Browsing by Author "Cooper, Adam"

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    'Cascading participation' and the role of teachers in a collaborative HIV and Aids curriculum development project
    (2014) Scott, Duncan; Cooper, Adam; Swartz, Sharlene
    This paper presents findings of four Grade 6 teachers' involvement as facilitators of a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted in three South African primary schools. Based on the results of Phase One research which indicated that Grade 6s learn about sexuality, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from multiple sources, the Phase Two project designers developed a toolkit to help Life Orientation (LO) teachers consult learners on what they know and how they want to be taught. In each school, a curriculum development group comprising the participating teacher, learners, parents and an HIV and Aids specialist worked to enhance the official HIV and Aids curriculum using the information gathered each week by the teacher. This dialogue between the study participants represents the culmination of what we describe as the project's 'cascading participation' research model, a term denoting the multiple levels of participant involvement in the study. Although theories of participation often depict a binary relationship between those with power and those without it, the implementation of this project shows how the official curriculum, cultural norms and low parent involvement can exert pressure at different levels to diminish teachers' ability to facilitate social and educational change.
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    Democracy's children?: the constitution of male subjectivity of coloured adolescents awaiting trial in post-apartheid Cape Town
    (2005) Cooper, Adam
    Th is resl..'.an.:h project is an eploration into the Ii es of 25 or· democracy· s chi ldrl..'.n ·. Arrikaans speaking. coloured adolescents ,rnaiting trial. all of \hom .'.Orne from powrty-strickcn. violent areas on the Cape Flats. These boys li e in ah istorical context \ here the new South African dcmucrac: has not (yet) de Ii ered benefits for all of its ·chi ldre11°. This is the contet in which I am eploring their di ided. ambialent and paradoical masculinities. These :oungsters \CIT intenie\cd indh iduall::, and in fixus groups. at a centre called Horizons. near Cape Tcm n. The author eamines ho\ the,,e boys constitute their fragile sub_iecthitics through multiple. contradictory discourses or masculinit:, and hO\ the: in,est in these discourses in attempts partial I:, to allcviak the multiple anieties they npericnce in their Ii Yes. The hO s inserted themscles \ ithin three main discomses of masculinitY. . . H:, per-masculinit:, \as constructed through violent gang acti ity and subjugating women. Traditional masculinity involved sentiments or prm ide and protect. exerted in a non- iolent manner. Finally. mythopoetic masculinit:, CL1mprises open emotional epressinn. especial I:, tm,ards their mothers. Although these ho::-s can·t \in.as the material and discursie odds are stacked too heaily against them. thi-, docs not mean the:, arc automaton'>. simpl:, the dupes of fate. I he: exen agency through unique contigurations Llfthcse discourses. temporarily becoming ·1-foll:,,ood heroes· and creating gangster ·brotherhoods· \hich resist the social dislol..'.ation produced b:, their historical situation. To some degree. then. ·democrac:, ·s children· use the ver:, discourses \ hich llXm and I irn it them. to exert agenc:. The author argues that b:, studying these young men as inherently divided and cornple eperiential beings. as \ell as imoluntaril: inserted into the social and material r..:alms. \e can begin to understand their lives in a meaningful ,,a:, and come to terms with the terrifying acts the: commit.
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    “Let us eat airtime”:youth identity and ‘xenophobic’ violence in a low-income neighbourhood in Cape Town
    (2009) Cooper, Adam
    This study involved 11 discussion groups and 9 individual interviews with learners at a high school in Dunoon, the area where apparently 'xenophobic' violence first erupted, in Cape Town, in May 2008. The study used qualitative methods to explore these youths' perceptions of different groups who live in Dunoon, descriptions of how these groups interact in daily community life and accounts of what transpired in May 2008. In the research these young people described themselves as 'black' and Xhosa, using these identities to portray local township social and economic processes, in which 'black Xhosa' people are apparently worse off in terms of education, skills and wealth, in comparison to local Somali shopkeepers. Young people also described themselves as aspiring to be modern, urban citizens, shopping at malls and speaking on their cellular telephones. Participants then proceeded to explain the violence towards foreign nationals through a discourse of 'the attacks happened because the people are hungry.' People may well be hungry, but hunger usually turns to violence when a set of beliefs and ideologies exist, in addition to this hunger, which indicate that a situation is unfair and that taking action to bring about change, is justified. Through the combination of identities portrayed by young people in this study- as black, Xhosa and modern citizens- it appears as if the discursive justification for the violence- as due to 'hunger'- was being used partially metaphorically, to describe a set of desires: people in Dunoon want food, but they are also hungry for televisions, laptop computers and airtime for their cellphones. Many of these commodities, which are integral to a modern, middle-class lifestyle, are still largely elusive for groups of the South African urban poor. This leads to resentment and frustration and may produce violence when others in the local environment, such as Somali shopkeepers, appear to enjoy these social and economic privileges, to a greater extent.