and private schools. We address the investments of sixth formers in constructing themselves as autonomous individuals and argue that they do so from a position of middle-class subjects-in-the-making. Through an inversion of Willis' (1977) (focus, our concern is to make explicit the implicitly middle-class identities sixth formers were forging. We argue that the identity-work of sixth formers plays a part in the reproduction of school-based class inequalities by pathologising working-class students while constructing themselves as bourgeois liberal individuals

Producing contradictory masculine subject positions: Narratives of threat, homophobia and bullying in 11-14 year old boys

This paper reports a qualitative analysis of data from a study of masculinity in 11–14 year old boys attending twelve London schools. Forty-five group discussions (N= 245) and two individual interviews (N= 78) were conducted. The findings indicate that boys' experiences of school led them to assume that interviews would expose them to ridicule and so threaten their masculinity. Boys were generally more serious and willing to reveal emotions in individual than in group interviews. A key theme in boys' accounts was the importance of being able to present themselves as properly masculine in order to avoid being bullied by other boys by being labeled "gay." The ways in which boys were racialized affected their experiences of school