Peace Kiguwa

Teaching and Learning: Addressing the Gap through Learning Styles:

Skogsberg and Clump (2003) have argued that there are major differences in the learning styles of students depending on the course they are undertaking. Hence, psychology students demonstrate a particular set of learning styles. It is vital to utilise these unique learning styles to address the needs of these students during the first-year level of higher education. Using the Biggs Study Process Questionnaire, we found that of the 319 psychology first-year students at the University of the Witwatersrand that participated, 175 demonstrated primarily surface learning. This finding was used to revise the first-year psychology tutorial programme, including assessments, in an attempt to facilitate deeper learning strategies. We discuss these initiatives and the major challenges that we have experienced in implementation.

Violent masculinities and service delivery protests in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study of two communities in Mpumalanga

abstract For the past few years, violent service delivery protests have been spreading across South Africa over access to basic services, such as water, electricity, housing and job opportunities. This Article draws on two case studies in which in-depth group and individual interviews were conducted with key male informants about their involvement in violent service delivery protests. It provides a gendered analysis of these events by focusing on Connells (1995) notion of hegemonic masculinity, which refers to dominant cultural stereotypes in which men are expected to aspire to power, status, and wealth, and how these expectations are implicated in service delivery protests. In the interviews, the participants complained bitterly about the black elite men who drive flashy expensive cars, have money and as a result, are able to attract multiple girlfriends, while they are not able to do the same due to their poor economic status. Thus violence was used by the working-class men to deal with their sense of disempowerment and emasculation. This violence was also directed at women in politics within local councils. In conclusion, the Article argues that the current socio-economic pressures seem to be influencing young men to become involved in violent service delivery protests as a way of imagining and reimaging new forms of masculinities in post-apartheid South Africa.

To Be or Not to Be a Mother: Exploring the Notion of Motherhood among University Students

We explored the notion of motherhood among female university students. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted with seven final-year female students at the University of the Witwatersrand. The data were analysed and various themes were categorised into manageable units. The findings suggest that many female students are ambivalent about motherhood and becoming mothers, with preferences for being career mothers set against preferences for establishing a career first. This conflict was further evident in sentiments of motherhood as being natural and obligatory.

The significance of sheltering in the lives of four women affected by abusive relationships

Domestic violence is recognised as a pervasive problem in South Africa. This study focused on the narratives of four abused women and attempted to establish the significance of sheltering in their lives. A qualitative research design was used based on semi-structured interviews, which were analysed thematically. The findings supported past research, indicating that although the womens experiences were diverse they contained many features similar to those reported in previous studies. Each of the four women was not a passive victim, having taken the decision to leave an abusive and violent relationship. Sheltering was found to provide the protected space necessary to move beyond the abuse, and in addition provided the structure and social support necessary to start to transcend the abuse. Sheltering was found to fill gaps created by a society in transition, in which abuse and violence are often tolerated or condoned within existing social and family structures.

South African Psychology and Gender: An Analysis of the SAJP and PINS Journals 1994–2009

Drawing on a content analysis of selected articles from the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and Psychology in Society (PINS) between 1994 and 2009, we reflect on the extent to which South African Psychology resonates with pertinent gender developments in post-apartheid South Africa. Our analysis of these journals therefore seeks to explore the continuities, shifts, developments, and gaps that characterize psychology’s engagement with gender and feminist work in particular, with a concentrated focus on the prominent sociopolitical developments of gender that have arisen post-94 and South African Psychology’s own engagement with these developments. More specifically, the chapter explores South African Psychology’s engagement with gender and feminist work in relation to three specific areas of investigation that have been at the forefront of sociopolitical, cultural, and economic change in South Africa: HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, and masculinity.

