Browsing by Author "Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi"

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    Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: towards an inclusive approach in the management of ADHD in South African classrooms
    (2019) Loedolff, Simone; Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi
    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a world-wide phenomenon which has a major impact not only on a child’s academic performance but also daily activities and social interactions. It is a phenomena which manifests in most classrooms. This dissertation investigates ADHD, not only as a medical phenomenon, but also as a social phenomenon, with a specific focus on how it manifests and applies in South African schools. Using Vygotsky’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and linking it with the ideals of the Education White Paper 6. The research is presented as a literature review that focuses on what current literature suggests is happening, and what theoretically should be happening in practice. The research is intended to demonstrate the need of the school-going aged child to be supported by the family, the school, and, if chosen, by medical professionals as well as the need to have informed parents and teachers. This need is linked to an exploration in this research of the practices and procedures currently being used to support learners with ADHD in mainstream South African schools in the context of an inclusive education model. The research concludes that Educators needs further support and training to be fully equipped to support learners formally and informally diagnosed with ADHD.
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    Cultural-historical investigations into the dialectics of skills development implementation and occupational identity in the informal construction Small and Micro Enterprise workplace
    (2022) Hammond, Sylvia Frances; Bowen, Paul; Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi; Cattell, Keith
    This study explores the development of identity and agency on the part of young construction workers and work-seekers within the informal workplace environment of the South African post-apartheid construction industry. The study provides an exploration of the contradictions manifested in, and through, labour relations and skills development practices, via the daily struggles of the workplace participants. Ethnographic data are collected from the small and micro enterprise (SME) contractors and their workers; the work-seekers, who daily line the roadside identifying their skills via display of construction tools and signs; and skills development specialists. The rich data enables a cultural-historical analysis of the contradictions within the associated labour practices, and South Africa's post-apartheid skills development regime. These contradictions inevitably give rise to the struggles for identity development and agency on the part of the informal workplace participants The ground-breaking research of post-Vygotskian researchers such as Anna Stetsenko and leading Activity Theory scholars such as Yrjö Engeström and Annalisa Sannino, focus the analysis of workers' struggles. The research illustrates how skills development practices in South Africa fail to address the critical needs of informal workers and the unemployed work-seekers. In particular, the research finds that the ideology informing skills development practices in South Africa emphasises Western-centric notions, and precludes indigenous practices, specifically, the culturally relevant values of collective solidarity, extended family, and community relationships. These values are embodied in the ethos of ubuntu, mirroring the Vygotskian essence, and expansive learning, which identifies the relevance of the social to the individual's learning, and occupational identity development. As a result, the analysis unriddles the material structures of skills development and labour practices that perpetuate the exclusion and marginalisation of many young South Africans, thereby limiting access to skilled employment, and active participation in the country's post-apartheid socioeconomic activity. Therefore, employing these conceptual and analytic tools, the study posits a theory-informed model for transforming the prevailing structures, and the related practices. Primary recommendations are to clearly differentiate skills development from education; and to utilise skills development as a mediational tool for agency, in a workplace format tailored to the construction informal sector. The object being fulfilment of redress, with an outcome of disrupting post-apartheid South Africa's overwhelming poverty, unemployment, expanding inequality, and socioeconomic marginalisation of youth.
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    Piaget Vygotsky and the cultural development of the notions of possibility and necessity: an experimental study among rural South African learners
    (2010) Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi
    I employ the theories of Vygotsky and Piaget in analysing the modes of experimental task performance in order to elaborate on the role that cultural content plays in the development and functioning of the notions of possibility and necessity. I challenge the notion of cognitive lag that has hitherto pervaded explanations of the development of subjects from non-industrialised, diverse socio-cultural settings. A Piagetian experimental task, comprising half circles of contrasting colours, is used in the investigation. One of these half circles, covered with tinfoil, is assumed to be either red or green in colour but not knowable in advance, and it is used as a basis for hypothesising about the possible colour values of circles that could be made from combining this half with the uncovered one. Eighty Venda-speaking learners, 20 learners from each of four grades (Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7), with ages ranging from an average 6.5 years in Grade 1 to 12.5 years in Grade 7, participated in the study. The results reveal that learners, although functioning at the operational level of thinking, employ both concrete-functional and formal-abstract and conceptual modes of thinking at the same time. Thus the concept of possibility is conceptualised as constituting both its concrete, functional form (involving a conception of the possible as the possible-real) and its formal, conceptual form (involving the conception of the possible as a hypothetical state of affairs, disembedded from its concrete context of problem manifestation and involving holding two or more cognitive categories constant during problem solving).
