Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Academic achievement Social aspects Victoria'

In this conceptual inquiry, I argue how and why homework contributes to inequality. Homework contributes to inequality systemically, as schools continue to rely heavily on it. Homework continues to contribute to inequality discursively and psychologically, as parents and educators encourage homework without fully realizing the consequences of homework for those students who have difficulty completing school tasks at home. The inequalities maintained by homework often persist unnoticed. This persistence is an example of a broader persistence of sociological problems even as technological advances are made. This imbalance in the two domains of society and technology is due partly to the differences in the nature of the knowledge content. Therefore, educators and policy makers must be vigilant against tendencies to be blind to possibilities for improvement. One such improvement is a ban on mandatory homework, which implies more school responsibility to enable student achievement in the school.

Children's classroom engagement is important for their learning and academic achievement. Extending Kindermann's (2007) study of peer influence on adolescents' engagement to an ethnically homogeneous sample, the current study examined how different aspects of diversity affect the peer influence process. Three types of diversity were considered: ethnic diversity existing at the school level, relational diversity at the peer network level, and motivational diversity at the group level. Ethnic diversity was observed in the student body as well as among school teachers and staff. Relational diversity was measured by z-scores resulting from binomial tests reflecting how closely two pair of individuals were connected in the peer network. Finally, motivational diversity was measured as the dispersion (SD) around peer group mean engagement levels, thereby reflecting the diversity of engagement within each peer group. The results indicated that adolescents in this ethnically diverse middle school were overall highly engaged; their engagement patterns were comparable to previous findings from homogeneous samples consisting largely of European American adolescents. Also consistent with prior findings, the mean engagement levels of students' peer group members were a significant predictor of changes in adolescents' own engagement, which suggests peer influence on adolescents' classroom engagement. Although previous literature suggests that individuals in diverse settings tend to be less well connected to one another, the adolescents in this ethnically diverse school were well connected with their peers. Unexpectedly, almost all students' peer groups were ethnically diverse. When the impact of relational diversity was examined to see whether strongly connected individuals exerted more influence on each other than weakly connected individuals (differential influence hypothesis), the results indicated that the strength of connections among peer group members did not appear to play a significant role in the magnitude of their influences on each other's changes in engagement. Nevertheless, the present study suggested new pathways and methods to examine differential peer influences. Finally, the impact of motivational diversity of peer groups was examined using a moderated model based on an interaction effect between peer group motivational diversity and individuals' initial engagement. The results indicated that the positive impact of peer group motivational diversity was moderated by individuals' initial engagement status, such that initially low engaged adolescents benefited from diversely engaged peer groups, whereas peer group motivational diversity had a comparatively small negative effect on initially highly engaged students.

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in academic growth rates as demonstrated on the TAKS test among students based on those who received free lunches, those who received reduced-price lunches, and those not economically disadvantaged. Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for reading and mathematics scale scores were obtained from five Texas public school districts for students who were in 3rd grade in 2003, 4th grade in 2004, 5th grade in 2005, and 6th grade in 2006. The sample included almost 10,000 students. The data were analyzed using SPSS and HLM. SPSS was used to identify descriptive statistics. Due to the nested nature of the data, HLM was used to compare data on three levels- the test level, student level, and district level. Not economically disadvantaged students scored the highest on both TAKS reading and mathematics exams with a mean scale score of 2357 and 2316 respectively in 2003. Compared to the not economically disadvantaged students, students receiving reduce-priced lunches scored approximately 100 points lower, and lowest were the students receiving free lunches, scoring another 50 points below students receiving reduced-price lunches. The results revealed that while gaps in achievement exist between SES levels, little difference exists in the growth rates of the SES subgroups. The results of this study support the need for continued effort to decrease the gap between students who are not economically disadvantaged and those receiving free or reduced-price meals.

The school environment is one of the primary contexts for children's social, emotional and cognitive development. While teachers are likely to be primarily focused on students' motivation and learning, for adolescents, one of the most enjoyable and important aspects of school life is likely to be centered around the time spent interacting with peers. It is well recognized that peers socialize one another but although many studies have examined the influence of peers on adolescents' risky behaviors far fewer have focused on the influence peers may have on individuals' positive behaviors. As a result this study focuses on academic development replicating previous research designed to examine whether peer group affiliation has an effect on student academic engagement. A cohort of 343 seventh grade students, primarily Caucasian, 52% male, was followed for a period of one school year. Teachers reported on students' academic engagement in the fall and again in spring using a 14-item scale (Wellborn, 1991), and students reported on their teachers' and parents' involvement in fall using 8- and 4-item scales respectively. Student grades were collected from school administrative records. To identify individual student's network affiliations socio-cognitive mapping procedures were used (Cairns, Perrin & Cairns, 1985), and then peer group profiles of engagement were calculated based on the average rating of engagement across each individual's affiliates. During the academic year peer group membership turnover was 49%, despite this, the quality of peer group profiles of engagement remained similar from fall to spring. Groups also tended to be and remain motivationally homogenous across the year. In general, girls' networks tended to be more highly engaged than boys' and networks that were more highly engaged tended to be more stable across the year. Structural equation modeling was used for the major analyses to assess whether peer group academic motivation in the fall could predict individual motivation in the spring. The results indicated that while controlling for individuals' earlier engagement, as well as for processes of group selection and parent and teacher influences, the quality of individuals' peer group engagement in the fall was significantly predictive of students' later engagement in the spring. It should be noted that within the major models academic performance was also strongly related to later engagement. While this study provides further evidence to underscore the importance of the peer group in the socialization of students' academic motivation, particularly when one considers the snowballing effects in motivation this influence may have across a student's entire academic career, it also illustrates the important role performance may play in academic motivation for young adolescents.

As many as a quarter of undergraduate college students are placed on academic probation at least once during their college career. In addition, first-generation college students are even more at-risk for stopping out or dropping out due to being less academically prepared than their non-first-generation peers. In order to examine factors that influence first generation student academic risk and success, this exploratory study examined the intersection of academic standing and four primary conceptual contributors: academic integration, personal adjustment, family and social adjustment, and psychological factors. Survey data were collected from first generation undergraduate students at an urban research university who were placed on academic probation and those who returned to good standing. Six overarching themes emerged that demonstrate critical importance in first generation student academic success: 1) overall study skills, 2) class attendance 3) health-related issues, 4) financial difficulties, 5) family and personal issues, and 6) physiological symptoms. In addition, these factors appear to have additive and multiplier affects for students. First generation students may be able to overcome one set of factors but each new dimension can further inhibit academic good standing. Recommendations include mandatory advising and college success classes.

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the needs of parents and teachers to identify factors that contributed to academic achievement among elementary grade students. Data was collected from a total of 65 parents and teachers of elementary grade students from Rowland Elementary School in Rowland Heights.

Academic engagement has been found to significantly predict students' future achievement. Among adolescents, the peer context becomes an increasingly important point of socialization and influence on beliefs and behavior, including academic engagement. Previous research suggests that those peers with whom an adolescent spends much of their time significantly predict change in engagement over time (Kindermann, 2007). Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) postulates that exosystem effects (those influencing factors that are not directly connected to individuals) play an important role in development, and social network theorists have suggested that the position one occupies within the greater network is a key factor that determines one's power of influence (Borgatti, 2005). An individual's own position in a network emerges from his or her own connections, as well as from the structures formed by the connections of his or her affiliates (the exosystem). Utilizing an existing dataset, social networks analysis techniques were used to examine how three different forms of centrality (degree, closeness and eigenvector), which are markers for micro- and exo-system effects, relate to classroom engagement and its change over time. Results showed that although centrality in a network is positively related to academic characteristics at one point in time, students who have large numbers of immediate connections (degree centrality) tend to decrease in engagement over time. In contrast, eigenvector centrality showed a positive interaction with peer group influence on change in engagement over time. For those students who had highly interconnected peers the positive effect of peer group engagement was increased.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of interscholastic sports participation on academic achievement and behavioural development of junior high grades students of basic education schools in Turkey. The subjects of this study were 651 eight grade students from fifteen basic education schools which are randomly selected during 2004-2005 academic year in NevSehir. Required data were collected by student&
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s data record folders (SPDRF), athletics participation licenses, high school entrance exam result sheets, provided by the schools administrations. First of all descriptive statistics were used to define demographic variables of this study. Second, one-way analysis of variance (Tukey HSD) and t-test (Pearson correlation) were used to asses the relationship between demographic variables and interscholastic sports participation on grade point average, high school entrance exam scores, attendance rate and behavioural development of students. Third correlation coefficients were applied to indicate the relation between independent variables and interscholastic sports participation. Finally regression analysis was conducted to understand how well the independent variables predict the academic achievement and behavioural development levels. Results indicate that interscholastic sports participations have positive effects on grade point average, attendance rate, individual development and high school entrance exam scores. Moreover demographic variables of students such as family income, family size, parents education level, family configuration and interscholastic sports participation are the determinants of academic success, behavioral development level, attendance rate, and high school attendance exam scores.

