Browsing by Subject "Diversity"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Clinical educators’ experiences of facilitating learning when speaking a different language from both the student and client
    (BioMed Central, 2017-11-02) Keeton, Nicola; Kathard, Harsha; Singh, Shajila
    Background: Worldwide there is an increasing responsibility for clinical educators to help students from different language backgrounds to develop the necessary skills to provide health care services to a linguistically diverse client base. This study describes the experiences of clinical educators who facilitate learning in contexts where they are not familiar with the language spoken between students and their clients. A part of the qualitative component of a larger mixed methods study is the focus of this paper. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants recruited from all audiology university programmes in South Africa. Thematic analysis allowed for an in depth exploration of the research question. Member checking was used to enhance credibility. It is hoped that the findings will inform training programmes and in so doing, optimize the learning of diverse students who may better be able to provide appropriate services to the linguistically diverse population they serve. Results: Participants experienced challenges with fair assessment of students and with ensuring appropriate client care when they were unable to speak the language shared between the client and the student. In the absence of formal guidelines, clinical educators developed unique coping strategies that they used on a case-by-case basis to assess students and ensure adequate client management when they experienced such language barriers while supervising. Coping strategies included engaging other students as interpreters, having students role-play parts of a session in English in advance and requesting real-time translations from the student during the session. They expressed concern about the fairness and efficacy of the coping strategies used. Conclusions: While clinical educators use unique strategies to assess students and to ensure suitable client care, dilemmas remain regarding the fairness of assessment and the ability to ensure the quality of client care.
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    Inclusive Leadership and Job Performance: A Study of Blue-Collar Worker Perceptions
    (2025) Larney, Ammaarah; Bagraim, Jeffrey
    In South Africa, blue-collar workers typically operate in labour-intensive work environments where inclusive leadership behaviours are often not viewed as a value-adding tool and where employee willingness to contribute to organisational processes is low. All of which can negatively impact individual job performance. Although there is growing literature focussing on inclusive leadership as a critical driver of job performance, there is a scarcity of research understanding this relationship in a South African blue-collar worker context, where this group is considered the backbone of the country's economy. This research argues that understanding the perceptions and behaviours of this group can be worthwhile when addressing the challenges faced by this group and identifying performance-motivating factors. The primary aim of this study was to explore the impact of perceptions of inclusive leadership on the job performance of blue-collar workers utilising three dimensions for performance, including (1) task performance, (2) contextual performance and (3) counterproductive work behaviour. Further, the moderating effect of psychological safety on this relationship was explored to expand on existing literature. Data was collected using a sample of 122 employees from multiple industries using self-report questionnaires. Data was analysed using correlation analysis, regression analysis and moderation analysis. The study's results revealed that the perceived perceptions of inclusive leadership of a blue-collar worker in South Africa positively influenced an employee's contextual performance and decreased the counterproductive work behaviour exhibited by an employee. Further, contrary to earlier studies, the results indicated that inclusive leadership did not significantly correlate with task performance. Additionally, this study revealed that psychological safety significantly correlated with task and contextual performance, whereas there was no significant relationship between psychological safety and counterproductive work behaviours. Despite the significance of these findings, the results were less robust than in previously published research. Lastly, it was observed that psychological safety was not an effective moderator of the relationship between inclusive leadership and job performance. Although these results were inconsistent with previous studies, these findings contribute to the growing body of inclusive leadership literature in South Africa.
