Culture of Violence as a Mechanism to Solve Problems with Authority among Students at South African Universities

El estudio alcanza la conclusión de que hay una necesidad de compromiso entre las autoridades y los estudiantes universitarios. Además, la política estudiantil debería estar separada de la influencia de los partidos políticos, ya que esto parece alimentar las tensiones entre los universitarios interesados.El movimiento sudafricano de lucha contra las tasas universitarias, conocido en las redes sociales con la etiqueta #FeesMustFall (#FMF) e inicialmente pacífico, derivó en el uso extremo de la violencia durante las protestas estudiantiles, lo que provocó la necesidad de comprender los motivos de aquella. En esta tesis se aplica un diseño de método mixto paralelo convergente para comprender por qué los estudiantes universitarios de Sudáfrica recurren a la violencia cuando tienen problemas con las autoridades universitarias. Se usa el procedimiento de muestreo no proporcional estratificado, con una relación multinivel para seleccionar 177 individuos de diferentes estados de tres universidades públicas. Las herramientas de recolección de datos utilizadas consistieron en una encuesta en línea y entrevistas con informantes clave. El análisis factorial y el análisis de regresión multinomial fueron las técnicas para analizar datos cuantitativos, mientras que la comparación constante y el análisis temático se utilizaron para el análisis de los datos cualitativos. Los resultados revelaron que la raza, la institución y la edad fueron determinantes de las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el uso de la violencia; algunos incluso lo caracterizaron como una parte regular y "divertida" de la participación política. Se descubrió que la historia sociopolítica de Sudáfrica era fundamental para dar forma a las percepciones de los estudiantes. Posteriormente, los participantes reconocieron que las protestas violentas eran un modo productivo de satisfacer las necesidades. En general, los resultados sugieren que el contexto social juega un papel significativo en la insensibilidad que algunos estudiantes sudafricanos muestran ante la violencia

Violencia en las calles sudafricanas como única respuesta: el movimiento de protesta estudiantil sudafricano “#FeesMustFall”

The democratisation of higher education has revealed deeply entrenched inequalities inherent in the system, wherein young people cannot access the system without being confronted by a myriad of obstacles. Worldwide, students have taken to the streets to showcase their discontent with authorities, hoping to generate awareness and acknowledgement about the skewed nature of higher education. South Africa has been no exception to this development. The ‘#FeesMustFall’ movement in 2015 has sent a clear call to politicians to prioritise the foundational transformation of higher education as it continues to be an elitist system, accessible only to a select few. Whereas the South African massification programme, to double the participation rate and expand private higher education, has yielded some benefits over the last decades, the number of African students in higher education institutions has yet to increase. The authorities have failed to respond to the structural inequalities that these students face. This research details the challenges that prompted South African university students to engage in the ‘#FeesMustFall’ protest. It also offers suggestions on how to overcome these challenges to generate long-term change.La democratización de la educación superior en Sudáfrica ha revelado desigualdades profundamente arraigadas e inherentes al sistema derivadas del Apartheid (sistema de segregación racial en Sudáfrica y Namibia en vigor hasta 1992), en las que los jóvenes negros no pueden acceder a la educación sin enfrentarse a una miríada de obstáculos. En todo el mundo, los estudiantes han salido a las calles para mostrar su descontento con las autoridades, con la esperanza de generar conciencia y reconocimiento sobre los problemas con los que se encuentran en la educación superior. Sudáfrica no ha sido una excepción. En 2015, el movimiento conocido con el hashtag ‘#FeesMustFall’ (para la reducción de tasas académicas en la educación universitaria) envió un mensaje a los políticos para que priorizaran el necesario cambio que necesita la educación superior en Sudáfrica, ya que sigue siendo un sistema elitista y accesible solo para unos pocos elegidos. Aunque el programa sudafricano para incrementar la tasa de participación y expansión de la educación superior puesto en marcha a final de los años 90 del siglo pasado ha producido algunos beneficios en las últimas décadas, el número de estudiantes africanos en las instituciones de educación superior sigue sin aumentar. Las autoridades no han respondido a las desigualdades estructurales a la que estos estudiantes se enfrentan. En este artículo se detallan los desafíos que llevaron a los estudiantes universitarios sudafricanos a participar en la violenta protesta “#FeesMustFall” y se hacen propuestas sobre cómo superar estos desafíos para generar mejoras a largo plazo

Rapid photovoice as a close-up, emancipatory methodology in student experience research : the case of the student movement violence and wellbeing study

In this paper, we critically reflect on our conceptualization and operationalization of “rapid photovoice” as a close-up, emancipatory, action research methodology which has multiple, intersecting social-justice goals; and consider the methodology’s potential for helping to achieve such goals. We first consider photovoice in relation to its typical use in public health research, as well as in prior research into student experiences of higher education. We then consider our pragmatic redesign of the methodology as rapid photovoice (RPV), which we conceptualized in response to the goals, parameters, and constraints inherent in our project, which studied student movement violence and wellbeing. In the third part of the article, we describe and discuss our operationalization of RPV in this study on four university campuses in South Africa. In the fourth section, we reflect on some of the ethical considerations arising from the topic and the methodology. In the final section of the article, we critically assess the interim outcomes of our use of RPV in terms of (1) psychologically empowering students to reflect on traumatic experiences in a safe space and enhancing their self-awareness of wellbeing, wellbeing resources and coping strategies; (2) the politically emancipatory potential of photovoice to represent student experiences authentically and with immediacy to higher education policy role-players, and (3) its ability to co-create artifacts of collective memory that provide authentic empirical material for making trustworthy knowledge claims.The National Research Foundation of South Africa. The project is part of a larger research into the new South African student movement “From #RhodesMustFall to #FeesMustFall” which is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ijqhj2021Educational PsychologyPsycholog

The Coping Strategies of Students who Witnessed Violence during the South African #FeesMustFall Movement.

The 2015/2016 academic year was an academic year that saw South African university students and leaders and the state engage in intense negotiations over free quality education. A considerable number of students joined this movement and were involved in or witnessed violence without realising how violence can harm them. This paper uses the interpretative phenomenological approach to interrogate the coping strategies employed by six students (who were part of the #FMF movement), in response to the violence that they witnessed at their campus. The findings reveal that witnessing violence is stressful. At some point, these students felt powerless and employed maladaptive coping strategies to deal with the threat of violence that they faced. The study recommends that university programmes be augmented to help students adopt a combination of the problem-focussed and anticipatory-focussed coping strategies to foster adaptive styles when coping with violence

University of Venda’s male students’ attitudes towards contraception and family planning

Background: Many young men continue to disregard the importance of contraception and family planning in South Africa. The fact that even university students also do not take contraception and family planning seriously poses a serious threat to their own health and well-being. Aim: This paper aims at investigating the attitudes of male students towards contraception and the promotion of female students’ sexual health rights and well-being at the University of Venda. Methods: Quantitative research method is used to determine how attitudes of 60 male students towards contraception can jeopardise the health and well-being of both male and female students. Results: This study reveals that the majority of 60 male students at the University of Venda have a negative attitude towards contraceptives. As a result, male students at the University of Venda are not keen on using contraceptives. Male students’ negative attitude and lack of interest in contraceptives and family planning also limit progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals on primary health care, especially with regard to sexual and reproductive health and well-being of female students at the University of Venda. Conclusion: The fact that more than half of the male students interviewed did not take contraception and family planning seriously poses a serious threat to health and well-being of students, including violation of female students’ sexual and reproductive health rights in South Africa. This calls for radical health promotion and sexual and reproductive rights programmes which should specifically target male students at the University of Venda