This study describes and expands an understanding of primary education in one developing country, Mauritius. The need for the study was argued from a review of literature which brought to notice the lack of social action perspectives in analysis of education in and about developing countries and the necessity and importance of knowing about the reality of schooling in developing countries. The research was conceptualised as a socio-cultural approach. It gave analytical priority to the actions, experiences and perceptions of teachers, pupils, parents and educationists in order to create an account of what Mauritian education was like and meant to individuals involved in or closely associated with Mauritian primary educational processes and functionings. The research was conceptualised on the premise that, as a social construction, Mauritian primary education was to be understood in its social milieu but also was located and had to be understood in the broader context of national and global circumstances, influences and pressures. The research can be taken as an attempt to integrate micro and macro levels of analysis. Data was collected in Mauritius over a period of four months, for the most part in two primary schools and also in participants' places of work and homes and methods were triangulated to ensure validity. They comprised: (a) observation to describe people and educational settings and to document school routines and processes; (b) in-depth interviews to elicit participants' constructs and document the issues and priorities they brought to their understanding of Mauritian primary education and; (c) stories and drawings to elicit pupils' own views. Data analysis has been emergent and inductive and the research findings were presented through diverse instrumental short case studies. The findings of the study showed that Mauritian primary education was construed by participant stakeholders as a means to an end, a credential enabling the achievement of a cultural aspiration for individual social upgrading and to succeed at an examination Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) which put pupils in competition to rank for a restricted number of 'good' secondary colleges. The findings highlighted teacher-centered instructional methods, the valuing of encyclopedic knowledge, hard work and uniformity and the practices of 'ability privileging' and 'differential treatment' of pupils as prominent characteristics of Mauritian primary education. They also revealed a polarisation between the 'official' intent of Mauritian primary education and their realisation at school level with regard to educational opportunity and the degree to which Mauritian primary education promoted and provided the appropriate attitudes, skills and knowledge for individuals and for the social and economic good of the nation. The study concluded asserting that the research exemplified a conceptual and theoretical approach that may be replicated for collecting rich micro data, useful for pursuing a quality agenda for basic education in developing countries. The study has provided an illustration of the interactions between context, educational processes and the ways in which primary education was experienced by participant stakeholders. It has also located Mauritian primary education within the framework of international educational ideals and principles. In doing so, the study has served to remind that one way of looking at education is to see it as a developmental undertaking that should serve childrens' immediate as well as future interests and has brought to light foundational and detailed information about Mauritian educational processes that could be useful for educational change trying to achieve a developmental objective in Mauritius.

I demonstrate that household investments in children's education in Ethiopia are affected by parents' self-beliefs (such as their locus of control), parents' aspirations for children's educational attainment, children's conceptions of their roles and identities in the household and at school, and children's own preferences, all concepts not widely studied in development economics. Two empirical chapters report on a field experiment in which randomly selected adults watched documentaries about role models who were poor but succeeded in agriculture or small business. Six months later, parents' self-beliefs and aspirations for children's education were higher in the treatment than in the placebo and control groups. Enrolment of children in school, spending on education, saving and use of credit also increased. A third empirical chapter draws on longitudinal qualitative research to argue that children's preferences for their time allocation between work and school are strongly influenced by the desire to comply with valued identities as students and as independent earners and contributors to the household. The fourth chapter suggests that understanding children's preferences might improve predictions about their reaction to education policies. The literature predicts an increase in time in school will not improve test scores: children will reduce effort because they desire a limited amount of learning. I find a reform to lengthen the Ethiopian primary school day improves test scores. Although this could occur through many mechanisms, one possibility is that children do not prefer to limit their desired amount of learning. This suggests that better evidence on children's preferences might improve prediction of the effects of policies to alter school inputs. The conclusion reflects on whether the empirical relevance of concepts of self-beliefs, aspirations and identities implies that assumptions in standard models of decision-making in economics about the characteristics of beliefs and preferences ought to be rejected. I argue that these ideas can be captured by existing economic concepts of beliefs and preferences and by standard assumptions about these concepts. I suggest that, contrary to recent accounts building on human capital theory, self-beliefs should be viewed as beliefs, not non-cognitive skills. I consider aspirations as a type of preference, shaped by both objective constraints and self-beliefs. I consider identity as a preference for complying with a social role, but highlight that such preferences are often altruistic, rather than self-interested. In conclusion, I argue that economics should draw further on other social sciences, including psychology, to develop substantive theories of the formation and characteristics of beliefs and preferences. Doing so will suggest when it is appropriate to apply standard models and how their assumptions can be modified if their predictions do not hold.

Guided by a motivational framework derived from self-determination theory, a study was conducted to examine the role of academic engagement in helping to explain and ameliorate ethnic differences in school achievement. Building on decades of research that documents both the importance of engagement to learning in European American students as well as its malleability, this study relied on an ethnically diverse sample of 6th and 7th grade students to examine three questions (1) Are achievement differences across ethnic groups due to differences in engagement? (2) Does engagement predict achievement similarly or differently across ethnic groups? and (3) Are the predictors of engagement suggested by the motivational model the same or different for students from different ethnic groups? Participants were 194 African-American, Hispanic/Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and European American middle school students who provided information about their engagement, self-system processes (SSPs) of relatedness, competence, and autonomy, and their experiences with teachers in school; information about students' cumulative achievement (GPA) was extracted from school records. First, analyses revealed few ethnic differences in achievement (only Asian/Pacific Islander students' levels of achievement were higher than students from other ethnic groups), and no ethnic differences in engagement. In analyses designed to examine if controlling for variations in engagement would cause achievement differences between ethnic groups to disappear, a test of the simple main effects demonstrated that ethnic differences in achievement were found only at the lowest level of engagement (again Asian/Pacific Islander students outperformed all other student groups). However, at medium and high levels of engagement, there were no significant differences in achievement across the four ethnic groups. Second, analyses designed to examine whether engagement predicts achievement differently across ethnic groups, revealed that although engagement was an important predictor of achievement for all students, it was even more important for non-European American (compared to European-American) students. Third, analyses designed to examine whether potential facilitators (SSPs and contextual constructs) predicted students' engagement similarly or differently across ethnic groups revealed no group differences: All predictors were positively and significantly associated with engagement for students from all four ethnic groups. These findings are considered in the context of the study's strengths and limitations and the larger literatures on engagement and achievement in ethnic minority students. A important implication of the current study is that with a more comprehensive understanding of how to support the engagement of students from ethnic minority backgrounds, schools and teachers will be better equipped to address the engagement gap, and in so doing also eliminate the achievement gap.

Building on research that has focused on understanding how peers contribute to students' engagement, this dissertation explores the extent to which peer group influences on students' engagement may add to and be contextualized by qualities of the relationships they maintain with their teachers and their parents. To focus on how each of these adult contexts work in concert with peer groups to jointly contribute to changes in students' engagement, the two studies used data on 366 sixth graders which were collected at two time points during their first year of middle school: Peer groups were identified using socio-cognitive mapping; students reported on teacher and parent involvement; and teachers reported on each students' engagement. In both studies, models of cumulative and contextualized joint effects were examined. Consistent with models of cumulative effects, peer group engagement, parent involvement, and teacher involvement each uniquely predicted changes in students' engagement. Consistent with contextualized models suggesting differential susceptibility, peer group engagement was a more pronounced predictor of changes in engagement for students who experienced relatively low involvement from teachers. Similarly, peer group influences on changes in students' engagement were stronger for students who experienced relatively low involvement from their parents. In both cases, these peer effects were positive or negative depending on the engagement versus disaffection of each student's peer group. Both studies also used person-centered analyses to reveal cumulative and contextualized effects. Most engaged were students who experienced support from either both teachers and peers, or both parents and peers; the lowest levels of engagement were found among those students who affiliated with disaffected peers who also experienced either their teachers or parents as relatively uninvolved. Both high teacher and high parent involvement partially protected students from the motivational costs of affiliating with disaffected peers. Similarly, belonging to engaged peer groups partially buffered students' engagement from the ill effects of low teacher and parent involvement. These findings suggest that, although peer groups and teachers and parents are each important individually, a complete understanding of their contributions to students' engagement requires the examination of their joint effects.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The many and varied links between student socioeconomic status and educational outcomes have been well documented in the South African economics of education literature. The strong legacy of apartheid and the consequent correlation between education and wealth have meant that, generally speaking, poorer learners perform worse academically. The links between affluence and educational quality in South Africa can partially explain this outcome since the poor receive a far inferior quality of education when compared to their wealthier counterparts. This disadvantages them in the labourmarket and entrenches their poverty. This thesis uses the recent Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III) dataset for South Africa to answer three important questions: (1) Is South African primary education efficient? (2) Is South African primary education equitable? and (3) What are the main factors that have a significant effect on student mathematics and reading performance in Grade 6. The thesis shows that a high proportion of the country’s learners are functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate. The research confirms previous findings that socio-economic status, and particularly school socioeconomic status, is important when understanding student success or failure. Other factors which significantly affect student performance are homework frequency, grade repetition, and the availability of reading textbooks. In contrast, teacher-subject knowledge was found to have only a modest impact on Grade 6 performance. Policy interventions associated with the findings are also highlighted. The study concludes that South Africa is still a tale of two school sub-systems: one which is wealthy, functional and able to educate students, while the other is poor, dysfunctional, and unable to equip students with the necessary numeracy and literacy skills they should be acquiring in primary school. Finally, the thesis suggests that there are some options available to policy-makers which are expected to have a positive effect on learner performance.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vele en diverse verbande tussen studente se sosio-ekonomiese status en onderwysuitkomste is goed gedokumenteer in die Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur oor die ekonomie van onderwys. Die sterk nalatenskap van apartheid en die gevolglike korrelasie tussen onderwys en rykdom beteken dat armer leerlinge in die algemeen akademies swakker vaar. Die verband tussen welvaart en onderwysgehalte in Suid-Afrika kan hierdie uitkoms gedeeltelik verklaar, omdat arm mense ʼn veel swakker gehalte van onderwys ontvang as rykes. Dit plaas hulle in ʼn swakker posisie in die arbeidsmark en bevestig daarmee hulle armoede. Die tesis gebruik die onlangse SACMEQ III datastel vir Suid-Afrika (SACMEQ is die akroniem vir die Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) om drie belangrike vrae te beantwoord: (1) Is Suid-Afrikaanse primêre skole doeltreffend? (2) Is Suid-Afrikaanse primêre onderwys regverdig verdeel? (3) Wat is die belangrikste faktore wat studente se wiskunde en leesvermoë in Graad 6 beduidend beïnvloed? Die tesis toon dat ʼn groot proporsie van die land se leerlinge funksioneel ongeletterd en ongesyferd is. Die navorsing bevestig vorige bevindinge dat sosio-ekonomiese status, en veral die sosioekonomiese status van die skoolgemeenskap, ʼn belangrike bepaler van studente se sukses is. Ander faktore wat studente se prestasie beduidend beïnvloed is hoe gereeld hulle huiswerk doen, of hulle die graad herhaal, en die beskikbaarheid van handboeke. In teenstelling daarmee is bevind dat onderwysers se vakkennis net ʼn beskeie impak op Graad 6 prestasie het. Daar is ook klem op beleidsingrypings wat uit die bevindinge spruit. Die studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat Suid- Afrikaanse onderwys steeds die storie van twee sub-stelsels is: een wat ryk is, goed funksioneer en in staat is om studente ʼn goeie opvoeding te bied, terwyl skole in die ander deel van die stelsel arm is, wanfunksioneel, en die vermoë ontbreek om studente toe te rus met die syfer- en leesvaardighede wat skole hulle behoort te bied. Ten slotte identifiseer die tesis opsies vir beleidmakers wat leerlinge se prestasie sou kon verbeter.