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    Increasing African genomic data generation and sharing to resolve rare and undiagnosed diseases in Africa: a call-to-action by the H3Africa rare diseases working group
    (2022-06-16) Lumaka, Aimé; Carstens, Nadia; Devriendt, Koenraad; Krause, Amanda; Kulohoma, Benard; Kumuthini, Judit; Mubungu, Gerrye; Mukisa, John; Nel, Melissa; Olanrewaju, Timothy O; Lombard, Zané; Landouré, Guida
    The rich and diverse genomics of African populations is significantly underrepresented in reference and in disease-associated databases. This renders interpreting the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data and reaching a diagnostic more difficult in Africa and for the African diaspora. It increases chances for false positives with variants being misclassified as pathogenic due to their novelty or rarity. We can increase African genomic data by (1) making consent for sharing aggregate frequency data an essential component of research toolkit; (2) encouraging investigators with African data to share available data through public resources such as gnomAD, AVGD, ClinVar, DECIPHER and to use MatchMaker Exchange; (3) educating African research participants on the meaning and value of sharing aggregate frequency data; and (4) increasing funding to scale-up the production of African genomic data that will be more representative of the geographical and ethno-linguistic variation on the continent. The RDWG of H3Africa is hereby calling to action because this underrepresentation accentuates the health disparities. Applying the NGS to shorten the diagnostic odyssey or to guide therapeutic options for rare diseases will fully work for Africans only when public repositories include sufficient data from African subjects.
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    Inequality and Diversity in Cape Town: An Introduction and User's Guide to the 2005 Cape Area Study
    (2005) Seekings, Jeremy; Jooste, Tracy; Langer, Mirah; Maughan-Brown, Brendan
    The 2005 Cape Area Study comprises a survey of aspects of diversity and inequality in the South African city of Cape Town. The survey was designed as both part of an ongoing study of Cape Town (that includes a series of surveys) and part of an international, multi-city study of aspects of urban life. This report provides an introduction to the survey for prospective users as well as important information for actual users, for example details of sample design and fieldwork.
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    Race, discrimination and diversity in South Africa
    (2007) Seekings, Jeremy
    The end of apartheid has brought a resurgence of research into racial identities, attitudes and behaviour in South Africa.? The legacy of systematic racial ordering and discrimination under apartheid is that South Africa remains deeply racialised, in cultural and social terms, as well as deeply unequal, in terms of the distribution of income and opportunities. ?South Africans continue to see themselves in the racial categories of the apartheid era, in part because these categories have become the basis for post-apartheid 'redress', in part because they retain cultural meaning in everyday life.? South Africans continue to inhabit social worlds that are largely defined by race, and many express negative views of other racial groups.? There has been little racial integration in residential areas, although schools provide an important opportunity for inter-racial interaction for middle-class children.? Experimental and survey research provide little evidence of racism, however.? Few people complain about racial discrimination, although many report everyday experiences that might be understood as discriminatory.? Racial discrimination per se seems to be of minor importance in shaping opportunities in post-apartheid South Africa.? Far more important are the disadvantages of class, exacerbated by neighbourhood effects: poor schooling, a lack of footholds in the labour market, a lack of financial capital.? The relationship between race and class is now very much weaker than in the past.? Overall, race remains very important in cultural and social terms, but no longer structures economic advantage and disadvantage.? Post-apartheid South Africa is thus the precise opposite of Brazil.
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    Urban resilience through diversity
    (2021) Nduku, Ntsindiso; Ewing, Kathryn
    The objective of the research is to contribute to the development of the theory and body of knowledge that seeks to address urban sprawl, spatial inequalities, and spatial fragmentation left by the legacy of apartheid planning. I begin my research with the investigation of existing levels of Diversity, and I employ mapping to see the area which reflects more di¬verse characteristics. Furthermore, I seek to develop a design framework that links the social, economic, and environment. The objective of the framework is to inform the acknowledgement of existing Diversity, the making of sensitive interventions that will improve existing Diversity, and the addition of more diverse elements which will enhance the urban performance of Gugulethu. Kayatekin, 2019 argues that urban Diversity contributes towards resilient and sustainable cities. He argues that for one to understand the importance of Diversity in an urban context, there needs to be an understanding of the meaning and definition of Resilience. According to Kayatekin, 2019, Landman 2012, there are differ¬ent meanings of Resilience in urban terms. Kayatekin, 2019 also simplifies the definition into two parts, with one drawing from Material Science and another from Ecology. The fundamental tenet of this argument is the placing of urban Diversity as the cornerstone for cities' Resilience. I likened this perspective to that of Zuniga-Teran's, 2016, point of view, which describes Diversity as a critical element of urban Resilience