Pholoho Morojele

The Context of Smallholder Farming in South Africa: Towards a Livelihood Asset Building Framework

Abstract The need to support smallholder farmers by governments in developing countries has taken centre stage globally. In this regard, the South African Government’s New Growth Plan puts agriculture, particularly the development and support of new smallholder farmers as an important area for development that could impact positively on poverty alleviation and household food security. In this paper, the researchers critically analyse the context of smallholder farming in South Africa, dynamics of market access and challenges facing smallholder farmers’ agency. Analysis denotes how institutional dynamics related to socio-economic conditions of the farmers; the policy landscape and agro-climatic zones where farmers are located in South Africa are not well-geared towards positioning smallholder farmers for meaningful participation in the market. Furthermore, the historical marginalization of smallholder farming is explored to illicit challenges of the duality of farming in South Africa which is characterised by a well-developed commercial farming sector and a poorly developed smallholder sector. The paper proposes an asset-building approach linked to social-protection and institutional readiness as a basis for enhancing market access and farmer agency in order to address poverty and inequality in South Africa.

What does it mean to be a boy? Implications for girls’ and boys’ schooling experiences in Lesotho rural schools

A doctoral study on constructions of gender in Lesotho rural primary schools has found that meanings attached to children’s identities play a role in undermining gender equality in schools. The study employed the social constructionist paradigm as its theoretical framework. Drawing from ethnographic data (conversations, observations and informal discussions), this article discusses boys’ constructions of gender and their implications for gender in/equality in the schools. Analysis shows that being a boy was closely linked to certain qualities that every boy had to perfect. Boys’ strivings to attain these qualities was the source of gender-based violence. Boys’ failure to attain these qualities was the source of anguish and embarrassment for them. Gender inequality in the schools could be traced to forms of masculinities that boys were encouraged and pressured to perform. The conclusion provides strategies that Free Primary Education could employ to address the scourge of gender inequality in Lesotho schools.

Implementing Free Primary Education in Lesotho: Issues and Challenges

Abstract This paper gives prominence to rural teachers’ accounts of Free Primary Education in Lesotho. It asks: What are the challenges facing the implementation of Free Primary Education in Lesotho? What can be learnt from these challenges in order to enhance the effective implementation of Free Primary Education in schools? Drawing on a qualitative study of three rural primary schools, the article discusses some challenges associated with the implementation of Free Primary Education in Lesotho. The inductive analysis offered makes use of the data generated from observations and semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers. The findings denote dynamics of infrastructural and teaching resources, and increased centralisation that resulted in loss of local accountability. These dynamics intersected with the effects of HIV and AIDS on teachers in ways that confounded the schools. The article recommends a coordinated approach, involving all the stakeholders as a basis for enhancing the effective implementation of Free Primary Education in the schools.

Rural teachers' views: What are gender-based challenges facing Free Primary Education in Lesotho?

This paper gives prominence to rural teachers’ accounts of gender-based challenges facing Free Primary Education in Lesotho. It draws on feminist interpretations of social constructionism to discuss factors within the Basotho communities that affect gender equality in the schools. The inductive analysis offered makes use of the data generated from semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers in three primary schools. Basotho culture, superstitious symbolism, and family dynamics are found to be some of the factors that reinforce inequitable gender relations. The findings indicate how teachers exploited these factors to promote the polarisation of gender qualities, and to exalt masculinities at the expense of femininities. The paper argues for the promotion of counter-hegemonic discourses of gender, with an emphasis on conceptions of gender as multiple and fluid human qualities. It explains how paying attention to the cultural architecture of gender formations in localised contexts could become an effective strategy in promoting gender equality in schools. Keywords: Basotho culture; family dynamics; Free Primary Education; gender equality; schools; superstitious symbolism; teachers

Children speak out: Gender and sexuality in treacherous school journey terrains

abstract This Article provides a critical analysis of the role of gender and sexuality in childrens navigation of treacherous school journey terrains in one Lesotho rural primary school. It draws on data generated with 12 children (male = 6; female = 6) who travelled an average distance of 10–15 km to and from school every day. The study employed creative participatory and visual research methodology (for instance, route mapping, diamond ranking and photographic technique) to document the challenges that the children experienced as they traversed the treacherous terrains of their school journey. The findings denote how children resourcefully exploited the dominant discourses of gender and sexuality to mitigate the dangers of passing through dense forests with herd boys, muthi murderers and Basotho traditional circumcision initiates. Childrens agency in navigating these obstacles and (albeit life-threatening) challenges included travelling in protective gender-based groupings, getting involved in heterosexual walking relationships and creatively harnessing the dominant homophobic discourses in these contexts in their favour. By foregrounding how gender and sexuality featured as a resource and recourse in how children navigated their school journey, the Article challenges the dominant discourses that view children as immature, sexually innocent (or asexual) and unable to determine their lives. It provides insights into why actively involving children in matters that affect their lives and foregrounding gender and childrens sexuality could become a potential catalyst for policy and social action aimed at improving the schooling experiences of rural children.