This study aimed at establishing and analysing the literacy practices in the rural and urban communities and their effect on the academic achievements of learners. It also aimed to establish the impact of other factors, such as the exposure to the language of examination, the level of parents formal education and the quality of parental mediation in the their children's academic work, which could be responsible for the imbalance between the rural and urban learners academic achievements. This study endeavours to established that the literacy practices in urban areas prepare learners for schooled and global literacies while the literacies in rural areas are to localised and thus impoverish the learners initial literacy development. This study also seek to determine the extent to which the current language policy in education in Uganda favours the urban learners at the expense of the rural learners as far as the acculturation into and acquisition of the schooled and global literacies are concerned.

Den digitala utvecklingen påverkar det moderna samhällets behov. Det ställer krav på att studievärlden utbildar dagens studenter i färdigheter och kunskaper inom IT som uppfyller behovet i både deras framtida arbets- och vardagsliv. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats inom Informatik är således att undersöka IT-systems egenskapers modererande påverkan på studenters motivation, engagemang och uppnående av lärandemål. Därmed är kandidatuppsatsen ett bidrag till litteraturen om hur man kan förbättra kvaliteten i IT-utbildningar och uppnåendet av lärandemål för studenter. Ur den tidigare litteraturen har studentmotivation, engagemang och uppnåendet av lärandemål samt relationen mellan dessa definierats. Studentmotivation påverkar studentengagemang och studentengagemang påverkar uppnåendet av lärandemål. För att undersöka IT-systems egenskapers modererande påverkan på studenters motivation, engagemang och uppnående av lärandemål har författaren använt tre egenskaper med relation till spelifiering som utgångspunkt. Denna kandidatuppsats är en pilotstudie med ett kvantitativt angreppssätt. Datainsamlingen har genomförts med en webbaserad enkät skapad och distribuerad genom enkätverktyget Survey & Report. Respondenterna för kandidatuppsatsen är 7 studenter som studerar kursen Affärssimulering och dataanalys på Karlstads Universitet. IT-systemen som har varit aktuella för denna studie är dataanalyssystemet Tableau och processmodelleringsverktyget ARIS eftersom dessa används i Affärssimulering och dataanalys-kursen. En slutsatsen är att IT-systems egenskaper har en modererande påverkan på studentmotivations påverkan på studentengagemang. En annan slutsatsen är att IT-systems egenskapers påverkan på studentengagemangs påverkan på uppnåendet av lärandemål. Resultaten visade också att de båda IT-systemen hade olika påverkansgrad. Kandidatuppsatsen är utformad som en pilotstudie och det finns ett behov att utföra framtida studier med bland annat andra IT-system, en större datainsamling med fler respondenter, effekter av utbildares tidigare erfarenheter och antalet studenter som genomför kursen.

This study examined what differences in resiliency traits, if any, exist between successful and non-successful first and continuing-generation college students through the use of a survey. For the purposes of this study, first-generation students were those students whose parents have never attended college and continuing-generation college students were those students whose parents have attended some college. For the purposes of this study, the term successful was defined as those students who after being enrolled during fall 2005 re-enrolled for the spring 2006 semester and the term non-successful is defined as those students who after being enrolled fall 2005 semester failed to re-enrolled for the spring 2006 semester. A sample of 164 students was surveyed by collecting demographic data, resiliency traits, attitudinal characteristics, level of familial support, and reasons for dropping out of college. A sub-sample of 40 students participated in a face-to-face, in-depth interview. This study found that successful first-generation community college students possessed certain common qualities or resilient characteristics that include: 1) social competence, 2) problem-solving skills, 3) critical consciousness, 4) autonomy, and 5) sense of purpose. Through the face-to-face interviews common themes emerged. Many of the students used similar words to describe their feelings and experiences about beginning, continuing and withdrawing from college. Many of the first-generation college students expressed the lack of familial support once they enrolled. Common themes emerged for the continuing-generation college students in that each student was comfortable with the process of selecting a major, selecting courses to enroll in, and the amount of time they expected to devote to studying. The return rate for each of the four groups studied was limited and rigorous follow up efforts failed to increase the return rate. This is a fundamental limitation of the study, and the results can only be generalized to the institution studied. However, the findings in this study are consistent with the literature on retention and dropout rates for these students.

Huang, Xiaorui.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-103).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract also in Chinese.

Understanding what schools can do to help low-income and high-achieving students succeed academically was one of the prime motivations of this dissertation. In Mexico, low-income students perform in the lowest quartiles of standardized tests, and their future is not promising. In order to understand what factors can help low-income students succeed at school, I reviewed the school effectiveness and resilience literature as to understand the different factors that determine academic achievement of students coming from low-income backgrounds. Through a thorough quantitative analysis of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 and the Formato 911 databases, I identified the different factors that helped low-income students succeed at school. I first analyzed the student, family, and school factors that determined students’ academic achievement in Mexico, in order to get a general idea of what determined achievement of students in Mexico, as a country. Then, I went further and focused more on my sample of interest and analyzed the student, family, and school factors that were associated with a higher probability of showing higher scores on tests, even when struggling with a lack of resources. The most noteworthy finding from the analyses conducted to understand what determined students’ achievement in Mexico, as a country, was that academic performance was mainly explained by students' individual characteristics. Characteristics, including whether the student had a low or high socioeconomic status, whether he or she was in the appropriate grade, whether the student was a girl or a boy, whether he or she attended preschool, whether the student lived with his or her mother, and the attitude he or she had toward school, seemed to be associated with how the student scored on standardized tests. The school level variables that had a positive association with the students’ performance were the schools’ mean Index of Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS), whether the school was private, and the percentage of indigenous students in the school. By estimating cross-level interaction effects, I found the interaction between ESCS and whether the school was located in a rural area and whether the school was a distance education program to be statistically significant. The aforementioned outcomes showed that one additional standard deviation of income had a very small effect on the academic achievement of students living in rural areas or attending a distance education program school. Another interesting finding is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program offered by the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. I also analyzed the different factors that increased the probability of low-income students obtaining scores that were higher than would have been predicted given their socioeconomic status. I named these learners resilient students. I found a student’s attitude toward school, whether the student repeated zero, one or two or more primary school grades, whether they student attended a private or a Telesecundaria school, and the average class size of the school to be statistically significant variables. Attitude toward school seemed to have the largest contribution to increasing the probability of being categorized as resilient, almost half of a standard deviation, and remained positive and statistically significant in the analysis. The analysis showed that improving a student’s attitude toward school in one standard deviation, increased the probability of that student being resilient by 24 percentage points. However, it is hard to tell if students who are succeeding are doing so because of their attitude or if successful students have a better attitude because they are doing well in school. In any case, this variable was highly statistically significant and was similar to a noncognitive ability measure, which, according to the literature, includes skills omitted in most of the analyses of the determinants of achievement. One of most relevant findings of this study is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program of the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. One of the implications is that the government should not consider the possibility of restoring that program in the Mexican education system. Preschool education, attitude towards school, gender, and time-spent in class are factors that highly related with the success of low-income students. Additional analysis and data is needed in order to perform further analysis on the impact that these determinants have on students achievement. Finally, this study revealed that Telesecundarias play an important role in helping economically disadvantaged students gain access to education in locations where no teachers or other school resources are available and are also positively associated with academic success.

