Browsing by Subject "empowerment"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Empowering minds, body and soul: An evaluative case-study of the perceptions of the extent of women empowerment within a Higher Certificate in Education in Adult Education course at UCT
    (2021) Kibido, Princess Fundiswa; Nomdo, Gideon; Samson, Sean
    The Adult Education sector in South Africa (SA) occupies a crucial space in higher education (HE) in terms of securing access and opportunities for a diverse group of non-traditional students to further their development. Amongst this diversity are highly marginalized subgroupings of adult learners, especially black working-class women. Participation of these women within HE requires serious attention given the low social ranking that this group continues to occupy in all spheres. Evidence drawn from Adult Education research suggests that not enough attention has been given to this group of learners with respect to how they are impacted by issues of geographic, cultural and racial diversity in the Adult Education setting. This study undertaken here reports on transformative dimensions underlining Adult Education pedagogy, with a specific focus on the concept of empowerment and how this is attained by RPL learners. A qualitative case-study methodology using a critical interpretive perspective grounded in phenomenological enquiry, was used to develop contextual understandings of four disadvantaged adult female learners' experiences of their transitions into HE. The focus is on these learners' perceptions of the forms of empowerment they have gained from their participation in a Higher Certificate in Education in Adult Education (HCEAE) course, and the extent to which such empowerment has impacted positive change in their lives, even beyond the course. The argument made in this qualitative study is that the active participation of marginalized black women in Adult Education, does lead to the attainment of multiple levels of self-empowerment. Such empowerment is realized when the objectives of national educational provisions, operationalized through Adult Education legislature, are correctly aligned with the transformative and social justice mission of Adult Education theory and practice. Proper alignment yields desirable outcomes in terms of enabling transformative learning environments that engender experiences of self-empowerment, agency and control. To this effect, an evaluative study was conducted of the Higher Certificate in Education in Adult Education (HCEAE) course offered by the University of Cape Town. The findings in this study demonstrate that factors such as race, geographic setting and cultural location, impact experiences of empowerment amongst adult learners. Furthermore, it is evident that such experiences of empowerment is a multi-layered and dynamic process which occur at cognitive, personal and social levels that can only be realized through praxis. The bringing together of educational policy, theory, and practice in proactive and productive ways in this study, also offers the potential for designing new hybrid frameworks for assessing the extent to which Adult Education provisions successfully achieve their transformative function, beyond the educational setting.
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    Open Access
    Micro-entrepreneur support
    (2013-01) Macfarlane, Greg
    The project took the form of business support for The Clothing Bank, a local NGO based in Cape Town. Their goal is to empower unemployed mothers to become financially independent by setting up own micro-businesses buying and reselling clothing. The NGO sources excess clothing from large retailers for participants and offers relevant business/ entrepreneur training.
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    The democratisation of decision-makers in data-driven decision-making in a Big Data environment: The case of a financial services organisation in South Africa
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Hassa, Ishmael; Tanner, Maureen; Brown, Irwin
    Big Data refers to large unstructured datasets from multiple dissimilar sources. Using Big Data Analytics (BDA), insights can be gained that cannot be obtained by other means, allowing better decision-making. Big Data is disruptive, and because it is vast and complex, it is difficult to manage from technological, regulatory, and social perspectives. Big Data can provide decision-makers (knowledge workers) with bottom-up access to information for decision-making, thus providing potential benefits due to the democratisation of decision-makers in data-driven decision-making (DDD). The workforce is enabled to make better decisions, thereby improving participation and productivity. Enterprises that enable DDD are more successful than firms that are solely dependent on management's perception and intuition. Understanding the links between key concepts (Big Data, democratisation, and DDD) and decision-makers are important, because the use of Big Data is growing, the workforce is continually evolving, and effective decision-making based on Big Data insights is critical to a firm's competitiveness. This research investigates the influence of Big Data on the democratisation of decision-makers in data-driven decision-making. A Grounded Theory Method (GTM) was adopted due to the scarcity of literature around the interrelationships between the key concepts. An empirical study was undertaken, based on a case study of a large and leading financial services organisation in South Africa. The case study participants were diverse and represented three different departments. GTM facilitates emergence of novel theory that is grounded in empirical data. Theoretical elaboration of new concepts with existing literature permits the comparison of the emergent or substantive theory for similarities, differences, and uniqueness. By applying the GTM principles of constant comparison, theoretical sampling and emergence, decision-makers (people, knowledge workers) became the focal point of study rather than organisational decision-making processes or decision support systems. The concentrate of the thesis is therefore on the democratisation of decision-makers in a Big Data environment. The findings suggest that the influence of Big Data on the democratisation of the decisionmaker in relation to DDD is dependent on the completeness and quality of the Information Systems (IS) artefact. The IS artefact results from, and is comprised of, information that is extracted from Big Data through Big Data Analytics (BDA) and decision-making indicators (DMI). DMI are contributions of valuable decision-making parameters by actors that include Big Data, People, The Organisation, and Organisational Structures. DMI is an aspect of knowledge management as it contains both the story behind the decision and the knowledge that was used to decide. The IS artefact is intended to provide a better and more complete picture of the decision-making landscape, which adds to the confidence of decision-makers and promotes participation in DDD which, in turn, exemplifies democratisation of the decisionmaker. Therefore, the main theoretical contribution is that the democratisation of the decisionmaker in DDD is based on the completeness of the IS artefact, which is assessed within the democratisation inflection point (DIP). The DIP is the point at which the decision-maker evaluates the IS artefact. When the IS artefact is complete, meaning that all the parameters that are pertinent to a decision for specific information is available, then democratisation of the decision-maker is realised. When the IS artefact is incomplete, meaning that all the parameters that are pertinent to a decision for specific information is unavailable, then democratisation of the decision-maker breaks down. The research contributes new knowledge in the form of a substantive theory, grounded in empirical findings, to the academic field of IS. The IS artefact constitutes a contribution to practice: it highlights the importance of interrelationships and contributions of DMI by actors within an organisation, based on information extracted through BDA, that promote decisionmaker confidence and participation in DDD. DMI, within the IS artefact, are critical to decision-making, the lack of which has implications for the democratisation of the decisionmaker in DDD. The study has uncovered the need to further investigate the extent of each actor's contribution (agency) to DMI, the implications of generational characteristics on adoption and use of Big Data and an in-depth understanding of the relationships between individual differences, Big Data and decision-making. Research is also recommended to better explain democratisation as it relates to data-driven decision-making processes.