High Aspirations Amidst Challenging Situations: Narratives of Six Vulnerable Primary School Children in Swaziland

Informed by social constructionism, this article explores the educational aspirations, fears and support mechanisms required to enhance the schooling experiences of vulnerable children in one rural school in Swaziland. It uses data from semi-structured interviews and photovoice based on a qualitative study of six vulnerable children, aged between 11 and 15 years. Vulnerable children viewed education as a vehicle for their aspired better adult life. These children held anxieties regarding anticipated lack of support to complete further education. Support mechanisms included the need for the community and teachers to assist with basic survival necessities like candles, clothing, and general parental guidance.

Narratives of Resilience among Learners in a Rural Primary School in Swaziland

Drawing from the concepts of social constructionism, the article provides insights on how six purposively sampled Grade 6 vulnerable children, aged between 11‒15, from poverty-stricken families, child-headed households and those allegedly orphaned by AIDS, resiliently navigated their schooling spaces and places in one rural, primary school in Swaziland. The article uses qualitative data from semi-structured individual and focus group interviews and a participatory research method, photovoice, to foreground narrative accounts of the vulnerable children’s creative coping mechanisms aimed at overcoming the unfavourable circumstances of their schooling experiences. Despite facing some home- and school-based challenges, the vulnerable children were found to display deep-rooted resilience, with or without social support and aspiration for educational attainment, seen as a viable alternative for a better future. Creative coping mechanisms that vulnerable children adopted included calculated rebellion against abusive teachers and consignment to solitude or isolation when feeling overwhelmed by unpleasant experiences. It is recommended that support strategies should involve affirming vulnerable children’s voice and resilience, drawing on how these children already creatively navigate their challenges.

Do Women Have to 'Grow Muscles' in Order to Successfully Manage Schools? Evidence from Some South African Female School Principals

Abstract The study reports on women principals’ management experiences in four schools. Using a feminist lens and school management theories, this paper discusses gender-based experiences of women school principals, and the implications of these for effective management of schools. The inductive analysis offered makes use of data generated from semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis with four women school principals. It reveals that women principals experienced being caught in the middle of having to balance domestic chores (being mothers and wives) and work responsibility (as school principals). It also denotes pervasive gender stereotypes that depict women as care-givers and nurturers, and therefore not suited for management positions. These factors invoked a paradoxical predicament wherein women principals were perpetually torn between asserting their identity as women (feminine) and adopting a masculine attitude (growing muscles) in order to cope with a male orientated field of school management. The conclusion provides strategies on how women principals could be supported in order to enhance their effectiveness in managing schools in South Africa. The researchers recommend that women school principals desist from seeking to ‘grow muscles’. Instead they should seek to grow in who they really are: collaborative, caring, emotionally connected and vigilant towards meeting organisational goals.

What Access? Lived Experiences of International Post-graduate Students from Africa Studying in a South African University

Abstract This paper reports on a study that investigated lived experiences of international post-graduate students from African countries in one School of a South African university. The researchers saw a knowledge gap regarding how much the institution ‘knew’ about these students’ experiences and sought to address the question: What can be learnt from these experiences regarding access to the institution? The study adopted a qualitative research approach involving two in-depth focus group interviews with the students, one at the beginning of the academic year and the other six months later. Data were analysed at two complimentary stages. First data were categorized into two, namely responses about institutional support and those about social and academic experiences. Second, data were further broken down into emerging sub-categories out of which meanings were made. Key observations from the study include that the support sectors of the university were perceived as inefficient and ineffective, academic staff performance was experienced as very good, the university’s curricula were viewed as needing fine-tuning, and overall, in seeking to integrate with the institution, some students were more resilient than others. It was concluded that the apparent lack of cohesion between the sectors of the university was inhibitive to student integration. Therefore integrative and epistemological access was under threat.

Basotho teachers’ constructions of gender: Implications on gender equality in the schools

Abstract This paper gives prominence to rural teachers’ own accounts of gender in three co-educational primary schools in Lesotho. The paper employs the social constructionist paradigm as its theoretical framework. Drawing from ethnographic data (observations and informal discussions), it discusses factors that inform teachers’ constructions of gender and the implications of these on gender in/equality in the schools. Twelve teachers’ (male = 1; female = 11) participated in the study. Analysis denotes how teachers constructed masculinities and femininities as inherent gender qualities, and the role of Basotho culture, language and its discourse in promoting gender inequalities. The conclusion provides strategies that would strengthen teachers’ ability to promote gender equality in schools.