Singapore educational context contains some of the most provocative and ideological features in a mature education system – school choice, selectivity and tracking. The facts that schools follow the same curriculum, students take standardized examination and teachers have similar pre-service training makes Singapore a suitable case to study peer effects. The policy to give an option to a small group of students, who missed the cutoff for an academically more demanding, to decide their educational track allows me to study the impact of peer quality. Specifically, students at the margin of the cutoffs have a choice to study with better peers at an accelerated learning pace at the expense of a low rank order in class i.e. ‘Second in Rome’ effect or study with weaker peers at a slower learning pace and longer duration but enjoy a high rank order in class i.e. ‘First in Village’ effect. In both settings, students are exposed to the same curriculum albeit at a difference pace with the ‘Second in Rome’ completing the curriculum in 4 years while the ‘First in Village’ group complete theirs in 5 years. I applied the regression discontinuity strategy to compare the performance of students at the margin of the thresholds.

Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country characterised by tremendous linguistic, environmental, and cultural diversity, has experienced a history of educational reform and political and social turbulence. Attempts to inform educational interventions and successful policy change in PNG have been erratic. In addition, there is a paucity of sound methodological research which has impeded effective change. As such, little is known about the key determinants of academic outcomes for PNG students. The purpose of the current study was to test a comprehensive cross-cultural model of the relation of a suite of psycho-social constructs to academic outcomes for PNG students from urban, rural, and village educational settings. This model examined the influence of socio-economic status, parent education, future goal orientation, perceived instrumental value, motivation, self-concept, and self-regulation upon PNG students’ academic outcomes. In order to test this model in PNG, three main studies were conducted. The first study (n=917) aimed to examine the psychometric properties of relevant instrumentation, and the differences in students’ endorsement of future goals, perceived instrumentality, motivation, self-concept, and self-regulation, across different groups in PNG. This study found the instrumentation to be valid and reliable for use in PNG, as well as structurally invariant across gender, grade, and region groups. Gender, grade, and region profile differences were also found for each of the five psychological variables. The second study (n=917) aimed to examine the relations between key socio-economic and psychological factors, and the impact that these variables had upon achievement and effort outcomes. The results firstly highlighted students’ socio-economic status and parent education as being positive predictors of student outcomes. Next, village-oriented future goals and perceived instrumentality, mastery and social motivation, and domain specific academic self-concept, were all found to be significant, positive predictors of students’ achievement and effort scores. Furthermore, authority future goals and perceived instrumentality and performance motivation were found to be negative predictors of student outcomes. Finally, the third study (n=52) aimed to illuminate and extend the results of the quantitative studies with qualitative data from students, teachers, and parents. This study found that these groups emphasised the importance of future goals, perceived instrumentality, motivation, and self-regulation as predictors of students’ educational experiences, and they highlighted the underlying relations between these variables and student outcomes. Results also highlighted a number of additional psychological, linguistic, and socio-cultural factors, as serving important roles in students’ educational experiences. Findings of the current investigation were interpreted within the cross-cultural framework of the student model that was utilised. The findings have important implications for our understanding of the key determinants of student achievement and effort within PNG, but also for future cross-cultural research examining related determinants within other Indigenous, developing, and Indigenous majority countries. Furthermore, the findings have implications for future research, practice, and policy interventions within PNG, and provide guidance for the development of culturally sensitive and appropriate interventions to aid the achievement and effort of students living in PNG.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study investigates student school transitions during adolescence, and how the maintenance and disruption of social ties during this school change affects students' academic trajectory through high school. School transitions are a compulsory part of the American system of education and are characterized as the movement of students between schools. Students follow these institutional pathways when they change schools, and which pathway followed plays a role in how they adjust to the new school. Some transitions are normative and are a part of the organization of schools, such as the transition from middle to high school. Some involve deviation from the traditional path, such as transferring during high school. In either case, transitions interrupt students' academic trajectory through school and involve a transformation of school-based social relationships that affect academic success. Effects of transitions have been underconceptualized in current empirical research, particularly with regard to the nonacademic realm of schools. This dissertation extends research on school transitions by broadening our understanding of how student movement between institutions affects their academic trajectory and how this is linked to three crucial aspects of student transitions: institutional pathway, social relationships made in schools and the opportunity for new social ties at the receiving school. Results reinforce that both affective attachment and extracurricular involvement are related to students overall academic trajectory. This is the case even after those ties are disrupted and reconfigured by changing schools. Results also suggest that social opportunity at the receiving institution is protective against low academic outcomes in the transition to high school, particularly among students who are socially and academically disengaged in middle school. Finally, results point to similarities among students who follow divergent institutional pathways, either in the transition to high school or for those who transfer during high school. Specifically, these students fare better after a school change by the end of high school, net of where they started academically, if they are disengaged from the sending school.

This study introduces a different kind of collaborative research whereby two researchers co-design and co-conduct the research and draw their own conclusions from the shared data. The data, gathered using qualitative tools such as surveys, questionnaires, and interviews, was further enriched as a result of having two individuals from different backgrounds interpreting the data. The data collected from 14 university students who were once identified as ESL students in British Columbia, Canada, were transcribed then analyzed using NUD*IST qualitative computer software. The focus was on their perceptions of ESL programs, immigration process, and socio-cultural factors that contributed to their academic and social integration success. Participants' own words centered mostly on their relationships with families, friends, and ESL teachers as major factors contributing to their success. ESL programs served as their safety nets as the majority suggested that their journey into social and academic mainstreams had undesirable effects on their experiences. Three major factors were identified as having both helped and hindered their adaptation and integration into Canadian school and society: family influence, bicultural identities, and segregation. Results from this study suggest a number of theoretical and practical implications. First, this study need to be replicated in different contexts using a longitudinal approach to document how immigrant ESL students construct their experiences within and outside of school overtime. Secondly, research need to aim at understanding the tension between students' home and school cultures and encourage involvement and collaboration between ESL students, parents, and teachers. In addition, examining how ESL students interact with their mainstream counterparts may provide helpful guidelines for schools to foster an environment whereby unity and support exist between the two groups. This study concludes with both researchers' reflection on each other's thesis. This step led to a critical reexamination of their interpretation. Differences and similarities emerged from this process. The similarities both researchers shared provided a greater degree of validity and reliability to this project. On the other hand, the differences that emerged served to enrich the data by providing two perspectives to the same problem.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it is to clarify the construct, parental involvement, by examining its different dimensions both theoretically and empirically. The second purpose is to identify important family factors and institutional factors that affect parental involvement. Finally, this study examines how students' learning outcomes are related to different dimensions of parental involvement. A conceptual framework is proposed that indicates the relationships between school factors, family factors, parental involvement and students' learning outcomes. The construct of "capital" is used as an explanatory tool within this framework. The research was conducted in two phases. Data were collected as part of a larger project which studied the effectiveness of elementary schools in British Columbia (Willms, 1992). Phase I of the study was conducted in 1994. Questionnaires were sent to a population of fifteen hundred B.C. elementary school principals. A total of 831 school administrators returned the questionnaires. Phase II of the study was conducted in 1995. Forty-nine schools were sampled strategically according to the variability of parents' socioeconomic backgrounds. A total of 404 teachers and 1042 fifth-grade students completed questionnaires. Hierarchical Linear Modelling was then used to explore the nature and impact of parental involvement. The extent of parental involvement in grade 5 was generally low in B.C. elementary schools. Levels of parental involvement did not vary substantially among schools; therefore, it was difficult to identify schools which could induce particularly high or low levels of involvement. In exploring the barriers and facilitators of parental involvement, evidence from this study suggests that substantial decentralization of instructional activities, and positive teacher attitudes and practices enhance parental involvement. Another important school factor is the nurturing of social capital within the school. The findings indicate that a positive social climate is a major determinant of parental involvement. An important home factor is cultural capital provided by parents. The results suggest that cultural capital rather than economic capital determines the levels of parental involvement in education. The effects of different types of parental involvement on students' learning outcomes were relatively weak in this study. Home-based involvement was not generally effective for improving children's learning, and school-based involvement had a small positive effect on student's self-esteem but was negatively related to student academic achievement. It appears that parental involvement tended to be reactive rather than proactive. Parents with children at risk academically and socially were more likely to be involved. Yet the study has demonstrated that investment of educational time and monitoring of peer activities were possible intervening variables through which parents could indirectly affect students' learning outcomes. In the conceptual framework of this study, learning outcomes was viewed as a function of the availability of: economic capital, cultural capital and social capital. Among these major forms of resources, social capital nurtured by the school was the most powerful determinant of students' self-esteem. Cultural capital and economic capital had a moderate effect on both students' self-esteem and academic achievement, but their contribution varied from one cognitive characteristic to another. These results provide substantial evidence to support the integration of Coleman's social capital thesis and Bourdieu's cultural capital thesis. An inclusive model, which emphasizes the inclusion of resources from family, school, and community, appears to be the most promising avenue for improving children's learning.