“I provide the pleasure, I control it”: sexual pleasure and “bottom” identity constructs amongst gay youth in a Stepping Stones workshop

Abstract This paper explores the meanings attached to gay sexuality through the self-labelling practices of a group of young gay-identified students in focus group and individual interviews in Johannesburg, South Africa. These meanings include constructs of the dynamics surrounding safe sex negotiation and risk related to “top-bottom” subject positioning as well as the erotics of power and desire that are imbued in these practices and positioning. Using performativity theory as a theoretical tool of analysis, I argue that constructs of “top-bottom” subjectivities can be seen to meet certain erotic needs for LGBTI youth, including reasons related to physical safety for LGBTI people living in dangerous spaces. The performance of “bottom” identities in sexual intimacy and behaviour is further deployed in the expression and performance of power that the participants construct as erotic. The implications for sexual health intervention include understanding the gendered performance influences of sexual behaviour including safe sex, exploring creative ways that practices of sexual health can be engaged with this population group in a way that accommodates the erotic pleasure interfaced with sexual identity identifications and performances of “bottom” identities. Résumé Cet article étudie les acceptations liées à la sexualité homosexuelle par les pratiques d’autolabellisation d’un groupe de jeunes étudiants gays dans des entretiens individuels et par groupes d’intérêt à Johannesburg, Afrique du Sud. Ces acceptations incluent des concepts des dynamiques entourant la négociation pour des rapports sexuels surs et le risque relatif au positionnement des sujets en « actif/passif », ainsi que l’érotisme du pouvoir et du désir qui imprègne ces pratiques et ces positions. En utilisant la théorie de la performativité comme outil théorique d’analyse, j’avance qu’il est possible de considérer que les concepts des subjectivités d’« actif-passif » répondent à certains besoins érotiques des jeunes LHBT, notamment des raisons se rapportant à la sécurité physique des LHBT qui vivent dans des espaces dangereux. L’adoption d’identités « passives » dans l’intimité et le comportement sexuel est encore affichée dans l’expression et l’exercice du pouvoir que les participants considèrent comme érotiques. Les conséquences pour les interventions de santé sexuelle incluent de saisir les influences sexospécifiques du comportement sexuel, notamment les rapports sexuels sûrs, d’étudier des manières créatives dont les pratiques de santé sexuelle peuvent être mises en łuvre dans ce groupe de population d’une manière associant le plaisir érotique avec les identifications sexuelles et la performance des identités « passives ». Resumen Este artículo explora los significados asociados con la sexualidad homosexual por medio de las prácticas de autoetiquetado de un grupo de jóvenes estudiantes que se identificaron como homosexuales en grupos focales y en entrevistas individuales en Johannesburgo, Sudáfrica. Estos significados incluyen constructos de la dinámica en torno a la negociación de sexo con protección y el riesgo relacionado con el posicionamiento del sujeto ‘arriba-abajo’, así como el erotismo del poder y deseo que están imbuidos en estas prácticas y posicionamiento. Utilizando la Teoría de la Performatividad como una herramienta teórica de análisis, arguyo que los constructos de las subjetividades ‘arriba-abajo’ pueden ser vistos como que cubren ciertas necesidades eróticas para jóvenes LGBT, incluidas las razones relacionadas con la seguridad física de LGBT que viven en espacios peligrosos. El desempeño de identidades de ‘abajo’ en la intimidad y conducta sexuales se manifiesta en la expresión y rendimiento de poder que los participantes construyen como erótico. Las implicaciones para la intervención en salud sexual incluyen entender las influencias del comportamiento sexual en el desempeño diferenciado en función al género, tales como sexo con protección, y explorar maneras creativas de cambiar las prácticas de salud sexual en este grupo de población de una manera que incluya el placer erótico interconectado con identificaciones de identidad sexual y el desempeño de identidades del sujeto de abajo.