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    Teachers Perceptions of Attention Difficulties with Reference to Learner Identification and OT Referral. A Case Study of Six Foundation Phase Teachers across Four Cape Town Primary Schools
    (2022) Razak, Yumna; Hardman, Joanne; Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi
    Attention is a skill that is vital for learning to occur in the classroom where many competing factors may impede a learners' ability to pay attention. Moreover, the classroom environment has different role players and factors that impact the quality of teaching and learning that takes place. These include the teacher, other learners, the school, and other support structures such as an occupational therapist. Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] is a common, catch-all label used with learners who do not sit still or struggle to complete tasks independently, to name but a few observations done in classrooms by occupational therapist. Yet, a learners' learning and engagement is greatly impacted on by the teacher who acts as a mediator in the classroom. This research uses a qualitative research design to unpack the teachers' perceptions of these attention difficulties in the classroom. Particular focus was placed on how teachers identify these learners and the support structures in place to assist these identified learners. Through interviews conducted, six Grade 1 teachers were investigated and explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of these attention difficulties in the classroom as perceived by the teachers, and the support thereof. This research demonstrates that many of the teachers showed an understanding of the perceived attention difficulties that went beyond surface level. Furthermore, all the participating teachers have experience with attention difficulties and rely on their experiences rather than theoretical knowledge in order to help identify and support these learners. Overall, many of the teachers feel alone in supporting the learners as the home environments do not always play a helpful role within the learners' daily lives. Finally, support provided by on-site occupational therapist was found to be more beneficial for the teachers. However, there are still challenges experienced by teachers in managing big class sizes and covering the curriculum. It is recommended that further research is conducted on the role of an Occupational Therapist in the classroom. In addition to this, teachers require additional training around attention difficulties as a means of providing appropriate support in the classroom.
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    Violence, primary school learning and development in the Cape Flats township of Mitchells Plain: a case study of exposure to violence and its implications for children's' learning and development
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Kampfer, Judine Pearl; Muthivhi, Azwihangwisi
    This case study focused on the ways in which their exposure to violence impacts on primary school children's learning and their cognitive and emotional development in two primary schools in the Cape Flats Township of Mitchell's Plain. The research aimed to explore the extent to which exposure to violence impacts not only on these learners' learning and development but also the various ways in which these children act-out their violent experiences. The fieldwork focused on how the exposure to violence in the household and community influences/affects classroom learning, in particular, learners' oral and written exercises, as well as the quality of their relationships with teachers and other learners. The theoretical framework for this research is based on Vygotsky's Social Developmental theory. This theory assisted me in my investigation and helped me to understand the consequences of exposure to violence for both learning and cognitive and emotional development within a social, or socio-cultural context. I used Bronfenbrenner's ecological models to explain the impact exposure to violence has on human development and cognitive growth within an ecological system. The research approach made use of a qualitative case study of two primary schools, each situated in a different socio-economic area of Mitchell's Plain. The data was collected from participant observations, focus group interviews, and document analysis of learners' writings and drawings. The research found the sample of learners from both schools to have been affected both mentally/cognitively and emotionally by the violence in the area, and that this had caused these learners to lose focus and had certainly affected their academic performance. A key point that emerged was that the sample of learners participating in the study were struggling to create quality relationships with their teachers and peers. The research showed that, causally related to this, children in the study who had been directly or indirectly exposed to violence displayed a lack of trust and confidence in others, and that this often led to discipline issues in the class.