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development
After two decades of democratic transition in South Africa, social exclusion continues to persist in the country. Research studies, thus far, have given little attention to the correlation between social exclusion and pre-tertiary education failures in South Africa, yet the two are closely linked. The objective of this study is to assess whether social exclusion is impacting pre-tertiary education success in South Africa, and as such perpetuating the social exclusion cycle for the poor in the country.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2011.
Investigates the perceptions of educators of the effects of poverty on academic achievement in eMondlo schools. It attempted to investigate what happens to a learner's performance at school when he/she comes from a poor family background.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
Pressure on children implies external forces making a compelling demand on their time and strength to comply with higher standards of excellence in the classroom and on the sports field. Modern society greatly admires competence and efficiency and places special emphasis on achievement, success and winning. As a result children I s education also reflects a tendency towards intense competition inside and outside the classroom. Several underlying causes are given for the pressure on children. Conflicting values and the expectations of parents and teachers are the most important causes which create a feeling of uncertainty inside the child. It is, therefore, essential for educators to reconsider their attitudes towards children. Pressure as a result of external forces often cause feelings of anxiety in children, affecting their learning abilities, creativity and personality development. In this regard the value of intrinsic motivation must be emphasized. This will enable a child to cope with failure and respond in a positive manner to the challenges of life. The role of competition in the lives of children must be appreciated and educators need to justify their actions on moral grounds. If competition helps the child towards self-fulfilment, promotes cooperation among people, creates equal opportunities for all, recognizes human dignity, sets realistic expectations and protects the individual's health, it can be regarded as healthy competition which can be instrumental in the upliftment of a child's self-image and self-confidence. A modular curriculum is often suggested as a solution for the problem of overloaded curricula which result in over structured lives where children have very little time for themselves. It is the intention of this study to create a greater understanding for the problem of increasing pressures on children in modern society.

High-ability students will provide future leadership in many fields of endeavour. However, the current practice of educating high-ability students in academically selective classes and schools may not provide the optimum environments for all such students. Big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research has demonstrated that students in high-ability environments have lower academic self-concepts than equally able students in low-ability settings. Low academic self-concepts are associated with negative educational outcomes. The present investigation aimed to extend current BFLPE theory and research by: (a) testing the BFLPE’s external validity across 41 countries to ascertain the theory’s universality; (b) testing whether the BFLPE is evident in developing countries and in collectivist countries to ascertain whether it transcends cultural and economic barriers; (c) investigating constructs that have the potential to moderate the adverse effects of the BFLPE; (d) elucidating whether upward social comparisons moderate or co-exist with the BFLPE to resolve a conflict in the literature; (e) critically analysing the relation between social comparison processes and the BFLPE to further inform theory; and (f) testing whether the BFLPE varies as a function of ability to clarify its impact on different ability levels. Three studies were conducted to achieve these aims. Study 1 assessed the BFLPE’s external validity and investigated potential BFLPE moderators. Participants were 265,180 15-year-old students who took part in the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2005a, 2005b). The BFLPE was evident in the entire cross-national sample of 41 culturally and economically diverse countries, and individually in 38. Moderating effects emerged for socio-economic status (SES), individual differences in learning, and individual perceptions of the learning environment. However, in relation to the large sample these effects were considered small. A larger moderating effect emerged for anxiety, where the BFLPE was found to be greater for highly anxious students. Study 2 was designed to resolve an apparent contradiction between the social comparison and the BFLPE literatures. Previously published social comparison data (Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper, 1999; Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux, 2001) were further analysed to ascertain whether the BFLPE was moderated by, or co-existed with, with the beneficial effects of upward comparisons on performance. Participants were 876 Dutch and 1,156 French students. The BFLPE was moderated for Dutch language, but for all other academic subjects it co-existed with selected upward comparisons. Study 3 assessed the effect of selected comparisons on the BFLPE. Participants were 2,015 French students. The BFLPE was found to co-exist with selected comparisons measured subjectively and when measured objectively for math. The BFLPE was moderated by comparison choice in French when measured objectively and by a performance avoidance goal orientation. The moderating effect of individual ability was tested in all three studies, but provided only small effects, inconsistent in direction. These results define the BFLPE as externally valid and universally applicable and suggest that it is not moderated by selected social comparisons. Results regarding BFLPE moderators offer practical information to inform intervention strategies that may assist high-ability students to reach their full academic potential.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Poverty has and will continue to precipitate enormous suffering for countless children in Zimbabwe. This study examines how the psychosocial effects of poverty affect the academic performance of the girl child. At the same time it identifies various policies and programmes designed to attenuate the negative effects of poverty on children. It is estimated that about seven out of ten families in Zimbabwe live in dire poverty because of political unrest, socioeconomic instability, economic and political sanctions, drought, environmental degradation, and HIV/AIDS. This study is informed by Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, and the humanistic perspective. A qualitative phenomenological design was used with focus group discussions, interviews and observations as data-collection instruments, with fifteen (15) Form 2 girls, six (6) teachers, and three (3) headmasters in three secondary schools in Masvingo Province. The use of the phenomenological design helped to bring to the surface deep issues, and to make the voices of the girl children heard. The Tesch’s open coding method of data analysis was used to identify themes and categories. Findings from this study revealed that the majority of the families in Zimbabwe cannot afford even the basic human needs (food and non-food items) which are necessary to sustain life, thus adversely affecting the children’s health, and their emotional, physical, moral, social and academic achievements. This study also established that the girls’ academic performance is affected by household chores/child labour, financial constraints, a lack of motivation, early marriages, and the lack of food, as well as health issues and sanitation, delinquent behaviour, child abuse, prostitution, the long distances to and from school, stigmatisation and marginalisation. This study recommends early intervention programmes for children, and the sustainable development of mining, rural and urban communities. The government, and the families, should make basic education affordable to all children, irrespective of their gender. This study also recommends that the problems be addressed by the microsystems of the school, and of the families, and the neighbourhood mesosystems (linkages) and exosystems, as well as by the macro-systems (political, ideology). Collaborative work is also needed among Zimbabweans and all stakeholders to revisit the root causes of poverty.
Psychology of Education
D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The primary aim of this research was to determine whether the home environment of secondary school children has an influence on their academic performance. A literature study was done where the major aspects of the home environment were identified: family lifestyle, parental involvement and attitude, physical living conditions. An analysis of academic performance and the factors affecting it was done. A measuring instrument was developed in order to measure the home environment in terms of being positive or negative. The results of the empirical research indicated that while home environment and age do play a significant role in the academic performance of secondary school children, gender, maternal employment, and whether the child lives permanently with both parents, did not. The educational implications of the findings and the teacher's role are discussed, and guidelines regarding the development of a home environment conducive to better academic performance are given.
Psychology of Education
M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Each new student arriving at the university or college brings an assortment of expectations, different types and levels of academic competency, different levels of psychological well-being, a variety of attitudes, values and divergent life experiences. Each adjusts at his or her own rate and experiences life as a student in unique ways. The focus of this study is on the problems that are encountered by the first year student on arrival at the institution and throughout the course of his or her first year studies. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods that include work-shopping many issues, a questionnaire and focus group interviews, this triangulation of data-collection techniques has helped to provide a rich and deep exploration of the perceived problem areas. The study examines various factors that are perceived as limiting the potential performance and achievement of the student, specifically academic aspects and those factors and circumstances that affect psychological well-being. The psycho-educational issues found to be perceived as problematic by both students and staff members are a lack of preparation and insufficient academic competencies that are necessary for successful tertiary education. Of critical concern with the resultant necessity of immediate intervention, are the lack of accountability and a fear of failure with concomitant anxiety. Issues other than psycho-educational problem areas are highlighted such as economic and social variables. Although not part of the study, issues such as lack of finance and the impact of HIV/AIDS cannot be ignored as they may have a possible detrimental effect on first year student achievement. As academic competency development and psychological well-being are but two areas of concern within the gestalt of student development, the study is conducted from a theoretical stance that embraces holistic student development. It is in this light of developing the student as a totality that an intervention programme is suggested, affording the new student many opportunities to develop all facets of his being.
Faculty of Education
D. Ed.

This research topic presents a discussion on psychosocial deprivation and how it impacts on learners academic performance. It is a case study guided by the following questions: To what extent does psychosocial deprivation influence scholastic performance of grade seven learners? How can the school counteract the effects of psychosocial deprivation? What forms of assistance do parents and teachers need in order to work together to benefit the learners? This is a quantitative study underpinned by the ecosystemic perspective as well as the social constructivist theory. The sample size consisted of seventy learners taken from a primary school which was later reduced to twenty eight learners. The findings of the study were lack of motivation, absenteeism, learning disabilities, difficulties learning English as a second language, stressful family life, poverty and the like were some of the factors that affect learners and eventually results in their poor academic performance. The learners’ environment or neighbourhood is seen as one of the many social contexts that shape children’s cognitive, social and emotional development. However the neighborhood context does not simply “imprint” itself on children, but can be mediated or moderated by other social contexts, in particular the family. Learners who struggle with schoolwork without receiving effective intervention often drop out of school and, as a consequence, have increasingly dire employment prospects. Many learners are invisible strugglers, falling through the cracks and being written off as not needing the extra effort and intervention that educators can provide. Schools, educators and education policy makers must strive to level the playing field by counteracting or minimizing the impact of socio-economic factors on learner’s academic performance by doing the following: Supplying educational materials timeously. Preparing syllabi suited to the age, level and language of learners. Provide ongoing learner support with the help of guidance counselors and social workers. Provide nutritious programmes to supplement those with inadequate diets. Parents and teachers should work together to promote teaching and learning.
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.