Half of the picture: Interrogating common sense gendered beliefs surrounding sexual harassment practices in higher education

abstract Sexual harassment is not only a pervasive concern in many institutions of higher learning but more recently has come under the spotlight in critical discussions of academic and gender citizenship within institutional contexts in South Africa. Recently, as part of the institutional response to recent incidences of sexual harassment, a new and independent Sexual Harassment Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand was formed. However, institutional responses and strengthening of sexual harassment policies can only go so far in addressing the problem of gender violence within higher education contexts. A more concerted effort is needed that engages and destabilises the ‘common-sense’ and normalised cultures of gender and identity that are inherent in everyday interactions between gendered beings. This normalised culture is functional in informing how staff and students within tertiary institutions both interpret and respond to incidences of sexual harassment. We present critical analyses of focus group interviews conducted with different groups of male and female students and support staff at the University. The analysis highlights the role and influence of taken-for-granted assumptions of gender, identity and power that are functional in promoting a ‘culture of violence’ within this context. In interrogating problematic assumptions and their normalisation we point to the need for interventions which expose their role and influence so that more effective institutional interventions can be realised. We argue that there is a need for interventions, to take cognisance of and actively engage the deeply entrenched beliefs concerning relations of gender. These beliefs influence how practices and relations of sexual harassment are both perceived as well as how they are challenged.

The Value of Social Representations Theory in Understanding Perceptions Regarding HIV/AIDS

This study investigated the extent to which individuals experience ideologic strain from identifying with members in their in-group and its shared representation of HIV. 200 students from a large South African University completed a HIV Knowledge, Perceptions & Practices survey with open and closed items that were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. The results from the HIV Knowledge, Perceptions & Practices survey in this cross-sectional study indicate that while the large majority of the participants know a great deal about HIV, this knowledge is highly impacted upon by the Social Representations that exist around this virus. The results highlight a widespread sense of personal invulnerability when faced with crises: the ‘not me’ dynamic in response to the negative Social Representations that surround this disease.

Beyond disciplinary boundaries: speaking back to critical knowledges, liberation, and community

This article explores critical directions for forging new disciplinary traditions within community psychology, as discussed by a panel at the conclusion of the 6th International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP 2016). The conference itself was constructed as an enactment of a decolonizing approach, looking at the entire globalized system from the African continent and centring knowledges produced by Africans and the diaspora. Several panellists were invited to offer their reflections on the emerging discussions, and absences or silences they observed at the conference, as well as how community research and action can develop a research and teaching programme that is liberatory. Panellists’ comments pointed to the importance of the decolonization project globally and the implications of decoloniality for community research and action. The challenge for community research and action is to build alliances and networks across space and time, and with various social movements. The discipline needs to centre and draw out the voices of those who have been excluded, to retrieve and reclaim ways of knowing, being, and doing because these are key to tackling the coloniality of power and to forging new ways of doing ethical and just community research and action.

How and Why do We Disturb? Challenges and Possibilities of Pedagogy of Hope in Socially Just Pedagogies

In this paper, some of my experiences and reflections of teaching undergraduate social psychology and critical social psychology courses at an institution of higher learning are shared. The orientation is a critical social psychology pedagogy that has entailed an active engagement in teaching practices that both disturb common sense and taken-for-granted assumptions and analysis of the social world. In keeping with Bell hooks and Paulo Freire’s notions around a pedagogy of hope, the possibilities for learning, re-engaging the social in the classroom as a way of training students to question both the composition and re-enactments of this social world are discussed. And yet, these possibilities for engaging socially just pedagogy are also fraught with tensions, challenges and constraint. Most notably, how do we engage the, often, affective disturbances that accompany moments/practices of disturbance? It is argued that socially just pedagogies must, in the end, strive to incorporate the affective domain, both in the formative and summative processes of teaching and learning. In this paper, I discuss some of my experiences and reflections of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in critical diversity literacy and psychology at an institution of higher learning. My orientation in a critical social psychology pedagogy has entailed an active engagement in teaching practices that both disturb common sense and taken-for-granted assumptions and analysis of the social world. In keeping with Bell hooks and Paulo Freire’s notions around a pedagogy of hope, I discuss the possibilities for learning, re-engaging the social in the classroom as a way of training students to question both the composition and re-enactments of this social world. And yet, these possibilities for engaging socially just pedagogy are also fraught with tensions, challenges, and constraint. Most notably, how do we engage the often-affective disturbances that accompany moments/practices of disturbance? It is my contention that socially just pedagogies must, in the end, strive to incorporate the affective domain, both in the formative and summative processes of teaching and learning.