Text in Afrikaans
Die invloed van die persoonskonstruk, lokus van kontrole, op die akademiese prestasie van leerlinge in die senior sekondere skoolfase is aangespreek. Literatuur bevestig 'n verband tussen lokus van kontrole en akademiese prestasie. Interne kontrole word met hoe akademiese prestasie en verantwoordelikheidsaanvaarding geassosieer. Persoonlikheidskenmerke van intern of ekstern georienteerde leerlinge, die invloed van lokus van kontrole op persoonlike perspektief, selfkonsep en akademiese prestasie toon dat internes hulself as bekwaam, effektief en suksesvol beskou terwyl eksternes meer negatiewe persoonskenmerke beklemtoon. Die CNS-IE en IAR vraelyste is gebruik om algemene- en akademiese lokus van kontrole onderskeidelik te meet. Leerlinge wat akademies volgens vermoe presteer, behaal hoer interne tellings as die wat onderpresteer. Geen een-tot-een verwantskap tussen lokus van kontrole en akademiese prestasie is tydens die empiriese ondersoek gevind nie. Daar is dus ander faktore wat saam met lokus van kontrole die akademiese prestasie van senior sekondere leerlinge beinvloed.
The influence of the personality construct, locus of control, on the academic achievement of pupils in the senior secondary school phase was investigated. Literature confirms a relation between locus of control and academic achievement. Internal control is associated with high academic achievement and acceptance of responsibility. Personality characteristics of internals and externals, the influence of locus of control on personal perspective, self-concept and academic achievement shows that internals view themselves as capable, ef cient and succesful while externals emphasise more negative personality characteristics. The CNS IE and IAR were used to measure general and academic locus of control. Academic achievers obtained higher internal scores than underachievers on both questionnaires. The results of the Empirical research indicate that locus of control is not the sole determinant of academic achievement. Therefore, other factors in conjunction with locus of control influence academic achievement.
Psychology of Education
M. Ed. (Voorligting)

Moral development is a universal phenomenon which is an important ingredient in self-development and the acquisition of values. Adolescents become familiar with values and social norms through education and socialisation within social structures. The South African society evidences pluralistic values and current social, political and economic change that further renders the issue of individual and group values complex and challenging. Adolescents growing up in South Africa face many social problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, sexual problems, HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, teenage pregnancy, violence and family disintegration. This study aimed to address the influence of social factors on South African black adolescents’ moral development by a literature study and empirical inquiry using an interpretive approach. To provide a conceptual framework for the empirical inquiry, a literature study investigated theoretical perspectives on moral development and discussed ecological theories with regard to adolescent development with particular reference to Bronfenbrenner’s model. Furthermore, recent trends with regard to moral development of black adolescents within the South African context were addressed. A qualitative research inquiry was used to explore factors influencing the moral development of a small sample of eighteen black adolescents who attend a township school in Tshwane, Gauteng. The sample included an equal number of boys and girls. Maximum variation and purposive sampling strategies were used to select information-rich participants. Data gathering was done by individual semi-structured interviews using a moral dilemma question and focus group interviews. Data was analysed by content analysis and Guba’s model of trustworthiness was used to enhance credibility. Measures to ensure ethical research included consent from the Gauteng Department of Education, the principal and parents. Participation was voluntary and pseudonyms were used to protect the identity of participants. The researcher’s role was described. The key themes were organised around person moral behaviour- shapers, including the sub-themes of personal needs, personal ownership, identity, cognition and the influence of academic achievement; social moral behaviour- shapers, including the role of family, peers, church and social media and community moral behaviour-shapers, including congruent application of values and safety. The study concluded with recommendations to enhance the development of moral behaviour among adolescents.
Educational Studies
D. Ed. (Socio-Education)

Throughput rates and student retention are a burning concern that all higher education institutions share, as student dropout rates remain high. Promoting student academic success has become imperative. This study is concerned with students who display innate resilience and overcome adversities in their personal lives, but fail to demonstrate resilience when it comes to being academically successful. The objective of this study was to explore: (1) the personal resilience in at-risk students who overcome adversities in their personal lives, but fail to demonstrate resilience when it comes to being academically successful and (2) how their personal resilience can be tapped into to promote academic success. A mixed methods approach was used, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. At-risk students at a particular higher education institution were identified using their study records. From these students a subgroup of resilient students were selected by means of a resilience questionnaire. This group completed a pre-interview questionnaire, resulting in 10 students being selected on the grounds of being information rich cases of the at-risk resilient student. Through the process of social constructivism and dialogue between the researcher and the participants, themes were identified and analysed using an inductive data analysis style. The data was finally linked to supportive literature. The primary finding was that the same protective factors that can assist a student in developing innate resilience, can also cause the student to be placed academically at- risk. The study further revealed, that if the environment in which students find themselves does not allow them to negotiate for resources, these students' innate resilience alone cannot assist them to overcome the challenges of higher education. The researcher concludes that higher education institutions in their attempts to retain and assist students should be encouraged to tap into students’ innate resilience to develop their academic resilience
Psychology
M.A. (Psychology)

This exploratory study investigated the influence of grandparent-headed families on the academic performance of secondary school learners in Port Elizabeth education district. It draws on Family systems theory and Role Theory to allow one to understand the organizational complexity of families, as well as the interactive patterns that guide family interactions.These theories capture the essence of this study which argues that grandparent-headed family is a very important family unit that needs to be supported in order to function well and thereby giving a better parental support and guidance to those learners who are in need. The study was conducted in five secondary schools and also in fifteen grandparent-headed homes. The participants included sixteen learners, 5 Life Orientation educators and sixteen grandparents who are caregivers to these learners. The learners were interviewed at their schools, after obtaining consent from them, the school personnel, their grandparents and the Department of Education in Port Elizabeth. The educators were interviewed at their respective schools after they signed written consent. The grandparents were interviewed in a naturalistic setting, namely at their homes after they have given their written consent. Data was gathered using semi-structured open-ended interviews. Interpretive analysis was used to analyse the audio-taped data. The interviews were voluntarily and anonymity was guaranteed.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Socio-Education)

The study aims to explore the role of children’s homes in the educational performance of primary school learners. It employed qualitative approach which follows a case study design. It was conducted in three schools and children’s home. The participants consisted of six caregivers, six teachers and six learners whose responses were collected using in-depth interviews as an instrument. They were all purposefully selected as they possess information that is rich and relevant to my study. Participants were told that their interview was voluntary and they were free to withdraw at any time if they feel uncomfortable. The confidentiality in order to protect the identity of the participants was maintained. The data were collected by writing response from participants and using tape recorder. It was then transcribed, organised, marked by hand, and coded to produce themes. The major findings are that children’s homes can affect the performance negatively or positively; positively, if homes create enough time for children to study and have more access to people and resources in support of their studies and negatively in that there are numerous educational barriers that the caregivers in the children’s home face daily when it comes to assisting the orphaned and vulnerable learners in their school work. Based on the findings, the study gives a number of recommendations, namely, there is need to strengthen collaborative efforts between government and other non-governmental organisations to ensure increased availability of necessary resources to the orphaned and vulnerable learners; caregivers in children’s homes need to receive proper training and assistance in order to be able to handle the psychological difficulties experienced by the orphaned and vulnerable learners; education and legal campaigns must be put in place to eliminate stigma associated with orphan-hood.
Inclusive Education
M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

English text with English, Northern Sotho and Afrikaans summaries
South Africa has a long and troubled educational history, from pre-colonial education to the fall of apartheid, and eventually the acquisition of equal education for all (Christie, 2006). Many changes took place during this transitional period in the democracy and liberation of the New South Africa by means of pupil-centred classrooms, Curriculum 2005 (Taylor, 1995) and Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Although numerous studies have been conducted internationally and in South Africa on underperforming in schools, the focus of this study is to ascertain the key elements of why learners underperform. The study’s aim is to determine the influence of a learner’s socio-economic situation on scholastic performance with references to nutrition, family structure, and parental support of learners in primary schools in Tshwane. In this full dissertation, the researcher found that most of the selected home environmental factors had no significant impact on the selected learners. It was, however, found (as many research already proved) that diet and sleep did have an influence on primary school learner academic performance. In presenting this argument, the theoretical framework, socio-constructivism learning theory, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, were used, as socio-constructivism states that although biological factors are a requirement for basic development to emerge, socio-cultural factors are crucial for basic natural processes to develop. Vygotsky’s socio constructivism theory indicates the uniqueness of the social environment and regards socio-cultural background as the primary and determining factor in the development of higher forms of human mental activity such as voluntary attention, intentional memory, logical thought, planning, and problem solving. In conjunction with Vygotsky, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs sets the foundation for this study as it states that in order for a being to move to the next level, the lower level of needs, need to be satisfied first. The objectives of the study were: - to determine what the impact of selected home environment factors on primary school learners’ academic performance is. To determine the relationship between poverty, family structure, and scholastic performance; to determine the influence of the type of dwelling on scholastic performance; to determine the influence nutrition have on a learners’ scholastic performance; and to determine the influence sleep deprivation has on learners’ academic performance. The study used a quantitative approach, and the method included questionnaires that learners in Grade 5, Grade 6, and Grade 7 of the selected school completed anonymously. The study revealed that poverty, family structure, and dwelling type did not have a significant impact on the learners of the selected school. The study did however reveal and confirmed what various other researchers have already found that sleep and nutrition did have an influence on academic performance. It is recommended that specific guidelines should be provided to parents about economical lunchbox ideas. Parents should be supplied with lists of foods best to pack in lunchboxes and food that is not allowed. Schools should further monitor the food provided at tuck shops, as the food provided should be nutritious as well as sustain learners’ energy. Food high in saturated fats and sugar should not be allowed at school tuck shops. Children should also be educated about nutrition and better or alternative choices they can make. Lunches that are supplied as part of the school nutrition program should be monitored to ensure that it is nutritious, low in sodium, and that a variety of fruit and vegetables are included in the meal. Studies have concluded that children should sleep on average nine hours per night. Unfortunately, due to increase in academic pressure and work load, more learners go to bed later. It is therefore recommended that schools adhere to guidelines on the amount of homework given to learners daily. It is further recommended that parents should ensure that their children have a set routine regarding sleep patterns. The use of electronic equipment, such as television, computers, and cellular phones prior to sleeping time should be limited as it affects sleep. Surprisingly, this study has also revealed that some of the data supplied to the school by the parents or guardians and the data that was obtained from the learners did not correlate. It is therefore recommended that schools should be more scrupulous with learner performance data as it could be a possible indicator of household problems or the quality of education. If it is found that the decline is due to quality of education, the school management team should act immediately to assist the necessary educators with the necessary skills to enable better quality of education. A pro-active plan of action should be put in place by the school for those learners whose marks decreased. An educator could talk to the learner and the parents to try and determine the possible causes for the decrease in marks. Remedial classes or remedial exercises should be given to the learners to assist in the areas of need. In addition, if it is determined that the cause is due to home environment factors then necessary assistance should be provided either by the school or other entities.
Afrika Borwa e na le histori ya thuto ye telele gape ya mathata, go tloga go thuto ya pele ga bokoloni go ya go go fedišwa ga kgatelelo le go hwetša mafelelong thuto ya go lekana go bohle (Christie, 2006). Go bile le diphetogo tše dintši nakong ye ya phetogo mo temokrasing le tokologong ya Afrika Borwa ye mpsha ka mokgwa wa diphapošiborutelo tšeo di nepišago morutwana, Lenaneothuto la 2005 (Taylor,1995) le Setatamente sa Pholisi ya Lenaneothuto le Kelo (CAPS). Le ge go dirilwe dinyakišišo tše mmalwa ditšhabatšhabeng le mo Afrika Borwa ka ga go se šome gabotse dikolong, nepišo ya dinyakišišo ke go utolla mabaka a motheo ao a dirago gore barutwana ba se šome gabotse. Maikemišetšo a dinyakišišo ke go utolla khuetšo ya maemo a ekonomi le leago a barutwana go go šoma dithutong go lebeletšwe phepo, sebopego sa lapa le thekgo ya batswadi go barutwana ba dikolo tša praemari ka Tshwane. Mo tesitheišeneng ye e feletšego, monyakišiši o hweditše e le gore bontši bja mabaka a tikologo ya gae ao a kgethilwego ga a na khuetšo ye bohlokwa mo go barutwana bao ba kgethilwego. Le ge go le bjalo, go hweditšwe e le gore (bjale ka ge go kgonthišitšwe ke banyakišiši ba bantši) go ja le go robala di na le khuetšo go go šoma dithutong ga barutwana ba dikolo tša praemari. Ge go abja mabaka a, tlhako ya teori, teori ya go ithuta ya tsebo ya leago le dinyakwa tša maemo a Maslow di šomišitšwe. Tsebo ya leago e bolela gore le ge mabaka a go phela e le senyakwa sa kgolo ya motheo go thoma, mabaka a setšo sa leago a bohlokwa kudu go ditshepedišo tša tlhago tša motheo gore di gole. Teori ya Vygotsky ya tsebo ya leago e bontšha boswananoši bja tikologo ya leago gomme e tšea botšo bja setšo sa leago bjalo ka lebaka la motheo le taolo mo go godišeng mekgwa ya godimo ya mošongwana wa kgopolo ya motho go swana le šedi ya boithaopo, le kelelo ye e nepišago, kgopolo ya go kwagala, peakanyo le tharollo ya mathata. Ka tirišano le Vygotsky, maemo a dinyakwa a Maslow a dira motheo wa dinyakišišo tše ka ge a bolela gore sebopiwa se ye legatong la go latela, legato la fase la dinyakwa le swanetše go kgotsofatšwa pele. Dinepo tša dinyakišišo tše e be e le go utolla: gore khuetšo ya mabaka a tikologo ya gae ao a kgethilwego go barutwana ba dikolo tša praemari mo go šomeng gabotse dithutong ke efe; kamano gare ga bohloki, sebopego sa lapa le go šoma dithutong; khuetšo ya mohuta wa legae mo go šomeng dithutong; khuetšo yeo phepo e nago le yona mo go šomeng dithutong; le khuetšo yeo go se robale go nago le yona go barutwana mo go šomeng dithutong. Dinyakišišo di šomiša mokgwa wa bokaakang, gomme mokgwa o akaretša letlakala la dipotšišo leo barutwana ba Kreiti ya 5, Kreiti ya 6 le Kreiti ya 7 ba sekolo seo se kgethilwego ba le tladitšego ka sephiri. Dinyakišišo di utollotše gore bohloki, sebopego sa lapa le mohuta wa legae ga di na khuetšo mo go barutwana ba sekolo seo se kgethiwego. Le ge go le bjale, dinyakišišo di utolla le go kgonthiša ka moo banyakišiši ba go fapana ba šetšego ba hweditše gore boroko le phepo di na le khuetšo mo go šomeng dithutong. Go digetšwe gore ditlhahli tše di itšego di swanetše go fiwa batswadi ka ga kgopolo ya dijo tša letena tša ekonomi. Batswadi ba swanetše go fiwa lenaneo la dijo tše dikaone go feta tšeo ba ka di fago bana go ja ka letena le dijo tšeo di se a lokago. Dikolo gape di swanetše go lekola dijo tšeo di fiwa mabenkeleng a dijo a ka sekolong, ka ge dijo tšeo di fiwago di swanetše go ba le phepo gomme di swarelele maatla a barutwana. Dijo tšeo di nago le makhura ao a se a lokago le swikiri ga se tša swanela go dumelelwa mo mabenkeleng a dijo a ka sekolong. Go tlaleletša, bana ba swanetše go rutwa ka phepo le dikgetho tše kaone goba tša go fapana tšeo ba ka di dirago. Dijo tša matena tšeo di fiwago bjalo ka karolo ya lenaneo la phepo la sekolo di swanetše go lekolwa go kgonthiša gore di na le phepo, ga di na letswai le lentši, le gore mehuta ya dienywa le merogo e a akaretšwa mo dijong. Dinyakišišo di phethile ka gore ka palogare bana ba swanetše go robala diiri tše senyane bošego bjo bongwe le bjo bongwe. Go hloka mahlatse, ka lebaka la koketšego ya kgatelelo ya dithuto le mošomo wo montši, bana ba bantši ba robala ka morago ga nako. Ka gona go digelwa gore dikolo di latele ditlhahli tša bokaalo bja mošomo wa gae woo o fiwago barutwana letšatši le lengwe le lengwe. Go digetšwe gape gore batswadi ba swanetše go kgonthiša gore bana ba bona ba na le lenaneo leo le beakantšwego la go robala. Tšhomišo ya didirišwa tša elektroniki, go swana le thelebišene, dikhomphutha le diselefouno pele ga nako ya go robala e swanetše go fokotšwa ka ge e ama boroko. Selo sa go makatša, dinyakišišo tše di utollotše gore data ye nngwe yeo e filwego sekolo ke batswadi goba bahlokomedi le data yeo e filwego ke barutwana ga di sepelelane. Ka gona go digelwa gore dikolo di swanetše go hlokomela ka data ya go šoma ga barutwana ka ge e ka ba sešupo sa kgonagalo ya mathata a ka gae goba boleng bja thuto. Ge go hweditšwe gore go palelwa ke ka lebaka la boleng bja thuto, sehlopha sa taolo ya sekolo se swanetše go tšea magato ka bjako go thuša barutiši ka mabokgoni ao a hlokegago go kgontšha boleng bjo bokaone bja thuto. Sekolo se swanetše go dira lenaneo la tiro la mohola go barutwana bao meputso ya bona e fokotšegile. Morutiši a ka bolela le morutwana le batswadi go leka go utolla gore ke eng seo se hlolago go fokotšega ga meputso. Dithuto tša tlaleletšo goba mešongwana ya tlaleletšo e swanetše go fiwa go thuša barutwana mo dikarolong tšeo ba hlokago thušo. Go tlaletša, ge go utollotšwe gore se se hlolwa ke mabaka a tikologo ya gae, gona go swanetše go fiwa thušo yeo e hlokegago e ka fiwa ke sekolo goba makala a mangwe.
Suid-Afrika het ’n lang en veelbewoë onderwysgeskiedenis, van voorkoloniale onderwys tot die val van apartheid en die uiteindelike bereiking van gelyke onderwys vir almal (Christie, 2006). Baie veranderinge het gedurende hierdie oorgangsperiode in die demokrasie en bevryding van die Nuwe Suid-Afrika plaasgevind deur middel van leerdergesentreerde klaskamers, Kurrikulum 2005 (Taylor, 1995) en die Kurrikulum- en Assesseringsbeleidsverklaring (KABV). Hoewel talle studies oor onderprestasie in skole internasionaal en in Suid-Afrika uitgevoer is, is die fokus van hierdie studie om die kernfaktore vas te stel wat tot onderprestasie van leerders lei. Die studie het ten doel om die invloed van ’n leerder se sosioëkonomiese situasie op skolastiese prestasie te bepaal met verwysing na voeding, gesinstruktuur en ouerondersteuning van leerders in primêre skole in Tshwane. In hierdie volledige proefskrif het die navorser bevind dat die meeste geselekteerde tuisomgewingfaktore geen beduidende uitwerking op die geselekteerde leerders gehad het nie. Daar is egter bevind (soos deur baie navorsers bewys is) dat dieet en slaap wel ʼn invloed op primêreskoolleerders se akademiese prestasie gehad het. In die aanbieding van hierdie argument is die teoretiese raamwerk, sosiaal-konstruktivistiese leerteorie en Maslow se behoeftehiërargie gebruik. Sosiaalkonstruktivisme bepaal dat, hoewel biologiese faktore ’n vereiste is sodat basiese ontwikkeling kan plaasvind, sosiaalkulturele faktore deurslaggewend vir die ontwikkeling van basiese natuurlike prosesse is. Vygotsky se teorie oor sosiaalkonstruktivisme dui op die uniekheid van die sosiale omgewing en beskou die sosiaalkulturele agtergrond as die primêre en bepalende faktor in die ontwikkeling van hoër vorms van menslike verstandelike aktiwiteit, soos vrywillige aandag, intensionele geheue, logiese denke, beplanning en probleemoplossing. Tesame met Vygotsky, maak Maslow se behoeftehiërargie die grondslag van hierdie studie uit, aangesien dit bepaal dat, ten einde na die volgende vlak te beweeg, ’n mens se laer vlak van behoeftes eers bevredig moet word. Die doelwitte van die studie was om die volgende te bepaal: watter uitwerking geselekteerde tuisomgewingfaktore op primêreskoolleerders se akademiese prestasie het; die verhouding tussen armoede, gesinstruktuur en skolastiese prestasie; die invloed van die tipe woning op skolastiese prestasie; die invloed wat voeding op ’n leerder se skolastiese prestasie het; en die invloed wat slaapontneming op ’n leerder se akademiese prestasie het. Die studie het ’n kwantitatiewe benadering gebruik, en die metode het vraelyste ingesluit wat leerders in Graad 5, Graad 6 en Graad 7 van die geselekteerde skool anoniem voltooi het. Die studie het aan die lig gebring dat armoede, gesinstruktuur en tipe woning nie ’n beduidende uitwerking op die leerders van die geselekteerde skool gehad het nie. Die studie het egter wel aan die lig gebring en bevestig wat verskeie ander navorsers reeds bevind het: dat slaap en voeding ʼn invloed op akademiese prestasie het. Daar word aanbeveel dat spesifieke riglyne oor ekonomiese kosblik-idees aan ouers verskaf moet word. Ouers behoort voorsien te word van lyste van die beste kossoorte om in kosblikke te pak, en kossoorte wat nie toegelaat word nie. Skole behoort voorts die kos te monitor wat by snoepwinkels te koop aangebied word, aangesien sodanige kos voedsaam moet wees en leerders se energie moet volhou. Kos wat ryk aan versadigde vette en suiker is, behoort nie by skoolsnoepwinkels toegelaat te word nie. Daarbenewens behoort kinders opgevoed te word oor voeding en beter of alternatiewe keuses wat hulle kan maak. Middagetes wat as deel van die skoolvoedingsprogram voorsien word, moet gemonitor word om te verseker dat hulle voedsaam en laag in sout is, en dat ’n verskeidenheid vrugte en groente by die maaltyd ingesluit word. Studies het tot die slotsom gekom dat kinders gemiddeld nege uur per nag behoort te slaap. Ongelukkig, weens ʼn toename in akademiese druk en werklading, gaan al hoe meer leerders later slaap. Daar word dus aanbeveel dat skole riglyne nakom rakende die hoeveelheid huiswerk wat daagliks aan leerders gegee word. Daar word verder aanbeveel dat ouers moet verseker dat hul kinders ’n vaste slaaproetine het. Die gebruik van elektroniese toerusting, soos televisie, rekenaars en selfone voor slaaptyd, behoort beperk te word omdat dit slaap beïnvloed. Dit is verrassend dat die studie ook aan die lig gebring het dat sommige van die data wat deur die ouers of voogde aan die skool verskaf is en die data wat van die leerders bekom is, nie ooreengestem het nie. Daar word dus aanbeveel dat skole meer nougeset met leerderprestasiedata moet omgaan, aangesien dit ’n moontlike aanwyser van huishoudelike probleme of die gehalte van onderwys kan wees. Indien daar bevind word dat die afname as gevolg van die gehalte van onderwys is, moet die skoolbestuurspan onmiddellik optree om opvoeders te help om die nodige vaardighede te verwerf om ’n beter gehalte onderwys moontlik te maak. Die skool behoort ’n proaktiewe plan van aksie in werking te stel vir daardie leerders wie se punte gedaal het. ʼn Opvoeder kan met die leerder en die ouers gesels en probeer vasstel wat die moontlike oorsake vir die daling in punte is. Remediërende klasse of remediërende oefeninge behoort aan die leerders gegee te word om met die behoefteareas te help. Daarbenewens, indien vasgestel word dat die oorsaak tuisomgewingfaktore is, behoort die nodige bystand gegee te word, hetsy deur die skool of ander entiteite.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Socio-Education)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the socio-economic impact of learners’ achievement at public schools in Nkangala District in the Mpumalanga Province. The benefits of the study were highlighted within the narrative of the study. The study was qualitative in nature and included a literature study, observations and semi structured interviews. It was discovered from the data that the socio- economic conditions in the district, the learners’ home environment, the school environment and the Department of Education impacted on learners’ achievement. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for improvements to assist in addressing the socio economic impact on learners’ achievement.
Educational Management and Leadership
M. Ed. (Education Management)

South Africa has a low throughput rate in the public higher education sector which leads to severe skill shortages that are urgently required by the country. In particular, the financial skills shortages are severe, especially those of accountants and chartered accountants. Keeping in mind the vastness of the University of South Africa’s (Unisa’s) market share of accounting students in South Africa, it is important to understand the distinct challenges related to retention and throughput of students pursuing an accounting qualification at an open distance learning institution such as Unisa. If one considers the landscape of accounting education in South Africa, the unique challenges faced by accounting students at Unisa and the recent scholarly addresses on retention and throughput of distance education students, as well as the disadvantaging factors with which Unisa students are faced, this study contributes to the theoretical comprehension of students’ retention and throughput rates in accounting education at postgraduate level. The focus of the current study was mainly on non-academic factors affecting the performance of accounting students at postgraduate level, since much research has already been done on academic factors that affect the performance of accounting students. Many studies are focussed on students at undergraduate level; therefore, in this study, postgraduate students studying towards becoming a chartered accountant were chosen.
Financial Accounting
M. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

There is a growing body of knowledge in the field of sociology of sports and education which speaks to the positive relationship between youth engagement in organised sports and school performance. These sources of knowledge are largely confined to the developed countries in Europe and North America addressing the impact of organised sports on Positive Youth Development (PYD). In a developing context such as South Africa, which is undergoing rapid transformation from the previous legacy of apartheid, youth are defined as being at risk especially in light of the vast levels of social and economic inequalities which threatens its newly found democracy. It is in this context, the study located in a historically disadvantaged high school in the township of Chesterville in the Metropolitan Area of Durban, examines the role of school sports engagement as an element of PYD in enhancing school performance. The study seeks to assess the applicability of PYD principles in a developing and historically disadvantaged context within a school setting with the purpose of making contribution towards intervention programmes for the vast majority of South African youth who are considered to be at risk. Using a sample of 100 male and female learners in Grades 11 and 12 with an equal distribution of sports engaged and non-engaged, the study tests the principles of two PYD elements in respect of school Competence and Contribution to community. The study is of an exploratory nature on the applicability of PYD programmes in a context such as South Africa and does not purport to be conclusive, but instead the merit of a study of this nature is to set the foundation for future research studies in the fields of sociology of sports and education in order to intervene on the different social, political and economic volatility that South African youth are challenged within a democratic era.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.